Bashkmul - TheGiraffe3/Endless-Sky-Creators-Handbook GitHub Wiki
Original text, by roadrunner56
This doc aims to outline and synthesize the history, culture, and current status of the Bashkmul, a faction made up of two species trapped in a dangerous part of the galaxy.
NAVIGATION
CURRENT SITUATION: efforts at survival
RELATIONS
COMPOSITION
BASICS
The Bashkmul are a faction made up of two species: the Aert and the Rigra, whose space was connected through a Pug wormhole approximately 400 years before the player finds them. This connection quickly led to contact and a subsequent golden age of space exploration for both species. This lasted for approximately 150 years, until the Rigra were hit with an agricultural plague that spread to most of their planets, devastating their food supply. In desperation, the Rigra launched a war on the Aert, aiming to take their planet of Shundosh. This planet was by far the most productive farming planet in that region of space, and the Rigra decided to take it in order to sustain their dwindling food supply. The Aert, normally unused to war, moved to defend their planets. This was the beginning of the Aert-Rigra war.
With mounting casualties on both sides, the Pug decided to intervene once more. In order to unite the two species, they conducted an operation similar to their involvement in the human civil war; hyperlanes would be suppressed in order to make it look like the Pug were invading both species’ space. The Aert and Rigra, according to plan, united against the Pug, calling themselves the Bashkmul. But once the ‘invasion’ was defeated and their mission complete, the Pug found that the hyperlanes were somehow connected to the stars in the region.
The Pug had come to this galaxy countless millennia ago, but even this long time span left them unaware of still older things in the Milky Way. One of these was an ancient starfaring race known as the Rulei. They had mastered the use of stars for their own purposes, engineering stars in what is now Bashkmul space to the point that normal physical rules as the Pug understood them did not apply. The Pug, having manipulated galactic phenomena before in other regions of the universe, assumed that this time would be no different. But they did not understand that these stars had been altered to the point that they no longer operated by the Pug’s rules, and so their game doomed all life in this part of the galaxy.
After hastening the death of the stars in the region, and finding themselves unable to fix the problem, they shuffled a few of the two species to another world west of the region. They haven’t bothered to try to save the rest, in the same way a child who’s broken a toy gets bored with it and doesn’t want to play with it anymore. The player finds the two species desperately trying to eke out a living on their increasingly hot and dying worlds, knowing that their civilizations are heading towards inevitable collapse.
While the Aert and Rigra had little in common besides their close proximity to each other, they both shared a religious tradition of venerating stars that, curiously enough, seems to have arisen independently of each other; both traditions existed long before spaceflight. Given this, the Pug’s tampering with the stars was especially effective at angering the Aert and Rigra.
CURRENT SITUATION: efforts at survival
Before the war, the Aert were at a tier of about 0.8. The Rigra were about 1.2. Their ability to use their technical knowledge has sharply declined, however.
While the vast majority of Bashkmul space was used by the Rulei for their own purposes, there are a few precious systems to the south that remained untouched: Hik, Frenoj, and Shko. These systems, once ignored due to their lack of habitable planets, are now the site of desperate terraforming attempts. But you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip, and so the Bashkmul have failed to make these planets liveable for all but a few.
In addition, the Quarg have begun construction of ringworlds in both Aert and Rigra space; however, Aert ringworld construction has been halted in order to focus on expanding the Rigra ringworld, in an effort to provide a refuge for Bashkmul fleeing their space. While the Bashkmul are suspicious of the Quarg, and many are loath to give up their independence by living under their protection, a sizable population has taken up residence in the incomplete ringworld.
A third group, sponsored by what is left of the Bashkmul government, has attempted to collect as many Jump Drives as possible and form a sort of caravan, moving to untouched stars to the west of Bashkmul space. However, the amount of jump drives the Bashkmul possess is extremely few, and so far only rudimentary colonies have been established in the west. They have recently come into contact with a group of Bashkmul that were moved to the west by the Pug.
The most obvious source of new jump drives for the Bashkmul is the Quarg, but they have repeatedly refused to give any jump drives, or information on how to make them. This is due to the fact that the closest uninhabited space to the Bashkmul is connected to the Gegno; both the Quarg and the Drak want to prevent the Gegno from coming into contact with the Bashkmul, as they don't want to potentially destabilize the Gegno's civil war further. This is the same reason why the Drak don’t just open up a new hyperlane to the west.
