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Description

A cold wind blows along the dusty plains, a single long, monotonous note of high-pitched wind stabbing through the air, only adding to the desolation. Here and there along the ash-ridden landscape exist a few small shrubs and plants, the hardier of their kind, but for the most part it is a dead land. Yet even here a figure of human appearance stands, hunched over a small pit in the ground which he scratches away at with a piece of sharpened wood, his eyes bearing a look of intense focus. At last, he comes across his quarry: worms, a whole group of the slimy things, which he grabs with eagerness. Pulling out a handful, he immediately scarfs down almost the whole lot, before turning his head to call back a harsh cry to the small group trailing behind him. "Herne! Herne!"

When the Catastrophe first came to Lethe, the vast majority of its human population fled underground, forced to reject surface living entirely if they were to survive. Yet in spite of this, there were some who stayed behind. Whether it was due to exile, stubbornness or simply getting lost, these people had to survive above ground. Of course, many thought that these scattered surface groups would simply go extinct; after all, how could they survive on a barren land, a barren planet, with insects and worms their only companions? Yet as history shows again and again, humanity is nothing if not versatile. Even so, their survival did not come without cost.

15,000 years down the line, Homo sapiens cinus is rather a different creature to our own kind. The brain was perhaps the first thing to go. Always the most energy guzzling part of the human body, it simply couldn't be sustained on the harsh diet that survivors were subject to. Thus it was that as the years went by, with every passing generation that survived the brain grew slightly smaller, until it at last reached a level which could be sustained. By the time of cinus, brain size has stabilised somewhat to a level slightly below that of Homo erectus. They are capable of making basic stone tools, have a form of language and will even produce art on occasion, carving scars into themselves and producing geometric carvings into the rocks. On the whole, more intelligent than any Earth animal, but still far gone from the level of Homo sapiens sapiens.

As well as this, certain other adaptations have also taken hold in the cinus. Body hair is rather thicker and longer so as to provide better insulation, their skin is so pallid as to almost be white, paleness being a vital thing in an environment with such a comparative lack of sunlight, and the body itself has taken on a more lithe, wiry form perfect for stamina and persistence, both important things when one considers how long the stretches between meals are likely to be. On the whole, cinus is a subspecies that at first glance may seem to be more a regression than anything else, a step down on the evolutionary ladder (Those who live underground certainly think so). But at the end of the day, the fact remains that there is no "ladder" when it comes to evolution, no trait or adaptation that is sacred. Homo sapiens cinus is simply a species that has adapted to survive in its home environment, just like any other species. And who are we to question natural selection?

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Decided to shade an older piece of mine, and I actually rather like how it turned out!

Description

A cold wind blows along the dusty plains, a single long, monotonous note of high-pitched wind stabbing through the air, only adding to the desolation. Here and there along the ash-ridden landscape exist a few small shrubs and plants, the hardier of their kind, but for the most part it is a dead land. Yet even here a figure of human appearance stands, hunched over a small pit in the ground which he scratches away at with a piece of sharpened wood, his eyes bearing a look of intense focus. At last, he comes across his quarry: worms, a whole group of the slimy things, which he grabs with eagerness. Pulling out a handful, he immediately scarfs down almost the whole lot, before turning his head to call back a harsh cry to the small group trailing behind him. "Herne! Herne!"

When the Catastrophe first came to Lethe, the vast majority of its human population fled underground, forced to reject surface living entirely if they were to survive. Yet in spite of this, there were some who stayed behind. Whether it was due to exile, stubbornness or simply getting lost, these people had to survive above ground. Of course, many thought that these scattered surface groups would simply go extinct; after all, how could they survive on a barren land, a barren planet, with insects and worms their only companions? Yet as history shows again and again, humanity is nothing if not versatile. Even so, their survival did not come without cost.

15,000 years down the line, Homo sapiens cinus is rather a different creature to our own kind. The brain was perhaps the first thing to go. Always the most energy guzzling part of the human body, it simply couldn't be sustained on the harsh diet that survivors were subject to. Thus it was that as the years went by, with every passing generation that survived the brain grew slightly smaller, until it at last reached a level which could be sustained. By the time of cinus, brain size has stabilised somewhat to a level slightly below that of Homo erectus. They are capable of making basic stone tools, have a form of language and will even produce art on occasion, carving scars into themselves and producing geometric carvings into the rocks. On the whole, more intelligent than any Earth animal, but still far gone from the level of Homo sapiens sapiens.

As well as this, certain other adaptations have also taken hold in the cinus. Body hair is rather thicker and longer so as to provide better insulation, their skin is so pallid as to almost be white, paleness being a vital thing in an environment with such a comparative lack of sunlight, and the body itself has taken on a more lithe, wiry form perfect for stamina and persistence, both important things when one considers how long the stretches between meals are likely to be. On the whole, cinus is a subspecies that at first glance may seem to be more a regression than anything else, a step down on the evolutionary ladder (Those who live underground certainly think so). But at the end of the day, the fact remains that there is no "ladder" when it comes to evolution, no trait or adaptation that is sacred. Homo sapiens cinus is simply a species that has adapted to survive in its home environment, just like any other species. And who are we to question natural selection?

---

Decided to shade an older piece of mine, and I actually rather like how it turned out!