Harr

Planet from orbit

Planet Harr is the homeworld of the Raharr species and is orbiting a binary star of the same name.

Harr is an earthlike planet, second in its star system. It has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere; some trace elements in the atmosphere interacting with the sunlight from the stars, and a relatively high concentration of airborne chlorophyll-like microorganisms giving the planet its famous green skies.

Cosmology

The planet rotates around the stars in a circular orbit at a distance of 6.5 a.u. The planet's axis is inclined by 5 degrees. A year lasts approximately 6.78 Earth years. The planet has three natural moons, several small insignificant bodies captured by the gravity of the planet, as well as a dozen large orbital stations that serve as orbital docks, and orbital defense platforms simultaneously. It has a radius of 7 thousand kilometers, with a surface gravity of 1.1G.

Moons

Moons of Harr and their relative size compared to the suns

Nul - the largest of the Harr's moons, and furthermost, orbiting at 453 thousand kilometers from the planet. Its orbiting period is 32 days. It is in tidal lock with the planet, so only one hemisphere can be seen from the surface of the planet.

Num - the second largest moon, orbiting at 348 thousand kilometers, with an orbital period of 27 days.

Nel - not a proper moon, but instead is a large asteroid ~200km in diameter orbiting at 87 thousand kilometers every 5 days, caught in the gravity field of the planet relatively recently - some of the most ancient raharr legends and stories speak of only two moons in the sky. Some researchers claim, judging by indirect evidence, that Nel becomes Harr's satellite because of Artifact X interference, that it was otherwise bound to collide with the planet. The asteroid has a retrograde orbit with a high inclination.

Once in a while, a Moons Meeting occurs, when all three moons come close together in the sky. This is considered a bad omen, not entirely unjustified, as the combined gravitational pull of the moons results in especially large tides that flood coast regions. In 3300 B.R., on a day of the Continental Empire establishment, the Moons Meeting on the Riyk territory coincided with a solar eclipse, which caused major panic throughout the population.

Calendar

Schematic representation of the suns cycle as seen from the surface

The Raharr calendar is based on an ancient system of sowing crops and consists of cycles of revolving of the planet around the star, divided into three years separated by the harvest periods.

Each year lasts approximately 825 days divided into 25 33-day-long months, which in turn consists of 5.5 weeks containing 6 days of 30 hours. Because the orbital revolution of the planet doesn't exactly fit in an even number of day cycles, in the last year of the cycle one day is sometimes added at the beginning of the next year. Traditionally, this day counts as a holiday when "time takes a rest".

Dates are recorded in five digits system "2000.3.40.5.6" (cycle, year, month, week, and day). There are, although much less common and considered somewhat outdated, Moon calendars that use the positions of the planet's moons as reference points. They are linked in a complex step-by-step system of time calculation and are used mainly by some professions related to planting and farming, almost unknown outside of them.

Though the numerical system defines a precise start of a new year, used for recordings and timekeeping, the official declaration of a new year (and the associated holiday) happens on the last day of the orbiting cycle of the suns, which is nearly exact 30 days, so unofficially the old year might end up being almost a full month longer. The last day of the cycle is defined by the smaller sun hiding in the glow of its larger counterpart completely, entering it from the right.

Biosphere

Surface map

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Climate

Suset as seen from the coast area

Climate is very warm, mostly tropical. The average surface temperature is 28-35°C, with record air temperatures of -30° and up to +70° on the equatorial island where artifact X and Science Corporation headquarters reside. Surface temperature, nevertheless, rise higher than that, over 100° in the Great Desert of Riyk.

Ecology

Currently, the planet is still recovering from the aftermath of being the cradle of the raharrian civilization. Technological advances, the transfer of most of the industry into space, and the reduction of the population due to off-world emigration made it possible to declare unprecedentedly large areas of the surface as national parks, with bans on any sort of industrial activity or large settlements. Currently, more than 60% of the surface is considered a national preserve, inside of which works are underway to dismantle the heavy infrastructure and erase the aftermath of the raharrian influence.

