Intro: The Year 687

A brief introduction to the world and lives of the Kogg of Praetos

The year 687, thusly named for its place as the six hundred and eighty-seventh year since the advent of the Praetean Union, and officially recognized following the establishment of the Galian calendar, was set to be a year as all years before it.

Blessed as the Kogg of the planet Praetos are, their years are precisely three hundred days long, and their months are each precisely thirty days, and their days are precisely twenty hours long, or at the very least they are that long on Praetos. On each of the four moons of Praetos, days and years follow a different meaning, as these celestial bodies orbit not a star, but the planet Praetos itself, and as such their calendars are forced to account for this altered sense of time. To a human viewer, the Galian calendar is a confusing, multifaceted mess- each calendar amended by four additional, smaller calendars, which each account for the date and time on Mogos, Aegos, Rhymos and Lobos. But blessed as the Kogg are, the four moons of Praetos are each approximately equivalent in size and approximately equivalent in orbital period. The two moons whose axes tilt forty-five degrees above the horizontal axis, Mogos and Rhymos, follow each others’ orbital path, opposite each other along the circumference of the orbit. Likewise, the two moons whose axes tilt forty-five degrees below the horizontal axis, Aegos and Lobos, do the same. 

Each of the four moons of Praetos rotate at approximately the same speed, and thus their lunar days are all approximately the same, and blessed as the Kogg are each lunar day is exactly equal to one-fourth of a Praetean day. Each lunar year- the time it takes for a moon to complete its orbit around Praetos- is exactly equal to one month in the Praetean calendar- or perhaps it is more accurate to say the Preatean month is measured in lunar years. 

So divinely exact are the measurements of time on Preatos and its four moons, that many of the unfaithful have come to doubt its validity, and truth holds that time within the Praetean Union is measured not by its true accuracy, but by its efficient approximations- long since has it been that the Kogg of Praetos have measured time exactly, for the era of seasons and of crops and of the agricultural focus of the calendar have given way to artificial sunlight and synthetic nutrients, such that the Kogg no longer hold any value in the natural or the organic ways of old.

Such a tangent into the nature of the Galian calendar and into its creation serves only the purpose to say that this year, the year 687, would have three hundred days, as all years prior to it within the Galian calendar had, and all years following would as well. And as all years before and after, the Praetean Union would continue to thrive evermore, united in its efforts against the Far. As all years before and after, the farmers of Preatos would grow food for the Union whole while its politicians worked tirelessly to hold together the Union, for it is no secret that without the looming threat of the Far- and even, at times, in spite of it- the Praetean Union would shatter into pieces, divided by the individual interests of the five celestial bodies, grown isolated and uniform in their singular purposes, blind to their roles as cogs in a greater machine. As all years before and after, the miners of Mogos, the red moon, would continue to excavate the minerals that the smiths and the factories of Mogos would transform into the tools, weapons, and machines upon which the backbone of the whole of the Union was built. As all years before and after, the scientists of frigid Aegos, the blue moon, would continue their polytechnic education and continue to strive tirelessly towards the answers to the greatest questions of the universe, armed with cybernetic implementations in their minds and in their bodies, and aided by computers unparalleled in their processing abilities. As all years before and after, the soldiers of barren Rhymos, the white moon, would continue their merciless and gut-wrenching training, pursuing their mastery of body, of weapon, and of machine, such that they may be prepared as one could be before battle with the Far resumed once again. And as all years before and after, the capitalists and the bureaucrats of Lobos, the black moon, would manage all of the trade and finances of all banks and of all bank accounts, from all ranges small to large, of the whole of the Praetean Union, their unrivaled business sense and ruthless dedication to efficiency constructing the blood-soaked wheels upon which the vehicle of the Union embarked towards new horizons.

