Exodians are people from the planet Exodus in the Phaeton System.

To set the stage a little bit; the Confederated Star Systems (CSS) runs the majority of the Andromeda galaxy; they'd say they run the entire galaxy but that is only mostly true. In reality, there are and probably always will be little pockets here and there that swim against the current. Populations that wish to not be a part of that galactic whole for any number of reasons. Some reasons valid, some reasons not so much (such as species isolationism or extreme/generally harmful religious cults).

Chances are, your character on the MUCK is a CSS citizen. And chances are, you haven't heard of the Exodians; they are a minor and distant blip, a civilization so remote that the CSS' conflict with them didn't really make the news much of anywhere. The CSS would rather you not hear about it, most likely. No government wants to be seen as crushing the little guy that just wants to live their own lifestyle.

That said, there is an Exodian serving on the Legacy, and as such, this opens the door for three possiblities that that this wiki article seeks to address:

• If someone on the ship, meeting Ash, is curious about her culture and looks it up. The contents of this page would be valid IC knowledge found on the Exodian space-wikipedia page.
• If someone on the ship or joining the ship was involved in the Exodian/CSS conflict and is therefore familiar with it.
• If someone else wishes to play an Exodian. Please note that this particular case should probably be coordinated with Ash on the MUCK, as the only likely way another Exodian would randomly show up and join the ship is if Ash invited them somehow.

The Exodians are Ash's creation and as such you are encouraged to bring any questions you have regarding them to her.

The star known as Phaeton is a main-sequence K2V class star with four planets and two asteroid belts. It is the most distant known colony relative to the galactic core. Phaeton is so distant it is virtually outside of the galaxy proper.

The innermost ring of solar-orbiting bodies is an inner asteroid belt, nicknamed the collectively The Inferno. These asteroids are incredibly rich in metals, particularly exotic metals, and heavily mined, often at great cost to the miners. Three larger asteroids have been hollowed out into permanent mining colonies.

Collectively the inner ring has a population of about half a million.

The innermost planet is Exodus. The world was discovered by early survey probes, and noted as being a potentially suitable world for colonization, having a biosphere and gravity within the target range, but was rejected for several reasons.

• The planet has a sharply inclined axial tilt, 46.3 degrees off the orbital plane, meaning the seasons are dramatic and the weather patterns are severe.
• The star is a K-class star; the light dimmer and shifted farther into the red end of the spectrum. This also means that the so-called “Goldilocks” zone of Phaeton is a smaller radius than earth. Phaeton’s year is only about seven galactic standard months. This compounds the severely fluctuating weather from the axial tilt, and produces much shorter growing seasons than ideal.
• The planet was so remote as to make it impractical for easy trade with the galaxy at large.

Gravity on Exodus is 91% of Galactic Standard (GS), days are 29.2 GS hours, a year is 29% shorter than GS. The planet has two major continents and a vast multitude of islands of varying sizes. 22% of the surface area of the planet is dry land, but only half of that is made up of the two major continents.

Population: 200 million (approximate) terrestrial, plus another ~4 million between lunar bases on the two moons and orbital bases.

The native life is carbon-based and broadly similar to Old Earth concepts of life, some of it even being edible by humanoid morphs.

Plant life on Exodus tends to be red or purple rather than green; although Exodian flora still derive energy from the sun through an analog to chlorophyll, the pigmentation in the leaves and grasses are due to an elevated level of anthocyanins, for reasons that xenobotanists have speculated may be an adaptation to Exodian fauna.

Fauna on Exodus is still in a relatively early stage of evolution, according to xenobiological studies. Although the oceans, rivers, and lakes are complex and varied ecosystems, land based life is largely limited to insect-analogs and a few early pseudo-amphibians and pseudo-reptiles. There are no mammal analogs, although notably all land-based life on Exodus is warm-blooded, regardless of it’s similarity to reptiles. There are no true flying creatures save for the insect-like creatures, although a few species of reptile have some ability to glide if they launch from high perches. The largest known land species are known colloquially as mindraks, in the local tongue, or “miniature dragons” in galactic common – fox-sized quadrupedal predatory creatures. Some Exodians keep them as pets, although the practice is controversial.

A great many common galactic flora and fauna have been introduced to Exodus, either with or without genetic modification.

Beyond Exodus is a wide gulf of nothing save for a few rogue asteroids, until Primus, the first of two large gas giants. 397.8 M⊕, a reddish-yellow gas giant with 6 major moons. After Primus, there is Secundus, a slightly smaller (298.1 M⊕) blue-green gas giant with 5 major moons. Between the two gas giants, including all orbitals and lunar bases, there is an additional ~10 million people.

Past Secondus is another asteroid belt, although much sparser than the inner belt, and unfortunately not nearly as mineral-dense, according to surveys. Primarily visited by ice-haulers, it has a small and largely transient population, with only two small orbital habs, comprising a total permanent population of only a couple thousand each.

Finally, at a distance of almost 50 galactic AU, there is Exile. About half the size of Exodus, Exile is a dark, frozen, but mineral rich, planet. It has the second smallest population of any inhabited body in thesolar system, only another 20,000 souls live on Exile, and over half of that population is criminals. Exile is the planetary maximum security prison.