Limmea is an oceanic planet with three inhabited continents. During the First Era Limmea became the cradle of the Imperial rule with the seat of its power in the center of a continent-wide Capitol city.

Geographical Summary

Limmea is an Earth-like oceanic planet with a mass equal to 1.5 times that of Old Earth. It orbits an F-type star, Adhirohan, which is 1.2 times the size of the Sun (White Dwarf). One day on Limmea equals 25 Earth hours. One Limmean year is equal to 14 Limmean months or approximately 426 Limmean days.

Limmea has two moons, Lakshmi and Daria. The gravity of those moons sometimes causes giant tsunami waves that threaten every settlement close to the oceanic shore.

The climate on Limmea is pretty similar to that of Old Earth, with liquid in its ocean and solid frozen massive polar caps. Differently from Old Earth, Limmean ocean is covering almost 90% of the planet’s surface. Limmea has three major continents:

– Pangea – the largest continent on the planet with a tropical climate and a large mountain range that splits it in two.

– Dar – a northern continent with a colder climate and proximity to the northern pool.

– Araszi – one third of this continent is covered by lush forests, similar to Pangea. The other two-thirds of Araszi that are close to the Limmean equator are covered by a seemingly endless desert.

There are also countless islands and atolls scattered across Limmean oceans, but even during the First Era, the Imperial Cartographic Association lacks a complete list of those.

Arrival of exiled humans during the Exodus

The first human colonists arrived on Limmea in a period between 12 and 42 years After the Exodus. There were approximately 250 colony ships that delivered around five million humans to three major continents of Limmea and hundreds of islands across the planet. Most ships landed on Pangea, as it was the largest continent. Fewer ships delivered their colonists to Dar because of its cold climate.

All three continents underwent very different development cycles. While Pangea and Araszi were almost immediately consumed by wars and conflicts, the people of Dar chose the way of non-violent cooperation and plurality. Consequently, it is the people of Dar that first stepped into the industrialized era on Limmea.

Darfolket’s peaceful nature put them at a disadvantage as Pangeans and Araszin used technologies from Dar to jumpstart their own industrialization. Soon, Darfolked were met with the reality where both of their powerful neighbors were using their superior human resources not only to industrialize but also to build weapons for intercontinental war.

Limmean Unification Wars

The arms race between the rivaling Great Oligarchy of Pangea and the High Sultanate of Araszi put the United Cities of Dar in a tricky situation. Darfolket had to maintain an uneasy neutral stance between two authoritarian nations and use their trade- and financial influence to maintain the fragile planetary peace.

Unfortunately, Dar was the first continent to be sieged and conquered by the naval armada of the Grand Admiral Unmesh Khan. The peaceful nature of Darfolket led them to accept defeat and pledge loyalty to Khan before any significant damage was done to their infrastructure. After capitulation, Dar also supplied Khan’s naval armada with two million troops.

This strategy hit Darfolket pretty hard when the Unification Wars on Limmea were over. Unmesh Khan, being a pragmatist, realized that the mild culture of Darfolket made them, in general, much more complacent than Araszin. Consequently, when Unmesh Khan became the first Imperial Monarch, he chose to convert 70% of Darfolket to the slave-like non-citizen class, while Araszin got to owe them as Second and First class citizens.

This decision of the Imperial Monarch pleased aggressive elites of Pangea and Araszi but led to riots among Imperial troops of Darian descent. That unrest resulted in three rogue Landships storming the Imperial Capitol and culminated in a large battle around the Imperial Palace that took over a hundred thousand lives. Unmesh Khan himself was almost killed in this battle if not for his First Mate and lover Alexander Denj who came to his rescue.

Those riots were later called the White Uprising after the distinct skin color of Darfolket. Imperial scholars later painted the White Uprising as an example of seditious treachery towards the almighty and all-loving imperial monarch. Consequently, Darfolkets slave status and echo of the White Uprising led to strong prejudice towards light-skinned people across the Empire, which remained even during the First Era and beyond.

Limmea During the First Era

Growth of the Capitol

The invention of faster than light space travel brought a new age of prosperity to the overly populated and overly-industrialized oceanic paradise. Most heavy industries of Pangea and Dar could be moved off-world. Meanwhile, the influx of fresh non-citizens boosted the development of natural resources of Araszi.

As the Empire of Limmea expanded across multiple new colonies, the influx of goods and cheap labor led the Imperial Monarchs and Nobility towards the creation of vanity projects of immense scale and magnitude:

– Imperial Capitol has grown so big that it covered the whole of Pangea. Of course, it was mostly nominal as what today would be countries and regions became districts of the “Endless City.” Nevertheless, by the vanity of the Imperial Monarch, the whole continent fell under the management of one single Prefect.

– Growth of the Capitol over formerly industrialized lands led to an extremely ambitious renovation project that erected hundreds of square kilomeasures of housing. The centralized nature of this project led to rapid building of brutalist estates that turned new lands into a grey mess of faceless ghettos.

– Rapid growth of Imperial First Class and Nobility filled those buildings with inhabitants, but the monotony of the cityscape became a cause of mental problems for some. Pangean Depression became a pretty common syndrome among those Imperials who lived far away from the shining center of the Capitol.

The White Blood of Limmea

Expansion of the Imperial Capitol over the whole continent would not be possible without means of ultra-rapid transportation. Before his death, the famous Imperial innovator, Rufus Haddad, created a concept of a “Planetary Vascular System.” This concept was a network of magnetic monorails that would connect all cities and continents of the Limmea.

The ecological revolution that followed de-industrialization of Limmea created a large demand for a similar solution that would abolish “primitive and dirty” naval vessels and airships. The building of Trans-Limmean MagRail started in 847 A.E. by the decree of the Imperial Monarch, Alexander Khan I, in memory of his mother, Priscilla Khan I.

After 122 years of construction, the MagRail network was complete. Its giant speedy transportation pods were built to travel with the maximum speed of 1500 kilomeasures per hour. It meant that they could connect Pangea and Araszi with a ten-hour-long trip. MagRail has also made possible the aforementioned expansion of Capitol over the whole of Pangea because citizens got means to have a workplace at a one-thousand-kilomeasure away from home.

This Trans-Limmean MagRail network was called the White Blood of Limmea by the Imperial Monarch Unmesh Khan III and became a signature landmark of the planet. It is fascinating how the Imperial society was capable of realizing such a multigenerational

construction project. No one at the Imperial court cared to remember millions of non-citizens who died during the construction of this MagRail. A monument for them was erected around the year 1008 somewhere on Zirkon by Imperial shipbuilders in solidarity with fellow workers.

Echoes of the Mirror Wars

While Limmean orbit became a true exoplanetary fortress, thanks to multiple defense stations and the large Imperial Fleet, the landscape on the surface has barely changed. Even after the demolition of the Imperial Palace in the center of the Capitol by the Federal Overlord-class dreadnought, the newly crowned Imperial Monarch Igor Khan I declared that the surface of Limmea will not militarize and will remain as it was before the war.

Igor Khan’s vision was all about preserving Limmea as a blue pearl of calm fortitude in the firestorm of the interstellar conflict. This vision allowed First Class citizens and Nobles who lived on Limmea a blissful existence where war was merely a distant inconvenience.

Sources:

Imperial Informatorium