Terranova

History

Terranova first formed around 5.3 billion years ago from its parent star's stellar disc, like most planets do. A billion years later, a protoplanet had been fully formed and had reached a stable orbit as the sixth planet.

During this time, a smaller planet collided with the proto-Terranova, throwing it into a longer orbit and making it the seventh planet. The collision also formed the moon Armstrong just as Luna was formed.

3.1 billion years ago, the first life forms began to evolve within the now cooling oceans of the planet. Millions of years passed and the unicellular life formed into multicellular life forms.

Much like how life evolved on Earth , the planet experienced a number of extinction events, mostly due to the captured asteroids in orbit falling into the planet's atmosphere. The planet was discovered by a fleet of exoplanetary discovery telescopes on Mars. It was considered to be a very Earth -like planet, which made it a high priority for space travel. By the invention of the Warp Drive in the 2330s, many colonists went to Terranova in order to check its qualities.

Thanks to the extensive study of the world, the colonists were well prepared for the harsh winters. Thankfully the native plant life and terrestrial live seemed to be able to coexist. However, as to keep cross contamination at a minimum, the colonists strictly regulated the planting of terrestrial life. Little by little small forests of terrestrial plant and animal life popped up but beneath large domes so as not to affect the native Terranovan life.

Population

Currently the planet has 15.7 billion inhabitants, most live in large eco-friendly cities. The planetary

government is currently a Geniocratic Technocracy. In essence, only the most intelligent people are put in power.

The world is run by a council of

both Geniocrats and Technocrats. Their “election” process takes place in nearly a day. All over the world candidates head to a local government building and take a test of intelligence or technological knowledge, depending on what the candidate is applying for. The test results are all done on pencil and paper and no electronics are allowed save for ancient calculators. The test is akin to ancient Earth SAT tests. Afterwards the papers are run through a scantron and a week later the best candidates are chosen. Candidates are allowed to stay in office for two terms of four years.

Terranova exports some of humanity’s greatest technological achievements as well as great philosophical ideas.

Climate

With an ESI of 0.9, Terranova is remarkably Earth like save for the lower temperature. The poles have larger ice caps than on Earth . The summers on Terranova are like spring on Earth but during the winters it isn’t unheard of for lakes and rivers to freeze, making for good skating.

Terranova already supports a thriving alien ecosystem but no intelligent life.

Were it not for the native life humans would have tried warming up the planet. Nevertheless, the planet was perfect for colonization, the plants and animals were edible.

With a bit more land than ocean there are more deserts but almost all are icy deserts, coated in century old glaciers. The atmosphere is a bit wetter so it isn’t that big of a difference.

The surface shows signs of heavy bombardment, most likely from asteroids and comets.