Mars, 2149. Prothean Archives
Translated by: Sir Arthur Lee, London, European Union.
Names of Flora, Fauna and locations changed to Modern English Equivalent
Earth has been labeled a hazard planet after the incident. Very unsurprising considering the severity of the attack. For now, we are forced to relocate to Mars for observation. Not only that, but until we can set up our equipment we have absolutely no means of viable observation of Earth. Thankfully, Revak and his team's data have been completely recovered, and, in some sense, this planet's reddish tint is rather beautiful. The lack of life here makes it a very calming place.
I believe the scenic red dunes would be the perfect place to review the recovered data. Unlike those thugs we call a military, I might actually find something non-war related.
FILE CORRUPTED: CONTINUE AFTER LINE 4,500
I find that perhaps, I had been mistaken. Most of the data is war related. The inhabitants of this planet are frighteningly hostile, even more than initially thought. This begets the question of whether Revak's death really wasn't provoked on his end. Either way, there's science to be done.
From was sent back, Earth's flora and fauna is rich and immensely diverse, much more than Thessia or any planet outside the home-system. Oxygen levy-amino acid based creatures make up the vast majority of the species on Earth. A few single-celled organisms are outliers to this trend, but they demonstrate a much weaker reproductive ability than other life-forms, despite their immense resilience.
As expected before, the Earth is a very cold place relative to most bodies like Palaven, Kahje or the Orion systems. It's a staggering -10 degrees at its lower atmosphere poles. However, the equators and most place are warm enough to sustain a wide array of life. The planet demonstrates a carbon and water cycle similar to that of Virmire or Eden Prime. Nevertheless, the fauna of this planet is fascinating. The plant life is highly interconnected, and chemical receptors mark flowers linked fields apart. The variety of flowers make a wide array of beautiful colours that bare great similarity to some of the bouquets popular on the Citadel.
Now unto the more disturbing aspect of this planet. The animal life of Earth is, again, highly complicated and very diverse. Ocean life is dominated by large fish, with the Blue Whale being the largest animal recorded, 35th largest in history, and smaller fish which make an increasingly complicated food-chain. Plankton and corals dot the seas, making them rich with life. The terrestrial life, unfortunately, is different. Four legged mammals, lizards, insects and amphibians similar to the vorcha, Krogan, Rachni and Salarians respectively roam the Earth, most of whom are herbivores. These creatures are beautiful in their own right, but their cousins show disturbing promise. An offshoot of the herbivorous Old World Monkeys, these creatures show immense hostility. They are tall, skin-covered, with an anatomy similar to that of the newly-found Asari. They demonstrate intrinsic aspects of culture and sentience. Hunter-gatherer societies live in closely knit communities. They have children with an average gestation period of 9 Earth months, and raise the child until he is of hunting age after 14 Earth years. These humans are divided into two sexes, male and female. The male and female reproduce via physical intercourse, which, ultimately, leads to the birth of a child after growth inside the female mother. The mother stays behind and cares for the child whilst the father goes hunting. This seemed to stand testament to the male creature's initial apparent superiority in strength, but later data showed that women hunters were more common than believed.
These humans run and hunt quite efficiently, with an obvious adaptability for tools and art. Paintings inside caves often depict metaphorical references to the human self and the way of life. Humans typically shy away from mirrors. This was thought to be of their inability to recognise reflections, but their rather large brain sizes make it unlikely. It is far more probable that the human is considered holy according to them, and human representation, as such, a violation of that holiness. This would explain the rather unnerving cave artwork depicting hands.
Sadly, these creatures are not as cultured as initially thought. That hostility I mentioned is as dangerous than even that of Krogans. Humankind has waged a systematic war not only against a population of genetically nearly identical brothers [neandrathals], but also against themselves. Ravak followed a child to visit a tribe site. Humans have leaders, often displaying authoritarian aspects. These leaders of tribes have superseding rights to the food and luxuries of the tribe and are the ultimate authority. What surprised me is that this form of proto-fascism is countered by an innate evolutionarily instilled form of revolutionary leanings. The site, which Ravak observed, involved the ganging of the entire tribe on the leader and his exile and attempted murder. From what I could tell, the tribe was prosperous. Why they revolted is unknown. Although, the alpha leader that later took power in place of the exiled king seems to have the answer.
