Beta Quafirus-III, known as Baskas in the common tongue, is the third planet from the star in the Beta Quafirus system and the terraformed sister planet to Tophetos (Beta Quafirus-IV).
Much like Tophetos and its moon, Baskas has a crust where copper, instead of iron, is the most common metal. Because of this, practically the entire surface of Baskas is stained turquoise from copper sulfides and -hydroxides.
Before terraforming, Baskas would not have looked too dissimilar from the moon of Tophetos and to this day its deserts remain brilliant hues of blue and green.
Baskas was found and terraformed long before the current capital world of Peirnovar was discovered and as such has a human history spanning thousands of years.
During what is called the Scattered Age, a dark time spanning many centuries where spacefaring humanity came isolated from itself and many interstellar wars were fought, Baskas stood as a beacon.
As one of the few planets besides Peirnovar that did not regress in technology, the Baskosi took the several centuries of freedom they had in the Scattered Age to carve out an interstellar empire for themselves.
During this time, they terraformed a number of new planets and traded with an enigmatic spacefaring race called the Qianbi. Though it has been thousands of years since, historians still debate over what these mysterious traders were. Were they actual spacefaring aliens? Or were they merely another Scattered Age human faction who've since disappeared from the stage? We may never know the truth.
Eventually, the Baskosi Empire would encounter the Peirnovian humans on their Reunification Crusade, a great period of expension where the Peirnovians used the Holy Starchart to retrace humanity's steps and unite all of humanity under one banner again. The Baskosi were, second only to Peirnovar, the greatest interstellar empire of the Scattered Age and were thus not particularly eager to join. A long war broke out, lasting over three decades before the Baskosi finally surrendered and joined the Peirnovian Galactic Empire.
To this day, Baskas remains one of the most advanced planets in the imperium and is a glorious hub for wealth and trade. The immense turqoise deserts of the planet have made its people a fortune due to the copper and glass they can extract from it.
The people of Baskas, often referred to as Baskosi, have had to modify themselves and almost all animals living on their planet in order to survive its peculiar conditions. One of the main and most notable of these modifications is one known as the "blood change". This is a procedure where non Baskosi individuals are genetically modified to be able to produce haemocyanin and other copper based compounds within their bodies to cope with the high precentages of copper present everywhere on the planet. The most obvious effect this has on people is the fact that their blood has turned a purple colour due to the blue haemcyanin mixing with the red haemoglobin of their blood, which in turn changes their skin colour into various hues of pink and purple. A great deal of vertebrates living on Baskas were granted the same procedures, making Baskas one of the most unique terraformed planets in the imperium.
No comments:
Post a Comment