Griddle

(This planet is in the same universe as Cauldron, Cryolith, Phobis Terra, and Behemoth, but is not something I'd plan to make a main part of the actual mod, if it ever gets made.  This description is more for my own enjoyment, and hopefully yours.)



Basic Description

This is the innermost planet in the system.  It is about the size of Mercury, and mostly rock and metal, but has a much larger fraction of radioactive material, that powers internal activity on the planet.  This activity reshapes the surface, and supplies the planet with a thin atmosphere.  The planet is tidally locked, with no moons.


Interior

The planet has a structure resembling most rocky planets, with a metallic core in the center, and a rock mantle and crust as the outer layers.  The mantle towards the surface is partly melted, due to the large amounts of radioactive materials near the surface.  Most activity in the mantle comes from plumes of ascending and descending material.

The Core of griddle generates a weak magnetic field, though much less strong than Earth's.


Atmosphere

The atmosphere of griddle mainly contains carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen, and it is about 1/20 the density of Earth's.  The atmosphere is replenished by volcanic gases, and lost to heating by auroras and solar wind action, and large amounts of material freeze on the cold side of the planet.  Atmospheric winds largely circulate between the warm to cold sides of the planet, with air near the surface on the hot side rising and flowing towards the cold side, where it sinks to the surface and travels back.  These winds do not reach all the way around the planet, leaving a dead zone facing away from the star.

On the section of the planet directly facing the star, temperatures reach around 600 Celsius, due both to the constant sunlight from the star, and greenhouse warming from the atmospheric gases, but heat is quickly transferred by winds towards the night side of the planet.  Traveling around the planet, the temperature drops towards the day/night boundary, and continues dropping towards the night side dead zone , where temperatures drop to about -150 C, as heat transported from the day side radiates away.  On the night side, the air gets cool enough for carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide to freeze and form clouds, changing the composition greatly.  Atmospheric dust is also common, mostly released from volcanoes.

The atmosphere is constantly being worn away, both by auroras and stellar winds, and by the high temperatures on the warm side of the planet.  As a result, most original gases, including water, and been blown away, and the current atmospheric gases are mostly those released more recently by volcanoes.

Surface

Due to the tidal locking, the surface of griddle of quite different on the day and night hemispheres.  On the day side, the surface is mostly hot, volcanic rock, with a few dusty areas formed from volcanic dust and eroded rock.  The plumes of griddle's mantle form large volcanic mountains on the surface, although most of it is plains, with a few ridges and folded areas, and craters.  Due to the high temperatures on much of the day side, and the difficulty the atmosphere has in transferring heat, lava lakes can be maintained for a long time, and rivers and lakes of lava are common sights near dayside volcanoes, with more concentrated near the point closest to the star.

The fart colder night side is largely covered in frost, both carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide.  The frost starts as thin, patchy sections near the day night boundary, and gets thicker and covers a larger section of the surface as the distance from the day/night boundary increases.  Near the dead zone, the frost layer gets about a mile thick.  Even on this side, the planet is highly active volcanically, and the same pattern of tall mountains, plains, and ridge zones occur, but covered in frost.


Magnetosphere

The magnetic field of griddle is powerful enough and large enough to cover the planet, producing about an Earth sized magnetosphere.  Though the field blocks most stellar wind, some does make it through, and powerful stellar wind events push large amounts of material into the magnetosphere, stripping the atmosphere and leading to more widespread auroras.


Explanation

This planet is mostly me imagining a more volcanic Mercury.  It isn't based strongly on any other planets or moons, and is mostly me imagining out a world.

Zithir History

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

Early History

Records are sparse for our earliest history.  Our visionaries and prophets, but today and from the past, have been able to sense some events from this time, and a few prophets have been able to catch whispers and calls from powerful individuals during this period.

In our earliest history, our species mostly lived as hunting and gathering groups, living off of prey and plant materials that could be found in the area.  Groups did not need the large organizations and leadership we have today, most were like large family groups or work groups, small enough that everyone could sense everyone else's emotions and thoughts easily.  Most groups kept to territories, and mixed occasionally for exchanges, having choldren, or occasional social connection.   When a group sensed resources were rare, it would move, or join another group in a more safe feeling location.

During this time, our ability to sense the future was enough to avoid almost all injuries, and the need to move gave children the necessary exercise and toughness to avoid later injuries.  Poisons and disease could be avoided by sensing longer into the future, and groups generally learned quickly which areas and food to avoid, and which were safe.

Our prophets have sensed that, during this time, groups gradually got bigger and bigger, as more techniques for finding food, and organizing such groups, became more commonly known.  Eventually, groups became too large to keep together without some more formal organization, and we turned to prophetic leaders to lead such groups.  These leaders have been easier to sense from later times, and we know more about this period than he earliest history.

It was during this time that farming began, and has grown since than, as we have seen that it can feed more people than hunting methods when land is not available.  Still, resources were often scarce, and we sense leaders at war during this period, and a few stories from later speak of large battles, and tell of annihilated tribes from this time. 


Religion Founding

Our first religious records started from the work of a visionary prophet called Pyth, the prophet who envisioned a method to link minds across long periods of time.  Though we are now far more capable than Pyth was, future prophets respected Pyth to such an extent that we have kept contact ever since.  A contemporary prophet, Vorkum, organized the first archives.  These ideas rapidly spread, and within 20 years of Pyth's creation, were both in common use amongst most of the world.

The time of our religious founding was a stable one, but according to our archives, little changed from previous times.  We lived in medium sized groups, with a mix of cities, towns, and in the country, with farming gradually replacing hunting as a source of food.Trade and diplomatic networks had started to appear between our tribal and city groups.  During this time, government were largely handled by small groups of prophets leading smaller groups within the city areas.

The addition of archives and communication across time changed all that.  Our societies became far more organized, as religious priests and archivists filled in many of the roles of leadership.  New tools were developed much faster, as archives allowed us to preserve previous knowledge far more easily.  Priests began as well to determine the workings of the universe, determining that we were on but one of many worlds within existence, and getting some sense of how existence operated outside our senses.  The first communing groups were created during this time, led by priests searching for a way to communicate with large numbers at once.




Big Conglomerates

Soon after the spread of priestly archives, the smaller city states and tribes that had existed until that time began merging together into larger empires.  All three leadership structures became far more common, with communings involving thousands, and great leaders emerging to lead vast empires.  Inside these empires, we built our first major road networks, taught ourselves more intense physical training methods for laborers, and organized our first education systems.

Towards the end of this period, education and practice greatly improved our mental abilities, and large numbers of visionaries made long term plans, proposing great projects and multigeneration plans for the future.  Our most important meeting forum was started as one of these projects.


The Great Wars

We had fought many tribal wars in the past, but as our settlements and religion expanded, wars was almost nonexistent. However, as our empires grew and became more ambitious, We began to fight over longer goals, and visions of the future.

The first few wars involved arguments over the building of an irrigation structure.  Some visionaries saw that the irrigation was the only way to organize food, while a neighboring community felt that the irrigation would lead eventually to ruin.  The high stakes of the project and disagreements over what results would be, led to strong disagreements.  Eventually, the arguments led to an attempt to sabotage the project by some opponents, that led to the injury of some of the project's workers.  Feelings of anger built on themselves from there, until the killings started.  At that point, thousands came out to fight, and both empires sought allies.

