Earth

**Earth**, officially known as Sol-3, and sometimes **Terra**, is the third planet in the Sol system. The surface is approximately 70.8% liquid water and 29.2% land. Earth is a member planet of the Galactic Union, as well as a popular hotspot and tourist attraction. Most of Earth’s intelligent population is humans, with the human census reaching 247.2 billion by 3020 GUY. Outside of its native population, Earth houses a population of about 2.6 billion non-human intelligent sentients.

Earth also has a diverse population of flora and fauna. There are a plethora of maintained habitats across the planet for its natural nonsentient population, used to preserve the planet’s wellbeing and its rich biodiversity. The atmosphere mostly consists of nitrogen and oxygen, the latter of which is breathed by all of its inhabitants. Earth has one natural satellite, Luna. Its moon is approximately ¼ the size of the planet.

## Abiotic Factors

### Weather

Earth’s weather varies wildly with location. Weather can range from harsh cold (233 K) to brutal heat (311 K), littered with thunderstorms and hurricanes across its equator. These events are common but do not threaten extinction. Most weather is, at most, civilization-destroying, but usually just serves as a minor inconvenience. Due to the massive amount of water on the Earth’s surface, precipitation is extremely common. There are few deserts on the surface, though massive deserts existed in the past due to human influence.

### Atmosphere

Earth’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.

## History

Humans started appearing on Earth approximately 75,000 GUYs ago. At the beginning of human evolution, they hunted and gathered, lived together in small bands, and moved from place to place freely. When humans eventually developed agriculture, they began to settle down, stopped migrating, and developed villages and towns. This caused humans to develop further intellectually, militarily, and spiritually. With humans now growing crops and domesticating animals, their societies changed drastically, with trade becoming more prevalent as food was in surplus.

Humans also developed many independent writing systems from this time, as well as many religions. One of the first major civilizations is ancient Egypt, a society that still exists in the present day. Earth was split into hundreds of tribes and countries for thousands of GUYs, and humanity had countless civil wars with itself.

As technology advanced into their early information age, humans used mostly hydrocarbon-based fuels, which began to raise the temperature of their planet via greenhouse effect. In about 995 GUY, Earth’s temperature had reached dangerous levels, where humanity was on the brink of extinction. Galactic Union reviewers began to notice a previously dormant planet in the Sol system was heating up to unnatural levels. The star itself had not begun expanding or suffered any other changes. Taking interest, the Union charted that planet on their starmaps as requiring special attention, along with its system. Soon afterwards, Galactic Union ambassadors arrived on the planet to assess the damage and observe if there was sentient life.

The first visitation of off-planet life was shocking to humans and they were initially hostile. However, the ambassadors were curious and continued their attempts to communicate. Eventually, humans were diplomatic, and three of the planet’s largest superpower countries formed an alliance and joined the Galactic Union (mostly out of hubris). The annexation of Earth caused humans to become a space-faring species, and humans would spread rapidly across the galaxy.

Today, Earth is a popular Galactic Union hotspot and is visited as a tourist attraction. The planet’s natural beauty compels many to stay and live there, with plenty of small regions being devoted to nonhuman cities and states.

## Biomes

### Temperate Forests

As the most common biome on Earth, covering about ⅓ of the land, the temperate forests are located in temperate zones where trees and other vegetation grow freely. As the name suggests, temperatures in these regions are habitable for many types of animals. Most of these forests were destroyed by humans long ago, but have been revitalized since GU annexation.

### Rainforests

Lush forests with tall, mostly evergreen 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 in warm, wet tropical areas on the Earth’s surface.

### Grasslands

The tamest biome on the planet, the grasslands, are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses. Thousands of species of animals graze here, and the most danger one might find would be wind and minor natural disasters.

### Deserts

The deserts of Earth are barren areas where there is very little rain, and therefore, they are hostile for both plant and animal life. These biomes are much less common than they were in the past, mostly due to GU attempts to revitalize the climate-destroyed areas of the planet. However, they still exist in various places near the equator in order to preserve existing desert life.

### Tundra

These are biomes where tree growth is limited by low temperatures and harsh seasons. Most water in the tundras are frozen within the soil, creating layered permafrost on the surface. The deep, cold snow makes life in the tundra very difficult, and most animals hibernate during the cold seasons.