Taikiaun's Origin

Taikiaun's Origin is a book written by Keebatulan Fherangor about the origins of the Taikiauns, a space-faring race. It was published in January 4th 2014 and practically revolutionized the concept of these peculiar aliens.

Contents
''Many eons ago, there was a planet much like Earth that was in the Gamma quadrant of the Milky Way. The planet was called Anthri. In Anthri’s early stages, there were four main, sentient, clever species that were called Jhurda, Valyrin, Enauk, and Taikia.''

''Each species were scattered across the face of Anthri, rarely coming in contact with each other but otherwise living in harmony. The Jhurda were excellent swimmers. The Valyrin were well-adapted to travelling across hard rocks and thorns. The Enauk were camouflaged to blend into their environment effectively. But the Taikia? Forget them, nobody found anything special with the Taikia. They simply seemed like any ordinarily clever creature.''

''The Taikias were the only carnivorous and significantly recognized species on Anthri - the other three were omnivorous and much more successful than the Taikia. Over billions of years, the Jhurda, Valyrin, and the Enauk adapted somewhat bigger brains and became even more clever over genetic mutations. They discovered more. They adapted more. They spread across the face of Anthri like hungry grasshoppers over a field of grass, but the Taikia were left in the dust''

''Due to the rather efficient micro-evolution of the three omnivores and the slower, inefficient micro-evolutions of the Taikia, they started to die off from the omnivores learning how to hunt down the averagely clever Taikia. Their numbers were reduced to a mere 2000 in total across the whole of Anthri. It seemed as if all hope was lost.''

''However, one strange twilight, it began to rain. It had been years since the forests of Anthri faced rain. Thunder and lightning were everywhere, and the three omnivorous species had not been prepared. They hid in caves and holes, but the Taikia obliviously stayed put in the downpour.''

''In the middle of the night, a lightning bolt struck a tree and made it catch on fire. Despite Anthri’s worldwide high humidity, it almost never rained and nothing ever caught on fire. The omnivores fled, but the Taikia stayed. They stared in awe at the flickering red tongues. Never in the history of Taikia had they ever seen something so fascinating and dangerous.''

''The Taikia, being clever as they were, tried to find how to create the strange red tongues, until one dry morning an adult Taikia created enough friction between two sticks to make it burn. Other Taikia gathered around the adult in fascination until the sticks burned down to its hands…''

''The adult, as anybody would’ve expected, badly burned its hands before it was able to put out the fire. The other Taikia quickly realized that this strange fire-object was nothing to play with...but something to fight with. They gathered sticks and, when an alpha Valyrin and its pack came to attack a horde of Taikia, they ignited the sticks and chucked them at the pack.''

''The burning twigs landed on the alpha - and you can imagine what happened. The pack was startled and they fled from the Taikia horde, fear driving their instincts again. The alpha was inedible for the Taikia, but their discovery of a new weapon massively improved their odds of survival, so long as they didn’t burn themselves in the process of their discoveries.''

''Over a course of 10 generations, the Taikia spread and multiplied from adaptation of the use of fire. Mastering the use of it, however, took a lot of trial and error. Many received injuries from fending off the omnivores. Some even died from misuse of friction among sticks. But the strongest were able to cope with the burns, and they passed on their strong genes to their offspring. They became more and more resistant to 1st degree burns, then 2nd degree. Their skin became tougher and damp, which warded off most fire.''

''Just as the Taikia thought that they were the strongest of all of Anthri, the first major omnivore finally caught up to their discovery - the Enauk. Twigs were being burned faster than a rabbit could run all over Anthri. The Enauk had faced quite a bit of trouble against the Jhurda, and the Jhurda faced massive extinction until there just weren’t any left.''

''The Taikia were highly feared for their near-mastered use of fire, but the Enauk were a mere two steps away from them. When the death of a whole pack of unsuspecting Taikia from fire was alerted to the rest of the Taikia, they quickly figured out that they were no longer the only ones who had access to flaming weapons.''

