Post by TheUdjat on Jul 17, 2008 13:45:33 GMT -5
Okay, Vemu, I know you've been waiting for this one. 
We start getting to the good stuff now. Bear in mind that this is all a draft. The colonies can be changed--though I think the enclosed ideas are pretty cool. They probably still need plenty of tweaking, at the very least.
Remember that this article is primarily concerned with landing on the planet and the fate of the colonies. The Dark Age is considered to begin when the colonies lose the technological advantage of their towers (and they all do), though in many cases this happens much sooner for some colonies than others.
Anyway, with that in mind--read and contribute.
Venusfall
Categories:
- From Earth to Venus—a look at colonization
- Cupid—Venus’s artificial moon
- The Colonial Ships—details about the vessels used
- Planetfall—what happened when the colonial ships landed
- Early Colonization—success and struggles in the first 20 Cycles
- Mid-colonization—Earth’s silence, lost towers, and other hardships in the second 20 Cycles
- Late Colonization—the tragedy the befell the colonies in the last 20 Cycles, starting Venus’s Dark Age
- Summary of the Colonies
- (Things to Detail) More of a ‘note to self’ kind of thing.
From Earth to Venus:
Inevitably, mankind would one day look out from their home on Earth and look at the stars and planets, knowing that out there were vistas of possibility. The planet Earth, through humanity’s errors and turbulent adolescence, bore the brunt of man’s growing pains. Minerals were depleted, animals subjugated, and every inch of land overpopulated through the miracles of science and medicine. It was clear that man would one day have to take to the reaches of space.
Man turned to distant solar systems—places like Tau Ceti, Alpha Centauri, and Procyon, searching for ready-made Earths just waiting to be people by man. But man also turned to his neighbors—Venus and Mars, the best subjects for the formation of a new Earth.
This story is about the colonization of Earth’s sister—Venus, with her crushing atmosphere, infernal heat, and acidic rains. Mars, Tau Ceti, and the others... those are for another time.
Venus posed a great number of challenges for the ingenuity of mankind, but humanity has never been one to back down from the improbable. Great scientists worked hard on the question of terraforming, and through processes we can only dimly understand (they’re futuristic, after all), they accomplished their goal—more or less. The pressure on Venus’s surface was alleviated, the sulfuric acid in the clouds reduced to a nuisance, the careful balance of those reflective clouds maintained to keep the temperature uniform, and to prevent the sun from burning all life on the planet to a cinder. Through careful genetic processes, plants and animals were seeded on the fledgling world, growing and adapting and spawning new species altogether.
Venus became habitable.
Colonizing the Morning Star was a question raised to the people of Earth long before the terraforming process was even finished. Thousands volunteered for the frontier of danger and opportunity, willing to risk everything for a new life, for space, for something more than the hustle, bustle, and crush of humanity’s throng on Earth. Still others were willing to even buy their way into the colonial process, and a unified world body from all nations carefully screened each individual colonist, composing waiting lists, priority seating, and more—even as the ships were still being built.
When terraforming was considered complete, an expeditionary force of specialists left to ensure that Venus and its orbiting supercomputer were ready to be settled. For months the mission proceeded, and ultimately it was declared an exciting—if risky—place to live. But with the wonders of modern technology at their fingertips, the colonists were sure to thrive.
Nine ships were built for the journey to Venus, each one bearing a thousand colonists. They were designed as both transport and colonial foothold, towering constructs that could house the colonists during their first years and provide a starting supply of machinery, food, water, electronics, and every other amenity needed to colonize a fresh, natural world.
Cupid:
Venus doesn’t naturally have a moon—we all know this. But to monitor and ensure that the delicate terraforming was not undone by unforeseen circumstances, and to ensure the safety of those planetside, a giant supercomputer was built to orbit the world, construct around a stray asteroid and set into orbit around the planet.
This massive device of unparalleled proportions was built not only to monitor the world, but to also monitor itself, perform routine maintenance, equipped with dozens of back-up redundancies, generators if necessary, space for endless archives of automated status reports, and even room for a human crew to inhabit it like a station should the need arise. The new moon of Venus, called Cupid, was part-moon, part-satellite, part-computer, and part-space station, providing for every eventuality the terraforming engineers could predict.
Except, naturally, the one that eventually occurred.
Even now, Cupid still orbits Venus on a steady 23.33 hour period, using a small army of lesser satellites and elaborate technology to monitor the surface—even penetrating the thick clouds that cover every inch of the world. With every circling of the planet, the tides down below rise and fall—for as big as it is, the gravitational pull was an inevitable side-effect (and perhaps an intentional one).
The Colonial Ships:
A marvel of man’s technological prowess, the colony ships were designed to be both rockets, spaceships, and buildings. They are massive constructs, built to hold 1,000 passengers, supplies for them, farming and construction machinery, communications devices, tools, and more. They were designed to launch from Earth, successfully make the trip to Venus (including making any unforeseen adjustments in-route), and land safely, thereafter becoming the core building for each colony.
