Albia

Albia is a small world whose most obvious distinguishing feature is that it is shaped like a disc or coin, spinning rapidly about its axis in such a way that its face stays at a constant angle to an external observer. It has one sun, about which it rotates in such a manner that the sun passes directly overhead from the west to the east.

Albian years last 8 of our hours, and these are divided into 4 seasons of 2 hours each. Each season contains 4 days - so a day is half an hour - due to the small size of the world and its odd geography nights can be chilly in places but it never really gets much darker than twilight.

Geography and Travel
The only stable ground in Albia are the thin edges, and so much development is crowded into these. Travel is along the surface of Albia, to the 'left' or 'right' - any Creature going 'forwards' or 'backwards' would find themselves falling off the edge, although given that centrifugal force almost exactly balances gravity, they would probably not fall very far. Given the lack of space, 'up' and 'down' have also been investigated, although given the general geographic instability and the fact that much construction work has been delegated to Ettins, the latter choice has often proven the wisest. Other disc-shaped worlds appear to exist in the same universe as Albia, most notably Montu and Terra Nornia.

Natural Disasters
Albia may not be traditionally spherical, but it is in other ways a typical planet, and is known to have at least one semi-active volcano, subject to occasional eruptions. One such eruption drastically changed the face of the planet between the time of Creatures and Creatures 2, revealing new Shee laboratories and incidentally wiping out numerous Creatures. There is some evidence that this eruption may have been deliberately triggered in AY1800 by the last Shee known to inhabit Albia, as part of the launch process for the living ship Capillata featured in Creatures 3 and Docking Station.

Flora and Fauna
Albia contains three types of Creatures, all past experiments of the Shee:
 * Norns: Short, squat, and cute - designed to serve tea and biscuits and look good while doing it.
 * Ettins: These monotone creatures are good with gadgets, but have a bad habit of walking off with any bit of machinery that catches their eye.
 * Grendels: Large, green killing machines, these creatures like nothing better than to smash other creatures into pulp; fortunately, their massive bulk is matched to an equally minuscule brain (or so the other creatures would have you believe...)

Creatures are not the only living things in Albia - there are a wide variety of animals and plants around. The most useful species include the Albian carrot, bees, the lemon vines, and various herbs. Albian cheddar is also widely available, although where it comes from is not precisely clear. There are also dangerous animals and weeds that can harm or even kill creatures, including the Cave Fly, Red gnat, Deathcap, Laburnum, Baobab, Campanula, Pyrethium, Nightshade, painful cacti and the Ugly Tomato.

Interesting facts

 * Albia - and indeed the whole Creatures series - was partially inspired by a book called The Planiverse - see history
 * A real model was used to create the Albia backdrop in Creatures - part of which is now kept at The Centre for Computing History.
 * Albia is also the name of a region on NationStates
 * Albia is the name of a city in Iowa, USA.
 * Albia or rather, Albion, was the name for the ancient island of Britain.
 * The Shee used a different definition of a year - the Lone Shee's Prologue tells us that the Shee made their creatures live in an 'accelerated time scale'.