u/BelleHades

Go into configs\main-user.cfg, scroll down to LifeGenerator, and copypasta this code to that section:

ProbLifeOrgTerra        0        // probability of origin of organic life on non-arid worlds (surface & ocean)
ProbLifeOrgOceania      0        // probability of origin of organic life on ocean worlds (ocean)
ProbLifeOrgDesert       0        // probability of origin of organic life on arid worlds (surface)
ProbLifeOrgIceWorld     0        // probability of origin of organic life on ice worlds (subglacail)
ProbLifeOrgGiant        0    // probability of origin of organic life on gas giants (atmosphere)
ProbLifeExotTerra       0        // probability of origin of exotic  life on non-arid worlds (surface & ocean)
ProbLifeExoOceania      0        // probability of origin of exotic  life on ocean worlds (ocean)
ProbLifeExoDesert       0        // probability of origin of exotic  life on arid worlds (surface)
ProbLifeExoIceWorld     0        // probability of origin of exotic  life on ice worlds (subglacail)
ProbLifeExoGiant        0    // probability of origin of exotic  life on gas giants (atmosphere)
ProbPanspEjectTerra     0        // Probability of organic life spores ejection  on asteroid impact on non-arid worlds (surface & ocean)
ProbPanspEjectOceania   0        // Probability of organic life spores ejection  on asteroid impact on ocean worlds (ocean)
ProbPanspEjectDesert    0        // Probability of organic life spores ejection  on asteroid impact on arid worlds (surface)
ProbPanspEjectIceWorld  0        // Probability of organic life spores ejection  on asteroid impact on ice worlds (subglacial)
ProbPanspEjectGiant     0    // Probability of organic life spores ejection  on asteroid impact on gas giants (atmosphere)
ProbPanspInsertTerra    0        // Probability of organic life spores insertion on asteroid impact on non-arid worlds (surface & ocean)
ProbPanspInsertOceania  0        // Probability of organic life spores insertion on asteroid impact on ocean worlds (ocean)
ProbPanspInsertDesert   0        // Probability of organic life spores insertion on asteroid impact on arid worlds (surface)
ProbPanspInsertIceWorld 0        // Probability of organic life spores insertion on asteroid impact on ice worlds (subglacial)
ProbPanspInsertGiant    0    // Probability of organic life spores insertion on asteroid impact on gas giants (atmosphere)
LifeOrgAgeUni           100.02    // mean value of system age to develop unicellular    organic life (in billion years)
LifeOrgAgeUniDisp       10.01    // dispersion of system age to develop unicellular    organic life (in billion years)
LifeOrgAgeMulti         200.05    // mean value of system age to develop multicellular  organic life (in billion years)
LifeOrgAgeMultiDisp     20.01    // dispersion of system age to develop multicellular  organic life (in billion years)
LifeOrgAgeComplex       300.08    // mean value of system age to develop complex ground organic life (in billion years)
LifeOrgAgeComplexDisp   30.01    // dispersion of system age to develop complex ground organic life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeUni           200.04    // mean value of system age to develop unicellular    exotic  life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeUniDisp       20.01    // dispersion of system age to develop unicellular    exotic  life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeMulti         300.08    // mean value of system age to develop multicellular  exotic  life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeMultiDisp     30.01    // dispersion of system age to develop multicellular  exotic  life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeComplex       400.12    // mean value of system age to develop complex ground exotic  life (in billion years)
LifeExoAgeComplexDisp   40.01    // dispersion of system age to develop complex ground exotic  life (in billion years)

Very depressing, but (unfortunately), most realistic. ;)

https://preview.redd.it/8y0mbiiawnah1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=c673e9304a653664aa93df8c9eeb1ce4bca63be1

https://preview.redd.it/7c8g03wbwnah1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5aed67cbcf3caa4485f467c38e58998c7938a281

That is one of the most evil entities in existence. The ancients were right about it, yet I'm pretty sure it had it's hand in prominent modern astrologers espouting apologist propaganda defending that demonic entity.

https://preview.redd.it/ue3eupeas58h1.png?width=1063&format=png&auto=webp&s=dc09a4a49bab8a74ed5d906cf422274ad86e0d07

What gives?

We have been around for over six billion years. In all this time, we've never been able to leave our system, due to the limits imposed on our reality by the laws of physics. Our world is precious, an oasis in the never ending night. Even more so since our system has teetered on the edge of stability for almost nine billion years, being a circumbinary system after all. But, we still exist. The wandering stars have been our faithful companions for countless eons.

