Vinea - Planet & History

Planet & History

Vinea is part of a binary star system about 2,500,000 light years from Earth somewhere in the galaxy M33. Millions of years ago, the orbit of one of the pair began to degrade. The Vineans decided to send out a series of spaceships containing millions of their people in hibernation, so the planet could at least be partially evacuated. After a long journey one of these ships discovered Earth, but because a primitive intelligent species was emerging on the planet it was decided to move underground in order to not disturb the natural evolution of humanity.

Large tunnels and underground cities were built belowground, while on the surface the human species slowly developed. During this time the Vineans came into contact with Yoko Tsuno, Vic Video, and Pol Pitron, three humans whose appearance eventually led to the Vineans' overthrow of the corrupt central computer that had regulated all aspects of their underground civilization since arrival. At some point in the 20th century the Vineans embarked on a project to create an artificial continent in the Atlantic by diverting undersea lava flows, with the aim of creating an surface nation for the Vineans to inhabit. This plan was eventually given up in favor of creating a faster-than-light technology capable of reaching Vinea in less than 3 months. The technology was discovered when a Vinean probe for the purpose of creating a wormhole finally arrived in the solar system, indicating that at least until the craft was sent, some 100,000 years after the Earth-bound Vineans left Vinea, there was still an advanced society in the Vinean solar system.

When an expedition was sent out to Vinea, it found that the local population had regressed to a relatively primitive level, and was currently governed by a conclave of digital personalities taken form great leaders from the Vinean past. The planet had entered a wider, tidally-locked orbit around its suns, with one side permanently scorched and the other forever frozen. The effects on Vinea's climate were more or less compensated for by an artificial temperature regulation system, including large orbital mirrors acting as artificial suns for the 'night' side. A project for relocating the Earth-Vinean population was put into place, and the rebuilding of the planet's civilization began.

Later, the newly returned Vineans discovered that a species of intelligent giant insects had colonised a remote region of the planet. After clashes and negotiations in Les Titans, the insectile species eventually agreed to leave Vinea and settle elsewhere.

So far, no Vineans have ever been seen having spare time in the series. It is thus unknown what activities they engage in when not working, if they have spare time at all. It is also unknown what kind of government and political system they have, after the corrupt central computer was destroyed in the first album.