| Terra | Geography | Life | Gallery | Trivia |
- Not to be confused with Terrain.
Arknights take place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian science fantasy world known as Terra.
Terra is similar, if not identical, to Earth, including having an oxygen atmosphere, a more-or-less identical gravity and atmospheric pressure, carbon-based lifeforms, and identical climate. Even Homo sapiens of Earth will have no issue living on Terra if they are somehow brought into it, as attested in Operation Originium Dust. Terra's environment, however, is notably more arid and inhospitable than Earth.
A full view of Terra and its orbit
Terra is located on a planetary system in a galactic[note 1] region known as the Zobedie Nebula, orbiting a main sequence star similar to the Sun and has two natural satellites (i.e. moons) known as Twin Moons in various folklore. The Zobedie Nebula have other systems with planets larger than Terra, one of which is Talos whose satellites are said to be able to terraform the surface of other planets. Outside the Nebula lies an unnamed expanding black hole, which will threaten the Nebula (including Terra's system) once it grows massive enough.[1]
Terra is strongly hinted to be a former space colony that was terraformed by an advanced space-faring civilization, but was later abandoned for more than 13,000 years due to unknown disasters that wiped out said civilization. As a matter of fact, Terra possesses many remnants of architectures built by the previous civilization. For example, one of the Twin Moons is said to be an artificial satellite.[2][3][4] Another remnant of the previous civilization is an artificial "wall" that surrounds Terra's troposphere (exactly 6,152.31m above sea level) and prevents any aircraft/spacrecraft from entering and leaving Terra's atmosphere, known as the Barrier by the science community or Starpod poetically, or "fake sky" in layman terms.[5]
Within Terra, there are also hidden threats that could easily wipe out its civilizations. To start with, the planet is filled with Catastrophes that forces much of the Terrans to adopt a nomadic way of life through nomadic cities. A crystalline substance known as Originium is left behind at the site of Catastrophes and is widely used as a source of energy and the catalyst for Originium Arts, but is capable of causing Oripathy through direct or prolonged exposure. Together with numerous otherworldly threats, Terra is indeed a rather bleak and grim world which sets much of Arknights' tone.