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Gorger — Legacy - The Below
Published: 2015-06-11 22:42:21 +0000 UTC; Views: 645; Favourites: 10; Downloads: 1
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Description
Not much is known about the second sapient species on The First Ocean. Vastly larger and more physically powerful than the Risen, the Below are suspected to have split off from their common ancestry at some point in The First Ocean's prehistory, developing into massive pack hunters of the abyssal depths. Aspects such as their civilization, culture and social organization remain largely unknown, but from what has been gathered they are much more primitive and tribal. Though perfectly sentient, they are of lower intelligence than the Risen, and their telepathy is limited and only capable of expressing basic emotions, ideas and concepts, albeit in an overwhelmingly intense capacity, often described as a psychic "rumble" or "foghorn"The Risen are known to tolerate the existence of the Below, but contact between both species is kept to a minimum and they seem to avoid discussion of their enormous relatives whenever possible, seemingly more out of fear than racial bias
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Comments: 4
I never realised there were two species of sophonts on The First Ocean. Still the evolution of sapience more than once on the same world is something I can easily see happening.
Seeing as they look so different from the Risen I'm guessing they're pretty distant cousins, from another genus at the very least and quite possibly far further removed.
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The idea started at them just being these gigantic sea serpents in the Risen homeworld, but then we started speculating on the idea of something akin to them being the neanderthal to the Risen's cro-magnon, and Don wanted that to be canon right away
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I wouldn't really compare them to Neanderthals. Neanderthals were people very similar to us anatomically modern humans, so much so that a number of people have argued they were merely a subspecies of Homo sapiens (namely Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, while us anatomically modern folks are Homo sapiens sapiens). Even if they were their own species, they were still undoubtedly very closely related to us. Also, contrary to the old "dumb caveman" stereotype, Neanderthals were very clever and creative beings. Indeed, from all I've learned of them I've long since grown convinced they were just as intelligent as we are, though perhaps having a different way of thinking.
Contrast this with The Below who look VERY anatomically and physiologically different to the Risen, suggesting a more distant evolutionary relationship. Rather than being to the Risen what the Neanderthals are to us, I'd say The Below are really more like what some sort of non-human primate is to us (except of course for the fact that The Below are smarter than any non-human primate).
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Oh.... I like these guys! They sound awesome!
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