Prologue
In the Earth year 3436 the spaceship U.N.S.S. Quetzalcoatl arrived at Kepler-452b. Its journey of fourteen hundred years was finally finished. Before they had left Earth the planet they were heading towards was named Ardu, from the French word for "Arduous" because it was going to be a long journey and no one knew what dangers lay ahead, not to mention the possible troubles when they got there.
The ship carried DNA samples of any and all possible biological specimens the the colonists would need to survive on their new world. Everything from bacterium and elephants on the land, in addition to a similar range for the waters both fresh and salt. As well as plants for both water and land to make sure that there would be food for everyone once they landed. During the journey both the human and other lifeforms were genetically altered to better survive on their new planet. Even before they left earth they had known that the gravity of Kepler-452b was greater than what they had been born to. As they got closer they learned more about the adaptations that were needed, so those were genetically added into the colonists and crew on the ship, it was a one way trip.
Ardu was known to be larger than earth with higher gravity and it was understood to have roughly the same climate. Once the planet was in sensor range it was discovered to have one huge super continent rather than earth's several. It was also dominated by huge expanses of desert, but luckily there were also huge expanses of both temperate and rain forest. Ardu was proving to be very hospitable indeed. Luckily Ardu's native plant and animal life were not that different from Earth's. It was decided that the initial landing site would be in a large pastoral region just south of the central ridge of mountains that was part of the natural east west divide of the super continent. It had a massive gorge to north, useful for mineral reserves, a forest and small sea to the east, and a huge rain forest to the south. Three large rivers fed the area with plenty of fresh water, it was almost a paradise.
Not long after the establishment of the colony it was discovered that Kepler-452b was inhabited by other intelligent races called the Uqaid and the Ndogba. At first the colonists only knew about the Ndogba a short almost reptilian species, who inhabited the huge expanses of desert, a region four times the size of the African continent, and the two groups coexisted somewhat peacefully. However unbeknownst to the colonists the Ndogba already had strained relations with the completely subterranean Uqaid, a fully reptilian species with out eyes. It didn't take long for conflict to begin. The Uqaid declared war on all of the surface dwelling races. This conflict quickly soured relations with the Ndogba as well who were lumped in with the human colonists by the Uqaid. While the colonists were victorious against the Uqaid. Relations with the Ndogba were completely shattered and they were driven underground by the colonists as well.
During the war a scientist discovered an interesting new energy field native to the planet, one that had never been discovered before. Along with the new field, completely new atomic elements were discovered. As far as the scientists could tell the field had no effect on anything nor could they discover what caused it. It was simply there, doing nothing. Simultaneously small but unexpected changes were happening to the first children of the new colonists. At that time no one connected the two, mainly because the colonist's initial genetic modifications could present in unusual ways. It was assumed that this was what caused the minor differences. All of which were useful on their new home.
Forty-six years after the founding of their colony disaster struck. Their colony ship was destroyed by a rogue unmapped asteroid. While they had gotten the basics they needed to maintain their colony, they still used much of the more advanced equipment on the ship. Thanks to the war they hadn't yet managed to remove everything they needed, especially the more advanced scientific equipment. Most importantly, they hadn't yet built the new home for the ships AI. The most important item for maintaining their technology.
There was a mad scramble to rescue as much as they could from the ship. All of the biological resources left on the ship were retrieved, but nowhere near enough of the technological resources. This meant that rather than being a high tech world immediately, they were going to have to rebuild much of their technology from scratch. As for the AI, all they could do was pray that its components survived the crash landing into the surface of Ardu. Luckily it had survived the landing but it could only be accessed through its holographic interface. All other forms of communication with the AI were destroyed during the crash.
Over the next two generations the changes to the colonists continued to happen. Finally what was left of the medical and genetic personnel figured out that the new atomic field and the associated particles were what was driving the new changes. No one knew which of the medics realized that all of the mutations of the colonists children and grand-children had begun to resemble mythical races from earth. It was discovered then that while the changes always bred true if the parents had the same mutations. When they didn't the results could be, interesting. Nonetheless any one of the mutations could breed with any other because in the end they were all human. The new differences in the colonists appearance was one of the many reasons that they decided to spread out across their new planet.
Over the following generations the memory of their home world faded, along with the ship that had brought them to Ardu. They forgot that the various groups were all members of the same race leading to conflict and strife between them. Finally the various groups became nations which led to even more conflict. Ultimately the strife became war. A war that spread across all of Ardu and, according to some, one side was backed by a dark god. In due time the side of the supposed dark god's was soundly defeated. Over time the dark god became so forgotten that only its name was remembered, and that mainly as a boogeyman to frighten children. Of the war itself, all that was remembered was who had fought on which side. The biggest effect of the war, as far as the people of Ardu were concerned, was that the treaty country of Kishnagar was created. A country that was comprised of all of the different peoples of Ardu.
Out of the peace forged by the creation of Kishanagar much of the world began to experience a golden age. The sciences, or what was left of them, were blooming, architecture and art flourished. Knowledge of majic and artificing have become the newest and most influential sciences and technology. Economies were booming, in general Ardu was truly coming into it's own.
The general appearance of each of the peoples are as follows:
Long Yi - Bipedal reptilian in appearance, almost dragon like
Michocan - Unmutated humanoid
Ljosafar - Humanoid, vaguely feline in appearance
Zwergin - Short, stocky, and very robust in appearance
Oranang - Very short and slender in appearance
Manggar - Very short, thin and wiry, almost emaciated in appearance, but strong and nimble
Ashfan - Horned humanoid almost demonic in appearance
Hafla - Very short and muscular in appearance
Xotico - Robust, swarthy humanoid with vaguely feline features
Oristani - Tusked humanoid with slightly pointed ears and large noses of any height and any possible skin color
