Marola is a temperate colony world currently controlled by the Commonwealth of Golr're. It is renowned throughout the galaxy as one of the most beautiful worlds. As a less-advertised fact, it is also the subsumed homeworld of the Thrinl species, which evolved in the seas of Marola.
History
Formation
Marola formed 3.9 billion years ago, along with the rest of its system. Once it had fully coalesced, comets started raining down on it, scattered inward by a clumsy giant on the outer edges of the system. This brought many much-needed water to the planet, along with the seeds of life. Over the next two billion years, the planet evolved a underwater ecosystem to rival even the most lush of planets, but only a few select species moved onto land.
Rise of the Thrinl
In this vat of life, the Thrinl, a cephalopodic intelligence arose. They quickly utilised some of the more, curious, features of some of the animals on their planet, and slowly hauled themselves up the technological progress ladder. Finally, the day came were they had bred and engineered a type of whale in their oceans that could withstand the vacuum of space, and a type of microorganism that could propel themselves very fast. They put the two together, and the first organic spacecraft was born.
Over the next ten thousand years, they developed a culture and technology to rival even a type 1.5 civilization, but they never left their home system.
Arrival of the Iyulo
The Iyulo, quintepedal spider-like organisms from Golr're, had developed space travel way before the space-whale was even thought of, had finally expanded out into this area of the galaxy. Following their policy of endless expansion, they deciphered the Thrinlalian language, and posed them this question:
"We, the Iyulo of the Commonwealth of Golr're, offer you, the Thrinl of Marola, to join our endless expansion and be happy and prosperous. As an added bonus, you could also get a FTL drive. Or you could stay here, and be limited to one system."
The Thrinl chose the former, and now they are a happy, prosperous and functioning part of Iyulian Society.
However, not all Thrinl were happy with the new regime. During the Succession of Tarmalyula, a Iyulo splinter group fractured off from the rest of the Commonwealth of Golr're. The Thrinl executed a coup that overthrew Marola's government, and the Iyulo Free States established their capital on the planet. During the IFS's 2000 years of existence, the planet was increasingly urbanised to the point were it became an ecumenopolis, and the Thrinl were contained to a small, ten-kilometre by ten-kilometre 'native reserve' on the planet. Since the fall of the IFS and the subsequent re-acquisition of Marola by the CoG, most of the population have been resettled off the planet, and the metal crust torn up to fuel the construction of the various megastructures in orbit of the planet, the planet has become a ocean world, covered in more water than it had before, and a aquatic civilization has grown and prospered.
As of 100 000, talks are being conducted on Marola and other world as to if the CoG should release Marola from its control and bequeath it to the new 'United Federation of Marola', a vassal state to the CoG.
Culture
The culture of Marola is varied and diverse, focusing on no specific area.
Music
Music on Marola is represented by a large variety of sounds, appealing to many different species. Of these sounds, the sounds appealing and rythmic to the Thrinl are the most common, sounding to Human bystanders like a truck rolling past, over and over again, with subtle differences.
Art
Art of Marola is by far the largest variety of culture, with art being used by the Thrinl as their primary way to communicate. Some art captures the artist feelings at the moment of an event, some depicts events, some encaptures events into objects.
Dance
Both Thirnl and Iyulo have a huge appreciation for dance. Strangely, however, people on Marola don't enjoy dancing as much as both Thrinl and Iyulo on other worlds. Still, in one area of Marola, dancing is incredibly common.
Geography
Since the Thrinl never left the deep oceans, the names of the continents are numerical - Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, etc.
Alpha
Alpha is the largest continent, covering the entire north pole of the planet. It is covered in a uniform forest of low-temperature resistant trees, making Alpha the easiest, but not most habitable, place to build in.
It houses 70% of the intelligent terrestrial population, mostly located in Nova Marola, the capital and largest city on the planet.
Beta
Beta is a large mountainous landmass which houses the more temperate areas of the planet. On the flatter areas, it is savannahs and forests, but on the mountains, you get the same monochromatic effect as on Alpha. The slopes of the many Betan Mountains are covered in Artui Trees, the sole low-temperature trees on the planet. They reach up and covered the entire of the mountains.
Orbital Structures
Moons
Tejeb
Tejeb is the largest and sole spherical moon of Marola. It is a barren wasteland, covered in rocks and dust in places metres deep. It has one claim to fame however - it appears to be the birthplace of the Dustborn, a lifeform made out of the dust that covers that moon.
It is uninhabited, so as to preserve the curious homeworld of the Dustborn.
Megastructures
Many Megastructures are in place around Marola, products of the steel from the ecumenopolis the Marola once was. out of these, there are the following.
Orbital Ring
The Orbital Ring of Marola is by far the largest and most impressive of all the megastructures of Marola. It is a ring, suspended above the surface f the planet at a height of 150 kilometres by a combination of anti-gravity generators and space elevators. This means that the planet has another equator's worth of land to use. This is where the majority of the terrestrial population reside, making it the most populated structure in the sector.
Underneath, since the ring does not rotate nor move, it is permanently night. This is mitigated by artificial lights on the bottom of the ring. This solve the light problem, but not the heat. This area is the chilliest on the planet, with the water frozen over and snowstorms.
Defence Nexus of Marola
The DNM is a small (comparatively) space station orbiting above the ring. It consists of three hundred habitats, each a couple of kilometres across, strung out around the equator like a necklace. These space stations are equipped with the most advanced defence technology the IFS had at the time. It also has a couple of million strike craft to attack enemy ships on short range. The arrangement has only been used once, when the CoG retook Marola from the IFS, ending the IFS' short existence.
Planetary Administration
The Planetary Admin is a large semi-megastructure one hundred kilometres across, held up by on strut above the surface of the ring. This strut is only a couple of tens of metres above the ground, but it holds the weight of an entire platform, a hundred metres thick and with a radius of fifty kilometres. This material has serious tensile strength. On the platform, lies the planetary admin. It manages all things that happen on Marola, as well as within it gravitational well. This is where the planetary government resides, as well as all bureaucratic staff live.