Earen

Earen is the second planet located in the Lekna System, which can be found within the Vernarcan Federation near the border of the Falacian Dominion, in the Ervo Sector's Vernarca Nebula. Home to the oceanbound species of the Eanai, Earen is a world of great historical importance despite its small level of political power.

Due to its unfortunate physical structure preventing hydrothermal vents from coming into being on the ocean floor, Earen spent the majority of its history completely sterile, until around a billion years ago when life was seeded on the planet by the Ancient Builders of Nalaren. Earen, while the first such case discovered, is one of many worlds where this has occurred. In the modern day, it has a bustling population with impressive floating cities within the sunlight zone all the way down to crush depth, and it stands as the capital of United Earen, a member state of the Vernarcan Federation.

From a physical standpoint, Earen is among the very largest worlds with complex life native to it, at over six terrestrial masses. This means that the vast majority of species are extremely uncomfortable under its crushing gravity, and almost its entire surface population is composed of the Eanai. While it will never be the most important world in the seed cluster in which it lives, Earen's successful secession from the Falacian Dominion which conquered it in the hundreds of years prior kickstarted an entire new era in Vernarcan astropolitics with the Dominion's departure from the Yazera Pact and the beginning of its collapse into chaos and sectionalism.

Physical Characteristics

Earen, with a mass of over six terrestrial masses, is among the top tier of terrestrial worlds known. The planet has a mass of 6.44 M🜨, twice that of Erdath and over five times that of Teralla or Campura. The planet receives an incident solar flux from Lekna just 5% greater than that of Teralla, and as such its temperature is fairly similar if somewhat higher due to its thick atmosphere.

In terms of composition, Earen is unique among life-bearing planets in that a full sixteen percent of its mass is composed of water and its various ice forms. Its oceans keep going down for over 100 kilometers before the sheer weight of the ocean water causes it to freeze into various exotic ices, including Ice II and VII, and even up to the hexagonal Ice XI right up against the core. Beneath this infinite ocean can be found a more standard silicate-iron planetary structure, with a mantle uniquely solidified completely by the pressure placed upon it. The core is also mostly frozen solid due to the planet's advanced age, and as such Earen's magnetic field is relatively weak.

Orbit and Rotation

Earen orbits extremely close to its parent star, Lekna. One full revolution around the star at a distance of 0.091 AU takes about 18.6 days, much closer in than any planet around Verda. However, because its host star is so dim compared to brighter F, G and K class stars where life is more easily found, Earen falls right in the center of the Lekna System's habitable zone. Its orbit has a moderate eccentricity of 0.10, varying its temperature somewhat over its orbit.

Due to its extremely close proximity to Lekna, Earen is of course tidally locked. This means that Lekna is mostly fixed in place in the sky, although Earen's orbital eccentricity means that it seems to wobble around that point over the course of the orbit.

Atmosphere

As a superterrestrial world, Earen of course comes with a thick atmosphere. In this case, the pressure at the sea surface is over seven standard atmospheres, which is positively dangerous to some other species. This atmosphere is almost entirely composed of oxygen and nitrogen, as carbon/water-based life-forms are wont to do.

Earen's atmosphere was once primarily composed of water vapor and nitrogen, with everything else gradually breaking down over the almost 8 billion year existence of the planet. However, the introduction of life at the hands of the Ancient Builders a billion years ago resulted in the rapid oxygenation of the atmosphere, and soon approximately five percent of its gases were composed of photosynthetically generated molecular oxygen. This also created the Earen ozone layer, blocking Lekna's rare flare events from affecting the planet too badly.

Due to its complete separation from the planet's silicate crust, Earen's atmosphere has absolutely no radiogenic Argon despite its age, as many other terrestrial planets do. The atmosphere is also filled with highly variable amounts of water vapor from 0 to 6% of atmospheric gases depending on where you are.

Climate

Earen is tidally locked, but the effects of this are not as drastic as one would think. A smaller planet would have a much wider temperature gradient between its day and night hemispheres, but Earen's thick atmosphere and the enormous specific heat capacity of water prevent ice from accumulating much beyond a thin crust of sea ice over the anti-subsolar point occasionally breaking off chunks. Above the waves, the complete lack of landforms on the planet mean that winds can pick up to hurricane-force and stay there forever, whipping around the planet in an effort to equalize the temperature gradient that is there. Anything designed to float in the atmosphere enjoys a wandering existence.

The impressive greenhouse effect caused by Earen's thick atmosphere means that the average temperature is both more uniform and substantially higher than otherwise. Without the presence of these gases, Earen would be a frozen world.

Geography

As an ocean world, it is difficult to speak of any geographical features, as even the very ocean bottom is formed simply by the water's pressurization into exotic ice forms and thus is completely featureless and uninhabitable. From a political standpoint, the traditionally nomadic Eanai held highly mobile three-dimensional territories within the water, stretching across the planet and almost down to crush depth. The only actual physical feature on the planet is the ice cap, floating on the ocean above the antisubsolar point, in permanent darkness. This cap, being physically untethered from the planet's structure, occasionally drifts around, melting where it gets too close to the terminator and expanding outwards where it gets too far away from it.

Ecosystem

Civilization

Population

Due to Earen's crushing gravity and complete lack of natural landforms, the vast majority of the planet's population consists of the native Eanai species. The few members of other species who live here must undergo gene therapy to prevent any possible nitrogen narcosis effects due to the enormous partial pressure of nitrogen present on the planet. During the Falacian Dominion's Occupation of Earen, many Falaci underwent such gene therapy to allow themselves to live on the planet, and even they took part in the expulsion of the Dominion from the planet in 78 AC.

Today, ~89% of Earen's 700 billion people consist of the Eanai, with an extra 5% made up of Falaci. The remainder is a miniscule fraction each of almost every water-based species within the Vernarca Nebula, and even the Lrenn and Tarasze have a non-negligible population in cities floating on the waves or in the clouds due to their origins on a super-earth.

Government

The world of Earen and the rest of the Lekna System are governed under the flag of United Earen. As the name suggests, this government is primarily centered upon Earen itself, however it does include several other locations including the Prakka System and the white dwarf Egar. Much of the native Eanai remained on their homeworld, but a decent fraction of the populace elected to leave for metaphorical greener pastures elsewhere in the Vernarca Nebula, including the ocean world of Aglarond in the nearby Sumna System.

United Earen, despite is importance to the Eanai people, is but one of over 150 member states within the Vernarcan Federation of varying sizes. Despite this, the common economy and government of the Federation takes good care of the planet, with various standards helping to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Due to its location near the Falacian border, Earen and the entire Lekna System enjoys great protection by the Vernarcan Federation Space Force.

History

Formation

The Lekna System formed deep in the mists of time, almost eight billion years ago. Very little can be said for certain about the era before the coming of life, as the planet's very nature precludes archaeological investigations. What can be assumed, though, is that Lekna itself likely began life as a flare star, occasionally increasing in brightness hundredfold in random directions. This is likely why Earen's original crushingly thick atmosphere was blasted away, and later replaced by its modern comparatively thinner one.

The Ancient Builders

Eanai Civilization

Age of Exploration

United Earen

Falacian Occupation

Independence and the Falacian Cold War

War of the Broken Bow and Modern Times