Extinction
灭绝
Not all human animals made it through. In fact, it must be realized that the majority of post-Qu humans died out during the eras of transition. Extinction, the utter and absolute death of an entire family, entire community, entire species, was rampant in the galaxy.
并不是所有的后人类动物都能通过自然选择。事实上，大多数后Qu人类都是在过渡时期消亡的。整个家族、整个群落、整个物种的彻底灭亡，席卷了整个银河。
There was nothing cruel or dramatic in all of this. Extinction was as common, and as natural as speciation. Sometimes a species simply failed to adapt to competition, or the abrupt change of conditions. In other occasions, their numbers dwindled across imperceptible gulfs of time. This way or the other, human animals faded out.
这一切并称不上残酷或戏剧性。灭绝和物种形成一样常见，也一样自然。或是一个物种根本无法适应竞争，或是因为环境的突然变化。在其他情况下，它们的数量在白驹过隙间减少。无论如何，后人类物种逐渐消失了。
In all of this death, however, there was new life. As one species vacated a certain niche, others would soon step in to take its place. Adaptive radiations would follow, filling in the blanks with myriads of diverse and varied forms. Despite the fallen, the flow of life would proceed, blazing in constant turnover.
然而，所有这些死亡中，都有新的生命。
当一个物种腾出某个生态位时，其他物种很快就会取而代之。自适应辐射将随之而来，用无数种多样的形式填补空白。尽管跌倒了，生命的流动仍将继续，在不断的更替之中闪耀。

The fossil of an extinct, aquatic human from a forgotten colony world. Unbeknownst to the universe, his kind adapted, flourished and died out soon after the Qu retreat. His tale serves to tell us that all that is alive will inevitably perish, and it is the journey, not the conclusion that matters.
来自一个被遗忘的殖民世界的已灭绝的水生人类化石。尚未被这个宇宙了解，他的同类在Qu离开不久就适应了环境，蓬勃的发展并最终消亡。他的故事告诉我们，所有生命都将不可避免地消亡，重要的是过程，而不是结果。

终于有空了

Snake People (Descendants of the Worms):
蛇人（蠕虫的后裔）
The scorching sun eventually cooled down, and life flooded back to the surface from her subterranean stronghold. As animals of all kinds exploded into the terrestrial niches that had been left vacant for millennia, so did the descendants of the worms. On the surface, they found new opportunities as entire assemblages of serpentine grazers, swimmers, predators..
..and people. One form, descended from tree-climbing mammalian snakes, re- evolved the human intelligence that had lain dormant for so long. They observed, contemplated and philosophized with novel, spirally coiled brains and handled the world with a singular pelvic "hand", borne out from the remnants of their ancestors' feet.
那灼热的太阳最终冷却下来，生命从她的地下据点涌上星球表面。随着各种各样的动物爆发式的进入数千年来一直空置的陆地生态位，蠕虫的后代也发生了大爆发。在地表，他们发现了新的机会，形成了成群的蛇形食草动物、游泳者和捕食者……和人。
这一种形态是由树栖蛇形哺乳动物进化而来的，它重新演化出蛰伏多年的人类智慧。他们用新颖的螺旋状大脑进行观察、思考和辩论，并用一只独特的生在骨盆处的“手”来处理世界，这只“手”来自他们祖先的脚的残余。
They looked nothing at all like their distant human ancestors, but their social development followed a similar path; several agricultural world empires, followed by industrial revolutions, social experiments, world wars, civil wars and globalization. But then again, socio-political parallelism in history did not necessarily imply a similar, or even recognizably human world.
他们看起来一点也不像他们的人类远祖，但他们的社会发展走过了相似的道路；几个农业世界帝国，随后是工业革命、社会实验、世界大战、内战和全球化。但话说回来，历史上的社会政治平行发展并不一定意味着一个相似的，甚至是可识别的人类世界。
Modern cities of the global Snake world were tangles of pipe like "roads", branching, three dimensional railroads and windowless, hole-like buildings. Though their knotted architecture differed from region to region, these settlements generally looked like kilometer-wide balls of glass, metal, plastic and cloth, wrapped so tightly that a human of today would find it impossible to move inside them. Plazas and open areas were totally absent, as they presented navigational obstacles and areas of insecurity. Their evolutionary background in the trees had made the Snake People into borderline agoraphobes.
蛇人世界的现代城市是由管道状的“道路”、分支、三维的铁路和无窗、洞状的建筑交织而成的。尽管不同地区的建筑结构各不相同，但这些定居点通常看起来像一公里宽的玻璃、金属、塑料和布构成的球，紧密的包裹在一起，以至于今天的人类会发现无法在里面活动。广场和空地完全不存在，因为它们构成了导航障碍和不安感。他们树栖的进化史使蛇人患上了边缘广场恐惧症。
None of these, of course, was unusual to the Snakes in any way. Their relatively "alien" lifestyle was as particular to them as ours is to us. All across their world, the arterial cities throbbed with people, each with their own joys, sorrows and chores, living out lives as human as any other intelligent beings'.
当然，这些对蛇人来说都不是什么不寻常的事。他们相对“奇异”的生活方式对他们来说和我们的生活方式一样特殊。在他们的世界里，主干城市里挤满了人，每个人都有自己的快乐、悲伤和杂务，过着和其他有智慧的人一样的人类生活。

