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CONTENTS
The Empire of Perushtar
The
Marvelous Sky Pirates of Zandahar
Origins of Zandahar
What
conclusion can we draw of Zandahar's history from this?
The
Origins of the Empire of Perushtar
Ku
Thad, Shondakar and Cave People
Mysteries
of the Thanator Peoples
Stuck in the
Bronze Age
People of
Callisto - Origins
Map Gallery
Humans on Callisto are the dominant species. Despite this,
the population seems thin. Much of Callisto appears to be largely
uninhabited, even by hunter/gatherer societies, which is a significant
anomaly. John Dark, for instance, wanders about the Grand Kumala
with the Yathoon Horde, but until he meets Darloona, he sees no sign of
human activities. Similarly, in other books, despite the characters
wanderings, there is very little sign of villages or tribes or even wandering
nomads outside of the principal areas of habitation.
Partly this may be due to competition. It appears that the
Yathoon Hordes, while no match for the civilized societies, are pretty
effective at keeping hunter gatherer societies from intruding on their
roaming grounds in the Grand Kumala and the Plains of Haratha.
By the same token, the Zarkoon of the dark side may be pretty hard on possible
local humans. It's noteworthy that on the dark side, the known
human groups, the River and Cave tribes are geographically sheltered from
the Zarkoon.
Whatever the case, it appears that humans do not dominate on Callisto
the way they do on Earth or even Barsoom, but generally have a limited
geographic range, and a relatively small population within that range.
The principal areas of Humans are a sort of fertile crescent between
the Corund Laj Sea and the Grand Kumala, bordered by the White mountains
in the north, and the Black mountains in the south. This seems to
be a well watered temperate plain with many large flowing rivers, suitable
for agriculture. For ease of reference, the gentle
reader might want to take a look at the maps that Carter drew and which
were included in his novels:
Map Gallery Below
The
Empire of Perushtar
In the fertile crescent area, civilization exists as a series of bronze
or iron age city states. In the north, dotting the Corund Laj, is
the Grand Empire of Perushtar, in reality, a loose confederation of city
states, occupied by bald and red skinned Perush. Their cities
are Perushtar, Soraba, Narouk and Farz. Tharkol is a hybrid Perush
city. The Perush are sailors and traders, and their culture is said
to resemble that of the Phoenicians.
For much of recent history, the Perushtar were dominated by the Sky
Pirates of Zandahar. Unable to challenge the advantages of the air
superiority of the Zandahar, the Perushtar were forced to pay tribute and
were politically quiescent. Since the passing of the sky pirates,
however, the Perushtar cities have become more aggressive, intervening
with Tharkol, participating in the campaign against the Mind Wizards and
threatening Ganatol.
Soraba has allied with Tharkol and Shondakar. However, it is not
clear whether the other Perush cities are operating on their own, or falling
under the sway of a renewed empire. Ganatol appears to be on the
verge of becoming a bone of contention.
The Perushtar are the dominant ethnic group on the planet, their population
dominating the four cities aforementioned, and an ethnic Perush/Chaac Yuul
mixed population in Tharkol. Ethnically, the Perush are characterized
by tomato bright, red skins and hairlessness. The population in Tharkol
differs in having normal hair, but all other Perush are bald.
The Perush are suggested to run to fat, perhaps an adaptation to their
cold wet climates.
The
Marvelous Sky Pirates of Zandahar
To the east, nestled in the White Mountains, is, or was, Zandahar, home
of the sky pirates. Ethnically, the sky pirates are Chaac Yuul, who
are also represented by the Black Legion, and by hybrid populations in
the cities of Ganatol and Tharkol. The Zandahar have papery
white skin, straight black hair and unslanted eyes. The hair
colour may vary to a light ‘colourlessness’, and eye colours may go to
yellow.
