Venus

**Venus**, officially known as **Sol-2**, is the second planet in the Sol system. Venus is predominantly known as the second planetary home for humans, and is called the “sister planet” of Earth. While originally a hostile, scorching planet, human engineering has terraformed it into a livable environment very similar to Earth. Venus is a member planet of the Galactic Union, and is a popular place to live for those wanting to avoid the busyness of Earth. More than half of Venus’s intelligent population is humans, with the human census reaching 136.8 billion by 3020 GUY. Outside of its native population, Venus houses a population of about 3.9 billion non-human intelligent sentients.

Unlike Earth, the flora and fauna present on Venus did not naturally evolve there; instead, variants from Earth were created and brought over to complete the terraformation. Because of this, Venus has a unique ecosystem unlike anything else in its system. Its atmosphere is mostly comparable to Earth’s, consisting mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Nearly 80% of the Venusian surface is water, despite only having 10% of the amount of water found on Earth. Venus has one artificial moon, Cupid, which was created using the remains of Venus’s original atmosphere. Its moon is approximately

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 the size of the planet.

## Abiotic Factors

### Weather

Venus’s weather varies slightly with location. Weather can range from chilly temperatures (272 K) to sweltering heat (310 K) throughout most of the planet, but at the poles can reach down to far below freezing (230 K). Precipitation is common closer to the planet’s shorelines, but much less common than on Earth due to Venus’s incredibly flat surface. Unlike Earth, there are no seasons on Venus due to its small axial tilt of 177.3°. Due to genetically-engineered algae and other organisms, the climate is usually consistent.

### Atmosphere

Venus’s atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, a stable and nonreactive gas, 21% oxygen, used to breathe, and 1% other gases, including carbon dioxide. This means combustion is relatively contained and not explosive like on some planets with higher oxygen concentration.

Before its terraformation, Venus’s atmosphere consisted of 96.5% carbon dioxide and 3.5 nitrogen; however, it was 93 times denser than Earth’s atmosphere at 9450 kPa.

## History

Hundreds of millions of GUYs ago, Venus was habitable similarly to today, but its unorthodox rotational period and close proximity to its star led Venus to eventually become a hellish landscape. For a very long time, Venus was untouched by life. It became an integral part of human culture and mythology, being named after a goddess of beauty. In 1129 GUY, with the assistance of the Galactic Union and other forces, humans began to terraform the planet.

The process began with freezing Venus’s atmosphere. Using a set of mirrors held in orbit, sunlight was reflected away from Venus’s surface, causing the gas to slowly turn solid and form snow. Next, using an army of robots to mine and mass drivers to transport, the frozen atmosphere was slowly chipped away. The frozen CO2 was collected into orbit, forming a small moon. Once the atmosphere was removed, humans used the same technology from before to move enough frozen water from Sol-5b (also known as Europa) back to Venus in order to cover its surface.

Asteroids were brought into orbit and held in place to speed up Venus’s rotation to a period similar to Earth’s. After hundreds of GUYs, the mirrors were removed from orbit and the planet began to heat back up. Frozen water melted and covered 80% of the planet’s surface. Next, the oceans were filled with algae in order to produce enough oxygen to sustain life. Over the course of a few hundred GUYs, more and more plants, and eventually animals, were introduced into Venus’s new ecosystem.

Over time, humans began to migrate to the newly-habitable planet. With nearly all of its life being genetically engineered to cater to the Venusian geology and climate, life was incredibly easy and simple for early migrants. For the first time in eons, Venus was truly looking like Earth’s “sister planet”. As Earth grew in notoriety and population, Venus became a favorable alternative for humans (and others) wanting a similar experience to Earth, but without the chaos of big cities.

## Biomes

### Grasslands

Stretching across the Venusian coastlines are bountiful areas full of grass and grazing animals. Trees are plentiful but do not dominate the surface. Most humans settle here, opting for easily the most pleasant biome on the planet. Farmland occupies much of the landscape.

### Elevated Rainforests

Lush forests with very tall evergreen and redwood trees and other thick vegetation. There is a high amount of rainfall in these forests, and the trees stretch high into the sky, making it difficult to navigate. They are found mainly around Venus’s equator.

### Violet Mountains

Named after their striking purple hue, the mountainscapes at the center of large Venusian continents give a place for lives of solitude for many. While not stretching as high as on Earth, the mountains still give a great view of the land and oceans, even being habitable to many types of animals.

### Marshes

In certain low-altitude areas on Venus, due to its nearly-flat surface, ocean water can spread far enough along the surface to create large marshes. This can occur on whole islands or simply as sections of continents. The violet Venusian soil soaks with ocean water to create a beautiful indigo. These areas are usually not inhabited by humans, but aquatic-adjacent races may take refuge there.