EVERGENCE: THE DYING LIGHT

 

APPENDIX

 

The Olmahoi: Reconstructing the Myth for Beginners 

(R. Pyatt Adamek, '595 EN; "Introduction", pp1‑7)

 

There is no word in the Olmahoi language for 'alone'.

In fact, the Olmahoi Caste[1] has no spoken language at all, nor any desire to possess one.  Being a race of natural epsense adepts, they employ instead a complex palette of emotions, sensations and associations to talk between themselves, with the ease of thought itself.  Mere words not only seem primitive and crude in comparison, but are quite outside the average Olmahoi's experience as well.

A Pristine Human might as well try to communicate with a bacteria by chemicals, or with a bee by dance.  Even the concept of 'loneliness', which we take for granted, is foreign to them: when one's entire family, one's entire Caste, is but a thought away, one is never alone.

Their uniqueness is marked on many other levels. Olmahoi society[2] is completely unfathomable and literally impenetrable to anyone not possessing epsense ability. They are, from a Pristine perspective, the most exotic of the known mundane Castes, not only in physical appearance, but in reproductive androgyneity as well.  They are immensely knowledgeable in all fields and possess an average intelligence greater than that of Pristine Humanity; yet, in apparent contradiction to this sophistication, they have proven themselves on many occasions to be ruthless combatants[3].  And while each Olmahoi individual is a member of a far-flung interstellar empire, he still wears the long robes made from the skin of the Drish'en and prefers to live underground, both in the manner of his distant ancestors.[4]

Yet communicate with the Olmahoi we do.  Through a medium of epsense 'translators', trade has existed between our two Castes since the arrival of the Eckandar Trade Axis in this region of the galaxy some fifty thousand years ago.  Now, after many millennia of contact, our involvement with them is a given, and seems certain to remain that way in the foreseeable future.

It is strange, then, and not a little disconcerting, to be reminded of how little we actually know about them.

On a fundamental level, there is the matter of their epsense abilities.  N‑body theory, from which stems the science of epsense and various related disciplines, hints that such a talent cannot evolve by chance, no matter how great the complexity of a mundane Caste-member; it has to be guided into being by conscious, intelligent will, without which even a fledgling epsense predilection (such as that which occasionally arises in an individual of any Caste) will falter.

That the Olmahoi appear to have defied current scientific theory may seem a small matter for scholars to debate: it is, after all, a fait accompli.  With elongated tails tapering from the back of every Olmahoi's skull -- these being the principle organs of the epsense, uncannily like an extra spine hanging free of the body -- the Olmahoi possess tangible, physical evidence that this improbable evolutionary path has been followed at least once in the history of the universe.  Studies of the Olmahoi physiognomy concur, revealing vestigial organs associated with the 'vulgar' senses, such as a mouth and throat now used solely for ingestion that once possessed vocal chords and a tongue, ears associated with balance but still possessing the basic structures of an organ designed to detect sound, and so on.

However, proving that the ancestors of the Olmahoi did once possess function vulgar sense-organs is not enough to explain how an epsense ability could have evolved to supersede them.  It is precisely by exploring this puzzle that science hopes to glean deeper truths lying beneath the status quo -- to probe Humanity's place, not just in the Outer Arms, but in the greater galaxy as a whole.

If the Olmahoi possess a naturally-occurring epsense ability, how did it arise?  Current evolutionary theory[5] is simple and obvious.  The Olmahoi home planet, Hak'm, is an icy, inhospitable world, and has been for many millions of years.  Food is scarce; the Noma Araku, an extinct species of biped distantly related to the modern Olmahoi[6], relied upon lichens and fungus growing on cave walls to balance an irregular diet of vegetable roots.  For a predatory species to survive even a few generations, it must evolve new means of locating prey.  Epsense ability is one such means: a way of hunting life directly, by seeking the spoor of thought itself.  From this small beginning, evolutionary theory tells us, the Olmahoi Caste was born.

But neither the Noma Araku nor any other species of known biped leading to the modern-day Olmahoi has been proven to have possessed epsense ability, no matter how small.  And indeed, the evolution of intelligent life in any form, on a planet such as Hak'm, is itself a statistical unlikelihood.  The physical evidence available[7] indicates quite strongly that the species directly preceding the modern Olmahoi appeared almost overnight, approximately fifty thousand years ago, and was already in full possession of the range of epsense powers with which we are familiar today.

This evidence, and a smattering of facts adding suggestive credence, lie at the heart of the counter-argument against evolution: that of intervention.

Again, this theory[8] is intuitively simple, although its ramifications are far-reaching.  If epsense ability cannot evolve by chance, then it must have been deliberately nurtured in the Olmahoi Caste.  Genetic analysis offers circumstantial support for this conclusion.  The Olmahoi genome is elegantly complex, capable of creating a race of individuals whose only remarkable feature, it sometimes seems, is their lack of individuality[9], but with just enough diversity to maintain a viable gene-pool.  Furthermore, the exon to intron ratio[10] is very low, suggesting that the genome might have been 'trimmed' some time in the past, possibly to protect against mutation.

