Ramxtilkon is the disposal of those too damaged for recycling by feeding their remains to a ramxkul, a species engineered to attack other shark species and feed on the dead. This ritual takes place in The Cavern of Death, the location of which is classified; its whereabouts are known only to select members of World Oceans, the Committee, and those assigned to the Sorority of Defense.
Ritual Origins – The Death of Polbanto
Polbanto was part of the twenty-thousand zaxiri that moved to the surface to live among the marixi during the Zaxiri Exile. Some of the zaxiri lived in a settlement on the shores of the River Yakortolx, a powerful body of water that flowed from beneath the Yakortol (Denman) Glacier. Femitokon had camped five miles north of the Yakortolx and took many lovers among the zaxiri there; a favorite was Polbanto. Like many in her caste, Pol swam with the seals on the coast. Zaxiri and seals often congregated beneath the Ortosk (Shackleton) Sheet, where the Yakortol (Denman) calved into the Toks’atol (Mawson Sea). Pinnipeds were common on the subterranean rocks of coastal Ortosk and, like the zaxiri, loved to lounge on the rocks and socialize—occasionally getting into the water to swim.
Zaxiri were new to the surface; their interactions with subglacial whales and dolphins had not prepared them for the aggressive nature of the great white sharks. Just after midnight, late in summer, two great white sharks attacked the seals swimming around Polbanto. Many zaxir on the rocks dove into the water when the sharks began to attack; dozens of marixi arrived, drawn by the sounds of the zaxiri screaming, and pummeled one of the sharks to death. The other shark swam off, taking Polbanto’s legs with it. On the rocks beneath the ice, Polbanto bled to death in the arms of Femitokon and their lover, a zaxir named Utakigwo.
Femitokon ordered Polbanto wrapped in a white sheet from material newly loomed beneath the ice by bizaki manufacturers. Femitokon then took five trusted marixi out into the Toks’atol and used Polbanto’s wrapped body to lure the great white that had attacked her. Femitokon allowed the shark to finish Polbanto, then she and her team dived in and beat the shark to death. They dragged the beast up onto the shores of the Yakortolx and burned it. Femitokon gave the shark’s teeth to those who had helped her hunt the animal and to those who cared for Polbanto.
History of Ramxkul
[1] A year after Polbanto’s death, Tox Island geneticists designed the first subglacial shark (ramxkul). The DNA came from the preserved Cretoxyrhinid Mantelli tail found in the belly of a mosasaur, long buried in the mud on the floor of the Vandtakal (Vanda Bay). During the Lonely Time in 2035, the breeding castes settled on the Ortoxis Peninsula, which led out into the Vandulak. Their self-imposed social exile came about after the death of many zaxiri due to a production infection and the subsequent gestation forced upon Subaki employed by the Prime Lab. Here, on the shores of the Vandulak, the exiled wrapped their dead in white linen and left them to the tides where ramxkul waited offshore. At year’s end, the breeding castes ended their exile, and Femitokon ordered a culling of all ramxkul in the Vandulak. She oversaw their deaths and burned their carcasses in an enclosed cavern in the Marixtak Mountains.
Designed with an inherent desire to attack other sharks, the aging ramxkul protected undersea explorers mapping the sea floors around Ramaxia. In time, the aggressive and uncontrollable nature of these early ramxkul led to the cessation of their design. Biological handlers released hundreds of engineered females into the Vandulak (Vanda Harbor), and then terminated the males. Their inherent unwillingness to seek out other sharks to breed with led to their extinction.
[2] In the era of the Sixth Gen, when the effects of Isolation on convicted femmar proved cruel, legislators decided to offer those sentenced the option of Gard’ntil (due execution). At the same time, the Prime Lab reengineered the ramxkul using trace DNA from the stomach lining of a deceased ramxkul found in a tidal cave. Geneticists cultivated not only its remains but also the decades-old DNA of a zaxir found inside its stomach. The inclusion of Femarctic chromosomes from a consumed zaxir gave this new incarnation a temperament that enabled limited bonding by marine-biologic handlers. Convicted femmar that chose gard’ntil could not recycle, and thus Recycle handlers treated their corpses in the same manner as those diagnosed with ‘damaged’ DNA or DNA unworthy of salvage.
The Cavern Of Death
The Sixth Ruling Gen decreed that the damaged be washed, wrapped, and fed to a ramxkul in the Cavern of Death. This a new ritual became known as Ramxtilkon. Processors wash and wrap the corpse, then Orta Biologic attendants drop it into a pool containing three ramxkul. The first ramxkul to feed on the corpse is allowed to finish her meal alone. Marine engineers euthanize the ramxkul and recycle-attendants cremate the fish. Its teeth get displayed, along with a biographical marker of the deceased, in the cavern’s entry hall.
Under the Ninth Gen regime, the Fifth Office took custodial control over the Cavern of Death due to its lack of technopathic connection to Femtrux of the Collective. Many attendants working with the damaged who were not criminals lost their positions and lodged protests with their Bizakask representatives. Corruption among those in positions of power led to these complaints being suppressed, with the affected attendants being given new and better-paying positions in exchange for their silence.
An investigation by Utama representative Laxum Jyr led to the revelation in 2232 of a covert division within the SOD called Femitokon. She accused Fifth Office Wox Dag of murdering males and processing them as damaged outside the scope of Femtrux.
Fifth Office Wox Dag admitted to forming the Femitokon Division but only for “collecting males” hiding in the citizenry and between the poles. Footage obtained showed the ritual termination of a male collected and executed under the auspices of the Balanced Citizenry Act. However, with no SOD officers to verify the footage (the recorder, Komadon Fusada Kul, had died in her paxicol the year before), Sernatae Yir Gizul had no choice but to declare the evidence inadmissible.
FEMITOKON 