Two suns at the center, Persephone and Hades, with two giants between them and us, and then there's our world, third from our two suns. We know her now as Belle Hades, inspired by our current climate. As Persephone got older and hotter, we did our damnedest to keep Belle Hades alive. Had we not kept our sacred relationships to our biosphere, we might very well have failed. Sure, we have advanced technology, but the limits of our reality remain the same. And we also have nine more worlds further from Persephone and Hades from us.

Belle Hades was young when we came around. Almost two billion years into her life. Our ancient matriarchs knew we were special. That our world was special. Every deviant that got greedy, we ended right then and there. It took us dozens of millions of years to attain the technologies we've had for six billion years. Advanced recycling, renewables, and slow, painstaking mining operations that adhered to strict environmental guidelines. We've avoided fossil fuels like the plague, and our world remains eternally grateful.

But for as long as we've watched the stars beyond, we knew one thing. We are alone. Always have been. Every advance in the astronomical sciences have proven this time and again. As the eons went by, our galaxy lost her blue hue as she matured and her stars grew older, becoming a milky white. Our system orbits her every quarter billion years. Each time we "return" to the relative spot our system formed, our constellations have been vastly different. Each with their own stories, as storytellers and filmmakers reveal new stories the stars form as the eons go by.

But four or five billion years ago, we passed a star-forming region. We always do, from time to time. But the Seers, people who see the unseen with their own eyes and psyche, they saw something different about this one. Something special. A star, much like our Persephone, was born. The astronomers of the age were eager to track it. Analyzed it in depth. Most strikingly, the newborn sun's galactic orbital path would make close encounters with us twice a galactic year. As the proper motions slowly pulled the new sun out of the range of our most detailed astronomical instruments, we saw evidence of a major collision. Luckily, some time afterwards, we could see transits from that star. We saw two worlds a bit bigger than ours. The one with the longer year seemed inflated, possibly due to the debris from the collision we saw.

Since then, every half galactic year, we have indeed seen this younger system. It was a G star, like our Persephone, but slightly less massive. For most encounters, it was not much different than the other stars that get near us sometimes. But again, the Seers insisted there was something special. Indeed, almost twenty encounters ago, or two billion years ago, we detected oxygen in the atmosphere of it’s third planet for the first time when it transited it's sun. A few encounters after that, it was extremely cold. We knew that lifeless worlds wouldn't do that on their own. Since then, society has been thrilled. We realized we had been watching the only other world in the entire known universe to have life. We could also tell that this world was a bit larger than ours; and based on the collision we saw so long ago, it should have a large moon like we do.

Since then, there have been countless stories, movies, and video games about this system. What would life be like on it? What biomes could it have? Could it someday grow a civilization like ours? It was a very, very long shot, of course. But for then, we took comfort in the fact that at least one other wandering star could bear advanced life. Indeed, in the last encounter over a hundred million years ago, when we again got to observe the system's planets transiting their sun, the third world showed signs of being a lush, thriving world, with flourishing life.

And now, we are a few million years away from encountering it again. There are monthly reports in the news updating our relative positions to each other, with current knowledge of the system, and we are currently almost forty light years away from each other. It will be a while yet before we can observe our cousin system's transits again. We are also dealing with increased cometary activity and asteroid defense operations due to a nearby binary star violating our Oort region.

But a century ago, something strange began to happen. Amateur radio astronomers picked up a slight difference in the radio signals we see in our sky. And not the usual differences either. They recorded the position they found it in in the sky, and submitted it for peer review. After intense scrutiny, it was confirmed to be coming from the direction of our cousin system. The news spread like wildfire. Could it be? After eons of being truly alone in the universe, with countless peer reviews each confirming our loneliness, did our baby cousin have people? Like us? When we look in the mirror, we see a Belle Hadean. Blue skin, pointy ears. But also, a person. A sophont. If we weren't alone, we knew they wouldn't look exactly like us. But, we're mammalian. We have warm blood, push babies out alive, have two arms and two legs, with five digits each, and opposable thumbs on our hands.

Still, the distance between us makes it impossible to decipher these signals. Any detail is lost just a light year from their system due to cosmic radiation. Same as our radio activity; our signals lose detail just a light year out. While our Seers can tell us more about the other people, they are reluctant to divulge, only saying that they are extremely troubled. So for a century, this faint signal grew slightly stronger.

Last month, however, the signal died over the course of several days. The Seers knew. We all knew. We were alone once again. We just didn't know how. The Seers knew of course, but they were mum. We checked our relative trajectories. In several million years, the next encounter would be the closest of all. We could potentially physically visit this system. We've had several active colonies throughout our system for billions of years, including the farthest worlds, so it is not out of the question.

