List of Ender's Game series planets

This is a list of planets from the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card:

Albion

A planet that is briefly mentioned in the short story "Investment Counselor". It is home to a woman named Jane whom Ender briefly thought may have created the computer program Jane. Albion is a name for Ancient Britain.

Baía

A Brazilian catholic world. The nearest world to Lusitania with population pressure. They applied to Starways Congress to colonize Lusitania and did so in the year 1886 SC. In Xenocide, Grego mentions that if he had access to faster than light travel then he could go to university on Baía.

Descoladores' home planet

The homeworld to the descoladores, discovered in Children of the Mind. Observing it from afar in an "Outside"-capable ship, the ship's riders begin to believe the inhabitants to be varelse; however, due to the Peter Clone's attack on them, they realize they need to take more time in studying the descoladores. This planet is rumored to be the subject of Card's next book, Shadows Alive.

Divine Wind

A planet colonized and mostly inhabited by Japanese people, with a large amount of tourists. It was one of humanity's first colonies and has a high influence in Starways Congress. Peter Wiggin and Wang-mu came here in Children of the Mind as part of their mission to "find the center of power among humankind" and to "persuade them to stop the [Lusitania] fleet before it needlessly destroys a world [Lusitania]". Divine Wind is the English translation of the Japanese term Shimpū Tokkōtai, more commonly known as Kamikaze.

Earth

Earth

Due to overpopulation, some countries laws stated that each family could only have two children; during the destruction of the Formics and the subsequent colonization of their worlds, this rule was repealed. It is somewhat more advanced than present-day Earth; people are able to travel around in cars that hover over magnetic rails that go at 250 km/h, for example. However, due to International Fleet rule, some nations have declined drastically. One shining example is Rotterdam, a city in the Netherlands, in which children roam the streets fighting each other for food.

Later in the series, Earth's first true federation of nations was built by Peter Wiggin. Called the Free People of Earth (FPE), Peter Wiggin's federation led Earth to experience a golden age while he lived. Unfortunately, after he died, the FPE and the United States of America went to war, with the United States winning. The result was the establishment of the Starways Congress with Earth as the capital of the Starways Congress and thus one of many important worlds.

In the last three books of the Ender Quartet, it is revealed that Earth still holds a place of particular importance. Many notable organizations continue to hold headquarters on Earth, such as the Vatican, numerous large corporations, and the Starways Congress.

Eros

Eros (named after the real-life 433 Eros) is a wandering asteroid where Command School is situated. It was originally a Formic colony and the International Fleet lost one thousand marines capturing it. Colonel Graff says that they fought for every meter of the place. The capture, however, allows the humans to discover and utilize both artificial gravity and ansible technologies.

Spaceships approaching Eros land on one of three orbital platforms, whereupon passengers are transported to the asteroids in school bus-like spaceships and sucked through tubes in zero gravity to the main colony. Due to the Formics painting it black, its albedo becomes only slightly brighter than a black hole. Humans noted it disappearing from their monitors and sent someone to investigate, which led to a confrontation with the Formics.

In Ender's Game, Ender Wiggin is sent here to attend Command School, where he unknowingly defeats the Formics, believing he is playing a space combat simulation computer game.

A short civil war takes place on Eros after the Formics are defeated, coinciding with a civil war on Earth. Five hundred personnel are lost, and the fighting only ended when the Warsaw Pact troops were ordered to kill Ender, and they promptly refused.

Eros later becomes the staging area for early human colonies being sent out to colonize the vacant bugger colony worlds. Ender Wiggin is seen helping with the refitting a starship docked at a newly constructed space station.

Formic's home planet

After the Second Invasion, which the humans narrowly won, the International Fleet built and sent the "Third Invasion" to their planets. In order to fight, the I.F. decides to use child commanders and pretend that it is just a fantasy simulation. After a number of grueling battles that causes three of the children to collapse, the fleet arrives at the homeworld. Mazer Rackham tells Ender that this is the final battle. Ender, tired of battling, simply decides to use the Molecular Disrupter Device to destroy the world to try to get himself kicked out of school. Apart from the cocoon Ender later found, all the Hive Queens were present at its destruction, which effectively wiped them out, until Ender revived the last Hive Queen on Lusitania.

A few million years after its destruction, the planet's own gravity will pull its particles back towards itself, making a new, smaller planet.

Ganges

A colony planet colonized mostly by people from India. The colony was founded and governed by Virlomi, a battle school graduate. The non-Indian minority of the planet resented Virlomi's Goddess image, including Randall Firth, son of Bean and Petra, who was raised to believe that he was Achilles de Flandres' son. The founding city in Ganges is called Andhra. The founding of this planet and Ender's activities there are captured in Ender in Exile.

Hijra

Hijra is the colony planet of Muslims who migrated from Earth. It was first colonized by Caliph Alai of Ender's Jeesh after the failed Invasion of China by the Muslim Empire in Shadow of the Giant. It was briefly mentioned in Children of the Mind. It is named after Muhammad's pilgrimage from Mecca to Medina. The reason the colony was established was because the Caliph decided that Islam had to be separated from territorial and racial interests, and that such a thing could never occur on Earth.

Moctezuma

A Spanish planet where Ender learned to speak Spanish 2,000 years before the events of Speaker for the Dead while speaking the deaths of Zacateas and San Angelo.

