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Description
Yet another new planet. This one reflects my new surroundings in lovely Florida! This planet is called Calusa, after a Native American civilization that once flourished in Southern Florida before the arrival of the Spanish. It's slightly larger and more massive than Earth, but gravity is only about 15% stronger than on Earth so aside from a little initial discomfort colonists and visitors aren't in any danger. The planet is a semi-water world with 94% of the surface covered with a liquid water ocean, and all land is in the form of islands formed in the many volcanic hot spots found on Calusa. The islands are covered in green, plant-like autotrophs but because fresh water is scarce even with the near-constant rain the plants have adapted to living in far more alkaline conditions rendering all native plant life inedible to Earth organisms. Unfortunately most of them are rather sweet and tragedy strikes every year when children or pets are injured or killed from consuming the Calusan plant life. Due to this anomaly the Calusan government is currently negotiating with the United Earth Federation Bureau of Colonial Affairs and Department of Justice to grand special dispensation to lift the ban on large scale genetic manipulation to allow future generations of Calusan citizens to safely ingest the toxic plants. The decision is currently pending in a court of law. Most food on Calusa comes from the sea, where both native and imported flora and fauna are harvested or farmed respectively (plant and animal stock imported from Earth cannot freely roam the oceans of colonized worlds since rebalancing an oceanic ecosystem is a nigh impossibility compared to balancing a terrestrial ecosystem). Calusa has a large axial tilt but due to the significant ocean coverage the temperature of the planet is relatively uniform promoting a nearly homogenized tropical global climate except for mildly temperate regions around the poles, thus causing seasons to be more of a change in weather than climate. Rain is a daily occurrence for any population on Calusa as the large ocean is constantly creating tropical storms and, during the wet season, hurricanes. Orbiting a red dwarf star Calusa has been a habitable world for far longer than Earth has even existed, but strangely very little life has moved from the ocean, though many species spend some time or a portion of their life cycle on the land or in the air. Scientists believe this is because the lack of large landmasses has put little pressure on species to move permanently to a terrestrial lifestyle, but nobody is certain on the exact reason for this oddity.

Due to limited land space and lack of easily exploited natural resources the cost of living on Calusa is high, and thus most of the population is upper class. Many settlements exist on the floor of the shallower areas of the ocean and wandering the surface, which is where most of the middle and lower class Calusans live. People living in the sub-surface communities are usually middle class working in some kind of ocean-floor resource extraction while the poor live in floating shanty town "slumrigs" or massive nomadic flotilla communities relying on scavenging and trading to make ends meet. The latter communities are relatively isolated from most islands to avoid scaring away tourists, and while they do protest this often it is never pushed too hard since the majority of Calusa's economy is based around tourism. The "Paradise Not on Earth" vibe of the planet attracts many immigrants, most of which end up living in the slumrigs or eking out a living on an island somewhere contributing dutifully to Calusa's service economy, but every now and then an artist or entrepreneur makes it big and become a living example of the success of the Calusan Dream. Most of the initial colonists came from the Pacific and Southeast Asia while later settlers came mainly from India and Central Asia. The official languages of Calusa are English, Japanese, Punjabi, and Maylay. The most popular religions on Calusa are Buddhism (43%), Baha'i (22%), Islam (19%), and Hinduism (10%), though there is widespread practice of a distinctly Calusan folk religion that developed from the blending of various traditional religious and spiritual beliefs brought by the original colonists from Oceania, and many times the Calusan folk religion will overlap or blend with the previously mentioned major faiths. The most popular political factions on Calusa are the Progressive Liberal Party (32%), the Liberal Technocratic Union (21%), the Ecologist Party (18%), the Social Reformist Party (11%), the New Socialist Party (9%), the National Liberation Independence Party (4%), and the People's Union of Calusan Workers (2%). Calusa has a population of 101 million entities (97% human, 2% dorisian*, 1% cetacean) with it's capital at the city of Takengon (pop. 354,050) and it's largest city being Kiyoraha (pop. 3,001,962). Calusa has a total GDP of E$20.3 trillion, ranking 33rd in the United Earth Federation. Sea grapes are the primary staple crop of Calusan cuisine, though on many of the larger islands rice is cultivated for local consumption, and fishing produces the vast majority of animal protein consumed by Calusan citizens. Most energy is generated via geothermal power stations, though wave farms and solar arrays see widespread use in more isolated regions or regions without reliable geothermal activity.

