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The WorldNew Horizon and its different continents stretch over a landmass that is approximately one hundred and eighty nine million square kilometers. Sub-arctic extremes chill its northern reaches, where ice sheets like the Perpetua Glacier dominate the terrain in blinding white snow. The largest continent is called Youzem where you will find the equatorial Vivid Jungles and the tropical coasts of Port of Narehl. It's bordered on the north-east by the Lansdale Ocean and on the south-east by the Cain Ocean. The second largest continent is called Neo Titania, which is mostly covered by Heshmeloch Badlands, a barred wasteland that only offers danger to travelers.
New Horizon is an open land filled with settlements of different factions, large and small, each of them struggling to make their way in a land that is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Fifteen million humans and Wafans go through their lives on New Horizon, a planet that they've all began to call their home.
GeographyThe geography of New Horizon is divided into the following 6 main zones:
Description
Epsilon Eridani IVb is the second moon of the fourth planet in its star system, and the only planetoid to sustain life in that system. Epsilon Eridani orbits a very large terrestrial reddish desert world (a non-habitable planet with a rust desert and very rich in ore under the surface). Epsilon Eridani IVb (New Horizon) has a barren sister moon devoid of atmosphere, Epsilon Eridani IVa (Nifelheim). The Epsilon Eridani star system has a yellow dwarf star (sun) and is orbited by 5 planets. On New Horizon there are two types of humanoid beings that roam the planet; Humans and Wafans (Wave Form Androids). The planet's current terran citizenry, either human or Wafan, is currently rated as being around 15 million.
Physical CharacteristicsEpsilon Eridani IVb, known to the terran settlers as 'New Horizon', is about 3/4 the size of Earth. The planet has a breathable atmosphere, a hydrosphere, a crust, a mantle and an inner core; much like Terra. Its biosphere is relatively young (the moon 'evolved' from a volcanic miasma to its current habitable state in only 15 000 years) but quite rich, sporting a solid, diversified ecosystem. The moon requires 28 hours, 9 minutes and 32 seconds to rotate along its axis, the slower revolution giving it slightly less gravity than (80%) Terra. It has a particular orbit path, which is nearly a perfect match of the counter-clockwise orbit angle its mother planet has around the sun. This phenomenon, along with a rather slow, counter-clockwise orbit path around its mother planet of nearly 3 earth years, makes it so that Epsilon Eridani IVb will be temporarily hidden from its sun, marking a 3 month long period of twilight, a nearly year long period of darkness and another period of twilight before returning to its normal day/night cycle for the rest of its orbit. This of course favours creatures living by nighttime considerably and most of the fauna has long adapted to this cycle. In fact, that cycle is the most likely reason why vegetal life on New Horizon is strongly fungi-inclined and often luminescent. The only source of light while in these periods of darkness are these luminescent growths, the stars of the night sky and the light reflected from the greyish countenance of Epsilon Eridani IVb's sister moon Nifelheim (Epsilon Eridani IVa). New Horizon's largest landmass is called Youzem, followed by Neo Titania and Verdura. Youzem has several large settlements, some of which are the fortified Warhead Keep, the law-enforcing Avalon, the dry-around-the-edges Trapper Town and the tropical tourist resort Port of Narehl. Neo Titania currently houses only a smattering of settlement on it's surface due to it's less hospitable environment. The main settlement is called Xanadu. The northern poles icecap, Perpetua Glacier, is quite developed and sustains several settlements. One large island can be found south from Aquilon's Reach, housing a settlement by the name New Chania. The southern pole's icecap is much smaller due to undersea volcano activity and the presence of the third large landmass, the vegetation-rich Verdura. Crossing from an extremity of the Azuremar Plains on Youzem to the Heshmeloch Badlands in Neo Titania is a large network of islands - really just a network of tall mountain peaks not swallowed by the ocean - dubbed the 'Chain of Tears' from the jagged teardrop shape many of them have when viewed from orbit. The only settlement of significance there is the Union Hold and its industrial complex... though it mostly serves as a quiet retreat or a major port in between all four city states (Port of Narehl, Xanadu, Avalon and Aquilon) that all have naval concerns. The planet has two great water masses. The northern one, dubbed Lansdale Ocean feels the icy bite of the looming Perpetua Glacier and so is not well suited to taking occasional dips in unless for specially outfitted divers. The southern ocean has been dubbed Cain's Ocean. While New Horizon is about roughly equal in landmass: water-mass-ratio, there are very little large water bodies on the landmasses; those most notable being the frigid, fog-shrouded Moon Lake or the irradiated Heshmeloch Sea.
