Ammonite Galaxy planets<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tPlanets and people in the binary system<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tFAQs on facts<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValhai<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tValhai is tidally locked, which means that there is one sunny side, and one dark side.\u00a0 Sell is built just close to the dividing line, in the twilight zone.\u00a0 Valhai has winds of 5 metres per second on the sunny side, and Ice on the dark side, especially near the pole. It has a bluish purplish moonlight all day, and the stars can be seen all the time too.\u00a0 When Sacras is visible there are longer shadows and the light is yellower.\u00a0 There is only a very thin atmosphere, not enough to be breathable, which sometimes creates thin clouds that can barely be detected.\u00a0 When Sacras is in conjuction it is nearly as big and bright as the full moon on earth.
The two binary stars approach each other closely every forty years.<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/valhai-2015-podiobook-cover-sized-to-500-kb-300x300.jpg\")
<\/p>
The Sells aren’t really a race at all. They used to live on Cesis, one of the planets in orbit around Almagest, so they were originally Cesans. There, they were workers in the Sellite Corporation. The Sellite Corportation gradually began to be very successful, ploughed all of the money it made into research, made some fortunate discoveries and inventions, and little by little found themselves as the technological leaders of their system.<\/p>
It took them some time, but then the heads of the Sellite Corporation realized that they were the virtual leaders. They began to implement very restrictive policies to make sure that their hard-won technology would stay a secret to the rest of the system, and grew steadily richer and richer.<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/valhai-300x237.jpg\")
<\/p>
The above picture is the first ever formulation of Valhai!\u00a0 You can see the Orthogel liquid to the right and the skyrises at the back.\u00a0 The very first step!<\/p>
After some hundreds of years, they decided that they would be even safer if they could move to a different planet entirely. They came to an agreement for the rental of Valhai with the rest of the binary system, and moved their entire corporation to Valhai. They pay each year in minerals, which they mine mainly from the asteroids in orbit with Valhai around Almagest. They also developed several lucrative sidelines, of which the donor program is one.<\/p>
That was 50 generations ago, at the time of the First Valhai Votation. Nothing much has changed since then: The Sellites have continued to get richer and richer, and the rest of the system has let them. They have no competitors, and have really evolved into a different race. They speak a language completely limited to Sell, and no Non-Sellite is allowed to speak it, on pain of death.<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/skyrise-vista-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>
The rough sketch above represents the base of a Sellite skyrise. The Sellites have become the merchants of the system: they own the only spaceships, they are the only traders between the planets in the system. Little by little they have separated from the other inhabitants, living as they do in walled-in luxury on Valhai. The other inhabitants of the system have begun to look upon them as some sort of superior being, especially on the Almagest planets, where flares from the red dwarf star have caused havoc. Unfortunately the Sellites believe themselves superior too!<\/p>
![\"A](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Foto0396-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>
The above quick sketch is the layout of each of the floors of a Sellite skyrise. As far as the economics of the Sellites are concerned one example will show just how rich they have become. When they signed the rental agreement for Valhai payment was in platinum. They had to deliver to each of the other planets in the binary system a certain amount of platinum per year. When Grace was trying to find out more about the donor program she discovered just how lucrative it is.<\/p>
The sale of one donor\u00b4s genetic material could be offset against two whole years of platinum quota, which in effect meant that the Sellites had the use of Valhai free for the cost of half a donor per year. Since the payment to the Sacran worlds, much more backward, was in the region of an eighth of a year’s quota per donor, the profit was enormous. No wonder the 256th house was one of the most highly considered amongst the operating houses! The donor program had saved Sell over 250 years of platinum quota . . . approximately an eighth of the total payable. In addition, all the genetic material was analysed and a certain amount was retained on Valhai for research purposes. A spin-off of the donor program run by the 256th house was the off-world genetic manipulation program run by the 45th hourse, which based all of its profit on the same genetic program and generated a quota saving of another tenth. In conjuntion they saved the Sells a quarter of the cost of the planet! And they freed up the mining families so they could concentrate on the higher metals instead of platinum, the agreed currency all those centuries ago.<\/p>
Grace found out that a quarter of the mining efforts were now aimed at the very rare metals, such as Rhodium and Palladium. One weight of Rhodium was equivalent to twenty-five of Platinum. Since platinum was still available on the Cian planets themselves, both Xiantha and Cesis were more than happy to exchange quotas. Adding all this together, she discovered that the Sellites had a whole planet for themselves for a total output of only about two-hundred tons mined per year. Since mining the two moons of Valhai was relatively easy that took them only two months per year. Everything else was profit, and as such divided equally between the five hundred families, after expenses were deducted and investment programs funded.<\/p>
No wonder the Sellites felt superior to the rest of the inhabitants of the binary system!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/strong><\/p>Wheras Coriolis is lush and green and warm and filled with abundant plant and animal life, Kwaide is just that much further away from its sun to make it cold, inhospitable, barren and uncomfortable. It is renowned for its icy cold winds, which they say can kill a person.<\/p>
The Elders live in the flatlands, around the centre and south of the planet, and they banish the untouchables they have no use for to the uninhabitable zone, to the north of the planet. This is an area dominated by jagged mountains always capped in ice, peaks where blizzards are so common that even the endemic warthogs cannot venture up them. Some of the waterfalls are so rich in deposits that they petrify anything left hanging in them for a long time.<\/p>
The main Elder city is Benefice, where millions of people live on top of each other, and in generally squalid conditions, which has resulted in the effluent conduits, no-go areas where many no-names work and die.<\/p>
Although water is plentiful in the north, not much else is. Eking out a living there is a gruelling task, taking all day every day. Six should know. It is what he had to do for years as he tried to protect his sisters.<\/p>
The only assets that Kwaide has is its abundant deposits of rexelene, which is used all over the system. It is mined mainly around the city of Rexel, although there are other deposits on the planet. The Elders had imported huge juggernauts to move the rexelene to the space port, where the Sellites took charge of it for exportation.<\/p>
The very northern part of Kwaide is where the characters in this book set up camp. They have no materials to build any complicated dwellings so the main cabins are made of wooden slats which don’t do a very good job at keeping the chilling wind out!<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tXiantha<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tXiantha:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes<\/strong><\/p>The planet name comes from two geographical features situated almost exactly at the North Pole. Collision with some other body many aeons ago created a huge crater here. \u00a0The Xiantha were formed by the up-throwing of molten metals at the point of impact.\u00a0 Traces of instellite were left along Lost Valley.<\/p>
There are two Xianthes \u2013 the Light Xianthe and the Dark Xianthe.\u00a0 These are so called because the Light Xianthe is perpetually in the sun, even though the North Pole does tip slightly with the seasons.\u00a0 The Dark Xianthe is very close to the boundary, and is in full sunlight during the summer, full darkness during the winter, and a variation between the two in spring and autumn.<\/p>
The view from the Xianthes might be something like this, but MUCH, MUCH more:<\/p>
There is very strong magnetism around the two Xianthes, even more than the strong dipole on the whole of the planet. \u00a0The metallic Xianthes have contributed to this, and the whole of the Lost Valley (between the two Xianthes).<\/p>
Because of the metallic nature of the Xianthes, and the difference in temperature always applicable in the area, there are always tremendous electrical storms around both Xianthes.\u00a0 The Light Xianthe, being always in daylight, makes these difficult to see, but the Dark Xianthe, especially in winter, is ideal for visitors.\u00a0 A complex system has been built for the few tourists who come to the planet, and for local visitors.\u00a0 It consists in a series of cages which travel right over the top of the Dark Xianthe, each taking up to ten people at a time.\u00a0 There are six cages, and five stops of ten minutes, plus the entry\/exit stop.\u00a0 The time between stops is just half an hour, so the whole journey takes four hours.\u00a0 The stops are called, in order of arrival; the Long View, Blue Ray Alley, the Summit, Lightning Corner, and the Lost Valley, plus the Ticket office, at the base of the rides.\u00a0<\/p>
This is the image I used for the special edition.<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/grace-in-cage-300x223.jpg\")
<\/p>
The cages are made of metal, so as to act as Faraday cages, but are lined with transparent rexelene, and each stop is built like a large travelling cage, except that they are about twice the size, and equipped with a small rest room and kitchen.\u00a0 Xiantha is not a particularly technologically advanced planet, and the failsafe devices are crude at best, and non-existent at worst.\u00a0 The most impressive sights to see from the cages on the Dark Xianthe are the blue rays, the hanging elves, the sprites and the lightning, which starts just before Blue Ray Alley, but is very much stronger on the Lost Valley side, where the rays of lightning can reach 2 billion volts, and could fry a person instantly.\u00a0 The static you can feel when you are at Lightning Corner makes your hair stand on end, and your skin tingles so much that some people require medication.<\/p>
Geography<\/strong><\/p>Xiantha is divided into two parts; the lowlands and the highlands.\u00a0 The lowlands comprise most of the south of the planet, where the people are rougher, and travel between outposts is much more difficult.\u00a0 The residents here are famous for their rough but vibrant paintings, mostly of the landscape, which are for sale in quantity at the village of Gennai in the south, but also \u00a0the spaceport in the north.\u00a0 The lowlands are series upon series of low hills, with large areas covered by sea, the best known of which is known as the Black Sea.<\/p>
The northern part is known as the highlands, where the terrain is much drier, a steppe of red particulate sand.\u00a0 This is known as the Great Plain on Xiantha.\u00a0 It is a semi-desert area with small shrubs and bushes but no large trees.\u00a0 The Xianthes themselves tower above this section of the planet, reaching over 40 kilometres up in the sky, and the Lost Valley plunges another 120 kilometres down, making an unforgettable sight in the sky.<\/p>
As all the Cian planets, Xiantha is subjected to intense flares from Almagest, which has left nearly all the population infertile.\u00a0 For this reason, they are one of the two main clients for the donor program on Valhai.\u00a0 The safest place on the whole planet is considered to be Eletheia, about 100 km to the south of the Dark Xianthe, where the canth farm is situated.\u00a0 This part of the country is particularly sheltered, due to the higher magnetic fields in the whole area and the shelter of the Xianthes.<\/p>
Magsleds and Canths<\/strong><\/p>Most travel on the planet is by vaniven cart, but there are two other methods.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who have government authority may use what is locally known as the magsleds.\u00a0 These do use the strong magnetic field, but the name is misleading for the main use of the magnetism is for steering rather than for levitation.\u00a0 The magnetic dipole on Xiantha is many, many times stronger than on Earth, but still is insufficient to produce levitation in any large animal or machine.\u00a0 However, the direction of the field lines, and the increase in the field due to the Xianthes does mean that magnetic levitation can be harnessed to these magsleds, making them lighter, and very maneuverable.\u00a0 These sleds contain helium chambers which make them even lighter, and also sport a hover skirt which can be switched on when necessary.\u00a0 Any travel away from the Xianthe area will need the hover capabilities.<\/p>
The canths<\/strong> are equines, rather larger than the Earth horses, which have one particularity.\u00a0 They are very highly considered, and have the peculiarity that when they adopt a rider their lifetime becomes entangled with their riders, which means that each canth will die exactly at the same time as his rider, wherever that rider may be.\u00a0<\/p>The black canths have never adopted anybody \u2013 to date.\u00a0 Riders must pay a large sum of money to open themselves to possible canth adoption, so canths are really rather elitist.\u00a0 The canths must always be returned to the canth farm, where they can breed safely, since they are still a rare species.\u00a0<\/p>
Legend has it that they are the descendents of the lost animas of Xiantha, semi-ethereal beings which local legend has as existing after the collision of the planets.\u00a0 Some of the locals think that the reason that they are such a comfortable ride is that they use a mythical substance, called excanthite, to help them achieve some degree of partial levitation, to some extent \u2018surfing\u2019 the strong magnetic lines around the Xianthes.\u00a0 There is no scientific evidence for this, but it is commonly accepted amongst the Xianthans.<\/p>
The colour system<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthans have a complex system of colour, which is sacred to their way of life.\u00a0 They aim to achieve the most colour possible in their lifetime, moving from monochrome at birth to the most number of colours possible for them.<\/p>
The Xianthans believe that everybody is born colourless, and that you develop colour as you experience life. Some things will give you more colour, and others will take it away from you. It is a personal thing; each person must assess their own progress. The rulers of the planet must be Panchromes – they are the people who have progressed most.<\/p>
- Monochrome<\/li>
- Bichrome<\/li>
- Trichrome<\/li>
- Quadrichrome<\/li>
- Pentachrome<\/li>
- Sexachrome<\/li>
- Septachrome<\/li>
- Octochrome<\/li>
- Nonachrome<\/li>
- Decachrome<\/li>
- Multichrome<\/li>
- Plurichrome<\/li>
- Panchrome<\/li><\/ul>
- Exachrome*<\/li><\/ul>
*The man who speaks to canths has a theory that there are one or more higher classes, which the visitor and Arcan belong to.\u00a0 He calls these postulated colours Exachromes.<\/p>
Those who attain panchromatic status become the rulers of the planet. \u00a0Since about 1 in 10,000 people achieve panchrome status, at any one time there can be around 500 panchromes all over the planet, in contact by tridiscreens supplied by the Sellites.<\/p>