The Bashkmul government has little authority over its planets, due to a lack of resources. Several planets, all in traditionally Rigran space, have become effectively lawless. These planets are called Chemendur, and are mostly ruled over by local warlords. Those that work in the Bashkmul government are usually Rigra; few Aert care for the intrigues that come with politics. Bashkmul leaders are elected, but their powers are limited by both the collapse of their worlds as well as more mundane factors like a strict constitution.
LOCATION
These aliens would be found south of Gegno space, in territory that the Rulei were once present in. The individuals that the Pug moved to prevent extinction would live on a planet in an area to the west of Bashkmul territory. This entire area was untouched by the Rulei, but is only accessible by jump drive from Bashkmul space. This area is also connected to the edges of inhabited Gegno space.
The reason why Bashkmul space is so small is that originally the Drak were going to allow the Aert and Rigra to expand further, but when the Pug opened a wormhole between them, the Drak decided to limit the space each species would have. They believed it would be too much for the two species to have to both establish friendly contact and manage a large area of space.
RELATIONS
Quarg
The Quarg have unfinished ringworlds in Rigra and Aert space. The Aert ringworld is currently only a skeletal structure, and as such is not yet habitable. After the war the Quarg have attempted to speed up the construction of the Rigra ring in order to provide a refuge for the Bashkmul. They have a deep disgust of the Pug’s treatment of the Bashkmul and this is reflected in any conversations you may have with them. However, they do not intervene due to both their fear of provoking the Pug and their desire to prevent the Gegno from coming into contact with the Bashkmul. As a result of their inaction, the Bashkmul are distrustful of the Quarg, seeing them as cowardly for not directly confronting the Pug.
Pug
For rather obvious reasons the Pug and the Bashkmul are not on good terms. If the Pug are asked about the Bashkmul, they flip-flop between a blasé sort of indifference and a deep insecurity about their failure.
The reason why the Pug haven’t opened a new wormhole to the western regions is a mix of them not being able to and not seeing the reason to. Their ‘recent’ wormhole making spree (the Human-Hai wormhole, the Wanderer-Korath wormhole, the Aert-Rigra wormhole) have currently exhausted their capacity to make more. The Pug’s current priority during the player’s lifetime is that they get the maximum amount of Wanderers they can through the wormhole in order to further their own ends in Korath space. Thus, they’re saving their last currently available wormhole for the Wanderers and not a species that is already safe from extinction and doesn’t advance their own goals.
Humans
Only a few humans have made contact with the Bashkmul; all of the contacts had been post-war, and all of them were killed for their jump drive. However, the last of those humans had brought with her a data chip from the Library of Alexandria, which the Bashkmul studied after she had been killed. This led to the development of a translator, and a small subset of Bashkmul diplomats even became fluent in the human language should such an event happen again.
The player, upon entering Bashkmul space, is attacked by ships both for their jump drive and due to a distrust of outsiders as a result of the Pug intervention. Landing on either the Rigra ringworld or the Bashkmul capital triggers a first contact mission; see below.
COMPOSITION
Aert
The Aert are large, herbivorous, 6-legged creatures, about two meters long. Their arms and hands have large, sloth-like paws made for digging, reflecting their underground origin. They have a wide tail and short brown fur, along with a mole-like nose. Their eyesight is poor, but they have a very strong sense of smell and touch as a result of a lack of light in their original environment.
Their society is formed of herds of about 100-200, which live in underground burrows. Burrows are usually spread apart from one another, but are sometimes connected with other burrows, forming wider districts with populations in the millions. This was originally done to protect themselves from large predators who often roamed aboveground, but as Aert weaponry slowly progressed to the point where they could defend themselves from these predators, aboveground agriculture began to develop and form the basis of their civilization.
Most Aert live in rural areas, with big cities being a rarity. They don’t tend to be very adventurous; even in an age of spaceflight, it is not unusual for an Aert to go their whole lives without leaving their herd. As such their development of spaceflight was slower than other species of comparable age. They were the second of the two to discover the hyperdrive. In an effort to kickstart the Aert’s technological progression, the Pug linked Aert space with the Rigra via a wormhole once the Aert discovered the hyperdrive, with the hope that the Rigra’s more aggressive pursuit of progress may influence the Aert.
