Terrestrial Worlds

GARDEN WORLDS

A garden world is defined as any natural (ie. unterraformed) world with sufficient atmospheric pressure and oxygen for humans to breathe unassisted. The following worlds are garden worlds:

EARTH

Despite the devastation of the omniplague, Earth is still considered a garden world. Photosynthetic algae in the seas have maintained the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere at 18%, only slightly less than it was when mankind lived there. Ozone depletion will require either ozone generation processes or minor modifications to reintroduced terrestrial lifeforms to withstand higher levels of ultraviolet radiation.

KALAHARI

The first garden world settled by mankind, Kalahari is a hot, wet, tropical world with a dense atmosphere. The lands and seas are almost completely overgrown with lush vegetation which is similar enough to terrestrial plants to make it edible by terrestrial animals. Animal life on Kalahari is still quite primitive, consisting mostly of analogues of Earth's insects and crustaceans. A number of Earth animals, mostly smaller herbivores and predators, have been successfully introduced to the Kalahari jungles.

CIMMER

Definitely the most hostile of the garden worlds, Cimmer seems to be an exercise in how harsh a world can be yet still support life. Cimmer's long year (473 e-days) and 40° axial tilt combine to give the planet some of the most extreme seasons imaginable. While the summer polar icecap is similar in extent to that of Earth, the winter polar icecap grows to cover most of a hemisphere and carbon dioxide begins to freeze out of the atmosphere; violent storms lash the equatorial regions during most of the year as air masses flow from one hemisphere to the other. Three large moons and high radiation levels in the core generate exceptionally active vulcanism; earthquakes and volcanoes are common. The surface gravity is 1.4g. Finally, the planet's magnetic field is highly unstable, and tends to flip between poles at least once a century, disrupting the Van Allen belt and allowing high-energy solar radiation to reach the surface.

Despite these hardships, life has evolved and thrived on Cimmer. Plant-forms retreat into tough casings to survive the harsh winters, and a number of bizarre "plantimals" spend the high summer rooted as plants, then simply uproot themselves twice a year to migrate to the other hemisphere. The animal life is tough, hardy, and extremely ferocious; even the herbivores have huge claws and teeth to rip through the armored plants. The predators are fast, cunning and deadly, many of them large and armored enough to withstand multiple shots from high-tech modern weaponry. A number of predators can burrow at amazing speeds, allowing them to escape underground when in danger or to burrow under walls and defenses when they attack. Other common attack/defense strategies include: gas attacks, trap-building tactics, venom, electrical attacks, blinding bioluminescence, flight, projectile weaponry, hyper-acute senses, pack hunting, chameleon-blending, sonic attacks, and acid.

Some of the more famous creatures of Cimmer are: the Rex, vaguely similar to an Earth tyrannosaur, but bigger, with heavy armor plating and a highly evolved brain; Mäuser, burrowing creatures similar to kangaroo rats, but with long fangs--they can leap up to ten feet and attack in swarms of many thousands which can strip a body of flesh in minutes; Speersker, a cross between a small monkey and a flying squirrel, which shoot tiny poisoned darts from their bodies; and Ur-Tigers, blindingly fast predators that attack from ambush, they vaguely resemble saber-toothed tigers but their hide blends into any background in both the visual and infrared bands.

KUISTI

Only marginally a garden world, Kuisti had a very primitive biosphere. Land life was limited only to a handful of lichenoids, while sea life was barely past the equivalent of the kelp and trilobite stage. Because the native life was based on left-handed proteins, the Kuisti have mainly ignored it. In those areas where the Kuisti have not created soil and planted crops or forage the land is true wasteland. The Kuisti brought only domesticated animals and plants, and there is thus no true wilderness on the planet, only farmlands and barren rock.

AURORA

When humans landed on Aurora they discovered a world already covered with a lush and thriving biosphere. However, native Auroran life, while similar to terrestrial life on a gross level, is drastically different at the biochemical level. The plants use chemicals other than chlorophyll to produce photosynthesis, giving them their distinctive coloring, shocking reds and oranges. Genetic information is carried by a complex system of proteins radically different from DNA, allowing sexual reproduction between as many as five different parents, depending on the species. Auroran animals incorporate metallic crystals into their bone material, allowing them to have amazingly thin but light and strong bones, giving most Auroran animals a spindly and deceptively fragile appearance. Flying and gliding creatures are extremely common.

