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Corona (Iota Piscium d)

Inner Sphere Academic World

Corona in the Current Era
Corona in the Current Era. The capital of the planet, Albertgrad, is clearly visible as a bright dot on the night side at the bottom left corner, while the University City locates at the center of the concentration of ocean floating habitats at the terminator, just off the western coast of Quark. Corona's auroras, twin orbital rings, and the famous aurora ring are also visible.

Table of Contents

1. Data Panel:
2. Introduction:
3. History:
4. Politics:
5. Economy:
6. Society:
7. Cultures:
8. Notable locations:

Corona (Iota Piscium I) Data panel

Parent starStar: Iota Piscium (Lucida)
Spectral type: F7V
Mass: 2.287E30 kg (1.150 x Sol)
Radius: 1,109,642 km (1.595 x Sol)
Absolute magnitude: 3.43
Luminosity: 3.555 x Sol (bolometric)
Temperature: 6,288 Kelvin
Age: 5.2 billion years
Distance from Sol: 44.73 ly (epoch J2000)
...
See also main article on the Iota Piscium system
PlanetCorona:
Orbital characteristics (10600):
- Semi-major axis: 271,670,000 km (1.816 AU)
- Period: 833.5 days (2.282 Julian years)
- Eccentricity: 0.017
- Inclination: 1.092°
Physical characteristics:
- Type: GaianXeric (before 1497 AT) > EuGaian (after terraforming in 1829 onwards)
- Mass: 9.960E24 kg
- Radius: 7,637.0 km
- Density: 5,338 kg/m3
- Gravitational acceleration: 11.397 m/s2 (1.162 g)
- Rotation period: 69,774 s (19.38 hr)
- Solar day: 69,842 s (19.40 hr)
- Albedo: 0.38 (to 1497) > 0.32 (after 1829)
- Equilibrium surface temperature: 258 K
- Surface temperature: 290 K
- Obliquity: 17.3°
Atmosphere::
- Surface pressure: 54 kPa (-1497) > 100 kPa (1829-)
- Composition:
before 1497 AT: 84% N2, 13% CO2, 2% Ar, 1% other
After terraformation in 1829-: 77% N2, 21% O2, 1% Ar, 1% other
Satellites (10600):
1) Sonata: Type: Selenian, Semi-major axis = 258,734 km, Orbital period = 11.729 days, Eccentricity = 0.032, Inclination = 15.214°, Mass = 1.594E22 kg, Radius = 1,017.6 km, Albedo = 0.15


Introduction

Snapshot: Corona

It's not every day I get to trade with a higher power, so when the message came through it took me several seconds to process its authenticity. Sirana and I had met that morning to go over some details in our manuscript. I'd gone virtual to join her in her workscape, the topology of the environment mimicked the symbolic logic of our project. To my senses it was a landscape of floating islands, each contained a factual statement, analysis or proposition. Bridges linked the islands to show relevant associations and allowing the veracity of each one, denoted by altitude, to drag its neighbours up or down correspondingly. I'd once peaked into how Sirana viewed it but lacking the sensory modalities for parsing extra spatial dimensions it just served to make me nauseous.

I'd been hiking through some flying lowlands where a dearth of accurate data was threatening to pull an entire section of the archipelago down into clouds non-significance. My exoself announced the message; an S1 entity known as NineStar claimed to have data relevant to our study. E was offering to release it so long as we donated funds to various other Coronese research tribes. I felt Sirana's mental presence, "Trust metrics are high. NineStar has been authenticated by system Archai and there is a record of an entity with that name travelling in the Third Loop Covenant." My point of view shifted to a cluster of well-connected islands representing our work on the TLC. Our project was an attempted reconstruction and sociological analysis of the so-called "Purple Flowering Renaissance"; a century long period that occurred in the Dwellunese orbital band in the Tag system, Tagant cluster.

Data about this period was sparse, partly due to the insular nature of the cluster but mostly due to the blight of 7112a.t. A failed S3 ascension gave rise to a blight that quickly assimilated everything in the Tag system and went on to devastate the cluster over the next few decades (before finally burning out, coincidentally just before impinging on sephirotic territory). The TLC had featured in our studies as a probable location of the Dwellunese diaspora, but no firm evidence of refugees or travelers had been found. NineStar's message claimed that E had encountered a Dwellun in that region and had acquired some memories encompassing the period.

Feeling like I needed some air I shifted perspective back to the Ril. I'd left my body basking on a slipway, the sun was just setting as the city floated further north with the rest of the Lovelace Flotilla. Dangling my feet into the sea I called up information on the groups NineStar wanted us to pay on eir behalf. There was a dizzying array with a range of public abstracts; the contribution of stringed instruments in high pressure environments to mathematic memes, theological analyses of Pith Guru dominance psychoware, sociocultural implications of rumoured archai technology, to name but a few. I ran a few programs to spot any pattern but as expected no significant link was found in the groups and no reliable predictions could be discerned if they had an increase in funding. Unsurprising if this all played into some transapient's plan.

Sirana's icon appeared before me, "what do you think?" I contemplated for a moment as the last light of the sun fell beneath the horizon. "Confidence is high, trust metrics are significant. Let's do it."

Except from "Retrospective analysis of the 8381a.t. NineStar Intervention"

Corona is the third planet of the Iota Piscium system. It is an Earth-sized, terraformed EuGaian world which can easily be identified by a gigantic ring of auroral display screens that circled the globe. Two-third of the surface is covered in liquid water, while the majority of the landmass gathers in two continents. It is orbited by a single large moon: Sonata, a Selenian world with an underground civilization closely bound to its parent planet.

Although not part of the original ahuman-built wormhole network, Iota was close enough to both the burgeoning Taurus Nexus and the First Federation to be wormhole-linked to both; leading in turn to Corona rising to become the capital of the Taurus Nexus before its fall in 3263. It then joined the NoCoZo, was annexed by the Solar Dominion, and finally became an Iota Network world, independent from the major empires.

In the Current Era, Corona is one of the 'classic' worlds of the Inner Sphere. Although not as politically or economically powerful as Hera or Hestia, the two outermost planets, Corona is an ancient world rich in culture and history, and the planet is renowned for its brilliantly colored auroras, lively festivals and celebrations, and gentle academic atmosphere, which together gracefully drive the everyday lives of some 78 billion people who call this world and its environs home.

History

Corona before Colonisation
Image from The Astronomer
Corona before terraformation

It was said that Corona devoted an entire moon brain to the purpose of archival of its own history. While this is obviously an exaggeration, it cannot be denied that Corona has a long, eventful history.

