Jupiter

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Jupiter
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Type: Gas Giant
Planetary Information
Day Length: 10 hours
Year Length: 4332 Earth days
Surface Temp: -108° C
Gravity: Very High
Atmosphere: Hydrogen, Helium
Moons: 67 (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto)
Societal Information

Jupiter is a gas giant and the biggest planet in the Sol System in Unknown Regions. As a gas giant outside its star's usual habitable zone, Jupiter is inhabited only by scant, hydrogen-breathing floater fauna and flora with little room for development of advanced life forms or habitation for most known sentient life forms. Nevertheless, it's important for the Sol System because of its influence and its large, planet-sized moons.

History[edit | edit source]

Home to mostly primitive life forms floating in its hydrogen clouds, Jupiter itself was left alone until the Titans arrived in the Galaxy. It's unknown how many facilities were placed within Jupiter's atmosphere, rings and moons but one energy signature remains intact, still emitting energy from the heart of a giant, planet-sized hurricane on the southern hemisphere of Jupiter, the famous Great Red Spot. It's unknown if the spot is that old, or if the facility creates it, or even if it's created on purpose or merely clouds clumping around the artificially suspended structure.

Because of its influence and great, planet-sized moons tidally heated to habitable temperatures, various Earth gods have taken interest in Jupiter. A number of transplanted populations originating from Earth lives within the Jupiter system, with no contact with the current Earth society.

Thirty years ago, an event known as the Jovian Convergence happened. The alignment of Jupiter's moons caused an unusual synchronization of the moons' respective magical flows, opening a number of portals between them. The inhabitants usually saw the other moons as simply divine domains in the sky, but the Convergence opened their minds, allowing passage between the worlds. This event shook up the system but the true long-term implications are yet to emerge.

Moons[edit | edit source]

Jupiter has no stable geography as it lacks a solid surface like most gas giants, but it has four large, planet-sized, inhabited moons.

Io[edit | edit source]

Io
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Type: Demon
Planetary Information
Population: 100 000
Day Length: 42,5 hours
Year Length: 4332 Earth days
Surface Temp: 147° C
Gravity: Low
Atmosphere: Sulfur Dioxide
Societal Information
Races: Salamander, Efreet, Dwarf

One of the few worlds of demon type with little influence from actual demons, Io is a highly volcanically active world, heated to the point of melting rock by Jupiter's massive tides. Because of the temperature and poisonous atmosphere, most humanoids cannot survive on its surface, but scattered, nomadic populations of alien pyrophiles managed to make their way there. Io's constantly shifting surface frequently brings up buried minerals and other goods, which these populations eagerly harvest and sell to other worlds in Jupiter's system.

History[edit | edit source]

There is evidence of Titan presence on Io, although it has been mostly destroyed in the eternally shifting fiery landscape. As they doubtlessly encountered countless other tidally-heated moons before, they likely weren't researching much, but harnessing the moon's energy for other purposes.

Sixteen thousand years ago, bronze dwarves from an unknown system arrived on Io. Their descendants have now forgotten their origin, but the outposts resistant to the toxic conditions still remain. It's speculated that other dominant creatures on Io, efreet and salamanders, have been also brought by these dwarves. The dwarven myths speak of a world with seas of flame, thus they likely came from a similar, volcanic world.

The constant part of Io's ever shifting political landscape have been the city of Odzn, originally a dwarven outpost floating with the fire currents. Although it understandably changes its position on the moon's surface, Odzn has remained dominant thanks to its relative safety and economic influence. Odzn sends hundreds of miners across Io and harvests the minerals brought up and sells them to the less fortunate and more ephemeral settlements on Io, as well as other moons of Jupiter.

Convergence[edit | edit source]

The initial shock of the Convergence to Io was catastrophic. New lakes of cold water poured from spontaneous portals from Europa, cold air from Ganymede and Callisto brought plants and animals, creating brief, small enclaves of normal life - that soon perished in the fires and toxic air. The enterprising bronze dwarves saw this as an opportunity and began exploring other worlds and peddling their wares - usually precious minerals and coal.

