Espa

Espa

Vliviak above the Layer Forests on Espa

A Map of Espa

**Espa** is the third planet of the Odjoran system in the Alpha Quadrant in the Tonya Expanse. It bares a resemblance to Earth, but is larger and more massive.

It's the third planet of the system, a warm superhabitable earth-like planet, it has five moons (Tycion, Revan, Archentes, Yattu and Ezra). This celestial body accommodates organic multicellular life. Espa is the homeworld of a humanoid species called the Krenn.

In Krenn language Espa means something like "forest".

## Characteristics

Espa is a Super-earth far larger and more massive than the earth.

### Formation

The planet is approximately 4 billion years old, life has been present on Espa for at least 3.4 billion years. The young planet Espa was formed out of a collision between two Earth like planets 4 billion years ago, a later collision and a gravitational capture also gave birth to the moon Yattu and Archentes. Water arrived on meteors during the Late Heavy bombardment of the Odjoran system 3.7 billion years ago. Life arose about 3.4 billion years ago. And evolved steadily over the next few billion years to come.

### Geology

*Main article: Evolution of life on Espa*

Espa does have plate tectonics and is a geologically active world, however since its a super earth there is considerable less speed to the drifting process, while a lot of super earths cease plate tectonics early in their life, however Espa has retained its continental movement. The large supercontinent on the planet has existed for approximately 70 million years, and is in the early stages of breaking up. Among the active regions are Mount Excelsum and the Barrier Mountains. As earlier mentioned tectonic plates drift slower on Espa than on earth due to the planets size the average drifting speed of the plates is 5 mm/year.

Super volcanoes aren't rare, but due to the size of Espa they aren't as harmful to life as on earth with the same applying to sea- and earthquakes.

### Geography

Espa has slightly less land then earth. Seven individual continents (Trobon, Aurul, Vantamir, Palliam, Artha, Coros and Nalmar) and 4 oceans can be identified the Lothalic, Sednic, Auralis Ocean and the Theic. Due to the planets size distances are vast. The surface of Espa is 2.56×109 km2 which is over 5 times as much surface area as the Earth has.

The central continent is divided in two half's by a high mountain range called the Barrier Mountains, South of which lay the Layer Forests stretching all of the Sona Peninsula and to the east coast, and north of which lays the Sand Trap desert.

Espa receives 1.17 kilowatts of energy from Odjor per square meter from which about 32% is radiated away into space.

### Climate

Espa is a warm tropical planet of almost 25 degrees on average, the last ice ages has been millions of years ago, and the planet is in a stable warm climate due to the existing super continent. The southern pole on Espa currently doesn't have ice caps, there is some permanent glaciation on the southern continent but its negligible, the Northern poles has far less warm currents being driven from the south and has a moderate ice cap, the micro continent Artha is a frozen polar desert during most of the winter and spring completely, during summers it's much like Siberia and Northern Canada on Earth, with thick permafrost in the ground.

### Atmosphere

Due to her stronger gravity Espa is able to maintain a denser atmosphere the earth. The atmosphere on Espa is 2.46 times denser then on earth 1.89 kg/m3, it contains far less Nitrogen and far more Oxygen (about 35%) then earths. it also contains Krypton instead of Argon. Because of the dense atmosphere concentrations of oxygen at the surface have risen to 350,000 ppm. This has pushed the atmosphere to the point of spontaneous combustion during storms. Forest fires are frequent. This is compensated for by the Carbon-dioxide levels around 50 times higher than on earth causing massively accelerated plant growth.

#### Color

From the ground the Espan sky appears a bright shade of red, which shifts to a deep purple during sunset, due to the thick atmosphere some aerial plant-life contributes to the green hue, which is strongest during early noon. However near the poles the atmosphere is to cold for these aerial microbes, the sky reverts to its pure pale cyan color which during sunset transits to a pale violet.

## Life and Civilization

### Life

*Main article: List of Espan lifeforms*

The stronger gravity on Espa requires life to have twice the muscle strength of earth lifeforms these muscles can only be supported by the high oxygen levels on the planet. Odjor is slightly brighter than our sun on Earth from Espa, therefore leafs on Espa are also found a lighter shade of green (or sometimes yellow) than what is common on earth in order to capture the right amount of sunlight.

