Lorsanan'sondora

Lorsanan'sondora (meaning Royal Kingdom in Shikkri) was the homeworld of the polymorphic Lorsanan Shapeshifters. Originally dwelling near the edge of the Chiss Ascendancy, it was fitted with a gigantic Shannet (hyperdrive) so as to move it to a safe location at will for security reasons. It was surrounded by Lorsanan Tetres, a massive shipyard that formed an entire ring about the planet. The planet's location is unknown.

Geography and characteristics
Lorsanan'sondora was a planet in the Far Outer Rim, and thus its only contact with technology was the Chiss Ascendancy and, later, the 'Oozzinvon.' It was populated rather sparsely compared to most planets of its kind; the cities were primarily rural with several suburban towns. It had a relatively even temperature on the surface, meaning that it probably had a vertical rotation, a near-circular orbit, and an active jet stream. Before they were introduced to technology, and for leisure even afterwards, Shapeshifters used this powerful jet stream to quickly fly to their destination, riding these 'wind waves,' as they frequently referred to them. These high winds caused any mountains reaching the height of the jet stream to be extremely weathered and smooth, almost polished. Also because of this, their technology had to be more sophisticated to make up for the high winds in the upper atmosphere that caused vehicles to stray off course. To counter this, all repulsorlift vehicles and vehicles with atmospheric transportation capability were built with precise gyroscopic technology that kept the vehicle on course, compensating for the wind. Consequently, this made all Lorsanan vehicles very balanced and difficult to 'bump' out of trajectory.

Lorsanan'sondora had three seasons, the hot season, the rainy season, and the good season. The hot season was when the humid, water-saturated layer of their atmosphere was mostly evaporated and 'huddled' over the north and south poles, allowing more of the sun's thermal energy to come through. This caused Lorsanan's seas to start to evaporate somewhat, making Lorsanan a hot, humid place, though not intolerably so. This dried up the soil and drew out many underground dwellers, so that the hot season was also called the hunting season. The humidity eventually evened out again after several months, beginning the first good season. The good season was where the temperature and humidity was perfect for Shapeshifters. The good season that came after the hot season was used for planting. After a few more months the water layer was overly saturated, causing it to rain much more often, thus hailing in the wet season. This season was especially good for fishing, though the drop in temperature caused the Shapeshifters to tend to sleep a lot more; some of the older ones to the point of it being called a mild form of hibernation. Once the water layer had once more balanced itself, which took about the same length of time as the hot season did, the second good season began. This season was typically when the Shapeshifters harvest. The cycle of seasons then began again.

Because Lorsanan'sondora had no moon, it would naturally be assumed that the beaches of Lorsanan'sondora would be full of dirt, salt, and filth due to the absence of tides. However, that was not the case, leading to several assumptions as to why. First of all, the first conclusion would be that Lorsanan's seas and oceans contained no salt. This would explain why Shapeshifters require no iodine to survive, explaining why the thyroid of all creatures on Lorsanan were activated and rejuvenated by something else: sulfur. This sulfur was located in the water of Lorsanan, as well as in most water sold in the galaxy. Due to the relatively small amount in the water, Shapeshifters typically drank around five liters a day. Because of this, Shapeshifters normally drink only water. Also because of this no-salt issue, the water of Lorsanan evaporated more quickly than do most bodies of water. This meant that there was a good amount of clouds formed during the course of the day, leading to pouring nightly rains. Thus, a Shapeshifter's fur was coated in a special oil that let water roll off of it and was made to keep it warm. Also, because of the coolness caused by the nightly rain, Shapeshifters slept better due to their reptilian nature. This gave rise to the near inability of Shapeshifters to sleep without some sort of background noise. In place of salt, gigantic ziian sharks cleaned the water with their massive, baleen-filled mouths.

Flora and fauna
Due to the high upper atmospheric winds and relatively high amount of sulfur, several interesting plants and animals populated Lorsanan'sondora. The plants of Lorsanan were unique in the fact that they were rather sulfur-dependant compared to most plants. This gave many of them a yellowish tint, though the more populous fauna were a rich green. Most trees, such as the vekor dovan, were relatively low to the ground (averaging 30m), and were extremely thick with greenery and were usually bright yellow except in the hot season, where they turned a yellow-green. The leaves usually had toothed edges. The grasses and bushes were a rich green, but the edges turned yellow in the rainy season. Tall plants, like the bamboo-like thiyan, typically sported their leaves in a whorled manner. In the hot season, the flowers bloomed, splashing Lorsanan with vivid colors. This is the reasoning behind the Shapeshifters' color scheme; the black fur with yellow spines blends in well with the Lorsanan environment.

For some reason, several interesting races had developed on Lorsanan, not the least of which being the Shapeshifter. Besides them, however, the kyandra and the sher'navida, better known as the mirrorbird and the phantom dog, respectively, were also very intriguing, biologically. The mirrorbird was a small avian that had silvery feathers that reflected light. When using the Lorsanan jet stream to fly, as they normally did, their trim, sleek wings stretched out in such a way as to cause the wind to make it spin rapidly on a horizontal axis. This was a tactic used to fend off predators, as in the morning, afternoon, and night, it rendered them nearly invisible, and at noonday, it reflected enough light to temporarily blind predators.

The phantom dog was a canine predator whose color was pitch black. In fact, it possessed certain hormones that make its fur actually absorb light, causing it to disappear into shadows. As it looked exactly like it's harmless and friendly cousin, the rarin, it commonly attacked victims who it tricked into thinking it harmless, usually pouncing at it's prey from behind.

There was little or no C2H5 (dicarbon pentahydroxide, also known as ethyl radical) on Lorsanan outside of Lorsanan's Shapeshifters and animals. This was perhaps the reason that Shapeshifters (and all other Lorsanan natives) were highly allergic to concentrated forms of the substance, especially C2H5OH, better known as alcohol. C2H5 interrupted with the C2H5NO2 (glycine) neurotransmitter in the creatures' central nervous system (CNS), effectively causing spasms similar to strychnine poisoning in humans. However, unlike strychnine, alcohol effected the Sondoran (a term for a native of Lorsanan'sondora) within seconds, and death occured via cardiac arrest&mdash;preceded by uncontrollable coughing followed by myocardial infarction-like (heart attack-like) symptoms&mdash;instead of asphyxiation.