A Snake person at home, enjoying a book while smoking and "listening" to vibrational ground-music. Through the open door can be seen the chaotic tangle of the city.
一个蛇人在家里一边抽烟一边看书，一边“听”地面传导的震动音乐。透过敞开的门，可以看到混乱的城市。

Killer Folk(Descendants of the Human Predators)
杀手族（捕食者人类的后裔）
The carnivores also rebounded into civilization. Their journey involved a series of changes during which they lost the adaptations that had allowed them to endure as the top predators of their world. The saber teeth, once used for slashing through sinew and trachea, became fragile and thin, useful only as organs of social display. The hook-like thumb claws were also reduced, but not deleted. In their place, the last two digits rotated perpendicularly to become newfangled graspers. All this gracility, however, did not mean weakness. Although they were no longer specialized for hunting, the Killer Folk could still kill with their bare hands, but only if they really wanted to. What enormous claws and teeth could not do, they could easily achieve with bow, arrow, flintlock repeater or gas rifle.
食肉者们也回到了文明之中。在此期间，他们的演化经历了一系列的变化，它们失去了使它们能够作为世界上顶级的捕食者生存下来的适应特征。曾经用来割断肌腱和气管的剑齿变得脆弱而薄，只能作为社会展示的器官。钩状拇指爪也减少了，但没有彻底消失。在它们的位置上，最后两个手指垂直旋转，成为新奇的抓手。所有这些都是纤弱的，但并不意味着软弱。虽然他们不再是专门的猎手，但杀手们仍然可以徒手杀人，但前提是他们真的想杀人。巨大的爪子和牙齿做不到的事情，他们可以用弓、箭、燧发枪或气枪轻松实现。
Their descent from predators gave the Killer Folk a unique social profile. Almost all of their religions had rituals allowing for periods of completely natural, animalistic hunts and duels. This necessity of venting these atavistic urges also led to the formation of religious "hunter nobilities"; privileged warriors who were skilled in the arts of hunting, war and murder. Entire societies were assembled underneath these ruling classes; orderly communities that erupted once every year into an orgy of death, sex, and prayer. For thousands of years nomadic warriors, together with their vast herds of once-human livestock, chased and battled each other across a chessboard of continents.
来自捕食者的血统赋予了杀手族独特的社会轮廓。他们几乎所有的宗教都允许进行完全自然的动物狩猎和决斗的仪式。这种宣泄返祖冲动的必要性也导致了宗教“猎手贵族”的形成：精通狩猎、战争和谋杀艺术的特权战士。整个社会都聚集在这些统治阶级之下：秩序井然的社区每年都要爆发一次死亡、性和祈祷的狂欢。数千年来，游牧战士和他们庞大的曾也是人类的牲畜群在大陆的棋盘上相互追逐和战斗。
All of this chaos was to be swept apart with the advent of modernity. In a development comparable to an industrial revolution, one nation-pack of Killers devised methods of settled, intensive factory farming. Organized state structure, secularism and technological leap-frogging were quick to follow.
随着现代化的到来，所有这些混乱都将被一扫而光。在一场堪比工业革命的发展中，一个国家的杀手族设计了定居的、集约化的工厂化农业。而有组织的国家结构、世俗主义和技术跳跃紧随其后。
Needless to say, such developments polarized the world into bands of progressive, developed "factory herders" and increasingly fanatical "hunting states." While one side condemned their old, animal ways, the other side embraced them with blind zealotry. This was their crisis of modernity; the balkanization of the progressive and conservative factions on the road to global unity. Fortunately, the Killers managed to pull themselves through, even after drifting dangerously close to global conflict at certain points.
不用说，这样的发展使世界两极分化为进步、发达的“工厂牧民”和日益狂热的“狩猎国家”。一方谴责他们古老的动物方式，另一方则盲目狂热地接受他们。这是他们的现代性危机；进步派和保守派在走向全球统一的道路上不断巴尔干化。幸运的是，杀手族成功地渡过了难关，即使他们在某些时刻已经危险地接近全球危机。

一个年轻的男性杀手参观了他国家无数被毁坏的堡垒之一，见证了他们种族血腥而多变的历史。杀手族的星球是考古学家的天堂。它比任何其他世界都埋葬了更多的黑暗时代、毁灭的文化和堕落的王国。