The most technologically sophisticated nation on Callisto, this city-state
had mastered the art of building lighter than air craft, airships, which
it used to dominate and terrorize its neighbors. Through intricate
use of simple mechanics, levers, pulleys, cogs and clockwork, as well as
the crafting of lightweight paper/plastics, and a fortuitous supply of
a lighter than hydrogen gas, the Zandahar remained eminent.
By the way, the fact that the Zandahar were able to build such complicated
mechanisms in their airships, suggested that they had mastered this technology
for less ambitious applications. They may well have built clocks,
or water wheel-mills, or windmills. They likely had a high degree
of mathematics and precision engineering skills to construct gears and
cogs. They also likely had a fairly comprehensive command of basic
chemistry and organic chemistry.
Or at least they did until Jandar blowed them up, blowed them up real
good, in the Sky Pirates of Callisto. The city is now in ruins,
although refugees and defectors have made their way to Shondakar, with
the result that it now possesses an aerial navy. It's likely that
there is still a relic Zandahar population, based in outposts, farming
regions, observatories and other missions. And it is also likely
that there was still a substantial aerial fleet outside Zandahar before
it blew up. Some of these probably wound up at other cities, but
some probably returned to Zandahar's ruins. Still, we can assume
that at least a fifth to a quarter of the Zandahar are dead after Jandar's
adventure.
Origins
of Zandahar
One interesting observation that can be made is that the Zandahar were
probably originally a maritime people living around or on the shores of
the Corund Laj. How do we know this? Because their airships
are very clearly modeled on and patterned after traditional seagoing sailing
galleons. This is revealing. If you were to develop an airship
from scratch, it probably wouldn't resemble a seagoing ship at all, the
requirements, problems and advantages of air and sea are too different.
The only reason to make an airship in the image of a seagoing ship is if
you were used and acquainted with sea travel first... That the making
and sailing of seagoing ships was an essential part of your culture.
In that case, the plans and blueprints would be so well established that
it would be your automatic starting point, much the same way that early
automobiles took horse-carriages as their automatic design starting point.
What is interesting about the Zandahar, however, is the great lengths
they went to develop a working airship, without drifting away from the
design for seagoing ships. What does this tell us?
It suggests that the Zandahar airships were perfected or developed very
quickly, from the original model of sea ships, and then departed very little
after that.
This implies that many of the skills of fabrication and lamination were
already existing in the Zandahar culture when they started producing their
airships. Essentially, they must have been taking things ‘off the
shelf’. They wanted to build ships, so they used their plans
for seagoing ships. Traditional materials were too heavy, but they
could adapt the laminating technologies to produce lightweight ships in
the traditional form. All the critical elements or tool kits
for the sky galleons were already established. This is important.
For instance, if they did not have laminates and had to make do with canvases
or cloths, then they would have developed a balloon, and perhaps blimps
or zeppelins.
This doesn't rule out refinement after the initial development, there
probably was a lot of design refinement, particularly in the cogs and wheels
used to make and flap the ships wings. But the key elements remained
ship-like.
What
conclusion can we draw of Zandahar's history from this?
First, the Zandahar were an established, nautical culture transplanted
to the mountains and air piracy. If their culture and technology
had evolved in the mountains without nautical influence, it would have
developed differently. It's almost certain that the proto-Zandahar
were originally based around the shores of the Corund Laj.
While on these shores, they perfected both sailing and laminating technology.
To avoid confusion, we'll call the lost city of the proto-Zandahar: Chaac.
The Chaac would have been a fairly aggressive people, exploring inland
to the White Mountains, founding colonies in Tharkol and Ganatol, and challenging
the Perushtar.
Why do I say that they likely founded Tharkol and Ganatol? Because
both of these communities are now hybrids. Which means that they
would have been under the influence of Chaac culture at some point.
But Tharkol would have had to have been a Chaac Yaal city first.
