"The second I stepped off the hyperspeed train and onto the bustling cityscape of Indar, I was struck by the city's energetic and vibrant nature. The air was alive with the sounds of countless people talking, the tone of hovering trams flying above me, the smell of exotic spices emanating from the snack stands, and the sight of soaring, neon-lit skyscrapers shrouding the horizon.
Exploring the urban sprawl, I discovered a tapestry of races and cultures unlike any other, almost as if I had set foot on a hundred worlds at once. Indar was a constantly growing cityscape, a place where anything was possible and anything could happen. I felt alive and energized just being there, and I knew that I would never forget my time on this incredible world."

The city world of Indar is believed to be the crown jewel of Zalanthium's dreamy forest of stars, a melting pot of countless distinct races and cultures across Cosmoria. The heart of Aurelios' civilization, the planet's landscape is enveloped by an ever-present luminary cityscape. It took many centuries of exponential growth and unceasing struggles for Indar to ascend to what many thought to be a mere dream, and an optimistic one at that. Home to a worldly society rich in culture and diverse in its people, Indar's wealth and prestige have endowed its people with a sense of pride and commitment to their home.

The people of Indar have never been united under a singular authority, a trait that has led to the rise of a unique political world spanning its bustling cityscapes. The myriad countries of Indar aim to spread their influence across the urban jungle, led by their set of political goals and societal ideals. Over many centuries, the society of Indar has undergone both peace and conflict, building up to the ongoing golden age of unity and compassion guided by the Global Union, a great alliance seeking to raise the future generations in peace.

The unique atmosphere of Indar has driven its people to soar beyond what is thought to be possible, both in technological growth and societal development. Every aspect of the planet runs like clockwork, and order is ubiquitous, as illustrated by the sophisticated infrastructure of the great cityscape, built with efficiency in mind. Travel to any corner of Indar is effortless with the network of public transportation; recycling is employed to a great degree; and digital technology is seamlessly integrated into every aspect of society. It's no surprise that many call Indar a jewel of unceasing innovation.

Despite the state-of-the-art technology and infrastructure of Indar, the planet is not without its share of problems. During the centuries in which the planet was urbanized, its natural state became so decrepit that many went so far as to refer to it as a failed world. The rapid growth had put a strain on the Indar's resources, and the planet's natural livelihood was greatly shaken as a consequence. On the more positive side, the people of Indar unified a century ago to undo the mistakes of their ancestors, and while it's impossible to hide from the past, it's on a positive path.

History

Prehistory

Indar's tale of creation begins four billion years ago, coalescing into a molten rock in Aurelios' planetary disk. During the first eons of its birth, it was an infernal pit of chaos more uninhabitable than the abyss of space. It took millennia to retain a primordial atmosphere, and the planet began to cool down. Asteroids with traces of water struck the planet and gave birth to the first clouds, which rained down on the earth and shaped Indar into an aquatic world. Shortly thereafter, volcanoes began to erupt and spew out the material that would form the planet's landmasses.

During the succeeding eons, organic life began to emerge deep in the planet's seas, first as simple microbes and shortly thereafter as a dynamic ecology of flora and fauna. It wouldn't take long for the barren landscapes to grow into lush forests and verdant plains. Several extinction events critically harmed nature's presence, yet an evolutionary explosion would take place directly afterward, reshaping the planet into one blessed by nature's gentle touch.

The First Cities

Expansion Into Prosperity

Generational Decline

Golden Age

Appearance of Voyager

Astrography

Lunar System

Harvest

Voyager

Ring System

The great ring system of Indar has long since become culturally significant to its people, a reminder of nature's beauty in the blue skies. Many go as far as to say that without it, Indar wouldn't even come close to what it is today. And that's not far from the truth, since the planet's urbanization relied on resources extracted from the ring system. In the present, a number of resources have been exhausted to the brink, leaving people to stretch their reach beyond. On the other hand, frozen water remains as abundant as ever, has been the source of drinking water for hundreds of generations, and will be for many more.

Politics

Considering the vast population of Indar, it's to nobody's surprise that its political world consists of myriad independent countries with a multitude of beliefs and goals. Not once have the planet's cityscapes been united in purpose, the natural traits of its races destroying any prospect of a unified planetary government of this scale. What is more plausible, however, is for the many countries to live side by side in prosperity, devoid of conflict. Although it's clearly the case presently, it does not speak for nor justify the horrendous acts committed centuries ago.

