Earth

Earth, also known as Terra and Sol III, resides in the Sol System of the Old Core Sector of the Milky Way, and was the original capital of the Trans-Galactic Government and other old factions, such as the human cell of the Holy Faction. Earth, being a linkworld, is known for an unusually high magic level and being the hub of many interstellar and supernatural activity.

Overview
Earth is a standard terrestrial planet, located within the Old Core and original Sol System, in the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way. It is located at the intersection point of major supernatural activity and hyperlanes, including several unstable hyperlanes that launch ships at abnormally high speeds and often damage them in the process. At least one of these lanes was linked to the home sectors of the Eirians, Lucerings, and Darsseons. After the Trans-Galactic War, the hyperlanes were artificially cut off or extended to form a new nexus point around New Earth.

Geography
Earth has seven distinct continents, with most of its surface being covered by water. The seven continents are known as North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, Arctica, and Antarctica, along with several sub-continents and smaller landmasses, such as islands. Arctica and Antarctica serve as Earth's geographic North and South Poles respectively, and are ice caps. Earth's continents, depending on where they were located, could hold forests, grasslands, tundras, deserts, mountain ranges, and other natural formations. Some regions were almost entirely a single biome, mainly due to their location on the planet. In Earth's past, there was an eighth continent, known as Atlantis, located in the Atlantic Ocean near Europe.

Environment
Earth had several climates ranging across its surface. Around its polar ice caps, the temperature was cold, and often dropped well below freezing temperatures. Regions closer to the equator tended to be hotter, creating arid deserts or humid rain forests. Areas covered in grasslands often had temperate climates throughout most of the year. The planet as a whole experiences a change in summer and winter, which give warmer and colder weathers respectively, although some regions are affected more than others. Under the Trans-Galactic Government, some cities held Weather Control Systems that protected them from otherwise harsh environments. The introduction of cyberforming changed a great deal of the industrialized surface, creating megacities that lasted throughout the Trans-Galactic War.

Citizens
The inhabitants of Earth are known as Terrans. For most of Earth's existence, there were no true citizens of Earth, but rather, citizens of each individual region or governing body. However, during the Trans-Galactic War, Earth's inhabitants became Government citizens.

Native Species
Although the majority of Earth's population was comprised of native humans, other native sapient species made up Earth's population, such felinoid shapeshifting N'vanlenoids, as well as sub-races and offshoots of humans, such as slimefolk, werewolves, and vampires. Alien species joined Earth's population during the Trans-Galactic War, and some were present for a time during Earth's ancient history.

Flora
Terran flora was known for their average appearance in comparison to intergalactic specimens, and yet contained some supernatural members in their mix. They were common ingredients in the creation of potions.

Fauna
Terran fauna sported both mortal and supernatural species. Some were relatively unknown or in low numbers, and later became endangered, such as the sub-arctic Ningen, the massive Thunderbirds, and other subterranean creatures. Minor examples of magic-based fauna included the Terran slimes, gelatinous creatures that could live in any environment with sufficient moisture. Mortal, unpowered fauna became prominent during the early modern ages of Earth, as many of the supernatural creatures, deemed monsters, were driven to endangerment or extinction during the Middle Ages. During the Trans-Galactic War, Terran fauna were sent to other planets, either intentionally or accidentally. The image of the bald eagle, associated with the Trans-Galactic War era Government and United States of the pre-Trans Galactic War era, is among the most well-known images of Terran fauna in deep space, often alongside the Terran dove.

Government and politics
Earth originally had no central government, with large powers utilizing different systems of government changing dominance over the course of time, often putting different species in the dominant position. During the Trans-Galactic War, Earth had a central government in the form of the Trans-Galactic Government, based in Washington D.C., which was renamed to The Capitol. Most of the major resources and Government funding went to Military and manufacturing purposes, often located in the cyberformed megacities, space stations, or moon bases.

Military
Earth did not have a unified military until the Trans-Galactic War, with each governing body having their own military force, each with different levels of advancements.

Law Enforcement
Each region and governing body had their own law enforcement agency in the pre-Government era. Under the Government, planetary law enforcement agencies were put into place.

Public Works
Public works varied between each region and government, with some being dedicated to the protection of the public, and others focusing all their resources on their elites.

