Argommi

Argommi
Holotype
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Species:	O. cognitus
Binomial name
Ornithosapiens cognitus Suyin, 2113
Subspecies
Sauropithecus polydactylus

The Argommi (Sauropithecus polydactylus) are the only intelligent inhabitants of the planet Alo orbiting YBP1194. They are bipedal pseudo-reptilians with a defined snout and a wide range of pigmints for their scaly skin, and stores of fat and warm blood similar to terran mammals.

Evolution

The Argommi belong to a taxonomic family of synapsid-like Aloan "vertebrates" designated Sauropithecae, which first emerged 90-110 mya (classification revisions are still ongoing and the term Aloan Synapsids remains a controversial term). This family is known for its ability to sweat, bodies covered in a papillose dermis (similar to Earth's Geckos), five fingered hands, a high degree of intelligence. Because of their body's having a papillose surface, many have been observed to be hydrophobic and extremely resistant to microbial infection. Most Sauropithecae have smoother skin stretching from under the chin to the groin, and beneath their arm pits, allowing them to sweat. Like most Aloan land-dwelling "vertebrates", the Argommi and indeed all Sauropithecae do shed their skin, but only in small flakes, rather than a complete molt.

Cultures

Most Argommi societies operate on a double gender binary with 2 primary genders and 4 secondary genders. Male and female are further divided into masculine and feminine gender expressions, typically based on which members of either primary gender possess a ventral brood pouch. Pre-First Contact most societies did not have a concept for genderless or non-binary gender expression, however the right to change one's gender is considered a non-issue by most Argommi societies. Post-First Contact many Argommi have begun to come forward and expressed a greater degree of gender fluidity with limited pushback from society writ large.

Argommi societies are not patriarchal but do place the masculine genders above the feminine. This culture is essentially a gender inclusive, homophobic version of Ancient Roman "paterfamilias" dynamics, though not quite as rigid. The masculine member of the family is expected to take a spouse from the opposite end of the gender binary (Masculine man + feminine woman, masculine woman + feminine man) and act as the head of the household. Since First Contact, the existing Gay Rights movement in many of Alo's polities has been given a shot in the arm, and social reforms have followed at local, provincial, even regional levels. However the United Alo Protectorate's last 4 administrations have taken no stance to condemn or endorse the movement, walking a careful balance between appeasing local politics and trying to maintain cordial relations with the United States. The Canavin Union is far more regressive on these issues, having adopted a reactionary stance over the decades to all human culture and politics.

History

First Civilization

Early Argommi civilization reached its height in the 12th Century, centered on two empires on the planet's two southern continents, Osomi and Haklo, more specifically those with territory around the Taura Gulf. These empires routinely warred against one another, but their proximity also led to the frequent development of interconnected trade routs between themselves and their various vassal states further inland of their respective continents. This period was marked by pottery and art similar in sophistication to those of the Japanese Edo period, and featured sprawling cities that managed an intricate series of irrigation systems. However by 1202 CE, what is believed to have been an asteroid struck the planet's northern quasi-Taiga forests on the yet undiscovered continent of Canavin, creating a fire that released a considerable amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

The Great Flood

From 1202 CE to 1338 CE, Alo's mean temperature rose by 4 degrees C, melting the large ice caps covering the poles and flooding the large open plains of the planet's lowlands. The Osomi empire had the overwhelming majority of its population and land destroyed by the Great Flood, and all that remains today are a smattering of islands in what is now the Taura Sea. For over a century, Osomi's interior was flooded by refugees in the largest mass migration the planet had ever seen. The Empire of Haklo was more fortunate, and while it lost most of its best land, its culture endured in the near-coastal highlands that made up its hinterlands.

An estimated 100 million Argommi died during the Great Flood. Only the survivors of maritime communities and mountain dwelling tribes survived the initial flooding, and another 70 million Argommi died of starvation and disease packed into ships or refugee camps after the flooding. By 1400 CE, roughly 70% of the pre-Flood population of the planet had died.

Hakloan Renaissance

Haklo was able to maintain a fraction of its wealth and political cohesion after the Great Flood. The pre-Flood dynasty had fallen by 1391 CE, and with it the old Hakloan empire shattered into smaller polities. This period of feudalism lasted until the early 17th century, and concluded with rise of the eastern Kingdom of Mulai which grew to overtake the old pre-Flood fiefdoms of the western coast. Mulai's size and geographic security gave it position for an economic boom and period of scientific achievement that gave rise to the lateen sail, the marine chronometer, along with advancements in astronomy, mathematics, and horticulture which spread throughout Haklo and eventually into Osomi. The Mulaians most unique innovation of this period was in the field of aviation. By cultivating blanketweed, a kind of macroalgae that under ideal conditions could grow in huge sheets of over a thousand square meters the Mulaians were able to create simple hot air balloons that would come to dominate both military intelligence and weather reporting for a society roughly at the level of Europe in the 14th century.

By the late 18th century, the Hakloan Renaissance had made its way to the Osomi mainland, mainly through trade routs and imperial projects by the post-imperial Hakloan fiefdoms. For nearly 50 years, the movement remained concentrated in the islands that made up the Taura Sea, and the northern regions of the continent. This region effectively became colonies of the western Hakloans. Eventually the movement reached the center and south of the continent through slower moving trade caravans. These regions were more agriculturally wealthy due to their more favorable climates, and over the next two centuries the southern Osomi states, particularly the then tiny Kingdom of Kuvo, would grow to surpass the Hakloans in terms of population, economic output, and by some measures cultural achievement.

Age of Discovery

The subcontinent of Canavin was first discovered by Mulian sailors in 1811 CE. The continent is extremely difficult to reach via sailing watercraft, but its discovery led to an age of colonization by the various nation-states and empires of Osomi and Haklo. Due to its proximity to the Vassta archipelago (a sunken subcontinent), which was already heavily colonized by the Hakloans, a trade rout between Haklo, Vassta, and Canavin developed, making Haklo's empires vastly wealthy from the import of raw materials and exotic flora and fauna from Canavin. In 1979 CE, the first of the Canavin colonies achieved independence, kicking off a wave of anti-imperialist independence movements on the continent. It was during this period that the Osomi nations began using hydrogen blimps and paragliders for sustained surveillance at both land and sea.

Rise of Kuvo

Mulia resisted the independence push and fought numerous wars to hold onto their position in the northern hemisphere, but were undone by Kuvo and the rest of the Osomi's willingness to recognize and actively support the independence of the colonies (made easier by most Osomi states having relatively few possessions in the Northern Hemisphere). However, this gave rise to a wave of revolutionary activity in Osomi as well, with Kuvo successfully overthrowing their monarch and spreading north in one of the first truly global conflicts on Alo. By the end of the war, the Kuvo Republic came to dominate the highly contested great valley of Osomi. Kuvo prospered, and made major advancements in science and technology with its caloric surplus from the Great Valley. By 2015 CE, Kuvo's leading pioneers in aviation had created the first powered aircraft, a multi-lobed blimp that used both hydrogen lifting gas and lift to remain airborne.

By 2040 CE, Kuvo had helped found the Osomi CoDominium with the former colonies of Haklo. This would be the first supranational union on the planet, and its formation would create a unified monetary and trade zone greater than any other power. This would in turn lead to the creation of the Tilio'ramna pact at one of the oldest cities on the planet at the seat of the post-Flood Hakloan Empire. The TP did not include Mulia upon its formation, but eventually the western half of the continent joined in 2097 CE. Canavin formed its own supranational union in 2061 to avoid being dominated by either its old colonial masters. The North coast of Haklo formed the North Hakloan Security Organization in 2074 from an existing Aukska League, a trade confederation that had existed for 149 years prior.

Modern civilization

Modern Argommi civilization achieved a surprisingly high level of technological sophistication at the time of First Contact, equivalent to Earth in the latter half of the 20th Century. Pre-contact most Argommi nations had achieved at least some form of industrialization, produced or could procure fairly simple personal digital computers, and had developed an aeronautical industry with a heavy focus on hybrid airships. Ground effect hybrid airships dominated air cargo and commercial aviation services, while high altitude hybrid airships were used extensively for reconnaissance and defense. The largest such craft was operated by the OC to serve as a nuclear launch platform, although only one had been built given the extreme cost of operating it. The use of surveillance airships was so prevalent on Alo, that the Argommi were only just beginning to make serious experiments with high altitude rocketry at the time of First Contact, but had yet to launch their first satellite.

The Argommi depend primarily on geothermal, wind, tidal, and nuclear power to power their civilization. They also cultivated a type of seaweed which can be readily processed into a useful hydrocarbon fuel which has been in use since before the Great Flood as a source of lamp oil. Aquaculture on this scale has also been practiced on Tel-ma.

There have been at least four planetary wars between the five great confederations in the last century, with nuclear weapons being used 15 years prior to first contact during the last planetary war by two of the major powers. Nuclear warfare was practiced chiefly at sea, with 26 bombs having been used in both planetary and regional conflicts. There are no examples of nuclear attacks against civilian centers however, and the Argommi civilizations all operate an "Escalate-to-Deescalate" doctrine for their nuclear arsenals.

First Contact

On July 4, 2103 the Odysseus XI probe entered the edge of the YBP1194 system after a 15 year journey mapping a safe rout to the star system. Its Bubble Trap was released upon a small piece of space debris creating a relatively small blast of radiation visible as a twinkling star on the surface of Alo. By all accounts, this went unnoticed by the all but two amateur astronomers who were unable to identify a source. Their log entries identifying the light they saw would not be reported until after First Contact. Odysseus XI spent two years charting the planetary system and observing Alo, confirming the presence of intelligent life that had been suspected since the United Interferometry Network first started imaging the star system in the 2050s. Upon confirming the presence of an industrial civilization, NASA changed the flight schedule for the IV-402 Beagle III to conduct first contact, and Odysseus XI, along with its subordinate satellites, was tasked with monitoring radio signals to aid the creation of a translation model for the major Aloan languages.

On January 9, 2112 the IV-402 Beagle III entered the edge of the YBP1194, dropping out of warp and releasing its far larger Bubble Trap. That flash of light and the subsequent smaller, more persistent, and growing light of its antimatter rocket was observed by from Alo. Ground based telescopes began tracking the light source on January 11, 2112, though their technology was not sophisticated enough to identify the Beagle III itself. Beagle III shut down its antimatter drive on January 15, 2112 and rendezvoused with an Alo Trojan asteroid, where it began the automated fabrication of a Beachhead Orbital. The crew of the Beagle III was completely awoken from suspended animation by March 3, 2112, by which point the astronomers on Alo had traced the Beagle III's trajectory to its L4 Lagrange point. Satellites manufactured from the Trojan asteroid and real-time data from Odysseus XI confirmed not only advanced industrial civilizations but large ground based observatories, which convinced NASA to issue an order to Beagle III to halt all plans for uncrewed landings and to instead prioritize First Contact-at-a-distance or radio First Contact on April 2, 2112. For the next year, the crew of the Beagle III would use their satellite network to tap into the radio and TV signals of the planet. They made no attempt to mask the presence of the satellites orbiting Alo, as it was assumed any civilization with ground based observatories on the scale of Alo's would have been able to spot an antimatter driven spacecraft.

From the surface the 16 months since entering the star system created a social drama unlike any the planet had yet seen. Astronomers were convinced for the first 9 months that the persistent light source was artificial, most likely from an alien spacecraft, however a sizable minority of the public believed the light was some kind of a religious event. For the week the Beagle III burned its engines panic and mass hysteria gripped the planet, leading to riots along with several mass-suicides with 11,703 confirmed deaths attributed to the arrival or disappearance of the light in the sky. Most Argommi agreed with the assessment that it was an alien spacecraft and by January 14 mass panic had eased into curiosity and anxiousness according to local sociologists. Several months after the Beagle III shut down its engines, dissenting opinions began to emerge from both the scientific community and the public, with many suggesting the Beagle III's antimatter plume was some kind of celestial phenomena. That changed on April 29, 2112 when the first satellite was spotted in orbit by ground based observatories. Initially the streak of light was dismissed as a meteorite by most, but after 7 more were identified in unique orbits another wave of panic erupted. This time there were no riots, but rather demands that the Argommi governments take action. What action was entirely up for debate. The great trading confederations called for a series of summits where the leading members of the scientific community debated and proposed actions regarding first contact.

After six months of only seeing lights occasionally streak across the sky, and no notion of where the supposed mothership had gone, many in the scientific community had settled on the idea that they had been visited by an uncrewed interstellar probe similar to an old proposal from their world, and were now being observed for purely scientific reasons. No consensus was reached about how to respond, though the Kuvo Republic, the leading power of the Osomi CoDominium, elected to coordinate an effort within the OC to attempt radio contact with these probes via its civilian space program. This prompted condemnation from the Tilio'ramna Pact and neglect from the Canavin Union, who it was later confirmed attempted radio first contact in secret. The two minor pacts responded with nominal approval.

