| Introduction, Contents, Travel Information
The conolization of Zarece was performed by the refugees from Reorte with the technological help of the lizards of Tionisla. Conolization should not be confused with colonization, a quite different process. Zarece, uniquely, enjoyed both. Nine large orbital cities were built, of a size enabling the cultivation of the jungles where the agricultural foodstuffs are produced and the furs hunted. These orbitals each drag several agricultural "floats" behind them, as they waft over the superdense gaseous "seas".
It has been argued by some of the savants of the University of Murraor that these superdense gases are not strictly gaseous, that they should rather be termed as plasma - that peculiar state which is liminal between gas and liquid and exists only at certain temperatures and pressures. No matter. What really counts is this: the ways in which the light of the sun is refracted through the lower levels is quite phenomenal - the nights on Zarece have to be seen to be believed. The shimmering coruscations of the colours, with sparkling motes and shimmering bands. The nightime cities with their tall, sparkling, slender towers and their lambent lower regions are legendarily spectacular.
This has proven to be inspirational for those of a poetic bent, and many of the local denizens engage in regular family poetry readings in their homes. Needless to say, Zarece has become a place of pilgrimage for feline poets, artists and those working in the imaginatory crafts.
Sadly, this is only true for those with cat's eyes. Other species, with less impressionable eyeballs, find they can see little of these supposed splendours, and the emotional burblings and unending recitals of the inhabitants become quite insufferable in no time at all. Tedious, in fact. Listening to the felines ooh and aah over dark, murky and dismal roilings of muck-tinted sludge has been likened to the joys of listening to a Happy Eye preacher in the fourth hour of his ecstatic sermon.
Each city is quite independent of the others, hence the confederate nature of the government. In the past, this led inevitably to strife, and indeed, of the original nine cities only seven now remain (and three of those were recolonized after their inhabitants were annihilated in battle). The others, sabotaged and riven by warfare and treachery, sank into the depths and, needless to say, have provided even more fuel to felines of artistic temperament. The Romance of Qleo, the princess of sunken Khrawow and her doomed love affair with the Syndic of Basrir have acted as the catalyst for many an opera, symphony and ballad - especially in feline circles. Again, you need to be a cat to see anything in this.
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