D'Naevium

The burgeoning field of archeology quickly became popular amongst the residents of Aegyn as the world began properly industrializing. The people on the planet became enthralled by stories of great empires across the galaxy and beyond. This is what inspired a deeper investigation into the obscure world of D'Naevium, home of the Ror Units. Their nomadic life style spreading them across Aylathiya, they had become widely known for their philosophy of Alkanism, its exotic practices and demands creating an even more alluring mystery for archeologists. When D'Naevium was eventually found, the population was under one billion and most of them had no idea they were citizens of the newly formed Triumvirate Civilization.

Every probe that was put into orbit returned bizarre results that should have been impossible. Seas of mercury, gallium, benzene, and briny water covered much of the surface. Seemingly unnatural rock formations covered much of the surface while plants much more reminiscent of solar panels absorbed the rays of D'Naevium's bright sun. Other machine-like lifeforms prowled the surface and swam the impossible seas. As the first manned missions took place, they assumed the planet was an artificial construction, indeed, this bizarre surface was only ten million years old.

D'Naevium is a temperate planet located in Via Aylathiya. It is the current capital of the Alkan Intendancy. Most of the planet's native flora and fauna have been preserved as the Ror Units live in vast subterranean cities where the temperature is cooler. Drilling deep into the mostly hardened mantle, thousands of commune-like cities hold over 5 trillion individuals. The rest live in a vast network of space stations orbiting D'Naevium like a ring system extending over a quarter of an astronomical unit in any direction.

Physical

D'Naevium has a fairly large mass for a terrestrial world. While this should suggest deep oceans of water and a thick atmosphere, D'Naevium has neither of these. Its atmosphere is mostly made up of krypton, xenon, and argon, with water vapor and nitrogen making up most of the rest of the atmosphere. Oxygen is produced in small quantities by rare life forms, but this molecule is toxic to life on this world and quickly reacts.

An unknown event 10 million years before the present day completely destroyed what was likely a normal planetary surface. While normally planetary destruction entails an asteroid impact or a stellar flare stripping the world of its atmosphere, D'Naevium became host to an event similar to the widely-feared "grey goo scenario," the annihilation of an ecosystem or perhaps even planet by self-replicating nano-machines. The world became became host to a Noospheric Disturbance, a disturbance in local reality facilitated by the collective conscious. In other words, the fundamental nature of reality was temporarily disturbed on the planet, destroying its civilization and ecosystem and replacing it with an approximation.

Ecosystem

Standing in a typical ecosystem on D'Naevium would do much to reveal the staggering array of life. Most of the surface of the planet is covered in small crystalline formations, a few millimeters in size, that metabolize silicon compounds and metals by concentrated sunlight into a small area. Larger forms of life include flora shockingly similar to solar panels, using the electricity produced to convert the various nutrients they collect into energy-storing molecules. In the distance, surreally tall wind turbines generate power, only these are massive fungi using the planet's strong winds to generate energy for their growth. They will soon choke the air with a thick smog of spores that are play a key role in planet's ecosystem.

"Grazing" nearby are a herd of bulky hexapods of considerable size. The sounds of whirring and crunching can be heard as the creatures scrape rock and crystal from the ground, grinding it into a fine powder. After they had their fill, they began meandering over to the nearest body of liquid. As they drink, liquid metal dissolves the contents of their mouths, allowing for digestion. This liquid is the element mercury, filling the air with a toxic vapor that is essential to the metabolism of most of the planet's life.

In the distance, loud thunder can be heard as clouds of gallium metal collide with mercury carried by a jet stream, the interaction of the metals creating hugely energetic storms. Within the clouds are glowing points, only more forms of life that use the updrafts created by the storms and their electric potential to feed. Shortly after the thunder begins, strong winds deliver the first snow of the season, crystals of mostly pure gallium peppering the surface.

After the storm passes, large fixed-wing "air-craft" can be seen overhead. The whirring of their propellers can be heard as these organisms are pestered by small airborne parasites that accompany them on their migration. Unlike most aircraft, their natural origin is clear with writhing masses affixed to them as well as numerous legs curled beneath their main bodies. They possess large eyes looking down, surveying the landscape, briefly considering the strange interloper standing pn the surface before moving on.

Before long, night falls. With no moons to illuminate the world, the worlds' large artificial ring system more than make up for any light its surface may be missing. Its glittering space habitats and ships offer a brief distraction from the planet's unique life. Its majestic form, however, is soon occluded by distance airborne masses. Numerous small creatures scurry across the landscape, escaping judgement from above as hovering organisms drop rods of metal from high in the atmosphere, instantly crushing those creatures unfortunate enough to be targeted. Before long, they descend, feasting upon the annihilated corpses of their prey.

