Bantmitual (planet)

Bantmitual, also called Bandar Prime, is the principle inhabited planet of the Bandar System. It is the homeworld of the bandar, a highly advanced yet retiring tetrapodal species who are spacefaring, but have never ventured much beyond their home system.

Bantmitual is a huge superterrestrial world, with a surface area 26 times that size of Earth's, and a superheavy 3.5G gravity. Its crust consists of light rock with an active tectonic system, prone to regular earthquakes though relatively little vulcanism, since the high gravity does not allow magma to rise to the surface except in extreme circumstances. There are many thermal and hydrothermal vents, however.

About half the world's surface is sea, much of it shallow continental shelf with only 30% of the surface being deep abyssal ocean. The pressure of the ocean bottom is so crushing that exotic structures of phased ice form, particulary Ice III and VI. Due to the planet's large mass there is a significant equatorial bulge, making the temperature difference between polar and equatorial regions more extreme.

After hundreds of thousands of years of bandar civilisation, Bantmitual has almost few continental wilderness areas, although there are natural reservations dotted with bandar communal homes, carefully reconstructed with traditional materials. Bandar's limited number of natural predators are restricted to these areas.

The planet takes 62 Earth hours to rotate, a relatively high speed of rotation given the planet's mass. Traditionally the bandar sleep for at least 25 of those hours, and can enter a state of hibernation during the winter months. Hibernation is relatively rare for modern bandar, though some opt to do so in specialised polar retreats, considering it to be a spiritual experience.

The majority of the planet is a single supercontinent interspersed with inland seas, with the opposite side being ocean. The home continent, called Toppiod, is intricately managed suburban parkland, bandar preferring to live in extended family homes of up to fifty individuals, with their own garden grazing space and neighbours nearby. There are few metropolises in the human sense, cities instead being hubs for industrial exchange, and gathering points for social, cultural and political activities. Bandar cities are low rise due to the heavy gravity, the tallest being no more than four stories, bandar being generally fearful of heights and of tall structures.

Being such a large world Bantmitual once had numerous moons and a ring system of rocky debris. In the past the planet was prone to regular meteor showers with meteors occasionally hitting the surface, creating devastating craters. Ancient literature speaks a great deal about the beauty and danger of objects falling from the heavens. Being such a chronically risk-averse species, the bandar cleared all heavy or potentially dangerous orbits from orbit as soon as they had the technology to do so - in fact this was their only real motivation for developing space technology at all.

They long ago terraformed and colonised the inner moons, and converted the ring system into a host of artificial bodies, orbitals, habs and space stations which are the extent of bandar space colonisation. Given the size of the home planet plus the terraformed moons and habits, the bandar occupy a surface area equivalent to thirty or more inhabited planets.

Bantmitual and its surrounding moons are home to over seven thousand nations and polities, creating a complex and ever-changing political landscape. This is moderated by a world government in which the administration of infrastructure and responsibility for public safety resides with a network of synthetic intelligences. Rather than being artificial, these intelligences are actually the recorded personalities of deceased bandar, working together in a network.

Bandar are socially gregarious and are uncomfortable being alone or isolated from their friends and family. Consequently bandar have never engaged in deep space travel, since the psychological strain of isolation was thought to be too damaging. Bandar are also generally risk averse, having evolved in an already dangerous environment.

This does not mean bandar are not curious about the rest of the universe. Bandar probes have ranged far and wide amongst the stars, gaining a wealth of information about local space. Historically they avoided making any contact with any other sentient species. Despite their retiring nature, the system's great distance from any other star is the most likely explanation for their stay-at-home reputation.