Cocoro

Cocoro (pronounced /ˈkoʊkɵroʊ/) is a planet of the Dupliverse notorious for being home to individuals of unusually grotesque and bizarre forms. Because in general people of the Dupliverse can have whatever form they want and can easily repair any unwanted deformity, the inhabitants of Cocoro have their freakish shapes by choice, and many of them have moved to Cocoro because it was the only place they felt accepted and welcomed as they were. Others were born there, and to them the parade of monstrous things that surrounds them is normal and congenial—as is their own weird cast.

Geography

Cocoro is a terraformed world, not originally able to support complex life. However, the large-scale terraforming consisted mostly of just adding water and atmosphere, with little reshaping of the existing terrain. The planet previously had little atmosphere, and its surface features were mostly defined by craters. This has led even in the present to a geography mostly defined by the craters' circular outlines. Cocoro's five seas all are shaped like circles or sets of circles. The largest, covering perhaps a quarter of the world, fills the circles of three large overlapping craters; the second largest, perhaps half the size, fills two overlapping craters. The other three fill mainly a single large crater and are generally circular in shape, though with the outlines made a little rough by much smaller craters, subsequent erosion, and preexisting irregularities.

On the smaller scale, however, there has been extensive reshaping of existing terrain. Cocoro is a conglomeration of spires and terraces and all sorts of weird and clearly unnatural formations, with the land teased into a huge variety of unearthly shapes. In some regions, arches abound; in others, the terrain is made into a series of large rectangular blocks; in still others, it forms recognizable representations of various objects. The shape of the land on Cocoro, at the local level, is as diverse and aberrant as the shapes of its inhabitants.

Inhabitants

For the most part, each inhabitant of Cocoro is completely unique. In some cases, they are recognizable alterations of whatever else they used to be—human, ambryt, tam, balinade—though perhaps only by the face or by a single limb, with everything else transmuted into an abnormous monstrosity. Others, however, have not even that vestige of their original shapes, being completely new beings unlike any that were ever found naturally on any planet.

However, the inhabitants of Cocoro have not only changed themselves, but created weird new "wildlife" as well. Some of the innoetic life forms dwelling on Cocoro are as one-of-a-kind as its intelligent inhabitants, but there are some new species that have been developed and exist as reproducing communities. Among the most prominent are the fido, which prowls the streets of Cocoro's cities and disposes of trash, and the kraken, a huge and outlandish being found in the planet's waters.

Government

Formally, Cocoro is divided into eight administrative regions, each corresponding to a quarter of a hemisphere. While all equal in total size, however, the regions do differ in the relative proportions of land and water they contain. Each region is governed by a regional council, headed by an official called a chancellor. Overseeing the chancellors is a central body known as the Overcouncil, which, to avoid appearance of favoring any particular region, has its headquarters in a large satellite called Zuquel.

In practice, however, the regional councils, the chancellors, and even the Overcouncil are little more than figureheads. The real power in Cocoro rests in local bosses who exert influence over areas of varying sizes. The bosses' authority is unofficial and not recognized by foreign governments, but it is nevertheless nearly absolute, with even the Overcouncil reluctant to try to interfere in the business of the most powerful bosses. The policies and positions of the bosses vary widely, but for the most part they've managed to come to a mutual agreement and respect each others' territory, and turf wars between bosses, while not entirely unknown, are relatively rare.

Trade

Despite its somewhat anarchical society, Cocoro engages in extensive trade with other worlds. Its main import is energy, of which it needs a large amount to power the extensive duplication and alteration going on on the world; its main export is art. Fittingly, given the eccentric individualism the planet's inhabitants are known for, Cocoro produces weird and perplexing artwork that many people find deviant and disturbing, but that some collectors with unusual tastes are willing to pay a high price for. There are those who believe that much of the artwork from Cocoro hides in its baroque abnormity profound philosophical secrets waiting to be unlocked—and hidden, perhaps, even from its creators, who put in this shrouded subtext through unconscious prompting by some sort of cosmic resonance. Obviously, this isn't a belief held by most people; there are many people who enjoy Cocoran art simply because of an idiosyncratic sense of aesthetics.

Visitors

In spite of, or perhaps more because of, its anomalism, Cocoro is a fairly popular tourist spot, with visitors from many other worlds traveling there to gawk at all its oddities. Nevertheless, it can be a dangerous place for unprepared visitors; many of the locals are not above taking advantage of outsiders, and the bosses may have plans in place to fleece the gullible for all they're worth. The best insurance of safe conduct on Cocoro is to obtain a pass from one of the bosses. The more powerful the boss, the more security a pass from him provides, though a pass from even a minor boss will still prevent most problems, at least near enough the boss's territory that his name is recognized.

Of course, getting a pass from a boss may not be a trivial matter. There's no centralized office or department that distributes passes; a prospective visitor must find a way to contact a boss or his underlings himself. If he happens to know a resident of Cocoro, this may be relatively easy; if not, there are agents who will arrange such contact, for a fee. Some of these agents, however, are more reliable than others, and the worst of them are despicable crooks who leave their clients in a worse position than if they'd never tried to get a pass at all. Then, too, there's the matter of the price of the pass itself; the bosses aren't in the business of giving them out for free. Some of the bosses are willing to give out passes for a monetary price, but others require some special service or guarantee instead, and there are a few who insist upon particularly peculiar forms of payment.