Economics
Earth's various regions had different economic systems, with many building off of each other in an international trading system. Under the Government, Earth's economy came from the manufacturing of advanced technology and the exports of natural resources, most of which was handled by the SpaceForce Corporation.

Ancient history
Earth was formed more than 4.5 billion years before the Second Trans-Galactic War. It was known as a linkworld, as all major supernatural activity entering the universe was gradually concentrated in its area, along with a space-time anomaly that created various turbulent hyperlanes connected to it. As Earth became habitable, several species arose on it. In the age of large reptiles known as dinosaurs, Mars was ravaged by a demonic invasion, and some surviving Martians took refuge on Earth's moon. After a meteor formed from the Sol System's asteroid belt struck Earth, the dinosaurs went extinct, and from the ashes arose primitive animals to sapient species over many more years, with Humans becoming the most prominent among them, followed by N'vanlenoids, winged feline shapeshifters who managed to join early human societies, enabling them to shift between humanoid and feline forms. Empires and kingdoms rose and fell, with species rising and falling with them, and the Martians soon integrated their very low number on Earth. While the Martians initially secluded themselves from humans, they eventually began interacting, with the Martians sharing their language with humans, known to later historians as the Italic languages. At this time, technology progressed slowly, with Magic taking prominence. There was some contact with alien races and supernatural entities, most of which were mistaken as deities either accidentally or on purpose, with entire religions being structured around them at various points in time. These beings arrived to either study or possibly exploit Earth, its people, and its resources. Among the most powerful of these species were humanoids of Celestial descent from the Andromeda Galaxy, known as Prometheans, who truly sought to capture Earth, sparking a conflict between them, the other pantheons, and other races in the Milky Way. These entities inspired religions in Greece, Egypt, and other regions, although as ancient history drew to a close, they left Earth for several reasons, mostly linked to the aftermath of the Promethean war and opposition from each other and greater authorities. Some of the so-called gods were merely Terran mages who were taken on as protégés by the aliens, with the people's worship being entirely accidental, as was the case for a N'vanlenoid named Bastet, a prodigy mage born without wings, cut down by General-Centurion Ares during the Promethean invasion. Some alien technologies and crafts that crashed on Earth remained hidden until the late Pre-Trans Galactic War era, such as a ship piloted by a human-like Lotan, although they could not be fully utilized at the time. Demonic entities known as Skinwalkers had arrived on Earth at an unknown period in time, and possessed various humans in North America. A demonic wormhole generator was also implanted in North America under the command of the demon lord Legion, intended to link to a distant unholy hotspot planet known as Ferrax, but was abandoned when angelic forces hunted down the demons constructing the generator, and sunk deep beneath the ground, under what would one day become New York City. Near the end of ancient history, the Martians finally went extinct, bred out among humans.

Pre-Trans Galactic War era
The Pre-Trans Galactic War era, also known as the Pre-Government era, refers to the era of Earth following 0 AD until the Trans-Galactic War.

