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Unnamed species: HIE019CZE

Extinct civilisation responsible for terraforming several planets in the Middle Regions and Inner Sphere

Hutamah
Image from Steve Bowers
Hutamah, a cinder world in the HIP 40138 system. This world was originally terraformed by the Mysterians, and was the homeworld of the HIE019CZE civilisation. The planet was sterilised in a conflict that eventually wiped out this species.
This species (which is classified as HIE019CZE in the widely-used reference system devised by the Hamiltonian Institute) emerged on Hutamah, a planet in the Garden of Paradise Cluster, 245ly from Sol in Puppis. The species is currently believed to have been descended from organisms originally created by the Mysterians, another (older) vanished species (alternatively known as HIE014CZE).

It is not clear whether the Mysterians deliberately engineered this species to be sophont, or if they evolved to sophonce spontaneously. The few fossil remains that have survived show that the new species were soft-bodied colonial organisms with a few internal bone-like structures for support. The Mysterians themselves died out 39 million years before present, although the reason for their disappearance is currently unknown.
New Gaia
Image from Steve Bowers
New Gaia, one of the worlds terraformed by this civilisation
The inhabitants of Hutamah developed a technological civilisation approximately 36 million years ago, and passed through several different historical stages before starting to colonise and terraform planets in the nearby volume of space. Two worlds which were terraformed by this species were New Gaia and Ridgewell in the Inner Sphere.

Ridgewell planet
Image from Steve Bowers
Ridgewell, a planet terraformed by HIE019CZE
The civilisation created by this species was involved in a conflict with a younger civilisation known today as HIE121CZE. This civilisation suddenly became aggressively expansionistic approximately 31 million years ago, after developing a cyborg-like bio/mechanical culture. During this conflict the would Hutamah was sterilized, and several other colony worlds were depopulated or suffered a catastrophic technological collapse. By 30 million years before present, the species known as HIE019CZE was extinct, and so were their rivals.

In total six hundred worlds were terraformed by HIE019CZE, although more than half were destroyed in the conflict. Those that survive support a biota that resembles Mysterian biology and (to a lesser extent) the biology of Earth, although the biochemistries of each group are significantly different.
 
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Xenosophonts
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 15 February 2020.

 
 
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