Post by Angel on Jul 31, 2009 13:19:39 GMT -8
General Planet Climate: The average low temperature is somewhere around 100 degrees farenheit. The atmosphere is fairly thin, so the sky usually looks almost as dark as a night-time sky. It is mostly a grey, rocky wasteland broken up by hot, black, tar-like rivers of sticky, viscous material.
Population Levels: Not surprisingly, the population here is fairly low. Although the official population count is much lower than the actual population amount.
Standard of Living: Most people are struggling to get by, but the wealthy and powerful individuals are exceptionally so.
Main Export: Settlements were first set up on this planet to collect material from the tar rivers, but has since become a haven for the scum of the known universe. You can hardly walk ten feet without seeing at least three laws being broken. Now the main exports are illegal drugs, slaves, organs, information, counterfeits, you name it. If you aren't supposed to have it, chances are you can find it here.
Relation to the Central Government: Bitumen is about as far from the Core planet's government ideals as you can get. People here have been known to get killed if they mention that they agree with what the Core government has to say. Bitumen seems to reject the Core government out of principle of rebellion, rather than more "legitimate" concerns of sovereignty.
Religion: There is no formal religion. People are allowed to practice any religion they want, though it if upsets the neighbors, they have to defend themselves.
Other History: The planet has never been significantly terraformed since it was corrupt by the time there were enough people there for it to make a difference.
General Planet Climate: Lush, forested, rainy. The entire planet is covered by forest, except in a few spots where it's been cleared to build small towns, and the sky is always covered by steely clouds that drop bucket-fulls.
Population Levels: There are several population centers, but overall, not many people live on Duhrma.
Standard of Living: No one on Duhrma is very rich or powerful. No one that we know of, anyway.
Main Export: The main export is farmed goods. Anything that will grow in heavy rain, is farmed on Duhrma and exported.
Relation to the Central Government: There are rumors of a UIR official somewhere on the planet, who rules over the planet. Hey, all those orders have to come from somewhere, right? Other than that, the people of Duhrma don't bother with politics.
Religion: There is no state religion. People believe what they wish. Religion isn't really a big thing on Duhrma.
Planetary Culture: The people of Duhrma will never cut down a tree just to clear space. The wood has to be used for something (often it's burned and buried to make the ground richer). Some say it's because the forest would rebel if they just cut down trees for the hell of it.
Other History: Duhrma became a shelter shortly after Earthfall, for those who wanted nothing to do with the destruction that followed.
General Planet Climate: The surface of this planet is very icy. It rarely gets above freezing. However, below the ice it is somewhat warmer and numerous caves exist that reach deep into the planet'sinterior.
Population Levels: Surprisingly, this planet is fairly heavily populated. People from this planet tend to be short and pale due to a subterranean lifestyle.
Standard of Living: Most people are middle-class, although there are some with higher and lower amounts of wealth as well.
Main Export: The planet can be considered self-sufficient. Although no exports are necessary, they do sometimes export handicrafts to willing buyers. Their jewelry is highly prized by people in some circles.
Relation to the Central Government: The planet has been mostly forgotten and overlooked by the central planets. They are viewed as hermits living underneath their icy shell. The people of Glace Au Four keep to themselves and nobody else seems to want to touch the cold planet.
Religion: The religion of Glace Au Four is one that encourages peace and respect for all living things. While people aren't forced to follow the state religion, most do. Still, many followers are only casual believers.
Other History: Glace Au Four was first colonized because it was, at the time, one of the few known places that had life. The life mostly consisted of small mammalloids and simple algae and lichen species tha tcould tolerate the cold. It was believed that the planet once housed large oceans. At first only a couple gung-ho settlements were formed as scientific surveying stations. It was this way for many years until a few scientists entered the caves beneath the ice.
It was noticeably warmer beneath the insulating layers of glacial ice above. But more importantly, there were many more varieties of life down here. There were fungi, reptiles, amphibians, bugs, bacteria colonies, and more. Most were pure white and eyeless, but there just the same.
The caves themselves were numerous and expansive enough to hold large numbers of people, and with glacial ice as a water source and geothermal power as an energy source, it was not difficult to get enough early settlers to live there and start a reasonable civilization. Most of the additional members of the population arrived through procreation.
Eventually, extravagant underground cities were built. Their tunnels and elevators go far through the planet's innards. They do occasionally visit space, but their icy surface makes maintaining many space ports impractical.
