Coria

Coria (pronounced /kɒɹia/) is the third planet from the binary yellow dwarf Pandilla A. It is located in the Helios Region of Vangelia and has an extremely diverse native biosphere, among the first extrasolar ones to be studied by humans. Coria has thus been a popular historical center for thousands of years.

The urban grid of Coria revolves around the planet’s three largest cities: Risnucis (the capital), Luttven, and Mylonia. Corian cities were among the first in Vangelia to popularize environmental harmony, which takes the form of ecotourism in conservation zones as well as an increased incorporation of native plants to public spaces, buildings, and walkways. The few settlements that seek greater separation from nature are found underground.

In the middle of the 5th millennium CE, the Union of Vangelia launched Project Hydra to assess the potential habitability of worlds distant from Helios. Coria was the first of such to be reached, four sleeper ships entering its orbit in 4,478 CE. With plentiful resources and a confirmedly habitable planet, humans settled on Coria and documented its geography in detail. They were completely isolated from the rest of their kind until, 600 years later, the second wave of colonization began. Vangelia’s expansion into the previously untapped Calliope Nebula, located fairly close to Coria, was what triggered it, and prospectors had backgrounds so diverse the planet underwent cultural enrichment. The megacorporation Horizon Mining subsequently annexed Coria and severely mistreated its newest settlers. During the Vangelian Revolution, Federalists freed Coria from corporate forces.

Even after Horizon Mining ceased to exist, Coria still suffered from capitalism. Descendants of the very first colonizers had accumulated wealth through generations of land ownership and wage slavery. The Federation cracked down on them right away, seizing all of their assets. Their money in particular was used to develop infrastructure, subsidize housing, among other policies that greatly improved Coria’s living standards. The planet has, like all Vangelian worlds since then, gradually approached communism. The last major event on Coria was the battle between the High Covenant and Vangelia in 7,806 CE, owing to the world’s direct starway to the Helios System. It saw the Vraltirtists kill thousands in an orbital bombardment of Risnucis, but the efforts of vice admiral Martina Neidrels, an indigenous Corian, ultimately made Vangelia victorious.

History

Formation

Coria formed 5.9 billion years ago from Pandilla A’s inner protoplanetary disk. Its smaller mass and size meant it cooled down faster than the other terrestrials in the system, though it was still capable of holding on to an atmosphere. The primordial Corian atmosphere had trace amounts of water vapor, which, as global temperatures dropped 4.7 billion years ago, condensed into rain clouds and filled the surface with oceans. Plate tectonics spewed out the nutrients necessary for the evolution of life. The biosphere appeared 4.4 billion years ago, remaining strictly microscopic for another three billion years.

Human Colonization

Project Hydra

Calliope Nebula Rush

Federation of Vangelia

Natural Characteristics

Coria is a terrestrial planet currently undergoing an ice age. It features large polar ice sheets separated by an unthawed region called the “glacial corridor,” which, consisting of multiple seas and mid to small-sized islands, has a generally moist climate. Forests cover most of the land in the tropics and subtropics, creating the most biodiverse areas of Coria after the seas. Past subtropical latitudes, though, the thickness of vegetation drops sharply. The closer a plant community is to the poles, the shorter and less dense it will be, until it ultimately forms tundra. As the world’s three central cities are tropical, their ground expansion has been slow, but when it happens, it tends to be careful to avoid a severe disruption of forest ecosystems.

Coria is geologically active, its surface constantly reshaping itself through plate tectonics. Thanks to the low gravity, mountains and undersea trenches obtain staggering vertical extents, often surpassing 6,000 meters in that regard. The same applies to plateaus. The tallest peak on Coria is Mount Shafele, at 14,000 meters, while the deepest trench is the Rowforth Fault, at 12,500 meters below the mean sea level.

Astrography

Coria is 380 light-years away from Earth. It is one of the closest worlds with native life to the human homeworld, but when it comes to those that are terrestrial and feature an indigenous biosphere rich in multicellular life, it is number one in proximity.

The moons of Coria are three captured asteroids. They are each called Licragi, Ebessis, and Valnor, from innermost to outermost. Licragi is artificially locked in geostationary orbit and serves as the outer space end of a tether going down to Risnucis. Ebessis is completely uninhabited, but Valnor has a telecommunications station operated by the planetary police.

Government

Coria is the seat of Coria County. The county’s borders encompass the whole Pandilla System as well as neighboring, sparsely populated systems, which make up its exclusive economic zone. The most populous space settlements within the county, aside from Coria itself, may operate their own emergency services, but since the planet dominates the population of their county, they most often rely on Corian ones.

Coria County has an executive council and a 25-member legislative council. The current governor and head of the executive council is Ravone Symmendi, who has been in power for the past three years.

The main departments of the Coria County’s executive council are the Biospheric Authority, Department of Education, Department of Health, Department of Natural Resources, Planetary Court, Department of Police, and Department of Transportation.

Notable People

† Martina Neidrels – Commanding officer of the Vangelian Navy's 7th Fleet during the war with the High Covenant and the main architect of Vangelian victory at the Battle of Pandilla.

Gallery

Mount Shafele at sunset.

Trivia

Coria was originally meant to represent Kepler-452b. In fact, its name comes from one of that exoplanet's most popular nicknames, "Coruscant."
Many Corian toponyms are drawn from the names of real and in-universe biologists. For example, the Bertha Lutz Range is named after an eponymous Brazilian herpetologist, and Sagania after the renowned American astrobiologist Carl Sagan.