Nean, the Hidden Planet

Nean is a small green rock that orbits in a narrow band of space in the middle of a dense asteroid belt. It is slightly further from the sun than Glace, and shielded from its harmful rays by the layers of reflective dust that comes off the asteroids surrounding the planet. This allows plants to grow on its surface, while sealife is less abundant. The planet gets its green colour from the large land masses that are heavily forested.

The main diet is game-meat and plants. Neanderthals have always been good hunters. Those living near the coasts are also hunters of the sea (fishermen). The oceans are smaller on Nean than they are on Earth.

Nean is inhabited by a hardy species of survivalists. True to their name, the Neanderthals look remarkably like the extinct Homo Neanderthalensis of Earth. This is no accident or bizarre twist of evolution, but a statistically inevitable result of the Galactic Gene Seeding project performed by an unknown race many millions of years ago.

Of course these people are not truly identical to Earth Neanderthals. They share that muscular, stocky build, but their brains (and therefore skulls) are larger.

Once they had tamed the rough nature of their planet, they began to fight amongst themselves in long wars with ever-shifting rivalries between scattered tribes and then city-states. After centuries of this an unstable peace was reached, but a true alliance wasn't reached until they found a new foe to unite against: alien life.

pistachio's note: When I started to describe a bad guy in one of the stories, the description sounded familiar. Why reinvent the wheel? It got me thinking, "What if there was a planet where Homo Neanderthalensis never became extinct and Homo Sapiens never arrived?"
Yes, these people call themselves Neanderthals too and they are proud of their heritage.