Phlygians

The phlgyians are a race of semi-aquatic abhumans who are native and endemic to the planet of Atlantis . They share the planet with the also aquatic Pelagers .

### Population

Pre-contact : estimated 3.5 billion

Currently : less than 500 million

### Physiology and reproduction

Phlygian females typically carry twins (though triplets and quadruplets uncommon ) for a period of 25 months , because of this longer gestation period Phlygian newborns develop much faster than their baseline human counterparts , becoming sexually mature at the age of ten .

This is hypothesised to be a survival mechanism in the dangerous Atlantean environment where the death of a parent could happen at any time and the offspring would need to become independent as fast as possible .

This is offset by the fact that Phlygians do not live very long with a maximum lifespan of 60 years (though it should be noted that this is without any life prolonging treatments like juvenat or cybernetic augmentation ). On the other hand for these sixty years they are in a state of youth ; their cells never stop dividing for some reason and seemingly without any cancerous growths.

A Phlygian on average is much stronger than a human and has greater stamina in addition to having much better hearing and sight (They can see 23 times more colour than a human ). This however only applies in environments with sufficient humidity for their respiratory system . In fact without their special hydro devices , Phlygians will die in a dry environment after a week of fatigue and difficulty breathing.

### History

#### Pre-Imperium

Not much is known about Phlygian history in the Dark Age but in all likelihood they are the remnants of the original colonists who modified themselves to better survive Atlantis . Though they lost much of their technology they have managed to weather the Age of Strife relatively well, developing their own technology base which while less advanced was suitable to their needs .

Prior to the arrival of the imperium the Phlygians lived in underwater cities that are masterpieces from the dark age or their self built “shallow” cities . The Phlygians had colonies on most of the planet and were mostly united. They and the Pelagers engaged in warfare quite often which the Phlygians call “Tidal wars “.

#### Post-Imperium

This all changed with the arrival of the mechanicus explorator fleets , though initially contact was peaceful, upon seeing the Phlygians had “desecrated “ holy technology , bombardment of all shallow cities commenced and war soon followed . Despite initial victories , orbital dominance and Biological warfare insured the imperium was ultimately triumphant. Faced with the threat of extinction the abhumans surrendered.

Though initially they were to be killed , the leading arch magos of the expedition realised that with colonists still being years to arrive the abhumans would be better used as a labour forces.

Thus the Phlygians were allowed to stay in their underwater cities as the mechanicus had no means of reaching those at the time and were made to pay immense flesh “tithes’ to serve as labour .

The phlygian workers to a man were worked to death, partially from the inhospitable working condition and partially because their masters did not bother with making them Hydro-suits .

This all changed however with the ascension of Octavia as Fabricator general .