A Tour of the Planets

Unlike Jupiter or Saturn, the atmosphere of Uranus is of a tolerable pressure and a breathable mixture at it's surface. As a result, Uranus is quite habitable to humans. However, the surface of Uranus is almost enturely covered by seas; only a few small islands exist. The largest land mass,"Uranus Isle," is roughly Australia-sized, while the seond largest, the "Isle of Terror," is perhaps half that. Most of Uranus' islands are only a few miles in diameter at their widest point.

Uranus' climate on the sunny side is comparable to the tropic islands of Earth. They are warm and pleasant, with mild weather that only gets violent in the spring and fall. The skies of Uranus are quite bright considering its distance from the sun; this is because the sunlight disturbs charged particles in Uranus' upper atmosphere, creating light patterns in the sky. These patterns could be compared in appearance to the effect of sunlight reflected off waves. The intensity of these lights fluctuate periodically (over periods that are hours in length) so even on the sunny side there is a sort of "nighttime," though of random length. However, it never gets completely dark on the dayside.

On the night side, however, this effect does not occur and the temperature gets fairly cold, hovering at around 35 to 40 degrees Farenheit. Most forms of life on Uranus are generally able to migrate from one hemisphere to the other during the spring and fall.

There is a race of humanoid life on Uranus that is mostly aquatic, though they are capable of breathing air or water. They spend some time on the land when the are near it and prefer being out of water for a variety of things, such as toolmaking. Despite a somewhat primitive technological level they have built large underwater habitats that are full of air. These are facilitated with the aid of "bubblerplants," a seaweed-like plant that grows in the shallows of Uranus, which convert water into air through a chemical process. This air is released as bubbles and can be captured in domes.

Uranus is very mineral poor, perhaps because of it's large size; most of the metals may have sank to the center of the planet during its formation. As a result most of the Uranians' tools are made of materials such as oyster-shell, natural resins, and ceramics. They use fire only rarely as it tends to foul the air in their undersea habitats, and have not developed metallurgy.

Uranians are very good swimmers, but for long journeys prefer to hich rides with the large cetaceans that wander the oceans of Uranus. Navigation is somewhat difficult as the skies are permanently cloudy and requires a good knowledge of ocean currents and the flora of various locales. Because of this Uranians tend to be somewhat nomadic, but in areas around islands more permanent and complex societies exist.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
32,000 miles	16.3 Earths	0.9 Earths	17.24 hrs.	84 years	1,800 million miles

Uranus also has a large family of moons, though there are less moons in the Uranian family than that of Saturn or Jupiter. Moons marked with an asterisk (*) have been discovered since 1997. These moons all orbit retrograde and have orbits that are highly elliptical and inclined to Uranus' equator.

Unlike other worlds, Uranus' moons are named after fictional characters from Shakespeare and other playwrights.

More technical information about Uranus's sattelites can be found at Scott Sheppard of the University of Hawaii's Uranus satellite page: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~sheppard/satellites/urasatdata.html

The Kuza are naturally very strong and are excellent miners. They use metal tools and are particularly fond of gems and precious metals; they mine and stockpile such items, while more common metals are only mined as need requires. The Kuza divide the great valley into "outposts" each with its own territory and jurisdiction. Organization within an outpost tends to be bureaucratic or militaristic in style. They tend to get along with each other though disagreements do flare up from time to time and the Kuza can be very stubborn. When this occurs feuds can last for decades.

The Kuza refer to their world as a "colony" and maintain that they came from another world, though they no longer seem to know where exactly they came from. The gold and gems they are stockpiling are intended to profit the "motherworld" and is apparently the reason the colony was created. Many Kuza believe that people from the motherworld will one day return and the Kuza will be rewarded based on the minerals they have mined.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
295 miles	0.0014 Earths	0.08 Earths (0.3 Earths within chasms)	1.41 days	84 years	81,000 miles (from Uranus)

The resident intelligent race, the Arileans, are humanoid in phisique and size, though they have blue skin and a pair of antennae sprouting from their foreheads. These antennae act both as vibration sensors and extra scent glands; this originally seems to have evolved to help them discern what plants are safe to eat, but the Arileans now use them to sense extra details about other Arileans. For example, Arileans can detect body scents easily, so they will be able to tell if someone is fearful, nervous, or stressed by the amount of perspiration they are excreting. Likewise, the vibration sense allows them to detect the heart rate of people close by and this can be used as a primitive lie detector system.

