Oblis

**Oblis**, also called the **Capital**, **Core World**, **Terraria**, and many other names, is the third planet from the sun Oblis Prime. It is one of the five inner planets of the Trigon System. It is the most populated planet in it's system, and one of the most populated in the Galaxy, home to almost 350 billion people, of over 50,000 species. It's surface is composed primarily of liquid water, seperating the land into four distinct land masses.

Oblis also has a very unique biosphere, being one of the very few planets with naturaly larger concentrations of magic. There are an estimated six million species of plants, animals, and fungi are unique to Oblis. There are several sentient species that originated on Oblis, including humans, Xendor, Dragon Riders, Naestians, and wizards.

The planet is also the home of the Galactic Republic, and serves as the capital world of the Galaxy. Megapolis is the acting capital of the Republic, and is home to the Galactic Council Chamber, in the Megastruct.

## Etymology

The modern Oblithian word *Oblis* is the official title of the planet. The word comes from the old Oblithian word *Oblîz*, meaning blue. *Oblîz* itself comes from Terralithian *Obîk*. Other native species have their own names for the planet. The Dragon Riders, for example, do not acknowledge the word Oblis, and instead use *आमा*, meaning mother (pronounced *Āmā*).

Predating the Galactic Republic, there was no one word that had wide usage, and each country tended to have it's own word. The government of the Galatian Islands used *matō*, while Aptera used *Ukphila*. Some Xendor tribes used, and still do use the phrase "*Ijakda-ganpo*", which means 'the mother of our fathers'.

Citizens of Oblis are called 'Oblithians' or 'Terrarians'.

## Chronology

### Formation

The formation of Oblis is generally estimated to be about 4.289 bya. The theory becoming increasingly popular in the scientific community is the concept of a planet, called Palæolithia, roughly twice the size of Oblis, that somehow broke apart and formed Oblis, it's moons, and some left over rock. The reasoning behind it is the fact Oblis is so small, and the carbon dating of sample rocks taken from the moons' cores closely matches the dating of Oblis itself.

Water on the planet is a topic of debate. Though it is one of the most abundant chemicals in the Galaxy, argumets always break out over how it accumulates in any  one place in such quantities. Comets usually provide a source of water as they pass by the sun, with tails of ice, dust, and vapor streaming behind them. Outgassing from volcanic activity may have contributed.

### Abundance of Life

The oceans formed about 4.1 billion years ago. The continents at the time formed one large supercontinent and one smaller one. The first continent, called *Terras-Complexus,*comprised of Aptera, Northern Aptera, and Øphgannoland. The second, *Paleo-Perplexus*, consisted of Galatia Island, several of it's surrounding islands, and more land, that later sank.

Oblis was not the first planet to develop life, but it was one of the first to develop complex, intelligent life. Life appeared 3.6 bya, with very simple microrganisms. Many lifeforms were at first, ocean-bound. They were silicon based, though some surface creatures were carbon or oxygen based. The first dragons came arround in the early Palæo-Draconis Period, a very short period durring the Carbōzoic Era, about 250 mya. These were shortly followed by Dragon Riders, the first bipedal sentient species on the planet. Though several bipedal species originated on each planet, humans are estimated to originate in the Trigon System. 27 naturally occuring species of the Homo genus exist, with 75% coming from the Trigon System. A countless 100 more come from interspecies copulation. This has led to one of the greatest mysteries of the Galaxy, called the Bipedal-Anthropologic Anomaly. It deals with the question of how, despite the uniqueness of each planet, how against all odds, bipedal, human-like species tend to be abundant, and dominative.

It is assumed that Xendors evolved from Dragon Riders, though this is becoming more and more contested. Humans evolved much later, and wizards followed.

## Demographics

### Population

*See Also: Population of Oblis*

Currently, as of 2065, Oblis' population is 347,159,200,000 permanent residents. It is steadily increasing, at a growth rate of 1.96% per year. A population of 400 billion is expected in the early 2500's. This arrises a problem of over-population. Only one tenth of the planet is easily populable, with even less of that currently in use. Cities tend to build up instead of out, a practice originating in the early territorial disputes of the early 1000's BC. Cities often have buildings miles high packed with nearly a million people. Megapolis alone is home to 59 billion residents, in addition to nearly 3 billion tourists at any one time. Urbanologists show that 85% of people living in the Galatian Islands live in one of only five different cities; Megapolis (59 billion), Dynalith City (12 billion), Banolia (9.35 billion), Subterran (8.9 billion), and Androgyn (8.29 billion). On the whole planet, the five largest cities make up 50% of the entire population, and 75 cities have one billion residents or more.

Oblis' population does not include it's moons', satelites, or space stations. At any time, it is estimated that 25,000 people are in orbit above the planet, in space stations and satelites. Oblis also has two independant constituent countries on other planets, as well as a freely-associated planet, and 293 embassies with permanent populations. In total, adding all moons, satelites, and other entities, Oblis has a combined population of 4.25 billion.

