Gi

Gi is a mid-sized rocky planet, with two captured asteroid moons. It’s home to a variety of lifeforms, including orange plants, arthropods, invertebrates known as snollopods, and two clades of vertebrates; hexapods and proboscans. Hailing from Gi are a sapient species known as the Azi lana. Today, several nations have control over parts of Gi, including Giina, the Azi gi, the UHALE, and the Eina jarn. However, all life and peoples on the planet are threatened by an imminent supervolcano eruption.

Planetary environment

Gi, which has also been known as Ewi gi and Siblerth, is a medium-sized rocky planet with a diameter of a little less than 13,000 kilometres.

It has two moons- Jawa and Unya- which are both small, no more than 100 kilometres across. These moons were probably once asteroids in the nearby Jlise belt, but were captured by Gi’s gravity. Gi has a day length of ~26 hours, a year length of 340 days, and an axial tilt of 11 degrees, which produces much less extreme seasons than Earth. However, without a large stabilising moon, the axial tilt is much more prone to change, and it is thought to have been more extreme in the past.

Gi is thought to be in the transitional period between an ice age and a greenhouse climate. While it was once colder, with more extreme seasonal variation, it is naturally moving into a warmer climate. Hundreds of years ago, this was compounded by an artificial climate change that made the climate warmer and more unstable. However, this has since been dealt with.

Though Gi is no longer affected by artificial climate change, it has by no means a stable ecosystem. The introduction of invasive species, both from other parts of Gi and from other planets, has crippled many ecosystems around the world, and many animal species are endangered or extinct.

The growth of cities and suburban areas have pushed back wild areas, and the resources needed to build them have to come from somewhere. In nations where live animals are farmed, vast areas of grazing land are required, further restricting natural habitats. As Gi’s population has skyrocketed to almost 15 billion, the area available for wild animals has greatly shrunk.

Finally, there is one great threat to the climate, people, and animals of Gi. In the centre of the island continent Ewi jarden, there lies a volcanic hotspot known as the Ewi jarden traps. Based on signs like tremors and escaping sulfuric gas, this supervolcano has been predicted to erupt again in the next century. Considering previous eruptions of the Ewi jarden traps have been explosive, one even causing a mass extinction event, the now imminent eruption will likely be hell.

The best case scenario is the destruction of several kilometres of land directly above the hotspot, including a major city. The worst case scenario is a flood basalt event that could last for up to a million years; covering all of Ewi jarden in molten rock, spewing rock and dust into the upper atmosphere and blocking out the sun, and even bringing gasses like carbon dioxide and sulfur up to lethal levels.

Though a worst case scenario is unlikely, many people are not sticking around to find out.

(Pictured: an environmental map of Gi. However, much of the would-be natural environment is covered by urban and farm area.)

Life

Gi has a variety of interesting lifeforms. Forming the basis of the food chain are orange plants, as well as microbes. Like on Earth, arthropods dominate small niches. This clade, xenoarthropoda, does take on different forms than Earth’s arthropods. Filling large niches are invertebrates known as snollopods, and vertebrates known as hexapods and proboscans.

Gi’s life has been split onto two different isolated landmasses for about 300 million years. On the larger continent, Ewi paneth, have historically existed snollopods and proboscans. Snollopods are small, boneless invertebrates, which cannot run away, so hide in their shells. Proboscans cannot become herbivores, because of their extremely specialised mouthparts. So, the ecosystem on this continent has shaped differently from Earth’s- stronger, not faster, predators being selected for.

Meanwhile, on Ewi Jarden, snollopods, in the absence of proboscans, were able to evolve strange, more vertebrate-like forms- the hexapods. More recently, ~50 million years ago, proboscans arrived on the continent, and stole back predatory niches.

These two biospheres have existed mostly separately for tens of millions of years. However, Gi’s sapient species would recently create ships that could cross the ocean from Ewi jarden to Ewi paneth. They brought with them hexapods and derived proboscans, as livestock, pets, and animals for the zoo and the arena. This has irrevocably changed the ecosystems on Ewi paneth, as the more derived jarden animals have become fiercely competitive invasive species.

Native sapient inhabitants

(Main article: Azi lana)

The Azi lana are a sapient species who evolved from the apex predators of the Ewi jarden island continent. On this continent, they have a long history of war and conquest. Because of the ease of travel and trade around the continent’s coast, and because every people who didn’t adapt to their neighbours would get immediately conquered, the entire continent has stayed at relatively the same technological level throughout written history.

Eventually, the industrial revolution dawned, and huge sailing boats were invented that could cross the great ocean to the Ewi paneth continent. This entirely empty continent, with ecosystems bizarre to the arrivals, was quickly conquered. Farming practices and introduced species would have great effects on the new world’s biosphere, and still do today. Carbon dioxide produced in the industrial revolution and beyond would also have a great effect on the climate, but this was quickly remedied when it was realised that this would affect the Azi lana themselves.

Hundreds of years later, the Azi lana would take to the stars. At first, this was difficult; it wasn't as easy to land on Gi’s asteroid moons than Earth’s large moon. But with the advent of FTL technology, the Azi lana gained access to their entire star system- and beyond.

In an unassuming star system midway between Earth and Gi, humans and Azi lana would make first contact. This would change both species’ culture and attitudes forever.

To bridge the gap between the species, an organisation called the UHALC was established. Many prominent nations from both worlds quickly joined the organisation, and space colonies formed by these nations were often governed by the UHALC. Slowly, the UHALC become a nation of its own, and was eventually declared the UHALE. This empire would go on to establish many more space colonies- and eventually, cities- in both species’ names.

Current sapient inhabitants/nations

Gi is currently occupied by four major nations, which each control a portion of the land.

The UHALE- once ever-present- is now slowly fading as more and more of its territory declares independence. A very large portion of the land it still owns is present on Gi. Gi’s UHALE is known for its experimental art and architecture, as well as its anti-establishment art and music- two creative movements that often oppose each other. It’s inhabited by a mix of species; primarily Azi lana and humans.

Giina is a collection of independent states united in name only. They are what remains of the nations which didn’t declare themselves part of the proto-UHALE, and govern the majority of Gi’s land. Though not always, they are usually traditionalist in nature, and many long for the pre-space age era. They are known for their traditional textiles, and are inhabited mostly by Azi lana.

The Azi gi is a relatively small nation which recently declared independence from the UHALE. They are most recognised for their environmental efforts in trying to help Gi’s ecosystems. They are also known for their naturalistic architecture, and their thriving cinema and gaming industries. They are the only nation on Gi to have more resident aliens than Azi lana; mostly humans and lomanos.

Finally, the Eina jarn is a large nation with only a little bit of territory on Gi. Their other territories include other planets in the Ewi yerda system, as well as its star. Their territory on Gi- just a single city and the surrounding land- is mostly used for communication and business with, as well as travel to, the other nations on Gi. Regardless, the city is home to a thriving party scene, as well as a prominent group of black market bio-engineers.