Novis (Planet/ Moon)

Novis is the closest of the four habitable moons of its primary, Apophis . Due to its location, Novis is heavily influenced by the haze, leading to an exciting planet of "Science-Fantasy" wonders.

Geography

Novis is a dense planet with higher gravity than one would expect from a moon of its size, likely due to the Haze. As a tidally locked planet one side of the planet is pointing directly at Apophis and the other is always facing away from the gas giant. Geologically the planet is divided into "Apophis side" and "Determinate side".
The Equator runs at a slight angle off center through both regions. Around the equator there is frequent Volcanic Activity, especially under the seas in this region which can result in occasional large pillars of steam.
On the Determinate side, the environment of the planet is largely temperate, the haze storms rarely reach the far end of the planet, making it the safest area on the planet. The environment there includes:

• cool savannahs
• Deserts
• a primeval forest as you near the equator
• humid subtropical climate (generally have no marked dry season with rainfall and relative humidity evenly distributed)
• Mediterranean climate (have a dry summer, with rainfall in cooler months)
• Oceanic (cool summers and cool (but not cold) winters, with relative humidity and precipitation evenly distributed)
• continental climate (extreme seasonal differences due to no nearby ocean. summers as hot as subtropical & winters as cold as in subpolar)
• The southern pole with its subpolar/tundra climate

The Apophis side is where it gets unpredictable, due to its proximity to the gas giant, the Haze storms strike the surface with great intensity. The storms, however are not storms in the conventional sense, but rather bouts of severe reality warps that sometimes completely alter the geology of the area affected. This is described as "terraforms" by the locals. While the Apophis side is incredible dangerous, it is also very useful as a potential source of infinite resources. The local authorities have made it a protocol to send "storm expeditions", groups of highly trained individuals, to retrieve anything of value from the haze storms before the next reality shift/ storm occurs.
Novis orbits Apophis in 1.25 days (30 hour day) and has a gravity of 1.2 g.

Fauna & Flora

In the more human populated areas of Novis, common domesticated animals include horses, pigs and chickens. All imports from Earth to help set up a new home for the settlers. Some grasses were also imported from Earth as food for these animals, though they do just fine on native grasses thanks to modification upon landing.

Blotrats

Named for the "Bl-oh-t" sound it makes when laughing, are a mole-like (niffler-like without a pouch) nocturnal creature. While they are capable of burrowing their own homes, they prefer to utilize caves for their homes - especially ones with tunnel systems. They are found in mountainous and rocky regions. Blotrats can teleport short distances as well as burrow (move earth/stone) at an alarming speed due to haze exposure, however they use these abilities infrequently since they have predators that sense haze disturbances. Blotrats grow to half the size of the average human, and live in packs. Is it very curious and scientists believe that it may one day evolve intelligence, though at the moment they are mostly just a nuisance that steals food and shiny or interesting things.

Purple Trees

Known commonly as Haze Trees, absorb haze from the atmosphere and release oxygen. While it has variants for different regions, they all share wide canopies with many large strong branches stemming from low in the main trunk. The only regions it has yet to be found in are in the arctic zone of the pole and the dessert. The fruit from these trees causes psychedelic reactions in any creature that eats them but they are edible. Haze trees provide homes for lots of creatures.

Wyrms

These flightless dragons are wingless with small horns and long whiskers. Reminiscent of the Chinese Dragons of lore. Their long whiskers are a sense-organ for detecting haze disturbances. They have longer bodies, like minks or ferrets, that are good at moving around in holes and tunnels with their 6 legs. They grow to stand no more than half a human's height, but easily reach 10 - 12 ft (3-4 meters) in length. The gnarly coral shaped horns are a defense mechanism in the tunnels and caves to protect the head from collisions with the roof and from the larger paws of their prey swiping at them. They are capable of limited bursts of "flight" using Haze in order to traverse obstacles and gaps that their prey may try and teleport across to escape. They are excellent climbers and live in Haze Trees wherever you find Blotrat, often seen leaping from branch to branch in pursuit of a Blotrat or other small rodents/creatures on the ground below.
Female Wyrms would be atypically larger and faster, with small nubby horns, but not good predators. Their capacity for "flight" would be almost nonexistent and their sense-organs would be significantly smaller. Their prey would likely be smaller rodents that they can catch and that can't teleport, and their nests would be up in Haze trees. Once pregnant the females may take to consuming the haze-tree fruit to sustain themselves without hunting in their later term, leading to a higher immunity to haze-induced mental effects but leading to higher rates of failed late-term pregnancy.

“As he stared at the strange creature traversing the sky it looked like a serpent with long whiskers flowing from it's face and two strong horns protruding from it's skull. The body seemed to flow gracefully through the air and traveled in a parabolic motion of up and down, seeming to be leaping through the air on some invisible solid surface. As he reminisced about stories from his childhood, the young man hit upon stories his great grandfather told of their ancestors myths, which told of great long beasts that could fly through the air, the greatest of which was the Azure Dragon, or QingLong.”