They also change their names throughout their lives, and are generally known by the thing which most defines them at that particular moment. So a Xianthan may introduce himself first by his job title, and then by his current name.\u00a0 This may or may not be linked to his job, but will always reflect things that he is most proud of.<\/p>
Population and details<\/strong><\/p>The whole population of the planet is down to 5 million people now, so Xiantha is a sparsely populated planet, where most of the dwellings are wooden-built bungalows, each set in a small area that their owners tend exclusively.\u00a0 There is no private land on the planet, but residents are very respectful of their neighbours\u2019 areas and would never dream of arguing about boundaries because this would lose colour.\u00a0<\/p>
The most heavily populated area is around Eletheia, where the donor headquarters is situated.\u00a0 Eletheia has a population of over 5000, which on Xianthan terms is huge.\u00a0 It boasts an auditorium, which is where all of the major meetings on the planet are held.\u00a0 Although all panchromes are equal, by tradition those closest to Eletheia are the ones who deal with other planets. The donor HQ, with its small adjacent hospital, is only 30 kilometres to the south of the town, and the canth farm about 10 kilometres to the north.\u00a0<\/p>
The spaceport which services all of Xiantha is close too \u2013 around 15 miles to the east.\u00a0 There are no roads on all Xiantha. For this reason there are only vaniven carts at the spaceport, although the government sends magsleds for the most important visitors, and there is a mag-sled inclusive package for those visiting the Dark Xianthe.<\/p>
There are no peace-keeping forces on Xiantha, and no prison system.\u00a0 Thieves are punished by no longer \u2018seeing\u2019 them.\u00a0
Xiantha is the only place in the system where \u2018shops\u2019 have flourished.\u00a0 These provide the colourful Xianthan robes which indicate the level of colour their owners have reached.\u00a0 Others purvey the famous paintings of the southern highlanders.\u00a0 These shops are mostly to be found around the spaceport area, although all major towns will boast one or two.\u00a0 There are also things called \u2018restaurants\u2019 on the planet.\u00a0 These are very few and far between, the most famous being that of the Emerald Lake, which is considered to be one of the eight magnificents.<\/p>
The Eight Magnificents<\/strong><\/p>One of the eight things all Xianthans should try to visit before they die.\u00a0<\/p>
One is the Restaurant on the Emerald Lake.<\/p>
The others are:\u00a0<\/p>
the dark Xianthe,<\/p>
the bottomless pool in the lost valley,<\/p>
the light Xianthe,<\/p>
the Black Sea (home of the legendary ten-legged decipus) in the lowlands,<\/p>
the Village of Gennaia, also in the South \u2013 famous for its painters,<\/p>
Mount Kalatheia,<\/p>
and the lost animas.\u00a0<\/p>
Of course, no-one has seen an anima for generations, which is why they are classified as lost, so it became impossible to complete the eight magnificent many generations ago.\u00a0 No loss in colour is involved now if the devout successfully visit seven of these, and any sighting of a canth, being a highly protected species, is accepted. \u00a0<\/p>
The lowlanders, who live in the southern continent, are expected to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetimes to give themselves the chance of seeing the magnificents in the north, and the northern Xianthans make the journey south to visit the Black Sea, and try to spot a ten-legged decipus.\u00a0 Just as the canths are considered an acceptable substitute for the lost animas, the Black Sea is considered to be acceptable instead of the ten-legged decipus, which can still be spotted, but is very hard to see.\u00a0<\/p>
The largest Southern city is known as Kalathelassa, and many of the lowlanders sell their paintings or their garments in small shops there.\u00a0 Others offer special trips onto the Black Sea in search of the decipus.\u00a0<\/p>
\u00a0 Some low colour Xianthans may try to convince visitors to the south that they can take them to see the famous sabre-toothed tiger, but in reality these have been extinct for many centuries.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes themselves are taken originally from Miranda, which has smaller, but similar “mountains” reaching up into the sky. The sprites and elves exist here on earth, as you can see here<\/a>:<\/p>I try to make all of my settings possible, and as soon as I saw the photo of Miranda (courtesy wikipedia):<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/miranda-xianthes-298x300.jpg\")
<\/p>
knew that I would have to use the idea of a gigantic swathe of land carved upwards and outwards. As soon as that idea fitted into the books, the story of the trip around one of the Xianthes pushed its way into the storyline too. I didn’t really have much say in the matter!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPictoria<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/h5>
The scenery on Pictoria is based loosely on some of the North American landscape, especially Arizona. I used Antelope Canyon for the original idea, although the ridges of Pictoria are north to south, and have much better defined steps cut into them by the wind. I would love to visit Arizona and the Navajo territory to see the landscape for myself, but that seems unlikely, since I live in Europe. It takes me all my time to fly back to England a couple of times a year, and that is only 2 hours by plane! The buttes on Pictoria are also based on US terrain, basically the sandstone buttes in Monument valley<\/a> in Utah. These I have seen personally, if only from the windows of a Greyhound bus!<\/p>The idea of the wind which arrives each day as the sun goes down is mine, though they are loosely based on the katabarics of the Antarctic<\/a>.<\/p>The avifauna were based on a find in China of fossils which showed a similar type of morphology, although much smaller. More about that from “An\u00a0Archaeopteryx-<\/em>like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae” by Xing Xu, Hailu You, Kai Du and Fenglu Han. Also from here<\/a><\/p>Of course, the avifauna are much much bigger and very much more impressive. Their gliding capacities are good, and they are more on the noble side. All the same, they still would make you wonder if they were birds or dinosaurs.<\/p>
Pictoria is a rocky, red planet in the Pictoris system. Pictoria is in orbit around an orange dwarf star, together with a purple gas giant. It has a breathable atmosphere. It suffers from hurricane winds each night, and these only run from pole to pole. There is no warning when they arrive; they simply hit with great force when the sun is setting. Centuries of these winds have sculpted the terrain, until it is now made of a series of ridges running from north to south, with occasional moles of rock, known as buttes, which rise out of the surface. Around the buttes, the surface of the planet is honeycombed with potholes, which lead down into subterranean caverns.<\/p>
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gillianandrews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Six-and-Ledin-about-to-fall-on-Pictoria-300x208.jpg\")
<\/p>
These caverns are home to the ortholiquid, a quantum substance which needs sunlight. It can travel instantaneously to any place it becomes aware of, and in order to maintain its status quo in a changing landscape, has developed a symbiosis with the avians which live on the planet. When the avians die, they are absorbed by the ortholiquid, and become amorphs: small creatures which retain the memory of the avians, but can travel by quantum decoherence. This enables the ortholiquid to find the sunlight, and so regenerate. The amorphs can live for thousands, indeed, millions of years. It is not known how old the ortholiquid is.<\/p>
The avians, or avifauna, are the principal lifeforms on the planet. They are dinosaurs, with some characteristics of birds. They have four wings, two large ones at the front, and two smaller ones from the back legs, which act as ailerons and stabilizers. Even so, they have not yet learnt, or are unable, to fly properly. They use their wings to glide for large distances, but need a small rise to be able to take off.<\/p>
At night the avifauna shelter at the top of the buttes, which have developed domed roofs with many columned windows due to wind sculpting and help from the avifauna themselves. They are safe here, and there is water too, which condenses from the domed roofs.The avifauna eat small mammals and insects, and hunt down in the caverns and the potholes surrounding the buttes. The potholes are home to many species of huge spiders, scorpions, and particularly savage bats which can grow to a substantial size.<\/p>
Pictoria is a retrograde planet: it spins counterclockwise. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Because of the ridges which run from north to south it looks strange from the sky; long lines which represent the ridges, interspersed with clumps around the buttes where the surface of the planet is pockmarked with the entrances to the caverns. From above, it looks like a print of temaris trees. Between the ridges are small valleys, just big enough to land a shuttle.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites appear in Kwaide, although they are not really explained properly until Pictoria. The idea of distilling only a few cells, and then sending them, and not a complete entity on a space exploration, makes a lot of sense. The cells are left dormant, almost needing no maintenance, until they are needed when the small spaceship reaches its destination. Because the cells need so little maintenance, the ships can be much smaller and lighter. And because of that, they can travel faster, which means that time passes that much quicker for the visitor cells.<\/p>
They are a mainly aquatic species, which has natural floating islands formed by an abundance of carbon nanographite in the rock, which is in any case very light and porous.\u00a0 Because of this, the islands float. \u00a0Although most of the Dessites remain in the water, they use some of the islands to build and control their very advanced space program, as central government headquarters, as a base fro their cryolization process, and to synthesize nutrients.\u00a0 The islands are joined by loose tubes of flowing water.\u00a0 The most important Dessites use these to get quickly from one to the other.\u00a0<\/p>
They can exist out of the water for long periods on Dessia, because of its extremely humid, wet climate.\u00a0 They breathe through their skin, which is layered out of their bodies in over 50 membranes which ripple all the time.<\/p>
They only communicate with each other by quantum non-locality, and have developed no ears or mouth.\u00a0 They feed through their skin, by filtering out tiny plankton-like organisms from the sea.<\/p>
They have large eyes, with many creases around them.\u00a0 The age of the Dessite can be estimated by the number of creases around the eyes.\u00a0 They have no hands or feet, although there is a small bump in the membranes about half-way up, and another at the base of the animal.\u00a0 They use these as hands and feet, respectively, when on land.\u00a0 In the sea, the membranes are also used for propulsion. When they are attacked, their membranes stick out at right angles from their bodies, and a fine spray of toxin is diffused into the water.\u00a0 This is one of their natural defense mechanisms.\u00a0 They breed by detaching a bud and anchoring it to the sea floor.<\/p>
They cannot see in the lower wavelengths, having developed their eyesight for underwater sight.\u00a0 In fact, they can\u2019t really see anything if it is red.\u00a0 If altered Titanium Oxide is released into the water near them, they are effectively blinded to anyone behind it.<\/p>
They are very large, from almost half as tall again as Grace to well over twice her height, and much stronger than, say, the Kwaidians.<\/p>
There are 552 billion Dessites living on Dessia when they attack Pictoria. They are horribly overpopulated, because they have nearly reached an unsustainable population.\u00a0 This is not immediately obvious, because they are ocean dwellers, can exist down to quite some depth comfortably, and move in large groups, so there is still quite a lot of empty ocean.\u00a0 However, the plankton situation is desperate.\u00a0 They have reached a population explosion of around 4% per year, which means that their population is increasing by around 25 billion per year, augmenting, This is why they are searching desperately for other planets.\u00a0 There is currently no system of control of budding in place, although Exemphendiss tried to legislate for it many centuries ago.<\/p>
The areas around the floating islands are no-go areas for the vast majority of the Dessite population.\u00a0 They are not allowed to swim within 200 cubits of the landmasses, under penalty of no reproduction.\u00a0 This is one of the most severe penalties on Dessia, for their own species.\u00a0 However, they are relentless as far as other species go, having exterminated systematically any natural enemies, and therefore caused the extinction of practically all other species.\u00a0 They have to seed the ocean now, to have enough plankton-like organisms to survive, and there are many islands dedicated to this.\u00a0 These are called the islands of repletion, and this is the main reason why Dessites must not go within 200 cubits of the islands, since otherwise the extra nutrients would not dissipate around the planet.<\/p>
They have been space explorers for over 10,000 years.\u00a0 They send sent small spaceships on long journeys to try to find higher life forms.\u00a0 Their real aim has always been to appropriate quantum decoherence so that they can repopulate in other worlds.\u00a0 In order to receive accurate data back they have developed the travelers, small wisps of brain matter \u2013 neurons \u2013 which are Dessite in nature, but artificially grown.\u00a0 These neurons are sent with the ships in stasis in a nutrient tank, which is activated when the ships reach a few light years of their destination.\u00a0 If the travelers do anything wrong they are punished \u2013 which usually consists of being blown up with their ships.\u00a0 The Dessites do not consider the travelers as living beings with rights.<\/p>
They cryolize their most famous leaders, which means to keep them in storage.\u00a0 The twelve members of the council of guardians are entitled to this, although only the prime \u2013 the tallest of the tall – will automatically get it.\u00a0 When cryolized, they are kept in crovats on the Island of the Enjoined.\u00a0 The best situation is north-south orientation. Originally prisoners were cryolized as a way to get rid of them, but now they are destroyed and their remnant proteins returned to the sea.\u00a0 Some of the original travelers were taken from these prisoners, which explains the origin of the visitor from Exemphendiss.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlakisa and the Void<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
Planets and people in the binary system<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\tFAQs on facts<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValhai<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tValhai is tidally locked, which means that there is one sunny side, and one dark side.\u00a0 Sell is built just close to the dividing line, in the twilight zone.\u00a0 Valhai has winds of 5 metres per second on the sunny side, and Ice on the dark side, especially near the pole. It has a bluish purplish moonlight all day, and the stars can be seen all the time too.\u00a0 When Sacras is visible there are longer shadows and the light is yellower.\u00a0 There is only a very thin atmosphere, not enough to be breathable, which sometimes creates thin clouds that can barely be detected.\u00a0 When Sacras is in conjuction it is nearly as big and bright as the full moon on earth.
