List of Humanx Commonwealth planets

This is a list of the fictional planets in the Humanx Commonwealth series of novels by Alan Dean Foster.

Alaspin

Alaspin has large jungles surrounded by equally large savannas and river plains; its only notable celestial feature is two moons.

Currently the planet has no sentient race; the native race died out, possibly by racial suicide, over 75,000 years ago leaving behind hundreds of ancient, abandoned cities that have proved a source of fascination to modern xeno-archaeologists.

A variety of lifeforms currently live on Alaspin, most notably the Alaspinian minidrag.

Annubis

Annubis is most notable for the fictional Hyperion forests from which the fictional drug bloodhype is manufactured. In an attempt to eradicate the highly addictive and deadly drug, the trees were burned in 545 A.A. and are thought to be completely destroyed.

The planet first appeared in the novel Bloodhype.

Blasusarr

Blasusarr is the homeworld of the AAnn race and is often called the Imperial Home World. Climate is dry and hot, largely desert, the preferred atmospheric conditions of the AAnn. Beyond this, little is known about Blasusarr other than the fact that it is very well-protected by a detection and space defense network. Its capital city, also the capital of the AAnn Empire, is Krrassin.

Cachalot

Cachalot is almost entirely covered by ocean with small ice caps and a few artificial floating islands created by humans. The dominant non-native races are intelligence-enhanced Cetacea (includes whales, dolphins, orcas and porpoises) that were brought to the planet from Terra in 2300 A.D. The name of the planet derives from the Portuguese word cachalote, a common term for head. This word was applied to the sperm whale, for its large head, when the mammals were actively hunted in Earth’s oceans.

The novel Cachalot (1980) introduced the planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe.

Hivehom

Hivehom is the home system of the thranx race; the system itself has twelve planets, four of which are inhabited.

Most of Hivehom's population lives in subterranean hives. The Thranx prefer an incredibly hot, humid climate and the cold Northern regions are mostly uninhabited. The Mediterranean Plateau, a dry, frigid portion of Hivehom's largest continent would later become home to Hivehom's human settlement following the creation of the Humanx Commonwealth.[1]

Cities such as the capital of Daret are located beneath thick rainforest and a near constant, heavy shroud of low-lying clouds caused by the intense humidity; an ideal temperature for a thriving thranx population.[2]

Hivehom's equivalent to Terra's North Pole is mostly uninhabited, except for the small mining colony of Sed-Clee where temperatures range from -5° Celsius to 15° Celsius.[3]

Horseye

Horseye has four moons, three distinct sentient species (Mai, Tsla, and the Na) and a continent structure that is dominated by a single, massive ocean. This ocean experiences a constant clockwise current driven by the orbits of the four moons.

Horseye is also home to the most spectacular river canyon in the known universe.

The planet first appeared in the novel Voyage to the City of the Dead (1984).

Longtunnel

Longtunnel is characterized by an extremely inhospitable climate and an extensive network of caves, due to the soft crust and significant amount of rain. Longtunnel is inhabited by one sapient race, who call themselves Sumacrea.

The novel Flinx in Flux introduced this planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe.

Midworld

Midworld's distinguishing feature is the thousand meter high rainforest that covers nearly all of the planet, making it the most biologically diverse planet in the universe. It is home to a human offshoot known as Midworlders who are slightly smaller than human standard with adaptations that include light green skin and long toes.

The planet is currently under edict—all travel to the planet is expressly forbidden—by the United Church, ostensibly to protect the fragile ecosystem. More likely it is to protect the Commonwealth from the emerging world-consciousness that the massive rainforest has spawned. Bits of this plant-based sentience have been placed upon Flinx’s ship Teacher allowing the planet-consciousness to now travel the universe.

The novel Midworld (1975) introduced the planet and it is also the setting for the novel Mid-Flinx (1995).

Moth

Moth has three notable features. First, a set of broken rings around the planet gives the globe a distinctive look from outer space, an appearance similar to that of a Terran moth. Second, its dominant weather pattern is almost continual rain, mostly because of the near constant cloud-cover. Third, Moth has a single 'moon', Flame, which is actually a dwarf planet sharing the same orbital path as Moth.

Beyond its outwardly interesting facade, Moth is a relatively unimportant planet having a substantial non-native human population. It is the planet where Mother Mastiff lives and where she rescued Flinx from a slave auction. Flinx spent his childhood on this planet learning how to survive on his own and become a thief at the same time.

The novel The Tar-Aiym Krang (1972) introduced the planet to the Humanx Commonwealth universe; Foster greatly expanded information about Moth in the novel For Love of Mother-Not (1983).

