Morkas

Morkas is the fifth planet orbiting Rican and the only object in the universe known to harbour life. Morkas's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially Rican, the other eight planets of the Ricanor System and Morkas' two natural satellites, Liluri and Sond. Morkas revolves around Rican in 498 days, a period known as a Morkean year.

Morkas's axis of rotation is tilted producing seasonal variations on the planet's surface. The gravitation interaction between Morkas and Liluri (and to a lesser extent Sond) produce ocean tides and stabilise Morkas's rotation on its axis.

Morkas's lithosphere is divided into nine tectonic plates that migrate across the surface of the planet over the course of millions of years. The majority of Morkas's surface is covered by water, mostly by oceans, the remainder is land, consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water which contribute to the hydrosphere.

Morkas has four continents, Jaketa, Gosala, Seguta and Zitupa and four oceans, the Bewelf Ocean, the Hupelf Ocean, the Mavelf Ocean and the Pigelf Ocean.

Morkas has a surface area of 4,900 hexes, or approximately 4,410,000 sq mi.

Name
The name Morkas comes from the Thanorian Morcke meaning "an emerald", and the suffix -as meaning "place, position" or less directly "land". The name Liluri comes from the Thanorian Liler meaning "courier", and Iluri meaning "buttery" (i.e. creamy-yellow coloured). The name Sond comes from the Thanorian word meaning "mud" or "soil", because of its colour.