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FEDERATION 2 PLAYER PLANETLYNNEA: SAUTERNE - ELIMISTO SYSTEMThe planet formerly known as Tipple The History: Before any space travelers found Sauterne, it was called Viinitarha. It was a peaceful agricultural planet where the indigenous Viinitarhans lived in small, subsistence farming communities, working together just to survive. Among their limited crops was an odd fruit that very much resembled the grapes of the planet earth, only far larger. This fruit was called paaryna. Paaryna was very popular with the natives, as it had the ability to enhance the senses when ingested. It was most often imbibed in the form of a wine, called Juoma, and every Viinitarhan learned from a young age how to make this potent elixir, which would soon become the most famous wine in the galaxy. Eventually, space-faring folk discovered the planet and, in doing so, also discovered the wine, which seemed to have the same effects on other races as it had on the Viinitarhans. Sadly, the naïveté of the natives left them vulnerable to exploitation, and most of the goods for which they traded their precious Juoma were nothing more than useless trinkets. As the renown of Juoma grew, and with it the popularity of Viinitarha, more and more space travelers began to visit the planet for trading and relaxation. During this time, Viinitarha slowly became known as Tipple, and had been so named until very recently. When the woman known in this galaxy as Lynnea came out of her 200+ year long cryo-stasis, her penchant for wine eventually led to her discovery of Tipple and Juoma, which she immediately fell in love with. She went to great lengths to make certain that Juoma was imported to all of her favorite bars throughout the galaxy, as well as her home planet of Lair. As she grew closer to Necrose, Overlord of Lair, together they hatched a plan whereby they would topple the existing government of Tipple and install themselves as its new rulers, aligning it with Lair to increase Lair’s power and influence throughout the galaxy. Lynnea, backed by Necrose’s vast resources and tactical cunning, disabled the planet’s meager defenses and arrested its leaders in a series of lightning strikes over the course of a few short days; the planet is now firmly in their grip. Lynnea was appointed Governor of Tipple and Necrose’s proxy, and she promptly changed the name of the planet from Tipple to Sauterne. She and Necrose are now rebuilding and developing the planet to serve their own purposes; what those may be, none can tell. The Surface and Atmosphere: The atmosphere of Sauterne is so thin that humans need oxygen masks to breathe on the surface. The surface of the planet is dry and harsh, inhospitable to all but the smallest and hardiest plant life. The most abundant of Sauterne’s vegetation is the spindly shrub upon which the paaryna fruit grows. These shrubs take in carbon dioxide like any other plant for use in photosynthesis; however, unlike most plants, instead of releasing the resulting oxygen, the paaryna shrub instead traps it within the paaryna fruit, which helps give the paaryna fruit its strange qualities and contributes to the already thin atmosphere of the planet. The surface of Sauterne is rent with broad, deep chasms, several miles in depth and width. Necrose and Lynnea plan on terra-forming the depths of these chasms for human use. The surface, however, cannot be altered, as it is the necessary environment in which to grow paaryna, which is used to produce the wine for which Sauterne is so famous. The Natives: Viinitarhans are a bit larger then the average human. They have large, flat noses that seem to connect with their upper lip. Short, gill-like slits, about one inch long, run from the sides of their nose toward their cheek. With these slits, the natives have a keen sense of smell and taste, and are able to judge the precise time when the paaryna is at its ripest and ready for harvest. They are not space travelers, but have knowledge of space travel and have been visited by other-worlders often enough that they have a spaceport. They trade their Juoma for trinkets from other worlds, but their ignorance of the galaxy beyond their own world often leads them to be duped into trading for junk items of little value. The Viinitarhans are gentle, peaceful people for the most part, with a chieftain form of government until the coming of Necrose and Lynnea. They had a minor military, but it was not enough even to properly police the spaceport as the number of visitors, and the attendant crime level, grew, let alone prevent the overrun of Tipple by the forces of Lair. Necrose and Lynnea are now working diligently to bring to heel the various criminal factions and outlaw groups that had previously had their run of the spaceport. The Wine: The wine on Sauterne, called Juoma, has some very interesting qualities. Although it most closely resembles the ancient earth white zinfandel in flavor, each individual glass actually provides more then one flavor. Juoma has a unique way of separating once unsealed and poured into a glass. The top half is a pale, translucent pink and has a lightly sweet fruity flavor. The bottom half is a pale, translucent green with a lightly sour fruity flavor. For a period of time after drinking Juoma, a human's senses, particularly sight, sound, and touch, are tremendously enhanced, allowing greatly heightened sensations of both pleasure and pain. Because of these qualities, Juoma is highly sought after by many of the races of sentient beings scattered throughout the galaxy. |