Darios

* Natural
* Remains

**Darios** was the third planet of the Dundra System in the Medusa Sector of the galaxy, and was the home planet of Matt Rye, as part of the human subspecies known as **Darosians.** It was a dysfunctional planet, ridden with conflict and forever scarred by its chaotic history. It is considered to be even less orderly than Pandora, prompting the majority of the Human Empire to abandon all efforts to bring order to Darios.

Following the test run of an Eridian supercannon, Darios was obliterated by Gemini, leaving Matt and his family as the last of the Darosians.

## Formation

Darios is approximately eight million years old. It formed originally from debris during a meteoric collision between a much larger planet and its moon. This was as a result of a decaying orbit since their masses were similar in value. Large chunks of the planet flew off, and some of the largest attracted others within similar trajectories and compacted into a whole planet.

Darios formed specifically from the largest remnants of the original planet that collided with the moon, and kept some parts of debris which moved slower than others. As such, it kept the orbit of the original, albeit on a slight eccentricity due to the latter collision.

## Planetary Features

### Fauna

#### Terrestrial

Darios once supported a diverse range of wildlife, with a thriving ecosystem working in tandem with the peaceful human colonies that migrated there. Most fauna relied on the natural springs and forests that covered the whole planet, and reproduced quickly under the oxygen-rich, low carbon dioxide atmosphere, which was what attracted the initial migrants there to begin with.

However, following several wars, the vast wildlife was all but exterminated in the crossfire, leaving the planet with little to none left. This was enhanced by the building of military bases and accelerated urbanisation that destroyed any forests or natural land left on the planet. Only a few extremophiles remained, and the "odd malicious animal" that would try to eat the surviving citizens of Darios.

When Matt and Amelia discovered one of the last few natural forests on the planet, hidden beyond the prohibited borders of Krolantia, they realised that not all animal life on the planet had been annihilated. Amelia conjectured over the possibility of more small ravines existing on the planet, so it was likely that more of these existed on the planet when the one they found was destroyed by government nationalists.

One identified creature unique to Darios was the Futarian Goblin. Its skin was a light green pigment, adorned with dark green stripes. Its eyes were round and large while its feet were short and light, allowing it to escape predators quickly.

#### Marine

Darios also had vast oceans providing for a range of sea creatures, from simple zooplankton, to schools of fish, to extremely predatory creatures such as sharks and octopuses who remained at the top of their respective food chains, free from human intervention. Most human colonies beside Zundar did not produce much waste, if any, so Darios's oceans seldom were polluted with micro-plastics or sewage chemicals, allowing the environment to thrive on its own.

There were hints towards the possibility of large aquatic animals existing on the planet during its Ordovician period, however these creatures likely became extinct when they failed to adapt to natural climate change quickly enough.

All marine life was tainted during nuclear explosions, mutating into hideous creatures. During the second civil war, all life in the oceans died out when the oceans disappeared from the planet.

### Flora

Much like its fauna in its early period, flora on the planet was also rich and diverse, varying from photogenic epiphytes on tree branches, to simple daisies and daffodils, and large-leaf plants with thick waxy cuticles on the canopy layer of rainforests. Most of the flora was also edible, either possessing poison that humans were immune to or not possessing one altogether, due to peaceful ecosystem that pertained to the planet. This led to way to a supportive culture of vegetarianism, or at least priority of non-meat over meat.

After multiple wars, the flora on Darios dramatically changed. Most of the edible or harmless plants were destroyed, while extremophiles were mutated into twisted creatures that resided in deep chasms, out of mind from Darosians. Designated the badlands, this area was cordoned off from citizens, and all governments strictly prohibited going anywhere near it, one of the only things Matt suspected they could agree upon. In other locations on Darios, such as Krolantia, flora was sparse but present, much more so than its fauna. Most of the plant life were xerophiles and extremely aggressive, preferring to defend their territories to conserve the last vestiges of water remaining on the planet.

### Geography

Darios was split into several continents, formed naturally from tectonic movement of the planet's plates due to convection currents in the mantle.