Tool Breeders (Descendants of the Swimmers)
育工（游泳者的后裔）
They used to be simple creatures, descendants of a battered people that had taken to the sea. Their remote sapiens ancestors would have given such beings no chance of a sentient comeback, for they thought that technological advances were impossible in the fluid medium of the oceans. But the Swimmers disproved such predictions by founding one of the most advanced and most outrageously alien cultures of the entire human lineage.
它们曾经是智力低下的生物，是被放进海里的受害者的后代。他们遥远的智人先祖不会认为这些生物有任何回归知觉的机会，因为他们认为，在流体介质的海洋中，技术进步是不可能的。但游泳者们通过建立整个后人类谱系中最先进、不同寻常的外星文化之一，推翻了这些预测。
Fire, the cornerstone of industrial engineering, was almost impossible to sustain and use underwater. But the Breeders simply choose another path when complex toolmaking proved impracticable. They began to breed their tools and machines for them.
火是工业的基石，在水下几乎不可能维持和使用。当复杂的工具制造被证明不切实际时，育工们选择了另一条道路：他们开始选育他们的工具和机器。
It had started long before the species was even intelligent. In the endless variety of life in the seas, the Swimmers always adopted and controlled the organisms that were useful in some way. Once domesticated, these creatures were willingly or unintentionally modified through artificial selection and conditioning. The process was slow, but once underway, its effects were formidable.
它早在这个物种恢复智力之前就开始了。在海中无尽的生命之中，游泳者总是采用和控制在某种程度上有用的生物。一旦被驯化，这些生物就会通过人工选择和调节被有意或无意地修改。这个过程很缓慢，但一旦开始，其影响是惊人的。
A modern city of the Breeders was a sight to behold. Huge, heart-like creatures pumped out nutritious fluids to a network of self-repairing, living conduits. This was their equivalent of a power grid, and it reached every single one of the Breeders' huge, exoskeletal dwellings; "powering" bioluminescent lights, flickering cephalopod skin- televisions, medicinal sea-squirts and countless other devices that had been bred from living creatures. The advances in biology had risen exponentially, until genetic engineering was completely mastered. Modern Breeders did not even need to use animals; a simple manipulation of cultured tissues and stem-cells could give solutions to any problem at hand.
一座现代化的育工城市是令人叹为观止的。巨大的、心形的生物将营养液泵送到能够自我修复的、有生命的管道网络中。这相当于他们的电网，它覆盖了育工的每一个巨大的外骨骼住宅；为生物发光灯、闪烁的头足类皮肤电视、药用海鞘和无数其他由生物培育而成的设备“供电”。生物学的进步呈指数级增长，直到基因工程被他们完全掌握。现代育工甚至不需要利用动物：对培养的组织和干细胞进行简单的操作可以解决手头的任何问题。
The mastery of genetics had conquered many obstacles. The yawning ocean depths, as well as the Planet's few tiny landmasses were now firmly within the Breeders' grasp. However, they were not contempt with mere planetary dreams. New forms and bizarre creatures were still being developed, in daring attempts to conquer the one realm that was most hostile to life.
他们对遗传学的掌握克服了许多障碍。浩瀚的海底，以及星球上为数不多的小块陆地，现在都牢牢掌握在育工手中。然而，他们并不蔑视登上异星的梦想。仍然在开发新的形式和奇异的生物，大胆地试图征服对生命最敌对的一个领域。
Sealed in their living ships, the Breeders wished to return to the stars.
被密封在他们的生物飞船里，育工们希望重返星空。

A Breeder huntress on a garden reef. Living tools are an indispensable part of these beings' daily lives; she manages to breathe underwater through an oxygen-filtering crustacean fitted over her blowhole. She holds a mollusk-derived rifle that shoots out specially-modified fish teeth, and her companion is a brain-augmented fish that has been hardwired to return kills. Buildings made from calcified shells glitter in the background, ablaze with bioluminescence.
花园礁石上的一位育工女猎手。生物工具是这些生命日常生活中不可或缺的一部分；她设法通过安装在气孔上的过滤氧气的甲壳类动物在水下呼吸。她拿着一支软体动物衍生的步枪，可以射出经过特殊改造的鱼牙，她的同伴是一种大脑增强的鱼，这种鱼是天生的猎手。由钙化贝壳制成的建筑在背景中发出闪烁的生物光。

Saurosapients(Livestock of the Lizard Herders)
智蜥（蜥牧民的牲畜）
One of humanity's eventual inheritors was not even human. They came from the reptilian stock that had proliferated during the demise of the Lizard Herders.
人类最后的后继者之一甚至不属于人。它们来自蜥牧民衰退期间迅速繁殖的爬行动物种群。
Theirs was a true case of a world turned upside down. As the humans degenerated into witless animals, the cold-blooded reptiles prospered in the tropical climate of their planet. Millennia passed and they began to produce increasingly smarter forms, one of which, distantly resembling featherless versions of the predatory dinosaurs of the past, actually crossed over the threshold of sentience and built up a series civilizations.
他们的经历是一个翻转世界的实例。随着人类退化为无知的动物，冷血爬行动物在这颗星球的热带气候中蓬勃发展。几千年过去了，它们开始产生越来越聪明的品种，其中一种类似过去的无毛兽脚类恐龙，实际上已经跨越了知觉的门槛，建立起一系列文明。
These fledgling cultures were quick to understand the true origin of the monstrous ruins littering their planet, ruins that until then had been considered natural aberrations or timeless memorabilia of gods. Now, however, they saw the intermingled ruins of the Qu and the Star People for what they really were. It was through this understanding that the biologically unrelated Sauros' took up the cultural identity of humanity.
这些羽翼未丰的文化很快就了解了散布在他们星球上的巨大废墟的真正起源，
那之前，这些废墟一直被认为是天然的异常或永恒的神的纪念品。然而，现在他们看到了Qu和明星人类混杂的废墟。正是通过这种理解，生物学上无关的智蜥接受了人类的文化身份。
In their archaeological efforts, the Sauros began to understand that the animals they used for food and labor were descended from the founders of their very existence. And somewhere in the stars lurked the forces that malformed them, forces greater than the Star People, dark forces that might someday return. The human animals served as a remainder, just as Panderavis had, that if the Saurosapients wanted to assure their continued existence in the cosmos, they had to be watchful.
在考古工作中，智蜥开始明白，他们用来食用和劳作的动物是他们祖先的造物主的后代。在星星的某角落方潜伏着使它们扭曲的力量，比明星人类更强大的力量，也许有一天会回来的黑暗力量。后人类动物是一种遗迹，就像潘多拉鸟一样，如果智蜥想确保他们在宇宙中的持续存在，就必须保持警惕。
The pressure of such a reality put their cultures under enormous stress. Some factions turned to made-up religions and remained ignorant under an umbrella of comforting fantasies. Others acknowledged the threats of the galaxy, but reverted to a paranoid rhetoric of conservationism. The galaxy had scared them greatly. Finally, there were those who saw the galactic redoubt and acted to face the odds, however great they might be. Conflicts and even wars were not uncommon between these three factions.
这种现实的压力给他们的文化带来了巨大的压力。一些派别转而信奉虚构的宗教，并在幻想的庇护下保持无知。其他人承认银河系的威胁，但又转向了偏执的保守主义言论。银河系把他们吓坏了。最后，有些智蜥看到了银河堡垒，采取行动面对困难，无论困难有多大。
这三个派别之间的冲突甚至战争并不罕见。
In the end, the centuries-long dispute began to resolve in the progressive factions' favor. As they expanded their spheres of knowledge, influence and activity, the Saurosapients became as "human"as any other civilization opening up to the galaxy.
最终，这场长达数个世纪的争端开始以有利于进步派的方式得到解决。随着他们的知识、影响力和活动范围的扩大，智蜥变得和任何其他向银河系开放的文明一样“人类”。

