AustLit

Best friends Jason and Lee, on a quiet boating trip in Vancouver, Canada, find themselves transported through a vortex to Stormworld, a mysterious world with three suns and mind-distorting storms. Since visitors are not uncommon in Stormworld, they find themselves incorporated into The Settlement, one of three principal settlements on Stormworld.

Stormworld is a complex example of world-building. For example, the program concentrates heavily on the effects of the ecosystem on the planet's inhabitants: as a hot-climate archipelago on a salt-water ocean, Stormworld has a dearth of fresh water, which subsequently becomes a highly valuable resource for the planet's inhabitants. Similarly, the program focuses strongly on the planet's economy (a barter system based on the rare and exotic artefacts that travellers bring through the vortexes with them), on inter-community rivalry among the three main settlements (the democratic Settlement, the patriarchal and hierarchical Arkoddians, and the piratical Drogue), and on the dangerous and mysterious weather patterns peculiar to Stormworld (such as the Winders--horizontal lightning--that are attracted to mental activity).