Canthia
Planet
Canthia
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Astrographical Data
System Atan
Region Cascade
Suns 1
Orbital Position 2
Moons 4
Rotational Period 28 hours
Orbital Period 414 days
Physical Data
Class Terrestrial B
Diameter 14,156 km
Atmosphere 65% N2, 33% O2, 2% Other
Climate Stable and Cold
Average Surface Gravitational Acceleration 10.61 ms-2
Primary Terrain Varied
Surface Water 68%
Societal Data
Owner Canthian Federation
Importance Vital
Role Faction Capital, Military Headquarters, Cultural Centre, Industrial World
Population 11 Billion
Government Planetary Council
Major Exports Electronics, Cybernetics, Starships

The planet Canthia, previously named Canth, is the capital-world of the Atan system, in the Cascade region, and the Canthian Federation and the homeworld of the canthians. It is the fourth planet in the Atan system and the only fully habitable planet in the system. It's moons, Ker, Bjarg and Slast are also inhabited, two through terraforming.

History

Due to the Author's bias, this section focusses largely on the history of the nations that lead to the Canthian Federation.

Ancient History

Little is know about the world's history before it's exploration by the Arthians in -7151. While no archaeological evidence has been found suggesting habitation by Orikyans or other Ancestor Races, there is a fair body of evidence suggesting that they at least made modifications to the planet's geography and ecosystem(See Below).

Arthian Age

Settlement

The Atan system was first spotted by Arthian astronomers 407 years before the creation of the Arthian Empire, usually referred to as the Arthian Empire. During the Great Expansion of the 5th and 6th decades(in Arthian years)the system was first reached by noted explorer, and crown prince, Alde Casere III who claimed every planetoid in the system for the royal estate and left within hours. After nine years of failed bids from corporations wishing to purchase Canthia, then called Canth, the prince decide to settle it himself and build a holiday palace. The plan attracted many other nobles and soon a city had formed to support the lavish construction and lifestyles of the Empire's aristocracy. The city expanded rapidly, and more settlements popped up across the planet. In 121 the Canth Prinicipality was established, when the crown prince grew bored of the world and sold it to a baron named Smeagen Tunsmid. Sol City was made capital and the new prince took the palace as his home. The baron turned prince was a foolish man who had spent most of his life throwing away the money his merchant father and grandfather had left him. He, and his succession of equally idiotic heirs destroyed the planet's economy with overbearing tax and inane laws.

Treng Invasion and Princess Heawen

In 225, a Treng raiding party invaded the planet with barely a fight, brushing the prince's poorly paid navy aside without breaking a sweat. The people of Canth toiled under Treng enslavement for 8 months, the fleets of the Empire too busy fighting a bitter civil war to reclaim the planet. They were saved, however, by deserting Fleet Admiral Heawen Wite. She had grown tired with the idiotic squabbling of the nobility and her, and her entire, fleet had deserted, abandoning their King to his death mid-battle. They repelled the Treng and settled on the planet, with Heawen claiming the title of Princess. She set about rebuilding the planet and, claiming the other planets in the system, set up large mining operations and built orbital factories to enlarge her fleet. By the end of the civil war, her fleet had swelled with the influx of newly built vessels and further deserters. The Emperor, who had sided poorly in the civil war, was forced to acknowledge her rank as Princess because he couldn't afford to fight her. She lead Canth into a golden age, becoming the major trading hub for the Cascade region. She had no children, and so named her highest ranking admiral as heir. The man began a bloodline which remained in power until the fall.

The Fall

In -4587 The Fall began. Canth escaped interference for a year, none of the Heir-Princes daring to challenge its navies but a coup left the Princess imprisoned and a corrupt Baron in charge of the planet. He quickly allied with one of the Heirs, who preceded to kill the baron and pillage Canth's Navies, Armies and any resources that could be easily incorporated into his war machine. He then abandoned the world to chaos. A civil war ensued and by the end of the age, 80% of the population was dead and much of the planet lay in ruins.

