The Rosacae System
On the safest edge of the U.S.S Dominion, far away from other systems, lies the Rosacae System. Named after its unassuming K-Type Main-Sequence star (Orange Dwarf), this system contains five planets. These are Malus, Persica, Cydonia, Pyrus, and Rubus. As an Orange Dwarf, Rosacae is ~70% the size of The Sun and outputs only half the luminosity. The light coming from Rosacae is not only dimmer, but also red-shifted, resulting in proportionally more red and orange light, while emitting substantially less Blue, Violet, and Ultraviolet (UV) light. While generally stable, Rosacae is extremely active, resulting in frequent stellar flares. These stellar flares have stripped the close-by Malus of its atmosphere, turning it into a red-tinted uninhabitable rock. Of the remaining planets, Cydonia, Pyrus, and Rubus are too far from Rosacae to support life. The only livable planet is Persica, which exists in a calm, but perpetual winter.
The General Environment of Persica
Check back tomorrow, but it's very cold.
The Planetary Adaptation Project: Palloids
Palloids are the outcome of the Planetary Adaptation Project on Persica. Often disparagingly called Vampire Dwarves, Palloids are short and stocky with incredibly pale translucent skin, allowing them to maximize Vitamin D production from the low levels of UV light emitted by Rosacae.
To better survive the cold of Persica, Palloids have developed multiple adaptations the improve their cold resistance. Their short, stocky frames reduce their surface area, resulting in better heat retention. While initially appealing hairless, Palloids are in fact completely covered in an ultra fine lanugo. This ultra-fine hair is covered in a thin waxy coat, which assists with trapping heat near the body while not hindering UV absorption of the skin. Within their bodies, Palloids have a higher percentage of brown fat compared to humans from Earth. This extra brown fat helps produce heat in the cold of Persica.
The stocky frame of Palloids have a secondary benefit beyond heat retention. Their wide-barrel torsos contain large lungs, which assist in breathing in the air of Persica. This is further complemented by the high hemoglobin content found in a Palloids blood. The blood of a Palloid is often a dark crimson, which further emphasizes their "vampire" moniker when seen through their skin.
Palloids have highly distinct and uncomfortable-to-look-at eyes. Their eyes are large and nearly perpetually dilated with either obsidian or chartreuse colored iris'. Both eye colors improve visibility for Palloids, but in different ways. Palloids with obsidian eyes minimize internal light scattering, while those with chartreuse eyes have a thick layer of tapetum lucidum reflecting photons directly towards the retina. The retina of a Palloid has a high concentration of rod cells, further improving low light vision. Finally, Palloids have a poorly formed nictitating membrane between their eye and eyelid. This secondary eyelid protects their eyes from the cold, while allowing light to pass through.
On Persica, Palloids are largely left alone. Most individuals visiting Persica find their appearance off putting and prefer not to interact with them. Despite this, Palloids are not second class citizens within Persica. Most Palloids choose to never leave Persica due to environmental hazards outside of Persica. Their eyes can see some near infrared light, but they do not easily distinguish between colors in the blue through violet range of the visible spectrum. More importantly, almost all sources of light outside of Persica are too bright for them and they find themselves frequently blinded and trivially sunburnt on different planets.