Ok. I'm still sick today, and have a headache. I've slept myself out though, and can't lie down any longer without going bonkers.
So, here is the first draft, ultra-alpha-release condition, history of the Pran Seri.
Please forgive me anything I did stupidly while in such a state.
Note: This history will, of course, be subject to some revision in order to better match appropriate contact points with other races, etc.
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Pran/Sline/Spica: Hex: 2814 (I think).
The Pran Seri are an ancient though still minor race from the Sline subsector of Spica. They are somewhat thin and lengthy cylindrical beings, with manipulative appendages on each end of the cylinder. They descended from tree dwellers, and prefer brachiation as their primary means of locomotion. On the social scale of cooperativeness and tendency toward violence, they are approximately mid-way between Solomani and Vilani; although they have a slight tendency toward cooperation in moderately sized groups of twenty to fifty.
Pran itself: A-866949-C N ---- Gr 223 Pr G3 V
First contact with the Pran Seri occurred in -1927 (Pran: X-866672-4: Pop Multiplier 5). The various governments of the Pran homeworld did everything they could to meet with and contact the Hiver representatives (secret Hiver manipulation since -2105 had helped prepare the Pran Seri for favorable first contact with the Hivers), and the Hivers accommodated them, building an entire seaport/starport city on an unoccupied island in the middle of an ocean as neutral ground between the competing nations. By -1820, the Hivers manipulated the local governments in democratic unification (Pran: D-866645-5: Pop Multiplier 9), and introduced a variety of simple technological ideas (like simple germ theory, advanced steam engines, and more complete mathematics and simple chemistry). The Pran Seri, as ever, devoured the externally granted knowledge and information.
Second contact came in -1798, when Solomani scouts came through the star system. The Hivers stood by and did nothing while the Solomani scout ship descended into the starport, disembarked, and circulated through the population. The Hivers even provided the Solomani with translations of various Pran Seri languages into Terran. No one knew exactly why the Hivers did this, because as soon as the Solomani could speak to the Pran Seri clearly, they told them about the mysterious reputation of the Hivers. Specifically, that they always seemed to defeat whatever foe they faced without doing much fighting, and that almost every client race (the idea of a “client race” was, in and of itself, a bombshell to the Pran Seri; the Hivers had never answered questions about the outside universe, always telling the Pran Seri they would get there eventually) they interacted with wound up serving and loving them (an exaggeration, to be sure).
Whatever the reasons, Pran Seri public opinion shifted against the Hivers over a period of a mere five years, until fleets of ships packed to the gunwales with protestors began arriving in Startown. The Hivers packed up their essential gear in less than fifteen minutes, and ascended away in a three largish starships they’d apparently been keeping around for just such an eventuality. This only served to confirm the Solomani accusations against the Hivers. Those Solomani who’d arrived later did not themselves benefit from this sudden power vacuum, as they too became a target of distrust as “outsider space travellers, who knows what they’re thinking, or why?” These Solomani left their various new Startown homes and businesses in a hurried frenzy of packing lasting two weeks. By -1792-003, there were no offworlders on Pran at all.
The democratic leaders of Pran assembled and began a great debate about what course their society should take given that they were, it seemed, surrounded by starfaring civilizations who, if what they’d learned from all-too talkative Solomani, were so large that they could swat Pran like a hammer striking a Neru Sigh. Politics and the elections held that year interfered with the Great Debate, nearly toppling it off the agenda of discussions altogether, so that no firm decisions were reached until 1785-341.
The Pran Seri embarked upon a great adventure into the frontiers of knowledge. They restructured their democratic society into a form of election-driven technical meritocracy (later, Imperial Scouts, puzzled by this democratic technocracy; would continue to apply Representative Democracy to this phase of Pran history). The entire education system was rebuilt to search for, nurture, and grow to fullness every field of technical ability. During the next five hundred years, the Pran engaged in a massive technological acceleration that drove them to TL-13 by -1300-001. Of course, during such great societal upheavals, there are still haves and have-nots. All those unable to compete in the intellectual and technical arenas quickly became a servant and laborer underclass, where bitterness and resent grew as the centuries passed.
