Brief history of the Murihnam

[Raeta]

The inhabitants of this split continent are known as the Murihnam. The name was roughly derived from Muridae and Human since these were a biologically engineered race consisting of an abundance of DNA alteration from both to create what was essentially sentient, bipedal mice that stood upright, could communicate and think for themselves. These mice were intended as a workforce for mines on the new planet they were to colonize. Given mice could reproduce at high rates, it made them perfect for what they needed as they knew after terraforming the world it was likely to be unstable in some areas and likely to result in death. Advanced machinery at the time was not used to dig massive mines as the technology had to be reserved for major colonization areas as well as to sustain the creation of more sentient creatures to do their bidding. The Murihnam were initially put on the continent of Nasare to breed, to be raised to proper adulthood and then forced into tunnels that would range for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Given the large number of Murihnam that could reproduce at high rates, this allowed a very large workforce to continually make mines for resources not just under Nasare, but other places as well. After tunnels were dug, then deep underground railways could be established for faster transportation under the many continents.

Many Murihnam were often killed in the process. Often digging into large pockets of underground water drowning many, digging under the oceans and seas into areas that were unot stable equaling to cave collapse and more flooding, suffocation, toxins that caused health issues and the list went on. Given they were a relatively weak race, only intended to be a mining workforce, they were not very exceptional in fighting back, making them easy slaves at the time. Work, breed and die was their lives. The life expectancy of a Murihnam was suspected to be around 70 years old at the time. Most died in their early twenties and late teens, never living that old to find out.


Over time, the Murihnam became too frustrated and began to stop working, even if it meant being killed off by humaran military forces. They demanded that they were to be treated better, be given better living conditions, to have their own cities and homes much like the humarans did. They wanted an actual life, even if it meant still working, they wanted something to go home to or at least have proper places to call home for those that weren't forced to work. In a single year, it took a genocide of approximately 85% of their people before the humarans realized their intentions were suicidal no matter the outcome unless the humarans gave in. Their population before the genocide was around five million.  Knowing they couldn't lose their major workforce on the island, they gave in to demands.

One of the leading people that survived the genocide and forced the negotiations with the humarans, went by the name of Rane'Isa E'Taisa. She had gone from being factory to make new workers (in other words, a female for breeding) to the first official leader of the Murihnam people. She helped ensure that her people were given a proper place in life. In one unfortunate way, the humarans said they would not waste resources to give the Murihnam homes and towns; that they had to build such luxeries themselves, so they did. They were workers by heart and in a mere several years, they had anything from small villages to large towns, made of finely chiseled stone, excellent woodwork, homes made of brick and anything else they saw the humarans create. The amount of people they had in their nation no doubt benefited them as they had large numbers to accomplish such a feat in a very short amount of time

In the middle of the continent was the capital, where Rane'isa E'Taisa resided and helped command her people. She would stay in constant communication with the humarans, making sure work efficiency did not decrease from her people while ensuring the safety of the workers and freedom of the Murihnam in general. Not once did a war or another genocide break out while she had ruled the land and both sides were even thankful for that; the Murihnam for not having to be forced to die in uncalled for situations and the humarans for not needing to waste more resources to make a point.

This peace lasted for approximately 50 years along with  Rane'Isa exceeding expectations and lived up to around 80 years old due to a very healthy life. Although, her age showed greatly and she was beginning to look less herself and it was likely that 80 to 90 was the limit of the Murihnam race. The genetic engineering to cause the Murihnam to live longer than the ordinary rodents was a success.


Unfortunately, the progress and peace of Nasare came to an abrupt halt and they were sent all the way back to the beginning. An old colonization ship that was orbiting in space, ACE Phoenix, had taken it's toll serving as a large research and colinization space station above Sliinkaa. It was no longer able to be maintained for years and the ship was abandoned and left alone for decades. It eventually fell further into orbit, partially burning up before it crashed into the planet. It's destination: the heart of Nasare.


The massive ship crashed into the very center of the island and those that saw it coming ran and tried to hide and find some way to live. The ACE Phoenix collided and soon made a massive crater in the center of the continent, even cracking it in two, causing water from the ocean to rush in. The shock wave itself destabilized most of the island, causing mountains to fall, all homes to crumble with those that hid inside, causing countless mines to collapse killing all that were inside, and the explosion from the ship even releasing volatile fuels and chemicals in the air that spread across the land, killing the inner area of land in the continent, the produce and many more Murihnam. All those years of progress, rebuilding their population to 30 million and the amount of respect they earned from the humarans was all gone in a matter of seconds.

When the event occurred, the humarans never went to help. It was too dangerous as they knew what dangers that ship caused that would linger for a long time and the land was likely too unstable to be safe. As for the Murihnam, they assumed all on their continent were dead and they took those that they still hand and used them to breed the race back into existence for their personal uses. As for the actual people of Murihnam, it was guessed that around only 200k had lived. Around 99% of their population was gone and those that were left struggled to survive the catastrophe. Those that were lucky to survive were located in the far north and far south areas of the continent, far away enough from the chemicals and point of impact.

