Lambda Ignaceae is a large, cold and rocky moon. It is a mottled dull brown when viewed from orbit, with a thin frosting of white clouds making it resemble nothing so much as a chocolate confection in space.
The moon is roughly twenty thousand kilometers in diameter, and lies in a stable orbit along with eleven sister moons around a blue and white banded pearl of a gas giant world known as Thor. This brilliant and stormy world is nearly eight times wider than Lambda, and has over five hundred times the volume.
Thor, and its small garden of moons orbit roughly three astronomical units out from a sun-like star. They have done with little so for the better part of the last three billion years, and in all likelihood they will continue to do so for several billion more, at least until their sun has exhausted its nuclear fuel, and the heat death of the universe descends to bring final closure to the cosmic dance.
However, that is far, far off in the future. In the present matters of great interest are beginning to unfold in the alkaline oceans of Lambda. Life, in the form of self-replicating clusters of cells, has thrived for roughly a billion years. However, it is only now that the first complex, multicellular life is beginning to develop. The moon is on the verge of an explosion of life- where this may lead, none yet can tell.
Introduction
This is a NESLife, so many of you will already know the basics. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept, I will provide a brief overview. Players in this NES serve as ‘agents’ of evolution, prodding the development of life in various directions. You play by submitting evolutions, which are variations on existing species. You are the archons of branching, mutation and diversification. I, the moderator, am responsible for upholding the harsh, brutal, mighty and inexorable forces of nature. Lineages who have thrived for millions of years may go extinct in a geological blink of an eye if they are unable to cope with changing conditions. Natural disasters may threaten to extinguish all complex life on Lambda. You may propose an evolution that just doesn’t work, and never comes to be at all.
Yet, despite all of this, some life will make it through the filters of competition. Some life will thrive, and their descendants will diversify, spreading into countless unique forms, occupying a vast array of different niches in the vast tapestry of ecology. It will not necessarily be the largest, nor the strongest, nor the smartest, but those which are most able to pass their genes on to the next generation, by whatever means necessary. Together, we shall build up a strange and beautiful new world- a world that has never existed, but one that could exist.
With that said, I welcome you most cheerily to the sixth iteration of NESLife!
TuxLife has been created by Tuxedohamm, while NESLifes I through V have all been run by the inimitable Daftpanzer, and I believe I am correct in understanding that I have his blessing in calling this NES the sixth of the series.
In previous NESLife games, we have typically used what is sometimes called ‘Lego Genetics’. Players added genes to each new evolution, such as adding on ‘+1 Walking, +1 Poison’. While this worked as a game, I felt that this was a somewhat clumsy and inflexible system that encouraged people to view their evolutions as collections of statistics, rather than as holistic organisms. The game became a race to have the highest carnivory rating, or the highest intelligence rating, and many players would present their evolutions with long-term plans in mind. This second fact bothered me quite a bit, as my education in biology has led me to understand that macroevolution is really just the accumulation, over millions of years, of a series of short-term evolved solutions. In this regime, proper long-term planning is effectively impossible- thus, in real life you wind up with all sorts of interesting leftovers, such as human beings and our astoundingly poor ability to give birth, our inefficient bipedal gait, and our humourously redundant digestive organs (here’s looking at you, appendix). All of these are things that any NESer with a half-decent sense of forward thinking would be careful to avoid.
But I want to keep that stuff in the NES. I want to make an earnest attempt to simulate the evolution of all multicellular life on this world. To do that, I am going to attempt to abolish the old building block and statistical genetic system we have used in previous games, replacing it with a more qualitative descriptive system. As organisms get more complex, I am going to begin using ‘templates’ as abbreviations. As a real-life example, I could do a template for mammals, so that I would not have to re-describe the same system repeating in goats, bears, bats, whales, guinea pigs and elephants. This will become more clear as the NES progresses.
And while I’m on that topic, I’ll note that the resolution of this NES will be roughly at the level of families. Some well-known examples of families are Dolphins, Pine Trees, and Bees. Thus, each evolution you create can be assumed to contain a variety of individual genera and species.
Rules
I will record successful organisms using the following system:
I may add further lines, such as an organism’s distribution, when it becomes relevant.
When you post an evolution, please use the following template:
Does any of this seem confusing or otherwise non-straightforward? If you have a question about the game, don’t hesitate to ask me. If you have a question about evolution, I’ve compiled this handy guide for your perusal:
Iggy Explains Evolution
Organisms are defined by their genome. A genome is a collection of genes. Genes are units of genetic information, which are carried in DNA. Genes control the traits expressed by an organism.
Organisms reproduce. Their offspring are similar to their parents, as they possess the genes of their parents, but they are not always identical. Sometimes, errors happen when genes are passed on to children, creating new traits. This is mutation.
Offspring compete to reproduce. Those which have the traits that best allow them to survive are more likely to have more children. Their children have a chance of inheriting the features that made their parents successful, thus further propagating the genes. This is natural selection.
Due to random chance, some genes might get passed on more than others. Eventually, this can cause one single population to turn into multiple distinct populations. This is genetic drift.
On average, over millions of years, positive mutations will tend to propagate throughout a species. Random genetic drift will also contribute to these changes. The accumulation of changes can make a species distinctly different from its ancestors. This is evolution.
Biochemistry Notes
The following is not necessary knowledge for participation in the NES. The principles of evolution will operate the same as long as life reproduces and has imperfectly heritable traits. However, for those of you who really want to know, Lambda is not a world like our own, or like those of several previous NESLifes. The air is a mixture of nitrogen, hydrogen and methane, with clouds composed of wispy traces of ice crystals. The oceans are a slurry of ammonia and water, with the vast majority of the water locked away as solid ice, as the temperatures are far below the freezing point of water. Ammonia, however, is almost always present in liquid form, due to the relatively high pressure of the atmosphere on this planet. Gravity is stronger than that on earth, but the thicker atmosphere makes buoyancy-aided flight much more practical than on our own world.
For a brief summary of the differences between the water-solvated system on Earth, and the ammonia-solvated system on Lambda, I have written this:
On Earth, our cells are a carbohydrates in aqueous solution. Life absorbs oxygen to break down sugars, releasing carbon dioxide and water. Solar energy enters the system by converting carbon dioxide and water into sugars through photosynthesis.
Atmosphere: nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide
Solvent: water
On Lambda, cells are carbohydrates in ammoniac solution. Life absorbs hydrogen to break down nitrogenous sugar analogues into methane and ammonia. Solar energy enters the system by converting methane and ammonia into nitrogenous sugar-analogues through photosynthesis.
Atmosphere: nitrogen, hydrogen, methane
Solvent: ammonia, water
Finally, the TL;DR Version
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History
Epoch 0: The Filtratious Epoch
Epoch I: The Floaterian Epoch
Epoch II: The Towerian Epoch
Epoch III: The Hitcheric Epoch
Epoch IV: The Sundering Epoch - breakdown 1, breakdown 2, map, tectonics
{Epoch V: The Masada, You Asked For It Epoch}
Epoch V: The Graderian Epoch - breakdown, map
Epoch VI: The Hobonian Epoch - breakdown
Epoch VII: The Ankunian Epoch - breakdown, map, Lambda and Thor
Epoch VIII: The Harvestrian Epoch
Epoch IX: The Arboreal Epoch
Epoch X: The Oratan Epoch
Epoch XI: The Haerentian Epoch
Epoch XII: The Skydust Epoch
Epoch XIII: The Scouring Epoch