### Language

The most common language spoken anywhere in the Republic is Oblithian, or GSL. Cardinalship requires a thorough knowledge of both Oblithian and Eldish. Terralithian, while a dead language, also had some usage in government up until the 1700's. The majority of citizens in Mesoland, Paraland, and Primaland speak just Oblithian. Iakovans often speak Atlasian at home. In Neoland, many wizarding families are bilingual, speaking Oblithian and Eldish. Goblish is still spoken in Cana and Perea, while the Dwarven language of Morlog is falling slowly out of uage. Tribes of the Aristarchus Desert may still use native languages. Dragon Riders still use Draconian dialects.

In the Apterica region, Oblithian also has a high usage. In much of centeral Southern Aptera, where Xendorian populations are higher, the langages of Xendorian and Des'eiric are common. Natives of the Northern Apteran tundra use native language.

Naestians of Øphgannoland speak Oblithian, Naestian, and Coptic.

### Soveriegn Nations

There are three countries on Oblis; Aptera, Galatian Islands, and Øphgannoland. An estimated 700 km² of land is unclaimed by any country, in islands in Geocrypt, at the poles, or in other cases. A few of these islands are known, and while not claimed, are usually associated with their closest neighboring country.

## Composition and Structure

The mass of Oblis is approximately 2.675x1016 kg (one planetary mass). It is composed of large ammounts of iron, silicon, aluminium, carbon, nickle, oxygen, and many trace elements. Rare elements include gold, platinum, and mercury. The core is made of massive amounts of molten iron, sulfur, aluminium, and nickle. Silica and alumina are abundant in the crust. Water is the most abundant compound on the planet.

### Tectonic Plates

The outer crust of Oblis is divided into several tectonic plates.

### Surface

The terrain of Oblis varies extremely. Nearly sixty-four percent, or 41,526,073.08 km2, of the surface is covered in water. Of the land area, 38% or more is forrested, 15% is tundra, 7% is mountain ranges, 4% is desert, and the remaining 36% includes grassland, cliffface, and arable land. It is estimated that 18.73% of land is devoted to farming, or roughly 4,270,440 km2.
The highest point on Oblis is Mount Athena, at 29,572 feet (9013 m). The lowest point on land is the bottom of the Apteran Canyon, at 1,167.97 feet (356 m) below sea level.

#### Hydrosphere

Water is the most abundant chemical compound on Oblis. Of all the water, 40,487,921.25 km2, or 97.5% of it, is saline ocean water. The salinity varies by location, but the average is 17 grams per kilogram of sea water. 2.5% of Oblis' water is fresh. 46.26% of that is groundwater, 39.5% is in rivers and lakes, and 11.24% is frozen, in glaciers and icy regions.

## Orbit and Rotation

### Rotation

A single day on Oblis is exactly calculated to be 24 hours, 1 minute, and 3.708 second, with an annual increase of 0.0003 seconds. The day has been used by the Galactic Republic as a business and government standard since the early ages, refering to it as the ORP (Oblithian Rotational Period).

### Orbit

An orbital period on Oblis, or a year, is 365.02564 ORP. It is also used as a galactic standard for time, called the GSY (Galactic Standard Year).

### Axial Tilt

Oblis' axis is not strong enough, at only 1.8°, to support seasons.

#### Habitability

As assigned by the Interplanetary Ecological Union, Oblis has a life support probability rating of .997, the 8th highest on the list. It has natural liquid water, arable soil, and a carbon-oxygen atmosphere.

## Satelites

Oblis has many satelites, both natural and artificial

### Moons

Oblis has three moons; Ragon, Dakon, and Centax. All three are populated, and all three have small, but existant, amounts of liquid water on their surface.

#### Ragon

Ragon is the closest of Oblis' moons, and the most populated. It's geography is very similar, as both have islands surrounded by saline water.

#### Dakon

Dakon is the second moon of Oblis. Dakon is largely covered in trees, and is slightly less populous than Ragon.

#### Centax

Centax is the least understood of the moons of Oblis. It's eliptical orbit of Oblis, and Antiope's eliptical orbit around Centax, have been theorized to have started the spread of species from one planet to another. Centax has the lowest population of the three main satelites, and is largely baren, save for a large lake and forest in the moon's northern hemisphere.

##### Antiope

Antiope is a natural pseudo-satelite of Centax. It has a very eliptical orbit, extending very large. It is completely uninhabited, and is only 4 km in diameter. It is not spherical, as it's gravity cannot substantially support gravitational rounding.

### Artificial Satelites

As of 2065, there are 928 operational artificial satelites in orbit of Oblis, with an additional 65+ orbiting it's moons. There are also seven space stations, three of them with permanent inhabitants. There are nearly 2,000 inoperative satelites, an increasingly imminent problem, as they collide with operative satelites and landing spaceships. In addition, some fourty-five thousand tons of space debris orbit the planet.