Since Auroran and terrestrial life is completely incompatible biologically, the Auroran colonists have been careful to always keep the two separate. Approximately half the planet has been set aside for native Auroran life, and no imported terrestrial lifeforms are allowed to propagate in the protected regions.

BELLA NOCHE

The driest known garden world, Bella Noche's surface is only 23% ocean, and most of the land area is desert. The native life is similar to terrestrial life, and displays many of the same adaptations that desert creatures on Earth did. Bella Noche's native flora and fauna are partially compatible with Earth forms, ie. the two can eat each other, but many species are poisonous or simply un-nutritious to the other.

The Nochenos carefully integrated themselves and various imported species into the Bella Noche ecosphere, making a number of changes in their own digestive tracts to allow them to assimilate Bella Noche plant life, and making similar changes to adapt their crops and domestic animals into the native ecology. The Nochenos also modified their respiratory systems and skin to better adapt to the low atmospheric pressure, trace levels of sulfur dioxide, high temperatures, and extreme ultraviolet radiation.

LUMINA

Little is known of Bella Noche's sister world. Though cooler and wetter than Bella Noche, it was rejected by the initial colonists when large numbers of "ferocious carnivores" attacked the first survey camp. Records of this sole landing were lost in the fight for survival during the Nochenos first generations.

DELTA PAVONIS

Little is known of the terrestrial world which circles Delta Pavonis, except that spectrographic readings indicate the presence of an oxygen atmosphere, indicating some form of life on the planet.

TERRAFORMED WORLDS

Terraformed worlds are those planets which have been extensively modified by mankind in order to make them inhabitable by humans.

MARS

Mankind's first attempt at terraforming, Mars was a test subject for many of man's first planetary models, many of which failed. Mars today is still far from an ideal world. The atmosphere is cold and thin, and most of the Martian population has adapted and/or been genetically altered to handle this. The Martian hydrosphere is extremely limited and there are no true oceans; lakes and streams must be artificially controlled to provide irrigation for the arable areas. Outside those lands carefully managed by Martian environmental technicians the surface is still mostly a barren, rocky wasteland, and the poles appear little changed from their primal state.

TYRELL

Man's second attempt at terraforming, the first colonists on Tyrell, then named Tao-pai, learned much from the previous work on Mars and were able to skip over many futile steps. Tao-pai was also a better world to start with, having higher temperatures, a denser atmosphere, and more surface ice. Smashing a few comets into the surface, introducing tailored microbes and plants, and release of atmospheric gases from the rock, all were well on their way to making Tao-pai a garden world when the Tyrell Corporation arrived.

The Tyrellians continued the terraforming work, but on their own terms. Atmospheric production was sped up, while plans to cultivate large forests were abandoned in favor of more cost effective algae farms. Modern Tyrell is fully terrestrial, but with almost no plants or animals. The gigantic algae farms provide both oxygen and food for the population, and the Tyrellians feel that little else is necessary.

ATHENE

Athene's native biosphere was an anomaly in known space: anaerobic multicellular life. Slow and lethargic, the Athenean life had nevertheless produced a plethora of sea life, and land lifeforms similar to Earth's slugs. Unfortunately, oxygen is a deadly poison to anaerobic life, and except for a few deep see plants, all native species have completely died off due to the terraforming process, though not before the Atheneans had fully studies and catalogued them.

CITHARA

Cithara was the first Venus-like world terraformed by mankind, its heat and dense atmosphere providing a range of challenges completely different from those found on previously terraformed worlds. Auroran engineers pioneered many new procedures on Cithara, including high altitude floating atmospheric processing plants and the Claudian Reduction Process. Today Cithara is completely Earth-like, with a rich and diverse ecosphere. There are also a few reserves containing transported Auroran life.

