Fifty light years from the Earth solar system is an unremarkable red dwarf system with only one major planet. Known to its inhabitants as Krypton it was roughly Earth sized and home to a race of people known as Kryptonians. Kryptonians bear a similarity to humans, but in many ways they are more closely related to Daxamites.

Under their red sun the Kryptonian race advanced steadily to become a seemingly utopian technological society. By the time of the conclusion of their "Fourth Age" the elements of Kryptonian development were in place. The planet was more or less united behind a planetary government seated in the capitol city Kandor with some elements of sovereign nations remaining. As a culture the people lead an idyllic life surrounded by robots and followed a ritual path through life. This left them to enjoy the lush natural wonders of their world and the personal freedoms given by their advanced science. Underlying all of their achievements was the Clone Banks, each Kryptonian would maintain three mindless Clones in theses banks which could be used as spare parts if their "owner" was ever injured. The main religion on Krypton was Raoism, which preached the teachings of the Red Sun God Rao, the official religion of the planet, however some fragments of earlier mythologies would remain with stories of Jewelled Mountains and Flamebirds.

While not technically a closed society Krypton only had sporadic contact with aliens and other life-forms. Approximately two hundred and fifty thousand years ago a group of Kryptonian scientists formed an alliance with the alien scientist Bertron who taught them the principals of genetic engineering. This knowledge of genetics would eventually lead to the creation of the Clone Banks. The association with Bertron ended when he was killed by his own experimental subject, a being later known as Doomsday.

There was a sea change in thought approximately two hundred thousand years ago when a contingent of aliens from a dying planet reached Krypton. Amongst them was a priest merely called the Cleric who represented an interstellar faith preaching the teachings of the peaceful Divine Deity. The influence of the aliens on Kryptonian life was resented by Science Council member Kem-L, he initiated a movement against the aliens known as the "Great Purge." During the Purge Kem-L used the aliens own science to create a Phantom Zone Projector which he then used to conceal all trace of the murders of the visitors - only the Cleric was to survive.


Over the following centuries the Clone Rights Movement became a major political force on Krypton while the rest of society was happy to be serviced by non-humanoid robots and the Clone Banks. However protests against the use of Clones grew, picketing against hospitals and the major cities were common place. It grew to the point where a major riot in the capitol city Kandor caused the first violent deaths of Kryptonians in centuries. The already tense situation was fanned by the revelations that a woman, Nyra, had allowed one of her clones to develop a mind and to be surgically altered. The Clone was then passed off as the bride of her son, Ran-Z. If her actions were the result of an over-zealous mother or as a militant Clone Rights statement is unknown, the effect however was dramatic. Horrified by his mothers actions Ran-Z murdered his mother, her clone and then seemingly committed suicide.

The Fortress of Solitude is a relic of the planet Krypton hidden in tesseract sphere in the Andes mountains. It was created by the Eradicator when Superman first brought it to Earth as a base from which to turn the world into a new Krypton. Eventually Kal-El was able to defeat the devise and was left with a hidden base of operations in which to story artefacts from his life as Superman. The original location of the Fortress was under the Antaratic ice-sheet. The Fortress is overseen by a squad of Kryptonian robots and is home to the Bottle City of Kandor. Few people have been to or seen the Fortress, these include the Legion of Superheroes, Lois Lane and Professor Emil Hamilton. The bounty hunter Lobo and Bibbo invaded the Fortress while in a drunken haze and remember nothing of the encounter.

Recently the location of the Fortress was revealed to the world as Superman used it as the base of operations for his Superman Robots while under the control of Dominus. It was then seemingly destroyed by Lex Luthor in an explosion of artificial Kryptonite. While the exterior structure to the Fortress was destroyed, a large part of it was shifted sideways into some sort of dimensional rift called a trace singularity. Superman was able to save the Fortress with the help of Steel. They created a tesseract to hold the Fortress and rebuilt it using a combination of Earth and Kryptonian technology.

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