Modular People (Descendants of the Colonials)
模块化人（殖民板的后代）
The blind workings of evolution followed the unlikeliest paths, made use of the most fleeting opportunities. The very existence of the Modular People was testimony to this fact. Their ancestors, the Colonials, would've been seen as hopeless cripples by almost any observer; they lacked coherent organs and their existence was limited to carpeting water shores like mats of algae. But as degenerate as they were, the Colonials were resilient survivors, able to hold on to life in the harshest of conditions.
进化的盲目运作跟上了最不可能的道路，利用了最转瞬即逝的机会。模块化人的存在本身就证明了这一事实。他们的祖先，殖民板，几乎会被任何观察者认为是无可救药的残废；它们缺乏合乎逻辑的器官，它们的存在仅仅是像藻类垫一样铺满海岸。尽管他们很堕落，殖民板是仍坚韧的幸存者，能够在最恶劣的条件下生活。
As time passed, they began to organize themselves in differentiated colonies instead of homogenous mats. In the colonies, each human "cell" could perform a singular function and benefit from the union of others. Thus began the great age of organization, during which different colonies competed with each other by developing specialized human-cells that would give them an edge in the struggle for life. Some colonies grew enormous tap-roots that were able to siphon resources from far away. Others abandoned roots altogether and began to move themselves on starfish-like foot segments. Some colonies came up with units equipped with claws and poisons, taking competition to a brand-new, deadly level. Others responded to the threat with armor-plating, or watcher- cells equipped with enormous eyes.
时光流逝，它们开始建立起分化的群体，而不是同质的肉垫。在聚落中，每个人类“单元”都能执行一种独特的功能，并从其他单位的结合中受益。于是，伟大的团体时代开始了，在这个时代，不同的模块化人聚落通过发展特化的人类单元来在生命斗争中占据优势。一些殖民板长出了巨大的根系，能够从远处吸取资源。另一些则完全放弃了根，开始用海星般的腕足移动。一些殖民板配备了武装有爪子和毒药的单元，将竞争提升到了一个全新的致命水平。其他的则用装甲板或配备巨大眼睛的侦查单元来应对。
The eventual winner of this Colonial arms race was a sentient colony; organized around hyperspecialized units whose entire purpose was to direct the others. These colonies spread around the planet as they adapted the parts of their rivals to function within themselves. Thus were the Modular People born.
这场群落军备竞赛的最终赢家是一个有感知力的聚落：围绕着完全为了指导其他单元高度特化的组织单位。这些殖民者在全球上扩张，因为它们整合了他们竞争对手的部分单元，使其在自身内部发挥作用，模块化人就这样诞生了。
Living in fully-industrialized megalopoli, they came in an indescribable variation of shapes and sizes. Anything from castle-like guardian forests to diminutive, scuttling couriers was a member of the Modular whole. They could combine with each other and split up, or exchange parts as needs presented themselves. The only thing constant in all of their protean existence was their mental and cultural unity.
生活在完全工业化的大都市里，模块化人形态和大小的变化难以形容。从城堡般的防卫从到小巧迅捷的信使，任何东西都是模块化集体的一员。它们可以相互结合或分开，或者根据需要交换零件。在他们多变的存在之中，唯一不变的是他们的精神和文化的统一。
Due to their biological structure, these people had managed the impossible. They were actually living in a world of peace and utopian equality, where everybody was happy to be parts of greater, united wholes.
由于他们的生物结构，这些人做到了不可能的事情。他们实际上生活在一个和平、平等的乌托邦世界里，每个人都很乐意成为更大、更和谐的整体的一部分。

A modular colony treats a specialized digester unit with sprays of anti-ulcer medication produced by the medical drone held in its "hands". Note the differing segments, each of them mutated human beings in themselves.
一个模块化人群体用“手中”的医疗单位产生的抗溃疡喷雾治疗一个专门的消化单元。注意不同的区划，它们都是变异的人类。