Again, why? Look at the map. The Perushtar culture probably
originated in Perush and spread from there. Perush is in the north
and west of the Corund Laj. Tharkol, on the other hand, is in the
opposite direction, the south and east. Which means that Tharkol
would have been the last major Perush colony. The Chaac were probably
located on the east, or the southeast of the Corund Laj. So they're
much more likely to have been the ones to establish the colony first.
Another thing that appears from the map.... All the Perush cities
are on the coast, Tharkol is far inland.
As for Ganatol, while it may well have been settled by the Ku Thad first,
the map shows that it sits on a major river draining into the Corund Laj.
Which means that the Chaac had a highway straight to it. On
the other hand, it is overland from Shondakar, the principle site of the
pure Ku Thad ethnic group. Of course, its possible
that the Ku Thad emerged from the Grand Kumala and traveled down both rivers.
The Chaac would have at least partially explored the White Mountains,
and discovered of the principal sources of the lifting gas.
It seems an impossible coincidence that a major city would be founded unknowing
on top of the critical resource that made its success possible. More
likely, the gas was known, and perhaps there were some proto-industrial
facilities established there before the city of Zandahar really took off.
The
Origins of the Empire of Perushtar
And finally, of course, they would have tussled with the Perushtar.
Proof? Chaac must have existed, given the four tributary populations
of Zandahar, Tharkol, Ganatol and the Chaac Yuul. None of these tributaries
was really situated to give rise to the others, so there must have been
a common origin. And... its not around any more.
Chaac was definitely a maritime society on the Corund Laj, judging by
Zandahar's technology and culture. This would have put eventually
put them in direct contact with the Perushtar. Its unclear
as to which culture went to sea first, it could have been one or the other,
or both simultaneously. The likelihood is that Perushtar was the
first maritime culture, given that its settlements surround the Corund
Laj, while the Chaac remnants are all inland.
However, the Corund Laj was not big enough for two powerful seagoing
nations. The result was eventually a war which destroyed the Chaac,
and sent their survivors fleeing to the three colonies. It was definitely
a war. Chaac and its sea power was obliterated.
The most vulnerable colony, Tharkol which was overland and unprotected,
was overrun and became ethnically a mixed Perushtar/Chaac colony.
Ganatol was easier to reach than Tharkol, but its river basin geography
made it easier to defend than the Tharkol, who were pretty much sitting
ducks.
The Chaac Yuul probably began as wandering refugees and became a landless
nomadic mercenary people.
Only the Zandahar, most remote from Perushtar and most difficult for
the seagoing peoples to reach (a military caravan from Soroba to Tharkol
was a simple thing, a matter of money and supplies, a military caravan
into the white mountains was creative suicide) remained ethnically and
culturally pure. And indeed, like many colonial societies, it placed
great stock on preserving the original culture and ways of its forebears.
As for Perushtar, well, here we have the origins and current state of
the Grand Empire of Perushtar. Left to their own devices, there was
probably little reason to forge the Perush City states into an empire,
and for the most part, it would have been difficult. Each city state
would have been roughly equal, with similar home ground advantages.
The Perushtar should have evolved more or less like the Greek or Phoenician
seafarers, as a loose collection of city states. And in fact,
that's how they turned out. But they have a now largely historical
‘Imperial’ tradition. So there has to be something in their
history to justify an Imperial phase.
A major war of genocide between two seagoing cultures would do the trick.
The ancient Greeks never united until the Persians forced them to do it.
The Perushtar were probably forged into an Empire by the war with the Chaac.
And of course, once the Chaac were eliminated from the sea then the Imperial
structure began to fade, until by now, its only a ceremonial thing.
Of course, a few decades later, the Sky Pirates of Zandahar began to
make the Perushtar pay for their victory, and they've been paying for it
ever since.
Ku
Thad, Shondakar and Cave People
The Shondakar are home to the Ku Thad ethnic group. They
are characterized by golden or tawny coloured skin, green eyes and red
hair. There's some indication that their eyes are more oriental than
western. The city of Ganatol is home to a hybrid Chaac Yuul/Ku
Thad population, and most bizarrely it appears that the cave and river
people of Cor Az on the other side of the planet are also ethnic Ku Thad.
