WORLDBUILDING CLASS - PROJECT #5 - INTRODUCTION TO DEOS

Deos sluggishly drifts in a small and desolate solar system, surrounded by a sparse smattering of stars, an asteroid belt which aimlessly circles the outer periphery of its galactical claim, and its solitary neighbors, a pair of suns which bombard it with constant heat and fire. Its outer appearance leads one to assume that it is a gas giant such as Jupiter, but beneath the turbulent storms of noxious crimson fumes stretches a vacant landscape every bit as inhospitable as its exterior. No life exists on its surface; only crags and mountains of red stone.

But then you look beneath.

Deos's people, a resilient and warlike society of aliens referred to as the Xan, live in the subterranean networks winding through the bowels of the planet. Food and water can't withstand the perpetual glare of the sun, therefore, it thrives in the shade. Light is provided through the wealth of bioluminescent organisms that have adapted to Deos's terrain, food is collected from the insectoid creatures that call the caverns their home, and water is drawn from the underground oceans.

Life underground is difficult. The Xan compete amongst themselves for territory and food. Clans are ousted from their ancestral homes to be replaced by newer, hungrier, more avaricious successors. Only the strongest survive. Each generation replaces itself. Scores die from natural disasters, calamities and at the hands of each other -- life on Deos is hard, and the Xan make it harder for one another as they battle for the right to exist for another day.