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| Planets: A Brief History of Icanur; The Pre-Biaccan Chronicle | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Wednesday, 4. March 2009, 18:42 (478 Views) | |
| Deleted User | Wednesday, 4. March 2009, 18:42 Post #1 |
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"The furthest possible records were, of course, found in fossilized remains of their ancestors, among other things. The combine of all known knowledge and the physical proof allowed many conclusions to be drawn, and more than enough mysteries were solved a millennia before Icanur entered the stellar community." --Prehistory-- ::Considerable parts of this section are creatively fabricated. Accurate history of involved eras is impossible from lack of records produced therein. However, the fabrication has been created only in contextual guidelines from archeological examination. This statement ensures that the reader knows that where solid proof of events is unavailable, fabrication is likely to increase to create an informational consistency.:: -From Ujol's Vow of Historic Inaccuracy, enacted 1904 E.P. ::Delivery, including time measurements and phrasing, has been modified to enable more precise human understanding.:: Section I: To Tame Monsters Genetic testing proved that the entire qwiede race evolved from large, six legged beasts, like tremendous lizards, covered with a thin layer of hair rooted in shell-like, proto-scale armor. Other fossils from the same time period would illustrate that their kind were the tyrants of the sphere, the top of the creature hierarchy at roughly 5 meters in length and only a slightly smaller girth, legs included. They crawled low to the ground, had powerful jaws and tails, which made them sturdy opponents to even those who outweighed them. These creatures still, technically existed on Icanur, but detail shall be provided later on. The world these creatures prowled was nearly perfect. Icanur, at this prehistoric time, is theorized to have been a heavily forested, densely packed planet with not only abundant with animal life, but with plant life and dense, oxygen rich air. It is also proposed that it had a stable rotational period and tilt. At some point, however, a hypothetical upset in the nebula, now called the Icanuran Cloud, caused a chain reaction on the planet. First, the rotation and tilting schedule became chaotic and unwieldy, an effect still settling even up to its demise. The movement produced drastic climate change everywhere, and as previously arctic regions became smoldering hot, vice versa, and back again, massive holes formed and surrendered an unhealthy amount of atmosphere to the vacuum of space within several decades. Luckily, the holes healed and settled, as did the planet itself, to some extent. The results, however, included a mass extinction of nearly all prominent species on the surface of Icanur, an extinction that has yet to be matched by any planet qwiedes have had a part in researching. While the extinction's greatest cause was the loss of air pressure (and therefore respiratory nutrition), many of the creatures able to brave it were overcome by a potent oceanic fungus that began to take root on land, thanks to a lack of elements normally toxic to it. The plant grew and evolved with the remaining animals, sparking eons and eons of their battling not only for territory, but then survival, once it became capable of consuming the very creatures whose lands it plundered. Among the creatures that survived with the Ydesgydesg (later known as the common Tyrant Dragon) on land were similar lizards such as the ancestors of Efleat (Spectrum Backed Dragons), mammals that would become ones such as the herb- and insectivorous Rosigs (Plantsmeal Wolves) and Miteleat (Neuied's Elephants), and an ancestor of many bird species, Jacade (Lake Fowl). These all provided both alternate foods and opponents for ydesgydesg, and as time went on, eventually pets and predators. The few ydesgydesg that remained were lucky to keep up. After receiving only minimum nutrients for so long, they shrunk, and their bodies, a seemingly transient form between the therocephalians and cynodonts of earth, haphazardly designed for an enemy they couldn't eat to death or knock senseless, grew more evenly segmented. Their long, scaly torsos became much smaller, and their upper spines and skulls hard and bony, their heads being the plant's target of choice. The lungs and digestive tract shrank smaller still, having much less use in the given conditions. The scales that covered their bodies in shades of brown and green became featherlike, assisting them in the new form of travel they had developed, hopping and swinging through the hostile plant, which now covered a rough 80% of Icanur's landmass. Claws and stubby pads became gripping hands with three long digits, assisting in the locomotion, as well as the need to gather and carry food. They retained their sharp, piercing fangs, and continued to use them to hunt and eat animals, and in recurrent circumstances, to shred the plant in defense and hunger. The plant became poisonous at some rate, and the now evolved ydesg-edta developed an efficient expulsion mechanism, wherein they did not vomit the otherwise nutritional matter, but quickly filtered and excreted the detrimental elements out of two glands positioned behind the tongue. At some point in this era, the species Ydesg-edta became two. When the plant had completed a massive growth pattern along the Ododran coastline, a fraction of the ydesgs were pushed into an amphibious mutation, making water bodies and swampy reefs and shelves their primary habitats. Adapting to navigate the waters around the later known Eichan Isles, Ydesg-qwea was the sleeker of the ydesgs, and its born-again scales, which could be extended and retracted, served as a form of camouflage from the more predatory underwater inhabitants, as well as an improvement in hydrodynamics. Faced with a rather constant switching between sprint, graze, water and coast, the tail, with appropriate fins, softened and developed a retractable anatomy. It operated much like a fish tail could be expected; save the bonus to maneuverability the retraction gave. Kept extended, a qwea could shoot through water at speeds needed to traverse the dangerously bare openness of the shelf, make off with stolen spoils, and out-swim what could eat it. When collapsed, a qwea could do such things as eat the meals it plucked from between rocks, interact with others, and remove an unneeded counter-balance for extended surface expeditions. The ocean environment was genuinely unaffected by the plant and it's simple will, and much of it thrived while the surface dwellers were cut little slack, and even less breathing room. The edtas desperate escapades did little for brain development, but the relative ease of life for their amphibious cousins allowed it un-masse. Qwea brain chemistry advanced, even in primitive terms, to a point where they were capable of outsourcing thought and feeling to the other living things in the environment. In the numerous millennia following this, they became curious enough to brave the dangers of mainland channels, unable to venture into waters beyond the Eichan Shelf, searching for new interests beyond simply living. Here, as chance would have it, qweas met edtas, and found, in more than one way, that they were not so different. While