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Trantor is a Fiction al Planet in Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Series and Empire Series of Science-fiction Novel s. Trantor was first described in the 1940s when the Foundation Series first appeared in print (in the form of Short Stories ). Asimov described Trantor as being in the center of the Galaxy . In later stories he acknowledged the growth in Astronomical knowledge by Retcon ning its position to be as close to the Galactic Center as was compatible with human habitability. The first time it was acknowledged in novel form was in '' Pebble In The Sky ''. GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY Trantor is depicted as the Capital of the first Galactic Empire . Its land surface of 194,000,000 km² (75,000,000 miles²) was, with the exception of the Imperial Palace, entirely enclosed in artificial domes. It consisted of an enormous Metropolis (an Ecumenopolis ) that stretched deep underground and was home to a population of 45,000,000,000 (45 Billion ) human inhabitants at its height, a population density of 232 per km² (600 per mile²). These people were devoted almost entirely to either administrating the Empire or to maintaining the planet. According to the '' Encyclopedia Galactica '', "... the impossibility of proper administration... under the uninspired leadership of the later Emperors was a considerable factor in the Fall." To support the needs and whims of the population, food from twenty Agricultural worlds brought by Ships in the tens of thousands, fleets greater than any navy ever constructed by the Empire. "Its dependence upon the outer worlds for food and, indeed, for all necessities of life, made Trantor increasingly vulnerable to conquest by siege. In the last millennium of the Empire, the monotonously numerous revolts made Emperor after Emperor conscious of this, and Imperial policy became little more than the protection of Trantor's delicate jugular vein..." (''Encyclopedia Galactica'') The ''Encyclopedia'' states further on Trantor: "As the center of the Imperial Government for unbroken hundreds of generations and located, as it was, toward the central regions of the Galaxy among the most densely populated and industrially advanced worlds of the system, it could scarcely help being the densest and richest clot of humanity the Race had ever seen." In The Currents Of Space , earlier history is recapitulated, the five worlds of the Trantorian Republic growing to the Trantorian Confederation and then Trantorian Empire, before conquest of the entire galaxy made it the Galactic Empire. A Trantorian Day lasted 1.08 Galactic Standard Days. Its Radius was 1965 km (1,221 miles), only two-thirds that of Earth . One of the prominent features of Trantor is the Library Of Trantor (variously referred to as the Imperial Library, the University of Trantor Library, and the Galactic Library), in which Librarian s index the entirety of human knowledge by walking up to a different computer terminal every day and resuming where the previous librarian left off. Around 260 FE, a rebel leader named Gilmer attempted a coup, in the process sacking Trantor and forcing the Imperial family to flee to Delicass . After the sack, the population dwindled rapidly from 40,000,000,000 to less than 100,000,000. During the sack, many buildings on Trantor were knocked down. Over the course of the next two centuries, the Metal on Trantor was gradually sold off, and farmers uncovered more and more Soil to use in their farms. Eventually the farmers grew to become the sole inhabitants of the planet, excepting the members of the Second Foundation, and the era of Trantor as the central world of the galaxy came to a close. It began to develop a dialect very different from Galactic Standard Speech, and the people unofficially renamed their planet "Hame", or "home". SYMBOLISM Trantor represents several different aspects of civilization. At once it is both the center of power in the galaxy, and also the administrative head. It is also an illustration of what could eventually happen to any urbanized planet. Asimov used the Roman Empire as the creative basis for the Foundation series, so Trantor is in some sense based on Rome at the height of the Roman Empire. Trantor also illustrates the mentality of human beings that was first encountered in Asimov's '' The Caves Of Steel '', wherein human Technology will ultimately result in a complete encapsulation of a population, and that population will eventually suffer Psychosis associated with that total encapsulation. Asimov did once say that these encapsulated cities represented the kind of place in which he'd like to live. He did not even realize how distasteful some people found this until someone asked him about it. INSPIRED BY TRANTOR There have been some serious attempts to illustrate a planet like Trantor in the , Wookieepedia , last accessed on February 28, 2006. The planet ''Helior'' in Harry Harrison 's '' Bill, The Galactic Hero '' satirises Trantor, highlighting the problems of atmosphere, waste disposal and navigating about a world-sized city. ADMINISTRATIVE SECTORS Each planet in the Galactic Empire is divided into administrative sectors. Trantor had over 800, averaging 50,000,000 people each, in 240,000 km² (90,000 miles²), about the size of Kansas . The known sectors are:
In the original Foundation Trilogy, there is no indication of Trantor being divided among wildly diverse cultures; its depiction in Prelude To Foundation and Forward The Foundation may be considered another example of Retcon ning. NOTES AND REFERENCES |
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