The Ramxtikon is the disposal of those too damaged for recycling by feeding their remains to engineered ramxkul. The ritual takes place in The Cavern of Death, the location of which remains classified; its whereabouts are known only to select members of World Oceans, the Committee, and those assigned to the Sorority of Defense.
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 flowing 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 of her sister caste, Pol swam with the seals on the coast. Zaxiri and the 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 hadn’t prepared them for the aggressive nature of the great white sharks that hunted the seals. Just after midnight, late in summer, two great white sharks attacked the seals swimming around Polbanto. Many of the Zaxiri on the rocks dove into the water when the sharks began to attack; dozens of Marixi arrived, drawn by the sounds of 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 sheet of white 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, back beneath the ice. 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 its teeth to those that helped her hunt the animal, and to those that cared for Polbanto.
The Ramxkul
A year after Polbanto’s death, geneticist on Tox Island designed the first polar sharks (ramxkul), developed from preserved DNA of a lone cretoxyrhinid mantelli tail, found in the belly of mosasaur, long buried in the mud on the floor of the Vanda Bay. Designed with an inherent desire to attack other sharks, they were created to protect undersea explorers as they mapped the sea floors around Ramaxia. The aggressive and uncontrollable nature the ramxkul led to the cessation of their design. Hundreds of engineered females were set loose in the Vandulak (Vanda Harbor)—their males terminated. Behaviorists believed that their inherent unwillingness to seek out other sharks to breed with would signal their demise.
During the Lonely Time, the breeding castes settled on the Ortoxis Peninsula, around the Vandulak. It had been a self-imposed social exile brought about by the death of many Zaxiri due to a production-infection, and the subsequent gestation forced upon Subaki employed by the Prime Lab. On the shores of the Vandulak, the dead Zaxiri with genes considered damaged due to infection were wrapped in white linen and fed to the ramxkul swimming off shore. In 2028 the breeders returned to their sister castes, and Femitokon rounded up all the remaining ramxkul in the Vandulak and had them euthanized and burned in an enclosed cavern in the Marixtak Mountains.
Ramxkul Reborn
During the era of the Second Ramaxian Gen, the Prime Lab revived the ramxkul, using DNA from the stomach lining of a deceased ramxkul, found on the bottom of the Vandulak. These newly engineered ramxkul were created from a patch made of the genes of the cretoxyrhinid, but the were engineered with chromosome similarities to living Zaxiri (due to the DNA being harvested from a stomach containing the remains of various Zaxiri). The inclusion of Femarctic chromosomes gave the newly developed ramxkul a temperament that allowed for limited bonding with their handlers.
Modern ramxkul do not thrive beyond subglacial seawater and limit their diet only to deceased marine-lifeforms (and dead citizens) too damaged for recycling.
In the era of the Fifth Gen, when the effects of Isolation on convicted femmar proved cruel, the decision was made to offer those sentenced with the option of Gard’ntil (due execution). Those choosing gard’ntil could not recycle, and thus their corpses were handled in the same manner as those with disorders that caused death. Deceased citizens genetically damaged are washed, wrapped, and fed to the ramxkul in the Cavern of Death. In the ritual known as Ramxtikon, a wrapped corpse is dropped into a pool containing three to four ramxkul. The first ramxkul to feed on the corpse is allowed to finish her meal alone. The ramxkul is then euthanized and put through a recycle process wherein the flesh burns, and the bones ground to dust. The teeth of the ramxkul are set out along with a marker in the caverns entry, to designate the cessation of the damaged.
In the era of the Ninth Ramaxian Gen, the Cavern of Death came under the jurisdiction of Orta Biologic and officers of the Sorority of Defense. It holds no connection to the Collective (hive Faltrix) or prime lifeform Femtrux and it is solely administered by the Fifth Office.
An investigation in 2212 by the Citizenry of Utama (Representative Laxum Jyr of the Tenth Gen) accused the Fifth Office of creating a covert division within the SOD called the Femitokon, to carry out ritual terminations of males collected under the Balanced Citizenry Act. Fifth Office Wox Dag admitted to forming the Femitokon Division but only for the purpose of “collecting males” hiding in the citizenry and between the poles. The recorded evidence was dismissed due to SOD officers unable to verify it, and Jyr’s charge was redacted from the record by Sernatae Yir Gizul.
FEMITOKON 
You must be logged in to post a comment.