Telephica

From Tetro Files

Telephica is a 142,000-mile-diameter asteroid embedded in a crater in the northern tip of the Gamial Peninsula. It is now home to the central district of Star City, Tetro's capital.

[edit] History

[edit] Collision

Telephica collided with Tetro 4.1 billion Earth-years ago, creating a massive crater on Gamiala's northern coastline. After the collision, most of the asteroid remained intact and formed a dome rising out of the center of the crater. As Tetro's sea level rose, the crater filled with water leaving the top half of Telephica as an island just off the coast of Gamiala.

[edit] Origin of Life

Approximately 200,000 Earth-years before the impact, carbon-based self-replicating molecules had formed into protocells in the asteroid's oceans. The protocells not destroyed by the impact populated the planet's oceans and eventually evolved into Tetro's various life-forms over the following 670 million Earth-years. By 3.8 billion Earth-years ago, several early pyronates had evolved, including the precursors to frelians, q-crawler, and vithians.

[edit] City of Stone

An artist's conception of an early pyronate's first sight of Telephica, before it was carved into City of Stone.

Around 3.7 billion Earth-years ago, small tribes of protopyronates began to migrate north across the Gamial Peninsula. By 3.68 billion Earth-years ago, they had reached the north coast of Gamiala and could see Telephica across a narrow channel of water. Driven by an instinctual desire for more secure dwellings, they decided to turn the island into a fortified city.