Terraforming

Terraforming is the practice of converting uninhabitable worlds into habitable ones through artificial manipulation. This can include modifying their orbits, atmospheric and surface compositions, and the creation of an eco system.

Terraforming is an extremly lengthy and expensive process. So much so that the cost of a given project and actual monitary rewards become completely incalculable. The timeline for a project is also well beyond the often shortsighted scope of a given government. Indeed, generations upon generations of work go into making a world habitable, so much so that entire nations may rise and fall between a projects inseption and completion.

Terraforming is known to have existed in Antiquity, though what methods and technologies were employed back then are now lost.

WorldCraft Terraforming Firm

Conceived and planned in the early part of the Golden Age, WorldCraft would be a company tasked with creating suitable worlds for human habitation.

History of WorldCraft

The first fleet was completed by A.Y. 1557, and was employed to repair worlds left uninhabitable by the Mage Wars.

By the Second Age, WorldCraft had begun the first attempts to terraform never before inhabited worlds. The first new world was ready for colonization by A.Y. 2557, the one thousand year aniversary of the commission of the fleet, though as an entity the firm had existed for about three hundred years prior. This time had been used to develope the technologies and techniques that would be needed, as well as construct the very large ships.

Types of Worlds

As one would expect, terraforming is hard. It took centuries just to figure out how to start, and from there an individual planet often took as much as 500 years to be ready for colonization.

Just adjusting a planet into the star's habitable zone and seeding it with water and other neccesssary elements was just the first step. Creating a working water cycle, ensuring proper gravity and the right day-night sequence all took decades of careful adjustment.

But the part that posed the real challenge was life. Obviously, in order to keep a planet livable, a complete echosystem is required. A complete, autonomous system that has to be in place and functional before human habitation can begin.

Generation I

The first generation fully habitable worlds were attempted by transplanted exiting echosystems from already stable planets. plants, animals, and insects from these worlds would be scooped up and carefulyl cultivated, before being seeded to the target world.

Survival in these initially hostile environments was obviously difficult, as was finding a proper ballance. Building a working echosystem this was was ardous and extremly labor-intensive. This became especially challenging when it was clear that predicting the exact nature of a given environment before plants and animals had been added was impossible.

Ultimately Generation I echosystems were extremly unstable, and inhabitants of Generation I worlds was very limited. even given thousands of years to stabalize, most Generation I worlds could never support populations equivalant to their natural counterparts.

Most Generation I worlds were eventually abandoned or re-terraformed using later-gen techniques.

Generation II

For the second generation, terraformers began cobling the echosystems together from many sources, selecting organisms with desirable traits and intriducing them en-mass to let natural selection sort things out.

However, life sciences being inexact and biologists not always knowing everything, these systems did not fair well. The plants and animals tended to interact in complex and unpredictable ways, causing many undesirable results.

Aside from localized echological breakdowns, some worlds suffered planet-wide catastrophies. This system also managed to produce a few remarkable oddities, such as the Sand Spiders of Umriel Terra, known for being completely venomless and also an herbivor.

Though there were failures, most Generation II worlds tended to be fairly hearty. Unfortunately they were also often dangerous, and contained large areas of uninhabitable land controlled by the bizzare creations of accidental hybrids.

Generation III

With the third generation of terraforming, terraformers took a new tactic: genetic engineering. They would begin construction of the ecosystem similar to a Generation II world, but then modify it either by retrovirus or the introduction modified stock to the system.

This technique allowed them to stablize the system much fast and remove undesirable affects with relative ease.

Generation IV

Generation IV saw the introduction of complete genetic engineering. Plants and animals were created and mofied from existing templates as needed, allowing ecosystems to be perfectly tailored.

Generation IV worlds were the first true "paradise" planets, allowing exacting specifications. For the first time, terraformed worlds could be seen as distinct from natural ones, and Generation IV became very desirable for habbitation.

Most Generation I, II, and III worlds were eventually re-terraformed into Generation IV worlds, with few exceptions belonging to planets with large human populations and those to remote to be desirable.

Systems

Once the Generation IV technology was perfected, a series of "systems" began to be perfected. These packages basically outlined the desired type and environments of a target world.

The systems evolved around four basic catagories: botanical, herbivorous, omnivorous, and carnivorous. Systems were then described according to which of these it contained.

