TECHNICAL SHEETS | STAR SYSTEMS | ARGOST

URR'UHRST̪θ' (Origin Point)

In hoku astronomy, Degazaakoza'pa (Dgazakzp) is the brightest system in the Sailboat constellation, during the summer in the southern hemisphere this constellation stands above the horizon pointing south, forming the base of the greater sail part of the boat. But across the Dominion it attends for its endonym Urr'uhrst̪θ', better known for its Human approximation Argost, and for Hoku travelers as Arihu'risitch (Arihurisit).

The name Argost actually refers to the homeworld of the Arrene, but this became a misnomer amongst their stellar neighbors, like mistaking the 'solar system' for 'Earth'. The star's actual name is noted down as Aa Rithel, or "The Sun" in common arrene.

Aa Rithel is an old single orange dwarf, and stars like it are found all throughout the Dominion.

STAR

parameters ID'd after HD 219134

AA RITHEL, The Sun

K3V orange dwarf star
Temperature 4700 K
        (in solar units)
Mass 0.80
Luminosity 0.26
Radius 0.77
Metallicity Z* ~1.28 [Fe/H]
Abs. Magnitude +6.30
Rotational period 8 days

PLANETARY SYSTEM

Aa Rithel's system possesses five planets, and one brown dwarf.

b) Unnamed rocky planet

A Mars-mass airless rocky world, its cratered and scarred surface is very similar to Mercury's.

c) Unnamed Venusian planet

A superterran wet Venusian, its high surface gravity didn't allow for the star's radiation to blow its atmosphere away, accumulating gas and vapors ever since its formation.

d) Ykaga, the Giant

A T-class brown dwarf at 0.54 AU, 27.44 Jupiter-masses and 12.12 Earth-radii, its upper atmosphere is full of alkali metals, carbon monoxide and methane at 830°C.

It has four satellites: Argost, and three unnamed Moon-like worlds.

The brown dwarf plays a dominant role across all ancient religions of Argost, it also dictates hot and cold days, as the planet slowly rotates away from it.

e) Argost, Origin Point

A terran tropical world orbiting at 12 million kilometers from the brown dwarf, at this distance the planet receives 0.15x solar constants from its parent, and 0.90x solar constants from its brighter parent, the mean surface temperature fluctuates between 30°C and -17°C along its orbital period. Being 2/3rds of the Earth's mass and 90% as large, Argost's gravity lies in the comfortable zone for every sentient race in the Dominion. Its day duration is about 80 hours.

The planet's surface possesses clean-cut preservation areas that can be observed from space, while the rest of the surface is speckled with a mix of beautifully planned urban environments and farming spaces.

The native population tops at about 6 billion while another estimated 15 billion other aliens live amongst them - despite that, it is quite rare to see an arrene at all, that is because the upper layers of their society live in luxurious space habitats or the city centers among themselves, the only the lowest ranking ones live in contact with other alien species, generally occupying roles such as police, army, private militias, town hall members, lawyers, weaponsmiths, ship pilots - with a few exceptions for those who focus their business towards exclusively alien clients.

TRIVIA & LOCATIONS

The political and economic capital of the Dominion is pretty well defended by hundreds of orbital defense platforms, inhabited by the wealthiest individuals of the Dominion apart from the arrenes themselves - but in such a wild and competitive place, there is no comfort without foul play. The descendants of bankrupt visitors and travelers overflow slums all over the place, its criminal and police brutality are unrivaled by anywhere else in the Dominion.

On Argost, as well as many capital worlds across the Dominion, the major cities form huge interconnected environments, with 30 to 100 million inhabitants, plus a few percent of travelers from across known space. The chaotic and stratified nature of the local society is a key piece of what keeps Argost and many other worlds under arrene control, keeping the rebels at bay with hunger and fire and petting the grateful so they don't rebel.

The largest and most populous city on the planet is Aa Iritesh'akar or 'The Enlightened City', it was initially built as a spaceport city to welcome visitors from the stars, being expanded over many millennia to accommodate more immigrants and their brood, some say that it hasn't completely lost its shine, you just need to stare at it longer to see it. 