During these first years of war, we were highly disorganized.  Most fighting was done by mobs of citizens, armed with sticks, knives, or other such easy to access tools.  Cities were emptied out as large numbers of citizens heard of events and, in their anger, rushed off to war.  Very quickly, our armies learned to kill far more effectively.  More experiened or well led mobs learned to go after leaders.  New weapons were created, longer knives, thrown weapons, and spears becoming the most favorite.  Mobs learned to organize themselves into specialized groups, with some of us fighting up front, some searching for leaders to kill, some scouting, andsome filling other roles.  Most importantly, we learned, even in the midst of \anger, how many should fight and how many should stay home. 

As each empire brought in allies, and accidental ambushes and deaths embroiled more of us in the conflict, the war spread throughout the entire world.  Over 50 years, empires fought in huge alliances, sending waves of soldiers at each other, and destroying huge areas an land, and much of the cities we had built before.  As empires continued to mobilize, the wars only began to draw to an end around 40 years after they started.  Over these final 10 years, the citizens of the loosing empires began to loose hope and motivation, allowing themselves to be killed by the winners.  Once their morale was lost, the winning empires could finally destroy most of the leaders and important workers in the loosing empires, and over the final 10 years, These empires were eliminated, and the wars finally ended.

Strangely, some citizens of these empires managed to survive, finding members of winning empires who had not been exposed to fighting and would offer pity.  Surprisingly, almost 1,000 members of the original loosing empires managed to survive in this way.

The great wars killed off almost 3/4 of us, and destroyed much of our infrastructure.  Recovering the archives of the losers took a long time, almost 5 generations after the end of the war were needed until leaders and priests of the loosing side were willing to communicate without feeling or sensing a strong hatred from the winners.  After this period, most empires and groups maintained armies, or taught members to use weapons and plan for a fight, to prevent the certain annihilation that would flow from another war.


Rebuilding and Development

After the great wars, life largely settled back into how it had been before they had occurred.  We divided ourselves back into large empires, reorganized our religion, and lived as we always had.  However, long term visions and prophecies had become far more common, and large projects became routine.  We also maintained greater military forces at all times.  Two wars broke out during this period, annihilating three empires, and further refining our skills at fighting.


Industry

After centuries of this style of living, we accumulated enough knowledge to turn to mechanization, such as windmills, watermills, machines, and large scale boiling and chemical processing, to serve our needs.  We learned slowly at first, but accelerated our accumulation of knowledge, organizing even larger and larger mechanical and chemical projects.

Our industrial development occurred alongside developments in our own powers as well.  We learned to consistently sense greater and greater details of the future, able to predict almost exactly the results of a project or course of action, no longer just sensing fear or enjoyment.  We learned to communicate thoughts far more effectively than before.  Archives from this period became for more detailed and organized, needed to hold records of the rapid changes and new technologies in existence.


Unconnected revolts

However, these industrial changes were also dangerous.  Mechanical devices could injure far faster and more easily than any previous devices, often faster than the in danger worker could sense the change.  Chemical spill and fumes could injure over time, weakening workers against future injury, and sometimes directly destroying mental function.  Our prophets could sense the dangers, and tried to design devices to prevent injuries, but we lacked the skills to consistently build our new devices safely.  Even worse, some children were being born unable to

The resulting injuries led to a larger swell of unconnecteds, and large camps of these injured ones emerged in most regions.  These unconnecteds were a drain to us, staying out of contact was a great challenge, and in some highly industrial areas the unconnected made up almost 1/6 or so of the population.

It was in the region of Packstor where a prophet called Mikstor envisioned a future where hordes of unconnected, led by a skilled commander, and equipped with unusual weapons, and far tougher than normal for our species, would threaten the uninjured population.  Following this vision, he left his home for the unconnected camps, and started to train the unconnected physically and in weapon skills, while also developing new devices.  Other prophets followed, teaching the unconnected to live without our mental abilities, showing them how to use other methods of thinking.

After a few years of this, rumors spread quickly, and several of us felt fear that these unconnected might actually organize.  Ambassadors were sent to the camp to negotiate and head off any fighting before it started.  The ambassadors were at first repulsed by the unconnected, but were surprised to feel far less fear than they had been expecting, and many switched sides as well.  The unconnected camps gradually became economically important, producing unique products and materials that our own industry could not commonly produce.

However, as the unconnected became more powerful over a period of several year, we began to sense an arrogance among them, feeling that the unconnected might attempt to injure us and, insensitive to our emotions, would commit great harm without realizing it.  A few accidents occurring due to a competing building project confirmed these fears, and several camps were attacked,

Unlike most wars, the attacks on the unconnected camps were not followed by an outpouring of the anger among the unconnected. Instead, the prophets leading the unconnected had to hear of the attacks first, and spend time organizing their armies.  The mobilization was far easier for us, as once the unconnected tried to defend themselves, the injuries caused to our soldiers brought an outpouring of anger, and our armies were rapidly mobilized.

The prophets who led the unconnected thought that this was the war they had seen in their visions, and organized most of the unconnected into a large army.  Our war with the unconnected lasted about 5 years.  The unconnected were physically tougher, equipped with unusual weapons, and used fighting methods that we did not expect.  Many of our leaders were killed in ambushes, and soldiers were killed and injured in floods of chemical gasses and projectiles.  However, the unconnected could not muster the anger and aggression individually that we could as a group, and our ability to sense the future and sense our follow soldiers far out competed the unconnected's skills.  Despite a few victories, the unconnected fell on the defensive for most of the war, and were annihilated along with their leaders.


Great Unification

The victory itself was costly, however.  Though we had won the war, the battles had generated a large amount of new unconnected.  Almost none joined the main camps, as they still hated the enemy they had just been fighting, but the same feelings of fear and anger at treatment found in all unconnected brought on our own fears of a new rebellion among experienced soldiers.

In addition, industrial technology had changed little in some areas, and unsafe methods were continuing to be used.  Fear of more unconnected from these accidents brought some empires to ban industrial technology, but other attempted to retain the benefits and run the equipment more safely.

These fears, around 15 years after toe first rebellion, led to another series of wars.  Most empires stayed out of these, fearfully watching as some empires fought over industrial policy, how to handle unconnected, and other sources of disagreement.  Fortunately for those living in the fighting regions, only half the population of these empires was killed, before safety developments in other empires allowed them to force a stop to the wars.  However, the problems if the unconnected and industrial policy never went away, and within a decade of these wars, new events seemed to suggest that a new set of wars was about to arrive.

It was at this time that two more prophets within empires that had not been involved in fighting suggested a radical solution:  merge all separate empires together.  It had been suggested by previous prophets that we could easily merge, but only with more recent communication abilities could we do so.

Once our empires combined, the wars of the unconnected largely stopped, and most militaries disappeared as well.  Improvements in safety greatly improved our industrial equipment, greatly reducing the amount of unconnected.  now far better organized as a worldwide empire, we finally began to take on new projects, including sea and space exploration.


Space Travel and Lost Colony

Our space exploration, when started, was dangerous, as rockets are difficult and tricky to design.  However, encouraged by prophets who sensed opportunities in space, we persevered, building and running orbiting spacecraft, after a few years, landing on our moons.  Later, we traveled to and from some other planets in our system.  Our prophets insisted that we would one day be able to live on those other planets, and we tested these predictions with longer and longer stays.