Pterosapiens (Desce
ndants of the Flyers)
翼人（飞行者的后裔）
The flyers' supercharged hearts had given them an evolutionary winning hand, and they diversified to fill up the heavens. It was only a time before the competition in the skies got too intense, even for their souped-up metabolisms.
飞行者们格外劲！霸！的心脏成了他们进化的制胜之手，他们多样的演化填满了天空。没过多久时间天空中的竞争就变得过于激烈，即使对他们增强的新陈代谢来说也是如此。
Some lineages gave up their wings and returned to the ground, living as differing sorts of predators, herbivores and even swimmers. Their aerial adaptations gave them an edge on the ground and they produced forms of stupendous size and agility. There were wonderful beings, but no sentience came out of the terrestrial sky-beasts. Instead, civilization flowered in the skies. One species, from a line of wading, stork-like predators, evolved a brain that was large enough to imagine and act upon the world. Their feet, already versatile to catch slippery, swamp-dwelling prey, got even more articulate and assumed the role of hands. As a compensation they lost some of their aerial streamlining, but what they could not do with their bodies, they were more than able to make up with their minds.
一些谱系放弃了翅膀，回到了地面，以不同种类的食肉者、食草动物甚至水生动物的身份。它们的适应空中的能力转而给予它们在地面上的优势，并产生了惊人的体型和敏捷性。它们是奇妙的生物，但陆地上的天降野兽没有知觉。相反，文明在天空中绽放。有一个物种，来自一系列涉水的似鹳捕食者，进化出了一个足够大到可以想象世界并采取行动改造世界的大脑。它们的脚，已经能够灵活地捕捉湿滑的沼泽猎物，变的更加具有关节灵活性，承担了手的作用。作为代价，他们失去了一些空中流线型，但现在用身体做不到的事情，他们能用头脑做的更好。
Their power of flight made the Pterosapiens a global folk, before they could invent nations and borders. With such an inherent ease of travel, ideas and individuals diffused too fast for social differences to ossify. Acting with a planetary awareness, they farmed their gigantic, terrestrial relatives, raised cities of perches and fluting towers, harnessed the atom and began to gaze up to the stars, without having to compensate(too much) from the average individual's welfare, and without dividing up into quarrelsome factions.
在他们发明国家和边界之前，他们的飞行能力使翼人成为了一个全球性民族。由于这种固有的旅行便利性，思想和个性传播得太快，社会差异难以固化。他们以全球性意识行事，繁育他们巨大的陆地远亲，建造了由栖木和布满凹槽纹路的塔组成的城市，开发原子能并仰望星空，既不必牺牲（过多）民众的个人利益，也不会分裂成争吵的派系。
As egalitarian as their life seemed, they paid a stunting, inevitable price. Their hearts, even in their boosted state, had trouble supporting their power of flight and grotesquely large brains at the same time. As a consequence, they had an ephemeral lifespan. A Pterosapien was sexually mature at two, middle-aged by sixteen and usually dead by twenty-three years of our time. This grim cycle caused them to appreciate every moment of their existence dearly, and they pondered upon it with feverish intensity. A shelf of scrolls by Pterosapien philosophers would've been the envy of every human library. In their cities, life blazed away with unreal speed, rushing past to meet fleeting deadlines.
尽管他们的生活看起来是平等的，但他们付出了令人窒息的、不可避免的代价。他们的心脏，即使在增强的状态下，也难以同时支持他们的飞行能力和巨大的大脑。因此，它们的寿命很短暂。翼人在两岁时性成熟，十六岁时进入中年，通常在现代人所谓的二十三岁时死亡。这种残酷的循环使他们深深地欣赏着自己存在的每一刻，他们狂热地思考着。一书架翼人哲学家的卷轴会让每个人类图书馆羡慕不已。在他们的城市里，生活以不真实的速度飞快地流逝，匆匆忙忙地追赶着转瞬即逝的最后期限。
As a species, the angelic flyers were victims of heart disease.
作为一个物种，翼人这些天使般的飞行者是心脏病的受害者。
A Pterosapien poses by the bizarre buildings of a seaside resort. At ten days long, this will be the only holiday in her ephemeral life.
一只翼人在海滨度假胜地的奇异建筑旁摆姿势。
为期十天，这将是她短暂生命中唯一的假期。