#### **Krolantia**

Krolantia was the continent where the Rye family lived, and was the largest of all of them, spanning twenty-eight million square miles (more than twice the size of Asia) and also the most populous. It stretched across the northern hemisphere to the south, and accounted for around 40% of Darios's land mass. It would appear that Krolantia was also subjected to a significantly long glacial period at some point in its history, evidenced by its vast canyons of glacial troughs that Matt and Amelia explored. It is unknown if any other continents experienced similar conditions.

#### **Mercuit**

Mercuit was the second-largest continent on Darios, although it was only a third the size of Krolantia. Many settlements existed on Mercuit, but it was primarily the poster child of the Conformist government faction known as the Degaton Republic. It was here that many of their weapons in Darios's civil wars were produced, and as such it was continuously bombed by other governments. As a result, Mercuit became largely uninhabitable, and few locations were successfully terraformed. Mercuit was supposedly named after a god from one of the many religions that resided on the planet.

#### **Hecate**

Hecate was a small continent on Darios, despite being the third largest in square miles. The majority of the land was marsh and populated with swamps, so Darosians living there tended to reside in large tree-houses above the water, using mostly primitive technology as the thick gas prevented most radio signals from reaching through into the continent. As a result, settlements on Hecate were cut off from communication from the outside world, so were not aware of the turmoil of the truce that had been meticulously formed over the prior years.

Hecate was contaminated by radioactive waste at the conclusion of the Second Darosian Civil War. The continent was reduced to inhabitable radiation pits and later fusion mills that other continents used to power their weapons during the war.

**There were various other unidentified continents following this that were controlled by either the Union Empire or the Degaton Republic**. **It is unknown what their influence during any of the Darosian Civil Wars were.**

### Settlements

Darios, at its peak, had a population of around 15 billion. This gave way into numerous cities and colonies across the planet, predominantly on Krolantia. There were four major metropolises on the continent, who together formed the League of Associated Cities.

* **Acropolis:** Acropolis was the designated city of leisure in Krolantia, known for its prosperity and exceptional technological advancements despite the numerous conflicts that plagued the planet. Matt lived here in his family, although he was not pleased with the city senate's encouragements to be unproductive and indolent, so as not the question to deeper goings-on with the city. The Senate kept its citizens distracted with free access to numerous entertainment channels, while they worked to fend off forces from other governments who would attempt to destroy the city.
* **Zundar:** Zundar was the location designed specifically to further the technological and scientific development for the entirety of Krolantia. Zundar developed the antimatter weapons that would be used in the later years of the Third Darosian Civil War, and was used to destroy country-sized masses. Nuclear weaponry, such as the ones used to irradiate the continent of Hecate, was transported in and out of Zundar through convoys for the military to use if necessary.
* **Trevas:** A large metropolitan area, Trevas was built on the coast for the purposes of using hydroelectric power so that, if the need were dire, Krolantian citizens could relocate to bubbles in the ocean, although research for such a settlement was never completed. Trevas also experimented with multiple types of power sources, not all sustainable, and by the turn of the third civil war, the city had incredibly polluted the coastal region, eliminating marine life within a mile radius. As a result, it could no longer be used a residential region, so Trevas was converted into an industry-only municipality. Thus, it was designed with roads that were half a mile wide to accommodate for the multitude of people moving in and out of the megalopolis, and ran on an advanced power core to boost industrial development.
* **Yeven:** Yeven, while defined as a city, was not necessarily seen as such by Krolantian Darosians. Yeven's main purpose was to serve as a trading post between other continents, namely Mercuit, during periods of peace. Yeven housed its citizens at a high cost, but with the extra bonus of more trading opportunities and greater access to imports before they would be distributed among Krolantia. Yeven suffered from major periods of inactivity and stagnation during the three civil wars, resulting in the city becoming less effective and the central management becoming unstable. When the third war broke out, Yeven was all but abandoned when peace talks broke down and all trading routes were shut down. The city became overrun by bandits who had fled from Hecate when the nukes dropped, but Krolantia reacted immediately and placed several bombs deep below the city, which exploded and caused a sinkhole to open, which swallowed the city. The Krolantian government opted not to rebuild the city or regenerate the area when the third civil war resolved.