Population

Night map, showing populated areas

Currently, the population of the Harr resides at approximately three billion people, it reduced with the start of the Space Era and expansion to the outer colonies, before that peaking at 11 billion.

More than half of this population is concentrated in the planet's two largest megalopolises surrounding its two main spaceports, in Rirrkh and Riyk.

Politics

Politic map of the planet

Raharr home planet is still multinational, despite that raharr colonies on the other planets tend to be monocultural. But this is slowly changing with the Space Era, forcing states to merge together into larger countries.

All countries hold a neutral stand against each other and avoid direct confrontations. This still allows for covert "police operations" from time to time. Meanwhile, the civilian population skews more and more towards total unification of the planet under one flag and country boundaries become more and more blurred and formal.

The models for this prediction are Riyk, Rrirkh and Releksh - being de jure monolithic countries, they are the final stage in the unification of trading and other alliances of the various countries that comprised them.

Source Rrirkh

Western origin of civilization, originated from the Rrirkh lake, currently the most powerful player on the political map. Have the largest infrastructural and industrial capacity. Rrirkh has the largest spaceport on the planet, located in its biggest conurbation around lake Rrirkh, which also doubles as the unofficial capital of the entire planet.

Rrirkh has the only city-sized underwater settlement on the planet, located on the ocean's seafloor(2). It provides a research base for underwater ecosystems, rare earths mining, and tourist attraction.

Rrirkh prides itself on being an almost uninterrupted (except for the period of being conquered by the Continental Empire) descendant of the earliest raharr settlements on the planet, although much of the archaeological data was damaged or lost during the conurbation development.

Source Riyk

Eastern origin of the civilization on the planet and second in power country. Has the most extensive mining facilities.

Overall, raharrs are warm-liking and tend to settle in areas where temperatures do not fall under -10° Celsius. But Riyk heavily indulged in several adaptation projects bound to increase tolerance of their race to the polar regions. One such project is the arctic station (3), with several thousand raharrs living permanently there. The year-long clear sky and remarkably clean air made the station the perfect spot for an observatory station, that eventually became largest on the planet. This station discovered the Stabilisers orbiting the suns of their homeworld.

Riyk's dark stain on its history is its three Development Regions - areas conquered in ~700 P.R. from North and South empires, during an expansionist phase of the Source. These areas suffered heavily from the colonialist mindset of the Riyk, being basically cut up and sold to the highest bidder, with little to no regard towards the local population, which was either subjugated or expelled from their homes.

Releksh foundation

The Foundation is the third largest state on the planet, it was formed shortly before the Realization Event out of the alliance of Northern and Southern Empires.

Releksh is a purely agrarian estate, with over 80% of its territory made into fields, hydroponic gardens, and pastures, providing over 65% of the planet's entire food production. Today the state rapidly loses its importance in that regard, as more and more production is being moved off into orbit, and the general planetary policy is being aimed toward restoration of nature. Foundation also has the largest seafaring fleet, because most of its large cities reside at shores.

Science Corporation

Corporation logotype

Not a country per se, but the corporation is powerful enough that it makes it the third most influential entity on the planet, and its presence is widely felt in the rest of the Alliance as well.

The scientific corporation has origins in a small research laboratory that was bound to discover the greatest treasure of the harr - the Ancients base and Artifact X contained within it (1). These artifacts were located on a remote and hostile island in the middle of the ocean, which was a very harsh and unreachable place with air temperatures of +60° Celsius.

After the discovery and start of the research, some most ambitious and wise researchers realized what they had discovered, and they formed the Science Corporation to make sure that discovery wouldn't do harm. This basically meant mutiny, but the eventual attempt of restoring the control over the island failed, as by that moment scientists managed to upgrade their equipment with technology derived from studies of Ancient tech. Currently, Corporation is at the technological cutting edge of the entire raharr civilization, if not the entire Alliance, their employees working at the underwater settlement of Rrirkh, polar station of Riyk, on most of the colonized worlds and some of the planets of other Alliance members too. Many voice their disdain over Corporation's policies towards any discovered Ancient tech, that basically is a complete ban over any possession, but nobody has enough power or guts to change that by now. The Corporation become so huge over the years (there are rumors, that it owns entire planets in some far-reach corners of the Alliance) that it's subsidiary companies often take life on their own, sometimes treading borderline of illegal business.

