Venus

Adjectives: Venusian, Cytherean

Venus was the site of the most ambitious terraforming project in the Milky Way. Over a half century, the Morning Star had its rotation sped - in retrograde - to match that of Earth's, so that the Sun would rise in the West and set in the East after the shroud was lifted and solar light would be permitted to fall on it once again. This process liquefied the crust, and for this half century, Venus reflected no light, but instead provided its own.

Since this work was finished before the Purge, it is possible that other automated systems were able to develop and sustain a mediocre biosphere over the course of the next millennia. What control, satellite, maintenance and related systems still function is anyone's guess. If it still exists, the only certain probability is that the crust has since had enough time to cool.

Two large asteroids were tugged into orbits perpendicular or Venus'. Dubbed the Higg's Asteroids, each one crosses just outside of Venus' orbit twice a year, slowly tugging the larger planet's orbit outwards. While, like those of Earth, these did have orbit-correcting devices, they were significantly larger and may well have impacted the surface already.

The Neith Proposal sought to give the already ravaged planet a moon in much the same way Earth got hers, in order to make the planet more permanent. The goal was to slam Mercury into the planet at the exact proper angle and force, some of which will be ejected to form a moon, and give Venus more Earthlike plate tectonics. Above and beyond the idea of eliminating one of the core planets, there was no minor degree of debate regarding the suitableness of the project.