The Sea Beyond The Sky - An Aquatic AAR.

[RossN]

The Sea Beyond The Sky - An Aquatic AAR.

'There are those who challenge the pace of progress, the decision to visit the stars. Many of my fellow priests, and I know there are some in this very hall, feel in the marrow of their bones that leaving our sacred seas will part us from the divine, lead us on a journey to ruin and apostasy. We are the Children of the Endless Sea they say, why should we venture out into the empty void of space?

To those of my fellow priests I say their protests reveal only the shallowness of their faiths behind their strong words. Four thousand years ago some brave souls among our people ventured onto land and there in the alien air, the harshness of the sun and the croaks and cries of strange animals they established a foothold. To this day few among us love being long away from the waters but without those pioneers we would have no metals, no industry, no land crops to swell our population. Those who ventured onto land had strong legs and strong minds and most of all strong faith in the divine. Without them we would be living in nomadic shoals still not great cities and our temples would be humble grottos not cathedrals.

Ah, but I hear you whisper am I a merchant, a follower of Thamis the Glittering, more interested in profit than prayer? No my brothers and sisters I am disciple of the Endless Sea just like you. I simply have faith - faith that wherever we go we carry the Endless Sea with us in our minds and in our hearts. Faith that like the first Minnerians to set foot on dry land we are entering an age of wonders and dangers, one that shall test us but leave us the stronger and the wiser.

Look to the stars by brothers and sisters, the sea beyond the sky. That is where we are going.'

~ Excerpt from Chief Preceptor Eshama's address to the Eleventh Intersea Conclave, Common Year 2171.


'The Golden Demigoddess favours the clever and determined. We shall not disappoint Her.'

~ Excerpt from a interview with Senior Merchant-Priestess Hannirbah of the Blessed Merchant's Alliance, Common Year 2171.

---

 

[RossN]

Greetings all.

It's been quite a while since I've been a regular around here but I wanted to come back, and having been playing a little Stellaris in the mean time I've fallen back in love with the game. I've decided to try and get back into the AAR-writing game and wanted to try my hand at an underwater civilisation heading for the stars. Hope you enjoy it!

_RossN

 

[Nikolai]

Excellent! Looking forward to the awesome ride that is a @RossN AAR.

 

[Von Acturus]

Ah a new RossN AAR is always a delight! I am very interested in seeing how the children of the endless sea will fare. Their mercantilism reminds me a bit of your previous stellaris AAR...

 

[Aquasparky]

I like what you've written so far. I've never played an Aquatic race because I don't have the Aquatic DLC, but I like how the people are worried about going into space due to their aquatic habitat. I also find it interesting that there are some hints to the Ethics that these guys will have (Fanatic Spiritualist or regular Spiritualist, Merchant Guilds?). I can't wait to see more!

 

[Macavity116]

Oh, snap! A @RossN AAR! We're in for a treat!

 

[RossN]

Introduction - A World of Water

Tarcadal and Melabek.​

Tacaradal is warm blue world of shallow seas and archipelagos. Even more than Earth water dominates the surface, the seas covering nine tenths of the globe. The largest continuous landmass and lone true continent of Barca in the Northern Hemisphere is a little less than the size of Australia and in it’s own right contains most of the dry land on Tarcadal. Beyond Barca’s rocky shores lie scores of middling islands and countless rocks and atolls braving the open air like dry oasis in the galaxies biggest desert.

At true night when all three suns have set Taracal's silver-grey moon Melabek rises, influencing the many tides of this water world.

Though the land of Tarcadal teems with flora and fauna it is beneath the brine that the true life goes on. Most of the ocean is fairly shallow and the three suns of the Sidona system ensure bountiful sunlight reaches the seabed. Vast ‘meadows’ of seagrasses and ‘forests’ of kelp-like seaweeds provide plentiful sources of food for a variety of marine life from tiny darting fish-like tarrows to the gargantuan plankton eating ovocs. In the open ocean as the depths gradually increase and the water turns cooler the migratory shoals of limels can turn the sea silver as they mass in their thousands, eyes and antennae attentive for the appearance of one of the many ocean going predators.

