Limners

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Limners

Alien sophont species, remnant of an older, now vanished empire
Image from Steve Bowers
Malacolimner stellae (race A), from Limner World Alpha

The Limners (species Malacolimner stellae) are a group of dog-sized, superficially crustacean-like aliens that have been found on three isolated star systems in the hinterlands beyond the Monkey Nebula (counterspinwise of the Perseus rift).

The systems had all been mapped and named by Metasoft telescopic surveys, but Orion Federation exploration ships actually got there first. The three systems are some 100 to 200 light years apart. Each planet shows definite signs of being terraformed, so are probably not the homeworlds of these creatures. All are warm, wet worlds with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere that differs from typical lifebearing Gaian type worlds in having significant traces of methane, which is constantly replenished by biological processes.

Despite cultural and phenotypic differences among the three races (known usually as Limner A, B, and C) the obvious genotypes and memetotypes are the same. Molecular phylogenetics shows that they evolved from a common starfaring ancestor some 30,000 years ago.

The fact that all Limners have symbiotic bionanites in their neural ganglia show that the original species was provolved by members of an earlier race known as Auld Limner, whose domain extended across many hundred light years, well into the Perseus arm and beyond. Many xenoarchaeologists in the current era believe that the Auld Limners were themselves provolved by the still-current race known as the Soft Ones, who also think that this may be the case (although they have no definite proof either).

Limner ruins and remains have been found on a dozen other planets in the region, one as far out as the open cluster NGC 2286. All of these worlds had reverted to their original atmospheres with the loss of technology, and the local Limners had died as a result of environmental conditions being inhospitable to their physiology.

The most advanced Limners currently are the "A" subspecies found at ISO Moduleware2++38b's World (since renamed, by the Eden Institute, Limner World Alpha, but Metasoft insists on using their original designation), who were in the process of rediscovering interstellar flight at the time they were contacted by the Orion Federation explorers. Astonishingly, they represent a technologically expanding civilization, with reasonably advanced (Old Earth late Atomic Age) biotech and physics but limited AIs and very little nano-industrialization. A large number of ion drive ships and perhaps a few hundred space habitats of beautifully aesthetic design were found in the systems' asteroid belt and in geostationary orbits.

The societies of the "B" and "C" species are both approximately equivalent to neolithic Old Earth - they have agriculture and simple shaped tools made of natural materials, but no metalworking. The local populations are small but also stable, there are no more than about 5 million Limners on "B" and 2 million on "C". The solar systems contained similar interplanetary ruins of ships, habitats, and artwork to those found at Limner World Alpha. All ships and habitats were non-functional and the life support had failed many millennia ago. All contained the mummified remains of the original crew and subsapient lifeforms. The databanks were based on organics and volatiles that had long since degraded. Without doubt these were far more technically advanced than the current Limners. The term "Auld Limner" has been applied to this earlier civilization. Curiously, many of the moons and asteroids had originally been decorated by the same strange megascale artwork.

Preliminary archeological, xenobiological, and planetological studies indicate that none of the three planets were the original Limner home world. Despite difficulties in research due to the vast distances and lack of wormhole links, enough information has already been gathered by xenologists, archaeoxenologists, and exopaleontologists, to form reasonable (albeit tentative) hypotheses regarding the Limners and their Auld ancestors.

None of the three Limner races have a spoken language. They communicate instead with "antenna" and "antennule" gestures and physical posturing as well as by pheromones emitted by certain glands located at regular intervals along the abdomen. The term "Limners" arose from their grand scale paintings, the style of which is almost identical on each of the three solar systems (despite the 25 thousand years of isolation and the fact that only the "A" race are interplanetary capable), often in a mandala pattern or realistic depiction, often left on the surface of asteroids, craters, hills, and walls.

