A stone plaque on the surface ice of the Gulidox Plain reads:
Only the Strongest Are One
The First Trial
In the early weeks of cohabitation beneath the ice, the original marixi subjects created by the Femaki’xirpaxul exhibited aggression directed toward other castes. Marix leader Femitokon sequestered all 18,000 members of her caste, taking them to the surface and residing within the snow over the Vostulak (Lake Vostok). Cut off from proper socialization, they engaged in low-threshold battles that often ended in the death of many able-bodied Marixi. Concerned by this crude thinning of the herd, Fusofitakil exiled the zaxiri to live among them (see the Zaxiri Exile). The result proved detrimental due in part to the presence of surface hizaki. Many had joined their zaxiri lovers in exile and soon caused social division amongst the ranks that escalated the physical-quarreling.
Femitokon decided it was time to weed out those marixi incapable of cohesion. Venturing below, she enlisted Fusofitakil’s help in planning a mass fight to the death. The hizak elite, led by Fusofitakil, joined Femitokon in gathering every marixi to the Gulidox Plain (h. Dome Argus). There, she proclaimed that only the strongest left alive could rejoin the rest of the femmar below. The most aggressive marixi acted out first, killing those around them, before getting themselves killed. Those that refused to attack their peers and formed into teams and pairs, survived the melee. Of the estimated 18,000 Marixi, only 5,482 survived and returned below with the exiled zaxiri.
Today, each generational cycle of marixi is marched to the surface at age 17 to partake in a final test to complete their caste training. Here, they engage in a mass hand to hand combat called a Final Trial. Combatants left standing without their suit sensors ‘marking’ them as dead will go on to acquire rank, and or advancement to an elevated duty assignment.
Second-Gen Discipline, Fifth-Gen Benevolence
Caregivers of the First Gen enacted collective organization and brought Marixi born of the Second Gen together to live and train. Regimented living, combined with aggressive team training, molded controllable soldiers. In the production of the Fifth Gen, a small percentage of marixi were born with a chromosomal anomaly that made enabled altruism. Today, these altruistic Marixi are separated from the others in their mid-teens and conscripted to the Citizen’s Guard, an organization created when the need for a less aggressive form of citizenry police became necessary.
Also in the era of the Second Gen, marixi that fell within the first hour of the Final-Trial had been relegated to a lifetime of surface duty; in the Fifth Gen era, however, Sixth-Gen finalists falling in the first hour were allowed to strike for sponsorship in privately financed, dome-sponsored athletic programs.
RWO MASTERLIST
FEMITOKON 