Geological HistoryScientists have been able to reconstruct detailed information about the planet's past. New Horizon and the other planets in the Epsilon Eridani star system were formed more than four billion years ago out of the solar nebula, a disk-shaped mass of dust and gas left over from the formation of the systems yellow dwarf star. This star is not large, but very young, and it has increased in luminosity by only 25% since it reached its main sequence more than four billion years ago. It burns it helium fuel slowly and is therefore said to be long-lived. The metallicity of this young star is very high, which is why the metal content of the star and its surrounding planets (especially New Horizon, Epsilon Eridani IVb) is much higher than that of the planet Earth. The different planets in the system were created, and the two moons, Epsilon Eridani IVb (New Horizon) and Epsilon Eridani IVa (Nifelheim) formed around Epsilon Eridani IV soon afterwards. Primarily molten, but then the outer layer of the planet Epsilon Eridani IVb (New Horizon) cooled down and formed a solid crust when water began accumulating in its atmosphere. Outgassing and volcanic activities produced the primordial atmosphere, and then the planets different oceans began to take form, mainly due to the occurring condensing water vapors. The development of photosynthesis allowed the yellow dwarf stars energy to be harvested directly by life forms. The resultant oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere and resulted in a layer of ozone in the upper atmosphere. The incorporation of smaller cells within larger ones resulted in the development of complex cells, and afterwards true multicellular organisms came into existence. Aided by the absorption of harmful ultraviolet radiation by the ozone layer, life began to colonize the surface of New Horizon. Due to the high metallicity of the planet, even the pre-historical organisms, and later creatures and beasts, were metallic adjoined. Beginning with almost no dry land, the total amount of surface lying above the oceans has steadily increased until present day where it's almost evenly distributed. As the surface continually reshaped itself, over hundreds of millions of years, continents formed and broke up until our current continents where finally shaped.
EcosystemAround 55% of the planets surface is covered with water and 45% is covered with land. New Horizon has two continental masses, the largest called Youzem being approximately 40% of the total surface area of the planet and the other called Neo Titania which is roughly 35% of the size of the larger one, with a chain of undersea mountains with network the two landmasses with an archipelago of islands. Each north pole landmass called Auilons Reach is covered with thick icecaps. The planetoid's climate is relatively warmer than typical due to underwater volcanic activity. The warm oceanic currents so created happen to warm up most of the island chains along with the inner sides of the two continent (their closest opposing coast) - sub-tropical climate zones tends to be dominant, with temperate zones rounding up the rest except for the polar regions whom have a typical artic climate. The weather on Epsilon Eridani IVb tends to follow terran patterns of evaporation and rains, though rainfalls on the planet tend to be more torrential. Of particular note, however, are the storms. The planet's lithosphere has a layer placement which keeps stored static and electromagnetic energy in, making for ominous, spectacular lightning arcs whom crisscross from cloud formation to cloud formation (somewhat looking like an electric themed aurora borealis), seldom striking the ground except when a certain threshold limit is reached (a ground lightning strike is quite deadly and can shatter several square meters of rock). The larger continent has its southern half-choked with vegetation, river criss-crossing through it, with an inner sea just as the base of a long mountain range spanning its northern border. The rest are mostly fertile plains. The other continent has a large peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of its landmass by a small mountain range. The peninsula itself is rich in vegetation, but beyond the mountain range lays a large stretch of weather-ravaged badlands. Due to its particular orbit, Epsilon Eridani IVb's fauna is primarily nocturnal. The leafy/coniferous vegetation is generally short lived, with sponge, mosses and other fungi becoming predominant. In fact, some forms of fungi have evolved into growing as tall, broccoli-like trunks with spore pod clusters dangling from their rubbery limbs alongside tall