Blog post number 24 Written: 06-10-2021 Uploaded:07-01-2022
This post, is more lore, more deep background about the wider descendant universe, the kind of stuff that really interests me when I’m looking into a fictional universe. But as such, this also necessitates spoilers, so if you don’t want spoilers for when, or if the book gets re released and the other books printed along with it, maybe don’t read this yet, or do. your choice, but you’ve been warned.
So as previously mentioned the Cathatus are the creators of the Uradians. The Cathatus are cat people. Initially inspired by the Kilrathi from the old Prophecy Wing Commander games. However, that was merely an inspiration, a resemblance. This race is the second oldest in the order that I developed the various races in my head. At the time, I didn’t know any of the backstories to the Kilrathi either, just that they were bad guys, and cat people. So while they are standard, large strong, manned feline people in appearance, they are more cat-like in some respects than the Kilrathi are. For starters, they live a very long time, because after all, cats have nine lives. So shouldn’t they live for nine hundred years, instead of the hundred-ish years that lucky humans get to live?
Also like real cat’s they are smart, they are inquisitive, scientific, and investigative. The Cathatus are scientists, mathematicians, engineers. They designed and built the Uradians. They are one of the most influential races in the greater galactic community which consists of more than a dozen different races. It started as a mutual non-aggression pact between two different races after a devastating conflict, and as they expanded, and found other races or other races found them, they were added into the pact, and the community grew to the galaxy-spanning organization it now is. Because of the age and strength of the pact, many of the races have become specialized. The Cathatus, naturally studying things have become historians, scientists, engineers, archeologists, and so on. There are other races that serve as the industrious manufactures, as the fearless explorers, The Uradians the warriors. Pre-earth humans didn’t fit into this political and specialized society. After all we are more of jack of all trades kind of people. They came from a small backwater world and spread fast and dirty like an infection across the galaxy. Not following the rules, colonizing more systems than they should have been allotted, not sharing their scientific discoveries, claiming resources as their own. The various races of the council could not face the humans as individual races and instead gave the Cathatus resources as they designed, tested, and built the Uradians. Which then performed their intended function and exterminated the uncooperative humans from the face of the galaxy. Part of the reason the humans were such a serious threat, after centuries of specialization, into artist, or politicians, the various races were all very good at one thing, and couldn’t do other things, while humans were new, hadn’t found a niche in the galactic community and weren’t really good at any one thing, but could do a lot of everything. Post genocide “after Earth” humans are much the same, but they don’t get to meet and are wholly unaware of all these other races, they aren’t aware of the galactic community out there among the stars.
After the extermination, the galactic community settled down and went back to business as usual. The Cathatus intentionally disappeared into one of the other dimensions of space that is used for FTL. For mapping, research, discovery, science stuff. I won’t go further down that rabbit hole because of spoilers. And now I am just ranting I know, but I feel like there should be more… they’re cat people, they’re scientists… oh I remember…
Because of their long lifespans, and the standards within the galactic community, they strictly control their population. There is less than a million of them. and a new one is born only when an elder has passed. And they follow this, like most things in their lives, very strictly. Because they are scientists and they adhere to the scientific method and repeatable, testable principles and so on. That was the other thing I was forgetting. Okay, end rant.
Chace Randolph 