Erdath

Erdath is the third planet of the Holias System in the Vernarca Nebula, of the Ervo Sector of the Silky Way galaxy. It is a temperate, if cool, world with life covering much of its surface. In the distant past, it was little more than a colony of the robotic Edrons before their destruction in war, but today it serves as the homeworld of the Lrenn, capital of the Erdathian Federal Republic, and a major world of the Vernarcan Federation.

Erdath was named so by the ancient Lrenn, after the god of the dust then believed to rule all. Its surface is teeming with life of all sizes, from bacteria to great whales, from the depths of the ocean to the most dizzying of mountain peaks. As the homeworld of the Lrenn, it has served a vitally important role in the history of the Vernarcan Federation, as the capital of the Erdathian Federal Republic, one of its founding members.

History

Formation

Evolution of Life

Edronian Era

Rise of the Lrenn

Colonization of Space

Erdathian Domain

Glorious Revolution and the Federal Republic

Federation Era

Modern Times and the War of the Broken Bow

Physical Characteristics

Orbit and Rotation

Atmosphere

Geography

Erdath's surface, with an average temperature just two degrees above freezing, is dominated by fjords, tundras, ragged mountains, and vast ice fields covering much of the seas. Due to Erdath's size, the planet has a highly active plate tectonics system, with plates smashing into each other and later pulling apart at such momentums as to push up vast mountains even under the planet's higher gravity. Over Erdath's five billion year history, most of the planet's land area has thus been affected, creating a very mountainous surface.

Erdath's surface is dominated by a single large supercontinent, Drovala, with the rest of the planet's land area broken up into a large number of subcontinents and island arcs. The poles are largely iced over, with permanent ice caps forming over 14% of the planet.

Climate

Erdath's climate is, as a rule, cold. While calling it "marginally habitable" is a bit of a stretch, it certainly isn't as superhabitable as a world like Teralla. With Holias' light adding up to 1310 W/m² of irradiance on average, its equatorial regions possess climates analogous to the boreal or subarctic regions found on Teralla.

The planet's strong greenhouse effect and thick atmosphere also means that its average temperature is more uniform, with temperature dropping off much more slowly as latitude increases. However, it still does decrease, and the far north and south are in a permanent deep freeze with large-scale ice caps, very little precipitation, and frozen oceans.

Major Moons

Verto

Lirtso

Ring System

Shepherd Moons

Civilization

Urban Areas

Lrenn Effect on Erdath