[Inaius] The Unified Depths of Thallasa

North Timistania

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The Awakening

In the beginning, there were only the depths, the endless clades of our world foraged in the darkness bereft of sentience, they hungered and feasted in the blackness with only the fierce imperatives of baser nature.

Then a light pierced the eternal dark, a gift from the beyond, we called them the Awakeners and they brought with them the keys to evolution. with the practiced hands of gardeners, they guided us down the path towards uplifting. When they felt we had reached the proper stage of sentience, they abandoned us to fate, vanishing as quickly as they had arrived.


The Rise Clades:

In the wake of our forced evolution, several distinct species arose on Thallasa

The Kraegar: The fierce crustacean tribes of the northern rift

The Cephan: The Uplifted Cephalopod race of the Abyssal Plains

The Selach Empire: The Clans of Uplifted Sharks and Dolphins that dominated the Brine tracts of Central Thallasa

The Deep folk: a collective of menial fish laborers that were utilized by all the primitive nations of Thallasa

The different races established primitive empires across the face of Thallasa, the Cephan established a society based upon reason and science in the abyssal plains, the Kraegar used their immense size to dominate the northern rift and the Selach founded a mighty kingdom in the brine tracts. For a time there was peace between the clades, then the Kraegar grew bored...


The Kraegar war

The Kraegar were naturally suited for war with their fierce nature, rapid breeding cycles, and armored exoskeletons, over time they came to dominate the entirety of the northern rift, however, the Kraegar were not content merely with ruling their vast domain and they soon grew covetous of the Cephan territories.


The Kraegar launched a series of brutal invasions into Cephan territory, their larger numbers soon allowing them to seize entire swathes of the Abyssal Plains. The Cephan fought fiercely to defend their home, however, they could not replenish their losses as the Kraegar could and over time they would lose the war of attrition they were now engaged in. A decision was made to call for aid from the Selach empire.

The Selach heard the cries for aid that the Cephan sent out into the depths and they responded, the countless schools of the Selach empire swam to the war on the trail of aggression pheromones. What followed was decades of violent conflict which killed millions on all sides and did immense damage to the environment of Thallasa, in the end, the Selach turned to Cephan science to bring the war to a conclusion.

The Cephan had been working slavishly on a weapon capable of winning the war, they labored for years in the coral bunkers of the deepest trenches of the Abyss, eventually, they succeeded. Cephan bioengineers created a virus that would destroy the nervous systems of the Kraegar, with the permission of the Selach they deployed it.

The Virus did indeed destroy huge numbers of Kraegar, however, it soon mutated and began to have the same effect on all other forms of aquatic life. The so-called Abyssal Plague killed over a third of all life on the planet and irrevocably changed society on Thallasa thereafter. The war was over but with so many dead on all sides it was unclear who if anyone had won.



The Selach Ascendent

In the post-war climate the Selach emerged as the worlds primary superpower, their warships prowled the depths of Thallasa, they distributed aid to the worst affected and mercilessly crushed any remaining holdouts from the war.

The accords signed by all the surviving peoples of Thallasa were the beginning of a new Selach dominated order. The edict of unity created a caste-based order in which the Selach would be the new ruling class. The edict assigned each species to a role that they were believed to best occupy.

The Selach became the rulers and elite warriors of the new society

The Kraegar were now the warrior caste, their ferocity and penchant for total war would now serve the needs of all Thallasa

The Cephan were granted the role of scientists and scholars, their immense intellects making them perfectly suited to this duty

The Folk of the Deep in all their forms would labor and maintain the new society they found themselves subserviant to.

The strongest amongst the Selach alphas would compete for the title of 'Emperor' in a series of brutal trials that only one leader could emerge from victorious. The new Emperor or Empress would ascend the Coral Throne and rule over all the clades of Thallasa.

In time society returned to equilibrium under this new autocracy, technology entered a renaissance as the Cephan, motivated by a natural curiosity and very real societal pressure, continued to push the envelope on what was possible.

Rise to the Stars

Thalassa was wounded by the Kraegar wars, the violence disrupted the natural world and the ensuing plague crippled food sources that were once abundant in the depths. Over time population control and rationing grew insufficient to stave off potential extinction.

A decision was made to send large numbers of pioneers out into the wider stars, at the time of the first expedition's technology was primitive and the primary vessels were little more then solar-powered generation ships with hydrogen shielding from the radiation outside.

Countless vessels were launched out into the dark of space, it is unknown how many were destroyed or lost, the few that did reach habitable worlds arrived at their destinations decades or even centuries later, often landing on worlds that were barely able to support aquatic life.

And yet of the myriad failed voyages, some did succeed, ironically these caretaker colonists were soon to be superseded by a new wave of colonists.

In the proceeding decades, the Cephan experimented with various forms of FTL engines, eventually, they were able to produce a waveform core that was capable of using the currents of radiation in the wider universe to propel a vessel to its destination at faster than light speeds. Barely a decade after most first wave colonists emerged from stasis they found their skies darkened by the arrival of countless second stage explorers.


In some cases the new arrivals integrated well with the previous wave of explorers, in many others tensions rose and violence erupted, many Kraegar deployments occurred during this time as rogue colonies were purged and resettled.


Blissful Isolation

Free from the confines of their ancient homeworld the United Depths entered an age of prosperity, food was shipped back to Thallasa from every corner of the empire, resource-rich colonies were established across known space and the populations and lifespans of the clades tripled during this time.

During this golden age, many strange relics were discovered across Thallasan space, signs of the presence of the mysterious Awakeners. Many in the Cephan caste began to speculate on the nature of these mysterious beings, concluding that they might have potentially visited untold worlds and uplifted many more species. Probes and exploratory teams were soon dispatched to search for signs of their passing on every known world.

Whilst it was always suspected that the Thallasan Clades were not alone in the stars, there was literal interest in meeting new species, living in the United Depths was peaceful and easy and the potential complications of a first contact made the idea unfashionable amongst the ruling classes. Thallasa and its colonies remained in blissful isolation for Millennia.

Tendrils outstretched

Everything changed in the ninth age of Thallasa, deep space probes thought lost for generations suddenly awoke and began broadcasting data from locations across the span of the cosmos. Images of inhabited worlds and species vastly different from the Thallasan clades both shocked and fascinated in equal measure, what had always been suspected was now confirmed, we were not alone in the cold darkness.

Now the United Depths watch the stars with both hope and anxiety, first contact is imminent and the probes will soon be detected by the races of wider Inaius, the emperor has chosen to embrace this new age with tendrils outstretched, the time has come for us to navigate this new ocean as we once did the vastness of our own mother seas.
 
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