Work In Progress Sidesa

[Saro Nakaioma]

• Intent:
  • Location for worldbuilding and new planet to roleplay on.​
• Image Credit:
  • Artist Credit: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] | Banners by Me​
• Canon:
  • Not Applicable​
• Permissions:
  • Not Applicable​
• Links:
  • Not Applicable​

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• Planet Name:
  • Sidesa [Sigh-desa]​
• Demonyms:
  • Sidesan [Sigh-des-in]​
• Region:
  • TO BE DECIDED​
• System Name:
  • Gerod​
• System Features:
  • Progens:
    • The innermost planet of the Gerod system, Progens is a desolate volcanic rock, notable only for the impressive size of its largest supervolcanoes, many of which can stretch for hundreds of miles in diameter. Initially probed for resource deposits, the planet's temperature was high enough that even sophisticated probes did not remain functional for more than a few hours as it retains a simple enough atmosphere to contain much of the heat its surface produces. Progens' surface is heavily cratered, many of which have become massive lava lakes and it has a single barren moon called Hjo.​
  • Kerzers:
    • Named after a now long-defunct brand of snacks that had been a favorite of the survey vessel's captain. Kerzers is a conventional hothouse planet entirely incapable of being terraformed or sustaining any economically viable protected habitats. Boasting a majority hydrogen atmosphere, it was once believed that forms of life may have existed either on the planet surface or in its continent-sized hydrogen clouds. Further research showed that a mass extinction event had killed any prior complex life, anything remaining would be simple and unlikely to evolve anytime soon.​
  • Sorvagur Asteroid Belt:
    • Home to the standard collection of asteroid mining sites and corporate space stations, Sorvagur's most widely known feature is its peculiar permanent residents. Referring to themselves as Gerod's only sovereign individuals, these vehemently anti-government pariahs have made a community for themselves in many of Sorvagur's larger, already mined rock formations. Living in entirely self-sustaining habitats usually but not always built into the asteroid itself, these technically illegal settlements have more often than not been the cause for clashes with the Sidesan government as the planet-based entity continues to try and exert control over the belt.​
  • Marsan:
    • The opposite number to both the moon of Laxa as well as the far off world of Vanbella, Marsan is commonly described as a desert planet, containing not much other than vast rolling dunes and oceans of sand. It does hold some primitive forms of plant life which have adapted to survive on impressively low levels of water intake, for the most part however its inhabitants are human. Housing a population of several million people yet not rising over ten million in total, Marsan is a sparsely populated colony of Sidesa and was founded to exploit its abundant mineral wealth. The Larrau Copper Mine is the largest in the system.​
      
      
      
  • Sumvitg:
    • Terrestrial and on paper capable of supporting some manor of terraforming operations, Sumvitg was momentarily considered for colonization. However its perpetual planetary storms, structure-destroying winds and rogue tsunamis in the hundreds of meters tall dissuaded any potential investors. Several research stations exist on the planet and in its orbit currently, as recently uncovered ruins and further evidence begins to imply that not only was civilization at one point present on Sumvitg, but that a weather manipulating device may have caused the planet's extremely violent and unstable weather more than ten thousand years ago. ​
  • Sidesa:
    • Populated by several billion humans, Sidesa is the system capital and its only true noteworthy location. Temperate with an alpine environment, it was highly suitable for permanent human habitation prior to colonization and subsequently required no terraforming. Settled more than three thousand years ago during the Old Republic, it remained almost entirely unknown to the greater galaxy for much of its early history due to a breakdown in communications following the eruption of the Mt. Lorent supervolcano. Short, warm summers and long, cold winters characterize Sidesa's annual climate, while oceans cover 65% of its surface.​
  • Tibro:
    • One of Sidesa's two moons, Tibro is the less interesting of the twins. Barren and without an atmosphere, it has no native life or the capacity to sustain terraforming. During the first decades of Sidesa's re-entry into space, Tibro was the site of several primitive habitats which have since become historical landmarks and tourist traps, whereas in its many vast craters, large automated industrial sites mine the moon's sizable titanium deposits. Small underground settlements exist on Tibro to facilitate the maintenance and security of these mining locations, though only have populations in the hundreds to low thousands. It is home to the SFNR Auxiliary Fleet.​
  • Laxa:
    • Sidesa's other moon, Laxa has been a source of interest, scientific theory and awe for the planet below since the Colonial Pause era. Oceanic, an all encompassing body of water covers the entirety of its surface and its weather is relatively amicable to human habitation although a weak ozone layer does make going outside unprotected not preferred unless one is looking to foster a case of skin cancer. Underwater hotel resorts and mansions are common on Laxa, frequently used by Sidesa's wealthier inhabitants to get away from the commoners below. They have also been notoriously private about their affairs. ​
  • Reclere:
    • Undergoing terraforming, Reclere was highlighted by Sidesa's initial settlers for future terraforming and colonization prior to the eruption of Mount Lorent. Today that now revived mission still continues. Formerly barren of life with a featureless, rocky landscape, the presence of a primitive atmosphere did enable a conglomerate of several private corporations to petition the Sidesan Colonial Authority for 'planetary modification' rights to Reclere, which they received. Nearing completion now after more than seventy years, Reclere boasts two large oceans and several continents inhabited by imported plant-life and is expected to be settled within the next few years.​
  • Hattarvik Asteroid Belt:
    • The system's unofficial rest stop, littered with asteroid-based refuelling and maintenance stations as well as a number of hotels and restaurants to provide for the high volume of traffic passing through or near the belt on their way to Giswil or vice versa, Hattarvik has a surprisingly competitive hospitality and services industry. Accompanied by the regular assortment of asteroid mines, Hattarvik is also where several large corporations base their deep space operations from. Namely for the terraforming of Reclere, which is closer to the belt than it is to Sidesa and the resupply of gas extraction sites in the Giswil space station corridor.​
      
      
      
  • Giswil:
    • Gerod's resident gas giant has long been a staple of the system's layout, memorized by any schoolchild on Sidesa in their astronomy class. By far the largest planetary body in the system, it is the site of a number of gas extraction operations in the upper layers of its atmosphere and was infamously the site of the Helium Wars decades ago in which a number of gas corporations begun sabotaging and sometimes outright attacking one another's space stations via the use of hired pirates and mercenaries. A Sidesan Federal Naval Reserve flotilla now patrols Giswil's space station corridor to prevent such a conflict from sparking again.​
  • Vanbella:
    • A frozen wasteland that's landscape consists solely of glaciers and permanently iced-over oceans. Gerod's furthermost planet has little to note about its natural features other than that its temperatures regularly plummet to below zero and that it is permanently night, although oxygen does exist in its atmosphere in plentiful enough quantities that no equipment is needed for humans to remain outside. Mostly used for water extraction to supplement passing ships, several large regions of Vanbella are restricted to the public, used by the Sidesan military for classified purposes. It has a single barren moon called Edbruk.​
  • Drolsum:
    • Less popular among corporate expeditions than Giswil due to its increased distance from Sidesa, Drolsum is a vivid azure gas giant on the outer rim of the Gerod system. Featuring an atmosphere that is dominated by methane, it has an incredibly striking appearance aesthetically and in recent years has become a popular spot for adventure seekers and deep space cruises. Much more pleasant to look at than the pale Giswil, colorful storms in its atmosphere provide a wonderful light show to viewers and it is often listed as one of the prettiest natural sites in the system. It has thirty seven moons, most of which are unremarkable.​
  • Sanctuaire/Kamenz:
    • Barren, with a featureless rocky red surface. Kamenz was renamed Sanctuaire by a group of Cambraique religious fundamentalists twenty years ago who had been looking to partially terraform and colonize the planet, intending to secede from Sidesa and live independently. Somewhat successful initially, it was two years into the forming of the first settlement that all communications had ceased and a corvette from the Naval Reserve was dispatched to investigate before finding the colony entirely abandoned. All structures were intact and no signs of violence or even an evacuation were present. Sanctuaire has since been off-limits to civilian travellers.​
  • Camber:
    • Baring some similarities to Sidesa's alpine environment physically, Camber is far from the habitable garden world of the latter. With practically no oxygen in its limited atmosphere and temperatures low enough to kill an unprotected human in under a minute, the planet's natural beauty and aesthetic familiarity to those from Sidesa brings with it a danger of visitors underestimating just how dangerous the world actually is. The Sidesan Navy's Early Warning System is coordinated from a subterranean facility on Camber and elsewhere the planet is known to be a meeting ground for pirates, criminals and other sorts of lowlifes due to a lack of policing.​
• Location:
  • TO BE DECIDED​
• Major Imports:
  • Agricultural Products​
  • Energy Materials​
  • Vehicles & Starships​
  • Capital Goods​
• Major Exports:
  • Financial Services​
  • Pharmaceuticals​
  • Defense Products​
  • Consumer Goods​
• Unexploited Resources:
  