Table of Contents - History

1. History:
58-1465: Before Colonisation.
1465-1497: Pre-terraformation period
1497-1829: Terraformation period
1829-2450: Republic period
2450-3435: Taurus Nexus period
3435-3812: Early NoZoCo period
3812-4492: Integration period
4492-4606: Solar Dominion period
4606-4830: Academic rising period
4830-4870: ComEmp host period
5300-5900: Dynamic worlds period
5900-6200: Magnetic reversal period
6200-7200: Thousand years static period
7200-7500: Corona renaissance period
9200-9300: New colonization period

Before colonization

Corona's discovery was announced along with the two other terrestrial planets in the system in 58 AT (2027 CE). It received the designation Iota Piscium d. Sitting right inside the habitable zone of its star, at the time merely 45 light years away from Sol, it attracted many astronomers' attention. However, in 71 AT (2040 AT), to people's disappointment, the planet's atmosphere was found to be dominated by nitrogen and carbon dioxide. The blue auroral glow was observed in 95 AT (2064 AT), the first time an aurora is detected on a terrestrial extrasolar planet. Because of this discovery, the public began to refer to Iota Piscium d by the nickname 'Corona', which stuck and eventually got recognized by the now-defunct IAU.

During the late Information Age, continuing into the Interplanetary Age, many long-range observations were made and fleets of cheap laser sail probes funded by various organizations were sent towards the Iota system. The observations revealed several details about Corona and its sibling planets which later got confirmed by the probes. Corona itself was found to be a dry desert world dominated by rocky plains with occasional dust storms sometimes engulfing the globe. Like its star, Corona is fairly magnesium-poor compared to silicon, and its mantle is mainly composed of silica-based magma, resulting in a stiffer mantle and infrequent geological activities.

The first colonization attempts were made starting from the Early Federation Age, but only until late into the Middle Federation Age would the system see the first successful colony fleets arriving.

Pre-terraformation period

When Jupiter Transystems arrived at Iota Piscium in 1465, they claimed the entire system, but focused most of their exploration, colonisation and development efforts on the two outer planets, Hera and Hestia. Corona was sold along with Eva to the newly arrived Piscium Development in 1471. More extensive explorations took place as the Development looked for a way to turn Corona into a habitable world. Vast underground reservoirs of briny water were quickly discovered, though no native life was found.

Corona was originally a desert world with a rather dense greenhouse gas-dominated atmosphere that, combined with the planet's fast rotational period, routinely generated powerful dust storms. Thus, the early colonization was mostly about building suitable habitats and cities, and massive arcologies with simple shapes were the most desirable. Beginning in 1473, several arcopolises, including Delphi, Albertgrad, and Heisenberg, were constructed on the surface, each initially capable of housing tens of thousands. The Ruth Duorkin, the Pisces Development fleet's first colony ship in the system, was placed in parking orbit. A rotating habitat was assembled around it as the spacecraft-turned-habitat was made capital of Corona, in 1486. The moon Sonata was also home to a sizable population, living in cities such as Haydn and Beethoven.

Terraformation period

The terraforming of Corona went rather smoothly. Underground water were released from the aquifers, asteroids and comets were redirected to add more volatiles to the dry world, a solar shade/power collector was constructed at Iota-Corona L1 to cool the planet, additional nitrogen was purchased and imported from Hestia's moon Delphi (aTitanian world) , and weather machines were deployed to regulate the climate and strong winds. Eva's swarms of power collectors near the star were leased, and for the next 200 years provided the energy required to crack carbon dioxide and water gathered from the atmosphere, asteroids and comets into oxygen. One of the most important projects during this time was the geosculpting project. Initiated in 1523, it was one of the first known large-scale geosculpting projects, done to address the planet's topological issues.

In 1547, the capital was moved from the Duorkin complex down to Heisenberg. Meanwhile, different cities began to develop their own identity, including the academic cultures that later would define the collective planetary zeitgeist. During this period, large families became the norm, with the goal of filling up the gigantic arcologies, causing the population to skyrocket in many cities. By 1550, the biont population was already some 50 million. In 1646, the New Eureka polity made a decision to join the Corona polity. The dwarf planet, with its shipyard, would help boost Corona's power for millennia to come.

In 1829, Corona was declared to have reached a self-sustaining state, with only negligible environmental engineering infrastructure remaining. This attracted attention throughout the Terragen sphere, and people flocked to the world. The local Pisces Development governing entity soon evolved into the first government of Corona, the Corona Republic. The planet's capital was once again moved, this time from Heisenberg to Delphi in 1843.

The Duorkin Complex
Image from Steve Bowers
The Duorkin Complex has grown around the original spacecraft, to include asteroids and rotating habitats

Republic period

Hundreds of millions of immigrants moved to Corona over the span of a millennium, dominated by people from Sol eager to live an 'authentic' planetary life. Instead of the existing arcologies, these migrants preferred low density suburbs in the vast new plains. However, they came into ideological conflict with the pragmatic original colonists, who preferred maximum efficiency and minimum footprint to limit the destruction of pristine nature they had just created. In the end, the immigrants were crammed into dense cities. One region particularly impacted was Glara, whose immigrant population exceeded 10% at various periods of time. By early 2000 AT, the planetbound population of Corona was 3 billion, with a significant number of frustrated newcomers plus their descendants.

With immigrants from all across colonized space living in close proximity, cultures from various star systems intermingled, mutated, and sparked a cultural blooming on Corona. Among them was the creation of various constructed languages designed to facilitate cultural blending whilst fostering a native Coronese culture (a revival of this practice in later times would give rise to the famous Academic Coronese language family) and the rise of the religion of sacrifice, Alto Stisboi. This period of time also gave rise to some of the earliest academic cities, including New Atlantis, renamed Neo Atlantia, in 2106, when the Godslist Institute relocated its database to this floating city. This, and many similar events, is believed to be the first seeds of the modern academic culture that would develop some 2 millennia later.

Throughout the first half of the third millennium, crimes, terrorism and riots plagued the planet, several Alto Stisboi sect infightings occurred on Glara, and propaganda wars and cyberconflict swept across the world. Outside Corona's sphere of influence, the ongoing ex-IMPA territory rush ravaged worlds. This, combined with the chaos on Eva following cyberattacks on amat confinement systems and the infection of the Sophoncy Virus, especially in the Hera system. that degraded many of the moons' Net performance, resulted in streams of hundreds of millions of refugees from all over the system fleeing to the relatively peaceful Corona, and like the other immigrants, were packed into the dense cities.

Towards the end of this period, various factors, such as dissidents, ideological clashes, and intervention from other polities, caused the Corona Republic to wane in power and various cities and territories seceded. Megacorps, who leased facilities in orbit for further exploration and colonization efforts, began to influence the planet, dividing it even further up.

Taurus Nexus period

The wormhole link to Xi Geminorum, which was created by the ambitious local S3 transapient Hera Overseer, arrived in 2445 and changed the system completely. Several wormholes from important systems in the Inner Sphere soon began to arrive one by one, and traffic increased dramatically. The government of the Taurus Nexus eventually relocated from Xi Geminorum to Corona in 2450, supplanted the Corona Republic, and established itself in a large orbital habitat at Corona-Sonata L4, dubbed New Geminorum. For almost a thousand years the Iota system became a major cultural center, rich in ideas and information. Ships arrived from various important stars to trade, and early megacorps and Great Houses appeared, exporting the planet's vibrant cultures to other systems.

