Euskana

Overview
Euskana is the seat of power for The IAE and all of its holdings. It is located at roughly the center of IAE territory though the empire expands unevenly so it is only an estimation. Though The IAE is incredibly diverse through interaction and annexation of many species, the homeworld of the Euskanians is no less significant.

Planetary Data
Euskana is an extremely temperate planet bordering on warmer than average. The planet has only a slight tilt creating mild winters and relatively even seasons. The planet orbits the star, Skiora, meaning "light mother" or "day mother" in Old Sukarish. The planet used to be orbited by a small moon, Mora ("dark mother" or "night mother", before the Great Cataclysm.



Continents
Euskana is composed of nine (or nominally ten) continents. They are separated by two major and a number of smaller oceans. There are two trios of continents grouped together, the Triad in the west and Svidia in the east.

Landak
Landak is a continent located in the Western hemisphere and a part of the Triad. Though the planet is unified, Landak is considered the seat of power and administration above all others. It is the location of the Central Sigma, Senate Island, ECAD, and the High Council chambers. Though the nations of Landak were insignificant for most of Euskana's pre-IAE history, the continent quickly grew in power in the centuries leading up to The Great Cataclysm. After the Age of Isolation, the Landaki people would lead the international movement for unification of Euskana. Since then, Landak has been a breeding ground for some of the most famous administrators and activists in The IAE. The continent itself is mostly temperate with four distinct seasons though there are colder regions in the north. The equator runs through small pieces of southernmost regions resulting in very warm climates. The plant life is mostly coniferous with mixes of flowering plant life and trees with broader leaves. Most of the indigenous grasses are short with some budding varieties. The fauna of Landak are mostly small in size. Many species have fur or hide coats or resort to burrowing into the ground to survive during the winter months. The terrain itself is most flat with rolling hills in some areas. There are some low elevations in the northern regions due to ancient glacier activity.

Mikra
The second continent of the Triad is Mikra. The Mikran people have always been somewhat of an enigma to the rest of Euskana. Their shamanistic culture has mostly resisted the spread of Sukarism even to this day. Their ability to live alongside nature was long considered strange and inefficient to other people throughout history. Thankfully though, that view quickly changed when environmental policy became more and more prominent. The Mikrans were one of the first to join the Landaki after the Great Cataclysm and their forward thinking ways have elevated them to respected position in science, colonization, and urban planning. Mikran constituents were the ones most credited with initiating Euskana's ecological revitalization during the middle period of The IAE. Mikra is considered one of Euskana's largest ecological gems. Its jungles and groves narrowly avoided destruction during the Great Cataclysm. The rest of the planet has long marveled at the continent's towering trees of navy and gold bark, waterborne plants on the interior seas, and organisms similar to both plant and animal.

Fisidi
Fisidi is a continent located in the Western hemisphere and the last continent of the Triad. Fisidites have historically maintained a hard-line warrior culture. The brutal mountain terrain of Fisidi has forced them to adapt their way of living. Though many great and ancient cities dot the land, Fisidite culture has long been tribal and factional in nature. Even today, many of the great tribal houses still affect local customs and politics. The continent is notably one of the least ethnically diverse. At no point in history has any colonial power managed to make a foothold on Fisidi (not for very long at least). The martial culture, though fostering a measure of xenophobia, has produced some of the strongest and most disciplined soldiers in Euskanian history. Having Fisidite heritage is a bragging right for many modern soldiers. Fisidi's terrain is extremely rocky but well-watered. Spring and rivers flow from many of the crags and large outcroppings across the continent. This has enabled the Fisidites to practice subsistence farming through much of their early eras. Two seas are visible from orbit and host some of the larger population centers not located on the coasts. Fisidi also features a number of underground lakes and numerous long-lived cities built both above and below the surface of the planet.