Global Union

Countries of Indar

Population

Given the size of Indar's cityscapes, it is fair to assume that the planet's population measures in the lower trillions; however, that would be grossly inaccurate. Presently, Indar's population remains steady in the greater hundreds of billions of officially registered inhabitants, with a significant percentage of them living in more lightly populated regions. Although a great number of worlds are far more populated, that does not undermine Indar's sheer scale and wealth. As a matter of fact, many experts argue that the planet's holding capacity is beginning to approach its limits, with any additional expansion in the near future necessitating a remodeling of the current infrastructure.

The great population of Indar does not all come from the planet; the current generation is home to over a billion immigrants, many of whom have come seeking a new life; others have escaped from dreadful situations. Fortunately, Indar's people are generally friendly to outsiders, given outsiders are responsible for the planet's current status as a wealthy and thriving city world. On top of that, nearly a percent of Indar's people are tourists from the myriad worlds of Cosmoria, leading to the saying "Indar's people represent a hundred worlds".

Migrated Races

Humanity

Humanity's pioneers and colonists first arrived on Indar nearly two thousand years ago in the company of several Zalanthian races, marking a great milestone as one of the more distantly inhabited worlds. For centuries, mankind was the leading race of global industrialization and urbanization, with their carelessness and apathy leaving a haunting scar on the planet. On the other hand, their descendants have began addressing said violations of nature, showing their race in a more benevolent light.

Native Races

Ueiskleis

The Ueiskleis are a race of highly versatile mammalians that, while not particularly inventive, are incredibly good at adapting the inventions of others. Thus, while they were relatively primitive before Indar was colonized, their technological advancement skyrocketed with the introduction of its cities. While the Ueiskleis were at first largely oppressed due to being considered non-sentient, they quickly proved their intelligence and were begrudgingly accepted back into their native lands. Though at first spite lingered between the Ueiskleis and the rest of Indar, this would fade with time.

Culture

Speech and Writing

Although Indar is home to many languages, and employs the widespread use of Beidon speech in its art, their ruling language of conversation is known as Aktalu, a language comprised of mostly vowels and softer consonants, which is meant to be spoken in such a manner that does not require use of a tongue. Their speech consists of two parts known as the Boermu and the Mukka. Boermu letters are sounds generally are produced by the mouth, and contains five vowels and five consonants, which correspond roughly to A, E, I, O, U, B, R, M, F, and J, respectively. There are twenty five Mukka letters, and correspond to gestures and forms of body percussion, and typically mark the start of the word, being repeated through it's entirety (example: the Mukka letter 'kul' marks a stomp, and so while saying a word starting with kul, one would stomp their feet repeatedly throughout the word).

Cuisine of Indar

It's difficult to put Indar's cuisine into mere words, since it is widely believed that one needs to experience it firsthand to truly know it. By no means is it a monotonous cultural aspect; rather, it has been shaped over a thousand years by the countless races and cultures that make the great cityscapes their home. Each has contributed a staggering variety of spices, techniques, and recipes, culminating in one of Zalanthium's most widely known culinary aggregations. In fact, one of Indar's most frequently imported commodities is food, which arrives daily in unimaginably huge volumes from a selection of unique worlds. An age-old traditional saying goes by "Indar's cuisine is the galaxy's cuisine", emphasizing the tremendous variety.

In terms of indigenous culinary characteristics, the oceans of Indar are home to monumental plantations that supply the planet's people with countless species of aquatic fruits and berries, fish and crustaceans, and other seafood. In the past century, a selection of companies have begun to make use of a diverse range of animal cells to grow synthetic meat in laboratories, introducing affordable meals to virtually every street.

Biskiri

Biskiri are small pastries characterized by their rich chocolate flavor. As dairy is rather scarce on Indar, they use cooking oils and small amounts of vinegar as a workaround. Biskiri are typically eaten around holidays.

Byrobo Tubro

Byrobo Tubro refers not to any particular dish, but rather to a technique used to create meat with an intense sweet/salty flavor. It involves the repeated process of dehydrating cured meat, and then rehydrating it in a solution of your choosing, infusing the meat with flavor. The end result is a highly adaptable, but very flavorful dish that can be served in many situations, depending on the infused flavor.