The two binary stars approach each other closely every forty years.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Sells aren’t really a race at all. They used to live on Cesis, one of the planets in orbit around Almagest, so they were originally Cesans. There, they were workers in the Sellite Corporation. The Sellite Corportation gradually began to be very successful, ploughed all of the money it made into research, made some fortunate discoveries and inventions, and little by little found themselves as the technological leaders of their system.<\/p>
It took them some time, but then the heads of the Sellite Corporation realized that they were the virtual leaders. They began to implement very restrictive policies to make sure that their hard-won technology would stay a secret to the rest of the system, and grew steadily richer and richer.<\/p>
<\/p>
The above picture is the first ever formulation of Valhai!\u00a0 You can see the Orthogel liquid to the right and the skyrises at the back.\u00a0 The very first step!<\/p>
After some hundreds of years, they decided that they would be even safer if they could move to a different planet entirely. They came to an agreement for the rental of Valhai with the rest of the binary system, and moved their entire corporation to Valhai. They pay each year in minerals, which they mine mainly from the asteroids in orbit with Valhai around Almagest. They also developed several lucrative sidelines, of which the donor program is one.<\/p>
That was 50 generations ago, at the time of the First Valhai Votation. Nothing much has changed since then: The Sellites have continued to get richer and richer, and the rest of the system has let them. They have no competitors, and have really evolved into a different race. They speak a language completely limited to Sell, and no Non-Sellite is allowed to speak it, on pain of death.<\/p>
<\/p>
The rough sketch above represents the base of a Sellite skyrise. The Sellites have become the merchants of the system: they own the only spaceships, they are the only traders between the planets in the system. Little by little they have separated from the other inhabitants, living as they do in walled-in luxury on Valhai. The other inhabitants of the system have begun to look upon them as some sort of superior being, especially on the Almagest planets, where flares from the red dwarf star have caused havoc. Unfortunately the Sellites believe themselves superior too!<\/p>
<\/p>
The above quick sketch is the layout of each of the floors of a Sellite skyrise. As far as the economics of the Sellites are concerned one example will show just how rich they have become. When they signed the rental agreement for Valhai payment was in platinum. They had to deliver to each of the other planets in the binary system a certain amount of platinum per year. When Grace was trying to find out more about the donor program she discovered just how lucrative it is.<\/p>
The sale of one donor\u00b4s genetic material could be offset against two whole years of platinum quota, which in effect meant that the Sellites had the use of Valhai free for the cost of half a donor per year. Since the payment to the Sacran worlds, much more backward, was in the region of an eighth of a year’s quota per donor, the profit was enormous. No wonder the 256th house was one of the most highly considered amongst the operating houses! The donor program had saved Sell over 250 years of platinum quota . . . approximately an eighth of the total payable. In addition, all the genetic material was analysed and a certain amount was retained on Valhai for research purposes. A spin-off of the donor program run by the 256th house was the off-world genetic manipulation program run by the 45th hourse, which based all of its profit on the same genetic program and generated a quota saving of another tenth. In conjuntion they saved the Sells a quarter of the cost of the planet! And they freed up the mining families so they could concentrate on the higher metals instead of platinum, the agreed currency all those centuries ago.<\/p>
Grace found out that a quarter of the mining efforts were now aimed at the very rare metals, such as Rhodium and Palladium. One weight of Rhodium was equivalent to twenty-five of Platinum. Since platinum was still available on the Cian planets themselves, both Xiantha and Cesis were more than happy to exchange quotas. Adding all this together, she discovered that the Sellites had a whole planet for themselves for a total output of only about two-hundred tons mined per year. Since mining the two moons of Valhai was relatively easy that took them only two months per year. Everything else was profit, and as such divided equally between the five hundred families, after expenses were deducted and investment programs funded.<\/p>
No wonder the Sellites felt superior to the rest of the inhabitants of the binary system!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/strong><\/p>Wheras Coriolis is lush and green and warm and filled with abundant plant and animal life, Kwaide is just that much further away from its sun to make it cold, inhospitable, barren and uncomfortable. It is renowned for its icy cold winds, which they say can kill a person.<\/p>
The Elders live in the flatlands, around the centre and south of the planet, and they banish the untouchables they have no use for to the uninhabitable zone, to the north of the planet. This is an area dominated by jagged mountains always capped in ice, peaks where blizzards are so common that even the endemic warthogs cannot venture up them. Some of the waterfalls are so rich in deposits that they petrify anything left hanging in them for a long time.<\/p>
The main Elder city is Benefice, where millions of people live on top of each other, and in generally squalid conditions, which has resulted in the effluent conduits, no-go areas where many no-names work and die.<\/p>
Although water is plentiful in the north, not much else is. Eking out a living there is a gruelling task, taking all day every day. Six should know. It is what he had to do for years as he tried to protect his sisters.<\/p>
The only assets that Kwaide has is its abundant deposits of rexelene, which is used all over the system. It is mined mainly around the city of Rexel, although there are other deposits on the planet. The Elders had imported huge juggernauts to move the rexelene to the space port, where the Sellites took charge of it for exportation.<\/p>
The very northern part of Kwaide is where the characters in this book set up camp. They have no materials to build any complicated dwellings so the main cabins are made of wooden slats which don’t do a very good job at keeping the chilling wind out!<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tXiantha<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tXiantha:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes<\/strong><\/p>The planet name comes from two geographical features situated almost exactly at the North Pole. Collision with some other body many aeons ago created a huge crater here. \u00a0The Xiantha were formed by the up-throwing of molten metals at the point of impact.\u00a0 Traces of instellite were left along Lost Valley.<\/p>
There are two Xianthes \u2013 the Light Xianthe and the Dark Xianthe.\u00a0 These are so called because the Light Xianthe is perpetually in the sun, even though the North Pole does tip slightly with the seasons.\u00a0 The Dark Xianthe is very close to the boundary, and is in full sunlight during the summer, full darkness during the winter, and a variation between the two in spring and autumn.<\/p>
The view from the Xianthes might be something like this, but MUCH, MUCH more:<\/p>
There is very strong magnetism around the two Xianthes, even more than the strong dipole on the whole of the planet. \u00a0The metallic Xianthes have contributed to this, and the whole of the Lost Valley (between the two Xianthes).<\/p>
Because of the metallic nature of the Xianthes, and the difference in temperature always applicable in the area, there are always tremendous electrical storms around both Xianthes.\u00a0 The Light Xianthe, being always in daylight, makes these difficult to see, but the Dark Xianthe, especially in winter, is ideal for visitors.\u00a0 A complex system has been built for the few tourists who come to the planet, and for local visitors.\u00a0 It consists in a series of cages which travel right over the top of the Dark Xianthe, each taking up to ten people at a time.\u00a0 There are six cages, and five stops of ten minutes, plus the entry\/exit stop.\u00a0 The time between stops is just half an hour, so the whole journey takes four hours.\u00a0 The stops are called, in order of arrival; the Long View, Blue Ray Alley, the Summit, Lightning Corner, and the Lost Valley, plus the Ticket office, at the base of the rides.\u00a0<\/p>
This is the image I used for the special edition.<\/p>
<\/p>
The cages are made of metal, so as to act as Faraday cages, but are lined with transparent rexelene, and each stop is built like a large travelling cage, except that they are about twice the size, and equipped with a small rest room and kitchen.\u00a0 Xiantha is not a particularly technologically advanced planet, and the failsafe devices are crude at best, and non-existent at worst.\u00a0 The most impressive sights to see from the cages on the Dark Xianthe are the blue rays, the hanging elves, the sprites and the lightning, which starts just before Blue Ray Alley, but is very much stronger on the Lost Valley side, where the rays of lightning can reach 2 billion volts, and could fry a person instantly.\u00a0 The static you can feel when you are at Lightning Corner makes your hair stand on end, and your skin tingles so much that some people require medication.<\/p>
Geography<\/strong><\/p>Xiantha is divided into two parts; the lowlands and the highlands.\u00a0 The lowlands comprise most of the south of the planet, where the people are rougher, and travel between outposts is much more difficult.\u00a0 The residents here are famous for their rough but vibrant paintings, mostly of the landscape, which are for sale in quantity at the village of Gennai in the south, but also \u00a0the spaceport in the north.\u00a0 The lowlands are series upon series of low hills, with large areas covered by sea, the best known of which is known as the Black Sea.<\/p>
The northern part is known as the highlands, where the terrain is much drier, a steppe of red particulate sand.\u00a0 This is known as the Great Plain on Xiantha.\u00a0 It is a semi-desert area with small shrubs and bushes but no large trees.\u00a0 The Xianthes themselves tower above this section of the planet, reaching over 40 kilometres up in the sky, and the Lost Valley plunges another 120 kilometres down, making an unforgettable sight in the sky.<\/p>
As all the Cian planets, Xiantha is subjected to intense flares from Almagest, which has left nearly all the population infertile.\u00a0 For this reason, they are one of the two main clients for the donor program on Valhai.\u00a0 The safest place on the whole planet is considered to be Eletheia, about 100 km to the south of the Dark Xianthe, where the canth farm is situated.\u00a0 This part of the country is particularly sheltered, due to the higher magnetic fields in the whole area and the shelter of the Xianthes.<\/p>
Magsleds and Canths<\/strong><\/p>Most travel on the planet is by vaniven cart, but there are two other methods.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who have government authority may use what is locally known as the magsleds.\u00a0 These do use the strong magnetic field, but the name is misleading for the main use of the magnetism is for steering rather than for levitation.\u00a0 The magnetic dipole on Xiantha is many, many times stronger than on Earth, but still is insufficient to produce levitation in any large animal or machine.\u00a0 However, the direction of the field lines, and the increase in the field due to the Xianthes does mean that magnetic levitation can be harnessed to these magsleds, making them lighter, and very maneuverable.\u00a0 These sleds contain helium chambers which make them even lighter, and also sport a hover skirt which can be switched on when necessary.\u00a0 Any travel away from the Xianthe area will need the hover capabilities.<\/p>
The canths<\/strong> are equines, rather larger than the Earth horses, which have one particularity.\u00a0 They are very highly considered, and have the peculiarity that when they adopt a rider their lifetime becomes entangled with their riders, which means that each canth will die exactly at the same time as his rider, wherever that rider may be.\u00a0<\/p>The black canths have never adopted anybody \u2013 to date.\u00a0 Riders must pay a large sum of money to open themselves to possible canth adoption, so canths are really rather elitist.\u00a0 The canths must always be returned to the canth farm, where they can breed safely, since they are still a rare species.\u00a0<\/p>
Legend has it that they are the descendents of the lost animas of Xiantha, semi-ethereal beings which local legend has as existing after the collision of the planets.\u00a0 Some of the locals think that the reason that they are such a comfortable ride is that they use a mythical substance, called excanthite, to help them achieve some degree of partial levitation, to some extent \u2018surfing\u2019 the strong magnetic lines around the Xianthes.\u00a0 There is no scientific evidence for this, but it is commonly accepted amongst the Xianthans.<\/p>
The colour system<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthans have a complex system of colour, which is sacred to their way of life.\u00a0 They aim to achieve the most colour possible in their lifetime, moving from monochrome at birth to the most number of colours possible for them.<\/p>
The Xianthans believe that everybody is born colourless, and that you develop colour as you experience life. Some things will give you more colour, and others will take it away from you. It is a personal thing; each person must assess their own progress. The rulers of the planet must be Panchromes – they are the people who have progressed most.<\/p>
- Monochrome<\/li>
- Bichrome<\/li>
- Trichrome<\/li>
- Quadrichrome<\/li>
- Pentachrome<\/li>
- Sexachrome<\/li>
- Septachrome<\/li>
- Octochrome<\/li>
- Nonachrome<\/li>
- Decachrome<\/li>
- Multichrome<\/li>
- Plurichrome<\/li>
- Panchrome<\/li><\/ul>
- Exachrome*<\/li><\/ul>
*The man who speaks to canths has a theory that there are one or more higher classes, which the visitor and Arcan belong to.\u00a0 He calls these postulated colours Exachromes.<\/p>
Those who attain panchromatic status become the rulers of the planet. \u00a0Since about 1 in 10,000 people achieve panchrome status, at any one time there can be around 500 panchromes all over the planet, in contact by tridiscreens supplied by the Sellites.<\/p>
They also change their names throughout their lives, and are generally known by the thing which most defines them at that particular moment. So a Xianthan may introduce himself first by his job title, and then by his current name.\u00a0 This may or may not be linked to his job, but will always reflect things that he is most proud of.<\/p>
