Terra
Terra is the third planet of the Solar system, homeworld of Terrans and a depiction of the Earth. People from Terra are supposed to be descendents of colonists from a planet called Hain. At some unspecified date, humans 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 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 where high technology and energy intensive construction have survived. 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. 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.
Read more about this topic: Planets Of The Hainish Cycle
Famous quotes containing the word terra:
“A ship is a bit of terra firma cut off from the main; it is a state in itself; and the captain is its king.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“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)
“A book should contain pure discoveries, glimpses of terra firma, though by shipwrecked mariners, and not the art of navigation by those who have never been out of sight of land. They must not yield wheat and potatoes, but must themselves be the unconstrained and natural harvest of their author’s lives.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)