The Known Worlds of the fictional Andromeda universe include more than a million star systems, scattered across the galaxies of the Local Group. Slipstream travel discovered by the Vedrans made actual distance irrelevant and allowed them to colonize the "Three Galaxies" quickly and discover most intelligent species.
Apparently there were no known attempts to colonize galaxies outside of the Local Group. However, by the time of Vedran Empire's founding most of those galaxies might be already destroyed by the Magog Worldship, first discovered by the Andromeda Ascendant.[1]
Apart from habitable planets, the Known Worlds include numerous space habitats ("drifts") and colonized asteroids.
Contents |
Major planets and space stations of the known worlds are listed below in alphabetical order.
Arkology (the name is a portmanteau of ark and arcology) was a large space station with pacifist population, infamous for trying to make peace with the Magog.
Arkology orbited the planet Ganesha and was basically a 36 km-long tube, slowly rotating to provide artificial gravity, with country-like landscape inside. The design was very old; Arkology had a slipstream engine, but it was unused for a long time and barely operational. Arkology was ruled by a "dream council"—a council of all citizens meeting in a shared dream every night, with a man called Marlowe at the head.
Arkology made a peace treaty with the Magog, but the ambassador (whose ship was saved from pirates by the Andromeda) was infested with Magog larvae and died on board of the Andromeda. Dylan attempted to persuade Marlowe and the dream council to prepare some defense against the Magog, but they refused. Marlowe himself disappeared after telling Dylan that they both were Paradines.
When the Magog Worldship arrived and attacked the Arkology, only the Andromeda was available to defend the station; attempts to teach its citizens some basic self-defense turned out to be horribly inadequate. Arkology was perforated with point singularity projector shots, and broke apart when its antique engine finally opened a slipstream portal. Presumably all Arkology inhabitants died. Andromeda itself was saved only by Trance's intervention.[2]
Earth was humanity's birthplace and a rich human world, but apart from its cultural significance it had no special position in the Commonwealth. During the Long Night Earth was occupied by the Nietzscheans and repeatedly attacked by the Magog. The remaining human population had to live in abject poverty and basically became slaves of the Nietzscheans.
Seamus Harper, the engineer of the Andromeda (who was born on Earth) helped his cousin Brenden start a revolt against the Nietzscheans. However, Andromeda failed to provide necessary support in time, and the revolt was brutally suppressed.[3]
Earth was destroyed by the Abyss in series finale.[4]
Hephaistos (Hephaistos IV, according to All Systems University website [1]) was an important Nietzschean trade system. However, it is most famous as the site of the first battle of Nietzschean rebellion in 9784 CY (depicted in pilot episode "Under the Night"). A rogue black hole was entering the system, threatening to destroy Hephaistos, and the Nietzscheans issued a distress call. It turned out to be a trap; responding Commonwealth vessels were faced by a fleet of 10,000 ships.[5]
The Andromeda Ascendant (a Glorious Heritage-class heavy cruiser) was trapped near the event horizon of the black hole. It remained "frozen in time" for 302 years, until a cargo ship named Eureka Maru pulled it free. Hephaistos itself was completely consumed by the black hole in 9811 CY.
The Andromeda returned to the Hephaistos black hole once again when the Perseids of Sinti asked Dylan Hunt to provide help in their scientific experiment in determining the wavefunction of the universe, in exchange for signing the New Commonwealth charter. The black hole was used as an information sink. Seamus Harper built a teleporter device which worked only near this black hole but allowed to teleport matter in space and even in time (although with a high chance of failure). Dylan used this device to teleport back in time, to his fiancee Sara's ship. However, he could neither take her back nor stay in that time, and had to return heartbroken. Nevertheless the Perseids' experiment was highly successful and they signed the charter[6]
Much later, when Dylan and the Andromeda were trapped in the Seefra system, Harper discovered that the teleporter somehow still retained the connection with the Hephaistos black hole, so Dylan and his crew (though not the Andromeda) could teleport out of Seefra and back in time, before the Fall of the Commonwealth. However, one of the side effects of that was destabilization of Seefra's artificial suns; thus Dylan refused to use the teleporter to avoid the destruction of Seefra.[7]
Dylan also met the avatar of Hephaistos black hole, Marida, on Seefra. Marida tried to hinder his mission, and Dylan had to lock her in a data file.[8]
Mobius is a human world without any atmosphere, with a large population living in vast underground settlements. It was ruled by a series of dictators, which ended with Ferrin and Great Compass Venetri; later Mobius became a New Commonwealth member.