Population and details<\/strong><\/p>The whole population of the planet is down to 5 million people now, so Xiantha is a sparsely populated planet, where most of the dwellings are wooden-built bungalows, each set in a small area that their owners tend exclusively.\u00a0 There is no private land on the planet, but residents are very respectful of their neighbours\u2019 areas and would never dream of arguing about boundaries because this would lose colour.\u00a0<\/p>
The most heavily populated area is around Eletheia, where the donor headquarters is situated.\u00a0 Eletheia has a population of over 5000, which on Xianthan terms is huge.\u00a0 It boasts an auditorium, which is where all of the major meetings on the planet are held.\u00a0 Although all panchromes are equal, by tradition those closest to Eletheia are the ones who deal with other planets. The donor HQ, with its small adjacent hospital, is only 30 kilometres to the south of the town, and the canth farm about 10 kilometres to the north.\u00a0<\/p>
The spaceport which services all of Xiantha is close too \u2013 around 15 miles to the east.\u00a0 There are no roads on all Xiantha. For this reason there are only vaniven carts at the spaceport, although the government sends magsleds for the most important visitors, and there is a mag-sled inclusive package for those visiting the Dark Xianthe.<\/p>
There are no peace-keeping forces on Xiantha, and no prison system.\u00a0 Thieves are punished by no longer \u2018seeing\u2019 them.\u00a0
Xiantha is the only place in the system where \u2018shops\u2019 have flourished.\u00a0 These provide the colourful Xianthan robes which indicate the level of colour their owners have reached.\u00a0 Others purvey the famous paintings of the southern highlanders.\u00a0 These shops are mostly to be found around the spaceport area, although all major towns will boast one or two.\u00a0 There are also things called \u2018restaurants\u2019 on the planet.\u00a0 These are very few and far between, the most famous being that of the Emerald Lake, which is considered to be one of the eight magnificents.<\/p>
The Eight Magnificents<\/strong><\/p>One of the eight things all Xianthans should try to visit before they die.\u00a0<\/p>
One is the Restaurant on the Emerald Lake.<\/p>
The others are:\u00a0<\/p>
the dark Xianthe,<\/p>
the bottomless pool in the lost valley,<\/p>
the light Xianthe,<\/p>
the Black Sea (home of the legendary ten-legged decipus) in the lowlands,<\/p>
the Village of Gennaia, also in the South \u2013 famous for its painters,<\/p>
Mount Kalatheia,<\/p>
and the lost animas.\u00a0<\/p>
Of course, no-one has seen an anima for generations, which is why they are classified as lost, so it became impossible to complete the eight magnificent many generations ago.\u00a0 No loss in colour is involved now if the devout successfully visit seven of these, and any sighting of a canth, being a highly protected species, is accepted. \u00a0<\/p>
The lowlanders, who live in the southern continent, are expected to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetimes to give themselves the chance of seeing the magnificents in the north, and the northern Xianthans make the journey south to visit the Black Sea, and try to spot a ten-legged decipus.\u00a0 Just as the canths are considered an acceptable substitute for the lost animas, the Black Sea is considered to be acceptable instead of the ten-legged decipus, which can still be spotted, but is very hard to see.\u00a0<\/p>
The largest Southern city is known as Kalathelassa, and many of the lowlanders sell their paintings or their garments in small shops there.\u00a0 Others offer special trips onto the Black Sea in search of the decipus.\u00a0<\/p>
\u00a0 Some low colour Xianthans may try to convince visitors to the south that they can take them to see the famous sabre-toothed tiger, but in reality these have been extinct for many centuries.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes themselves are taken originally from Miranda, which has smaller, but similar “mountains” reaching up into the sky. The sprites and elves exist here on earth, as you can see here<\/a>:<\/p>I try to make all of my settings possible, and as soon as I saw the photo of Miranda (courtesy wikipedia):<\/p>
<\/p>
knew that I would have to use the idea of a gigantic swathe of land carved upwards and outwards. As soon as that idea fitted into the books, the story of the trip around one of the Xianthes pushed its way into the storyline too. I didn’t really have much say in the matter!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPictoria<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/h5>
The scenery on Pictoria is based loosely on some of the North American landscape, especially Arizona. I used Antelope Canyon for the original idea, although the ridges of Pictoria are north to south, and have much better defined steps cut into them by the wind. I would love to visit Arizona and the Navajo territory to see the landscape for myself, but that seems unlikely, since I live in Europe. It takes me all my time to fly back to England a couple of times a year, and that is only 2 hours by plane! The buttes on Pictoria are also based on US terrain, basically the sandstone buttes in Monument valley<\/a> in Utah. These I have seen personally, if only from the windows of a Greyhound bus!<\/p>The idea of the wind which arrives each day as the sun goes down is mine, though they are loosely based on the katabarics of the Antarctic<\/a>.<\/p>The avifauna were based on a find in China of fossils which showed a similar type of morphology, although much smaller. More about that from “An\u00a0Archaeopteryx-<\/em>like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae” by Xing Xu, Hailu You, Kai Du and Fenglu Han. Also from here<\/a><\/p>Of course, the avifauna are much much bigger and very much more impressive. Their gliding capacities are good, and they are more on the noble side. All the same, they still would make you wonder if they were birds or dinosaurs.<\/p>
Pictoria is a rocky, red planet in the Pictoris system. Pictoria is in orbit around an orange dwarf star, together with a purple gas giant. It has a breathable atmosphere. It suffers from hurricane winds each night, and these only run from pole to pole. There is no warning when they arrive; they simply hit with great force when the sun is setting. Centuries of these winds have sculpted the terrain, until it is now made of a series of ridges running from north to south, with occasional moles of rock, known as buttes, which rise out of the surface. Around the buttes, the surface of the planet is honeycombed with potholes, which lead down into subterranean caverns.<\/p>
<\/p>
These caverns are home to the ortholiquid, a quantum substance which needs sunlight. It can travel instantaneously to any place it becomes aware of, and in order to maintain its status quo in a changing landscape, has developed a symbiosis with the avians which live on the planet. When the avians die, they are absorbed by the ortholiquid, and become amorphs: small creatures which retain the memory of the avians, but can travel by quantum decoherence. This enables the ortholiquid to find the sunlight, and so regenerate. The amorphs can live for thousands, indeed, millions of years. It is not known how old the ortholiquid is.<\/p>
The avians, or avifauna, are the principal lifeforms on the planet. They are dinosaurs, with some characteristics of birds. They have four wings, two large ones at the front, and two smaller ones from the back legs, which act as ailerons and stabilizers. Even so, they have not yet learnt, or are unable, to fly properly. They use their wings to glide for large distances, but need a small rise to be able to take off.<\/p>
At night the avifauna shelter at the top of the buttes, which have developed domed roofs with many columned windows due to wind sculpting and help from the avifauna themselves. They are safe here, and there is water too, which condenses from the domed roofs.The avifauna eat small mammals and insects, and hunt down in the caverns and the potholes surrounding the buttes. The potholes are home to many species of huge spiders, scorpions, and particularly savage bats which can grow to a substantial size.<\/p>
Pictoria is a retrograde planet: it spins counterclockwise. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Because of the ridges which run from north to south it looks strange from the sky; long lines which represent the ridges, interspersed with clumps around the buttes where the surface of the planet is pockmarked with the entrances to the caverns. From above, it looks like a print of temaris trees. Between the ridges are small valleys, just big enough to land a shuttle.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites appear in Kwaide, although they are not really explained properly until Pictoria. The idea of distilling only a few cells, and then sending them, and not a complete entity on a space exploration, makes a lot of sense. The cells are left dormant, almost needing no maintenance, until they are needed when the small spaceship reaches its destination. Because the cells need so little maintenance, the ships can be much smaller and lighter. And because of that, they can travel faster, which means that time passes that much quicker for the visitor cells.<\/p>
They are a mainly aquatic species, which has natural floating islands formed by an abundance of carbon nanographite in the rock, which is in any case very light and porous.\u00a0 Because of this, the islands float. \u00a0Although most of the Dessites remain in the water, they use some of the islands to build and control their very advanced space program, as central government headquarters, as a base fro their cryolization process, and to synthesize nutrients.\u00a0 The islands are joined by loose tubes of flowing water.\u00a0 The most important Dessites use these to get quickly from one to the other.\u00a0<\/p>
They can exist out of the water for long periods on Dessia, because of its extremely humid, wet climate.\u00a0 They breathe through their skin, which is layered out of their bodies in over 50 membranes which ripple all the time.<\/p>
They only communicate with each other by quantum non-locality, and have developed no ears or mouth.\u00a0 They feed through their skin, by filtering out tiny plankton-like organisms from the sea.<\/p>
They have large eyes, with many creases around them.\u00a0 The age of the Dessite can be estimated by the number of creases around the eyes.\u00a0 They have no hands or feet, although there is a small bump in the membranes about half-way up, and another at the base of the animal.\u00a0 They use these as hands and feet, respectively, when on land.\u00a0 In the sea, the membranes are also used for propulsion. When they are attacked, their membranes stick out at right angles from their bodies, and a fine spray of toxin is diffused into the water.\u00a0 This is one of their natural defense mechanisms.\u00a0 They breed by detaching a bud and anchoring it to the sea floor.<\/p>
They cannot see in the lower wavelengths, having developed their eyesight for underwater sight.\u00a0 In fact, they can\u2019t really see anything if it is red.\u00a0 If altered Titanium Oxide is released into the water near them, they are effectively blinded to anyone behind it.<\/p>
They are very large, from almost half as tall again as Grace to well over twice her height, and much stronger than, say, the Kwaidians.<\/p>
There are 552 billion Dessites living on Dessia when they attack Pictoria. They are horribly overpopulated, because they have nearly reached an unsustainable population.\u00a0 This is not immediately obvious, because they are ocean dwellers, can exist down to quite some depth comfortably, and move in large groups, so there is still quite a lot of empty ocean.\u00a0 However, the plankton situation is desperate.\u00a0 They have reached a population explosion of around 4% per year, which means that their population is increasing by around 25 billion per year, augmenting, This is why they are searching desperately for other planets.\u00a0 There is currently no system of control of budding in place, although Exemphendiss tried to legislate for it many centuries ago.<\/p>
The areas around the floating islands are no-go areas for the vast majority of the Dessite population.\u00a0 They are not allowed to swim within 200 cubits of the landmasses, under penalty of no reproduction.\u00a0 This is one of the most severe penalties on Dessia, for their own species.\u00a0 However, they are relentless as far as other species go, having exterminated systematically any natural enemies, and therefore caused the extinction of practically all other species.\u00a0 They have to seed the ocean now, to have enough plankton-like organisms to survive, and there are many islands dedicated to this.\u00a0 These are called the islands of repletion, and this is the main reason why Dessites must not go within 200 cubits of the islands, since otherwise the extra nutrients would not dissipate around the planet.<\/p>
They have been space explorers for over 10,000 years.\u00a0 They send sent small spaceships on long journeys to try to find higher life forms.\u00a0 Their real aim has always been to appropriate quantum decoherence so that they can repopulate in other worlds.\u00a0 In order to receive accurate data back they have developed the travelers, small wisps of brain matter \u2013 neurons \u2013 which are Dessite in nature, but artificially grown.\u00a0 These neurons are sent with the ships in stasis in a nutrient tank, which is activated when the ships reach a few light years of their destination.\u00a0 If the travelers do anything wrong they are punished \u2013 which usually consists of being blown up with their ships.\u00a0 The Dessites do not consider the travelers as living beings with rights.<\/p>
They cryolize their most famous leaders, which means to keep them in storage.\u00a0 The twelve members of the council of guardians are entitled to this, although only the prime \u2013 the tallest of the tall – will automatically get it.\u00a0 When cryolized, they are kept in crovats on the Island of the Enjoined.\u00a0 The best situation is north-south orientation. Originally prisoners were cryolized as a way to get rid of them, but now they are destroyed and their remnant proteins returned to the sea.\u00a0 Some of the original travelers were taken from these prisoners, which explains the origin of the visitor from Exemphendiss.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlakisa and the Void<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
FAQs on facts<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tValhai<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tValhai is tidally locked, which means that there is one sunny side, and one dark side.\u00a0 Sell is built just close to the dividing line, in the twilight zone.\u00a0 Valhai has winds of 5 metres per second on the sunny side, and Ice on the dark side, especially near the pole. It has a bluish purplish moonlight all day, and the stars can be seen all the time too.\u00a0 When Sacras is visible there are longer shadows and the light is yellower.\u00a0 There is only a very thin atmosphere, not enough to be breathable, which sometimes creates thin clouds that can barely be detected.\u00a0 When Sacras is in conjuction it is nearly as big and bright as the full moon on earth.
