Orbalia
|
Orbalia Orbália Orbaliya | |
.svg) Orbalia as seen from space | |
 Orbalia's orbit in the Aidus system | |
| Designations | |
|---|---|
| Names | Orbalia, Aidus e, munde, zemlya, the world, the globe |
| Adjectives | Orbalian, mundane, zemlyan, worldly, global |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Apoapsis | 4.403x106 km |
| Periapsis | 4.358x106 km |
| Semi-major axis | 4.381x106 km |
| Orbital period |
146.16 hours (1 uec) |
| Inclination | 1.14° |
| Satellites | None |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mean radius | 5976.314 km |
| Circumference | 37,550.290 km |
| Surface area | 4.449x108 km2 |
| Volume | 8.941x1011 km3 |
| Mass | 5.058x1024 kg |
| Density | 5.657x1012 kg/km3 |
| Surface gravity | 9.738 m/s2 |
| Escape velocity | 10.635 km/s |
| Axial tilt | 5.439° |
| Albedo | 0.406 geometric |
| Atmospheric characteristics | |
| Equilibrium temp. | 249.6 Kelvin |
| Surface pressure | 101.325 kPa |
| Composition by volume | 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% water vapor, 1% argon, 0.5% carbon dioxide |
Orbalia (Volsh: Orbalia; Langin: Orbália; Podchin: Orbaliya) is the fourth planet from the star Aidus in its planetary system. Considered to be the home planet of humanity in the system, Orbalia is used as the standard metric by which other planets and planetesimals are measured: it orbits Aidus at a distance of 1 OO (Orbalian orbits), it has a mass of 1 Om (Orbalian masses), a radius of 1 Or (Orbalian radii), and a gravitational pull of 1 Og (Orbalian gravity).
As with Pechlus, Velesa, and, typically, Chaius, Orbalia is considered to be an eyeball world due to being tidally locked to its parent star. This means that one side of the planet always faces Aidus, while the other side always faces away from it. Between the extreme heat and cold of the respective sides of the planet, the meridional terminator zone contains a mostly temperate climate. Due to the slight axial tilt of the planet, the terminator line moves throughout its revolutions of Aidus in the northern and southermost latitudes, while the line remains largely stable at the planet's equator. These revolutions and their impact on the temperature and light levels planet-side serve as the basis for the Orbalian calendar, which has been adopted throughout the entirety of the system for timekeeping purposes.
There are competing theories about the origin of life on Orbalia. The two most prevalent theories differ quite substantially: proponents of the Zemaian migration theory believe that the present-day lifeforms on Orbalia originated from an entirely different star system altogether, while proponents of the Orbalian homeworld theory believe that biological life on Orbalia originated there. Both theories, however, hold that Orbalia served as the first home of humanity in the system, whether through colonization or origination. During the Forgotten Age, the Drevnian Empire expanded across the system from Orbalia, a process which ended with the rise of the Drevnian Divinity at the beginning of the First Age. The total collapse of the Divinity around the beginning of the Second Age saw a renewed flourishing of Orbalian civilization, but the devastating Two Uec War of the middle Second Age halted and even reversed much of the planet's earlier development.
The Third Age was somewhat turbulent for humanity on Orbalia, due to the acute impacts of both the Hysterium and the Iyusi Crisis on the geopolitical situation of the planet. The Transvelesan Empire had a largely stabilizing influence, resolving the planet's acrimonious divisions through the offering of support to larger, more cohesive political entities. This gradual process resulted in the eventual consolidation of the planet under only a few polities by the end of the Age. When the Benian Divinity joined the Empire in III.28023, the Orbalian Dominion was established alongside the Aidusian Empire; soon after, the sole remaining independent political entity on the planet, Dammeringia, would follow suit, resulting in the planet's total unification for the first time since the First Age.
Modern Orbalia is home to a human population of 498 million, the largest of any planet in the system. The majority of this population lives within 15° westward and eastward of the planet's meridian, with populated places outside of this area being more centralized and distant from one another. Temperatures around the equator within this region are stable uec-round, while more northerly and southerly temperatures vary from -15°C in the night period to 25°C in the day period. Orbalia's nitrogen-oxygen atmospheric conditions are similar to many of its neighbouring planets, but its higher ratio of silicon and iron to water means it is the only planet in system which is half-covered in exposed landmass. Additionally, the planet's atmosphere acts as a conveyer of heat from the dayside to the nightside, a process which results in the localized weather conditions of rainfall and secondary temperature variance experienced across the planet.
