Khorsovarolor is a temperate planet, fourth from its parent star (an ultra-rare green star named Paracrux). It has a rotational period of 24.8 hours and an orbital period of 369 days.
Possessing two moons, Khorsovarolor has an equatorial radius of 7,281 kilometers, and a mean gravity of 1.3g. Its surface area is 43.88% land and 56.12% water. The land mass is broken up into five continents, 12 subcontinents, and several hundred archipelagoes and island clusters scattered throughout its seas. It has a population of 2.2 billion people, most located in several large cities on the main continent with the rest scattered through farming and fishing communities.
The Paracrux belt is often visible in Khorsovarolor's skies during the day, as it lies between the planet and its parent star, seen as a narrow band of shimmering silver in an otherwise blue-green sky.
Khorsovarolor has been settled for approximately 3,000 years, colonized during the first expansions into galactic space. Though its inhabitants are human, they have been isolated for a long period. Experiencing a relative lack of contact to other worlds for most of that period, they have developed an interesting society based on the values of the settlers who colonized the planet. Technologically speaking, they have only caught up to the rest of the galaxy in the last three hundred years, and since much of the technology they have is homegrown, they are reluctant to integrate outside equipment into their society.
Though human, heights as short as 1.3 meters and as tall as 2.35 meters have been recorded. On the average, due to the slightly higher gravity than what is known galaxy-wide as the standard, Khorsoi (as they have come to call themselves) tend to be hardy and strong, averaging around 97 kilograms for men and 85 kilograms for women.
Khorsovarolor's government promotes a healthy education, and insists that all of its citizens indulge in reading and mathematics comprehension to the point of being able to function as teachers if necessary; the government also has a progressive employment program to ensure that even if citizens cannot enter their preferred occupation they will be matched with one that they are capable at and can tolerate. Khorsovarolor has a healthy entertainment and recreation culture, and citizens are encouraged to spend a good portion of their day relaxing and socializing.
The five major continents are each ruled by an elected leader, who in turn elect someone to serve as the planetary representative. The planetary representative is known as the Secretary-General, and is chosen once every twenty years from a pool of roughly 100 candidates.
Countries do exist and have their own leaders and internal government structures but they ultimately follow the will and wisdom of their continental leaders. These countries are however fairly small, and this extends to the cities as well: Memphis, the largest city on the planet and the planetary capital, weighs in at only 500,000 people. Cairo, the second largest is a bare 230,000 and Thebes is sized at a modest 90,000. There are many smaller cities and towns scattered across the planet.
Industrially, Khorsovarolor has access to abundant resources, both natively on the planet and in the nearby asteroid field. Ships can be seen coming and going from the industrial capital on an hourly basis, work details going out to mine the field and cargo ships returning to send their load to smelters and refineries.
The major metropolitan cities are comparatively orderly and clean, with many shopping arcades and parks. There is a dark side and criminal element to every city, places where money used to flow but no longer does, and police patrol regularly but as yet haven't stamped out all illegal activities. That said, despite this underside to the gleaming metropolises of Khorsovarolor, violent crimes are relatively rare, fewer than 20 incidents per week, and often not much worse than civil disputes or drunken brawls. The citizens are mostly self-governing due to the close proximity in which they exist.
Khorsovarolor is perhaps most widely known, if it is known at all, as being the home planet of the growing Gillian Manufacturing corporation. The ready access to materials and an abundance of secondhand vessels and equipment bought through free trade has allowed Gillian's scientists and researchers to make several critical advances, placing them among the top 20 of Khorsovarolor's most successful corporate entities. While other corporations on the planet are more successful, thus far Gillian Manufacturing leads the pack when it comes to interstellar trade and relations.
It remains to be seen whether Khorsovarolor will become part of an existing empire or, through trade and acquisitions, begin to plant its banner on other worlds, but with the bold echelons of Gillian leading they stand poised to become the next grand master in the game of worlds. Only time will tell.
Candidacy for the office of Secretary-General is determined by several factors of eligibility. It goes without saying that candidates must belong to a party; in addition to that candidates must meet at least three of the following requirements in order to be eligible.
Exceptions to the eligibility rule may be made; it has already been established that there is a pool of 100 candidates at maximum, though the number is usually around 30 candidates. After the initial popular vote is tallied a second, private vote is taken by a commission of 144 trustees and 212 Indicters. At the final stages the candidates are also asked to vote. Naturally they cannot vote for themselves but they are asked to choose which of their brothers they would wish to see hold office for the next twenty years. Whichever candidate receives the majority vote from two out of three rounds of voting is elected as the new Secretary-General. The trustees and Indicters are then disbanded and the Secretary-General asked to select members for his or her cabinet.
The seven main offices are as follows:
The KHSF as it is called is Khorsovarolor's primary international police force. It is also responsible for providing defense to the planet in case of alien attack.
Founded in 828 of the Khorsoi Post-Colonization calendar, the KHSF strives to monitor and control illegal activity occurring within the planetary government's jurisdiction. It has several branches, of course; parallels exist to investigative, intelligence and security agencies of other nations and planets. However, unlike the similar agencies on neighboring planets, the KHSF performs all such duties itself rather than being broken into distinct agencies.
The Office of Internal Affairs is responsible for monitoring the activities of government employees at all levels that government is found in. Naturally they usually tend to avoid low-profile cases, allowing local police agencies to deal with their white-collar criminals, but every so often they'll assign rookies to assignments such as those to give them experience in ferreting out details without using any sort of torture or aggressive coercion.
The Bureau of Regulations controls the manufacture and sale of firearms, armor, and starships to the civilian population. While restrictions are not exceptionally tight they keep a tight rein on people wishing to manufacture goods illegally, or smuggle them into areas where they have been expressly forbidden. This extends offworld, as well, since black marketeers are always eager to get their hands on untraceable weapons.
The Khorsoi Planetary army is the military arm of the KHSF. Comprised primarily of volunteers, this 40,000 strong force operates as an actual military, with attendant navy and air force, along with elite special forces such as marines and commandos. As the Khorsoi Planetary Army is rather small compared to other planets, it is primarily devoted to patrolling Khorsovarolor's borders and providing escort to convoys rather than actual combat operations.
In the event that there is a war, the numbers will be bolstered significantly. Every recruit into the volunteer force that completes the year-long basic training and serves for two years will have their DNA copied and their knowledge downloaded. This is done so that in the event of a war, trained soldiers and starship crews can be cloned; an army of 40,000 would over the space of a few months become an army of two million. This would allow the volunteer force to receive additional training, possibly turning a good deal of them into specialists and elites.
Granted such actions would severely strain the planet's infrastructure, but it has been set up to support such an increase in numbers. A full forty percent of Khorsoi industry is owned by the KHSF, and can readily be turned to making vehicles, weapons, armor and ships to supply the cloned soldiers. The agricultural infrastructure as well is required to devote a portion of itself to creating food stores for such an army.
One unexpected side effect of this contingency is the identical personality, appearance and memories of a clone soldier to the original. This of course requires the clones to be destroyed or relocated off planet when they are no longer needed, but if the original dies a clone can be sent to his or her family instead, leaving it as if the person had never gone off to fight to begin with.
Khorsoi cloning technology is sufficient enough to support such efforts, and clone lifespan while shorter than an individual who had been born and raised normally is approximately equal to the original's remaining lifespan.
There are seven other planets in the Paracrux system, none of them inhabited.