Voluntaia is a planet in the Daonlathas system.

Part of the New Territories, Voluntaia is one of the few worlds in this category that was not terraformed primarily for colonization. Rather, it is a resort world for the Core's elite and upper-middle classes, with millions of wealthy individuals owning villas and/or regularly holidaying there.

History

Voluntaia was once a barren world, devoid of any characteristics that would support life. Before its terraformation, it was known as "Clypeus" ("shield" in Latin), referencing the fact that it held a garrison that defended the capital as a shield.

For most of its history, it was a world that only held a military base as part of the capital's defensive garrison. However, when terraforming technologies experienced a revolutionary breakthrough a thousand years ago, transforming Clypeus was considered as both a symbolic gesture (dismantling the militaristic Old Empire that had ended just years before) and a practical one, as there was a demand for luxury resorts amongst the elite.

Voluntaia is a compound of two words, "Voluptatem" ("pleasure" in Latin) and "Gaia". Most communities in Voluntaia are built around the tourism industry, with towns being centered around resorts. As a result, the settlements of Voluntaia are not that large, with its capital, Heaven Beach, only having 80,000 residents and being focused on a resort complex of the same name.

Due to most residents either being retirees or employees who stay for decades and send remittances back home, a vast section of the population does not qualify for local electoral rights, instead voting in elections pertaining to their home planets. Voluntaia barely qualified for its own Senate seat ten years ago, when census data demonstrated that the eligible voting population had steadily reached 20 million beings, the minimum a world needs to have to gain its own Senate seat. It is also due to this particular population that Voluntaia is diverse, with humans composing 43%, Vonmisians 16%, Vurbentans 14%, Velpans 10%, Kaminoans 9%, and other races 8%.

Voluntaia is the host of the famous retreat of the Strategic Security Command, where the nation's top Generals, Admirals and Intelligence Officers gather every five years to discuss major topics of military importance as well as to socialize. The small mountainous resort town of Gates of Heaven is temporarily closed and militarized to hold this event.

Geography

Voluntaia was once a barren world similar to Mercury. Moreover, its mineral reserves were poor, and whatever valuable ores it had were depleted two thousand years ago.

Today, Voluntaia is a lush world dotted with resorts of all kinds. Beach, ski and countryside resorts dominate the landscape, albeit a few jungle hotels were also constructed for those who were interested. All kinds of agricultural, mineral and industrial exploitation are forbidden in this planet to preserve its terraformed beauty, and Voluntaia retains some of the strictest pollution regulations in the whole Empire.

Planetary Behaviour and Characteristics

Voluntaia has a rotation of 23 and a half hours. The Imperial Standard is used.

Voluntaia has an orbit of 89 days. The Imperial Standard is used.

Voluntaia's atmosphere was especially calibrated to suit the needs of every species. The air is said to be one of the "freshest" in the entire nation.

Voluntaia is 0.9999999992x times bigger than the Earth.

Satellites

Voluntaia has no satellites. Resorts employ technologies to simulate them.

Metagaming Facts

Voluntaia's geological shape is no coincidence. The architect of its terraforming project, Charles Troitven, knew of Earth, but as a mere fictional story. His family was one of the sparse few who still told the tale of Earth throughout generations, albeit their descendants always believed that these legends were harmless science fiction. This was not perceived as unusual, as families in Charles's home region, Wider Ryccia, invented fictional stories like these in order to entertain their children at nighttime. In order to honour his grandfather (who also thought the legend was a quaint but ancient scifi story), Charles opted to upload an archaic map file passed down generation after generation as the terraforming template for the planet. As a thousand years have passed, no one remembers this tale anymore, and thus the rationale behind Voluntaia's geography has faded into time.