Post-Arthian Age

Collapse of Civilisation

An Ex-General of the Canth Home Defence Force, who's battalion had escaped the Heir's conscription and hidden during the civil wars, appeared and quickly conquered the remains of civilisation, hoping to halt the decline of the planet's infrastructure. Although he achieved this to some degree, he quickly became a tyrant and spent most of his eighteen year rule fighting to remain in power. He was killed during a coup in which a fanatical cult seized power, intent on finishing the destruction they claimed their god had cursed the planet with. They set about violently murdering any Non-Arthians they could find on the world before blowing up as much of Sol City, and other major settlements as they could, ending with the detonation of a nuclear weapon within Sol palace.

Nomadic Tribes

The tiny surviving population quickly regressed to ancient technological levels and abandoned the ruined cities, forming loose-knit tribes that roamed across the central continent. All survivors on the other continents and islands apparently did not survive this period, as they were not repopulated for a millennium. The tribes eked out a basic living among the wild and ruined lands for hundreds of years, but after a couple of centuries began to advance again, beginning the long road back to the technology their ancestors had known. In the fourth century, the tribes had grown large enough that they were forced to interact with each other. This lead to both trade and war and many tribes grew close enough to merge, or were defeated and absorbed. In the south of the Rakneh plains, in -4132, the famous warrior Amor united several small tribes under the name Serta. The Serta Tribe flourished for centuries. In -3844, the North-Western Gorol tribe settled in the Ruin Hills, the remains of Sol City and began to grow crops. They traded with local tribes and soon were one of the most affluent peoples on the continent.

The First Nations

Over the next six hundred years, more and more tribes disappeared and more stationary nations appeared. In the south, the violent warclan Ra'neh conquered and enslaved a vast number of tribes, eventually beginning a protracted war with the second largest tribe, the Sertas. In -3165, the tribes leader Rorgor, a direct descendent of Amor, was slain by the Ra'neh Warlord and the Serta Tribe fled northwards, settling in a new area for up to a decade before being chased away again, by the ever-expanding Ra'neh clan. In -2963 they reach the Ruin Hills, and establish an uneasy peace with the locals and the Gorol Kingdom. This unease eventually leads to short war between Serta and Gorol before peace is brokered by the King, Rekkr and the Serta Chieftan's daughter, Lyrell, who fell in love when they met each other in battle.

A year later, three days before their wedding, Ra'neh troops attacked the Serta camp, killed the chieftain and kidnapped Lyrrel, along with many other members of the tribe, and take them to a fort on the southern edge of the Estakr, the plain to the north and east of the Ruin Hills. Rekkr raised army from the Gorol and Serta people and fell upon the fort, razing the entire encampment and, according to legend, slaughtering every Ra'neh warrior within it. He rescued Lyrrel and returned to Gorrol to marry her, uniting the two tribes as the Gorta Kingdom. A second tribe, the Elor join the kingdom several years later as the couples prosperous reign picks up momentum. In -2905, Queen Lyrrel, died leaving Rekkr heartbroken. He abdicated to his son Gif, and died several years later. Gif ruled for 35 years and married the Queen of the largest nation in the Estakr, uniting the two countries. The name of the Queen and Queendom are unknown. On his death, Princess Igr became queen. She ruled for 68 years and left her throne to her nephew Remmligr, a skilled diplomat. He united the remaining kingdoms of Estakr, Gortan and the Sothsor into the Sothol Kingdom. It is believed that at this time, a group of settlers set sail from Ra'neh and began the nation of Esenap on a large Island to the south.

Ra'neh Domination

In -2702, the Sothol Kingdom, ruled by King Vissr II was invaded by the full force of the Ra'neh Queendom. The war lasted for nearly fifty years. Vissr is forced to hand leadership of the armies to his young daughter Veor in -2676 and dies several years afterwards. As Commander, and later as Queen, she leads the Sothol to several amazing victories but is overwhelmed by the superior Ra'neh manpower. By -2653 most of Sothol has fallen to Ra'neh and Veor was cornered in her palace. Legends say that over a hundred of the Ra'neh's finest warriors, including two Crown Princes, fell to her blades before she succumbed to the poison of an assassin's dart, and that ten times the normal dose of poison was required to kill her. Her daughter, Princess Venn, went into hiding and the remains of the Kingdom fell in the next two years.