Etymology
The Volsh and Anglatin proper name for the planet, Orbalia are shared closely with the Langin and Podchin translations of the word. The word itself is composed of wholly Anglatinic roots under any interpretation, and as such, it is considered to be a loanword when used in Podchin. Like many proper names in the Aidus system, there is disagreement as to the nature of which parts of the word exactly constitute its root components. Those who favor the Zemaian migration theory hold that orb and alia are the separable components of the word: orb meaning "spherical object" and alia believed to be a derivative of the Old Anglatin word alias meaning "at another place or time." Together, the whole word in the migration theory comes across as "spherical object at another place/time," which follows from the theory that Orbalia was indeed selected by migrants to the Aidus system from a distant home world. Proponents of the Orbalian homeworld theory hold that the root construction of Orbalia separates as orba and lia; in this view, orba has the same meaning as orb, while lia is interpreted as the result of alternation on the Old Anglatin suffix -ia, which is generally considered a nominaliser. Hence, in the Orbalian homeworld view, Orbalia simply means "the spherical object." In this latter interpretation, it is often held that the ancient Drevnians were acutely aware of the fact that their home planet was spherical in shape, at least by the time that standardized proper names were being applied to landmasses and geographical features.
In addition to its proper name, Orbalia is traditionally referred to by its inhabitants in a number of different ways. The terms world and globe are historically believed to have been used to refer almost exclusively to Orbalia, at least insofar as Drevnian society may have once been entirely bound to the planet. In Langin and Podchin, world translates as munde and zemlya respectively. There is still a predilection to use these terms in such a way by the inhabitants of the planet, especially by those who live outside of the planet's major urban areas.
Exology
Orbalia is the fourth planet from the system's parent star, Aidus. All planets in the system are locked in precise orbital resonance with one another; Orbalia exists in a 3:2 resonance with its preceding planet Pechlus, while Velesa, the superseding planet from Orbalia, has a 4:3 orbital resonance. Orbalia, like all other planets, are tidally locked to Aidus, meaning that one side always faces the star, while the opposite side always faces away from the star. Orbalia's orbital distance, measured at apoapsis and periapsis as 4.403 billion km and 4.358 billion km respectively, is used as the basis for the Orbalian orbit measuremeant; 1 OO is thus generally measured as 4.380 billion kilometers (the mean orbital distance of the planet).
Orbalia's orbit around Aidus takes 146.16 hours to complete. The planet's revolution around Aidus serves as the basis of the Orbalian calendar, in which one revolution is equal to one uec. Orbalia's orbital inclination is 0.207° above the elliptical plane of Aidus, this low degree being consistent with the other planets in the system. Orbalia's axial tilt is 5.439°, a relatively low degree which is also consistent with the other planets in the system. As Orbalia moves around Aidus on its axial tilt, the terminator line shifts around its northern and southern poles, leading to the phenomenon of sunrise and sunset in those respective regions. The terminator line is most stable on Orbalia around the equator. Like all other planets in the system, Orbalia has no natural satellites.
The mean radius of the planet, 5,976.314 km, gives it a circumference of 37,550.290 km and a surface area of 444.9 million sq km. The area which exists within most temperate region of the planet around the terminator lines measures to a total of 74.8 million sq km. This region generally maintains temperatures above -15°C and below 25°C. Towards the day and night sides of the planet, temperatures become more extreme, reaching a maximum of 80°C in the desert dayside and -80°C in the glacial nightside. The planet has an equilibrium temperature of about 249.6 Kelvin, or -23.55°C, which does not account for atmosphere and places it in the cooler end of the temperate zone.
Orbalia has a gravitational pull of 9.738 m/s2, which is typically denoted as 1 Og for use as a standard of comparison with the gravitational pull strength of the other planets. The diameter and mass of Orbalia, not accounting for air drag, give it an escape velocity of 10.635 km/s or 38,286 km/h.