At first, the quality of life of an average person on Corona was generally excellent, if a bit dynamic and confusing. However, as time goes on, competition between corporations became fiercer and fiercer, once again shattering the unity of the people on Corona. Fearing that the various factions on the planet would start turning against each other, the Nexus government started to tackle the problem by implementing stricter legislation, but as a consequence, the local businesses, ethnicities, and corporations also took a hit. They became increasingly critical of the rigid rulership of the Nexus and began to push for a merger with the NoCoZo. After several reformations, the government finally agreed. This conflict in ideologies with the other Nexus worlds, all influenced variously by other emerging empires, resulted in the First Consolidation War, in which the Iota system and several nearby systems it governed launched warfleets into the rebelling systems and vice versa.

The news about the warfleets from the Hyades cluster arrived through the wormhole to Xi Geminorum. Despite the government's effort to try to contain the panic, a significant fraction of the population still escaped, or tried to escape, from the planet, causing major refugee crises in various orbital habitats, on Sonata, and other locations in the system. Corona's economy itself crashed as businesses fled along with everyone else, and long before the actual battle, the Coronese societies were already in shambles. Eventually, the rebel warfleets arrived in 3396. Perhaps partially enhanced by the collapse of order, Corona was badly damaged in the short but violent battle that ensued. Hundreds of millions of the remaining population perished, and the government fell. Meanwhile, Sonata, Corona's moon, went independent shortly before the declaration of the war, and as a result it managed to completely avoid the assaults. It would later become an important contributor to the restoration of Corona.

In the wake of the battle, the United Corona Organization, a half-government-half-organization entity dedicated to preventing the planet from devolving into warring states and providing resources for reconstruction of the damaged cities, united the remaining cities full of panicking civilians. It, led by a group of transapients that would later become the Academy Minds, made the decision to leave several destroyed cities in ruins, albeit well-preserved ones, as mementos of the civil war. Corona quietly joined the NoCoZo in 3435, bringing few other inner Taurus Nexus worlds and systems with it.

NoCoZo period

With the end of the First Consolidation War in 3435, Corona became a member of the Non-Coersive Zone. Many of the planet's transapients and modosophonts alike participated in this new environment. While not everybody was happy with the idea of joining the market, most agreed to stay when the Hera Overseer announced that e was willing to exercise market power to keep the entire star system, not just er domain, the eponymous system, stable. Many new businesses arose, joining the ones which came back after the civil war chaos. Together they were instrumental to restoring the economic prosperity to the level Corona enjoyed during the Taurus Nexus era.

As technologies improved and wormholes upgraded, immigrants from other NoCoZo, coming from a wider range of clades, moved in. Formerly a world dominated by nearbaseline humans, other sophont groups' population growth picked up the pace, eventually occupying a significant portion of Corona's population before leveling off. In the early NoCoZo period it was difficult to say Corona had any unified culture. The differences between various types of sophonts prevented the various groups on the planet from understanding each other, and as a result, the cultures of the planet massively diversified, and new, isolated societies started to form.

With so many new types of citizen, the government ran into the same problem as with many other worlds in the NoCoZo. Attempts at creating a unified ontology happened on Corona. These attempts were only modestly successful, but cooperation between different races increased nonetheless. The government saw this as a good chance to ramp up the game, and began to promote various cultures and ideologies these migrants brought with them, resulting in some successes. By 3800s, Corona developed some specialties, such as research and development, which would grow quickly, eventually becoming its dominant industry. This would later evolve further, eventually transitioning to a more well rounded academic culture that defined Corona in the Current Era.

Corona's environs were extensively redeveloped just after the civil war. Clouds of habitats were placed in various orbits, and in 4035, the first dynamic orbital ring was placed above the equator, connected by several beanstalks. The first permanent inhabitants of this brand new ring were the sophont AIs, but bionts soon followed. Later, in 4384, a larger orbital ring would be put into place to support the growing aioid population of the planet, as well as several other objectives such as boosting defense capabilities.

Integration Period

As a world with a particularly diverse society, the Concord Ontology was widely welcomed on Corona. With the new ontology adopted in 3812, it became easier for the people of Corona to share a common culture. Most isolated communities that formed earlier joined the wider Coronese civilization. The rise of the amount of more radical forms of population started to accelerate once again. New, entirely different forms of philosophies, religions, art, and entertainment entered the mainstream Coronese society, giving rise to various hybrid cultures.
Many regions and major metropolises developed new, unified cultural identities during this era. The most radical changes happened in Glara and to the lesser extent the Fermi Ocean, but the most spectacular examples was arguably Celsiusen, where native Roman-inspired architecture was combined with Bourgatov and Charan cultures sprinkled with surrealist Ubuism, giving rise to gigantic 'impossible' structures shooting up in new cultural zones as the city expanded north and south.

The Ylkalo Revival (3970-4010) was possibly influenced by the adoption of the ontology. It marked a brief rise in popularity of acoustic music performed by lightly-augmented bioids. One of the instruments that became popular during this period was the Resona, which is still popular in the current era.

Among Corona's many interstellar partners, Bourgatov, the capital of the Bourgatov Alliance, was one of the most important and influential. Corona had always maintained friendly relationship with it, even after the breakup of the Taurus Nexus. A wormhole link between both was already present in the system. The adoption of the Ontology meant the trade of cultures between both systems increased dramatically. In many arcopolises on Corona, many Bourgatov immigrants formed their own communities, and the reverse is true as well. In 4317, the Bishop ring Koronagrad was constructed at Corona-Sonata L4 as a symbol of the two planets' partnership and cooperation.

Solar Dominion period

In 4492, during the Version War, a fleet from the Solar Dominion arrived at Iota. Local defense forces were completely outmatched and the system's many governments all quickly surrendered. While planetary damage was limited, orbital defense infrastructures were cleanly eradicated along with the outer orbital ring (which at the time included military bases among its many installations). The United Corona Organization, after extensive reformation, was left in place.

Under the Solar Dominion, demand for sophont labor diminished in a few decades, and Corona's economy was reformed into an automated market economy with vot corporations competing with each other for sophont customers. All Coronese citizens were equal shareholders in these companies providing a cycle of wealth and a transition away from a labor-driven economy that kept some of its market influence. Solarist monasteries and even entire cities were constructed in many locations, spreading their ideology onto the people. A famous example is Alemseged, which to this day still retain many Solarist mental traits.

Perhaps one of the regions most affected by the arrival of Solarism was Glara. While the differences between various groups of immigrants, refugees, and natives had long ago melted away, in place a unified culture, resent towards the rest of the planet lingered. From 4510 to 4530, several radical movements arose in the subcontinent, but the most successful was known as 'Better Here', founded in 4528. The movement advocated the Glarans to reject all Coronese cultures and embrace individualism. Glaran culture split into many subcultures which would then continue to develop separately from the world, even after the planet's independence in 4606.

