Lusara

Lusara is a major agri-world of the Andromedan Covenant Territories, serving as one of the primary producers of livestock and the grain necessary to feed it. Lusara's natural climate and fertility made it one of the most agriculturally productive worlds, harnessed to feed the growing population of Gaiyama and several other important Covenant colonies.

Although Lusara does house several major urban developments, most notably the capital city and major spaceport Kaet, the vast majority of Lusara's surface is developed farmland for the growth and feeding of livestock. To work this vast farmland, many small towns dot the landscape, connected by an efficient system of fast hydroways that support the transport of vast quantities of butchered meat.

Although vital to feeding vast numbers of Covenant citizens, Lusara is an unusually xenophobic world, distrustful of even ankoran off-worlders. Lusarans hold a notable contempt and fear of the species of the Dominion of Andromeda, with the teyan and li'mai, in particular, earning the ire and fear of locals due to their part in the invasion and occupation of Lusara during the Covenant-Dominion War.

Lusara is the birth-world of both the Covenant Ghost Kalia Suuk, and Admiral Kaevat Suus.

Geography
Despite the best efforts of Lusara's plate tectonics, the planet is unusually flat compared to the norm for habitable worlds, lacking the towering mountains or deep-sea ravines that are common across the worlds amiable to life across the major galaxies.

Lusara is believed to be undergoing the breakup of a supercontinent according to its Palaeogeographic community. Although formed out of a single connected landmass, Lusara's geography lacks a major ocean surrounding its landmass, instead possessing several inland seas and gulfs of variable size and depth. The lack of major oceans is believed to contribute to Lusara's weak weather storms, lacking the large ocean bodies to power tropical cyclones. It also proved a significant hindrance to water-based transportation, leading to half-mile-wide hydroways being carved through Lusara's land, cutting canals between these inland seas to aid in transportation and irrigation of the agri-worlds landscape.

Despite is relatively boring surface, lacking many defining features in the seas of cropland and livestock, Lusara boasts mineral-rich subsurface caverns. Distinctive karst features cover Lusara's subsurface and are almost completely obscured above ground. These caverns have, likewise, been filled with crops and livestock where possible, although much of the subsurface caverns remain utilised only for mining.

Atmosphere
The atmospheric composition of Lusara is highly typical of habitable worlds sought by oxygen-breathing species, comprised primarily of nitrogen, oxygen, methane, and several noble gasses, including argon, krypton, and xenon. This composition provides a highly stable atmosphere which has remained largely unchanged due to a lack of polluting industries on Lusara.

The atmosphere, despite containing methane, is unsuited to mithadorn life, and visitors from the many mithadorn civilisations in the andromeda galaxy require rebreathers and methane tanks to safely walk on Lusara's surface. It's slightly higher oxygen content compared to the galactic average results in fiercer fires, though the lower atmospheric pressure helps prevent major storms from developing over Lusara's farmland.

Biosphere
Known for its picturesque pastoral landscapes featuring flourishing crops, rolling plains, and shimmering seas, the Lusaran biosphere was long-ago replaced by the cultivated croplands and livestock used by the Ankoran Covenant. This unnatural biosphere is fragile, however, and great efforts remain in place to ensure the continued arable nature of the landscape.

Efforts to prevent the negative effects of sustained crop growth and grazing remain a priority to Lusaran ecologists, helping to stem the problems of such an unnatural ecosystem. Yearly rotations between crops, cropland, and grazing space aid in preventing the otherwise immediate problems of nutrient depletion, and the planet imports vast quantities of fertilisers - some natural, others not - to ensure the continued productivity of the land.

The native ocean ecology of Lusara is considered much more stable than the expertly cared for croplands that cover Lusara's surface. Lusaran fish is considered a luxury among the Andromedan Covenant Territories, and fishing comprises the second largest industry on the planet, outdone only by the farming industry itself. Much effort has been put into supporting ocean ecology on Lusara and ensuring overfishing cannot permanently damage the world's oceans.

Religion and Faith
Lusara boasts one of the most fanatically devout populations in the Andromedan Covenant Territories, with religion taking up far greater importance to the average citizen than on most worlds within the Ankoran Covenant’s Andromedan holdings. The density of houses of worship on Lusara vastly outstrips that of worlds such as Gaiyama, Hyetiana and Daemoclef.

Lusarans typically believe that the enigmatic precursors worshipped by Covenant doctrine are responsible for all good and bad in the universe, and hold the fervent belief that they should be considered in all things; even secular matters of subjects that ankoran of other worlds would not consider the divine in.

