Happy 4th of July to our American audience! To celebrate, we're releasing the first of our Foundation articles, a series of encyclopedia-style articles which will help explain various elements of the game world, from character bios to organizations to the world of Terranis itself, which is the subject of our first article.

Terranis: The world of Terranis was originally discovered in AD 3431, in the system designated Delta Gamma Phi. The designation system was brought about several centuries prior, as a result of explorers essentially running out of original names for systems, and a desire to use something other than an arbitrary numbering system even scientists would have trouble keeping track of.

Upon entering the system, the original explorers discovered five planets orbiting a yellow star not too unlike Sol, two were volcanic rocks of molten lead and other metals, two were gas giants, and the third planet was a solid world with the possibility for habitation. However, its atmosphere was still highly toxic and underdeveloped, almost like Terra was in the earliest epochs of its development.

Terraforming efforts began on the new world, called Belladrix. At the same time, it was determined its single moon, which became known as Terranis, would be suitable for habitation, but only after far more extensive work.

While Belladrix was made habitable and colonization began within a century, Terranis required several centuries of transformation. Massive quantities of molten lead and nickel from the inner two planets were injected into the core of Terranis and ignited, creating enough inner heat to bring the surface temperature to a reasonable level. This had the secondary effect of greatly increasing the gravity of Terranis, to almost a full G.

Gases from the gas giants were stored and molecularly altered into oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, and released into the newly-forming atmosphere of Terranis. Before long, the air became breathable on the surface, and vast quantities of water were synthesized and placed on the surface, until nearly two thirds of the surface became vast oceans. Even the orbit and rotational speed of Terranis were altered to make the days and years almost identical in length to Terra’s for the ease of the incoming colonists, most of whom were coming straight from Terra.

Finally, life itself was introduced onto Terranis, ranging from simple bacteria to full-grown plants and animals, and even humans. Billions of years of planetary development was condensed into a couple centuries, turning Terranis from a lifeless rock into a verdant and thriving world. The climate became mostly temperate, with no desert regions, and few jungles, mostly resembling Europe back on Terra.

Though the initial settlers spread out over the surface of Terranis, the first major city to arise is near the middle of the eastern continent, and becomes known as Saernis. It remains the oldest city on Terranis.

Despite the effort brought forth to make Terranis and Belladrix habitable, the system remained on the fringe of the Solar Alliance for centuries, relatively distant from any other major inhabited system. As such, the social climate remains largely similar to perhaps a country town, with the population largely unconcerned with events in the Solar Alliance at large. Trade and commerce exists to extensive degrees between Terranis and Belladrix, with Terranis supplying most of the resources and food for the two worlds, and Belladrix providing most of the industry and technology. However, contact with other systems is infrequent at best.

This situation remained through the Judgment War. Though the two worlds contributed as best as they could to the overall war effort, the war never actually came to them until the Fall, when a small fleet led by Astanathos invaded, and nearly destroyed both worlds.

Because most of the industrial work had been performed by Belladrix, Terranis was unable to cope with the sudden isolation from their neighbor world, and was thus unable to manufacture any sophisticated armaments to battle the invading monsters, hence their newfound reliance on basic hand-forged implements of war.

Following the invasion and the defeat of Astanathos, the people of Terranis found themselves unable to rely on the industry of Belladrix anymore, and so forges and smithies emerged to manufacture needed tools for farming, life, and war. By the time of Unto the Breach, technology had advanced somewhat, but they have still been unable to develop anything that would harness the power of steam or electricity.

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