the edtas had made little more geographical progress, they still adjusted. They began forming feathery deposits on their bodies, derived from the scales of the ydesg ydesg, which made breaking the skin more difficult and temperature regulation more affective, but, primarily, aided their arboreal travel by reducing aerial drag. This became more and more necessary now that the ancient, formally suppressed spores and roots of the original Icanur were sprouting up again. The trees and bushes had had difficulty adjusting to the climate, which had changed from lush class M in their absence, to what was inherently a sultry class H, with low air pressure and very dead soil. For a long time, none of the plants could spread beyond the nutrient rich, moist soil they slumbered in for so long. Not only this, but the day/night and season pattern was very obscure, which is why they may have retreated into the ground like their animal fellows. They only had their own natures, and a bit of help from their six-armed friends who helped to cultivate many plants by incidentally tracking seeds and pollen to the untouched limits of the forest. Many herbivorous creatures had died out from starvation due to the previously scarce vegetation, and continued to do so before the plants could spread, ironnically fueling its growth, and transposing some of their misfortune to the carnivores that fed on them. It was just enough to coax the plantlife outward, and it flourished. Hunting of the animals was less necessary, as many plants, which had been able to outgrow the Plant itself, provided all forms of nutrition, including proteins that most everybody needed. Edtas, as a species, would not have the time to develop the capacity necessary in making tools and performing agriculture. The animals, like the plantlife, returned to a hapless world in much the same way. Several kinds of heavily hibernating animals, many of which had actually endured the reign of the Plant by burrowing into the ground, or forming insulating membranes around themselves, accompanied the awakening forest. In a lot of ways, the awakening of so many forgotten species' was an annoyance to the little edtas, standing no higher than a meager meter. The old world animals had retained most of their previous sizes from before the tragic atmosphere leak, however, and even represented different stages of evolution in the same species, indicating that not every member entered hibernation immediately. Surprisingly, some were even able to trudge on for ridiculous amounts of generations. All through this, the edta stayed it's place along the treeline as the new residents secured their footing. The plant, meanwhile, had taken time to become semi-intelligent, and aware of when it found itself being circumvented and eaten by the crazy, vibrating morsels it, itself, ate. It is possible that the Plant (evidence of neural activity and reasoning earned it a proper name) developed a primitive sensory organ or organs, allowing hearing, or even sight. At this time, it is approximated, edtas had developed a simple language, but it made for a bad streak of luck as they fled, for more and more often, simply being near to it caused a reflexive reaction, let alone speaking. It went on and on, until communication was near impossible if one wanted to live. Logically, they would have tried to incorporate mannerisms, body language, but in an environment that was rarely expected to work in their favor, these sub-sentients were ecstatic to find a creature not only similar to them, but able to communicate with nothing but thought. When it appeared that the ydesg (both edta and qwea) was near complete extinction, a new creature appeared on the scene, a potent marriage of the ydesg bloodlines, equipped with the best of both worlds. Ydesg-qwiede was smarter than edta, more formidable than qwea, and all the better for it. The higher thought, learnable manner, and smooth carriage of qwea allowed simple stratagem to be used in thwarting the impeding Plant. Additionally, a number of the edtan physical attributes continued to lessen confrontational difficulties. In this mix, the qwea ability to control their scale coats and pelvic fins lived on in qwiede's feathers and tail, as so did edta's land and tree traversing methods and will of survival, still very much needed in their struggle. The hybrid was the only ydesg competent and strong enough to resist the Plant and various toughened predators, which eventually exterminated edta and qwea alike. Still, qwiedes cleared the way for the ydesg comeback, getting a firm upper hand, so to speak. |
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| Deleted User | Monday, 4. May 2009, 14:45 Post #2 |
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Section II: Definition of 'Person' --Stone Age-- Undeniably, early qwiedes, though vastly superior to either parent species, were still not quite the technological mind. They created weapons out of rock and dead plant limbs, not unlike many primitive cultures, and were soon taking to the offensive, the power of the blade allowing them to combat the sinister, overgrown flower in a way never before attempted. In particular, the use of the plant's dead leaves was a large benefit. When the leaves decomposed, they did not whither or become brittle, but, instead, hardened and petrified. These leaves, as found in excavations, were sharpened with jagged stones by qwiedes and used to make blades, spear tips, and tools. Genuine Plant leaves were characterized by the exaggerated pores the petrification process produced, which always carried through to the Swiss cheese-like blades and builds of qwiedes. Similarly mummified roots and branches that were too big for this were found, by archeologists, in purposeful arrangements that implied use of tent-like structures as shelter. Spending less time on the plant, jumping for dear life, and more time chopping it and working their basic tools caused their hindmost, or inferior arms to become more devoted to locomotion along the ground and the hands thereof became competent feet. The slightly longer and stronger 'legs' they branched from were most commonly kept in a bent fashion for the purpose of retaining an immediate and affective jump. The next limbs, equivalent to the inferior arms of modern qwiedes, became a literal midway between arms and legs both in shape and function. Called the medial arms, a qwiede could hold them to front-and-side to offer greater stability and support the spine at a 45 degree angle. By lifting them as like the superior arms, the stress on the spine and inferior arms increased, but manipulative ability increased. Among the operational functions these arms became capable of was the scribbling on leaves and soft stones. Both speech and projection lasted only as long as they were achieved, but the sight-sensory proto-symbols boasted a long-time integrity for a moment of clawing. The etymology of the convergent languages of Maquatt can always be traced to these scribblings, an especially groundbreaking example being that the combination of the eic (forest/jungle) and hanar (land/territory) symbols formed Eichanar, 'lands of the jungle'. This is what qwiede seemed to call the ever growing cluster of plants that actually didn't want to eat them. As the phrase was retained among many others, its meaning was adapted to mean 'harmonious all' and/or 'the world', possibly because of their long