Atmosphere and hydrography
The atmospheric pressure of Orbalia averages around 101.325 kPa (a little over 1 bar) at sea level. The average composition of the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% water vapor, 1% argon, and 0.5% carbon dioxide with a small amount of other trace gasses. Water vapor content varies the most, ranging anywhere between 0.01% to 5% depending on local conditions. The atmosphere has a whole is divided into layers which vary in condition according to altitude. The troposphere, the lowest layer, extends to about 12 kilometers above the planet's surface and contains roughly 80% of its total air mass. The overwhelming majority of weather experienced on the surface of Orbalia is contained within the troposphere. The stratosphere extends to 55 kilometers in altitude and contains the ozone layer, which shields life on the surface from the harmful ultraviolet radiation of Aidus. The mesosphere extends up to 85 kilometers in altitude and is the highest level in which clouds and lightning can occur, at this level being special forms known as noctilucent clouds and transient luminous events. The thermosphere extends up to the thermopause, which ranges from anywhere between 500 to 1000 kilometers of altitude. Above the thermopause is the exosphere, the outermost layer of the atmosphere, which is primarily composed of free-moving particles of hydrogen and helium.
The early planetary atmosphere of Orbalia is believed to have contained a significantly smaller portion of oxygen as a percentage of its total composition. Core samples taken from the Antisolar Glacier demonstrate that oxygen levels sharply rose during the Forgotten Age from a composition averaging around 18% to the present around 21% within an extremely small timeframe compared to their otherwise gradual rise. The reasons for this are unclear and are limited to a number of theories. The most commonly accepted theory attributes this oxygen-rise event to the rapid spread of photosynthetic algae in the Juxtiglacial Ocean, although whether or not the direct cause of the algae's introduction was anthropogenic is debated.
The hydrosphere of Orbalia includes all water systems on the planet and is intimately connected with weather events in the atmosphere. Solar radiation in the upper troposphere of the Subsolar Desert is so intense that ambient atmosphere rises and circulates towards the planet's meridian, significantly warming the atmosphere on the near-side of the solar terminator. In conjunction with half-uec-long heating from direct solar radiation during repose, portions of the Antisolar Glacier melt, this effect having created the Juxtiglacial Ocean itself. Direct solar radiation on the channels of water running away from the meridian generates large rainstorms (dayward storms), which are pushed inwards away from the Juxtiglacial Ocean by the Subsolar circulation air current, rising rapidly as they are acceleratingly heated by increasing levels of solar radiation. Once the water vapour clouds reach a certain height and are pushed out by lower, rising-heat airmasses and back towards the Juxtiglacial Ocean as even more massive rainstorms (nightward storms). Both dayward and nightward storms are critical elements in water-dependent life on Orbalia's surface.
The regular graviational interaction of Orbalia's planetary neighbour Velesa on the Antisolar Glacier results in a consistent period of tides across the Juxtiglacial Ocean shoreline. The 3:2 orbital resonance between Orbalia and Velesa means that for every 3 revolutions of Orbalia around Aidus, the second relative revolution of Velesa around Aidus results in a planetary alignment. The subtle gravitational pull of Velesa leads to a very marginal lift of the Antisolar Glacier, but due to its gargantuan size, this lift has a major impact on the relative height of the tides across the whole meridional ocean. Hence, the tidal cycle on Orbalia is precisely 3 uecs in length.
Geology and geography
As a terrestrial planet, Orbalia is primarily composed of silicate rocks and metals. Orbalia's interior structure is divided into three broad layers: the core, mantle, and crust. The inner core of the planet is composed primarily of molten iron which is thought to behave as a dynamo, generating the magnetic field of the planet and protecting from potentially harmful cosmic rays in conjunction with its atmosphere. The mantle of the planet is the layer between the core and the crust, composing the majority of the planet's mass and volume. The mantle is predominantly solid, but in geological time scale behaves as a viscous fluid. Mantle convection drives plate tectonics of the crust, which in turn creates mountains and volcanoes on the surface and ridges and trenches in the ocean. The crust of the planet is its outermost layer and also its smallest by mass and volume. While it composes a mere fraction of the planet's overall mass signature, the crust is the entire constituent of its surface area (barring those portions of the crust covered by water and ice). Geological features on the crust are deeply connected to convective movement in the mantle.
