Phrij

A planet tidally locked at the barest edge of its weakened star's habitable zone. Phrij has the unfortunate situation of being a world cappable of supporting life orbiting a star in its red giant stage. The energy given off by the star is so weak that Phrij is barely lit even on the sun-ward side of the planet.
Phrij once had a sizable human population in the Pre-Scream era. Back then the sun had been in its yellow stage of life and the sun-ward side of Phrij had been a lush jungle with year round sunshine. The rim-ward side had been an artic glacier, home to many large, ice boring creatures. As the Scream ripped through Human space, the Metaphysical energy destabilized the sun, causing it to progress to its red giant stage prematurely over the course of a few centuries subjecting the now stranded population to a icy imprisonment as the glacier expanded to cover the whole planet.
Phrij is classified as a death world, a world completely incapable of supporting proper human settlement. Though the ice tunneling beasts appear to be the primary reason for this the truth is much more sinister. Phrij still contains a population of humans, scrounging for life in the tunnels below the ice. Without significant imported resources and a position well below the top of the food chain, the Phrijians have learned to take whatever food they can get from wherever source they can get it. Fresh, unfrozen meat is rare on Phrij, and no Phrijian would waste fresh meat.
Phrij is currently the focus of a dispute between the Technocratic Union and the Hegemony over salvage rights for the planet. Both sides are engaged in negotiations taking place on a station in Phrij's orbit.

Geography

Phrij is completely encased in a glacier that radiates from the rim-ward side of the planet. At the very center of the sun-ward side of the planet is a deadly lichen forest which provides sufficient oxygen for the small amount of life left on the planet. The glacier is riddled with tunnels and caverns carved through the ice by the indigenous lifeforms. Fresh water exists as glacier meltoff in areas of geothermal activity.

Fauna & Flora

The only remaining flora on Phrij is the giant lichen forest, which reproduces via toxic spores that embed into a subject and start growing while absorbing all the nutrients from the host, and hijacking their nervous system to compell the host to seek victims to attack and infect. The only species capable of surviving the forest is the Phrijian Caterpillar, a arthropod analogue that grows from an egg the size of a baseball to a 10ft armoured millipede. The species forms the bottom rung of the food chain on Phrij, being the only creature capable of eating the forest lichen. They then metamorphosise into the Phrijian Ice Devil shedding its protective shell in favour of lightning fast burrowing claws and a hunger for meat.

Natural Resources

Phrij has no easily exploited resources left due to the massive global glacier but a wealth of Pre-Scream tech is locked beneath the ice, in the ruined hab domes of the ancient colony sites.

Alternative Name(s)

The Fridge, Hell-Frozen-Over

Type

Planet

Contested By

• The Hegemony
• The Technocratic Union