Corona would stay in roughly this state for much of the rest of the occupation until 4597 when a Solar Dominion linelayer directly from Fons Luminis arrived. With the wormhole comes strong influences from the Solar Dominion. The sharp spike in the number of Solarism adherents among the citizens caused paranoia to arise among the rest, and the same was true in the rest of the system. In 4606, most of the Iota system, spearheaded by a coalition between Hera, Hestia, and Corona, the three major polities of the system, revolted against Solarian rule, 50 Coronese years after the annexation. The revolt was swift and bloodless, and shortly after the Solar Dominion granted the system independence. The wormhole was left alone, however, as the consensus deemed it useful in the future.

Academic Rising Period

After the Solar Dominion occupation, various colleges and universities banded together into an organization known as the Academic Union. Pooling their resources and capitalizing on the local cultural drive for research (and the lucrative data-flows through the system wormholes) they founded "University City", later to become the 'academic' second capital, located just off the western Quark shore. At first, it was a rather small, quiet settlement, a haven for academicians of sort, but it would quickly grow bigger and more influential.

Soon, the University City began a campaign to promote the academic culture, which had already been taking roots in various cities. As a result, public awareness of the importance of knowledge rose. New academies were founded, most joining the Academic Union and some operating independently. The concept of 'research tribes' formed during this time, and has since then became a major institution in the Coronese society. Many academic competitions were held, including the first of the famous annual competition event Breakthrough Again, in which participants remove their modern knowledge, replacing it with knowledge of an academician from earlier periods, then attempt to be the first to prove famous theories from those times. It also became popular and fashionable to take the form of, and act as famous scientists and researchers from various periods of time.

Starting from 4609, three years after independence, an S4 entity which called emself the Iota Scholar, a result of the mergers of many S2s and S3s in a group which migrated away prior to the Solar Dominion occupation, contacted the system through some of the old, pre-Version War comms wormholes. E offered to declare the entire Iota system er protectorate in exchange for er protection and technologies. Most Iotan polities, except few polities like the Minerva Confederation (at first), the Turye Ring, or the Blissful State of Nirvana, all agreed.

ComEmp host period

Corona temporarily became the Commonwealth of Empires' neutral seat from 4830 to 4870. As one of the victims of the Version War, the ComEmp was a welcoming development. Becoming the seat of the ComEmp brings many benefits. Aside from promoting the planet and boosting its credit massively, various businesses and development projects happened, results in a great increase in its capabilities and the people's quality of life. Among those many projects was the construction of the Hydersbaad Consensus, an academic-cultural orbital habitat built in Corona orbit to accommodate the influx of diplomats, researchers, and memeticists. The outer dynamic orbital ring was reconstructed and the inner one upgraded to match.

Corona became much more active in interstellar cooperation and partnerships than usual. During this four decades span, the surviving members of the Bourgatov clan were brought to Koronagrad. They were kept in suspension in a secret location on that Bishop ring for many centuries after this date, although their current location is uncertain. The Academic Union, meanwhile, continued to accumulate membership from throughout the Terragen sphere. In 4852 it announced a partnership with the Spica Archivists, whose stated goal is to archive all data from the entirety of the Terragen sphere.

When the ComEmp moved out of Corona, this world once again slowly returned to obscurity in the galactic stage. However, although brief, this event left a permanent mark in the Coronese collective memory. The day the news arrived at the planet was made the national holiday, and is widely celebrated. Many of the infrastructures constructed during this period are still in use even to this day.

The Dynamic Worlds period

The gradual dissolution of the Commonwealth of Empires had significant effects on the various other worlds in the Inner Sphere, some more impacted than others. For example, the nearby Seven Marbles (TRAPPIST-1) system, formerly considered the symbol of the ComEmp, fell into a system-wide cold war, with several sporadic hot wars. Corona, as a world protected by the neutral Iota Scholar, was only slightly disturbed, and thus it became the number one destination for many refugees from the neighboring systems. An ongoing cold war ensued, interspersed with several sporadic hot wars, especially a series of battles for Tabi, the only rocky planet in the system, and Maid, the only giant planet in the system. Corona, as a world protected by the neutral Iota Scholar, was only slightly disturbed, and thus it became the number one destination for many refugees from various other nearby systems.
The sheer diversity of the refugees, some of which declined to use the ComEmp ontology, at the time widely used on Corona, created many new, secluded communities. Such communities could best be accomodated in a series of tailormade virchworlds, and thus, this period saw a great increase in the number of private virtual realities.

In 5234, the Academy Mind managers of the outer orbital ring decided to convert the many databases on this structure, formerly lightly populated and mainly for academic and defense purposes, into habitation virchworlds, and extended an invitation to the people of the Iota system to populate these new virtual environments. Among many other standard features, the Academy Mind allowed the virchworlds to change radically over time, especially to fork, split and merge freely; this has given the outer-ring virches the common name The Dynamic Worlds.

Starting from 5300, people, including the secluded societies, began to flow into the virchworlds within the outer ring. Many of the virches eventually split and merged as people's interests shift, creating a dynamic space. Along with other factors, the gradual acceptance of the ComEmp ontology among the secluded societies contributed to the fueling of the dynamic worlds. By 5600, there was a gradual decline of immigration to fuel the dynamic worlds, and after 5900, the phenomenon faded away, leaving the outer rings with a population several magnitudes more than the number before this period, and a diverse culture that gladly embraces changes, discoveries, and partings.

Other important events include the construction of the Coronese Historical Telescope Array at the outer edge of the system in 5401.

Corona Aurora
Image from Steve Bowers
The natural aurora of Corona is formed by the magnetic field of this world, which periodically undergoes a reversal of polarity

Magnetic reversal period

Starting from the early 5500s, Corona's magnetic field started to weaken and its magnetic north started to accelerate away from its original location. Already anticipated, researchers concluded that the planet's polar reversal was about to happen soon. Most but few retro-style cities (such as Aichi's town sector) concluded that their existing infrastructures can handle the worst case scenarios. Still, in 5543, the Iota Scholar announced that e was about to assemble a system to control the star to prevent possible catastrophic flare events just in case. For decades to come, several reactionless drives moved resources from other stars and assembled orbital infrastructures around the star.
Finally, at the beginning of the sixtieth century, the long-anticipated magnetic reversal started. The magnetic lines collapsed into an entangled mess, and dim auroras appeared everywhere on the planet. True to er promise, the 300-year period of Corona's magnetic field reversal was free of strong stellar flares, and the magnetic field settled in 6200 without an incident.

During the height of the magnetic reversal event, the various polities under the United Corona Organization, after millennia of working together, voted to merge and form the current government, the Planetary State of Corona, in 6035, celebrating 2,000 local years of the founding of the Coronese civilization.

The Thousand Year static period

Over the next thousand years, Corona and its environs fell into slumber. Significant portion of the population moved off-world, outwards to many rapidly growing communities on dwarf planets, especially the bolstering communities on New Eureka and the various new Bishop rings springing up around Hestia. Most of the people remaining on the planet settled in rather static states, with unusually low cultural shift rates, although the development of the contribution factor economic philosophy happened during this period.