The exhaustive efforts of the Kogg may appear to human eyes as excessive and inhumane, their singular dedication to crafts since birth and their tireless pursuit of perfection at the cost of health and happiness appearing antithetical to the technocratic utopia one might envision in a united society capable of travel among the stars. But in truth, for the Kogg, there is no other option. Each day is not another day lived, but another day closer to death, and the worth of an individual is not measured in achievements, but in contribution to the greater cause. That is not to say that the Kogg do not enjoy living and achieving- far from it, in fact- but rather the mindset of the Kogg has been tailored to this ideology in response to the ever-present threat of the Far. The Far Beings, often shorthanded to Far, are extraterrestrial, and possibly extradimensional, threats that have plagued the Kogg for as long as history has been written. In times of old, before the eras of machines, before the eras of the printing press, before even the eras of steel and of bronze, the Kogg have long hidden away from the Far, protected from their imminent demise by the thick crust of Praetos, and it is in this way that the Kogg have long held a reverence for their mother planet. After many centuries and many eras of science and of technology beneath the surface of Praetos, the frequent conflicts between Kogg assuaged by the common foe, the Kogg were at last able to rise to the surface and, armed with their finest weaponry, push back the Far that had long claimed Praetos as their own. With the Far of Praetos’ surface exterminated, the Kogg were able to begin life anew on the surface of the planet, and with its abundant resources they flourished.

But this period of prosperity was rather short-lived; no longer than half of a year, in truth, for that was when the comet returned. The comet, Qulanath’s Head, a true and living severed head of a titanic Far Being, was locked in a permanent elliptical orbit around the star of the system, Belthanon, and an outer point near the edge of the system. And so began the new era of war, of regular conflict between Kogg and Far. Acute readers may perceive that a comet rarely, if ever, intersects with a planet at distances close enough for travel, but that is where the narrow mind of a human leads one to early conclusions. In reality, the Far Beings, their positions as spaceborne lifeforms granting great privilege here, are able to direct and alter the course of the comet upon which they writhe and fester, their collective will and strength propelling the comet through space upon an irregular path, such that the comet intersects with the orbit of Praetos once when approaching Belthanon, and again when departing it, with a space of approximately two Galian months between the first and second intersections and a space of approximately eight Galian months between the second and first, such that the Far make regular contact with the Praetean Union twice every year, and at approximately the same times each year.

In spite of the bi-annual week-long conflicts that arose from the visits from the Far Beings, the Kogg were able to achieve space travel within some centuries following their emergence onto the surface, and in less than a century were able to commodify and commercialize space travel. Once frequent and regular space expeditions became the norm, the Kogg first set their sights on their red moon, Mogos. As with our own red neighbor planet, the red moon of Praetos is dyed its bloody color due to the overwhelming concentration of iron oxides across the surface of the moon. With iron a metal in high demand, due to the extraordinary upkeep costs of a planetary military, it was decided that a colony on Mogos would be the first to be developed. And so, following a lengthy and difficult colonization procedure, impaired by the inexperience of the Kogg paired with the constant interference from the Far, the colony of Mogos was at last established in the year 4081, the four thousand and eighty-first year since the beginning of recorded history, harkening back to the eras beneath the surface of Praetos. 

Long was Mogos the singular colony of Praetos, until the year 4203, in which it was decided that an expedition to the black moon, Lobos, was called for in order to properly determine what chemical composition caused the moon’s black coloration. Upon arrival on the moon, among the first findings was that the moon was, in fact, perfectly spherical. Research discovered that the crust of Lobos was composed of some kind of compound of carbon, carbonates, and iridium. Seeing this unusual composition, the conclusion was reached that the black moon of Praetos was, in fact, artificial, and placed in orbit of the planet by some unknown forces that were in all likelihood wiped out by the Far long ago. But with a small research station already in place on the planet, the decision was made to further colonial development on Lobos, and in the year 4236 the second colony of Praetos was established.

The remaining two moons of Praetos appeared barren and useless; Rhymos, the white moon, was a barren lunar body not unlike our own, lacking in any obvious resources to exploit, while Aegos, the blue moon, was a body of water frozen so thoroughly that estimates placed the surface of the moon at a maximum of 130 Kelvin. With the temperature control necessary far out of reach, even by the advanced technological prowess of the current Kogg, the decision was made to attempt to colonize Rhymos, and to investigate the moon for any possibility of resources. After a short colonization period, owing largely to the Kogg’s experience and their seizing of the opportunity presented by the eight months without Far interference, the colony on Rhymos was established to no great effect. The moon was, in fact, desolate, but it was still usable land. Rhymos’ lifetime began as a weapons testing facility, owing to its vast expanse of unusable territory, but once it was realized that ferrying weapons to Rhymos from Mogos only to return them back to Mogos was a significant waste of time and of resources, the decision was made to convert Rhymos into a permanent planet-wide military base in the year 4301.

