Civese

---

Dance, O Freest Aeon

This content is a part of Cosmoria.

---

---

Index / Lexica / Timeline

---

Civese (Lattririo tauma) are an intelligent species native to Eos. One of the many intelligent races created by Ma'eau, the Civese number among a small group of carbon and silicon-based organisms called the Civereal. They are the second most populous people group of Eos but have historically ranked most common. Because they did not evolve through Darwinian means, but instead as a model in Ma'eau's mind, they borrow characteristics from dozens of organisms.

The Civese have played a role in history since records began in 2,000 BCE. They made up a small portion of Eos' oldest city, Paradigm, but retained their simple lifestyle until 5900 CE. They entered the bronze age around this time, giving them access to a more complex society. They created POLIKY in 5923 CE, then a spirit they captured using primitive Thaumaturgy. POLIKY proved tremendously useful as a philosopher; it proved many truths about Thaumaturgy that enhanced traditional practices. The Civese founded their Great Cities soon after. Civestadt, Haviir, Osematu, Tonuur, and Tajuura remain the center of Civese politics to this day. These planet-sized cities represent the bulk of their population. Despite their relatively small population, Civese societies are formidable.

The Civese have a sister species called the Luxscions. Hailing from the Lux Aeterna, the Luxscions are fully integrated into Civese society.

History

Origin

The Civese emerged around one hundred thousand BCE. Above the site of the modern city of Civestadt, an immense flower slowly blossomed. Its stamen brushed against space, supported on stalks thicker than the trunk of any tree. Its pedals shaded tens of millions of square kilometers. The roots moved so much weight that Eos began wobbling. Ma'eau used flowers to spread information. Spaceborne pollinators gleefully consumed provided sugars. In exchange, they spread information in the form of fist-sized pollen grains throughout Aylathiya. Ma'eau, the creator of most life, prefers communication in this way over all other forms.

Such a large flower took centuries to communicate with the homeworld, Velevev. The inflorescence on Eos finally received the plans, immensely detailed instructions that it would faithfully carry out. The pedals decomposed over another century, slowly pulling into the earth. Their nutrients fueled Infructescence, the origin of a new species. The flower finally collapsed into a single mountain-sized aggregate. Over ten thousand berries ripened; the first Civese punched their way out. They emerged onto a barren plateau, the flower prevented anything from growing for several millennia by then.

Hunger drove them to experiment with the environment. While the remains of their gestation chambers sufficed for a time, they needed to learn to sustain themselves. Crystalline plants proved adequate. Hundreds of less dramatic flowers populated the region with crystalline life. Plants, animals, and even microorganisms now competed with Eos' predominantly carbon-based life. Ma'eau severely hindered the spread of carbon life into the new Civese region.

Development

The Civese emerged into Cosmoria during its Dark Age. No spacefaring civilizations existed, meaning primitive species remained uncontacted. Civese tribes roamed their rocky lands, learning to exploit the bountiful ecosystem that, at first glance, seemed dead save for the roaming animals. Most plants are easily mistaken for rubble or regolith strewn throughout jagged terrain. The Civese mastered the crevasses and learned to trap animals, identify edible plants, and hunt large game.

For fifty thousand years, the Civese remained in the stone age. They were not stagnant, however; they developed one of the few instances of Shamanic Thaumaturgy. Shamans enter trance states that can ensnare Spirits, causing them to temporarily inhabit the shaman's mind. While risky and done far from settlements, this art form was a potent source of power. Whether they were asked to heal psychosomatic illnesses, destroy enemies, or offer wisdom, shamans proved useful. If the spirit had more willpower than the shaman, the trance would be fatal. Civese society began heavily emphasizing willpower even amongst non-shamans. This ultimately made them more productive. They spent much time erecting monuments, favoring kilometer-spanning rings of rock. Later monuments included artistic depictions of plants, animals, and themselves.

The invention of bronze tools and agriculture caused a population explosion. With more shamans at their disposal, Civese kingdoms systematized their religious practice. Their largest project, involving the collaboration of every kingdom, was permanent spirit capture. The red sun was at its highest point in the sky on the day they finally captured one. Civese shamans took their places in a ring of stones. They sat down and entered their trance states. At once, over one thousand spirits had been captured. By the rules of probability, at least one would be intelligent.

Each shaman passed their spirits to the left, but a natural consequence was a staggered passing. Every so often, a shaman would host two at once, but the stronger of the two quickly subsumed the other. The result was an ever-growing spirit of great power. For as long as the shamans could stay awake, they had a powerful weapon at their disposal. Since the shaman did not hold onto the spirit for too long, the issue of a spirit overriding its host could not happen. In the center of the large circle, every Civese king watched the spirit move about the ring, its position indicated by subtle distortion around the hosting shaman's head. The project's leader sat between two shamans, offering a request to their imprisoned spirit. A mound of copper ore placed next to the ring immediately melted. Each king immediately began considering the implications of this technique.

Spirit Technology

The Civese had been slowly spreading out over thousands of years. They brought seeds that spread their crystalline lifeforms deep into carbon-based territory. Countless kingdoms emerged throughout Civese land. Occasionally, a kingdom would "learn humility," an expression that meant summoning a spirit powerful enough to disrupt their ring-based containment system. Such specters, whose motivations were often nonsensical, obliterated entire kingdoms and often their neighbors as well. As kingdoms grew, their rituals became increasingly elaborate and more destructive when they failed.

By 5900 CE, fewer than a dozen kingdoms remained. Despite the Civese population being higher than ever, the number of independent states had become exponentially smaller. They began tapping into Classical Thaumaturgy but remained devoted to their shamanic practices. Their religion had become quite elaborate. The foundational tenet, that all phenomena were the result of cause and effect, kept their study of the universe grounded. Kingdoms with more fantastical belief systems met an end to the increasingly dangerous phantoms.

