Afarr

"*Endless seas of sand and the hardships that come with molded our people into the perfect specimen of life; the Bontarardi*"

### Name

* Afarr
* Capitalia
* Bontarardina

## Atmospheric Characteristics

### Temperature

29 degrees

Afarr is a desert planet located in the mid-regions of the Cerlus Cluster. It is the capital of the powerful Imperium of Cerlus, and the homeworld of the Bontarardi and the Akuri. Located in a elliptical orbit around the star Erula, Afarr is unique in that it has what is known as the "desertification cycle", typically lasting around 10 000 to 50 000 years.

## History

### Ancient History

Afarr is an ancient world, with evidence to suggest it did not form in the Erula System, but was brought here from somewhere else in the galaxy. However, this is still a subject of debate, as the evidence is not definitive. However it is largely believed that life was seeded on Afarr around 7 billion years ago, coinciding with the speculative date that the Cerlus Cluster may have been assembled. As such, lIfe on Afarr has had a long time to evolve, and has come out with more evolutionarily perfect creatures than other worlds.

Aproximately two hundred thousand years ago, the Akuri began to develop consciousness and began a extremely primitive civilization. Only a hundred thousand years after the Akuri had built their tribal civilization, the Bontarardi, a formerly domesticated species used by the Akuri for slave labor, developed their own sense of self and intelligence.

For a while, they lived in harmony with the less intelligent Bontarardi providing for the Akuri in return for protection and a easy supply of food, until a radical faction within the Bontarardi rebelled. The Akuri, in return, overreacted and committed genocide on their working Akuri population. The rebel faction escaped from the still tribal Akuri, and began to set up their own civilization. This is the moment when xenophobia began to set into the Bontarardi consciousness.

### Split of the Races

For thousands of years, these two groups stayed separate, eventually forgetting about one another. However, the Akuri temperamentality and the Bontarardi xenophobia only began to heighten as the two groups occasionally clashed. Finally, fourteen thousand years ago, the two groups clashed in open warfare following Akuri escalation of a dispute over territory. This spurred the race for technology, culminating in the complete revolution of culture and society. Within only two hundred years, the two groups had developed from a tribal, semi hunter-gatherer existence to kingdoms and empires covering vast swaths of the planet. In this period of history, lasting around five hundred years and marked with the blood of billions, hundreds of empires and kingdoms fought for territory until two powers remained - one representing the Akuri, and the other representing the Bontarardi. A long cold war followed, lasting for another two hundred years until the Akuri invented steam power, and, keeping it a secret from the Bontarardi, industrialized their entire nation. Finally, they had the advantage. The war lasted sixty-two years, but the Akuri prevailed and dominated Afarr for the second time in their history.

### Akuri Domination

What followed is now known as the Blood Years, as the Akuri committed mass genocide on a scale never seen before. 99% of Bontarardi were eliminated, and the remaining millions were treated as little more than animals. As the Akuri nation further industrialized and began to invent nuclear power and the first tentative steps to space travel. The Bontarardi, suffering under the oppressive breeding and labor practices, could do nothing but watch as their masters dreamt of the stars, as they were forced to conceive and labor, and conceive again without any thoughts of their wants and wishes. Through this, the Bontarardi species was genetically manipulated to become something more than they were.

After a hundred and twenty years of this, the Bontarardi snapped. With roughly equal numbers as their masters, the Bontarardi rose up and fought a bloody nuclear war with their masters over the planet. In the end, after the death of five billion Bontarardi and Akuri, the Bontarardi rose up and claimed their place as the masters of Afarr. And so began The Shameful Years.

### The Shameful Years

The Bontarardi, finally in a position of power over the Akuri, unleashed their most primal instincts and slaughtered them in the deadliest campaign of genocide the Cerlus Cluster has seen on a primitive scale. Akuri were rounded up into town squares and shot, while Bontaradi partied and disrespected the bodies of their former masters in all manner of ways. Rape, torture and mutilation were the defining words of the Shameful Years. After two years, 99.9% of the Akuri were dead, and out of the remaining 0.1% the vast majority were infertile due to all manner of abuse. The Bontarardi, whoever, did not have a moral epiphany, and proceeded to forcefully sterilize the remaining fertile Akuri. Within twenty years of the end of the Blood Years, the Akuri were extinct.

### (Failing to) Rebuild their Civilization

Following the nuclear war that ended the Akuri's domination, nuclear winter set in and a vast mass extinction took place among the biosphere of Afarr. As the Shameful Years unfolded, the nuclear winter only got worse. In the dying months of the Akuri, civilization totally collapsed. In the aftermath of the Shameful Years, the Bontarardi regressed into total savagery returning Afarr to what it looked like 800 years ago, with kingdoms and empires ruling the barren, radioactive land.

### A New Dark Age

The Dark Ages lasted for twelve thousand years, an abnormally long time for a nuclear regression. Little can be said about it, apart from the billions that died from pure savagery. Numerous empires rose to conquer Afarr, but only one held it.