Finally, following a lengthy experimental process in which numerous attempts to confront the below-freezing temperatures of Aegos, a final solution in the form of subdermal thermal implants was reached. Armored from the cold by these implants, colonization attempts began on Aegos. The instability of the ice of the moon posed a great threat to early colonizers, but eventually the colony would be established by utilizing a novel building technique, in which liquid water was imported and poured into any damage in the frozen surface, mending the damage almost instantly. However, the question remained: what to do with a planet whose temperature made itself so inhospitable? While colonial development continued, a breakthrough was reached on the surface of Praetos: the computers they had long used- those machines with which we are far too familiar with- to little effect due to the overwhelmingly humid and warm climate of Praetos, would be reconstructed on Aegos where the freezing temperatures would naturally cool the processors of the machines, and hence machines of far greater processing power could be created. Lobos, which was up until this point a colony of scientists and of computers, was displeased by this, the demand to move and to receive cybernetic implants notwithstanding. Briefly following the establishment of Aegos as the hub of science and of technology (or at the very least, the future hub) in the year 4388, the colony of Lobos demanded its independence in the year 4390.

The following attempt at cessation from Lobos was at times embarrassing and at times ruinous. The colony on Lobos would frequently demand other colonies to join it in its attempts to break free of rulership from Praetos, but once war with the Far broke out as it did regularly each year, the Lobeans would be first to beg for aid and assistance from Rhymos and from Praetos. In spite of its pathetic displays, its words continued to spurn the other colonies- since the new colonies were built upon separate celestial bodies, what authority did Praetos truly hold over them?

At last, following a particularly bloody period of war between the Far and the Kogg, the Praeteans had grown irate and weary of the tension between it and its colonies. At last, the Praetean Union Treaty was drafted, in which the government of Praetos acknowledged its four moons as independent governing bodies, so long as each of the bodies- Praetos included- was considered equal. From there, the Praetean Union Conference was established; a collection of ten officials, two from each body, which presided over the Union in its entirety, under whose laws and regulations all Kogg would follow. 

As for how the black moon evolved from a land of scientists to capitalists… well, the exact changes are lost to time, but those well versed in Lobean history note the vast increase in prices for college educations on Lobos, those unwilling to pay threatened with deportation to Aegos, where they would be free to study there or freeze trying. As costs escalated and wages failed to meet demands, it became more lucrative for a Lobean to take part in the underbelly of loans, debt-collection, and exchange of finances than to pursue an education- and on and on did this ruthless bureaucracy continue, until every Lobean was more versed in the practice of finance than science, and ultimately the schools of Lobos shifted from teaching the sciences and mathematics to business and economics.

And thus was the Galian calendar officially invented and instated, and so began a new era in the history of Kogg and the Praetean Union, and the years began counting anew.

But what is a Kogg? an intrepid reader must be asking. Often have the inner workings of the Kogg’s society, history, and culture been described, but never the Kogg themselves. And so now, the Kogg as a species must be described, to sate your rabid curiosity.

A Kogg is, first and foremost, humanoid in nature. They stand at approximately five feet in height, plus or minus one foot, with the average height of a Kogg in the modern era standing at somewhere close to five feet, two inches. The Kogg are sexually androgynous and hermaphroditic, possessing expressions of both of what we as humans understand to be the two sexes. The Kogg do not, however, possess large breasts, their mammaries only growing in response to newfound motherhood, and swiftly shrinking back to their original size following their child’s first year of growth. Most distinctively from our human forms, all Kogg are completely hairless, from the tops of their scalps to the bottoms of their soles, not a single hair is to be found. The skin of a Kogg is typically an opalescent pale, and their skin is unusually thin, allowing the veins and arteries close to the surface to be seen from outside. The average Kogg is, additionally, more muscular than the average human, though this is due largely to their rigorous training and the great physical demand in their daily lives. So in their entirety, Kogg appear to be shorter, stockier, paler, hairless humans.