Fiction:Shuénsom

The Shuénsom are a group of genetically-engineered species from the Sol system, created from Terran organisms by Humans to create species capable of surviving on alien planets.

Martians
Martians were derived from molluscs, particularly cephalopods.

History
The Martians are the result of Human developments in genetic engineering and space colonisation during the 21st and 22nd centuries. Having only basic terraforming technology that was unable to make large changes in any less time than millennia, the Human attempts at colonising Earth's neighbouring planet Mars were mainly restricted to domed cities in locations with vital resources such as water ice. In the late 22nd century, biotechnology megacorporations began working on ways of adapting multicellular Terran organisms to the Martian environment, with the end intent being to create genetically-modified humans who were able to live unprotected on the planet's surface. The discovery of extant native Martian microbes living in underground caverns initially devastated the projects by raising ethical concerns about the preservation of extraterrestrial biodiversity. However, some of the ethical concerns were alleviated when it was soon discovered that the Martian organisms shared common heritage with Terran life, and the megacorporations used this to their advantage by making use of the microbes' adaptations in their own creations.

The first successful experiments, conducted on plants throughout the 2180s, resulted in hardy xerophytes with a distinctive red colour, due to their use of iron (found in large quantities in the soil of Mars) in the production of a chlorophyll analog. These were followed by the creation of biochemically similar animals derived from a variety of phyla, but primarily based on cephalopods, which were introduced to the fledgling red weed wetlands in 2193. In 2200, further modifications were conducted on semi-sapient cephalopoids to uplift them, and the sapient Martian species was born.

Physiology
Martians are grey-skinned octopus-like creatures, approximately the same size of a small bear. Due to Mars's low gravity, their muscles are fairly weak and their head-like bodies are supported by two clusters of thin prehensile arms. The only features of the Martian face are two large, black eyes to see in the dim Martian twilight, and a tough beak in order to break into red weed and extract its juices. The Martian sensory organs for hearing, touch and electroception are entirely covered by skin.

As a result of the atmosphere of Mars (even post-terraforming) having a high proportion of carbon dioxide and very little oxygen, Martians have large, convoluted lungs to maximise gas exchange, and haemoglobin-rich blood. Other Martian organ systems are fairly simple; their digestive tract is suited only for digesting fluids such as red weed sap, or in extreme circumstances, blood. It is, however, highly efficient at extracting iron and its associated vitamins, due to the Martian circulatory system's high requirements of the mineral.

Society
Having arisen from swarming organisms, Martians have a very strong sense of racial identity and are mentally very capable of dealing with hundreds of close interpersonal relationships. As a result, they naturally cluster into social groups ("Shoals") of around a thousand individuals which are perfectly capable of functioning without any concept of a central government; a sharp contrast to Humans which typically require hierarchies even for significantly smaller communities, and often rely on bureaucratic administrations for organisations of the typical Martian size. Martian Shoals typically align themselves with Human governments for security and trade, but consider themselves to be closer to other Shoals than to any Human society; if two Human governments with aligned Shoals were to go to war, the Shoals would sooner betray their allies than fight each other.

Also due to their ancestry in swarming species, Martians have few non-reproductive ritual behaviours or taboos; altruism and moderation of resource consumption are the main ethical considerations, although there are strong social pressures ensuring that these are fulfilled. Martian art is common, but limited: utilitarian items are nearly always aesthetically styled with representations of real events, fictional events, or mathematical beauty, but little other art exists. Their supernatural beliefs have traditionally been focused primarily on qualia and the origins of physical laws, with teleological and magical beliefs being almost absent.

Venusians
Venusians were derived from panarthropods, particularly tardigrades and eusocial insects.

History
By the 25th century, terraforming technology had improved to the point that Venus could be made habitable, although it still had a thick atmosphere and high temperatures, with most of its biomes being jungles, swamps, and volcanic deserts. When its biosphere was seeded onto the planet, engineered using genes and features from heat-resistant organisms with particular attention paid to thermophilic microbes, it was left to develop on its own.

Sapient life arose from eusocial superorganisms. A mutation in one Hive of this species in turned soldiers into creators: more creative but less physically capable than how they should have been. Recognising the danger this posed to its security, it quickly enslaved a nearby Hive to obtain unaltered soldiers. Now having discovered imperialism, it expanded further to become a global hegemonic superpower, but collapsed after a due to poor communication networks and a pandemic. The previous situation resumed, with the exception of the presence of the imported creator caste in many other Hives.

This led to the Scientific Period, as creators no longer had to focus on planetary logistics and were able to study the natural world, without instincts for groupthink or tradition. Industrial technology was developed as creators decided that other castes’ reliance on ritual made them poor at conducting large-scale experiments, although they were perfectly capable of creating, according to set instructions, machinery that could. Finally, experiments on orbital and interplanetary spaceflight showed that the other castes functioned poorly in space, so the creators left them on Venus as a nature reserve and formed their own spacefaring civilisation instead, augmenting themselves and controlling swarms of robots in place of the original eusocial structure.

Society
Venusians are eusocial, divided into multiple castes with particular mental and physical features in superorganism societies known as Hives. Ritual behaviour covers all aspects of life for most castes as it is vital for Hive operation, with the exception of the creator caste: creators lack ritual instincts and so appear to be psychotic and unpredictable to other castes; before leaving the planet, they remained constantly under guard and were only tolerated due to their utility (and ability to manipulate other castes’ decision-making processes). Magical ritual use is common in non-creator castes, but is eventually suppressed by natural inefficiency-culling mechanisms. However, spiritual practices can often be found amongst creators, based around the consumption of hallucinogenic seaweed. Art exists entirely for inter-Hive display – the more elaborate a Hive’s decoration, the more powerful it appears to be – while the only fiction is the creators’ complex thought experiments.

Europans
Europans were derived from a mixture of echinoderms, cnidaria and ctenophora.