Physiology

At first glance Limners appear to resemble a very large Terragen decapod crustacean (lobster or crab), complete with thorax, segmented abdomen, grasping claws, and several pairs of walking legs. Closer observation reveals the apparent similarity is misleading. The exoskeleton, while jointed, is quite different in structure and composition to that of any Terragen arthropod. The limbs, also, are arranged in a different way, the soft squat rather tongue-like abdomen is unarmored and posses no tail flipper or abdominal appendages, and a large hemispherical, vaguely triangular head region sits atop of, but distinct from, the thorax. At the front of the thorax is a pair of large asymmetrical claws, which would seem to act as a counter-balance to the abdomen and in addition lend a rather fearsome appearance. (in fact, Limners are remarkably non-aggressive, especially in comparison to most terragen life-forms).

From the lower section of the thorax emerge the three pairs of walking limbs and three pairs of manipulator claws. These are arranged in a sort of circular ring (more like octopus arms around the mouth), rather than along thoracic segments as in Terragen arthropods. The ring of walking limbs surrounds the mouth, which is ringed by a row of smaller pedipalp-like organs. The walking legs are very stout and capable of providing terrestrial crawling or walking movement in several directions (equally "forwards" (with the abdomen behind) and "backwards", depending on mood and communication nuance). For very fine manipulation they use their oral palps. In addition, from the mouth a long proboscis like structure can unhinge, in order to grasp food particles.

From the thorax upper surface, on each side of the head (but not from the actual head itself), a pair of long antennae sweep back along the body. These long antennae are used for hearing and can be swept forward in a whip-like motion to probe potentially dangerous objects. From the head area emerge the three eyes, a shorter pair of forward pointing antennae, and a pair of fine antennules.

The eyes are located at equal intervals around the head, one at the front and the one each at the side corners. They are stalked and can not easily see around corners, but may be used to look over objects without exposing the rest of the body. They have an intricate compound structure with pigments in some cells for a small range of color (mainly in the upper region of the visual spectrum). The wide-set eye setup does allow for good depth perception, but at the same time the compound structure limits the distance that can be clearly perceived. For this reason, Limner telescopic and computerized resolution techniques are quite advanced as well.

The nervous system is composed of two highly connected cord-like structures, one above the other, connected to a central ring. The lower cord relates mainly to general body movement and voluntary functions, and the upper relates largely to sensory phenomena. Stubby trunks branch off the lower cord (especially in the hind region) relating to reflexes, involuntary, and semi-voluntary nerve functions. The central link surrounds the mouth and limb-bases, as well as controlling locomotion. The main parts of the brain used in thinking and reasoning are extensions of the nerve ring and located in the upper thorax. Parts involved in vision are located in the "head" region, but are highly connected to the "thinking" regions in the directly adjoining region of the thorax.

The purpose of the abdomen is as a respiratory and pheromone organ. The gonads are also located there, as well as fat cells (obesity is occasionally a problem among Limners, but only the abdomen puts on weight. This may have been related to an adaptation among their ancestors food storage in hard times). No vital organs are stored in the abdomen, the heart, digestive system, and most of the brain and nervous system are all housed in the thorax. The circulatory and immune systems are closed and highly efficient, like Terragen vertebrates.

One reason they do not have a spoken language is that they breath through a system of semi-external gills along their abdomen. These gills which drape from along the underside of the abdomen along the body's central line are covered by a system of broad flattened swimmerets extending from the edges of the carapace along the abdomen. In an aquatic environment the swimmerets hinge outward (the only analogy that comes to mind is the cargo bay doors on some space shuttles, but if the doors were actually six pairs of overlapping smaller doors instead of one main pair with a smaller pair inside) allowing the highly branched gills to spread out gaining more surface area. In an air environment (preferably moist) the swimmerets loosely enclose the gills and produce an undulating motion that draws air through the enclosed area, almost in a tube-like lung formation (as opposed to the traditional sack-lung of so many land dwellers).

Biochemistry

Limners have a water-carbon-oxygen biochemistry of roughly terrestrial type, using both left-handed and right-handed amino acids. They can survive on human food only if given nutrition supplements, while most Terragen bionts risk adverse reactions to Limner food. Genetic information is stored in large sets of plasmid-like molecules; during reproduction a number of parent cells merge and pool their plasmids, followed by the random removal of unnecessary plasmids.