Middle Ages, late empires, and technological prominence
After Earth's greatest Holy contact, magic-based empires and societies became more structured, with prominence moving towards Europe, with feudal societies and monarchies ruling the lands. Around this time, supernatural Terran fauna, deemed monsters, were far more common, and bands of adventurers, both human and non-human, traveled the lands in search of money, noble quests, fame, and kingdoms of their own. As time went on, magic slowly became more and more inefficient, as to become a proficient mage, one had to spend years of study, and most ordinary people, now a human majority, were starting to demand a new way to live without magic. Thus began the technological revolutions, creating machines that did not require magic to run. However, due to the presence of magic and other supernatural presences, technology was able to grow at a faster rate, at first consisting of rudimentary magitech, before becoming what was then known as drytech. Around this time, the last of the great magical wars were fought, each one destroying prominent supernatural societies and driving magic-based races into either extinction or obscurity, a major one sinking the island continent of Atlantis, with the last one being known as the Were-War, also known as the War of the Night, which was a war in 1150 AD between two large kingdoms, one of vampires, and the other of werewolves, which were both gaining dominance in Europe, making themselves the most dominant Terran supernatural races and establishing dominance over the mortals in their respective regions. The vampires emerged victorious, and the defeated werewolves were forced to dismantle their kingdom and scatter. However, the mortal population of the region, taking advantage of the depleted vampiric forces, rose up and overthrew the vampires, forcing them to also break up their kingdom and scatter as more mortal nations rose in their place. Around 1250, a group of aliens from the Scutum-Centaurus Arm, stranded in the Orion-Cygnus Arm after the Promethean invasion of the Milky Way, landed on Easter Island. Seeing the native humans, the aliens left in search of an uninhabited planet. The aliens' likeness were later used for the large Moai statues. As the large empires and feudal kingdoms declined, people began to look away from magic entirely, which rarely answered questions they held about life and the workings of the universe, and was believed to provide inadequate protection against the supernatural due to how difficult it was for masses to learn it. The Holy Faction, which had been operational for quite some time, was the first to develop many of the scientific theories and workings that would define how the technological world works. As the presence of technology increased, Anti-Magic was discovered on Earth, practiced by "anti-mages." Newly forming tech societies utilized these anti-mages to protect their societies and technologies against any supernatural enemy, although most of the civilized world was beginning to look towards technology, which allowed for more stable societies that could easily grow exponentially, as magic societies grew ever so slowly due to the difficulty of learning and researching magic. Science and technology, while initially weak compared to magic, was able to grow faster, which is why the Holy Faction also put an emphasis on technological development in their early years, and for a time stood as the world's most influential power. Colonial empires then grew, and the world was divided up once more, with other powers taking prominence. Colonies in North America, most notably the 13 British Colonies, held populations of werewolves, descendants of the survivors from the Were-War, and populations of N'vanlenoids, most of whom arrived alongside the werewolves, eventually becoming the main concentration of Terran N'vanlenoids. In the late 1600s, the Skinwalkers in North America possessed new groups of humans, predominantly females, in colonial Massachusetts, empowering them with unholy magic. While many of the newly-created Skinwalker witches were held on trial alongside other accused humans, some of whom were executed, most of the witches got away to more remote parts of the colonies, and were chased down by some humans and N'vanlenoids, although the humans were cursed into becoming slimefolk, and the witches got away, remaining in obscurity in what would later become the United States, managing to overpower their Skinwalkers and assume control over them, passing on their abilities and control of the Skinwalkers to their descendants. After a series of revolutions beginning with the 13 Colonies, the colonial empires lost power as their colonies became independent, establishing most of the world's nations.

