Planet Hallow

> Radius: 6,371 km
> Gravity: 9.8 m/s
> Air composition: Hospitable
> Species: Humans, robots, volons
> Population: ~10,500,000,000 humans,
~1,600,000,000 robots,
~8,700,000 volons
> Day cycle: 24 hours
> Year cycle: 365 days

Hallow is a metallic, rocky planet encompassed by a sizable strip of magma around its equator. Most of the planet's surface is covered by barren fields of stone with countless outcrops of rich minerals and metals. The planet's surface is quite hot, but not to the extent that humans could not survive on it.

Hallow was originally believed to be the homeworld of humanity. However, the planet's inhospitable state, discoveries of fossilized ruins, and oddly benign air composition have led many researchers to believe this is not their original home planet.

Humans and robots coexist peacefully on Hallow. Together, they have formed an enormous, planet-wide civilization with a heavy focus on deep mining, robotics, space travel, and interstallar economics. However, the volons on Hallow are seldom known by any humans or robots, and they have been slowly preying on humans since their conception on the planet.

Hallow has 24 hour days with roughly 8-16 hours of daylight depending on the time of year. The 365 day calendar is split up into four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Because of Hallow's high temperatures, summer can become dangerous for anyone exposed to sunlight for extended periods of time, while winter rarely sees temperatures below zero. Snow is extremely rare anywhere but the north and south poles.

Notable Locations (ground)

Miyatama - Miyatama is one of Hallow's largest cities, housing a population of 66 million. It is divided into two tiers; the lower city rests on the planet's surface, while the high city is situated on an enormous platform raised far above the lower city, which attempts to simulate daylight and rainfall with powerful lights and industrial-grade sprinklers.

Although Lower Miyatama's population is much higher than that of the high city, its crime and homelessness are significantly higher than most other cities. Assaults, robberies, and drug trafficking are the most prevalent crimes seen in the city, almost 3% of the population lives without a home, and while the main streets are relatively clean, the quiet residential streets are both cramped and filthy. It is also the home of the threshers, a gang of humans -- most of whom are cybernetically modified -- who kidnap robots to disassemble them and sell their parts. They control almost 10% of the city, but are usually only found in their own districts.

Lower Miytama's attractions are few and far between, but includes a thriving market district of street food vendors, an extensive underground nightclub scene, and a small but high-class science and research district near the middle of the city.

High Miyatama is far more refined than Lower Miyatama. Upper class residences, prestigious universities, and botanical biodomes are all very common. The area sports a beige and pale blue colour scheme, with most sidewalks displaying a faint hexagonal pattern, along with countless lights bordering both streets and sidewalks. It is generally much safer and cleaner than Lower Miyatama, but the cost of living is considered unaffordable by the general populace.

Era - Era is the capitol city of Hallow with a population of 35 million, although robots comprise about 40% of that figure. Notably, it is also the location of Maroon's headquarters.

Era has educational facilities, entertainment, and stores for almost anybody; shops feature food and goods from all across the planet, including some products produced in space in stations such as HLC Silver Horizon. Era also features museums, parks, lounges, recreational facilities, arcades, convention centres, and nightclubs, to name some of the more prominent attractions. It is also one of the safest cities on Hallow, although it comes at the expense of privacy; almost every location (including private domiciles) in Era is monitored by high-tech surveillance, taking the form of cameras and/or robots.

The entire city is surrounded by a field that allows simple electronic devices (such as phones and computers) to charge wirelessly simply by being operational within Era. High speed internet access is also available to all citizens of Era for no charge.

Karma's Gateway - Karma's Gateway is a busy town with a population of 300,000, serving as a popular spaceport for private citizens. Because it is frequented by space travellers so often, many of the amenities in the town include tourism and convenience stores, as well as airports, hotels, and international support for speakers of almost any human language. Many facilities are open 24 hours, and the town remains equally active at night as it is in daytime.

Ystets - Ystets is a city bordering Miyatama with a population of roughly 4 million. However, almost half of that population are volons in hiding or disguise, making it one of the most dangerous locations on Hallow for any human. A considerable portion of the city is either dilapidated or abandoned, and no efforts have been made to rejuvinate the city, likely due to the prominent volon threat within.

Ystets has a lightly forested lake next to the city, known as Ystets Lake. It is extremely dangerous, as the lakeside contains several unstable volons hiding within the forest, and the lake itself is the home of the only known elder volon to date, standing over 90' tall.

Notable Locations (space)

Human spaceships and stations are prefixed with HLC (Human Liaison Craft).

HLC Silver Horizon - Silver Horizon is an enormous habitat station near Hallow's orbit with a population of 20.5 million, publicly accessible by anyone. It is a suitable home for middle and lower class occupants, and also includes extensive agricultural, educational, and cultural development programs within, giving the station an extremely low unemployment rate, and relatively high quality of life.

HLC Ban Vatnia - Ban Vatnia is a ring world orbiting Hallow with a population of 1.5 million. It emulates all the biomes found on Hallow's surface, as well as some biomes researchers agree would be suitable for humans to live in that aren't found on Hallow, or are exceptionally rare (for example, jungles and oceans). Ban Vatnia can be seen at almost any time from Hallow's surface due to how the ring encompasses the planet. Those who live there are generally middle to high class citizens, and the ring also features experimental research divisions focusing on the properties of light, time travel, FTL drive development, and practical applications of the cyrite mineral.

Illian Cluster - The Illian Cluster is a strange group of huge, synthetic asteroids that have been hollowed out to make room for a series of laboratories and artificial biomes. Each of these biomes are very unnatural in nature, presumably designed for breeding synthetic creatures. It is currently unmanned and abandoned, and the names of its previous administrators have been expunged, leaving the station with several mysteries and unanswered questions. What exactly transpired in the cluster is still unknown, but the appearance of Zev after Illian's abandonment suggests that volons were involved.

The station has a docking bay, a central lobby, and an entire staff sector dedicated to personal rooms and recreation, implying the staff that once occupied the station lived there instead of commuting from another location.