The Minnerians originally seemed to have evolved from one of these deep water predators who adapted to shallower coastal waters several million years ago. The coasts, thick with plants and corals but abundant with food forced the proto-Minnerians to adapt. Though their ancestor were fierce if near brainless icthyosaur like creatures the proto-Minnerians shrank and adapted, their bodies shifting, limbs lengthening, jaws shrinking as they became omnivores, brains expanding and fingers forming to better climb and pull their way through the kelp. In the underwater ‘forests’ they developed a body plan remarkably similar to Earth primates.

Approximately one and a half million years ago Taracadal suffered an extended ice age. The seas receded (though still covering more of the planet’s surface than their counterparts on Earth), the undersea 'forests' temporarily shrank and the proto-Minnerians were forced to seek a new life in less guarded waters as nomadic hunters and gatherers. Here their evolution continued and perhaps two hundred thousand years ago the modern Minnerians finally appeared – humanoid in shape and size and able to breath air and water (though far more comfortable in the later.)

The Minnerians grew in numbers and sophistication. Their development had coincided with the retreat of the glaciers so while many Minnerians still enjoyed a nomadic life in the open seas many settled along the coast, building undersea settlements. Agriculture developed as the Minnerians grew to understand and develop the many plants and corals that shared their home and even farm the marine life. By thirty thousand years ago a flourishing civilisation had developed south of the coast of Barca with the first cities led by a priest-monarchical caste.

The undersea kingdoms traded and fought with each other but in large part Minnerian society was stable. Perhaps too stable. Without real access to metals the Minnerians could only go so far technologically, though they proved themselves ingenious at adapting corals and kelp to many functions and their populations bloomed. Numerous city states, their architecture literally grown from cleverly shaped corals soon rose from the sandy seabed.

Approximately four thousand years ago the city of Hamilco suffered a famine when the kelp harvests succumbed to a hitherto unknown disease. The high prelates of Hamilco, fearing the collapse of their proud city decided on a desperate course of action. Hamilco lay near the coast of a volcanic archipelago. The city itself was entirely underwater but shallow enough that the spires of the tallest buildings breached the surface at low tides. An expeditionary force was assembled and ordered to go to the surface, explore the islands and hopefully bring back food.

In truth these were far from the first Minnerians to set foot on dry land. Since time immemorial the worst punishment a criminal might face was a lonely exile to the surface and almost certainly a lingering death. The Hamilco expedition was very different; highly motivated, well supplied and prepared and blessed by the priests. It was still desperately dangerous and some died from exposure or wild beasts or carnivorous plants but the expedition returned in triumph with food and knowledge.

Within a year the city of Hamilco had founded it's first 'surface farms' and the other city states were following suit. The colonisation of the land had begun and with it the discovery of not not just new sources of food but metalworking and other industry impossible beneath the sea.

This era saw the beginnings of a divide between the coastal Settled Minnerians and the open sea Nomadic Minnerians. The coastal people had always been more numerous and richer but now their new resources and inventions saw them pulling further and further ahead, provoking both envy and fear. This era saw countless wars and migrations as some of the nomads raided or even tried to conquer the coastal settlements - sometimes with great success (the city state of Hamilco herself was ruled by a barbarian warlord dynasty for several generations.) Other nomads fled further into the open oceans, embracing a primitive lifestyle of hunting the great jellyfish-like amarcaos.

A herd of amarcaos - these huge peaceful creatures are a major food source for the nomadic Minnerians.​

Two thousand two hundred years before the present a score of of the largest Minnerian city states united in the Sacred League, the distant ancestor of the modern globe-spanning Sacred Minnerian Union. The priestly castes, weary of the fighting and rivalries sought to forge a common bond based on their unified religious believes. Though all of the cities brought aspects of their own beliefs and there was endless and often bitter debate at the so-called First Conclave the prelates did find universal agreements on some things. It was from this historic agreement between the priestly castes that the modern Minnerian calendar stems from.

At the heart of Minnerian religion lies the concept of the Endless Sea - that the oceans that cover Tarcadal and embrace themselves and interweave so that there is neither a true beginning nor end - are a living, divine thing. Everything on Tarcadal is one small part of the Endless Sea.