Certainly, this makes the Ku Thad the most anomalous of Thanator's three
major ethnic groups. It's not really clear where they came
from, or how they came to be where they are.
One possibility is that the Ku Thad were the original Corund Laj population,
and that their settlements moved up the rivers to Shondakar and Ganatol
in the east, and down from the Corund Laj to Cor Az in the west (neatly
bypassing the Zarkoon), before their main settlements were wiped out or
overrun by Chaac and or Perushtar. One problem with this, of
course, is that there are no apparent ethnic traces of the Ku Thad at all
in the Perushtar empire. If all three ethnic groups originated
in the Corund Laj, we'd expect to see more hybrid societies around the
sea. Instead, the hybrid societies are at the margins of Perush territory.
Another possibility, entirely speculative, is that the Ku Thad began
in the south, either on the plains of Haratha or near or at the Grand Kumala
region. On what basis do I argue this? Well, John Dark's
teleport and ruins are in the southern tip of the Grand Kumala. Unless
there was some feng shui reason to build there, its likely that this location
was once a thriving and incredibly advanced metropolis. So,
someone was living there, once upon a time, though we don't know who.
The other end of the teleport on Earth is in the city of the ancient
Khmer, and Dark seems to feel that there are some ethnic similarities between
the Khmer and the Ku Thad. Certainly there's almost no overlap with
the Chaac or Perush. So, provisionally, I'd site the ancestors
of the modern Ku Thad in this location.
What happened to this lost city? Unlike the Chaac and the Perush,
we don't really see any evidence for a war or military conflict with another
ethnic group or city state. The most likely possibility is
some sort of environmental crisis. Remember that the Plains of Haratha
are a delicate, water-poor ecosystem. Any ecology which features
large mobile plants which search for water obviously has a water shortage.
Here and there on the plains are stands of trees, but on the whole its
grassland. The inference is that there isn't enough groundwater or
rainwater to support more than grasses for much of the plain.
We can assume that the lost city was a major agricultural centre, possibly
depending upon irrigation from the Kumala.
All it would have taken would be one, or perhaps a few seasons of drought
and water failure, and the lost city would literally dry up and blow away.
Indeed, the original Ku Thad may have created their own drought by overtaxing
the regional water system. It wouldn't be the first time that
intensive agricultural practices have used up local waters and turned an
area into a desert.
Its inhabitants would have to move or starve. If that's
the case, then the Ku Thad obviously split up. One group struck
east across the plains, moving into the Farside, establishing the city
of Kuur (possibly) and occupying the Cor Az. For whatever reason,
Kuur (if it existed ) failed, but the Cor Az population thrived at primitive
levels.
(Another possibility, for the record, is that the original Ku Thad might
have been driven out by the Yathoon, whose territory overlaps these areas).
Why would I suggest Kuur may have existed before the Mind Wizards?
Well, first, there's a lot of stonework, buildings, rooms, corridors and
passageways. This seems like a lot of work for the Mind Wizards to
build, particularly if they haven't been on Callisto all that long.
And it seems remarkably overbuilt considering their actual needs.
So in my view, its likely that Kuur was built and abandoned, and the Mind
Wizards simply moved into well preserved ruins.
Second, if the ancestral Ku Thad of the Cave and River people were coming
from the East (once again, avoiding the Zarkoon), they would have passed
through the Harangzar valley on the way to the Cor Az. Given that
it's a fertile and sheltered valley complex fed by a stable river, there's
no good reason why the Ku Thad wouldn't have set up shop there.
It's worth noting as well, that the name Kuur is reminiscent of the
ethnic name Ku Thad. Both sport the ‘Ku’ prefix, which suggests that
the people of an original Kuur might have been descendants or relatives
of original Ku people.