Human society is based on this idea of authority, revolution, and authority. I believe that evolutionarily this will ultimately either serve to create either an efficient civilisation or an efficient gang of thugs. Or, perhaps, in the human sense, both of these are interchangeable. Humanity lacks a properly defined idea of 'private property' as was introduced by the Keleks. The only thing similar to property is that of the leader, whom no one is allowed to touch. These include chalk, animal skin, and hunting equipment. Other than that, humans interchange houses and many objects with each other. Also, Humans have, as noted in the earliest files, yet to discover agriculture. Though, from what was observed, it's only a matter of time.
They are also quick to adapt. Far quicker than the Asari (who have yet to learn to count). Humans appear to have the potential for a decent lifespan, but most only life up to their early 20's in Earth years. They clearly demonstrate scientific curiosity and collective learning, as evident by Ravak's death.
The attack and theft of his weapon is one thing, considering Ravak was hardly an athlete and was taken by surprise. However, the utilisation of Prothean weaponry in such short a time is something that most other fledgling species have not yet demonstrated a capability of preforming. Even the children learned how to use the Ravak's weaponry in less than a day. The day after Ravak's death the humans had already figured out how to replace thermal canisters and have gathered a large feast of animals hunted and cooked by plasma.
From the first glance, this doesn't demonstrate a particularly hostile intent as much as it does a common xenophobia that plagues every species and an unusually strong ability to use tools. However, the specific hunting of Ravak's team and utilisation of diversion tactics for the capture of more weaponry underlines a startling discovery about human nature; they have little respect for life.
Normally, respect for life is evolutionarily harmful. However, even the most savage of brutes do not specifically harm their own kind with such hostile intent. In their eyes on can see this lacklustre gleam of lust for blood. This, of course, is hardly a scientific inquiry, but I find this planet particularly disturbing, especially after what was done to the Ravak's team after capture. In any case, back to business.
Humans, barring the tyrannicide that seems to be committed on a yearly basis, are highly hostile and suspicious of anyone barring extremely close familial relations or friends. Male relations often engage in intercourse as a sign of this close fraternity, despite the lack of reproductive value. Female relations are often marked by extreme suspicion. From a first glance, it's obvious that there are more females than males, this made most men highly desirable and most women attempt to sexually arouse the male into mating with her for life. In any case, this hostility extends to both males and females and, to a very small extent, to children. Odd unexplainable murders that seem to deter the survival prospects of humans occur rather frequently. From a survivalist perspective, unjustified Human murders, per ratio of population in a tribe, is incredibly high compared to other species.
What had surprised me most of all, is that even though this hunter-gatherer culture favours sheer strength above all else and commits so many atrocities against its fellow man, it still is blatantly disturbed by murder. Weeks, and sometimes, months, of mourning follows the death of someone whose trust has been earned, and the body is later buried underground, similar to our tradiations. Unless in a case of tyrannicide or self-defence or war against the neadrathals of neighbouring tribes, a murder of an 'innocent' man is punishable either by death or exile. Humans mourn their dead with great tenacity relative to the fact that they appear to harbour great malice towards life.
Unfortunately, they did not extend that mourning to Ravak or his team.
I'm not quite sure what they intended to do with them, but it looked like an interrogation. As they waved around their stolen technology, I began believing more and more that these humans were asking for more weapons. Prothean facial expression is remarkably similar to human facial expression. As such, I was surprised to see Protheans tortured with such force and disdain by the primitives when a clear indication of pain should've been felt.
What I am more surprised by, however, is the physical capacity of these humans. Not many species can outrun a Prothean scout. It's obvious that these humans have evolved bipedalism out of this very same purpose to outrun their prey in open grassland savannah. I doubt the scout had any shot at escaping, especially considering the rover was malfunctioning for some reason.
Ultimately, my conclusions are as follow:
Humankind is highly likely to develop civilisation.
Humankind is likely to proceed to develop an agrarian based civilisation from early observed evidence of harvesting.
Communication with the primitives is impossible at this point.
Human civilisation will develop centralised systems for maximising the powers of the alpha leader. These systems will likely collapse as revolutions become more and more frequent.
It is unknown whether humans can progress enough to develop spacecraft.
I do not doubt that they have the mental capability of utilising tools, but I doubt the stability of their societies. It seems more likely that humanity will become extinct by its own hands before it ever sees space.
On a more political note, the murder of the 250-some human tribe that killed Ravak should please the High Council for now. Though, in any case, the death of 7 Protheans from the containment team sent after loss of contact with Team Alpha furthers my point about the adaptability of these species.
Although I am interested to see what becomes of the human race. However, I make it clear that I recognise them as nothing more than refined brutes.
OK, so I've been think about this idea for a while. This chapter is just the introduction to the main final chapter regarding the council observations on human behaviourism. Please tell me what you think!