The View of our Neighboring Planet--Not Cold Ice but Hot Glass!

A Shining Crystal Planet Full of Troubled Water

Imperial Meandering Group A has submitted yet another batch of striking images from Ishtar. In the above photo we see what we are told is a typical Ishtarian sunset with common silica trees in the background and natives racing by in one of their quaint cut-glass-crafts. The surface features and crystalline "fauna" of this intriguing world are almost entirely made up from remarkably pure molten sands of unknown origin; in the immediate left foreground are the tops of small crystaline dwellings. Beneath the nearly impenetrable glass surface is a planet-encircling sea of (it is assumed) water, averaging miles in depth. The ecosystems of the surface and the vast global ocean rarely interact as only an asteroid of sufficient size or kinetic energy is capable of piercing the thick "bubble." An event of this sort only occurs once every several million years or so and is the source of much surface-Ishtarian mythology--and not a few frightening bedtime stories! Natural observation spots exist scattered everywhere across the planet where the optically pure glass is only several meters thick and the peculiar life contained within the Vast Glass Orb that is Ishtar is easily--but not willingly--observed. While the visible surface of Ishtar can be astonishingly geophysically stable, riding as it does on the cushion of dark water, in stark contrast tremendous storms, chaos, cataclysms, and even hideous wars, rapine, massacres, and abominations of every sort can often be dimly made out directly beneath the very feet of the helpless and often horrified (yet thoroughly safe) surface dwellers. It is amongst the greatest taboos of the Ishtarians to acknowledge or discuss the more nightmarish activities frequently witnessed. While visitors from our own world find the planet Ishtar a startling (and often troubling) curiosity, the Ishtarians sadly admit that reciprocity is impossible as an Ishtarian would risk complete madness walking on an opaque planetary surface. To maintain sanity, they must be at all times keenly aware of what they should not be speaking or even thinking about.