Children of Man: The World

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Somes J
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Children of Man: The World

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The world of Children of Man is an alternate version of our Earth. It is difficult to pin down exactly when its timeline diverged from ours, but it seems to have been around the time of the formation of the solar system.

In terms of mass, composition, orbit, and other gross physical characteristics ChoM World appears essentially identical to our Earth. The earliest observable divergence point is that the Big Whack (Earth-Theia Impact) either did not happen to ChoM World or happened differently. ChoM World does not have a moon, a factor which was probably significant in the development of early ChoM World life. ChoM World does, nevertheless, have a similar rotation period as our Earth (possibly as a result of a Big Whack with different ballistics changing its rotation). ChoM World appears to have received slightly more water than our Earth during its formation, perhaps as the result of the impact of a large icy planetoid that did not collide with Earth in our timeline.

ChoM World has much less continental crust than Earth, and hence much less land area. ChoM World has only a single continent, slightly larger than our Earth’s Australia, lying between latitudes 20-45 in the southern hemisphere (a position comparable to Australia and New Zealand). The continent represents the top of a single hard ancient craton, and has not experienced the cycles of rifting and conglomeration that Earth’s Pangaea has. It has experienced little major mountain-building for quite some time, and its terrain is mostly characterized by low, eroded hills and flat plains. It has a quite wet, warm climate and is mostly covered by forest.

Because ChoM World has no moon, it has experienced far more serious “wobbling” of its axis than our Earth. At several points in its history, it has actually lain on its side, like Uranus. The resulting extreme climatic fluctuations have served to retard the development of terrestrial life on ChoM World, so ChoM World’s terrestrial biospheres are both younger and less biologically rich than those of our Earth.

During the past 15 million years ChoM World has entered a “low-tilt” mode in which its axis inclination fluctuates between 15-30 degrees on a cycle of 125,000 years. At present, ChoM World has a somewhat lower axis tilt than Earth, around 20 degrees (compared to Earth’s 23.4 degrees). This “low-tilt” mode has kept climatic conditions relatively constant and benign, allowing for the beginnings of the flourishing of a rich terrestrial ecology. However, there has as yet not been sufficient time for large animals to evolve, so the largest indigenous land animal on ChoM World remains roughly the size of a turkey.

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A more detailed description of ChoM World's indigenous plants and animals is under construction.
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Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness.

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Samuel Anders, nBSG, Daybreak, Part 2.
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