Helocytus: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Planets]]
[[Category:Thuces]]
[[Category:Children of the Vein]]
[[Category:Homeworld]]
{{PlanetInfobox
|title=Helocytus
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The Tree is home to millions of residents of nearly every known sapient species, and plays host to further tens of millions of bio-drones of every shape, size, and function. Enormous transit-pedes skitter up and down the boughs of the tree-city ferrying along hundreds of the diverse and colorful residents of this place, while sleek organic shuttle-flies zip deftly through the space between branches to swiftly navigate private passengers around the city’s hanging heights. The Tree is a constant buzz of activity, but don’t be fooled by the crowds: many of the strange creatures and odd simulacra of “people” making their way across the branches are only mindless bio-drones, bio-engineered beasts of burden with no capacity for higher thought or emotion - hulking monsters, skittering insects, and faceless humanoids, all born of the blood of their parent masters and bonded to their service without capacity for question or sentience, like so many extra limbs.
Life for the city’s residents is an idyllic experience of stunning cloud-top vistas upon hanging branch oases, each like its own island paradise in the sky. Water and oxygen flows through the limbs of the Tree providing fresh sustenance for all, with lakes, springs, and waterfalls forming on its mountainous bark and massive leaf structures with fresh air being plentiful even among some of the highest branches. The Tree itself consumes the waste and pollutants of its residents and visitors, absorbing and consuming the matter naturally,
Though a popular destination for foreign travelers, first-time visitors to the Tree often find their first experience at the great port city of Helocytus to be an awkward adjustment. Though amenities, utilities, and services are plentiful, the nature of life among the Veins requires an open mind regarding the nature of technology. Conventional electronics and machines are a rare sight here, for everything on the Tree, as with much of Helocytus, is provided for through bio-engineering and organic constructs. Electrogenic organ cables like those found in eels carry electricity where it’s needed to interface with the electronics of foreign devices for the convenience of visitors, soft-skinned bioluminescent bulbs provide light, fine micro-hairs in shielded organic receptors reminiscent in appearance to gorgonian coral capture and project wireless signals used by communication devices, chameleonic chromatophores on screen membranes act as high definition image and video displays, and more. For every technology, there is an organic alternative.
At Providence, wealth and influence is a descent into power, rather than the ascending heights of mighty towers and penthouses on so many other worlds. The upper reaches of the Tree are reserved for the docks, berthing limbs, visiting ship crews, military forces, and lower class labor stratas of the tree city’s population. The people here at the highest heights of the Great Tree are the diligent and faithful many who serve the city with pride, and are often among the least biologically modified people to be found on Helocytus. Below this level, visitors find the commercial and trade districts, a colorful and lively place where people and cultures blend, a major attraction for tourists to the city and center of business for merchants. The colorful light that filters between the branches and through the many enormous and varied colored leaves here makes for a beautiful and unique experience for all. This layer of the Tree is also the number one destination for medical tourism in the sector, with all manner of medical services, bio-engineering, and gene-editing available to visitors here. Further down the Tree, the primary residential districts can be found, as well as the city’s administrative centers and the major headquarters for many major sector-wide Vein industries like the New Eden Gene Bank. Lower down around the base of the trunk of the tree city, the Vein elites make their homes in guarded estates. Many different Vein clans have centers of operation and residence at this level for their leaders and highest offices, as Providence is host to the seat of government for the entirety of the Children of the Vein. This layer of the city is restricted to outsiders, not only for the security of the residents at this layer, but also for the safety of the visitors - biologically unmodified individuals are prone to attracting the hostilities of much of the extremely deadly wildlife that roams freely around the tree’s base, while native residents that have undergone extensive treatment and modification with Vein clinics are largely left undisturbed.
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Finally, within the deep, dark depths below the city lies the secretive Forbidden Citadel of Veins, from which the Hemispheres Logos and Pathos govern the Children of the Vein. Little is known of the Forbidden Citadel, but it is said to be from here which the Veins have the closest access to GOD, and the paths to the subterranean citadel are patrolled by wandering, terrible, eldritch creatures from the deepest depths of the planet.
Between its many mysteries and marvels, Providence remains a popular destination for travelers all across Beacon Space. It is a city of rare beauty and ingenuity, a wonder among wonders, the Great Tree of Miracles, making every visit a rewarding experience for all.
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It is important to regard the cultural elements of the people of the Garden of Beasts, which would also be a remark on some of the lesser known and unseen elements of the Children of the Vein at large by extension. Several Vein clans have a presence in the Garden of Beasts, but it is the Vein of the Hydra that claims the Garden as their seat of power. To those involved at the highest levels of state in the greater Beacon Space sector, they may be familiar with the Hydra’s diplomats, who play a significant role in preserving the interests and values of the Children of the Vein within the competing space of interstellar politics, but beyond that, the Hydra largely operates outside of the spotlight of Children of the Vein’s medical tourism, missionary work, and trade networks. Nevertheless, the Hydra is a major power in this burgeoning polity: they are the warriors, the priests, and most important of all, the monster-makers.
The Vein of the Hydra leads a radical fundamentalist bloc that eschews electronics and conventional technologies on Helocytus entirely, believing the purpose of every technology or scientific innovation can be accomplished with bio-engineering - and thus far, they haven’t been proven wrong. The large bulk of the Veins sail through the void on living ships that resemble sea creatures more than conventional starfaring vessels, they build living drones of blood and bone in place of machines, they join in symbiotic union with sentient, hulking organic monstrosities they call bioshells in place of the mechs of other empires, and all communication and media is serviced and provided through organic alternatives.
So you may be wondering, is murder illegal in the Garden of Beasts? Well, that’s a complicated question, but the simplest answer I can give is no. There are conditions, of course, as one might expect - challenges and duels over any number of matters, but especially those of philosophical differences, are commonplace here. The spectacles of violence between theologians often draw crowds seeking affirmation in their beliefs, and achieving victory through the death of your challengers is respected. Of course, this leads to sometimes mercurial philosophies as one philosopher wins a duel and ends up slain by the next. Ultimately, you cannot change the philosophy of an entire culture by winning a single fight as who knows what the next challenger brings, but you can reaffirm the righteous self-assuredness of all in a culture of violence and might through the simple act of participating in it. One is
Despite it all, I would be remiss not to tell you that the Garden’s wild beauty is really something to behold. The way the proud and colorful people travel along the waterways across the Garden on the backs of magnificent amphibious ferry-beasts is quite a sight to behold, it is how the Garden of Beasts truly earns its namesake. However, the feral beauty of this place only really reveals itself when it comes alive at night. The floating swampland megaflora upon which the denizens of this place make their homes and live their lives unveils their brilliance in the dark as their soft, golden bioluminescent glow paints a stunning picture of a shining garden offering shelter in the darkness. Night is the time of carousal and merriment for the otherwise severe residents of this false city, every night a colorful celebration of life and freedom as the hunters haul in great, massive beasts for the communal, nightly feasts. Even a heathen and outsider like myself was invited to celebrate along like family, sharing in some of the most savory and delicious meat I’ve ever had, our differences by day forgotten and forgiven by dusk, only to be remembered again in the morning.
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