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Description

One day, humans that were travelling in an interstellar mission, received no answer. Was it the gap between their home and their spaceship becoming bigger and bigger so the signals became lost in space, or was it their Solar republic destroyed in the last war, now was unessential, as they would never return to it themselves. They moved on and their distant descendants found a very… odd planet. Not in terms of it bearing life in conditions which are very different from that of Earth, but in terms of intelligence (and, well, one branch of life as well).

400 million years ago, the four continents of this planet collided, and the mass extinction compared to our Permian started. All members of the ‘vertebrates’ (including ‘fish’) taxon died out except several cavern species. Soon after catastrophe one smaller species accidentally came out of this cave and found no competition and plenty of food. It re-developed eyes, but only one pair and relatively weak ones. This species became ancestral to all ‘vertebrates’ on the planet, as cave system rushed, burying their relatives.

However, they were not the only animals which had internal skeleton.

Presumably 380-360 million years ago unknown aliens came to Earth and witnessed there a dying of the Eugnathostomata sister clade, the Placodermi. While on Earth they never left any descendants (save for said Eugnathostomata, but that’s cladistics and placoderms that late actually didn’t left descendants), here they prospered with several Bothriolepis species conquering the oceans after the catastrophe. Eventually the continents separated, and on one of them placoderms dwelled through mud on the shores with no one to compete with them, as they were doing what they had already done for some millions of years, while ‘vertebrates’ were burrowers. They furthered their adaptations for land-dwelling in amniote-like way, though their plated skin and joints on their fins meant that they were pre-adapted to live on land. They still had to have a bit more ossified back skeleton and increase their stability by folding their tail under the body, but it was rather minor obstacle in the face of competition with ‘vertebrates’, and the terrestrial placoderms stayed as small for some 90 million years until planet was hit by an asteroid. On two continents ‘vertebrates’ stayed, but on third, which coincidentally was the one where terrestrial placoderms emerged, they declined.

The climate became colder and more arid, and while ‘vertebrates’ had no problem with it, being live-bearing hermaphrodites, placoderms had to invent a new way for living on. One desert-dwelling species with hyena-like sexual dimorphism moved southern, in more temperate region, in usual annual migration, but there was a smaller and smaller number of competitors as small ice caps started forming. Most animals struggled to survive there, but these desert-dwellers could simply become more furry. Eggs still were a problem though, but lack of competition allowed them to experiment as they had much time. They developed a pouch… but not in females, which already paid little attention after laying eggs.

Eventually continents semi-collided again, and it happened very recently. This time, however, on two of them lived cultures of entirely different sophonts.

First were the aalullas, ‘vertebrates’. They descend from a social secondarily flightless shore-dwellers. Some of their facial appendages became jointed, but not all, so they had a ‘hand’ for manipulating objects. They had a better color vision like all members of their flighted lineage. And their sociality meant that they were able to defeat predators if necessarily, so they didn’t need to hide. Most of their cultures are still tied to ancestral way of living.

Second were the kojeplats, vertebrates. They are carnivorous savannah-dwelling species which retain their sexual dimorphism. Females are pack-hunters, males are fishers, and both are social, tool-using and have a manipulatory organ originating from their genitalia. They also form a monoculture.

They were highly different, but there was one thing both species unintentionally agreed on: the skies were a place for gods. While they waged war on each other, both praised sky, sun, two moons and stars. One day, one star became much brighter. For a week both sophonts slept nights which were almost as bright as days. Then this ‘star’ revealed its origin – it was humans. But to aalullas and kojeplats it was gods, since they were ‘cavemen’ meeting a space-faring civilization.

After several years of observing planet humans finally started actioning, and both of other sophonts, questioning the new ‘star-moon’, met a third player, and one which is interested in peaceful coexisting after millions of years in closed space of spaceship. Humans noticed sapience and war, and their goal was to stop it, and not by killing newly-met sophonts, as it was first time they encountered others of their intelligence level in universe. Humanity had a dream to meet sapient forms of life, and, finally, it had become reality. But more easily it could break down.

It was easier to stop the war because of disparate level of technologic advancement in the humans and their aliens. As both had early form of written language, picture glyphs, one day in skies appeared a phrase never to kill a ‘back-stabber’ (word for aalullas in language of kojeplats) or a ‘thief’/’horn-ear’/’horned fused-leg’ (words for kojeplats in three languages of aalullas). And after that, both aliens noticed the sapience of their foes, which was left mistaken for simply ‘intelligent animal’ level.

Eventually both species would meet humans in face. They would form a cosmic Triumvirate, a three-species space-faring civilization which would defeat time and seed life on lifeless but habitable planets and describe life on those that are habited. It would be the golden age for any sophont to emerge, as galaxy cluster had found its masters.

____
I have no idea would it be considered NSFW since there is a prehensile ovipositor-arm, I guess no though since it looks like an actual arm. Also a terrestrial tripod placoderm with bird-like beak and a centaur alien, absolutely not classic alien sophonts.