Government
Overseen by the Lusaran Consultative Assembly at the behest of local religious authority, Lusara is divided into 105 political districts, each managed by a local council under the authority of the local ecclesiarch. These councils manage local budgets, dictate what grains can and cannot be sown, and sets production quotas for farming companies to meet within their jurisdictions.

Each political district acts as an autonomous constituency within the planet’s governing body, with its head acting as the local representative of the district in the Consultative Assembly. Members of the District Governments are elected by the local priesthood and are entirely subordinate to the state faith. Individual governors can be barred from office by religious authorities, and are often the most devout worshippers of the district’s local temple. Each district is responsible for the implementation of social, economic, and other welfare affairs.

Lusaran taxes are lower than on other Covenant colonies.

Planetary Militia
Lusara’s Planetary Militia and local Patrol Fleet are held under the jurisdiction of Lusaran-native Kaevat Suus, a member of the planets Old Families. The Militia and Patrol Fleet is under the control of the local planetary government rather than the wider Covenant military and is charged with the protection of the Ankoran Covenant Territories breadbasket.

Formed in the wake of the devastating Covenant-Dominion War, after Lusara was ransacked and occupied by the Teyan Dominion, Lusara’s local defenders were quick to establish themselves as an important part of the planet’s trade, becoming responsible for counter-piracy manoeuvres and law enforcement on the planet, supplementing Lusaran police. Membership of the LPM is a 0-hours contract, with the Militia rallied only when necessary. The Patrol Fleet, in contrast, operates using full-time contractors and is considerably more active than the Militia.

Rural Aristocracy
Although Lusara is a very wealthy world, it suffers a high degree of economic inequality across its population. At the lowest end are the farmers and fishermen, vital to the planet’s economy, yet earning less than a quarter of its income. This disparity of wealth is responsible for the rise of an aristocratic elite on Lusara, comprised of religious scholars, military families, and the owners of major farming organisations. The stratified nature of Lusara's agrarian society has ensured the stability of this social elite as few are capable of rising to challenge these old families.

These blood-blood families, although lacking the titles of noble-dominated societies such as the Duchy of Beraxis and royal courts of the Teyan Dominion, are, nevertheless, effectively nobility in all but name. Dynastic and influential, these families have shaped Lusaran society for several hundred years, cementing themselves as the wealthy authority of the planet, subservient only to the planetary government itself, and, in some ways, above it.

Agriculture
As an agri-world, the agricultural industry, particularly the raising and harvest of livestock, has become the largest and most important industry on Lusara and is single-handedly its largest source of income. Modern agronomy, plant breeding, agrochemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers, and technological developments have become vital to the ever-expanding industrial farming operations on Lusara, aiding in the continuous sowing and reaping of grain to feed livestock.

Despite the fact that monoculture farming is practised widely on Lusara, particularly by the larger farming companies on the planet, monocropping is not, with government mandates to ensure that the soil ecology of croplands is not damaged by the extensive and repeated draining of nutrients.

Selective breeding and modern practices in animal husbandry have similarly increased the output of meat, alongside genetically engineered livestock, although many off-world have raised concerns about animal welfare regarding the sheer scale of Lusara’s farming operations.

Fishing
Although only a secondary industry to agriculture, commercial fishing make up the second largest contributor to Lusara’s GDP. Aquaculture makes up roughly 70% of Lusara’s fishing industry, large-scale fish farming operations being undertaken by major companies, while the rest of Lusara’s fish are caught in the wild by commercial fisher boats.

Lusaran fish are considered a delicacy across the Andromedan Covenant Territories and are highly prized by the rich and influential, although the increasing scale of fish farming on the planet has begun steadily dropping the cost of Lusaran fish across the Covenant’s extragalactic colonial sector. The Lusuran Taho, a massive whale-analogous species, is culled bi-yearly by the local government to prevent overpopulation and makes up 20% of Lusara’s aquaculture-related GDP.

In order to protect the biosphere of Lusara’s oceans, and prevent potential ecological collapse from overfishing, the fishing industry on Lusara is heavily regulated, intending to ensure a healthy aquatic population at all times.

Other industries
In order to support the agriculture and aquaculture industries of Lusara, a variety of other local industries have been established to support the local economy and its population. Although these industries do not export to other worlds, they are vital in the continued survival of Lusara’s crops and fisheries - and with them the Andromedan Covenant Territories.

Of these supporting industries, the largest is the manufacture of industrial farming and fishing equipment - combine harvesters, ploughs, seeders, fishing boats, nets, and all other manners of vital tools needed in the agri-worlds function are produced on-world, typically using large quantities of imported metal alloys for the construction of equipment.