The Lakadas
Though some still debate the Lakadas status as a continent, they have undoubtedly played a big role in the planet's history. The collection of hundreds of large and small islands has been a turbulent region for thousands of years. They have been and still are a hotbed for radical ideas, anarchism, and protest. The Lakadans's tendency towards unrest and revolutionary ideologies resulted in much discrimination against them in the later eras of prespace history. In modern times, The Lakadas are still some of the poorest regions per capita on Euskana. The many monarchs and councils dotting the sea were some of the last to agree to inclusion into the ICE (and later The IAE). Diplomats at the time remarked that they had more trouble convincing the Lakadans than they did the Fisidites. The islands are exclusively tropical and average some of the warmest and most humid climates outside Sukarid. The Lakadan sea contains hundreds of islands though only 15 or so are considered large or important enough to be marked on most basic maps. Though the climates and geography of most islands are the same, the cultures found within have been deemed some of the most diverse and resistant to cultural diffusion. The Lakadans were barely affected by the Great Cataclysm given how little land was vulnerable to strikes by moon shards. The Lakadans unified for the first time in history as the Northern Lakadan Kingdom and managed to expand to parts of Southern Landak and parts of Mikra before the kingdom was broken apart by the Landaki Union.

Seretti
Seretti is a continent located in the far Eastern hemisphere and the first continent in the continental group known as Svidia. The land is rich in history and archaeological discoveries and was the location of Euskana's oldest civilizations. Though Seretii had a head start on the rest of the planet and was the dominant colonial and political power for a time it fell into disarray for a large part of Euskana's prespace history. Seretti would manage to catch up to most of the world by the time of the Great Cataclysm and shortly thereafter. Seretti is the traditionally agreed upon birthplace of the Euskanian race. The very long continent sees the widest variety of climates from colder spots in the north, to temperate regions in the middle and higher elevations of the interior, to savannas in the south around the equator. Early Euskanians are believed to have originated around the idyllic center of the upper continent before spreading out and migrating to warmer climates in the South, the southern reaches of Oremar, and the islands of the Svidion Strait between Seretti, Oremar, and Sukarid.

Oremar
Oremar is a continent located in the Eastern hemisphere and the smallest continent of Svidia. Historically, Oremar has been the seat of numerous great empires and colonial powers. Though continually rebuffed by the powers of Sukarid, Remari people and culture have managed to spread out to Seretti, Effrid, and isolated parts of northern Sukarid. A popular quote, "The Fisidi are warriors but the Remari are conquerors," made by one of their emperors encapsulates the Remari's longstanding opinion of their own culture. The continent is generally cold though its southern and eastern reaches are warmer and feature some of its main population centers. As a result of its high elevation, Oremar's coasts feature breathtaking fjords and coastal stacks hewn from millenia of waves and storms. During the winter, the far northern coast features ice floes and hail storms that disrupt oceanic travel of the normally navigable strait. The interior is a mix between open moors and dense alpine forests and more tundralike terrain in the far north.

Sukarid
Sukarid is the largest religious and cultural center of The IAE and the last continent of Svidia. It is the birthplace of the IAE's most populous religion, Sukarism (after which the continent is named rather than the other way around). The continent is notable for being almost completely unified for large pieces of its history and before any other continent. This is no doubt due to the unifying power that Sukarism has exerted over much of the world. The entity known as the Sukar Theocracy (and other names throughout history) was the longest standing civilization in all of prespace history. Though not always the most powerful compared to its neighbors, the Sukarish have managed keep their borders secure almost as well as the Fisidites. The continent is very arid over much of its surface. It shares savanna environments with Seretti on its eastern areas. The other coasts usually feature grasslands mixed with small but fertile deltas and shoals at the water's edge. The central regions are very dry desert punctuated by abrupt plateaus and limestone outcroppings. The presence of oil would eventually enable the Theocracy to revitalize its strength in the later eras of prespace history.

Svidion Strait
The Svidion Strait, the area of water separating the three continents of Svidia, has been the center of some of the largest and most significant conflicts in Euskanian history.

The Eye of Heaven
The small body of water located in northeastern Sukarid. Despite the continent's sandy and arid climate, the lake is fresh water. The lake has enabled the growth and survival of the many iterations of theocracies thriving around northern Sukarid. The Eye is said to be where the Sukar Siblings first communed with the light of the stars and founded the most basic form of Sukarism.

Ariatho Ocean
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