The Drylanders

Drylanders are humans adapted by natural selection to cold and low atmosphere planets. They are characterized almost as much by a culture that is high-tech yet non-materialistic, and blends religion with modern corporate practices. Their self-sufficiency and loyalty is legendary,

Drylanders have not diverged so far that they cannot inhabit ordinary human worlds or reproduce with other strains of humanity. However, Drylanders believe strongly that their colonization of marginal planets increases the chances of humanity's general survival, so they continue to settle worlds that most humans avoid. This strong interest in colonization makes them one of the more numerous clans in human space.

History

In human space, marginal planets greatly exceed optimal ones. Of all the marginal planet types, ones characterized by low temperatures and air pressure, and a lack of freestanding water -- Drylands, as they came to be called -- are often the most common. Although most colonists have little interest in Drylands, a minority has always gravitated towards them. For some minorities, marginal worlds were a place to escape persecution. Other colonists chose marginal worlds from which other worlds could be reached, rather than a milder but less connected planet. A handful even sought out these worlds from a sense of adventure.

With the outbreak of The Great War, an even stronger motivation for settling Dryland planets emerged: such planets were even less suitable for Crucians than for Humans. In fact, following the attack on Five Canal in the first days of the war, the survival of a small group of refugees on a nearby Drylands planet indicated that the Crucians did not conceive of Drylands as habitable.

Although the Crucians soon learned better, the belief soon arose that Drylands were a haven for those wishing to avoid the conflict -- a hope that proved remarkably hard to dispel, even after several massacres. Others argued -- just as incorrectly -- that if humans settled the Drylands and left milder planets to the Crucians, the two species would have no source of conflict. A more reasonable view was that encouraging Dryland settlements increased human diversification, and was therefore beneficial to the species' survival. With such added motivations, The Great War soon saw Dryland colonization becoming even more commonplace.

Despite these incentives, Dryland colonies frequently failed during this period. On those that survived, mortality rates of 45-60% were not unknown in the first five years after settlement, with another 10-15% leaving the colonies. In addition to the harsh environment, on many worlds, settlers faced wildlife much better adapted to conditions than humans. Another problem was finding crops suitable to the short growing seasons. But the greatest difficulty was that the urban lifestyle that most of the colonists were accustomed to was rarely sustainable on Dryland worlds.

In many colonies, the main lifeline became the Cholomunga Corporation, at the time one of the largest transport and manufacturing firms in human space. The corporation achieved prominence by providing goods and services to all worlds, but to Dryland worlds in particular. This specialty was probably simply a matter of a corporation filling a market niche, but rumors persist that the Manguyal family, which ran Cholomunga for many generations, were descended from an ethnic group call the Sherpas who had lived in Dryland conditions on Earth. However, many scholars believe these rumors merely a marketing by the Manguyal designed to appeal to their main customers.

Regardless of the truth of such matters, the Cholomunga Corporation soon came to be a major fixture in Dryland life. The corporate image of the Cholomunga spaceship arriving on barren, snow-bound worlds and the crew handing out candy and portable computers to parka-clad children staggering out of caves is obvious propaganda, but it is true that, for many colonies, the Cholomunga Corporation was the main link to the larger civilization.

972 years after the founding of the Human Federation, in a deliberate attempt to increase the size of its market, the Cholomunga Corporation convened a meeting of representatives from Dryland worlds in order to create the Drylander Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of the Cholomunga Corporation dedicated to promoting the unity and survival of Dryland culture. Scholars are still arguing whether this was an act of altruism or of hard-headed market manipulation, but the colonists themselves consider this meeting the official founding of the Drylanders clan.

While the rest of humanity fought the Great War, the Drylanders focused on developing a common culture that would allow not only basic survival but the existence of a technological culture. Under the guidance of the foundation, Drylanders were encouraged to disperse into small tribes, each with about half a dozen regular camp sites which it visited in rotation, so that they would not place too much strain on their minimal environments. For similar reasons, colonists drastically cut back on their concept of what was necessary in their lives, coming to rely on a handful of key possessions and to become fiercely self-reliant.

Other cultural patterns that were hammered out by consensus by the foundation include industrial design in which durability and low maintenance were the main goals, and a spirituality movement known as Oyugun that emphasized personal prayer and endurance, and an avoidance of violence and confrontation except in self-defence.

These changes took centuries to implement, and were often fiercely resisted by colonists, especially those who did not care to leave their settled lives for semi-nomadic ones. However, despite some false starts and changes of direction, the new culture gradually proved itself as the mortality rates on Drylanders worlds dropped dramatically, and Drylanders began to adapt physically to their harsh environments, to increase their economic prospects and to expand their colonization efforts. Long before the end of The Great War, Drylander culture had become self-sustaining. Cultural evolution was especially noticeable in Oyugun, which started to incorporate a belief in reincarnation that had not been part of its original teachings.

