Tertan
 Tertan as seen from orbit. | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Unknown |
| Discovery date | Prehistory |
| Word of mouth | |
| Designations | |
| Pronunciation | ter-ten or ter-tan |
Named after | Fillorgiar word for "homeland" |
| Tertaan, Tinaria f, Tinaria V, Polytinaris Bf | |
| Adjectives | Tertanian |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| 0.771 AU | |
| 276.4 days | |
| Known satellites | 3 known natural; estimated 70,000 artificial satellites |
| Physical characteristics | |
Mean diameter |
11,794.8 kilometers 7,328.9 miles |
Mean radius |
5,897.4 kilometers 3,664.5 miles 92.5% of Earth's |
| Volume | 859.2 billion km³ |
| Mass |
4.718e+24 kg 0.78 Earth mass |
Mean density | 5.422 g/cm³ |
|
6.6° rotational period 28 hours 19 seconds[1] | |
| Atmosphere | |
Surface pressure | 101.97 kPa |
| Composition by volume |
77% nitrogen 21% oxygen 0.9% argon 0.5% water vapor 0.06% carbon dioxide 0.001% hydrogen 0.0009% neon <0.0001% lithium trace of helium, methane, ammonia, ozone, xenon, and chlorine |
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Tertan is the inhabited fifth planet of the Tinaria System, which is one of three systems comprising the triple star system of Polytinaris, located over 30,000 light-years away from Earth in the distant Polytinaris Spur, which is itself located within the Milky Way Galaxy's Far 3 kpc Arm. It is the home planet of an intelligent race of humanoids known as the Aerlons, in addition to being host to millions of other species of plants and animals in its vast oceans, on its land, and in its atmosphere.
Tertan formed about 6 billion years ago along with the rest of the Polytinaris System. Life has existed on the planet for around 5.5 billion years and became particularly complex to the point of evolving into an advanced race known as the Palaeroni over 3 billion years ago. The Palaeroni were a high-tech society that controlled thousands of solar systems beyond Polytinaris at their peak, perhaps ruling over most or all of the Milky Way. Roughly 2 billion years ago, the Palaeroni were wiped out by a mysterious cataclysm that led to Tertan becoming uninhabitable for several million years: the biosphere recovered over time, and much closer to the present day (around 900,000 years ago) the aerlons evolved. As they propagated across the entire planet, the aerlons formed into nations resembling those formed by humans. After developing spaceflight technology, they began interacting with the other nations of the Polytinaris System and unified to form the Polytinaris Commonwealth in 1329. After several centuries of this unified rule, Tertan's control changed hands again and went to the brutally left-wing Tessian Hegemony after a revolution in 1998. As it grew into an interstellar superpower, Tertan itself became the sprawling capital of it - at the Hegemony's peak, Tertan had a population of over 17 billion.
Timekeeping
A single Tertanian year is approximately 276.4 Earth days in length, or 269.66 Tertan days in length - the planet rotates once on its axis roughly every 28 hours. Each year is 270 Tertanian days long, except for in skip years (which occur every third year) in which the year is only 269 days long. All of the nine months within the year are 30 days long, but in skip years, the final month of the calendar is shortened by one day; as such it is only 29 days long. The months are as follows:
- Holazia
- Istrelliom
- Aprenzia
- Tydarn
- Urdarn
- Auctassor
- Scenellia
- Oktellia
- Pazarin
Each month is divided into three ten day-long[2] sections known as trivents, which are roughly equivalent to weeks on the Earth-based Gregorian calendar. Each day of the trivent has its own name, which are as follows:
- Unatri
- Divatri
- Triatri
- Quantri
- Quineji
- Sifeji
- Selella
- Oscalla
- Nonella
- Dektella
There are no seasons on Tertan due to its minimal axial tilt; as such it has a warm climate year-round, however there is a dry season between Oktellia and Istrelliom, and a wet season between Aprenzia and Scenellia. Years on Tertan are described under a system known as “u.t.” (ulolles tertaanei), meaning “modern Tertanian”, similar to the Terran Common Era. The zeroth year of u.t. is roughly equivalent to Earth year 216 BCE.