While the rest of the planet experienced a static period, in Glara things were changing quickly as new types of experimental societies arose as the subcontinent's population began to form groups based on their interests. Some of the successful examples were such as Memphis, which had developed incredibly diverse yet unified cultures, and Kaifeng, adhering to the principle of happiness-based society. Others developed interesting and exotic societies, such as Navoose, a tethered sky city built during this period especially for a clade of floater tweaks with a strong politeness culture, or Soljeva, a city in a bottle-shaped arcology inhabited by sarcastic sentient gelbots.

In Corona's environs, living in the chandelier cities became popular, and several large, bright habitats were constructed and hung down from the inner orbital ring. This created a string of lights when viewed from the surface. Some of these habitats are still in use in the present day. Some of those cities had been influenced by the Better Here movement and also developed their own culture, but none as exciting as the original ones.

Corona renaissance period

Towards the end of the stagnation period, immigration level noticeably increased, with a significant number of returnees and/or their descendants. Those people brought along with them cultures from other worlds. The new changes caused many to express their concern that the Coronese cultures would be diluted and vanish, and thus several movements arose decades before 7200, before culminating in the planet's largest renaissance event yet.

During this three-century-long period, old cultures were revived, and in most cases, mixed with new ones. Cultural elements from Republic and Taurus Nexus period cultures and values reappeared. Pioneer appreciation festivals were often held on Quark, especially at Heisenberg. It was also yet another time the academic institutions and industries on the planet bloomed as new universities spring up and forth, and some of the Academy Minds celebrated the occasion by installing the famous 'aurora ring', transparent panels displaying colorful aurora texture which can be seen from almost everywhere on the planet, hanging down from the outer ring. The aurora ring received positive responses from both the citizen and visitors.
Hundreds of new settlements were constructed, and many of them became famous. In 7274, Kayla's Pier, designed by Henna Artool Kayla, a famous architect, was constructed at the northernmost tip of the island of Hadron. Due to its position, it was used by the Northern Størmer habitats as their landing site, and quickly became famous among the aurora-chasers. In 7318, the first ships that would form the core of the oceangoing Lovelace fleet, led by Alan Turing, a sentient city-ship and an adherent of the Vagabond Way who migrated from Kiyoshi, assembled in the Einstein sea, just a few dozen kilometers away from Albertgrad. Over time it would become the link that connected many coastal and floating cities in the Einstein sea, providing tourists a slow-paced sightseeing trip to various locations on its path.

The Corona renaissance was also the time of reevaluation. After the thousand years static period, Glara became more open to the rest of the planet. When the renaissance period begins, one by one Glaran cities rejoined the wider Corona, and finally the last territories joined in 7323. The peaceful unification was celebrated by the development of a coastal city of Eureka into a massive megapolis. It was then made the capital of Glara in 7327. Most of the unique cultures, however, were preserved and some, such as the happiness-based society, were even integrated into the larger Coronese cultures.

By the end of the period, the Coronese civilization can be said to be a mix of academic and cultural elements, with diverse cultures from just about every single period of Coronese history prior to 7500 mashed together with outside influences, either from neighboring planets (such as strong dynamic NoCoZo-style cultures from Hestia) and those beyond the system's many wormhole links, physical or comms.

New Expansion period

Corona was a major proponent of the Iota system's plan to connect it to the Perseus Rift, although its intention seemed more related to plain academic curiosity than anything else. The wormhole finally arrived in the Ais Alnah system, right in the middle of the Blackbody nebula, some 3,000 light years away, in 9167, almost 4,500 years after the launch of the linelayer. The Perseus Rift was by the time already populated, but the cluster was still divided.

During a 100-year-long period between 9200 and 9300, the Iota Scholar gifted the Iota sector systems with several colony ships, which were then launched through this new stargate, named Letter to Outpost Nowhere, before heading on their own way. Many Coronese joined the colonization effort. The rest of the planet, however, was mostly indifferent about the idea. Some people at the time believed that Iota Scholar planned to ascend to S5 and the colonies will soon be integrated into the Iota Network, but the fact that most of the colony ships merely 'seeded' the worlds, and did not develop those systems extensively, left the reason for this colonization effort unclear.

The Blackbody Cluster was eventually united, but remained only loosely aligned to the Iota Network. Various affiliated Inner Sphere groups (which, due to the neutrality of the Iota Network, meant most) were permitted to use this wormhole link to gain access to the Rift, and in the Current Era, Ais Alnah is already a major hub for various Inner Sphere groups' ambitions in this sparsely colonized volume.

Politics

Politically, Corona is in a unique spot. At first glance, the Iota system, where Corona belongs, is seemingly a normal stargate hub system with links to several nearby systems, commonly called the Iota Network, but it and those Iota Network systems are ruled over by an S4 archailect. Although technically an independent system and thus not in the Sephirotics, the entire Iota system is aligned with it, has many close ties to many of the Inner Sphere and other Sephirotic systems, and is usually treated as one.

In the Iota system, Corona is a culturally and academically strong but politically weak polity, overshadowed by its much more populous neighbors, Hera and Hestia. Likely due to its history, specifically the Taurus Nexus civil war, the planet often prefers to not get involved in any sort of interplanetary political affairs and especially not the interstellar ones. This policy is in many ways similar to the Minerva Confederation's, and in contrast to Union of Eva's attempts to assert itself as an important political entity in the system. It has few off-world territories, the major one being New Eureka.

Corona and its environs are controlled by the Planetary State of Corona. Its surface is divided into 5 divisions: Baryon, Quark, Planck, Fermi, and Bose, while its environs are also divided into 2 volumes: cis-Sonata volume and Sonata (autonomous). The polity also controls Iota-Corona L4 (containing New Eureka and its moon Archimedes) and Iota-Corona L5 (all asteroids converted into a single Bishop ring). The polity is overseen by the Academy Minds, who is in turn supervised by the Iota Scholar. Each member of the 256 Academy Minds has eir own ethos.


Economy

In the Current Era, Corona's societies all practice minor variants on post-scarcity of the commons whereby all land and infrastructure is collectively owned and administered cyberdemocratically. However, most of the societies on/around the planet employ a contribution factor-mediated basic income system. These societies have many sophisticated metrics evaluating everyone's academic contributions. The higher one is evaluated, the more funds they are allocated, making them personally wealthier and also allowing them to finance more sophisticated studies and larger researcher teams. Sonatans also employ similar systems, but often for rewarding artists, especially audio artists, instead of researchers.

Society

The society of Corona is divided into many kinds of social groups. Firstly, physically a person may identify themselves as a member of the city or settlement they currently reside in. This is similar to nation states, but easier to change. Some cities have their own version of laws, although most of those don't differ much from the standard Coronese law.