Infrastructure

Urban

The design of Indar's urban infrastructure is that of one massive, thriving ecumenopolis enveloping the planet's landmasses. Steel and stone intertwine to create sprawling urban jungles, creating a mesh of bridges and spires stretching from deep underground to the upper atmosphere, with the tallest of structures sometimes reaching even past that. Mirrors, lenses, and tinted windows are put to magnificent use to spread the ever-present natural light into the deepest crevices, such that artificial light is nearly absent during the day, and even from the bottom layers one can see the reflections of sunlight glowing from above. Indar's massive city-structure spans the whole of the planet's landmasses, although its structure does not remain the same, becoming nearly suburban near the oceans and nature reserves.

As a matter of fact, Indar's urban sprawl is roughly grouped into two categories, namely, cloudbreach and skyline zones. The former encompasses the densely inhabited regions of the planet, home to extraordinarily tall buildings that often pierce the cloud layer with platforms built in-between, creating the infamous city layers of Indar. The latter, on the other hand, is a depiction of more commonplace urban centers, with virtually no layers and buildings whose height reaches a couple of kilometers at most.

City Layers

While Indar's cities seem gigantic from space, this view does not even begin to portray their sheer immensity. In cloudbreach zones, platforms are constructed between the towering skyscrapers, dividing the city into several layers. Each serves a distinct purpose, from the business centers of the upper atmosphere to the dark slums hidden far below. On Indar, altitude signifies wealth. An old Indarian poet-historian by the name of Palum Omi wrote the following: "solum verum lumen solis dives oculis videre - only rich eyes see the sun's true light", a display of the significance of sunlight to the people of Indar, as to see the sun is a luxury only given to those who live on the uppermost layers.

Transportation

The urban transportation system of Indar is highly diverse and extraordinarily complex, reflective of the infrastructure it's set in. The people of Indar largely employ high-capacity public transportation to traverse local distances. Nearly every square kilometer of the urban jungle is interconnected through a network of airborne transport vehicles and subterranean railways, the better part of which is free of charge to any registered inhabitant of Indar, though select states have begun to enforce compulsory payment. When that does not cut it, the planet's web of maglev trains is frequently used, making transport to even the farthest urban areas a matter of a couple of hours.

The ownership of personal transportation is extensively taxed by the myriad countries of Indar in an effort to increase the efficiency of public transportation and can even be outlawed in certain regions. Despite that, said regulations do not stop the wealthy of society from soaring through the neon cityscapes in fancy hovering cars and basking in the feel of the open road. On top of that, while not practical given the existing infrastructure, the use of aircraft is an amenity of the rich, emphasizing the social inequality present on Indar.

Climate Control

It's no surprise that Indar requires climate manipulation to stay habitable for its people. Through a network of climate regulators across the cityscapes, the vast majority of Indar's climate remains unchanged, though slight temperature variations are observed, typically based on one's distance from the equator. Furthermore, said machines regulate the atmospheric pressure of the highest skyscrapers and city layers, allowing people to breathe freely even at the limits of the natural atmosphere.

Sectors

Industrial Regions

Roughly eight percent of Indar's urban infrastructure is considered to be industrial, in which massive factories produce the countless goods vital to the planet's economy. The industrial regions of Indar barely see any activity, save for a few machinery operators and underground freight trains that transport the prod1uced goods into warehouses. On occasion, a number of factory towns have been established, though the living conditions are miserable at best. Hazy clouds soar over an ochre sky while the sounds of production become nearly deafening at times. It's no surprise that the public ranks them above all others as the most miserable place to live in.

Spaceports

Every single day, countless starships arrive in the massive cityscapes of Indar, and it is the job of spaceports to serve them as effectively as possible. Serving the industries of trade and tourism, they're universally recognized as the lifeblood of Indar's prosperity. The spaceports of Indar are bustling hubs of activity, filled with merchants, travelers, and smugglers hailing from countless worlds. The most noteworthy spaceport is believed to be that of Lunaris, which is linked to the orbiting Northstar station through a space elevator.

Nature Reserves

The nature reserves of Indar are surprisingly lush, and they are the only places across all of Indar that are completely unpopulated. Even the ruins of Indar's previous civilizations have been removed, such that they seem nearly untouched. The very wealthy of Indar are permitted to view them in person, but for all others, they are only seen via recordings.

