Tasto
Geography
Tasto is a frozen oceanic planet with several thick layers of ice covering the surface of the entire world. One of the furthest planets from the sun in the Origin system, it was believed to be entirely uninhabited for many thousands of years. Recently, on a deep surface scan of the planet, it was found to have life on it. Due to this finding, some settlements have been set up on top of the thick ice and settled around deep holes torn from it to allow access to the water on the planet.There are three moons that orbit Tasto, each of a larger size than the last. The oddest features of the moons is they are each made of blue stone of some sort, and also covered in alayer of ice. The planet's ice is dry to the touch and not at all slippery due to all moisture within it being entirely freeze-dried, and the same goes for each of the moons. The poles of the planet have much thicker ice than the rest of it and are home to what can only be described as mountains of ice.
The planet is extremely tectonically active, with large colvanic vents under the water deep below the surface that constantly spew heat onto the frozen planet. These vents are where many of the dark cities under the ice lie, using the heat produced to fuel much of their technology. This technology has grown without a need for electricity for the most aprt, using only the heat of the planet and the user's own energy to fuel it, and it works especially well while within seawater.
The planet has no true continents due to the surface being frozen, but the natives of the world divide it up by the volcanic vents and the cities that surroud them. These include the Primus Vent—the first one found and where they believe their ancestors began, the Naram Vent, the Ocus Vent, the Varic Vent, and the Haralik Vent. Each vent has a large capitol city built atop and surrounding it, with smaller settlements surrounding the capitol. These smaller settlements are granted stored heat through technological vessels in return for their services to the capitol.
The atmosphere atop the ice is thin and hard to breathe in, requiring specialized suits to survive in it. The exception is very close to the holes in the ice where the dissolved gasses can leak back into the atmosphere. Even with this, though, it can only support a small number of people on top of the planet without shipping oxygen in from other planets to store in sealed buildings. These buildings house the citizens that live atop the planet's ice, but still require suits while outside of these places. Every settlement atop the ice is underlaid by a thick layer of vibration dampening rubber-like material.
Landmarks
- The Ice Plains: Vast and treacherous, these expansive fields of ice cover most of the planet's surface, glittering under the sunlight that manages to pierce the atmosphere.
- The Hole: A massive, artificially maintained opening in the planet's ice crust, leading directly to the dark waters below. It is the site of the primary research facility on Tasto and serves as a gateway for subaquatic exploration.
Settlements
The Primus Vent
The Primus Vent is believed to be the origin of life on the planet of Tasto and is by far the largest volcanic vent on the planet. The city of Eternity resides centered on the Primus Vent and is surrounded by many smaller settlements. Eternity is a sprawling metropolis and vast military installation, as well as being the largest city on Tasto. Within Eternity is the building that gives life to millions, the Primus Harvester. While all governing of the drimoki people is done depending on the city they live in, each of the cities do report to Eternity, at least as a sign of respect to their roots if not actually following the orders of the government of Eternity.As the capital of Tasto, Eternity stands as a symbol of the resolve and resourcefulness of the dromki people. THey survived off what they could scrape together and eventually founded the massive city. Significant sites within Eternity include the Primus Harvester, but also includes the World Library, which includes the race's history from the time they had developed the ability to write and record information; the Site of Reckoning, a spot in which young drimoki can prove themselves in combat against large aquatic beasts or each other, as well as for drimoki of any ages to settle their differences in combat when all else fails; and the Everfrost, a mysterious site surrounding a so-far unbreakable and unmovable sphere of metal that seems to pulse a chilling wave, continuously refreezing the surface of the planet—much to the dismay of the people living on the surface and relying on the holes in the ice for food, extra air, water, and relations with the drimoki pople.