In academic fields, 'research groups' connected by virchworlds such as the Corona Academy formed. Each research group has their own goals, which may be about a single subject or several, specific or broad. The most famous example is perhaps the Godslist group, with membership, which focuses on researching transapients and archailects. Since the concept's introduction during the academic rising period, it has spread beyond Corona, throughout the Terragen sphere.

Finally, 'clubs' are created to gather people with interest in the same kinds of recreational activities. While most clubs are small and may contain hundreds to tens of thousands of people, some of them are truly massive. The Festival Research and Expression of Self club of Alemseged is by far the largest of these, with almost the entire population of Alemseged and even more from the rest of Corona plus its environs as members, totaling almost a hundred million.

Culture

In the current era, the Coronese civilization can often be defined by its strong academic elements, but its cultures are diverse, and constantly evolving, thanks to information transfer and migration from other systems, especially ones with direct physical wormhole connection such as Merrion, Fons Luminis, and Nova Terra. However, there are some central elements that virtually all present-day cultures on Corona share.

Academic Culture

While Corona is not the oldest known academic world, it is the oldest continuously active one. The academic institutions of Corona are some of the most venerable in the Sephirotic empires. Despite periods of decadence, decline, and irrelevance, the colleges have always recovered, and are currently important centers of independent scholarship, especially in the fields of sophontology, toposophology, archailectology, and godwatching.
Since its popularization during the academic rising period almost 6,000 years ago, the academic culture has always been an important part of the planet's metapsychology. Over 95% of the population has superior enhancements, in one way or another, and over 60% states that they strongly value knowledge. This culture's influence is so strong that the societies of this planet reorganized over millennia, academies growing massively in importance and eventually becoming part of most Coronese people's daily life.

The proof of this strong academic culture can be observed even far beyond the Iota system. In the current era, there are billions of outposts affiliated with the academies of Corona across the Sephirotics, especially at population centers and archailect brains. As the result, yobibytes of data about various emerging cultures, transapients and archailect activities, and all sort of other information from tens of millions of star systems throughout the Terragen sphere constantly flow into the system, and stored in various Corona-owned databanks around stars in the Iota Network, such as the two Minerva L4/5 computronium nodes, or sold to various archival groups, such as the Spica Archivists.

Several cities and settlements on Corona devote themselves to certain subjects, such as Neo Atlantia, after almost nine millennia of influence from Godslist, is perhaps the most prominent example, being specialized in transapient sciences, archailectology, and godwatching, while other cities are more balanced, like Heisenberg and Ruki. However, there are also many cities where the academic culture is less influential, such as Alemseged, where people can take breaks from the academic air and celebrate various kinds of festivals from all over the Terragen sphere.


Language

The official language of Corona is Coronese, a constructed language created during the academic rising period. The original version, the Academic Coronese, is a systemic, complex constructed language meant to facilitate the conveyance of complex ideas and their relationships, and designed for ease of categorization, comparison, and citation as well. The other Coronese 'dialects' are largely the same, except pronunciation. Examples of dialects include Baryonese, Quarkese, Glaran, and Sonatan. With the Eva culture fad, the number of user of Evan dialect is on the rise.

Contact with the other planets in the system inevitably led to the arrival of Hetami, the language used in the Hera system and the Hestia system. A creole language between Hera-mi and Hestia-mi which emerged during the Integration after the two systems' political unification, their extensive cultural influence have led to most other polities in the Iota system adopting it as main language, and the same holds true for many of Corona's societies. It is most widely spoken in the planet's environs, but Hetami-speaking communities can also be found in just about every major cities on the surface.

Corona and its artificial rings
The space between the orbital rings is capable of displaying an artificial aurora, as well as a range of other displays

Sky Visual Arts

Auroras and related sky phenomena are among the Coronese civilization's most famous symbols. As such, numerous methods were developed to either replicate, perfect, or act as substitutes for the natural auroras, which are not always available. Apart from the aurora ring, many popular methods in use on Corona are firesculpting, ion fireworks, ionizer fireworks, gas seeds, and artificial color meteors. Each of them has its own details, advantages, and risks.

Firesculpting is the most specular, but expectably it is also the most risky method. Firesculpting begins by first triggering a large solar flare or coronal mass ejection in a local star and then using magnetic field generators and other devices to manipulate a planetary magnetic field to control and shape the auroral displays that are created when the charged particles from the star impact the field some hours or days later. Using powerful magmatter based field generators operating in close planetary orbit or even tunnelling through the planetary core it is possible for a skilled artist to not only produce especially energetic versions of a planetary auroral display but to actually shape fairly complex and concrete shapes in the plasma cloud. Several of the Academy Minds are skilled firesculptors, as well as many S1s.

Ion fireworks and ionizer fireworks are more widely used. Ionizer fireworks work by injecting in energy to ionize the atmosphere, creating colors depending on the location the firework blasts. Ion fireworks, on the other hand, work by directly injecting ions into the higher atmosphere/space. There are two types: solar wind fireworks and excited ion fireworks, the former dumping protons and electrons to interact with the various atmosphere gases, and the latter directly creating colorful auroras not limited to the colors that can be created by the gases in the atmosphere. For example, a large scale usage of excited ion fireworks containing sodium compounds and calcium compounds are used to create the famous 'golden crown' for the planet.

Gas seeds are often used as an alternative to ion fireworks. It works by simply releasing gas into the high atmosphere, then let the solar wind ionize said gas. It is sometimes used in conjunction with firesculpting.

Artificial meteors are perhaps one of the safest, but also the least spectacular of the available methods. Before the event, designated High Cyclers drop cans of smart pebbles in a highly eccentric orbit, timed so they would be in the correct location at the time of the festival. When the time arrives, they deorbit and scatter the contents which burn like meteors in the atmosphere. The payloads are usually simply chunks of metals which gives of various colors when burned.

There are many colleges on Corona which offer classes on various methods of sky visual arts, and a few colleges are even dedicated to those subjects. Various schools often debate vehemently about how to create effects that are aesthetically pleasing when seen from both the planetary surface and from orbit.

Corona- labelled
Image from The Astronomer
Corona map: Geological features + Settlements

Notable Locations

Accumulating history for over 9 millennia, Corona and its environs have spawned many notable locations both in ril and virch, from the quiet ruins from the early days to the bustling arcopolises, with all sorts of atmosphere, from serene, to studious, to festive.

Table of Contents: Notable Locations on Corona and in the surrounding volume

1) Capital cities:
2) Regional capital cities:
3) Other Notable Locations:
4) Notable virchworlds

Capital cities

Duorkin [1486-1547] - The first capital of Corona, it is an ancient, venerable orbital in stationary orbit around Corona. Originally a spacecraft, the Ruth Duorkin, which towed an asteroid along, it grew over time as more and more modules were attached and integrated. In the current era, it is a complex of some 24 rotating habitats, each roughly 15 kilometers long and 5 kilometers in radius. The original spacecraft is now stored in the heart of the habitat, inside the asteroid which has been converted into a museum.

