Archaetron
| Archaetron | ||
|---|---|---|
| Astrography | ||
| Star | Epoch | |
| Diameter | 9,034 km | |
| Demographics | ||
| Population | 16 billion | |
Archaetron is an artificial planet orbiting the blue giant star Epoch. Constructed around the early era of the Valerian Empire, it was intended to be an experimental world to research the evolution of life. It was first seeded with self-replicating nanobots meant to emulate the behavior of single-celled organisms. Left to its own devices over thousands of years, the planet evolved on its own complex synthetic life forms that superficially resemble robot dinosaurs. They eventually formed a civilization of their own with inhabitants with intelligence rivaling that of humans. The development of Archaetron was key research done by the Valerian Empire to increase the accuracy of their own virtual reality simulations, having gained intimiate knowledge of the process of Darwinian evolution without having to wait the millions of years it otherwise would have taken.
During the Singularity War, contact was lost, and the planet was hidden away to protect it from the Oracle. For nearly the last 2,000 years, it remained completely isolated from the rest of the galaxy until contact was reestablished.
Additionally, one of the earliest forms of cybernephrine was discovered on this planet, which has created a poaching problem by those seeking to harness it and sell it.
Biosphere
The synthetic life forms have evolved an ecosystem of its own where in spite of being robotic in nature, they have many of the same counterparts to many life functions. The robots prey upon one another in a variety of ways from direct consumption, scavenging their parts or otherwise siphoning their energy. Plant life tends to resemble relay towers with solar panels, absorbing energy and radiating signals around themselves to entice other animals to spread their seeds. Animals use a variety of methods to get around from legs to wheels to gusts of air.
The planet is also home to a specific variety of synthetic life form known as mechafauna which are enormous machines - some over 200 feet tall. These mechafauna often clash with one another over territory, causing natural disasters around them.