For the priestly castes the exact nature of the Endless Sea has provoked centuries of debate and philosophy and sometimes actual wars. The conservative Ritualists believe that the Endless Sea are literally a sapient deity, incomparably huge but fully conscious of each and everything in it; some Ritualists even portray the Endless Sea in Minnerian form though this frowned upon in many circles. The liberal Modernists on the other hand - who have been gaining the ascent in recent centuries - view the Endless Sea as more of a cosmic force; certainly alive but not possessing true intelligence or personality; their faith tends to disdain the supernatural and lean more philosophical. The Mystics fall between these stools, taking an almost deist view of the Endless Sea as a sapient creative force that no longer has much to do with the modern Minnerians. The Mystics believe that the path to the divine can be found not through prayer (as with the Mystics) or intellectual debate (as with the Modernists) but via achieving a state of spiritual awakening by personal experience.

Most Minnerians however do not belong to the priestly caste which occupies the top rung of Minnerian society. Though belief in the Endless Sea is universal the so-called lower castes embrace a vast array of lesser divinities as their patrons rather than worshipping the Endless Sea directly. These beings - which in a human context could be equated to angels, demigods, avatars or the like - all have well defined personalities and values systems and complex legends surrounding them.

For the priestly castes the divine patrons worshipped by the lower castes are at best gauche and at worst heretical but they tolerate such worship because they must (a few Mystics do believe the lesser divinities exist as fragments of the abstract and distant consciousness that is the Endless Sea.) Generally speaking the priestly castes have their interpretation of religion and the commoners theirs and neither side interacts with each other much.

The most significant of the lesser divinities is Thamis the Glittering, the patron demigoddess of the merchant castes. Originally a very minor regional figure her worship blossomed in popularity as merchants became a more and more important part of civilisation. Traders had existed as long as settled life but once the Minnerians started to venture onto land it was the followers of Thamis who benefitted the most. No Minnerian truly enjoys being away from water for long, but the hardy and shrewd merchants ever on the lookout for new sources of wealth proved the best and boldest explorers of them all.

Thamis Herself is depicted as a beautiful female Minnerian with golden scales clad in the finest of vestments. Unlike the priestly castes who disdain to depict the Endless Sea in anything other than the most abstract of imagery the merchants seem to love depicting their demigoddess and statues, paintings and mosaics of her abound in Minnerian cities (as do modern hologratic statues.) Thamis has numerous legends and stories about her adventures, some of which depict her as a fallible being (another headache for the priestly castes who shake their heads at such vulgarity) but all of which depict her clever, courageous, pragmatic and loyal to her friends and followers.

The problem is that in traditional Minnerian hierarchy merchants occupy a low rung indeed - below noble and warrior castes and on par with farmers and hunters. Thousands of years of steady growth and progress have seen the merchants and their vulgar demigoddess advance in wealth, number and power, organising themselves into guilds, clubs and companies.

In 2200 the Minnerians are united in the Sacred Minnerian Union, a global theological oligarchy overseen by the priestly castes. However the priestly castes have (reluctantly) accepted the power of the merchant guilds and the followers of Thamis the Glittering as something approaching a 'co-government'. By tacit agreement the merchants focus on making money, the priests on making theology and both groups negotiate carefully on government.

For the moment at least it works.

Next: Biology!

 

[RossN]

Excellent! Looking forward to the awesome ride that is a @RossN AAR.

Thanks! Good to be back!

Ah a new RossN AAR is always a delight! I am very interested in seeing how the children of the endless sea will fare. Their mercantilism reminds me a bit of your previous stellaris AAR...

Yes I do like my merchants.

I like what you've written so far. I've never played an Aquatic race because I don't have the Aquatic DLC, but I like how the people are worried about going into space due to their aquatic habitat. I also find it interesting that there are some hints to the Ethics that these guys will have (Fanatic Spiritualist or regular Spiritualist, Merchant Guilds?). I can't wait to see more!

Thank you! Spiritualist and Merchant Guilds, good guess!

I've been interested in an undersea civilisation for a while now - indeed well before the Aquatic pack when I was thinking of using one of the shrimp like arthropods - but I always had trouble envisaging how they got to space. Hopefully I can cook up a semi-convincing rationale!

Oh, snap! A @RossN AAR! We're in for a treat!

Thanks! Great to see you again!

 

[Nikolai]

Lovely, hopefully the Minnerians will see great success in space! Seems their government is a bit on shaky ground, though.

 

[eoncommander]

Wow! I actually picked up an AAR right when it starts! Excited for this one.

