Phobetor

System: Phobetor

Hex Location: 1619

Star Type: Double star, M2 V, T6 (distant)

Number of Worlds: 6

Gas Giants: 3

Planetoid Belt: N

Starport Type: D Poor quality port

World Size: Earth-sized

Atmosphere Type: Earth-like

Surface Water: 40%.

Population: Medium (200 million)

Political Affiliation: Independent, but allied with Seraea

Notes: With a super-close, but cool red dwarf sun, and a more distant brown dwarf as the only sources of light and heat, Phobetor races in a tiny orbit around its star, but remains relatively dim. Thick mists cover much of the planet. Because of this low light condition, traditional plants struggle, but big, thorny trees exist that release strange red spores that glow very dimly with a biological phosphorescence as they do chemosynthesis in the mist. They then transfer this energy back to the trees that they brush against it as they drift.

Xenohumans live here, and have since recorded history for the planet. They appear very similar physically to the native Seraean race; chalky white skin, with black hair and dark eyes. In spite of this, genetic studies show them to have lived here in isolation for a long time, and they are not closely related at a haplogroup level with the Seraeans. For the most part, they live in the swampy, forested lowlands, deep in the mist. Most of the non-natives who live here, on the other hand, prefer to claim the dry Uplands, above the mist, and devoid of most plant life.

Most of the native humans belong to the Old Ones cult. In the past, this was strongly matriarchal, but today that is less true. The Pontifex Sacrorum of the Cult for the surrounding area lives in the city of Shuruun, deep in a massive rift valley; a "Valles Marinaris" for Phobetor, where the mists are the thickest on the entire planet, perpetually surrounded by a dull red darkness. Nearly half of the rest of the native population lives in towns and cities around the edges of the valley, also all called Shuruun, but with a designated number following (such as Shuruun 083) but the rest are more widely scattered. The inhabitants of Shuruun are largely rentiers who service the religious observances and piety of the Old One cults. The productive members of society—the farmers, ranchers, craftsmen, hunters, etc. tend to live more scattered across the surface.