Monkaiko

Monkaiko us a unique planetary body on the Monka System that baffled scientists for generations before it's origin was finally determined.

Description

Monkaiko has a roughly eighty percent standard earth-sized mass, but despite it's size id not round. Rather, two hemispheres come together with a massive, hundreds of miles deep band separating them. The two halves share a similar chemical composition but have distinct cores. The cut is not around the meridian, but rather at a roughly forty-five degree angle, and forms a perfect circle.

The planet has a ring system(highly uncommon for worlds that size), and is surrounded by several small, jagged astroidal moons. The surface is pockmarked by impact events, yet there is a thin atmosphere(about fifty-percent earth-normal), including liquid water and weather patterns. The atmosphere supports some plant life and even supports a very few simple insects. Evidence of might higher-ordered life is abundant, including the remains of massive cities. The planet does not support human life and has very little oxygen.

Charting

The planet was initially charted by a long-range probe sent by the Gudersnipe Foundation, who identified the strangely shaped planet as "most probably an anomaly or mistake by the survey system". However, a high metal contents were detected, so a manned mission was sent to investigate the solar system as a possible site for mining.

The survey crew were noted for not being particularly excited about the mission, since they suspected the planet either wouldn't be there, or would be much smaller. They were quite shocked at what they found; a world which defied all explanation. It had close to normal gravty, rotation, and liquid water, yet there clear reason why it had not formed an sphere.

Such oddly-shaped worlds were not without precedent: Cobble has peeks as tall as sixty miles, some of which nearly poke out into space. This is nothing compared to the six-hundred-mile deep, thousand-mile-wise gash on Monkaiko.

Discovery of Ruins and Explanation

The initial survey team was the first to note what looked uncannily like cities from their orbital sweep, but it took a specially-equipped survey team to make the initial landing. They proved that, yes, there were extremely obvious remnants of human habitation. The nearly anaerobic state had preserved much, and they found, within minutes, writings belonging to the long-destroyed Marcon Alliance.

This, in turn, made Monkaiko's awkward appearance blatantly obvious: the planet had, quite litterally, been sliced in half b the sorceress Lelerough in 901 B.G.A..

Later Use

Since it was an excelent candidate for the process, Monkaiko was terraformed. The larger moons(actually chunks of the planet that had been blown into orbit) were either stabilized or sent back to the surface, and new life seeded the world. The process destroyed much of the Marconian artifacts that were left behind, but since Marcon civilization is, in general, not highly valued, this was considered 'Ok'. The Monka System is still a major mining outpost, but Monkaiko sees tremendous amounts of tourism. "Gash Tours" or descents into the massive gash are popular, as is amateur archaeology in the ruins of Marconian cities. The Foundation both allows and encourages quote "anyone with a shovel" to come by and go digging, and a few finds of treasure and other interesting articles have been discovered. The rather unconventional methods have caused serious damage to the archaeological value of the sites, which, again, most people agree on as being just fine.