The Pran settle six nearby worlds, and appeared to be well on their way to starting up their own interstellar nation in the power vacuum left by the long night. (Pran: A-866948-D: Pop Multiplier 7)
On -1300-009, a fleet of eighty Solomani pirate ships varying from destroyers to battleships (ships built by Terra itself, but defected into piracy around -1595), appeared out of jumpspace. The Pran Navy did include a line of cruisers and battleships, but in two important ways they were outmatched. The pirates had a thirty percent numerical advantage in battleships, and they were far more experienced in naval fleet tactics. The pirates won the day, and then silenced the local anti-orbital defenses in a long-range missile duel. All key communications, starport launch facilities, power generation nodes, and ground transport nexi were bombed out of existence. Initial casualties from collateral destruction to civilian targets numbered into the hundreds of millions. Pirate commandos landed to secure natural resource stockpiles, and stores of radioactives, chemical loads, precious metals, and artwork and jewelry were stolen. The pirates took a few Pran Seri into captivity in the first hours of the landings, but all of them went berserk, and had to be restrained to prevent them from killing themselves or their captors. After a few days, the pirates determined that breaking the Pran Seri to slavery would take several months per each sophont, and was not worthwhile. In a few weeks, the fleet had repaired itself as best it could off the few remaining orbital facilities not yet destroyed, and in the meantime systematically stole everything that they wished to have. Immediately prior to departure, the pirates unleashed a wave of nuclear bombardment on major cities. A billion Pran Seri died in the first ten minutes. The pirates then eliminated the remaining orbital facilities, and jumped out-system to finish the job on the colony worlds. Strangely, the pirates didn’t bother to seriously attack the various outposts throughout the rest of the Pran starsystem (only venturing a few fighter sorties and escort vessel attacks).
Pran: X-876600-1: Pop Multiplier 4. Another ten million or so were scattered in the system’s outlying outposts.
The nuclear winter that followed killed another five billion, despite the best efforts at rescue and support provided by the outlying outposts. 72% of the species on the world died. The main phase of the winter lasted twenty-two years and almost annihilated the biosphere. The secondary phase lasted another two centuries, but it was mild enough to allow rebuilding to begin near the equator.
Due to the survival of other in-system facilities, the disaster was not complete, fortunately for the Pran Seri. Serious efforts at reconstruction of the homeworld officially commenced on -1094-009, supported by on-world and off-world survivors. They would continue for another five hundred years. The sciences of biology, genetic reconstruction, weather manipulation, and terraforming lead the forefront of technological development. During this time, Pran’s biosphere is largely in flux. Its government was a self-perpetuating oligarchy (the Council for Emergency Reconstruction, which was, in effect, a ruthless dictatorship by a limited few and their designated successors).
By -552, Pran had recovered to a substantial extent, with the severity of the radioactive taint in the atmosphere reduced by 80% (Pran: A-87683D-A: Pop Multiplier 3), temperature stabilized into normal latitude variations from pole to pole, and 30% of all species restored by genetic reconstruction. The environment still required an enormous input of artificial manipulation (especially from a network of orbital weather control satellites) to keep itself in its fragile balance. Further, the Pran expended the second largest portion of their budget on the military, which now numbered literally four times the number of ships it had previously. Between such proliferate environmental, military, and internal security spending, the economy ran at a perpetual state near the brink of failure. Less that .01 of the population enjoyed anything beyond unending toil toward a better tomorrow. Indeed, the worker ideals of standing up to hardship were spreading out of the old laborer caste into the whole of society. Further, technological advancement was now actively discouraged (TL-A in most things, TL-C in genetics, biosciences, and terraforming).