Independent islands

Anarchistic state that spontaneously arose after the collapse of the Southern Empire. Sometime later Rrirkh started to attach islands to its territory, but when Science Corporation mutinied, Rrirkh stopped attempts temporarily, and then completely.

Islands become one of the darkest and most dangerous places on the planet. Anarchy attracts criminals and hotheads from the entire planet, and some come even from other planets of the Alliance. Relative order is maintained mainly by the two (and only) largest cities, but neither claims itself as the capital of the Independent Islands.

Island coalition

A commercial establishment that arose after a small club of billionaires purchased several islands from the states of the planet. The islands were massively reformed and now they house the best and most expensive hotels and vacation sites. Island Coalition is not an actual state or country, but it is amongst the richest entities on Harr, its tropical nature attracts tourists from all over the Alliance. All islands were proclaimed nature reserves, and the Coalition spends huge efforts on maintaining order and environmental cleanliness, as well as ruthlessly enforcing their laws. For those caught trespassing or violating one of many rules, the lightest punishment is forceful deportation and a permanent ban from entering territories of Island Coalition ever again.

The Coalition has faced many lawsuits and several attempts to penalize the establishment, but managed to evade justice so far.

Tashsha-Has

Tashsha-Has remains the most secluded and isolationist society of the planet. Not really interested in either planetary geopolitics or space expansion, it has one of the lowest population densities on Harr and prefers traditionalist lifestyle, in some places of the islands borderlining on regressivism. More than half of the residents do not even possess neural implants. Living in subpolar region but not belonging to riyk race, people of Tashsha-Has gained reputation of being generally grim and rough people.

Oshiri ro Harshegu Harshoha

Referring to itself as the "the True Continental Empire", this relatively small country is refusing to join Source Rrirkh as it's original goal was to "restore the Continental Empire", of which Oshiri ro Harshegu Harshoha considers itself a rightful and only inheritor.

Askherana

Another country that refused to join the Sorce Rrirkh, valuing its independence.

Ohtshohesha

Tropical equatorial island country, which relations with Source Rrirkh remain somewhat strained since during the expansion of Rrirkh it annexed one of the two islands that formed the Ohtshihesha nation.

Hzoraht

The only country on the continent that was refused an entry into Source Rrirkh. At the time, the country was swimming in corruption and criminal activity, and was generally viewed as an undesirable neighbor by basically everyone around it. Even though it improved dramatically since then, Rrirkh didn't extend an invitation yet, though Hzoraht generally considered as the most likeliest next member of the Source Rrirkh.

Lorshosherra Domain

Lorshosherra Domain is the youngest country on the planet, and the only political entity that established itself after the Science Corporation's revolt.

The country was born out of the dissatisfaction of the local population with the central policy of the Releksh Foundation, that was neglecting it due to lack of fertile lands suitable for food or cattle farming, and this dissatisfaction almost spilled out to a full-blown civil war. Releksh decided to grant the rebels independence instead and cut them off.

Zannyk Republic

A tiny island that has a rich history stretching back thousands of years. For the longest time, Zannyk was a neutral territory for mediation of talks between Continental, South, and North empires. It expanded and nurtured it's reputation as an neutral and unbiased actor over the years, becoming the global center of political negotiations, and its name became basically a synonym for diplomacy.

Sohilor

One of the few major countries that had significant population close to the north pole of the planet, the island it resides on was colonized by sea-faring rriykians in the times of Garn's continental conquest.

Riykgarr

Long-time brother nation to Sohilor, Riykgarr was absorbed into Source Riyk during it's expansionist phase, but later, as the atrocities of the Development Regions became widely known and condemned, demanded independence, which was granted in 25 B.R.

However, Riyk chose to retain control over the most smaller islands around the countries.