Sothol was officially declared a vassal state of the Ra'neh Kingdom, the queen having seceded during the war, in -2652, and remained so for 400 years. In -2152 a civil war broke out that shattered the country into a myriad of Duchy's Kingdoms and Principalities. Sothol was claimed by it's Duke while the Estakr was broken up by squabbling aristocrats. The center of Ra'neh, unable to keep hold on it's fragmenting empire, undergoes a revolution, abandons the Kingdom, kills it's King and becomes the Neh'ra Protectorate. The newly formed Duchy of Sothol doesn't last long before a rebellion, lead by Frjal, a descendent of the lost Princess Venn, begins. Although they quickly claimed most of the southern half of Sothol, they lose their momentum due to infighting and are forced to sign a peace treaty making North and South Sothol into official and separate nations.

The Republic

The peace only lasted for three years when a second war between the two nations flares after South Sothol Privateers sunk a North Sothol trading ship on it's way to the island of Esenap. The Esanap navy allied with North Sothol while much of the Estakr sided with South Sothol. With neither force able to beat the other on both land and sea, he war descends into a stalemate. Two years into the war, South Sothol abandoned it's pretence of democracy and named it's High Elder, King. By -2140 most of the two nations' young men and women lay dead in shallow graves or on battlefields and most of Esenap's navies lay on the seabed around South Sothol. Without warning, great revolutions swept across Sothol and within days, a new nation had emerged. The Sothol Republic, formed from approximately half of each of the two Kingdoms and wielding a new invention, gunpowder, swept the remains of the Kingdom's armies aside in a matter of months and soon controlled all of Sothol. By the end of the year it had absorbed or conquered all of the Estakr into a mighty democratic empire and began an age of prosperity.

It soon turned it's eyes to the Neh'ra protectorate and in -2133 conquered most of it's land, leaving the small, hardened nation of Nehrak in the mountainous south. A year later, the Republic officially became an empire. It remains a democracy and the President turned Emperor remains an elected official. Over the next hundred years, Sothol colonises or captures most of the remaining land on Canth, but fails to learn from South Sothol's mistakes and becomes rich and corrupt. In -1523 the emperor dissolves the senate and becomes a hereditary tyrant. The senate had become so corrupt that many see this as a positive change and there is little dissension. Rebellion began three years later with General "Stonehelm" after being ordered to massacre the population of the Estakr city of Flotstor for a single insult made by it's Governor to the Emperor.

Civil War

The Rebels soon controlled a sizeable chunk of the Estakr and some of Northern Sothol. They created the Democratic Republic of Sol and began a fifteen year campaign to take the rest of the crumbling empire. Much of the land east of the Estakr and all of Sol's overseas territories declared independence during this time as troops were pulled out to fight in the North West. General Jafnar became the first President of the new Republic and led the country to victory and then through the gruelling process of rebuilding.

Democratic Republic of Sol

He also tasked the University of Fornell with excavating the ruins of Ancient Sol city and other settlements and discoveries of Arthian technology soon began to appear. By studying the remains, scientists were able to make rapid technological advances and Sol soon became richer and more powerful than the rest of Canth combined. Discoveries included an almost fully working shield generator, with fusion generator, powerful enough to protect most of Sol's landmass. In the second and third centuries of the Republic, they made their first forays into space and eventually settled Slast, the largest of the four moons. Nehrak also began to dig up and adapt Arthian technology and an arms race kicked off when they discovered a shield generator of their own.

Sekhtokrun

Invasion

In the early years of the 33^^rd^ century satellites in orbit around Canth and several of Atan's other planets began to detect strange signals from within the system, some of which suggested unknown vessels were entering and leaving the system. Little heed was paid to the signals until a violent alien race, the Sekhtokrun Empire began invading the planet. A small contingent of three cruisers and a handful of frigates destroyed all of Canth's meagre space defences within and hour and captured the settlement on Slast, before bringing in a larger fleet and using it as a base to launch a full scale invasion of the planet.