columns of slimy sponges and such. The wildlife, as such, has also adapted for nocturnal activity over diurnal. Most of the creatures have keen night vision or sound based sonar's to direct them. The higher humidity of the biosphere favours chitin and scales over fur and the low gravity favours jumping and striding - many of the lifeforms are multilimbed (a six-legged panther-like creature with tentacle feelers coming out of each side of its mouth is but one example). The fauna itself is slightly more primeval than Terra's, with creatures usually having stronger survivor traits than Terran life forms. There is a resurging tendency on carapaces, chitins and scales... and the silicon-based life forms, such as the dreaded Grim Stalkers, are sights to be feared with enough raw might in it's claws to sunder an hovertank's armour and hide seemingly impervious to all but the strongest weaponry. Some undersea silicon crustacean-like life forms are said even to dwarf starships... fortunately, little are usually seen of them... or more often mistaken for reefs and small islets. Terrans have also brought with them a smattering of terran life forms that they have adapted to survive on New Horizon, from rats, simple blue jays, to dogs and oxen. Sadly, only a few of them can stand up to the native predators, so the terran life forms which flourish the most are either the vermin's (the terran rats get along surprisingly well with their scaly New Horizon counterparts, the Fueno) or those that live close to civilized areas.
FloraThe plants on New Horizon can be grouped into floras based on region, period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be geographically distinct habitats like mountain versus flatland. Floras can mean plant life of an historic era as in fossil flora. Lastly, floras may be subdivided by special environments such as native flora, agricultural flora, weed flora, alien flora, and even bacterial flora.
FaunaFauna, or the Beastiery of New Horizon, refers to all the animal life of any particular region of time that exist or have ever existed on the planet. Virtually all life on New Horizon is all a dual system. In the primordial stages of life, a silicone based parasite bonded with carbon based life, much the same way mitochondria were absorbed or bonded with human ancestors. Animal life therefore derives its immense strength and resilience by being a sort of carbon/silicone hybrid. It's what allows this life to eat even non-carbon based life, like Wafans, and be so incredibly durable. This directly means that all New Horizon native animals can eat both humans and Wafans.
Fauna Sub-CategoriesThe animal fauna of New Horizon can be categorized into a 6 different groups; Nemorisfauna, Aquaefauna, Terraefauna, Coelifauna, Bestiolaefauna and Subterraneafauna. Terraefauna describe animals that live above the surface, for example in open terrain. This includes amphibians, reptiles, and mammals that live on land. Coelifauna describe animals that live most of their time in the air. Not birds though, because no birds exist on New Horizon. Nemorisfauna describe animals that live in forests, or even jungles. This includes amphibians, reptiles, and mammals that live above the water surface, specifically in any wooden area. Aquaefauna describe any type of animals that live below the water surface, such as the ocean, in rivers or lakes. Any type of fish, or animal that have gills, belong to this category of fauna. Bestiolaefauna describe every insect that can be found on the planet, whether they live below or above the surface. Subterraneafauna describe every animal that live exclusively in caves or underground. Each of these 6 groups can further be sub-categorized into the following sub-groups: Dieifauna; creatures mainly living in the daylight. Nocturnafauna; night-living creatures. For every period of 3 years comes a period of darkness that lasts for about 18 month. During this time, creatures that can only survive in darkness emerge. Most of them are extremely dangerous. Megafauna; creatures heavier than 1 ton. Macrofauna; creatures larger than 1 millimeter but who weighs less than 1 ton. Microfauna; creatures larger than 1 micrometer but smaller than 1 millimeter. Nanofauna; creatures larger than 1 nanometer (a billionth, milliardth of a meter) but smaller than 1 micrometer. Attofauna; creatures that are as small as 1 attometer (a quintillionth, trillionth of a meter) but as large as up to 1 micrometer in size. |
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New Horizon | Copyright © 2002-2010 | Lysekoid & Grenzenlos | All Rights Reserved |
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