Tel-bn

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 Species:
 †*Anthroposepia manipes**Anthroposepia manipes*

The **Tel-bn** or ***Anthroposepia manipes*** are the dominant lifeforms and only known sentient species occupying Kepler 22a, known as Tel-ma to the inhabitants, and are the most populous alien species residing in the Sol System. They are characterized by erect posture, hexapedal locomotion and a rubbery hide similar in texture to a that of a squid.

## Biology

The Tel-bn are a squid-like species, normally standing about 1.4 meters tall. The Tel-bn are one of the few non-tetrapod intelligent lifeforms humans have yet to encounter, likely the result of the low gravity and high atmospheric pressure of the planet. They have a definite head, midsection, four manipulator limbs, and six stubby locomotion limbs. The upper manipulator limbs are far more dexterous and stronger than the lower manipulator limbs, which for most Tel-bn can only serve as a prehensile graspers. There are multiple examples in the medical history of Tel-ma of Tel-bn being born with completely vestigial lower manipulators or in some cases born with no lower manipulators at all. Their six lower limbs are sturdier and stiffer than the tentacles of Earth cephalopods, reinforced with crisscrossed layers of muscle and cartlidge, making them far more rigid. The six locomotion limbs fuse to form what some xeno-biologists consider to be a single skirt-shaped "foot" that Tel-bn can use to leap great distances very effectively.

Despite their resemblance to terran cephalopods, Tel-bn don't require significantly more water than humans to survive, and are totally land dwelling. Tel-bn are cartilaginous and can contort their bodies, particularly their heads into a wider array of different geometries than any known intelligent "vertebrates". To be more visually pleasing to humans, those living in the Sol System contort their muscles to produce a more human looking head and torso. Many wear human clothing tops, and even wigs, and are often observed to look almost cartoonish, and thus were largely accepted by humanity in the colonies with very little social backlash.

## Evolution

The Tel-bn, while superficially resembling Earth squid and octopus, are quite different in their evolutionary history. The Tel-bn belong to a clade of land-dwelling eight-limbed organisms that are the dominant fauna of Tel-ma. The common ancestors of this clade were semiaquatic organisms similar to amphibious octopuses that lived nearly 300 million years ago. Unlike Earth's octopuses and squid, which can only survive a short time out of water, these creatures evolved a type of lung and adapted six of their ten limbs to become sturdy walking legs. They lack a true skeleton, their internal framework consisting entirely of muscle. Thus equipped, diversified to fill nearly every large land-dwelling niche on Tel-ma. They range from swift, fierce predators to massive elephant-sized herbivores with column-like legs. The Tel-bn themselves were descended from a lineage of these creatures that became primate-like tree-dwelling omnivores.

## History

The Tel-bn are one of the older sentient organisms yet discovered, having achieved civilization at least twice in their planet's history. Typically, Tel-bn historians reference their people's history in at least two Ages.

### **The First Age**

The first civilization on Tel-Ma emerged 48,000 Standard Years ago in the lesser continental mass of the Tel-ma's southern hemisphere. The spread of the Tel-bn population to the major continental mass to the North reached its apex 32,000 years ago before the civilization collapsed in, what local historians and human archaeologists believe was a planet-wide conflict, fought primarily with chemical and biological agents. Archaeological evidence of the first Tel-bn civilization suggests that they had access to powered flight, but had not yet discovered nuclear weapons. The First Great Tel-bn War caused the death of 99% of all Tel-bn on Tel-ma, and left large areas of the planet uninhabitable for many centuries.

Some scholars argue that the Tel-bn of the First Age should be considered a separate species to modern Tel-bn. mummified and fossilized remains indicate First Age Tel-bn had more porous skin, larger tear ducts, and were generally taller than those of the Second Age. Many of these changes were believed to have occurred as a result of the chemical warfare that nearly wiped out intelligent life on the planet in the First Great War, as those less susceptible to chemical agents would be more likely to survive and reproduce.

### **The Second Age**

By the 14th Millenium BCE, the first new civilization on Tel-bn emerged, in an alluvial plain in the northern continent. This new civilization, the Voc-shen-ro people, are widely considered to be the cultural pregenator to modern Tel-bn society. From the Voc-shen basin a number of new city states emerged along the network of river-networks and arable marshland. By 4000 BCE the Vel-mni Empire emerged at the western end of the continent, having grown from Voc-shen-ro colonies. Meanwhile, in the lesser continental mass, the Tor-hua Empire had conquered the whole of the continent, and made great strides in land reclamation, and medicine. By 2400 BCE, Gama Leporis underwent a period of heavy sunspot activity that sent the planet into an ice age that lasted until 1400 CE. Some consider this period the transition between the Second Age and a hypothetic Third Age, but most scholars have yet to come to a consensus on the matter.

