The Creatures, Objects, & Mysteries of Xg57H4y

fragmented images froma long extinct planetary culture

Background

The visual data samples gathered here, along with the fragmentary documents encoded in printed symbols provided to you as a separate unit, are the only surviving remnants of the long dead civilization that once flourished on the remote planet Xg57H4y, which seems interestingly to have been referred to by its inhabitants simply as ”earth." The documents and images were miraculously retrieved from a space capsule of unknown origin launched during what appears to have been a period of intense cultural activity.

The printed documents were encoded in Xg57H4y's most widely used symbolic code for data dissemination, apparently known to its users as ”English," which has already been deciphered for you in the version available to you. Those documents clearly reflect ideas and practices of importance to at least some of the creatures living on Xg57H4y; though it is unclear which if any of the life forms glimpsed in the following visual data were responsible for creating the documents themselves.

I have made some conjectures based on the available materials, regarding the nature of the objects in these images; but much work remains to be done. I invite you to join me in reconstructing, to whatever extent possible based on these images & accompanying documents, the features of the culture which produced them. You may even wish to speculate, as I sometimes do, on how this culture might have evolved, and what led to its eventual demise.

1. Living Creatures

Xg57H4y was evidently inhabited by two types of living creatures: those primarily covered with hair, and those with smooth outer surfaces of various types. The hairy creatures, though evidently outnumbered by smooth-skinner ones, were clearly of superior intelligence and character.

Smooth-skinner creatures seem mostly to keep their bodies covered, at least in part, with (often brighly colored) textile fabrics. Though endowed with more supple and variegated bodies, such creatures were clearly plagued with deformities and disease, and given to constant distraction and even mania; many of the documents provided along with these images seem to reflect their various fascinating pathologies. With regards to specific parts of the bodies of these creatures, the most complex and often featured part features seven orifices, ostensibly allowing for sensory input, though which type of senses and how many different ones these beings had access to is unclear.

creatures with bodies mostly covered by hair

hairy creatures with more unusual forms

contortion & intertwining of bodies

aggressive (military?) activities

oddly shaped (diseased?) creatures

machines linked to bodies

clear capacity for flight

unidentified object commonly placed close to faces

smooth-skinnedcreatures close-up:

facial deformities of various

types

multipurpose limbs clearly used for

symbolic communication

<---- action symbols?

vs. object symbols? <----->

more complex forms of

communication

communication involving various instruments

alternative theories argue that longer limbs were also used to communicate, and perhaps even more important

a hidden orifice (for sensory input or removing waste?)& symbolic signs placed on other parts of the body.

2. Landscapes,Structures & Machines

Some of the most striking images in this collection reveal startlingly beautiful landscapes which seem to have been almost entirely ignored by the manic smooth-skinned creatures whose features are so thoroughly portrayed in the images of the preceding section. While it is clear that a few (perhaps widely famous) smooth-skinned explorers did venture into such realms--hence the images we have of them--it seems that smooth-skinned creatures as a whole preferred to remain isolated amongst the structures and machines of their own making--though note that hairy creatures are commonly shown against the backgrounds of such realms, once again suggesting their superior intelligence and character. The only image that directly shows smooth-skinner explorers of ignored landscapes suggests that even they relied primarily on machines when venturing into such realms; indeed, a number of other images show mechanical instruments of unidentified functions placed in landscapes, perhaps to obtain information about them from a distance. The remainder of the images show complex structures and machines used for various purposes, though it is difficult to discern for certain what those purposes were and which which of the planet’s creatures constructed them.

ignored landscapes

apparent attempts to study these

ignored landscapes

through mechanical

means

rare and perhaps famous explorers of ignored landscapes(note here too reliance on mechanical appendages)

glossy structures, perhaps explicitly designed for

various manic activities

slanted structure with rough surface,perhaps constructed by hairy creature?

oddly shaped structure

suggesting difference in

status,or perhaps

waste disposal

most likely towersof various types

unidentified instruments, perhaps for cross-planetary travel

3. Mysteries

Apart from the uncertain nature of creatures and objects noted in the previous sections, quite a few of the images of Xg57H4y present us with questions that are nearly impossible to answer with any sense of certainty. Once again I invite you to consider these puzzling data samples, and perhaps suggest theories to account for their existence.

postures of submission?

smooth-skinned creature immersed in fluid

an odd combination of hairy and smooth-skinned creatures

not exactly hairy, yet strikingly

different from the usual

features of a smooth-skinned creature

a strangely two dimensional record of

oddly colored smooth-skinned

creatures(perhaps traces of

abject poverty &/or enslavement?)

the posterior section of an unidentified creature

landscape or living creature?

perhaps a wind turbine of some

sort?

possibly an orbiting space station?

blueprint for primitive circuitry of some type?

perhaps a further clue re: the unidentified object so often held