imprisonment within them. The modern use, being the name of planet Icanur itself in Second Maquatt, did not become common until much later, in the mid-Iron Age. Around this time, it is observed in fossils that Rosig, now amateur burrowers, had been domesticated by qwiedes. Rosig already made constant meals of the Plant, so the increasingly intelligent qwiedes instructed them to focus on roots, a very successful tactic that fed them well, and supplied more building material. Ironically, the Plant was only bettered when it, itself, was eaten with zeal. Its mighty stalks atrophied, died, and toppled, and its holdings grew smaller by the year. For a time, qwiedes matched the Plant's recede with further venturing, but eventually stopped seeing it altogether. All there was to remember it by was its big, skeletal remains strewn about the land. These remains would become the basis for hordes of mythos and lore, including that of the efleat giants and their self destructive escapades. At last, qwiedes could live their primitive lives in a peace not known since their race came to be. They had been relative predators all throughout the plant's dealings, if only to nourish themselves before the plant beat them to the prey, but not until now were they allowed the extended use of superior thought. (Other) plants as resources made their debut here and spurred development of better tools, discovery of materials to make them, and communal understanding. --Recorded History-- ::This defines the clear separation of history made up, purely, of archeological study, and history as it begins to utilize documentary and written evidence as provided by the first of what are considered pre-modern qwiede. This period lasts from ~14400EP to now, 1990PE (~8910 B.C. to 2387-88 A.D.) at the time of this writing.:: --Bronze Age-- There were sciences still beyond the qwiede, but they were eventually able to tame the hulking beasts to help them in their endeavors in the open fields the Plant was driven out of, a feat that would not have been possible without a boom in the use of their speech, as well as empathy, towards their undeveloped brethren. They themselves, meanwhile, being still quite able to traverse the quickly developing treeline, settled mainly in the First Forest, the center known to them as Foeichanar (lit. 'The land of Fo's jungle'). The world was big, and their population still recovering, so the qwiede were limited to a region on the equator for a long time. This region, in modern times, is known as Heryd and Ododre, the two nations inhabiting it on waning Icanur. The abundance of ancient artifacts there are the mainstay of historic findings from before the Iron Age. Separate tribes formed and, of course, had disagreements about resources in particular, yet very little bloodshed. It seemed that the race, after so long without a feasible stability, and now having it in every sense, had no drive to turn on each other when the entire world was unfolding before them. While most find this to be an idiotic theory, it has been a good a reason as any for the lack of major wars in Icanur's history. If there were any conflicts that were very well able to escalate to warring, one faction would normally give way or enact a compromise. Instinct, which is still a most precious resource to this day, likely told them that their species was actually quite the oddity, and doing anything to make it smaller was a waste of generational potential. Most of these rare warring instances were over land, territories, most of which very taxing to look after with such a small population to do so. The one most notable incident during this era was where the tribe known as Mekgin was bold enough to consolidate to one ideal of taking a land by force using its superior numbers. The comparatively great village-land of Foeichanar (foy-kan-ar), while home to the most advanced culture of the time (they invented such things as a paper equivalent for documentation), was taken completely by surprise, and several branches of it's already small population were slaughtered. So confusion and fear swarmed the populace, and the tribe was driven away from Foeichanar, and the new one moved in for a few short generations before abandoning it to tend the rest of its lands. The tools employed there were mysterious and puzzling, and had indeed been the object of the Mekgin's envy, but without mastering their use, food and materials were much too difficult to retrieve. While they were still realizing this, the ejected Foeichanarians sought refuge with the field faring peoples of Pierban. The Megkin stayed their ground and did not let anyone into Foeichanar, so its founders remained with the Pierban and applied their technologies and philosophies to their culture. The forest of Foeichanar became know as a forbidden zone that nobody was to enter, though the purpose was lost in time. Peirbana grew strong from the meshing of the Foeichanarians, and philosophy evolved to illustrate that a nation should accumulate strength by similar mergers and friendships, not conquerings. Megkin remained primitive, but had largely lost their hostile nature by the time Peirbana met it again. Now that Foeichanarians had become synonymous with peirbans, they didn't know, nor remember, that Megkin should still be occupying their forest. They were not interested in merging with Peirbana, but liked the friendship they proposed, a friendship that would endure seemingly endlessly until degrading in the Bearing Wars. Primed in hunting and fishery, Molielchi chose to remain separate as well, but was not interested in any sort of friendship, a trend that nearly all the remaining lands followed. During these millennia, it is also found that a number of divergent qwiede had made their way westward, through the famously peninsular Merimyda region, and settling primarily in the adjacent mountains. This is also true of the northward peoples, gaining a foothold around the Jicde Lakes first, and continuing through the rest of the continent, which they named Finnechanar, after the tall, powerful finnec trees that thrived there. By this time, qwiedes hardly ever saw the Plant, as they had spurred Resig multiplication most markedly earlier on. The energetic things often strayed, and began their own extermination regiment, with no leaf swords, no razor claws, but with the digestive process alone. |
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| Deleted User | Monday, 4. May 2009, 14:47 Post #3 |
