So I started trying to describe one of the first pieces I wrote for this story and realized I was trying to explain the entire setting in that context. I figured I ought to back up a bit and give y'all an overview; this will stand as another of the fixed "pages," accessible via the tabs below the site title. I will update this only if significant, major changes occur; see below for details. Otherwise, continued development will take place in regular "posts" as it happens.
Rosa is a small reddish star, not so far from the worlds humankind once called home. (Those old worlds are lost now, formless ideas in the hazy fog of the distant past. Though I personally have ideas for what happened, I don't intend to canonize any particular story.) Rosa has a few planets making up a compact, stable system much like TRAPPIST-1, packed much more closely than the worlds of old; each is quite accessible from the others, with voyages lasting only a few of what were once called Earth days.
There are people here. Few can say with confidence exactly when and how they got here, although it's on the order of a thousand Earth years or so. Already they have found their footholds on these worlds, with towns and cities growing more prosperous and populous as time goes on. I know of three such worlds for now:
- pr'Sefone is nearest to Rosa, and never turns its face from her; its day side is a scorched, lifeless desert, while its night side is an enigmatic frozen wilderness. The narrow band along the day/night terminator, which experiences perpetual dawn/dusk, harbors the many farming communities that populate this world. In spite of the other extremes, this temperate region offers fertile soil and modest water, found in reservoirs and small lakes and streams. It is characterized by rolling prairies, where local vegetation stakes its steady living; farmers work to protect their crop from being outcompeted by these hardy organisms. Their harvest follows winding roads that link and merge until they reach the largest cities, notably the capital Eterna, which acts as the primary spaceport to transport goods offworld. While many families once thrived on subsistence farming, industrialized agriculture is threatening their livelihoods and depleting the environment in a very unsustainable way.
- irid'An is the next out, sitting comfortably in the most pleasant temperature range of the system. Its broad oceans, lush islands with their dramatic cliffs, and general greenery make for an idyllic capital world, which harbors a majority of the people of Rosa. Its relatively well-paced day/night cycle provides the basis for time as measured across all three inhabited worlds, owing to its influence over the society as a whole. Admittedly, this one is the least developed, and I am actively working to differentiate it in interesting and unique ways, as it will become an important destination in the story.
- Orus is the most distant, and the least hospitable (compared against pr'Sefone's temperate band, anyhow). Its deep, churning seas crash against rocky mountain peaks, their jagged ridgelines jutting out of the turbulent surface. With a laboriously long rotation period, the days can reach rather comfortable temperatures. However, the long nights plunge far below freezing, encrusting the sea in treacherous sheets of broken ice. In spite of the hazards, Orus is the most mineral-rich by far, with productive deposits easily accessible by ravenous mining machinery. Indeed, most of Orus' original population was called there by the mining industry, although the cities have flourished far beyond these limits now.
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