The Cholomunga Corporation invested billions in these cultural developments, but the expected profits were slow to arise. As first decades, then centuries passed, many shareholders urged the elimination of the Drylander Foundation, or an encouragement of wide open capitalism in the colonies to maximize profit -- even though such an action would likely have returned higher profit for a very short time before the colonies collapsed. At the other extreme of the company, many Drylander Foundation board members and employees came to identify more with the colonies they were helping than their parent corporations, especially after the Foundation moved its headquarters to the Drylander world of Altus.

1876 years after the founding of the Human Federation, these tensions resulted in a widespread revolt against the Cholomunga Corporation's increasingly repressive attempts at interference. On the battlefield, the fighting ended in a stalemate, with the corporation's well-equipped soldiery unable to defeat the guerrilla tactics of the colonists and the colonists unable to drive off the corporation's forces.

Eventually, the Cholomunga Corporation might have balked at the endless expense of the fighting, but, before that could happen, external forces became decisive. In 1959, Tashi Ann, Chakpa, and Lhamu Manguyal. three sisters who were collateral descendants of the family that had run the Cholomunga Corporation for much of its early history masterminded a shareholder's revolt that saw the entire assets of the Drylander Foundation transferred to Drylander companies. Staggering from this blow and economic attacks from rivals outside the company, the corporation collapsed, and the Drylanders declared their independence.

Following this success, the foundation board was re-organized, becoming an advisory and coordinating body, with the three Manguyal sisters alternating as Chairs and the other fourteen seats on the board elected by adult Drylanders. This new structure officially placed power where it had always tended to be: in the hands of local factions. With this change, Drylander culture and social structure assumed the form it has more or less had down to the present day.

In the middle of such struggles, many Drylander colonies sat out The Great War altogether. When not busy with their own concerns, the citizens of these colonies argued that they were already doing their part by encouraging human survival.

Yet, as Drylander colonies grew, some did come to make contributions to the war effort, despite the fact that individualism and self-sufficiency make most Drylanders poor troops. Although such incidents as the re-capture of the ruins of Five Canal by a fleet from the Drylander colony of Kangchenjunga did occasionally occur, most Drylander contributions to the war were less military. With their cultural orientation to machinery that was both durable and simple -- and untainted by the ideas such as planned obsolescence -- Drylanders soon came to dominate the shipyards of the human fleets. Many also proved well-suited to scouting, skirmishing, and other solo occupations vital for the war effort.

With their own brand of religion a dominant factor in their lives, Drylanders were initially hard hit by The Disappearance, losing many of their local leaders and priests, as well as two of their Co-Chairs of the Board. However, their decentralized lifestyle depends so little on authority figures that the social disruption was soon repaired. Today, the Drylanders have largely recovered from The Disappearance and preserve much the same influence as they had during the Empire. In fact, rumour insists that the event was unique in Drylander history only because of its size, and that many major Drylander religious figures have vanished individually over the millennia in equally mysterious circumstances.

The Drylanders Today

Modern Drylander physiology, which has been extensively studied, is markedly different from human norms. Drylanders today tend to be short and barrel-chested, with about 15% greater body fat than average humans. and an immense capacity for endurance and for carrying loads that far exceed their body weight. Other changes observed included increased lung capacity, hyper-oxygenated blood, and a slower burning of calories than normal.

>From as early an age as possible, both male and female Drylanders are taught basic survival skills and encourage to cultivate stoicism and self-sufficiency. Long before puberty, each Drylander is used to carrying seven basic pieces of equipment: A knife, an energy weapon, a high-tech, all-encompassing garment known as a pachacutec that is capable of providing water-recycling and warmth as needed, a cape called the pacari that can be converted into an overnight shelter, a lighter, and a communicator that ties into the local satellites and the computers on the planet. This equipment is known as the Seven Signs, and no Drylander is willingly without all of them. Many make their own, but some of this equipment is also passed down for generations. The exact form of the Signs, as well as their decorations clearly mark subcultures and family ties. However, to most other humans, much of Drylander art seems intricate, garish, and bizarre, with too much of a fondness for the monsters and demons that have a symbolic importance in their religion.

To the Seven Signs, a few of the New Drylanders, a reform movement founded in Imperial Year 1834, add a personal vehicle, usually solar or wind-powered. However, most Drylanders show a reluctance to move about under ordinary circumstances on anything except their own two feet, although llamas are used as beasts of burden on some Drylander planets.

For most Drylanders, the center of their existence is the local group, variously described as the faction, family, or department. Although sometimes dominated by a single leader and often including a priest, the tribe is driven largely by the consensus of all its members over the age of 12 -- adolescence being a concept that the Drylanders long ago abandoned as impractical, to say nothing of incompatible with their drive to self-sufficiency. These factions are held together by family and economic ties, as well as such social rituals as the sharing of coffee or, on worlds with high levels of volcanic activity, of bathing together in hot springs or saunas.