Besides their utilitarian functions, each ship also carried personal mementos for each colonist, tokens of good luck for the ship, and a database full of information that the colonists might require on landing—chemistry, physics, geology, biology, agriculture, and so on. Though the information is obviously designed for Earth, it was thought that the information would provide a solid base for development.
Lastly, each ship also included weapons for self-defense—a notion thought useless, but inevitable. Being so far from home, it was thought insane not to have weapons, even if the only people to fight would be other colonists (outlawed, naturally). The ships were also equipped with necessary devices to monitor and communicate with one another, and to communicate with Earth.
Each ship was named for a goddess from old religions, choosing love goddesses where possible—as is the naming tradition for Venus. The nine ships were as follows:
[Excepting the first four towers, these are largely open to debate, relocation, and renaming. I have chosen names that I see as appropriate, trying to be somewhat multi-cultural, but the naming process is tricky. Other goddesses I haven’t though of may be used.]
Planetfall:
When the date finally arrived, the nine ships took off and made the journey to Venus—all without a hitch. Landing, however, proved a little less reliable. High winds played havoc with the landing process, and a couple of minor miscalculations turned into nigh-catastrophic events (or fully catastrophic events, in one case). The success of each colony ship landing went as such:
The loss of Ishtar was a world-spanning catastrophe on Earth. On Venus morale was significantly impacted, and only further so by the problems with Oshun and Lakshmi. Unfortunately, the other colonists could do little to aid their compatriots far away, but all had been given sufficient supplies for just such an event. Earth made it known that help and aid were enroute, though plans for a second wave of colony ships were put on a temporary hold due to the outcry at home.
In the meantime, the colonies would just have to make due. The 6 that still remained on-site began the lengthy process of settling and taming the wilds of Venus around them.
Early Colonization (almost 7 years, or 20 Cycles):
Early years were marked by slow adaptation to the new world, in most cases. Most colonists continued to track time in years, hours, minutes, months, and days. Farming Venus posed many new problems for colonies both in highlands and in lowlands, though the former fared better. The constant light and dark also posed new problems for the colonists, who were often fatigued from trouble adjusting to new sleep patterns, and disoriented from the lack of familiar cycles. It was truly a new world.
But these first years also saw the first children born on Venusian soil, symbolizing hope for the future and a new era. Colonists had been deliberately picked for a desire to procreate, so child rearing was an important concern for all colonies—and those that did not fare well in the beginning were significantly stunted in their later development.
As time wore on, all of the colonists began to realize the value of counting by light and dark, and noting the tides which were so intricately tied to the habits of the native life. The colonists were also first exposed to the dangers of acid rains at this time—more severe than they were told—and struggled to adapt to the fierce world climate. As years passed, though, the various settlements continued to prosper—but they always kept in contact with Earth, and one another when possible.
But the rescue ships and aid they were promised didn’t come—and before much longer, the colonists took matters into their own hands.
Mid-Colonization (20 Cycles):
This phase of colonially development was started by a most troubling incident. Suddenly, without preamble or warning, the colonial towers lost contact with Mother Earth. The colonists could no longer hear what happened at home, could no longer hear from their distant family and friends, and could, with finality, know that help was not coming. They were on their own.
The colonies began to develop individual identities during this phase, each adapting to their unique environment in different ways. But there were dangers, as always, and the unexpected events of the early years continued to plague the colonists. Still, they were beginning to understand their strange new world, its patterns, and found some success there.
The loss of Xochiquetzal and the sporadic contact from Aine was demoralizing, and the remaining colonies did what they could to keep up contact, all fearing that they might be the next. Mysteries seemed to abound in the new world, and the colonists were fearful—and rightfully so—of what would happen next.
Late Colonization (20 Cycles):
The late stage of colonization was marked by the rise of Venus’s first native generation—the children of Venus were growing close to adulthood, proving that the colonies would persevere—in whatever form—to a new era. But the world beneath them was continuing to awaken to their activities, noting these strange invaders that burned its plants, scored its soil, and felled trees to build mighty structures. The strange influence of Venus was already felt across the colonies, though they may not realize it, but the final blow had yet to be struck.
All of the towers that remained were spiraling towards a doom they could not see—and it was in this final age of colonization that it would strike them.
So it was that Venus drove each colony from their tower, taking away what edge the people had in mastering the wilds. The colonists were left scattered, deprived of technology and knowledge, and as the older generation was replaced, understanding of the towers and the tools within faded from man’s consciousness. The towers would remain lost for ages, some yet to be rediscovered.
Thus began the Dark Age of Venus.
Summary of the Fates of each Colony:
The above is a lot to keep track of, so I’ve tried to sum it up in brief below.