The two binary stars approach each other closely every forty years.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Sells aren’t really a race at all. They used to live on Cesis, one of the planets in orbit around Almagest, so they were originally Cesans. There, they were workers in the Sellite Corporation. The Sellite Corportation gradually began to be very successful, ploughed all of the money it made into research, made some fortunate discoveries and inventions, and little by little found themselves as the technological leaders of their system.<\/p>
It took them some time, but then the heads of the Sellite Corporation realized that they were the virtual leaders. They began to implement very restrictive policies to make sure that their hard-won technology would stay a secret to the rest of the system, and grew steadily richer and richer.<\/p>
<\/p>
The above picture is the first ever formulation of Valhai!\u00a0 You can see the Orthogel liquid to the right and the skyrises at the back.\u00a0 The very first step!<\/p>
After some hundreds of years, they decided that they would be even safer if they could move to a different planet entirely. They came to an agreement for the rental of Valhai with the rest of the binary system, and moved their entire corporation to Valhai. They pay each year in minerals, which they mine mainly from the asteroids in orbit with Valhai around Almagest. They also developed several lucrative sidelines, of which the donor program is one.<\/p>
That was 50 generations ago, at the time of the First Valhai Votation. Nothing much has changed since then: The Sellites have continued to get richer and richer, and the rest of the system has let them. They have no competitors, and have really evolved into a different race. They speak a language completely limited to Sell, and no Non-Sellite is allowed to speak it, on pain of death.<\/p>
<\/p>
The rough sketch above represents the base of a Sellite skyrise. The Sellites have become the merchants of the system: they own the only spaceships, they are the only traders between the planets in the system. Little by little they have separated from the other inhabitants, living as they do in walled-in luxury on Valhai. The other inhabitants of the system have begun to look upon them as some sort of superior being, especially on the Almagest planets, where flares from the red dwarf star have caused havoc. Unfortunately the Sellites believe themselves superior too!<\/p>
<\/p>
The above quick sketch is the layout of each of the floors of a Sellite skyrise. As far as the economics of the Sellites are concerned one example will show just how rich they have become. When they signed the rental agreement for Valhai payment was in platinum. They had to deliver to each of the other planets in the binary system a certain amount of platinum per year. When Grace was trying to find out more about the donor program she discovered just how lucrative it is.<\/p>
The sale of one donor\u00b4s genetic material could be offset against two whole years of platinum quota, which in effect meant that the Sellites had the use of Valhai free for the cost of half a donor per year. Since the payment to the Sacran worlds, much more backward, was in the region of an eighth of a year’s quota per donor, the profit was enormous. No wonder the 256th house was one of the most highly considered amongst the operating houses! The donor program had saved Sell over 250 years of platinum quota . . . approximately an eighth of the total payable. In addition, all the genetic material was analysed and a certain amount was retained on Valhai for research purposes. A spin-off of the donor program run by the 256th house was the off-world genetic manipulation program run by the 45th hourse, which based all of its profit on the same genetic program and generated a quota saving of another tenth. In conjuntion they saved the Sells a quarter of the cost of the planet! And they freed up the mining families so they could concentrate on the higher metals instead of platinum, the agreed currency all those centuries ago.<\/p>
Grace found out that a quarter of the mining efforts were now aimed at the very rare metals, such as Rhodium and Palladium. One weight of Rhodium was equivalent to twenty-five of Platinum. Since platinum was still available on the Cian planets themselves, both Xiantha and Cesis were more than happy to exchange quotas. Adding all this together, she discovered that the Sellites had a whole planet for themselves for a total output of only about two-hundred tons mined per year. Since mining the two moons of Valhai was relatively easy that took them only two months per year. Everything else was profit, and as such divided equally between the five hundred families, after expenses were deducted and investment programs funded.<\/p>
No wonder the Sellites felt superior to the rest of the inhabitants of the binary system!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tKwaide<\/strong><\/p>Wheras Coriolis is lush and green and warm and filled with abundant plant and animal life, Kwaide is just that much further away from its sun to make it cold, inhospitable, barren and uncomfortable. It is renowned for its icy cold winds, which they say can kill a person.<\/p>
The Elders live in the flatlands, around the centre and south of the planet, and they banish the untouchables they have no use for to the uninhabitable zone, to the north of the planet. This is an area dominated by jagged mountains always capped in ice, peaks where blizzards are so common that even the endemic warthogs cannot venture up them. Some of the waterfalls are so rich in deposits that they petrify anything left hanging in them for a long time.<\/p>
The main Elder city is Benefice, where millions of people live on top of each other, and in generally squalid conditions, which has resulted in the effluent conduits, no-go areas where many no-names work and die.<\/p>
Although water is plentiful in the north, not much else is. Eking out a living there is a gruelling task, taking all day every day. Six should know. It is what he had to do for years as he tried to protect his sisters.<\/p>
The only assets that Kwaide has is its abundant deposits of rexelene, which is used all over the system. It is mined mainly around the city of Rexel, although there are other deposits on the planet. The Elders had imported huge juggernauts to move the rexelene to the space port, where the Sellites took charge of it for exportation.<\/p>
The very northern part of Kwaide is where the characters in this book set up camp. They have no materials to build any complicated dwellings so the main cabins are made of wooden slats which don’t do a very good job at keeping the chilling wind out!<\/p>
\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tXiantha<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tXiantha:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes<\/strong><\/p>The planet name comes from two geographical features situated almost exactly at the North Pole. Collision with some other body many aeons ago created a huge crater here. \u00a0The Xiantha were formed by the up-throwing of molten metals at the point of impact.\u00a0 Traces of instellite were left along Lost Valley.<\/p>
There are two Xianthes \u2013 the Light Xianthe and the Dark Xianthe.\u00a0 These are so called because the Light Xianthe is perpetually in the sun, even though the North Pole does tip slightly with the seasons.\u00a0 The Dark Xianthe is very close to the boundary, and is in full sunlight during the summer, full darkness during the winter, and a variation between the two in spring and autumn.<\/p>
The view from the Xianthes might be something like this, but MUCH, MUCH more:<\/p>
There is very strong magnetism around the two Xianthes, even more than the strong dipole on the whole of the planet. \u00a0The metallic Xianthes have contributed to this, and the whole of the Lost Valley (between the two Xianthes).<\/p>
Because of the metallic nature of the Xianthes, and the difference in temperature always applicable in the area, there are always tremendous electrical storms around both Xianthes.\u00a0 The Light Xianthe, being always in daylight, makes these difficult to see, but the Dark Xianthe, especially in winter, is ideal for visitors.\u00a0 A complex system has been built for the few tourists who come to the planet, and for local visitors.\u00a0 It consists in a series of cages which travel right over the top of the Dark Xianthe, each taking up to ten people at a time.\u00a0 There are six cages, and five stops of ten minutes, plus the entry\/exit stop.\u00a0 The time between stops is just half an hour, so the whole journey takes four hours.\u00a0 The stops are called, in order of arrival; the Long View, Blue Ray Alley, the Summit, Lightning Corner, and the Lost Valley, plus the Ticket office, at the base of the rides.\u00a0<\/p>
This is the image I used for the special edition.<\/p>
<\/p>
The cages are made of metal, so as to act as Faraday cages, but are lined with transparent rexelene, and each stop is built like a large travelling cage, except that they are about twice the size, and equipped with a small rest room and kitchen.\u00a0 Xiantha is not a particularly technologically advanced planet, and the failsafe devices are crude at best, and non-existent at worst.\u00a0 The most impressive sights to see from the cages on the Dark Xianthe are the blue rays, the hanging elves, the sprites and the lightning, which starts just before Blue Ray Alley, but is very much stronger on the Lost Valley side, where the rays of lightning can reach 2 billion volts, and could fry a person instantly.\u00a0 The static you can feel when you are at Lightning Corner makes your hair stand on end, and your skin tingles so much that some people require medication.<\/p>
Geography<\/strong><\/p>Xiantha is divided into two parts; the lowlands and the highlands.\u00a0 The lowlands comprise most of the south of the planet, where the people are rougher, and travel between outposts is much more difficult.\u00a0 The residents here are famous for their rough but vibrant paintings, mostly of the landscape, which are for sale in quantity at the village of Gennai in the south, but also \u00a0the spaceport in the north.\u00a0 The lowlands are series upon series of low hills, with large areas covered by sea, the best known of which is known as the Black Sea.<\/p>
The northern part is known as the highlands, where the terrain is much drier, a steppe of red particulate sand.\u00a0 This is known as the Great Plain on Xiantha.\u00a0 It is a semi-desert area with small shrubs and bushes but no large trees.\u00a0 The Xianthes themselves tower above this section of the planet, reaching over 40 kilometres up in the sky, and the Lost Valley plunges another 120 kilometres down, making an unforgettable sight in the sky.<\/p>
As all the Cian planets, Xiantha is subjected to intense flares from Almagest, which has left nearly all the population infertile.\u00a0 For this reason, they are one of the two main clients for the donor program on Valhai.\u00a0 The safest place on the whole planet is considered to be Eletheia, about 100 km to the south of the Dark Xianthe, where the canth farm is situated.\u00a0 This part of the country is particularly sheltered, due to the higher magnetic fields in the whole area and the shelter of the Xianthes.<\/p>
Magsleds and Canths<\/strong><\/p>Most travel on the planet is by vaniven cart, but there are two other methods.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who have government authority may use what is locally known as the magsleds.\u00a0 These do use the strong magnetic field, but the name is misleading for the main use of the magnetism is for steering rather than for levitation.\u00a0 The magnetic dipole on Xiantha is many, many times stronger than on Earth, but still is insufficient to produce levitation in any large animal or machine.\u00a0 However, the direction of the field lines, and the increase in the field due to the Xianthes does mean that magnetic levitation can be harnessed to these magsleds, making them lighter, and very maneuverable.\u00a0 These sleds contain helium chambers which make them even lighter, and also sport a hover skirt which can be switched on when necessary.\u00a0 Any travel away from the Xianthe area will need the hover capabilities.<\/p>
The canths<\/strong> are equines, rather larger than the Earth horses, which have one particularity.\u00a0 They are very highly considered, and have the peculiarity that when they adopt a rider their lifetime becomes entangled with their riders, which means that each canth will die exactly at the same time as his rider, wherever that rider may be.\u00a0<\/p>The black canths have never adopted anybody \u2013 to date.\u00a0 Riders must pay a large sum of money to open themselves to possible canth adoption, so canths are really rather elitist.\u00a0 The canths must always be returned to the canth farm, where they can breed safely, since they are still a rare species.\u00a0<\/p>
Legend has it that they are the descendents of the lost animas of Xiantha, semi-ethereal beings which local legend has as existing after the collision of the planets.\u00a0 Some of the locals think that the reason that they are such a comfortable ride is that they use a mythical substance, called excanthite, to help them achieve some degree of partial levitation, to some extent \u2018surfing\u2019 the strong magnetic lines around the Xianthes.\u00a0 There is no scientific evidence for this, but it is commonly accepted amongst the Xianthans.<\/p>
The colour system<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthans have a complex system of colour, which is sacred to their way of life.\u00a0 They aim to achieve the most colour possible in their lifetime, moving from monochrome at birth to the most number of colours possible for them.<\/p>
The Xianthans believe that everybody is born colourless, and that you develop colour as you experience life. Some things will give you more colour, and others will take it away from you. It is a personal thing; each person must assess their own progress. The rulers of the planet must be Panchromes – they are the people who have progressed most.<\/p>
- Monochrome<\/li>
- Bichrome<\/li>
- Trichrome<\/li>
- Quadrichrome<\/li>
- Pentachrome<\/li>
- Sexachrome<\/li>
- Septachrome<\/li>
- Octochrome<\/li>
- Nonachrome<\/li>
- Decachrome<\/li>
- Multichrome<\/li>
- Plurichrome<\/li>
- Panchrome<\/li><\/ul>
- Exachrome*<\/li><\/ul>
*The man who speaks to canths has a theory that there are one or more higher classes, which the visitor and Arcan belong to.\u00a0 He calls these postulated colours Exachromes.<\/p>
Those who attain panchromatic status become the rulers of the planet. \u00a0Since about 1 in 10,000 people achieve panchrome status, at any one time there can be around 500 panchromes all over the planet, in contact by tridiscreens supplied by the Sellites.<\/p>
They also change their names throughout their lives, and are generally known by the thing which most defines them at that particular moment. So a Xianthan may introduce himself first by his job title, and then by his current name.\u00a0 This may or may not be linked to his job, but will always reflect things that he is most proud of.<\/p>