Visitors to Io from other moons are rare, for obvious reasons. A number of myrmidons attempted to find new colonies deep underground, but quickly found Io is not stable anywhere. A small number of dark elves and diplomats from other moons have managed to make themselves comfortable in small enclaves in Odzn and the original portal zones, but their cultural influence is minuscule.

Europa[edit | edit source]

Europa
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Type: Ice/Ocean
Affiliation: Divided
Planetary Information
Population: 3 million
Day Length: 3,5 Earth days (85 hours)
Year Length: 4332 Earth days
Surface Temp: -5° C
Gravity: Low
Atmosphere: Nitrogen, Oxygen
Societal Information
Races: Merfolk, Locathah, Telchin, Cetalia, Lektin

Europa is a frozen oceanic world, whose surface is permanently covered in ice, with few cracks and surface posts linking the enormous, subsurface ocean to the surface. Seemingly devoid of life when viewed from the outside, Europa is nevertheless blooming with various aquatic life forms beneath the cover of ice. Most of the inhabitants of Europa seem to be transplanted from Earth or other worlds in the Sol System, including merfolk from Earth and cetalia from Luna. A few races seem unique to Europa, including a local variant of locathahs and a race called lektins which seems alien to Europa but has never been seen on other worlds.

History[edit | edit source]

Charting a detailed history of Europa is hard. Most of the native races and civilizations don't keep long, detailed histories, being more concerned with the present. Nevertheless, a few mythic accounts of the moon's history survive, albeit as it is usual with myths, their historicity can be dubious.

The ichthys of Europa are the best source on this, being undoubtedly the oldest and possibly the only native race to the moon. They believe Europa is subject to cosmic cycles which always bring new people to their world. They speak of an ancient era when all that was in the world was sea and the inhospitable darkness beyond it. That is when "father" (as they refer to Jupiter) covered Europa with ice to protect it and only then life could develop under the ice and ichthys appeared after the sea spat them out. However, they were not alone - lektin lived on the ice above (the myth does not specify how they were created) and one day, the cycle ran its course and lektin descended under the ice and took over Europa. Some claim this myth proves alien origin of the lektin.

Lektin, however, were wasteful and they did not take the gifts of the sea graciously. The sea grew angry and powerful storms smashed their cities as ice rained from above. The cycle ended again and a new arrival came in "great, gleaming ships" - the cetalia from Earth's moon. Modern Moon's cetalia are not known to be technological, but silver elves may not have developed their rudimentary aether-sailing technology, leading to speculation cetalia were once technologically advanced and briefly colonized other worlds in the Sol System.

Cetalia abandoned their cities one day and took to wandering across the oceans, the myth continues to say. The cycle ended again and new arrival came, this time merfolk of Earth, escaping "menacing ice dwellers". As ichthys did not have a word for land for the longest time, it's speculated these merfolk were escaping Atlantean oppression. They built the greatest cities that still stand to this day and now unite their own kind with ichthys and lektin. Ichthys believe the cycle will soon end again with the coming of "dry creatures" that will finish the cycle and take ichthys out into the 'darkness beyond', leaving Europa a dead ball of ice - the prophecy sometimes speculated to refer to humans or another space invader that will not assimilate into Europa's culture.

Convergence[edit | edit source]

Some ichthys believe the Convergence to be the fulfillment of the "end of the cycle" prophecy. When the event began, numerous portals opened and pumped out an impressive amount of water. Various mages managed to isolate these portal regions to small air chambers for off-world visitors, but the shock of this event caused many locals, especially the superstitious ichthys to fear the other worlds and people coming from them.

