Fiction > The Children of Tellus > The Peoples of the Solar System

The Peoples of the Solar System

When scientists began to suspect that there was life on other worlds, they took it for granted that there would also be people. But, no one expected they would be human people, the sort of people who could breath oxygen and digest beer. But, this was incontrovertibly proven in the 1920s, when millions of human Martians moved to the Earth.

Apparently, human beings conquered the stars long before modern civilization, spreading themselves across the Central Worlds. But, for unknown reasons, their empires crumbled to dust, and their descendants were left to diversify into all the peoples of the Solar System.

§ 1 Tellurians

The Earth is the cradle of civilization -- all other human beings are more related to Telurians than they are of each other, and there are a plethora of hominid fossils on Tellus (not to mention the only non - human apes anywhere in the universe). A thin layer of microplastics, situated in the early Pleistocene, betrays a vanished industrial civilization, one which neatly coincides with the arrivals of mankind on other worlds.

Not coincidentally, Tellurians are the most basal of men. Their build, skin, and hair color may vary from place to place, but they have not had many novel evolutionary pressures. For most of their existence, they have lived as their ancestors did: foraging for food and running down big game.

§ 2 Venusians

Venus has little dry land -- there are a few islands here or there, but a tiny proportion of the population lives there. Most live on floating islands, great mats of floating plants. A smaller proportion live in great rain-forests which grow out of shallow seas.

Venusians tend to be tall, with long torsos and shortish legs, along with large hands and feet. This is believed to be an adaption for better swimming. All of them have notably long arms, but this is taken to an extreme amount the tree - dwellers. They constantly brachiate, and almost resemble gibbons.

In the tropics, most Venusians have dark skin. But, in more extreme latitudes, they tend to have a brown or olive complexion. Almost all of them have black or auburn hair, with typically gray eyes.

They also have notably long lifespans. If not slain by disease or violence, most Venusians will live into their hundreds. They tend to have very good memories, though this may be due to nurture rather than nature. Venus is very wet, so paper and papyrus degrade quickly. Most Venusian cultures do have writing, but it's fairly rare, and much most information is recorded orally.

Venusians always mate for life. None of them practice polygamy or serial monogamy, no Venusian has any interest in one - night stands. They tend to marry in their late twenties, and 'til death do they part. If her spouse dies, a Venusian will never marry again. Usually, she will fall into a deep depression and waste away. They are as fast as swans, though perhaps more faithful.

As there is no ground, there is no metallurgy, and Venusians have had to breed plants to do everything for them. Some are spun into clothes, others become food and medicine. Some create conveniently boat - shaped stalks, a few have been bred into dirigibles. Many carnivorous plants function as traps or sentries.

§ 3 Cynthians

Cynthia is Tellus's only moon, a small and dry world. On a purely physiological level, Cynthians appear very distinct. To adapt to the lower gravity, they have grown tall and lanky. And their faces are quite strange to Tellurian eyes; they have hooked noses and long, pointed ears, with piercing, bright eyes.

But, this is not what makes Cynthians unique. Cynthia is a tidally - locked world -- the Moon's day is as long as its orbital period, which happens to be about a month. Humans were not designed for such an environment, so evolution had to get very creative.

To protect themselves from prolonged exposure to UV radiation, the Cynthians have developed thick, gray skin -- similar in color to an elephant's, though far smoother. Their eyes are much wider, to see in the dark, and their other senses are much sharper. But, their odd approach to sleep is the most distinctive thing about them.

Cynthians cannot sleep through the night, because the night is several hundred hours long. So, they have developed naturally split brains. One hemisphere will dream and sleep while the other commands the body, and they will trade every few hours. The two halves share memories, and their personalities are usually quite similar. But, occasionally, something goes wrong, and they function as two completely separate people. This has led Cynthians to have different intuitions about moral responsibility and personal identity than most people do -- their philosophers are much more prone to Anattā and Humean bundle theory.

Every so often -- about once every three or four Tellurian days -- the whole person must rest for fifteen or twenty hours. This is to let the body recuperate, the minds can go without it just fine.

§ 4 Celish

Cels is a moon of Jove, and it is frequently battered by intense radiation storms. At their best, they can produce beautiful aurorae. At their worst, they cause cancer.

To cope with this, the Celish learned to live underground, in tightly - knit fortresses or warrens. They seem to have started by living in caves. But, long ago, they developed better tools, and now most of them dig out their own homes.

Their bodies have grown short and slim, to better fit through narrow passageways. And their eyes have grown big to see in the dark. Their skin tends to be light - colored, often almost albino. But, their hair can be a wide variety of colors. Many of them are gingers.

They tend to be meek and intellectually curious, but they also value predictability. The Celish have a much stronger sense of place attachment than other human beings, and they rarely leave their warrens. Most dislike change, and their social structures tend to be simple and explicit. When a child is assessed for Autistic Psychopathy, Celish ancestry is a common differential diagnosis.

§ 5 Martians

Mars is small, cold, and dry, and this has driven Martian evolution. They tend to be tall and muscular, and very furry. Both sexes grow thick beards, and many are entirely covered by fuzzy stubble. They tend to have thick chests and large lungs, to breath the thin Martian air. Before the invention of agriculture, most Martians appear to have been pastoralists, and all extant populations can digest milk.

Martians were the first to develop spaceflight, and they explored the central solar system in the early twentieth century. At first, the exploring Martians were just curious, or else selling something. But, in 1923, a volcanic catastrophe befell Mars, and tens of millions of people fled. Some of them moved to the Martian colonies on Boreas, whose native people died out long ago. They passed up Venus, finding it too warm and wet, and they found Cels too radioactive.

But, they loved cool grasslands -- Mars is was replete with cool grasslands. Many peacefully immigrated to Argentina and the North American prairies (especially to the North, they really love Montana and Alberta). But, millions of them wished to immigrate to the Eurasian steppe. Stalin was not particularly keen on this idea, so it was taken from him.

The Karashan Dynasty, one of the most powerful houses of Mars, abruptly decided that Northern Asia was theirs now. The Karashan empress descended into warlord era China, armed with millions of drones and railguns. She would unify the country within a few months. By 1928, Moscow had fallen. The Martians were beloved by their subjects. They ended China's century of humiliation and ushered in a new golden age. The Russians found them to be very genial rulers. Admittedly, they were competing with Stalin and the Tsars, so this was not a wringing endorsement.

But, today, most Karashan Martians are not totally Martian. They definitely have Martian blood, but they also have Slavic, Han, and Turkic ancestors. Culturally, the whole empire is slowly but surely becoming Chinese.