Limner metabolism uses methane in a pathway that appears to be due to the inclusion of a symbiotic structure not unlike terrestrial mitochondria. Originally these methanochondria likely protected Limner ancestors from excessive methane in the air, but over evolution they have become an essential part of energy storage. Today Limners require methane in low amounts for survival.

Limners grow very slowly. There slow and distinctive metabolisms make them long-lived (although this may also be an artifact of the original provolution). It is not unusual for a limner to live about 150 years barring mishap. The biggest cause of death is bacterial or viral infection in the vulnerable period immediately following molting.

Ancestry and Evolution

Xenologists believe that the Limners evolved in an area of swamp-plains on a slowly emerging continent on the shores of the shallow planetary sea. Their breathing gas mixture contains some oxygen and significant, but below combustion, levels of methane.

It is speculated that their presapient ancestors were scavengers and part time predators, inhabiting shallow tidal pools and mud flats (indicating a large Luna-type moon) early on. They fed initially on trapped, or recently dead creatures, snaring their pray with their several smaller grasping appendages. It is believed that the large asymmetric claws were for sexual display, rather than a defence against predators or capturing food.

Eventually the prelimners learned to capture and kill larger creatures, possibly by dropping or throwing rocks on them and crushing their exoskeletons. Of course this technique only worked in areas with overlooking rock faces or climbable vegetation. Much later they developed the social ties (whether for defensive purposes and/or finding and exploiting large food sources) that allowed them to work together in small groups (tribes, teams, or packs) to overcome large prey animals (drive the prey off cliffs or distract and shell pry techniques, etc.). At some point after this they were either provolved or themselves developed starfaring capacity.

In the absence of a known home planet, all this remains a controversial hypothesis. No Garden World with a suitably Luna-sized satellite has been found in the immediate vicinity, but xenologists suggest looking further out along the Perseus Arm.

Psychology

Psychologically speaking Limners are remarkably amiable; war as terragens know it seems unknown to them. It has been suggested that in their evolutionary past plentiful resources and lack of large predators meant they seldom had a reason to be violent. Alternatively, the race as a whole may have been gengineered by the Auld Limners (or the long-vanished civilisation that provolved them) to remove aggressive warlike tendencies. Another factor seems to be an efficient conflict resolution system based on the excessive politeness, gift-giving and food-sharing that characterizes so much of Limner society on all three worlds, regardless of technological development.

Current Limners are hesitant to employ any AI too far above turingrade. They frequently show anxiety when confronted with high level Terragen AIs. This seems to relate to a sort of fear or racial memory from the Auld Limner collapse.

Philosophy and Cosmology

Many of their philosophies are based on various "scientific" understandings of the universe (the conscious mind is like unto a cellular membrane, the paths a society takes are like the fractal branches of a photovore, etc.). Also, the visual portrayal of concepts a strong drive in their society. The current Limner civilization values a modicum of diversity in their cultures.

The Limner worldview incorporates a strong polarity element - translated as "the Soft and the Hard". The Soft, as represented by the abdomen, refers not only to functions like sex, food-sharing, and pheromonal communication, but also biotech. the Hard refers to manipulating objects with the front claws, semaphore communication, and particle physics and other forms of hylotech. Limners consider Art to depend on the right balance of the Soft and the Hard.

Another similar polity is The Head (literally, the Eyes) and the Mouth. This has innumerable associations in technology, art, culture, memetics, etc. The Head and the Mouth is often combined with the Soft and the Hard, giving the Four Basic Directions (Up, Down, Front, Rear, although again Front and Rear do not mean the same as they do for Terragens).

Although there are parallels here with Taoism and other Terragen systems of thought, these often disappear the closer one looks into the seemingly paradoxical nature of much of Limner knowledge and memetics.

