Death World: Difference between revisions

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** The homeworld of the Idirans is described as one of the nastiest places in the galaxy. The Idirans are naturally incredible [[Badass|badasses]] and biologically immortal without needing genetic engineering or cybernetics, thanks to hefty pressure from the other monstrous species of their homeworld and its unhealthy background radiation.
** Another featured "death world" is quite literally so. The native civilization wiped themselves out long long ago and it is now left as a memorial of sorts, protected by an [[Energy Being]] which is dangerously selective about who can visit the surface. Apparently there are many worlds like this, though most people are smart enough to stay away from them and their protectors.
* The version of Mars portrayed in the ''[[John Carter of Mars|Barsoom]]'' books by [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] qualifies. Due to an ecological catastrophe in the distant past, the planet is a near-desert, with an atmosphere that is only breathable because of an eons-old "atmosphere factory" that almost no one knows how to fix if it breaks. Just about every type of fauna is carnivorous, and they're all huge. To make matters worse, in order to keep their populations under control, the various humanoid natives have a culture the causes them to exist in a constant state of perpetual warfare, consider assassination and kidnapping to be respectable and honorable professions, and fight duels at the drop of a hat. And the non-humanoid natives make many [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] races seem friendly.<br /><br />Among those humanoid natives--the Green Men<ref> who aren't particularly man-like, being tusked four-armed big-eyed giants</ref>-- ''one individual in a thousand'' dies a natural death. 98 percent are killed violently, and the remaining two percent voluntarily go on a last pilgrimage down a sacred river {{spoiler|where they are eaten, or sometimes enslaved.}}
** Then there's the various hidden enclaves of practically any sort of monster you could imagine. John Carter wanders into one that consists of a sort of intelligent arachnid puppeteer parasite with specially bred near-headless humanoid creatures that they use as bodies. Another time he finds himself in a city populated by people who can make anything they can imagine into a solid illusion. Any old apparently abandoned set of ruins could turn out to be the lair of some bunch you ''really'' would have been better off not meeting.
* Most plant life on [[Cyteen]], in [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s ''[[Alliance Union]]'' [[The Verse|'verse]], is basically a cross between cottonwood and asbestos, and is full of alkaloid poisons and heavy metals to boot. Go outside the precip towers' envelope without protection and you die quick; get a smaller exposure and you die later from lung cancer. The animal life, at least, is slow and stupid. The original colonists started [[Terraform|terraforming]] measures, which they pulled the plug on fast when an anti-aging drug was derived from local biology.
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** The planet Spiridon in ''Planet of the Daleks'' is a good example. Plants that spurt quick-hardening glue that can trap you or close off your airways. Plants that shoot spores that, if they touch you, [[Body Horror|starts growing in your skin and spreads fast]]. Tons and tons of carnivorous beasts. Hostile, ''invisible'' natives. Honestly, when the army of insane alien killing machines is the ''least ''of your worries, things are bad.
** The planet Skaro--a delightful wasteland which experienced a nice long NBC campaign by two opposing sides, leaving it essentially a polluted, radioactive stone quarry. Also, there are the [[Absolute Xenophobe|surviving inhabitants]]...
** The eponymous planet from "[[Doctor Who/NS/Recap/NS/S4 /E10 Midnight|Midnight]]" is seemingly made entirely of precious gems, and as such has a stake as a high-class vacation planet... as long as you stay inside, as the ''reason'' the planet's soil has turned to gems is because it's constantly exposed to a form of radiation that would incinerate anything living in two seconds flat. {{spoiler|Except for a nasty little [[Body Surf|body surfer]]...}}
** The planet Marinus from ''The Keys of Marinus''. Glass beaches lapped by acid seas. Jungles full of hostile plants and deadly mechanical traps. Frozen wastelands patrolled by packs of man-eating wolves. Bodiless, telepathic slavers. Then there's the WAR...
* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' had a couple of examples:
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* In ''[[Marathon Trilogy|Marathon]] 2: Durandal'' and ''Marathon Infinity: Blood Tides of Ll'howon'', the player visits the eponymous planet of Ll'howon under the command of the eponymous AI Durandal. The planet was covered mostly in vast marshes. However, the alien race known as the S'pht had turned nearly the entire surface into a city. After that, sometime around the 1800's, another alien race known as the Pfhor enslaved the S'pht, leaving behind only a few marshes and volcanoes (both full of hostile wildlife), along with crumbling ruins and the immense deserts void of life where these great cities once stood proud.
* The world of [[Fallout]] features giant ants, murderous mutants with mini-guns, scarce food and radioactive water.
** ''Fallout 3's'' Capitol Wasteland is the worst version shown so far. The ruins of DC are filled with homicidal mutants. The sewers are home to insane (and different) mutants. The outskirts are held by [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|Raider tribes]]. On top of this, all food and water is radioactive unless put through time-consuming purification; the one source of clean water is being used as a delivery device for a bioweapon.
* Chiron, a.k.a. Planet of ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', has an environment highly toxic to humans and animals, predators (including aquatic and aerial forms) with [[Psychic Powers]] and [[Body Horror]] modes of reproduction and, incidentally, is semi-sentient and not very fond of humans or other unassimilated sentient thought. And then there's that whole "accidentally killing off all life on its surface every few million years" thing. It's actually a pretty nice place... while it's asleep. Too bad you show up when it's starting to come out, as it were, of REM.
* The planet Malta in ''[[Freelancer]]'' has Cardamine floating in the air; breathing that stuff is the in-game equivalent of breathing heroin. (It even gets into your genes, making the addiction permanent for you ''and'' all of your descendants.) In the same system, the planet Carinae seems idyllic, but its local biology is extremely poisonous to humans. Leeds, meanwhile, is so goddamn polluted their people lose their senses of smell and taste within 6 months, Pittsburgh is an inhospitable ball of sand and stone, while winters in New Berlin last an entire year and reach temperature similar to the ones in the Antarctica.<br /><br />Still, these places are a walk in the park compared to one of the unlandable earth-like planets. Said planet is hidden in a radioactive nebula cloud, but the planet itself is almost ridiculously Earth-like, right down to having massive biodiversity. It's even described as a Paradise. It just has only one tiny problem regarding human settlement. All the life--both the animals and plants--have a chemical that's quickly and 100% fatal to humans. Humans wisely decided not to attempt colonization.
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