Things to Detail:
(Besides cultures and nations—those will be detailed, anyway)
- The Arcane Storm and the Anomalous Substance
- The Horrors of Ishtar
- The Deathless of Isis
- Xochiquetzal’s Entity
- The Circling Winds of Lakshmi
- The Cold
- Deep Water Sea Monsters
- Aine’s Predators
We start getting to the good stuff now. Bear in mind that this is all a draft. The colonies can be changed--though I think the enclosed ideas are pretty cool. They probably still need plenty of tweaking, at the very least.Remember that this article is primarily concerned with landing on the planet and the fate of the colonies. The Dark Age is considered to begin when the colonies lose the technological advantage of their towers (and they all do), though in many cases this happens much sooner for some colonies than others.
Anyway, with that in mind--read and contribute.
Venusfall
Categories:
- From Earth to Venus—a look at colonization
- Cupid—Venus’s artificial moon
- The Colonial Ships—details about the vessels used
- Planetfall—what happened when the colonial ships landed
- Early Colonization—success and struggles in the first 20 Cycles
- Mid-colonization—Earth’s silence, lost towers, and other hardships in the second 20 Cycles
- Late Colonization—the tragedy the befell the colonies in the last 20 Cycles, starting Venus’s Dark Age
- Summary of the Colonies
- (Things to Detail) More of a ‘note to self’ kind of thing.
From Earth to Venus:
Inevitably, mankind would one day look out from their home on Earth and look at the stars and planets, knowing that out there were vistas of possibility. The planet Earth, through humanity’s errors and turbulent adolescence, bore the brunt of man’s growing pains. Minerals were depleted, animals subjugated, and every inch of land overpopulated through the miracles of science and medicine. It was clear that man would one day have to take to the reaches of space.
Man turned to distant solar systems—places like Tau Ceti, Alpha Centauri, and Procyon, searching for ready-made Earths just waiting to be people by man. But man also turned to his neighbors—Venus and Mars, the best subjects for the formation of a new Earth.
This story is about the colonization of Earth’s sister—Venus, with her crushing atmosphere, infernal heat, and acidic rains. Mars, Tau Ceti, and the others... those are for another time.
Venus posed a great number of challenges for the ingenuity of mankind, but humanity has never been one to back down from the improbable. Great scientists worked hard on the question of terraforming, and through processes we can only dimly understand (they’re futuristic, after all), they accomplished their goal—more or less. The pressure on Venus’s surface was alleviated, the sulfuric acid in the clouds reduced to a nuisance, the careful balance of those reflective clouds maintained to keep the temperature uniform, and to prevent the sun from burning all life on the planet to a cinder. Through careful genetic processes, plants and animals were seeded on the fledgling world, growing and adapting and spawning new species altogether.
Venus became habitable.
Colonizing the Morning Star was a question raised to the people of Earth long before the terraforming process was even finished. Thousands volunteered for the frontier of danger and opportunity, willing to risk everything for a new life, for space, for something more than the hustle, bustle, and crush of humanity’s throng on Earth. Still others were willing to even buy their way into the colonial process, and a unified world body from all nations carefully screened each individual colonist, composing waiting lists, priority seating, and more—even as the ships were still being built.
When terraforming was considered complete, an expeditionary force of specialists left to ensure that Venus and its orbiting supercomputer were ready to be settled. For months the mission proceeded, and ultimately it was declared an exciting—if risky—place to live. But with the wonders of modern technology at their fingertips, the colonists were sure to thrive.
Nine ships were built for the journey to Venus, each one bearing a thousand colonists. They were designed as both transport and colonial foothold, towering constructs that could house the colonists during their first years and provide a starting supply of machinery, food, water, electronics, and every other amenity needed to colonize a fresh, natural world.
Cupid:
Venus doesn’t naturally have a moon—we all know this. But to monitor and ensure that the delicate terraforming was not undone by unforeseen circumstances, and to ensure the safety of those planetside, a giant supercomputer was built to orbit the world, construct around a stray asteroid and set into orbit around the planet.
This massive device of unparalleled proportions was built not only to monitor the world, but to also monitor itself, perform routine maintenance, equipped with dozens of back-up redundancies, generators if necessary, space for endless archives of automated status reports, and even room for a human crew to inhabit it like a station should the need arise. The new moon of Venus, called Cupid, was part-moon, part-satellite, part-computer, and part-space station, providing for every eventuality the terraforming engineers could predict.
Except, naturally, the one that eventually occurred.
Even now, Cupid still orbits Venus on a steady 23.33 hour period, using a small army of lesser satellites and elaborate technology to monitor the surface—even penetrating the thick clouds that cover every inch of the world. With every circling of the planet, the tides down below rise and fall—for as big as it is, the gravitational pull was an inevitable side-effect (and perhaps an intentional one).