Description

One day, humans that were travelling in an interstellar mission, received no answer. Was it the gap between their home and their spaceship becoming bigger and bigger so the signals became lost in space, or was it their Solar republic destroyed in the last war, now was unessential, as they would never return to it themselves. They moved on and their distant descendants found a very… odd planet. Not in terms of it bearing life in conditions which are very different from that of Earth, but in terms of intelligence (and, well, one branch of life as well).

400 million years ago, the four continents of this planet collided, and the mass extinction compared to our Permian started. All members of the ‘vertebrates’ (including ‘fish’) taxon died out except several cavern species. Soon after catastrophe one smaller species accidentally came out of this cave and found no competition and plenty of food. It re-developed eyes, but only one pair and relatively weak ones. This species became ancestral to all ‘vertebrates’ on the planet, as cave system rushed, burying their relatives.

However, they were not the only animals which had internal skeleton.

Presumably 380-360 million years ago unknown aliens came to Earth and witnessed there a dying of the Eugnathostomata sister clade, the Placodermi. While on Earth they never left any descendants (save for said Eugnathostomata, but that’s cladistics and placoderms that late actually didn’t left descendants), here they prospered with several Bothriolepis species conquering the oceans after the catastrophe. Eventually the continents separated, and on one of them placoderms dwelled through mud on the shores with no one to compete with them, as they were doing what they had already done for some millions of years, while ‘vertebrates’ were burrowers. They furthered their adaptations for land-dwelling in amniote-like way, though their plated skin and joints on their fins meant that they were pre-adapted to live on land. They still had to have a bit more ossified back skeleton and increase their stability by folding their tail under the body, but it was rather minor obstacle in the face of competition with ‘vertebrates’, and the terrestrial placoderms stayed as small for some 90 million years until planet was hit by an asteroid. On two continents ‘vertebrates’ stayed, but on third, which coincidentally was the one where terrestrial placoderms emerged, they declined.

The climate became colder and more arid, and while ‘vertebrates’ had no problem with it, being live-bearing hermaphrodites, placoderms had to invent a new way for living on. One desert-dwelling species with hyena-like sexual dimorphism moved southern, in more temperate region, in usual annual migration, but there was a smaller and smaller number of competitors as small ice caps started forming. Most animals struggled to survive there, but these desert-dwellers could simply become more furry. Eggs still were a problem though, but lack of competition allowed them to experiment as they had much time. They developed a pouch… but not in females, which already paid little attention after laying eggs.

Eventually continents semi-collided again, and it happened very recently. This time, however, on two of them lived cultures of entirely different sophonts.

First were the aalullas, ‘vertebrates’. They descend from a social secondarily flightless shore-dwellers. Some of their facial appendages became jointed, but not all, so they had a ‘hand’ for manipulating objects. They had a better color vision like all members of their flighted lineage. And their sociality meant that they were able to defeat predators if necessarily, so they didn’t need to hide. Most of their cultures are still tied to ancestral way of living.

Second were the kojeplats, vertebrates. They are carnivorous savannah-dwelling species which retain their sexual dimorphism. Females are pack-hunters, males are fishers, and both are social, tool-using and have a manipulatory organ originating from their genitalia. They also form a monoculture.

They were highly different, but there was one thing both species unintentionally agreed on: the skies were a place for gods. While they waged war on each other, both praised sky, sun, two moons and stars. One day, one star became much brighter. For a week both sophonts slept nights which were almost as bright as days. Then this ‘star’ revealed its origin – it was humans. But to aalullas and kojeplats it was gods, since they were ‘cavemen’ meeting a space-faring civilization.

After several years of observing planet humans finally started actioning, and both of other sophonts, questioning the new ‘star-moon’, met a third player, and one which is interested in peaceful coexisting after millions of years in closed space of spaceship. Humans noticed sapience and war, and their goal was to stop it, and not by killing newly-met sophonts, as it was first time they encountered others of their intelligence level in universe. Humanity had a dream to meet sapient forms of life, and, finally, it had become reality. But more easily it could break down.

It was easier to stop the war because of disparate level of technologic advancement in the humans and their aliens. As both had early form of written language, picture glyphs, one day in skies appeared a phrase never to kill a ‘back-stabber’ (word for aalullas in language of kojeplats) or a ‘thief’/’horn-ear’/’horned fused-leg’ (words for kojeplats in three languages of aalullas). And after that, both aliens noticed the sapience of their foes, which was left mistaken for simply ‘intelligent animal’ level.

Eventually both species would meet humans in face. They would form a cosmic Triumvirate, a three-species space-faring civilization which would defeat time and seed life on lifeless but habitable planets and describe life on those that are habited. It would be the golden age for any sophont to emerge, as galaxy cluster had found its masters.

____
I have no idea would it be considered NSFW since there is a prehensile ovipositor-arm, I guess no though since it looks like an actual arm. Also a terrestrial tripod placoderm with bird-like beak and a centaur alien, absolutely not classic alien sophonts.