Wunderland

Wunderland is a fictional planet from Larry Niven's Known Space series. Although Niven invented the world, almost all information of it (and all of its appearances to date) take place in the Man-Kzin Wars series of books, most of which are by other authors.

Wunderland orbits Alpha Centauri, and was settled by humans in the late 21st century. Its gravity is .61 that of Earth. The low gravity allows for steep mountains and ridges that are quite spectacular. The reddish gold plant life, (supplemented with green vegetation imported from Earth), and sparkling seas further justify the name of the planet. Much, if not all, of its population seems to be of Dutch, German, Baltic, and Scandinavian extraction. Examples include New Munchen spaceport and the New Donau river, and the language (a mix of German and Danish). Wunderland is ruled by an oligarchy headed by the Nineteen Families; the upper-class men of Wunderland (as well as their imitators) are marked by wearing asymmetrical beards, a fact that many other humans in Known Space find amusing. Also, for some unknown reason, a great number of Wunderlanders can wiggle their ears.

At the start of the Man-Kzin Wars, Wunderland was attacked by the Kzin fleet, which it held off for several months as some of its population escaped to Earth in retrofitted colonization ships. Wunderland served as the headquarters of the Kzinti command staff, despite occasional harassment by guerilla fighters both on the ground and located in the system's asteroid belt (the "Serpent Swarm"). The occupation lasted 53 years, and was eventually driven off by the UN Hyperspace Armada in the Battle of Wunderland.

The occupation caused drastic changes to the planet's culture, and immediately after the overthrow of the Kzin government, its inhabitants began ignoring ARM laws with impunity, developing powerful technologies at a rate more familiar to twentieth-century humans. The first personal computers in Niven's universe were developed here, as well as a WMD that can actually force Kzin to surrender at the mere threat of its use—an orbital disintegration weapon known as the Wunderland Treatymaker. The Treatymaker was used only once, on a Mars-like world the Kzin called Warhead. The result caused the planet to be renamed Canyon, and ended the Third Man-Kzin War.

In Neutron Star, an "Isolationist Party of Wunderland" is mentioned to be seeking illegal warships. Sometime after this and before the setting of Ringworld, there was a revolution on Wunderland; Louis Wu was forced to fight as a rebel for three months before escaping offworld.

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