*See the following deviation for more info:

Description
Yet another new planet. This one reflects my new surroundings in lovely Florida! This planet is called Calusa, after a Native American civilization that once flourished in Southern Florida before the arrival of the Spanish. It's slightly larger and more massive than Earth, but gravity is only about 15% stronger than on Earth so aside from a little initial discomfort colonists and visitors aren't in any danger. The planet is a semi-water world with 94% of the surface covered with a liquid water ocean, and all land is in the form of islands formed in the many volcanic hot spots found on Calusa. The islands are covered in green, plant-like autotrophs but because fresh water is scarce even with the near-constant rain the plants have adapted to living in far more alkaline conditions rendering all native plant life inedible to Earth organisms. Unfortunately most of them are rather sweet and tragedy strikes every year when children or pets are injured or killed from consuming the Calusan plant life. Due to this anomaly the Calusan government is currently negotiating with the United Earth Federation Bureau of Colonial Affairs and Department of Justice to grand special dispensation to lift the ban on large scale genetic manipulation to allow future generations of Calusan citizens to safely ingest the toxic plants. The decision is currently pending in a court of law. Most food on Calusa comes from the sea, where both native and imported flora and fauna are harvested or farmed respectively (plant and animal stock imported from Earth cannot freely roam the oceans of colonized worlds since rebalancing an oceanic ecosystem is a nigh impossibility compared to balancing a terrestrial ecosystem). Calusa has a large axial tilt but due to the significant ocean coverage the temperature of the planet is relatively uniform promoting a nearly homogenized tropical global climate except for mildly temperate regions around the poles, thus causing seasons to be more of a change in weather than climate. Rain is a daily occurrence for any population on Calusa as the large ocean is constantly creating tropical storms and, during the wet season, hurricanes. Orbiting a red dwarf star Calusa has been a habitable world for far longer than Earth has even existed, but strangely very little life has moved from the ocean, though many species spend some time or a portion of their life cycle on the land or in the air. Scientists believe this is because the lack of large landmasses has put little pressure on species to move permanently to a terrestrial lifestyle, but nobody is certain on the exact reason for this oddity.

Due to limited land space and lack of easily exploited natural resources the cost of living on Calusa is high, and thus most of the population is upper class. Many settlements exist on the floor of the shallower areas of the ocean and wandering the surface, which is where most of the middle and lower class Calusans live. People living in the sub-surface communities are usually middle class working in some kind of ocean-floor resource extraction while the poor live in floating shanty town "slumrigs" or massive nomadic flotilla communities relying on scavenging and trading to make ends meet. The latter communities are relatively isolated from most islands to avoid scaring away tourists, and while they do protest this often it is never pushed too hard since the majority of Calusa's economy is based around tourism. The "Paradise Not on Earth" vibe of the planet attracts many immigrants, most of which end up living in the slumrigs or eking out a living on an island somewhere contributing dutifully to Calusa's service economy, but every now and then an artist or entrepreneur makes it big and become a living example of the success of the Calusan Dream. Most of the initial colonists came from the Pacific and Southeast Asia while later settlers came mainly from India and Central Asia. The official languages of Calusa are English, Japanese, Punjabi, and Maylay. The most popular religions on Calusa are Buddhism (43%), Baha'i (22%), Islam (19%), and Hinduism (10%), though there is widespread practice of a distinctly Calusan folk religion that developed from the blending of various traditional religious and spiritual beliefs brought by the original colonists from Oceania, and many times the Calusan folk religion will overlap or blend with the previously mentioned major faiths. The most popular political factions on Calusa are the Progressive Liberal Party (32%), the Liberal Technocratic Union (21%), the Ecologist Party (18%), the Social Reformist Party (11%), the New Socialist Party (9%), the National Liberation Independence Party (4%), and the People's Union of Calusan Workers (2%). Calusa has a population of 101 million entities (97% human, 2% dorisian*, 1% cetacean) with it's capital at the city of Takengon (pop. 354,050) and it's largest city being Kiyoraha (pop. 3,001,962). Calusa has a total GDP of E$20.3 trillion, ranking 33rd in the United Earth Federation. Sea grapes are the primary staple crop of Calusan cuisine, though on many of the larger islands rice is cultivated for local consumption, and fishing produces the vast majority of animal protein consumed by Calusan citizens. Most energy is generated via geothermal power stations, though wave farms and solar arrays see widespread use in more isolated regions or regions without reliable geothermal activity.

*See the following deviation for more info: