Hasad

"The ancestors grew indolent from their comforts. They abandoned the old ways and forgot the touch of stone on their claws. Their countenances turned cruel, and their deeds were cruel in equal measure. They coveted their possessions, and warred over trifling baubles and vainglorious disputes. In the end their bastions were torn down, their cities stricken with pestilence, and the Stone-Womb reclaimed their Deep Holds. Too late did the ancestors cast about to see what their pride had wrought, and the Hasad despaired."

The Silent Tome

Book 5: "The Fall", Chapter 1, Verse 1

The Hasad are a bipedal, semi-reptilian humanoid species native to Setlin III. They currently work as miners for the Setlin Guild, working the mines of their homeworld in exchange for basic services, technology, and resources.

The Hasad used to dominate Setlin and several outlying planetoids, but roughly 1,000 Terran years ago, they suffered a massive civilizational collapse. Their surviving records point to many causes ranging from wars to disease and ecological failure, but by stardate 2382.01.03, they were reduced to nothing more than primitive tribes scavenging amidst the charred ruins of their once-great cities.

They see themselves as a sinful people constantly struggling to atone for crimes of the Ancestors. As a result, the Hasad are usually docile and compliant. They are tireless workers, they despise idleness among their kind, and venerate sacrifice for the good of the group. Lately, however, the Setlin Guild has been imposing burdens upon the population that even the hardy Hasad are finding difficult to bear. A recent drop in the price of minerals has caused mass unemployment among the Hasad, and resource shortages have caused suffering not seen since the days before first contact. Several uprisings have been violently put down, and there are now whispers of rebellion in the mines...

History

Little is known about the Hasad prior to the Collapse. What remains of their history are contained in the fragmented data archives left in their hollow, bombed-out, and abandoned cities. There are massive gaps in knowledge, and historians and archaeologists are further hampered by the drastic climate changes which have rendered conditions on modern Setlin wholly alien compared to the planet on which the Hasad originally developed.

An ancient Hasad city lies in ruins. This is all the remains of the once-proud civilization.

Ancient History

There are a handful of precious ancient Hasadi archaeological sites preserved near the polar seas dating back at least 20,000 terran years ago. Due to the blasted and ruined nature of the planet surface of Setlin, Xenohistorians cannot piece together much of what took place in the intervening years. What little could be gleaned from the Hasadi data fragments show that the Hasad saw themselves living in caves during their hunter-gatherer days, burrowing deep tunnel systems to protect themselves from predators and venturing out at night to hunt (these observations come from stereotypes in Golden Age-era Hasadi popular culture, so the accuracy of this interpretation is suspect at best). Hasadi civilization saw a great flowering once they made the transition to above-ground farming and livestock agriculture some 20,000 terran years ago. They quickly expanded all across the planet, constructing great above-ground cities and infrastructure. Eventually, their technology progressed to that of Earth circa the 2200's by around Stardate 1100.

Golden Age

There is slightly more knowledge available about the Hasadi Golden Age. At this point, the Hasad had conquered their local Seri solar system and were exploring the outer reaches of their solar corona before the Fall. The main sources of knowledge regarding this time period have come from abandoned Hasadi satellites and spacecraft, their fragmented databanks, and the primary religious text of the modern-day Hasad: The Silent Tome.

The Golden Age Hasadi organized their society around planet-spanning familial collectives which were composed of various smaller clans and collectives, as well as powerful corporations who functioned as an economic support to the familial collectives and as a place of opportunity for family members who were cast out or were seeking to improve their fortunes.

Their civilization flourished, having somehow avoided destructive world wars in favor of sometimes savage economic competitions. While the stories of deprivation and treachery are commonplace during this era, there are surprisingly few instances of wars or large scale organized violence. They were a merchant civilization who had markets and commerce woven into their very culture. Approximately 60% of the planet's surface are covered in either above-ground or shallow subterranean cities capable of supporting a population of roughly 15.7 billion Hasad.

Rare pict captures of a Hasadi Deep Hold. No one is sure if these were real or not, and if real, no one knows how many of these "Deep Holds" survived.

Another pict-capture of a Deep Hold city complex. These places were rumored to be fantastical places of spiritual enlightenment, storage places for unimaginable riches, and even as bastions of refuge in the event of an apocalypse.

The most tantalizing mystery to come out of the records of the Golden Age are, the tales and pict-captures of stunning "Deep Holds," installations and maybe entire cities built miles and miles below the planet surface in pockets of the most impenetrable bedrock. Modern mining operations boring all the way into the planet core have been unable to locate these Deep Holds, though much of the crust of Setlin is too unstable or too dangerous even for modern methods to bore into. There are many regions below ground which are rumored to be large enough to contain Deep Holds, and these holds themselves are rumored to contain valuable artifacts and lost treasures from the Golden Age.