On -540-236, the first of the original six colony worlds had built themselves an early TL-9 starship, and jumped to Pran in an attempt to find out what happened in the now distant past. They were captured and interrogated by the ruling elite. Orders went out to build new military ships with jump drives (the current formidable navy was an all SDB/Monitor force). By -535, they were ready with new jump ships, and began sending conquest ships to the former colony worlds. War broke out immediately.
Around -524, a core group of Pran Seri, made up of a minority of old intellectual caste descendants, and a majority of old laborer caste descendents, began a campaign of rebellion. They were aided by the extreme strain the war with the original colony worlds was placing on the already fragile economy. Conditions were so bad among the non-elite that recruiting was easy. The rebellion lasted a mere forty years. In -484-136, the inappropriately named Emergency Services Control Tower (the headquarters of the ruling elite’s operations) was stormed by a mob of over three hundred thousand civilians (interspersed with a few thousand rebel agitators). Troops guarding the fortress refused to fire their fusion cannons on the civilian populace, thus opening the way to an enormous change.
It was a Pyrrhic victory, though. Pran’s economy was shattered. Hatred against all forms of government was rampant due to rebel propaganda. The colonies hated the homeworld for forty years of death and destruction, and the homeworld began to hate the colonies over their rage against a no longer existent ruling class.
The Pran Seri largely turn inward at this point. The descendants of the old laborer castes, the vast majority of the population, demanded a role for all voices in the government, not merely an elected technical elite. In a long, mud-slogging effort, a new government is hammered out over a period of twelve years. The provisional government in place during this time has little authority and no way to enforce what authority it does have. Military and security spending is slashed across the board (producing worse economic shockwaves for years). Control over all in-system but off-world facilities, long centers for the support and renewal of the homeworld and without which the recovery would have been far longer, is lost as they declare independence one after another (and simultaneously arrest and execute the state security forces that formerly kept and iron grip on their lives). Of all things, only the terraforming process of Pran itself goes on, though even those efforts are disrupted somewhat.
Eventually, a high-tech based system of total participatory democracy is worked out. A new world-constitution is written. The citizens are given the necessary duty of participating in government at all times so as never to lose control. All sorts of sections are included about how democratic processes and citizen control shall continue on in even the worst of foreseeable disasters.
In -204, the Hivers once again recontact the Pran Seri. They are cautiously welcomed (the anti-Hiver sentiment that once permeated Pran Seri society is now ancient history). Their offers of support in the final phases of terraforming efforts are well received. Overall, this recontact is relatively on the Pran Seri’s terms, at their own starport. Several other minor races also make contact between -200 and 500.
By 0, the year of the Founding of the Third Imperium, the Pran have largely finished their planetary reconstruction efforts, in some part aided by the return of the Hivers. (Pran: A-866927-A: Pop Multiplier 2)
Time between 0 and 500 is spent normalizing relations with the original six colony worlds, planting two new colonies, and reunifying the in-system governments.
It isn’t until around 500 that the Pran, as a race, begin moving forward, intellectually, artistically, or technologically. However, the climate of local space has altered. The Pran are now in a great web of trade between the major interstellar powers, and are subject to it and its economic restraints in a manner which they once were not.
It takes until approximately 950 for Pran to reach back to near it’s former technological peak: Pran: A-866929-C: Pop Multiplier 4 (TL-E for terraforming, genetics, and biosciences). Whole volumes of scholarly work have been produced about why only two technological levels have been achieved in four hundred fifty years of trying, when in the same time period two thousand years in the past, the Pran Seri achieved an eight level leap. The mutual academic and social recriminations about who is to blame, and why, are still echoing around the society in 993.
-- Pran itself in 993: A-866949-C N ---- Gr 423 Pr G3 V
My use of Pr for the Pran Seri Allegiance Code is preliminary. I don’t
think it’s been used by others.
EDIT--------03/17/2005--2012 hours--MST
Minor revisions: Typographical and grammar corrections.
