Officer's Briefing, Circlet NNE, Circlet Civilizations (Condensed)...
Brief;
Of all the various Krȃng Artifacts yet discovered, those known as 'Circlets' rank as the largest. Each is an enormous ring-world encircling a medium-sized gaseous body that is then used as both gravitational primary, anchor, and atmospheric storage & recycling system. Gigantic processing plants in the lower atmosphere exchange gases back and forth between the Circlet and its primary with each supplying one of the eight Circlet Settings with the appropriate gas mixture. Thus each of these Settings is its own complete biosphere and while some - notably the Svari and Zeer'Gen of Circlet NNE - can easily coexist there are some that require their own setting.
By and large, all of the civilizations thus far cataloged - again, with the exception of the Zeer'Gen - have suffered from severe industrial and economic stagnation, placing their highest technology levels at that of 18th Century Earth. With no large metal deposits precision tools are in short supply and most could be considered Agrarian with the rare Pre-Industrial civilization struggling against the limitations of their environment. These latter are the most likely to know about their captivity; The average soil depth is fifty meters and it is reasonably easy for the dedicated miner to hit the PTU-557 structure below their world. Even given that, these civilizations can be vast and sprawling as each Setting is some four hundred kilometers wide and nearly seventy four thousand kilometers in length.
Circlet I - NNE
Setting 1; The Sitsizi'i / Otterkin
Otterkin, as their name implies, are shaped just like semi-bipedal terrestrial river otters. The only difference besides their stance are more fully formed opposable thumbs and what seems to be an irresistible cuteness. Due to what seems to be an insatiable curiosity they have tended to drift into roles as explorers, scientists, researchers, and the occasional military scout or intelligence officer. Thankfully they breed like rabbits and whole packs can be spotted wandering the streets of Sunset on occasion. The origins of the otterkin are somewhat muddy. According to rumors, they were picked up by accident during the clean-up from an epic beach party on an unknown world. By the time they were discovered among the pool noodles and sand toys, it was too late to return them to their home planet. As the otterkin didn't want to go home either, a cloning and breeding program was instead established and they've successfully spread all over Sunset.
After years of negligent investigation, it has since been determined that the Otterkin found by Republic explorers on a distant world were actually captives taken by the Kion and abandoned on said world, where they self-established a small colony. Their true origins were aboard Circlet I or possibly somewhere in Canis Major; Further investigations are on-going.
Setting 2; The Zeer'Gen
The Zeer'Gen are believed to be one of the seven species that the Circlet in the Gen Celet System was originally intended to house and with the possibility that the species in fact evolved there as well. While secondary evidence is scant, this is the history given by the Zeer'Gen themselves and is currently the widely accepted answer. They maintain that sometime shortly before the Kion attack that destroyed the dominant Sitsizi'i civilization their species rose to the level of semi-connected tribes occupying the jungles dominant to the Second Setting but avoided the destruction due to being beneath the Kion's attention. However, some measure of the attacker's technology seems to have been discovered or abandoned and the Zeer'Gen began their own slow technological revolution with the end result that sometime in the last few thousand years they managed to breach the barrier between Settings and first invade then occupy the First Setting, enslaving the Otterkin population. Though a distant memory, they still retained a large measure of fear and respect for the Kion invasion and with their home secured, they began a military build-up that would last until the modern era and an unintentional conquest by Captain Blaine and the SDF-Ojeni.
As apparent, they are an Insectoid-Humanoid species that largely carries a cultural similarity to many Terran species. An Empress sits at the top of the hierarchy and under her are her few direct progeny, the Crown-Daughters. These serve as a nobility of sorts with ceremonial control over the most notable military elements - previously the few space ships in their possession - and pheromone control over the breeding 'queens' scattered through their territories. All Zeer'Gen are sapient but only the Empress and the Queens can reproduce and this is regulated by pheromones produced first by the Empress and then spread by the Crown-Daughters. All of the other individuals are gender-less and their role in society is set by both personal desire and strengths as well as a subtle influence from the spread pheromones. This serves to give their society more than a taste of martial feeling and this was reinforced by the wholesale slavery of the Sitsizi'i, who occupied most menial roles until their liberation.
Setting 3; Vacant
Setting 4; Vacant
Setting 5; The Svari
Another one of the many species to inhabit the Circlet in the far-off Gen Celet System, the Svari are a nocturnal species that largely resembles humanoid elephant shrews in both appearance and behavior. They are also one of the smallest species of biological sapient known to the Republic at a good stretch under one meter in average height. Living in moderately sized packs or extended families, they hunt the surface at night for the large pseudo-insects that are their primary protein source and then retreat underground at night for defense against larger predators. As one might guess, their culture is much less advanced than others discovered on the Circlet and the Svari are just on the verge of adopting both written language, tool manufacturing, trade, and a host of other hallmarks of established civilization. Because of this it is theorized that they were one of the more recent species to evolve on that unique mega-structure and it is thus likely that they completely post-date both the disappearance of the Krȃng, the Kion Invasion, and the eventual Zeer'Gen subjugation of Settings One through Three. They also have one of the smallest populations with only a few thousand groups and perhaps a hundred thousand total individuals scattered across all of Setting Five.
Setting 6; Vacant
Setting 7; Vacant
Setting 8; Vacant
Additional Notes;
Evidence points to the Kion as the likely source of the vacancies. Against even more primitive peoples, the Kion's arsenal of low-end laser and nuclear weapons would have proven devastating. While most radio-logical traces are gone after the intervening seventy-two thousand years, enough remain to make this the most likely conclusion. With the Republic conquest and acquisition, these vacant Settings are being turned over to migrant and refugee populations as needed.