Every kingdom straddled the edges between uninhabitable areas. Some places had become plains of glass, others remained inhabited by persistent spirits, and others were simply craters. War had long since become impractical as the narrow stretches of passable territory that connected kingdoms were easy to defend. With the slow development of iron tools came the final advancement in shamanic thaumaturgy, fully stable capture. The kingdoms collaborated to construct the largest spirit-summoning ritual in history. With drugs that kept shamans awake and in a permanent trace state, multiple nested rings captured the spirit that would later be called POLIKY. Instead of leaving summoning up to chance, the Civese carefully filtered out malevolent and benevolent spirits alike. They did not want to face destruction or enslavement like some of their extinct brethren. The result was a spirit with not much of an agenda, but a fiery passion for finding out what it should do. This easily manipulated but powerful being was the ultimate spirit.

Entering the Galactic Stage

POLIKY grew in political power as it grew in Thaumic ability. After decades of existence, POLIKY requested that the seven remaining kingdoms form a single government. The first four great cities—Civestadt, Haviir, Osematu, and Tonuur—were the result. The resulting Payotari Quartet had a population of nearly one billion and occupied all known Civese territory. It did not control every Civese, as they had continued to expand tens of thousands of kilometers in every direction. Each of the cities had a militia used for expanding into these hinterlands. Any new Civese kingdom quickly met its end.

POLIKY was tremendously intelligent and could explore the universe by inhabiting a particular individual. This avatar went on long journeys while the rings sustained POLIKY's main body. Each time POLIKY journeyed into the universe, it returned with an artifact. Even though the Civese had no idea who made them, these artifacts could replace a shaman in the ring. Soon, POLIKY found substitutes for all one hundred thousand shamans.

The nation of Sedrua kindly informed the Civese that these artifacts were created by the legendary Zaphenim. Most of them were Aeterna Crystals, some were Pseudo-Pylons, and some were persistent spirits POLIKY forced to remain in place. Sedrua's Itrian Yutira attempted to seize the artifacts, but she could not beat POLIKY's army of guardians. When POLIKY returned, it never left again, preferring to stay near its ring to defend itself. Sedrua's forces redoubled their efforts, alarmed that this primitive civilization unlocked techniques far beyond Sedrua's spirit manipulation. POLIKY's weapon of choice, intense beams of gamma radiation, proved an effective deterrent to Sedrua's magi.

Instead of risking leaving its ring for future escapades, POLIKY requested small units of Civese magi. This is the first time it butted heads with the Quartet, however. The ruling council preferred dispatching the strongest magi, while POLIKY decided to use them to defend itself. Although they were under no obligation to obey POLIKY's whims, the powerful spirit was the only being powerful to defend against Sedrua. Thus began a long history of POLIKY's relation with all future Civese states. It was an indispensable weapon the state depended on to sustain independence, and POLIKY depended on the state for maintenance; if it resists too much, the Civese may risk abandoning it.

Most Civese remain in the Great Cities, which now includes Tajuura following the Civese War. The Civese played the game of imperialism in conjunction with Sedrua and the Triumvirate Civilization, prompting them to fervently expand. The next largest group lives around Matoehdahn under the Commonwealth of Aggregate Aylathiya. The Civese ruled Matoehdahn for over one thousand years and remain significant. Poratus, Hearts represents another Civese stronghold.

Biology

Most lifeforms have fundamental units, usually as indivisible parts beneath which life cannot exist. Cells are the most common unit. The Civese join the relative handful of lifeforms that employ an uninterrupted internal fluid. This fluid is responsible for most processes, but organ-like structures separate sensitive reactions from the universal fluid.

Physical

All Civese structure is a crystalline lattice called the mineria. Made up of carbon and silicon, the mineria varies in density from less than air to that of silica crystal. On a microscopic scale, the mineria takes on the appearance of a network. Motor complexes travel along the network with large vacuoles in tow. Most activity occurs in the water contained by the silica exterior. This water solution contains innumerable fragments only nanometers across. Called mineriola, these fragments host complex enzymes that process chemical energy, receive hormones, construct macromolecules, and handle immune responses.

Throughout the body are string-like structures, at most a micrometer in radius, that transmit information. Muscles pull the strings when stimulated and relax them when not. Sensory receptors, in the form of sensitive muscles, tug on the corresponding receptors at the base of the brain. Billions of these strings, each corresponding to a different location and sensation, comprise the Civese nervous system. The brain is a complex network of tunnels within the cerebrosilex crystal.

Lifecycle

Civese start life as spores capable of weathering dry or nutrient-poor conditions. A Civese parent will deposit the spore into mineral-rich water in which it will slowly accumulate mass. Over six months, it will grow limbs, a rudimentary brain, and develop a metabolism. By the end of the process, they weigh about four kilograms and are entirely helpless. Civese parents collectively raise their young in large family groups called clans. They live for one hundred eighty years on average.

Society

The Civese form groups of twenty to one hundred called clans. Difficult to separate, these groups are the backbone of Civese society. This family system resulted in a gradual spread throughout Eos. Clans naturally keep distant from one another. Entire clans, not individuals, hold positions of power in Civese society. Magi-clans usually occupy these positions; they use Thaumaturgy collectively. Those with a greater ability to use Thaumaturgy form a ruling class. Even though all Civese can learn a form of Thaumaturgy, Classical Thaumaturgy is the dominant force in Civese civilization.

Communing with spirits remains a central fixture in Civese religion and spiritualism. With most religions fearing spirits or calling for their eradication, Civese nations have long needed to justify their position by force. POLIKY, a network of spirits, computer systems, and magi, remains at the pinnacle of spirit technology.