Varhanna

Varhanna is a star system that has come to be defined by the Vorans. With more advanced technology than any other extant race, and hundreds of years of space travel under their belt, the Vorans have colonized every body in their system with any natural resources to speak of. A few have even been terraformed to match their homeworld, Voruna. The Voran population in the system numbers over 30 billion, just over half of that being on Voruna.

The Varhanna star is slightly smaller than the sun, with a contracted habitable zone and several planets in orbit nearby. It is a Type II Cepheid Variable, and frequently undergoes periods of increased luminosity. Life in the system has adapted to these cycles, in fact directly giving rise to the Voran structure of society.

Voruna

Voruna is a hot, humid world. The environment is conducive to a rainforest-like variety and density of life. The world has only small bodies of water, nothing that could really be called an ocean; almost all of the water on the planet is in the saturated atmosphere or small bodies of water.

In the last few thousand years, Vorans have transformed their planet. Predators are rare now, confined to zoos and reserve land. Vorans have built aquaduct-like structures to capture the humidity in the air and utilize it as drinking water, allowing them to expand beyond the few bodies of water around which they initially evolved. Overall humidity of the planet has dropped somewhat from its natural state, prompting some environmentalist Vorans to grow concerned about continued expansion and overpopulation of the species. Among other things, this helped prompt a mass migration to several other planets in the system - some already habitable, some forced to be so by Voran technology.

TMP 4 ATM 3 RAD 1 GRV 3

During Storms: All life that evolves on Voruna must necessarily have some means of protecting itself against near-scalding temperatures during the global "storms", a phenomena triggered partly by the increased luminosity of the Cepheid Variable star. Solar radiation increases dramatically for several days, the temperature rises, and humidity at the surface plummets to near zero as water vapor shifts to the upper atmosphere. In addition, a number of toxic chemicals are stirred up from underground by the evaporating water.

Most of the planet goes into a sort of protective hibernation during this time. Many species burrow underground; some build their own structures or take advantage of previously built ones. Certain predators evolved to flourish in the storms, hunting and digging for burrowed creatures. Recent ancestors of the Vorans evolved the single large entity which can shield the other ones from both the storms and the predators that accompany them: the Queen.

TMP 5 ATM 3 RAD 3 GRV 3

Ember

The planet Ember, closest to the Voran sun, is dry, hot, and lifeless. Since the planet is tidally locked to the sun, it is possible to build livable habitats on the night side, but the lack of water and a small amount of natural resources means that only a few small colony domes exist here.

TMP ☼ 7 ☽ 4 ATM 0 RAD ☼ 7 ☽ 2 GRV 2

Arid

Though this world is hot enough to boil water during the day, deep underground liquid water can be found; it occasionally even rises to the surface at night. Voran colonies on the planet take advantage of this water using extremely deep wells.

TMP ☼ 6 ☽ 3 ATM 1 RAD ☼ 6 ☽ 2 GRV 3

Dome: The colonies on Arid must be under domes to protect from the heat and radiation, as well as to keep the water drilled from the wells from evaporating away and hold in air pressure. Life on Arid is hard, but survivable.

Some of the more recently constructed domes are protected against the solar flare activity from the star; older ones are not. In practical terms, this has a subtle but crucial effect on Voran society. With queens being unnecessary to survival, the Libertine culture tends to thrive in these protected domes.

TMP 4 ATM 3 RAD 2 GRV 3

Serenity

This large planet is habitable to most Vorans, but is almost entirely inhospital to Queens - their carapace is deformed and crushed under its own weight in this gravity. Though it's possible to add structural support to the carapace to compensate, it's uncomfortable and largely unnecessary, as a queen could simply live on the moon Crescent instead.

As a result, Serenity has become one of the few places in the system where the population lives almost entirely without Queens. The population has developed drugs to prevent females from metamorphosing into Queens when they mature, and relies on incubators to create children. Because drones are not needed to take care of the Queens, very few drones live on Serenity, either. Serenity is also far enough away, and has enough atmosphere, that the solar storms have minimal effect on the climate here (TMP and RAD are increased only by 1). As a result of this, Serenity has become the largest enclave of the Voran Libertine culture anywhere.

TMP 3 ATM 3 RAD ☼ 1 ☽ 0 GRV 5

Crescent

In stark contrast to the planet which it orbits, society on Crescent is actually far more dependent on Queens than on the Voran homeworld. Though a few domes exist, almost all Vorans on Crescent spend their entire lives inside Queens. This is possible thanks to a constant flow of near-mature females from Serenity (those who have decided to grow into queens, usually for the benefits of longevity that metamorphosis provides), the chemically rich dirt on the moon, and advances in medical and food technology allowing sustainable nutrition grown in an atmosphere that normally would not support life. Crescent consists mostly of a series of Queens connected by pressurized tubes.

TMP ☼ 3 ☽ 1 ATM 1 RAD ☼ 3 ☽ 0 GRV 2

During Storms: Although the distance of the sun tempers the strength of the storms somewhat, Crescent does not have a protective atmosphere like Serenity, and the environment is affected by them.

TMP ☼ 5 ☽ 2 ATM 1 RAD ☼ 4 ☽ 0 GRV 2