After around 30 years of such stays, we finally had the confidence to send large groups of colonists.  As they travelled to their destination, a cold, icy planet we call Mythfyl, they encountered a strange object floating in space.  Most were afraid, and wanted to avoid it, but several prophets looked into the future of the object and saw opportunity.  They soon won the argument, and we moved closer to the object, curious what it was, and sending data back to our archives.  As we approached the object, we suddenly found ourselves racing along in unknown region of space.  At first we were confused, but soon fear gripped the colonists, as we realized that the planets we could see did not resemble our own, and we could not reach our radio signals.  Our archives were confused, and we could not communicate with the prophets or archives from the past nearly as easily.

Greatly embarrassed, the prophets who encouraged us to approach the object sat, confused.  Others, however, suggested that we settle one of the planets in this system, and survive until we could better decide what to do.  Searching out for settlable planets in the system, we saw three:  a planet with a climate much like our own, an icy, cold world, and a cauldron like, hot world.  Though our prophets sensed dangers on each world, they also sensed opportunities, and saw that all worlds could be settled.

Quental (Zithir view)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

First encounters

It took us some time after encountering the Quental to figure out what they were like.  Our first scouts to encounter Quental saw similar looking creatures, camouflaged, with a similar body shape, but larger, and no head protrusions, but they disagreed greatly on the emotions sensed from the creatures they encountered.  Some described the Quental as wary observers, they they either avoided or stayed away from, much like some prey on our own world.  Most described the creatures as looking for fights, and having to defend themselves or run from attacks.  A few, increasing over time, described Quental as looking for contact without desiring a fight.  While we later learned that these responses were from different roles of Quental in society seeking to impress others, our first responses to the species were confused and uncertain, with different groups in our society responding differently.

Continued contact with Quental societies, and our own exploration, exposed us to much less aggressive Quental, and communication became more commonplace as we learned how the species worked, and to recognize which members ot talk to.  A full ability to interact with the Quental took longer, however, as the Quental appeared to view us as lower level members of society until we learned to make and use a substance apparently used to organize Quental into hierarchies.

Body

Quental do not have a fixed form, as most creatures do.  They change their bodies to adapt to a particular role or situation.  In some Quental societies, these adaptations are mostly permanent after a short period of childhood or education, while in others, Quental choose forms that can fill a variety of roles, or be easily changed at any point.  Only their minds are not adjusted in this way, the Quental say that these changes are almost impossible to do successfully, and are often dangerous.  Quental also can share these changes amongst each other.

Most Quental are more injury resistant, and better able to heal, than we are.  They are larger and stronger as well, and can adapt to ingest or breathe materials that we would find poisonous.  Soldiers, physical workers, or others who work in dangerous situations, or situations requiring toughness, can enhance themselves even further in these ways.

Mind

Quental cannot sense emotions, or thoughts, directly as we can, leading to a great deal of confusion at first over how intelligent the Quental would be.  Instead, they use body motions, tone of voice, smells, and other such methods to communicate these things to others, and to see what emotions others are experiencing.   Quental with enhanced senses appear better at this, and Quental who must read these things in others, such as hunters, scouts, or diplomats to aliens, will enhance their senses to better detect these effects.  The most important communication tool for Quental, though, is a particular substance that the Quental use to organize all relations.  This substance appears more common in Quental who are more active or successful in their roles, and Quental with less of it feel a greater willingness to take orders, accept less resources, and a desire to copy, those who release more substance.  All Quental experience these urges strongly when interacting  with other members of their society, and when interacting with us or the humans.  Quental interacting with humans or us have great difficulty accepting orders or following requests, as they sense the lack of substance and instinctively feel that they should be in charge, and often have more difficulty in general respecting the work of aliens, as the lack of substance suggests a less successful person to their mind.  Anyone who must commonly interact with Quental will bring a supply of artificial substance, and is taught to release it in a way to appropriately signal the Quental around them. 

Society

Quental societies organize themselves based on their substance release, and little else.  In some societies, large amounts of substance is release, and Quental form strict hierarchies, at other times substance release is weaker, and smaller groups of Quental compete for power.  Competition or ambition among the Quental is common, in order to encourage substance release, and gain the resulting respect and power, and this competition sometimes leads Quental to create or seek out situations to prove themselves, sometimes to the disadvantage of their group as a whole.

Quental roles from within society are mostly determined early in life, where each individual changes their body to fill a particular role.  Quental societies change in how specialized they expect their members to be, some societies have most members choose more flexible forms, some have most specialize.  Within these roles, Quental attempt to gain status and success, and in societies with less substance release, different groups within society compete as well.  Most Quental societies divide into soldiers and scouts, physical workers, some who use their bodies to produce materials, and thinkers and planners, along with a few much smaller groups.  Soldiers and Physical workers gain the most respect and deference, while Thinkers usually get the least.

Religion

Quental religion seems a far less important part of their society than it is for ours.  In the past, Quental religion was often based around the idea of "great shapers" or "great rulers" who were the ultimate dominating forces in the world, responsible for weather, volcanoes, and other natural events that the Quental could not control.  It was assumed that these great shapers would resemble extremely successful Quental, if one would be met, no Quental would be able to resist the power of their dominating substance.  Over time, religion has changed into something less extreme, resembling our understanding more.  Most modern Quental religions assume that some great shapers were responsible for creating this universe, and occasionally interfere, but mostly are active elsewhere or resting.  These creations are a challenge for the Quental, who must learn to overcome the the difficulties of the universe to become the most respected of creatures, and possible more respected than the great shapers themselves. 

As practiced by the Quental, these religions play a small role in their society, and mostly serve as additional motivation for Quental to achieve respect and success.  It has also at times helped shut down attempts be Quental attempts to destabilize society, as a few individual Quental have at times tried to increase their substance releases, or make themselves resistant, removing the major method of organizing Quental society and encouraging success.  Religion itself is usually least common among soldiers, who struggle against other Quental, usually, and is more common among physical workers, thinkers, and other roles that struggle against the natural world itself.

Quental religion in this system has changed with contact with us and the humans.  Our methods or organizing societies are different enough to change how Quental understand their great shapers, seeing them as less dominating and more encouraging of a challenge.  Human science and religion have encouraged the Quental to think of weather, geologic, or other such events as having a purpose, either set up by a great shaper as a challenge of the world to, or as a response to some moral failing.

Warfare

Warfare among the Quental is done only by those who specialize as soldiers. Fighting among them is almost constant, with quental soldiers constantly trying to prove themselves, and gain resources and respect, by finding dangerous enemies to fight against.  The Quental are quite callous about these wars, as relatives or friends of the dead soldiers are all too willing to stop fighting after a few victories, and accept rule by the winners in the war.  Non-soldiers are highly reluctant to change themselves to become soldiers, to respond to these attacks, and soldiers are reluctant to kill or attack those who would support the enemy who is attempting to kill them.  Most Quental seem to view these attacks and killings as mere competition between different societies or groups of soldiers.

When encountering us or the humans, Quental soldier killing becomes random and constant, as they attack border patrols, settlements, or anything in an area.  Many soldiers seem to view aliens as merely another dangerous creature to prove themselves against, and as anyone could be a soldiers, the quental soldiers attack anything possible.  Quental leaders who wish to maintain peace have had to find other ways for their soldiers to compete, and impose strict discipline, although even in these cases many soldiers find ways to fight and kill neighboring aliens.

