Violis

Image of Violis from high orbit

**Violis** is the second planet from Verda and the closest planet to Teralla. With the second longest surface rotation period in the entire system, Violis' magnetic field thinned to nonexistence long before it should have. The Verdan Federation considers Violis a secondary terraforming target, and enormous numbers of people live in floating stations in its clouds, where the temperature actually nears Teralla's average. Violis has a single major moon, Doresyl.

## Physical Characteristics

Violis is a Superteralla, which is one of the most common planet types in the galaxy. It is relatively similar in diameter to Teralla, but that's where the similarities end. Violis is shrouded by a highly reflective layer of sulfuric acid clouds floating in a crushing carbon dioxide atmosphere, preventing its surface from being seen in visible light from space. Less than 50,000 years ago, Violis is confirmed to have been habitable, but a runaway greenhouse effect kicked in, causing its temperature to skyrocket. Only recently arrested by a Terallan engineering project, this greenhouse effect froze itself in a "sweet spot" such that oceans of liquid sulfur could exist on the planet, with large ice caps of frozen sulfur in the highest peaks.

## Atmosphere

Violis' atmosphere is approximately 15 atmospheres of pressure at sea level, or the pressure at 150m under the ocean. It is composed of 96% carbon dioxide, with the remaining 4% composed of Nitrogen, Argon and other trace gases. When Violis was younger, it likely had a more earthlike atmosphere, but a runaway greenhouse effect gradually thickened it, and it is likely to become thicker over time.

## Orbit and Rotation

Violis has an unusually long day length, comparable to it's year length. Not only that, but it is also rotating retrograde with an axial tilt of 172.1º, meaning that it rotates the opposite direction to the other planets. Scientists believe this is because of a complicated thing known as "Atmospheric Superrotation", which has slowly decreased the rotation rate, slowed it to a dead stop, and reversed it to what it is today. As a result, Violis is unable to host moons that are not orbiting retrograde. Its three inner moons are certain to deorbit themselves into its atmosphere or break up into a thick ring system, and Doresyl only remains stable due to its coincidentally retrograde orbit.

## History of Observation

In prehistoric times up until the invention of the telescope, Violis was only visible as a bright white dot in the sky, although the ancient astronomers of Fal Dara record a blue color (likely due to their civilization existing prior to Violis' greenhouse effect reaching its peak). At the beginning of the space age, Violis & Doresyl were key targets for probes from various nations across Teralla, resulting in unparalleled precision of Terallan knowledge of its surface for the time. In the modern age, Violis has been heavily colonized with hundreds of billions of people living above its clouds.

## Moons

Violis has three minor moons orbiting near its surface, as well as one distant captured major moon.

### Shoulles

Shoulles is the largest regular moon orbiting Violis. It has been mined very heavily, and it is effectively just a giant orbital habitat with a bunch of gravel piled on it rather than a moon.

### Smaller Regular Moons

Aside from Shoulles, Violis has two tiny asteroids orbiting in near-perfect circular orbits around Violis. Aetheris and Haelir orbit on either side of Shoulles' orbit, and exist in a loose resonance with it.

### Doresyl

Doresyl is a former planet of Verda, flung too close to Violis by the vagaries of planetary formation. It is around the size of Esera, and has been recently terraformed by the Verdan Federation.

## Life

Violis was originally thought to be a warmer version of Teralla, up until the Occam probes were launched in 17 AFO. However, the probes discovered that Violis' surface was covered by endless oceans of pure Sulfur, and has a surface temperature of 721 Kelvin, far above the boiling point of water, even at 15 atmospheres.

## Colonization

After the first Terallan probes, Violis was mostly ignored until around 100 AFO. However, after the capture of Doresyl around the planet, flocks of colonists came towards the planet, and Doresyl rapidly became the fourth most populous planet in the solar system, after terraforming.

During this, some hardy colonists set up small bases in the highlands of the planet, and large floating cities in the clouds, which have a larger than normal concentration of solar scientists.

## Biomes

Violis has 11 biomes.

* Lowlands

* Midlands
* Highlands
* Mountains
* Shallow Oceans
* Deep Oceans
* Lakes
* Great Rift
* Impact Crater
* Polar Regions
* Minor Rifts

## Trivia

* Violis was once a habitable, Teralla-like planet, with water oceans, but entered a runaway greenhouse effect, almost destroying any chance of complex surface life.
* Violis once had more than one large major moon!