The armies of the disorganized Canth nations fell in a number of weeks, and only Sol, Nehrak and a few of their smaller allies, with their more advanced technology are able to stand up to the aliens. They united into the Free Canth Union and attempted to coordinate their rapidly disappearing forces to repel the invaders with little success. Their nuclear missile arsenals were easily deflected by the orbiting ships and their air forces were swatted from the sky like flies. Despite a great victory at The Battle of Eldfell the FCU's forces are forced into a devastating war of attrition as each of the nations outside the two arthian shield generators are conquered. The Krun's greater numbers make Canth victory an seemingly impossibly task. By the Spring of -1270 the only remaining territory lay beneath the protective shields and was constantly surrounded. The Nehrak shields, lacking a fusion reactor to power them, failed in the early summer as they ran out of oil, and the Nehrak fortress fell in three days.

Domination

The next year, the Krun, decided to deal with the Sol problem by erecting a second shield over theirs, preventing entry or exit from the country. Satisfied that they were no longer any threat, the Krun began to settle in, and remove the majority of their forces. They implanted a parasitical growth into enslaved Canthmen to create a slave race and began processing the planet for resources, scarring it permanently. The remaining Sol forces manage to escape the shield through tunnels and began a guerilla war to hamper the Krun, to little effect.

The Aians

By -1268 on 460,000 of the once 4 billion Canthmen were still alive and most of Sol had given up hope of ever knowing freedom. Towards the end of the year, Sol soldiers tracking Sekhtokrun ship movements above Canth, sighted a ship of drastically different design. It was larger than even the Krun's battleships and soon engaged, and destroyed the planet's defendersbefore contacting the Sol remnant. Using Ancient Arthian, the invaders identified themselves as the Aia'ns, refugees from an arthian descendant race that had escaped into Atan through an ancient jumpgate. They revealed that they too had rebuilt from the remains of the Arthian Empire only to be destroyed by an alien menace, and agreed to ally with the people of Sol to remove the Sekhtokrun and reclaim the planet. The Canthian Reclamation was a short, but brutal war in which the Sekhtokrun, refusing to surrender, were slaughtered completely. Lasting only two weeks, it saw the deaths of at least 2 million Sekhtokrun and, after efforts to save them failed, 12 million infected Canthmen slaves.

Canthian Age

With the planet regained but left an almost barren wasteland by strip mining, and the likelihood of Sekhtokrun reinforcements arriving to reclaim planet, Sol and the Aia'ns were forced to work quickly to secure their planet. Sol, being the only nation left of Canth, claimed the entire planet and merged with the Aia'ns. They formed the Canthian Union and renamed the planet Canthia.

Geography

Canthia is one of three solid planets in the Atan system and is fourth furthest from the sun. While it is a Class-B world, it's distance from the sun is large enough to drop it into C-class. The size of the system's star and Canthia's thick atmosphere keep the temperature high enough for the planet to comfortably habitable across most of it's surface. It is relatively dense for a class-B world with a mean radius of just over 7000 km and a mean acceleration at the surface(g) of 10.61 ms-2. It's axis is tilted enough to provide seasons but they do not vary greatly in temperature or weather. It has abnormally low levels of tectonic activity and extreme weather. This is believed to have been artificially induced at some point in the past as the land is fairly mountainous and many extinct volcanoes have been discovered.

The land mass is separated into three main continents, with two smaller ones and many tiny islands. Both polar caps are solid ice with no land above the sea's surface. 68% of the world is covered in ocean.

Canthia3flat.png

Cities

Canthia has a population of 12.6 billion and the majority of it's inhabitants reside in cities dotted around the planet's surface. Over ninety percent of the inhabitants live in the capital Tesra.

Tesra

The capital city of Canthia is Tesra, which encircles the planet, and branches into orbit via eight space elevators, spaced equally along the equator. The elevators are connected to an artificial ring which sits in geostationary orbit above the city. As the equator only runs over land for half it's length, four of the elevators and much of the city is built on the sea, sometimes floating and sometimes built up from the seabed. Approximately 13% of the city is underwater and 41% is in space.

The city is separated into eight districts, each containing an eight of the equator and centred on a space elevator. The districts vary in size as the city is wider in some areas than others. The largest district, Singnir, is home to Canthian Federation Supreme Council Chambers and the Canthian Federation Military High Command Offices.

Others

Aside from the great ring city, Canthia has a great variety of smaller cities. While a small number of converntial land-based cities are dotted across the continents, the majority are found elsehwere. Cities can be found floating on the oceans, the seabed, the Ice shelves of the two poles and floating above the surface both in and above the atmosphere.