In combat, Quental rely mostly on their toughness, and ability to shape their bodies.  Basic soldiers are strong, fast, and very hard to kill, and other types of soldiers can specialize their bodies to fight in different ways.  They adapt quickly to different environments, and can give themselves unique senses as well.

Human (Zithir View)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

Discovery

When our first scouts met the humans, they sensed emotions much like our own colonists; fear, confusion, determination, alertness.  On Phobis Terra, we could sense the differences from other animals, on Cauldron and Cryolith, any creature is a unique sight.  The sight of our scouts appeared to unnerve the humans, but they quickly learned to shape and present themselves in a way that calmed the human scouts down, and most chose not to attack us.

As we contacted the humans more and more, they became confusing to us.  On the one hand, they were clearly highly intelligent, making numerous tools that we found difficult or impossible to make, and seemed to be well organized.  On the other hand, they ever seemed able to sense emotions, much like an unconnected or a simpler creature, and yet were not frightened by this.

Human communication was learned first as body language to communicate emotions, than as spoken tones, and finally as words.  Without the ability to sense emotions, humans need a great variety of body movements and spoken language to communicate, and a great deal of effort is needed by one of us to use these techniques successfully.

Body

Humans are shaped much as we are, but with simple, rounded heads, and most are larger than we are.  The human body is stronger and more resistant to damage as well, even slothful humans can start physical activity and only suffer small injuries, and large wounds or broken bones that to us are life threatening are survived and healed in almost all humans.  Their entire brain is kept inside a bony structure, with no lobes coming out as ours do, and as a result survives much greater strikes with only small personality changes, if any.

Mind

Anyone who interacts with humans, in any way, quickly picks up on the human mind's tendency towards organization, rules, or systematic thinking.  They are comfortable with patterns, or fixed rules, and use these ways of thinking to make decisions.  Even individuals the humans cal "rule breaking", "flighty", "unpredictable", and many other terms, use patterns from past experience as expectations, or to make decisions.  When confronted with new situations, humans attempt to adapt old knowledge to determine what to do, but with varying amounts of flexibility.  some rapidly learn the rules of whatever they find themselves in, but less successful ones often cling to old techniques.

Although humans cannot directly sense others, most can work out emotions or thoughts from watching body position, movement, and other activities.  Humans who have interacted with us for enough time have learned to read us in this way.

Society

All human societies, whatever their organization, are based on having some set of rules that most within it are expected to follow.  All societies have rules for large scale organization, and many have rules or expectations for single person interactions as well.  Many humans are highly attached to these rules, and punishments are routinely used to force obedience.  Wars have even been fought over disagreements in rules.

Within human societies, a bewildering collection of organizations exists, some highly specialized for a small number of tasks.  Humans themselves may be a part of several of these organizations, but in most societies, family, political, and/or production organizations are the most important.  Most organizations create rules for their own members to follow, but rules for an entire society are mostly created by political organizations.  These political organizations are often a site of much strife, as different groups within a society attempt to decide who will have more power, or who's preferred rules will be used.

Despite these issues, human society can be extremely efficient at getting things done.  Humans do not need to consult prophets for decisions that we might need to, and instead focus on getting the task done.  They can organize extremely complex tasks, breaking the tasks down to simple parts for smaller groups to focus on.

Religion

Human religion confused us the first time we encountered it.  We had learned, by this point, that humans could not sense the future or the past, or sense emotions or thoughts, and yet most of their religions appeared to be based on just that.  Even today, human religion confuses us.  Though it has changed over time to become more like our own religion, that our own society has successfully used for all of our history, suggesting that the humans have some ability to sense the world, the humans themselves we meet show none of this ability.

Human religion is divided to several large groups, many that seem opposed to each other.  Most of the larger religions seem based on individual people, a few are based on long traditions, while many humans claim to have no religion at all.  We have attempted to contact some of these prophets, such as the people called "Jeezes", "Boota", and "Mohamid", but have not been able to.  Some humans who follow the religions of these prophets have been angered by these failures, some calling us "agents of Satan", while others suggest that, being in human, these people lack some ability we have that allows us to be contacted through time.

Human religion mostly acts as another group in society, and is a source of rules for personal interactions.  As with any other groups in human society, humans in certain religious groups often disagree about which rules to follow, to the point where even similar groups (Such as the ones called "Joos", "kristins", and "Muzlims"), despite appearing to be factions of one group, consider themselves to be separate, and often opposing, groups.Religion is a source of great emotional attachment for humans, and it is recommended that challenges be avoided to a humans religion as much as possible.

Science and Technology

The human focus on patterns and rules shows itself most obviously in their craftsmanship, and their understanding of how the world works.  Human craftsmen routinely adapt their tools, and make small experimentation and improvement to their designs.  They are good at spotting small details, that we would miss, that will interfere with or improve a device, and as a result consistently produce high quality tools with far less effort than we could.  In larger scale industry, the humans apply these same abilities, and their plants and machine shops produce enormous amounts of higher quality materials and devices, which are always being improved on.

Contributing to this success are human scientists.  Without any skill at sensing the future, the scietists instead find rules and patterns in the world by testing it.  Contact with human scientists has almost always proven useful for understanding how some aspect of our new world works, and they have even helped us understand how our own bodies and society works.

Combat

Warfare is far more common amongst human societies than it is in our society.  Human groups fight each other for a variety of reasons, from control of resources, to disagreements over how society is to be run, to disputes between different groups in other matters.  Human wars are approached with varying levels of organization, from tightly controlled large scale armies, to weakly controlled collections of small groups.  Humans seem to use violence much more commonly to settle disputes, perhaps because they cannot communicate or trust as easily as we can, and must settle disputes in other ways.

Hearing about all the wars in human history, many of us were surprised that the species was not extinct a long time ago, but humans seem surprisingly willing to stop wars after only a small number of people can be killed.  How the humans can callously ignore the violence of their enemies, and accepts surrenders of treaties, and even work with former enemies, without restarting the war is something we will never understand.  Even more surprisingly, human veterans of wars are strangely able to form friendships with former enemies, with no regard to the violence those enemies attempts toward the human's own friends and themselves during the war.   Perhaps the callousness towards friendships and their own society is caused as well by their lack of sensation of emotions, although human friendships and social bonds are still quite strong even without these.

Human armies must spend a great deal of time learning to work together, and much of the training of more organized armies is in teaching human soldiers to work together and feel a part of a group. Humans also cannot sense the future, and communicate as easily, reducing their fighting ability in a number of ways.  However, human also bring their technical skill into combat, equipping themselves with extremely deadly weapons, such as fast and accurate guns, artillery, and missiles, and being highly skilled in their use.  Although we can often avoid the weapons by sensing where they will hit, the weapons can overwhelm our ability to sense all of them, and any hit is usually crippling or deadly.  Humans are also exceptional at supplying their forces, and moving rapidly, due to their ability to organize supply use, and maintain fast moving transport equipment.

Quental History

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.  Histories are described only from the point of view of the species in question.)

First Records

We have few records of the origins of our species, or what life was like for much of that time.  The other two species guess that we lived as small groups of omnivores, much like some predators, and similar to how to two other aliens originally lived.

Our earliest stories describe groups of tribes banding together in larger and larger groups, organized around rich areas of our world, and by attraction to particularly dominant groups.  The stories describe these groups getting bigger, and skilled laborers and warriors appearing, but describe few details.