World Wars
In Europe, which still held a hefty amount of magic sub-societies and cultural beliefs, a war began that soon engulfed their continent, later known as World War I, lasting from 1914-1918. The war began due to a series of political tensions culminating in illegal annexations, attempts at nationalizing magic, and the assassination of an official from Austria-Hungary, which formed the Triple Alliance with Germany and Italy. During the war, technological developments, mainly flight and ballistics, were utilized on the field to greater extents than in the past, and were a great success. Although anti-mages were rather rare, they were sometimes not needed, as most magical societies did not have any spells or incantations specifically against technology. Several groups of mages and supernatural beings joined either side in the first world war, with the Triple Entente and later the United States being joined by the prominent werewolf pack-factions, who had become based in the United States, with the Triple Alliance gaining support from the vampiric guilds. Various weapons and tactics were developed and utilized, such as toxic gas, UV lamps used against vampires, silver aerial flechettes used against werewolves and other troops, trench warfare, aerial combat, and a technological prominence, although some technologies and tactics became obsolete or were rendered ineffective following the war. Some technologies, such as radar, sonar, and encryption, were upgraded and utilized to the post-Trans Galactic War era. Although the Triple Entente and United States won the war, the pack-factions and vampiric guilds did not gain a decisive victory over each other, and they both stopped major activities for a few years afterwards, with the vampiric guilds briefly relocating their headquarters to Asia to escape persecution. Following the war was a period of relative peace that was plagued by economic depressions, although it saw the rise of new technologies. After the interwar period, a fascist power rose in Europe, known as the Axis, led by a Nazi-ruled Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, a failed mage and painter turned political extremist, who was seeking modern magitech as a way to gain an advantage over the rest of the world. The Nazi regime, which held a heavy influence on other Axis powers, was very human-centric, pushing down and attempting to exterminate non-human races, while also searching for "purity" in the human race, which would later lead to a genocide against "impure" humans. However, seemingly contradicting the Nazi views established by Hitler, vampires were viewed as the next step in human evolution, and were thus respected and welcomed back to Axis-controlled Germany and Italy. In response to Axis aggression and military buildup, other European nations, such as France, Britain, and Soviet-controlled Russia, formed the Allies. The Axis began what became known as World War II, which lasted from 1939-1945, and took on several supernatural allies, such as the vampiric guilds, who were organized into a military division known as Blutkorps. With the development of stable and more modernized magitech and mixes of magic and science, allowing them to create low power city-sized deflector shields, more efficient power sources, updated computational technology, genetically augmented soldiers, and even some magic-based weapons resembling energy weapons, the Axis seemed to hold an advantage over other powers, although their tech was rather expensive, took up many resources, were sometimes short in supply, and a majority of their larger weapons later proved to be impractical, meant more as weapons of fear, often due to cost, size, efficiency, and time to develop. Despite these drawbacks, the Axis still took the Allies by surprise with a series of quick attacks, and utilized effective magitech that was closer to 21st century tech, often seen in parts of their tanks, guns, and armor, later in components of aircraft and battleships. Their navy was led by a massive marine dreadnought known as the Bismarck, which was essentially a sea-faring magitech fortress. For the initial duration of the war, European forces stood against the Axis, although the United States supplied money, resources, and manufactured assets to the Allies, which the European Allies used to build their military forces. Axis forces forced European Allies back to Britain, which utilized its aerial defense grids to withstand the blitzkrieg. Although the Axis seemed close to victory, after an attack on the United States by Axis Japan, the US entered the war to aid the Allies on the battlefield, rather than simply providing munitions as they were doing before. The United States also had technological developments, creating two city-grid fusion reactors used for Washington D.C. and New York, developing arrays of mass production lines and spearheading a new form of the military-industrial complex, and was researching the prospect of cybernetic enhancements. Gaining their own supernatural ally in the form of the werewolf pack-factions, organized into a military division known as Higher Operatives with Lycanthropy (H.O.W.L.), the United States launched an offensive on the Pacific and Western European front. During this time, despite the Axis' continuous research and failures to create magitech cybernetics and conflicting focuses on magic and technology, the United States developed the first Terran cyborg soldier, who became known as Commander Merica. Shortly before his creation, US scientists had accidentally discovered anti-magic tech, sometimes known as anti-magitech, which was discovered while trying to create another fusion reactor. The initial batch of this technology, along with a storage of Keplerium and reverse-engineered cybernetic technology from a Lotan craft that crashed in Arizona long ago, was exhausted on Commander Merica, who became the strongest soldier in the Allied armies. Soon afterwards, anti-magic shield generators and rifles were created, and although these were few and far between, they were utilized to their maximum extent, and distributed among allies. However, the Soviets refused to take them, favoring their own devices, although they still received hefty amounts of ordinary tech and assets from the US Lend-Lease program. In response to Commander Merica rallying Allied forces, eliminating or capturing Axis forward commanders, and capturing key posts, the Axis finally managed to create their own non-magic based cyborg soldier, a hulking brute known as T-WEHRMACHT, whose cybernetics would later classify him as a Class 5 Cyborg, and was built from parts of Panzer tanks. T-WEHRMACHT, like Commander Merica, was a soldier caught in an explosion that caused the loss of all his limbs, and exhausted the Axis' batch of cybernetic technology. Previously, in 1943, a year after the creation of Commander Merica, Axis spies managed to steal a copy of the blueprints that were used to construct his cybernetic augments. Although they were able to replicate the blueprints, they did not have access to Keplerium or alien artifacts, and so T-WEHRMACHT's body was placed within the suit's torso, similarly to a mech pilot, using larger and oversized technology to compensate for the difference in advancements and strength with Commander Merica through sheer armored bulk and explosive firepower. T-WEHRMACHT was used by the Axis on the western front against Commander Merica, where T-WEHRMACHT proved to be a match for him and other Allied soldiers, fighting them for almost a year despite being pushed back with the rest of the Nazi forces. However, T-WEHRMACHT's cybernetics and feelings of power, along with a frustration at how weak his fellow soldiers were compared to him, ate away at his sanity, causing him to defy orders and go on uncontrollable rampages against random structures, local herds of animals, Allied scout parties, or civilian settlements, even killing other Axis soldiers who got in his way. Seeing the state he was in, and the near-unstoppable Allied advance, Axis commanders decided to simply let him loose on the Allied forward offensive, where he caused mass havoc. However, due to his lack of judgement, Commander Merica, despite sustaining heavy injuries, led T-WEHRMACHT into a flooded building and destroyed the monster borg by exploiting a fatal flaw in T-WEHRMACHT's armor, which was a vulnerability to electrical surges. With the Axis' last practical superweapon gone and their resources depleted, Allied forces from the west and east closed in on the Axis, while the United States also utilized newly-developed nuclear weapons against Axis Japan. Remaining Axis forces were destroyed, with most of their leaders killed, captured, or committing suicide, including Adolf Hitler, before Soviet forces captured Berlin. At the war's end, the vampiric guilds, along with other mage societies that aided the Axis, were destroyed or otherwise dismantled, with their leaders being killed by werewolf troops, giving the werewolf pack-factions a decisive victory over their longtime rivals. However, with the changing societies of the world, and the losses the pack-factions suffered, they too gradually faded into obscurity and dissolved their pack-factions, thus ending the prominence of the supernatural races.