System numbers went up by the complexity and diversity of the target environment.

System One

Nicknamed the standard 'Eden' package, System One is pure botanical, single-system, and the simplest Generation I world-type. It uses a world with little geographic diversity and a wide series of planets and insects to create what most would consider a paradice. System One is the easiest to build, but not the most common.

System Two

Botanical/Herbivorous system with plants and some animals. Though the type implies only herbivours, insectivors are also present in System Two systems. System Two typically has less diversity than System One is designed to be easier to construct and faster to stabalize.

System Three

Still Botanical/Herbivorous, System Three allows room for greater geographic diversity and holds a stronger system of plants and animals.

System Four

Botanical/Herbivorous/Omnivorous, sees the introduction of scavengers and a few small predators. At first these worlds were often feared, before potential colonists understood that nothing on them was big enough to eat a human. Very few System Four worlds were created and most were basically experimental.

System Five

Botanical/Herbivorous/Omnivorous/Carnivorous, this system included real predators. Only one System Five world was ever created. Essentially a "proof of concept" world built to test the techniques, and is widely considered the first ever "complete" artifical ecosystem.

System Six

Botanical/Herbivorous, but with greater complexity than System Three. System Six is often called a "double Three" because it adds herbivorous fish to the oceans, while System Three had animals only on land. Though considered Botanical/Herbivorous, some System Six worlds did introduce small omnivorous and carnivorous creatures.

System Seven

Botanical/Herbivorous, basically a step-up from System Six. While System Six had very limited diversity, System Seven allowed for a wide range of geographical variables. Unlike System Five, which did not contain oceans and had few geographic reagions. Also like System Six, System Seven had some omnivorous and carnivorous sea creatures, but these were mostly small, with none able to confront a human.

System Eight

Botanical/Herbivorous/Omnivorous/Carnivorous, basically a System Five with the addition of oceans. System Eight also saw the first addition of large predators. System Eight worlds were conceived as a sort of genetic reserve, including high diversities of plants, andimals, and habitats. The idea being to create an artificial world so complete it was indestinguishable from the natural one.

System Eight worlds were also created with an emphasis on being "genetic repositories", hosting modified specamins from a large number of natural ecosytems and having the greatest diversity of any terraformed worlds.

System Nine

A somewhat more "family friendly" version of System Eight, System Nine was designed to host a wide range of diversity, but lack the large predators that made people afraid to settle on the "untamed" System Eight worlds.

Ironically, the worlds left by colonists bound for System Nine planets often contained the same sorts of predators found in System Eight.

Non-System or Pre-System

A handful of experimental worlds were created, either as test-platforms or for specific purposes. A few of the purpose-built worlds devised in the Second Age continue to be used.

Most famous of the purpose-built planets were the farm worlds. These planets were, from the ground up(literally) meant to be gigantic farms. First, the terraformers would attempt to smooth out the surface as much as possible. Then, the land was carefully graded to allow a massive, large-scale irigation system. Finally, instead of an ecosystem, crops were planeted.

The planets were given a straight axis and moved into a perfectly round orbit, giving them a year-round growing season. Massive reflectors were also constructed in space to provide 24-hour sunshine, allowing plants to grow in the dirt all day, all night, all year.

A single farm world contained up to 146,480,000,000 acres of airable land, each able to produce eight crops per year. Anually, each world could feed over three hundred-and-seventy-one-billion people, or the populations of roughly 37 planets assuming an average population of around 10 billion.

Though these specialy-designed planets could produce food on a monolithic scale, the dangers of centralizing producition to such a degree were obvious. Distribution relied entirely on the GATE, a weakness the Foundation did not wish to expose.

However, by the end of the Second Age, the Foundation was making a move away from dirt-farming, with a food supply produced almost entirely indoors using hydroponic or airponic techniques. These methods were easily able to supply local populations without the need to set aside large quantites of airable land. A single sky scraper with a footprint of one city block could feed 8-10 million people, or at least supply their agricultural needs. Different methods had to be employed to produce meat.

The farm worlds remained in service, but as a backup and suplimental system. The majority of food produced on these worlds goes into storage, being converted into non-perishables and distributed to strategic caches all over the Gudersnipe-controlled-space. It is invaluable for relief efforts, where entire worlds can be fed without placing a strain on the food main food supply.