Heliocentrus
The winter capital of the Alliance, Heliocentrus is in the southern hemisphere on the planet Selnor and is known for its fabulous beaches and tropical weather. Medium high gravity.
At a Glance
- Size:
- Planet: Selnor
- Nation/Population: varied
History
Geography and Architecture
"Balmy, tropical, cosmopolitan, enormous and beautiful."[1]
A large enough city that most of it is inland, but the site was chosen for its climate, beauty, and its proximity to "some of the most gorgeous beaches in the southern hemisphere." Some of the coastline is set aside for swimmers, and some of it for small pleasure craft.[2]
Heliocentrus is designed around walking distances, with aircars -- sparrows and wrens, mostly, but the occasional kestrel or larger vehicle -- following traffic patterns midway up around the skyscrapers. Greenspaces are frequent and well maintained.
Tropical-bright flowers grow up lattices edging the buildings.
The city is full of stair-step communities, houses built on terraces lining the edges of small parks. The topmost terraces lead onto concourses leading into marketplaces, businesses, and high-rises, sculpted around more greenspaces, so it is not unusual to be walking down a street and find oneself on a bridge overlooking a stadium-like arrangement of small houses.[3] Hanging gardens are a common feature.[4]
There are multiple levels of footbridges between skyscrapers.
Most of the commercial traffic coming to the planet's surface goes through Heliocentrus (since Fleet has the lion's share of the use of Terracentrus).[5]
Notable Landmarks
- Mercy Hospital
- Heliocentrus Galleria, a shopping district which has a Christmas Tree during the appropriate season
- New Chaganall, maternity hospital
- Radclifte Clinic, closest medical facility to the port
Other Landmarks
- Coffee shop with hot buttered coffee
Population
Known/Named Residents
Trivia
Probably the items in this section can be moved elsewhere once the page is better formatted.
- Police department has one of the best drug trafficking groups in the Core.[6]
- Ducks are exotic, more like Anseahla's avians, with plumage in startling rose pinks or bright oranges edged in black[3]; other animals include native avians with fluting cries, acrobatic fliers that dive for fish, and double-wings, a finned, ray-shaped mammal with four wings set at right angles to one another (they twirl as they dive, and slap their forked tails on the water).[2]
- Typical entertainments: concerts, museums, tours of rooftop farms, exotic flower festivals, art exhibits (artifacts of the Diaspora, touring)[2]
- Coffee is grown nearby, including a clear, clean-tasting specialty variant in the nearby rainforests[2]