Utopia

**Utopia** was a Lorani waste disposal colony in the More System.

## History

### Lorani Discovery and Settlement

Utopia was once a beautiful idyllic planet predominantly consisting of grassy plains and hills with few forests and lakes and several oceans. Several hundreds years ago the planet was discovered by the Lorani Imperium who settled a resort colony there.

However, Lorani researchers discovered in their studies of the local wildlife the special properties of the Utopian Wyrm, a worm species capable of unending consumption of both organic and non-organic substances. Petitions of the scientists to export the creature in a large scale in order to use it in waste disposal units was denied as the then current imperial administration found the risk of a catastrophically widespread all consuming worm population too high, fearing it might even devour entire worlds.

### Waste Disposal Colony

Decades later, the motion to transform the entire colony on Utopia into a waste disposal colony using these wyrms was put forward by Lorani advisors and approved by the then reigning High King, despite protests of Utopian inhabitants.

The next centuries proved to be fatal to Utopias original ecosystem, most of the flora dying, the seas transforming into deserts and most of the native fauna going extinct with the exception of the now dominant Trash Wyrms. The landscape was transformed radically over the years until the planet was completely dominated by trash mounds. The planet also developed a debris field around it as lazy waste disposal freighter captains started simply dumping their loads in the planets orbit rather than actually landing on planet.

## Inhabitants

### Kalharen Immigration

As original Lorani colonists abandoned the planet as the environment continued to be ruined, the Lorani Imperium was forced to find new workers to maintain the planet.

Rather than choosing to populate planet solely with robotic workers, the Lorani resettled the planet with the reptilian Kalharen species. Back then slavery was still legal in the Lorani Imperium and conquered species were often forced into servitude. Rather than forcing the Kalharen to resettle they reconsidered the servitude status of all Kalharen slaves volunteering to settle the trash planet, allowing them freedom as long as they kept the wyrm population of the planet in check and kept regular updates on the waste disposal processes. The Kalharen took over the remnants of the original Lorani colony city and renamed it to Harribixia, which ironically means "jewel" in Kalhari.

The Kalharen kept Harribixia safe from giant trash wyrms by installing extremely powerful sound dampeners. They used this same technology in miniature when going out into the planets trash mounds to scavenge any materials still useful or worth selling, breathing into existence a quite successful new scavenging operation which later became the planets primary export sector.

### Trash Wyrms

After the planets transformation the Trash Wyrm became Utopia's most dominant species, being almost directly responsible for the extinction of most other native species with the exception of the Purple Panda, the Felgull and several different kind of rodents, making way for numerous new species of molds, slimes, parasites andarthropods. Trash Wyrms turned into real menaces and grew to gigantic sizes, the largest recorded specimen being approximately 400 metres long. Their monstrous size and appearance later attracted various big game hunters to the planet but up 'till now no sentient has succeeded in successfully slaying a giant trash wyrm, many attempts resulting either a tactical retreat or critical failure in the form of the hunters being consumed by the trash wyrms teeth filled maw.

## Behind the Scenes

Most inspiration for the planet came from Raxus Prime and Ord Mantell, two planets in the Star Wars universe. The Trash Wyrms are largely inspired by the Sandworms from Dune and the Thresher Maws from Mass Effect.