They were in ruins. So many families were gone, many even obliterated by the blast. The ground was even poison and no one was coming to save them, except for one person; Rane'Isa E'Taisa. Given her closeness to the humarans, they altered her ahead of time as well as some of the Murihnam, close to a few dozen in number, that were specifically chosen and evacuated  through underground railways to a safe location a few days before the ship had crashed. They wanted her to stay, but she insisted she return home. They sent her by ship, with a few of her own, to return to her homeland. It was a cargo ship fitted for a year's worth of supplies. They had even noticed the rivers that freely led into the continent, but were deemed too dangerous and were afraid to enter. The ship went on a course to go around the entire continent to examine the damage up close. Rane'Isa was close to dying from shock as she saw all she worked for completely gone. She lived to see her people raise to the top, only to see them crushed.

But, there was hope. As  the ship cruised around the cracked continent, they had seen people on the exterior shorelines, the original natives of Murihnam. Using small motorboats that were attached to the ship, she had even gone to meet people on the shores and bring them to the cargo vessel to live on to save them, and this trend continued as they went around the continent, looking for survivors. Nearly 2,000 were saved and aboard the ship. At first, everyone was so thankful she had come to help them, but it only took a few months before scrutiny started to arise. Many began questioning why she didn't die considering the government was located at the impact site. She made excuses, but many began to turn on her. In time the ship was taken over by those that thought she was with the humarans and betrayed her people, that the ship was another genocide attempt and she was a part of it all. What could be described as a civil war broke out on the ship, people began getting thrown overboard, killed, taken hostage and tortured. Around half of the population was soon missing or dead on the ship, and those that were angry with Rane'Isa had complete control.

They forced the original crew to drive the ship through the channels that lead into the sea that now lied in the center of the continent. With Rane and the crew as hostage, the ship was drown near the crash site, where a lot of the Phoenix still existed, portions of it still even standing out of the water. Rane'Isa was taken out to the deck of the ship, where she was continually humiliated, tortured and defiled before they threw her off the edge and into the water that appeared to have a large area with thick, black oil like substance. They all wanted her to drown, they even waited and watched her as she struggled in the water, gasping for air and trying to stay afloat. Not wanting to die, though, Rane'Isa still had some fight in her left. She struggled to swim over to some of the ship debris through the thick oil like substance that made it extremely difficult to stay above the water surface. Out of pure determination, she climbed onto and lied on some metal debris attached to the wreckage, soaked in water and oil like substance which had a sickening strong smell.

As she laid there it took almost no time before she started to scream at the top of her lungs in horrific pain. She'd squirm and roll around on the metal debris, crying for someone to kill her now. It was seen she was even trying to wipe the oily substance off of her body as she screamed, as if it was burning her body. Those watching her from the ship were even cursing at her, cheering and insulting her from afar as if taking great pleasure in her pain.

It wasn't until they witnessed something they hadn't ever seen before, at least not with their own people. Electrical arcs began coming from her hands to around the metal that surrounded her. It was clear the discharges were coming from her body and eventually some of that electrical discharge ignited the substances on her body, engulfing her body into flames and making her scream worse than before. She had rolled thrown herself about in absolute pain until she rolled off the debris, falling behind it and into water where she couldn't be seen again and the screaming even seemed to stop.

They all stood there baffled to what they just saw. Theories and conspiracies began among the group on the deck from what they witnessed happen to the woman. They ranged from her gaining powers from humarans, that she could have been a shapeshifter, perhaps they had magical abilities that no one told them about and others thought maybe there was something in the water. After what was likely an hour of arguing, they came to one conclusion that they could test. They threw out netting on the side of the ship for climbing, then they brought a dozen hostages to the side of the ship. They were given the choices of they either become slaves and suffer torment for being on Rane'Isa's side, or whoever survives and can climb back up onto the ship will earn their loyalty. They didn't tell the hostages, who were sheltered in the lower decks of the ship, what happened to Rane'Isa. No, they wanted feed on desperation of hostages for something far sinister.

Whether they agreed to the situation or not, all twelve were thrown over the side of the ship and into the water. At first there was screaming as people struggled to swim and stay afloat above the substance, some of them even never coming back up as they either couldn't swim or the substance on the surface was too thick for them to fight. Five of them were able to make it back to the netting that rest on the side of the ship and they climbed it back to the deck. In almost no time, the five collapsed on the deck and were screaming in pain just like Rane'Isa. The results were mixed and different. Three of them were screaming in pain, but had no electrical discharge or any oddness, just pain. The last two were much different in results. One was lying on the deck and even started vomiting. At first they thought she had ingested some of it, which was likely, but it wasn't until they noticed that vomit was even acting as acid and burning at the metal deck. The second Murihnam seemed to have an another very odd situation. It wasn't so much anything was coming out of him, but they noticed all the water on the deck was moving across the metal and coming close to him, almost as if he was a magnet for water.

That was all the proof they needed. Something was in that water causing something strange. While they were in that location, they took buckets and barrels and filled whatever they could up with this substance around this crashed spaceship in the water. They needed this for further testing when they were finally on land. All of the Murihnam on the ship that was against Rane'Isa and her allies had one agreement, this breakthrough could likely keep them from ever becoming enslaved to Humarans again if their creators ever returned.


