Human colonies: Difference between revisions

{{Status|Canon}}

{{Series/Species/Human}}

Under the administration of the [[Unified Earth Government]], [[human]]ity has surveyed and colonized several hundred [[planet|worlds]] across a portion of the [[Orion Arm]] of the [[Milky Way]] galaxy over 200 years of [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine|superluminal travel]] via [[slipstream space]], following nearly three centuries of expansion across the [[Sol system]]. The planets under the jurisdiction of the UEG, together with [[Earth|humanity's homeworld]], are collectively referred to as '''"Earth and Her Colonies"'''.{{Ref/Level|[[Halo 3]]|[[Halo (Halo 3 level)#Eulogy|Halo]]}}{{Ref/Novel|Halo: The Fall of Chapter|Chapter=??}} Human space is divided into three regions: the Sol system itself, the Inner Colonies, and the Outer Colonies.

===Domus Diaspora===

{{Main|Domus Diaspora|Inner Colonies|Outer Colonies}}

As faster-than-light travel was still new and highly expensive, potential colonists were subjected to rigorous physical and mental testing to determine their suitability for the extrasolar colonization programs. As such, the colonists who formed the basis for the 210 first-wave colonies settled before [[2390]] formed humanity's elite; these worlds would later be known as the Inner Colonies. Earth and the Inner Colonies soon became the political and economic basis of the UNSC as humanity began expanding to the Outer Colonies.{{Ref/Reuse|xboxhalo}} For humanity at large, this was a time of unparalleled prosperity and optimism which has later come to be referred to as the "Golden Age" of human colonization,<ref>''Halo: Evolutions'', "The Impossible Life and the Possible Death of Preston J. Cole", p. 415-416</ref> a period which would eventually come to a violent end in the later years of the 25th century.{{Ref/Reuse|cole}}

On April 20, [[2525]], contact with the Outer Colony, [[Harvest]], was lost. After failing to re-establish contact with Harvest, the [[Colonial Military Authority]] sent a scout ship, the {{CMAShip|Argo}}, to investigate. Contact with the Argo was subsequently lost after the ship arrived in the Harvest system, plunging humanity into a deadly war with an alien hegemony known as the [[Covenant]]. Harvest was [[orbital bombardment|bombarded from orbit]] in a process which would come to be known as [[glassing]], marking the beginning of a 28-year war with the Covenant. During the war, hundreds of human colonies were destroyed and billions of human civilians and military personnel were killed by the Covenant. The conflict would see the near-annihilation of the Outer Colonies by the mid-2530s, with the Covenant flooding into the Inner Colonies until they destroyed humanity's military stronghold of [[Reach]] in 2552. At that point, humanity only had a few dozen colonies remaining in total.<ref>''[[Halo Mythos]]'', p. 85</ref> The Inner Colonies narrowly avoided annihilation before the UNSC finally achieved victory against the Covenant in the same year, but communication and unity among Earth's surviving colonies had been utterly compromised amidst the galaxy-wide devastation.

===Post-war===

{{Expand-section}}

While the Unified Earth Government is technically a confederation of equal, independently-governed worlds, this is not true in practice;{{Ref/Reuse|enc43}} the interests of Earth and the Inner Colonies weigh more heavily in the government's decision-making than those of the Outer Colonies. This has led to tensions and even [[Insurrection|civil war]] between the UNSC and the outer settlements,{{Ref/Site|D=01|M=6|Y=2020|URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rPeMxbvCjYo|Site=YouTube|Page=Halo: From A to Z with Frank O'Connor}} which many of the Inner Colonies relied on for their foodstuffs and resources.{{Ref/Reuse|xboxhalo}}

Many colonies are named after locations on Earth, while others receive more descriptive or abstract names. Some worlds are only known by their astronomical designation, with the name of the star the world orbits followed by a numeric designation most often rendered in Roman numerals. On some colony worlds such as [[New Jerusalem]], [[New Jerusalem (city)|the capital]] [[city]] shares its name with the planet, as it is common for a colony's initial population center to be considered synonymous with the colony itself.<ref>[https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/canon-fodder-that-escalated-quickly ''Halo Waypoint'': Canon Fodder - That Escalated Quickly]</ref> The [[Earth Survey Catalog]] also exists to document various extrasolar planets, assigning them identification codes.{{Ref/Book|Halo: Combat Evolved: Sybex Official Strategies & Secrets|Page=64}}

*[[Chi Ceti system]]: 76.93

*[[23 Librae system]]: 85

*[[Cygnus system]]: <93 (24 light-years from the Kolaqoa system)

*[[Cordoba system]]: exact value unknown (8.7 light-years from the Shaps system)

== List of known colonies ==

===Pre-Human-Forerunner war===

**[[Ben Nauk]]

**[[Sothra Hakkor]]

**[[Faun Hakkor]]

*[[Wolf-faced planet]]

===Post-Great Purification===

{{Main|Great Purification}}

====Extrasolar colonies====

<center>''All table data sourced from [[Halo Encyclopedia (2022 edition)]], pages 50-51, except where otherwise noted.''</center>

{| class="wikitable sortable"

| [[Eirene]] || [[Calypso system]] || [[2410]] || Glassed [[2535]] || Inner Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|-

|-

|-

| [[Far Isle]] || [[Capstone system]] || [[2421]] || Untouched || Outer Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

| [[Crystal]] || [[Dynamix system]] || [[2440]] || Untouched || Outer Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|-

|-

| [[Eiro]] || [[Ectanus 45 system]] || [[2401]] || Untouched || Inner Colony

| [[Galodew]] || [[Gindenn system]] || [[2455]] || Attacked [[2527]] || Outer Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|-

|-

| [[Cascade]] || [[Handan system]] || [[2435]] || Untouched || Outer Colony

| [[Lodestone]] || [[Heshdod system]] || [[2388]] || Untouched || Inner Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|-

|-

| [[Carrow]] || [[Holdhome system]] || [[2435]] || Untouched || Outer Colony

|-

| [[Gannick 22]] || [[Maquis system]] || [[2388]] || Untouched || Inner Colony

|-

| [[Nouveau Montreal]] || [[Marian system]] || [[2460]] || Untouched || Outer Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|-

| [[Casmir]] || [[Zufor system]] || [[2365]] || Untouched || Inner Colony {{C|Presumed}}{{Ref/NoteReuse|Outer}}

|}

|-

| N/A || [[Hydra system]] || N/A || N/A

|-

| [[Zehar VI]] || [[Zehar system]] || Late-war ([[2540]]-[[2552]]) || Untouched

====Outliers====

*[[Bhuj]]

*[[Bomogin]]

{{col-end}}

== Notes ==

{{Ref/Notes}}