Each tribe has a traditional set of camps that it moves between to avoid putting too much pressure on the marginal environments of their planets. Each tribe specializes in one or more industries, either carrying supplies or else storing them at one of its camps. In summer, tribes gather at fair grounds to exchange goods -- although the Board may also step in with emergency supplies when requested. Most tribal territories also include a series of villages, often underground, where the old, sick, and pregnant can shelter. This network of territories is held together by a series of global-tracking and communication satellites which are one of the first projects initiated on any new Drylander colony.

In theory, the Foundation Board holds authority over as many as 75% of all Drylander planets. However, since the revolt, its influence has declined until now it is mainly a mechanism for the exchange of goods and information between Drylanders worlds, as well as the arbitration of disputes, and a sort of consulate for Drylanders travelling on other worlds.

The authority of the Chairs is even more tenuous today, and largely religious. Referred to as the Three Sisters, each Co-Chair is believed by many Drylanders to be the reincarnation of one of the original Manguyal sisters. When a Sister dies, the foundation finds up to five infants that could be her successor, and all registered Drylanders vote on the one that is the true incarnation when the candidates reach the age of twelve.

Candidates for the Chairs can be male or female, but successful male ones often live as transvestites or undergo sex change operations to better fit their role. Only a few male candidates have had the strength of will to resist the cultural pressure to make one of these choices --and none have been the reincarnation of Tashi Ann, or "Tam," as she is known from her initials, who holds a special importance in Drylanders religion as the oldest of the sisters, and the one most active in the revolt and the early shaping of the culture.

Occasionally, some candidates are from non-Drylanders worlds, despite the difficulties such candidates have adjusting to Drylanders culture.

Wherever they come from, newly found candidates are raised on Altus by the foundation board. However, all officially accepted Sisters rotate residency on Altus each year, the others acting as roving ombudswomen through the Drylander worlds. The appearance of one of the sisters on a Drylanders world is often the signal for the sitting of a general court, where all disputes that cannot be settled locally are brought for settlement.

Only the foundation board knows exactly how many worlds are dominated by Drylanders, and even they are suspected of having lost count. However, in addition to Altus, which is the unofficial capital or spiritual heart of Drylander culture, the better known ones include Kangchenjunga, famous for the quality of its ships and its ability to reconcile Drylander tendencies towards non-violence with a strong military tradition; Aukaneck, a world of mostly frozen oceans dominated by Drylanders who claim a strong percentage of Inuit ancestry; Delger, a world of steppes that is unusually fertile by Drylander standards and has a large population descended from Mongolians, who accumulate llamas and other animals as a sign of wealth, and Niflheim, a world that is even bleaker than most Drylander worlds, and hosts a well-known biological station specializing in non-sentient life-forms.

Relations to Other Clans and Intelligent Species

With their reputation for being able to take of themselves yet unlikely to start a fight, Drylanders mingle freely with most other clans. Although the foundation employs largely Drylanders, as many as a third of its workers on some worlds are non-Drylanders, and pockets of Drylanders are common on many Drylander worlds. One or two worlds have even started small industries as hospitals or rest homes for Drylanders since the conditions on human standard worlds are extremely easy on the physiology of Drylanders.

Drylanders have especially strong reputations in inter-world athletic competitions, where their superior endurance and respiratory systems give them strong advantages over many other Clans.

Other humans are always welcome on Drylander worlds, although few ever take up long-term residence. On worlds like Altus, where other Clans are frequently seen, the small villages often maintain underground walkways between buildings for the sake of off-worlders, although few Drylanders would care to be seen to use them.

The foundation keeps close ties with the governments of Aquans and Taurans, often meeting with them to discuss issues of mutual concern, such as the attitude of the rest of humanity towards them.

Strangely, too, many Drylander families have become hereditary retainers of Aristocratic families. These arrangements suit Drylanders who wish a non-traditional life under less extreme conditions, and provide Aristocrats with personal servants-cum-bodyguards who are loyal and extremely competent in their duties. Although the relationship is not always an easy one, since Drylanders are fundamentally lacking in any sense of social subservience, some Aristocrats seem to value the bond for precisely that reason, explaining that in their Drylander servants, they encounter a give and take that is often lacking in their other relationships.

Given their preferred habitats, Drylanders as a whole are little concerned with other sentient species. However, sociologists have observed that the Tsihor have found their way into the pantheon of demons characteristic of Drylander art, almost certainly based on second-hand account.

Names

Drylanders are numerous enough that many have no distinct naming pattern. However, many Drylanders choose name from cultures that shared at least some of the conditions in which they live. Common naming patterns include Tibetan (Dawa and Rinzen for men or women; Jigme and Lobsang for men; Tara and Zapa for women): Swiss (Conrad, Thierry, and Yan for men; Eliane, Laure, and Renata for women), and Norwegian ones (Anders, Kjell, and Magnus for men, Gudran, Kari, and Petra for women). Other naming fashions include the names of legendary explorers of Dryland environments (Shackleton, Peary, Tenzing Norgay), and for appropriate mythological references, such as the frost giants of Norse mythology (Ymir, Jotun, Valthrudnir).