History
WIPResidents
The native creatures of this planet are known as the drimok. The drimoki have a short, almost stubby body with smooth, gooey skin and two long eye stalks rising from the top of their heads. However, this skin is almost never seen, as these creatures have a strange ability to collect latent minerals in the water surrounding them and create a form of personal armor on their skin that also makes it much more bearable to dwell very close to the magma vents that their cities stay in. As such, those in these capitol cities are coated in much thicker armor than those in off-shoot settlements, but all of them have a form of the armor regardless. The armor appears as a deep black color typically, but some show up in different colors depending on the material composition of their armor. This has become very evident among the drimoki of the Varic Vent, who have a slight coppery color to their armor rather than black armor. The head of these beings is very soft and round in shape, but the armor on the head can be styled by the drimoki allowing for individuality. Some prefer to style it similarly to a helmet, diverting blows away, while others use it almost like beings of other worlds style hair. The drimoki have lack standard teeth, instead possessing a large radula to scrape away nutrients from tough materials. The eyestalks of the drimoki, as well as their limbs, are able to glow with a soft orange bioluminescence, allowing them to see better deep in the darkness, as well as long range communication in the deep.The drimoki have no visible legs, but are able to reshape their pseudopod into a fin to swim which is further aided by the propelling of water through the body of the drimok, making use of their metallic armor to further reinforce and strengthen this shape, or are otherwise able to crawl upon a solid substrate using the pseudopod similarly to a snail. The drimoki are able to reshape the form of their hands to a certain extent, allowing them to use the armor on their hands to create rudimentary weapons when need be, but is most often reshaped into the form of tools that can withstand great temperatures.
The drimoki are primarily passive, but fully capable of defending themselves if need be. As a last ditch effort to protect themselves, a drimok is able to curl inward on itself, causing its metallic plated armor to buldge out in spiney formations, similarly to a hedgehog or similar creature using its quills to make itself less appetizing to predators. The drimoki rarely use this, but if cornered by a skralk while they know more of their companions are on the way—or when sacrificing themselves to one to allow their companions to flee—they will use this to slow down the skralk's ability to consume them. Unfortunately for them, even when using this technique, they are far too small to pose any harm to a dreskin which will swallow them whole all the same.
Society
Economy and Resources
Resources are shared based on the standing of the drimok wishing to receive it. A member who does not contribute to society is left to die, while those who work the hardest are rewarded most highly. Many odd materials are available from this planet. Shed dreskin scales are often traded with offworlders in exchange for metals and other materials not native to the planet. These scales are used to build buildings on the ice that block out the cold exceptionally well, and a single shed scale can return enough in goods to live well for several weeks if sold for every member who brings the scale up. In addition to biological matter, the proximity to oceanic vents grants the drimoki access to several odd metals found only on this world.Government
The drimoki govern themselves primarily with councils held in their capitol cities. These councils decide what is best for the people as a whole. This council has 4 members for each city—the best military leader decided by the performance of their legions, the best tactician decided by a battle of thought, the best spellshaper decided by a show of magic, and the best politician decided by a vote. After offworlders landed on Tasto and made contact, a fifth council member was added to most of the councils—the best merchant, decided by who is able to get the best deal with these offworlders.Conflicts and Threats
WIPEcology
Much of the life on Tasto has bioluminescence to attract small fish or phytoplankton. Larger lifeforms like the dreskin keep this, while creatures smaller than that but still large enough to be powerful beings often lack it to help them hide in the murky waters where they hunt. The little plantlife that does grow is on the underside of the ice and has adapted to the extreme temperatures. It absorbs what little light it can from the sun and often glows a deep blue color, some of which can be seen cutting apart the inky blackness of the planet from space.Apex Creatures
DreskinThe Dreskin is barely able to be considered a species on Tasto with how few members of the species there are, but each of them are closely tracked by the baraci in case they need to move from one of their paths. The colossal dragon-like creatures swim across the entire ocean of the planet, and will often come to rest atop a volcanic vent every few hundred years. these monstrous creatures will devour anything and everything in their path, and the drimoki have found it easier to simply migrate to one of the other capitol cities for a time than try to turn the path of one of the dreskin, returning a year later to rebuilt their homes. The creatures appear to be very sensitive to vibrations on the ice and were one of the first sights the peoples new the Tasto were greeted with with one of the massive beast's heads burst through the several feet of ice, swallowing an expeditionary camp. Since then, the surface dwellers have taken necessary precautions to avoid such a fate again.
Skralk are massive shrimp-like creatures that stalk the cold sections of the oceans of Tasto. These colossal creatures are entirely solitary and can move with surprising speed for their size, easily covering hundreds of feet in only a few short seconds. Their heavily armored exoskeletons make it hard to harm them at all, though it has been noted that they are drawn to bright light, likely due to them seeking the bioluminescent lifeforms of the planet. They tend to stay away from the large cities of the Tasto due to the volcanic vents they are built around but have no qualms against attacking any strays or villages that begin to form too far from a vent.
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