  • Chromite​
  • Feldspar​
  • Helixell​
  • Varmigio​

  ​

• Gravity:
  • 0.94G​
• Climate:
  • Largely temperate; the climate of Sidesa remains for the most part homogenous throughout the planet, with the exception of its northern and southern poles, which maintain polar and tundra climates, in comparison to the majority warm summer subtype of the humid continental climate. Most of Sidesa is categorized by long, harsh winters which can go below −3 °C (27 °F) during the coldest days, and warm but shorter summers which at their highest temperatures tend to stay around the 22 °C (72 °F) mark and boast a decent amount of humidity more often than not. Heat waves would be considered rare on Sidesa and when they do occur they usually don't last longer than a week. Precipitation is moderate and spread evenly throughout the year, but can most regularly be found in the north of the planet during the autumn months.​
• Primary Terrain:
  • Known for its particularly fragile yet diverse ecosystem, populated by a wide variety of delicate and often rare flora, Sidesa is typically recognized by outsiders for its vast mountain ranges which effectively cut the planet into two halves, spread across the landmasses of the world's two separate continents at similar longitudes and stretching for as far as the eye can see. Most of Sidesa however is home to vast stretches of temperate broadleaf trees and montane forests, heavily influenced by the planet's unique alpine climate and high elevation above sea level when compared to many other inhabited worlds. In these forests great oak, birch, beeches and maple trees can be found which are often separated by more open patches of grass or scrubland, rivers and lakes. Most if not all flora and fauna on Sidesa have adapted to limited oxygen intake.​
• Atmosphere:
  • Type I​

The skyline of the Aurora Point district. Sierre Metropolitan Capital Region.​

• Capital City:
  • Sierre​
• Planetary Atlas:
  • Arendal (Continent)
    • Tidewater Republic:
      • Sierre​
    • Kingdom of Olserud:
      • Froseke City​
    • Kingdom of Fensmark:
      • Eketor​
    • Federal Republic of Osthem:
      • Port Grostol​
    • Republic of West Hill:
      • Berico City​
    • Republic of Selkirk:
      • Meriden​
    • Federation of Ummel:
      • Froseke City​
    • Republic of Greiz:
      • Korbach​
    • Federated States of Triptis:
      • Frielwald​
    • Exmore Federation:
      • Liberty​
  • Bodies of Water
    • Kaskade Ocean​
    • Valisian Straits​
    • Gromitz Sea​
    • Helmaric Ocean​
    • Sea of Boyran​
  • Sondro (Continent)
    • Holmegaard Confederation:
      • New Samkom​
    • Sain Marin Republic:
      • Liestel Bay​
    • Manosque State:
      • Landec​
    • Second Republic of Barjac:
      • Chauray​
    • Pierreux Kingdom:
      • Bremgarjen​
    • Commonwealth of Cambrai:
      • Arlanc​
    • Principality of Brielle:
      • Obterre​
    • Republic of Caudan:
      • Ligueil​
    • Vialas Republic:
      • Benoit​
    • Union of Teillay and Meral:
      • Chanaleilles​
• Major Locations/Features:
  • Sierre:
    • Capital of Sidesa and home to its political, economic and military power. Sierre is the largest metropolis on Sidesia both by population as well as physical presence and is home to tens of millions of residents. Site of one of the first human colony ships to arrive on Sidesa thousands of years ago, the city is named after said vessel, and has steadily been constructed around that original landing zone. Given an abundance of nearby space and a (comparatively) small population, Sierre has only ever expanded outward and vertically, lacking any form of underground urban sprawl unlike other major cities in the galaxy. Clean, well-policed and boasting an above-average variety of impressive public utilities, Sierre does suffer from a high cost of living in addition to already exorbitant property prices.​
  • Northern Territories:
    • Wild and untamed even after millennia of human presence on the planet, the Northern Territories refer to Sidesa's vast plains of barely habitable tundra, ragged but beautiful coastal fjords and colossal glacier formations, all of which are centered around its north pole. While inhabited by tightly knit communities, many of which can trace their lineages back to the very first humans to have ever set foot in those lands, as well as workers for the few industrial sites and research outposts that exist there, the Northern Territories are for the most part hostile to any form of flourishing life simply due to their extreme climate conditions. Though this could be changed with terraforming technology, environmental protection laws have prevented any such actions from occurring.​
  • Liestel Bay:
    • The closest equivalent post-industrial Sidesa has to a manufacturing hub, Liestel Bay is where the planet's imported capital goods go to be assembled into high-end consumer goods which can then be exported to the rest of the galaxy. Strict environmental regulations resulting in innovated production technology refined by the city's inhabitants for generations has ended up in Liestel Bay appearing as far from the conventional image of an industrial city as possible. Lacking the tell-tale signs of smog and other forms of pollution, the city is surprisingly liveable, and is the spiritual home of Sidesa's working class. Populated with primarily low-rise factories, refineries and delivery centers, barring the odd high-rise office building, the city is a bustling hub of activity, and is where most trade on the continent of Sondro comes through.​
      
  • Valisian Islands:
    • Dotting the Kaskade Ocean, the Valisian Islands are a chain of large mountainous islands formed by substantial asteroid impacts from several thousand years ago and comparatively speaking "just" prior to human colonization of the planet. Once a small continent, much of the landmass had been taken to the bottom of the ocean by tectonic movements in the planet's earliest years, with the exception of its mountain ranges, which remained above water and whole until the arrival of the asteroids, leaving craters visible from space in these mountainous islands. Triggering volcanic activity when it occurred, many of these islands have active or dormant volcanoes, and are popular among Sidesans as a holiday destination due to their volcanic black sand beaches and almost tropical climates.​
  • Sidesa Orbital Interstellar Starport:
    • Given the acronym SDX by flight controllers, it is the primary port of call, entry and exit of Sidesa, as the name would entail, it is located in the planet's orbit due to the government's relatively strict oversight on incoming and outgoing interstellar commerce and migration. A complex array of interconnected space stations and constantly manoeuvring starships, from the biggest freighters to the smallest shuttles, SDX is all too easy to get lost in, and given the vast number of ships present at any one time, most transportation is conducted via automated systems, with powerful tractor beams ferrying ships to their designated docking bays. Primarily civilian, SDX also serves several military functions, namely acting as a relay conduit for coordination of Sidesa's orbital defense network. ​
  • Nysted Mountains:
    • Both equatorial mountain ranges on Arendal and Sondro don the name Nysted despite being physically separated by the Kaskade and Helmaric Oceans, this being due to the fact that they once were connected prior to the tectonic shifts of the planet's main continents and the creation of new oceans as a result. They are differentiated often via putting the continent's name before Nysted, ala Arendal Nysteds or Sondro Nysteds and from there given their sheer expanse, which side of the continent they are on, so a full name would be Eastern Sondro Nysteds. Given the already elevated nature of the continents, the tallest mountains require oxygen equipment in-order for humans to safely traverse them. Their lower halves are often forested and fields of exotic alpine flowers are not uncommon.​
      
      
      
