| Terra | Geography | Life | Gallery | Trivia |
Biology[]
Terra is predominantly inhabited by various races known as the Ancients, an amalgamation of humanoids with animal features and completely anthropomorphic animals. Other than the Ancients, Terra is also inhabited by Elders who are the previous ruling class of Terra. The Terran races have an extraordinary strength that could easily outmatch Homo sapiens of Earth thanks to their unique racial traits,[1] and they also have different anatomy that requires extensive medical studies to fully comprehend.[2] Aside from the Ancients and Elders, there are god-like beings known as Feranmuts like those who once ruled over Yan, Collapsals inhabiting the northern tundra and southern desert, and the Seaborn from the abyss of the vast ocean.
The flora and fauna of Terra are fairly similar to our world with some notable stark differences. Terra's notable fauna includes:
- Canine "hounds"
- Large gastropods known as "Originium slugs"
- Crustacean "metal crabs" and "gloompincers"
- Badger-like "sand beasts"
- Arachnid "rock spiders"
Terra also have umbrella terms for animals acting as analogues of Earth animals:
- Burdenbeast: Beasts of burden
- Cystybeast: Dairy animals (e.g. Earth cows)
- Fangbeast: Carnivorous animals
- Fowlbeast: Poultry
- Flapbeast: Bats
- Gnawbeast: Rats, rodents
- Scalebass/Fins: Fishes
- Shells: Crustaceans and shellfishes
- Tuskbeast: Large carnivorous animals
Civilization[]
Long ago in the forgotten past, around 13,000 years ago, Terra is inhabited by the Ancestors – a highly advanced, space-faring humanoid race with extraordinary technologies such as planetary construction, hyperspace travel, terraforming, and most importantly, the construction of one of Terra's "Twin Moons."[3] Surprisingly, the Ancestors are implied to be aliens (i.e. not native to Terra); in fact, the Sarkaz and Feranmuts claimed that Terra was their homeland, named "Teekaz" in the former's language, and the Ancestors as well as the Ancients and Elders are "invaders".[4][5]
Nearly all of the Ancestors are wiped out by a mysterious disaster originating from outer space without a single trace remaining,[6][7][8] leaving on the Ancients and Elders to build a new civilization from the Ancestors' ashes.
Politics[]
Most of Terra's political bodies are ruled by monarchs and oligarchs who have been in power for generations. The situation is similar to the pre-World War I era where empires expand their territories without checking due to the scarcity of diplomatic talks; the Battle of the Four Emperors is the closest moment to an outright world war. Nevertheless, there are many institutions, whether official or private, that attempt to establish a worldwide peacekeeping system such as Laterano's Legati and other non-governmental organizations not only to aid common folk who are ignored by the governments, but also to prevent Terra from falling into a destructive mess. The current internal turmoil also forces Terran nations to completely ignore many hidden threats beyond the borders of their civilizations, especially the threats of the Seaborn and the eldritch demons in the south and the north respectively.
Nation-states[]
- Main article: Faction
Terra is divided into many nation-states, often being parallels to those in our world, or rather, amalgamated cultures which do not belong to merely one country or time period, but several at once – the most notable example being the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican and Middle Eastern influences of Sargon.
There are some Terran nation-states that are not elaborated in the game with some being likely defunct by the time of the Main Theme of Arknights. These include:
- Gaul
- The "Khaganate"
- Tara
- Rus: Mentioned by Kashchey,[9] Rus is likely a parallel to the ancient Rus people who originated from Nordic area that forms the current Eastern European population. [1]
- Kingdom of Agamemnon: Mentioned in Conviction's Archive files, Agamenmnon was founded by an artist and was claimed to have far more advanced technology than the rest of Terra, notably QR codes and trolley problems. It is now absorbed into present-day Minos.
- Dan: Mentioned in the description of "Frost", Dan is possibly one of the three Eastern nations that Ceobe once ventured into.[10] It is likely a parallel to Korea in our world (just as Higashi and Yan being parallels to Japan and China respectively) with its name taken from Dangun in Korean mythology.
