Eithlinn

Template:Capital PlanetEithlinn is a habitable moon in Aylathiya. The moon is the home world of the Dotsk and is the capital and most populated natural body in Dotskgard. It orbits an artificial shell world known as Mili, despite originally orbiting a gas giant named Tuirne. Eithlinn itself has a population of 1.5 trillion, making it the most populated moon in Martial Space. Due to the lack of a parent star, the main source of heat for Eithlinn is artificial heat beamed from Mili.

Accompanying Eithlinn are over forty other moons, many of which were moved from outside of Eithlinn's original system to orbit Mili. The largest of which is Anamnesis, the first world the Dotsk terraformed.

History

Two companion moons of Eithlinn, Mys (left) and Anamnesis (Right)

Geography

Most of the Eithlinn's original volcanic activity and natural surface has been altered by the Dotsk to better suit their needs, leaving little in the way of natural geography left. Their first mega-project was to begin hollowing out the moon to create thousands of layers of living space. Most of these layers are large nature reserves with dense cities dotting the landscape.

Currently, the government of Dotskgard is hollowing out the core of Eithlinn. They plan to replace the valuable metals inside with simple hydrogen, enough to eventually create a black hole. This micro-black hole would supply gravity to the surface while also acting as a power generation device.

Across the moon are large towers, often twenty kilometers long and a kilometer and a half wide which link the layers. They support people, matter, and power throughout the moon. Many of them extend deep into the core, extracting all the power they can from it. They also serve to radiate excess heat from the moon.

Biosphere

The life on Eithlinn is mostly based on metal oxides and herteropoly acids, very dissimilar to the traditional carbon. The lack of phosphorus in the area made it far too uncommon for life to incorporate it into their biologies, so life evolved with arsenic as the backbone of its genetic material instead. This caused phosphorous to become a valuable commodity to the ancient Dotsk, a material rivaling gold in value.

Producers

The large volumes of Hydrogen Sulfide present in the atmosphere, in addition to the large amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide, is vital to life on this moon. Eithlinn is over two light years away from its nearest star, making photosynthesis impossible. Instead, the lowest level of the food-chain relies heavily on chemosynthesis. Hydrogen Sulfide and Carbon Dioxide can be oxidized to produce sugars, releasing large amounts of pure sulfur. Most organisms which chemosynthesize end up becoming purple or yellow due to this release of elemental sulfur.

A large portion of the moon's biosphere relied on another exotic form of energy production, radiosynthesis. In the ocean, where life on the moon originated, the first meter of water absorbs almost all radiation hitting the moon. On land, however, the moon was often bombarded with high-energy waves. Every so often, particularly strong bouts of stellar radiation will hit Eithlinn. This first sterilized the land; however, life soon began to use this radiation to its advantage. The first "plants" emerging onto the land would mostly chemosynthesize like everything else. Additionally, these plants were able to evolve to radiosynthesizers when the moon becomes saturated with cosmic rays for up to a week at a time. Radiosynthesis is akin to photosynthesis, except it uses higher energy light than photosynthesis does, allowing for elemental oxygen to begin building up in the atmosphere.

Economy

When Eithlinn first became a part of the wider economy of Aylathiya, its economy had no specific focus. The Dotsk developed a system similar to distributism, a system of economics in which the ownership of companies are spread widely among many individuals. A typical company would be owned by those that worked for it; however, the government was not allowed to interfere in the economy unless it is to maintain the distributist system. This economic system was strange, neither fully socialist or liberal like much of the rest of the galaxy.

At first, the government of Eithlinn was incredibly hostile to corporations. This foreign concept was immediately looked upon with disdain. Most believed it to be some form of authoritarianism. After the collapse of the Triumvirate Civilization in 1 CE, the planet found itself able to access the large number of resources it was cut off from previously. The government, fearing monopolies, banned corporations and forced them to return to the distributist form the nation had known previously.

Fairly ideologically similar to the Confederacy of Borealis, ten percent of the economy came under the control of this galaxy-spanning union. The Confederacy, known for economically conquering worlds if given the chance, is blocked from expanding much beyond this ten percent figure.