Crystal Flowers

These are a clear almost transparent flowers that resemble blue-bells of earth. These are only found around naturally formed Haze Pools; when the Haze is thick enough to condense into blue liquid pools with a slight glow. This is typically only in low lying areas, rarely found in mountains

Fairies

Small bony creatures with malformed wings that feed solely on crystal flowers (herbivore). They utilize the haze to teleport from one flower to another, since they can not fly in a traditional sense, then back to their homes in the purple trees. Fairies are to be left alone/ avoided when possible as their bites are notoriously hard to heal and may result in amputation.

Fairies and Wyrms

(When Crystal Flowers grow near Dragon Nests). Male Wyrms ignore the small faeries when they come across them. The females hunt Fairies when possible, but since the females can't fly well they are typically unsuccessful. This leads to "nest control zones", where a nest of dragons controls a certain Haze tree, or copse of trees, driving out faeries in nearby trees. As long as there are no Blotrat around the dragons don't care about the Fairies.

The Glitterpuck

This 3 inch long uncommon beetle-like insect, glows with glittery dust in proximity of haze creatures. They prey on animals, insects, plants, carcasses and even manure that have haze inside them when prey are scarce. It’s shell is iridescent. During the mating season they swarm on animals not to feast on them but to lay eggs inside them, feeding the eggs the haze nutrients they need. This is the only time that you can easily find them. They are solitary creatures that mostly reside in regions between the Apophis and Determinate side and mostly make their homes in underground burrows.

Saurians

A sentient reptile-like race that lives in the tropical regions on the Determinate side of the moon, like the equatorial forest, where they mostly live in harmony with nature. They take most of their resources from trees and animals including clothing, weapon, food, shelter etc. They live in wooden structures and caves being a Paleolithic civilization. They have a shamanistic and tribalism society related to the haze and worshiping Appophis as some kind of god. They’d have far better control over the haze and can also use magic better than humans. Their clans are lead by elder shamans who are very old yet wise and known in the arts of haze manipulation. They guide their community in times of war and peace and can use their powers to see outcomes of certain futures and decisions, a term called “Hazesight”. Humans have a policy of non intervention. The natives are curious about the aliens but most of the times just ignore the human beings. Same goes for humans.

Fyrms

(pronounced Firms) the evolutionary cousin to the larger Wyrms, are smaller versions of the flightless dragons. Six legs on a long body with soft fur instead of the scales of their cousins. Their horns are mostly vestigial stubs. Similar in size to ferrets and polecats, the fyrms are found in the "Between" regions between the Apophis side and Determinate side. They use the whisker sensing organ to sense when Haze storms are on the way. They combat the storms by rubbing themselves in the juice of the fruit from haze trees. This appears to give them resistance to reality warping effects of the storm. Unlike their cousins they can not "fly-jump", and instead they've adapted the flight mechanism to aid them underwater with little bursts of speed, periodically "stepping" on the water to accelerate their sinuous bodies.They have a plate-ridge along the back to help provide propulsion when swimming with the snake-like movement. This adaptation allows them to catch prey that move quickly by using both ambush tactics and sudden speed bursts during a chase.
They eat mostly rodents, fish and carrion. In areas rich in rodents or fish, families of fyrms led by an aged fyrms hold relatively stable territories. Younger fyrms often are more solitary, and will sleep overnight in the burrows of rodents they have killed after slightly widening them. Females nursing their litters are the most settled, but will begin roaming once the kits are old enough to accompany them. Its burrow is often poorly constructed unless in an established territory, as they do not inhabit these burrows long enough to warrant restructuring - generally a few days up to a few months. An established burrow can have as many as 20 burrows connected to it through a series of tunnels. When looking for a new territory it can move 12–18 km a day. It's most favorable areas are along the slopes of steppe ravines, and near settlements.
Fyrms have been domesticated by human settlers in the Between regions. This domesticated version of the animal grows slightly larger than the wild counterpart and must be trained at an early age not to hunt the domesticated chickens. They bond well with humans, assuming them to be their family units and the human's home/village their territory.

Fire Salamander

It’s basically a gigantic salamander (the size of a rino) that the Saurians revere quite a bit. They use them occasionally as gigantic load carriers. Physically, they are very muscular and can carry great loads over large distances. Their scales are incredibly resistant to damage (especially fire) and they can breathe fire as well. They need a lot of room, and don't do well in tropical jungles. They are found in Savannah-like regions.