Why was Kuur abandoned? Two possibilities. First,
the Dragon River is fed by the Cor Az lake, which in turn is fed by the
surrounding mountains. So, its possible that the river had its own
drought and went dry for a few years. Alternatively, Kuur might
well have become a Zarkoon hunting ground. The Cor Az people's
jungle and cave lifestyle shields them somewhat from the Zarkoon.
But the Kuur people were out in the open.
The other group of Ku Thad went west, either through or around the Grand
Kumala. They established the city of Shondakor. Some
of them went further to Ganatol, where they established a second city,
or perhaps joined the existing Chaac city....
Actually, thinking about it, I believe that the Ku Thad must have preceded
the Chaac into the area, otherwise, Shondakar would have been a hybrid
city like Ganatol, because it too is easily accessible by river.
The Chaac were water travellers, and there's no good reason they'd go down
the Ganatol river and not the Shondakar river. So the odds
are that the Ku Thad established both cities and that the Chaac managed
to take over the weaker of the two.
Given that the Ku Thad were land travellers, while the other ethnic
groups were water travellers, it seems likely that landlocked Tharkol may
have originally been founded by the Ku Thad. However, if this is
so, it would appear that they were fully supplanted by first the Chaac,
and then the Perushtar, leaving comparatively little trace behind.
In Lankar of Callisto, there is also reference to tribes in the Grand
Kumala, as well as Ku Thad who have gone ‘native’ and went for the forest
lifestyle. But they don't seem populous, and we don't hear much of
them.
Mysteries
of the Thanator Peoples
Despite the remarkable ethnic diversity, Callisto is effectively a monoculture.
Carter points this out as one of the mysteries of Callisto, but never gets
around to supplying an explanation.
All Callistans, even the nonhumans, and even the humans on the dark
side in Cor Az, speak the same common language, and there is no evidence
of any other indigenous speech. All the humans seem to carry
the same religious beliefs, basically an informal and no-pressure polytheism
with a pantheon of gods or ‘higher beings’ called ‘the lords of Gordrimator’
residing in Jupiter.
With the notable exceptions of Zandahar and the Dark Side tribes, the
level of technology is uniform. For the day side, the forms
of social organization are constant, with polities organized into city
states and divided into hierarchical classes which include nobility at
the top and slaves at the bottom, ruled by a sovereign.
In short, Callisto is topsy turvy, with essentially a common language
and culture, but divergent ethnic groups. One would expect
that ethnic groups would take far longer to diverge than culture.
Here on earth, there are many situations of peoples who are ethnically
identical, but who have widely divergent languages and culture.
Obviously, this is hardly a naturally occurring situation.
It is possible that all of the ethnic groups emerged indigenously and
once sported unique cultures and languages. Then, at some point,
one group managed to dominate the others so completely that their languages
and cultures were literally eradicated. This sort of thing
has been tried many times on Earth, with varying degrees of success.
The most likely candidate for such an effort are the Perush who seem
to be the most widespread ethnic group and whose sea power would allow
them the greatest opportunity to triumph. This may suggest that the
‘Grand Empire of Perushtar’ is actually a historical name recalling old
glories, much like the Holy Roman Empire, rather than a current entity
with punching power. This would do much to explain the linguistic,
cultural and technological uniformity on the day side, but leaves the dark
side tribes as something of an anomaly.
But the problem is that the rise of the Perush, while explaining the
relationship to Chaac cultures, doesn't explain the Ku Thad, who really
do seem to be from left field. The Chaac were widespread, but
obviously unsuccessful. The Ku Thad might have influenced that Chaac,
but are obviously not in a position to dominate the Perush.
Rather, it seems that apparently widely separated and ethnically distinct
groups all started with essentially the same cultural tools.
There's also the problem that one would expect surviving indigenous
traces in language and culture, which don't really seem to be there.
