Artaclate

**Artaclate** is a heavily populated planet located in the Feres System in the Elerad Sector of Florathel. Being the capital of Marakat, a member nation of the UNF, Artaclate is a very industrial world, with much of its area being dedicated to factories and things on and around the planet. Artaclate is best known for being one of the most populated planetary bodies in Cosmoria, and the planet also has a high economic value, which allows various industries make large profits, drawing them to the planet.

Being the home planet of the **Poreltids**, Artaclate has received lots of prestige and cultural value. Due to the Poreltids' focus on making their planet well-defended, Artaclate has never been successfully attacked in all of its modern history. It is often considered to be a "Fortress World" because of this. Artaclate also receives a positive reputation for its notably high quality of life, as most citizens live comfortably in any given layer of the planet. Artaclate has been untouched by war or crises across the eons.

## Economic Value

### Culture

Due to its status as the home planet of the Poreltids, who are very happy to encourage immigration, Artaclate has a huge number of immigrants on it. Because of this, there is a vast array of cultures from across the galaxy, usually with their own distinct Artaclate flavor.

### Trade

Artaclate's economy relies on the sheer level of trade going through its gates, as trade can easily be taxed to fund the huge building projects around the planet. Most trade comes through normal trading craft equipped with spike drives, although it has a wormhole link directly to the distant Toralaskis, allowing its goods to travel across the galaxy. Additionally, Artaclate has a large number of factories, allowing it to produce a vast variety of products and things. These products are sold across Florathel, making Artaclate one of the largest trading hubs in the UNF.

## Ring System

Artaclate's artificial ring system takes the form of a series of parallel habitation rings encircling the planet, packed tightly enough to appear like a set of natural rings. They hold an extremely large population of billions of individuals, and are considered a symbol of national pride.

## Pre-Ecumenopolis State

Artaclate, before it became an ecumenopolis, was a cold world with oceans of liquid ammonia, with dissolved water ice within. It was almost entirely dry, with only certain regions near the terminator habitable. However, as the planet was transformed into a matrioshka world, essentially all of the continents vanished from the planet as they were buried under the shells of cities.

## Levels

### Level 1 - Top Level

The top level of the Artaclate city contains mostly such things as communication, landing facilities, and is generally the richest of the four levels. Notable things on the top level include:

The Artaclate government buildings
The Great Museum
The historic Cetina District
Some more historic districts
This level also includes direct links to the various orbital rings and other static megastructures around the planet. Most of the employees of the Marakat government move to this level, meaning that an entire district is effectively reserved for them.

### Levels 2

Level 2 is the the level directly beneath the top level, and is the most populous of them. It contains roughly half of the entire surface population of the planet. It is the middling of the three heavily populated levels in terms of wealth. Level 2's economy is dominated by the service sector, and as such depends heavily on people shopping for things.

### Level 3

Level 3 is the poorest of the three heavily populated levels and the least populous. This level is dominated by manufacturing systems, which are mostly automated, explaining the relatively low population. Because there are little to no jobs aside from maintainance, Level 3 is infested with various powerful gangs.

### Level 4

Level 4, the bottommost level of Artaclate, is in fact very sparsely populated. Its ceiling is covered in powerful lights to simulate the sun, and the floor of the level is actually modeled after Artaclate's original terrain. As such, Level 4 functions as a nature preserve. Level 4 is mostly inhabited by the various original native flora and fauna of Artaclate, rather than people. This level also contains most of Artaclate's original oceans.

## Political State

Most of Artaclate is under the direct control of the nation of Marakat, which has holdings across several star systems. However, some patches of Artaclate consist of smaller independent states, such as Kosav and Selakat. A small section of Level 4 has been claimed by a low-tech society known as Lusa, on the shores of the Velakar Sea, which mostly keeps to itself.

## History

### Prehistory

Artaclate's story begins 950 million years ago, as it forms alongside the rest of the Feres System from a very metal-rich disk of dust and gases. Immediately after its birth, Artaclate's surface was an infernal realm, utterly uninhabitable even to the bizarre lava life of Pyre. It took thousands of years for Artaclate to even retain a primordial atmosphere as the planet cooled alongside its parent star. WIP