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Description
If you ask modern galaxy inhabitants what makes a space civilization properly "space", going from deep space exploration to deep space exploitation, the majority will say: "Probably the invention of FTL engine?.." Although there are many arguments against such simplified definition, one can’t deny that the creation of a spacetime warp drive is a very important milestone of technological progress. Naturally, groundbreaking technologies, along with providing potential for development, often bring new unprecedented dangers; in case of a warp drive, such danger is a phenomenon known as the "arrival effect".
  During superluminal motion, particles of interstellar matter accumulate at the outer boundary of a warp field. When the field is deactivated, the accumulated particles are released in a form of forward-directed radiation similar to a shock wave. The particle outburst created by a starship that traveled several light years vaporizes any solid objects in front of it; if a habitable planet happened to be on a path of the particle stream, the results can hardly be described in other words than catastrophic. For this reason, spacetime warp technology is considered to be one of the Great Filters. Currently, this Filter is the last one known to the galactic community, and the most terrifying one, since a hypothetical war involving the use of the arrival effect can leave literally no trace of the civilization that started it. Some scholars hypothesized that there could've been many such wars in the past of the galaxy; others argued that any creatures sufficiently intelligent to invent FTL drive can refrain from weaponizing it. This discussion remained purely theoretical until the contact with Asitheyokths.
  Theyokth is a planet with a dense atmosphere that makes a full rotation around its axis for 14 earth days. Like many other Theyokthian organisms, Asitheyokths are adapted to long night periods: large eyes can see well in the dark, and between them there’s a thermal sensing organ hidden beneath the skin. Limbs that evolved from tongues have two functions. First, they collect particles from air (and anything they touch) and pass them to vomeronasal organ in the mouth. Second, they are sensitive to air currents; for better perception Asitheyokths have to periodically moisten their "hands" with saliva. Because of these factors, the limbs, despite becoming bigger in the course of evolution, still can fully retract into oral cavity.
  The civilization of Theyokth was characterized by a fairly rapid and stable development. The planet had a single big continent with no significant natural barriers, so trade and cultural ties between all nations inhabiting it were established quite early — in the historical period equivalent to antiquity. As a result, the civilization developed at almost equal rate all around the world. Wars among Asitheyokths were quite frequent, but never too intense and usually small-scale compared to those of other sophonts’ cultures. The space program began as an international initiative, and subsequently all major space exploration projects were carried out jointly by many Theyokthian countries. One of such projects was the invention of FTL drive and the first interstellar expedition to a habitable planet near a star 17 light-years away from Theyokth.
  However, what is good for a civilization doesn’t always have the same positive effect on a planet’s biosphere. As living standards in the Asitheyokths’ society grew, the inevitable population growth and its increasing needs affected the global ecosystem. But, despite severe pollution and loss of biodiversity comparable to mass extinction, countermeasures were directed against the consequences, not against the cause: standard strategy was installation of purification plants to create clean zones within populated areas. Thus, most Asitheyokths could afford to ignore the problem, and individual ecologists’ protests were simply ignored. Unable to induce anybody to take any effective measures, some environmental activists decided to resort to more radical methods. Ecoterrorism gradually became a widespread phenomenon, but among the wide public it predictably only caused stronger rejection of the environmental protection ideas, which, in turn, led to further radicalization of the movement.
  In the meantime, the first interstellar expedition was followed by new ones, and colonization of the newfound planet, named Sotodssi, became the next logical step. Promising a better life in a new virgin world, the leaders of the colonization project got plenty of volunteers and investments. According to ambitious plans, a developed self-sufficient colony could potentially become a new home for the entire species, if the homeworld is no longer able to support their existence. Obviously, in reality, when a number of migrants was a few thousands a year at best, it would’ve been physically impossible to evacuate billions of sophonts, but a loud advertising campaign and bold statements did their job. As a result, the international project helped to unite the Theyokth’s population, simultaneously in a short time turning the Sotodssian colony into a prosperous, rapidly developing society with huge scientific and industrial potential and, ultimately, with its own space program. At the same time, the colonial administration was gradually gaining more and more political influence, making it increasingly difficult for the home planet to restrain separatist sentiments among the colonists.
  Unfortunately, nature conservation was hardly considered any more important on Sotodssi than it was on Theyokth. While at the homeworld countermeasures were deemed futile because degradation process had already gone too far for recultivation, at the colony civilization’s influence still seemed to be too insignificant for serious restrictions. Unsurprisingly, cells of radical pro-ecological organizations soon appeared there as well. As further exploration of space was bringing reports of new habitable worlds, and population of Sotodssi was increasing exploitation of the planet’s resources, ecoterrorists were coming to a depressing conclusion: Asitheyokths will continue to spread through the galaxy, destroying all found ecosystems and leaving behind devastated, barely habitable worlds. To prevent this from happening, one of the most radical organizations decided to take a desperate step, which, in the members’ opinion, was their last hope: the destruction of the entire Asitheyokthian civilization.
  The plan was to unleash a war with the use of the arrival effect by capturing one of the Sotodssian interstellar ships and aiming it at Theyokth. Since there’s no superluminal communication, it’ll be impossible to warn the home system; the fleet of Theyokth will inevitably take the attack for the separatists’ actions and launch a retaliatory strike against Sotodssi. Further mutual attacks directed against space infrastructure will assure impossibility of the civilization’s recovery.
  The first part of the plan was eventually executed, and is still considered to be the biggest act of genocide in the galactic history. When the particle stream hit Theyokth, all living beings on the hemisphere that was facing the arrived starship died almost instantly from the secondary ionizing radiation. Rapid atmosphere heating caused violent storms; evaporation of huge amounts of water led to greenhouse effect and caused tectonic displacements due to decreasing oceans’ mass. Only a few thousand inhabitants of the opposite hemisphere managed to leave the planet before atmospheric instability made flights impossible, and launch facilities were destroyed by earthquakes. Over the next few days Theyokth turned into a Venus-like planet, and proposals of subsequent expeditions in search of survivors became meaningless.
  The seemingly inevitable interstellar war was prevented by a single individual: admiral Shethsavisath, who assumed command after the destruction of headquarters on Theyokth. Realizing that the loss of both worlds would result in the entire Asitheyokth species perishing, she immediately ordered interstellar ships that were preparing to attack Sotodssi to stand down, and redirected them to assist rescuing the survivors. It took great effort to keep situation under control: at that time this order cost Shethsavisath reputation and nearly cost her life when a group of officers seeking vengeance attempted coup d'etat. However, for the following generations of Asitheyokths Shethsavisath, who literally saved the whole civilization from destruction, has become an acknowledged national hero.
  The crisis was eventually resolved by the colonial messenger starship that had arrived in a few days, after which the united fleet began evacuating the remaining population of the Theyokth system. The emerging tensions between colonists and refugees disappeared when it became clear that Sotodssians were equally horrified by the catastrophe. Moreover, the new joint government decided to take a name of Theyokthian Republic in honor of the lost homeworld. The attempts to restore everything that was lost, recreate Theyokth’s culture and fill gaps in history became an important part of the republican policy. After the contact with the galactic community the cost of interstellar travel has been greatly reduced, which allowed the Republic to start sending regular archaeological expeditions to Theyokth; for the Republic’s citizens they became a kind of pilgrimage that has to be undertaken at least once in one’s life.
  An unexpected consequence of the Asitheyokths’ unique history was the emergence of yet another political faction. The Chsonnutzi Stratocracy, seceding from the Republic, instead of restoring the past decided to focus on securing the future by reducing the threat of the arrival effect. To achieve this goal, the Stratocracy started an unprecedented project of gas giant colonization. Floating cities, distributed over a planet’s vast skies and hidden beneath a thick atmosphere, have fairly good chances of surviving a directed attack of a warp-driven starship. At the same time, high costs of establishing new settlements and their inability to become fully self-sufficient remain to be the problems that the Stratocracy has yet to solve.

Other facts:
  ·  "Admiral" is an approximate translation of Shethsavisath’s actual rank, since Asitheyokths’ military hierarchy is quite different from that of humans.
  ·  For all their unique history, biologically Asitheyokths are sometimes viewed as the most generic sophonts in existence. Two sexes, bilateral symmetry, four legs, mouthparts as manipulating limbs, visual system as a main sensory organ, verbal communication and some of their other features are very common in various combinations among intelligent species of the galaxy.
  ·  The arrival effect is based on an actual theory of FTL drive properties.

The left one on the drawing is a female and the right one is a male.

RUS: то ли из-за многабукаф, то ли по какой-то другой причине DA не желает сохранять версию, содержащую описание одновременно на английском и на русском. Дублировать картинку только ради сопроводительного текста на другом языке кажется неуместным (это ведь не схема с подписями). Если есть вопросы по описанию, буду рад пояснить.

Description
If you ask modern galaxy inhabitants what makes a space civilization properly "space", going from deep space exploration to deep space exploitation, the majority will say: "Probably the invention of FTL engine?.." Although there are many arguments against such simplified definition, one can’t deny that the creation of a spacetime warp drive is a very important milestone of technological progress. Naturally, groundbreaking technologies, along with providing potential for development, often bring new unprecedented dangers; in case of a warp drive, such danger is a phenomenon known as the "arrival effect".
  During superluminal motion, particles of interstellar matter accumulate at the outer boundary of a warp field. When the field is deactivated, the accumulated particles are released in a form of forward-directed radiation similar to a shock wave. The particle outburst created by a starship that traveled several light years vaporizes any solid objects in front of it; if a habitable planet happened to be on a path of the particle stream, the results can hardly be described in other words than catastrophic. For this reason, spacetime warp technology is considered to be one of the Great Filters. Currently, this Filter is the last one known to the galactic community, and the most terrifying one, since a hypothetical war involving the use of the arrival effect can leave literally no trace of the civilization that started it. Some scholars hypothesized that there could've been many such wars in the past of the galaxy; others argued that any creatures sufficiently intelligent to invent FTL drive can refrain from weaponizing it. This discussion remained purely theoretical until the contact with Asitheyokths.
  Theyokth is a planet with a dense atmosphere that makes a full rotation around its axis for 14 earth days. Like many other Theyokthian organisms, Asitheyokths are adapted to long night periods: large eyes can see well in the dark, and between them there’s a thermal sensing organ hidden beneath the skin. Limbs that evolved from tongues have two functions. First, they collect particles from air (and anything they touch) and pass them to vomeronasal organ in the mouth. Second, they are sensitive to air currents; for better perception Asitheyokths have to periodically moisten their "hands" with saliva. Because of these factors, the limbs, despite becoming bigger in the course of evolution, still can fully retract into oral cavity.
  The civilization of Theyokth was characterized by a fairly rapid and stable development. The planet had a single big continent with no significant natural barriers, so trade and cultural ties between all nations inhabiting it were established quite early — in the historical period equivalent to antiquity. As a result, the civilization developed at almost equal rate all around the world. Wars among Asitheyokths were quite frequent, but never too intense and usually small-scale compared to those of other sophonts’ cultures. The space program began as an international initiative, and subsequently all major space exploration projects were carried out jointly by many Theyokthian countries. One of such projects was the invention of FTL drive and the first interstellar expedition to a habitable planet near a star 17 light-years away from Theyokth.
  However, what is good for a civilization doesn’t always have the same positive effect on a planet’s biosphere. As living standards in the Asitheyokths’ society grew, the inevitable population growth and its increasing needs affected the global ecosystem. But, despite severe pollution and loss of biodiversity comparable to mass extinction, countermeasures were directed against the consequences, not against the cause: standard strategy was installation of purification plants to create clean zones within populated areas. Thus, most Asitheyokths could afford to ignore the problem, and individual ecologists’ protests were simply ignored. Unable to induce anybody to take any effective measures, some environmental activists decided to resort to more radical methods. Ecoterrorism gradually became a widespread phenomenon, but among the wide public it predictably only caused stronger rejection of the environmental protection ideas, which, in turn, led to further radicalization of the movement.
  In the meantime, the first interstellar expedition was followed by new ones, and colonization of the newfound planet, named Sotodssi, became the next logical step. Promising a better life in a new virgin world, the leaders of the colonization project got plenty of volunteers and investments. According to ambitious plans, a developed self-sufficient colony could potentially become a new home for the entire species, if the homeworld is no longer able to support their existence. Obviously, in reality, when a number of migrants was a few thousands a year at best, it would’ve been physically impossible to evacuate billions of sophonts, but a loud advertising campaign and bold statements did their job. As a result, the international project helped to unite the Theyokth’s population, simultaneously in a short time turning the Sotodssian colony into a prosperous, rapidly developing society with huge scientific and industrial potential and, ultimately, with its own space program. At the same time, the colonial administration was gradually gaining more and more political influence, making it increasingly difficult for the home planet to restrain separatist sentiments among the colonists.
  Unfortunately, nature conservation was hardly considered any more important on Sotodssi than it was on Theyokth. While at the homeworld countermeasures were deemed futile because degradation process had already gone too far for recultivation, at the colony civilization’s influence still seemed to be too insignificant for serious restrictions. Unsurprisingly, cells of radical pro-ecological organizations soon appeared there as well. As further exploration of space was bringing reports of new habitable worlds, and population of Sotodssi was increasing exploitation of the planet’s resources, ecoterrorists were coming to a depressing conclusion: Asitheyokths will continue to spread through the galaxy, destroying all found ecosystems and leaving behind devastated, barely habitable worlds. To prevent this from happening, one of the most radical organizations decided to take a desperate step, which, in the members’ opinion, was their last hope: the destruction of the entire Asitheyokthian civilization.
  The plan was to unleash a war with the use of the arrival effect by capturing one of the Sotodssian interstellar ships and aiming it at Theyokth. Since there’s no superluminal communication, it’ll be impossible to warn the home system; the fleet of Theyokth will inevitably take the attack for the separatists’ actions and launch a retaliatory strike against Sotodssi. Further mutual attacks directed against space infrastructure will assure impossibility of the civilization’s recovery.
  The first part of the plan was eventually executed, and is still considered to be the biggest act of genocide in the galactic history. When the particle stream hit Theyokth, all living beings on the hemisphere that was facing the arrived starship died almost instantly from the secondary ionizing radiation. Rapid atmosphere heating caused violent storms; evaporation of huge amounts of water led to greenhouse effect and caused tectonic displacements due to decreasing oceans’ mass. Only a few thousand inhabitants of the opposite hemisphere managed to leave the planet before atmospheric instability made flights impossible, and launch facilities were destroyed by earthquakes. Over the next few days Theyokth turned into a Venus-like planet, and proposals of subsequent expeditions in search of survivors became meaningless.
  The seemingly inevitable interstellar war was prevented by a single individual: admiral Shethsavisath, who assumed command after the destruction of headquarters on Theyokth. Realizing that the loss of both worlds would result in the entire Asitheyokth species perishing, she immediately ordered interstellar ships that were preparing to attack Sotodssi to stand down, and redirected them to assist rescuing the survivors. It took great effort to keep situation under control: at that time this order cost Shethsavisath reputation and nearly cost her life when a group of officers seeking vengeance attempted coup d'etat. However, for the following generations of Asitheyokths Shethsavisath, who literally saved the whole civilization from destruction, has become an acknowledged national hero.
  The crisis was eventually resolved by the colonial messenger starship that had arrived in a few days, after which the united fleet began evacuating the remaining population of the Theyokth system. The emerging tensions between colonists and refugees disappeared when it became clear that Sotodssians were equally horrified by the catastrophe. Moreover, the new joint government decided to take a name of Theyokthian Republic in honor of the lost homeworld. The attempts to restore everything that was lost, recreate Theyokth’s culture and fill gaps in history became an important part of the republican policy. After the contact with the galactic community the cost of interstellar travel has been greatly reduced, which allowed the Republic to start sending regular archaeological expeditions to Theyokth; for the Republic’s citizens they became a kind of pilgrimage that has to be undertaken at least once in one’s life.
  An unexpected consequence of the Asitheyokths’ unique history was the emergence of yet another political faction. The Chsonnutzi Stratocracy, seceding from the Republic, instead of restoring the past decided to focus on securing the future by reducing the threat of the arrival effect. To achieve this goal, the Stratocracy started an unprecedented project of gas giant colonization. Floating cities, distributed over a planet’s vast skies and hidden beneath a thick atmosphere, have fairly good chances of surviving a directed attack of a warp-driven starship. At the same time, high costs of establishing new settlements and their inability to become fully self-sufficient remain to be the problems that the Stratocracy has yet to solve.

Other facts:
  ·  "Admiral" is an approximate translation of Shethsavisath’s actual rank, since Asitheyokths’ military hierarchy is quite different from that of humans.
  ·  For all their unique history, biologically Asitheyokths are sometimes viewed as the most generic sophonts in existence. Two sexes, bilateral symmetry, four legs, mouthparts as manipulating limbs, visual system as a main sensory organ, verbal communication and some of their other features are very common in various combinations among intelligent species of the galaxy.
  ·  The arrival effect is based on an actual theory of FTL drive properties.

The left one on the drawing is a female and the right one is a male.

RUS: то ли из-за многабукаф, то ли по какой-то другой причине DA не желает сохранять версию, содержащую описание одновременно на английском и на русском. Дублировать картинку только ради сопроводительного текста на другом языке кажется неуместным (это ведь не схема с подписями). Если есть вопросы по описанию, буду рад пояснить.