Free Zones

A select number of regions across Indar's cityscapes are grouped as Free Zones, urban areas that are shared by the planet's countries and typically serve a singular purpose, be that mercantile activity, financial pursuit, or a plethora of others. They're considered to be a vital aspect of the planet's prosperity, their activities generating a pile of fortune for Indar's people. Notable examples include the Great Trade Zone, established around the spaceport of Lunaris to serve commercial activities, and the Nashima Highrise, a district in which many of the planet's corporations are headquartered.

Aquatic

Marine Farms

Because Indar is so protective of its nature reserves, a significant portion of its food is imported. Even still, Indar has many marine farms spread across its oceans, feeding the remaining population with genetically modified aquatic flora and fauna. Despite sourcing most of its locally harvested food from these farms, Indarian cuisine is incredibly diverse, with the myriad cultures of Indar contributing a staggering variety of spices, recipes, and techniques.

Arctic

Cosmic

Space Stations

Planetary Shielding

It only makes sense for Indar to be the single most strategic location in any conflict in Aurelios, consequently requiring a great deal of protection against threats. If it's not the forces of a rival country, it's violent terrorists or deadly asteroids. People grew wary over generations, which wasn't helped by the fact that a successful attack against Indar's urban sprawl took place not all that long ago. Fortunately, a breakthrough in shielding technology enabled them to develop a planetary defense system unlike any other. That being, an energetic shield encircling the entire planet, protecting it from any possible attack.

It took many years to construct, and when it was first activated, Indar's people felt safer than ever. On the other hand, it proved tedious for the many pilots, who then had to spend time proving their identity and having their spaceship scanned. Presently, such a method is considered far outdated by Indar's populace. In the present, the planetary shield's adaptive program accomplishes all that in merely a minute, breaching entrance fissures in a way that goes unnoticed by pilots. Many have reported that they did not notice the presence of the planetary shield for even a single moment.

Interplanetary Bridge Network

Indar is the core of a vast network of bridges connecting all the planets of Aurelios. This superstructure is operated by motors to adjust for the differing orbits of the planets. Large pods are launched through these bridges at speeds just below the speed of light, to allow for relatively fast interplanetary travel. These are powered by inconceivably dense engines simultaneously running fission and fusion reactors to mimic the properties of a miniature supernova thousands of times every second.

Impact of Civilization

Positive Effects

The efforts to save Indar's nature have been truly herculean. A few centuries into Indar's past, one would have considered it to be a failed planet, with the immense buildup of methane and sulfur hexafluoride causing rapid rises in temperature. The people of Indar banded together for the first time in many years to eliminate these dangers. Even centuries later, the damage dealt to Indar's nature is ever-present, allowing none hide from what brutal industry and imprudent urbanization had accomplished.

A century ago, the people of Indar took it upon themselves to bring back the species of flora and fauna that they had brutally harmed many thousands of years ago as an act of reparation for their wrongdoings. Nature reserves would be constructed across Indar's cityscapes and introduced to thriving and dynamic ecosystems. Furthermore, natural vegetation was introduced to many urban environments, which significantly increased the population's morale and imbued them with a newfound state of optimism.

Negative Effects

As dense urbanization laid out through Indar's great landmasses, the planet's natural condition became critical. Massive arrays of factories spewed excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, melting the south pole, endangering countless species, and significantly raising the sea level. To meet the growing population's demand, the planet's resources would be exhausted, while the surrounding planetary ring would be depleted of materials. Over centuries of expansion, the planet's entire natural ecosystem would be brought to a bitter end, as dense urban sprawls would be constructed on top.

Imperishable waste, largely plastic, would envelop the planet in a short while, reshaping once lush areas of nature into sickening landfills. Particular emphasis would be placed upon the planet's bodies of water, which suffered from a drastic loss of biodiversity following the said period of global pollution. Moreover, the oceans of Indar would be subject to acidification, in which the surplus atmospheric carbon dioxide would reduce its acidity. Such a process would endanger the totality of aquatic life and greatly impact the planet. Even after the attempts to repair Indar's nature, the planet's atmosphere is still greatly damaged, a bitter reminder of their ancestors' apathy.

Miscellaneous

Contributors

Trivia

Indar is the reboot of an older ecumenopolis page written years ago.
The recipe for Biskiri was inspired by King Arthur Baking's "Cake Pan Cake".
Byrobo Tubro can be made in real life and is actually really good.

Gallery