For such a technique to be successful, the Arilean must first establish a "baseline," a set of observations of a subject in his "normal" state. Typically an Arilean will use small talk and pleasantries to kill time, allowing him to get a "feel" for his subject before discussing something important. Often an Arilean has to reorient his antennae at a proper angle to the subject to allow these functions to work.

Arileans as a result are quite good at concealing emotion, and will seem very pleasant and germane. Few things will seem to upset them and they will talk about serious matters in a casual manner that might be disturbing to humans, and they will also seem to be without strong conviction. Arileans view overt displays of emotion to be somewhat crude and boorish, as are attempts to penetrate someone's emotional "shell." Since the twitching of antennae usually means that person is trying to pick up signals about another, it is also considered rude to do so in an obvious manner. Arileans will try to conceal the motion of their antennae with other body motion.

Arilean society is highly commercial and is based on the corporation. The contract is considered the chief form of written law and most Arilean law deals with contract law. The corporations of the Arileans tend to be large and control a wide variety of manufacturing and service interests. The 51 largest corporations form the "corporate council" and preside over anything that requires mediation between parties.

All matters that are not directly controlled by a corporation are referred to as the "Market", or "Mexa." This includes the vast majority of Arileans themselves and also transactions between corporations and each other or the general public. Business transactions are considered either "contractual," where a contract is given and obligations are incurred, or the "Mexa" transaction, where a good is exchanged for another or for cash immediately and no further obligations are incurred. All Mexa transactions are "as is" and refunds are almost never given for shoddy products. The buyer is expeted to be aware of the quality of the good and is responsible for choosing one that meets his needs.

When corporations disagree, they are able to represent themselves quite effectively against one another, but common folk in the Mexa have little pull and cannot represent themselves effectively. As a result, a large criminal syndicate has risen among the Mexa that calls itself "The 52nd Company." The 52nd company attracts many who feel wronged by the corporations and can sometimes exert pressure on behalf of common folk, but always for a price. Most denizens of the Mexa prefer to avoid contact with the syndicate.

In fact, most of the Mexa hope for a full-time position within one of the corporations. About 30% of the population of Ariel is employed in such capacity by the Corporations, while the remainder are forced to get by on whatever part-time, hourly, or casual employment is being offerred. A wide variety of small businesses operate within the Mexa though often the motive for starting such a business is the hope that it will attract the attention of a large corporation who will offer to buy it.

The Arileans are advanced technologically, and their technology even exceeds that of Earth is some fields. In particular their knowledge of the ether and electricity is quite advanced, and their cities are equipped with electric lighting, telephones, and electric vehicles. In addition, the Arileans build Zeppelins for long range transport and can build ether flyers. However, these flyers are generally battery powered as solar boilers are not effective this far from the Sun. The Arileans have outposts on other worlds in the Uranus system and trade with the other races there.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
725 miles	0.0084 Earths	0.5 Earths	2.52 days	84 years	119,000 miles (from Uranus)

The climate on Umbriel is cool and similar to that of Britain or southern Scandanavia. Winters are snowy and cold, but not overly so, while summers can be warm, but never hot. Rain and stormy weather are common. The equator tends to be warmer than the polar regions, and a polar cap exists at the poles.

The primary form of intelligent life on Umbriel are called Umbrans, and are very similar to humans, with the exception, that, like most forms of life on Umbriel their hair is jet black and their skins are pure white. Their lips tend to show a slight touch of pinkish colour and their eyes are many colours, as humans are, though the colours tend to be very vivid and exotic, ranging from violet or red to amber or emerald. The eyes of an Umbran will change in brightness (though not in colour) depending on changes in emotion. The skin of an Umbran is sensitive to sunlight and an Umbran could not withstand the sunlight of Earth.