The critical question, and the one that has prevented this theory from gaining wide acceptance in the scientific community, is obvious: who intervened in the evolution of the Olmahoi Caste to ensure its epsense development?

Even among those who support the interventionist line in principle, there is a wealth of disagreement on this particular point.  For once, it is a lack of evidence, suggestive or otherwise, that confounds the issue.  There are no ruins on Hak'm to hint at the presence of an earlier, advanced civilisation capable of such genetic and epsense manipulation, so it could not have been the Olmahoi natives.  Likewise with the other Castes -- High or mundane -- currently inhabiting this region of the galaxy: none have ever possessed the ability (or the predilection) to perform such a feat; not even today, let alone fifty thousand years ago.  So it must have been another Caste entirely, perhaps one of the five pre-High Human Castes mentioned in the Gil-Shh'ana Fiche, or another even more mysterious.  Or, most peculiar of all, the Olmahoi themselves might be that very unknown Caste: the descendants of travellers from a distant and relatively unknown part of the galaxy, stranded on Hak'm millennia ago and only now rediscovering the legacy of their past.

Although the key to unlocking this mystery should, one might think, lie in the hands of the Olmahoi themselves, any racial memories, archetypes or legends they might once have possessed about the origins of their epsense abilities are sadly no longer existent[11].  As a result, the origin of the Olmahoi Caste is either a vexing thorn in the side of anyone who would understand the continuing evolution of Humanity, or a tantalising glimpse of a history still waiting to be discovered.

The emphasis of this Introduction, and indeed the greater part of the work, is on the latter.  There is much that is unique and beautiful among the Olmahoi, and much that we fail to understand.  Most notable of all is the Grand Design: the web of minds that is centred on Hak'm, where the Olmahoi naturally congregate; quite possibly the most intricate mental structure in the universe, with tendrils stretching across the galaxy.  To describe it in words is to attempt the impossible.  Yet the renowned Linn Queale perhaps came closest, with the following excerpt from his best-selling Galactic Reference Book:

 

"If empty space is a flat plain, with minds like bumps projecting from it, then the Grand Design resembles a cartographer's nightmare: towers, prominences and spires project from it as far as the psychic eye can see, with strange ridges and rills, repeated figures and harmonic cadences, changing constantly in every direction -- all linked by slender bridges that defy imagination, looping from peak to peak in a dance that resembles nothing so much as the dance of ocean weed in the grip of a cyclonic storm.

"At the very heart of this chaotic mental realm, however, lies the most peculiar thing of all: a bottomless pit, drawing everything towards it as a whirlpool or black hole draws ordinary matter to a single point.  This, the one flaw in the multi-faceted gem that is group-mind of the Olmahoi Caste, is the irikeii, which literally means 'the unnamed' or 'the unnameable', one of the few thought-shapes in the Olmahoi 'language' that has a vocal analog.  Little is known about the purpose or origins of the irikeii, but we do know this: that it is not an artefact, nor a spontaneous natural phenomenon, but is, in fact, a living entity.

"One is born every generation: an otherwise normal Olmahoi whose mind is not so much a peak as an abyss, sucking thoughts in, swamping the Grand Design for a vast area around -- counterbalancing, perhaps, the tremendous complexity that is the Olmahoi world of thought.  This one is shunned but not reviled; the Olmahoi understand the irikeii's role in their world, strange as it seems to us.  Whenever that one is removed, as he must always be eventually, by natural death if not by accident[12], another is immediately born to take his place.  And thus the cycle continues, as it has for countless generations.

"So, even at the centre of the Olmahoi Caste, where one might have expected utter chaos, one actually finds another example of the universe's natural tendency towards balance, symmetry and cycles -- proving, perhaps, that, despite the many and varied efforts of every Caste in the galaxy, the greatest beauty of all is still to be found in nature."

 

 


[1]  Not to be confused with the Olmahi Republic, an independent government of the Nezhina Caste.

[2]  Often referred to by researchers as the 'Grand Design'.

[3]  Not for nothing are Olmahoi retribution units ('greyboots') the most admired -- and feared -- fighting force in the Outer Arms, thereby disproving the usual association between pacifism and epsense ability.

[4]  'He' is the usual pronoun used when referring to an Olmahoi individual, and covers both 'sexes': reproductive function, which is changeable at will, plays little part in an Olmahoi's sense of identity.

[5]  As propounded by Professors Dubsky and Toma of the Cornilleau University of Antiquities.

[6]  Itself a Low Human devolved from mundane in the distant past.

[7]  Predominantly in the form of cranial fossils, ruins and the like.

[8]  As championed by Professor Linegar Rufo of the independent research facility, Galine Four.

[9]  Olmahoi are notoriously difficult to tell apart.

[10]  Analogous to a signal-to-noise ratio.

[11]  Or perhaps, say the Kesh researchers in this field, they simply choose not to reveal them.

[12]  No Olmahoi in his right mind would dare murder the current irikeii; the penalty for committing such a crime is the most severe allowed under Olmahoi Law.