Physical characteristics
In terms of composition, Tertan is very similar to the Earth. It is a terrestrial planet with three distinct layers: a rocky crust, a silicate mantle, and an iron core. Tertan's core is also divided into an inner and an outer core just like the Earth's is, and its upper mantle/crust also has a clearly defined lithosphere and an asthenosphere. Tertan's outer crust layer is on average around 15 kilometers thick; its mantle is over 2,600 km in depth, and both layers of its core account for the remainder (around 3,250 km).
The average radius of Tertan is 5,897.4 kilometers, or around 93% that of Earth. It is also a little less massive, having around 78% of its mass. This creates a lower gravitational force on its surface - a little under 86% of Earth. Its average density is 5.422 g/cm³. In terms of size, Tertan is the fourth-smallest planet of the Tinaria System, being larger than its neighbors Svorda, Altein, and Murmesa - but just slightly smaller than the inner planet Dend. It is the third-largest terrestrial planet in the system, after Dend and Saneya.
Uniquely amongst the terrestrial planets in the Polytinaris System, Tertan rotates in a retrograde direction - opposite to the way that it orbits in, which is prograde and identical to those of the other planets of Tinaria. It is thought that this unusual trait was the direct result of a large impact event early in its history, one that likely also formed its two largest natural satellites. This reversed direction of rotation is also exhibited in the adjacent Genenia System’s Transsylvia; however, said planet is a gaseous gas giant and not a terrestrial planet like Tertan.
Moons
Tertan has three known natural satellites (moons) - Tryaxiana, Evelosia, and a third smaller unnamed satellite designated as T3.
Tryaxiana
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Evelosia
T3
Geography & geology
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The majority of the landmass on the planet Tertan is fused together into a massive supercontinent known as Vardellum. This continent has many sub-sections within it, including the Santrian region in its east, the Tauneh Peninsula to the south, and the Hretolia Islands in the center-northwest. Many of these subsections are actually separated by tectonic rift zones, creating chasms, valleys, and seas in between them. This rifting is most evident in Santria and Tauneh; not so near Hretolia. The massive megacity of Ovzeria City - home to over 100 million residents - is located on a peninsula to the south of the Hretolia Islands. Besides Vardellum, there are many island continents spread throughout the massive oceans surrounding it. The most notable of these are the groups of the Xeysis Archipelago, Wysouth, Zejinin, and Daunjey. There are several named bodies of water on Tertan, those being Flozarian, Lodrelian, Ajaeon, Nivares, Polarajis, and Australonian Oceans.
Tertan's volcanic and tectonic activity is similar to Earth's. On average, several dozen earthquakes and small volcanic effusions occur every single day, and thousands occur in a year. An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 only happens about once every ten years, while one of magnitude 9.0 once every century. Supervolcanic eruptions seldomly occur and can be extremely damaging and destructive when they do. The most active regions for tectonic activity are the Daunjey & Zejinin island continents, and the Hretolia Islands located in north-central Vardellum.
Climate and weather
The climate of Tertan is generally warmer and wetter than Earth due to its closer proximity to its star. The average temperature on Tertan is roughly 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), meaning that there are no ice caps on Tertan. Snow only occurs very seldomly at high altitude and latitude. Warm, humid rainforests and vast scorching deserts cover most of the tropics; towards the poles, temperatures border on a more subtropical-type climate. The highest temperatures on Tertan can soar to over 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82 degrees Celsius), whilst the lowest are around 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius).
