Planetary type: Waterworld.
Region: Okean Bubble.
Age: 2.5 billion years
Parent star: K-class star. Three natural satellites.
Surface gravity: 1.56 Earth gravities
Atmosphere: 5 Earth pressures, partially breathable.
Average temperature: 285k.
Ecosystem classification: carbon-based, panspermia origin.
Solar revolution length: 276 days.
Day length: 35 hours.
Settlement Type: Orbital civilisation, floating settlements.
Settlement age: 42 years.
Population: 5 million.
Allegiance: Laniakea.
Distance to Earth: 3,500 lightyears

Starports: Nymph Hub, Uluru Point. 

1 - Waterworld.

A waterworld is a planet that is mostly or entirely made of water: it is not to be confused with oceanic worlds like Elora that have most of their surface covered in water but are otherwise made of rock. While oceanic worlds are teeming with life, waterworlds are hostile places. Liquid water alone isn't enough to sustain life: without easy access to materials from a rocky mantle indigenous life cannot develop on its own. Even when it has emerged through panspermia, life on waterworlds has trouble maintaining itself let alone evolving towards more complex lifeforms.

Finding traces of carbon-based life in Okean's atmosphere thus came as a surprise for Laniakean explorers charting the region forty years ago. Investigation showed that life on Okean had been naturally or artificially seeded and had evolved to form a complex network of ecosystems capable of diving deep towards the core to exploit minerals. This ecosystem was too complex and too well-tuned to have evolved on its own on such a hostile waterworld. Local life bore telltale signs of genetic engineering and there had to be some kind of intent behind it, posited Laniakean explorers.

They were right.

2 - Vriij.

Okean is the current homeworld of a nonhuman species: the Vriij. They are a sapient underwater lifeform with a physical form reminiscent of Earth squids. Interestingly enough they do not come from Okean itself. Once upon a time, the Vriij were the dominant species in the nearby globular cluster. Why and how they ended up on Okean is a highly debated topic but one thing is certain: the Vriij are responsible for Okean's genetic engineering and the continued existence of life on this planet. Though they mostly keep to themselves and barely interfere with other lifeforms they have indubitably seeded and engineered them. For better or worse Okean is their new home. 

The Vriij and their presence on Okean are discussed in more detail in the relevant Starmoth database entry.

3 - Outpost.

Okean is firmly controlled by the Laniakean state. Despite being several thousand lightyears away, the Terran superpowers maintains a notable orbital presence and a local military fleet above Okean. In fact, the vast majority of the planet's human population is present in orbit or at the surface of one of Okean's three moons. Okean's pressure and high gravity make the planet unsuitable for long-term colonization endeavours which Laniakea would forbid anyway because of the Vriij presence. A few research or farming outposts exist on Okean as cylindrical stations extending from the surface to the lower levels of the ocean. They are mostly populated by AIs and vegetal intelligences which are the Vriij's main interface with humankind.

Illustration by Ekaterina Valinakova.