  • New Samkom:
    • Sidesa's university city, New Samkom is home to several of the planet's most prestigious educational institutions and is renowned for producing many of its scientific and artistic heroes. Named after the failed colony of Samkom, the city despite its prefix is actually one of Sidesa's oldest settlements and is known for its incredibly old architecture and street layout, aesthetically appearing as some form of strange but interesting combination between a new colonial project on the frontier and a traditional, centuries old settlement on a Core World. There are districts in the city which maintain majority student populations and as such it is not rare for the local police to have their hands full at night.​
  • Aurora Point:
    • Located in the capital of Sierre, Aurora Point is a waterfront district in which the city's corporate center is held. Home to the planetary and in many instances regional headquarters for major interstellar businesses such as Jaeger Solutions, the InterGalactic Banking Clan, Nakaioma, Roble Manufacturing or the Trade Federation, it is a prime financial hub and often dubbed the Scipio of the Galactic South. Towering skyscrapers of glasteel overlook bustling commercial spaces and neon advertising signs, intertwined with fast, safe and efficient public transportation, shuttling office workers and stock brokers to their next meeting while the skies above are crowded with luxurious speeders and reputable taxi cabs responsible for taking ridiculously wealthy executives to their board rooms.​
  • Port of Sierre:
    • Along the capital city's coastline and not far from the Aurora Point district, the Port of Sierre is alongside the Port of Grostol and Liestal Bay Starport one of Sidesa's largest groundside starports. It is here that authorized passenger, commerce and military starships arrive in Sierre from the Sidesa Orbital Interstellar Starport. It is a vast compound of interconnected terminals, warehouses and hangar bays, interspersed with massively open areas of tarmac where incoming starships are guided in via the use of sophisticated tractor beams and outgoing starships take off manually. Connected to Sierre's public transit system, from one of the port's dozens of departure terminals travellers can go to anywhere in the Sierre Metro Capital Region easily. It is regularly crowded and is undergoing further expansions.​
  • Nysted Valleys:
    • Contrary to a popular misconception, the Nysted Mountains do not exist as a completely impassable barrier that divides each continent into two halves. Instead they are rife with dozens of long, steep valleys which have all served as the basis of vital commerce and travel routes since the earliest days of human civilization on Sidesa. Populated by hundreds of small alpine villages and farming settlements, many of which are built on the slopes of the mountains themselves (typically by self-sustaining Trerian communities who are known to live in their traditional Baurenhaus in these conditions) it is often said that each valley has its own subculture and regional identity, valuing their relative independence and self-reliance from the planet's urban dwellers, this doesn't prevent them from accepting their tourist credit flow however.​
  • Gidinne Hydroelectric Plant:
    • The largest of its kind on Sidesa, the Gidinne Hydroelectric Plant is a vast gravity dam constructed along the Marizell River flowing to the Gromitz Sea. Built several centuries ago it has since been expanded upon its original design dozens of times to cope with increasing demand from the surrounding area which includes the metropolitan areas of Frielwald and Korbach. Comprised of 900 water turbines from its initial 10 at the time of construction, it supplies power to around 850 million people. Concerns have been raised over the impact of the facility on local ecosystems, while its expansions have been controversial as hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to relocate as a result. It is currently managed jointly between AMG Energy Solutions and the government's Energy Management Administration.​
      
      
      
  • Sidesan Planetary Defense Command:
    • Built into the base of the Central Arendal Nysteds, the SPDC (commonly referred to as the 'Bulwark') is a massive subterranean military command facility responsible for monitoring all atmospheric, orbital and system-wide traffic. Designed to withstand a direct hit from a variety of WMD-style weaponry, it is built several miles beneath its home mountain range and as it is connected to a vast antenna farm nearby, capable of communicating with anything in the star system and any other facility on Sidesa. A labyrinth of interconnecting complexes, meeting rooms, communications relays, barracks, utilities, war rooms and more, it is entirely self-sustaining in the event of an invasion and works in conjunction with naval controllers at SDX to coordinate the planet's orbital defense network.​
  • Cambrai:
    • Officially the Commonwealth of Cambrai, this is one of Sidesa's several dozen state-level subdivisions, one level beneath the federal government and is located on the north-eastern coast of Sondro. Vast majority Valisian, it is generally known as a problem child in Sidesan politics, with a tendency towards secessionism more than most other territories, including other Valisian ones. The last nation-state to accept unification with the rest of Sidesa, a regional variety of Valaian known as Cambraique Valaian is spoken in the Commonwealth, while its environment is mostly flat, formerly forested lands which were long ago cleared to make room for vast agricultural fields. Today it is known for its knowledge economy and the production of high-quality technological consumer and medical goods. It's capital city is Arlanc.​
  • Lake Leront:
    • Menacingly present near the Western Arendal Nysteds, Lake Leront, formerly known as Mount Leront is the now-dormant supervolcano singularly responsible for the Colonial Pause era of Sidesa's history. Erupting not long after the first settlers had arrived, it engulfed much of the planet in a decades long volcanic winter and led to the separation of the four colony ships, setting in motion their independent development and the eventual evolution of their own cultures and identities. Formed during the tectonic shift that separated the continents of Arendal and Sondro, Lake Leront exists over the planet's largest magma chamber, though the mountain it once occupied was entirely destroyed during its super-eruption, leaving what is now a deep lake in its place. Rather beautiful, it has become a popular site with tourists.​
  • Parliament Hill:
    • In the center of downtown Sierre, Parliament Hill is the political and administrative headquarters of Sidesa. Occupied by beautiful low-rise buildings designed and constructed during the time of old Sierran nation-states, Parliament Hill was the seat of that era's most powerful government and has since been the site of countless historical treaties and other events throughout the planet's past. Close to the SS Sierre's initial landing site, the district is also home to many museums dedicated to Sierran history. Through the center of the district runs the Lane of Heroes, a long-stretching open pedestrian path where pillars inscribed with the names of notable fallen soldiers, memorable achievers and civil servants can be found. At the northernmost point of the Lane of Heroes lies Federal Parliament Tower, a modern skyscraper.​
  • Vernon Quarter:
    • Rows of classic neo-colonial architecture line the streets of this mostly residential neighborhood. Located on the outskirts of Sierre, the Vernon Quarter is a highly affluent suburb of Sidesa's capital city which has found a secondary role as its prime real estate for embassies, consulates and other forms of diplomatic missions present on the planet. Strict construction regulations similar to those of Parliament Hill have ensured that the Quarter stays low-density and aesthetically pleasing much to its residents' pleasure while walls, gates and guards keep society's less privileged both out of sight and out of mind. Unnaturally clean air due to the presence of atmospheric scrubbers, galaxy-renowned schools, good neighbors and paramilitary guards have ensured the lowest home prices here remain in the tens of millions.​
  • Bremgarjen:
    • Joked about for its incredibly unlucky history, Bremgarjen is the capital of the Kingdom of Pierreux, another of Sidesa's state-level subdivisions which like the rest was once its own nation-state. Bordered by Cambrai and Caudan, two notorious rivals that centuries ago fought numerous wars, it has subsequently been the site of dozens of invasions, conquests and occupations since its founding. Home to the great Palace of Bremgarjen, the Pierreux monarchy's ceremonial residence, today it is one of Sidesa's most visited tourist destinations, loved for its uniquely romantic atmosphere, beautiful architecture and gondola rides down the city's many clean rivers. It's main exports are high-end jewellery, chocolate and other region-specific foodstuffs, some of which have become popular elsewhere in the galaxy.​
      
      
      
  • Froseke City:
    • In the frozen forested plains of the lands bordering the Northern Territories, Froseke City exists as a testament to the hardiness of the Avestan people. By all accounts this city should not exist and it especially should not be anywhere near as big as it is. One of Sidesa's megapolises, Froseke is home to the planet's defense industry, where the offices, R&D labs and factories of major galactic arms manufacturers are present to innovate and test their latest war machines. With temperatures plummeting to nigh uninhabitable levels in the winter, the city is covered by vast domes which serve to retain the heat produced by its millions of weather regulating devices. It isn't difficult to find members of the city's older generation who will mock the youth's inability to handle 'a little cold'.​
  • Dorhain River Metro Area:
    • Where Liestel Bay refined and mastered industrialization, the cities along the Dorhain River can still hold the accomplishment of effectively birthing Sidesa's industrial revolution. The heartland of Osthem, the largest and most powerful Trerian-inhabited former nation-state, the DRMA encompasses most of the land near the Gromitz Sea in the west of Arendal, while the metro area itself is actually comprised of a number of large cities which over time have grown to effectively blend into one, the largest of which being Port Grostol. Incredibly densely populated, if the DRMA were to unify into a single city it would be larger in both size and population than Sierre. Formerly Sidesa's heavy industry hub, it has over the centuries evolved to specialize in financial/high tech and insurance/multi media services.​
  • Belabre:
    • Split between three states in Sondro; Manosque, Barjac and Vialas, Belabre is the name given to a large region of plains located just south of the Central Sondro Nysteds. Known for its landscapes, artistic legacy, influence on high culture and wine vineyards, it has been and continues to be mostly rural with only one or two notable urban areas present. Due to having much warmer conditions than most of Sidesa, a result of the Boyran Sea current, Belabre is unique in that its climate is considered to be humid subtropical and it contains an array of flora and fauna not native to anywhere else on the planet. Given the desirable weather and pleasant environment, land in Belabre is typically very expensive and it is characterized usually as a place for relatively wealthy elderly people to retire.​

