Welcome to Invasion of the Hawfax! This is a setting I've been working on for a while, and finally realized that I wasn't going to be able to publish it in one article. I also think this is a setting that will take a good deal of work to get right. While aliens landing in the amazon is the stuff of pulp fiction, that's not the approach I'm going to take. I'm going to take a fairly hard science and historically-oriented approach to the setting, and explore what it is that the Hawfax need from the humans, and what the humans can do in response.
The Aliens
The Hawfax are a six legged arboreal species with a stiff covering closer to feathers than hair, large, forward facing eyes, a prehensile tail, and four toothed tongues in an otherwise jawless mouth. They are about suited for life in the trees as a human is suited for life on the ground: most wild animals can outperform them. They have remarkably strong grips. The entire creature is the length of a man's arm, not including the tail. They have a pouch they carry an egg and then their young in, feeding it via regurgitation.
Their senses are remarkably human. They have good color vision, a solid sense of hearing, communicate by sound, and have the delicate touch needed for any tool using creature. Their sense of smell is much better than a humans', but they don't see well in the dark at all.
Their biology is as earth-like as could be expected. Their biochemistry is similar if weird. They use a slightly different set of amino acids and their nucleic acid is something different entirely but a lot of the same molecules play a lot of the same roles. They have cells and get germs theory, and the two biologies can consume one another, and though viruses can't jump between lineages, bacteria and other parasites can.
The Voyage
The Hawfax set out from their home-world in a not-quite-a-generation-ship. The journey was long, and they don't really have a way to talk with the folks back home. This isn't a huge deal, as they believe the world they're leaving is a lost cause. Or at least a mess it will take generations to work out. They understand that this is a one-way trip. There are 500,000 colonists, and it will take quite some time to build any ships to go back home.The Landing
The Hawfax had assumed that they would have the earth completely to themselves, and planned to set up resource extraction posts all over the world. Upon arriving in earth orbit, they found that intelligent life was gearing up an industrial revolution. These beings were carnivorous and 'ethically undeveloped', had spread over much of the planet, and had enough technology to potentially threaten the Hawfax. They were also adapted to live on the ground, not in trees, and adapted to much colder climes. They dithered for almost a year in space, debating their various options. They finally decided they'd have to bite the bullet and not only share their planet with carnivorous savages several times their size, but to pay the humans for resources that truly belonged to them.The key to all of this was a minimal competition for territory: Even when humans lived in the rain-forest, they didn't live in the canopy.Negotiation with humans without landing was not possible, as radio had not been developed. No-one beyond essentially wild tribes claimed the land the Hawfax colonized, in the depths of the amazon rain forest.
Opinion of Humans
The Hawfax pride themselves on being open-minded and enlightened. They consider humans to be the moral equivalent of themselves. That unfortunately applies only in the sense that the first world considers an inhabitant of a third world country to be the equivalent of one of its citizens. The Hawfax find human culture to be backward and barbaric. The revulsion to eating meat they try to control, with varying degrees of success. Their support of race, gender, and class equality is stringent and unapologetic. At the same time, they want to preserve existing earth cultures and would regard their loss as a crime. It would be easier if they didn't have to interact. Unfortunately, they do.Politics
This setting is in great part about interactions. There are three spheres of politics worth watching: that of the great powers, that of the Hawfax with their neighbors, and Hawfax internal politics.The Hawfax political system is secondary to their social media. By the time that their government is making a decision, the issue has been decided by the public and the government mostly just follows that. The hawfax are always in an uproar about some issue or the other, and politics is about attracting outrage and attention to your issue. One of the constant multifaceted issues is just how far to let humans into their society.
The Hawfax live in South America, and their relationships with their neighbors are involved. They must be friendly with one of them at all times to get resources in. They also try to guide their neighbors away from the worst acts without destroying their culture, and without taking advantage. Its a painful balancing act. The main resource the hawfax need is power-conducting wire. They can get this from most their neighbors, and 'copper vs aluminum' dominates South American politics.
On the world scale are powers that can challenge the Hawfax in might, control huge amounts of territory, and are hungry for technology, as well as alarmed at Hawfax interference. The Hawfax are alarmed as well, as if these powers get enough technology, they may have the strength to fight and defeat the Hawfax.
Technology
The Hawfax have basically modern technology with better materials and biotech. They find earth's life similar enough to their own to eat, and to work with. Their biggest improvement over modern tech is the ability and routine practice of making plastic from bio-matter. They only really need metals for running power (though they run lots and lots of power). Power is provided by uranium reactors brought from home. Their information technology is mature but stagnant: with only 500,000 individuals, they rely on their old technology. They're constantly making more media, but that's different from making better electronic technology. They don't have space capability at the moment, but they left a set of satellites in high orbit. Their biotech is quite advanced, and Hawfax scientists have fallen in love with bio-engineering insects.This is an exciting period of invention for humans even without alien technology. radios, airplanes, and automobiles are all on the cusp of invention. Technology was moving fast, and science had unbridled optimism. With the post-modern tech of the Hawfax present, the rush to invent will only intensify, and spies enter the ring besides the inventors.
They may not need the space (and it's unclear how much aerospace technology they've built or retain), but wouldn't an outpost in Papua New Guinea suit them? A place for those Hawfax interested in maximal influence on human culture, perhaps, and unlike the Congo, unlikely to be heavily contested or populated.
ReplyDeleteIt's not clear how long after planetfall the campaign would be set. Related to that is the question of how long a Hawfax generation is (i.e., are there Hawfax considered adults with little memory of the ship or life without humans?)
I hadn't thought about New Guinea, but you're right about it being well suited for them. Its a little more densely populated than the amazon but not by much, isn't actually owned by any powers (only claimed) and it has the benefit of ocean access and possibly mineral access.
DeleteGetting there is as easy as using a boat: they have navigable river access. The main issue is that there are only half a million of them, and they decided not to do a bunch of outposts for security reasons. I could easily see that outpost kept for a variety of political reasons though.
Those are good questions. This is just an intro! more is coming. The setting is planned for use anytime from planet fall to a few decades after the landing. I'm still working on things like Hawfax life span ... as I said, more to come!