The Colonial Ships:
A marvel of man’s technological prowess, the colony ships were designed to be both rockets, spaceships, and buildings. They are massive constructs, built to hold 1,000 passengers, supplies for them, farming and construction machinery, communications devices, tools, and more. They were designed to launch from Earth, successfully make the trip to Venus (including making any unforeseen adjustments in-route), and land safely, thereafter becoming the core building for each colony.
Besides their utilitarian functions, each ship also carried personal mementos for each colonist, tokens of good luck for the ship, and a database full of information that the colonists might require on landing—chemistry, physics, geology, biology, agriculture, and so on. Though the information is obviously designed for Earth, it was thought that the information would provide a solid base for development.
Lastly, each ship also included weapons for self-defense—a notion thought useless, but inevitable. Being so far from home, it was thought insane not to have weapons, even if the only people to fight would be other colonists (outlawed, naturally). The ships were also equipped with necessary devices to monitor and communicate with one another, and to communicate with Earth.
Each ship was named for a goddess from old religions, choosing love goddesses where possible—as is the naming tradition for Venus. The nine ships were as follows:
- Aphrodite – sent to the Western Highlands of the Central/Eastern continent.
- Isis – sent to the Eastern Highlands of the Central/Eastern Continent
- Aine (awnya) – sent to the lowlands of the Central/Eastern Continent
- Ishtar – sent to the highlands of the Northern Continent
- Astarte – sent to the lowlands of the Northern Continent
- Freyja – sent to the highlands of the Northern Continent, due west of Ishtar.
- Oshun – sent to the Western Archipelago
- Lakshmi – sent to the lowland plateau of the Southern Archipelago
- Xochiquetzal – sent to the Southern Archipelago
[Excepting the first four towers, these are largely open to debate, relocation, and renaming. I have chosen names that I see as appropriate, trying to be somewhat multi-cultural, but the naming process is tricky. Other goddesses I haven’t though of may be used.]
Planetfall:
When the date finally arrived, the nine ships took off and made the journey to Venus—all without a hitch. Landing, however, proved a little less reliable. High winds played havoc with the landing process, and a couple of minor miscalculations turned into nigh-catastrophic events (or fully catastrophic events, in one case). The success of each colony ship landing went as such:
- Aphrodite: The flagship and first landing upon Venus, Aphrodite touched down without incident slightly northwest of its originally intended locale.
- Isis: Touched down without incident, precisely at its target location, a short distance from a nearby river.
- Aine: Close to Aphrodite ad Isis (reasonably speaking), Aine touched down in thick lowlands, precariously close to a wide canyon—but the colonists off-loaded without incident.
- Ishtar: A catastrophe. Ishtar landed due north of its target location, missing the Northern Plateau entirely and crashing into a small valley. All hands presumed lost.
- Astarte: Landed without major incident near its target location.
- Freyja: Landed off-target, but safely. Wound up at the western edge of the Northern Plateau
- Oshun: Landed safely, but in thick marshes and swampland. Almost immediately, the ship began to sink into the mire.
- Lakshmi: Landed safely, but quickly realized surrounding terrain was desert—completely inexplicable, given Venus’s climate, and the desert was reported as prime farmland during exploration. Colonists began plans to cross the desert to new colony site.
- Xochiquetzal: Touched down without incident, on-target.
The loss of Ishtar was a world-spanning catastrophe on Earth. On Venus morale was significantly impacted, and only further so by the problems with Oshun and Lakshmi. Unfortunately, the other colonists could do little to aid their compatriots far away, but all had been given sufficient supplies for just such an event. Earth made it known that help and aid were enroute, though plans for a second wave of colony ships were put on a temporary hold due to the outcry at home.
In the meantime, the colonies would just have to make due. The 6 that still remained on-site began the lengthy process of settling and taming the wilds of Venus around them.
Early Colonization (almost 7 years, or 20 Cycles):
Early years were marked by slow adaptation to the new world, in most cases. Most colonists continued to track time in years, hours, minutes, months, and days. Farming Venus posed many new problems for colonies both in highlands and in lowlands, though the former fared better. The constant light and dark also posed new problems for the colonists, who were often fatigued from trouble adjusting to new sleep patterns, and disoriented from the lack of familiar cycles. It was truly a new world.
But these first years also saw the first children born on Venusian soil, symbolizing hope for the future and a new era. Colonists had been deliberately picked for a desire to procreate, so child rearing was an important concern for all colonies—and those that did not fare well in the beginning were significantly stunted in their later development.
- Aphrodite: Although basically successful, Aphrodite’s colonists had a higher concentration of scientists, explorers, and other specialists, many of whom were more interested in examining the new Venus than in doing the work necessary to survive. Aphrodite’s early years were marked by some fumbling and confusion, until stable leadership was established and organization began to take over. Despite this confusion, Aphrodite’s elite made many discoveries in these early years, and started to focus heavily on the acid rains that were being noted all over the world.