The thing is that if you are obliterating an indigenous culture and making
them adopt yours, you generally have all sorts of little anomalies sticking
around. Old style place names, old style ceremonies, modes of dress,
etc. I don't think we really see a lot of this here.
It's possible that there is, there's just not a lot of evidence one way
or the other. The local style is always hard to stamp out completely,
unless you are intent on obliterating the natives entirely.
Another mystery is the lack of ‘hunter/gatherer’ populations.
On Earth, 99% of all cultures have been hunter/gatherers, for 99% of our
history. Hunter gatherer cultures spread over every part of the planet,
including areas like the arctic, siberia, rain forests, open plains, which
were inhospitable to cities.
We've seen on Thanator that there are likely only a few areas hospitable
to cities and city states. But there are plenty of jungles, plains,
mountain regions, etc. which should have supported an indigenous series
of hunter/gatherer cultures. Where are they?
Its possible that the Yathoon and Zarkoon are simply too efficient for
hunter gatherer societies to really take root. But the Yathoon and Zarkoon
have definite ranges. Why don't we have mountain tribes, or polar
tribes or jungle tribes away from the Yathoon and Zarkoon? And how
did the City state culture evolve, presumably from more primitive hunter/gatherers
and villages, in the face of competition from the Yathoon and Zarkoon.
It's a puzzle. The human City States may well be able to
hold their own against Yathoon and Zarkoon. But unless they emerged
out of nowhere, fully established, then they had to come from more modest
beginnings. If hunter/gatherer societies cannot hold their
own against the nonhuman races, then the predecessors of the city states
shouldn't have been able to either. Unless, of course, the
City state culture was fully established from the beginning.
Indeed, the absence of hunter/gatherer cultures (except in Cor Az, where
there's been a clear regression) which would have been the predecessors
and leftovers of the city state culture, suggests that there was never
a hunter/gatherer culture on Thanator, and that they literally started
full grown from scratch.
Which means that the most likely possibility is that the planet was
settled from the outside by an established culture or cultures which simply
left their remnants around Thanator in different locations. The different
ethnic groups were either already within that culture, or developed from
it. This ‘dropped in from above’ theory may better explain
the anomaly of the dark side tribes who still retain the language, but
lacked the resources to achieve a higher level of civilization.
Given that the Callistans are fully human, to the point of being sexually
and reproductively compatible with Earth humans, it really doesn't seem
like such a stretch to say that they are not native to Thanator, but are
the leavings of an earlier space travelling civilization.
Stuck
in the Bronze Age
And speaking of levels of civilization, one interesting question is
why haven't the Callistans reached a higher level of civilization.
Really, for the most part, they're just poking along at little better than
Bronze age levels.
The truth is, they probably have gone about as far as they can go.
The Callistans have serious power handicaps. Only two significant
domesticated animals are recorded.
One is the Thaptor, a fairly obnoxious four legged bird which is capable
of carrying a human weight. The Thaptors are only partially domesticated
and apparently unsuitable in urban areas and apparently unsuitable as draft
animals for carrying loads or pulling plows. Jandar reports that
while they are extremely fleet, they tire easily and perform best in bursts
and rests.
The other is the Glymph, a lumbering rhinoceros-like beast of burden
which seems to be of limited distribution. The Glymph does not appear
frequently, and does not seem to be used in agriculture or within cities.
Their principal use seems to be in hauling large caravans.
It's possible that their effectiveness is impaired by slow reproduction,
comparative physical weakness, lack of trainability, etc. Whatever
the reason, they don't seem to be in large scale use, and it is not until
Mad Empress of Callisto that we encounter them.
(The Cave and River people of the Cor Az appear to have domesticated
a small version of the Thaptor as a food animal, roughly equivalent to
a chicken or lamb, but it appears to have no significance as a beast of
burden or transport.)