Upon contact with the Rigra, the Aert had only two inhabited worlds: Makenth, their homeworld, and Shundosh. Many Aert did not wish to contact the Rigra as they were viewed as brash and uncouth, but recognizing the Rigra’s technological advantage, diplomatic relations were soon established in order to remain on good terms with them.
Aert science, once an afterthought in their society, accelerated to the point where they were able to terraform more worlds. This triggered a new wave of colonization efforts, mostly fueled by Aert driven by a desire to settle on untouched worlds. A few, more adventurous Aert decided to move to Mernoth, where a growing population of Rigra were beginning to settle. This naturally became the main site of Aert-Rigra relations. A subculture of Aert on this planet formed, a more adventurous group that was eager to discover new worlds, new technologies, and most of all, new life. However, the vast majority of Aert continued to live as they always had, unaware and uncaring of the goings-on in the rest of the galaxy.
Most Aert have a fatalistic attitude towards their current situation. Many have a distaste for living on a ringworld instead of a planet, so instead they have taken to moving their civilization further underground in an effort to combat the heat. However, as life on their worlds becomes more and more untenable, the number of Aert moving to Quarg ringworlds has increased. There has been a religious revival of sorts as well, with many Aert reverting back to previous spiritual traditions.
Rigra
The Rigra are a species of scaly, semi-aquatic aliens with rough, greenish-brown skin. They are approximately 100-120 cm tall, and are physically fragile though adept in both water and land - a reflection of their origins in tropical lakes and rivers, though they are adaptable to several different environments. Their ancestors were once prey to larger species on their home planet, resulting in both keen senses and a somewhat paranoid disposition. Two large eyes on their face and two smaller ones on the back of their heads allow them to maintain a 360 degree view of their surroundings.
Their status at the bottom of the food chain has led to an emphasis in their culture of survival above all else. Traditional ‘trickster’ gods or characters are venerated in Rigra legends, and the Rigra do not have qualms against cheating if the cheater is clever about it. Their culture also places much importance on technology and discovery, as this is what allowed the Rigra to rise above their precarious position in the natural order. Before the Pug invasion, Rigran planets were often heavily industrialized; the Rigra see nature as something to be controlled and studied: a source of potential danger rather than something inherently valuable.
After meeting the Aert, there was some debate as to how to respond. A few wanted to attack them for their resources and planets, with their reasoning being that if the Aert were allowed to grow in power, they may pose a threat to the Rigra in the future; better to stamp them out now while they were weak. Fortunately, the Rigra soon realized that the Aert were unlikely to ever attempt any sort of attack on them, and saw greater value in learning more about this strange new species.
Some Rigra still maintain hope that they would be able to restore their stars to their original state, but all efforts have currently been futile.
AGING STARS
Habitable zones moved outwards. Some colder planets became habitable or more pleasant to live on, but planets that were already warm became unbearably hot. The amount of habitable planets in Bashkmul space sharply dwindled overall. Older stars became white dwarfs and neutron stars.
TIMELINE
1400 – Rigra launch first interstellar colonization efforts
1500 – Rigra discover hyperdrive
1600 – Rigra establish first successful colonies in surrounding stars. Ringworld in Rigra space begins construction.
1700s – 2000s – Several expansion attempts are made further into Rigra space, many unsuccessful. A few, however, manage to establish themselves.
2500 – Aert discover hyperdrive. The Quarg begin to construct a ringworld in Aert space.
2600 – Aert begin interstellar colonization. Pug form wormhole between the Aert and Rigra.
2650 – Rigra discover the wormhole and make first contact with the Aert. A peace treaty is signed, outlining the boundaries of possible expansion for either species.
2700 – Rigra are at the height of their interstellar empire, conducting trade with the now fast-growing Aert.
2750 – Rigra are hit by an agricultural plague that spreads throughout their planets, devastating their agricultural supply. In an attempt to prevent mass starvation, they attack an Aert agricultural planet, starting the Aert-Rigra war.
2770 – The Pug intervene and accidentally cause the stars in the region to emit high levels of UV light, dooming the Aert and Rigra. The two unite against the Pug, calling themselves the Bashkmul.
2780 - A cure for the agricultural plague is found.