After a few years had passed and the stolen ship finding a position to find permanent anchor,  those that were on the ship had started life again on the northern continent, on the outer edges of the land. Much of the and had started to regrow and heal, which allowed them to start building homes and life again. During those years, they named their new land Nolnare and formed a new government by the name of System of Nolnare, which was really a government that made life very systematic in nature. Everyone worked for the greater good, they all had their jobs to do and together they'd make sure the humarans never control them again. This lead to a very powerful government that had control of the lives of the people, which later was less about defending against humarans and more about taking control of the people, weapons, research and more. This regime also began to heavily use those that did not obey as test subjects for years to come. It was not only mundane research, but tests of using the tainted waters from the Central Sea south of Nolnare.

They knew they couldn't continue abducting people though, so they started a demented tradition that involved showing loyalty to the System of Nolnare. They began taking frequent trips with those coming of age, often those that were in their mid-teens, to the tainted waters, where they threw them overboard. Those that drowned were not worthy, those that were able to climb back up onto ships without help were taken back home. This helped further their research in understanding the tainted waters and lead to calling the tradition the Submersion of Virtue. It was treated as something special, holy, wonderful and inspiring. The people fell for it and even admired it, and since it all went back to being as powerful as humarans instead of weak rodents, then they were more than willing to throw themselves into the water. In a few decades it even developed into a mandatory tradition for those coming of age.


The information they discovered within those decades is that there was two types of Murihnam. There was those that were able to manipulate surrounding material and energy, but unable to produce it. Then there was those able to produce energy, but unable to manipulate it. They lacked the facilities at the time to understand it was a genetic mutation from old humaran DNA as well as chemical mutations from the altered, tainted water activating certain inactive genes within their bodies. Given their population was growing full of users and suppliers, they decided to make an alteration of the Submersion of Virtue. Those able to manipulate power were considered to have inherit rights to be superior. Those that could only supply this energy, were considered inferior.

The only way they could manage to acquire this energy through constant replication was essentially blood donations. At first people were willing to donate their blood in order to stay on the System's generous side. Unfortunately, the demand became larger and larger and they found out through breeding that it was a much higher chance to reproduce certain types of Murihnam to have Supplier genes or User genes. This lead to them to an ironic fate of forcing the suppliers into facilities were they were forced to breed and give up their blood, which was turned into injectors or even drinkable solutions.

This led to an eventual riot and some of these breeding and donation facilities breached and those forced into servitude were allowed to escape. Those that didn't escape were executed or tormented, the ones that did escape the nightmare began a very long trek south, not knowing where else to go. They knew they couldn't go too close to the center near the Central Sea, and went along the shorelines, making it an even longer travel. Some died during the travel, being too hunealthy to continue, or they starved, dehydrated or even ate tainted natural food that was on the ground and still poison from the Phoenix crash years ago. The survivors found themselves needing to cross a channel to the southern region. With little knowledge, they had to construct makeshift rafts to cross the channel.

Once across, they continued to venture as south as they could go until they could go on no longer. Their numbers went from a near hundred down to a mere forty-three. From there, they had begun to make their own makeshift homes and begin trying to build a new life to not be slaves anymore. As time went on, they were able to gradually repopulate in the southern region, even finding old ruined cities and towns that could be inhabited again and started to rebuild them. They had even found old technology from the days before the crash and when the humarans used to be around that helped gain a faster foothold in what to do with their lives.

For nearly a hundred years both the Nolnare and Solnase were secluded from each other, for the exception of run-away slaves fearing their lives when they were able to escape and ran south. During this century of period the land very slowly healed even more and Solnase went from community run towns to a central government as their population began enlarging. Solnase was soon ruled by the Solnase Republic, where instead of enslavement the people were allowed to live their lives and even got to chose who would rule over their cities and continent. This led to a much more peaceful life in Solnase compared to Nolnare, although the Submersion of Virtue was a hotly debated topic for them. Some thought it could still be of value, while others were not sure if they wanted to become what Nolnare had. This came to an eventual vote of something different. The tradition would be continued at certain times of the year, that also did not conflict with Nolnare, but a major difference was they would not let people drown or even die. They would always lift others out of the water and bring them back home. The idea was also something of symbolic. It not only showed what those before them had to suffer for the lives they had today, but also by the name of a woman of Rane'Isa, to live in peace, harmony and to never make each other suffer.

Rane'isa's name became two different meanings between the continents. In Nolnare, she was a traitor who gained favor points with the humarans and tried to end the Murihnam race and enslave them again when it became far too successful. In Solnase, Rane'isa was seen as an angel and the words that spread over the years was how she was sacrificed for the good of the people. Although, while the word for Rane'Isa was nothing short of wonderful in Solnase, most seemed to have no connection to the name. It was almost as if it was a strange, odd cultist type ideal to even include her name, almost immortalizing her as a god. And given most history of any documentation of her was destroyed after the crash, there was no evidence that she was that great of a person. Nonetheless, it was more of a passing name to mention and wasn't very frequently argued or thought of much and just another part attached to the tradition.