The Golden Age Hasad themselves were in disagreement over whether these Deep Holds actually existed. They were, at the time, treated like the fabled 20th Century Area 51 on Earth, and many commentators saw Deep Holds as secret corporate or clan black sites. The scant corporate archives surviving from that era never mention Deep Holds, and treat any rumors of such places with disdain. However, the Silent Tome treats Deep Holds as a matter of fact, not fiction, and mentions them quite often alongside fantastical tales of the Ancestors' prowess, genius, and avarice. Many modern Hasad treat the tales of the Deep Holds as true, but for religious reasons do not seek the places out.

Freebooters, adventurers, and fanatical Hasad (who are considered heretics by their mainstream brethren) are constantly mounting expeditions to find a Deep Hold, resulting in thousands of casualties every year. The Setlin Group doesn't care much for these expeditions, but don't see them as enough of a disruption to warrant a crackdown. Instead, Port City authorities merely require such expeditions to carry adequate insurance to cover any untimely deaths or equipment damage in the deep places of Setlin.

The Fall

Sometime around Stardate 1240, the Hasad suffered a perfect storm catastrophes which put an end to organized civilization all over the solar system. The Hasad refer to this time as "The Fall" and this incident is forever seared into the social and spiritual consciousness of all Hasad still alive today. From the remnants of historical records, the oral stories of the Hasad themselves, and the Silent Tome, the following is a reconstruction of the sequence of events leading up to The Fall:

1145 - Birth rates for the Hasad fall below replacement rates for the first time in their history. The following century is known as "The Time of the Quiet Creche Warrens" which saw massive strains placed on planet-wide labor and economic systems. Without children to replace workers who had retired, there were fewer and fewer hands to do work every generation. Little is known about the cause of this birthrate decline, but the Silent Tome attributes the decline to decadence and selfish, hedonistic mores of the coddled Ancestors. Without solid data, there is no way of knowing if the Silent Tome's interpretation is accurate.

1200 - A virulent disease sweeps the planet and even transmits to the various space stations and outposts in the system. The Hasad handle the situation far less effectively than they have in the past due to widespread unrest and social problems stemming from the economic crisis. The disease kills a quarter of all living Hasad in the Seri system before a vaccine is developed.

1222 to 1229 - The dwindling birthrate meant that the planetary families and corporations were now competing for fewer and fewer pools of workers. Since Hasadi society doesn't distinguish by nationality (there were no nations) and any Hasad could transition to another family, this meant that worker freedoms were severely restricted and competition often spilled into outright conflict and murder. This put enormous strain on the economic and political systems, which resulted in the Hasad fighting their first-ever global conflict. The war lasted for seven Setlin solar cycles, ending only when a small-scale nuclear exchange between two of the largest Hasad family factions wiped out 10% of the global population. The ad-hoc militaries immediately depose their ruling family governments and institute martial law in order to rebuild from the destruction. The global conflict comes to an abrupt end, and the Hasad social order is forever changed.

1233 - Four years after the end of the war, the Hasad somehow lose the ability to construct the fusion reactors powering their civilization. Some sources point to the loss of key technological manufacturing facilities destroyed in the nuclear exchange, but there is no good proof of this. Food replication and hydroponics facilities fail en masse leading to starvation and food riots. The militaries employ harsh force to quell the unrest. Billions starve to death.

1235 - Without the means to construct additional fusion cores and reactors, the Hasad could no longer send more ships to resupply their system outposts. The crews of these outposts still capable of space flight make their way back to the homeworld to take their chances. The rest perish in their facilities.

1240 - The last military government falls apart after rioters and deserting troops take over their last command bunker. The final transmissions coming out of the bunker are a collection of incoherent shouting, barked orders, and gunfire.

1366 to 1422 - After the official historical record ends, the Silent Tome speaks of the rise of a mythical figure named Xi'haad. She unites the largest bands of roving scavengers and forges an ad-hoc system of trade and mutual aid spanning the main continent of Setlin. While there is no historical census of population, the remaining archaeological evidence indicates a rapid increase in the scavenger population at this time from a low of 500,000 to approximately 750,000. The Silent Tome states that Xi'haad taught the scavengers how to shield their young from the harmful radiation of the wasteland, how to dredge water from wells, which crops resist the arid environments, and what remaining plant life had medicinal properties. No one knows where she came from, or what happened to her afterwards, but The Silent Tome foretells that one day she will return when the Hasad have proven themselves worthy by absolving themselves of the sins of their Ancestors. On that day, it is said that she will lead them into the stars to find a new home.

