Querequia
The home world of the Querequian Cultures which controlled the local region of the galaxy between seven and four million years BCE, Querequia is six hundred and fifty light years from Earth, in the galactic spinward direction, well outside the Bubble. It sits at the centre of the region now called the Querequian Fall and was inaccessable to humanity until the end of the Limitation.
Querequia orbits a K class orange giant star, squarely within the habitable zone allowing liquid water to fill its oceans. The orbital period of the planet is 1.2 earth years and the day and night cycle lasts 26 hours. With a roughly circular orbit and an axial tilt of 12 degrees, it experiences some mild seasonal changes. Querequia has a medium sized but dense moon called Querelos (not shown in the header image) which has a sufficiently dense atmosphere to support some simple life of its own.
Geography
Querequia is a large planet of the type that human astronomers would once have called a "super earth". It is somewhat metal poor when compared to Earth and as such has a lower density and gravity than might be expected for a world of its size.
There are four major continents on the planet and numerous island groups. The largest continent is called Zendoba and it spans the equator. It was here, on the Trotephic plains, that the Querequian Elders evolved intelligence and established their first farms and cities. Dlaxoth, the second continent, lies entirely within the northern hemisphere and extends almost to the pole. The northern region of the continent was once covered in thick deciduous and evergreen forests, where the Querequian Youngers evolved their own brand of intelligence and culture. Umcanto is the third continent, in the southern hemisphere, reached by sailors from Zendoba early in the history of the Querequian Elders. It was thickly wooded and resource rich. Yet the main source of surface metals available for mining can be found only on the smallest and most geologically active continent of Hlactar, a location first reached and exploited by the Querequian Youngers.
Localized Phenomena
The header image shows the circular storm front from one of the occasional planet wide convulsions known as "dust bombs". These originate after volcanic erruptions on the continent of Hlactar and they disperse great waves of fine sand and ash around the world, accompanied by electrostatic discharges in their wake which are dangerous to any life caught out in the open. Dust bombs only happen roughly once in a hundred local years. They are an unfortunate result of an attempt at deep mining and geoengineering, initiated by the Querequian Elders in the later years of the Querequian Cultures. The event which first triggered these magma convulsions is known as the Mantle Convection Failure.
History
It is a remarkable and unique feature of the planet Querequia, that by some incredible coincidence of evolutionary synchronicity, it gave rise to two intelligent species who independently began to develop their own civilisations at about the same time. This has never been seen anywhere or anywhen else in the universe (at least to the limit of all known history, myth and legend, which admittedly is only a local fraction of all time and space).
Once home to the Querequian Elders and the Querequian Youngers, the planet was the capital of the extensive and long lived interstellar civilisation called the Querequian Cultures for roughly three million years until about four million years ago. Both species and the Cultures they led, were extinct long before humanity emerged. The planet did, however, give its name to the vast region now called the Querequian Fall, which encompasses the greatest extent of the Querequian Cultures at their height.
During the later ages of the Querequian Cultures, there was an attempt to apply advanced geoengineering techniques to improve mining yields on the continent of Hlactar and to draw energy from the planetry core. This resulted in an unfortunate disaster known as the Mantle Convection Failure, which in turn, has left the planet with the indignity of those violent irregular hiccups known as "dust bombs" (see localised phenomena, and illustrated in the header image).
Despite the misfortune of the dust bombs, Querequia remains a fertile world and is still home to a rich ecosystem. The Society Of Contemporary Races currently manages access to the system and the planet has Salamanican, Pthyle and Thinderin colonies.
Tourism
Although very little remains of the civilisations of the Querequian Elders or the Querequian Youngers, Querequia itself is a world which fascinates the Society Of Contemporary Races and there are many tourists from all species who make pilgrimages to see the old capital world of a once great civilisation. Since the end of the Limitation, some humans have been able to travel here and see the world that controlled the entire Bubble (and so much more in the wider Querequian Fall) when the ancestors of humans had yet to leave Africa.
In truth, it is mainly the robust descendents of Querequia's rich ecosystem that remain as living relics of that time, yet there are some archeological preserves and copies of copies of the old cities to hint at the ancient glory that was Querequia.
Type
Planet
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Owning Organization
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