### (Succeeding in) Rebuilding their Civilization

Out of those Dark Ages the Imperium of Afarr rose to power. The unification of Afarr with the fall of the last independent state marks the end of the Dark Ages. Soon, technology began to be used once again, and the Imperium rose in power and wealth. After three hundred years of growth, the Imperium broke the barrier and rose to space, colonizing most of the Erula System. Soon afterwards, they discovered an anomaly in the nearby star of Ponimula. They began a project to reach the star, and within a decade, the ship was underway.

Known as the Nu'kalash, the ship arrived at Ponimula and found an abandoned Alderson Disk. On that disk, the discovered the most pivotal device in their races history - the Alcubierre Drive. With this device, the Bontarardi began missions to other star systems.

### Civil War

However, not everyone was happy with the Drive. A devout religious faction believed that the Drive was a temptation from evil, and should be destroyed. They attempted a coup, and almost succeeded, resulting in a massive civil war that occupied the entirety of the Imperium for two decades. After the ending of the war, the Imperium formally recognized that it was no longer just Afarran, and proclaimed the Imperium of Cerlus.

### Exodus

Afarr experienced a massive population exodus with the opening of a hundreds of new systems and colonies, and the infrastructure almost couldn't handle the loss of a billion working-class residents. However, the population soon stabilized, and everything returned to normal

### Today

Today Afarr is a highly populated metropolitan world that is the capital of the Imperium. As such, is has a large portion of the bureaucratic infrastructure needed to support the empire. The world is mostly populated by Bontarardi, with numerous other races making up about 5% of the population.

## Biology

Afarr is a desert world, with tropical forests and temperate regions surrounding the higher latitudes. The equatorial regions are dominated by deserts, with a malnourished biosphere beneath the endless sands. However, due to the desertification cycle of the planet, the polar tropical regions will grow once again and encompass the entire planet withing twenty thousand years. After sixty thousand years, the tropical regions will once again regress to the poles, and the process will continue until the balance is upset.

### Desert

As a result of nuclear war, the ecosystem in this region is shocked and drained. The onset of cities and industry is not helping the biosphere. As such, the desert ecosystem is dying. Before the onset of civilization, the desert had a thriving underground ecosystem dominated by fungal networks that stretched for thousands of kilometers. Rodent like creatures would emerge at night and hunt flies which hatch at sunset and die at sunrise. Slow, shaggy masses of flesh, formerly domesticated animals, would amble mindlessly during the night and hunker down during the day, the only source of nutrition and sustenance for the deserts only major carnivore.

### Nothern Lushlands

Comparatively barren compared to the South, but orders of magnitude more diversity and biomass than the desert. The descendants of the vast fungal network are now isolated here, and so the remaining few creatures that prey on the fungus have migrated here, although its climate is vastly different to the desert. No major bodies of water are located here, but condensation and underground reservoirs are more than enough to support the creatures and flora of the region.

### Southern Lushlands

The most diverse and lush region of the planet, it is a massive tropical rain forest surrounding a small ocean that doesn't see the sun for half the year. All rivers in the southern hemisphere and even some in the north lead to this ocean, which supports the (comparatively) massive biodiversity found in this region. Vast fungal trees reach many dozens of meters into the air, catching swimming pools of water from dew drops and condensation. These massive reservoirs are the water source for most of the south pole, with every animal coming here to drink. A few crafty animals use this to their advantage, poisoning the water and feasting on the corpses. Surrounding the fungal towers, smaller trees reach up, attempting to reach a bit of that previous sunlight that is so rare in this region of the planet.

## Orbit

As one of the most important and industrialized worlds in the Cerlus Cluster, Afarran orbit is cluttered to say the least. A massive ring surrounds the planet, functioning as a shipyard and a economic powerhouse, processing all the resources that flow back to the planet from the rest of the Erula System and beyond. These resources and then shipped down to the surface, and used to build massive projects and further the eventual goal of the Bontarardi, establishing Afarr as a ecumenopolis.

Also surrounding Afarr is a vast swarm of habitats and factories, currently in the process of uniting into another band dedicated to population and housing.

### Sekoa

The one moon of Afarr, Sekoa is highly prized by the Imperium and the Bontarardi. The first world colonised, and the first world terraformed, Sekoa acts as a nature retreat and national park for the vast majority of species on Afarr. Sekoa has a highly monitored and controlled population, as the animals and plants residing there are prone to abuse from rebels and anti-Bontarardi groups.

## Population and Demographics

Afarr is a incredibly populated world, one of the most in the Cerlus Cluster. On its surface and in its orbit it houses an estimated 1.2 trillion sentient beings, as well as a further 840 billion non-sentient. Multiple thousands of artificial intelligences, working day and night to maintain the planet, are also counted in the census. Over two trillion 'beings', total, inculding non-sentient robots, call this world home.

## Economy

The Afarran economy is a powerhouse, powering and funding the massive expansion that made the empire what it is today. However, today, the economy is entering a massive recession; one of the largest seen in history, and the Bontarardi are beginning to feel the burden of the debt their grandparents laid on them during the Campaign for Supremacy.