The earliest writings describe patronage groups and organized tribes, but details are thin.  They describe Quechari as merely food and clothing, and talk about soldiers and laborers, but we do not know the details of our early history as the humans and zithir do.

Ancient

The first detailed description of an organized group is a set of records of the "Thurastin", a group of several cities near a particularly rich forest region.   For most of their existence, the Thurastin were organized as patronage groups, with laborers, warriors, and thinkers described as separate types.  Laborers and warriors switched as dominant groups for much of this group's history.  This group gradually expanded over several hundred years, dominating nearby tribal areas, but itself was eventually dominated by a group from nearby mountains called the Pechthal.

Groups following the Thurastin left similar records, and followed similar histories.  Most started as large tribal groups near unusually rich resource areas, expanded into nearby tribal areas, and were eventually conquered themselves by other groups.  A few of these civilizations were organized as tribal groups, but most were patronage groups.  Few different specializations are recorded, with laborers, thinkers, and warriors being the main distinctions.

Hives Period

The period of early civilizations ended when a group called the Pyrkitzes organized a postal service to deliver pheromone packets long distances.  This long distance travel allowed them to organize the first hives, and surrounding tribes and groups were not prepared for the organization and purpose the Pyrkizites brought to warfare and building projects.  The Pyrkitzes conquered all of the tropical area they originally came from, plus surrounding forests and hilly areas, and were only stopped by deserts and flat plains that they never adapted to.

On seeing the success of Pyrkizite organization, the surrounding plains and desert tribes and societies organized into their own hives, and conquered surrounding regions until stopped by vastly different terrain.  The hive method of organizing society spread rapidly throughout the world, with only a few tribal regions remaining outside hive control, and for a few thousand years, hives dominated our homeworld.

Quental today remember many names of large hives from this period.  The Pyrkitzes, Stlengthu, Quetionis, Quager, Spleuthurys, and Theuthemicals were far larger than anything seen before, and together dominated much of the world during their existence, and greatly influenced everything that came after.  In particular, constant wars between these hives greatly changed soldiering and production, as large scale wars demanded constant adaptation, encouraging a host of new specialized mutations for fighters and laborers.  Tools also improved greatly during this time, and the Quechari slime mold first saw widespread use as a mutation tester.

Tribes and Hives

Despite their success, the ancient hive civilizations were greatly reduced at around the same time by organized tribal groups taking advantage of disruptions.  Taking advantage of otherwise normal disruptions within the hives, these tribal groups established large civilizations of their own.  These civilizations were much more unstable and short lasting then the reduced hive empires, but in their times were still powerful and threatening.

During this period, soldier and laborer mutations, and technology, continued developing, but other specializations became common as well.  The first "synthesizrs", individuals who developed their bodies to produce materials, are recorded in these times, and thinkers found ways to specialize further.  The first reports of mutations changing the shape and size, and not just things like strength or stamina, also come from this time.  Individuals during this period were the first to adapt to oceans, dig large tunnels underground, and live full time in icy regions of the poles or mountains.

The Flowering

The flowering is a name for a constant increase in mutations and technology that has been continuing for the past thousand years or so.  This period started during the tribes and hives period, during the constant competition between the remains of the ancient hive empires and the constantly forming tribal organizations forced ever more changes in mutation and technology.  New mutations and experimentation have been a constant feature of life during this period, and new tool development became common enough to notice changes within a lifetime.

During the middle of this period, patronage systems became common again.  Communication between different parts of the world also became far more common, as swimming mutations became far more common and refined.  Synthesizer skills expanded greatly, with a much greater variety of materials available.  Quechari slime mold expended to fill almost all material and synthesis roles.

In the past couple hundred years, mutations took on a staggering variety, with some Quental forming their bodies into deep ocean swimmers, floating balloons, underground diggers, and other forms adapted in ways undreamed of by the old Quental civilizations.  Technology has also improved, with some Quental able to rely purely on tools, with few mutations, if needed.

Space Travel

Among the discoveries during the flowering, some Quental adapted for strong sight discovered that some of the stars seen at night were actually worlds of their own.  We could do little but watch from a distance, however, until a few years ago.  During these times, Quental sighters steadily improved their eyes, and built telescopes to see details of these worlds, and taste their atmospheres and surfaces from a difference, and determine what needed to be done to explore and settle these worlds.

About 50 years ago, our technology and mutations improved to the point where we could enter space.  Flyers allowed us to raise rockets to the atmosphere, synthesizers could generate fuel and materials to build them, and scouts could adapt to require few resources, and deal with gravity changes and radiation.  However, early attempts to enter space were highly dangerous, with most scouts attempting the journey being killed or severely injured in the process.  Competing for dominance, the designers, scouts, and workers involved in the program continued working on space travel until they were finally able tolaunch scouts somewhat safely.  The first targets were orbital travel, than our nearby moon, and than a cold planet called Mondthlin.

Launches to orbit went well, with scouts adapting easily, and returning in good condition, able to tel us much more about space travel, and encourage further adaptation.  From orbit, journeys to our moon also went smoothly, and we learned much.  As we attempted to travel to Mondthlin, the experiments once again became dangerous.  Scouts traveling to Mondthlin found it a much more hostile planet than we had realized, with a few dying, and many others becoming stranded and in constant poor health.  Mondthlin proved a difficult world to adapt to, and drastic mutations were needed to thrive there, mutations far different than any we could develop gradually on our homeworld.  Only by effective use of Quechari adaptability could our first scouts survive on Mondthlin, and the long travel times made it difficult to transport enough materials for good health.

However, as with the original space launches, our scouts and workers persevered, seeking the dominance rewards that would come from successful space travel, and after many missions, found the mutations, materials, and technology needed to journey to Mondlith and survive.  The first four successful missions to travel to Mondlith, have the scouts survive on Mondlith materials, and than return, were celebrated throughout our homeworld.

After a few more missions, and the sharing of necessary mutations, our societies decided to send a large group of colonists to this new world.  These colonists were organized in orbit, given a large store of starting materials, and included representatives from all walks of life, to prepare them for long term settlement of this new planet. 

Unfortunately, as these colonists journeyed to Mondlith, they encountered a strange looking piece of scrap.  While flying by this object, the colonists found themselves
suddenly teleported to another location in space.  Looking around, the sighters determine that this was a completely different system from the one we had been found in, with different worlds surrounding a different star.  without the resources to survive a long journey, or to wait inside our Quechari space vehicle, we decided to settle one of the worlds in the system, and than determine where we were, and how to get back to our homeworld.

Zithir (Quental view)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

First Sights

Our scouts had a hard time spotting the Zithir, but what they saw did not look too challenging.  The Zithir were small, and fragile when attacked, but always seemed to dodge attacks and avoid scouting parties.  The Zithir also learned very quickly to tell when our scouts wanted ot fight, and when they did not, even before we had spotted them.

Further contact with the Zithir convinced our scouts that the Zithir were thinking, and over time we discovered ways of communicating with them.  Many Zithir were angry over our scout's attacks on their own scouting groups, but more peaceful contact was established with them.

The Zithir, at first glance, are greyish to dark colored creatures,shaped like grunts or some laborers, but much thinner.  Their heads have large lobes, and several tentacles, which we have learned are used for their psychic abilities.

