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Daharrans
Artificial Neogen clade, originally believed to be a naturally-evolved alien race | |
 Image from C M Kösemen | |
| recreated model of a Daharran, with a baseline human for scale | |
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. At first the Daharrans were thought to be a naturally-evolved xenosophont species, but detailed genetic and archaeological analysis uncovered their artificial origin.
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.
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 persisted - and an unusually strict "Daharran Taboo" remains in effect across all local lightways and 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 and some superficial body recreations.
Public records by local archaeologists from the time of the initial exploration, as well as independent telescopic observations, determined the ahumans 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 lightway 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 were a semi-religious association from the inner Hinterregions, trying to emulate the ComEmp in the Outer Volumes. After the initial Sephirotic probes entered the system and overcame the remaining but weakened weapons systems, the ahuman society was found to have 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 perished. Whether this initial resource scarcity affected the later cinder system behavior of the Daharrans can only be speculated.
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 | |
Appearance
The baseline Daharran bodies combined the appearance of crustaceans and mammals, with a partial chitinous shell and short fur between the plates. Their four larger limbs allowed for walking while four smaller limbs for manipulation were positioned 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 cared for the young. Nest-tenders were 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 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 systems on a cautious basis, although the administrators still restricted any emigration 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 of the time.In 7702 the Daharran Unity was formed. With the ascension of multiple native Daharrans, to the First and Second Singularity, local integration appeared possible. 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 the 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 Unity leadership ascended to the Third Singularity. For the next century not much was heard, until Daharran Prime suddenly went completely silent in 9343.
Investigations revealed that the Unity had destructively uploaded the entire population, converted all of the infrastructure in the system (habitats, structures, the bodies of the inhabitants) into an asteroid-mass black hole, and then transmitted their uploaded mind-states into the event horizon before propelling the hole itself into the local star where it will eventually absorb the entire stellar mass. All in order to achieve the "sacred mass".
Shortly thereafter several fleets of Daharran Unity craft - referring to themselves as the Daharran Advance - began conquering the Chronos Cluster under the slogan "Strength — Unity — Mass!". The fixed and immutable ideology of the Daharran Advance fleets seems to have been directed towards the inclusion of all matter, and all thinking beings, into a series of stellar-mass black holes, possibly with the goal of consolidating them into a much larger black hole at some point. It also seems that the Daharrans believed they would survive this process somehow, perhaps creating a perfect civilisation within a black hole brain they hoped to eventually create.
The Daharrans proceeded to systematically indoctrinate or eradicate everyone and everything in their path, until the intervention of the Quasar Dynamic Fleet in 9400; after which the Advance was forced back at an accelerating rate. It is widely believed that the Advance was already ossifying or imploding even before the powerful corporate Quasar Dynamic Fleet came upon the scene; helping to explain the QDF's successes against a clearly much larger military and industrial opponent.
Many of the systems liberated by the Quasar Dynamic Fleet fought back so determinedly that there were few survivors, and in most cases all of the Daharrans involved were killed or committed suicide. In some cases the Advance rapidly created a black hole (or several) and transmitted themselves into the event horizon; some believe, although with little evidence, that this is how the Daharran S:3 entity disappeared. Despite the loss of their leader, the remnants of Daharran civilization continued to resist.
As the conflict wore on an increasing number of Daharran individuals were preserved, as well as the systems they had conquered. These were subjected to an intensive deprogramming regime to remove the effects of the ideological imperatives associated with the Advance. Projections indicate that the Chronos Cluster will be free of the insidious effects of the Daharran Unity within a hundred standard years, with all surviving Daharrans successfully deprogrammed.
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Development Notes
Text by Worldtree, Anders Sandberg, M. Alan Kazlev
Revised by Worldtree on 5 April 2023 from original article, further revised 2025 by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 08 July 2000.
Daharran Unity article merged into Daharrans in October 2022 (almost all information was duplicate).
Daharren image by C M Kösemen added February 2025
Revised by Worldtree on 5 April 2023 from original article, further revised 2025 by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 08 July 2000.
Daharran Unity article merged into Daharrans in October 2022 (almost all information was duplicate).
Daharren image by C M Kösemen added February 2025