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Section III: Contested Youth --Iron Age-- In the years following this last major development, the qwiede population began its increase. The climb was made much easier thanks to the mixture of medical techniques and freedom of expression created out of the cultural melting pot centered squarely on Foeichanar. The projected population of a mere 210 million increased to at least 900 million within 200 years, a relatively easy feat when the average sexual maturity of a qwiede was reached in 6 of their 22-year life spans. Yet another valuable step taken in this era was, of course, the discovery of denser metals with which to build bigger and better tools. Once the qwiede fell away from nomadic tendencies, they turned to more mundane chores, supporting their rapidly inflating communities in settlements, instead of on foot. An evolutionary breakthrough for the Plant, it seems, created several children mutations, including a few that were capable of locomotion. They were often stringy, thin things, but were fearsome for their strength and speed on makeshift legs. In all fairness, these plants had removed themselves from the plant order in nearly every way, including the ability to produce their own food, but retained qualities such as pollination. These beasts were uninvolved for a great time before the unsuspecting qwiede pushed toward their natural habitats. The qwiede in question were justly perceived as physically inferior creatures, but nonetheless healthy, easy to swallow prey, dense with precious proteins. --Great Spawn War-- Qwiede kind had since become a medieval, sport oriented people. Armors many physically oriented qwiedes now wore as sporting gear were the best ready defenses, but only partially affective in protecting them from the stabbing, slicing barrages these beasts, these Plantspawns employed in their hunting. The qwiede, as mentioned, were a sporting people around then, hosting combative, as well as analytic competitions internationally, even as they continued to spread out from the Heryd/Ododre region. This was made all the easier with the heightened use of boats to traverse waters that were previously barriers, but now roads to neighbors, and doorways to new lands. This competition took a drastic turn when the Plant once again threatened their existence. Fame and vanity became defunct concepts quickly when the concern of survival was uprooted. Sporting armors were eventually augmented into functional, battle-ready plates that covered most of the body. As many depictions of this period suggest, these suits were even fitted to be worn by mounts and beasts of burden, commonly diverse Efleats before, but now largely Ydesgs Miteleats, and just about anything able to, and sufficiently convinced to carry a qwiede. Plantspawns were not as simple as their ancestors, arguably, and were decisive in their attacks. They circumvented, flanked, and ambushed, more so when their numbers were low, less so when it would make sense to hack and slash through towns instead. While there were times of constant activity, and others of none, the complete era was termed in thirds of a Great Spawn War, a lasting period of some 600 [Earth] years. In the Initial War, the first part, Plantspawns ravaged the lands of qwiedes with alarming progress. Even Pierbana's new incarnation, Ododre, had only marginal success in defending itself before it crumbled and retreated like its neighbors. The retreat was not a flexible process, by far, and with the choices either being a long life or a short life, people chose the former in their decisions to enter the forbidden jungle. There, the ruins of a large, forgotten civilization were found, and the peoples of Ododre made it their new home, and eventual center of activity in the oldest part of the jungle. There was a feeling about it, a feeling only a qwiede could feel so clearly, the feeling of a home in the wilderness. Strewn about, here and there, behind mosses and clinging plants, script was present. It was almost identical to that which they used, birthing theories of their cultures origin that would prove true in a few centuries time. Even old legends seemed to describe a 'bustling cityscape of the jungle' that was not so far fetched after observing the dense structures of the ancient ruin. Re-founding the ruin as a city satisfied the homelessness of the defeated peoples, and even helped to soften relations that had grown rigid between states. The city and smaller towns dotting the jungle were a combined haven, but ironically, a prison as well. For whatever reason, the plantlife of the jungle proved hazardous to the spawns as well as the great and powerful Plant, which eventually surrounded it, first on land and then by sea, unable to come much closer than 15 km or so due to shrubbery rooted nearby. It’s proposed that the chemicals that inhibited the Plant’s growth all those years before were directly produced by Icanur’s natural surface plantlife. Even Plantspawns could only travel so far into the area before being repelled, seemingly by what they perceived as a horrid stench. Enriched with both time and wondrous technology, the 'prisoners' became both peaceful and autonomous. With all their species in one place, advancements were continuously unfolding, some of them in weaponry, which they later brought upon the Plant with its own zeal, retaking the world one stalk at a time. This began at, at least, 2350 B.C., when the denizens of Viuqynar (then, still Eichanar)------ All would be Icanur, and its capital would be the town hidden in the forest, in an old, but not forgotten iteration: Viuqyanar [veeknar].------ As for the beast described in those fairy tales, which was no beast, but the plant in all its girth, it lives on. Remnants of description, much later now, from before it's near destruction, told of 'an incredible living mountain, having more arms than all the Koad (koo-ayd, qwiede is derived from this) on any land combined', 'an impenetrable [web, like that of a spider] shaped like one piled many [blue-green] bones onto each other, and they took to adhering, and to life'. The mountain mentioned in may descriptions is believed to be Eqiggon, the tallest of any on Icanur, and famous for a spring that may still sustain the Plant, since it has dropped from the status of a fallen conqueror to troublesome vine-like weed unique to the region. |
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| Deleted User | Monday, 4. May 2009, 14:52 Post #4 |
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Section IV: Power, Imaginary --Steel Age-- ::This era begins ~6300EP, or ~1950B.C., being around 4340 years prior to the present year at the time of this writing, 2390.:: Bearing Wars ------------------------The Bearing Wars, the largest conflict on pre-space Icanur, centered around a mysterious religious artifact resembling a axle with a single, ever spinning ball bearing. Attempted religious conversion became a violent conflict when it was time and again imposed. The Wars were not resolved until the Bearing was damaged, whereby it's power nullified, and subsequently melted at a gala as a gesture of peace. ----------------------------- "To bore a child is to paralyze its world. To pamper a child is a matter of restraints. To teach a child is a matter of what can't be held in. To excite a child is staying at safe distance. To take a child's toy requires hiding everything in sight. To rob a child of its family is a matter of who feels unworthy. To stop a child from growing is to never have conceived. To make a child smile, only ask a question it knows." Rouosejar Tydertende- The Last Immortal -------------------------Tydertende was the most instrumental figure in ending the Bearing Wars, and was chiefly responsible for major advancements in herbal medicines. Her crest, a group of five leaves stacked strategically on top of each other, sometimes with a mortar-like bowl in the background, is easily transposed as the qwiedes' own 'Rod of Asclepius.'