Mental Abilities

The strangest abilities of the Zithir, not seen in any other creature in this system, are the abilities to see into the past and future, and to sense emotions of nearby creatures.  With these abilities, the Zithir can sense incoming dangers, coordinate smaller groups in a way not seen anywhere else, and talk to others from the past.  Everything the Zithir do relies on these abilities.

Dominance

Zithir do not use dominance pheromones in the way we do.  Instead, the ability to read emotions allows small Zithir to work together without any need to know who has dominance over who, and these can shift from time to time.  In larger Zithir groups, some members appear more respected than others, and a few are considered far inferior, but Zithir do not attempt to determine everyone's place in relation to each other outside these special ones.  Many decisions are still made by sharing thoughts and emotions, usually during special large gatherings where they can focus their mind reading abilities.

As far as we can tell, Zithir defer to members of their society known as "archivists" and "prophets".  Archivists maintain records of previous Zithir events, and communicate regularly with Zithir from the past on present issues.  Prophets are unusually skilled at sensing the future, and Zithir turn to them to see how different decisions will turn out.  Most major decisions Zithir groups make are influenced by at least one of these, and/or communing, to choose a course of action.

Far inferior to other Zithir are the "unconnected ones", Zithir who have lost their mental abilities.  The position of these Zithir within their societies shocked the Quental who saw them, as the unconnected ones are not merely seen as less dominant, but are often cut off from the rest of Zithir society, with only some family support given, and no change to perform some roles and show themselves to be useful again.  Zithir who have encountered the unconnected ones describe the constant fear and uncertainly experienced by those who loose their abilities, and it seems that other Zithir avoid these unconnecteds to escape these constant and strong emotions.  The revulsion and desire to avoid the unconnects is sensed by other Zithir, and spreads throughout their society.

Building and Production

Zithir building and production relies heavily on their mental abilities, and on their prophets and archives.  For smaller scale production, craftsman rely on archives and shared information to learn their roles.  To try something new, craftsman must rely on trial and error, using their ability to sense the future to test possibilities, and using trial and error on the ones that seem workable.  For larger projects, the Zithir rely on prophets to sense farther into the future.

Zithir cannot modify their bodies to better perform tasks, and the bodies they have are very fragile and heal poorly, so they must use unusual tools and techniques to do physical work.   To avoid injuries, Zithir laborers must excercise for a long time before working, and must use their future sensing abilities to avoid accidents.

Conflict

Zithir do not fight often, but when they do, they are highly destructive.  Feelings of hatred and anger during a war spread rapidly through their society, and the desire for violence overwhelms other thoughts that might slow Zithir soldiers down.  The Zithir do not merely kill soldiers, but in most wars, attack nonsoldiers as well, and many settlements have been utterly destroyed by Zithir attackers.  Of our own forces win battles against Zithir, they continue to fight for a long time, and only when highly demoralized will accept a loss to the Quental who fought them.

Zithir soldiers are highly fragile, even with strength training, but they are excellent at avoiding attacks and striking weak spots due to their ability to sense the future.  Our own soldiers often are greatly frustrated at the inability to hit Zithir, but once a hit occurs, the Zithir falls hard.  Zithir also can sense and target leaders, or more dominant soldiers, in combat, further disrupting enemy armies.

Human (Quental view)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

First Sights

When our scouting groups first met, the humans at first appeared to be one of the many large creatures found throughout the system.  On Cauldron and Cryolith, our hunters attempted to capture them, while on Phobis Terra they were ignored in favor of other targets.  The humans appeared to be easy targets, with brown or grey clothing, and brown to tan skin, that never matched surroundings, and not very good senses.  However, the hunters soon discovered that the humans were dangerous enemies, with many weapons and traps to use against us.  Later, the humans found ways to blend into the landscape as well, using special clothing, and proved a dangerous target for our soldiers as well, and human scouting groups were a favorite target for soldiers trying to prove themselves.

A few groups of scouts did not attack humans, and found most humans willing to avoid fights as well.  Eventually, sounders and thinkers found ways to communicate, and other forms of contact were established.

Shape

While many creatures on our world cannot adapt themselves as we do, we were greatly surprised to find that almost no creatures on the worlds of this system could do so either, including humans.  Almost all humans are between the size of a laborer and a scout, and are shaped in a similar way.  Human skin is colored different shades of brown or tan, usually slightly red, and cannot be changed to match surroundings.  This human body is quite flexible and humans train themselves to increase physical abilities when needed, but it cannot be adjusted beyond this to fill the roles needed of it.

Technology

While humans cannot adapt their own bodies to fill roles nearly as well as we can, they can adapt to roles through tool use and practice, and in tool use they far outshine us.  While we mostly use simple, carefully crafted devices, humans build enormous collections of complex, finely developed tools for any tasks they may encounter.  A single human, with some training and the correct tools, is capable of filling almost any physical work or combat role needed, and multiple humans working together are even more flexible, with large scale machines allowing astounding feats.

Even human construction of technology that we use is usually of higher quality, and the humans learn to create much more of it.  Human builders seem able to build knowledge very effectively, and spot connections and patterns that our builders would miss, and this knowledge allows the humans ot refine their building processes.

The humans also show a surprising ability to understand how the world works, with science being an important part of all human societies we have encountered.  The human scientists are constantly testing the world, recording information, and spotting new connections, providing much knowledge that the humans can turn to their advantage.  Human scientists have even been able to tell us things about ourselves that we did not know.

Dominance

Unlike many creatures, humans cannot directly sense status, leading to a lot of frictions within their societies.  They do not have any strong pheromones as signals, instead releasing a large number of weaker smells that the humans do not sense directly.  Humans themselves say that some of the more dominant among them create "testosterone", we have not been able ot smell this apart from some scientific samples or human waste.  Body language among humans is similarly confused, with more dominant ones using certain gestures and poses more than others, but most humans are still unaware of this. 

Human dominance confusion allows for numerous conflicts in human society when other systems break down.  Unorganized humans will waste time and resources, and in some groups injure or kill each other, to determine who will be in charge.  These divisions are often encouraged or supported by outsiders to gain advantages within a particular society or group; when done with a society, simple determinations of dominance become deadly wars.

Fortunately for human societies, humans themselves have invented a number of outside systems to avoid these problems, based on large collections of rules that most agree or are forced to follow.  As with technology, human legal system allow societies to react much more easily than simple dominance hierarchies would, and these system allow strong organization among the people included.

Human systems are not all alike: some use a lot of central control, similar to a hive, while some disperse control into smaller groups.  Humans also seem to switch between permanent control by a few dominant officials, and allowing less dominant members to rotate high level ones.  Most difficult to understand about human systems is the tendency for different types of control, and different amounts of central control, to be used for different areas of society, often leaving some function of society to be run by a bewildering amount of smaller units, with very specific and almost impossible to understand divisions between functions.  Trade and production, in particular, are commonly left to subunits the humans call "businesses", apart from some roles that central rulers wish to control.

Humans themselves disagree on how exactly on how to arrange societies, using reasons that only make sense to other humans.  Despite all these complications, often lamented as "red tape" or "disorganization", human societies have proven highly adaptable and effective at organization.

Conflict

Wars among humans are almost all over either dominance and/or resources.  Humans themselves recognize a greater variety of reasons for wars, usually involving different subgroups within human society, but as when not at war, we have great difficulty understanding the differences.

