The Planet ZERITH: Homeworld of the Intergalactic Empire.

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The Planet Zerith, also known in its history as Great Earth, is where the Intergalactic Empire holds its chief capitol and where its great leader, Lord Daniel Vondor, and its first High Emperor, John Randall, hail from. At the time of the Daniel Escapes books, in the Zerith year 4283, planet Zerith has a population of 12 million 789 thousand 652 souls living on it as permanent residents. Another 2 million plus live is the space stations in orbit. The planet is a very peaceful and prosperous world with lush landscapes and verdant fields. Though similar to Earth, Zerith has no great desserts and its oceans are not as big comparatively speaking. Most of Zerith's surface is continental lands, forests, hills, mountains and plains.

Another artist's rendition of a fantastical scenary resembling Zerith's lands.

Zerith is very large world, much greater than Earth in size though very similar in many other aspects. Its diameter in miles is 24 thousand 646. Zerith boast an oxygen rich atmosphere much better than Earth's. The gravity is very similar as are many other aspects though Zerith does not have seasons and has a largely uniform climate across the globe. Its days are 26 hours long and it currently boasts a triple Moon set of natural satellites that rotate around each other in the night sky.

Zerith is a much older world than Earth. Though plenty of Earth's modern inhabitants have been conditioned to believe in the "science" of a billion year old Earth due to evolutionary forces, the actual truth is that the planet, like all else in the mortal realm to include Earth or Terra, was created under the power and authority of the GREAT CREATOR long ago and not formed by any so called undirected natural forces in some evolutionary manner. In the case of the world Zerith, its original surface was crafter by the CREATOR 11 thousand and 280 years before the time the story begins in Daniel Escapes but human civilization, to include all the animal human hybrids, saw their lives begin at the CREATOR'S behest 4,280 years ago. This is also similar to how the CREATOR first placed mankind on Earth 5,951 years ago when He made Adam and Eve as of the Earth year 2024. Zerith's human history begins with a Roman family of a man called Justinian. His story and the founding of Zerith is spelled out in later books of the Lord Vondor Series, but for the purposes of this article here, let in be known that since the first humans were Romans of Earth, thus it was that Zerith human society developed along such lines as to see Romanesque style culture, language, and architecture rise in the future.

The Tower at a coastal port of a city of Zerith. An example of Empirial Architecture.

Zerith, at the time of the Daniel Escapes books, is a very much blended world. It can appear in most places like a high renaissance era type place though some modern and high tech structures and spaces do exist. The overall architecture is a blend of medieval, gothic, Roman, Greek, and some Victorian or steampunk type structures and styles.

Empirial people, and especially Zerith residents, are very practical and common sense folk. They enjoy the pursuits of fine craftmanship, deep study, and fine art but will relax and chill with the laziest of them. They work hard but know and are taught the value of time off and the balances of life. Zerith people like to take things easy but will work extremely hard when the time to labor is upon them with dedicated focus and zeal on their given task. They are very curious, very hospitable, and extremely generous as a rule. They also like superheroes like Daniel but don't worship them. Empirial people in general don't usually fan boy all that much. However they will gawk and awe over any epic display of magic just like any other mortal. But since Zerith people grow up with some mages or wizards in most of their communities, they are usually accustomed to the occasional display of raw power here and there. Only about 1 in every thousand Zerith kids are born with powers of magic and only 1 out of every ten of those is at a power level higher then 5.

These are the lower level Zerith magic types with examples of what their power and abilities are.

Zerith is a largely rural and wild planet with only a handful of urban centers as most of the Empire's modern construction took place post-alien invasion and off planet or was put into the orbital space stations leaving the land and cities to retain most of their ancient charm and historical architectural wonder. In many ways the late medieval Zerith culture jumped to high tech space faring culture in a matter of months. But much more on this later. Though the capitol city of Zerith does boast some auspicious modern buildings, most of the key government structures were either built underground or in the floating city section of the capitol after the Zerith year 3886.

Zerith's global population is almost entirely Emperial but there are technically two nations that never officially joined the Empire and more or less retain their sovereignty to this day. This means they do not vote in Empirial elections and have their own isolated justice systems. But the one aspect they cannot help but be a joint partner to the Empire with is through trade and commerce.

One of the few glaring issues within the Empire, and it was inherent at its founding largely due to these two stubborn nations who wanted to remain isolated but keep economic ties, is the issue and problem of slavery. Slavery is a key part of these separate nation's economy and - out in the wider galaxy and Empire - is an unfortunate common and sometimes rampant economic and social problem depending upon which star system you visit. The Empire inherited slavery from its founding and has thus far not had the political gumption to rid itself of this disease on civilized society. Of course, with an organization of nations and worlds so vast, ending slavery is now a much more monumental undertaking than it has ever been. Far too many people who don't deal with it on a daily basis, especially on peaceful and highly civilized worlds, don't think about it and so don't see it as a problem that must be handled. Its one of the negative by products of a high standard of living; the fortunate don't always properly empathize with those less fortunate. What is out of sight is out of mind. And, of course, those who do care about ending slavery are almost all current slaves or former slaves and often have little to no power to end the practice. Thus far the best the Empire has been able to do in regards to slaves is secure in law their rights and protections as sentients. Otherwise the practice continues on without much prohibition. Thankfully less than 2% of the entire Emperial sentient population is or has been under slavery for any portion of their lives and the vast majority of these slaves are serving out temporary sentences in payment for crimes committed as determined by an Emperial Jury verdict. Thus the majority of slavery in the Empire is not a life long nor inherited curse, but only a term of years or months depending on the severity of the criminal sentence.

Zerith's people break up into these groups at the time of the Lord Vondor story narrative:

1. Humans who make up the majority of the sentient population of Zerith

2. Alligator Humanoids

3. Badger Humanoids

4. Bear Humanoids

   1. Brown & Black Bear Humanoids

   2. Panda Bear Humanoids

   3. Polar Bear Humanoids

5. Cat Humanoids

   1. Lion Humanoids

   2. Panther Humanoids

   3. Tiger Humanoids

6. Dog or Canine Humanoids

   1. Wolf Humanoids

7. Dwarves

8. Eagle Humanoids (These cannot fly as they do not have wings)

9. Elephant Humanoids

10. High Elves

11. Lizard Humanoids

12. Mice Humanoids

13. Mole Humanoids

14. & Pig Humanoids who are only last here because of where they fall Alphabetically. They are no less or more of a sentient than any other fellow mortal.

    

    

    

    

    

    

On the day that a young version of Daniel wakes up on Earth as recorded in Book 1, the Emperial total intergalactic population is 3 Quintillion, 816 Quadrillion, 313 Trillion, 720 Billion, 983 Million, 012 Thousand Emperial citizens of all classes and slave types.

In the Emperial Military, at this same time, there are 2 Quadrillion, 925 Trillion, 56 Billion plus active duty personnel of all ranks and types.

The Intergalactic Emperial total fleet in active service and patrols number: 46 Trillion, 560 Billion plus Starships which are organized into some 7 Thousand 306 different space fleets.

See Chart for more numbers:

The Starship number is higher here as it includes Reserve Ships.

These military people are the single largest group within the Intergalactic Empire as they work to secure the Empire's border, protect and serve its people, and constantly train to be ready for the next engagement as is necessary. At any given time several billion troops within the Empire can and are engaged in various settings of offensive, defensive, or readiness tactics and maneuvers all over the Empire on various planets and in numerous space fleets.

More Emperial Military data will be expounded upon in a future post.