------------------------------ --Computer Age-- With the popularized use of these analytic machines came an explosion of technological development, but not space travel as early as Earth, for example. Icanur's relatively unexplored nature in itself kept qwiedes occupied, while the high gravity and thin atmosphere kept aeronautics a, hitherto, unreasonably expensive, and prohibitively complicated science, reserved for experimentation in military applications. In leaps and strides, however, analytics usefulness evolved, and so did their ability. Soon, an analytic was used in anything from storing educational data to assisting many scientific minds in calculating their misguided theories in linear physics. It was only a matter of time before one nation or the other implemented technological enhancement into policing and defensive enhancement. This first, more or less, sound-minded nation was --------------- Now, planet Icanur was a rough combination of color on the surface, which, from space, evened out to a dull hazel. The planet had an 8,930km radius, a surface gravity of ~1.9 Gs, as well as a mass equivalent to about 4 Earth masses. The surface consisted of 32% water, and ~60% of the landmasses were heavily forested. The rotation and tilt would be considered chaotic by most standards. At any point on the surface, days could be anywhere from 8 to 55 hours long, and nights identically. From the capital city, one could regularly witness the evidence of this, such as the sun rising in the magnetic east, achieving a roundabout loop, and setting in the magnetic northeast. It was not until qwiede left their atmosphere that they found out how to truly forecast the pattern, or lack thereof. The first craft launched into space was propelled upward by a concentrated magnetic base and fueled by the same highly combustible subsoil from under the ocean floor, elino. It was the third craft in a line of de-clawed attack missiles augmented for just such a feat, but the first to be successful due to improved remote control reception. Its descent was not as amazing, but the debris served as an excellent study tool. With the information gathered from this missile and the next two, the first imaging satellite could be launched error free. Many, if not all, Sculptor propulsion relied on techniques akin to that of warp field production, which is generally incompatible with the conditions exhibited by the Cloud. Certain particles therein exist only in a thin layer dividing normal space and initial subspace. When a warp drive creates distortions in subspace by use of warp fields, they will be expected to envelop the vessel with weaker (less distorting) layers near the ship and stronger (highly distorting) layers further away. This being the case, subspace must be penetrated throughout the immediate area to 'carry' the vessel along the distortions. Tests conducted around still sub light Icanur, that would have normally produced accelerating effects, produced none at all, and instead, an effect described, at the time, as spontaneous compression. Additional (though not heavily regarded) trials conducted for decades on eventually found the cause and effect. The engines attempting to create acceleration with warp fields were found to do quite the opposite, by which they actually, in the course of milliseconds, stopped all acceleration as the emitted field was continuously deflected back into them, causing intended acceleration to become inward pressure that would build until crushing the engine, and the structure it resided in. While the compression could have been remedied by much stronger structural integrity, which would need to increase with the intensity of the field, there was no good use for the engine other than producing absolute zero movement through space. It was not until the anchored helix drive was already in widespread use that the subspace blocking particles were uncovered, and named Odtersc (od'-trsk) particles in honor of the pilot that gave her life in the first warp test more than 280 years prior. Odtersc particles had centuries as a mysterious, unseen force before being discovered. Nonetheless, in the meantime, the technology developed was therefore based on the principle that all of it must take place within an environment consisting of as close to nothing as possible. This property, present on all modern ships of qwiede design, has made them famous for the tactical advantage of having no external propulsion mechanisms at all. Therefore, these systems are contained, and well-protected. |
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| Deleted User | Monday, 4. May 2009, 15:05 Post #5 |
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Section V: Everywhere is Up --Space Age-- 140 years and two months after Odtersc's sacrifice, shortly following the declaration of a Unified Icanur, one Dajeactomane Osmacris saw fit to unveil both her and her mother's life work: The first anchored helix drive, which was, tried and true, able to produce faster-than-light speeds in outer space. The vessel was named the Osmacris, ridiculed for having a haphazard shape, but proved itself when it was able to travel to Clocu (Fogol III) and back in then-mind-boggling record time at an average speed of 1.07c. The helixal method utilized an irradiated, helix shaped structure (commonly referred to as the helix) that spun, dragging the ship along space, in a 'corkscrew' affect. Its ability to do so depended on a separate module, called the boundary moor, which would serve as a transformer module between the space outside and inside the vessel. To create movement, outside space was introduced at precise points on the curvature. The helix revolved at a speed of about 15.8 hertz, causing the curvature to 'catch' on the introduced space at contrast with the interior space, and like a corkscrew, forcing the helix and its ship forward. -----------------Osmacris was the clone of the inventor of the anchored helix drive, made specifically by her mother to carry on her work, which she chose to do apon realizing. With the assistance of some of the brightest minds she could find, many who had worked with the inventor, she successfully navigated the Fogol system with the second prototype, named after her mother. They continued to improve the design in the following years, keeping the project secret up until it was perfected as could be. They revealed the engine's success to reigning world governments from an undisclosed location, who were so ecstatic about it, most had already agreed to any terms the inventors named. The term named was named years and years prior by an aging, brilliant woman, and was simple. If the helixal drive was to be given to anyone, Icanur would have to forget it's petty arguments and become at peace with itself. This was not as easily done as suggested, but a short time after Icanur had been officiated as 'united' and allowed to simmer in that ideal for several years without infraction, Osmacris' association agreed to release the design. While this can be viewed as a blatant example of a 'ransom', the association, especially it's brilliant president, were steadfast in their beliefs about the 'necessary peace'. They maintained that if space travel were going to become a possibility, qwiedes would fail it as a divided people. The helix became a literal symbol of necessary peace between diverse peoples for a common goal. This has been solidified in the dominating structure in the emblem of today's Icanuran Colonial Combine, an abbreviated version of the Osmacris' original quadruple helix.