The sphere is dominated by one large and heavily populated world, the planet Zalani, whose primary occupants are the Zalani. The homeworld of the Zalani is a harsh, apparently barren world approximately one and one half times the diameter of Toril. The landscape is dominated by tremendous, jagged mountain peaks and is frequently ravaged by lightning storms and covered by thick, black clouds. The frequent rains do allow the rare, flat lowlands to support an abundance of fauna and flora.
The Zalani race also inhabit three of the other four worlds in the system, though these are somewhat smaller and more thinly populated. Druchur, the second-most populated world, is a center of industry, where Zelani process materials mined from the nearby Druchur asteroid cluster. It is cold and dark, since it is the farthest planet from the sun of the sphere. The Zelani homeworld itself is the next closest world to the sun. The world in the third orbit from the sun (also the third orbit from the crystal sphere), named Garuch, is actually composed of several planetoids that orbit each other in a confusing pattern that has defied mathematical description. The varying climates of the planetoids offer a wide array of plant and animal life, since most of the planetoids have atmospheres within the temperate to tropical regions. Those Zelani who live on this still wild world harvest animal skins and farm rare plants, since the planetoids are notoriously poor in minerals. The second world from the sun, Kavur, is a large gas world that is almost too warm to inhabit. However, several Zelani communities live on the backs of huge, floating blimp-like creatures that are similar to those found on Edill in Greyspace. These Zelani hunt other air dwellers for food, including several species of floating plants. In addition, they harness the frequent and powerful lightning storms that rage across the world, channelling the energy through huge lightning rods to help smelt rare metals that they import from off planet. Finally, the planet nearest the sun, N'char, is simply too hot to inhabit. A small world, it is highly volcanic and has no breathable atmosphere, although various forms of primitive life do exist.
The Zalani once ruled the entire sphere and had begun colonizing the other worlds. The Vodoni occupation put an end to this a few centuries ago. The precise date of the invasion is lost. The Vodoni have rewritten records to portray the occupation as eternal, but some of the very oldest Zalani allegedly do recall the pre-Vodoni era.
The Zalani Empire was the first spelljamming government that the Vodoni encountered. The zalani were skilled ambassadors and negotiators who seemingly did not realize how much of their success stemmed from their fearsome appearance and and the deadly artistic images that they surrounded themselves with. The Vodoni dealt with the zalani as equals until they had gathered enough information on the gargoyles to attack. The zalani, despite their fearsome appearance, are a basically peaceful people, and the zalani government fell quickly to the Vodoni assault. The zalani defeat was heralded by the destruction of their pantheon of gods, and those zalani which are religious were said to pay homage to the Crystal King and the original Vodoni Pantheon, praying for salvation from the Vodoni themselves. Though the Vodoni nominally suppressed this worship, they did not in fact oppose it. The original pantheon of zalani gods was allegedly composed of builders, artisans, creators, and law deities. The zalani gods seemed to have been like their worshippers, inherently peaceful (though not pacifist).
Prior 1373 DR, only three zalani gods remained 'alive': Lakura, goddess of love, beauty, and peace, who dwells in a secret realm in the third layer of Ysgard. N'Charek, god of death and the dead, who maintains his jagged towers in the Grey Waste. Tyndiriken, god of invention, luck, and devices, a prime deity who has hidden from the zalani these past few centuries. The heads of the pantheon were Nakir (father, law, sky, mountains) and Chizani (mother, stone, art, fertility). Other dead zalani gods include T'zumak, god of words, language, magic and knowledge, Idrakur, goddess of the forests and animals, and Xabeni, god of smelting, smithwork, and mining. There may have been others who are not yet identified. In 1373 DR, during the destruction of the webward by a group of human adventurers in cooperation with a reigar wielding the Darkgate, two non-zalani gods adopted the portfolios of dead zalani deities, and the identities of their children. The Aztec goddess Meztli adopted the portfolio of Mezakael, while the Oerthian god Celestian adopted the portfolio of H'thrakael. These two gods very rapidly assimilated zalani worshippers of the Crystal King, as well as worshippers who remained loyal to the dead zalani gods.
At the very end of 1373 DR, the long Vodoni occupation of Zalanispace was ended when the same group of human adventurers who destroyed the webward at last shattered the Eye of the Gods. Within minutes, fleets of bird-like ships from the sphere known as Greatspace invaded the Vodoni occupied sphere. In the disorganization and chaos following the destruction of the Eye of the Gods, the Greatspace fleet routed the Vodoni Empire. The Greatspace fleet subsequently left a large portion of its ships behind, along with several diplomats, to help the Zalani rebuild their government and spelljamming presence (and probably to monitor their progress as well).
