"Earth used to be our only home. It's why we've been killing so much and for so long, because we thought there was nothing left out there. The skies are clearer now than they once were. The times have become much, much colder, though some things can never be truly repaired. But we still keep on living, carefully, until we've finally given back to this place everything we've taken from it. The weather's nicer now, do you think it was the Earth finally breathing a sigh of relief? That her children were finally moving out and starting their own lives elsewhere? Maybe the Columbians had it right all along."

"Mera. The Columbians got to her first, so they gave her name. They named her after that Martian rover, MER-A. They wanted something that sounded culturally neutral after centuries of naming things after old men and random indigenous phrases. So she was named after a rover that explored the planet that we once thought was gonna be the Earth's twin. But no, it was Mera all along. 'Course, Mera's chillier and abrasive, and the northernly winds have never been kind, but the warm shores of the eastern continents and the hundred islands make you forgive her shortcomings. Just stay clear of any silvery rocks near any caves and you'll be fine."

"Telos is a terrible place colonized by a crazy nation. When you first approach it by ship, you're greeted by this massive blanket of pure white snow, so white that it temporarily blinds anyone who looks at it after hours of sitting around in a cold, dark spaceship. The ship lands a bit south of the equator, where the weather's calmer and free of horrible blizzards, but it's still frigid. Everywhere around you is nothing but mountains and geysers, nevermind the gigantic wildlife and alien plants that litter the permafrost. The Apollonians had to have been playing a cruel joke when they chose this place. That, or their only criterion for settlement was Telos's oxygen."

"Avalon was jointly colonized by the Brits and Africans. When you get there, you'd understand why. Everywhere you look is beauty that the Earth could never hope to match. Rolling hills, cliifs that seemed like brilliant masonry, perfectly clear waters, nevermind those gorgeous flowering plants that dotted over the Northern Plains. Maybe this is why it was called Avalon, after the land of the fays. Just be super careful around the natives, the ones that look like foxes. They're mostly friendly, but they're far, far more intelligent than most other native exoplanetary species. One wrong move and you'll realize why this place had stayed a paradise for so long."