 

[RossN]

Introduction - Biology & Lifestyle

The Minnerians at a glance.
​

The Minnerians are a piscine species heavily adapted to living underwater, though they also possess lungs as well as gills and can move about on dry land. Extended periods in dry environments causes them discomfort and a Minnerian who has been out of water for a week will begin to suffer more serious problems as their skin and eyes dry out. Minnerians have excellent vision underwater though even they cannot see in the true depths of the ocean beyond the reach of sunlight.

In build and height the average Minnerian is not that far off the average human, with four limbs and a distinctive torso and head. The legs end in well developed feet with webbed toes and the arms in hands with five fingers including an opposable thumb (which from a human perspective is located 'upside down' being the rearmost finger on the hand rather than the frontmost.) Both arms and legs possess minor fins, aiding in swimming. The head has a surprisingly human like face with large, dark eyes and a mouth. Surrounding it is a thin and opaque 'mane' giving the Minnerians a very distinctive appearance; this plays a key role in non-verbal communication. Deceptively fragile looking the man is actually rather tough and resilient in water though it does dry out quickly in the open air.

The Minnerian ears are located directly behind the mane and are similar in function and range to those of humans.

Besides the mane the most striking facial feature of the Minnerians are the mrrhs - the four whiskerlike barbels located just above the mouth. Ancestrally these sense organs would have been used to help locate food in the darker areas of the kelp forests and the retain a sensitivity but for modern Minnerians they are more significant for their aesthetic appeal - and as secondary sexual characteristics.

Female Minnerians have slender, delicate mrrhs while males have longer, thicker barbels. In the proto-Minnerians the males having healthy mrrhs was a sexually attractive sign to the females. In the modern Minnerians... well it still is, with luxurious mrrhs being stereotypically seen as very virile and masculine.

(One consequence of the masculine mrrhs is that male Minnerians have a distinct cadence that to other species makes them harder to understand. This may cause... issues if and when the Minnerians come into contact with other sapient species.)

A healthy male Minnerian displaying his prominent mrrhs.
​

Minnerians are a ovoviviparous species where the egg develops inside the body of the parent until they are ready to hatch. Like Earth seahorses the eggs are fertilised in the female's body before being transferred to a chest pouch on the male to incubate for six to seven months. They hatch relatively small numbers of young which grow to adulthood over the course of sixteen to eighteen years. Their overall lifespan is not far short of humanity.

Minnerians are covered in fine scales in shade of turquoise, violet, green and (rarely) pink. Darker colours are more common in the polar regions.

Most modern Minnerians lived settled lives in settlements that are either entirely underwater or partially underwater (many jobs take place on land or on floating platforms on the ocean surface but few Minnerians actually live there full time.) A minority remain the nomadic hunting lifestyles of their ancestors. Minnerians are strong swimmers compared with humans though they can't compete for sheer speed and muscle with the ocean going predators and instead rely on their intelligence, tool use, numbers and endurance.

Minnerians much prefer shallow waters, rarely going beyond a hundred meters deep without some form of vehicle. Fortunately the oceans of Tarcadal are warm and shallow for the most part, with deep trenches and abyssal plains serving as places of mystery and desolation in traditional lore - a realm of dark spirits and the dead.

Next: Chapter One.

 

[RossN]

Lovely, hopefully the Minnerians will see great success in space! Seems their government is a bit on shaky ground, though.

Thanks, and yes there is a bit of trouble there.

Wow! I actually picked up an AAR right when it starts! Excited for this one.

Glad to have you reading again!

 

[Nikolai]

They kinda look like chlculuchu (sp!).

 

[Aquasparky]

Oooh, I'm liking where this is going so far! There already seems to be a bit of a divide between the rich and the poor and the fact that the Merchant guilds are becoming more prominent is clearly bothering the priests. I also like the Minnerians themselves. They're a unique blend of catfish, seahorse, human, and dolphin with their own quirks and biological oddities. I can't wait to see how this comes into play later in the playthrough.

Also, Spiritualist/Militarist/Xenophile. Nice.

 

[Von Acturus]

Very nice! The uneasy priest-merchants agreement may prove to be a source of endless political drama... And that bit of xenobiology was thoroughly enjoyable!

 

[Macavity116]

Fortunately the oceans of Tarcadal are warm and shallow for the most part, with deep trenches and abyssal plains serving as places of mystery and desolation in traditional lore - a realm of dark spirits and the dead.

Oh, I love this concept. Mythmaking and storytelling opportunities abound!

 

[MrReaper182]

Great storytelling.

