The Green Hell

When the Old Ones moved the world of Venus from its orbit further from blazing Sol it was an act of incredible hubris and knowledge. It was their grandeur manifest in reality, an unmistakable act that would herald sweeping change across the solar system. Venus would be terraformed and become a lush and verdant world, Earth's new kin. Mars would follow and the three would henceforth be known as the Sisters Three.

But then came the Cataclysm. The hubris of the Old Ones saw their self-annihilation and the incursion of our reality with the Aetheric Sea. As their Empire crumbled and billions perished the great machines that kept Venus locked as a paradise failed. The sapient AI's who oversaw the running of the complex systems required to keep Venus as a paradise were not immune and went mad, some becoming little more than beasts. The vast forests grew rapidly out of control whilst the fauna underwent uncontrollable mutations. Venus, once Eden where the Old One elite lived lives of bacchanalian excess, became a wild, chaotic and utterly untameable place where humanity would need to swiftly adept to or perish.

THE GREEN HELL

Venus is called by many across Sol the Green Hell. Its atmosphere is thick and the weather, once strictly controlled, is unpredictable. Much of its surface is covered by a vast forest with trees up to a mile high, forming a dense canopy through which even the midday sun barley penetrates. Most are part of an expansive network; a veritable consciousness that connects them to one another. This mind reacts to damage and triggers a swarming response from a species of mega-arachnids called Venusian Weavers; invertebrates often equal to large Dogs. They reside in sprawling web kingdoms festooning the branches beneath the canopy and are a menace to the unwary.

The ground below the endless canopy is home numerous fauna, including dinosaurian-type creatures created simply because it were possible. They are no less deadly than the Weavers high above. Other less easy to recognise dangers lurk there in that twilight world; creatures born from unchecked mutation defiant of categorification.

HUMANS ON VENUS

The descendants of those stranded on Venus during the Cataclysm have adapted to their lethal world remarkably well. They learned long ago that attempts to deforest areas caused hostile responses from both the flora and fauna, the world seemingly reacting to the harm inflicted upon by it with rapid and violent growth whilst the wildlife is driven into a frenzy against the transgressors. Thus the humans live as nomads, adopting a transitory life that minimises damage to the enviroment and hunting the myriad of creatures they come across. Most live in airships, floating above the endless sea of trees and only descending in lightning raids to gather resources such as wood and returning to their ships before the Weavers swarm or one of the winged dinosaurian creatures swoops down to snatch a hapless straggler.

On the surface of Venus, beneath the tree canopy, there exist smaller nomadic clans. Considered less than human by their airborne cousins the ground-dwellers live a far more dangerous existence, beset by roaming predators and hostile flora. They live in fortified wagon trains, rumbling through the undergrowth with sentries ever watchful for attack. They are protected by the strongest amongst their clan; men and women clad in the bones and skin of the savage beasts they kill and wielding weapons carved from fang and claw. Some had managed tame certain breeds of dinosaurian and use them as sturdy steeds and for protection from their wild kin.

None of the tribes stay in the same place for more than a few days. Even minimal damage to the enviroment elicits are hostile response and the planet is adapt at forming new biological weapons in the form of lethal toxins, spine shooting plants and snapping, writhing tentacles that can crush bodies and drag even the largest airship down.