A traditional Trerian home, known as a Bauernhaus. Western Arendal Nysteds.​

• Native Species:
  • None Sapient​
• Immigrated Species:
  • Humans​
  • Correllian Hound​
  • Roba​
  • White-furred Bantha​
  • Keffi​
• Population:
  • Heavy (23.9 Billion)​
• Demographics:
  • Once separated by vast distances and isolated by all varieties of geographical features, the peoples of Sidesa have in the millennia since their modernization and unification begun to mix with one another to a great extent, creating a more socially harmonious structure to the planet's civilization than what has existed in the past. Like most planets, cultural divides within the overarching Sidesan identity primarily exist between urban and rural areas, with the planet's urban areas generally being more progressive and modern due to constant external exposure to the rest of the galaxy. Sidesa has a notably large population of resident foreigners, with legally residing non-citizen off-worlders accounting for almost 8% of the planet's population. An aging population has recently been cause for concern on Sidesa, with a life expectancy of around 98.2 years for human men and 102.5 for human women.
    
    Demographic trends do still exist between the four ethnicities, with Sierrans being the majority in Sierre and much of the eastern coast of the Arendal continent. Avestans dominate the north of Arendal while the Trerians can be found in the heartland, south and west of the continent, albeit more thinly spread out than the prior two. Valisians are unique in that they historically have occupied almost the entirety of the Sondro continent with the exception of its northeast corner, which was colonized by early Avestan imperialists centuries prior. Sidesa's minority non-human population can mostly be found in the cosmopolitan cities of Sierre and Hastveda. As of 860ABY two thirds of Sidesa's population live in urban centers with the other third living in the countryside. Out of the planet's four primary ethnicities Trerians are the most populous, followed by the Valisians, Avestans and Sierrans.​
• Primary Languages:
  • Galactic Basic​
  • Valaian​
  • Trerian​
  • Avestan​
• Culture:
  • Contrary to the belief of many foreigners, Sidesa is not a culturally homogenous planet even when one excludes its newer immigrants from the equation. Indeed, among its original human colonist population exist four primary ethnic groups which have long since evolved from the time of their ancestors initial landing on the planet over three thousand years ago, due to a variety of factors ranging from the vast geographical distance between each group of colonists to a general breakdown in inter-colony commerce and communication following the eruption of the supervolcano Mt. Lorent shortly after their arrival. It is important to note that the cultural composition of the first settlers was not homogenous to the Core Worlds' Galactic Basic either and as such modern Sidesan ethnicities may share similarities to other human groups elsewhere in the galaxy.
    
    In the modern era, the unified Sidesan identity has with some exceptions consolidated itself into a handful of stand-out traits. Innovation and entrepreneurism are widely proliferated through Sidesan society both as tightly held cultural value and a matter of reality in many instances to the successes of life on Sidesa. Taken from modern Avestan culture, humanitarianism and utilitarianism are idolized and presented to the youth as the correct moral compass for any well-to-do person and one would find it difficult to locate a Sidesan who was not supportive of their planet's generous welfare system. Communally minded overall, the individual remains a prized and integral piece of Sidesan culture, while also being inclined to remember their place in the wider whole and that only in a healthy society, backed by funded public infrastructure can they truly flourish.
    
    The foremost official language of Sidesa is Galactic Basic, taking priority above the others in most things from government documents to street signs and while some provocative Sierrans would claim this is due to their own influence over the world, in reality it is a practical measure having been intended to help the planet remain competitive in the galactic economy and to help in attracting foreign workers. A vast majority of Sidesans can speak Galactic Basic to some extent as their second language and it for the past few centuries it has been mandatory teaching in the planetary school system, though like most conveniences an off-world visitor would desire, this is always more prevalent in Sidesa's urban centers than it is in the countryside, which although certainly not removed from the outside world, is not as cosmopolitan as a large metropolis.
    
    Sidesa's alpine environment has played a strong role in shaping the shared elements of its planetary super-culture. Many mountainous or snow-based sports or activities such as skiing, hiking, mountain biking and hockey are popular on among Sidesans of all four groups. In lowland areas, particularly among rural populations, folk traditions are kept alive through mediums like art, music and woodcraft, though depending on the region these can all vary quite wildly from one another. Spring and summer festivals hosted in smaller towns and villages in the countryside are well-frequented by city-dwellers during the hotter months of the year, commonly being themed around agricultural history or folk hero accomplishments in early colonial exploration and wartime, the latter of which can cause controversy with non-locals depending on the war in question.​
  • Sierrans:
    • Descended from the crew and passengers of the SS Sierre, the Sierrans are by a large margin the closest of the four groups to Basic-speaking humans from the Core Worlds, such as the Coruscanti. They have retained their original language, with only minor changes while the majority of their difference comes from their unique Sidesan identity, which places an emphasis on self-reliance and Sidesan exceptionalism. They have often been compared to Corellians in that they share a sense of pragmatism and daring, willing to take big risks to seek big rewards, their stalwart rejection of any such comparison to anyone is often only used as further proof of these similarities. Responsible for the development of Sidesa's capital city Sierre, they generally recognize the metropolis and surrounding areas as their ancestral homeland, and while demographics have shifted to more evenly represent Sidesa's different cultures and off-worlders over the centuries, they still maintain a majority in these regions.
      
      It would not be inaccurate to state that Sierrans have maintained not only the closest cultural resemblance to Sidesa's original settlers but also have retained a close connection to the physical heritage brought by those colonists thousands of years ago. Sierran museums and archives are renowned for the level of detail they keep about the initial colonization of Sidesa as well as the SS Sierre and its crew. In-fact the time period from which the Sierre arrived on Sidesa has been so thoroughly documented by Sierran historians that individuals and companies from elsewhere in the galaxy have retrieved information on what life was like three thousand years ago from their archives. Free spirited and frontiersmanlike in their earliest days, the rapid urbanization of Sierre and much of their homeland has led to Sierrans adopting a more cosmopolitan lifestyle in past centuries. Although their individualist strive for success and a 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' mentality has remained, even if it often clashes with the reality of city life.
      
      Examples of Sierran Names: [ Typical Galactic Basic Names ] ​
  • Trerians:
    • Industrial and punctual. Trerians receive the brunt of both Sidesa's positive and negative stereotypes, the truth beyond them of course always being more complicated than one would care to hear. Descendants of the SS Treria, these settlers were hit the hardest by the eruption of Mt. Lorent and subsequently suffered a near total collapse of their societal order in their early days. Losing much of their technology and equipment, for a large part of their history they were seen by the others as being backwards and primitive, preferring to live in the forest than civilization. In spite of that, it was the Trerians, through their notable work ethic and reformed social cohesion who took the most advantage of Sidesa re-establishing contact with the greater galaxy. Turning their nation-states into economic powerhouses virtually overnight, it didn't take long after that for the view of their supposed inferiority to dissipate. They would go on to take a leading role in the unification of Sidesa.
      