## History

### Early Modern Period

Humans arrived on Darios two centuries prior to Matt's birth, and planned to colonise the area to provide humanity with an another place to live when planets at the heart of the Human Empire became too overcrowded. They were careful not to endanger to local wildlife, but ultimately were required to mine the rich minerals in the ground to build the first city on Darios, Mox Tor. Upon developing the city, the humans ran into a problem: the atmosphere was too small to build up high enough, because air pressure decreased rapidly the further up the planet they went.

To combat this problem, they initially imposed a strict code on building height for any city developed, as signed by the main industrialists who set about building the human influence on the planet. However, this quickly became an issue as more humans migrated to the planet. In response, Darios's head scientific advisor, Malcolm Greene organised the construction of a scientific complex on the land-form that they named Krolantia. With the help of countless chemists, biochemists and physicists to build an atmospheric converter to expand the atmosphere, thus making it less dense on lower levels, and then to pump gases evenly to make up for lost space. This decreased the major disparity in density between levels of the atmosphere, negating the need for building height regulations.

To reward Greene, the head of the human colony, Camila Valetio, ordered the construction of a full scientific metropolis over the course of a few years. This metropolis eventually became Zundar.

### First Darosian Civil War

Seventy-three years since humanity first arrived on Darios, tensions between settlements began to rise. At the time, all continents were unified under one capitalist government, the Union Party. This provided no leg room for freedom, as all continents, despite having extremely varied cultures, were required to follow the same law and ideology. Furthermore, many cultures and nationalists disagreed with the capitalist regime, and desired for it to be changed.

The Union Party refused their request, and proceeded to enforce even stricter laws and introduced regulations on culture. This prompted the nationalists to break off from the Union Party, and form a league of their own, the Degaton Republic. The Degaton Republic was largely ignored by the Union Party and brushed off as a non-issue, instead advising its citizens to remain liberal. In the months that passed, the Degaton Republic became extremely hateful of the Union Party, due to their ignorance of independence and overtly dogmatic behaviour.

The First Darosian Civil War was sparked when the figurehead of the Union Party, Madison Brown, was assassinated on live television during a coordinated attack by the Degaton Republic. Prompted into action, the Union Party immediately allocated a large portion of their budget to Zundar for the development of sufficient weaponry to use against the Republic, which had since established themselves on the continent of Mercuit.

A turning point in the war occurred when the Republic, armed with more advanced weaponry, invaded and successfully destroyed Mox Tor, which was the capital of the Union Party. The Union Party then succeeded in the development of advanced nuclear weaponry, which the rest of humanity had refused to provide them, and began producing them in mass bulk.

The Union Party, finally accepting the threat of the Degaton Republic, bombarded their major cities with numerous bombs, greatly reducing their military force. However, the Degaton Republic was prepared for this and sent a stealth nuke to Acropolis (the new capital) and flooded it with radiation. It took decades before Acropolis became habitable again.

Forced into a stalemate, the Union Party negotiated a treaty with the Degaton Republic that would allow them to co-exist. The public cheered for this decision, and the Degaton Republic accepted this, provided both sides take measures to repair the damages they caused to the other.

### Second Darosian Civil War

Eighty-nine years later, and eighty-one since the end of the First Darosian Civil War, the Union Party had transitioned to the Union Empire and began to expand into the continent of Hecate. Unfortunately, the Degaton Republic had intentions of doing the same but both failed to communicate this.

Not desiring another war, both sides negotiated what regions each one would take. The Union Empire received the northern half of Hecate, and the Degaton Republic received the southern half. Both sides were aware of the use of Hecate, namely for scientific study and hydroelectric power, but the Empire clandestinely knew of extremely valuable materials beneath the crust, such as oil, Pobranium-Titanium Carbide, spring water, ivory and Californium-252. They intentionally hid this from the Republic and deliberately chose the northern area of the continent, as they were aware that the latter resources were denser there.

The Union Empire then deployed numerous spies into the Republic's domain of Hecate, to track their progress and slowly steal away their resources to give to the Empire. Unbeknownst to them, Republic already possessed moles and spies in the crux of the Union Empire, so eventually they learned of the Union Empire's machinations and were outraged.

