Avuura

Planet H-915, or Avuura (uh-VOO-ruh), is the home world of the liir'aalu and one of six planets orbiting a K6V main-sequence star known as Iara (ee-ARE-uh), which it orbits once every 230 Avuuran days, these being around 30 hours in length.

Overview
At approximately 5,900 miles (or 9,500 km) in diameter and within the innermost portion of Iara's habitable zone, Avuura is a young rocky planet possessing a warm climate and playing host to a variety of biomes and indigenous life. Its atmosphere is roughly earthlike, though warmer and more humid with higher oxygen (27%) and carbon dioxide content (around 0.9%), the latter due to higher volcanic activity. 78 percent of its surface is covered in water, and its landmass is divided into 2 twin supercontinents by oceans teeming with life.

The largest of these two continents is Huaaia (hoo-EYE-uh), home to the liir'aalu. Much of its landscape is rocky and volcanic, dotted with jungle and warm temperate forests depending on latitude with black sand deserts near its interior. The other is Viar (VYE-are), and being Huaaia's twin, it is largely similar but plays host to an entirely unique ecosystem owing to its separation and sits to the west-southwest of its twin. A population of liir'aalu are known to exist on Viar but contact is yet to be made.

Habitability
As indicated above, Avuura's atmosphere is largely earthlike and thus suitable for limited stays without respirators or sealed habitats, though for longer stays (such as those undertaken by Eos researchers), these things are advised due to certain differences in atmospheric composition, including high levels of hydrogen sulfide and trace toxic gasses. Certain key staff expected to spend longer periods in the open air are augmented to tolerate it. Somewhat peculiar is that a majority of Avuuran life adapt well to atmospheres lacking this exact proportion of gases, fairing far better than foreign life does on Avuura unprotected; this in addition to a high level of biochemical compatibility presents a puzzle to researchers.

Colonies
The second and largest scientific outpost on Avuura is Outpost G02-A, constructed on a volcanic plain toward the southeast of Huaaia by the scientific organization Eos. It is a large climate-and-atmosphere-controlled geodesic domed enclosure not unlike the sort housing Twilight City, supporting a population of around 3,500-4,000 researchers and visitors of various species, with facilities including a campus, museum/visitor center, several cafeterias, and an external spaceport connected directly to orbital station S01-A, which itself serves as a checkpoint for those coming and going.

Flora
Tinged in almost fluorescent blues and greens with splashes of red and purple, the native plantlife of Avuura is vibrantly colorful with a preponderance of flowering plants in particular, many of which propagate themselves by using sugary nectar to attract animals who then accumulate seeds and pollen-like spores as they feed, spreading them elsewhere as they travel and tend to other plants; a common example of this mechanic in action is the sight of liir'aalu with their faces and eyelashes covered in pollen and spiny seed pods.

Plantlife is also quite different to the sort found on Earth, as similar as it may be in many respects. Trees in particular are highly vascular, incorporating networks of veins and internal tube-like structures to transport water and nutrients up and down the often dizzying heights they can reach owing to Avuura's lower gravity—this comprises the sap that liir'aalu and other liquivores often feed on.

Fauna
Avuuran life tends to possess several distinct 'trademarks', namely the presence of four eyes and a lack of scales, fur or feathers; the closest equivalent to these being spiny hair-like filaments found on those in colder environs that serve as a sort of insulating layer.

Most notable are the many examples of Avuuran fauna having lost functional jaws over the course of their evolution, instead adapting to feed on liquids (like the aforementioned sap) and plentiful invertebrate life. It is believed that they lost their jaws—rather than having never evolved them—due to the presence of related species that retain jaw-like structures as well as vestigial traces of jawbones in species like liir'aalu. The cause for this is a popular subject of debate among biologists, one possibility being the plentiful nature of liquid sustenance owing to the physiology of Avuuran plantlife.

Moons
Avuura has two moons: Haara (HAH-rah) and Iila (EE-lah).


 * Haara (HAH-ruh) is the largest of the two at around 2,500 miles in diameter. Its mineral composition gives it a distinctive reddish-orange hue, especially when seen in the sky.


 * Iila (eye-EE-luh) is the smaller of the two at 930 miles in diameter, and orbits on the opposite side of the planet from its sibling, though far closer and appearing nearly as large as a result. Its composition gives it a bluish gray hue—this striking difference from Haara (and Avuura, for that matter) would suggest that one or both of the two aren't natural and were captured or placed in orbit at some point; when or how is unclear, as this predates liir'aalu cultural history.

Aarul'lo
Avuura's most noteworthy satellites, however, are a series of 13 large obelisk-like structures, known to the liir'aalu as "Aarul'lo" (AH-rule-low) or "the migrant stars", hanging in orbit at around 500 miles above the planet's surface, and showing no apparent signs of orbital decay with one notable exception. Maintaining an equal distance from each other at all times and forming a sort of spherical perimeter around the planet, they are angular and largely featureless, possessing no visible ports, communications arrays, lights, or even identifying markings of any sort. They don't seem to transmit any detectible signals, radio or otherwise, but ultrasound scans of their lower exterior show signs of structures consistent in design with sophisticated monitoring arrays—such scans, requiring close proximity with the Aarul'lo, ceased out of an abundance of caution when their offensive capabilities were discovered. No attempt was made to cut into the exterior shell, which likely would have triggered a defensive reaction.

The aforementioned 'exception' is "Aarul'iia" (AH-rule-ee-uh) or "the fallen star". It is the 14th obelisk, having fallen to the planet's surface at the southernmost coast of Huaaia and left a visible gap in the perimeter formed by its brethren. Aarul'iia fell within liir'aalu oral history, approximately 520 years ago, and testament to the obelisks' remarkable durability is the fact that the majority of its exposed structure remains largely intact despite the impact and ensuing environmental exposure, maintaining its distinctive shape.

Halu'aavu
The liir'aalu refer to the creators of the aarul'lo as the Halu'aavu (HAH-loo-ah-VOO), or "those from before". liir'aalu folklore posits them as still existing and walking among galactic society today; common are stories of mysterious transients being spotted on colony worlds and stations harboring liir'aalu, who weren't logged as arriving and vanish before they can be questioned.