The Warrior-Monks

Our monastery was on the eastern slopes of Pavonis Mons, so that it was illuminated in the morning by a soft blue sunrise, only to fall into shadow in the early evening. It was in the blue light of dawn that we practiced the traditional forms of our ancient martial art.

We, the students, were all young women, pleased by our strength and eager to test it. After our exercises, we would often gather to relax and chat, discussing rumors we had heard from the lowlands. We had just heard about the fall of the Olympian Dictatorship, and the tumult that was following.

"Couldn't we help?" Arbella was saying, "We may not be masters, but we know how to fight."

"We could take bandits, I'm sure. Not much, but it would be better than nothing," Yen agreed.

"Or beasts. I've heard several geneticists had their workshops destroyed and their wares escaped and have started breeding. We could help a lot of people by hunting them down," continued Arbella.

Our teachers seemed ageless, and infinitely patient. They never raised their voices in anger, but only as a means of focusing our attention. So, when the voice of Teacher Scythe suddenly cut across our chatter, we immediately stopped talking and listened.

"Do not fool yourselves. What we do is not practical. You would not survive real combat."

"Surely it cannot be useless," objected Arbella, but was quickly overruled.

"You have learned how to fight unarmed against other unarmed humans. That is all. Do you think you could even survive in a fight with a man in a hoplite suit? A manticore? A sentient weapon? We practice to keep tradition alive, nothing more. We are monks, not warriors."

He paused, seeing that some of us still weren't convinced.

“Tomorrow you will fight a boar. It will be given no means of escape, and that will make it desperate. It will attack you however it can. It will not care about pain. It will not fall for feints. Few of your techniques are of use against a four-legged animal. I do not expect you to win. I expect you to learn."

Humans

Many, many forms of people have existed, but most never last. These are those that have found a niche and proved themselves a survivable way of life.

Orthodox: The Orthodox are true humans. Some are born from gene-molds, or are the result of generations of genetic manipulation, or are unable to emerge from the suits that sustain them, but they are human minds, in human bodies, in human societies. They take pride in maintaining the ancient traditions of humanity. They are not united, but live in city-states, cult compounds, corsair caravans, and hundreds of other small societies scattered throughout the Solar system.

Amalgams: Not everyone takes pride in being human. Some look at the abilities of other life with envy, and seek to augment themselves by any means available. Haphazard augmentations often has unexpected results, and so every Amalgam is unique, with unique abilities, and unique disorders.

Multiple: Many minds in one brain in one body. Multiple personalities, multiple trains of thought. Range from attitude sets that share memories to independent people in the same body.

Blanks: Blanks have had their executive function removed. Their only desires are those that are implanted, usually survival plus subservience. Blanks are formidable, being just as intelligent as they were before the procedure, and are incredibly decisive, never hesitating to act or react. Blanks have no societies of their own, but are found everywhere, as they are useful and easy to make. In some places, becoming a blank is a form of suicide, in others, execution.

Shamans: Shamans do not much value conscious thought, but do not go nearly so far as to become blanks. They keep their consciousness, but replace rationality with hypercharged intuition. They have excellent social skills, and indeed their view of the world is primarily social, using anthropomorphization as a filter through which to view the world. They view all systems as persons, not abstractions, and thanks to their powers of intuition, can still be accurate. Their speech uses metaphors and analogies heavily. They use technology, but never invent any, and rarely even create it.

Relics: Relics are immortal human minds in robotic bodies. Most live solitary lives, wandering the system pursuing whatever arbitrary goals they might set for themselves. Their memories are not longer than those of a normal human, so much of their own lives are forgotten, but each and every one of them is a legend, and so many learn about themselves by collecting stories about themselves.

World of Mists

The world of mists is a terrarium, a cylinder carved out of an asteroid to contain a self-sustaining ecosystem. Spun for gravity, the interior of the cylinder has a surface area of almost 140km2. An odd effect of airflow through the spinning cylinder has led to permanent mist.

Approximately a third of the surface is covered in lakes and ponds, another third is marsh, and another third is forest. The constant mist has lead to massive amounts of lichens and mosses growing on every available surface. Moose wander the land eating lichen off branches, otters live along the shores of the lakes, and packs of wild dogs hunt through smell at night. The thick constant mist forces all animals to neglect their sight and depend on other senses. During the day you can hear moose bellowing to each other, and at night the dogs howl.

A village has been carved into the sheer cliff that forms one end of the cylinder.. The villagers tend to moist gardens and maintain necessary machines, living meditative lives of routine, including exercises that maximize their hearing. It is because of these exercises that they have become aware of the wanderer, a being that has never been seen. It may be able to see through the mist, for it has always been able to avoid even silent pursuers, but in quiet twilights one can hear the sound of its heavy steps as it roams.

Punctuated Equilibrium

Long after the singularity, after a million miracles had been tried and left wanting, after the reconstruction of the solar system into countless ruins, after the creation of great minds who cared for nothing but their own thoughts, humanity endures.

Then, each new invention promised a new world, a new way of life, a new future. Now each new invention promises more wealth, more power, and more prospects, but is always found to be costly, impractical, or useless.

The renovations of Mars and Venus would have made new Earths. It would have been a labor of centuries, but subsequent generations proved unwilling to pay the great costs. They support life, but they are not Earth-like. The solar system would not be adapted to suit Earth life, but Earth life was adapted to suit the solar system.

Then, humanity assumed that the creation of great artificial intelligences would be its greatest work.  They were long anticipated as the harbingers of either heaven or hell, but they only introspect, answering no questions and telling no truths. They are only feared when they are not forgotten.

A thousand peoples have lived and died, but only the tenacious and omnivorous survive. There are many peoples, but only some are human. Humanity endures, but the great wheel of time grinds innovation into tradition, and tradition into stagnation.