Solar System · interspecies home
Earth
The one little blue world worth every ridiculous trip.
In 3455, Earth is the busiest, messiest, most beloved address in the galaxy. Humans share it with dozens of alien peoples who came for the oceans, stayed for the food and never left. Some centres rise in staggering, layered cities threaded with vertical transit and orbital skylines.
But Earth never became one sterile city. National parks, old forests, mountain ranges, ocean habitats, historic neighbourhoods and real wilderness are protected fiercely. The balance is precious, precarious and constantly threatened by things that arrive from offworld in the wrong crate.
Other centres stay deliberately small: fishing towns, mountain villages and farmland that have barely changed in a thousand years. Between them sit protected wildernesses, huge national parks where no ship may land and no offworld seed may be planted. Most residents think of the parks as Earth's real treasure.
Earth is also the galaxy's most famous soft target. It is rich, welcoming, full of trade and very easy to sneak things into. That is why it needs someone out there catching trouble before it arrives, even someone as unreliable as Zamfyr.
Atmosphere
Breathable, blue, crowded with traffic lanes above the clouds and very strict about where you park.
Local quirk
Earth's Traffic Authority has a whole department for the Wobblenaut.
Regions · proposed names, not locked canon
High Cities
Stacked interspecies towers, sky-markets and transit spines climbing into orbit.
Green Boundaries
Protected national parks and forests. No landing. No exceptions. Especially Zamfyr.
Harbor Belts
Ocean ports where sea-dwelling species and surface traders meet.
Orbital Approaches
The traffic rings. The Wobblenaut is currently banned from two of them for bad parking.
Old Ground
Historic neighbourhoods kept the way they were, cobbles and all.
The Quarantine Docks
Where every offworld crate is sniffed, scanned and occasionally argued with. The inspectors know the Wobblenaut's cargo manifest by heart, and they don't trust it.
Hazards
- ▲Offworld cargo that hatchesEggs labelled 'decorative' are the classic smuggling trick. Some hatch in the post office.
- ▲Invasive spores and vinesA single seed in a boot tread can take over a valley within a season.
- ▲Orbit debrisThe traffic rings are crowded and messy. Losing a bolt up there means someone catching it down here.
- ▲Traffic Authority finesNot physically dangerous. Emotionally devastating.
Visitor tips
- ✦Wipe your boots. Both pairs, if you have four feet.
- ✦Never feed the pigeons. They will remember you.
- ✦If a ranger says 'no', it is not a negotiation.
Local life
- ●Humans
- ●Dozens of resident alien species
- ●Irreplaceable native wildlife
- ●Very opinionated pigeons
A day on Earth
Dawn arrives in layers. Sky-rail lights wink out over the High Cities while, three hundred kilometres away, a ranger in a protected forest is still counting owls. Breakfast stalls serve fourteen species' worth of breakfast, and at least two of them are still moving.
By evening the orbital rings glow like jewellery, and somewhere a Traffic Authority officer is writing the Wobblenaut another ticket.
Locals & customs
Ranger Abeni Oduya
Head warden of the Green Boundaries. She has banned Zamfyr from four parks, and has a framed photo of each incident.
Officer Plimm
A Traffic Authority clerk whose whole job is the Wobblenaut. He is secretly its biggest fan.
The Pigeons
Earth's pigeons have survived every century, every invasion and every ship. They fear nothing, and they will take your sandwich.
- ◆No-landing law: nothing touches down in a protected park, ever. Not even to retrieve a hat.
- ◆Visiting aliens are welcomed with a cup of something warm and a very long form to fill in.
- ◆Every city keeps one 'old street' exactly as it was, so nobody forgets where they came from.
Legends & history
Why Earth?
Across the galaxy, people tell stories about why so many species settled on one small blue world. Some say it was the oceans. Some say it was the food.
The Googleplex, asked directly, apparently replied: 'Because it was kind first.' Nobody has been able to get a follow-up answer.
Crew log
“Best planet in the galaxy. I've seen most of them. Some of them twice, by accident.”
“Home. Quiet in the garden dome. Good soil.”
Story seed · in development
Planet Worth Saving
A tiny, adorable offworld critter escapes into a protected national park and starts eating the one tree species it absolutely should not. Zamfyr plans a full-scale containment operation. Onobo brings a snack.
The critter turns out to be a lost baby from a protected offworld species, and the only food it can eat is the tree it is eating. The crew has to find its family before the park runs out of tree.
Earthward stakes
Everything. Earth is home: families, history, ecosystems and the people they love. Every mission out there is really about here.
Onobo packs
Related lore