      Stemming from their less technologically or culturally 'sophisticated' heritage, bread continues to be a major part of Trerian cuisine. Today Trerian bakeries produce more than eight hundred different kinds of breads and almost two thousand forms of pastries, rolls and other bread-based snacks. Likewise the Trerian diet is known for its heavy reliance on pork back bacon sausages sprinkled with minced veal and above all else beer. Genetically Trerians can generally be considered light-skinned with brown hair, though the northernmost Trerian regions have higher percentages of blondes, their eyes are typically green and their height is relatively average by galactic human standards. Sports like football and water hockey are popular in most Trerian provinces. During Sidesa's industrial revolution many Trerian composers became famous across Arendal as well as Sondro for their works on a wide variety of operas including Night Along the Marizell and A Field in Belabre.
      
      Examples of Trerian Names: [ Lukas Schull | Eva Fischt | Eliot Benz | Leah Kross ]​
  • Avestans:
    • Once referred to derogatively as 'snow people' Avestans have perhaps had the most cultural whiplash of the four groups. Originating from the SS Avesta, these northern dwellers were forced to become militarily aggressive to their neighbors due to the harsh nature of their new homeland. The instigators of dozens of wars in Sidesa's now ancient past, upon Sidesa's reintegration into the galaxy and its admittance into the Galactic Republic, they adapted incredibly quickly to a new pacifist way of life which has stayed with them since. Inhabiting Sidesa's northernmost land, they have an easily identifiable culture, heavily inspired by their environment from their food to their homes and their fashion. Known for their humanitarian, and utilitarian worldviews, they pioneered unified Sidesa's social welfare programs, while their regional healthcare and education systems regularly rank among the planet's highest year after year.
      
      Entering their cultural morph, Avesta quickly became known for the high quality of authors and written media that they produced. Many times based off of much older Trerian operas, famous Avestan authors breathed new life into seemingly whatever they could get their hands on, primarily celebrated for their fantasy genre of books in which marvellous fictional worlds have been created. In regards to traditional folk music; early Avestans most often used simple string instruments, wooden flutes and drums in their performances, many of which take place during the large number of seasonal related festivals and other holidays Avestans hold annually. Most of which revolve around crop seasons or the dissipation of the severe weather that they are used to experiencing. Due to necessary survival considerations, traditional Avestan cuisine is relatively simple; largely comprising of various combinations of fish, diary products and potatoes. Avestans are generally tall, blonde, with light skin and blue eyes.
      
      Examples of Avestan Names: [ Hars Lekken | Carina Anker | Karik Olasen | Frida Lundjon ]​
  • Valisians:
    • Having experienced both pacifist and imperialist eras, those who are now the Valisians originally arrived on the SS Valis, which landed in the Valisian Islands in the Kaskade Ocean. The islands were from first reports believed to be incredibly resource-rich, a hope that was quickly dashed upon their actual arrival on the world. As a result they were forced to exodus to the western coast of Sondro, which has since become their adopted homeland although the island chain has great sentimental value to them even now. Stereotyped as snobby and intellectualist, Valisians (with a deal of merit) tout their many contributions to Sidesa's rich artistic and musical history. While they are generally considered to be the most distinct of the four groups, embracing their own identity to the point of social and political conflict with the other three groups on multiple occasions. Their language Valaian is the most divergent from Galactic Basic.
      
      During the earliest days of Valisian civilization on Sondro, splintered factions of almost feudalistic leaders would build towering stone fortresses to consolidate and protect their power. Today these now millennia-old castles litter the continent's countryside and form a foundation for the mostly isolated development of Valisian culture. Alongside the Sierrans, they embraced renewed technological innovation before either the Trerians or Avestans and were responsible for many breakthroughs in Sidesa's history. Various periods of differing artistic movements have swept Valisian culture, including fascinations with marble sculptures and abstract pieces of art work. Many of which take up entire sections of museums both on Sidesa and elsewhere in the galaxy. Philosophy has also been a notable historical cornerstone of Valisian development. Their cuisine is especially fine with lobsters, wine and steak being popular components of many dishes.
      
      Examples of Valisian Names: [ Jules Allard | Elodie Corbin | Malo Cartier | Anais Lyon ]​

​

• Government:
  • Federal Republic:
    • Officially the Federation of the United Nations of Sidesa but more commonly referred to as the Sidesan Federation, the planet of Sidesa exists as a fluid entity that frequently blurs the lines between being a confederation of aligned nation-states and being a more centralized federal republic comprised of powerful provinces or states. Formed on the premise of cross-national unity, respect and cooperation, there is a strong divide of powers between the federal and the state-level governments, which retain many but not all of their past domestic law-making capabilities, although the federal government has and will always maintain exclusive power in regards to foreign policy and defense as assigned by the Federal Constitution.​
  • Bicameral Parliamentary System:
    • At the core of every local, regional and provincial government as well as the federal government lies a bicameral parliamentary system. Comprised of two legislative chambers, the Sidesan Federation represents its people at the highest level via the Federal Assembly which is separated into two components. The National Diet is the larger of the two houses and is made up of 2,000 representatives elected under a system of proportional representation while the Council of Nations exists to serve the direct interests of each member-state and currently consists of 40 representatives with two elected for each member, these representatives known as Councillors are elected by whichever democratic system their member state chooses.​
  • Direct Democracy:
    • Though not entirely a direct democracy as it is aided in several areas by common elements of representative democracy such as its legislative branch, Sidesa does practice an effective and ancient tradition of direct democracy. Mostly confined to the local and regional levels of government, the planet has at several points called planetary referendums wherein the entire eligible population of Sidesa will vote on a single issue, one such issue being the unification of the planet under its current government Under the Constitution, any citizen eligible to vote on Sidesa can propose a counter to any law passed by the Federal Assembly and with enough signatures on a petition can call for a referendum at any level, the government then offers a compromise and the voters choose their preference for either one.​
• Affiliation:
  • TO BE DECIDED​
• Wealth:
  • Wealthy
    • Sidesa has a social market economy with a skilled labor force, high level of innovation and low corruption. When proportionate to population it is one of the galaxy's largest net importers and exporters of goods, while it is considered by experts to be hyper-competitive in several industries, including pharmaceuticals, high-end consumer goods and defense technology. Despite its overall economy being ranked one of the least corrupt in the galaxy, its banking sector is considered one of the most corrupt. Providing a significant level of economic and corporate freedom, Sidesa is known for its attraction to off-world businesses with many mega-corporations having established at least some operations on the planet. Currently it's most important economic sector is manufacturing, specializing in high quality health and consumer products. Strict environmental regulations are an exception to its nominally free trade attitude resulting in regularly high food prices.​
• Stability:
  • High
    • While one might assume a planet as inherently diverse as Sidesa would prove troublesome to govern given the long and complex historical ties that each group shares with the others, in reality the planet has had several millennia to establish a status quo with this situation. Though rarely the government may be plagued with indecision over a controversial law due to differing perspectives based on separate social norms, or a radical sect of Valisian secessionists will hijack a rally to broadcast their provocative messages, Sidesa is no stranger to these occurrences and they will for the most part fail to upset the social fabric of the planet. For visitors, Sidesa is a very safe planet due to a high level of social cohesion, low poverty and well-funded police services combining to create a boastfully low crime rate. Politically, the Sidesan government at all levels is not often prone to corruption, though it is naturally corporate-friendly which occasionally blurs the line between legality and self-interest.​
• Freedom & Oppression:
  • Freedom of speech, the press and religion are all guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Sidesa. Likewise there are a complex system of checks and balances in place throughout all branches of the planet's government and security services to prevent any abuses of power, consolidation of influence among any one particular group in government or breaches of those aforementioned sacred rights, while they are not infallible these systems do function most of the time. Operating a direct democracy, Sidesa is known for its high level of individual and societal freedom with a robust and durable core of liberal democratic values to retain that status quo. Several times in the planet's past has this state of affairs been threatened via both coup de tat attempts, corporate influence, or the rise of subversive leaders in positions of power, however Sidesa has historically shown a resilience towards encroaching authoritarianism largely through societally instilled beliefs in the democratic process. Leaning more towards reformation than punishment in regards to its own citizens, the Sidesan justice and prison system is infamously harsh towards non-permanent residents, tourists, smugglers and non-citizen foreigners in-general.​