Wars for domination between humans are sometimes far more deadly than equivalent wars among us.  Because any human can become a soldier with the right tools, and some teaching or practice, human groups that wish to fight can raise large armies.  Human wars also seem to arouse strong emotions that make it even harder to recognize dominance between groups, so human groups often fight even when they have little chance of winning, and sometimes extra violence is used to to terrorize non-fighting enemies to try and encourage acceptance of a loss, although the target humans often continue fighting afterwards.  However, the actual intensity of human conflict varies greatly, based on expectations and rules that only some of the humans involved can understand.

Wars between humans and us are also far more deadly than wars within our species.  Humans themselves are often quite violent in wars, attacking non-soldiers during invasions.  Our own soldiers must be more deadly than usual, watching out for apparent non-fighters who may be hiding weapons or hunting groups the humans call "guerillas".  Humans, despite their tendencies to kill non-fighters, often maintain distinctions between "combatants" and "civilians" that we do not notice, and get extremely angry at the killing of "civilians", further stretching out wars.  The lack of ability to sense dominance also stretches out wars, as humans will often try to end wars when victory has not yet been established, or keep fighting after they have little chance of winning.

When humans fight, they bring their full technological and building skills to the war.  Though humans cannot mutate their bodies for war, they can build tools that compete on even terms with almost any adaptation we invent.  Human soldiers are not as tough or strong as our soldiers, but build body armor, camouflage clothing, and powerful weapons.  As we have developed adaptation for larger soldier types, such as diggers and spit throwers, humans have responded with cars, tanks, and even farther shooting, large guns.  Less well equipped humans are still dangerous, through their abilities to improvise ambushes and traps.  Humans seem to have more trouble in unfamiliar or rough terrain, where they cannot use their technologies as effectively, and require some time to gain an understanding of the environment they will be in.

Selkirk system

These are links to posts in the Selkirk system.

If possible, I plan to make a mod based on this (for a civilization type game), although that depends on what mechanics i can include, and whether I have enough time.  While these ideas are just writing for now, they are influenced somewhat by how game mechanics would play out, as explained in individual posts.

Whether a mod is made, or I just write it out here, this is a setting that involves interplanetary colonization fleets of three intelligent species (humans, Quental, and Zithir) being taken to this system from their home systems.  Loosing contact with their home systems, the three groups of colonists would settle in this one, and things would go from there.

Some of the planets, if the mod gets made, would be settleable, and I have general ideas for how they would play out in gameplay terms.  However, a lot of these ideas just come from an interest in planetary science that I've had over the past couple of years (as of 2012), and are designed to combine cool features of solar system objects, or to try and imagine what other types might be like.

For the species themselves, I've attempted to create species with different ways of living, different social issues, strengths and weaknesses, etc.  On social organization in particular, I've tried to write the aliens to have completely different concerns from each other (So, for example, human arguments about, say, markets vs. government vs. other economic systems would make little sense to the aliens, as their methods of organizing result in different types of conflicts.)  Descriptions of each creature are written from the other two creature's point of view, with the generic description you might read elsewhere being the "human" description.  (This seems a more fun/challenging way to try and do it, plus is another way to reveal worldviews and mindsets that some aliens might have.)

Planets and Moons
 
Griddle: A volcanically active version of Mercury, with a strange atmosphere.

Kiln: A smaller, more volcanically active version of Venus

Cauldron:  A hot planet, made up to combine cool features of mainly Venus and Io, but not as hostile.  Highly volcanic, with sulfuric acid/water oceans.

Phobis Terra:  The Earthlike world of this universe, but more dangerous.

Cryolith:  Combines features of Mars and outer solar system moons, but not as inhospitable.  Has both rocky and icy terrain on much of the planet, plus ammonia/water oceans.

Behemoth:  A Jupiter like planet.

Fumarole:  Large ice/rock moon of Behemoth.  Highly active, with water geysers, water volcanoes, a large ocean under the icy surface.  (mostly based off Europa, Io, and Enceladus, but with some unusual features itself.)

Doppel:  Another large ice/rock moon of Behemoth.  Thick atmosphere, organic lakes and oceans, icy volcanoes and mountains.  (Pretty much a more active Titan.)

Frigis: The last Ice/rock moon of Behemoth.  Mostly old, eroded tectonics.  (Based mainly off the less active outer planet moons, mostly Ganymede and Callisto.)


Aliens

Humans:

In this universe, humans are the most skilled at technology, math, logic, constructions, and systematic thinking in general.  Social systems are the most legalistic, relying on rules to organize large groups.

Human History:  Doesn't actually describe all of human history, just a renewed space race and the colonization of other parts of the Solar system.

Humans (Quental description):  A Quental view of humans.

Humans (Zithir Description):  A Zithir view of humans.

Quental:

In this universe, this species is highly biologically adaptive, able to mutate themselves to fill various roles.  Social systems are based on dominance pheromones.  (Think anything from an insect hive to wolf pack type groups.)

Quental History:  A history of the Quental species.  (Very basic version, I haven't thought of any details beyond general outlines.)

Quental (human description):  "A human"'s view of the Quental.

Quental (Zithir Description):  The Zithir view of the Quental.

Zithir:

Species that can sense future and past events, and sense emotions or thoughts in surrounding creatures (the "Psychic" species).  Social systems are based on taking advantage of these abilities in various ways.

Zithir History:  A history of the Zithir.

Zithir (human description):  "A human's" view of the Zithir.

Zithir (Quental Description):  A Quental view of the Zithir.

Human History

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.  For individual histories, I'll write from the specie's own point of view)

For human "history" I'm only writing about the period after current time, since simply going over human history would be nothing new, and probably kind of boring in short writing like this.

Second Space Race

After the first race to the moon between the U.S. and Russia, space exploration slowed down for about a century.  Unmanned probes continued exploring other planets, Activity continued in Earth orbit, and a few newer programs (China, India, Japan) performed moon landings, but space exploration moved little beyond these activities.  Space research did continue, but largely out of the view of much of the world.

Developments on Earth, however, led to the restarting of the space race in 2065.  Global warming had been an increasing concern throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and new sources of energy had been constantly developed, while increasing regulations and taxes pushed against fossil fuel use.  Starting around 2020, several events greatly accelerated these processes.  Throughout the 2020s, concentrated solar power became competitive with other sources of electricity over wide areas of the world, and initiatives for dispersed solar power also greatly increased its use.  Around 2030, electric vehicles became competitive with gasoline vehicles, and infrastructure changes followed quickly to support these.  In 2045, rising temperatures pushed most large economies to institute harsh carbon taxes, further encouraging a switch away from fossil fuels.

Most regions of the world adapted well to these adjustments, but oil producing countries did not adapt nearly as well.  The "great oil crash" as it would later be known, led to significant political upheavals in most oil exporting countries, with several countries experiencing large crime increases, highly contested elections, or even government changes.  Most effected were countries along the Persian Gulf, where many countries had been almost totally dependent on oil.  Over time, most of the countries, apart from Iran and Oman, almost completely disintegrated, with extreme violence for several years.

The middle East had always been an area with numerous conflicts, and the disintegration of these countries further aggravated these trends.  As a series of wars and disruptions radiated outward from the oil crash countries, most governments not effected focused heavily on new weapons research and purchases.  Among these new developments was the first successful orbital bombardment technology in 2065, developed by Egypt, but copied soon after by most surrounding countries.