- Isis: More agriculturally-minded than Aphrodite, the Isis colonists set to establishing a means of renewing their food stores right away. They soon discovered that their nearby river flooded frequently and regularly, and made farming their extremely easy and profitable. Though the Tower was still an essential construct, buildings sprang up closer to the river than the tower as colonists eagerly sought to embrace the new world.
- Aine: Proximity to a steep ravine was only the start of Aine’s problems. Farming in the jungle proved more difficult than anyone could have predicted, and so for many of Aine’s early years, they were forced to hunt and gather. The colonists there also soon discovered that there were other, stronger creatures in the great forest, creatures that had decided mankind was prey. The tower provided plenty of protection for the people, but things were still risky.
- Astarte: Like Aine, the colonists at Astarte had their fair share of trouble settling the region. They did not face beasts quite the caliber of Aine’s, but there were quick to bring out their store of weapons all the same, staying in good practice with them. They had more success taming the region, burning tracts of land when necessary, but these brutal methods stirred conflict within the colony reminiscent of Aphrodite’s issues. Unlike in Aphrodite, clear leadership was hard to find here.
- Freyja: Enjoying success in the highlands, Freyja invested their efforts towards exploration—particularly in hoping to locate the remains of the Ishtar ship, and scouring for the slim chance of survivors. They began to make strides to improve their ability to explore, looking towards the sea nearby and the air, given the difficulties ground travel posed.
- Oshun: Forced out from their ship, the people of Oshun soon discovered that the regular tides were a big problem in their region. Daily, the region would flood, making travel and life on the ground difficult. They spent their first cycle struggling to find a dry patch of land in the jungles, burning through their provisions, but eventually they found a scattering of raised mounds upon which to make their homes. Even then, life was difficult, for finding ample land to farm was utterly impossible—like Aine, they were forced to hunt and gather from what naturally occurred in the area.
- Lakshmi: Like the colonists of Oshun, Lakshmi colonists were forced away from their tower—but for them it was because of desert, not water. Their location was particularly odd, as the colonists soon discovered the reason for the drought and heat: overhead, there was a circular break in the clouds that never closed, where winds swirled around the region but never into it. Rains would never come to their desert. They had no choice but to take what they could carry and try to escape the area, traveling due north. They had to pass a wall of fierce winds, but eventually made it through to land that was like the rest of the lowlands covering Venus—and none too soon, for their supplies were almost out. Of all the colonies, Lakshmi was the first to begin counting time by the Cycles, noting the great importance light and dark played on the state of their surroundings—first in the desert, and later in the nearby ecology of the oceans and the jungles.
- Xochiquetzal: The colonists here had more success sculpting the land to suit them than other lowland colonists, finding themselves free of any grossly unexpected events. Xochiquetzal prospered at a slow, steady rate.
As time wore on, all of the colonists began to realize the value of counting by light and dark, and noting the tides which were so intricately tied to the habits of the native life. The colonists were also first exposed to the dangers of acid rains at this time—more severe than they were told—and struggled to adapt to the fierce world climate. As years passed, though, the various settlements continued to prosper—but they always kept in contact with Earth, and one another when possible.
But the rescue ships and aid they were promised didn’t come—and before much longer, the colonists took matters into their own hands.
Mid-Colonization (20 Cycles):
This phase of colonially development was started by a most troubling incident. Suddenly, without preamble or warning, the colonial towers lost contact with Mother Earth. The colonists could no longer hear what happened at home, could no longer hear from their distant family and friends, and could, with finality, know that help was not coming. They were on their own.
The colonies began to develop individual identities during this phase, each adapting to their unique environment in different ways. But there were dangers, as always, and the unexpected events of the early years continued to plague the colonists. Still, they were beginning to understand their strange new world, its patterns, and found some success there.
- Aphrodite: With solid organization and steady minds, Aphrodite continued to prosper, securing their farms and settlement buildings and continuing to examine the new Venusian creatures, substances, and cycles. It was the enterprising researchers of Aphrodite that first developed the Tidal system of time in earnest, composing the first Venusian clocks based on twenty Marks, allowing them to shift to a more useful and familiar system of time-keeping. As acid storms increased in frequency, the colonists here continued to research them, trying to determine better ways to repel the acid, or at least predict it.
- Isis: The river-farmers continued to do better and better—uncannily well, in fact. Alone of all the colonies, Isis did not lose a single soul of their first thousand colonists—not to beasts, to sickness, to stress, or even to accidents of construction or exploration. They continued to spread along the river, drifting further from their tower.
- Aine: But where Isis continued to prosper, Aine continued to face difficulties. The colonists soon determined the ground around the tower to be unsteady, and acknowledged that they would have to move to a better location. With a message informing the other colonies that they would return to regularly give updates, the colonists sealed up the tower and headed off into the wilds to establish a new colony. They made true on their word, delivering a message approximately every Cycle, and seemed to be faring as well as could be expected—though the predatory beasts continued to hunt their parties in the woods searching for food.