Population and details<\/strong><\/p>The whole population of the planet is down to 5 million people now, so Xiantha is a sparsely populated planet, where most of the dwellings are wooden-built bungalows, each set in a small area that their owners tend exclusively.\u00a0 There is no private land on the planet, but residents are very respectful of their neighbours\u2019 areas and would never dream of arguing about boundaries because this would lose colour.\u00a0<\/p>
The most heavily populated area is around Eletheia, where the donor headquarters is situated.\u00a0 Eletheia has a population of over 5000, which on Xianthan terms is huge.\u00a0 It boasts an auditorium, which is where all of the major meetings on the planet are held.\u00a0 Although all panchromes are equal, by tradition those closest to Eletheia are the ones who deal with other planets. The donor HQ, with its small adjacent hospital, is only 30 kilometres to the south of the town, and the canth farm about 10 kilometres to the north.\u00a0<\/p>
The spaceport which services all of Xiantha is close too \u2013 around 15 miles to the east.\u00a0 There are no roads on all Xiantha. For this reason there are only vaniven carts at the spaceport, although the government sends magsleds for the most important visitors, and there is a mag-sled inclusive package for those visiting the Dark Xianthe.<\/p>
There are no peace-keeping forces on Xiantha, and no prison system.\u00a0 Thieves are punished by no longer \u2018seeing\u2019 them.\u00a0
Xiantha is the only place in the system where \u2018shops\u2019 have flourished.\u00a0 These provide the colourful Xianthan robes which indicate the level of colour their owners have reached.\u00a0 Others purvey the famous paintings of the southern highlanders.\u00a0 These shops are mostly to be found around the spaceport area, although all major towns will boast one or two.\u00a0 There are also things called \u2018restaurants\u2019 on the planet.\u00a0 These are very few and far between, the most famous being that of the Emerald Lake, which is considered to be one of the eight magnificents.<\/p>
The Eight Magnificents<\/strong><\/p>One of the eight things all Xianthans should try to visit before they die.\u00a0<\/p>
One is the Restaurant on the Emerald Lake.<\/p>
The others are:\u00a0<\/p>
the dark Xianthe,<\/p>
the bottomless pool in the lost valley,<\/p>
the light Xianthe,<\/p>
the Black Sea (home of the legendary ten-legged decipus) in the lowlands,<\/p>
the Village of Gennaia, also in the South \u2013 famous for its painters,<\/p>
Mount Kalatheia,<\/p>
and the lost animas.\u00a0<\/p>
Of course, no-one has seen an anima for generations, which is why they are classified as lost, so it became impossible to complete the eight magnificent many generations ago.\u00a0 No loss in colour is involved now if the devout successfully visit seven of these, and any sighting of a canth, being a highly protected species, is accepted. \u00a0<\/p>
The lowlanders, who live in the southern continent, are expected to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetimes to give themselves the chance of seeing the magnificents in the north, and the northern Xianthans make the journey south to visit the Black Sea, and try to spot a ten-legged decipus.\u00a0 Just as the canths are considered an acceptable substitute for the lost animas, the Black Sea is considered to be acceptable instead of the ten-legged decipus, which can still be spotted, but is very hard to see.\u00a0<\/p>
The largest Southern city is known as Kalathelassa, and many of the lowlanders sell their paintings or their garments in small shops there.\u00a0 Others offer special trips onto the Black Sea in search of the decipus.\u00a0<\/p>
\u00a0 Some low colour Xianthans may try to convince visitors to the south that they can take them to see the famous sabre-toothed tiger, but in reality these have been extinct for many centuries.<\/p>
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>The Xianthes themselves are taken originally from Miranda, which has smaller, but similar “mountains” reaching up into the sky. The sprites and elves exist here on earth, as you can see here<\/a>:<\/p>I try to make all of my settings possible, and as soon as I saw the photo of Miranda (courtesy wikipedia):<\/p>
<\/p>
knew that I would have to use the idea of a gigantic swathe of land carved upwards and outwards. As soon as that idea fitted into the books, the story of the trip around one of the Xianthes pushed its way into the storyline too. I didn’t really have much say in the matter!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPictoria<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0<\/h5>
The scenery on Pictoria is based loosely on some of the North American landscape, especially Arizona. I used Antelope Canyon for the original idea, although the ridges of Pictoria are north to south, and have much better defined steps cut into them by the wind. I would love to visit Arizona and the Navajo territory to see the landscape for myself, but that seems unlikely, since I live in Europe. It takes me all my time to fly back to England a couple of times a year, and that is only 2 hours by plane! The buttes on Pictoria are also based on US terrain, basically the sandstone buttes in Monument valley<\/a> in Utah. These I have seen personally, if only from the windows of a Greyhound bus!<\/p>The idea of the wind which arrives each day as the sun goes down is mine, though they are loosely based on the katabarics of the Antarctic<\/a>.<\/p>The avifauna were based on a find in China of fossils which showed a similar type of morphology, although much smaller. More about that from “An\u00a0Archaeopteryx-<\/em>like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae” by Xing Xu, Hailu You, Kai Du and Fenglu Han. Also from here<\/a><\/p>Of course, the avifauna are much much bigger and very much more impressive. Their gliding capacities are good, and they are more on the noble side. All the same, they still would make you wonder if they were birds or dinosaurs.<\/p>
Pictoria is a rocky, red planet in the Pictoris system. Pictoria is in orbit around an orange dwarf star, together with a purple gas giant. It has a breathable atmosphere. It suffers from hurricane winds each night, and these only run from pole to pole. There is no warning when they arrive; they simply hit with great force when the sun is setting. Centuries of these winds have sculpted the terrain, until it is now made of a series of ridges running from north to south, with occasional moles of rock, known as buttes, which rise out of the surface. Around the buttes, the surface of the planet is honeycombed with potholes, which lead down into subterranean caverns.<\/p>
<\/p>
These caverns are home to the ortholiquid, a quantum substance which needs sunlight. It can travel instantaneously to any place it becomes aware of, and in order to maintain its status quo in a changing landscape, has developed a symbiosis with the avians which live on the planet. When the avians die, they are absorbed by the ortholiquid, and become amorphs: small creatures which retain the memory of the avians, but can travel by quantum decoherence. This enables the ortholiquid to find the sunlight, and so regenerate. The amorphs can live for thousands, indeed, millions of years. It is not known how old the ortholiquid is.<\/p>
The avians, or avifauna, are the principal lifeforms on the planet. They are dinosaurs, with some characteristics of birds. They have four wings, two large ones at the front, and two smaller ones from the back legs, which act as ailerons and stabilizers. Even so, they have not yet learnt, or are unable, to fly properly. They use their wings to glide for large distances, but need a small rise to be able to take off.<\/p>
At night the avifauna shelter at the top of the buttes, which have developed domed roofs with many columned windows due to wind sculpting and help from the avifauna themselves. They are safe here, and there is water too, which condenses from the domed roofs.The avifauna eat small mammals and insects, and hunt down in the caverns and the potholes surrounding the buttes. The potholes are home to many species of huge spiders, scorpions, and particularly savage bats which can grow to a substantial size.<\/p>
Pictoria is a retrograde planet: it spins counterclockwise. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Because of the ridges which run from north to south it looks strange from the sky; long lines which represent the ridges, interspersed with clumps around the buttes where the surface of the planet is pockmarked with the entrances to the caverns. From above, it looks like a print of temaris trees. Between the ridges are small valleys, just big enough to land a shuttle.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Dessites appear in Kwaide, although they are not really explained properly until Pictoria. The idea of distilling only a few cells, and then sending them, and not a complete entity on a space exploration, makes a lot of sense. The cells are left dormant, almost needing no maintenance, until they are needed when the small spaceship reaches its destination. Because the cells need so little maintenance, the ships can be much smaller and lighter. And because of that, they can travel faster, which means that time passes that much quicker for the visitor cells.<\/p>
They are a mainly aquatic species, which has natural floating islands formed by an abundance of carbon nanographite in the rock, which is in any case very light and porous.\u00a0 Because of this, the islands float. \u00a0Although most of the Dessites remain in the water, they use some of the islands to build and control their very advanced space program, as central government headquarters, as a base fro their cryolization process, and to synthesize nutrients.\u00a0 The islands are joined by loose tubes of flowing water.\u00a0 The most important Dessites use these to get quickly from one to the other.\u00a0<\/p>
They can exist out of the water for long periods on Dessia, because of its extremely humid, wet climate.\u00a0 They breathe through their skin, which is layered out of their bodies in over 50 membranes which ripple all the time.<\/p>
They only communicate with each other by quantum non-locality, and have developed no ears or mouth.\u00a0 They feed through their skin, by filtering out tiny plankton-like organisms from the sea.<\/p>
They have large eyes, with many creases around them.\u00a0 The age of the Dessite can be estimated by the number of creases around the eyes.\u00a0 They have no hands or feet, although there is a small bump in the membranes about half-way up, and another at the base of the animal.\u00a0 They use these as hands and feet, respectively, when on land.\u00a0 In the sea, the membranes are also used for propulsion. When they are attacked, their membranes stick out at right angles from their bodies, and a fine spray of toxin is diffused into the water.\u00a0 This is one of their natural defense mechanisms.\u00a0 They breed by detaching a bud and anchoring it to the sea floor.<\/p>
They cannot see in the lower wavelengths, having developed their eyesight for underwater sight.\u00a0 In fact, they can\u2019t really see anything if it is red.\u00a0 If altered Titanium Oxide is released into the water near them, they are effectively blinded to anyone behind it.<\/p>
They are very large, from almost half as tall again as Grace to well over twice her height, and much stronger than, say, the Kwaidians.<\/p>
There are 552 billion Dessites living on Dessia when they attack Pictoria. They are horribly overpopulated, because they have nearly reached an unsustainable population.\u00a0 This is not immediately obvious, because they are ocean dwellers, can exist down to quite some depth comfortably, and move in large groups, so there is still quite a lot of empty ocean.\u00a0 However, the plankton situation is desperate.\u00a0 They have reached a population explosion of around 4% per year, which means that their population is increasing by around 25 billion per year, augmenting, This is why they are searching desperately for other planets.\u00a0 There is currently no system of control of budding in place, although Exemphendiss tried to legislate for it many centuries ago.<\/p>
The areas around the floating islands are no-go areas for the vast majority of the Dessite population.\u00a0 They are not allowed to swim within 200 cubits of the landmasses, under penalty of no reproduction.\u00a0 This is one of the most severe penalties on Dessia, for their own species.\u00a0 However, they are relentless as far as other species go, having exterminated systematically any natural enemies, and therefore caused the extinction of practically all other species.\u00a0 They have to seed the ocean now, to have enough plankton-like organisms to survive, and there are many islands dedicated to this.\u00a0 These are called the islands of repletion, and this is the main reason why Dessites must not go within 200 cubits of the islands, since otherwise the extra nutrients would not dissipate around the planet.<\/p>
They have been space explorers for over 10,000 years.\u00a0 They send sent small spaceships on long journeys to try to find higher life forms.\u00a0 Their real aim has always been to appropriate quantum decoherence so that they can repopulate in other worlds.\u00a0 In order to receive accurate data back they have developed the travelers, small wisps of brain matter \u2013 neurons \u2013 which are Dessite in nature, but artificially grown.\u00a0 These neurons are sent with the ships in stasis in a nutrient tank, which is activated when the ships reach a few light years of their destination.\u00a0 If the travelers do anything wrong they are punished \u2013 which usually consists of being blown up with their ships.\u00a0 The Dessites do not consider the travelers as living beings with rights.<\/p>
They cryolize their most famous leaders, which means to keep them in storage.\u00a0 The twelve members of the council of guardians are entitled to this, although only the prime \u2013 the tallest of the tall – will automatically get it.\u00a0 When cryolized, they are kept in crovats on the Island of the Enjoined.\u00a0 The best situation is north-south orientation. Originally prisoners were cryolized as a way to get rid of them, but now they are destroyed and their remnant proteins returned to the sea.\u00a0 Some of the original travelers were taken from these prisoners, which explains the origin of the visitor from Exemphendiss.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/i><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlakisa and the Void<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t
Valhai is tidally locked, which means that there is one sunny side, and one dark side.\u00a0 Sell is built just close to the dividing line, in the twilight zone.\u00a0 Valhai has winds of 5 metres per second on the sunny side, and Ice on the dark side, especially near the pole. It has a bluish purplish moonlight all day, and the stars can be seen all the time too.\u00a0 When Sacras is visible there are longer shadows and the light is yellower.\u00a0 There is only a very thin atmosphere, not enough to be breathable, which sometimes creates thin clouds that can barely be detected.\u00a0 When Sacras is in conjuction it is nearly as big and bright as the full moon on earth.
