“AG111a: 'Monarch' - One of Olympus's many satellites. What should have been Halcyon's second habitable world has long since been abandoned by the Board due to monstrous, ravenous creatures.
„—Halcyon map description
Monarch, previously known as Terra 1, is one of the many moons of the gas giant Olympus and the site of a failed colony.
Background[edit | edit source]
Monarch was initially designated the primary colonization target of the Halcyon system. The Halcyon Holdings Corporate Board had intended to completely terraform the planet, wiping out the local fauna and flora and replacing it with plants and wildlife native to Earth. The terraforming process, however, unexpectedly caused the native species to mutate and grow to significantly larger sizes, rendering them more dangerous and severely crippling the colonization effort.
As a result of this catastrophic failure, the Board's reputation and influence over the colonists was heavily damaged, with a number of citizens outright rebelling against the corporations' rule. As the Board and the majority of the companies stationed on the planet withdrew, one company acquired the planet from the Board via a legal loophole and rebranded themselves as Monarch Stellar Industries. The actions of MSI earned them the ire of the Board, who retaliated by applying the Hazard Clause to Monarch, effectively placing the moon under indefinite embargo, refusing to allow legal transit either in or out.
Geography[edit | edit source]
Due to its small size, Monarch does not rotate, but rather is “Tidally locked” with its parent planet, with one half of the moon always facing Olympus and the other half away from it.[1] The Hot Pole is the place closest to Olympus and the Cold Pole is the place furthest away. The former is characterized by its many volcanoes and the latter by a "storm-wall" where hot and cold air meet to create gigantic, virtually impassable storms. There are ice cliffs where the storm-wall begins and the storms themselves consist of snow and ice being whipped around by gale-force winds. The warmest the Cold Pole gets is 40 below, and it can reach temperatures as low as 90 below and beyond, cold enough for CO2 to freeze out of the air.[2]
Monarch also has an ocean which goes around the moon at the "twilight band". It is where the colonists and Monarch Stellar Industries farm their saltuna. Despite being locked in place, Monarch still experiences a tide cycle which, anecdotally, is due to the moon "wobbl[ing] back and forth", causing the ocean to slosh from side to side. Due to the strength of Olympus' gravitational pull, the tides are significant, either pulling the ocean back for miles at low tide, or submerging entire islands when it is high.[3]
Fauna[edit | edit source]
Monarch boasts a variety of native and introduced species, almost all of which are deadly to humans.
- Native species
- Introduced species
Related achievements-trophies[edit | edit source]
| Icon | Name | Description | Gamer Score | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Pirate Radio | Stopped the Monarch broadcasts. | 15 | Bronze |
Notes[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Ash, story about the Hot Pole, Amber Heights
- ↑ Ash, story about the Cold Pole, Amber Heights
- ↑ Ash, story about Monarch's ocean, Amber Heights
- ↑ A conversation between two freight crew members on the Groundbreaker: a female is claiming she heard a transmission from Graham Bryant coming from Monarch, but her male colleague is trying to convince her she must be mistaken, since there are no people living in Monarch
- ↑ Halcyon News Announcer: "Canyons of acid and sulfur rain are the least of horrors plaguing the surface of Monarch."
- ↑ Gladys Culkelly (when asked about why the Board recalled Stellar Bay Navkeys): "Ask the common folk and they'll tell you it's on account of all monsters on Monarch desperate to gobble you up. because that's what the Board tells them, you see?"