The potential of this weapon frightened most of the previous main space powers.  Worried about being outclassed by these weapons, most governments with existing space programs rapidly increased their size and research budgets, and worked on new launch systems and technology, to avoid loosing out on weapons capabilities.  Out of this research came the technology for better control in space, robotics, new propulsion systems, and, most importantly, cheaper launch technologies.  With the development of the jet assisted Rocket booster in the US, the Airplane launched rocket in Russia, and Spaceplanes in Japan, all soon copied by other space powers, and by other interested groups.

Lunar Colonies

In 2070, following soon after these developments, Space programs and businesses organized a flurry of moon landings to test new technology.  While only 45 people had walked on the moon before this year, almost 38 people visited the moon in 2070 alone, and the number doubled soon into 2071.  The spread of technology, and ability to take advantage of previous knowledge and experience, allowed missions to be prepared and launched much faster than before, allowing this great increase in moon missions.  Lunar explorers collected large amounts of geological information, set of robotic observatories, and set of devices to watch the Earth from a more stable position.

It was not long before permanent human colonies were established on the moon.  The first was a U.S. mining colony, to collect rare minerals that had been recently found on the moon, and could now be mined cost effectively due to cheaper space travel.  The second was a multinational observatory.  Other lunar colonies, for various purposes, soon followed.  At first, lunar colonists only expected to stay a few months, at most, but medical and psychological space research developed techniques to allow far longer stays.  Lunar colonies became permanent residences to many, and the first children were born on such a colony in 2078.

At the time humans arrived in the current system, Earth's moon was highly populated, with representatives from almost all over the globe found somewhere on it.  Lunar colonies had become mostly self sufficient, with only occasional high tech materials or basic materials needing to be imported from another world.

Mars Settlement

At the time the first lunar colonies were being established, plans for journeys to Mars were being dusted off and put into practice.  Because Mars was a more challenging destination than the moon, only well established space programs made the first attempts, and progress was slower than moon exploration.  The first human landing on Mars took place in 2078, followed by three more in 2079.  Landings at this stage involved a 2-4 month stay, and allowed extensive geological knowledge to be gained about the planet.

With lunar colonies fast developing, learning techniques for surviving off world, and Martian landings already involving long stays, it wasn't long before Martian colonies were founded.  The first was started in 2080, and soon after, 5 more were prepared.  Due to the greater distance, Martian colonies were less useful for raw materials, but could support themselves better due to the greater availability of necessary materials on Mars.  Martian colonies supplied minerals to Earth, some food and basic material to lunar colonies, and provided locations for some research stations.  Mars also became known as a destination for political opposition in more repressive regions, or for people in areas with low economic opportunity.

The success of lunar and martian colonies soon spread to just about any country or group that could afford a space program, with most setting up colonies for various purposes.  Mars, at the time of arrival in the new system, was the most populated world outside the earth, with close to 150 million people living there.

Venus

An exception to the general success of Mars colonies was the Russian space program.  While Russia was one of the first countries to achieve a Mars landing, attempts at founding colonies have hit long streaks of bad luck.  The first such attempt was victim to an accident, forcing the crew to turn back before reaching Mars.  The second attempt reached the surface, but machinery malfunctions forced the colonists to return to Earth.  A third attempt failed a year in, and the colonists needed to be rescued by nearby martian settlements.

However, experiments on Venus had led to the development of balloon and flight systems to allow longer lasting probes on Venus.  The Russian space agency was the first to take the balloon concept and use it for manned exploration of Venus.  From a floating probe, Cosmonauts were able to greatly improve data collection and exploration from robotic Venus probes, and discover some unusual details of the planet.

After several of these landings, Russia established permanent balloon colonies over several locations on Venus.  The colonies themselves acted as observatories, and were able to direct some robotic mining of unusual materials on Venus's surface.  Attempts to keep the colony self sufficient also led to the development of new types of crops, able to take advantage of the unique conditions of Venusian colonies.

Although other space faring groups developed plans for Venusian colonies, the difficulty of starting such colonies compared to the costs of lunar and martian settlements meant that only Russia has built any.

Asteroid Mining

Martian settlements led the way to Asteroid and cometary mining projects.  Robotic mining operations supplied some minerals to more populated worlds, and supplied some ice and organic material to lunar colonies.  The three largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, and Pallas, were settled permanently, though only by small numbers of people, and direct and supply nearby mining operations.  Life on asteroids is tougher than life on Mars or Earth, as diminished solar power makes farming and energy production difficult, but the rewards are good for those willing ot take the risks.

Callisto

The last of the solar system colonies to be settled before the colonization of this system was the small colonist on Callisto.  Settled in 2093 by American scientists and maintenance personnel , the Callisto colony was originally intended as a long lasting scientific expedition to study Jupiter, and would finance itself by sending various materials to the inner planets and asteroid belt.  However, plans to retrieve the Callisto colonists continually fell through, and the colony itself became a permanent fixture of the moon.

The Callisto colony leads probably the toughest existence of all solar system colonies.  Solar power is thin in Jupiter's orbit, stretching energy budgets to the limit, and the lack of quick transport to the colony from populated areas leads to an isolated existence.  Callisto also lacks easily mined metal deposits, so must rely on the less rewarding ice and organic deposits for trade.  The colony, since its founding, has been the scene of numerous attempts to improve its position, including taking part in Controlled Fusion research, attempts to mine Io or capture the energy of the Io flux current, and other attempts to capture Jupiter's magnetospheric power.

The Titan Project

In the year 2120, the experiments on Callisto finally allowed it to tap large amounts of Jupiter Magnetospheric power.  At the same time, Improvements in solar power also helped the colony expand significantly.  These advances were enough to encourage most colonies to prepare a settlement of the Saturn moon system.  Unlike the Callisto colony, this project would involve people from many different colonies and countries on Earth, in a much more coordinated way.  Colonists traveled to the staging point at Callisto, and than started the journey to Saturn.

While the Jupiter system's radiation belts made settling most moons difficult, the Saturn system is much more hospitable to colonists, and a few tens of thousands joined to form the initial colonies.  The colony ships were also packed with supplies and assorted machinery, spare parts, and other materials needed to prepare colonies.  The original plans were to settle some of the smaller moons of Saturn, organize an economy, and than start settling titan.  The colonies would be a mix of scientific and mining based.

However, while on the way to Saturn, the colonization fleet flew near a strange object.  At it was approached, we determined that the object was not in the path to hit anything.  We recorded the location and path of the object, than continued floating by.  As we did so, the object activated, and all the ships in the colonizing fleet found ourselves disoriented.  Once we counted up all colonists, reoriented the ships, and tried to figure out what had happened, our navigators determined that we did not appear to be in the solar system anymore.  Instead , we appeared to be in a different system, with a similar sun, but vastly different planets, and a different appearance to the sky.  At this point, we had little choice but to find a place to settle, than figure out where we were, and either settle into this new system, or make contact with Earth if possible.

Explanation

The final description of the titan project is based on the Test of Time sci-fi game setup.  The success of some of the colonies is based on current day histories of various space programs (Russian lack of success at Mars is based on the Great Galactic Ghoul idea, the Venusian colonies are based on the Venera probes.  U.S. starting the only outer solar system colony until the titan attempt is based on the fact that most outer solar system work so far has been from the U.S.)