Heisenberg (founded 1476) [1547-1829] - The second capital of Corona and the first one on the surface, Heisenberg, located at the northernmost Feynmann bay shore. Today, it is the capital of the Quark province. It consists of three main districts: the surface arcology district, each some 1-3 kilometers tall giant towers covered in evershifting frescoes of famous people and great moments, the treehouse forest district, a dense forest of many species of genetically engineered trees which grow habitation spaces and all the amenities, and the oceanic habitation complex district, sitting at the end of the densely populated piers, towering above and below the sea level and home of various types of both terrestrial and marine sophonts.

Delphi (founded 1794) [1829-3396] - The third capital of Corona during the Republic period and the Taurus Nexus period located in southwestern Quark. Once a peaceful and prosperous city, it was crippled by the rebel attacks during the civil war. Since then, the survivors were evacuated, and the city ruins itself has been continuously actively maintained since the end of the civil war to remain in roughly the same condition. Today it is an archaeological site where researchers and tourists come and go, and a small population lives in a new ring-shaped city surrounding the ruins. It has a small vactrain station sitting between Neo Atlantia and Cheever.

New Geminorum (founded 2448) [2450-3396] - During the Taurus Nexus period for Corona, the Taurus Nexus government relocated itself to this 25 kilometers radius Stanford Torus built in advance at Corona-Sonata L4, at the time the largest orbital habitat around Corona. The interior is green and urbanized, with most rooftops made into pools, parks, and fields. In the Taurus Nexus period, it was infamously known for its bad city planning. Navigation was often confusing to unaugmented baseline human due to the sheer complexity of the place, with several dozen floors of interconnected buildings. The reconstruction of the habitat after the civil war reworked the city plan and cleaned the chaotic connections up, replacing with neat bridges, at the minor cost of travel time efficiency for augmented people who do not have problems with the complexity of the habitat. New Geminorum is completely angelnetted.

Albertgrad (founded 1478) [3396-] - The current capital of Corona, the result of the United Corona Organization's relocation of the capital in the aftermath of the civil war. It is a well-balanced scientific-cultural city built next to a river delta on eastern Gzeut shore. The city has an orderly cobweb plan with two centers, with brightly lit suburban settlements along the vactrain connections radiating outwards to various nearby settlements, while links between each line are kept dark. While in normal times the city itself is unremarkable compared to the other major cities in this world, once a year it becomes the place where the people of Corona gather, either in the real world or virtually, to celebrate the founding of the Coronese civilization. During the celebration, at the night time, ionizer fireworks, gas seeds, and artificial color meteors are often used.

University (founded 4623) [4728-] - The academic capital of Corona, as well as of the Iota Commonwealth, the University city is a gigantic amalgamation of hundreds of major universities over 10 kilometers in radius. The city itself consists of many floating arcologies, surface, and underwater, linked together orderly. The very center of the city is a single 5 km tall 4-sided base pyramid-shaped arcology built since the founding of the city. The outer core is consisted of 16 pillar-shaped arcologies surrounding the central pyramid, linked together by rings of sky vactrain lines. The city is surrounded by many platforms, most of them dedicated to tourism. It has a large underwater computronium bank which houses some of the Academy Minds who were residents of this city.

Mincity (founded 5409) [5763-] - The virtual capital of Corona, and a famous Minimal Surface City, originally founded by Kalmanto Aesthetics in 5409 as a rebellion against the old-fashioned building codes, an AI entropy tax haven, and an artwork. The city, covering a few square kilometers of southern Casamalunna, is home to a large number of AI luminaries and virtualities. The periodic redesigns draw a large spectator crowd.

Regional capital cities

Quark:
- Heisenberg [1792-]
Baryon:
- Freemanberg [1806-3396]
- Celsiusen [3398-]
East Baryon/Gzeut:
- Albertgrad [1784-]
West Baryon/Glara:
- Aktera [1811-7327]
- Eureka [7327-]
Planck:
- University [4155-4832]
- Aichi [4832-4875]
- University [4875-5763]
- Mincity [5763-]
Fermi:
- Omiata [4155-]
Bose:
- Agrawal [4155-]

Other Notable locations

Neo Atlantia (founded 1845) - Neo Atlantia is a large busy floating academic city consisted of over 5,000 platforms linked together and divided into zones. It is well known for the famous Atlantean skyships (which later spread to many other cities) and the Institute of the Godslist Database. Currently, the city is roughly 5 kilometers in radius. The very core of the city is the eleven platforms holding the official Institute of the Godslist Database. In the outer core are multitudes of buildings, some dedicated to the Godslist, some dedicated to the Godslist's employees, and a multitude of service buildings catering to employees and tourists alike. The western rim of the city is dominated by the low, spacious houses of the locals, and the eastern rim of the city seems more or less like a single organic mass divided only by the canals, the platforms here being the largest of the city.

Celsiusen (founded 2236) - Most well known for its gigantic fog nets, biological and artificial, and Roman-inspired architectures, Celsiusen is a city located in the Lambda Baryon desert. The zones in the city extended away from the center north-south and east-west, creating the well-known star glare cross shape that became the city's symbol. Fog nets are placed beyond those areas, west of the city, receiving moist wind from the bay to the west. Water collected from those nets are used to green the surrounding area, while the city lives off fresh water directly obtained by desalination of seawater, and in the current era, it has turned into a lush oasis in the middle of the desert. Apart from the architectures and the fog nets, the extreme music band of Flaming Baryons also attract quite a few people to this city.

Corona Cyclers
The orbits of the High Cyclers around Corona approach the planet closely, and have periapses lower than the innermost orbital ring
The High Cyclers (founded 2507) - A group of 24 habitats orbiting around Corona in a highly eccentric synchronous orbit. Each habitat's size at the longest axis ranges from 5 kilometers over 25 kilometers, and can be any kind of orbital within the size limit, may it be an O'Neill cylinder, a habitat built inside an asteroid, or a Dyson tree. A pair of cyclers shares an orbit, traveling together. There are two groups of cyclers: the prograde cyclers and the retrograde cyclers, each having 12 habitats in 6 orbits, each 60 degrees apart. Each group is misaligned by 30 degrees from the other, resulting in a high cycler orbit having two neighbors orbiting in the opposite direction 30 degrees away, both west and east.

The Aurora Towers (first member constructed in 3255) - The Aurora Towers is a group of actively supported space towers located near the poles, within the aurora ovals, reaching to the altitude of anywhere between few tens to almost a hundred kilometers. The first tower was erected in 3255 on Hadron by an S1 transapient who declined to state the actual purposes of those towers. Several more towers were erected during that century by other transapients. The popular name 'Aurora Tower' came from a popular hypothesis that the towers were constructed to aid researches on auroras. While there is no proof, in the current era they are used as such.