- Astarte: Tensions continued to rise in Astarte, once almost threatening to break the colony apart. But cooler heads prevailed, and introduced new games and tests of martial ability to channel the energy of those most aggressive into something entertaining and unifying. With morale improved, the colony soldiered on.
- Freyja: Busily exploring their surroundings, the people of Freyja started to experiment with local metallurgy, noting subtle differences in Venus’s minerals. They also began designs for scouting planes and larger ships to visit other colonies, setting up a small port/outpost by the water’s edge.
- Oshun: Still struggling to survive, facing starvation and disease, the people of Oshun finally hit upon an idea—why not take to the treetops? Life thrived in the great canopies of their continent-wide rainforest, and so they sought to match this method of survival, moving their entire colony up into the branches of the trees. It took considerable work, but the plan quickly paid off—though there were still reduced to hunting and gathering to survive. Meanwhile, their tower continued to sink further with every new Tide, making it clear that the people would always be alone in the wilds.
- Lakshmi: After their initial trouble, the colonists began adapting rapidly to the new world, perhaps better prepared for the hardships of farming after their trials in the desert. But constant winds and harsh rains made it difficult for young plants to grow, and even the native Venusian vegetation began to suffer. The people of Lakshmi turned instead to the water, settling closer to the edge of their island and beginning rigorous fishing to augment what planting could be done.
- Xochiquetzal: Still prospering, mid-way through this stage of colonization, the people of Xochiquetzal reported an amazing, unprecedented discovery. But before they could report their findings, communication with the tower was lost, and the colonists of Xochiquetzal were not heard from again. What the colonists discovered was the first blatant evidence of magic in the world of Venus, and their experiments with this force drew the attention of a native Venusian entity that took an interest in them, deliberately isolating them from the others by disrupting their technology.
The loss of Xochiquetzal and the sporadic contact from Aine was demoralizing, and the remaining colonies did what they could to keep up contact, all fearing that they might be the next. Mysteries seemed to abound in the new world, and the colonists were fearful—and rightfully so—of what would happen next.
Late Colonization (20 Cycles):
The late stage of colonization was marked by the rise of Venus’s first native generation—the children of Venus were growing close to adulthood, proving that the colonies would persevere—in whatever form—to a new era. But the world beneath them was continuing to awaken to their activities, noting these strange invaders that burned its plants, scored its soil, and felled trees to build mighty structures. The strange influence of Venus was already felt across the colonies, though they may not realize it, but the final blow had yet to be struck.
All of the towers that remained were spiraling towards a doom they could not see—and it was in this final age of colonization that it would strike them.
- Aphrodite: The colonists of Aphrodite were the first to realize that something was terribly amiss. Their technological instruments began to malfunction, and even their communication systems became unreliable. These began as minor nuisances, but as the cycles progressed things only got worse. Strange things began to happen among the colonists, too—unexplainable things; magic, though they didn’t realize it.
Aphrodite’s final doom was of their own design, however. Still dedicating to researching their new world, the colonists discovered a strange, anomalous substance. As with anything, the scientists tested and examined the substance—with devastating results. Their equipment malfunctioned, and the substance reacted violently, causing an explosion. An acid storm sprung up on the spot, more devastating than any previously encountered—and there was something else inside the storm; something living. Most of the colonists fled on the spot, though many sought refuge in the Tower, hoping to wait out the storm.
But the storm never left, and neither did the thing inside of it. The people inside the tower starved to death, sealed in their coffin, while the colonists scattered to the countryside sought to start again—this time from scratch—hoping to one day return.
- Isis: As events transpired over the last age, Aphrodite and Isis were the last towers to fall—and both met their end at roughly the same time, towards the end of the period. For Isis, it was their very deathlessness that struck. Finally, a generation after their arrival on Venusian soil, the colonists experienced their first loss. A freak accident claimed the lives of three colonists—a woman and two men. The colonists mourned, but understood it was bound to happen eventually. Death was not surprising on this strange new world.
What was surprising was that the dead didn’t stay dead.
The three slain in Isis soon rose from their graves during the long Venusian night. Acting silently and purposefully, they overtook the Tower of Isis, killing or driving out those within, and laid claim to rulership of the colony. The colonists tried to fight them, but every colonist that fell gave rise to another, and the three wielded terrible power (magic, in fact), hitherto unknown to the people.
The colonists struggled to figure out what to do, most believing that flight would be the best course of action. But the dead in the tower urged them to stay, saying they did not rise to destroy, but to guide Isis in a new era—and that the curse would follow them wherever they went, making their dead rise again.