New Riviera

New Riviera, often called Nur, is often referred to as a paradise world, for it is even more perfect for human habitation than Terra. There are no extremes on the planet, not large oceans or mountain ranges, the many continents and archipelagos are divided up by twenty small seas. The citizens are mostly content, happy to have been born on the planet or to have immigrated there. The economy tends toward tourism and high end scientific research.

Pitar

Pitar, like Midworld and Ulru-Ujurr, is under Church Edict preventing any Commonwealth citizen from setting foot on the planet.

The native race of the planet, also known as the Pitar, were remarkably human-like, physiologically if not genetically, although generally more well-formed, handsome and muscular than typical human standards.

First human contact with the planet was in 2360 AD. In 2365 the Pitar destroyed the colonists on the planet Treetrunk (Argus V) which started the Human-Pitar War. A year later human and thranx scientists invented the SCCAM missile which allowed the alliance of humans and thranx to break the defenses of the Pitar. The Pitar refused any kind of surrender, and the entire race was exterminated. Due to their "irredeemable narccisism", even the few Pitar captured killed themselves or otherwise rendered themselves unsuitable for study.

It was discovered by scientists after the fact that the Pitar had planned a long-term, galactic level genocide of all non-Pitaran sentients. The attack on Treetrunk was perpetrated for the purposes of obtaining human female reproductive organs, which could be genetically altered to produce Pitaran offspring, compensating for the low birthrate that was the Pitaran's main disadvantage over races such as humans and the Thranx.

The planet first appeared in the novel Dirge (2000), although it was referenced in Foster's first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang (1973).

Prism

Prism abounds with both carbon- and silicon-based life forms, as well as combinations of the two (organosilicon). There are a number of intelligent species on the planet, but the book which introduces the planet, Sentenced to Prism, only deals with one group, known as the Associative. The Associative contains a number of different specialized sub-types, much as a termite mound would. Known types include Scouts, Libraries, Walls, Physicians, Conduits, Warriors, Gatherers, and Talkers. A few more varieties of Associative types that were only mentioned in passing include flects, builders, distributors (also called exploding stars), excavators and processors. At the end of the novel, others are being designed.

Pyrassis

Pyrassis falls within the territory claimed by the AAnn Empire. It is a desert planet that also contains an ancient, alien transmitter. The tenth planet in the system is a brown methane dwarf that hides one of the Tar-Aiym’s semi-sentient Krang weapon.

The planet first appeared in the novel Reunion (2001).

Tran-Ky-Ky

Tran-Ky-Ky is notable for its long warm-cold climate cycle; currently in the Humanx Commonwealth timeframe, Tran-Ky-Ky is in its cold cycle and most of the planet is under ice. Each cycle lasts approximately 50,000 years and is due to the unusual orbit of the planet. Native species is the Tran, a somewhat bipedal cat-like race with membranous wings on their arms they use in conjunction with the long claws to skate on the icy surface of the planet. Because of the strange climate changes the Tran have had some trouble developing. Their "warm weather"-related species is the Golden Saia.

The planet first appeared in the novel Icerigger (1974).

Treetrunk

Treetrunk, also known as Argus V, has large polar icecaps that cover the majority of the surface. Only the equatorial regions are habitable by humans, the Thranx and AAnn have no interest in colonizing the planet due to it cold temperatures, though to humans the equatorial climate is a cool temperate.

There is no native sentient race on Treetrunk, none ever having developed. Five years after human colonization, all 600,000 humans living on the planet were killed by the Pitar as the opening to the Humanx-Pitar war.

The planet was first formally introduced in Dirge (2000).

Ulru-Ujurr

Ulru-Ujurr is currently under edict—all travel to the planet is expressly forbidden—by the United Church, ostensibly to protect the native primitive species. Surface is highly mountainous and while about one-fifth as large as Terra, gravity is similar due to the make-up of the planet’s core. Ulru-Ujurr has an irregular orbit that is slowly moving it away from its sun. This is the homeworld to the ursine Ulru-Ujurrians.

The planet first appeared in the novel Orphan Star (1977).

Other planets

References

  1. ↑ http://www.alandeanfoster.com/version2.0/images/map231.JPG
  2. ↑ Foster, Alan Dean (1982). Nor Crystal Tears. New York: Del Ray Books. ISBN 0-345-29141-7.
  3. ↑ Foster, Alan Dean (1982). Nor Crystal Tears. New York: Del Ray Books. p. 98. ISBN 0-345-29141-7.
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