Asymmetric People (Descendants of the Lopsiders)
不对称人（倾倒人的后裔*之前翻译为侧倾者）
Although contorted by gravity, the Lopsiders managed to regain their sentience, and develop a civilization in a short few million years. Squat, pancake-like buildings spread all over their planet. These constructs looked like squashed bunkers, and they were never more than a few meters high. They did not seem like much, but such structures were entrances to underground homes, schools, hospitals, temples, universities but also embassies, prisons, asylums, command centers and arsenals. They lived strange lives, but the Lopsiders were human in all of their virtues and evils. Thus, it was only natural for them to expand outwards and look for new frontiers to colonize. Fortunately, their solar system harbored other planets, similar to the Lopsider homeworld in almost all respects, all respects except gravity. But they weren't willing to let such trivial details stop them.
尽管被重力扭曲，倾倒人还是重新恢复了知觉，并在短短几百万年内发展出一个文明。扁平、煎饼状的建筑遍布他们的星球。这些建筑看起来像被压扁的地堡，从未超过几米的高度。这些建筑看起来并不多，但它们是地下住宅、学校、医院、寺庙、大学的入口，也是大使馆、监狱、收容所、指挥中心和军火库的入口。他们过着奇怪的生活，但倾倒人有着所有人类具有的美德与恶德。自然，他们会向外扩张，寻求新的殖民地。幸运的是，他们的太阳系拥有其他行星，除了重力以外，几乎在所有方面都与倾倒人的家园相似。但他们不愿意让这些琐碎的细节阻碍他们。
Throughout their history, humans had always risked changing themselves to preserve their future. It was a risky gamble, but it had paid off since the days of the Martian-Americans. But re-engineering the flattened Lopsider body for a benign gravity was a monumental task indeed. Suffice it say that the experiments took millennia to achieve even limited success. After countless attempts, the Asymmetric People were born, or rather made. Their bodies were changed considerably; what had been shovel- like toes to slither through the high-gravity dirt had become centipedal legs, and the singular, grasping hand was elongated to an extreme degree. Their grotesque faces had been inverted and turned upside-down after reverting from a flounder-like existence. Twisted as they were, members of this new race enjoyed tremendous advantages over their flattened forefathers.
纵观历史，人类总是冒险改变自己来保护他们的未来。这是一场冒险的赌博，但自美式火星人时代以来，它们已经见到了成效。但将扁平的倾倒身体重新设计成适应温和重力确实是一项艰巨的任务。可以说，这些实验花了数千年的时间才取得了有限的成功。经过无数次尝试，不对称人诞生了，或者更确切地说--被创造出来了。他们的身体发生了很大变化；在高重力的泥土中滑行的铲子般的脚趾变成了蜈蚣般的腿，那只奇特的、抓握的手被拉长到了极致。他们怪诞的脸在从比目鱼般的生活中恢复过来后被颠倒了。尽管扭曲，但这个新种族的成员相对他们扁平的祖先享有巨大的优势。
Their social development also parallelled that of the bygone Martian-Americans. Once again there was a golden age, followed by increasing tensions and interplanetary war. But unlike the Martians, the Asymmetrics ruthlessly exterminated their parent race and went on to rule the solar system alone. On the way, they stumbled across the remains of the Qu and the Star People and advanced immensely. Triumphant on their own realm, they turned to the heavens for further exploits.
他们的社会发展也与过去美国式的火星人相似。黄金时代再次出现了，随之而来的是日益加剧的紧张局势和星际战争。但与火星人不同，不对称人无情地消灭了他们的祖先种族，并继续独自统治星系。在路上，他们偶然发现了屈和明星人类的遗迹，并取得了巨大的进步。他们在自己的国度取得了胜利，于是转向天空寻求进一步的开拓。

An Asymmetric nobleman poses nude to reveal his bizarre anatomy. Normally, these creatures dress up in elaborate garments that resemble heaps of interconnected, enlarged stockings.
一个不对称人贵族裸体摆造型，展示他奇怪的身体构造。通常，这些生物会穿上精致的衣服，就像一堆相互连接的放大长袜。

Symbiotes(Descendants of the Parasites)
共生体（寄生虫的后代）
As time passed, the relationships between the parasites and their hosts got connected to such a degree that it began to involve a co-operation of the individuals. These were no longer single-sided relationships; in exchange for the hosts' nutritious blood, the parasites offered their heightened senses as early warning against predators and other hazards.
随着时间的推移，寄生虫和他们的宿主之间的关系变得如此紧密，以至于开始涉及到个体间的合作。这不再是种单向关系：为了换取宿主营养丰富的血液，寄生虫提供了更敏锐的感官，用以提前预警捕食者和其他危险。
A great "arms race" of symbiotic relationships thus commenced. Certain 'parasites' offered their hosts larger eyes, others sharper senses of smell, hearing or even additional defensive weapons in the shape of venomous saliva, malodorant sprays or an extra bite. The hosts returned the favor with longer running legs, stronger bodies, and specialized, ergonomic nesting sites rich in blood vessels and covered in insulating fur. Different complexes of parasite and host species evolved, compatible only amongst themselves.
于是，一场基于共生关系的伟大“军备竞赛”开始了。某些“寄生虫”为宿主提供了更大的眼睛，另一些则提供了更敏锐的嗅觉、听觉，甚至提供了有毒唾液、恶臭喷雾或额外蛰针等附加的防御武器。宿主则回报以奔跑的长腿、强壮的身体和专门的、符合虫体工程学的富含血管，覆盖着隔热皮毛的筑巢部位。不同种类的寄生虫和宿主物种共同进化，发展出了仅限彼此的兼容性。
The development of such creatures was in a way reminiscent of the great Modular colonies, thriving on their own world light-years away. But unlike the Modulars, the components of the Symbiotes belonged to different species, instead of modified variations of the same basic organism. In eventuality, both relationships led to the same point: Sentience.
这种生物的发展在某种程度上让人想起了在光年之外的世界里蓬勃发展的伟大的模块化殖民版。但与模块化人不同，共生体的各部分属于不同的物种，而不是同一基本物种的改良变体。但最终，这两种共生关系都指向了同一点：知觉。
In the secluded forests of a certain continent, a new parasitic species developed. They did not have the ballistic poison sprays, infectious stings or the grossly hypertrophied arm-claws of their relatives. Instead, these parasites offered a simpler bargain; an ability to think in return of total submission. Initially this relationship was more like a horse and its rider, but after a few hundred thousand years the Symbiotes could manipulate their hosts like puppets through a combination of tactile and olfactory signals.
在某个大陆的僻静森林里，一种新的寄生物种出现了。他们不能喷吐毒雾、传染病蜇针或极度肥大的臂爪。相反，这些寄生虫提供了一个更简单的交易；以宿主的完全服从作为代价的思考能力。最初，这种关系更像是一匹马和它的骑手，但几十万年后，共生体可以通过触觉和嗅觉信号的组合，像提线木偶一样操纵宿主。
A few more millennia and these combined beings developed an order not unlike our own, complete with countries, politics and even war, albeit reduced in the newly globalizing world-culture. In this age technology filled most functions of the hosts, but a thriving husbandry of these creatures still remained due to tradition and simple efficiency. An average Symbiote would begin the day on his business host, and move onto a more comfortable domestic one when he returned home after work.
再过了几千年，这些结合在一起的生物发展出了一种与当今人类别无二致的秩序，包括了国家、政治甚至战争，除了全球化的世界文化中有所不足。在这个时代，科技可以替代宿主的大部分功能，但由于传统和单纯的效率因素，对这些生物的饲养仍然蓬勃发展。一个普通的共生体会在他的"商务宿主"那里开始新的一天，下班回家后则会搬到一个更舒适的"家庭宿主"那里。
And perhaps, on the olfactory television, he would smell news of the excavations of the million-year-old Qu ruins, of the marvelous discoveries salvaged from the Star Men wrecks, or of the enormous radio arrays that rose everywhere to listen to the stars.
也许，在嗅基"电视"上，他会闻到数百万年前Qu遗址发掘的消息，从“明星人类”沉船中抢救出来的惊人发现，或者是从到处都是巨大的无线电阵列听到来自星星的消息。
It was a pattern that was being repeated all over.
这是种宇宙中到处都在重复上演的循环。