Surprisingly, the Sparts of Ganymede have proven resistant to Europa's cold, watery climate. Small groups of renegade Sparts took to constructing simple submarines, carrying isolated human crew inside, to explore and exploit the unsuspecting world. Rare dark elves, in personal magical bubbles, took to exploring merfolk realms and tying new bonds between elvenkind. Otherwise, visitors from the other moons rarely go deep into the cold, murky waters of Europa.

Ganymede[edit | edit source]

Ganymede
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Type: Snow
Affiliation: Divided
Planetary Information
Population: 7 million
Day Length: 7,155 Earth days (172 hours)
Year Length: 4332 Earth days
Surface Temp: 8° C
Gravity: Low
Atmosphere: Nitrogen, Oxygen
Societal Information
Races: Human, Spart, Myrmidon

The most Earth-like of Jupiter's moons, Ganymede was a wild world of snow-capped mountains and chilly seas until Zeus, Jupiter's namesake, took interest in it and transplanted a number of descendants of his and his lover's Ganymede's. These Ganymedeans now rule most of the world from castles located in high peaks overlooking valleys filled with special, magical farms which remain warm and fertile despite the cold of Jupiter's system. Ganymedeans were also given a set of dragon's teeth which were sown and grown into local Sparts. They have since became independent and engaged in a never-ending conflict with another transplanted Earth race, Myrmidons, ant people once created by Zeus to replace a dead island's population.

History[edit | edit source]

When Zeus first took interest in the Jupiter system over 3000 years ago, the only semi-sentient inhabitants of Ganymede was a race of talking, non-technological corvids called ereleshku. It was mostly a chilly world covered in snow most of its long year. When Zeus abducted Ganymede from Earth, he allegedly impregnated the boy through divine magic and left him in a golden castle in one of numerous valleys of the moon. Zeus then terraformed the moon in a single night, making it slightly warmer and spreading flowers and cereal plants across the surface. To make sure there was someone to till the land, he would turn the local ants into a race of ant-people and to protect and serve Ganymede and his descendants, he would give the boy a set of dragon teeth that once sown would sprout into Sparts.

The Ganymedean chronicles say that for seven generations, descendants of Ganymede lived in peace and expanded through the moon's surface, founding many of the castles and cities of modern Ganymede. However, then Ganymede died after a magically prolonged life and his descendants, without any line of succession or other guidance, began fighting each other for supremacy. After Sparts burned the fields one too many times, Myrmidons rebelled and founded their own kingdoms, led only by their corpulent queens. Eventually, many of Ganymede's descendants would find themselves poor enough to have to till the land themselves, replacing the rebellious Myrmidons. After centuries, the resulting kingdoms would evolve into separate nations that now dominate Ganymede.

Scholars doubt the accuracy of this mythical story, citing that the moon's population could not reach millions in the given time, starting from one man, no matter how many children he birthed from this thigh. They theorize many more people were brought to Ganymede from Earth, either with Ganymede himself or at a later date.

One later migration happened a thousand years ago, when a small group of Welshmen from Britain on Earth arrived through a malfunctioning ancient elven portal. Bringing with them insular Christianity, these Welshmen would blend with the hero cult of Ganymede and create a syncretic religion. Descendants of these people now call themselves Gimmerans and maintain a separate culture, one more concerned with tradition and far less permissive than other Ganymedeans.

Convergence[edit | edit source]

The recent clash between misogynistic, boy-loving Ganymedeans and Amazons, who were the first visitors from the new portals, only flared up the darkest parts of both cultures. Although Ganymedeans have women, like Ancient Greeks they consider them lustful and almost wild creatures. Human Ganymedeans refuse to trade or talk with Amazons as "women who dare take man's place in society", and the Amazons respond in kind, by raiding and mercilessly pillaging their cities and forts. Sparts are obedient soldiers who have little quarrel with the Amazons but fight them on human orders - and because of that, learned to begrudgingly respect them. Myrmidons, on the other hand, began to admire the parthenogenetic, female-only Amazons and fruitful relationships began.

