Horos

The second most massive planet within the Verda System, Horos is the innermost world of Audras and a large population center of the Verda System. Its close proximity to the star makes it a central fixture in inner-system infrastructure like power collection, and its sphere of influence is likewise filled with other structure beaming power out to the far outer system.

Physical Characteristics

Horos is a torrid Jovian world, a massive gas giant orbiting dangerously close to its star and thus heated substantially by stellar radiation. This position and the planet's size gives Horos a huge effect on the orbits of the Tantrica Belt and elsewhere around Audras, causing rapid orbital precession even in systems as large as Von/Ora. The high amount of radiation the planet bathes in results in a "puffy" physical state, making it substantially larger than it would be were it orbiting where it formed. This radiation also results in hypersonic winds whipping across the planet to give its characteristic dayside banding and stripes of glowing higher-temperature air on the night side.

Atmosphere

Horos' atmosphere is a superheated envelope of gases that are constantly whipping across the planet at incredible speeds. The extreme pressure difference between the two sides of Horos drives winds that surpass the speed of sound. On the day side, the upper layer of the atmosphere is consisted of hot plasma, formed from ionized gases heated to extreme temperatures. Meanwhile, the gases on the nightside radiate this heat away and condense back into cooler gases, causing the worldwide pressure gradient that drives the vicious atmospheric winds. Despite this violence, the cloudtops appear surprisingly serene, with the enormous storms driven by the winds largely hidden to the naked eye.

Orbit and Rotation

In the distant past, Horos orbited Audras in a much wider and further out orbit, possibly near or even past the modern orbit of Von and Ora. Over time, gravitational exchange (and physical drag) with the protoplanetary disk around Audras allowed Von and Ora to move closer to the star and get more eccentric orbits, and Horos to get extremely close to its host star.

Not all Terallan scientists are convinced by this explanation, however. They state that such migrations by the gas giants would have disturbed and inhibited the formation of the inner rocky planets like Atma and the Iltaka/Tiraka pair. It is possible that Hot Jovians can form very close to their stars, but this not a popular theory among Terallan scientists as of yet.

Trivia

Horos is the second largest planet in the Verda System, and one of the only hot Jovians in a multiplanet system.
Horos is the closest Hot Jovian world to Teralla. Jevethra is not considered to be such.
Due to its size and low inclination, Horos transits Audras regularly in the skies of most other planets in the system.
Horos was initially called "Hot Planet" in early drafts of the Verda System's precursor, the "Sunny System", and orbited the M-class dwarf "Other Sunny".
Until September 2024, it had a small moon, Ra, which was removed from canon after the realization that no moons orbiting this planet could exist in stable orbits.

Biomes

Horos has four biomes.

Night Side Storms
Day Side Storms
Belts
Zones