Tropical cyclones are the most common form of extreme weather events on Tertan. On average, about 100 to 150 systems of at least tropical storm intensity form during a Tertanian year. Thanks to the planet's extremely warm oceans, tropical systems can get much stronger and much larger than on Earth: storms with winds higher than Hurricane Patricia or pressures lower than Typhoon Tip occur all the time. Storms with winds of more than 300 mph and pressures of less than 800 mbar are also fairly common and can even reach 400+ mph & <700 mbar on some occasions. The very largest and strongest Tertanian tropical cyclones are equivalent to the theoretical category of hypercanes, having winds of 500+ mph and pressures of <600 mbar. Tropical storms can also get very large, with their winds spanning 2,000+ miles in some exceptional cases. In the Flozarian, Lodrelian, and Ajaeon Oceans, tropical cyclones are called Tempessas. In the Nivares Ocean they are known as Tropical Cyclanuses, and around the Wysouth Islands they are called Wysocanes. Activity reaches a global peak during the month of Auctassor, although high levels of activity also occur in Urdarn & Scenellia. Due to the planet’s retrograde rotation and a reversed Coriolis effect, cyclonic systems rotate clockwise in Tertan’s northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in its southern.
Other forms of extreme weather, such as floods, tornadoes, and thunderstorms, also occur on Tertan. They can also get quite powerful: the largest Tertanian tornado ever recorded was the 4.2 mile wide "Your Doom" tornado of 1983. In most cases, the aforementioned tropical cyclones and hurricanes form the primary source of rainfall on the planet during its wet season. More than half of Tertan’s tornadoes are also generated by tropical storms. However, the strongest Tertanian tornadoes occur in central Vardellum, where a favorable combination of air currents create conditions akin to the Tornado Alley on Earth.
History
Tertan along with the rest of the Polytinaris System first formed a little over 6 billion years ago from a massive molecular cloud which collapsed under its own gravity and coalesced into three separate protostars. The planet itself started small, but grew from accretion of mainly rocky materials over a period of several million years. At some point during its early history, the planet was battered by a massive impactor which is thought to have formed its two major moons and have caused its unusual backwards rotation.
For the first billion years after its formation, Tertan received constant bombardment from comets and asteroids. This early phase of meteor impacts was the source of much of the planet’s surface water: by the end of this period Tertan was an oceanic world with vast seas. The first undisputed evidence of life on Tertan dates from approximately 5.5 billion years ago. Lifeforms steadily evolved in complexity from then on, and eventually colonized the entire planet from then on: by 3 billion years ago, vastly intricate ecosystems populated by dozens of different species had emerged and filled all kinds of niches across Tertan’s land, its oceans, and even in its atmosphere.
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Life
An estimated 9 million species of lifeforms inhabit Tertan, which is roughly comparable to albeit slightly greater than the 8.7 million known extant species on Earth. Life on Tertan is based on molecules and structures that are analogous (although not entirely identical) to the cells and DNA of Earth life. The three dominant classes of Tertanian life are Teslen, Tamaea, and Thultho.
Teslen
Teslens are analogous to Earth’s plants. Like plant life on Earth, teslens produce energy by converting sunlight (or in this case, Tinarialight) via means of photosynthesis. During this process, teslens also take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
There are approximately 450,000 species of teslen, ranging in size from tiny unicellular plankton-like organisms to massive wooded lifeforms that can reach over 150 meters in height. Because of Tertan’s weaker gravity, teslens tend to be a little taller and a little narrower than Earth plants. Many species of larger teslens reproduce by growing flower-like appendages and/or releasing pollen-like spores into the atmosphere.
The most notable visual difference of teslens is their deep reddish foliage, compared to the green foliage of Earth plants. This trait is adopted in order to allow chlorophyll (tertophyll) to more effectively absorb Tinaria’s redder light. Many species of teslens also adopt succulent-like outer chemical coatings to protect from the slightly more intense radiation the planet receives (due to it orbiting closer to Tinaria than Earth orbits its sun). In some cases, the protective coatings can also lighten the natural red hues of the tertophyll or even grant them other colors like orange, yellow, purple, or pink. Flowering bodies of teslens are usually cool-hued green or blue, which contrasts strongest with the red of the foliage.