A war erupted over the resources of Hecate, as both sides attempted to procure it for themselves. The Second Darosian Civil War turned exceedingly dangerous, as they continuously blew each others' military bases up, reducing their military force and also attempted to implode the foundations of their cities.

During the conflict, the oceans of Darios were drained almost completely, and the remaining reserves of water were horrifically irradiated. Darios was forced to find alternative methods of producing potable water, as most of the world's once luscious landscape had been almost entirely reshaped by the copious weaponry used during the war.

Notably, Trevas was destroyed, stunting the Union Empire's development of weapons and military force and leaving them more vulnerable to the Republic. As a last resort, the Union Empire nuked the entirety of Hecate, eliminating any resources that were left and forcing the citizens to relocate.

With nothing left to fight over, the Degaton Republic settled on a stalemate, and accepted a truce.

### Third Darosian Civil War

Some fifty-three years later, when Matt and Amelia were children, new treaty arrangements were finalised, resulting in the division of the two administrations.The Degaton Republic was split into four separate empires: Museo, Dreteia, Gatrope and Caticomb; the Union Party was divided into three: the Bureat Administration, the Consolidation Dominion and finally the Krolantian Senate, which was kept as its own continent but shared by multiple governments.

All governments were free to enforce their own rules, provided they do not go against the pre-established Human Empire code of ethics. This allowed culture to thrive on a planet that had been scarred by the two global wars it suffered. This ushered in a new era of peace of the general public, however, behind the scenes, the governments did not trust each other and were sure to keep tabs on each other.

Unfortunately, having so many different governments made the planet difficult to manage as new legislation and policies could not be expressed by all dominions, and thus the planet was viewed as unstable by the majority of the Human Empire. Darios lacked the unity and composure of many other planets in the Medusa sector, which alienated its citizens and caused many of them to doubt whether or not their updated political system was as effective as they had hoped.

Eventually, disagreements occurred during peace talks attempting to unify the planet, as Dreteia and the Consolidation Dominion did not like the idea that all empires would be required to share at least 15% of their resources and income with others. The purpose of this was to bind all governments together, but the latter felt it was more an attempt for Krolantia to regain control of the planet as the Union Empire once again.

Due to the messy composition of Darios's governments, and the latter rising tensions, war broke out once again, with multiple governments taking sides, many of which opting to fight for their own. The Krolantian Military Order was formed to protect the continent, as the Krolantian Senate recognised its vulnerability. Matt proceeded to join the KMO, forcefully, when he turned 16, where he witnessed the detonation of the first anti-matter bomb, on Mercuit, and the complete abandonment of the city Yeven.

Numerous of the established governments collapsed during the Third Darosian Civil War, leaving only a few behind, such as the Krolantian Senate, Museo and Caticomb. The instigators of the conflict, the Consolidation Dominion and Dreteia, were all but exterminated by the KMO, but the war continued for a further year, as the Senate slowly began to assimilate more sectors of Darios into their unified republic, allowing each one to keep their culture and law, provided they side with Senate during wars.

A few of the remaining governments refused to accept the Krolantian Senate's offer, so Gemini intervened and introduced a new treaty that the governments were finally able to agree upon. This was not before most of the landscape was annihilated by anti-matter weaponry.

### Assimilated by the Associated Constellations

At some point between the end of the third civil war and Matt leaving the planet, the Associated Constellations approached them and offered them a position in their galactic empire. Darios unilaterally accepted, however they were unaware that the Associated Constellations mainly intended to use the planet for basing purposes for its administration, as its enemies would not think they would base themselves on such an unfavourable planet.

## Destruction

    After discovering an Eridian Infinity Cannon on Divaloca, Samael McCain, CEO of Gemini, used the last reserves of Infinite energy stored within to target the main leader centres for the Associated Constellations, and Darios was one of such planets.

Darios was subsequently destroyed by the Gemini Corporation, committing genocide in the process. While the population had since greatly reduced from 15 billion to 3.2 billion, many were still murdered and Matt was outraged to discover that Gemini had not only obliterated a place that once his home, but also an entire sector of the galaxy.

Darios is currently a collection of space debris and fragments resembling an asteroid belt, while the other planets of the Dundra System remain intact. Atrios-6 is suspected to attract and eventually collide with the remains of Darios.