Unikittens

These are the descendants of the common house cat brought from earth. Affectionately called murder balls. Over time they developed adaptations to the Haze. They have a single horn on their foreheads typically in the color of their fur and larger eyes giving them a more kitten like appearance despite their age. Their fur comes in all colors and they are able to teleport across a meter in distance within line of sight. Only located in cities and are strictly regulated. If allowed out of the city it would quickly become the apex predator and has been known to attack any and all other creatures within the city limits and as a result is normally the sole pet of a household. Can be purchased in most city pet shops.

Solanum

A weed-like plant that developed immunity against the haze. As a result it acts exactly how one would expect a plant on Earth to behave. It is found in the plains and grassland areas of the determinate side of the moon. The immunity can be exploited through an infusion of its leaves, but without proper processing it also induces psychoactive effects. Because of the cost and effort to process it properly, it is a restricted substance. However, one can still find it sold as a drug, if you know where to look, to combat the effect of the haze (an "aura") to varying degrees of effectiveness and psycho-activity.

Messenger Dragons

A reptilian dragon-like creatures with very large wingspans and bodies that grow to the size of donkeys. They are used as a form of long distance communication used by the Saurians between various clans. These flying creatures can fly at near the speed of sound thanks to Haze augmentations, allowing fast and efficient communication between various clans. Smaller ones are used like messenger birds while the largest can be trained to be ridden.
Messenger dragons can survive all across the world, but are found in higher numbers where the temperature is highest. The messenger dragons from those areas also tend to be larger in size. They are on the high end of the food chain, having no aerial predators of their own. The only ground predators they have are the fire Salamanders. They are obligate carnivores, usually feeding on large hordes of small animals that graze in the fields and grasslands
Domesticating a messenger dragon by the Saurians takes a long amount of time and a tremendous amount of skill. Once they are domesticated, they are bound to their one rider till death. Humans have yet to be able to domesticate these creatures to the same degree.

Edimals

This is a classification for animals that look and behave like fruit-based plants. These animals' meat just taste like the fruit, and the fruit growing on them can be harvested as well. They reproduce via seeds, a single edimal will have multitude of seeds in their body. Edimals are ignored by regular carnivores that would be considered predators. The only predatory animals Edimals face are herbivores, many of which have evolved some carnivorous elements to hunt them including front facing eyes, and sharper teeth. Each sub-type has a specific defense mechanism and poisonous or healing agent. Their primary food source is the plant they mimic, however they also require sunlight, water and haze to produce nutrients. Larger Edimal varieties are also know to eat other smaller Edimals when they encroach on their territory.
The fruit on an Edimal can rot and are susceptible to flies and other pests. Most Edimals in the wild have small fruits, however domestication will make the fruit bigger, and actually cumbersome for wild living. Similar to the effect domesticating sheep had on their wool. Edimals are also effected by parasites and diseases that afflict them. Notable ones are similar to mad cow disease, various tree parasites, and cancer. Since the disease vector is an animal, which has more freedom of movement and is more prone to disease than a plant, the viruses/bacteria are transported by, and come into contact with, other hosts easily and quickly. The diseases that have adapted to edimals can affect the animal, the plants, or both. One known parasite affects just the fruit, but has developed a symbiotic relationship with the Edimal. The infected animals' fruits change color, and smell, to warn predators not to eat from them.
There are several varieties however the most documented are Bluu Bearrys and Banana Lammas.
Bluu Bearrys are one of the Bearry variety which are the largest of the Edimals. They have a defense mechanism similar to a blow fish and its poisonous traits if not cut up right. They blow up to deter predators. When not expanded they are small bear like creatures, the size of a small bear with blue short fur. Bluu Bearrys could be used as a potent poison. Found wherever blueberries grow.
Banana Lammas are a tropical animal that mimics the banana plant they solely eat. Banana llamas can and have been domesticated the same way cows have. Surprisingly, nutritional wise, you could solely live off a banana llama for the rest of your life since it has overall nutritional benefits lacking in a regular banana, and 27% of their body can be made into a medication. They also make good guard animals for rural areas as well, due to their bleating shout when predators (carnivore or herbivore) are near.

Alternative Name(s)

Moon Apha

Type

Planetoid / Moon

Location under

Apophis (Gas Giant)

Related Materials

• Haze

Population:
25% of the system's total population lives on Novis, with a healthy community of scientists. This population is split into three major groups. A religious community, scientific community, and a hybrid one, as well as a few outlier groups.

Magic Users:
Everyone is somewhat affected by the haze, but it is the degree of reaction that allows for magic use. The population with an "Aura" would be 60%, and 30% have been given a DNI from the AI's. Those with an Aura can use magic to varying degrees of success as it requires a lot of metal training. There is also an increase or decrease in reaction over time. The DNI's would be implanted during a coming of age ceremony to stabilize your reaction at that time. However your reaction can increase or decrease over time just like any allergy. The higher your reaction, the higher your potential for magic - however the reaction ranges from dreams of possible futures to psychosis.
(see also: Haze )