There is a third potential 'beast of burden' the Ghastozar, a larger,
voracious flying reptile ridden by the Mind Wizards. We must consider
this creature only partially domesticated, since there is no evidence of
it being used by cultures other than the Mind Wizards.
In short, with only marginal exceptions, there is no significant source
of animal horsepower. That's a big drawback. Early Eurasian
civilizations had the advantage of the horse, the ox, the goat, sheep and
the camel, for doing heavy lifting, carrying and transport.
The absence of these animals was a major impediment for the New World
civilizations like the Aztec and Inca. The Inca of course came up
with the Llama, but that critter never made it into North America.
The Aztecs had to walk everywhere, they had to pull their own plows by
hand, and they had to carry their own loads. The closest thing to
a beast of burden in North America were dogs who pulled sleds and travois.
The absence of effective and powerful domesticated animals, as with the
Americas, is a major drawback for Thanatorian culture.
Indeed, the most advanced Thanatorian culture, Zandahar, is so starved
for horsepower, that they have a perpetual desperate need for slave labour,
importing their slaves from many neighboring cities and enacting regressive
‘one strike and you're a slave’ laws. Given their mountain
location, its likely that the Zandahar made extensive use of waterwheels
and windmills, but obviously, human muscle power had to be a big part of
their economy.
Transportation is a problem as well. Except for the Perushtar
along the Corund Laj, most of the city states are inland. River and
canal travel, water travel is probably a dominant mode of communication.
It's worth noting that six of the known city states are either on the Corund
Laj, or on a major river. Only Zandahar in the mountains, with
its aerial fleet, and apparently isolated inland Tharkol are exceptions.
There are few roads, and no significant roads between cities.
Tharkol and Shandakar are very close to each other, as are Soraba and Tharkol,
but no road connects these states. Communication and trade between
City states (outside of the Perushtar) is minimal.
For instance, in Mad Empress, its disclosed that Tharkol, one of the
closest cities as the crow flies, has almost no relations to Shondakar.
More significantly, it is noted that the vast expanse of plain or prairie
has always been a geographical barrier. This is very telling, as
most people wouldn't consider a stretch of flat land to be any kind of
barrier. The fact that it is a barrier, and only infrequently
crossed by trading caravans, suggests that the cultures of Thanator are
strongly organized around their river systems for trade, travel and communication.
Although there are numerous rivers draining into the Corund Laj, it
is not clear that there is significant potential for water mills or hydro-electric
power, apart from Zandahar.
The presence of large rivers or seas for transportation means a canal
or water based economy. But it also inhibits investment in significant
roads, and that means that Thanator culture generally confines itself to
wherever it can easily take a barge. They can probably access
a lot of waterways, but the key to their actual expansion is that those
waterways have to be able to support their most economical freight boats.
Waterways which require more expensive freight boats, are at an economic
disadvantage, and settlements there will tend to wither. Waterways
which can't accommodate freight, aren't settled. The result
is a restricted population, and very limited expansion.
In short, there are real handicaps for the Callistans in terms of being
able to generate the required levels of horsepower and expansion to really
have an industrial revolution and make it stick.
People
of Callisto - Origins
We know that the Mind Wizards are not native to Callisto. We also
have reason to believe that the Yathoon and Zarkoon are not indigenous.
So too with the humans of this world, who are physically all but identical
too, and apparently sexually compatible and interfertile with the humans
of Earth, and for that matter, with human populations of Barsoom, Amtor
and Va-Nah. The matter is canvassed in “Are Barsoomians Human.”
It is likely that the actual origin point of the humans of Callisto
is Earth, either directly, or indirectly through Barsoom. As
to how they arrived, there are three principal possibilities: 1) Astral
teleportation, as per John Carter and Ulysses Paxton. 2)
The Teleport device linking Cambodia to the southern hemisphere of Callisto.
3) Space vehicle travel by ancient Earthlings or Barsoomians.
It is likely that the real story is some combination of the three.
