Aphelion

Aphelion: The smallest of Gaia’s five continents and the capital of Gaia, Aphelion is so named because though the Gaians are the farthest from Sol any human has ever been, literally and figuratively, they will see it again someday, even if it has to be behind a fleet coming to blow away Earth’s destroyers and bring it back into the fold. Despite common parlance usually referring to Aphelion as a continent, in effect it is more just a relatively large island, only referred to as a continent due to its importance – Aphelion is in an extremely central position between the four other continents of Gaia, and thusly was chosen as the capital continent of the planet of Gaia. Aphelion doesn’t have much of an ethnic lean; upon arriving on Gaia, the original Scientists and Explorers that settled the planet realized its usefulness for commerce and administration and established the place as a capital rather than any of the then-ex-national delegations settling it en masse… the fact that it lacks the heavy resource deposits of the other continents helped this decision as well. Despite not having been largely settled en masse, Aphelion does represent the most urban of Gaia’s continents – a large and diverse number of people came to live on the island simply due to its important for administration, shipping, and inter-continental trade, and because Aphelion is so large, its main city (also named Aphelion and often politically considered co-terminous with the island, despite there being plenty of land not in the city) is more dominant physically and economically than cities often are on other continents. Accordingly, life on Aphelion is very much urban, and instead of officials controlling areas of land, Aphelion sees the planetary government which is weaker elsewhere take on day-to-day power, with Aphelion residents having to deal mostly with the eagerness with which the planetary officials pursue their policies without the obstacles they see on the other continents, with the technocratic leaders of various departments taking full advantage of their power to try and build the city in their images… sometimes with conflicting results, and often with explosive ones.