Cold War
Following the World Wars came an era known as the Cold War. During this time, the Soviet regime reached across the East, implementing an oppressive communist doctrine known as Stalinism. In the West, the United States, now supported by the SpaceForce Corporation, became one of the world's most dominant powers, utilizing a capitalist and democratic system. The US and SpaceForce Corporation focused on the development of advanced technology, and stopped researching eugenics following several scandals and ethical debates that could have led to an armed rebellion, which also resulted in a complete overhaul of the US government and several new laws of sentient protection following investigations and revelations concerning foreign interference and illegal experimentation. The Soviets and US both developed space-faring technology, which at the time, could only make it to the moon at most, but this technology was used to establish communication satellites, research stations, observation satellites, and even a few defense satellites. Although the United States reached the moon at the end of the Space Race, no efforts to create a moonbase were realized yet. The Soviets used what Axis technology they salvaged, along with a method of launching unrefined rockets until a successful one is made, to establish their space program, while the US and SpaceForce Corporation utilized greater caution and research, both sides building dominance in space. Proxy wars were launched across various countries, although no direct war began. The Soviet Union continued to fall into economic disrepair with each development, eventually forced to break down. Various Soviet satellite states began seceding after the Soviet hold weakened in 1989, creating many civil conflicts, many of which were very destructive. Its collapse marked the end of the Cold War, and left the United States as the world's sole superpower. Throughout the Cold War, secret research of extraterrestrial specimens and very few scattered contacts with alien life was used to find hidden facts about interstellar history, mainly the presence of other civilizations in the Milky Way, although these meetings were kept secret from the public. One of the revelations given was concerning a destructive power known as the Intergalactic Empire, whose armadas were known to be heading in a direction that could bring them to the Milky Way. Also during the Cold War, another Scutum-Centaurus Arm species abducted several humans and other Earth creatures for study.

Post-Cold War
Shortly after the conclusion of the Cold War, resources had to be devoted to reconstructing the burned out areas of Eastern Europe, many of which were further damaged by civil wars. At the same time, the forming US Space Force was tasked with establishing a defense grid around Earth, while simultaneously creating potential commerce routes within Earth orbit, temporarily delaying any proposed expeditions to other planets, such as Mars. Social developments continued into the 2000s and 2010s, with the last batches of genetic editing taking place, creating designer babies, glow-in-the-dark pets, and a near-invincible artificial human named Graham. Although society was more focused on technology rather than magic, magical practices were refined after the Cold War, with Bastet, whose mummified body was well-preserved by mages still believing in the gods of old, being revived in the 1990s. The public was gradually informed of a possible interstellar threat, although world governments assumed that the main threat would be Imperial deep space patrol crafts, as their invasion fleets seemed occupied with other alien empires. Despite the possibility of being roped into interstellar warfare, deep interstellar travel and attempts to contact alien lifeforms were pushed aside during the late 2010s, as a magic-based uprising threatened the modern world. In May of 2021, the current generation of Skinwalker witches, goaded on by their Skinwalkers into craving power, attacked New York City, manifesting a demonic storm over the city that sucked living beings into the air when the cursed rain came into contact with living skin. The Skinwalkers were seeking the ancient demonic wormhole generator held deep beneath the city, capable of sending them to worlds lacking Earth's level of magic users and Holy agents who would wish to destroy them. In addition, they wished to be free of the witches who had managed to take control of them, and knew that the amount of adventurers in and around the state and the firepower of the US Army would destroy the witches. While some Skinwalkers escaped to unknown regions of space, a few others were unable to reach the portal before their witch hosts were killed, stopping the storm. Those that remained on Earth attempted to take on new hosts, but were quickly discovered, being destroyed or banished back to Hell. After damages to the city were repaired, the US government managed to resume work on interstellar developments, soon followed by other nations.

