Krypton (Post-Crisis)
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History
The new Krypton was approximately the size of Earth and orbited a red sun called Rao 50 light-years from our solar system. Over 100,000 years ago, Krypton had already developed scientific advancements far beyond those of present-day Earth, and by a few millennia past had conquered disease, learned to retard the aging process, and perfected cloning; vast banks of non-sentient clones held multiple copies of each living Kryptonian so that replacement parts were always available in the case of injury. All Kryptonians were effectively immortal and eternally young, and enjoyed an idyllic, sensual existence in an Arcadian paradise.
However, this society was tipping towards decadence and eventually political strife which resulted from the debate as to whether clones should have rights (sparked by the presence of an alien missionary known as the Cleric). Eventually this disagreement led to open violent conflict especially after it was openly discovered that a woman's cloned copy of herself was allowed to gain full sentience and to establish a full, normal life. However, when a young man (the original woman's son) had discovered that his wife was this clone, he killed the clone (presumably), and then publicly killed his mother, and also attempted his own suicide. This key incident ignited the Clone Wars, during which Kryptonian science was turned to warfare and several super-weapons were developed and used. Among them were the devices which became known as the Eradicator and the Destroyer.
Although the Eradicator's effects (altering the DNA of all Kryptonian life-forms so that they would instantly die upon leaving the planet) were felt immediately, the Destroyer's effects were possibly more significant: by the time the Kryptonian government admitted defeat and abolished the clone banks, a pro-clone rights terrorist faction known as Black Zero had started the Destroyer, a device which functioned as a giant nuclear gun, projecting massive streams of nuclear energy into the core of Krypton, intended to trigger an explosive chain reaction within Krypton's core almost immediately.
At the time, it was believed that the device had been stopped before it could achieve this (ironically, by an ancestor of Jor-El himself), but eventually it would be discovered, centuries later by Jor-El, that the reaction had only been slowed to a nearly imperceptible rate and would eventually destroy the planet as intended. Also, the destruction of the Destroyer resulted in a nuclear explosion which eliminated the post-crisis city of Kandor.
The Destruction of Krypton
In the meantime, though it had for now survived the war, Krypton was scarred deeply by it. The formerly lush garden world was burned and blasted, left mostly a lifeless desert. In direct contrast to the society that had existed prior to the Clone Wars, a sterile, emotionally dead civilization emerged. The population became isolated from one another, living in widely separated technological citadels and shunning all personal, physical contact. Procreation would then become a matter of selecting compatible genetic material which would then be placed within an artificial womb called a "birthing matrix." Any attempt to contact other worlds was forbidden, and the planetary government maintained an isolationist stance, forbidding space exploration of any kind.
It was into this world that the young scientist Jor-El was born. By his adult years, the mysterious "Green Plague" was killing Kryptonians by the hundreds, and upon researching the matter, Jor-El discovered that the cause was growing radiation produced by Krypton's increasingly unstable core. Due to this process, the entire planet itself was going to explode.
Unable to convince his associates to abandon tradition and consider escape, and reasoning that modern Kryptonian society had grown cold, unfeeling and thus decadent Jor-El took the birthing matrix of his unborn son Kal-El, removed the Eradicator's planetary binding, and attached a prototype interstellar propulsion system to the vessel. Just as the planet began to shake apart, he launched the matrix towards Earth, where it would open and give birth to the infant upon landing (the post-Crisis Superman therefore was technically "born" on Earth). Jor-El was not only determined that his son would survive the death of his birthworld, but that he would grow up on a world that vibrantly embraced living, as his pre-Clone Wars forbears once did.
Points of Interest
Residents
