Lore/Locations/Geminae: Difference between revisions
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=== Geminae 6 - Thars === | === Geminae 6 - Thars === | ||
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==== Details | ==== Details ==== | ||
Thars sits on the outer fringe of Geminae’s gravity well. A barren, ice-bound rock, comparatively small. Its surface is a patchwork of frozen plains and glacial ridges, pocked by sun-bleached craters and clefts that hint at subsurface voids. Temperatures plunge below –220 °C, and the exosphere is little more than drifting water vapor and nitrogen molecules. No native atmosphere or magnetic shield exists, so habitats cluster in thermally insulated vaults tunneled into the regolith. | |||
Dominating Thars’ equatorial orbit is the Moth's ark ship, the "Platshållare". An immense, cone-shaped colony ship that arrived during the initial Auri colony boom. Surrounding it, the Mothpeople have amassed a full-on swarm of freighters, ferries, and transports. | |||
Said swarm pays dividends every 23 years, when Auri’s eccentric orbit brings it close enough to the Geminae system for slingshot transfers. The Moths hold an effective monopoly on transit routes, cargo, passengers, even mail. Conflicts flare when independent captains challenge their rates, and the Tellune Government periodically threatens sanctions to force a more open schedule. | |||
==== Noteworthy for: ==== | ==== Noteworthy for: ==== | ||
Being a tiny icy rock of no use or renown, entirely in the right spot at the right time, Spreading moth dust just absolutely everywhere. | |||
Latest revision as of 09:45, 25 June 2025
Proposal: Not yet intended for game content.
Geminae
Details
Geminae Alpha is a type G main sequence star. Bright and warm, but also mild compared to other stars in terms of both radiation and UV rays, it served as the perfect "Incubation Lamp" to encourage the evolution of life on Tellune's still rocky surface, billions of years ago.
It, together with Auri, forms the greater Geminae-Auri binary star system. It is unknown how this constellation came to be, as scientists theorize Auri must have been captured while the planets of Geminae were still forming. If that was the case though, Auri would not have as many planets as it has now. This is a curiosity that many an astrophysicist has failed to explain.
Noteworthy for:
Being very bright, giving you sunburns, not being habitable.
Geminae 1 - Zienert
Details
Zienert is a barren, rocky world. It is quite small, and so close to Geminae in orbit that astrophysicists calculate it is likely very close to its Roche limit. Together with its closeness, its thick sulfur-dioxide-based atmosphere does not make it any more desirable as a tourist destination to land on.
This does not deter tourism though, as the sulfurous atmosphere periodically catches fire and forms intense, visually impressive plasma storms. As a result, many resort stations orbit Zienert, shielded from the intense heat by thermally insulated panels.
Noteworthy for:
Being the least friendly planet in the Geminae system, being kind of an unsubtle showoff. What a diva.
Geminae 2 - Unope
Details
Unope's surface is dominated by wide, rocky deserts. Though it has a thin atmosphere, the atmosphere is almost entirely methane and carbon dioxide, which serve to provide enough of a greenhouse effect to keep the planet's temperature stable. It has both a functional tectonic cycle and a strong magnetic field.
These factors render it a challenging, but ultimately viable colonization target. And while the first attempts at colonization failed(and gave birth to the felinid species...), subsequent attempts with superior technology have resulted in a population boom of significant proportions.
Colonies on Unope are largely of the bio-dome variety, large transparent domes with many buildings within. While the air is not breathable, the colonists can still leave their settlements with the help of a compact personal breathing filter. Ironically, due to the unique atmospheric makeup, less UV hits the surface, resulting in fewer cases of melanoma than even on Tellune.
Noteworthy for:
Being the birthplace of Felinids, being the second-most populated colony world in human space.
Geminae 3 - Tellune
Details
Tellune, or more commonly called "Earth", is the birthplace of the human race. It's a temperate world, covered by a wide ocean known locally as the Celestine Seas, and seven main continents. Its nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and active plate tectonics support diverse ecosystems, from ice-capped polar ranges to lush mid-latitude forests.
Humanity has built sprawling megacities and connected them with high-speed maglev and hyperloop lines that tunnel under oceans and deserts. Cities here are defined by their gleaming towers and rooftop farms. Outside city limits, agricultural domes and geothermal plants dot the landscape, balancing food production with renewable energy needs.
Despite its success as a homeworld, Tellune faces growing challenges. While a great effort has been made to correct humanity's impact on the biosphere, coastal sites around the Coral Barrier reefs are eroding as sea levels keep inching up, and the climate council debates controlled weather-modification to protect biospheres. Even so, sky-cruise liners and orbital resorts continue to draw visitors eager to see the planet where human civilization first took root.
Noteworthy for:
Being the birthplace of humanity, being solarpunk but still somehow depressing.