Culture and Society

Limners these days have extensive aqua-culture systems and are not too worried about conflict and food wars. The drives that led them to hunt are not totally out of the question, these drives tend to favor team building. But when they feel a significant goal has been accomplished, they often diverge from their teams and take on a solitary status for awhile, eventually adopting different individuals as members of a new team. Although the current group had not had much contact with alien species prior to the terragen contact (who knows which races the Auld trucked with), the Limners are not adverse to adopting other species (pets, work animals, etc.) as members of their team during an appropriate part of the team-solitary-team cycle. It is foreseeable that aliens (terragen and other) could be adopted as part of such a team, as long as the aliens are not considered food animals (as long as the aliens show some pre-tense at communication or art they will probably be given honorary-Limner status at least temporarily).

If such a thing might be imagined, in current society, there is a meme (non-engineered) which tends to exclude long lasting totemic memes, though temporary ones are encouraged. This is probably a reaction to the very solid Auld Limner use of unifying memes. But the current transitory-totem-meme appears to have the added benefit of minimizing large scale conflicts, at least so far.

Technology

The current Limners have no hyperturing AI, no wormholes, no reactionless drive, no conversion drive, and very little ultra tech beyond quite basic bionano. For all their lack of advanced AI, the current Limners are surprisingly advanced in particle physics (especially their ship drive systems and weapons) and certain quantum effects, (equivalent to Old Earth information or early Interplanetary Age) although they don't have the understanding to apply a lot of their physics knowledge to macroscopic effects. It is speculated by the current Limners that the Auld may have had a few primitive reactionless drive ships. The Limners are always on the lookout for such a ships so they can get their antennules around its precious drive system.

Auld Limner AIs

The Auld Limners appear to have been overruled by organically based transapient AI (possibly equivalent to a Terragen low-range Archailect). Evidence (which is still controversial) indicates that after its Ascension this entity, called the Overlord or the Great One, managed to absorb (subversion? swarm? archaitectonic union? mutual symbiosis?) all other AIs. The Great One, having melded with the other AIs, as well as developing further nodes, was the main thing that kept their civilization coherent (and not a little fascist) for so long a period. There is no direct evidence, but some believe this scenario hints at the activities of the so-called Dawn Hunters, despite the relatively recent date.

The Auld-Limner Demons

"Antenna up! Antennule left! Antenna up! Antennule down! You have now joined the glorious Dominion of the People! You join (us? me?)! You rejoice!"
- approximate translation of one of the Auld-Limner Demons by a Limner, just before said Limner destroyed the demon and took her own life.

Xenologists know that the surviving Limner races are the remnants of an original race, named Malacolimner stellae that was provolved at some time in the past by a lost civilization known simply as "Auld Limner". The Auld Limner were an unknown biological (or possibly biomachinic) species, who built a vast empire that once stretched further beyond the periphery, and contacted and provolved a number of species. It is known that they interacted with the Soft Ones. Most xenoarchaeologists in the Current Era believe that the Auld Limners were themselves provolved by the Soft Ones, or at least raised from a primitive level of technology.

This vanished empire, which is conveniently known as the Auld-Limner Dominion, is the stuff of Homeric style epics and children's cautionary tales among the Limners. The reason for its disappearance, some 28,000 years ago, is still not clear.

The legends vary greatly among the three Limner races, and even from culture to culture within each race. But there are enough points of commonality to reconstruct a decent generalization. According to this, the Auld-Limners either possessed, or were themselves, organically derived AIs, and oversaw many aspects of the Dominion, much as hyperturings do in the Terragen Bubble today. They promoted policy through specifically designed, rigid, self conscious memes. How the empire ended is inconclusive. Some stories suggest that the AIs were too clever and its progeny rose up and overthrew it. Other tales include variations such as the AIs being destroyed and overly rigid memes not being able to adapt. Terragen scholars of the school of Ronald7 Clonechild "the Bright" have suggested that one group of the Dawn Hunters may have given rise to the Auld-Limners, while a second group may have quashed the Dominion. Not everyone accepts the Ronald7ist line, as there is however no hard evidence that the Dawn Hunters reached the Perseus Arm (although no good reason why they couldn't), even assuming they existed at all.