Some of the colonists, perhaps sympathetic to these, their family, risen again, gave in to their demands. Most fled to the north to establish a new colony, vowing to forever burn their dead and to one day reclaim the tower. Some felt that was not far enough and went west, hoping to find the Aphrodite colony and settle among them, not knowing the trouble the colonists there were having. Those that stayed created their settlement anew, guided by the living dead, banished from their own tower.
- Aine: Early in the last era, the tower of Aine finally collapsed, the ground beneath it giving way and drawing the whole structure to the bottom of the ravine. With communication to the other towers finally lost, the Aine colonists were truly on their own.
Beasts continued to plague the people, and some colonists began to realize that their large numbers were more a hindrance than a help. Whenever the colony remained in one spot for too long, the predators would find them again, forcing them to move or be cornered and corralled. The beasts were worst during the dark period, and so the colonists became even more active during the light, carefully moving their location before the next darkfall.
But moving a thousand people or more caused problems. Several families advocated splitting up, keeping up loose communications and moving regularly throughout a broad area. At first many of the colonists opposed the plan, but the smaller groups seemed to fare better, being able to set up several temporary settlements and moving between them, the beasts rarely tracking them down.
It soon became the way of life among the colonists. They learned, too, to almost hibernate during the long Venusian night when the monsters were most active. For some of the colonists, though, this ducking and hiding was simply too much, and they began to head north, seeking out the colonies of Isis and Aphrodite for more stability and security.
- Freyja: The machinists and explorers of the west continued to make their large boats and planes. When the aircraft were deemed ready, they used them to locate the site of Ishtar’s wreck, easy to spot amidst the forest valley it landed in. An expedition followed on foot—but along with the ruins, old machines, and supplies, the Freyja explorers found something else—the Horrors that were once hopeful Ishtar colonists.
The explorers awoke something horrible in that valley, and most died in the result—the others fled back to the colony, pursued by a wave of inexplicable cold and frost, a wave that raced out over the plateau, crystallizing trees and plants, killing animal life, driving the rest out. In Freyja the people panicked, and realized that escape would be inevitable—lacking better materials, they cannibalized much of the Tower’s structure to finish their boats and improve their planes, and taking everything they could, they left, heading south across the water. Some stayed behind, either out of stubbornness or self-sacrifice to stem the approaching Horrors and their monstrous cold. They were not heard from again.
The water posed additional problems for the colonists. Turbulent waters and strange creatures in the deep Venusian water three some ships off track, capsizing and crashing others. The people of Freyja were scattered, lost at sea, shipwrecked, or killed outright. Only a small number reached their island destination, just north of the West Continent, and they quickly set up a settlement, vowing never to be unprepared for the terrors of Venus.
Some of the shipwrecked colonists survived, however, and began new lives on the islands they were stranded on. Some perished there, but others persevered, adapting to new environments and, over time, becoming a vastly different people.
- Astarte: The people of Freyja warned Astarte of the Horrors, too—but the Astarte had no desire to flee, and instead prepared for battle. The cold came to them, but halted its advance on the edge of the plateau. When the horrors descended to the lowlands of Astarte, they were not in their element, and the competitive and aggressive people of Astarte found a common foe to put their violence against. They fought hard, but even weakened the Horrors were a formidable foe. The colony began to fracture again, some groups advocating a retreat to regroup and fight them later. Some suggested abandoning the tower altogether to find other, more stable colonies.
The in-fighting weakened the colonists, and the relentless Horrors continued. In the end, there was no avoiding the collapse—different factions left in different directions, disputing to the end even about where they would go. Some stayed to fight and were destroyed for it, and some even went south to find Aphrodite, the next closest colony.
The Horrors plundered and decimated the settlement left behind, but in the next Light period, were driven back to the icy plateau. Attempts to reclaim the tower were made, but the Horrors always returned at darkfall—so they left the land of the original settlement untouched, and stayed to their new lands. Occasional incursions of the Horrors still occurred, but these the scattered people of Astarte could handle, beating the creatures back to the plateau.
In time, the people of Astarte would forget the significance of the Tower, and why they might need to reclaim it at all, knowing only that it brought the creatures down from the plateau in force.
- Oshun: The tower continued to sink, until is was eventually overgrown with vines and shadowed by trees, a forgotten curiosity in the heart of the swamps. The people of Oshun continued to make their lives in the trees, growing more prosperous for their new ways, and soon forgetting what life was like before the new world.
- Lakshmi: With fishing sustaining them and meager farming accomplishing the rest, the Lakshmi people finally had a successful society. As their children grew, though, they began to grow curious about stories of a tower in the center of the desert, and a sky overhead not covered with clouds. They planned and took a journey deep into the desert eventually, although told not to do so, and returned with fascinating stories of what they had seen to regale a new generation of youngsters.
Although the tower would never again serve its original purpose, the pilgrimage to the tower eventually took on a spiritual note among the people, letting them touch their origins and the curiosities there. The terrors of deep water kept the people of Lakshmi from wandering far from their island nation, but this isolation only served to strengthen them.