The Zalani's largest city, and also its capital, is known by the name Nakiraken, meaning "Jagged Towers". It contains many courthouses, libraries, museums, warehouses, craft shops, and multi-storied homes, as well as numerous security stations from which the Vodoni keep the peace. The Zalani appear to be an orderly race, though one would not guess so by their artwork and architecture, which emphasizes dark colors, fangs, claws, jagged edges and grotesque shapes. Even the Vodoni were slightly put off by Zalani art, as the Zalani-built wolf ships are a very toned-down version of standard Zalani craftsmanship. The Zalani never construct anything without imbuing in it their creative energies, and so even household furniture exhibits their extraordinary craftsmanship.
Zalani architecture is disturbingly similar to that found in Ravenloft, though it reaches fruition on a much grander scale. It differs in that it lacks the sheer horrific aspects of the Barovian castles, but on the other hand is much more massive and prolific. For example, there are literally hundreds of giant statues of famous Zalani (gargoyle) images in Nakiraken alone, including some with faces which were contorted in passion or anguish. The tallest buildings of that city soar over a thousand feet high, rivaling even the greatest architecture of Thesalys, but are built with thick stone walls - unlike the slender towers of Skyview Castle. All of these structures have an aura of massive weight and enduring strength that can hardly be described. The architecture of the Vodoni outposts, on the other hand, is purely functional, with precise lines and very few artistic novelties. These outposts stand out starkly among the Zalani structures.
The Zalani's own buildings are grey or black, breathtakingly jagged, and apparently constructed without the use of much magic. They blend well with the natural appearance of the Zalani home world. The sheer age of many of the buildings cause some of them to crumble around the edges, which the Zalani seem to find aesthetically pleasing. The structural cores of these buildings always remains sound, however, even though some had survived several centuries. Even these towers do not compare to the greatest of the Zalani's towers, a temple stretching three thousand feet high, which was destroyed during the wars of occupation. One should note that the Zalani do not build archways between their buildings, but do build many entrances and doorways along sheer faces of their towers, which are carved to look like natural caves. Given their strong wings, the Zalani have no difficulty entering and leaving such buildings at high altitudes.
One important relic of the long occupation by the Vodoni Empire are literally dozens of gigantic shipyards spread across the Zalani sphere. One typical (though large) shipyard, can be seen from the top of Nakiraken's towers. This single shipyard can produce two thousand ships a year. Following the ejection of the Vodoni overseers, the construction facilities were adapted to build ships quite similar to the Vodoni designs, save that they used gargoyle-heads and design motiffs instead of wolf-designs. Evidence uncovered after the raid by Greatspace against these shipyards very strongly supports allegations that the Vodoni were behind much of the increase in piracy that has plagued spelljamming lanes in recent years.
Nakiraken itself contains a population of some two million, though its covered a slightly larger area than Calimport. At a rough guess, approximately one tenth of the Nakiraken's total population (perhaps 2 million Zalani - Nakiraken is larger than Calimport, but the Zalani take up a lot of space) work in the shipyards. The others maintain the city, work in the mountain mines (though some farm or herds ox-like creatures in the lowlands), and work at their various crafts. The Zalani are an industrious race, similar in many ways to the dwarves.
The Zalani are not a poor people, but they were heavily oppressed. The Vodoni extracted very heavy tribute in mined minerals and in labor to produce their wolf-ships (whose fierce-looking design can be attributed to the Zalani's skill and the Vodoni obsession with wolf-faces), and the average Zalani has limited leisure time to spend on friends, family, and personal artistic pursuits. The Zalani diet has also suffered... Prior to the invasion, the Zalani feasted on rare stones and minerals mined from the mountains, supplementing their diet with herd animals and grains from the lowlands. Now they consume minerals and organic matter in roughly equal parts, and must abstain from the most nutrient rich minerals.
The Zalani social structure remains in a semi-permanent state of transition. Before the war, their government had not quite settled into a stable form. It was transforming from an older, feudal regime to a meritocratic order of scholars and judges. The nobility retained many privileges, and still does. The Vodoni had apparently reinforced the roles of each social group - nobles, scholars, judges, artisans, etc... - in order to keep society fragmented and incite the many social groups to waste their energies opposing each other instead of the Vodoni. With the end of the Vodoni occupation, it seems clear that the zalani will create a sphere-wide government capable of fending off future attacks from predatory spelljamming forces. However, the specific design of these institutions and the social consequences thereof are entirely undecided, and will likely take years to work through completely.
The zalani are a creative race, and many individual Zalani aspire to more than the common lot. These individuals exhibit many talents that only highly civilized races possess - some pursue careers as merchants, as alchemists, mages, warriors/police (occasionally in the service of the Vodoni), and all such occupations one might find in a human city on Toril. Zalani mages are not as skilled as human or elven wizards it seems, but magic is not uncommon. As all races, the Zalani have their problems with criminals and violence. They bear a particular shame for this, for it seems their Vodoni masters have been propagating certain myths about racial superiority and the Vodoni mission to "enlighten" lesser races by bringing them "freedom from crime and ignorance."
Yet the Zalani are a peaceful people. That is, they are not a
warrior people, but they are not overly pacifist either. Given the
chance, they took up arms against their overlords when the Eye of the
Gods was shattered, and have pledged to never again permit such
an enemy to conquer them.