1459 - A council of tribal matriarchs is established in Xi'Mat, the largest population center on Setlin. They publish The Silent Tome as a collection of all the wisdom passed down from the oldest survivors, and to memorialize the life of Xi'haad. No further historical records are published after this due to the attrition of literary skills and the lack of interest in matters outside of theology and worship. Population decline continues despite a brief resurgence.

2382 - First contact with the organization which would later become the Setlin Guild. The Hasad are desperate at this point, as their numbers had dwindled to fewer than 200,000 across the whole planet. The leaders of Xi'Mat sign the "General Agreement" between the Hasad and the Setlin Guild, binding the entire species into indentured servitude indefinitely. The Hasad are inspired into a religious frenzy by this development, as they believe that the coming of the Setlin Guild portends the return of Xi'haad. Many believe that once they have satisfied the General Agreement, Xi'haad will return and lead them to a new home. The fact that there is no end date to the agreement does not sway them from this view.

Physiology and Appearance

Xenobiologists have great difficulty tracing the Hasadi evolutionary history due to the mass extinction of most complex organic life on Setlin during the time of the Fall, but they were able to derive some evolutionary relationships between the Hasad and several extinct species of viviparous reptiles.

The Hasad stand between 4'9" and 5'10" tall when walking fully erect, but present a much shorter profile due to their propensity to walk in a hunched fashion. Their hides are thick and covered in a layer of scales and some patches of fur. They don't see very well, and rely instead on touch and smell to navigate the world.

All Hasad have long, tough claws at the end of their hands, capable of moving large amounts of dirt while still retaining enough dexterity to manipulate small objects. Some highly skilled Hasad craftsmen and artisans remove up to 80% of their claws to better manipulate small devices. Having trimmed claws is a sign of status and wealth in Hasadi society, as most Hasad work with their claws and cannot do manual labor without them.

Their diet primarily consists of underground spudding tubers and fungi with meat considered a rare luxury item, harvested from communal farm animals living underground. The Hasad don't prefer replicator meat, complaining that it tastes "off." Otherwise, their physiology is not too different from standard carbon-based life, and their toxic tolerances fall within the normal expectations of 80% of Federation species.

Culture

Hasadi culture has been utterly changed by the events of the Fall and the subsequent population loss. They are a deeply religious society, small in number, and have developed a highly communal social structure, one in which most Hasad consider their lives to be only of secondary importance to that of the community.

Religion in Hasadi society revolves around the scriptures of the Silent Tome. The Silent Tome itself is written in a form of Braille that is only readable if the reader mimics the haptic feedback mechanisms of having Hasadi claws. A single matriarch named the Mother Provider heads the Council of Xi'Haad, the chief religious body tasked with interpreting and maintaining scriptures, training and administering clergy, resolving religious disputes, and performing rites and ceremonies.

The Hasad have few codified laws beyond simple proscriptions against stealing and killing. Issues are handled by clan leadership and when interclan conflicts arise, then representatives from the Council of Xi'Haad are appointed as an ad-hoc tribunal or arbitrator. The Hasad acknowledge and abide by the General Agreement signed with the Setlin Group. A small but growing caste of Hasad who have some Federation legal training have begun taking up roles as advocates and interpreters of the legal code. They are among the best-paid in the society though they have low social standing due to the perception that they are somewhat corrupted by their time with the outsiders and most of their income is seized by the clan for distribution to its members.

There is very little entertainment among the Hasad. Their lack of technology, resources, and funds means that they enjoy few of the amenities the space-faring visitors to their world are accustomed to. There is a rich oral tradition of stories associated with the Fall and the exploits of Xi'Haad and her companions, but few new artistic endeavors are launched these days.

Most Hasad spend their entire adult lives working in the mineral mines that dot the planet's surface. Most workers are taken from their families for months at a time while others who are lucky enough to have a public transporter on-site can go back to their warrens at the end of the day. Only clergy, advocates, and skilled craftsmen are spared this fate, but there are few members of the species who can attain these positions.

Finally, Hasad always assemble and democratically elect a representative in all arenas of life. A mine will have a minespeaker, a clan will have a chieftan(ess), an extended family will have a patriarch or matriarch. There is only one position which is selected non-democratically, and that is the position of Mother Provider, who is selected from amongst an elite group of female matriarchs via an unknown ritual which is rumored to involve the ingestion of copious amounts of hallucinogens.

Notable Hasad Characters

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