Orbalia's geographical surface is distinctly divided between its day and night sides. Climate conditions on the dayside have resulted in a broad swath of land completely free of bodies of water known as the Subsolar Desert. The Subsolar Desert generally consists of enormous fields of sand dunes intermittently broken up by tectonically generated mountain ranges. Roughly 40% of the planet's total surface is covered by the Subsolar Desert. Towards the nightside of the planet's land mass, hardy vegetation prevents the formation of dunes, but generally low amounts of rainfall and continuous sunlight prevent the growth of more complex plants, as such resulting in broad swaths of grassland and heath. Around the solar terminator line and throughout the coastal region of the Juxtiglacial Ocean, the heath gives way to woodland, which prefers the intermittent periods of rest and activity offered in this part of the planet by the half-uec disappearance of direct solar radiation. Additionally, across the grass, heath, and woodland regions, rainfall is increasingly more consistent, permitting the development and thriving of more complex forms of plant and animal life.
The Juxtiglacial Ocean exists as the largest single body of exposed water on the planet. This exposed Ocean spans somewhere around 5% of the planet's area. The Antisolar Glacier is a massive ice sheet that encompasses the near entirety of Orbalia's nightside. The thickness of the sheet ranges from a few hundred meters near the Juxtiglacial Ocean to around three kilometers at the solar antipode. Tidal gravity from Orbalia's inner and outer planetary neighbours cause water on the planet to sequentially pull and recede against the edges of the Antisolar Glacier, a gravitational arrangement believed to be the cause of the open-water Subglacial Ocean beneath the ice sheet. The Antisolar Glacier comprises roughly 50% of the planet's surface area, and when both Oceans and the Glacier are considered together, they collectively make up nearly 55% of Orbalia's overall surface cover.
Life
Life on Orbalia inhabits a variety of ecosystems both on and off land which collectively culminate as the biosphere. Plant and animal life are divided into biomes, in which the constituent forms of life interact with one another in the most direct forms. On land, biomes vary through differences in altitude, humidity, and distance from the meridional twilight strip. Land-based biomes around the solar poles (in the centers of the Subsolar Desert and Antisolar Glacier) are extremely barren, with the highest level of biodiversity concentrated around the planet's meridian. Estimates of the number of species living on Orbalia vary, with a majority of those believed to be undiscovered living deep within the planet's Subglacial Ocean.
The Imperial University of Rhoden classifies any planet that can sustain life as habitable and further considers Orbalia the most habitable planet of the entire star system. The distance of Orbalia from Aidus, its rate of rotation, axial tilt, orbital eccentricity, sustaining atmosphere, and magnetic field have all contributed towards the current climatic conditions on the surface. Orbalia provides liquid water, an environment in which organic molecules can assemble and interact with enough energy to sustain their metabolism. Plants can take up and fix nutrients from the atmosphere, soil, and water, with these nutrients then recycled through the various different species on the food chain.
Much of Orbalia's exposed land surface is decidedly hostile to life, whether in the sweltering sand dunes of the Subsolar Desert or on the frigid ice sheet of the Antisolar Glacier. Proponents of the Orbalian homeworld theory believe that life originated in the meridional twilight zone of the planet, where oscillations in the amount of sunlight received permitted the development of complex uecs and animal behaviours. Those who believe that humanity settled Orbalia from a different planet point to core samples from the Antisolar Glacier showing a dramatic rise in atmospheric oxygen levels around 125,000 uecs before present in the Forgotten Age. Additionally, the fossil record distinctly lacks any organisms which might be conceived of as ancestors to humans and likewise a number of other animal kingdoms now extant on the surface, a gap which Orbalian homeworld proponents often attribute to movement in the tectonic plates. Whether or not the activity of humanity on the planet has been helpful or harmful to the well-being of other species is a matter of debate.
Humanity
The Human origin debate includes the ongoing determination as to the exact origins of the human species on Orbalia and in the Aidus system as a whole. The two most scientifically supported theories are the Zemaian migration and Orbalian homeworld theories, both of which name Orbalia as the origination point of humanity in the later settlement of the system. Due to the Belvisajine Inquisition, the exact details of early human history on Orbalia remain factually unknown.
It is theorized that should humanity have originated on Orbalia that the species would have developed prominently in the semi-vegetated grasslands of the dayward meridional region of the planet due to the advanced methods of natural body temperature regulation possessed by human beings, possibly migrating along with the flow of rivers back to Juxtiglacial seashore during the increasing-heat periods of the Aidusal sunrise. Zemaian migration proponents theorize instead that Orbalia was selected due to its habitat similarity to the theoretical human homeworld Zemais. The human circadian rhythm indicates that the species possibly originated from a planet which was not tidally locked to its star, but instead rotated freely with a day-and-night uec of around 24 hours in length. Additionally, Zemaian migration proponents point to the rapid oxygenation of the planet's atmosphere roughly 125,000 uecs before the present as possibly related to human tampering with the atmosphere and the introduction of highly productive photosynthetic algae into the planet's hydrosphere.
