Planets of the Hyperion Cantos

In the fictional universe of the 'Hyperion Cantos', the Hegemony of Man encompasses over 200 planets. The following planets appear or are specifically mentioned in the Hyperion Cantos.

• Armaghast — A desert planet, often a site for exiles or prisoners, where ruins of an ancient alien civilization have been found. One of nine labyrinthine planets.
• Asquith — A planet populated by exiles from Britain. The homeland of 'Sad King Billy' before his artists' exodus to Hyperion to avoid the Glennon-Height rebellion.
• Barnard's World — Located in the Barnard's Star system; one of the first extra-solar worlds to be colonized, features large stretches of farmland and well-known post-secondary education institutions. Rachel Weintraub is a native of this world, and Sol Weintraub taught at one of the colleges there.
• Castrop Rauxel
• Deneb Drei, whose capital is New Lyons (Lyon is city of France).
• Deneb Vier
• Esperance — The second Keats cybrid lived on this world for a time.
• Earth 2 — Very little is told about this planet in the series.
• Freude - A bustling planet known for the colourful dress of its inhabitants.
• Fuji — A small planet with tropical climate. The planet's inhabitants are of Asian origin (presumably Japanese). The main pets on this planet are sharks (that are very common there due to the seedships of the Hegira).
• Garden — A forest world close to Hyperion. This world had a population of sentient centaurs which were hunted to extinction by the Hegemony.
• God's Grove — A forest planet, home of the Templars, whose worship of nature seeks to mold life to preserve and spread it throughout the galaxy.
• Heaven's Gate — Orbiting the star Alpha Lyrae or Vega, a toxic planet that is difficult to keep terraformed, but rich in mineral resources; it serves as a temporary (and highly unpleasant, but nevertheless important) home for Martin Silenus after he is forced to leave Old Earth. Eventually terraformed into beauty and comfort under the Hegemony, its capital of Mudflat with its famous Prommenade was a popular tourist destination. Leveled by TechnoCore cybrids posing as Ousters at the time of the Fall, it quickly returned to its original uninhabitability.
• Hebron — A primarily Jewish desert planet, Hebron is independent of the Hegemony.^[1] The use of farcaster portals on Hebron is limited to the capital city, New Jerusalem. Besides the capital city, the people of Hebron live in kibbutzim.
• Hyperion — An Outback world that nonetheless played a pivotal role in galactic affairs. One of nine labyrinthine planets, home of the Time Tombs and the mysterious Shrike.
• Ixion - A jungle world, where Aenea teaches natives in the western hemisphere, the Pax controls only the eastern hemisphere.
• Lee III
• Lusus — A high-gravity industrial world where people live in hives. Once represented in the Hegemony Senate by Byron Lamia, his daughter, detective Brawne Lamia, is a native of the world.
• Madhya — Formerly a Hindu colony, it is the world chosen for the location of the New Vatican by Pax loyalists after the fall of the Pax. Madhya in Hindi means Centre (as in the present-day Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, whose name literally means "Central Province"). Colonized from Parvati.
• MadredeDios — A desert planet apparently populated by colonists from Latin America. Homeworld of Father Captain Federico de Soya.
• Mao Four
• Mare Infinitus — A planet covered by water—Martin Silenus had a guest bathroom on this planet consisting of a small raft with a toilet, no walls, and no ceiling.
• Mars — One of many planets terraformed by the Hegemony of Man. Home to the Palestinians after they flee Earth (the State of Palestine won its independence but a few weeks before a major nuclear war in the Middle East rendered it uninhabitable, and the Palestinian exodus thus dates to before the Hegira). During the Human Hegemony, the headquarters of FORCE, the military arm of government.
• Maui-Covenant — An ocean planet originally populated with the mix of conservationists and Pacific Islanders. Rich biosphere includes living mobile islands, among other things. Native wildlife including Earth dolphins and 'motile' isles were almost completely destroyed during Siri's Rebellion, in the years following its introduction into the WorldWeb.
• Metaxas
• Moon — Mentioned briefly in the series.
• New Earth — Apparently a decent substitute for Old Earth, but it does not get much of a spotlight in the series.
• New Harmony
• New Mecca
• NGCes 2629-4BIV - The only planet in the NGC 2629 system that can support life. Human explorers, tourists, and scientists were stranded there after the Fall and have survived as indigenies over the centuries following the Fall. The population remains at a few thousand, as the humans remaining probably have very limited access to modern technology and compete with the planet's population of Old Earth re-seeded and native predators.
• Nevermore - A primarily non-Christian, low tech world in a system with a high number of comets. Only a small part of this planet is under Pax control. The planet is covered with forests and its inhabitants live in stone buildings. This planet is seemingly Edgar Allan Poe-themed.
• Nordholm - A world that seems to be influenced by Scandinavian origins.
• Old Earth — The original Earth, believed to have been destroyed by The Big Mistake of '08^[2] (in which a miniature black hole was dropped into its core), but later shown to have been spirited away by 'other' beings of godlike abilities and consciousness.
• Orbital Forests — Not actually planets, but orbiting forests (having atmospheres kept in by containment fields) created by the Ousters, who live in them (along with other types of space colonies); eventually these grow into Dyson trees, a biological variant of Dyson Spheres.
• Pacem — A planet serving as the base of the Catholic Church; home of Lenar Hoyt. The Vatican and parts of the city of Rome were relocated there after The Big Mistake which was thought to have destroyed Old Earth.
• Parvati — A planet populated by reformed Hindus.
• Patawpha — Meina Gladstone, the CEO of the Human Hegemony, hailed from the backwater regions of this swampy world. Possibly named after William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
• Qom-Riyadh — A primarily Muslim planet.
• Renaissance Minor — A primarily agricultural world in the same star system as Renaissance Vector.
• Renaissance Vector - A primarily urban world, with major centres named after giants of the Italian Renaissance. Known for its advanced medical facilities, archives and research institutions. An ecumenopolis, the planet fared well after the Fall through its relationship with Renaissance Minor.
• Sibiatu's Bitterness also known as Inevitable Grace- Orbiting the star Lacaille 9352, an environmentally marginal planet with a thin methane-ammonia atmosphere.
• Sol Draconi Septem — A somewhat terraformed planet almost completely covered by a glacier atmosphere; it is difficult to keep even a small part of this planet terraformed, and it has even higher gravity than Lusus. Survivors of the Fall exist in this planet as nomadic tribals.
• Svoboda - A tidally-locked and barely habitable planet 3 light-years from the planet Pacem, Svoboda is one of the nine Labyrinthine worlds.
• Tau Ceti Center (TC²) — Orbiting the star Tau Ceti, the administrative capital of the Hegemony of Man or Hegemony. As an ecumenopolis, it was the most densely populated planet under the Hegemony of Man, and home to Hegemony Senate, Government House, and the famous Deer Park.
• Tempe
• Thalia
• T'ien Shan — A planet covered by mountains, with low-lying poisonous gases and acid seas confining humans to tall mountains; populated by reformed Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Norse, and others, although the action of the story takes place in Buddhist-controlled territory. Presumably named for the Tian Shan, the "Mountains of Heaven" or "Celestial Mountains" in Central Asia.
• Tsingtao-Hsishuang Panna
• Vitus-Gray-Balianus B — A planet inhabited by people of the Amoiete Spectrum Helix, a religion that allows non-traditional marriages, including those having more than two people; they are organized on the basis of colors, somewhat like the Druzes do.
• Whirl - The forgotten sibling of Barnard's World. A gas giant that was formerly occupied by the Zeplin, a species of semi-intelligent, large, buoyant lifeforms which occupy the thermals between layers of gas.

References