History of Yeddo
This is the history of the planet Yeddo.
Terraformation
Much of Yeddo's ancient history was lost in the Blackout, so much so that many humans began to believe that Yeddo was actually the homeworld of humanity instead of Earth. Over 30,000 years ago, humanity arrived at the planet in the generational ship known as the UES William Adams. At the time, while the planet was well within the habitable zone, life had not developed on it aside from extremophile bacteria. UES William Adams, fortunately, came with equipment designed for terraformation so that the planet could be modified to suit human habitation. In addition to transporting humans over many lightyears, the UES William Adams contained a wide assortment of samples of plants and animals from Earth. Through a series of carefully planned releases into the ecosystem, an Earth-like biosphere was created. In the meantime, however, humanity aggressively urbanized the planet as the terraformation was expected to take decades if not centuries.
Over the years, humanity continued to thrive on the planet. The UES William Adams, despite its role in transporting humanity over, was disassembled and incorporated into building architecture. At that point, given the initial limited resources as well as the fact that the UES William Adams was only designed for a one-way trip, it served no further use.
Valerian Empire
Thousands of years later, the Valerian Empire came from Mars, seeking out the destinations of the various generational ships that had spread throughout the galaxy. Their goal was to try to reunite humanity after it had become isolated among the cosmos. They introduced the earliest version of the vrNet which allowed for the near instantaneous transmission of messages even across thousands of lightyears. Additionally, the isolation of humanity between Yeddo and Earth resulted in them developing vastly different phenotypes. The Yeddites were generally shorter, retaining juvenile features such as rounder faces and large eyes into adulthood, while the Valerians were much taller and more muscular. Despite their differences, the two were able to cooperate and Yeddo became a colony of the Valerians. Yeddo eventually became designated as a major capital world - its successful terraforming efforts in addition to its environment perfectly suited for humans led to an an accelerated population growth. The Valerians shared their knowledge of architecture which led to the rapid development of mega-cities throughout the planet.
Singularity War
Despite Yeddo being a prosperous world, elsewhere in the galaxy, the Valerians struggled to keep their empire together due to being spread too thin. This led to the development of an AI known as the Oracle to help them resolve political conflicts. Eventually, the Oracle went rogue, succumbing to the pressures of impossible decision-making, leading to the Singularity War. During the conflict, the Oracle targeted Yeddo which was a sight to a different AI known as Kronos. Kronos was weaponized against the Oracle, attempting to devour it to effectively replace its rogue personality with its own. In retaliation, the Oracle launched a tungsten rod, attempting to destroy the planet. At the last minute, the trajectory of the tungsten rod was diverted, causing it to just barely scrape the surface and form Scar Canyon. Despite the prevention of a greater disaster, the tungsten rod caused an environmental catacylsm that forced most of the population to evacuate the planet, leaving the mega-cities abandoned.
Post-Blackout
While the Oracle was eventually defeated, years of being cut off from the vrNet in addition to the destruction of the mega-cities set the Yeddites back to preindustrial levels of technology. They had to either redevelop most of their technology from scratch or salvage it from the ruins left behind by the Valerians. Yeddo, however, fared better than much of the other former Valerian colonies. Due to the wealth of Valerian ruins and untapped resources, humanity managed to form the Federation of Stellar Systems only about one thousand years since the Blackout, having rediscovered FTL drives and how to operate the vrNet again in that time.
Virtual Wars
Another thousand years later, the Federation found itself in a similar predicament as the Valerian Empire with its government stretched too thin. After failing to stop a civil war in Merin, many Federation colonies seceded and formed the Insurgency, including several factions on Yeddo itself such as the Taranis Empire. One of the first acts of violence directly against Yeddo in the conflict that would come to be known as the Virtual Wars would be the destruction of the Star Lift, a major space elevator in the city of Port Oraulan. With the war now upon Yeddo, many urban areas became ravaged by the war.
Truce
The war eventually ended in a ceasefire with no clear winner. While the Federation may have secured more military victories, the financial losses were catastrophic, and they struggled in a post-war age. The Insurgency dismantled as a formal alliance, but many of its former members continued operations in the criminal underground. Virtuoso, a humanitarian foundation and corporation from the android world of Torus, offered its services to Yeddo to help rebuild it after the war. They were appeared very generous, helping offer jobs to the poor and standardize various policies to help with an economic recovery. The motives became even further questionable when they started to harass the locals, shutting down various small businesses and interfering with the curricula of academic institutions.
Post-war Yeddo remains an uneasy time. While long past its prime, the planet is still one of the most economically powerful worlds in the galaxy. Many hope to eventually rebuild the planet to how it was to not just during the Federation's prime, but to how it was during the era of the Valerian Empire.