Human

Humans (Homo sapiens terra) were a humanoid species native to the planet Earth in the Sol system. Like their genetic siblings the Tallisites, they had large brains compared to body size and were a highly social species.

For most of their history, humans had been nomadic hunter-gatherers. The neolithic revolution occurred approximately 10000 universal years ago and saw the emergence of agriculture and permanent settlements. This led to the development of civilisation and started a period of continuous population growth and technological change.

Human population growth, industrialisation, land development, overconsumption, and the combustion of fossil fuels have led to environmental destruction and pollution that significantly contributed to the mass extinction of the species. Humans have visited other planets, including Mars (Sol IV), the moon (Sol IIIa) and Venus (Sol II).

Until about 10000 universal years ago, all humans lived as primitive hunter-gatherers. The invention of agriculture first took place on the largest continent of Sol, dubbed Asia. Humans then organised themselves into approximately 200 distinct tribal confederations known as "nations", though archeological evidence suggests the borders between these groups shifted frequently.

The dominant global religion was known as "Association Football", practiced collectively in large temple complexes and privately among friends and family. Devotees would gather weekly to observe ritual combat between two groups of priests. The losing team was traditionally sacrificed, though this practice seems to have become symbolic by the late industrial period.

Earth's political systems varied, but most nations were governed by a council of elders selected through elaborate popularity contests held every four to six years. Not to be confused with modern Tallisite elections, these contests were won primarily through the accumulation of currency.

The primary nation state, America, was governed by a single executive known as the President, who commanded the nation's military forces. Records indicate the presidency alternated between two hereditary clans, though the distinguishing characteristics between the clans remain unclear to reserachers.

Human technology advanced rapidly in their final 500 years, progressing from animal-drawn transport to powered atmospheric flight to interplanetary colonisation. Their first major achievement was landing a crewed vessel on their planet's natural satellite, Sol IIIa (called "The Moon"), in 1969 (local time). Unlike many species who abandon early space efforts, humans proved remarkably persistent, establishing a permanent lunar outpost by 2031 and expanding it into a modest city called "Armstrong" (population approximately 2,300 at its peak) by the 2070s.

The Moon primarily served as a transfer point for missions to Sol IV (Mars), where humans established their most ambitious off-world settlement. The Martian capital, "Opportunity," housed roughly 15,000 inhabitants at the time of Earth's collapse, with several smaller settlements scattered across the Tharsis plateau.

Researchers initially believed "Opportunity" was named for the economic prospects of Martian mining, but recovered records suggest it commemorated a small wheeled probe that had explored the region centuries earlier - a probe humans apparently developed such affection for that they held a planetary day of mourning when it ceased functioning.

Humans communicated primarily through a multiplanetary digital network known as the Internet or simply Net. Messages were transmitted instantaneously through handheld devices both used for communication and divination which humans carried at all times and consulted approximately 100 times daily. The inability to do so would cause severe psychological distress.

The precise cause of human extinction remains debated, but evidence points to a cascading environmental collapse beginning in the mid-21st century. Atmospheric carbon concentrations rose to levels incompatible with large-scale agriculture, while simultaneously depleting the ozone layer that protected humans from solar radiation.

What puzzles researchers most is that humans appear to have been fully aware of this impending catastrophe for at least 150 years prior to extinction, yet continued the behaviours causing it. Some xenoanthropologists have proposed that human neurology was simply incompatible with long-term threat assessment, while others suggest that their economic systems created insurmountable collective action problems.

The most significant source of information about human civilisation is the so-called "Martian Archive," a digital repository discovered in -19 by a joint Tallisite and Navarean research group within a subsurface vault on Sol IV. The archive was apparently transmitted from Earth during the final decades of human habitation as a deliberate preservation effort, though significant data corruption has hampered reconstruction efforts. What remains has proven invaluable but frequently contradictory.

A minority view holds that humans did not go extinct at all, but successfully relocated to an off-world colony. However, extensive surveys of Sol IV (Mars) and other system bodies have found only unmanned probes and a single ground vehicle playing a looped audio file of a "birthday song," presumably left as a monument to their civilisation.