One thing that legends agree upon is a sort of "magical" picture, painted in still, possibly abstract patterns, that holds and transfers a demon (possibly self-conscious meme) to any who look upon it. Most Limners have no desire to revisit what they view as the "decadence" of their extinct cousins and standard procedure is for any Limner discovering an Auld-Limner painting to destroy it and commit suicide. This practice derives from an odd philosophy, based loosely upon quantum entanglement, regarding how a destroyed painting can effect the destroyer more than it effects other viewers.

Image from Steve Bowers
An artefact purporting to be an original demon-painting from Limner-world C; it is no more than 14,000 years old, so post-dates the Auld Limner epoch

The techniques used by the artists of the "demon-paintings" exploit some specific features of the Limner brain and its visual processing systems. Despite some early and unsubstantiated reports claiming that some of the early Terragen contact and archaeological teams had been adversely affected by an encounter with one of these paintings, there is no evidence that these works could affect non-Limners and indeed, no plausible physical mechanism by which any such effect could occur. Some xenosophontologists speculate that the Demon painting effect was a deliberately engineered "back door" into the Limner brain, added by their former Archailect as a convenient control channel that didn't require complex memetic campaigns or use of force.

Though the memetic engineering shown by the paintings is quite sophisticated by modosophont and even first-toposophic transapient standards, it is believed that an S2 mind could create similar memetic instruments for use on the Limners. Such research has been strongly discouraged on diplomatic grounds.

Demon paintings still have a strong hold over by the current Limners from pre-Auld sources (it is possible they originated from coastal hunter-gatherer cliff paintings). The large paintings have a sort of ritual and almost religious significance. The Limners consider the Demons as the worst sort of blasphemy (hence the careful protocol for Demon removal) because of the way they corrupt this ancient tradition. When the Limners accomplish some task they feel has significance (i.e.. entering a new star system) they almost immediately construct a commemorative painting on an asteroid, comet or moon. Often another Limner will travel great distances just to view a particular painting and Limner archaeologists are always looking for lost works and other-than-Demon Auld paintings (apparently a rare subculture of the Auld empire). If they were to find an unusual ancient painting, it would have a religious significance on par with a messianic return. Although they do view the art of other cultures with some interest (especially mandalic murals), it does not tend to have the same religious, psychological, or emotional centering effect on them.

It seems that the Auld Limner AI had tried to engineer wormholes, but these seem to have been unsuccessful. Their major artifacts were those Demons, which were developed (again, apparently, no one knows for sure) right after the AI took charge. The Demon paintings were initially a recruiting tool used to round up dissident groups (Auld Limners and lesser AIs) who had struck out for the stars before the overseer AI came to power. Later on these paintings were used as sort of morale boosters and gentle nudges to keep all communities loyal to the empire.

It is believed that remains of their sub-light empire may contain other "degenerate" offshoots beyond the periphery, but the Limners represent the furthest geographic extent of the empire at it's height. The center of the Auld Limner empire is believed to lie somewhere in the outer Perseus Arm, or even towards the Outer Arm of the galaxy. As exploration gets further into the heart of the empire more archeological evidence may turn up.

The Simultaneity Problem - and the Interferist Explanation

The discovery of the Limner civilization has caused a lot of problems regarding the current xenological understanding of the evolution of intelligence. For a long time the consensual wisdom (backed by extensive exopaleontological evidence) is that major starfaring races appear on average only once every 5 to 15 million years. How to explain how two distinct civilizations - the Terragens and Limnergens - are occurring so close in time. Although the discovery of the Limners has revived interest in progenitist religious sects, serious researches are also trawling around for answers.

