Abysira

**Abysira**, homeworld of the reptilian Seefa, is a desert dwarf planet renowned throughout the galaxy for being the hottest, driest and one of the most inhospitable inhabited planets known to exist. It is often referred to as White Abysira because of the white sand that covers much of its surface in the form of endless deserts. The planet came to prominence in the Middle Era, when Goroogong separatists sent missionaries to promote Gorooism to the indigenous Seefa. These missions largely failed, resulting in the Abysiran Conflict. During the Golden Epoch the Seefa received the aid of the Iolopian Peace Triangle to assist in the war and to emancipate the Abysiran people from the Goroogong, with Abysira being the location for much of the events. In the New Era, post-cataclysm Abysira became a desolate place, having lost its inhabitants during the Bleak Epoch prior to the Great Silence. Today it remains uninhabited.

## Description

Abysira is situated in the Eesse System in the Antirebian Arm of the galaxy, and has the closest orbit to its suns of the three planets in the system. Abysira has two suns, Eesse I and Eesse II. There is a single moon in orbit around Abysira, referred to by the Seefa as the Sheerasseera, or the Crystal Leer.

### Climate and geography

The climate of Abysira is extremely hot and dry. It holds the record as the hottest and driest of any known inhabited planet, with rainfall occurring only once every few decades. It is theorised that Abysira was once an ocean dwarf, but why its seas dried up is unknown. As a desert dwarf, Abysira exhibits a limited range of habitats and is comprised almost entirely of deserts. These deserts are made up of nearly pure white sand, which reflects much of the two suns' light. Non-native visitors to the planet require special goggles to prevent blindness from prolonged exposure to the light. Aside from the deserts, there are a few mountain ranges on Abysira, notably the Jaeef Mountains.

Water does exist on Abysira, but it lies deep below the surface as moisture in subterranean rock and sand. When it was inhabited, Abysira's sentient population was restricted to its polar regions, with only small numbers of indigenous Seefa populating areas closer to the equator. This is because of the extreme heat and levels of radiation at the equator, where it has been reported to reach air temperatures of about 110 °C. Abysira's inhospitable climate is a result of its proximity to its suns, Eesse I and II, and as a dwarf planet its atmosphere is significantly less stable than larger planets of the galaxy.

### Flora and fauna

Abysira does not boast much biodiversity, but what little wildlife exists on the planet has evolved to deal with Abysira's extremely harsh climate. Much of the planet's plant life has evolved to grow underground, with many plants like the Abysiran snakeroots sprouting enormous water-storing taproots to suck up moisture from deep below the surface. Other plants, like the giant brooliss, send out wide rhizomorphic root systems, the largest of which can span an area of 100 km in diameter. The dead dustshrub, meanwhile, relies on rainfall for survival, appearing dead for decades until springing to life with a single drop of rain.

   Abysira's fauna exhibits similar adaptations to the planet's dry landscapes. The Abysiran desert dryfish, for example, a species of dryfish unique to Abysira, lies dormant under the sand for decades, appearing to come to life only when rain falls. The Abysiran goll, a small species of subterranean mammal, uses its flipper-like feet to effectively swim through the sand in order to hunt its prey and to find moisture while escaping the searing heat of the surface.While most of Abysira's flora and fauna live underground, there are some species that have evolved to cope with life on the surface, such as the silver cargosect, a favoured mount of the Seefa. Silver cargosects are a species of giant insect that have evolved the remarkable ability to withstand and reflect the heat of Abysira's suns. Their bodies are coated in a layer of fine silvery hairs which allow them to reflect and offload excess heat. They are extremely speedy, moving at speeds of nearly 140 mph at full pelt, limiting their exposure to the sun as they scurry to and from their burrows. The cargosects of Abysira are the only animals on Abysira able to survive near the planet's equator, making them potentially the most heat-tolerant species in the entire galaxy.

## History

### Early history

It is theorised that Abysira was once an ocean planet long before it was inhabited by its native Seefa people. Fossil remnants of long-extinct, pre-eon species have been uncovered on the planet, and have been observed to exhibit features typical to a marine existence - possible evidence that Abysira once had at least some percentage of its surface covered by water.

The planet Abysira orbits its suns within the orbit of a large asteroid belt. Studies have detected that the mineral composition of the asteroids in the belt bears a striking resemblance to that of the mantle of Abysira. This has led theorists to believe that Abysira once orbited its suns at a greater distance to its current orbit - a distance sufficient enough for the planet to have had a sustainable oceanic surface - but was knocked off course by a meteor collision. The impact of the meteor pushed the planet closer to the sun, removing much of its mantle which then became the asteroid belt around Abysira's present orbit. This theory would answer the question of the desertification of Abysira's surface, and give explanation to the dwarf planet's small size; but many have argued that the loss of a mantle would have resulted in the loss of the fossil remnants that have been found on Abysira. The debate is ongoing.