Moskva

In Children of the Mind, Jane fakes evidence to make it look like Peter and Wang-mu traveled to Divine Wind on a ship from Moskva. Si Wang-Mu thinks they speak a Russian dialect when Grace talks to them about their 'home" in Moskvan.

Lusitania

Lusitania is a world first introduced in Speaker for the Dead. Catholic by religion, Portuguese by language and culture, the planet was colonized by Brazilian settlers from Bahia, which would later convert the alien species living there to Christianity. It is named after the Roman name, in Latin, for Portugal. This planet is inhabited by all three Ramen races - the Pequeninos, the Formics and Humans. It contains a deadly virus called the descolada that would destroy the ecosystem of any other planet if it were to spread.

The planet's only human colony was restricted in growth so as not to interfere with the Pequeninos; likewise, contact between humans and Pequeninos was forbidden except for the local researchers. The policy proved unworkable, as the Pequeninos had, early on, discovered how to circumvent the security fence of the colony and had been able to observe humans using technology, including witnessing agricultural practices and the arrival of a space-faring shuttle. The planet was also chosen by the Formic queen as a good place for re-emergence because of high levels of mineral deposits, permission from the Pequeninos to settle and a lack of human settlement, including blind spots where satellites did not observe.

Pacifica (Lumana'i)

A planet visited by Peter Wiggin and Si Wang-Mu after their visit to Divine Wind. It has one massive ocean named The Pacific and a few smaller ones between the continents. The islands in the Pacific are inhabited by Pacific Islanders and the mainlands inhabited by minority races. Lumana'i is Samoan for "The Future".

Path

Path is a Chinese-inhabited planet in Xenocide and Children of the Mind. Inhabitants include Han Fei-tzu, his wife, Jiang-qing, their daughter, Qing-jao, and their servants, including Qing-jao's secret maid, Wang-mu.

The inhabitants of this planet are divided into two classes–normal people and the godspoken. The "godspoken" are actually genetically-modified human beings with both superhuman intelligence and a crippling OCD-like disease. Any research into this disease would result in the researcher being sent off-world.

At the end of Xenocide, a newly-spawned copy of Peter Wiggin bearing Ender's aiúa shows up in the FTL starship controlled by Jane. After dropping off the retrovirus to make everyone on Path supergeniuses (minus the OCD), he takes the one person who is already in this state, Wang-mu, with him to reunite humanity as Hegemon once again.

At the end of Shadow of the Giant, it is suggested that the geneticist Volescu - responsible for Bean's genetic condition - has been, or will be, sent off to a colony. Since Volescu had previously been developing a means of changing human DNA by means of a virus - not unlike the descolada in Children of the Mind and Xenocide - it is speculated amongst fans that Volescu may have some connection with the emergence of the godspoken on Path.

Path is the English translation of the Chinese Tao (道).

Rheims

In Xenocide, Grego mentions that if he had access to faster than light travel then he could go to university on Rheims, Baía or even Earth.

Rov

The first planet that Ender visited after writing The Hive Queen and The Hegemon. Xenocide mentions that it had an abandoned Bugger city similar to the one on Lusitania.

Shakespeare (Ender's World)

This planet is unnamed in Ender's Game but is referred to as Shakespeare in Shadow of the Giant and Ender in Exile. Ender left Rov with his computer interface implant and knowledge of Jane. (This contradicts "Investment Counselor", which explains that they met on Sorrelledolce.). This planet was a bugger colony about 50 lightyears from Earth. It is the first one settled by humans. The buggers terraformed a part of the landscape to look like the dead giant from the Fantasy Game that Ender played in Battle School and hid a Hive Queen egg here.

On this planet, colonists and Ender meet and learn to communicate with formic-like creatures using thoughts and images. The remainders of the creatures indicate that they were a mix-breed that were used to perform mining activities for the formics.

Sorelledolce

Sorelledolce, meaning "sweet sisters" in Italian, is an Italian-speaking planet who is the primary setting for the short story "Investment Counselor", which is set 300 years after the events of Ender's Game. During the events, the colony's population is at four million, with one million residing in the capital city, Donnabella, meaning "beautiful woman". It was one of the few planets that Starways Congress did not control. In "Investment Counselor", Ender and his sister Valentine disembark. Ender has just turned 20 and must pay taxes on his funds. He first approaches a tax man named Benedetto, who discovers that he is Ender the Xenocide. Fortunately, Ender meets Jane, a sentient computer program, who helps him pay his taxes and stops Benedetto from blackmailing Ender. Ender and Valentine leave after ten weeks.

Trondheim

An icy planet, named after a real life Norwegian city. Trondheim is Ender's home at the beginning of Speaker for the Dead. When Ender leaves for Lusitania, Valentine stays with her husband on Trondheim. While Ender is on Trondheim, he works as a professor in a local university. (discipline not given) Later on Lusitania he mentions to Ela that without the ability to row a boat, you would be as good as crippled on Trondheim.

The planet is mostly tundra and cold seas, however, the equatorial region can support human life relatively well. The chief industry appears to be fishing and hunting a local seal-like creature. The main religions are Calvinist and Lutheran Protestantism. The planet has not been settled very long, with some dwellings in the main city being modified caves.

Zanzibar

Valentine wrote an essay here comparing the priestly class to the skeletons of small vertebrates some time before Speaker for The Dead.

References