HOME | DD

Description
(Author's note: to commemorate 10,000 views, I present a two-part series on the terraformed worlds in Sol System. Feedback always welcome! Enjoy, and many thanks to all )

  Of the worlds first visited by mankind, it was Venus that was the harshest. Famous for centuries for its crushing, scorching atmosphere and inhospitible surface, Venus was viewed by many as the great unconquerable hell of Sol System. When man first set foot on Venus, it was only a brief visit, for the crushing pressure, acid rain and sulphuric atmosphere made for an unwelcoming world. With winds to scour metal and heat to melt it, Venus was seen as Old Earth’s twin and opposite. While Mars basked in the attention of Project Arcadia and welcomed the terraforming, Venus was left to languish in obscurity. The Venusian terraforming project started early more as a thought experiment than anything else, and was expected never to succeed - or at least, to last millenia.

    Today, Venus stands as one of the most spellbinding worlds in the Diaspora Humanarum, beautiful beyond measure. Nearly five hundred years have passed since the first terraforming seeds were sown, and in that time, Hell has become, if not Eden, then something like it. This would not have been possible, were it not for the location of the Sol-Al-Sadirah jump point in Venus’ L1 Lagrange point - it was only by bombarding the planet with ice from the Al-Sadirah formation disk that humanity was able to turn Earth’s erstwhile twin into a model for all temperate worlds to follow. Three hundred and ninety-two Terran years passed between the beginning and the conclusion of the Venusian terraforming project, and a further two hundred and ninety-one have passed since then.

    Venus is a world of warm seas and forested continents with lagoons, bays and arcing mountains, its surface dominated by an equatorial belt of inhospitable desert where temperatures regularly rise above 60'C. The bombardment of the planet with Al-Sadiran ice served to speed up its rotation, although Venus still has the longest day of any terraformed world - nearly fourteen Terran days from one dawn to the next. The Venusian atmosphere is also one of the densest, with 3.4 atmospheres of pressure at sea level. At such densities, nitrogen narcosis and mild oxygen poisoning are common among unacclimatised visitors; many find the long diurnal cycle hard to adapt to. These two factors combined produce a condition known as the Venusian Rapture, an affliction that most visitors to the planet adapt to within a matter of days; in extreme cases, acclimatisation can take up to three weeks. Most visitors to Venus only venture outside with rebreather units, and there exist numerous domed cities with more standard air pressures within, to accommodate the huge numbers of migrants, holidaymakers and other itinerants that Venus plays host to, situated as it is on the threshold of the Sol-Al-Sadirah jump point.
  Venusian wildlife, gengineered since antiquity to cope with the planet’s extremes, is chiefly Terrestrial of origin, although given Venus’ conditions, life imported from out-system - particularly from Mandalay - has adapted well to the planet’s long days and dense atmosphere. Indeed, Venusian strains have evolved even during their relatively short time on the planet, to take advantage of the denser air and marginally lighter gravity; a number of avian species have become noticeably bigger, and Venusian insects are much larger than their Terran cousins. Venusian plant-life, similarly, is amongst the most vigorous in the DH, spurred on as it is by the planet’s rich chemicals, bright sunlight and dense atmosphere. Venus' colonial history is almost as fraught as Mars', but with initial colonisation not beginning in earnest until the conclusion of the ice bombardment. Its first major colonies were riven by the divide of the Second Temperate War, with colonies from the International Consortium, Union of Asian Republics and Indo-American Entente on the one hand, and a mix of those of independent colonies aligned with the Jovian League on the other. Following the Jovian War, a unified Venusian government was established by the United Earth Alliance, bringing Venus into the Alliance as an Allied Administrative Territory, where it and its two billion inhabitants have remained ever since.

Description
(Author's note: to commemorate 10,000 views, I present a two-part series on the terraformed worlds in Sol System. Feedback always welcome! Enjoy, and many thanks to all )

  Of the worlds first visited by mankind, it was Venus that was the harshest. Famous for centuries for its crushing, scorching atmosphere and inhospitible surface, Venus was viewed by many as the great unconquerable hell of Sol System. When man first set foot on Venus, it was only a brief visit, for the crushing pressure, acid rain and sulphuric atmosphere made for an unwelcoming world. With winds to scour metal and heat to melt it, Venus was seen as Old Earth’s twin and opposite. While Mars basked in the attention of Project Arcadia and welcomed the terraforming, Venus was left to languish in obscurity. The Venusian terraforming project started early more as a thought experiment than anything else, and was expected never to succeed - or at least, to last millenia.

    Today, Venus stands as one of the most spellbinding worlds in the Diaspora Humanarum, beautiful beyond measure. Nearly five hundred years have passed since the first terraforming seeds were sown, and in that time, Hell has become, if not Eden, then something like it. This would not have been possible, were it not for the location of the Sol-Al-Sadirah jump point in Venus’ L1 Lagrange point - it was only by bombarding the planet with ice from the Al-Sadirah formation disk that humanity was able to turn Earth’s erstwhile twin into a model for all temperate worlds to follow. Three hundred and ninety-two Terran years passed between the beginning and the conclusion of the Venusian terraforming project, and a further two hundred and ninety-one have passed since then.

    Venus is a world of warm seas and forested continents with lagoons, bays and arcing mountains, its surface dominated by an equatorial belt of inhospitable desert where temperatures regularly rise above 60'C. The bombardment of the planet with Al-Sadiran ice served to speed up its rotation, although Venus still has the longest day of any terraformed world - nearly fourteen Terran days from one dawn to the next. The Venusian atmosphere is also one of the densest, with 3.4 atmospheres of pressure at sea level. At such densities, nitrogen narcosis and mild oxygen poisoning are common among unacclimatised visitors; many find the long diurnal cycle hard to adapt to. These two factors combined produce a condition known as the Venusian Rapture, an affliction that most visitors to the planet adapt to within a matter of days; in extreme cases, acclimatisation can take up to three weeks. Most visitors to Venus only venture outside with rebreather units, and there exist numerous domed cities with more standard air pressures within, to accommodate the huge numbers of migrants, holidaymakers and other itinerants that Venus plays host to, situated as it is on the threshold of the Sol-Al-Sadirah jump point.
  Venusian wildlife, gengineered since antiquity to cope with the planet’s extremes, is chiefly Terrestrial of origin, although given Venus’ conditions, life imported from out-system - particularly from Mandalay - has adapted well to the planet’s long days and dense atmosphere. Indeed, Venusian strains have evolved even during their relatively short time on the planet, to take advantage of the denser air and marginally lighter gravity; a number of avian species have become noticeably bigger, and Venusian insects are much larger than their Terran cousins. Venusian plant-life, similarly, is amongst the most vigorous in the DH, spurred on as it is by the planet’s rich chemicals, bright sunlight and dense atmosphere. Venus' colonial history is almost as fraught as Mars', but with initial colonisation not beginning in earnest until the conclusion of the ice bombardment. Its first major colonies were riven by the divide of the Second Temperate War, with colonies from the International Consortium, Union of Asian Republics and Indo-American Entente on the one hand, and a mix of those of independent colonies aligned with the Jovian League on the other. Following the Jovian War, a unified Venusian government was established by the United Earth Alliance, bringing Venus into the Alliance as an Allied Administrative Territory, where it and its two billion inhabitants have remained ever since.