The two binary stars approach each other closely every forty years.<\/p>
<\/p>
The Sells aren’t really a race at all. They used to live on Cesis, one of the planets in orbit around Almagest, so they were originally Cesans. There, they were workers in the Sellite Corporation. The Sellite Corportation gradually began to be very successful, ploughed all of the money it made into research, made some fortunate discoveries and inventions, and little by little found themselves as the technological leaders of their system.<\/p>
It took them some time, but then the heads of the Sellite Corporation realized that they were the virtual leaders. They began to implement very restrictive policies to make sure that their hard-won technology would stay a secret to the rest of the system, and grew steadily richer and richer.<\/p>
<\/p>
The above picture is the first ever formulation of Valhai!\u00a0 You can see the Orthogel liquid to the right and the skyrises at the back.\u00a0 The very first step!<\/p>
After some hundreds of years, they decided that they would be even safer if they could move to a different planet entirely. They came to an agreement for the rental of Valhai with the rest of the binary system, and moved their entire corporation to Valhai. They pay each year in minerals, which they mine mainly from the asteroids in orbit with Valhai around Almagest. They also developed several lucrative sidelines, of which the donor program is one.<\/p>
That was 50 generations ago, at the time of the First Valhai Votation. Nothing much has changed since then: The Sellites have continued to get richer and richer, and the rest of the system has let them. They have no competitors, and have really evolved into a different race. They speak a language completely limited to Sell, and no Non-Sellite is allowed to speak it, on pain of death.<\/p>
<\/p>
The rough sketch above represents the base of a Sellite skyrise. The Sellites have become the merchants of the system: they own the only spaceships, they are the only traders between the planets in the system. Little by little they have separated from the other inhabitants, living as they do in walled-in luxury on Valhai. The other inhabitants of the system have begun to look upon them as some sort of superior being, especially on the Almagest planets, where flares from the red dwarf star have caused havoc. Unfortunately the Sellites believe themselves superior too!<\/p>
<\/p>
The above quick sketch is the layout of each of the floors of a Sellite skyrise. As far as the economics of the Sellites are concerned one example will show just how rich they have become. When they signed the rental agreement for Valhai payment was in platinum. They had to deliver to each of the other planets in the binary system a certain amount of platinum per year. When Grace was trying to find out more about the donor program she discovered just how lucrative it is.<\/p>
The sale of one donor\u00b4s genetic material could be offset against two whole years of platinum quota, which in effect meant that the Sellites had the use of Valhai free for the cost of half a donor per year. Since the payment to the Sacran worlds, much more backward, was in the region of an eighth of a year’s quota per donor, the profit was enormous. No wonder the 256th house was one of the most highly considered amongst the operating houses! The donor program had saved Sell over 250 years of platinum quota . . . approximately an eighth of the total payable. In addition, all the genetic material was analysed and a certain amount was retained on Valhai for research purposes. A spin-off of the donor program run by the 256th house was the off-world genetic manipulation program run by the 45th hourse, which based all of its profit on the same genetic program and generated a quota saving of another tenth. In conjuntion they saved the Sells a quarter of the cost of the planet! And they freed up the mining families so they could concentrate on the higher metals instead of platinum, the agreed currency all those centuries ago.<\/p>
Grace found out that a quarter of the mining efforts were now aimed at the very rare metals, such as Rhodium and Palladium. One weight of Rhodium was equivalent to twenty-five of Platinum. Since platinum was still available on the Cian planets themselves, both Xiantha and Cesis were more than happy to exchange quotas. Adding all this together, she discovered that the Sellites had a whole planet for themselves for a total output of only about two-hundred tons mined per year. Since mining the two moons of Valhai was relatively easy that took them only two months per year. Everything else was profit, and as such divided equally between the five hundred families, after expenses were deducted and investment programs funded.<\/p>
No wonder the Sellites felt superior to the rest of the inhabitants of the binary system!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
Kwaide<\/strong><\/p> Wheras Coriolis is lush and green and warm and filled with abundant plant and animal life, Kwaide is just that much further away from its sun to make it cold, inhospitable, barren and uncomfortable. It is renowned for its icy cold winds, which they say can kill a person.<\/p> The Elders live in the flatlands, around the centre and south of the planet, and they banish the untouchables they have no use for to the uninhabitable zone, to the north of the planet. This is an area dominated by jagged mountains always capped in ice, peaks where blizzards are so common that even the endemic warthogs cannot venture up them. Some of the waterfalls are so rich in deposits that they petrify anything left hanging in them for a long time.<\/p> The main Elder city is Benefice, where millions of people live on top of each other, and in generally squalid conditions, which has resulted in the effluent conduits, no-go areas where many no-names work and die.<\/p> Although water is plentiful in the north, not much else is. Eking out a living there is a gruelling task, taking all day every day. Six should know. It is what he had to do for years as he tried to protect his sisters.<\/p> The only assets that Kwaide has is its abundant deposits of rexelene, which is used all over the system. It is mined mainly around the city of Rexel, although there are other deposits on the planet. The Elders had imported huge juggernauts to move the rexelene to the space port, where the Sellites took charge of it for exportation.<\/p> The very northern part of Kwaide is where the characters in this book set up camp. They have no materials to build any complicated dwellings so the main cabins are made of wooden slats which don’t do a very good job at keeping the chilling wind out!<\/p> \u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Xiantha:<\/u><\/strong><\/p> The Xianthes<\/strong><\/p> The planet name comes from two geographical features situated almost exactly at the North Pole. Collision with some other body many aeons ago created a huge crater here. \u00a0The Xiantha were formed by the up-throwing of molten metals at the point of impact.\u00a0 Traces of instellite were left along Lost Valley.<\/p> There are two Xianthes \u2013 the Light Xianthe and the Dark Xianthe.\u00a0 These are so called because the Light Xianthe is perpetually in the sun, even though the North Pole does tip slightly with the seasons.\u00a0 The Dark Xianthe is very close to the boundary, and is in full sunlight during the summer, full darkness during the winter, and a variation between the two in spring and autumn.<\/p> The view from the Xianthes might be something like this, but MUCH, MUCH more:<\/p> There is very strong magnetism around the two Xianthes, even more than the strong dipole on the whole of the planet. \u00a0The metallic Xianthes have contributed to this, and the whole of the Lost Valley (between the two Xianthes).<\/p> Because of the metallic nature of the Xianthes, and the difference in temperature always applicable in the area, there are always tremendous electrical storms around both Xianthes.\u00a0 The Light Xianthe, being always in daylight, makes these difficult to see, but the Dark Xianthe, especially in winter, is ideal for visitors.\u00a0 A complex system has been built for the few tourists who come to the planet, and for local visitors.\u00a0 It consists in a series of cages which travel right over the top of the Dark Xianthe, each taking up to ten people at a time.\u00a0 There are six cages, and five stops of ten minutes, plus the entry\/exit stop.\u00a0 The time between stops is just half an hour, so the whole journey takes four hours.\u00a0 The stops are called, in order of arrival; the Long View, Blue Ray Alley, the Summit, Lightning Corner, and the Lost Valley, plus the Ticket office, at the base of the rides.\u00a0<\/p> This is the image I used for the special edition.<\/p> The cages are made of metal, so as to act as Faraday cages, but are lined with transparent rexelene, and each stop is built like a large travelling cage, except that they are about twice the size, and equipped with a small rest room and kitchen.\u00a0 Xiantha is not a particularly technologically advanced planet, and the failsafe devices are crude at best, and non-existent at worst.\u00a0 The most impressive sights to see from the cages on the Dark Xianthe are the blue rays, the hanging elves, the sprites and the lightning, which starts just before Blue Ray Alley, but is very much stronger on the Lost Valley side, where the rays of lightning can reach 2 billion volts, and could fry a person instantly.\u00a0 The static you can feel when you are at Lightning Corner makes your hair stand on end, and your skin tingles so much that some people require medication.<\/p> Geography<\/strong><\/p> Xiantha is divided into two parts; the lowlands and the highlands.\u00a0 The lowlands comprise most of the south of the planet, where the people are rougher, and travel between outposts is much more difficult.\u00a0 The residents here are famous for their rough but vibrant paintings, mostly of the landscape, which are for sale in quantity at the village of Gennai in the south, but also \u00a0the spaceport in the north.\u00a0 The lowlands are series upon series of low hills, with large areas covered by sea, the best known of which is known as the Black Sea.<\/p> The northern part is known as the highlands, where the terrain is much drier, a steppe of red particulate sand.\u00a0 This is known as the Great Plain on Xiantha.\u00a0 It is a semi-desert area with small shrubs and bushes but no large trees.\u00a0 The Xianthes themselves tower above this section of the planet, reaching over 40 kilometres up in the sky, and the Lost Valley plunges another 120 kilometres down, making an unforgettable sight in the sky.<\/p> As all the Cian planets, Xiantha is subjected to intense flares from Almagest, which has left nearly all the population infertile.\u00a0 For this reason, they are one of the two main clients for the donor program on Valhai.\u00a0 The safest place on the whole planet is considered to be Eletheia, about 100 km to the south of the Dark Xianthe, where the canth farm is situated.\u00a0 This part of the country is particularly sheltered, due to the higher magnetic fields in the whole area and the shelter of the Xianthes.<\/p> Magsleds and Canths<\/strong><\/p> Most travel on the planet is by vaniven cart, but there are two other methods.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who have government authority may use what is locally known as the magsleds.\u00a0 These do use the strong magnetic field, but the name is misleading for the main use of the magnetism is for steering rather than for levitation.\u00a0 The magnetic dipole on Xiantha is many, many times stronger than on Earth, but still is insufficient to produce levitation in any large animal or machine.\u00a0 However, the direction of the field lines, and the increase in the field due to the Xianthes does mean that magnetic levitation can be harnessed to these magsleds, making them lighter, and very maneuverable.\u00a0 These sleds contain helium chambers which make them even lighter, and also sport a hover skirt which can be switched on when necessary.\u00a0 Any travel away from the Xianthe area will need the hover capabilities.<\/p> The canths<\/strong> are equines, rather larger than the Earth horses, which have one particularity.\u00a0 They are very highly considered, and have the peculiarity that when they adopt a rider their lifetime becomes entangled with their riders, which means that each canth will die exactly at the same time as his rider, wherever that rider may be.\u00a0<\/p> The black canths have never adopted anybody \u2013 to date.\u00a0 Riders must pay a large sum of money to open themselves to possible canth adoption, so canths are really rather elitist.\u00a0 The canths must always be returned to the canth farm, where they can breed safely, since they are still a rare species.\u00a0<\/p> Legend has it that they are the descendents of the lost animas of Xiantha, semi-ethereal beings which local legend has as existing after the collision of the planets.\u00a0 Some of the locals think that the reason that they are such a comfortable ride is that they use a mythical substance, called excanthite, to help them achieve some degree of partial levitation, to some extent \u2018surfing\u2019 the strong magnetic lines around the Xianthes.\u00a0 There is no scientific evidence for this, but it is commonly accepted amongst the Xianthans.<\/p> The colour system<\/strong><\/p> The Xianthans have a complex system of colour, which is sacred to their way of life.\u00a0 They aim to achieve the most colour possible in their lifetime, moving from monochrome at birth to the most number of colours possible for them.<\/p> The Xianthans believe that everybody is born colourless, and that you develop colour as you experience life. Some things will give you more colour, and others will take it away from you. It is a personal thing; each person must assess their own progress. The rulers of the planet must be Panchromes – they are the people who have progressed most.<\/p> *The man who speaks to canths has a theory that there are one or more higher classes, which the visitor and Arcan belong to.\u00a0 He calls these postulated colours Exachromes.<\/p> Those who attain panchromatic status become the rulers of the planet. \u00a0Since about 1 in 10,000 people achieve panchrome status, at any one time there can be around 500 panchromes all over the planet, in contact by tridiscreens supplied by the Sellites.<\/p> They also change their names throughout their lives, and are generally known by the thing which most defines them at that particular moment. So a Xianthan may introduce himself first by his job title, and then by his current name.