Syarrhe [SPECTRA - BOOK ONE]

Atlas

Refer back to this as needed throughout the book.

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Within the Milky Way Galaxy, many mysteries exist; after space travel rapidly advanced from the year 2020 onward, so that by 2167 space travel was commonplace and human colonies existed in multiple solar systems, several of these mysteries had been solved by the discovery of a system we humans named Triquetra. Three suns existed close enough together that the beings around them traveled to each of these three solar systems' planets. Some planets, like in our own Sun's system, were uninhabitable; but many more were habitable and, in fact, already inhabited, by lifeforms not unlike ours. And so they are here mapped by language.

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Systems will be marked by a star named in bold with a brief explanation beneath, and then the planets around said star, in order from closest to the star to furthest.

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XIALAD [Zi-a-lad]

The First System We Discovered. Marked By A Large Yellow Star.

Glyon [Glee-on]: Blue gas planet with a single ring; almost always surrounded by a few meteors, which eventually break off and are melted by Xialad

Slejen [Slay-jin]: An uninhabitable rocky planet with no atmosphere; craters dent its surface and its only water is an ice lake by its south pole, because of the axis's tilt making it so that part never sees sunlight; has a single small moon.

Ascuna [Uh-skoon-a]: Contains seven large oceans and is still 60% land. More ecosystem variety, but more like Asia than all of Earth- there are mountains, forests, tundra, small patches of jungle, bamboo forest, and the occasional patch of desert. Two and a half moons- one small moon, Shi'Vala, broke in almost half when hit by a large meteor, and the remaining half stayed to orbit Ascuna, while the smaller half was eventually eaten by Xialad; the other two moons, Magina and Ismit, are both large and yellow. Ascuna is home to a race that began calling themselves Ascunians once they could complete interplanetary travel; naming oneself by planet becomes more logical than by region on said planet. They are an amphibious people, with blue or green rubbery skin and soft, round faces. Rather than hair, their head and jaws (on the males) are lined by long, narrow tentacles. Tentacle size and length are thought of as an expression of dominance. Ascunian society is developed and would be considered what old humans called "first-world", with sprawling metropolises, rural farmland, and a loose class system between the wealthy and the impoverished.

Skydes [sky-dz]: A planet roughly 80% water with a thick, cloudy atmosphere that produces a lot of precipitation. At any given time, at least 40% of the planet is being rained on; in summer, that rate increases to about 70%. What land isn't underwater is mostly dense jungle, desert, or tropical. (The humidity is killer.) The people are on average taller than humans, with broad shoulders, peach-hued complexions (ranging from a cream shade to a dark bronze), curving angular features, and shocks of hair ranging from silver to gold in color. They are war-like, with constant battles and combat training from a young age, but have developed cities now that interplanetary war is more enjoyable than fighting each other. Their urbanization remains young; they advanced their technology enough to get to space, but their architectural possibilities remain undefined.

Qesmi [Kez-me]: Having suffered an ice age for a century now, the planet Qesmi's environmental state is questionable. The ice destroyed almost all plant-life, and has gone as far as to freeze over the oceans. Whether the ice age will end remains questionable. This led the Qesmians, insectoid aliens similar to an overgrown seven-foot-tall praying mantis that walks on two legs and has only two arms, into the war for Shiuq; insects don't survive ice very well. However, the Qesmians' promotion of slavery and willingness to eat whatever they happen across makes them largely unpopular, and finding allies for the war is difficult. Their primary virtue is their ability to survive incredibly harsh conditions longer than other species; this makes them invaluable when it comes to exploring new solar systems, as the Qesmians won't die as fast as other alien races.