Tycarius

The World of Tycarius
The world of Tycarius, often referred to as the Shard and is also simply known as the World, is a planet that is second from its star, called Embarius. It is the densest and fourth-largest of the seven worlds of the Embarius System. It is one of the three terrestrial worlds and is the second-largest terrestrial planet.

Tycarius was formed around 4.23 billion years ago, and the first life forms appeared in early single-celled organisms after the first billion years. Tycaius' biosphere signifigantly altered the atmosphericand other basic physical conditions, enabled the proliferation of life and formed a protective layer around Tycarius that acted with the magnestic field to block harmful radiation from Embarius. The physical properties of Tycarius have allowed life to flourish while on every other planet it never evolved.

There are tectonic plates that move across the surfuce of Tycarius over peroids of several million years. About 69% of the surface is covered by salt water oceans, with the remainder consisting of continents and islands. There are rivers and lakes as well as other sources of water across the land. The area around the poles are covered in solid ice that packs in the remaining water. Tycarius' interior is active, with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the magnetic field, and a thik layer of relatively soft mantle.

Tycarius has a gravational pull with other objects in space, especially with Embarius and its twin moons, Deryus and Tromica. Tycarius orbits Embarius on its own axis 398.26 times, forming about 397.26 days. Ther is a tilt of 23.4 degrees forming seasonal changes. The twin moons have a gravitational interaction with Tycarius stimulates ocean tides, stabilizes the axial tilt, and gradally slows the planet's rotation.

There are many forms of life, including humans, but also several fantasy creatures such as dwarves, goblins, moon elves, sun elves, trolls and giants. Both the mineral resources of the planet and the products of the biosphere  contribute resources for the support of a global humanoid population. This support many independant sovereign states, which interact through diplomancy, travel, trade and war.



Name and Etymology
The name of Tycarius has been used for several hundred years as the offical name for the planet. The name has its origin in the language of Draseni Alven, as the word Tyc, which means "cradle", and the word Arkius, which means "life". The full name translates as the "Cradle of Life." This so far as the races of Tycarius know thier planet is the only one with life.

Another name for Tycarius is the Shard, a name more popular with humans than any other race. The name is actually a corruption of the orginal Old Dwarven word. The name comes from the word, Sharic, which translates roughly as "house" or "home."

The humans tend to call Tycarius "the World", a name that has become popularized in mainstream culture. The name of the World comes from the human nation of Scarmonia, from the Old Scarmonian word of Vrden. Once again, this was corrupted into the word "Wurld", which of course became the World.