Terra
Terra is the Earth, the third planet of our solar system. Terrans are descendents of colonists from Hain. The Hainish placed fossils and other artifacts on Terra as an experiment to trick the settlers into believing that human life had evolved on Terra. At some unspecified date, Terrans join the League of All Worlds, which includes the Cetians and other peoples of Hainish descent.
In The Left Hand of Darkness, it is said that 'Hainish Normal' people were placed among Terra's own proto-hominid autochthones by the ancient Hainish 'Colonizers'. After that initial contact with Hainish civilization Terra experiences two more cycles of isolation followed by the restoration of extraterrestrial contact and community with other worlds.
The second period of contact with the interstellar Hainish community is the background for The Word for World is Forest, in which people from Terra appear as aggressive settlers of other planets, The Dispossessed, and Rocannon's World. Some time later, City of Illusions provides a detailed description of Terra in the depths of a third era of isolation.
A post-apocalyptic Earth is seen in City of Illusions as the story takes place across a large landmass, perhaps North America, which shows signs of an advanced, abandoned civilization under a rewilded landscape. A small number of humans live in tiny, isolated settlements where they retain some technologies from the past but are completely cut off from any communication with neighboring regions or with other worlds; there is only one city with high technology and energy-intensive construction. The events of City of Illusions lead up to the third period of Terran contact with other worlds, during which The Left Hand of Darkness takes place.
Various individuals from Terra play a part in other stories. In The Telling, Terra's incorporation into the Ekumen is briefly explained. Also, the main character in The Left Hand of Darkness is from Terra.
Read more about this topic: Terra (Hainish Cycle)
Famous quotes containing the word terra:
“Treading the soil of the moon, palpating its pebbles, tasting the panic and splendor of the event, feeling in the pit of one’s stomach the separation from terra ... these form the most romantic sensation an explorer has ever known ... this is the only thing I can say about the matter. The utilitarian results do not interest me.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“In the event of an oxygen shortage on airplanes, mothers of young children are always reminded to put on their own oxygen mask first, to better assist the children with theirs. The same tactic is necessary on terra firma. There’s no way of sustaining our children if we don’t first rescue ourselves. I don’t call that selfish behavior. I call it love.”
—Joyce Maynard (20th century)
“While the very inhabitants of New England were thus fabling about the country a hundred miles inland, which was a terra incognita to them,... Champlain, the first Governor of Canada,... had already gone to war against the Iroquois in their forest forts, and penetrated to the Great Lakes and wintered there, before a Pilgrim had heard of New England.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)