Aloysius

Aloysius, Vega VI

Planetary constants:
Diameter 7340 miles
Sidereal day 19.836218 hours
Mass 0,86331 standard

[...]

Aloysius, with its sister planets Boniface and Cuthbert, is accounted among the first worlds to be colonized from Earth, and the traveler who enjoys the ambiance of antiquity will here find much to please him. Contrary to popular assumption, the first settlers were not religious zealots but members of the Natural Universe Society, who dealt gingerly with the new environment, and built nothing at discord with the landscape.

The NUS is long gone, but its influence still permeates the system, and almost everywhere will be noted a sedate reverence for native customs and textures.

The axis of Aloysius inclines to an angle of 31.7 degrees from its plane of orbit; there are seasonal fluctuations of notable severity, mollified somewhat by a dense and moist atmosphere. Of the seven continents Marcy's Land is the largest, with New Wexford its chief city. The least of the continents is Gavin's Land, on which is situated the city Pontefract.

It may here be noted that each land, during the Sacerdotal Epochs, represented the diocese of a cardinal and bore his name, thus: Cardinal Marcy's Land, Cardinal Bodant's Land, Cardinal Dimpey's Land, and so forth. The appellative has fallen into disuse and is rarely heard.

Through a policy of low taxes and favorable regulations, both Pontefract and New Wexford have long functioned as important financial centers, with influence reaching everywhere
across the Oikumene. Many important publishing houses also make their headquarters at these places, including the prestigious Cosmopolis magazine.

Religions, sects, creeds, movements, counter movements, orthodoxies, heresies, inquisitions: this is the stuff of early Vegan history; emphatically so on Aloysius, which derives its name from the patron samt of the Aloysian Order.

The Ambrosians, who preceded the Aloysians, founded the city Rath Eileann beside Lake Feamish, at the center of Linliffet's Land. The conflicts between these nominally devotional brotherhoods make a fascinating chronicle.

Indigenous flora and fauna are not particularly noteworthy. Through intensive effort by the original settlers, terrestrial trees and shrubs are widespread, the conifers especially finding a hospitable environment, and the seas are stocked with selected terrestrial fish.

- From Popular Handbook to the Planets