Umbran technology is similar to Earth's in the late renaissance. Their society is organized along vaguely feudal lines, and each crater valley tends to be independent from others. Wars are rare on Umbriel; though the Umbrans tend to be distrustful of outsiders they are rarely violent, and are not particularly aggressive towards one another.

This is beause the Umbran outlook is very fatalistic. They believe that should any individual Umbran make any kind of real achievement, they will meet a grisly end at the hands of a type of evil spirit called a Fangoro. Instead the Umbrans try to live life for the moment, enjoying what sensual pleasures they can and trying to forget about the grind of their daily lives. Umbrans have little in the way of agricultural or industrial surplus though they do produce an abundance of certain luxury goods, such as wine, exotic cloths (similar to earthly silks and velvets and including a slick, stretchy high-gloss fabric they call pevarc), jewelry, and narcotics.

The Umbrans delight in grisly tales of horror; their stories usually focus on stories of the man-eating Fangoro, who is a sort of doppelgănger, but also feature tales where an ordinary person mistakes another for a Fangoro and kills her. Despite their legendary quality, the Fangoro are very real and exist among Umbran society in a parasitic fashion. They can alter their appearance to conform to any humanoid form, though it is not clear if this is the result of some sort of illusion imposed on the mind, or if the Fangoro actually physically changes form. Fangoro revert to their natural form when they die; this is a six armed, six eyed, hairy creature with an insectlike mouth (though still vaguely humanoid). When a Fangoro replaces a person he will kill the person and hide the body, eating it at his leisure. To the Umbrans it will seem like the people simply go missing and are never seen again.

The merchants of Ariel visit Umbriel occaisionally to trade for the luxury goods that the Umbrans make, and trade a variety of products to the Umbrans, including manufactured goods from Ariel but also agricultural goods from Titania. It seems likely that the Fangoro have infiltrated Arilean society as well, by this point, though the Arileans are good readers of people and it will be harder for a Fangoro to pose as one of them.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
731 miles	0.0085 Earths	0.5 Earths	4.14 days	84 years	166,000 miles (from Uranus)

This practice of pubicking their enemies is similar to the scalping practice adopted by Native American tribes during the earlier periods of colonization. It is central to their warrior status and the Honshi actually write songs about the practice:

There are many more verses to this song.
* - "Hoshoo" is a standard war cry among the Honshi.
** - "Hideki" is the name of a particular tribe.

Most areas of Titania are quite primitive, though it seems like some regions had at one point reached a bronze age level of technology. However, the Arileans have come to Titania, originally to trade, and most manufactured items on Titania are made on Ariel. The primary trade items are usually weapons, though the Arileans will not allow the Honshi to have firearms and ususally trade them swords and other metal implements.

But since the Honshi have little to offer in trade, the Arileans have begun to colonize Titania, and have set up plantations on the planet, often using Honshi as slaves. The Honshi have never presented a united front to the Arileans and are more likely to fight each other. However, the Arileans have begun hiring the Honshi as mercenaries. Generally the Honshi chief will bargain for the whole tribe, who will fight as a unit. Often this is the fate of tribes who are driven out of their territory by the Arielites or other Honshi.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
980 miles	0.015 Earths	0.65 Earths	8.71 days	84 years	273,000 miles (from Uranus)

The Centaurs are wild and boisterous, and have a warrior culture, and traditions of bravery and honour. However, they are more likely to raid and fight for coup than they are to actually try to conquer their enemies. They tend to use spears in skirling charges, then abandon the spear for a slashing weapon like a sword or axe once melee begins. They wear plates of armour that are made from stiffened animal hide. The Centaurs do not manufacture metal weapons.

The Arileans also come to Oberon to trade, and usually the Centaurs will offer livestock or leather goods to the Arileans to trade for metal weapons and other goods that cannot be produced locally. Like the Honshi the Arileans do not allow the Centaurs to have firearms, and instead only trade them more primitive weapons like swords.

Data:

Diameter:	Surface area:	Surface Gravity:	Day:	Year:	Orbital distance:
950 miles	0.014 Earths	0.6 Earths	13.46 days	84 years	364,000 miles (from Uranus)