NUBILA

A world very similar to Cithara, Nubila was terraformed only fifty years after Cithara. While fully terraformed, modern Nubila remains rather different due to its unique nature. Being only just barely within the life zone of the star, Nubila is extremely hot and dry, the latter on purpose to prevent excess greenhouse warming from atmospheric water vapor. The Aurorans borrowed many techniques from Bella Noche in order to modify plants and animals to create an ecology which could survive in the harsh climate.

IMBRI

When discovered, Imbri was almost a textbook perfect case of everything needed in a potentially terraformable world, even having liquid water on the surface. The Auroran colonists had to do little more than manufacture free oxygen and insert photosynthetic plants to maintain it. Imbri now has a fully balanced and diverse terrestrial ecology.

MARSELLIUM

Originally a barren rock almost identical to Mars, Marsellium was bombarded by over 400 diverted ice comets before the planetary engineers went to work on its surface. The additional water allowed the engineers to create a world far more Earth-like than modern Mars, and built-in ecological and meteorological control mechanisms keep the greenhouse effect high, producing temperatures only slightly below Earth's.

NERENDRA

The heaviest world inhabited by humans, Nerendra was a challenge to the Auroran terraforming engineers who arrived 350 years ago. Its rather unique atmosphere had high levels of ammonia, sulfur compounds, and other nasty chemicals, many of them acidic. Extensive atmospheric conditioning was required, and work is still progressing on the deacidification of Nerendra's oceans. Today, Nerendra's atmosphere is hot and heavy but well within human tolerances, though plant life had to be adapted somewhat to survive the mildly acidic rains.

UNTERRAFORMED WORLDS

These are worlds that are potentially terraformable or currently being terraformed.

VENUS

Despite its proximity to Earth, terraforming of Venus only began a few centuries ago using techniques pioneered by the Aurorans. Martian scientists have found Venus to be an especially tough world to transform, and numerous setbacks have delayed its eventual completion. Venus is scheduled to be ready for first introduction of true plant life in 2890, but will not be habitable by humans until 2942.

KALISS

The homeworld of the only other sentient race discovered by humanity, Kaliss's native life is remarkably close to that of Earth. The two ecospheres are even compatible enough that certain diseases can cross the divide between them, forcing the Kuisti to develop new anti-viral and bacterial techniques to handle them. Despite these similarities, Kaliss is uninhabitable by humans due to its unique atmospheric mix: 11% oxygen and 6% carbon dioxide. Humans can breathe on Kaliss with simple gas masks, and the Kaliss can do the same on terrestrial worlds.

The Kaliss are vaguely reptilian in nature, with scaly skin and long snouts and tails. They are, however, warm-blooded upright bipeds who give live birth. The Kaliss's non-terrestrial origins are most easily recognizable in their faces, with three eyes, a single ear, four breathing slits, and a mouth filled with manipulative cilia all combined in a decidedly non-human arrangement.

BENEVOLENCE

The planet benevolence was actually fully terraformed many centuries ago, the first human colony outside the solar system. The original planet actually had primitive pre-cellular life, discovered by the first interstellar survey ship. A raging controversy ensued back on Earth as to whether the planet should be left untouched and allowed to develop life naturally. The question was rendered moot when accidental contamination by Terran bacteria all but destroyed the native biosphere only weeks after the ship landed.

Benevolence was rapidly transformed into a garden world completely stocked with a full range of terrestrial lifeforms. This was changed by the war which began 200 years ago. The combined effects of nuclear bombardment and chemical warfare have all but destroyed the work of the terraformers. Today Benevolence supports only a few hardy desert plants and deep sea life forms; cockroaches are about the only land animals left. Loss of biomass has critically altered the atmospheric balance, reducing present oxygen content to 4% and falling. High background radiation and poisoned soil and waters have converted Benevolence into an ecological basket case, worse off than it was even before terraforming began.

BENARES

This vaguely Mars-like world is currently being terraformed by the people of Imbri. Smaller and colder than Mars, Benares is at the extreme end of possibly terraformable worlds and is requiring all the past terraforming skills of the Aurorans to complete. Benares will be ready for initial plant-life in 2877 and human habitation in 2907.

BETHLEHEM

Seen only in interstellar telescopes, Bethlehem is known to be of the right size and in the right orbit to produce a terraformable world, though spectroscopic readings detect no free oxygen in its atmosphere. Little else is known.

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