Nenmar has practically no tilt to its axis, so that seasonal variations are barely perceptible. It had an ice age at one time in which it was covered almost to its equator with ice. As the planet warmed, the ice receded and the entire land mass of Nenmar consists of plains and smooth rolling hills. Nenmar has no moons, so its oceans have no tides and the water in them is fresh water which, although heavy with minerals, is drinkable.
The temperature rarely changes, but ranges in the inhabited areas around 70 Fahrenheit (20 Celsius) in the day, and around 60F/15C at night. It rains almost every day, but in short torrential showers—usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon. The sky at most other times is clear and deep blue, as the rain clouds form and dissipate with amazing swiftness. From space, Nenmar appears to have two vertical bands of clouds on the daylight side of the planet, just inside the sunrise and sunset demarcations. The bands of clouds cover just over the center third of the planet—then they fan out to the north and south into stormy winter gales.
Nenmar's rate of revolution around its sun is much slower than that of Earth, as Nenmar is farther from its sun and takes longer to complete a Nenmaran year. With no seasons to indicate Nenmar's instant point in its orbit, the planet's inhabitants determine that by the constellations visible at night. The greater distance from its sun causes the polar ice caps of Nenmar to extend out to encompass a good ⅔ of the planet, leaving only a relatively small band on either side of its equator as inhabitable. But Nenmar's equatorial region is a safe and fertile place that is host to a wonderful civilization.
The rate of rotation on the planet's axis is about ⅔ faster than that of Earth. That means 16 hour days that alternate between day and night every 8 hours. That is one reason why Nenmarans don't work by a specific clock schedule as, similar to humans, their natural waking and rest periods as well as their attention span is much longer than a solar day. Also Nenmarans have usable unaided eyesight in nighttime conditions—they are in many respects impervious to whether it's day or night. The main difference for them is that at night they can see the stars, and it's cooler and a bit more comfortable.
The planet's crust is fairly stable and there are no natural disasters.
The soil is generally rocky or sandy clay from the glacial erosion. There are pockets of deep silt that is very rich in organic nutrients where the staple crop, sliffut, grows. There also are numerous forests that are rich with undergrowth of colorful plants. The fauna that live in these forests generally keep to themselves.
The lakes, rocky areas, sliffut fields, and forests are about equally distributed in about 2 to 50 acre patches throughout Nenmar. Some of these patches are long and narrow, and they often interlink with each other in complex patterns—by walking only a short distance one can travel through all of the types of Nenmaran terrain.