Humanity's existence on Orbalia has been the most prominent of any planet in the system. Orbalia has long held the largest population of human beings, even in the immediate aftermath of the Two Uec War, and the planet has almost always been directly related to the development and welfare of the species as a whole across the system. Human cities are visible from space both in day and night conditions, the latter due to light pollution and the former due to urban sprawl. The effect of human activity on the planet's surface has been present throughout recorded history, and efforts have been continuously made to ensure that damage to habitability conditions is minimalized.
Demography
As of the 13th millennium of the 4th Age, there are approximately 498 million humans living on Orbalia. The overwhelming majority of Orbalia's population lives in the meridional temperate zone and its immediate environs. Roughly a tenth of the population lives outside this region, most of whom live in underwater settlements of the Juxtiglacial and Subglacial Oceans. 71% of the total population live in meridional urban centers, and a further 23% of the planet's total population live in its 10 most populous urban areas. Orbalia's planetary conditions allow for the practice of surface Crepuscular agriculture, which accounts for the vast majority of the roughly two-tenths of the population who live in rural areas. Orbalia has the longest life expectancy of any planet at 5681.4 uecs.
Even during the tumultuous mid-to-late 2nd Age, Orbalia has always possessed the largest human population of any planet in the Aidus system. Population counts began during the later stages of the Drevnian Divinity due to the development of slavery and the accounting of members of the security forces. By the end of the 1st Age, Orbalia's population was approximately 124 million. Throughout the course of the 2nd Age, the human population of the planet varied the most significantly. The relatively prosperous beginning of the 2nd Age came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of the Two Uec War; in a mere two uecs, the population of the planet plummeted from an estimate of 380 million to roughly 150 million, the most severe population decline ever recorded in human history. Throughout the 3rd and 4th Ages, Orbalia's population has largely rebounded and even surpassed its historic peak, with high rates of growth continuing to trend upwards through the gradual stabilization of the sociopolitical situation on the planet.
Society
Throughout the recorded history of the human species on Orbalia, humans have been organized into what are known as societies. A society is generally a group of individual beings who hold regular social relations and share distinct cultures or institutions with one another. It is believed that the first human societies emerged in the Forgotten Age, although the exact date of this development and its circumstances remain unknown. By the later stages of the Forgotten Age, Orbalia had developed three distinct varieties of human societal groups, each with their own language and cultures: the Volsh-speaking Volsic peoples, the Langin-speaking Langic peoples, and the Podchin-speaking Podchinic peoples. All the peoples of Orbalia are believed to have cohabitated peacefully with one another until the Drevnian War, which drove the Podchinic peoples to Velesa and saw the rise of the Drevnian Divinity in the place of the once-ecumenical Drevnian Empire.
Throughout much of Orbalia's recorded history in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Ages, human societies were organized broadly along cultural and linguistic lines in what are known as sovereign states. Much unlike the other planets of the Aidus system, Orbalia was highly fragmented into a myriad of such states. Typically, a cyclical pattern of consolidation and shattering defined many of the larger Orbalian nation states throughout history. Under the modern Aidusian Empire, Orbalia has been unified once more into a single political entity, a feat which had remained unaccomplished since the fall of the Drevnian Divinity in the 1st Age. The sociopolitical undercurrents responsible for the unification of Orbalia remain intimately connected to the undercurrent responsible for its political shattering in the first place. Popular ideology surrounding the ideal form of human existence has long been responsible for much of the state-building and state-destruction on Orbalia throughout its history; in modern times, political Pan-Aidusianism heavily influenced by Estrelic religious thought has been attributed to the willingness of much of the planet's common population to unification under the Empire.
As may be surmised from a historical overview of Orbalia's societal make-up, the context of human social life on the planet is in a perpetual state of flux. A variety of factors can be thought of as impactful with regards to this: culture, religion, and technology all play major roles in defining the sociopolitical context of any historical or contemporary period. Additionally, the status of human beings as mortal and the life of the parents influencing the life of the children contributes as well to the development of society on the planet, just as it does anywhere else in the system.
See also
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