Moving from this temperate area towards the polar region, pools of benzene can be found. Where gallium is never hot enough to melt, the ecosystem fundamentally changes. Unlike the opaque seas of mercury and gallium that cover most of the world, the benzene pools create a tidal-pool, an oasis for life forms dependent on the fluid for survival. Numerous creatures are seen swimming in the pool, just as voracious and diverse as their larger airborne counterparts.

Towards the equator, large fields of solar panels on long stalks make up most of the "plant life." Here water is most common, the substance life-giving even on this utterly foreign world. As large droplets of water blanket these fields, the panels quickly hide their faces seemingly to protect themselves from the deluge. After the rains pass, the humming of drone-like creatures fills the air as they feed, on the plants of each other. Much like everywhere else the air is teeming with large amounts of life, some like airships, some like planes, and some entirely divorced from conventional means of air-based transportation. As the soil dries, kites take flight as their tethers hold gliding platforms high in the atmosphere.

D'Naevium's ecosystem, dominated by creatures of the air rather than creatures of the sea, seems to be entirely inverted to conventional worlds. The deep seas of mercury are almost lifeless as sunlight does not penetrate deep at all. Gallium is no better, most of it frozen as the top layer absorbs most of their star's heat. A small white speck can be seen in the distance, rapidly rising in the atmosphere, a reminder that D'Naevium is not merely a wild world, an entire civilization resides on this planet.

Cities

Underground, beneath the hostile ecosystem, is a much tamer world of mostly lifeless caves. Here, in these caves, the Ror Units have carved out a life. Large settlements in natural lava-tunnels and voids created as the planet cooled represent most of the population on the planet. Many cities are alone in voids thousands of kilometers across, much like space itself they represent points of artificial light in a void of darkness. Radiating from the cities are high-speed rail lines, space-elevators leading to the surface as well as to deeper below, and isolated settlements devoted to production or some other function.

While many cities have been left alone, many of which still living the ways their ancestors had ten million years prior, most of them are sufficiently advanced post-scarcity societies deeply tied into galactic trade and culture. Since living on D'Naevium itself costs a premium, the only permitted way to make more space on the planet is to hollow out space below existing settlements or to live on the the world's abundant orbiting habitats.

Government

As the headquarters of the largest order of Paladins in Cosmoria, there is a large government apparatus present on the planet. Local affairs are handled directly by various security agencies that answer directly to members of the Order. Non-members that reside on D'Naevium are classified as "honorary members" and usually handle bureaucratic needs while those in orbit are simply outsiders. Embassies from Scipio, the capital world of the Greater Martial Consilium, officially outrank the paladins as the rulers of the planet, however, they have little de facto power due to their low numbers.

Unique Life

The planet is home to several million "species" that did not form via Darwinian evolution. While evolution has since kicked-in full force since the origin of these organisms, most suddenly appeared in about ten million BCE.

Origin

About ten million years ago, it is theorized that an advanced civilization lived on the planet D'Naevium. This hypothesis is supported by ancient satellites directly orbiting the host star as well as cities buried under layers of rock that date over ten million years old. The fossil record was fairly normal until ten million years ago, with the sudden introduction of metals and the severe reduction in actual water save for underground deposits. This civilization may have ushered in their end or were victims of random chance. Regardless, their world was warped beyond recognition due to forces still poorly understood to this day.

The most popular hypothesis for their world's peculiar life is that their world hosted the origin of the Cybersphere. To make an incredibly complex theoretical story short, the enforcement of symbols onto quantum particles creates a "realm" in which the information stored on particles interacts just as the information in the physical universe does. While the cybersphere is a stable facet of the universe, its sudden creation as the first quantum computers were made likely caused its bizarre properties to "leak" into Cosmoria at the origin point.

Common characteristics

Life across D'Naevium shares several characteristics implying a common origin. Vocalization is universally done by the spinning of a disk-like structure against a needle, giving life a distinctly artificial hollow sound characterized by static. Most organisms are dependent on electricity to store or generate energy while also possessing gear-like structures and motors.

Carbon is almost entirely absent from life although water is an essential nutrient required in many chemical reactions. The substance is fairly common and storms often deposit it with their larger metal precipitation events. Instead of cells, small nano-scale machines are usually present. Mimicking biological cells, these machines depend on electric potential to run as well as a steady supply of nutrients.

Evolution

Since the formation of life, evolution has taken hold to create variations on the original life forms. Since little in the environment has changed since the origin of this life, the original life can be studied almost directly. It seems that most of the life on the planet can be found earlier in the fossil record than ten million years as biological analogs for them populated D'Naevium. Most of the analogs for airborne life existed in the seas and vice versa.