A Symbiote poses on one of his several hosts. In the background can be seen some of their rural housing, with man-sized doors for the mindless hosts, and the smaller holes for their intelligent patrons,
一个共生体在他的几个宿主之一上摆造型。在背景中可以看到他们的一些农村住宅，为那些没有头脑的宿主提供了一扇现代人大小的门，而为那些聪明的顾客提供了更小的洞，

不穿裤衩，无法过审

Sail People (Descendants of the Finger Fishers)
扬帆水手（重爪渔夫的后裔）
The Finger Fishers were already among the most divergent of the post-human races. With harpoon-like digits and almost crocodilian muzzles, they looked nothing like their parental stock. But even this form would look conservative to their sentient descendants. With many small, scattered islands, isolated sub-continents and differentiated niches, their homeworld was an evolutionary cauldron where isolated members of certain species could, under the right circumstances, evolve into wildly different forms. This condition was similar to the island-realms of Madagascar, Galapagos, or Hawaii on old Earth, except that this time, it was on a global scale.
重爪渔夫已经是后人类物种中最异化的之一。它们有着鱼叉般的手指和鳄鱼般的口鼻，看起来一点也不像它们的血亲。但即使是这种外表，相对他们的知性后代来说也显得保守。
由于星罗棋布的小岛、孤立的次大陆和差异化的生态位，它们的家园成了一个进化的熔炉，在适宜的环境下，某些物种的孤立成员可以进化成截然不同的形态。这种情况类似旧地球上的马达加斯加、加拉帕戈斯或夏威夷等岛屿，只是这次发生在全球范围内。
Some descendants of the Fishers, trapped on lonely islands, grew smaller and developed their fishing claws into graceful wings. Others took directly to the sea and became the analogues of whales, dolphins and mosasaurs. Within this evolutionary bubbling, one particular lineage gave rise to the ancestral Sail People.
被困在孤岛上的渔夫的一些后代变得越来越小，他们的渔爪变成了优雅的翅膀。其他则直接出海，成为鲸鱼、海豚和沧龙的类似物。在这种进化爆发中，一个特定的谱系产生了祖先的扬帆水手。
They too elongated their fingers into wings, but these were not used for flight. Instead, they became sails that drove them effortlessly across the oceans. With fingers turned into sails, they used their mouths and extended tongues to catch their pelagic prey. These organs eventually assumed the role of the Fishers' long atrophied, dexterous hands. The need to better navigate the endless seas put an inevitable pressure on their memories, and the Sailors' brains grew correspondingly. It was only a matter of time until one of these navigators became smart enough to think.
它们也把手指拉长成翅膀，但不是用来飞行。相反，它们变成了帆，毫不费力地驶过海洋。它们把手指变成帆，用嘴巴和长舌捕捉远洋猎物。这些器官最终扮演了渔夫们已长期萎缩、灵巧的手的角色。为了更好地驾驭无尽的大海，他们的记忆收到了不可避免的压力，水手们的大脑也相应地成长了。这些航海家中的一位变得足够聪明，能够思考，只是时间问题。
Even when sentient, the Sail People still needed a long time to achieve any sort of social stability. Their scattered world made for a tremendous diversity of cultures, which competed and fought just as resiliently. Across generations, untold flotillas of tribal warriors battled each other in epoch-spanning, pointless conflicts. Nomadic warriors and pirate societies inevitably came into being, prolonging the uncontrollable cycle of violence.
即使有知觉，扬帆水手们也需要很长时间才能实现任何形式的社会稳定。他们分散的世界造就了巨大的文化多样性，这些文化同样有擅长竞争和斗争。几代人以来，无数部落战士在跨越时代、毫无意义的冲突中相互争斗。游牧战士和海盗社会不可避免地形成了，延长了无法控制的暴力循环。
Only when a certain warrior tribe developed warfare on an industrial scale, and the state society needed to support it, and then, only when this notion of modernity gave rise to an idea of peace did the Sail People finally manage to unify. Generations of blood had stained the oceans for far too long.
只有当某个战士部落发展出工业规模的战争，需要国家社会的支持，然后，只有当这种现代性的国家概念产生了和平的想法时，水手们才最终实现了统一。一代代人的鲜血已经把海洋染红得太久了。