Two troopers of the 187th Jägarbataljonen in an urban battle simulation.​

• Military:
  • Sidesan Federal Land Reserve:
    • The first branch of the Sidesan Defense Reserve to be formed following the unification of the planet. The Sidesan Federal Land Reserve is the ground component of the SDR and was initially organized from the combined armies of the planet's various nation-states. It's mission statement is to preserve Sidesan territorial integrity against non-consensual foreign military coercion or domestic rebellion, defend the lives and property of the Sidesan citizenry from foreign and domestic enemies and to secure the political, social, economic and military interests of Sidesa wherever they may be. Nominally a military service in actuality it more often functions as a civil service, performing humanitarian work, building or repairing infrastructure and providing jobs to the unemployed where need-be. It's combat doctrine lays emphasis on fast-paced combined arms operations followed by territorial consolidation and dig-in defensive tactics. It is a well-equipped and funded organization. ​
  • Sidesan Federal Air Reserve:
    • Responsible for atmospheric military operations, the Sidesan Federal Air Reserve has long since been a source of conflict within the planet's military community, particularly its relationship with the SFNR and the allocation of duties and funding between the two entities. Founded before their naval counterparts, after the unification and in a similar manner to the SFLR, the Air Reserve was tasked with the development of spacefaring combat technology, doctrine and infrastructure until it could sufficiently become a branch unto its self. Making the subsequent split and rivalry more sore for the Air Reserve as one can imagine. Operating and maintaining Sidesa's atmospheric fighter and transport craft, as well as its planetside anti-air and space defenses, the SFAR also shares responsibility over the planet's satellite and space defense network, cooperating with the SFNR from its ground communication relays and installations. While not as well supplied or funded as the Navy it still is adequate.​
  • Sidesan Federal Naval Reserve:
    • An entirely original force that was not formed from the remnants of any predecessors as Sidesa's ancient nation-states lacked any spaceborne capabilities. The Sidesan Federal Naval Reserve is the spaceborne component of the Sidesan Defense Reserve and is its largest entity by total funding though not by personnel. Organized from the SFAR's Interstellar Command, the SFNR begun as a relatively small patrol fleet comprised solely of a few foreign-purchased corvettes. As Sidesa's economy and importance in its region grew however, so too did the Naval Reserve to fulfil its needs. Today it is a notably large peacekeeping and anti-piracy force composed of several carrier strike groups. Capable of limited force projection to its surrounding area, the SFNR regularly cooperates with neighboring worlds to patrol important lanes of commerce, conduct anti-piracy operations and to crackdown on smugglers. It is particularly well equipped and boasts impressive technology. ​
• Technology:
  • Galactic Standard​

Colonization of Sidesa:

Settled by the first humans approximately three thousand years ago at the height of the Old Republic, Sidesa was initially chartered by the Karson-Tani Corporation, a galaxy-spanning conglomerate that at the time had been looking to expand into the market of exploration and colonization. Distinguishing itself from the countless barren worlds they had found elsewhere, Sidesa was a beautiful green world with vast and lively oceans, enough oxygen to sustain complex lifeforms and noticeably moderate weather to make any future settlements economically viable in the long term. Dispatching four colony vessels; the SS Valis, SS Sierre, SS Treria and SS Avesta, Karson-Tani had invested a significant fortune into these state-of-the-art ships along with their talented, handpicked passengers whom numbered two hundred and fifty thousand each, reaching a grand total of one million colonists to arrive with the first wave, out of this first wave, a majority of the settlers were chosen from humans of the Core Worlds and Inner Rim, little to no non-human species were selected due to 'social cohesion' concerns. It is often agreed upon by modern scholars that this was a plainly humanist decision and little more.

Arriving on the planet without incident, each ship was given an area of responsibility over the planet with a specific landing zone designated for their respective vessel. The SS Sierre landed on the eastern coast of Sidesa's larger continent which would later come to be called Arendal; large open grassland with soil more fertile than the planet average combined with access to the Helmaric Ocean had made this bay a priority for the first wave of settlers. The SS Treria and SS Avesta divided the rest of Arendal into two halves, with the Avesta responsible for Arendal's north and the Treria it's south. Later scans of the planet had indicated to Karson-Tani that the island chain they had found in the Kaskade Ocean was rich in mineral resources, perfect for use in developing local heavy industry and for off-planet exportation, as a result the SS Valis, the largest and most populous of the four ships was reassigned from its initial task to settle on the western coast of Sondro to instead land on these supposedly resource rich islands. It would only be once it was already too late that these colonists would discover the unfortunate reality.

Several weeks following their arrival, as the crew of the SS Valis and its new port settlement begun to reach the conclusion that whatever data corporate had received on the abundant minerals beneath the Valisian Islands was either grossly inaccurate or falsified, the unthinkable happened. On the western side of the Arendal continent, embedded between the tall ranges of the Western Arendal Nysted mountains, a super volcano of unparalleled destructive power had finally chosen to light its fuse. To this day it remains unknown to what extent the Krason-Tani Corporation was aware of Sidesa's volcanic activity as shortly after the eruption of Mount Lorent, with the combined failure of their immensely expensive colonial gamble and the declaration of a major regional war the corporation went bankrupt and was subsequently liquidated. In the bureaucratic chaos of the company's dismantlement, most records on Sidesa were lost or buried, and with them any hope of a reprieve from the devastation to come. The immediate eruption would destroy much of the surrounding area, while over the next weeks the entire planet would be coated with a cover of toxic ash, leading to the widespread collapse of ecosystems and the failure of entire crop yields.

The SS Valis in orbit of Sidesa pre-colonization.

The Colonial Pause:

Port Grostol, the bustling colonial town that had been established around the disassembled husk of the SS Treria was one of the hardest hit settlements on the Arendal continent, as were most of the nearby Trerian hubs. Heavy ashfall and extreme weather conditions destroyed much of the pre-fabricated city whereas a significant portion of its crop yield was compromised, recorded statistics from this dark era in Trerian history are a rarity in the modern era, but it is estimated by current Sidesan historians that as much as 30% of the Trerian colonist population died in the aftermath of the Lorent super eruption, largely from the inhalation of toxic ash, collapsing structures or starvation. Elsewhere in Arendal, the occupants of the SS Avesta were forced to flee north into the freezing cold but breathable air of the Northern Territories and the crew of the SS Sierre were forced to rely almost entirely on an aquatic diet from the newly named Sierre Bay, circumstances that would create a significant ripple effect throughout their future culture. On the Valisian Islands, the SS Valis' settlers had evacuated to Sondro, their new home.

The next several centuries would later be referred to as the Colonial Pause, the dark ages for Sidesa and it's newly made permanent inhabitants. Though it would only take less than two centuries for the ash in Sidesa's atmosphere to dissipate, the damage had already been done. Unable to communicate with one another due to the ash's interference for almost two hundred years, the four colonies had begun their path towards irreversible separation as by the time the clouds had lifted, their sophisticated equipment had long since been abandoned, too demanding on the few technologically advanced resources the crews could ration and increasingly considered by the populations of each settlement to be useless to their survival. Physically divided by entire oceans and mountain ranges, the Colonial Pause era would be characterized by the splitting of the initial settlements, a result of frequent and rough hardships combined with a perceived ineptitude of pre-established colonial authorities and a planet-wide prevailing attitude for self-determination and libertarianism, many individuals and groups of close friends and families in this time viewing their assigned leaders as a hindrance to their chances on Sidesa. It was these divides that would form the basis of the world's future nation states.

Closest to Mount Lorent, it had been the Trerians to suffer the brunt of it's wrath, with their population devastated, their capital settlement ruined and their technology for the most part out of commission, artefacts from the middle of the Colonial Pause era suggest that it was at around this time that the Trerians experienced a notable collapse in their society's rate of innovation and cohesion, splitting into the most rivalling factions out of the four initial groups while their available technology and know-how had devolved to the use of iron tools and wooden or stone structures. The Avestans, having been forced to abandon their first colony and now effectively trapped near the Northern Territories, boxed in by encroaching Trerian tribes migrating from the south as well as the first Sierran scout parties, underwent their own fundamental societal changes, adopting totalitarian, survivalist and imperialist mentalities to cope with the harsh environment that they had resorted to living in. Clashes between the furthest reaching Trerian clans and a small war of aggression between the loosely organized, impromptly formed "Avestan Hierarchy" and the Sierrans set the stage for future and far more deadly conflicts in the future.