A century after the conclusion of the Tel-ma Little Ice Age, the Tel-bn saw the rise of new nation-states and a gradual improvement on technology as society took advantage of renewed farmland. In 1965 CE, Tel-bn archaeologists in the lesser continental mass discovered a well preserved cave beneath one of the planet's petrified forests. The cave was revealed to be an ancient First Age building, with relatively well preserved examples of First Age steam engines and mechanical components. This discovery launched the Tel-bn Renaissance that saw a century of technological progress in a few brief years. By 2060 the Tel-bn had actually surpassed the First Age civilizations, internal combustion and the beginnings of nuclear energy.

In 2075 the Second Great War (Tel-ma) broke out between the two largest factions on Tel-ma. By 2079 both sides had developed and begun using primitive nuclear weapons and chemical agents against one another. The conflict only escalated as nuclear technology continued to improve, and retaliatory strikes left much of the planet in ruin.

### **First Contact**

In 2091 the IV-204 *Adventure,* stationed 15 lightyears away on a scientific expedition of Dark Matter clusters, detected an atypical spike in gamma radiation from the Kepler 22 system. After reporting the data to NASA, preliminary scans of the Kepler system were made of the only known Earth-like planet. The radiation spike was traced to that world. NASA retasked the IV-304 *Spirit* for Kepler 22, and upon arriving a year later, they discovered a radiation blasted planet that still had a small population scattered across the surface. The Second Great War had informally ended four years ago, and while a splinter few factions remained, none were in possession of nuclear ordinance. First Contact was pushed up after radio-scans determined how dire the situation was. A brief assessment of the situation on the surface prompted the crew of the Spirit to request immediate aid from any ships NASA could spare. NASA dispatched 10 ships to Kepler 22, in the first humanitarian effort of the interstellar age. This remains the largest, and by most measures most dangerous mission NASA has ever undertaken, in no small part due to the extreme distance of Kepler 22 (635 lightyears from Earth) and the limits of late 21st century warp capable spacecraft. It took nearly 8 years for most of NASA's operational fleet to reach Kepler 22. At the behest of the remaining governments, humans directly took over large portions of Tel-ma, in an effort to scrub the planet of fallout.

After several months of work, doctors and climatologists determined that the damage to their planet was severe enough that it put their species at risk of sterility and therefore extinction. Thus in 2093 The Tel-ma Provisional Government requested that a portion of their population be granted asylum in the Sol System. The United States refused their claim for Earth, but per the Rosalind Amendment, the colonies obliged them. A handful of Tel-bn "Brood Nannies," and several tanks of their federalized eggs were sent to Earth via warp ship to ensure the continuity of their species while their world rebuilds. The ITC agreed to settle most of their population on Triton and the Jovians while the US Government on Earth recognized the provisional government with an Embassy. By 2105, over 40,000 individuals had been born in the Sol System, and over the coming years would largely integrate into the societies of their hosts. This has prompted the remaining Tel-bn on their homeworld to voice concerns of cultural degradation and Xeno-gentrification.

### **Resettlement**

In 2156, Tel-ma was rated as habitable by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NASA began planning a repatriation mission using the new *Constellation*-class spacecraft, the largest warp capable spacecraft at the time. Efforts were even being made to terraform a large moon around the system's inner-system gas-giant, and the Tel-bn expatriates were offered to settle there as well. To the surprise of NASA and the Tel-bn Provisional Government, of the 190,000 individuals living in the Sol System, only 11,000 elected to return to their ancestral home. While this was enough to provide lasting breeding stock, it would mean that for the foreseeable future, most Tel-bn would be living out-system, away from the homeworld. Interviews with those who elected to remain in the Sol system revealed that most were actually US or Protectorate citizens, and fully integrated into the societies in which they lived. Many had human spouses and mixed families. Thus the Tel-bn of the Provisional Government agreed to accept the 11,000 willing resettles, while offering incentives for others to return. One such incentive was Tel-ma's adoption of Free Association status with the United States in 2157.