ZAGREUS
Zagreus is an Earth-like planet, colonized by Weyland-Yutani, that orbits the NN3637 binary star system.
Terrain and Climate.
The planet itself consists of four mostly uncharted continents, a bunch of island clusters, oceans, and a variety of climate zones like forests, meadows, wetlands and arid, scrubby foothills that are reasonably Earth-like, meaning it mostly has systems that are at least somewhat cognate to the ones humanity is most familiar with. It is mentioned by Olivia Shipp that he polar ice caps had a tendency to rain sulphur, but how the mechanism under that occurs is unknown to her.Establishments.
Human occupation on the planet consist on a main settlement, two small seasteads and a mining operation in the high mountains. The planet's main colony, also named Zagreus, is an industrial maze made from salvaged and recycled goods where nothing goes to waste or gets thrown away, and they expand only at the rate that they can acquire raw materials from off-world. Ninety percent of the colony's food is grown within the city, in gardens concealed behind polarized glass that filters the orange light of the atmosphere to something the Earth-standard crops can recognize, while the colony's meat is vat-grown.Flora and fauna
Flora
Vast woodlands made of all kind of trees covers great areas on the main continent. It's not specified which kind of trees but, given Zagreus is a relatively newly colonized world, it's not possible for Earth's plants transplanted here have reach the size described in the book. Towering these trees, are Giant flowers, which aren't real gymnosperms but colored flower-like fungus. There are all kind of colors, and its pollen -or spores- are capable of cancelling all scent, unlike Earth's flowers. Most of Zagreus plains and the forest's clearings are covered in grasses: Earth-like Greengrass, the yellow Butterweed, the sharp Razorweed, capable of cutting the skin, a Blood sucking purple grass and a previously undiscovered Orange flesh eating grass. This grass secreted an enzyme capable of disolve chitin and cause painful blisters to human skin when touched. Caves are covered in bioluminiscent mosses, glowing in greens, yellows, purples and oranges. Dr. Shipp had suggested they are simply grasses adapted to the dark of the caverns.Fauna
Zagreus is a lush planet with a variety in flora and fauna. Examples of that are the Snuffle-squirrel, a tardigrade-like kind of hervibore. Described as eyeless, eight legged cartepillar with cilia running each side of its body. It is the most common animal in Zagreus, found in almost every ecosystem. The Lion-worm is an apex subterranean predator, described by Olivia Shipp as "sort of like a mole, if moles were made of knives and hatred and cilia." They live in large colonies underground and attacking their prey by bursting from the ground. They are not particularly big, the biggest specimen recorded being the size of an Earth's pig. They're known to attack on humans occasionally, being the reason for which the Shipp's were hired. Meat-deer are scavengers if not predators, their name cames from it's resemblance to an Earth's deer, but with transparent crystal skin, which gave them the appearence of a walking, skinned carcass, hence its name. The Zagreus-Hippo is an omniivorous beast native to the planet's wetlands. The only description given is quadrupedal, with its head full of horns and a flower-like bill. They are strongly territorial and go berserk in the present of a lion-worm. It's only natural predator is a giant reptilian predator living in the wetlands. The planet is also home to a multitude of insects and lizard-like beasts. Four winged flying creatures are mentioned.History
Colonized
Zagreus was a relatively new colony stablished in the late 22nd century by Weyland-Yutani Corporation, consisting in a main domed settlement built around the spaceport, two small seasteads and a mining operations in the mountains. By 2172 the world still remained mostly unexplored and it's lifeforms uncatalogued. When a Lion-worm, a local subterranean predator attacked and ate an unsuspecting colonist, Colonial governor Delia Burton hired the xenobiologist couple John and Katherine Shipp for a comprehensive catalog of the planet's flora and fauna.
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