After repeated failed attempts to get a signal through on April 1, 2113 the Osomi CoDominium Astronomical Agency (OCAA) successfully sent a signal to the Orbital Radio Exploration Probe (OREP) IV. That signal was immediately forwarded to Beagle III who in turn forwarded it via superluminal array back to NASA who upon confirmation of a friendly message from a native polity gave the Beagle III First Contact Team the go order to provide a reply in the native languages of the planet. The reply was a series of tests to OCAA that would allow the local population to discover the intent and origins of humanity and respond to the message. By June 3, 2113 at the order of the OC Director General a formal greeting was issued to humanity and an invitation given for them to land.

After some initial confusion over where the CRV could actually touch down, the human crew made in-person First Contact at the Mall of Revolutionaries outside of the OC headquarters. A formal ceremony was held with leaders of the OC member nations and the scientific community, and the Beagle III's commanding officer made a brief statement in Low Osomi, the lingua franca of the OC. Around Alo, the public response was one of mild suspicion. Most considered the past 16 months to be the most chaotic in recent history, and many believed humans bared responsibility for the turmoil. Local leaders were equally skeptical, but recognized the opportunities relations with an advanced civilization would bring. Spurred on by the business and scientific community humans were granted approval to build embassies in the capitals of the OC nations, and guest lecturer positions were granted at major universities and some approved research institutes in order to begin technology transfer.

Per first contact protocol, humans also made their presence known to every other civilization on the planet and requested the Kuvo government agree to host a global summit to establish relations with the other nations. The Great Conference of Argommi saw all five of the Supranational blocs come together to host human embassies at the city of Sansomi in the Triplet Islands and accept technology transfer in exchange for a treaty outlining a common free-trade zone, nuclear arms reductions and adopting common protections for internet freedom. The Canavin Union refused to accept the required arms reductions or internet freedom policies, and instead declared its opposition to human intervention into Alo political affairs.

The Great Conference was seen by many on Alo as humanity meddling in their affairs, however a majority of people in the two blocs polled agreed that the resultant treaty was a positive thing. Public opinion of humanity further softened after humans introduced the local population to several advanced consumer and medical technologies like wireless digital communications, and cured numerous diseases within their first year of arriving through the use of genetic engineering. Many in the Canavin Union began to argue that they should reconsider negotiations with the other blocs, but this pushback only led to a series of crackdowns and a backslide toward authoritarianism and outright despotism in the CU that persists to this day.

Alo Cold War

After the Great Conference of Argommi, the CU denied all formal relations with humanity while the TP, CCMS, and OC established the Common Defense Pact, ending nearly 70 years of hostility between the two major blocs The NHSO would remain independent due to political deadlock in its Parliament. Meanwhile on Earth, NASA attempted to reconcile how to approach this most recent diplomatic crisis on an alien world, while the US Congress feared that the Mexican-American Cold War could spread beyond the Solar System. During the Argommi Hearings of 2113, the US Congress determined that peaceful relations with the nations of the CDP did not violate international law, and testimony by the directors of NASA, the CIA, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the ITC all reaffirmed that Mexico would not be able to develop practical faster than light travel without anti-matter production, which was impossible as production facilities were too expensive to be built without the support of a post-scarcity colonial economy.

By 2115 the United States signed the Treaty of Sansomi with the CU and the CDP, banning the sale of Terran weapons on Alo and declaring American neutrality in the Alo Cold War. This treaty was largely meaningless as CDP scientists were able to reverse engineer several human weapons advancements from peaceful technology transfer programs. By 2131 the CDP had its first operational model of Armor, and had begun mining the planet's two moons for Helium-3 to fuel fusion powered naval vessels and civilian craft. Argommi are some of the only beings to send not only ambassadors to Earth, but also students to attend Terran universities and join NASA on interstellar missions as not just diplomats by mission specialists in their own right.

In 2131 the CDP member states and the NHSO met again in Sansomi and established the United Alo Protectorate, functionally federating the CDP member states under a common government. The UAP adopted the Quantum Economic Model and petitioned the Interplanetary Trade Commission for membership. By 2160 the UAP has matched the technological and social development of Earth, while the Canavin Union is facing resource shortages as it attempts to continue its Cold War against a society with limitless access to resources in space. YBP1194 d and e are being terraformed, and the moons of the system's gas giants are being colonized. The UAP formally petitioned the United States for Free Association Status in 2158, but the US Congress has yet to vote on this issue fearing that it would spark a nuclear war on Alo.