Homo gigantopithecus | |
Image from Arik
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| Three diverse members of Clade Goliath compared with a nearbaseline human (click for larger image) | |
History
The Goliaths are a human derived species that were first created around the 420s. They were mostly created in the Gengineer Republic, specifically in the Jovian moons and their respective orbitals. During the late Interplanetary period, there was an increasing amount of gambling and other rowdy cis-Jovian orbitals that were much akin to 19th century American West, 21st century Las Vegas and 24th century Titan (Old Earth calendars). The Goliath species was created because of direct response to the need for strongmen/bouncers for many shady and underground organizations or organized crime. The darker side was that many were held or hired for illegal gladiatorial battles.
After the Interplanetary Dark Ages, there were only a couple hundred Goliaths left, who were especially hard hit from the swarms, because of their large size and high energy consumption. With the help of slight genetic manipulation to maintain genetic diversity, and along with cloning and artificial wombs, they slowly rebuilt their population to pre-Dark Age numbers (around 530). During the Federation and later periods, Goliaths were increasingly persecuted because of their history of being strongmen for organized crime and their (unfounded) reputation of being dumb, clumsy oafs. This, and their historic mistrust of authority, drove many to become part of numerous Hider and Haloist groups.
Until the mid-7000s, they were a mainly Inner Sphere species, but recently they have spread far over colonized space. It is estimated that they currently number about twenty two billion throughout the Terragen Sphere, in hundreds of clades and 5 distinct subspecies.(Homo gigantopithecus maximus, Homo gigantopithecus semiterrestralis, Homo gigantopithecus cosmoi, Homo gigantopithecus pilosus, and Homo gigantopithecus tantillus).
Biology
Goliaths are a sexually dimorphic species with males usually ranging anywhere from 2.5 - 3.5 meters in height, while females are 2 - 2.5 meters in height. A newborn Goliath is only slightly larger than eir baseline counterpart. Growth in Goliaths is similar to baselines throughout childhood, up into adolescents. While as baselines become physically mature at 12-16 years of age, Goliaths usually do not become physically mature until their early to mid-twenties, their late maturity giving them extra time to grow. In addition to them being very physically tall, they are also very physically robust, and gain muscle mass very easily (which originally made them all that more intimidating.) Besides their size, Goliaths have many other interesting attributes, including an extra opposable thumb, extra coronary receptors to give them limited night vision, a very acute sense of smell (as a result they usually have an unusually large, bridged nose), and large, meaty hands, (more like a baseline gorilla's than an ordinary human's, but just as dexterous as the latter). Their natural life span is around 95 years, although almost always this is extended with available longevity tech.
Inter-species Relationships
Most Goliaths live in interspecies communities and habitats, existing happily alongside a host of other species and races. But many, more isolationist, prefer ethnic enclaves, as a less extreme and more attractive alternative to Hiders. There are however also still a number of Goliaths in Hider communities.
Source : http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/47ec44d00db9b
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Hiders
There are many ordinary sophonts who do not trust the ruling superbrights and hyperturings. Some who have the resources to do so flee outwards to the periphery, seeking to start a new world. Others conceal themselves in great worldships plying the vast distances between the stars, or in small resource-poor systems not connected to the main stargate nexus. Many establish habitats in the icy bodies of the Oort clouds. Some hide out even in the midst of great cities, using high level encryption to ensure they are not monitored. A few even seek to overthrow the established order, but most hiders prefer to keep to themselves, nursing their paranoia in private, developing their own unique cultures, their own trade links, their unique technologies and genemods and cybermods, prospecting for relics and artefacts undiscovered by other civilizations, and networking with other clades and phyles that share their stance. Their numbers cannot be estimated, for there are no censuses in which they will willingly register themselves. Even their quantum encrypted messages are full of disinformation and false leads. Polities of ordinary sophonts, and even the high singularity powers do not know how many there are, or where they are. Or if they do, they're not telling. To be a Hider is to be outside the reach of the civilized galaxy; to be an individual, not a pawn in memetic battles among hyperturings, or a prospective recruit for the megacorps, their subliminals and their madverts. Hiders seek to be free, to be truly free to be themselves and develop their own culture and traditions, their own memetics, their own mods, their own laws and standards and principles and ontologies. And to obsess over conspiracies, and dream for a day where one day the megacorps and the interstellar empires and the hyperturings will no longer enforce their hegemony over mindkind.
Source : https://orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45bd1a9eb4a5c
Haloers
also K-Belters, Oort-Miners, Outerists, Haloisters, Halos
History
The Kuiper Belt contains a mixture of millions of icy bodies ranging from dwarf planets such as Pluto, Makemake and Haumea down to bodies less than 20km across. The first mission to this region was the New Horizons probe, passing Pluto and Charon in 46 AT and 2014 MU69 in 50AT. Several more flyby and orbiting missions were followed by the first autonomous lander in 119 AT; this included a rover powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which operated for nearly ten years. The first manned landing (on Pluto) in 290 AT was followed by sporadic colonisation of several other objects, but most of the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud were still largely untouched by colonisation even at the end of the Interplanetary Age.
At this time Mars, the Belt, and the Gas Giants were the high frontier, there was talk of sending a mission to Tau Ceti, and not many individuals wished to spend years in the resource-poor Kuiper and Oort regions, where the sun is nothing but a bright star in the cold sky.
But by the start of the Nanotech Age early megacorps such as Oort Mining, High Frontier Developments, and Interplanetary Ice were selling franchises to anyone who wished to mine and develop the outer halo bodies of the Sol System. Encouraged by generous loans, tens of thousands took up the offer. Many small family and clan owned asteroid companies also invested in this new development. Some of those involved went bankrupt, some went mad, some were ill-equipped or incompetent with the machinery. But for many it was a way out of the hopelessness and despair of the overcrowded arcologies and slums of Old Earth.
Over the next century or so, waves of prospectors, idealists, eccentrics, loners, and small venture miners settled the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud, in exactly the same way they had settled the asteroid belt, the moon, and Mars in the recent past. And a similar pattern of diverse interwoven cultures and subcultures, clades and sub-clades, developed in that time. If anything the diversity of the Haloists or Haloers, as they came to be known, was even greater than of the Belters, for by now humankind had evolved into more species and races - superiors, space adapts, cyborgs, provolves (mostly Sapientchimps and Enhanced Dolphins), baselines and nearbaselines - and every combination in between, developed the new "wild west" of the cold distant frontier, relishing in the freedom, while the big transport, development, and mining corporations raked in the profits.
Source : https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/466748b666cc8
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