IF WE LIVE

Umasun is a G0V star, a little larger, brighter, and bluer than Sol. Uma is the star’s fourth planet, giving it a year 1.27 times that of Earth. It is 1.17 times the circumference of Earth, but of lower density, so that the gravity is 0.94G.

The lower density is primarily due to the vast ocean, which covers 83% of the surface, versus 71% on earth. The ocean and the axial tilt of 28 degrees gives the climate a very striking variation between summer and winter. The northern continent is a long rectangle tilted downward  with respect to the meridians, so that the Coriolis winds, blowing unimpeded over the ocean, dump huge depths of snow over the Stablen. In summer intense thunderstorms sweep across the Hastablen, but little of this moisture reaches the Lastab.

The Hightop mountains protrude from the eastern edge of continent, forming the Northpoint and a chain of artic islands beyond it. Valen mostly lies to the east of the Hightops. The largest province is a great valley – the Vale. The ridges and valleys of the foothills of the Hightops make up the province of Hallen. A narrow coastal plain riven by fyords and bays is Stada

In remote times life on earth divided into the photosynthetic and saprophytic lineages. This did not occur on Uma. The sea threw up a spray of protoplasts onto the bare rocks of the new continents. There, safe from the sea creatures which had evolved to eat them, they formed a green slime. They were able to photosynthesize but still depended on the sea spray for water and nutrient minerals. At some time over the eons that followed, a mutation gave them the ability to leach minerals from the rock. They swiftly spread over every place that gave them enough water to live. They evolved methods of storing water to live in dry climes. They grew fruiting bodies to spread their spores with the winds.

In old ocean, the creatures which had eaten the aquatic protoplasts crawled up on the land to feed on the slime mats. They began the long journey of evolution to form all the creatures of the land.

When humans arrived on the Devi II, they found a great plain covered by strange, whip like grasses. On the Hastab they say the roots of the whip grass go down as far as the winter snows are high – which is up to seven meters in the northern Hastab. They are not actually roots in the terrestrial sense, but a dense mycelial mat. The function of this mat was to absorb water as the snows melted. At the bottom of the mat the mycelia continued their original evolutionary purpose of breaking bedrock into useful minerals. They fixed nitrogen. The stalks of the grasses photosynthesized sugars from carbon dioxide with the high energy light of Umasun.

Terrestrial plants were never able to compete with the whipgrass on the Stablen, but in other regions, plows were able to cut the mat enough for plants to get a start. The rich humus formed by the mycelia allowed for flourishing growth.