Thaxyn, Pellepossa
"To trust too much is to commit suicide; to trust too little is to do the same."
- Naphynix II, 7th Autarch of the Daphnai Dominion
"To trust too much is to commit suicide; to trust too little is to do the same."
- Naphynix II, 7th Autarch of the Daphnai Dominion
Pellepossa was an 'Unsettled World' located in the recently discovered Tharmos System in Delta Quadrant. In the context of the Daphnai Dominion's Planetary Classification System a 'Unsettled World' was a planet that only possessed a single, meager settlement and not much else. By law it was fully part of the Dominion but in practice most of the planet was unoccupied, unsettled, and undeveloped with some areas still largely unexplored and whole swathes of territory were left unpatrolled and unmonitored. For this reason space patrols had been doubled, as well as to make up for the poor defenses of the single colonial settlement of Thaxyn and it's mediocre garrison. It was typical for early settlements to be disorganized sprawls of spartan shelters. The boundaries of these early colonies were often broad and vaguely defined, with arbitrary borders that often began "somewhere over by that rock formation" and typically ended "along this creek here" along with similar basic geographic definitions. Thaxyn, in typical daphnai fashion, was founded on a rather hilly area along the western coastline of the largest of Pellepossa's two continents, which Dominion had taken to calling Erasophi. Pellepossa was considered ideal for colonization largely in part because Erasophi was largely a dry summer climate and thus the preferred biome of the daphnai, resembling the environment of their homeworld Ardoxa rather pleasantly. Situated at the mouth of a river the daphnai hadn't even bothered to name yet, Thaxyn sat poised to dominate a large bay as it towered over the lower riverlands beyond the hills and cliffs it was situated on while languishing in the shadow of a great mountain. There wasn't much in the settlement, yes. Aside from housing there was the typical barracks for the garrison, a large hangar for spacecraft, and a market one could find in most basic settlements. There was of course also the rudimentary government complex which, for the moment, housed both the Administrator (who was in charge of both the city and the outlying lands that would soon belong to it) and the Executor (who functioned as the planet's governor) as well as other government officials and representatives of the Autarch and Her Will. There were also basic amenities in the form of an aqueduct, a public bath, a sport & combat arena, some outlying farms down in the river valley, a clearing right in front of the government building that was being set aside for a public park in the future, and off on the slopes of the nearby mountain that the daphnai also hadn't bothered to name yet were the foundations for what would be a very large temple by the looks of it which most likely would be dedicated to Amphys, Goddess of Love, Sex, and War (among other things) and Queen of Heaven. Most of these structures were temporary buildings to be replaced later, though some were special projects that could be completed in phases. Groundwork for more buildings had already been laid as the influx of colonists increased. Plans were already being laid for future settlement of Erasophi in the future, though for the moment all efforts of development were directed toward Thaxyn thus leaving the rest of the continent wild, untamed, and at the mercy of state-sanctioned frontierswomen who lived off the land as they traversed the unexplored regions in search of resources, fertile land, and idle spots for future settlements.
One area of the planet that had been neglected by the daphnai settlers--and the entire Dominon, to a lesser extent--was the southern continent, Massegos, which compared to the larger Erasophi was seen as unattractive to the colonial authorities and colonists alike. The continent was roughly 86% wetlands and very likely crawling with insects and disease as a result. This "half-sunken continent", as it was derogatorily referred to by the daphnai colonists, was the exact opposite of what the daphnai preferred to settle: it was too low, too wet, and too humid. For these reasons exploration of the continent had been limited with the thickness of both flora and fauna helping to deter anything more than a cursory look into this land of bayous, bogs, marshes, and swamps. What areas of the continent weren't wetlands were mostly centered around a single, small mountain in the center of the continent. Beyond that iconic landmark Massegos was mostly unmonitored, with only an occasional patrol periodically flying by to check for an infestation of the criminal kind that could potentially pose a risk to Thaxyn or any other future settlements of Colonial Pellepossa. Eventually the daphnai would have to do more than give a cursory glance of the continent as prime territory for settlement began to dry up on Erasophi, but for now they would stick with the climate and biome they preferred and leave the so-called "half-sunken continent" and whatever secrets it might be hiding well enough alone. As long as fertile land existed in the north the daphnai had no interest in this land of blood-sucking insects, fatal diseases, ancient carnivorous reptiles, and whatever other surprises might lay in wait in the stagnant waters of Massegos.