 that things were far different.
The first unusual thing they saw was what looked like small circular islands, placed in almost perfect circles and heavily forested. But on closer observations the "islands" turned out to be rings of huge tree-like plants, with trunks stretching all the way down to the beds of the shallow oceans. Eventually they found out many more such biological marvels, though the trees were the most common. Finally they solved the mystery of the lost colonists.
The colonists had abandoned most of the tiny continent in favour of the much larger and open ocean and in order to do so, they had become amphibians. Consequently they had built themselves a stable amphibious and biotech-based civilization. Marooned without sufficient technology to start a typical industrialized society, the colonists had formed a predominantly agricultural and piscicultural society instead. In accordance with the Wishful Watcher's request the expedition observed, but did not interfere. As they pondered their next step, the Wishful Watcher suddenly reappeared and offered them information on what had happened in the last two millennia.
Soon after reaching the system, the posthumans realized that the lack of habitable land would lead to one of two possible conclusions. Either the nearbaseline colonists would multiply and expand until there was no longer space for comfortable habitation, resulting in conflict, or they would freeze themselves into a rigid, technologically and culturally stagnant society which would ultimately creep to a slow death. Foreseeing inevitable disaster, the posthumans had taken measures that would force the colonists to take a completely different path to survive. They had made sure that the colonists were all adapting to life on the new world, and were fairly comfortable and happy. At the same time, they also made sure that the colonists had very little technology besides their advanced biotech. That being done, the posthumans had left the colonists after memetically ensuring that after a few months of turmoil, the colonists would again continue their work and embark on the new plan set up for them.
For a few decades they had watched from afar, always ready to return if need be. But once they saw the
ecopoesis
of the colonists get underway in earnest, they left for the outer system. There they gathered the remaining dormant terraforming ships and ascended to SI:2, becoming the Wishful Watcher. Though the arrival of outsiders into the system had never been considered really important by the posthumans themselves, the Watcher said that E would no longer interfere in the development of the amphibians, but would stay in the system until they were properly introduced to the rest of the galaxy.
Seraphim
from the Utopia Sphere arrived soon after that and began the careful process of adjusting the memeticity of the new clade (which soon began calling themselves the Amphisapiens) so that they could join the rest of the galaxy.
In 5347 a body representing the various Amphisapiens habitats of their world, christened Shaati Jol (Peaceful Waters), formally decided to join the Utopia Sphere. With this event, the Wishful Watcher ended Eir two-thousand-year vigil and returned to the Utopia Sphere. There E was rewarded for Eir "efforts to preserve life and devotion to a worthy cause". E was upgraded to SI:3 and given the freedom to explore the galaxy. E is currently somewhere in the
Zoeific Biopolity
.
Physiology
The Amphisapiens gradually changed themselves from a standard nearbaseline genotype to an amphibious rianth/neogen genotype, with features adapted from a number of different species. Although the exact method and steps used for the change has been mostly forgotten it is known that the changes took place over a number of generations, each one coming closer to the goal of a complete amphibian genotype.
The most important adaptation was of course creating respiration systems for underwater use. The standard Amphisapien design still keeps the lungs as the main respiratory organ, but enhances their efficiency. The Amphisapiens can hold their breath for up to an hour and extract almost 95% of the oxygen available. Special filter membranes at the entrance to the bronchi allow them to increase the percentage of oxygen in their lungs per breath. After breathing in normally, this filter closes off the entranceway and their diaphragm pressurises the air inside to force the nitrogen out through it. Almost 40% of the air left behind is oxygen, which is double the atmospheric ratio. Their diaphragm is also used to force out the spent air after a dive allowing the lungs to be refilled with 90% fresh air in one breath. They also increased the amount of haemoglobin in the blood as well as creating a number of complementary macromolecules that allows them to carry a larger amount of oxygen in the blood plasma itself, and their muscles contain high concentrations of the oxygen-binding protein myoglobin. However this on its own is not entirely enough to fulfill their oxygen requirements. They also have a pair of gill-like structures on either side of their neck, which allow them to draw some amount of oxygen directly from the water flowing out of them. This water is taken in through the mouth but prevented from entering the lungs by the same filter at the entrance to the bronchi. Most of their body surface was at one time covered by a sub-dermal membrane which allowed a small amount of oxygen to pass directly from the water into the blood-stream but one of the later enhancements replaced the sub-dermal membrane with a set of crosswise flaps (generally five but six in some sub-clades) of skin covering the shoulders and about a quarter of the back. The underside of these flaps is thick in ridges of membrane. This membrane is similar to the sub-dermal membrane but is more effective while being more protected. While swimming, the action of water helps to separate the flaps and ridges and increase the surface area for direct absorption of oxygen. The climate of their homeworld is warm so heat loss is minimal.