Seta - Moon of Tellune
Details
Seta remains a stark, cratered world, locked tidally to Tellune. Its surface of basaltic dust and bright highlands is airless, covered in abrasive regolith and scarred by micrometeorites. Permanently shadowed polar craters hold water ice deposits, while lava tubes offer natural shelters. A space elevator and daily shuttle flights link Seta’s equatorial ridge to Tellune’s orbital stations.
Over the last few centuries, Seta has transformed into the Tellune Government's administrative heart. The government’s new capital sprawls through pressurized tunnel networks and glass-domed plazas built into crater rims. Ministries, embassies, and the Senate chambers fill glittering domes and spires, and a vacuum-transit loop rings the capital to ferry civil servants.
Among the domes and corridors, the old nobility and wealthy elite maintain enclaves in tall spire-stations and luxury habitats atop the crater ridges with Tellune vistas. They host parties and extravagant events fueled by generational wealth, entirely insulated from the dirty lower classes. Resource processing plants still extract oxygen, silicon, and trace metals, but quotas under the Seta Resource Code ensure mining is kept in check.
Noteworthy for:
Being TelGov's primary administrative hub, being just a bit too pompous to be funny anymore.
Geminae 4 - Indol
Details
Indol is a cold, rocky world, slightly bigger than Tellune. Its surface is a mix of pale basaltic plains and ice-carved canyons, with sporadic patches of oxide-rich regolith. A tenuous nitrogen-based atmosphere yields surface pressures around half that of Tellune's and average temperatures hover around -20 °C. A surprisingly strong magnetic field protects the poles’ massive ice sheets, frozen water deposits that cover nearly 30 percent of the high latitudes and plunge into subsurface aquifers.
Humanity’s first off-world foothold, Indol drew early settlers due to it's strong magnetic field and proximity to the asteroid belt. Initial habitats were pressurized caverns carved into crater walls, linked by insulated tunnels and heated by generators. Dome farms sprouted where sunlight was brightest, while pilot-scale terraforming experiments released greenhouse gases to thicken the air. Though progress was slow, Indol’s pioneering colonies proved that long‐term survival beyond Tellune was possible.
Today, Indol hosts a network of research stations and resource hubs focused on ice mining and atmospheric engineering. Population centers have boomed - clustered around geothermal vents and beneath protective ice overhangs. A surface rail line connects the North and South Pole excavations, funneling processed water to orbital tankers bound for Tellune and Unope. As the oldest colony, Indol still carries a certain romance for explorers: it’s the planet where humanity first learned to call another world home.
Noteworthy for:
Being the place where IPCs where first developed and made use of, Being too fucking cold for a good vacation.
Geminae 5 - Ceti
Details
Ceti reigns as Geminae’s colossal gas giant, its banded atmosphere painted in swirling copper, pale blue, and beige hues. Colossal storms race around its mid-latitudes at thousands of kilometers per hour, while pale rings of ice and rock arc gracefully thousands of kilometers into space. Beneath the cloud tops lie layers rich in hydrogen, helium, and ammonia, creating the deep source for the system’s most coveted fuels.
Floating cities and gas-harvest platforms drift in Ceti’s upper atmosphere, tethered to hydrogen “anchors” that bob above. TelGov used to operate a fleet of cloudships that siphoned helium-3 for fusion reactors, but with the increasing privatization of space, megacorporations now run the primary extraction operations.
Below the rings, asteroid-based mining corporations carve ore from both the asteroid belt and Ceti's own rings, selling raw materials to shipyards across the system. Yet adventure-seekers still flock here, zero-g arena duels, cloud-diving tours through the whorls, and serene observation decks offer a thrill unmatched elsewhere in the Geminae system.
Noteworthy for:
Being the system's cheapest gas station, their legions of hardy and entirely too rude mining specialists.
Geminae 6 - Thars
Details
Thars sits on the outer fringe of Geminae’s gravity well. A barren, ice-bound rock, comparatively small. Its surface is a patchwork of frozen plains and glacial ridges, pocked by sun-bleached craters and clefts that hint at subsurface voids. Temperatures plunge below –220 °C, and the exosphere is little more than drifting water vapor and nitrogen molecules. No native atmosphere or magnetic shield exists, so habitats cluster in thermally insulated vaults tunneled into the regolith.
Dominating Thars’ equatorial orbit is the Moth's ark ship, the "Platshållare". An immense, cone-shaped colony ship that arrived during the initial Auri colony boom. Surrounding it, the Mothpeople have amassed a full-on swarm of freighters, ferries, and transports.
Said swarm pays dividends every 23 years, when Auri’s eccentric orbit brings it close enough to the Geminae system for slingshot transfers. The Moths hold an effective monopoly on transit routes, cargo, passengers, even mail. Conflicts flare when independent captains challenge their rates, and the Tellune Government periodically threatens sanctions to force a more open schedule.
Noteworthy for:
Being a tiny icy rock of no use or renown, entirely in the right spot at the right time, Spreading moth dust just absolutely everywhere.