\u00a0 This may or may not be linked to his job, but will always reflect things that he is most proud of.<\/p> Population and details<\/strong><\/p> The whole population of the planet is down to 5 million people now, so Xiantha is a sparsely populated planet, where most of the dwellings are wooden-built bungalows, each set in a small area that their owners tend exclusively.\u00a0 There is no private land on the planet, but residents are very respectful of their neighbours\u2019 areas and would never dream of arguing about boundaries because this would lose colour.\u00a0<\/p> The most heavily populated area is around Eletheia, where the donor headquarters is situated.\u00a0 Eletheia has a population of over 5000, which on Xianthan terms is huge.\u00a0 It boasts an auditorium, which is where all of the major meetings on the planet are held.\u00a0 Although all panchromes are equal, by tradition those closest to Eletheia are the ones who deal with other planets. The donor HQ, with its small adjacent hospital, is only 30 kilometres to the south of the town, and the canth farm about 10 kilometres to the north.\u00a0<\/p> The spaceport which services all of Xiantha is close too \u2013 around 15 miles to the east.\u00a0 There are no roads on all Xiantha. For this reason there are only vaniven carts at the spaceport, although the government sends magsleds for the most important visitors, and there is a mag-sled inclusive package for those visiting the Dark Xianthe.<\/p> There are no peace-keeping forces on Xiantha, and no prison system.\u00a0 Thieves are punished by no longer \u2018seeing\u2019 them.\u00a0 The Eight Magnificents<\/strong><\/p> One of the eight things all Xianthans should try to visit before they die.\u00a0<\/p> One is the Restaurant on the Emerald Lake.<\/p> The others are:\u00a0<\/p> the dark Xianthe,<\/p> the bottomless pool in the lost valley,<\/p> the light Xianthe,<\/p> the Black Sea (home of the legendary ten-legged decipus) in the lowlands,<\/p> the Village of Gennaia, also in the South \u2013 famous for its painters,<\/p> Mount Kalatheia,<\/p> and the lost animas.\u00a0<\/p> Of course, no-one has seen an anima for generations, which is why they are classified as lost, so it became impossible to complete the eight magnificent many generations ago.\u00a0 No loss in colour is involved now if the devout successfully visit seven of these, and any sighting of a canth, being a highly protected species, is accepted. \u00a0<\/p> The lowlanders, who live in the southern continent, are expected to make at least one pilgrimage in their lifetimes to give themselves the chance of seeing the magnificents in the north, and the northern Xianthans make the journey south to visit the Black Sea, and try to spot a ten-legged decipus.\u00a0 Just as the canths are considered an acceptable substitute for the lost animas, the Black Sea is considered to be acceptable instead of the ten-legged decipus, which can still be spotted, but is very hard to see.\u00a0<\/p> The largest Southern city is known as Kalathelassa, and many of the lowlanders sell their paintings or their garments in small shops there.\u00a0 Others offer special trips onto the Black Sea in search of the decipus.\u00a0<\/p> \u00a0 Some low colour Xianthans may try to convince visitors to the south that they can take them to see the famous sabre-toothed tiger, but in reality these have been extinct for many centuries.<\/p> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p> The Xianthes themselves are taken originally from Miranda, which has smaller, but similar “mountains” reaching up into the sky. The sprites and elves exist here on earth, as you can see here<\/a>:<\/p> I try to make all of my settings possible, and as soon as I saw the photo of Miranda (courtesy wikipedia):<\/p> knew that I would have to use the idea of a gigantic swathe of land carved upwards and outwards. As soon as that idea fitted into the books, the story of the trip around one of the Xianthes pushed its way into the storyline too. I didn’t really have much say in the matter!<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The scenery on Pictoria is based loosely on some of the North American landscape, especially Arizona. I used Antelope Canyon for the original idea, although the ridges of Pictoria are north to south, and have much better defined steps cut into them by the wind. I would love to visit Arizona and the Navajo territory to see the landscape for myself, but that seems unlikely, since I live in Europe. It takes me all my time to fly back to England a couple of times a year, and that is only 2 hours by plane! The buttes on Pictoria are also based on US terrain, basically the sandstone buttes in Monument valley<\/a> in Utah. These I have seen personally, if only from the windows of a Greyhound bus!<\/p> The idea of the wind which arrives each day as the sun goes down is mine, though they are loosely based on the katabarics of the Antarctic<\/a>.<\/p> The avifauna were based on a find in China of fossils which showed a similar type of morphology, although much smaller. More about that from “An\u00a0Archaeopteryx-<\/em>like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae” by Xing Xu, Hailu You, Kai Du and Fenglu Han. Also from here<\/a><\/p> Of course, the avifauna are much much bigger and very much more impressive. Their gliding capacities are good, and they are more on the noble side. All the same, they still would make you wonder if they were birds or dinosaurs.<\/p> Pictoria is a rocky, red planet in the Pictoris system. Pictoria is in orbit around an orange dwarf star, together with a purple gas giant. It has a breathable atmosphere. It suffers from hurricane winds each night, and these only run from pole to pole. There is no warning when they arrive; they simply hit with great force when the sun is setting. Centuries of these winds have sculpted the terrain, until it is now made of a series of ridges running from north to south, with occasional moles of rock, known as buttes, which rise out of the surface. Around the buttes, the surface of the planet is honeycombed with potholes, which lead down into subterranean caverns.<\/p> These caverns are home to the ortholiquid, a quantum substance which needs sunlight. It can travel instantaneously to any place it becomes aware of, and in order to maintain its status quo in a changing landscape, has developed a symbiosis with the avians which live on the planet. When the avians die, they are absorbed by the ortholiquid, and become amorphs: small creatures which retain the memory of the avians, but can travel by quantum decoherence. This enables the ortholiquid to find the sunlight, and so regenerate. The amorphs can live for thousands, indeed, millions of years. It is not known how old the ortholiquid is.<\/p> The avians, or avifauna, are the principal lifeforms on the planet. They are dinosaurs, with some characteristics of birds. They have four wings, two large ones at the front, and two smaller ones from the back legs, which act as ailerons and stabilizers. Even so, they have not yet learnt, or are unable, to fly properly. They use their wings to glide for large distances, but need a small rise to be able to take off.<\/p> Pictoria is a retrograde planet: it spins counterclockwise. This means that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Because of the ridges which run from north to south it looks strange from the sky; long lines which represent the ridges, interspersed with clumps around the buttes where the surface of the planet is pockmarked with the entrances to the caverns. From above, it looks like a print of temaris trees. Between the ridges are small valleys, just big enough to land a shuttle.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The Dessites appear in Kwaide, although they are not really explained properly until Pictoria. The idea of distilling only a few cells, and then sending them, and not a complete entity on a space exploration, makes a lot of sense. The cells are left dormant, almost needing no maintenance, until they are needed when the small spaceship reaches its destination. Because the cells need so little maintenance, the ships can be much smaller and lighter. And because of that, they can travel faster, which means that time passes that much quicker for the visitor cells.<\/p> They are a mainly aquatic species, which has natural floating islands formed by an abundance of carbon nanographite in the rock, which is in any case very light and porous.\u00a0 Because of this, the islands float. \u00a0Although most of the Dessites remain in the water, they use some of the islands to build and control their very advanced space program, as central government headquarters, as a base fro their cryolization process, and to synthesize nutrients.\u00a0 The islands are joined by loose tubes of flowing water.\u00a0 The most important Dessites use these to get quickly from one to the other.\u00a0<\/p> They can exist out of the water for long periods on Dessia, because of its extremely humid, wet climate.\u00a0 They breathe through their skin, which is layered out of their bodies in over 50 membranes which ripple all the time.<\/p> They only communicate with each other by quantum non-locality, and have developed no ears or mouth.\u00a0 They feed through their skin, by filtering out tiny plankton-like organisms from the sea.<\/p> They have large eyes, with many creases around them.\u00a0 The age of the Dessite can be estimated by the number of creases around the eyes.\u00a0 They have no hands or feet, although there is a small bump in the membranes about half-way up, and another at the base of the animal.\u00a0 They use these as hands and feet, respectively, when on land.\u00a0 In the sea, the membranes are also used for propulsion. When they are attacked, their membranes stick out at right angles from their bodies, and a fine spray of toxin is diffused into the water.\u00a0 This is one of their natural defense mechanisms.\u00a0 They breed by detaching a bud and anchoring it to the sea floor.<\/p> They cannot see in the lower wavelengths, having developed their eyesight for underwater sight.\u00a0 In fact, they can\u2019t really see anything if it is red.\u00a0 If altered Titanium Oxide is released into the water near them, they are effectively blinded to anyone behind it.<\/p> They are very large, from almost half as tall again as Grace to well over twice her height, and much stronger than, say, the Kwaidians.<\/p> There are 552 billion Dessites living on Dessia when they attack Pictoria. They are horribly overpopulated, because they have nearly reached an unsustainable population.\u00a0 This is not immediately obvious, because they are ocean dwellers, can exist down to quite some depth comfortably, and move in large groups, so there is still quite a lot of empty ocean.\u00a0 However, the plankton situation is desperate.\u00a0 They have reached a population explosion of around 4% per year, which means that their population is increasing by around 25 billion per year, augmenting, This is why they are searching desperately for other planets.\u00a0 There is currently no system of control of budding in place, although Exemphendiss tried to legislate for it many centuries ago.<\/p> The areas around the floating islands are no-go areas for the vast majority of the Dessite population.\u00a0 They are not allowed to swim within 200 cubits of the landmasses, under penalty of no reproduction.\u00a0 This is one of the most severe penalties on Dessia, for their own species.\u00a0 However, they are relentless as far as other species go, having exterminated systematically any natural enemies, and therefore caused the extinction of practically all other species.\u00a0 They have to seed the ocean now, to have enough plankton-like organisms to survive, and there are many islands dedicated to this.\u00a0 These are called the islands of repletion, and this is the main reason why Dessites must not go within 200 cubits of the islands, since otherwise the extra nutrients would not dissipate around the planet.<\/p> They have been space explorers for over 10,000 years.\u00a0 They send sent small spaceships on long journeys to try to find higher life forms.\u00a0 Their real aim has always been to appropriate quantum decoherence so that they can repopulate in other worlds.\u00a0 In order to receive accurate data back they have developed the travelers, small wisps of brain matter \u2013 neurons \u2013 which are Dessite in nature, but artificially grown.\u00a0 These neurons are sent with the ships in stasis in a nutrient tank, which is activated when the ships reach a few light years of their destination.\u00a0 If the travelers do anything wrong they are punished \u2013 which usually consists of being blown up with their ships.\u00a0 The Dessites do not consider the travelers as living beings with rights.<\/p> They cryolize their most famous leaders, which means to keep them in storage.\u00a0 The twelve members of the council of guardians are entitled to this, although only the prime \u2013 the tallest of the tall – will automatically get it.\u00a0 When cryolized, they are kept in crovats on the Island of the Enjoined.\u00a0 The best situation is north-south orientation. Originally prisoners were cryolized as a way to get rid of them, but now they are destroyed and their remnant proteins returned to the sea.\u00a0 Some of the original travelers were taken from these prisoners, which explains the origin of the visitor from Exemphendiss.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>
Xiantha is the only place in the system where \u2018shops\u2019 have flourished.\u00a0 These provide the colourful Xianthan robes which indicate the level of colour their owners have reached.\u00a0 Others purvey the famous paintings of the southern highlanders.\u00a0 These shops are mostly to be found around the spaceport area, although all major towns will boast one or two.\u00a0 There are also things called \u2018restaurants\u2019 on the planet.\u00a0 These are very few and far between, the most famous being that of the Emerald Lake, which is considered to be one of the eight magnificents.<\/p>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/e\/e1\/PIA18185_Miranda%27s_Icy_Face.jpg\/220px-PIA18185_Miranda%27s_Icy_Face.jpg\")
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At night the avifauna shelter at the top of the buttes, which have developed domed roofs with many columned windows due to wind sculpting and help from the avifauna themselves. They are safe here, and there is water too, which condenses from the domed roofs.The avifauna eat small mammals and insects, and hunt down in the caverns and the potholes surrounding the buttes. The potholes are home to many species of huge spiders, scorpions, and particularly savage bats which can grow to a substantial size.<\/p>