''Enauk packs worldwide were generally uninformed about fire weapons, except those dwelling in the forests - two generations spread the use of fire in the Anthri forests around the equator. Most of the Taikia at this point had migrated all over Anthri, particularly the hot deserts and the hot forests. The poor Valyrin were left behind in this fire race, and in attempt to learn how to use it, they accidentally spread a forest fire in their habitat and wiped out many of their species, forcing them to migrate elsewhere...which left the Taikia and the Enauk. The Taikia absolutely abhorred the Enauk, and the Enauk absolutely abhorred the Taikia. Both tried to kill each other frequently. The Fire Race was on, and both sides only continued to grow higher in intelligence.''

''Now, neither side were considered as smart as humans - they did not have conscious thought nor feel complex emotions. However, they were clever enough to learn how to play safely with fire. The Taikia were naturally better at using fire than the Enauk, but the Enauk strove to find other uses.''

''The Taikia started grouping together in larger and larger hordes - as if they were a herd of carnivorous cannibals as opposed to herds of herbivores. The weaker Taikia were driven away, but the Enauk did not do this. Neither side were medically experienced. Because the Enauk did not kill off the weaker or diseased members of their packs, sickness quickly spread to lots of their population. Leprosy and schizophrenia was infecting hundreds by the day. When the Taikia discovered this, they seized the moment and, over a cliff’s edge overlooking Enauk territory, hurled flaming branches of significantly larger size than normal at the hordes. This killed off many of the Enauk as well as start several forest fires. Amidst all the chaos stood the Taikia, howling in their great victory. They became the dominant species on Anthri as well as the most highly feared of all of Anthri.''

One day, however, everything changed.

''A lone spaceship, commonly known as the ‘94-DELTA.b2 crash-landed on Anthri. It was contaminated with a load of radiation from recent nuclear bombs crashing upon its metal surface. Out of sheer luck, the ‘94-DELTA.b2 exploded near Taikia territory. Many were soon alerted to the strange object’s arrival - particularly the Taikia.''

''A pack of Taikia, unaware of the imminent danger from the radioactive ‘94-DELTA.b2. The whole pack saw it as a hostile creature and attacked it...only to be contaminated by the radiation.''

''The Taikia pack mutated rapidly from the radiation, and the noise they made caused other Taikia to be alerted to their pain and come rushing towards the source - only to also be contaminated and mutated. They grew an extra set of legs, a longer tail, and a brain beyond human intelligence, capable of independent, non-instinctual thoughts. Not only did these several hundred mutated Taikia have newfound power, but also intelligence.''

''The mutated Taikia ravaged the remains of the ‘94-DELTA.b2, finding all sorts of weird contraptions and even the pilots of the ship. The pilots were later killed by the mutated Taikia.''

''Anthri had never seen such a drastic change in a specific species. The “clean” Taikia were spread all across the deserts and mountains, unaware of the change. over 800 were mutated with radiation, and they all spread across Anthri once more, quickly gaining intelligence upon buildings, structures, and of the sort. Some mutated Taikia that bred with other mutated Taikia resulted in even further mutation.''

''In a matter of a few hundred years, the thriving and smarter Taikia had civilization even more complex than man. Because of the crashed ‘94-DELTA.b2, the whole of Taikia-kind had expanded to an astronomically huge level. They even modeled their vehicles, much later, after the ‘94-DELTA.b2 - which had been preserved in a museum.''

''All sentient and non-sentient creatures living on Anthri were soon labeled as Anthrites, however the Taikia kept their name. When they reached the stars, they had such adapted technology that they were able to colonize other moons and planets very soon afterwards. They even met other sentient creatures, one that was in a man-like stage called the Rythe (cities, technology, ect) that was able to speak to the Taikia peacefully...for a while.''

''Such strange creatures,” A Rythe noted on their arrival. “What do you call yourselves?"''

"We are Taikia,” The Taikia responded.

"You’re from a planet called Taikia?” The Rythe mistook their name to be the name of their planet. At this “hostile” act, the Taikia jumped upon the chance of fighting, and fighting ensued. Word got around that a new space-faring empire had arisen from the ashes of a planet called Taikia, even though the name of their planet was really Anthri.

''From that point on, the Taikia were labeled as “Taikiauns” because people thought they were from Taikia. It is notable, however, that Taikia is not an actual planet. Anthri’s real name went down to ashes, most of the Taikiauns even forgetting the name of their birthplace.''