Most creatures are also smaller due to the higher gravity.

Due to Espa's size very few life forms are found on more then 1 continent, lifeforms that are found on multiple continents are usually large airborne migrating creatures or plants that had their seeds carried by those creatures, this however is rarely the case and differences in flora and fauna between the continents are huge.

Due to its size Espa is about 5 times as resistant to mass extinctions as the earth. If it weren't for the low active Flare star of Remus life would not be subjected to mass extinction at all. A super solar flare every few million years isn't rare, about every hundred million years an eruption happens that is powerful enough to cause a mass extinction on the planet these super flare events are the primary causes of mass extinctions on Espa. The last of these flare mass extinctions happened 145 million years ago.

### Civilization

*Main article: Timeline of Espan History*

Espa is home to a humanoid species called the Krenn.

## Moons

Espa has a lunar system consisting of a total of 5 moons, 2 large moons and 3 minor asteroid moons. The last of which, Ezra is in high elliptical orbit and expected to break free from Espan gravity within the next 5,000 years.

 Revan | 59000 km
 Archentes | 242800 km
 Yattu | 607000 km

## Orbit

The Orbits of Archentes and Yattu resonate in a 1:3 ratio with eachother. Meaning every orbit of Yattu, Archentes completes 3 of her own.

## Creation

Espa was originally created as the planet Oberon, 3 and a half years previous to the start of the Collaborative Worldbuilding Project. With the oldest files naming the planet dating back as far as November 2013, Espa has been subject to quite some changes over time. Over time 4 versions of this planet can be separated: Oberon, Pre-CWP Espa and CWP Espa

### Erua (Mk. 0)

In the very very first sketches I recovered of Espa (dating to September 2014), Espa was the planet Erua in the Sandar system.

#### Erua (Mk. 0.1)

Somewhere along the way the name changed from Erua to Oberon.

### Oberon (Mk. 1)

Previous to 14 September 2016 Espa was called Oberon, after this date the planet got a massive refit.

The surface of Oberon was over 85% percent covered with water, there was only one supercontinent and a large number of islands spread all over the immense ocean. On the surface it was around the 291 degrees kelvin. The entire planet was 28,550 kilometers wide and had a rotation period of 24.10 hours.

Oberon orbited Axel Alpha at 0.908 AU with an eccentricity of 0.0135 and an inclination of 0.02 every 303 days.

### Pre-CWP Espa (Mk. 2)

After the refit Oberon was renamed to Espa and a lot of changes were made, the planet had still the same orbital and main physical characteristics however the environmental character of the planet was completely altered, reclassifying the planet as superhabitable.

While the look of the planets surface was still mostly recognizable, one must note the addition of 3 continents and a lot of smaller islands, while the former northern pole has been replaced by a smaller continent more to the south, the other 2 continents are completely new. this caused the one supercontinent - one super ocean structure to disappear and a more spread structure to take its place.

The atmospheric composition was also made up, resulting in a 63% Nitrogen, 31% Oxygen and 3% Krypton atmosphere and warm humid climate.

### CWP Espa (Mk. 3)

CWP Espa is the third version of this planet and had a lot more background info while basically once again more land mass was added and the percentage of water covering the surface was decreased to 76.4% by adding 2 new continents and several hundred new islands.

### CWP Espa (Mk. 4)

On 7 December 2017 a proposal to move the CWP into a fictional galaxy was approved allowing yet another revision.

## Trivia

* Espa's map was originally based upon the planet seen orbiting Gliese 581 in the documentary Journey to the edge of the universe.
* Espa was designed to be a superhabitable planet.
* Espa's lunar system was based upon the Plutonian moon system.
* Inspiration for some of the Espan life forms is based on creatures from Deltora Quest

## Image Gallery

Espa before it was remodeled for the CWP.Forests on Espa.A Mucra on the northern hemisphere with yellow grass.A Srakin fishing on the east coast of the central continent.Forests on Espa.Vliviak birds above the Layer Forest.Forests on Espa.The Barrier Mountains.