### A populated world

   Abysira was inhabited by a single indigenous sentient race, the Seefa. These Abysiran peoples populated predominantly the polar regions of the planet, where temperatures were not so extreme and radiation was not so dangerous. Some Seefa were able to comfortably inhabit a handful of regions closer to the equator, but these communities were small and rarely settled in one place. Early Seefa were semi-nomadic, usually moving seasonally to avoid Abysiran summers. They relied heavily on the cargosect colonies, initially hunting them and using their flesh for food and their chitinous hides as a material for clothing. Cargosect chitin would later become one of the Seefa's main exports on the galactic stage during the Middle Era. They soon began domesticating the cargosects, which revolutionised the Seefas' mobility and therefore trade relations with one another.

Because of their limited habitable ranges, and due to Abysira's small size, Seefa communities began to globalise at a rapid pace. The scattered nomadic communities of the near-equator however experienced little contact with their polar counterparts. Division also developed between the Seefa communities of the two poles due to the hostility of the landscape that stretched between them. The Seefa of Abysira's south pole were a more nomadic people than the Seefa of the north. This was partly due to Abysira's south being generally more barren than the north, and had less mountainous areas in which the Seefa could shelter year-round. They were also heavily preyed upon by the enormous, subterranean giant sandworms that were endemic to the south pole. The threat of the sandworms forced the southern Seefa to constantly be on the move. They became excellently-skilled warriors, superior to those of the north, as a result of their plight with the sandworms.

Northern Seefa meanwhile, who shared the highly-prized cargosects with their southern counterparts, were able to settle in permanent holdings nestled in the relative shelter of Abysira's northern mountain ranges. This allowed the Seefa to utilise the cargosects' radiation-proof chitin as a building material, constructing large, silver-glistening, fortified cities. This technology allowed for the rapid spread of the rise of the Seefan city-states in the north of the planet, enabling the northern Seefa to make greater efforts to cross the equatorial death zone and contact the southern Seefa. When prolonged contact was made, relations between the people of the two poles, despite having developed separately of one another, were friendly. Trade was established, and for the first time the population of Abysira became properly globalised.

### The Abysiran Conflict

During the Middle Era, Abysira had a growing population of Goroogong, who came to the planet in order to establish Gorooism as a primary religion among the local Seefa communities. The presence of the Goroogong missionaries on the planet, and their radical and fundamentalist approach to Gorooism, was widely considered to be unlawful by the majority of the Goroogong states, and was met with staunch resistance and numerous violent revolts among the heavily controlled Seefa population. By the 2nd Age of the Golden Epoch, with the formation of the Goroogong Contingent, the missionaries of Abysira formed a separatist movement called the Goroopung (sometimes called the Gorooist State) along with a number of other practitioner-states of radical Gorooism.

The oppression of the Seefa at the hands of the Goroopung resulted in worldwide uprisings against the radical Gorooists. There were Seefa populations on both sides of the conflict, but the vast majority of the indigenous Abysirans fought against the preaching of Gorooism, which sought to justify the enslavement of Seefa all over Abysira in favour of Gorooist ideals. The Abysiran Conflict lasted for most of the Golden Epoch's 2nd Age, gradually tapering out as a result of a heavily reduced Seefa population and the intervention of the Iolopian Peace Triangle (I.P.T.), who provided the Seefa with the military aid necessary for their liberation. By 285, 2nd Age, the Goroopung abandoned its colonies on Abysira, forced out by the I.P.T., leaving the planet to be populated solely by its native inhabitants.

### Post-war Abysira

Despite the ousting of the Goroopung on Abysira, the native Seefa population struggled to fully recover. Most of the male Seefa had either been killed in battle or died as slaves due to the Goroopung belief that only the male members of society were capable of becoming politically and religiously active. This had a catastrophic impact on the global Seefa population, whose male birth rate was already disproportionately lower than females as a consequence of Abysira's extreme heat and the Seefas' reptilian temperature-based incubation system. By the end of the Golden Epoch, roughly 350 years after the Goroopung left Abysira, the last male Seefa on Abysira died in a cargosect-riding accident.

During the early days of the Bleak Epoch, Abysira's rapidly dwindling, all-female population re-established much of the former Seefan settlements of the pre-Goroopung era. It enjoyed a brief period of relative prosperity, but the reclamation of their planet was inevitably short-lived due to the short lifespans of the Seefa. With the aid and accompaniment of the Iolopian Peace Triangle and specifically the Leeanthi Uari, the Seefa formed the Heessthra, or "Sisterhood of the Fang" - a militant organisation dedicated to the emancipation of Seefan slaves and the retribution of the Goroogong and all other practitioners of Gorooism.

In the 1st Age of the Bleak Epoch, Abysira had become almost entirely uninhabited save for the last few elderly Seefa females. A handful of emancipated male Seefa were returned to the planet by the Heessthra, but the efforts were not enough to save Abysira's population. The Seefa race as a whole, however, clung on perilously to the Heessthra's liberation of male/female Seefa communities in far-off places in the galaxy. Abysira, meanwhile, proved too difficult to repopulate, and by 87, 1st Age of the Bleak Epoch, it was uninhabited.

### Today

In the Modern Epoch of the New Era, Abysira remains uninhabited by sentient races. The extreme conditions of the planet have proven it to be a place uninhabitable save by its own, extinct, native people. It does, however, remain populated by the colonies of silver cargosects and many of the other species that were present there during the days of the Seefa, who are left to roam unconstrained and undisturbed.