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Description

Humanity came to Ea a little over three centuries ago. The Ark left Earth sometime around 2070 CE, carrying ten thousand cryopreserved people that roughly reflected the ethnic variety of Earth, vast electronic archives detailing millennia of history and culture, compact industrial machinery, frozen seeds and embryos of hundreds of plant and animal species, and most importantly tools to measure planetary habitability (gravity, surface temperature, atmospheric composition, distance from star) from light years afar, and a limited AI to judge what world held the best chances for humanity.
Nobody knows exactly how far the Ark traveled, or or how long. Only that at some point it placed itself in Ea's low orbit, and thawed its human cargo. Landing pods reached the surface a few hundred km south of the Dagon Sea, while the bulk of the starship was left orbiting the planet.

As already mentioned, Ea is cold and dry, its winter long and harsh; the atmosphere is choked with toxic amounts of carbon dioxide (which could not be removed without making the whole planet freeze), there are no convenient deposits of fossil fuels, and native life is unfamiliar and often dangerous. The first generation of colonists suffered terribly, but eventually they learned both to adapt themselves to Ea, and to adapt Ea to them.

When population started to grow and material prosperity to rise, disagreements arose on how to organize their young society. Many resorted to violence both to extract resources from their neighbors or to impose their ideals on them; criminals became warlords, and warlords became kings. Disruption to Ea's biosphere spiraled out of control, as plants from Earth throve uncontrolled in the abundance of carbon, and humans drilled boreholes through the crust or blasted apart the icecaps in the attempt to prevent temperatures from falling.

It took 300 years for a stable order to arise. People scattered on all the planet setting up whatever form of society they preferred, as free as possible from each other's interference. The greatest powers are united in the Sevenfold Pact, in which they pledge to respect all others' independence, and to allow every citizen to move to the society of their choice unimpeded. Lesser nations (in grey in the map) have arisen elsewhere, enjoying the same autonomy, though they are not members of the Pact. In the spaces inbetween, dozens of smaller communities host people united by common culture, religion, or ethnicity.

The map also shows the location of the most important fishing grounds, agricultural regions, mining sites, and boreholes, as well as the maglev network that connects the largest cities.

Other works in the sequence:
- Introduction
- Tectonic plates
- Continents, oceans, and mountain ranges
- Prevalent winds and patterns of rain
- Climate zones and ocean currents
- Major toponyms
- Vegetation, coral reefs, and selected ecosystems
- UNSS Utnapishtim
- Earth in 2070

EDIT 26-01-19: renamed Tomyris to Shulamith for worldbuilding reasons, added Politeia and Panopticon
EDIT 05-09-20: renamed Politeia to Kallipolis, changed Landing Point and agriculture icons, added 3 cities to each Great Power and some traits of magrail

Description

Humanity came to Ea a little over three centuries ago. The Ark left Earth sometime around 2070 CE, carrying ten thousand cryopreserved people that roughly reflected the ethnic variety of Earth, vast electronic archives detailing millennia of history and culture, compact industrial machinery, frozen seeds and embryos of hundreds of plant and animal species, and most importantly tools to measure planetary habitability (gravity, surface temperature, atmospheric composition, distance from star) from light years afar, and a limited AI to judge what world held the best chances for humanity.
Nobody knows exactly how far the Ark traveled, or or how long. Only that at some point it placed itself in Ea's low orbit, and thawed its human cargo. Landing pods reached the surface a few hundred km south of the Dagon Sea, while the bulk of the starship was left orbiting the planet.

As already mentioned, Ea is cold and dry, its winter long and harsh; the atmosphere is choked with toxic amounts of carbon dioxide (which could not be removed without making the whole planet freeze), there are no convenient deposits of fossil fuels, and native life is unfamiliar and often dangerous. The first generation of colonists suffered terribly, but eventually they learned both to adapt themselves to Ea, and to adapt Ea to them.

When population started to grow and material prosperity to rise, disagreements arose on how to organize their young society. Many resorted to violence both to extract resources from their neighbors or to impose their ideals on them; criminals became warlords, and warlords became kings. Disruption to Ea's biosphere spiraled out of control, as plants from Earth throve uncontrolled in the abundance of carbon, and humans drilled boreholes through the crust or blasted apart the icecaps in the attempt to prevent temperatures from falling.

It took 300 years for a stable order to arise. People scattered on all the planet setting up whatever form of society they preferred, as free as possible from each other's interference. The greatest powers are united in the Sevenfold Pact, in which they pledge to respect all others' independence, and to allow every citizen to move to the society of their choice unimpeded. Lesser nations (in grey in the map) have arisen elsewhere, enjoying the same autonomy, though they are not members of the Pact. In the spaces inbetween, dozens of smaller communities host people united by common culture, religion, or ethnicity.

The map also shows the location of the most important fishing grounds, agricultural regions, mining sites, and boreholes, as well as the maglev network that connects the largest cities.

Other works in the sequence:
- Introduction
- Tectonic plates
- Continents, oceans, and mountain ranges
- Prevalent winds and patterns of rain
- Climate zones and ocean currents
- Major toponyms
- Vegetation, coral reefs, and selected ecosystems
- UNSS Utnapishtim
- Earth in 2070

EDIT 26-01-19: renamed Tomyris to Shulamith for worldbuilding reasons, added Politeia and Panopticon
EDIT 05-09-20: renamed Politeia to Kallipolis, changed Landing Point and agriculture icons, added 3 cities to each Great Power and some traits of magrail