A Sailor goes hunting with his harpoon-wielding companion in the background. Extremely violent by nature, these people frequently resort to savage hunting campaigns to quell their bloodlust in modern life. Notice their tongue-derived 'hands,' and the accompanying flying creature, actually one of the Sail Peoples' distant cousins.
一个扬帆水手和他挥舞着鱼叉的同伴在后面打猎。这些人天生极其暴力，在现代生活中经常诉诸野蛮的狩猎运动来平息他们的嗜血欲望。请注意他们的舌头演化而来的“手”，以及跟随而来的飞行生物：实际上是扬帆水手的远房表亲之一。

Satyriacs (Descendants of the Hedonists)
萨特妖（享乐者的后裔）
*Satyr：希腊半人半兽的好色林精
Their pleasure-drenched existence, locked between their static paradise world and their inherently slow pace of evolution, seemed immune to change. Perhaps this was true for a a million years or so. But on larger scales, complete stasis was a fable.
享乐者生来就过着乐趣漫漫的生活，被锁在他们静态的天堂世界和内在的缓慢进化速度之间，似乎亘古不变。也许这在一百万年左右的时间尺度上是真的。但在更大的尺度上，完全停滞只是无稽之谈。
During a particular era, geologic upheavals threw up huge masses of land over the shallow oceans of their world. The Hedonists, until then trapped on a singular island no bigger than today's Iceland, were not late to colonize these new pastures. This was more of a necessary exodus, since the events that raised the new lands had also thrown up enormous clouds of ash that smothered the atmosphere and blocked out the sun. Their innocence finally spoilt, most of the Hedonists died out, unable to adapt. The only survivors were fast-breeding freaks who had abandoned the reproductive quirks of their ancestors. It was these forms that colonized the newborn continent and gave rise to a multitude of species which included the Satyriacs, sentient heirs to the Hedonists.
在一个不寻常的地质年代，地质剧变在他们世界的浅海上形成了巨大的陆地。在此之前，享乐者被困在一个不比今天的冰岛大的岛屿上，他们对这些新放牧地的殖民并不慢。这更像是一次必要的迁徙，因为那些引发新大陆的事件也扬起了巨大的火山灰云，覆盖了大气层，挡住了太阳。他们的天真终于被破坏了，大多数享乐者都死于无法适应。唯一的幸存者是抛弃了祖先的生殖怪癖的快速繁殖的怪胎。正是这些形式殖民了新生的大陆，并产生了众多物种，其中包括萨特妖，他们是享乐主义者有知性的继承人。
These beings resembled their ancestors to a great degree, except that they now sported enormous "tails"; boneless organs of balance woven out of extended pelvic muscles and fat. Along this appendage, their entire bodies were re-oriented in horizontal, almost dinosaurian postures. Although they had abandoned the frantic reproductive strategies of their ancestors, their social lives still retained a delightful tint of casual promiscuity.
这些生物在很大程度上与它们的祖先相似，只是它们现在摆弄着巨大的“尾巴”；由骨盆附着的肌肉和脂肪编织而成的无骨平衡器官。沿着这个附属物，它们的整个身体都以水平的、恐龙式的姿势重定向。尽管他们已经放弃了祖先疯狂的繁殖策略，但他们的社交生活仍然保留着随意滥交的愉快色彩。
The Satyriac civilization was quick to establish itself globally, for even with the additional landmasses, the terrestrial domain of their world remained no larger than Australia. For a while three and then two land empires competed each other, before dissolving into a myriad smaller nations and finally re-unifying into a coherent world order. From this point on, the Satyriac world once again became a Valhalla of pleasure, with festivals, concerts and ritualized orgies punctuating every working week. This time, however, it could all be savored by true intelligence.
萨特妖文明很快在全球范围内建立了自己的地位，因为即使有了更多的陆地，他们世界的陆地面积也不比澳大利亚大。有一段时间，三个又两个陆地帝国相互竞争，然后解体为无数的小国，最终重新统一为一个连贯的世界秩序。从那时起，萨特妖世界再次成为一个欢乐的瓦尔哈拉，每个工作周都有节日、音乐会和仪式化的狂欢。然而--这一次--这一切都可以通过真正的智慧来品尝。

Satyriac audience goes wild as the performer hits the climax of his song. Such events are an everyday part of the Satyriac life.
当表演者达到歌曲的高潮时，萨特妖的观众陷入狂欢，这些事是萨特妖人日常生活的一部分。
（……这是谁家迈那德斯）