The rare lektin and merfolk traders from Europa are the most friendly visitors from other moons. Few and far between, they are usually exotic merchants in the capitals near the new swamps caused by the oceans leaking out of Europa. Similarly, the fiery inhabitants of Io come to trade, but are far less accepted due to their tempers and destructive capabilities.

Callisto[edit | edit source]

Callisto
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Type: Snow
Affiliation: ?
Planetary Information
Population: 4 million
Day Length: 16,6 Earth days (400,5 hours)
Year Length: 4332 Earth days
Surface Temp: -4° C
Gravity: Low
Atmosphere: Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide
Societal Information
Races: Human, Elf, Sphinx
Government: ?
Rulers: ?
Settlements: ?
Languages: ?
Religions: ?

Unlike most worlds in Jupiter's system, Callisto was once home to a Titan facility, speculated to a repository of knowledge for their research on Jupiter. A population of anthrosphinxes was left behind after the facility became defunct and evolved into Callisto's sole sentient race before the arrival of Amazons. Presumably attracted to another matriarchal race, Earth goddess Artemis transplanted a population of descendants of hers and her lover's (and moon's namesake) Callisto. Despite being otherwise human, these Amazons are apparently capable of parthogenesis - there are no men among them, yet they easily reproduce on their own from families of two females. Since the Amazons' arrival, a race of naturalized lampades turned into a native race of dark elves.

History[edit | edit source]

The anthrosphinxes of Callisto claim to maintain written history of the moon since the Titans' departure. Their written records contain an impressive list of matriarch, whose existence is proven only by said list. Nevertheless, it maintains a list of names slowly evolving towards present day Callistoan sphinx language, suggesting a grain of truth. Besides their pedigree and mundane accomplishments, the list gives little evidence of large scale events on ancient Callisto, if any happened in that period.

Eventually, Amazons arrive on Callisto, exactly 3091 years ago according to sphinx chroniclers when the goddess Artemis of Earth followed her father's example and whisked away a number of her followers. Amazons begin immediately fighting the sphinxes over the few fertile lands on the cold, tundra-like moon. After three centuries of wars between splintering Amazon tribes and a sphinx matriarchy unprepared for war, collapsing under its strain, the moon is thrown into a dark age of tribalism that even sphinxes find hard to keep track of.

It is somewhere during the following thousand years that a race of dark elves appears spontaneously in the record, without mention of their origin. It is speculated the appearance of Amazons awoken a number of fey spirits of Callisto slumbering in its cold climate, and made them evolve into dark elves. These elves establish their own powerful kingdom that uses iron and steel to conquer a number of Amazon tribes and sphinx principalities. Although their reach changes over time, they maintain this empire to this day, despite advancing technology and sudden appearance of firearms in Amazon hands in the last century.

Convergence[edit | edit source]

The first portals to open from other moons brought fire and poison from Io, choking the skies of Callisto for a full year. When dark elves got the handle over the portals, they began exploring the moons and bringing them into hopefully peaceful contact. Unfortunately, Amazons couldn't come to any undestanding with Ganymedeans, beginning decades of war and brutal raids. Sparts rarely manage to cross over and invade Callisto but when they do, they clash with the new Amazon musketeers and powerful elven sorcerers.

From Io, a number of small communities of bronze dwarves appeared, peddling fire - a rare commodity in the coldest and least lush of Jupiter's moons. Both dark elves and sphinxes seek to establish good relations with Io to improve the lot of both worlds.

Very few visitors from Europa show interest in Callisto, given its shallow and ice-covered seas, where most of Europa's life prefers far deeper climates.

Stub


This article is a stub. It is yet to be expanded with more canon information.

Sol System
The Sun - Mercury - Venus - Earth (Moon) - Mars - Asteroid belt - Jupiter - Saturn - Uranus - Neptune - Kuiper belt - Nemesis
Related nearby worlds: Helias - Panchaea - Taprobana - Sigu Tolo - Polaris System - Hebdom System