Venetri became a dictator because he had participated in Ferrin's assassination before the Fall of the Commonwealth, together with Dylan Hunt and Gaheris Rhade (they had planned only to detain him, but Ferrin had put up unexpected resistance, wounding Dylan. Dylan and Rhade also had had to kill a few guards in Ferrin's palace). Horrified by the ruthless methods of the High Guard, he tried to fix the damage they caused. A former architect and self-styled "Great Compass", he survived for 300 years by transplanting organs from his clones, but ended up as bad ruler as Ferrin. After the next visit of Andromeda (when Dylan was imprisoned), Trance Gemini convinced Venetri to leave his office and turn the power to the parliament (episode "Forced Perspective").[9]
Mobius quickly joined the New Commonwealth and became one of its most active members.
San-Ska-Re is the homeworld of Than-Thre-Kull (Than) race and the capital of the Than Hegemony. Despite San-Ska-Re's arid climate, it has a population of 23 billion Than and other sentient beings living in Than-like social arrangements.
San-Ska-Re never actually appeared on screen, but the Than Hegemony is one of the major powers of the post-Fall Known Worlds. It appeared neutral to the idea of the New Commonwealth.
Seefra is an artificial star system, consisting of nine almost identical planets (Seefra-1 to Seefra-9) and two suns (Methus-1 and Methus-2). It is located in its own "pocket universe". Slipstream doesn't work in Seefra; the only way in or out is the Route of Ages, which apparently opens only in some unusual circumstances. The locals (mostly humans) are superstitious and unfriendly; technology is shunned. Solar flares on Methus-2 cause drought and make spaceflight extremely hazardous.[10]
Andromeda and its crew were transported to Seefra by Trance Gemini (who had to save them from imminent death) in Season Four finale. Trance "got everything right, except the time" - everyone of the crew had to spend a different period of time there. Andromeda itself was undamaged, but lost all its power.
Restoring Andromeda's power and attempts to leave Seefra are the most obvious themes of Season Five. Andromeda managed to leave the system only with the help of the Lambent Kith Nebula, in the series finale.[4]
Seefra-1 is actually Tarn-Vedra and when Trance remembers who she really is, the true Vedran sun returns and destroys all but Seefra-1. At the end of the series, the Andromeda and her crew return here through the Route of Ages and uses the Vedran sun to destroy the Spirit of the Abyss. The Route of Ages then turns into a Slipstream portal, reuniting the Seefra system with the rest of the universe.
The new homeworld of the Persids. Sinti was the first world to sign up to the renewed Commonwealth. It was the home of Chief Technical Director Höone. Andromeda was in orbit of Sinti when the tesseract generate built by Harper was activated, generating massive tidal and tectonic problems on the planet's surface.[11]
Tarazed is a world with significant human and Nietzschean population, notable for surviving the Long Night remarkably well. It had retained most of the social structure of the Old Commonwealth, including the Home Guard (commanded by Admiral Telemachus Rhade). Tarazed was appointed as the provisional capital of the New Commonwealth.
When Dylan first arrived on Tarazed, he discovered that the planet's Triumvir, Rekel Ben-Tzion, welcomed the prospect of joining the Commonwealth, but most of the population didn't. Rekel went as far as staging a fake Magog attack to persuade her people (one Home Guard officer actually died as a result, colliding with empty Magog swarmship hull on a slipfighter), but her plan was exposed by Dylan. He left the system, refusing to circumvent the law.[12]
Tarazed joined the Commonwealth some time later and became its new capital.
Tarazed was the last stand of the New Commonwealth fleet against the Nietzchean forces. In the middle of the battle, Andromeda fled through the Route of Ages, leaving Tarazed to fend for itself. Once the Spirit of the Abyss was destroyed and Seefra/Tarn-Vedra rejoined the slipstream, the survivors of the Commonwealth fleet arrived in Tarn-Vedra, suggesting that the Nietzcheans were driven off.[4]
Tarn-Vedra was the Vedran homeworld and the capital of the Old Systems Commonwealth. Located in the Andromeda galaxy, it was home for 14 billion sentient beings; Dylan Hunt was born in the human quarter of its capital city, Etashi-Tarn. Physically Tarn-Vedra resembled Earth.[10]
Tarn-Vedra was tesseracted away from the slipstream soon after the Nietzschean rebellion, possibly after the Empresses; death, leaving the Commonwealth without leadership. Since then, no one has ever heard anything about Tarn-Vedra, although the "Mad Perseid" Hasturi claimed to have found a previously unknown highly hazardous slipstream route there.[13]
Tarn Vedra is found again by the crew of the Andromeda who realize that Seefra 1 is in fact Tarn Vedra. The planet is later reopened to Slipstream after the Spirit of the Abyss is destroyed and the Route of Ages (the only way to get there) is turned into a slipstream portal.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||