According to the Interferist School popularized by Rana Googeltweak and some of the Hammond Neotrekists, somebody higher is involved and the Limners have never known. Possibly two or more factions of the Dawn Hunters (R. Googeltweak) or an as yet undiscovered race of other ancient archailects (Hammond Neotrekists, including the "galactic space brothers" heterodox faction of Yoho Adamskiji). These interferers, for what ever reason, seem to have taken extreme pains not to reveal themselves

(In eir famous tabloid interactive on the topic, Auld Limners - the Untold Story, Zar R. Googeltweak says "when they provolve they don't just grab some primitives and tweak them till they get a new species. The interferers are patient, maybe causing a point mutation every decade or so, changing the environment to select certain types of individuals, etc.").

Says Sisco Picard of the Hammond Neotrekists, in Progenitism, a Hypothesis:

The interferers also don't seem to simply provolve every race in sight. Some life worlds are left "fallow" or get intelligence on their own. Even among the gradually provolved species, they don't just hand them wisdom and technology, or pro-scientific reasoning memes. Possibly this was done many millions of years ago, recently (how recently) the interferers have been backing off. At one time they possibly handed out technology (or one group of them did) and did the whole-nine-yards process of provolution. Not so long ago policy changed (one interferer group was overthrown or something) and only allowed for the insinuation of memes that were pro-tech advancement. Even more recently only gradual provolution has been allowed and meme insinuation has been abandoned . . . except possibly in cases where there is some sort of counter interference to development.

With the Auld Limners it applies thus: so you have one god who put them on the path to expansion but then decided not to intervene anymore (or was prevented from intervening anymore or simply withdrew or transcended). The civilization begins to expand, developed a single, small (by current standards) archailect of their own, small empire blossoms. Then another god steps in (maybe the empire started to infringe upon one of it's projects, maybe it was a diversity-encouraging ship of the law, maybe it was the old god coming back, unsatisfied with the current happenings) kills off the small archailect, causing the imperial infrastructure to disintegrate. Only a few worlds survive, these are mostly around the stone age in most areas for awhile, some (or one) make it to bronze age. But the god is not satisfied (possibly it wants more diversity through speciation or separated cultural development, or just wants to keep the Limners occupied). So this ancient one suppresses technological advancement for a few thousand years, not necessarily interfering in large ways, just making sure arts get more interest than complex metaphysics, metaphysics get more interest than deductive reasoning, making sure the ancient technological artifacts are not investigated and exploited, that emotional-mythic aspect of ancient history times is carried down more strongly than the factual-historical. Basically making sure that knowledges of Auld are not necessarily destroyed, but relegated to an area of unimportance, culture doesn't stagnate (it branches out wonderfully) on the Limner worlds, but technology does (crafts technology and homeopathy do quite well, but investigative biology, analytical chemistry, and physics fare poorly) for several thousand years.

Finally: The provolvers discover another space faring culture (terragen) expanding in the galaxy not too far away (maybe the god(s) had some influence on this, maybe it happened at the "natural" pace). It decides that it will be good to have the cultures interact and puts a couple subtle memes in motion to allow investigation of the ancient artifacts (an "enlightenment" movement arises urging, among other things, the investigation of the taboo schematic mural caverns of the Glass-flats desert) and more scientific trains of thought.

Despite their popular appeal, especially among near-baselines and some fabulists, these explanations are by no means widely accepted by researchers. For many mainstream scholars, the Intereferist paradigm raises more problems than it solves. The Eden Institute remains hostile to "Progenitist and Provolvist Fanatabulisms."

Most of the other main hyperturing schools of xenology support the mainstream view that the Limners were provolved by the Auld Limners, who were in turn provolved by the Soft Ones. Note that the Soft Ones themselves were probably provolved by the Muuh, making the chain of provolution Muuh- Soft Ones -Auld Limners- Limners.

Tentative Limner - Limner Timeline

note: this timeline is compiled from a number of sources, chiefly Academician Sisco Picard, the Hammondtrek Intellects, Peer Brin Bringen, Zar Rana Googeltweak, and Su Xaj-of-New-Mencius. Inconsistencies between the sources have been fudged, hence the generic dates.

180 to 120 million years BT: the Muuh evolve to primitive sophonce, according to Muuh sources.

