Worldbuilding Blogfest: Geography of Niesse

Geography and Climate of Niesse

Niesse is a world in the Terran Empire, from a WIP with the working title 'Shepherd'.

The planet Niesse is located on the Wieman Expanse, a relatively new slipstream trail with a start-point at the Star Colony Olmayo. Niesse is in the third stage of terraforming and is under control of Grovanli Iterations, an ellessee new to the enterprise of terraforming.

The view on the planet Niesse, regardless of where one chooses to land, is bleak, as is common in a terraformed world at this stage. It looks like a bleak endless sand desert--- rocky in some spots--- with no visible living things.
The presence of human technology is most easily seen in the presence of man-made towers--- the larger ones, called Regulators, regulate the atmosphere and cause the scheduled rains, and the smaller ones, called Shooters, which shoot out spores of multiple varieties of the malarit plant, a genetically engineered terraforming plant used mainly to build up a soil, and also, in time, to provide feed for the earliest life forms to be released on the world.

The sand-like material on the ground has the technical name of 'dust'--- meaning that it lacks the organic material that it would need to qualify for the term 'soil'. As the terraforming process goes on, generations of malarit plants go through their life cycles and die, and contribute that needed organic material. The seed colonists of Niesse--- along with the small number of animals they tend--- also make their contribution to the organic material needs through their excretions.

There are two human settlements on Niesse that qualify for the term 'cities', at least in a relative way. They are Amandus and Bennet, and both are headquarters for bands of terraformers and tower monkeys (the men who set up and maintain the Regulators and Shooters). In addition there are the fixed towns, such as Herford, the one nearest to the home of our main characters, and Bjarka, which is the home of the planet's only educational institute, the seminary in which priests of the various religions are trained. It is also the seat of the planet's Christian bishop.

Most of the seed colonists do not live in fixed towns, but in wandering villages located near a fixed town. The wandering village Horn is home to the main characters of the story. It is near the fixed town of Herford, as is the wandering village of Senda, which also plays a part in the story.

Because the oceans of the planet Niesse have not been fully installed, much less stocked with an ecosystem, all of the cities, villages and towns now in existance are on hilly or mountainous ground. This is to prevent the annoyance of settling valuable seed colonists someplace that will end up under water, drowning them and causing the expense of replacing them.

The seed colonists were all obtained from an old human colony on one of the Five Worlds, a lush agricultural community. They all agreed to be sent to a new world in order to obtain land. But when they arrived from their green and growing world to the harsh reality of Niesse, it was a shock. Depression, misery and apathy were common reactions. But as time goes on some of the seed colonists are recovering their ambition, and are determined to make something of their new world, if they are allowed to.

This was Part 1 of Sharon Bayliss' Worldbuilding Blogfest. In Part 2, which covers the topic 'history', we will learn the history of the seed colonists of Niesse, and a little about the aliens who formerly owned them.

Part of the fun of blogfests is visiting other blogs. Here are two that I have visited and enjoyed so far.

Writing the Other: Worldbuilding Blogfest: Geography and Climate By S. B. Stewart-Laing from Glasgow, Scotland, who writes historic fantasy.  

Rebekah Loper, Writer: Worldbuilding Blogfest Day 1: The World of Catalyst  By Rebekah Loper, a self-described 'cat wrangler and urban farmer', possibly from Oklahoma, and has a husband who re-draws her maps.