Endless debates raged. Persephone is old. She has half a billion years left in the main sequence. Afterwards, the endless give and take of material between her and Hades will culminate in a type Ia supernova. Do we make a new home on the graves of our cosmic cousins? How badly will the close encounter affect the orbits of the wandering stars in each of our systems? Will our germs kill their planet? Or will their germs kill us? Or do we embrace our doom?

Years pass. We get closer. Shortly before the closest encounter, we can again see transits in front of their star. Their world's atmosphere showed signs of severe degradation. Carbon dioxide was off the charts. But declining. Oxygen was low, but rebounding. Soon after, at long last, our optical telescopes could see her for the first time, using our system as a gravity lens. She was extremely dusty. Blue seas, wispy white and dusty clouds. Patches of green. We saw her companions as well. She had a large, gray moon. The inner-most planet was also gray. Her inner neighbor was white hot. Her outer neighbor was red and dusty. Further beyond, two large giants followed by two small giants.

We sent our toughest probes capable of bridging the distance as we got closer. We investigated. We found a data crystal. The only one on the entire planet. It told a sad story. They struggled mightily against greed. But in the end, greed killed them. Oh greed outlasted them too, of course. But the greedy died too, eventually. We found out they named their world after dirt. Entirely disrespectful to their mother world. And they treated it like dirt too. Their ruins were long gone, eroded by weather and time. But it wasn't all gloom. Many souls made stories and cute stuff to make the most of their situation. Countless love stories described their relationships surviving the odds against hostile peers.

At the end of the data crystal, was the creator's signature. A woman named "Amy." She recorded a voice note, in defiance of her hierarchal superiors, pleading for the discoverers not to make the same bad choices "humanity" had done, and hid it, knowing she would be killed for recording all of her world's history in it.

We also found that during the peak of their world's biosphere, fantastical mega-fauna flourished until eighty million years ago when a large asteroid impact ended their reign, allowing these humans to eventually evolve into existence. We found it’s hidden impact crater a thousand miles from where we found the data crystal.

As expected, the greedy managed to take power deep in their ancient history and never let go for thousands of years, sealing the aliens' doom. We also found their ancestors' name for their world. Gaia. Named after their ancient nature goddess. Gaia's resources had been severely depleted and the environment destroyed, culminating in the aliens' destruction as the greedy tried to mass murder most of the humans and enslave the rest. Extrapolating from the data, they went extinct towards the end of what they called their "twenty-first century." Since then, Gaia has been a hothouse that is only now finally cooling down and recovering.

A decision was made. While we could continue our existence by migrating to their system at great physical cost, the moral cost was higher. A world that had been so disrespected by her people didn't deserve to be further disrespected by us, even if we had valid reasons to continue to survive in this dark, lonely universe.

The encounter came and went. We had a probe bring back the data crystal to Belle Hades so we could forever immortalize the more positive aspects of human society, and to pay respects. We also both lost our outermost wandering stars, but we took it in stride. We know the end of our existence will be extremely painful be it soon, or several billion years later had we sought refuge on Gaia. As the only other garden world in the entire universe receded from view, we noticed the other system had left us a parting gift. A small, icy double world, with a large heart shaped region on the primary. As if to say thanks for not desecrating Gaia, they were now a part of our system. Based on what we know from the data crystal, we should call this new world Pluto, and it's main moon, Charon.

Pluto is kinda interesting, because Belle Hades is like this with our moon too. A very large moon, far enough away to be considered a double planet, with the barycenter far above our world's surface.

We have a couple more encounters ahead of us, of course, but that was the closest. In the last encounter before our extinction, we saw Gaia's transits for the last time. Measurements of her atmosphere once again indicated a flourishing biosphere. Transits took longer too, as Gaia's orbit had widened, presumably due to our closest encounter. Knowing stellar evolution of the sun we now know as Sol, we gave Gaia a fighting chance to thrive one last time before Sol got too hot. It was a bittersweet pill to swallow, knowing had humans been kinder to their world, or hell, just kinder in general, we may have gotten to meet. And Gaia's biosphere may have been able to be maintained until Sol's red giant phases.

Extrapolating into the future, after Gaia and Belle Hades, the universe may most likely never see complex life again. Interestingly, projections also place our system near a potential new star-forming region by the time one of our suns die in a glorious blaze of light. But ultimately, entropy and darkness will win in the end. It always was going to. Curse this reality!

But. For a brief moment in time... There was not just one Pale Blue Dot...

There were two.

The mod author behind Vampire Lords Renewed has stabbed Vortex users in the back and abandoned Vortex updates for his mod. So, I'm looking for a replacement that won't force us to re-install the mod every time we play a different race in different saves.