120 million years BT - The Muuh develop interstellar spaceflight and start a long slow expansion, according to Muuh sources

28-32 million years BT: Soft Ones provolved by the Muuh.

52,000 - 38,000 BT: presumed provolution of the Auld Limners by the Soft Ones

28,000 BT - Auld Limner iron age

25,500 BT - Auld space age starts

25,000 BT - Interplanetary age starts

24,300 BT - First interstellar flight

24,000 BT - Auld empire starts. Also marks the consolidation of Auld interstellar society by a single Auld build archailect (proto-archailect at first)

24,000-21,050 BT - empire expands to fill a bubble about 2000 light years in diameter. Uses reactionless drive ships at its height. Finds two planets with indigenous life, but neither has intelligent life; one has only some form of primitive crystalline photovore and neither is useful for colonization. Some exploration further out is done, but no real colonies beyond the bubble.

21,050 BT - Auld Limner empire height - some wormhole experimentation, none succeeds (possibly draws down 'thunder from on high'?)

21,000-20,000 BT - The slump. Something is definitely rotten in Limnark. At one time paintings were only minor cultural propaganda tools; now the Demon Paintings with conscious memes emerge as the limner archailect attempts to keep the cultures together against some diverging force (should it be external troubles, invasion, or some sort of unexplained gradual decline, possibly uber-archailect engineered).

20,000 BT - Auld archailect crashes. Auld empire falls instantly. Modern Limner provolve colonies A, B, C survive (and possibly others as yet unknown)

20,000 BT - 3480 AT - Limner bronze/stone age - Art and philosophy flourish but science is taboo.

5500 AT - Limner taboos broken in one of the colonies; exploration resumes but at a relatively leisurely pace (considering they have a couple of surprisingly well preserved stashes of Auld Limner data) compared to that of original terran civilization. Some restrictive memes still exist, but have been allowed to mutate normally. Study of Auld artifacts is no longer considered "bad", but arts (visual, etc.) still hold sway over sciences.

8250 AT - Limner space exploration begins

8350 AT - Limner interplanetary exploration begins

9750 AT - Terragen contact

References

Peer Brin Bringen, "Provolution - A Galactic Perspective", in, Proceedings of the 25th Congress of Xenosophontology, Alexandria Memory Nodes (node 83-b), Alexandria

Neumann Magellan-520r, Voyage of Adventure (First Contact with the Limners), Great Historical Immersives Series, NuiVesta Media, Corona

Hammondtrek Intellects, The Limners, Academy Matrixbooks, Hammond Orbital Ring "B", Hammond

Academician Dargo Phelp, A Primer in Limner Physiology, Eden Institute Monographs, Mynti

Sisco Picard, Progenitism, a Hypothesis, Fellowship of Independent Historians Publications, Fleet Orbitals, New Earth

Intellect Leev-Bruhl (ed) Limner Studies, Federation Webbooks, Enremdea

Zar Rana Googeltweak, Auld Limners - the Untold Story, Novamedia Tabloidbooks, Nova

Su Xaj-of-New-Mencius, Problems in Exopaleontology (54 volumes), Corona University Press, Corona

Xenology Research Intellect 320, Life Among the Limners, Kelkan Media, Ken Ferjik

Articles

Auld Limner - Text by Peter Kisner, M. Alan Kazlev and Anders Sandberg
Perseus Arm (and possibly also Outer Arm) space-faring predecessors of the Limners.
First Contact - Text by Steve Bowers
Strategies and policies for contact with alien life forms (xenobiota) and Xenosophonts (intelligent alien life).
Garden Worlds - Text by The Astronomer, Steve Bowers 2020
Worlds that support a complex biosphere and macroscopic life forms.
Medusa Fractal - Text by Xaonon
A hypothetical mathematical figure which, when seen by a baseline or near-baseline human, sets up a feedback loop that sends them into a permanent catatonic state.
Paralymph - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Limner blood/lymph circulatory fluid.

Alien sophont species, remnant of an older, now vanished empire