 

[RossN]

Part One - Swimmers in the Void (2200 to 2210)

Chief Precentor Abibaal, leader of the Sacred Minnerian Union in 2200.​

Like all Minnerian starships the science vessel USS Pillars had three distinct internal 'zones' divided by bulkheads. One section was filled with salt water, another with moisture filled air and the third with perfectly dry air. The divide made the ships complex and expensive to build but it also made them safer and more flexible; some vital scientific work could only be done in bone dry conditions. It also gave any Minnerian vessel key redundancies in that any one section being breached would (in theory) be survivable.

It also meant a pain in tailbone for the crew in getting anywhere quickly and easily, Third Officer Belus reflected in annoyance. His watch had just ended and he was settling down to a nap in the soothing waters of his personal chamber when the alarm sounded. Five laborious minutes later he was dressed, reasonably dry and keying in the code to access the main bridge of the science ship. Finally the bulkhead opened and Belus stepped out onto the oval shaped room to be greeted by humid, damp air and excited looking deck officers.

'Report,' Belus ordered the Seventh Officer, a cyan and green scaled female who seemed fresh out of training, on her first mission and preposterously enthusiastic.

'The initial scans of Bartym III have found something Sir.'

'By the Endless Sea that was quick!' Belus answered, feeling his mrrhs twitch. Maybe it was superstition - and he'd never dare share it with that ardent Modernist Senior Science-Captain Hamelqart - but Belus had always thought that twitch was a sign from the divine that something significant was up. Trying to maintain his composure he looked the Seventh Officer in the eye. 'Go on.'

'We've found an alien civilisation on the planet Third Officer Sir,' the Seventh Officer said, her large eyes filled with enthusiasm. 'Machine age but no indication of orbital space flight.' She hesitated, looking greener than ever. 'I know you had retired Sir but I wanted to report straight away and you are my superior.'

Behind his mrrhs Belus fought back a smile. Ah to be young, keen and capable yet so fresh you still thought like a cadet. An old hand would have bypassed the exact hierarchy, gone straight for the Captain and woken her up even in the middle of the night. Belus looked appropriately sober and dignified. 'Thank you Seventh Officer. Excellent work. The Captain will be very pleased - and don't worry I'll wake her up.'

---

The USS Pillars, a Minnerian science vessel.​

The year 2200 saw the first Minnerian plunge into the wider galaxy with a voyage beyond the Sidona system. Automatic probes and then manned missions had spent decades exploring the secrets of the solar system and there were even small space stations, mining colonies and research bases scattered across the planets and asteroids. An entire generation of space specialists were available to rely on now, something of which the new Chief Precentor took advantage.

At thirty five Chief Precentor Abibaal was young for her position as the leader of the Intersea Conclave, the ruling oligarchy of prelates. A slim, turquoise and violet scaled figure she was unmistakable among her older brothers and sisters. Intelligent and spirited Abibaal had impressed many in her rapid rise and as a firm Modernist she had an appreciation for scientific adventure and opportunity. That passion also manifested in a more aggressive way - Abibaal championed building science ships but she also pressed for a strong navy. Her view was that by all means the Minnerians should seek out new life - but not be defenceless about it.

The merchants guilds backed the Chief Precentor - at least for now - for their own reasons. As the priests had their Conclave the merchants had their Blessed Merchant's Alliance, a far looser league of various guilds, temples, clubs, companies and free traders. The devotees of Thamis the Glittering were fully behind the early explorations, dreaming of new resources and new customers and worshippers.

The first hyperspace capable ship was the science vessel USS Pillars under Senior Science-Captain Hamelqart, herself a prominent theologian-scientist. The scientific missions required a delicate juggling of political and religious sensibilities as most of the scientific crew were members of the priestly caste the engineers and pilots came from a merchant background. Fortunately the Pillars mission (and that of the USS Navigator launched the following year under Senior Science-Captain Khiletiation) took place during that first golden decade of exploration when cooperation was at it's height and a thousand tiny disagreements were overlooked rather than allowed to grow.

It had always been hoped that the explorers would find ocean worlds capable of supporting known life but many in the Conclave feared it would take decades to discover such worlds. Rarely had the priests of Tarcadal been happier to be proven wrong when between them the Pillars and the Navigator discovered two such planets within a few dozen light years of the Sidona system.