----------------- It was a wonder to behold, and soon allowed qwiede to venture outward into space un-masse. Colonization, of course, started within the system, the first helix powered founding occurring on Psileng, Psotal's (Fogol III's) only moon, and eventually The system was pulsing with qwiedes after a century, contempt to discover its every mystery, before the invention of a more efficient take on the helix module was invented. Avoiding the troubles of bloated or multiple helixes, it was not much different than the preceding in shape, function, or size. Instead, it was composed of a new, stronger alloy that even increased irradiate insulation. The reinforced tensile strength and heat resistance of the new model allowed the module to spin much faster and better utilize spatial introduction, and thus achieve higher speeds for longer periods. The sum of the advances added up to top cruise speeds of over 55c, at which hours of travel between planets became minutes, and a ship could travel to Fogol's nearest neighbor, Jejoul, in a month and a half [22.6 Earth days], an estimate that 'defined' useful travel. The system now bustling with ample curiosity, 'extra-fogolar' exploration began with a mostly scientific deployment to the next closest star, Limaun. The detachment going to Limaun would wait under grounds that they would arrive simultaneously so two points could be studied instead of one, also wielding better navigational properties (i.e., rectangulation over triangulation). Qwiedes' navigational weaknesses proved worse than projected, however, as the Limaun detachment arrived much sooner than the latter. In actuality, the distance to Jejoul was not 3.4 light years, but more like 4.6 as opposed to Limaun's somewhat correct distance of 3.9. Jejoul's light radiation produced the illusion of proximity as many stars were found to do in the Cloud in coming years. This initial folly aside, the eventual rectangulation imposed between Fogol and the two produced much more accurate mapping in the years to come. --The Motive Era-- -------------------------------------The Motive Era was sparked when qwiedes obtained undeniable truth of life on another planet. It was a time of many brilliant and substantial improvements to space faring technology, as its exploratory value increased ten-fold. This era lead to qwiedes' discovery of their first sentient neighbors, the Maninjians, and eventually to exiting the Icanuran Cloud nebula and making first contact with the Hevrii. --------------------------------------------- Over the proceeding 140 years since the first extra-fogolar flights, qwiede presence became dominant in the cloud. With more than 40 extra-fogolar colonies founded, 4 planetoids bearing life discovered, and 1 planetoid bearing a sentient race found, qwiede seemed to be in a fanciful scientific free fall. This one sentient race was post-steel aged, somewhere along an industrial revolution on the 2nd planet of a 12 planet system. They were violent, self destructive, un-unified, and from the apparent observations, quickly poisoning their atmosphere with chemical processes required to power their cities and vehicles. Since their star was called Manin VI, they were called the Maninjians (the 6th symbol in the maquatic alphabet is represented by j). The race was reason for study, but not interference, so a small research station was built just past the horizon of one of their moons, being in near-perfect tidal lock. When the maninjians' existence became known, the cumulative qwiede curiosity transformed into a drive to seek out sentient alien life, no longer a loose impossibility. The discovery paled even the first discovery of 'life'; tiny multi-cellular organisms floating about in the humid atmosphere of a gas dwarf. The importance of colonization took a backseat while Icanur's children adopted lives based largely in exploration. Propulsion technology rose in scientific value, and the helixal drive continued to better upon itself for flourishing decades. It was not until the threshold of ~84c that real exploration came to life for qwiedes seeking their fill of knowledge. At such speeds, the dense clusterings of stars in Sculpor were but an arm's breadth away, and eventually a hand's breadth before the first century EP. The familiar forms of government qwiedes shared with maninjians prompted the reformation of qwiede leadership. Now that sentient life was a reality, no doubt sharing the same basic nuances, the people would do best to unite under a single banner, so to speak. For fear of being caught off their feet, a governing body was hastily contracted in the form of the Assemblies. The shape was simple; first, several dozen bodies of entrusted citizens formed the absolute base of the three layers, each having command over the operations of particular vital industries among qwiedes (i.e., The Agrigulturate Assembly). These answered to the next layer, a set of 4 or 5 categorical assemblies, (i.e., The Resourceal Assembly), who subdued a single superior court to oversee only the most critical of affairs, and distribute affairs to the appropriate categorical assembly (i.e., a request of terraformation and colonization of a planetoid would be referred to the Locality and Coloniate Common Assembly- a type of assembly formed later on to take on decisions that straddled two seperate categoricals- and did not include, but would eventually involve the Resourcerate tier for the provisions required). The strictly uncommon Premium Assembly had the unique responsibility, among others, to be the only tier involved in interstellar politics. Under the firm, ever evolving hands of the Assemblies, qwiedes became a respectable assemblage in themselves, a people with order and common laws few seemed to detest. When the qwiede reached the edge of the Cloud and, subsequently, the territorial holdings of hevrii (hev-ree), their measured speed (topping out at ~400c) reportedly doubled. While jolting, this was an integral aspect of even scant survival through The Bombardment, starting less than 15 years later. Hardy qwiedes were quick to colonize Hoge (hohg'), in the Heahns system, which was the better half of a double planetoid. Where Hoge was a planetoid most would consider uninhabitable without pressure domes, qwiede saw it as a close match to home, albeit it was half Icanur's size. Hoge was home, almost exclusively, to a scarce plant close in appearance to a tumbleweed, which grew up to 800 meters in height. By the time first contact was made with the Hevriin Proclaim, the minor terraforming measures had been completed, and cities had already begun to sprawl, the centers of which were built into the strong arms of these plants, named erhoge crurwer (roughly 'town plant of Hoge'). After a theoretical three million years of hibernation, crurwers absolutely savoured the rich air and water qwiedes replaced on the planet, coming alive again, inspiring a 'branch leading' botany that lead to their even greater success as town plants. --Out the Cloud-- The events in Y. Yuada's famous novel 'Out the Cloud: Seeing Eye' hold true at this time. While it was less than a welcoming action, the unwarranted destruction of the scouting ship Seeing Eye was still official first contact with the Hevrii. The initial confusion was said to be caused by the incompatibility of communication methods, and was able to be rectified in the second contact, when science ship Peninsula investigated the disappearance. They later met under diplomatic terms, and the Proclaim took up the role of qwiede chaperon. 