In Sondro, the so-called Valisians had adapted to their state of affairs comparatively quickly. Establishing an independent republic; the Republic of Valis, yielding it's own meticulously detailed constitution, public services, taxes and military to administer the duties that would normally fall to the less-cohesive body of directors that had been established by the Karson-Tani Corporation prior to the vessel's departure, a system that was less than effective to say the least. Lacking the tribalism of Arendal as they had been the only colonists to settle on the continent, conflicts and inner divisions in the Republic of Valis would originate from uniquely political quarrels. Too detailed for it's own good, the Valisian Constitution made solving the infant country's problems through established systems of government immensely difficult due to gridlock alone, while highly educated Valisians whom had been educated in the ways of their colonist predecessors in the country's well-performing school system begun to increasingly disagree on how their republic was to be governed. In many ways mirroring the situations that were regularly occurring elsewhere in the galaxy. It was only in the latter half of the Colonial Pause however that these feuds would make way for outright rebellion, resulting in the Valisian Wars which themselves would end in the establishment of numerous Valisian nation states across the continent, forming from either existing settlements or newly founded ones.

The latter half of the Colonial Pause is generally considered by linguistic and historical experts to be the primary point of divergence between Sidesa's four modern languages, each stemming from regional dialects of Galactic Basic which would (save for Sierre) eventually morph into their own languages, to a large extent mutually incomprehensible with both one another as well as with Galactic Basic. Why Sierran remains for the most part recognizable as Basic is a hotly debated topic among planetary and galactic linguists to this day, though a popular theory is the abundance of media materials that the crew of the SS Sierre brought with them on their journey to Sidesa. Today's center of pop culture, holo-movies and other fictional materials, Sierrans have long been known for their fascination with such venues of entertainment, a cultural norm that is stated by proponents of this theory to have kept them closely in touch with their original language whereas Trerians, Avestans and Valisians all either lost their pre-colonization media, allowed them to degrade or in the case of Valisians simply disregarded them in favor of their own productions. In Arendal in-particular, the growing cultural and linguistic divide between the three groups of settlers would lead to an increased risk of conflict in the coming centuries due to their comparatively close proximity to one another when considering the status of the Valisians.

An Avestan village in the early Colonial Pause.

The Sidesan Recovery:

When the Colonial Pause ended is not fully agreed upon today and there is no official date to commemorate or otherwise note the planet's emergence from it's dark age. But it is typically concurred that the introduction of Sidesa's first domestic industrial revolution would signal the beginning of the end for the era, as the next several decades would lead to a boom in the rate of technological innovation and the dawn of passenger flight travel; making the once tremendous distances between the peoples of Sidesa significantly smaller and bringing the planet's populations and commerce closer together. By this point, however, the nation-states of Sidesa had become fully coherent and recognizable government entities in their own right with national identities and a sense of competing sovereign interests to go along with them. While living standards had exponentially improved even in the first centuries of this new era, widespread industrialization and corporate corruption in many of Sidesa's nations had led to a profoundly harmful impact on the planet's environment, while it's working class was taken advantage of time and time again. It was only when Osthem, the largest and most powerful of the Trerian nations introduced a new form of social democracy via a popular revolution that this situation would begin to reverse slowly but steadily on a global level, setting precedent for Sidesa's future environmental protection laws.

Though the first half of the Sidesan Recovery era would only be characterized militarily by small conflicts, proxy and civil wars, fought between rivalling nations that sought to undermine one another in expressions that would not justify destructive and costly full scale wars. The second half of the Recovery period would see the rise of large regional and even at times global wars which would primarily be fought over ideology rather than any simple desire for additional resources or territory. One of the most notorious regions of Sidesa for these wars was northern and central Arendal, where numerous conflicts would break out between the imperialist Avestan states in the Northern Territories and their Trerian neighbors to the south whom by the time of the Recovery had largely settled much of central and western Arendal, rebounding from their demographic stagnation during the Colonial Pause. On several occasions Sierran-majority countries would intervene on one side or the other though they would most often side with the Trerians due to their own problems with Avestan aggression along Arendal's north-eastern coastline, an area not far from the city of Sierre itself. It was typically uncommon for the Trerians south of the Nysted Mountains in Arendal to involve themselves with the affairs of their northern brethren as they were usually at war with one another during this time. Sierran countries benefitted the most from these wars as their neighbors whittled their own strength down over time. The last of these Trerian-Avestan wars, referred to now as the Northern Skirmishes would occur just prior to the arrival of the Aurora.

Across the scattered remnants of the old Valisian Republic, the continent of Sondro was a mishmash of contrasting worldviews and lifestyles for much of the Recovery era. Countries like the Commonwealth of Cambrai and their rivals the Republic of Caudan engaged in war after war with one another, one never seeming to fully seize the advantage over the other no matter how many conflicts erupted between the pair. It was often the countries around them in-fact; such as the small Kingdom of Pierreux that suffered the most from these wars. On the continent's west coast facing the Kaskade Ocean, the Sain Marin Republic would enter a renaissance of it's own; producing wonderful pieces of art, music and other forms of fine culture. Committing to a pacifistic diplomatic stance while the countries around them were consumed by bickering and strife. On Sondro's eastern coastline, facing the Helmaric Ocean; the newly formed Union of Teillay and Meral would declare it's independence from the Vialas Republic through a popular referendum, supported by the Trerian nation of Osthem across the Helmaric, the less powerful island country would find itself protected from the retribution of it's former parent government and in the decades following the Union would become a sort of cultural and commercial gateway between Eastern Sondro and Western Arendal. In the sparsely populated far north of Sondro; a group of Avestan refugees would arrive, laying sovereign claim to a portion of land there and laying the foundation of the Holmegaard Confederation without much resistance from the nearby Valisians; who at the time had been too absorbed in their own affairs to bother.

Nearing the end of the Recovery era, technological advancement had re-evolved to the point on Sidesa where the first makings of a comparatively simple early space age had begun to appear. In the aftermath of a decade-long world war between three ideologically opposed supra-national alliances, aerospace technology innovated during the conflict was pieced together by the victors to establish an international space program. Initially comprised of solely the nation-states on the winning side of the world war, over the next few decades it would grow to incorporate the efforts of dozens of other governments. Sidesa's first man on one of it's two moons would occur only thirty years after the establishment of the program and twenty years after that the first permanent moon habitat would be formed underneath the oceans of Laxa. Snowballing from that point onward, Sidesa's relatively stable international cooperation in regards to space has widely been acknowledged as a pivotal step in its eventual unification. Early satellites would litter the orbit of Sidesa to the point that further down the line it would become problematic, while within one hundred and fifty years of man landing on Tibro the planet's first space elevator would finish construction, towering above the skyline of Sierre as it stood out in the bay on an artificial island. It would be this space elevator ushering in a new era of immense commercial and tourist activity between Sidesa and it's two moons that would attract outside attention.

Downtown New Samkom in the mid Recovery era.

Sidesa's Opening to the Galaxy:

Close to one thousand years ago, a small independent survey vessel commissioned by the Republic to charter possible new hyperspace lanes entered the Gerod system. This ship was known as the Aurora and today the financial district of Sidesa's capital city bears it's namesake. Detecting civilization on the system's only habitable planet, the crew of the Aurora was shocked to find billions of humans living on Sidesa in a relatively advanced society. It would not be until months after first contact between Sidesa and the wider galaxy that the circumstances of the lost colony would come to light. Unable to translate Valisian, Avestan or Trerian, Sierrans took a leading role in the welcoming of the Aurora and the negotiations with the Galactic Republic that followed suit. Immediately following Sidesa's sudden thrust into the galactic community, there was a known period of immensely heightened tensions not only between the planet's various nation-states but within them as well. Several religions were thrown into disarray at what to them was a revelation that spat in the face of their dearly held beliefs, although to the vast majority of the planet's population the knowledge that Sidesa's human population was not native to Sidesa was already an established fact. It was the sheer size of the galaxy that led to the biggest amount of culture shock, that and the level of technology that would gradually be introduced to the planet over the coming years.