Getting things, products, and weapons out of any arrene spaceport is not difficult, a myriad of licenses is often needed for that though, the hardest of which is to pilot or transport any pieces of arrene tech newer than some 1000 years - as long as those weapons are not engaged in prohibited space, armed travelers will be spared of a really bad time. Contrary to the rest of the Dominion, clone-presence is minimal to non-existent in the capital, AI presence is unrestricted however, with many platforms working manual and tiring jobs for their owners as a form of extra income.

Although isolationist as a whole, many arrene groups and individuals show great interest in the affairs of aliens, both in their homeworld and across the Dominion, those more interested individuals work hard to be sent to outworld prefectures, science expeditions, or just opt to straight-out live and trade amongst commoners - living in rather high standards, of course.

There are 50 annular black peninsulas and lakes observable from space scattered across one hemisphere, a relic from the height of the Qiro-Arrene wars - the rock in the region is completely blackened from the first and last act of aggression between the two civilizations, created by a relativistic projectile launched from the only Qire warship that ever managed to pass the outer planets. The bombardment of Argost by the Qire fleet was the last episode of a war that ended up bringing the Arrene on the edge of extinction, had it not been for outworld colonies re-settling their homeland, Argost would likely be a dusty wasteland like the northern hemisphere of Hokushoku. The flattened cities offered space for ambitious and planned architectural projects, which are nowadays, the trademark of places such as Aa Iritesh'akar.

MORE COMING SOMEDAY!

- M. O. Valent, 15/02/2023

- M. O. Valent, last updated 21/09/2023

TECHNICAL SHEETS | STAR SYSTEMS | VOLILOSHOKU

KOTALI'ZAPA (Great Wall Star)

In hoku astronomy, Kotali'zapa is the brightest system in the Great Wall constellation, during the autumn in the northern hemisphere this constelation stands above the horizon in a line with five other distant bright stars, Kotali'zapa being the brightest and closest of them. In Sidessian, the common spoken language of the system, the star has the name of Volkali, which means Belt Buckle in sidessian, as the peoples of the region saw the line of stars as belt constellation.

Kotali'zapa is a young triple-star system, and with its brightest component receiving the same name. The other two companions are a orange and red dwarfs in a binary configuration. This system configuration isn't particularly uncommon, though, the friendliest of worlds here is considered quite a spectacle to behold.

STARS

spectral type ID'd through temperature, luminosity might differ from real world stars with same type

KOTALI'ZAPA / VOLKALI, Alpha of the Great Wall / The Buckle

F5V yellow-white star
Temperature 6540 K
        (in solar units)
Mass 1.27
Luminosity 2.40
Radius 1.21
Metallicity Z* ~0.789 [Fe/H]
Abs. Magnitude +3.87
Rotational period 13 days

KOTALIMOKU, the Wall's Capitain

K8V orange dwarf star
Temperature 4010 K
        (in solar units)
Mass 0.39
Luminosity 0.052 ± 0.004 (x-ray variable) (64% visual luminosity of the Sun)
Radius 0.47
Metallicity Z* ~ 0.662 [Fe/H]
Abs. Magnitude +8.05.
Flaring BY Draconis variable star, emitting x-rays bursts every 36 hours.
Orbital separation from parent star 2.5 AU or 375 million km on average.
Orbital eccentricity 0.125
Orbital period ~ 3.0 Earth-years

NIGUTAL'ZA, the Wall's Spotter

M1V red dwarf star
Temperature 3655 K
        (in solar units)
Mass 0.29
Luminosity 0.0025 ± 0.01 (x-ray variable)
Radius 0.35
Metallicity Z* ~1.35 [Fe/H]
Abs. Magnitude +9.07
Flaring BY Draconis variable star,  emitting x-rays bursts every 40 hours.
Orbital separation 0.32 AU or 48 million km on average.
Orbital eccentricity 0.112
Orbital period ~ 80 Earth-days

PLANETARY SYSTEM

Kotali'zapa systems posess five planets, four of which are located around the binary dwarfs.

b) KOGEZA, the Giant

A pale blue hot-jupiter around of Kotali'zapa at 0.67 AU, 1.74 Jupiter-masses and 11.8 Earth-radii, its upper atmosphere is full of sulfides and chlorides at 140°C.

c) VOLILOSHOKU, the Fixed-Shadows World

A superterran with a shallow global ocean, in which native harmless microbes thrive, the world was once home to chelok and hoku settlers long before the Fall of Hokushoku. For being locked in the L4 lagrange point of the star Nigutal'za, the two dwarfs are set fixed in the sky from the planet's perspective, hence, it was aptly named Locked- (vo) -sunbean- (lilo) -world (shoku). Though, this planet along with its star take about 80 days to orbit their parent star Kotalimoku, so the whole system slowly turns along its orbit, pointing the planet towards and then away from the brighter star at the center of the system, giving it seasons in cycles of 80 days.

