“Are you scared of necromancers?” “Terribly. I was born on Lemuria, you see,”[1]
- Honesty and The Angel
Lemuria is one of the many human-colonized "hold" planets that have been subjugated by the Empire of the Nine Houses. Like every other planet in the Empire, it has been thanergetically destroyed, leading to the eventual total collapse of the planet's ecosystem.
History[]
"I mean, we were the third settlement wave, they built the Crescent in the bones of two other cities, you couldn’t dig up anything without finding remnants of a people we’d never known."[1]
As was common in the imperial system of the Nine Houses, Lemuria as a planet was under "contract" with the Emperor. These contracts provided material and financial support to the planet, in exchange for falling under Cohort control and allowing in refugees from other resettled planets.[2] By the time The Angel was born on Lemuria, the human population on the planet was in the third and final wave of human settlement. The Angel described finding remnants of the previous human settlements on the planet while construction took place for the third wave's cities, which implies that Lemuria had been occupied by humanity for several hundred years at least, before the ecosystem collapsed.
Ecosystem Collapse[]
At some unknown point in Lemuria's history, the planet had been thanergetically destroyed by Cohort forces, a process undergone on every planet that comes under control of the Nine Houses.[3] The Angel described that the normally generations-long process of thanergetic decay that happens to a planet was unexpectedly accelerated on Lemuria.
"The microbial population didn’t show signs of serious decay until the moment before the sea went anaerobic."[1]
This rapid collapse of microbial life and oceanic habitats caused a global crisis that forced the Houses to pull support, and to prepare the planet's population for early resettlement. As a consequence of the planet's rapid thanergetic decay, many of the lifeforms underwent accelerated mutation and began attacking the human population.
Humanitarian Crisis[]
In the wake of the collapse of the global ecosystems, and facing the threat of attack from mutated lifeforms and the forced resettlement by House forces, the population of Lemuria took up arms. Using weapons unearthed from long-buried caches, groups of humans began fighting back against the mutants, each other, and finally the Cohort forces when they returned to begin the resettlement. At some point in the conflict, Blood of Eden forces also began operating on Lemuria. Eventually, the Houses gained the upper hand and forced the surrender of the the remaining human populace. The forced resettlement of the population of Lemuria proceeded, and the planet, now utterly desolate, was eventually completely abandoned.
Industrial Redevelopment[]
Ten years after the abandonment of Lemuria, the Nine Houses redeveloped parts of the planet to make it safe for mining. A facility on the planet mines and refines resources such as microsilicates, zeolites, and industrial sands. [1]
Locations[]
The Crescent[]
Ostensibly one of the primary human cities or settlements on Lemuria. The Crescent was built in the ruins of two other human cities.[1] This is the likely location of the zoo where The Angel worked.
Cohort Barracks[]
Standard Cohort practice would be to have one or multiple barracks on a House controlled planet. Before the thanergetic collapse, the Cohort had minimal personnel in the Lemuria barracks, which contributed the the armed resistance they later faced when attempting to resettle the population.
Mine and refining facility[]
The only remaining human presence on Lemuria is one industrial complex dedicated to mining and processing industrial sand compounds.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Nona the Ninth" Day Four, Ch. 17
- ↑ "Nona the Ninth" Day Three, Ch. 16
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth" Act One, Ch. 2