Zarece (Rough Guide)
Zarece
- Economic status: Poor Agricultural
- Technology level: 5
- Population: 2.9 Billion Fierce Black Felines
- Political status: Confederacy
- Radius: 3889 km
- G: 0.56 standard
- Neighbors (7.0 LY or less): Isence, Aesbion, Reinen, Eninre, Tibionis
"Zarece was the first conolized gas planet ever. Colonized by felines of Reorte who became fed up with the constant Earthquakes on their home planet. With a combination of Zero-G technology and modern balloons large orbital cities were created that float in the higher layers of the atmosphere. Zarece exists of superdense gasses not yet fully understood."
The conolization of Zarece was performed by the refugees from Reorte with the technological help of the lizards of Tionisla. Conolization should not be confused with colonization, a quite different process. Zarece, uniquely, enjoyed both. Nineteen large orbital cities were built, of a size enabling the cultivation of the jungles where the agricultural foodstuffs are produced and the furs hunted. These orbitals each drag several agricultural "floats" behind them, as they waft over the superdense gaseous "seas".
It has been argued by some of the savants of the University of Murraor that these superdense gases are not strictly gaseous, that they should rather be termed as plasma - that peculiar state which is liminal between gas and liquid and exists only at certain temperatures and pressures. No matter. What really counts is this: the ways in which the light of the sun is refracted through the lower levels is quite phenomenal - the nights on Zarece have to be seen to be believed. The shimmering coruscations of the colours, with sparkling motes and shimmering bands. The nightime cities with their tall, sparkling, slender towers and their lambent lower regions are legendarily spectacular.
This has proven to be inspirational for those of a poetic bent, and many of the local denizens engage in regular family poetry readings in their homes. Needless to say, Zarece has become a place of pilgrimage for feline poets, artists and those working in the imaginatory crafts. Imbibulation of appropriate intoxicants, followed by a sunset visit trip through the "ocean" to witness the views of an orbital city from a distance, have enabled many a feline to enter a trance-like state conducive to the alliterative allusions necessary for the production of poetic hyperbole.
Sadly, this is only true for those with cat's eyes. Other species, with less impressionable eyeballs, find they can see little of these supposed splendours, and the emotional burblings and unending recitals of the inhabitants become quite insufferable in no time at all. Tedious, in fact. Listening to the felines ooh and aah over dark, murky and dismal roilings of muck-tinted sludge has been likened to the joys of listening to a Happy Eye preacher in the fourth hour of his ecstatic sermonification.
Each city is quite independent of the others, hence the confederate nature of the government. In the past, this led inevitably to strife, and indeed, of the original nineteen cities only fifteen now remain (and seven of those were recolonized after their inhabitants were annihilated in battle). The others, sabotaged and riven by warfare and treachery, sank into the depths and, needless to say, have provided even more fuel to felines of artistic temperament. If one makes one's way to the southern pole, the edge of lost Khrawow can be seen in the murky depths when the sunlight is at the right angle. The Romance of Qleo, the princess of sunken Khrawow and her doomed love affair with the Syndic of Basrir have acted as the catalyst for many an opera, symphony and ballad - especially in feline circles. Again, you need to be a cat to see anything in any of this.
Braathnir, the largest city is home to the University of Murraor, a renowned haven of feline poetic analysis and also of botanic research. The medical school has developed a rare expertise in treating mange and fur diseases, and exports its experts throughout the feline worlds - and some of the rodent planets too. Braathnir also contains the Hall of Heralds, containing effigies of the various historic ambassadors of the floating cities from their more bellicose days. This is proudly shown to all visiting dignitaries and is on the guided tours. Again, if one is not a feline oneself, the experience can be rather ... tedious?
The city of Owmrah has a small colony of lobstoids who have been living there for several decades. Sent thither by the Witchspace Lobster itself, they preach to those around with gusto and enthusiasm, brandishing placards and declaiming with gay abandon from their podia in the marketplaces. Some of the local poets have written epics about the encounter between the fervent lobsters and the disinterested natives. One of Owmrah's tributary floats contains several stands of walnut trees whose wood is exported to the Aegidian Woodworks laboratory on Xexedi when problems with the Bemearan supply occur.
There are of course many smaller towns, which pay allegiance to the larger cities, dotted hither and thither about the planet. These are of less interest (if such a thing is possible!), but some contain small groups of crafts-cats with great expertise in such matters as wood-turning, dyeing, the creation by hand of stringed musical instruments and lastly games-board manufacturing (mostly from wood).
Pages in the Rough Guide to the Ooniverse.
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