Planet:Taukappa

Taukappa, often known as Imperial Capitol (which technically referred to the central administrative tower in Apalos, Imperial City), was the original homeworld and capital planet of the.

Prehistory
Taukappa was formed, along with its sun and the rest of the planets in its system, approximately five billion years before the rise of the Imperial species and their Empire. Around one billion years later, a life-bearing comet crashed into the planet's oceans and released primitive organisms into the ocean. The first terrestrial life left the oceans three billion years after that, and mass migration onto land occured another half a billion years later.

Throughout its history, life on Taukappa suffered only three major mass extinctions:


 * 3,500,000,000 PE (Pre-"Empire"): An Ice Age killed all life in the upper levels of Taukappa's oceans. 100,000,000 years later, a large asteroid impact and several volcanoes began to melt the ice. Some time after that, Taukappa moved closer to its sun and all of the ice disappeared.
 * 250,000,000 PE: A comet struck the continent of Protodoltarn, spreading thick ash clouds and wiping out 70% of all life on the planet (95% of life on Protodoltarn, 70% of all oceanic life and 55% of life on the archipelagos of Archeargolce).
 * 5,000,000 PE: Ancestors of the Imperial species wiped out nearly all animal life on Argolce in a highly coordinated attack. Their motivations for this are unknown.

Time of the Empire


The appearance of Imperial civilisation brought very few changes to the planet, except for the urbanisation of a few areas of the surface and the mining of spice geysers.

Surrounding the Empire's ten cities, there are vast rings with a diameter of several hundred kilometres that can be seen from space. These were where various changes were made to Taukappa's environment. Forests there were stripped, rocks containing precious ores were mined until there was nothing left but soil and sand, enormous farming settlements were built and worked on for thousands of years, slums were built, and eventually the vast battles of the Imperial-Kingdom War destroyed all of it and left the land empty. Now, mostly grasses and small plants grow there.

Once the Empire reached space, they looked after their planet more carefully. However, they had enemies, who threatened Taukappa with environmental collapse and even outright destruction. However, the only real danger came from a Planet Buster that was fired during the Post-Grox Crisis in 96 AE. The bomb was successfully destroyed before it could destroy the entire planet, but its detonation caused a shockwave that devastated the east coast of Argolce and wiped out approximately 40% of lifeforms in the Outer Ocean.

Finally, during the Annihilation, Taukappa was destroyed along with the rest of the Girdo Galaxy.

Regions
The regions of Taukappa are named after the ten city-states that were built during the early history of the Imperial species. No other cities were ever built, since all of the other tribal groups on the planet chose to move into these cities when contacted by them. This is possibly due to the species' group mind, resulting in less of a desire for political independence from each other.

Argolce
Argolce was the continent on which the Imperial species evolved, and it was the location of Imperial City - the official capital city of the Empire.

Apalos
On the eastern coast of Argolce lay the region of Apalos. It was mostly composed of open grasslands and patches of dense forest. The Apalos coast was a twenty-mile stretch of beach, but had been split in half by Imperial City's ports.

Imperial City, previously known as Apalos, was the administrative capital of Taukappa.



Teledros
Teledros was south of Apalos, but still on Argolce's east coast. The Teledros region contained a large, dense forest, as well as a small row of foothills (which were mountains at one time, but slowly eroded over millions of years) and a 500-mile beach that ran from the city of Teledros down and along the south coast. The Valley of Death, a barren area containing a few carnivorous plants at the western opening, connected the Teledros Forest to the coast.

Teledros gave its name to two of the domesticated reptilian creatures that originated in the region - the herbivorous Teledrosaurus and the carnivorous Teledroraptor.

The city of Teledros was the economic centre of Taukappa.

Deamol
Deamol lay in the centre of Argolce, and was mostly covered in semi-arid grassland and small areas of woodland. There were also a few large freshwater lakes which the city of Deamol lay close to, and towards its borders with Atiermun and Apalos there were several large mountains which were the remnants of extinct volcanoes.

The city of Deamol was where most of Taukappa's military administration was run.

Atiermun
Atiermun was the northernmost city on Argolce, but still experienced a temperate climate even in winter. The Atiermun region was mostly forested but also had regions of grassland and wetland. Its coast was a mixture of cliffs and rocky beaches.

Atiermun was the religious centre of Taukappa.

Doltarn


The continent of Doltarn was larger than Argolce, and contained the rest of the planet's cities. The Kingdom, which was once the Empire's greatest rival for domination of the planet, originated from the city of Emeshk and operated from this continent. Doltarn was seperated from Argolce by the Outer Ocean to its west, the Inner Ocean to its east, and the Northern and Southern Oceans to the north and south respectively.

Emeshk
The Emeshk region was a mostly coastal one. It was on the east coast of Doltarn, and was a subtropical region at a latitude between those of Apalos and Atiermun.

The main area of the Emeshk region was the Bay of Emeshk, containing Chalkcliff Sands to the north (along a set of chalk cliffs, hence the name). Most of the rest of the Bay was made up of sand and gravel beaches.

Faratan
Faratan was an arid region near the east coast of Doltarn, south-west of Emeshk and at a latitude slightly further north (and closer to the equator) than Teledros. The Faratan Mountains lay on the border between Faratan and Emeshk, and the dry Faratan Plains made up the rest of the region, often giving way to open desert.

Acorecos
Acorecos was an equatorial savannah region in the centre of the continent of Doltarn. It had little else of note, including poor resources, hence it was the first city taken over by Emeshk since it could be conquered easily.

Klapara
Klapara was the southenmost city on Doltarn, and at a slightly lower latitude than Teledros. The subtropical Klapara region was composed of lush grasslands and sparse forest, which was denser towards the south where several rivers ran from the tip of the Faratan Mountains to the north.

Batelbios
Batelbios was a densely-forested region south-west of Acorecos. It had several lakes surrounded by swampy wetlands.

Tralask
Tralask took up all of Doltarn's west coast. Its sandy beaches and dry dunes made it useless for anything other than tourism, hence it was primarily composed of tourist resorts and nature reserves centred in the city of Tralask.