Being amphibious, the Amphisapiens spend a large part of their time swimming, but can also stay on land for long periods. Amphisapien feet and toes are quite long and the feet are webbed. The structure of the ankle and foot is also modified. This modification allows the Amphisapiens foot to bend down to form a streamlined straight line with the rest of leg. Adult Amphisapiens can 'lock' their feet into this position for long periods of time. Hair is almost completely absent from the whole body and a layer of streamlining fat smoothes the surface.
Another important change was in the digestive system. The original colonists were creating an ecosystem from scratch and they soon realized that they could create whatever plants and animals they liked, and could design them to provide nutrients in an easily usable form. Thus they could easily simplify their digestive systems and over a number of generations they did so, fine-tuning it so that they could better live off the ecology they were creating. They also created several species of symbiotic
bacteria
, which live in their digestive tracts and are capable of breaking down certain foods. The result was a much smaller, compact and efficient digestive system. This is turn allowed them to increase the size of their lungs and also to create a muscular pouch along their belly. The Amphisapiens place stones and other heavy items in this pouch to counter-act the buoyancy of their enlarged lungs. This allows the Amphisapiens to be neutrally buoyant (they can stay afloat while at rest at almost any depth as long as it is not too extreme) but also gives them the ability to drop their ballast and ascend quickly in an emergency. Their genitals are also normally retracted into the body and covered by this muscular pouch. Amphisapien metabolism has also been greatly modified. It is somewhat slower than a human baseline's, which increases the time they can spend underwater, but it is still more efficient at processing certain compounds that are abundant in their environment while it is less capable of handling other substances. On the whole, it can be said that the Amphisapien metabolism has been carefully adapted to the ecology they created for themselves.
A common problem faced by many land-based lifeforms, when adapted for aquatic life is the problem of communication. Sound based communication while very effective for an air environment can be difficult under water, mainly because the vocal system in most Terragen life forms is directly and intimately linked to the respiratory system, making it almost impossible to speak while holding one's breath. A common solution is to move away from sound-based communication altogether and use light (similar to the
Europans
). The Amphisapiens chose the latter, however they still retain fully functional vocal chords and can talk like normal baselines out of the water. Some of the few existing records show that an ultrasonic adaptation (using a completely different organ set to generate the sound) was in fact tried out, but later cancelled, probably because the Amphisapiens found it difficult to cope with the 'noise' produced by the echo of the ultrasonic sound, especially in small areas underwater. Ultimately the Amphisapiens chose a method of communication based on signalling using chromatophores. Large chromatophore clusters were placed on the chest and back region and smaller clusters on the arms while the lower limbs are almost entirely devoid of chromatophores.
Some of the most drastic changes are to be found in the reproductive systems and lifecycles adopted by the Amphisapiens. For most of their history, before being discovered, the Amphisapiens were playing a delicate population balancing game. On the one hand, they had to keep their population low enough as not to damage the fragile new ecosystem they were developing and at the same time, they had to grow fast enough to extend and maintain the ecology. They chose to make themselves long-lived