Hey everybody, we’ve got another Prologue episode for you today. Remember that our first episode will drop on July 1st, 2022 with transcripts available in the show notes for every episode. Enjoy!
Welcome to State of the Galaxy. I am your host, Maxtn Gammon. Come with me as we explore an exciting place, full of life forms both familiar and new! As we expand our horizons, beyond what we currently understand. As we learn more and more about this galactic civilization that we are a part of, let us Explore The State of life in the Galaxy.
The Moirae Galaxy is full of countless creatures both large and small, organic and artificial. The vast expanse of beings has never been fully catalogued. How could it? Just by the sheer volume of stars and planets in this galaxy, there are countless numbers of life forms we have yet to encounter!
But of course, you are not listening to this to hear about what we don't know. You want to hear about what we do know. First, let's start with the basics: Humanity.
Humanity is a strange species. They cropped up and developed all over the Moirae Galaxy. From the central core world of Olympia, to the Independent System of Oizys, all the way to the far off reaches of The Hegemony, humanity comes in a variety of forms. Some have developed a psionic powers capable of great feats of power! Still others have developed evolutionary skills to filter out radiation, poisons, or other harms to their physiology. Humanity, like all sentient species, has a great range of characteristics, traits, and moral codes. The humans of Olympia joined the galactic community early on, establishing trade networks early with other species: The Nokoloids, The Scirin, and the Krazeks to name a few. As they explored the galaxy further they discovered other bastions of Humanity. Humans who were more or less exactly the same, genetically. This shattered the established history of the species, bringing into question the religious beliefs and spiritual practices of the various worlds that humans had developed on. Question remain as to whether or not humanity has a now lost history of galactic expansion and exploration, or if it was just evolution's random influence that brough about such similar species on vastly different planets. For now, let's leave that mystery alone as we explore the other inhabitants of the Moirae.
Androids are fascinating. The merging of flesh and machine to create something more, something beyond what "life" is normally considered. The first androids came about through scientific breakthroughs in robotics nearly 800 years ago. Doctors and Engineers from all over the galaxy came together and created the first Androids using their own minds as templates for their personalities. By copying their own brainwave patterns and the structures of their brains, they took those copies and loaded them into a computer.
While a fascinating breakthrough, the mind copies were rejected by the android's computer systems as viruses and the data became corrupted, leading to the machines shutting themselves down. But this setback did not deter the scientists, and only emboldened them further. Eventually, they discovered that the copies were all missing something in the coding of the data. Through some advanced mathematics, the scientists discovered how to replace this missing code.
With the missing link in the code restored, a new species was born. One that could be built at a factory, have its flesh and tissues grown in a laboratory, and then have its mind uploaded in a coding facility. Each android slightly different in appearance, based on what flesh template is used to grow their tissue, and each android's personality slightly different due to the variations of the code copying performed in the last step.
Androids have become a part of every day life in the Moirae Galaxy. Living and working alongside people of every planet. Some Androids have had long careers in politics, science, and communications while others have sought a more solitary existence, pursuing their own passion projects along the way. It is fascinating to speak with androids, to learn about what they think, whether they feel, or how their creation challenges the notions of evolution, philosophy and life itself.
The Nokoloids were the original species to develop interstellar communications a thousand years ago. With multiple tentacled appendages, an average of 12 eyes per person, and a robust culture that loves technology, this should come as no surprise. The Nokoloids, once the most advanced species in the galaxy, freely shared their technology with the beings they met along the way, bringing other species up to the same level as them, technologically.
There was always speculation that The Eternal One of the Tartarus Hegemony was a Nokoloid, given their long life spans and the ability for them to go into a sort of suspended animation for hundreds of years. But this theory was quickly shot down after one of the few people to ever journey to Tartarus returned and told tales of a dusty, windy world that would be inhospitable to the wetter, more temperate conditions the Nokoloids prefer. While not able to confirm who or what The Eternal One is, this evidence certainly eliminated a Nokoloid as a potential possibility.
The last species we have time for today are The Scaph! A fascinating species for a few reasons. First, like humans, they seem to have several different home planets. This has allowed them to adapt to a variety of conditions and situations throughout their evolutionary history. Some Scaph are exceptionally good at handling cold environments, others can tolerate the sweltering heat of volcanos. With the advent of space travel, these evolutionary advantages intermingled within the species and produced offspring that contained several of these traits.
The Scaph, based on all available evidence, have always been a travelling species. Even before space travel, evidence of permanent Scaph settlements were scarce and limited to a handful of places called Nests. These nests would be where the reptilian creatures would return toward the middle of their life, lay their eggs, and continue their travel. But these children were not simply abandoned. As Scaph age, like all creatures, their bodies become weaker and travelling among the stars becomes more challenging. These older scaph often form polycules around these nets to raise the newly hatched offspring in the culture and heritage of The Scaph. The Scaph in these nets come of age after a few years and with a little education from these well-travelled, older Scaph, the younger Scaph set out on their travels. Once confined simply to their planets, the Scaph have embraced the wider galaxy as a new place to meet the internal need to travel. Some still stay on their planets, but every year more and more Scaph venture out into the galaxy.
The Moirae galaxy is a wonderous place, full of creatures of all kinds. As we continue to explore the furthest reaches of our galaxy, we will likely discover many more new and strange life forms! What an exciting time! This has been Maxtn Gammon. Thank you for joining me on State of the Galaxy!