Being rediscovered at the peak of the High Republic era had certainly shown to have its advantages. A widespread lack of conflict or other galactic-wide issues that the Republic ordinarily would have to deal with were not present to an extent that Sidesa's appearance had a much greater level of focus put onto it than may otherwise would have been during any other era in galactic history. To ease and coerce the planet into the concept of joining the Republic; not insignificant amounts of resources, education and credits were poured into a planetary integration program. The goal of said program in theory being to ensure that Sidesa would be capable of competing in the galactic economy and that it or its people would not be able to be taken advantage of by shrewd off-worlders who knew the system and technology far better than they ever could. It had been predicted by Republic analysts to require ten or more generations to complete, Sidesans would counter their prediction by only requiring three generations before their population was on-par with the populace of any Core World in regards to political, cultural and technological awareness of galactic norms. Sidesa's Opening to the Galaxy brought with it incredible economic and social benefits that they never could have imagined prior to the Aurora's arrival, to an extent that the Avestan peoples would underdog a seismic shift in their worldview, societal norms and culture.. This was only the beginning.

Joining the Galactic Republic near the end of it's peak and building to the eruption of the Clone Wars had been an inopportune time to say the least. Still in the midst of developing their economy to the high galactic standard it is known for today, Sidesa was not viewed in a strategic sense to be anywhere near as important as it would in a modern conflict and as such it was ignored by the Separatist Alliance, though the offer to join their cause had been given regardless, to which Sidesa feigned ignorance surrounding the political situation each side faced itself in and declined out of a desire for neutrality. In reality the political and corporate leaderships of the planet had been utilizing the war to establish the basis of their galactic medical, defense and financial industries. The Grand Army of the Republic had proven to be a stable contractor for the high quality biomedical equipment and pharmaceuticals that Sidesan minds were developing almost daily in newly retrofitted labs mostly paid for with the credits of Republic taxpayers. Though traditional defense companies such as BlasTech had secured numerous contracts for blaster weapons with the Republic military, Sidesan corporations found available markets in other troop equipment, while suspicion surrounding the Trade Federation and Banking Clan's involvement with the Separatists had led a large number of Republic loyalists to search for less shady venders to deal with their money. Venders that they found popping up in increasing numbers on Sidesa.

In the grand scheme of things the Clone Wars had turned out to be a considerable net positive for Sidesa. The rise of the First Galactic Empire in it's aftermath, however, was less so. Already threatened and intimidated by the idea of galaxy-wide conflicts on a scale that no Sidesan strategist or warmonger had ever thought possible; the nation-states of the planet had over the course of the Clone Wars begun to lay the groundworks for increased intra-national cooperation. A trend that had been continuously encouraged by the former Republic to make dealing with the planet less of a bureaucratic hassle. The Empire would not treat Sidesa with the same tolerance and patience that their predecessors had, to no one's surprise. Forcing the planet under the reign of a single imperial-selected governor, the sovereignty of each individual country was abolished virtually overnight and the independent armed forces of each government were required to hand in their weapons and disarm immediately. Needless to say significant numbers of vehicles, weapons, supplies and even troops had gone missing upon the instalment of the governor, all of which conveniently found the company of the fledgling Rebel Alliance not long after. Sidesa would be a hotspot of rebel activity during the Galactic Civil War, with even it's planetary government becoming a breeding ground for dissent and sabotage, humiliated bureaucrats and politicians from Sidesa's former nations cooperating to spite their new imperial masters.

Imperial stormtroopers patrol Western Arendal during the occupation.

Unification of Sidesa and the Modern Era:

The collapse of the Empire and rise of the New Republic had signalled a permanent shift on Sidesa and in the psyche of it's population. Having been under the rule of a single government for the past thirty years and with that government being an antagonistic one which had required the combined efforts of Sidesa's many different peoples to eject. The idea of planetary cooperation and of a shared struggle against the vast multitude of off-worlders whom would seek to harm them had taken root in Sidesan culture. Utilizing the once oppressive imperial infrastructure used to govern the planet, the newly reformed governments of Sidesa came together to arrange a referendum; one that would forever change their world. On the ballet provided to every eligible adult (eligibility had been universally debated and agreed upon to ensure consistency planet-wide) a simple option was given. "Would you like the planet of Sidesa to be unified under a single democratic federal republic. Yes or no?" Against all odds as both domestic and off-world experts had predicted for the concept to be soundly rejected by a planet that had for so long been divided, the vote turned out to be a yes. Though some nations such as the Commonwealth of Cambrai voted strongly against, the vote was planetary and the decision was made. Each government had agreed to the terms of the referendum before-hand, including to join in the unification effort in the event of a yes result.

As expected the first years of the formal unification process had proven troublesome at best and borderline impossible at worst. From peaceful protests to downright insurgency, pro-independence groups across the planet rose up in opposition to the establishment of the new Federation of Sidesa. At several points in the first decade after the referendum the Commonwealth of Cambrai had threatened to withdraw from the agreement as its government was viewed by an angered public as increasingly illegitimate. However, nothing would come of those bluffs and with the exception of a string of terrorist attacks against newly organized federal facilities in Cambrai, no popular uprising or full scale civil war would ever erupt in the country. The backlash had prompted a number of concessions to be made on behalf of the new federal government and numerous compromises were forced between them and the more pro-independence nation states, which would eventually translate to increased state-level powers for every member of the new Federation as even the pro-unification governments saw it as unfair that certain nations received preferential treatment over others. The new Federal Constitution had been poorly written to begin with due primarily to the number of new amendments, loopholes and exceptions that had been made to appease the pro-independence camp. But over the course of the next few centuries the Federation would become vastly more coherent through a grizzly set of circumstances.

Baring many similarities to the evolution of their planetary identity during both the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion of the galaxy had come as a swift and unexpected shock to all known civilization. Carving a path of relentless devastation; these extra-galactic barbarians were merciless in their destruction of inhabited world after inhabited world and while spared from the direct fury of their wrath; Sidesa would feel it's consequences all the same. In the first year of the invasion alone the planet had been inundated with a tidal wave of refugees from all corners of the galaxy. Spearheaded by the governments of Avesta, the Shelter World Program had been established by the federal government as a means of coordinating humanitarian efforts and organizing the flow and subsequent treatment of refugees. While noble in it's intentions it had more or less failed within weeks of being declared as there had simply been too many people for it to deal with efficiently enough to prove a success. Despite the extreme amount of pressure placed on their sympathy, as the government in the latter stages of the war had begun to struggle to provide for even its own people due to the influx. It is often cited in academic papers on the sociology of Sidesa that it was the Yuuzhan Vong War that brought about the planet's now well known passion for humanitarian affairs, with one example typically presented to back this theory being the formation of the Sidesan Relief Community.

Emerging from the Yuuzhan Vong War physically unscathed in regards to infrastructure or lost lives, but internally changed and in the midst of an ongoing refugee and supply crisis. The Federation of Sidesa-- unable to find planets willing to repatriate such large numbers of people given their own situations-- had been forced to naturalize and take much of its supposedly temporary residents under its wing. In later years this would prove to have been ultimately beneficial to the planet's standing in the galaxy but in the immediate future it had made the crisis exceptionally worse and it would take more than a decade for Sidesa's conditions to stabilize to some semblance of pre-war norms though the demographics of a number of regions had been radically changed and xenophobic backlash had become commonplace as a result. In the centuries after, the appearance of the Gulag Virus and the Four Hundred Year Darkness it played a hand in spurring on would not effect the world as drastically as the Empire's reign or Yuuzhan Vong War had. Shielded by a number of constitutional amendments following the War that empowered the government to take any number of measures necessary to safeguard their homeworld, as well as a significantly bolstered Sidesan Defense Reserve, Sidesa had managed against all odds given its now prominent position in the galactic economy to keep the Gulag Virus off-world and for the Darkness it had mostly retreated inwards, unlike most worlds already having been used to the concept of being totally isolated from galactic civilization and being self-reliant.

When the Darkness had inevitably made way for the light, Sidesa would return to business as normal just as quickly. [TO BE WRITTEN ONCE A LOCATION IS DECIDED]​

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