BY LETTER
HIE-019-CZE (Hutamaheen)
Extinct civilisation responsible for terraforming several planets in the Middle Regions and Inner Sphere | |
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Hutamah, a cinder world in the HIP 40138 system. This world was originally terraformed by the Mysterians, and was the homeworld of the HIE-019-CZE civilisation. The planet was sterilised in a conflict that eventually wiped out the species. | |
The xenosophonts sometimes known as the Hutamaheen (classified as HIE-019-CZE in the widely-used reference system devised by the Hamiltonian Institute) emerged on Hutamah, a planet in the Garden of Paradise Cluster, 245ly from Sol in Puppis. The species is currently believed to have been descended from organisms originally created by the Mysterians (HIE-014-CZE), an older, and also long vanished, race.
It is not clear whether the Mysterians deliberately engineered the Hutamaheen to be sophont, or if they evolved to sophonce spontaneously. The few fossil remains that have survived show that they were soft-bodied colonial organisms with a few internal bone-like structures for support. The Mysterians themselves died out 39 million years before present, although the reason for their disappearance is currently unknown.
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| New Gaia, one of the worlds terraformed by this civilisation | |
The inhabitants of Hutamah developed a technological civilisation approximately 36 million years ago, and passed through several different historical stages before starting to colonise and terraform planets in the nearby volume of space. Two worlds which were terraformed by this species were New Gaia and Ridgewell in the Inner Sphere.
 Image from Steve Bowers | |
| Ridgewell, a planet terraformed by HIE-019-CZE | |
Approximately 31 million years ago, the Hutamaheen came into conflict with the younger civilisation known today as the Lost (HIE-121-CZE) which had suddenly become aggressively expansionist after developing a cyborg-like bio/mechanical culture. During the conflict, Hutamah was sterilized and several other colony worlds were depopulated or suffered catastrophic technological collapse. By 30 million years before present, the Hutamaheen were extinct, and so were their rivals.
In total six hundred worlds were terraformed by HIE-019-CZE, although more than half were destroyed in the conflict. Those that survive support a biota that resembles Mysterian biology and (to a lesser extent) the biology of Old Earth, although the biochemistries of each group are significantly different.
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Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 15 February 2020.
Initially published on 15 February 2020.