Trans-Galactic War
Shortly after the newly created defense grid went online, several alien transmissions reached Earth at once, demanding an immediate audience with world leaders. Through their transmissions, the aliens informed Earth that Imperial hyperdrills had carved routes past the other empires fighting them, allowing them access to the Local Group and Milky Way. Changes had to be made immediately, and the United Nations allowed the galaxian aliens to enter, with the US at the helm and as a model for a forming planetary government. Earth was provided with various forms of alien technology, which SpaceForce engineers set about recreating and studying. Earth was given a proper defense grid, along with a planetary shield, known as the Great Wall of Terra, and at once was given the resources to expand its defenses across the Sol System, as were many other worlds in systems beyond the Sol System. Some technologies became abundant, and several groups of humans and other Terran species advocated for the advanced technology to be made available for the civilian populous, as many wished to escape the coming war, especially non-human races. Due to Light Drives being used for strictly Military purposes, sub-light engines were granted to cryoships and generation ships, which ferried out many members of the population. Some of these ships fell into Hyperspace anomalies caused by excessive Imperial use of Hyperdrills, ending up in what is now known as No Man's Space. As Hyperspace Relays were utilized to open up Earth to hyperlanes, Imperial Cyberformed Infiltrators committed several acts of terrorism on cities across Earth, although not enough to stop Earth's production of wartime assets. The earlier strikes on the Local Group began the Trans-Galactic War. Earth was originally merely a producing planet, but command of the Local Group's defenses fell to Earth once Imperial forces killed and scattered many of the other alien defenders. As more information on the enemy was revealed, Earth's population came to dislike and distrust robots and other machines. This discrimination carried over to cyborgs, although Commander Merica, now the commander of a large assault force, was spared some of this discrimination, as were many Military cyborgs. Heavy discrimination against aliens was also present on some of Earth's regions, although the Government did all it could to make all sentients as equal as possible. During this time, major focus of a sort of Government mascot shifted away from Commander Merica and towards an organic Vice Admiral known as William Typhon, who led seemingly reckless but incredibly successful assaults on key Imperial targets. After Typhon went missing and was presumed dead following the Battle of Darkspace Star Complex, Commander Merica once again took prominence as the Government's mascot. Public eyes on Earth began looking towards the Military as a whole as their mascot rather than a single figure, although Earth's population also appreciated Commander Merica taking prominence once more. As the war started to turn in a Military favor, taking advantage of the supernatural and utilizing the disorganization of distant Imperial invasion forces, along with a rebellion in the Empire, Earth prospered greatly, establishing civilian starlines for pleasure tours across safe space. At the end of the Trans-Galactic War, upon the destruction of the Star Palace with the sacrifice of Commander Merica, Earth became a place of celebration. With the end of the malevolent AIs that governed the Intergalactic Empire's cyberocracy, discrimination against cyborgs and aliens largely went away on Earth. There was a time of peace and remembrance for some decades afterwards, with the Government looking towards the planet Geotron as a new capital.

Post-Trans Galactic War
Following a decade of peace, there was an attack from a then unknown force, which was the Titan Regime. Due to a sudden surge of Titan Regime forces, some of which reached Earth in search of the linkworld, the Government needed a more secure site to relocate their forces. The Government had the Capitol relocated to New Earth, where it was renamed to New Washington, DC. Earth, still partially cyberformed, was now a civilian world, now once more dominated by a more magic-based population dedicated to guarding the linkworld. Afterwards, New Titanian Empire arrived on Earth. They became Earth's new guardians, keeping it secure.