Despad III was a blue and green world orbiting a yellow star accompanied by a molten moon. Slightly larger than Tarcadal and a shimmer lighter in gravity it was also hotter, with tropical seas inhabited by a generous medley of small sea vertebrates and invertebrates, preyed upon by marine reptiles growing up to twenty meters [1]. There were any number of islands and two small continents covered with plants and it was on the northernmost of these that Hamelqart made her most intriguing discoveries during the expedition of 2202.

The bizarre 'bioroids' of Despad III provoked much fascination but little in the way of information.​

The fascinating if eerie 'bioroids' discovered on Despad III suggested that at some time in the past another spacefaring civilisation had been present in local space [2].

In contrast the other water world explored was straightforward. Takharam II, a moonless planet orbiting a blue-white star was smaller than Tarcadal and Despad III, with colder, deeper oceans. She still had plentiful life but it was mostly small and confined to the brine with the islands colonised only by hardy, primitive plants and fungi.

After the pleasant shock of finding two habitable planets within range wore off the real debate began: the colonisation process. There was a risk of violence here. The Minnerians, even the most abstract theologians (especially the most abstract of theologians) tended to be a passionate people and within living memory wars had been waged between cities and factions. It took the most delicate of political skills on behalf of Chief Precentor Abibaal and her opposites in the Blessed Merchant's Alliance to steer a compromise.

Despad III was colonised at the beginning of 2204 and took the name of Qart Lepi after an ancient city state on the homeworld. Takharam II, colonised early in 2206 was renamed Iboshim in honour of theologian from the Pearl Wars-period. Both colonies were nominally free for anyone to settle there but Qart Lepi was unofficially assigned to the merchants, intrigued by the resources of it's bountiful flora and fauna while Iboshim, lonelier and more demanding was thought to appeal to those priests with an aesthetic frame of mind.

Iboshim & Qart Lepi (Takharam II & Despad III respectively.) The first major off-world Minnerian colonies.​

Before the colony ships actually landed each world saw a special ceremony where a delegation of priests and priestesses arrived and prayed to the local divinities to request their permission and protection for the colonisation efforts. Whether Despad III and Takharam II had world-spirits unique to them or were part of the universal divinity was a topic of much debate in the Conclave but it was unthinkable to set up home on a new world without paying respect to the locals [3].

Meanwhile life of a very different kind had been found elsewhere. The deep space living Tiyanki, the so-called 'Space Whales' had first been observed by the Navigator in the Elgerot system in 2206. Impossibly huge - bigger than any Minnerian vessel short of a colony ship - placid and with an undeniable resemblance to marine life known to the Minnerians these great beasts provoked feelings of awe back on Tarcadal. Truly they represented an expression of the divine in the material universe.

The greatest shock of all however - and the one that came within an ace of overthrowing the delicate consensus - was the Pillars exploration of the Bartyam system in 2210. The third planet from the sun, an alpine world of towering mountains and dark forests was home to intelligent life! The avian Vissari (as they called themselves in their broadcasts) were an omnivorous race of uncanny similarity to the Minnerians in intelligence and size. Their civilisation was perhaps a century or two behind, with machines just beginning to to come into mass use and air travel between the fragmented nation states.

The Vissari species and their homeworld, first discovered in 2210.​

The discovery of the Vissari called for a unified policy from the Sacred Minnerian Union. Far easier said than done. Many in the merchant guilds, dazzled by the prospect of interplanetary trade wanted to send an open delegation to the primitives. Others, arrived of competition zealously opposed any contact. There were priests who spoke warmly of observing the hand of the divine in isolation and there were those who saw it as a divine duty to bring modern science and faith to the unenlightened.

There were even rumblings from the normally apolitical warrior castes that the Vissari could be a military asset or a military problem [4].

All of these views of these views and more resounded around the golden halls of the Conclave in Himilico. After days of argument Chief Precentor Abibaal pushed through an agreement to merely set up a passive observation post in orbit and reconvene the debate within ten years. Given the technology barrier it was thought highly unlikely the Vissari would detect any trace of the orbiting station. Better yet it discouraged actually setting foot on Bartyam III, which despite her breathable atmosphere was not a hospital world for the Minnerian psyche or physiology - cold, difficult and what water there was came in the form of freezing fresh water mountain lakes [5].

