The one and only planet outside Earth’s Solar System that was colonised before the Apocalypse. It may be for this reason that Phaethon remains as having one of the only Pre-Apocalyptic cultures in the universe. Discovered in 2039 A.D., Phaethon would become the target of Mankind’s first ever manned mission to the stars.
The Starship Helios was constructed and launched towards Alpha Centauri in 2096. It arrived at Phaethon on December 25th, 2136 - eighteen years after Nuclear Holocaust destroyed civilisation on Earth.
Stranded on their new home without hope of further settlement or supplies, the crew of the Helios soon descended into barbarism and remained that way for over a thousand years before, in 3211 A.D., the Starship Cygnus arrived from a rebuilt society on Earth and brought the first ever true civilisation to Phaethon.
The Toliman Empire was soon founded and ruled the System for many generations. But this new, advanced civilisation would last less than seven hundred years, for, in 3895 A.D., disaster struck again when Phaethon was struck by the worst plague ever to affect human beings. Billions of people perished within a matter of months and less than one out of a hundred survived. The Terran government of Earth had little choice but to quarantine the planet, and for 1,500 years, the planet remained trapped in a society resembling Earth’s own Medieval Period.
Civilisation on Phaethon has since been rebuilt, and as of 5930 A.D. the planet exists as a rather simple world with a moderate sized population and Oil Age level technology. With much greater area of arable land on its surface, Phaethon serves as an important breadbasket for Earth whose own population is staggeringly higher. Nevertheless, the Phaethians remain adamantly independent, holding on to their unique culture and commitment to individual freedom.
Politically, Phaethon is controlled by a unified global government: the Phaethian Union. A democratic, parliamentary federation of dominions. Meanwhile, the rest of the Alpha Centauri System is controlled mostly by large, space-based megacorporations with a moderate amount of regulation from the Phaethian government.
Climatically, Phaethon is a more temperate world than Earth with massive ice caps at its poles (comparable in size to Earth’s ice caps during its last Ice Age) down through lands of forests, steppes, grasslands and farmlands, and a mediterranean climate at its equator.
Go to: The History of Phaethon
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