Aichi (founded 3571) - Unlike its bustling sibling city, the University City, Aichi is a small, static, quiet town located on a small island north of Gzeut. It is modeled after an average information age suburban Japanese town (although with many elements from other locations, especially interplanetary age suburban Asian cities), with some districts combining it with native Coronese architectures. It briefly became the capital of the Planck province from 4832 to 4875. The town is known for hosting a disproportionately large fraction of the planet's miscellaneous databases under it, earning it a nickname 'Library town'. Its many hot springs, both inside the city and surrounding it, are powered by the coolants of said databases. It is managed by an S1, who sometimes place hidden features and strange artifacts across the town.

Koronagrad (founded 4317) - A symbol of the two planets' partnership and cooperation, the ring was constructed at Corona-Sonata L4. In the beginning, the communities in this ring were dominated by both Coronese citizens and Bourgatov diasporas, but the differences quickly vanished and diluted. In the Current Era, Koronagrad is home to one of the largest Bourgatov diaspora communities outside Theta Persei.

Alemseged (founded 4546) - Alemseged was built as a Solarist holy city on Corona by digging into an inactive mountain range. Even after the planet's independence, it remains a strongly Solarist city, although it has taken a rather unique path. The city is home to a very diverse population, with membership consisting of almost all clades which can be found on Corona. The city is built vertically, consisted of hundreds of giant towering rod-shaped arcologies called pillars. Many lights were attached to the ceiling during the city's founding days, and are responsible for the city's 'starry sky'. The city is also densely angelnetted, allowing the residents to fly between each pillar to the next. The city gave rise to many artists, especially poets. In the current era, the city is most well known for frequently holding various famous (and more less well-known) festivals from other worlds all across the Terragen sphere, in the real world, in augmented reality, as well as in their virchworlds. The festivals are not as much of a faithful replication as it is to allow its inhabitants to 'express' themselves freely, but realistic replications are available.

Hydersbaad Consensus (founded 4832) - Academic-cultural orbital habitat in Corona orbit. Built to accommodate the ComEmp influx of diplomats, researchers and memeticists, it was at the time one of the most modern socio-academic research environments. Over time it has largely lost its importance in research to groundside institutes, and is currently a living museum of ongoing but fairly static philosophical and artistic endeavours.

Heritage Range (constructed 4874-5185) - Beginning in 4874, the Superior artist Lebodon Banx set about carving the likenesses of the great scientific minds of Terragens history (up to that point) into the face of the mountain range which rises sharply out of the lowlands around Feynman Bay on Corona. Working alone and with minimal robotic assistance, it took Banx some three hundred years to complete eir great work. Beginning with such notable ancient figures as Archimedes and Galileo and continuing on through various faces both famous (Einstein, Hawking, Duorkin) and almost unknown (Enduring Blue of the Summer Light), Banx's masterpiece gained em instant celebrity status and many followers. In the modern era, the Heritage Range is seen as a proud symbol of Coronian scientific prowess and history. Most tourists to the Iota system make it a point to visit the range and it is a favorite backdrop for concerts, sporting events, and similar occasions. In 5310, a microlayer of nanodiamond was laid down over each face and stabilizing carbon nanoweave was injected into the mountain's underlying substructure to protect it against the ravages of time in the form of weather and geologic shift.

Kayla's Pier (founded 7274) - An artificial peninsular city designed by Henna Artool Kayla in 7204 AT and constructed later that year. Fashioned as a super-long pier the city consists of the main boulevard flanked by residential, industrial and leisure zones. Initially, it extended northward, over the following centuries it was iteratively expanded until it spanned to the isles of Eze-Oni, the northernmost landmass on Corona excluding polar ice caps. The point at which the city meets the shoreline is well suited for viewing the aurora. This coastal region hosts a large circular plaza some 4 kilometers across that acts as a public viewing spot for the aurora as well as a landing zone for the aurora-chasers during the vernal equinox.

The Lovelaces (founded 7318) - A fleet of seagoing mobile cities sailing in the Einstein sea, visiting coastal and oceanic cities in the route. Floating cities, submarine cities, and sky cities capable of moving itself fast enough under its own power are free to join and leave, but there is always the core of the fleet, led by the Alan Turing. The fleet serves as a connection between many cities in its path, carrying cargoes and ferrying tourists wishing to enjoy the slow sightseeing trip on various cities across the Einstein sea. It is often accompanied by a large number of non-habitat vehicles, may it be ships, skyships, or submarines.

Notable virchworlds

The Corona Academy (founded 2350) - Originally simply called the Corona Virchworld, a union between seven major cities' public virchworlds, the Corona Academy virchworld is perhaps the largest and the most populous virchworld of all time on Corona, essentially a gigantic global social media platform intended to be the place where people from around the planet can meet, learn, and share their information. In the current version, upon entrance, the vuser is placed several virtual kilometers away from, and facing, a 1:1 replica of the University city with a giant glowing Radiant Crown above it. The virchworld offers all sort of environments (within boundary) in subworlds within, not just the academic atmosphere, as well as sophisticated customization tools and supervising moderator hyperturings.

One feature which became famous is the avatar that greets and guides the vusers upon their arrival in the virchworld, a feature first introduced in 4632 to celebrate the 1,000 Coronese years anniversary of the founding of the virchworld. In the default state, the avatar takes the form of a member of the viewer's clade in the current period's academician 'uniform'. The original official name for this character was simply 'the Academician', but the user-created alternative name 'Corona the Academician' was popularized, and eventually turning into its new official name. The avatar is sometimes used as the planet's mascot.

Yohome (founded 4808) - A network of virchworlds located inside a seemingly normal 12-kilometer radius asteroid whose interior has been converted into computronium, Yohome is the largest alife habitat/zoo around Corona, boasting some 5,000 alife habitats and a zoo. All species are reportedly subsophont, and modosophonts and transapient investigators alike so far haven't discovered any sophont right abuse, or at least declined to announce. According to several sources, it was owned by one of the colleges, now long gone, likely a member of the Academic Union.

The Alternate Corona Scenarios (founded 5567) - A group of virchworlds created during the dynamic worlds period. It is located in the outer orbital ring's databases. It was created by the Society for Study of Alternate Corona, the research group which bought copies of high accuracy data of Corona before terraformation from the Great Library of Aichi and used them to recreate the planet before it was modified by the Terragens. Most of those alternate Corona were then enviroformed into various types (such as terraformation but without geosculpting, a To'ul'h-like world, or partial-computronium), but some were left alone. Some of those later evolved into museums or open for colonization and tourism.

Corona Flag
Image from The Astronomer
Flag of Corona Planetary State
 
Related Articles
 
Appears in Topics
Inner SphereNon-Coercive Zone (NoCoZo)Systems & Worlds C - D
 
Development Notes
Text by The Astronomer
From an original by Anders Sandberg with additional material by Steve Bowers and John M. Dollan; updated 2019.
Initially published on 12 August 2000.

 
Additional Information
Celestia add-on for this system
Corona (best uploaded to a new instance of Celestia, one which does not include the older OA addons)

Unzip this folder into your extras file in Celestia. To visit Corona, use this Celestia link
 
 
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