Karolis

Karolis is a human occupied planet in the sector known as The Gate, located on the edge of Harkalic territory. Like all the inhabited planets of The Gate, Karolis is noted for its extensive militarization, specializing in spec ops and elite light infantry.

Geography

Karolis' surface is primarily made up of tundra, with pockets of taiga forests hugging the edges of the equatorial ocean and long mountain ranges dividing the polar continents into a spiderweb of territories.

Cities on Karolis are known as Berhks, derived from an old Earth term for a large, seaborne ice chunks that suspended most of their mass below the surface. The Karolis berhks are similar in that the majority of the the city's infrastructure resides below ground-level with only certain hydroponic greenhouses, solar power generation facilities and military defense structures residing above the surface.

Ecosystem

Being on the far end of its habitable zone from its star, Karolis has a cooler average temperature than a typical inhabited world. The equatorial sea stretches around the entire planet and acts as a large heat sink, helping to moderate the worst of the planet's weather. The majority of the oxygen producing organisms on Karolis are sea vegetation and a family of lichen-like^{1(See Footnotes)} plants that cover the vast plains of the Northern and Southern polar continents. Contributing to this oxygen production are the forests of coniferous-type trees that hug the ocean's edges and the windward sides of mountain ranges.

Ecosystem Cycles

There are four seasons on Karolis, spring, summer, fall and winter, with each lasting for approximately four months. During the spring and fall, hurricanes occur that carry large amounts of organic material far inland over mountain ranges providing much needed nutrients to the soil located there.

Fauna & Flora

The native fauna of Karolis tends towards either large bulky body shapes to improve their heat generation and retention aspects, or towards small gracile body shapes that require less resources to maintain and can easily find habitable shelter in burrows, dens or hollows during particularly harsh bouts of weather.

Flora on Karolis follows two paths of adaptation almost exclusively. The first path leans towards similar adaptations made by coniferous shrubs and trees have on Old Earth, having needle-shaped leaves to reduce desiccation and damage from the elements and remaining evergreen all year round. The second path leans towards adaptations similar to lichens from Old Earth, staying low to the ground in a carpet-like cluster and pairing with an algae for glucose production.

Natural Resources

The mountain ranges of the polar continents are rich in many metallic minerals as well as salts and hydrocarbons. A wide spread lichen known as "Karren's Tinder" originated from Karolis, and is noted for its quick growth, easy cultivation and dense nutritional value. The origin of it's name comes from a joke about how Karolians are so polite that this lichen would have time to grow on them because they will never interrupt someone conversing with them.

History

During the time of the Harkalic War, Karolis along with the other inhabited planets of The Gate, served as the staging and resupply area for the flanking assault into Harkalic space. Karolis could only contribute roughly 10000 troops to the expedition due to its low population compared to other planets in The Gate. However these troops performed exemplary with the lowest casualty rate of all the forces rallied. With their high amounts of training and esprit de corps they made excellent commandos and unstoppable breaching teams for ship boarding actions. Karolis was also used as a rear echelon recuperation zone for wounded or exhausted troops.

1 - Lichen is a moss-like plant from Old Earth consisting of a fungus in a symbiotic relationship with an algae.

Type

Planet