Persephone Alleile
Tartarus Covert Operations
335
   |
Posted - 2017.03.21 18:31:21 -
[1] - Quote
I was born and raised on the second planet of the Vey system, and lived there until I was around 25. The locals know it as Maatrukaanan, "the forest that gives birth to the world". As you can guess, there are a lot of trees. The planet's surface is mostly land with some seas and lakes, though nothing on the scale of the oceans I've seen on other planets, and the land is almost entirely covered in forests.
Life on Maatrukaanan is tied to the forests. The trees provide for us, offering a bounty of nuts and fruit, medicinal plants and mosses, shelter for a variety of game animals and birds. They also provide our main exports: lumber for contruction and wooden crafts and finished good. In terms of fauna Maatrukaanan may not be as biodiverse as the jungles of Intaki Prime but there are some unique species such as the shadow fox, a small black mammal that is a master of stealth. You will never see one unless it wants to be seen, they served as an inspiration to me during my wormhole hunting days.
When it comes to plant life however there is incredible diversity, from the boreal forests in the polar regions to the temperate regions filled with deciduous and coniferous forests to the rainforests near the equator and cloud forests that crest the Shilankbaka mountain range. Trees range from small shrubby things to massive firs the size of office towers. To anyone that has not experienced a planetside forest it is hard to describe. The freshness of the air, the scent of tree sap on the wind, the sound of the rustling the leaves and the sheer peacefulness that finds one amidst these silent giants. I've seen some stations that try to recreate the experience but in my opinion they don't come close.
What makes Maatrukaanan remarkable though is it's government, I have not seen it's like anywhere else in the cluster.
Maatrukaanan was the first planet colonized by the Intaki a mere 95 years after first contact with the Gallente, so these settlers were only a few generations removed from their ancestors who relied on wind to power sailing ships and had not yet discovered electricity. The first year was very harsh as the settlers had no prior experience of winter (on Intaki Prime it's joked that there are two seasons: hot and wet). It's get pretty cold on Maatrukaanen (though maybe not by some people's standards having read this thread), and many settlers being woefully unprepared died that first year, and many more returned to Intaki prime, including the leaders of the expedition. What was left were a few hearty settlers and people with nothing to go back to on Intaki.
Those who remained made the remarkable decision to not elect any leaders whatsoever and instead to rely on a communal framework (known as the parivaar system, parivaar being the Vinan k'Intaki word for a family unit) where each individual contributes to the good of his or her community. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" is a slogan that those early settlers came up with and by which the people of Maatrukaanan still live.
Another unique thing about Maatrukaanan is that there is no planetary currency whatsoever, nor is there any concept of private property. ISK is used to trade with off-worlders but any profits made through trade are kept in a communal account and any spending must be approved collectively by members of the parivaar.
It is a nice place to grow up, the forests take care of the people and the people take care of the forest and everyone takes care of each other. The forests are considered sacred by our people and as such all logging and forestry is carried out sustainably. The forests are so abundant that there is also minimal land cleared for agriculture.
Most of my youth was lived in a contented bubble on that planet, and it was easy to ignore the chaos in the rest of the cluster. That is until the days of the blind auction when the Caldari took the Virette constellation. Vey was auctioned off to Hyasyoda and being naive and not understanding the concept of private ownership (how can someone claim to own a planet?) we invited Hyasyoda to form a parivaar and we celebrated their arrival. Before we knew it hundred of acres of our sacred forest had been stripped and shipped back the the Forge.
That event was a spark that lit in me a desire to understand more about the people who lived elsewhere in the cluster. What did they believe and why? How could they have such different worldviews? I went on the University and studied sociology and the history of the peoples of New Eden. It was not enough though, I wanted to go out and experience it all for myself, so here I am. For my brother Hadeth it was a call to connect even more closely with our home planet. He is now a forestry technician working to help our forests recover from Hyasyoda's plundering.
I was back home fairly recently to celebrate Yoiul with my Parivaar. It was nice to see the trees all adorned with snow again. |