Ni

Ni is the second planet from its Sun and the only astronomical object in its solar system known to harbor life. Ni's gravity interacts with other objects in space, especially the pale violet Moon, Ni's only natural satellite. During the time that it takes Ni to revolve around its Sun, it rotates about its axis about 352.35 times. Ni's axis of rotation is tilted about 21 degrees with respect to its orbital plane, producing seasons on Ni. The gravitational interaction between Ni and the Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes Ni's orientation on its axis, and gradually slows its rotation.
About 71% of Ni's surface is covered with water, mostly by oceans. The remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Ni's polar regions are covered in ice, including the Arctic ice sheet and the sea ice of the Antarctic ice pack. Ni's interior remains active with a solid inner core, a liquid outer core that generates Ni's magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics.
Within the first billion years of Ni's history, aerobic and anaerobic organisms appeared in the oceans and began to affect the atmosphere and surface. Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Ni's distance from the Sun, physical properties, and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of Ni, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Ni is unique in that it supports material life, and is adjacent in both 4‑D directions to areas that support the stability of certain kinds of energetic life.
There are two sapient species on Ni: the Sky People and the Sea People. Sky People and Sea People have developed diverse societies and cultures all across Ni’s continents and shallow oceans, respectively.

Animals

The evolutionary history of Niotian animals is slightly different than that on Earth. This section will be an overview for the Earthling reader in how the fauna of Ni is different. One key feature of all vertebrates on Ni is a type of olfactory organ not seen on earth. On Ni, smell receptors evolved outside of the secondary breathing holes. The respiratory vertebrates of Ni have little holes in the corners of their eyes or on their foreheads that breathe, but these have no sense of smell. That is not to say that the creatures of Ni have no sense of smell. They have little tendrils growing out from the corners of their mouths that are covered in smell (and touch) receptors. Think of fleshy whiskers, or if a star-nosed mole or catfish toned it down a little. Basically, on Earth, you use breath to move air past your smell receptors; but on Ni, the smell receptors are on little tentacles that move through the air, achieving the same effect.

Amphibians

Many amphibians of Ni are similar to those on Earth, with the addition of the olfactory organ mentioned above. A key difference is that one clade has developed a form of thermoregulation and a type of intelligence completely independent of the so-called "higher vertebrates". This line of course gave rise to the sea people, who rule the wetlands and shallow oceans of the world.

Reptiles

The scaly reptiles of Ni are not much different from the ones on Earth, except for the presence of the different olfactory mechanism.

Birds

An extinction event went a little differently on Ni than on Earth, and Ni has no neoaves. The only living birds are fowl (chickens, turkeys, etc.), waterfowl (ducks, geese, etc.), and ratites (ostriches, kiwis, etc.), who of course are different from their Earthly counterparts in that they possess the fleshy smell-tentacles at the corners of their beaks.

Pterosoids

The pterosaurs of Ni were similar to those of Earth. Again, they had muscular smell-tendrils separate from the nose that moved around above and below the mouth to smell their environment. The wings were also different: instead of being made of one “finger”, they were a bit more like a bat’s wings, between the "fingers". When they landed, they walked on all fours, using the “knuckles” of their wings as forefeet. Their necks were not quite as long as those of Earth pterosaurs. The pterosaurs had fur, were warm-blooded, had beaks, and laid hard-shelled eggs. This group gave rise to two modern clades of animal that dominate most of Ni's landscapes.

Monotremes

This clade of pterosaur descendants has lost its wings, but maintained the beak and egg-laying. It is the monotremes who are roughly equivalent to most of the beasts of Earth, from bears and lions to oxen and pigs to mice and rats (there are even a few species of aquatic monotreme!). These are of course quite different in appearance to the Earthly animals who fill the same niches, in that they have beaks instead of snouts. Monotreme beaks often contain teeth.

Chiroptoids

The other extant clade of pterosoids has largely retained flight but lost their beaks. They are warm-blooded, furry, give live-birth and nurse their young, but bear in mind that they are pretty different from Earth mammals. Due to their pterosauran ancestry, they have wings, hollow bones and air sacs, and the ubiquitous olfactory tendrils. Many species of chiroptoid spend a lot of time on land, walking on all fours, but almost all species are competent flyers. Most are marsupials, with full-blown placentas being isolated to a single order of flightless chiroptoids. Only a handful of egg-laying mammal species survive, and all are quite weird. This group fills many of the niches that on Earth are filled by birds. This clade is the genesis of the sky people, who have spread to settle most of the land on Ni.

Maps

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  Ni

Type

Planet

Day
31.82 Earth hours
Lunar Month
24 local days
Solar Year
351.35 local days
Surface Water
71%
Diameter
13,286 km