It gets 0.75x solar constants (and 0.5x luminosities) from its two parent dwarfs, plus 0.38x solar constants (and 0.4x luminosities) from the brighter star, on average. This makes the planet's temperature stay around 4°C, but over the course of those 80 days the temperature fluctuates 26 K above and below that average, and over the course of 3 years it ocillates more 22 K above and below whatever the current average is because of its eccentricity around the brighter star. For an observer in the tropics, the water would at times simmer at 60°C during the hottest summer, or freeze at -34°C in the coldest winter, getting even colder towards the poles of the planet, and at night, where it has reached historical lows of -150°C.

Those extreme and fast temperature variations create all sorts of climate intempers, rainstorms, hailstorms, and hurricanes are the default weather here, while seeing a beam of sunlight through the clouds in a day without wind is considered a gift from the gods.

However, despite the attractiveness of setting up a settlement in the equator, the x-ray bursts of the two parent stars would make maintaning a health standard, as well as exploring the surface, quite problematic - so both ancient chelok, and hoku settlers arrived to the conclusion that one has to inhabit the chilling poles of the planet to live on the surface, or build underground facilities in the twilight zone. The largest hoku settlement was the capital Kipishahit (Turning-Table, I suppose this has something to do with the clay-rich soils), though various smaller settlements existed throughout the planet, and the only reliable mode of transport over long distances is to fly, or wait until nightfall to run trucks over the ices.

d) NIGUTALINE

A rocky terran around Nigutal'za, its temperature varies between 140°C day side to -140°C on the nightside. Its barren surface is peppered by craters, while sporting solified lava flows, the geologic record tells that this was once a wet venusian kind of world, having its atmosphere blown away to a thin ghostly veil, its polar ices form gigantic pillars and glaciers. The ices were once mined here and taken to space habitats around the binary.

e and f) Unnamed Waterworlds

Planet e and planet f are two massive seasonal waterworlds, they get little light from their parent dwarf stars, instead, their main light source being the bright star. The thick atmospheres are able to hold onto decent heat and water in the surface, which freeze at -60°C during winter, and melt at 20°C during summer over the course of 3 and a half years. The atmospheres of these worlds however are made predominantly of nitrogen, oxygen, and ammonia, in proportions not suitable for life, the ammonia clouds and vapors are not enough to deter the harmful sun's rays, so they were not chosen by the colonists upon arrival back in 1150 SE.

TRIVIA & LOCATIONS

The extreme X and UV rays Voliloshoku gets every few days are the primary source of oxygen in the atmosphere, at it breaks down water and carbon dioxide into oxygen, sooth, and organics in the upper atmosphere, which rains down to the surface. The bacteria in liquid water metabolizes whatever it can while it is warm, leading to huge blooms which last a few weeks, producing a foam and a thick sirupy substrate or slime made of sugars, mucins, proteins and vitamins which they do not need during the day, starting to feed upon it as the temperatures drop and night comes. The substrate forms a hard leathery cover when exposed to the cold which insulates ponds from x-rays and the freezing temperatures outside, with some strains of bacteria here being commonly farmed for food by colonists.

A historical population of 1.2 billion colonists once inhabited the planet, making up for 4% of the Expanse's native population, being the 4th most populated outworld.

Theories suggest that Voliloshoku had a much thinner atmosphere in the past, but due to volcanism and intense photolysis of its water, it has been thickenning by a measurable amount every millenia. This would explain why, despite the current inhospitable conditions, this planet has this kind of primitive life, however doomed to extinction in a future Wet Venusian.

MORE COMING SOMEDAY!

- M. O. Valent, 08/02/2023

- M. O. Valent, last updated 15/02/2023

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