(Roken is technically Roken A. There is a Roken B that is a twin planet very close by and can be seen in the Roken sky like a moon. While both planets are inhabitable, Roken A was colonized first and the space flight infrastructure is still in its infancy on Roken B, leaving few places to land. Roken B is jokingly referred to as Broken. Or it used to be but now which planet should have that title is debatable.)
General Planet Climate: Varied
Population Levels: Large population
Standard of Living: Lost glory. This planet used to be considered Inner Ring. Located near a major jump point Roken was well on its way to being a super power in the new Republic being formed. People who lived here were either rich or worked for those who were. The economy and wealth was heavily concentrated in a small section of the population but this was mostly a hold over from the colonization days and those few were often the descendants of the original settlers.
Things were starting to even out as a socialist economic system started to be put into place. With a beautiful planet with plenty of resources to trade things seemed to be looking up for Roken.
Until it was invaded.
Now the humans on Roken are no more than slaves, and the worst kind. A majority of the population has been turned into hosts for a parasitic alien race. There are no official numbers available on the portion of the population who have fallen to this fate because the Naz are the ones in power now and they maintain that any free human is simply part of a minority that will soon be crushed.
Main Export: This planet no longer trades with the human controlled planets. Located right on the fringe of human space, it was taken over by the neighboring empire. For the Naz empire the biggest resource of this planet are the bodies that live on it. Nearly 5 million human settlers have fallen under their control.
But the planet itself is very useful. It is a good source of fuel for the Naz ships and its sun is compatible with their own, an important consideration since they are partially solar fed.
Relation to the Central Government: The UIR has done their best to make people forget this planet exists. The past 15 years have been spent trying to determine the power and breath of the neighboring Naz empire. But until the UIR is sure of its strength it does not want to take on any new enemies. For this reason the planet has been abandoned as a lost cause and the people who live on it, those that are still free, are quite aware of this. If the humans of Roken were ever to gain their freedom the UIR would not be the most welcome guest.
Religion: There is no official religion on Roken. It has as many religions as you would expect a well populated planet to have, or it did. Now any religion, if practiced, is practiced in secret. The Naz officials don't agree with such human sentiments. They don't want their people falling prey to them.
Planetary Culture: Free or die? Let's make friends? We have a right to live? Crush the rebels like the inferior chattel they are? What can you say about the beliefs of people at war? They are varied and often only relevant in the immediate situation.
Other History: Roken's relevant history is explained above but I'll add a brief description of the Naz.
The Naz don't actually look like anything, at least not without a microscope. They are an intelligent germ or they are in groups. It takes many of them together to make up one conscious being. Once enough Naz have infected a host they begin to move into the next stage of their development.
A stage two Naz looks similar to a spider web or moss except internal. It lives in many different places in the body depending on the host. In humans they wrap around the spinal cord, growing like a fungus and connecting and hacking into the entire nervous system. Once the Naz makes it's way to the brain it controls the host. While the host is still a living, thinking creature, they no longer have direct access to their bodies.
Fighting a Naz infection is almost impossible. It moves quickly and a host is normally subdued within three days. Since the Naz has access to the host memories and can replicate the original host if necessary it is difficult to tell who has been taken over unless you can get a good look at a person's back or neck. As the Naz progresses up the spine of its host it sends out parts of its body to create tiny, circular spots of shiny skin on the surface. These tiny, reflective areas of skin absorb needed nutrients from the sun.
In human hosts these miniature, biological solar panels are located two-by-two on the sides of the spine. Mostly these areas are hidden by the clothing that is standard in human society and continued in Naz host society. The only panels that are sometimes clearly visible are the two located behind each ear.
The most effective way to kill a Naz and free a host is to confine them to complete darkness. It takes about three days for a Naz to starve, at which point the host may reclaim the use of their body. Removing the Naz infection from around the spine requires surgery however and the only way to know the difference between a living, controlled human and a freed one are that the solar panels will fade and turn black if the Naz is dead.
Naz, once they have consolidated inside a body, can, with difficulty, extricate themselves whole and enter another host. But it requires them to willingly disengage from the spinal cord at which point they can burrow their way out of the body. If they wish to leave the host body intact they must exit through a hole naturally part of the host's physiology such as mouth, ears, eyes, urinary track or rectum. If they do not care about the host they can burrow straight through flesh and leave the host damaged.
Made of a milky string like material that looks like spilled silly string, once outside of a body, the Naz are mostly defenseless. They can't survive long in basic atmosphere though they do slightly better in water for a while. Still, they must either be put into a liquid environment that will provide the same nutrients a host body provided or they must be put into another host. Again, they can enter host bodies whole the same way they left them.