BY LETTER
Daharrans
Daharran Calligraphy | |
 Image from Mikael Johansson | |
| Approximate translation: You (2nd person singular) will watch! as we three are reigning until we three will transcend using cooperation through alertness | |
A tragic victim of failed cultural re-assimilation or possibly an unusually elaborate trap by ahumans, the Daharrans were a neogenic clade with a water/hydrocarbon biochemistry that resembled Terran biology; they breathed a human-breathable oxygen atmosphere and were land-living omnivores adapted to terrestrial environments. Discovered within the ecosystems of a slowly failing worldhoused planet that had been formerly occupied by an independent ahuman faction, the unusually primitive clade aroused immediate suspicion for the context in which it was found, despite centuries of investigation by transapient governors bringing no evidence of a threat or trap, at first.
Although their rapid expansion, integration into local Sephirotic societies, and then subsequent violent collapse into a series of cinder systems might have been entirely independent and coincidental from their creation by a lost ahuman civilization, rumors and conspiracies have remained - and an unusually strict "Daharran Taboo" remains in effect across all local lightways or wormhole networks. According to public records in the area, all original genetic templates and most primary sources for their cultures have been eradicated by subsequent transapient administrators, save for records of their language, though superficial body recreations are permitted.
Public records by local archaeologists from the time during the initial exploration, as well as independent telescopic observations, had determined the independent ahuman faction abandoned the star system and moved their fleet to a Diamond Network-controlled region more distant from the Inner Sphere, after a millennium of resource extraction and hidden development. This development followed a common tactic of disguise under the cover of various shellworlds and transportation via their own independent lightways networks, with little material movement that could be monitored by telescope.
First contact with the Daharrans was made in 6259 by a ComEmp Loyalist expedition to the Chronos Cluster. The Loyalists are a semi-religious association from the inner Hinterregions, trying to emulate the ComEmp in the outer volumes. When the initial Sephirotic probes entered the system and overcame the remaining but weakened weapons systems, the ahuman society had erased or scrambled nearly all coherent remains of themselves during their retreat, save for a few megastructures and planets with worldhoused ecosystems. These too had begun to fail and most of the ecosystems containing similar organisms had already baked and died. Whether this initial resource scarcity affected the later cinder system behavior of the Daharrans can only remain as speculation.
Appearance
The baseline Daharrans' bodies combined the appearance of crustaceans and mammals, with a partial chitinous shell and long fur between the plates. Their four limbs allowed for walking and four smaller limbs for manipulation on a raisable torso, giving them a somewhat centaur-like appearance. The brain ran along the body in segments, giving them excellent multitasking abilities. They had a corona of sensory tendrils at the end of their upper torso, which also secreted a tar-like scent signature.Baseline Daharrans had three main genders: males, females and neuter nest-tenders who care for the young. Nest-tenders are larger and somewhat more intelligent than the males and females, and had by tradition held the position of family heads while the males and females have had somewhat subordinate roles. Over time this developed into various caste systems, different in different cultures.
The Expansion
Although several transapient governors and institutes spent multiple centuries investigating the Daharran worldhouses for traps, they found none they could recognize. From there, the fully sophont Daharrans began re-assimilation into Terragen society in nearby orbitals on a cautious basis, while administrators still restricted any emigration from beyond the cluster. Terragen provolution institutes helped them to add common augmentations and mind backup technologies and soon, the baseline Daharrans diversified in form and mental architectures, with many opting to only use bodies resembling their ancestral forms for a minor portion of their lives. Although the Daharrans had shown higher-than-usual birthrates for an agricultural-level society, their initial development toward modern life appeared safe, according to records at the time.In 7702 the Daharran Unity was formed. With the transcension of multiple native Daharrans, to the first and second singularity, local integration appeared possible, according to the local records. The result was at first a vigorous and ambitious culture, constructing megastructures, powerful ISOs and starships in order to become the major power of the cluster, with a prospect of diverse connections with the Terragen Sphere. In the following centuries, the polities and minds of the ascended Daharran transapients began to unify further under a single entity.
In 9200, the Daharran Unity abruptly changed course and isolated itself, for reasons still not entirely understood, or at least revealed to the public, after the Advance Party had ascended to the third singularity. For the next century not much was heard from the Unity, until Daharran Prime suddenly went completely silent in 9343. Investigations revealed that the Advance Party had converted it and much of the system (planets, structures, inhabitants) into a black hole in order to achieve the "sacred mass"; now any avatars or bodies of the Daharran Unity were busy hunting for more resources under the slogan "Strength — Unity — Mass!". They conquered the Chronos Cluster, systematically eradicating everyone and everything in their path, until they ran afoul of the Quasar Dynamic Fleet in 9800; since then the Daharran Advance had been forced back at an accelerating rate. It is widely believed that the Unity was already ossifying or imploding even before the powerful corporate Quasar Dynamic Fleet came upon the scene; that explains the QDF's successes against what was clearly a much larger military and industrial opponent. Some projections calculate that, apart from a few isolated outsystem museums with recreations of the clades and colonies, the original baseline Daharrans, the Daharran Unity, and any copies of their original society have been erased within the past few centuries.
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Development Notes
Text by Worldtree, Anders Sandberg, and M. Alan Kazlev
Revised by Worldtree on 5 April 2023 from original by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 08 July 2000.
Daharran Unity article merged into Daharrans in October 2022 (almost all information was duplicate).
Revised by Worldtree on 5 April 2023 from original by Anders Sandberg and M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 08 July 2000.
Daharran Unity article merged into Daharrans in October 2022 (almost all information was duplicate).
