Hercynia
"Behold, a world once ravaged by the relentless scourge of war, now stands on the precipice of healing. Its wounds, long festering with the putrid stench of destruction and despair, are slowly but surely being mended."
GEOGRAPHY
Now verdant, Hercynia has spent half a millennium recovering from a war that rendered it uninhabitable.The known world consists of two continents separated by the wide, navigable Lagunan Strait. The continent west of the Lagunan Strait, called Solo Terra, is home to Evergreen and the Hercynian United Cities. Hercynia has a number of small moons, and is located in the fourth ring of Union space, the Atlas Line.CLIMATE
Hercynia has a wet, temperate climate overall with breathable air that grows thin near its dry poles. The area around Evergreen is dominated by rainforests. Winters in this region are cold, dark, and wet, with snow at elevation and – in especially frigid winters –down near to sea level. The summers are long and humid with a protracted rainy season of around 40–50 days in the pre-fall months, during which thunderstorms are common. A fast-spinning world, Hercynia enjoys a 20-hour day and a 305-day year, with long daylight hours (16 –18) in the summer and shorter days in the winter. The rain on Hercynia is slightly acidic due to leftover atmospheric refuse from the war. Because of this, gear left outside for long periods tends to degrade faster and coverings are recommended for both buildings and people during the wet season.FLORA AND FAUNA
Life on Hercynia is carbon-based and most of it is suitable for human consumption. The biosphere is in complete remission after what was effectively a mass extinction event 500 years ago. As a result, there are very few large animals and those that do exist are almost exclusively semi-amphibious or marine. Hercynia’s plant life is earthlike: vibrant or dark green, broad-leafed, and overgrown. The trunks and leaves of the woody plants of Hercynia are very good at wicking away moisture and tend to have a waxy sheen. During the rainy season, much of the flora expresses a thick, waxy polymer that can be scraped off and is highly flammable. Most Hercynian animals are equipped with some sort of exoskeleton and can broadly be classified as arthropods. Aside from a large and thriving population of native insects, the planet supports a vibrant ecosystem of amphibious, marine-dwelling crustaceans, some of which grow as large as a small horse and can be used as labor animals. The largest do not venture on land, can grow up to 20 or 30 meters, and either feed on zooplankton or rely on symbiotic colonies of photokinetic bacteria. There are a wide variety of insect feeding flying animals in Hercynia that resemble the manta rays and skates of Cradle, though few grow very large. The world also has a small and developing population of imported birds, such as cranes, storks, starlings, and pigeons. The planet is home to a large population of invasive species that humans brought to the planet as food or stowaways- mostly rodents such as rats, rabbits, or ferrets, but also a few species of bird and the space-dwelling krait. Landmark imported some populations of food animals such as cattle for human consumption but populations tend to be corralled near population centers.
On Solo Terra, the continent that is
home to Evergreen, anything that isn’t thick forest or rocky
mountains is covered in dense, long carpets of tall, green
grasses. The sky is often cloudy or overcast; even in summer,
there are always clouds in the sky.
The current holder of Hercynia’s charter is
Landmark Colonial, a subsidiary of Smith-
Shimano Corpro.
Type
Planet
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