The older generation would often wonder what became of the other colonies, and why Earth never came to help them—but in time, none of that mattered anymore.
- Xochiquetzal: In the last 20 cycles of the colonial era, the entity made itself known to the people, calling for a new way of life and claiming to be their new guardian. Most of the colonists balked at the claims of this alien entity and spoke of taking flight from their broken tower, but the younger generation fell under its sway. Many parents stayed to be with their misguided children, but the others left, fearful of what might come from a powerful, unknown creature. These people took to the north, scattering along islands on their way to Aphrodite, hoping to find stability there. Many never made it that far, giving up or falling from the long journey. Settlements sprang up along the islands of the south, and some in the wilds of the Eastern Continent. Those that reached Aphrodite found no comfort, for the Arcane Storm that raged over the old settlement plagued anyone that came too close.
So it was that Venus drove each colony from their tower, taking away what edge the people had in mastering the wilds. The colonists were left scattered, deprived of technology and knowledge, and as the older generation was replaced, understanding of the towers and the tools within faded from man’s consciousness. The towers would remain lost for ages, some yet to be rediscovered.
Thus began the Dark Age of Venus.
Summary of the Fates of each Colony:
The above is a lot to keep track of, so I’ve tried to sum it up in brief below.
- Aphrodite: Starts out very analytical and scientific, trying to examine and understand things in the new world. Fares pretty well—until they experiment on an anomalous substance, triggering a massive acid-and-magic storm (called the Arcane Storm, tentatively) that hovers over the colony, driving them all out into the surrounding countryside. (The Arcane Storm will need to be detailed later, but will ultimately become our massive, recurring storm for the world)
- Isis: Fares better than any colony—no deaths until the final era, and with good reason. The three dead rise again to claim they now rule the colony, overtaking the tower. They are fought, but wield powerful magic—some colonists submit to their rule, but most flee north or west to found new settlements. The dead remain, banning anyone from the tower and instituting a new way of life for the people there. (more on that in the Dark Ages article)
- Aine: Lands at the edge of a ravine, and ultimately must leave the vicinity for fear that the tower will fall. It eventually does, sliding into the ravine. The colonists are forced to take up a scattered, nomadic existence when they are regularly hunted by an intelligent, predatory species. (This species will need to be detailed later)
- Ishtar: Crashes and burns from the get-go. The dead somehow react to the region, becoming the Horrors of Ishtar, which are unwittingly released by explorers from Freyja later on. (The horrors of Ishtar are ill-defined, and deliberately so. But they’ll need to be detailed eventually)
- Astarte: In-fighting and disagreement become commonplace among Astarte’s colonists, and they eventually seek to relieve tension by developing regular games, sports, and friendly rivalries. These activities make them better prepared to fight off the Horrors when they come from the plateau, but they are eventually driven away from the tower all the same. The colony finally breaks, different factions setting up shop elsewhere—though they are always unified in fighting off the Horrors that occasionally descend on the lowlands.
- Freyja: Machinists, metallurgists, and explorers, the enterprising people of Freyja are victims of their own curiosity. They unwittingly unleash the Horrors of Ishtar and the cold that overtakes all life on the plateau. They escape by plane and by ship, cannibalizing the materials in the tower. The bulk of Freyja’s survivors make a settlement on a highland island to the south, but some shipwrecked survivors are scattered to various islands—many simply die.
- Oshun: Doomed from the start in a swampland that floods every Tide, the people of Oshun struggle until they decide to live in the trees. Gradually they become more and more tribal, relying on hunting and gathering, unable to make use of Earth’s advanced technology in the treetops, designing their culture from scratch.
- Lakshmi: With their tower stranded in the middle of a vast desert, the colonists struggle to make a safe home outside of it, forced to rely on fishing and meager farming for sustenance. But they eventually do prosper, and begin undertaking efforts to revisit their tower—though never again able to use it as originally intended. Cut off from much of the adversity and horrors of the world, the Lakshmi people are able to prosper slowly and steadily.
- Xochiquetzal: One of the more prosperous lowland colonies, the people here eventually come to the attention of a strange, powerful entity that cuts them off from the other towers. This entity reveals itself to their younger generation, luring them into obeying it. Most of the original colonists leave and head north, unwilling to be subjected to such an alien creature, scattering along islands or reaching the Aphrodite area to settle there. Those that remain begin a new, bizarre, cult-like community of loosely-affiliated tribes.
Things to Detail:
(Besides cultures and nations—those will be detailed, anyway)
- The Arcane Storm and the Anomalous Substance
- The Horrors of Ishtar
- The Deathless of Isis
- Xochiquetzal’s Entity
- The Circling Winds of Lakshmi
- The Cold
- Deep Water Sea Monsters
- Aine’s Predators