135 EP would live on in infamy, not for Seeing Eye's destruction, not for meeting the future conquerors of qwiedes, but for forming the base a tantalizing future would loom atop. While hevrii abroad regarded qwiede as children, usually relishing the dual implication, they were still welcoming on behalf of the galactic community. They were not specific about this community until the Proclaim was pushed to invite the Premium Assembly to attend conferences with the Ejes. Certain powers in the Proclaim were long awaiting an opportunity to provoke the Ejes into violence, allowing them to use their superior fleet in an 'elaborate' defense. This opportunity presented itself when the Ejesic diplomats took an immediate liking to qwiedes and offered membership into their alliance. Just as quickly, the Ejes were accused by some of, again, taking advantage of a politically inexperienced government of which they had no definitive knowledge. It was argued that the only information the Ejes had of the qwiedes was provided by their representatives, as either sovereignty's intrusive nature made ambassadors hesitant to share their cultural traits, much less databases. The Assembly itself, having forebode outward informational exchange, also forebode the inward, to be fair to all involved until it would be officially recognized as an entity alongside the rest. It was a constricting policy, but it had proven merits ever since the days of colonial Icanur. When a qwiede ambassador was convinced by the urbane Ejes ambassadors to give a tour inside his ship, both the Assembly and Proclaim were outraged. It seemed the quiet envy for qwiede technology boiled over when an Ejesic errant was stowed away on the ship to study it, and was caught when it docked back in Assembly territory. When the errant's commanding officer, Ejesic ambassador Aua was was confronted, he could not deny the charges, and was timely removed from diplomatic duty by his commander. Similarly, the naïve qwiede ambassador, the same one, was forcibly demoted and replaced. The powers in the Proclaim, however, were surprised to find the task so easily accomplished. They, too, grew weary of the reclusive qwiede and their mysterious technologies, and had an ambassador do the same thing, but with the use of a cloaked shuttle latched to a qwiede hull. The shuttle did not make it more than a few kilometers from the station, as it's contrasting makeup, qwiede ships needing precise alloys and shielding to use their propulsion, caused a serious malfunction to occur. The shuttle sustained damage which killed it's passengers, and the ambassadorial ship was fractured and rendered inoperative. |
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| Deleted User | Monday, 4. May 2009, 15:16 Post #6 |
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Deleted User
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Section VI: The Door --The Buffer Incident-- By this time, it was commonplace for more agile Assembly ships to be assigned as escorts for consular vessels, and when a hevriin escort got uncomfortably close to the qwiede in attempting to retrieve the uncloaked, clearly hevriin shuttle, the qwiede escorts took a defensive stance and fired when it insisted. A battle erupted between the 2 qwiede and 3 hevriin ships, and was soon joined by the 2 Ejes' in defense of the qwiedes. Only the ambassador's ship was a casualty before the hevrii were overpowered and driven back to their own territory, their plan uncovered shortly after. A passage from 'Out the Cloud: Negotiations in the Buffer' quotes a an interview with escort captain Hdate a few years later: When they refused to tell us what, exactly, they needed to get by for, I don't think I could have taken it any other way. One warning shot later, I was calling for assistance from the Cognative to show up the second attacker... We hadn't seen the shuttle in the debris yet, but were apperently right next to it the entire fight... I've reviewed my history since, and this was the first time a qwiede ship has officially engaged in an international firefight... I don't know if we would have survived if those skeletons (Ejesic vessels, thin and streaming in design) hadn't helped, but I do know that it doesn't make much of a difference now. --The Bombardment-- The Buffer Station incident only intensified the degradation of the already complicated relations. In the few weeks it took to return to Proclaim space and return, it's governing royalty was tricked into enacting this elaborated defense a secretive corps of rebels had devised. The above interview was focused on the events surrounding the Buffer Station incident, and Hdate goes on to note the further action of the Proclaim over the next 20 years. No more than 3 weeks later, a hevriin attack force besieged the station and claimed both it and the surrounding space as Proclaim territory. In the attack, the 2 qwiede escorts that stayed to ensure the ambassadors' escape were captured and assumed to have been reverse engineered later on. The Ejes Nation did not deny it's aversion toward the Proclaim ever since they were contacted, and cited the attack and it's predecessors as evidence of the corrupt, animalistic nature of the hevrii, past which they had yet to evolve. The Proclaim welcomed the declaration of war, and continued it's campaign into Ejesic space and conquered system after system with relative ease. A month after the pacification of Lo Ejes, the Ejesic capital, the Proclaim unveiled a new missile class incorporating the qwiede's helixal technology, and fired only blindly into the Cloud before obtaining maps to lead their weapons. The tactically sound strategy was to move along the border between the Cloud and Ejesic space, cutting off any method of assistance either could offer. It was an easy feat, as the Ejesic fleet was promptly predisposed by the bulk of Proclaim forces. In time, the Proclaim built new ships that incorporated qwiede helixal technology, and were finally able to push into the ravaged cloud. The last clear communication with Ejesic peoples was a distress call from space colony No Tada before the receiving Assembly colony was taken as well. Halfway to Icanur, command center and capital of the Assembly, they were keen on taking the aforementioned maninjians into a forced alliance, as the qwiede were unsuccessful in convincing the now computer-aged, but still largely divided peoples to evacuate with them. Only a relative handful of maninjians were convinced to leave in the short time the Assembly fleet had to stave off the incoming hevrii. The system was abandoned, but not immediately regarded by the hevrii. Likely, they did not notice the planetoid at the time, but very unlikely it stayed so. At the occurrence of the Evacuation, the Ejes Kingdom and complete maninjian cultures were presumed disassembled and derelict. --The Evacuation-- When the Hevriin Proclaim's monarchical government apparently became a military-central oligarchy, supposedly led by the same rebel group that instigated the war initially, the government had nearly no political motives at all, and taste for military superiority that would only come out of unseating all other military powers. This new rule by a family called Kusacheu allowed the invasion force to perform what it deemed 'actions necessary in aiding pacification'. These included torturous treatment of prisoners as both interrogative and oppositional deterrent techniques, use of deadly biological weapons, and permission to destroy spacial bodies. The most