Science and technology[]
Due to the planetary disaster that befell Terra millenia ago, there is an enormous technological gap between the current era and the previous era, with present-day Terrans having no memory regarding it. While Terra's current technological level is similar to that of Earth, it is more advanced to a limited extent. Just like their forebearers, the Terrans can achieve many marvelous engineering such as A.I.-controlled robots, UAVs and UGVs, and especially gigantic nomadic cities and steam-powered power armors. But there are also many crucial developments that are far behind time due to many circumstances, most notably shipbuilding and nautical exploration due to the Seaborn's presence.
Terra notably have different chemical and geological makeup, thus they do not have some of Earth's chemical formulae and compounds, most notably those that would be necessary to fashion simple gunpowder.[11]
Warfare[]
Terran guns are completely different to Earth's, despite their superficially similar appearance
The Terrans generally make use of cold weaponry (swords, spears, shields, bows, crossbows, etc.) along with the enhancement of giant military landships playing similar role to naval warships. Firearms and explosives do exist, but unlike Earth ones, they are Originium-based; Terran firearms use Originium Arts as the operating mechanism and fires Originium projectiles, making it more of a "magic wand" that fires bullets – which, from an Arts standpoint, are disposable Arts projectile wands themselves.[1] On the other hand, Terran explosives use compositions that are derived from Originium.
As the result, firearms are a rarity in Terra – more so than explosives – with handguns being more common than long guns (e.g. rifles, shotguns, (sub)machine guns) that are almost exclusively used by the Sankta who have a native predisposition to the Arts required for firearms, calling them "patron firearms". Some non-Sankta such as several Blacksteel operatives also use firearms, but they are noted to be different from the Sankta's patron firearms and notably expensive, being reverse-engineered replicas inferior to Sankta firearms.
Astronomy[]
What could have lied beyond this dark, fake sky?
| “ | We have yet to chart the entire continent. We have barely measured the thickness of our atmosphere. Why start this foolish chase for those meaningless heights? | ” |
| —a quote from Stephenson, a Columbian scientist in aerodynamics[12] |
Due to the presence of the Starpod, the Terrans lack astrological technologies taken for granted in Earth due to both their disinterest and their disabilities in exploring outer space. As a consequence, development of astronomy and aerodynamics in Terra is nearly non-existent. Because the Starpod deflects star light, observation of celestial bodies is very hard as they appear to be out of their orbits, hence being hard to track them.[13][14] The disarrayed star nights also forces the Iberian sailors to abandon celestial navigation but rely on alternative methods built by Aegir technologies such as lighthouses and ship signals.[15][16]
Attempts were made to explore the beyond of the Starpod, but many were doomed to fail. Notably, the Wright parents tried to fly high above it via high-altitude aircraft but eventually met their demise, through their sacrifice finally pinpointed the border of the Starpod.[17] The last try was a Leithanian weather balloon that later fell down by around 500m above sea level, and since then, the Terrans completely abandoned their interest to explore the Starpod.[18] The reason for such failures is because Arts devices will be unstable upon reaching high above the ground, and it require tremendous amount of energy that is out of the limit of Originium to literally pierce through the Starpod.
In Terran year 1099, Kristen Wright of Rhine Lab became the very first Terran who managed to overcame the Starpod as part of her extended interest in navigating beyond the world by blasting off the barrier. Since then, the hole left behind was given new opportunity to scientists to conduct research regarding the Terran sky.
Culture[]
Many of the Terran cultures are almost identical with Earth's, including Chinese elements in Yan such as celebrating Spring Festival and ancestral veneration, British influence in Victoria as in their literatures and social manners, and Columbian pop culture that is identical to the American one. There also exists similar religious faiths like those being parallel with Shintoism and Buddhism, or similar religious or universal festival like Christmas and the Sauin as the Halloween.
In present days, the Victorian culture is the most prominent one that are widely accepted and practiced by the Terrans, but a long time ago, it was dominated by the Gaulish one prior to its annihilation. Other cultures remain influential as well such as Yanese poetry and idioms, Ursus's militarism, and Higashi's comic and samurai traditions, though some are starting to lose its position due to political stability as in the case of the Iberian ones.
Terra uses a dating system that is exactly identical to the Gregorian calendar aside from a different year count; the Main Theme is set during Terran Year 1096 ~ 1098.
References[]
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