As an idea it had the dual benefits of kicking the can down the road and displeasing everyone equally. Actually what Abibaal was hoping would happen would be a true encounter with a spacefaring civilisation which would open up now unknown possibilities. The various artefacts scattered across neighbouring systems proved that there was no barrier to interstellar travel within a few score light years of Tarcadal and those placid star-sailing giants the Tiyanki suggested that if anyone else was out there they clearly were not bloodthirsty enough to exterminate the space whales. Still the Chief Precentor was prepared just in case. By the time the Vissari were discovered the Minnerians had build twelve powerful armed corvettes with plans for up to eight more. The fleet patrolled the settled systems, keeping an eye on smugglers and Tiyanki poachers and gaining familiarity with the hyperspace lanes. When needed they would be ready.

Of course not every ship traversing the hyperlanes was a vessel of science or war. Hyperdrive engines were still too expensive and bulky for most privately owned ships to go far but every settled system had a flotilla of sublight ships. Free traders, freelance scouts and prospectors, pilgrims, tourists... there proved as many reasons to travel as their Minnerians. That love of the unknown and that chase for mystery was powerfully ingrained in the culture. On Tarcadal even the shallowest and most sunlit of seas still had limited visibility and the 'horizon' quickly vanished into an aquamarine wall. The land was even more mysterious, an intrinsically alien environment right there on the planet. Even as every grain of sand on the surface and on the seabed was explored over the millennia that same fascination with the unknown was still there. In a decade the Minnerians had discovered space whales, bird people and the ruins of lost civilisations.

What or who would they find next?

Known space, 2210.​

Footnotes:

[1] For exactly this reason the science vessels carried specially trained marines of the warrior caste aboard to provide security on early dives. There were no fatalities during the exploration dives on Despad III's ocean but an expensive submersible was. compromised after a native marine saurian mistook it for a female of it's species and... introduced itself.

[2] More evidence of this mysterious vanished civilisation would be uncovered over the decade including the exotic and much publicised discovery of what was clearly pirate plunder in a deserted base.

[3] The solemn rituals and theological debate was the preserve of the priestly caste but the other castes too honoured the world spirits of the colonies with symbolic offerings of food and pearls to Qart Lepi and Iboshim in the shrines set up in the new settlements.

[4] Traditionally the military caste system on Tarcadal had depended upon highly paid, highly trained mercenary professionals with many battalions having centuries of proud service. By convention the warriors steered clear of larger political concerns and had their own customs, rituals and demigod (Zorus the Reaver.)

[5] A similar technically habitable but unsuitable world discovered in the first flush of exploration was the arid planet Rasalgethi II which besides it's bleakness and dryness was home to an aggressive exofungus. An order of interdiction was promptly imposed but it was hard to see why anyone would want to set foot on a dustbowl deathtrap.

 

[RossN]

They kinda look like chlculuchu (sp!).

Bah, he's a squid!

Oooh, I'm liking where this is going so far! There already seems to be a bit of a divide between the rich and the poor and the fact that the Merchant guilds are becoming more prominent is clearly bothering the priests. I also like the Minnerians themselves. They're a unique blend of catfish, seahorse, human, and dolphin with their own quirks and biological oddities. I can't wait to see how this comes into play later in the playthrough.

Also, Spiritualist/Militarist/Xenophile. Nice.

Thank you! I'm liking them too!

Yeah I was trying to make them interesting and at least semi-plausible. The mix of features just came to me as I was writing them. I also wanted to go for a civilisation that would be prepared to fight but wouldn't go out looking for war so Xenophile and Militarist seemed an appropriate mix!

Very nice! The uneasy priest-merchants agreement may prove to be a source of endless political drama... And that bit of xenobiology was thoroughly enjoyable!

Thank you, I enjoyed writing it!

I figure the Minnerians are in a bit of honeymoon phase at the moment before factions develop and that temporary unity starts to fracture.

Oh, I love this concept. Mythmaking and storytelling opportunities abound!

Thank you! I'll try and explore it properly at some point!

Great storytelling.

Thank you! I hope you continue to enjoy this!

 

[Von Acturus]

Two habitable planets this early, now thatt's luck! However, it may also become a source of tension as they stretch the meager resources of the early exploration phase, which could lead to the prioritization of the capital or territorial expansion at the expense of the colonists... And the warrior caste may be apolitical for now, but what happens if the merchants loose the means to pay these mercenaries? Could the (far) future herald these mercenaries as the third political force in the exquisite dance that is the Minnerian government?