favored bodies were those controlled by the rapidly decaying Assembly, which was, up until EP87, still based on the qwiede homeworld, Icanur. --End of the World-- For the better part of the year, the more compacted defensive forces were able to hold the inbound attackers, even as they maintained a viable blockade of stations around the small remainder of the Assembly's Cloud holdings. The newly created Kusacheu Commonwealth knew where Icanur was, and that if it fell, the qwiede resistance would die away quickly. They focused their attacks on the blockade surrounding it until EP87:6:2, when they were able to reach the system, but not penetrate local defenses. Not to be outdone by the defiant qwiedes, groups of powerful missiles were launched into Fogol. These are assumed to have contained an immensely powerful form of anti-fusion warhead, but examination could not be done, as they were immediately destroyed before reaching the star, and a few more melted harmlessly in it's corona. For nearly a month, the missiles were diverted, until EP87:5:10, when a defense fleet flanked the warships launching them. After two were destroyed, along with a handful of vessels in the fleet, the remainder retreated to their forward command in the Snikb system. After this, the defensive grid was extended as quickly as possible, putting the home world out of any immediate danger. With the near entirety of qwiedes predisposed with the war effort, their attention to astronomical phenomena wavered, and a force greater than any one Hevriin missile slipped between their armor. In actuality, what was posthumously referred to as the 'Biaccan Wave', had been accumulating long before the struggle for Fogol began. Like countless other gaseous collisions qwiedes had seen, this one came into life and took up an unpredictable trajectory, losing little of it's massive power during the journey past Fogol, only to digress when exposed to the stars gravity. The only foreboding of it's destructive power was the very sudden razing of Biac, an instantaneous transformation from a sparsely populated planetoid to a large, streaming dust cloud. At the backmost of the cloud, the naked core stayed put, but was beset by the gasses, extinguishing its light. What the method was, exactly, is unknown, but upon leaving what was left of Biac a lifeless rock, the gasses began circling and entering the star. The immense wave caused Fogol's chemical reactions to become erratic, but, due to its superdense nature, in a way that could only instigate a super nova. Now that the monster that had destroyed a planet had made itself known, the system was engulfed in a state of emergency. Icanur and every colony in the system was ordered to evacuate completely, leaving qwiedes with no choice but to leave their home to it's destruction. Not even an hour would pass before the shock wave pushed into Icanur, and many had not even left the surface or were still not far enough away to escape. Icanur's more unusual polar and gravitational traits saved it, and the ships near it from a razing, but in its stead, was broken apart into nine major masses. Reports and imagery indicate that, as these pieces drifted apart, hurricane winds sucked atmosphere off the surface frighteningly fast, most being pulled toward the core, which was falling from itself nearly as fast. Traveling only just below light speed, solar debris rushed the bodies, shredding and vaporizing all. One woman recalled the sight of Fogol and Icanur's destruction in her senior years in documentaries about 'Icanur's Last Children', saying in one: I was young enough to be confused, but I knew what a super nova was, and I'd been in space before. I was in a rear compartment with strangers, some oblivious, some scared, and some both, like me. I was right next to the window, trying to see the capital, Eqiggon, anything on the surface, the sun had already darkened, but then sputtered like a faulty wire. I looked at it, thought is it hiding from them, too? before it all fell apart. The ship dropped so suddenly that half the people in my cabin alone were thrown back on the floor with snapped necks, crushed skulls, and for the lucky ones, massive gashes and concussions. I had been holding a railing, I had been so scared, and both my right arms were dislocated and torn from the inside. For perhaps an hour, I cradled half my body with the other. I forced myself not to look at the things around me, but the sounds and the smells, everything closing my eyes or looking out the window couldn't nullify, were nightmarish. At some point, I managed to focus enough to see that the sun had turned into this huge, fuzzy, thing that may have been even brighter than I remember Fogol being. It took up the whole window, and even with the tint in the lens, I still had to squint at the light while I watched it swarm around Icanur. I could almost make out those… immense shards of debris tearing away, just before they became part of the light, and our helix started up. At that, everything just sort of shrank into the distance, became far away and intangible in a moment. The doctors said I froze up, stopped breathing, and eventually fainted, but the last I could remember was the moment we flew away. There was no gore or madness to it, but I was disturbed just as if there were at the ease of escape. Later... the news came in. Sensor data spotted my parents headed to a transporter so they could board their ship and go. They were running down the street with some neighbors when everyone paused and just stared ahead. The image lit up for a moment and then there was static, that’s all. I barely grieved before I discovered the irony. My mother and father were environmentalists, people who loved Icanur enough to warn people that we would destroy her ourselves if we didn’t take care of her. They said it was always happening, that that most people just couldn’t see it. That was the basis of my parents’ careers, that they taught everyone they met. Then the Cloud itself blew up our sun, and destroyed Icanur in a way that everyone- everyone could have seen coming if they had only looked behind them. I don't think I'll ever forget that- much less that day... and neither will my children, if I can help it. This was the only eye witness testimony provided on Icanur's demise. The ship on which it takes place, the Dancer, was loaded with 299 other passengers upon its launch, yet the count after its docking at Hwatte Station in orbit of Jejoul XI was reduced to 135. The discounted dead on this and hundreds of other vessels, as well as the whole of Icanur's Last Children (the last living qwiedes to have lived there, to have seen it from the surface) would never see the Milky Way. On that day in the Fogol system, this number was fiercely increased by at least an estimated 17.3 billion. As the Commonwealth predicted, the remaining peoples under the Assembly retreated much quicker until they were held up almost entirely in one system outside the cloud, on the galactic rim, known as Eluo, a red giant named after Clocu’s moon, the last visible body of the Fogol system. Over those last 46 years, the pressures overwhelming qwiedes (as well as the remaining maninjians, who called themselves oszats) forced scientists to think outside the box. In the given time, they were able to theorize, test, improve, and produce a final product to escape the Commonwealth. |
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