Valhalla

Valhalla (Vega D) is a planet and Human colony that orbits the star Vega and was settled by Humans as a mine in 2210 for it's incredibly rich resources.

It is moonless, orbits 4th from the blue star and is frigid and cold, but it's atmosphere supports Human life, is oxygen-rich and a by 2223 a permanent colony was settled there.

It is run by the Republic of Valhalla that is part of the Terran Commonwealth in the Galactic Confederacy.

#### History

In 2210 the Centuri Colonies Programme first established vennimite mines on Valhalla as well as the neighboring and even more volcanic Múspell, that were easy to access due to it's high volcanic activity, the planet was also rich in a myriad of other resources as well as supporting primitive native life in the form of plants that generated oxygen, although it had very little surface fauna, tales of larger creatures existing in a network of unexplored caves in the mountains still prevail today..

The mine grew incredibly quickly and by the early 2220's the colonists had enough resources to sustain themselves indefinitely though Valhalla remained under jurisdiction of Centuri when Proteus Corporation's ProForce declared Valhalla under Martial Law.

This lasted until the fall of Proteus in the 2340's and Valhalla became a partly-sovereign colony during the formation of the GRE in the 2340's when Flarestar was paid to hunt down pro-Proteus renegades and rebels of ProForce who were against Earth joining the Galactic Confederacy and aligning all Humans with this view, although many were never caught.

In 2350's the planet was subject to an internal revolt by the remnants of ProForce who had established themselves as anti-alien politicians for the colony and split the world in two, declaring Valhalla Human-only territory and wanting utter political sovereignty from Earth and the right to pull out of the Confederacy. This was empowered by the remnants of the Earth Independence Party who helped Proteus rise to power on Earth; but without an Earth, the group became the Order of Humanity. Surprisingly this developed quite a following as a new breed of xenophobe began to emerge; no longer focused on Earth, the speciesist movement on Valhalla were Human purists and cultists hiding in suits and politics, despise obvious hypocrisy of Humans themselves being alien to the world they claimed Valhalla as a purely Human planet and a civil war erupted in 2355, these battles eventually led to the Order of Humanity striking against an early EGA in an attempt to retake Earth. These conflicts became known as the Terran Civil War. This war between the still new and relatively small EGA and the Order centred around the outer colonies (then known as the Terran Expansion Territories or TET) and the Order of Humanity began after the invasion of the small independent world of Xaviera in 2360.

The war ended in 2365 when the Order gave up their last position near Valhalla and the EGA arrested every member for trial.

By the 2400's Valhalla had a booming economy powered by geothermal energy and its own military was rapidly growing too, but it was happy being part of the Confederacy under what was quickly becoming known as the Terran Commonwealth, but biologists and naturalists had increasing concern over the continued mining operations and it's impact on the development of the young world and the 25th century became a century of protests on Valhalla.

After years of politics and protesting the Republic of Valhalla halted major mining in 2408, but the Valhallan government sneakily allowed small-scale mining to avoid making a dent in their export economy across the Commonwealth, but their LTSE1K market consisted almost entirely of mining and trade companies and their financial stability dropped considerably. This prevented economic growth for several decades and Valhalla became one of the poorest colonies of the Commonwealth systems.

Nevertheless their market recovered strongly in 2422 and Valhalla began leading the way in new forms of energy development instead of mining, eventually Valhalla was credited as one of the most important assets in developing perfect matter-to-energy conversion in the 26th century.

By the 2580's Valhalla was a popular tourist destination and continues to be one of the most important colonies in the Commonwealth in the 31st century.

#### Ecology and Geology

There were no notably developed fauna aside from microbes, bacteria and a verity of simple, worm-like extremophile lifeforms that lived in the freezing oceans near deep-sea vents where colonies of bacteria also gave rise to plant-like vegetation more reminiscent of fungi, but that produced oxygen the water. The plants on land have a similar fungal structure and are thought to be direct ancestors of the deep-sea fungi.

It is assumed that this planet is starting to develop a Cambrian-period ecosystem but it's distance from Vega, it's quick rotation and slow orbit means that snow and ice are constant across the planet, separated by large warm areas heated geothermal ranges across the equator regions, where most of the plantlife grows.

Despite this tales by early miners in the many mountains of the planet often describe large creatures living in the natural cave systems, but no evidence has ever been fully substantiated for centuries and were most likely simply stories.

There are 40 hours in a standard Valhallan day but the colonists still use a 24-hour Earth-standard and have a "black day" followed by a "white night" for every two earth days.

Many believe Valhalla to be mostly mountainous and snowy, but it has several slightly varying biomes, covered by highlands, and fjords towards it's equator where most of it's volcanic and rocky geology exists, the further hemispheres are relatively flat and composed of permafrost steppes, it's furthermost poles are too cold for even bacterial life and even in the 31st century remained unexplored, dangerous mining expeditions to those areas during early colonisation almost always ended up failures. It has crystal clear tideless oceans that are kept warm around the equator due to deep-sea vents and at least two cities have been built around these since trying to avoid major disruption of the surrounding life.

#### Sociology and Culture

Valhallan Humans like to be known simply as 'Valhal' or sometimes 'Valhan' and have a culture that is quite obviously descended from their Norse heritage on Earth, many on Valhalla in the 31st century speak Norsic; a language derived from various Nordic cultures, but also speak Danish and Dutch to a lesser degree depending on area.

Valhal are known for their love of beer and have many festivals celebrating life, freedom and simply the enjoyment of drinking itself.

Valhalla is 86 percent Human but Braxan/Huxan and a degree of Luuth migrants, who enjoy the colder weather, also make up some of the population, most Valhal are scientifically minded and atheist.