Sororian

The Sororians are a humanoid race from the planet Soror, in the Betelgeuse system.

Biology
The Sororians are indistinguishable from humans from Earth, though they possess golden skin and are physically fit, handsome specimens of humanity. They are omnivores subsisting on wild fruits like bananas and deer. Despite evolving on two different worlds, humans and Sororians are compatible in producing viable offspring.

Another unique characteristic possessed by the Sororians was a genetic collective memory of the species. Through an experiment involving a combination of physico-chemical processes, and electrical impulses it was discovered that the Sororians could recollect not only their own memories but also atavistic memories from their distant line of ancestors, going back thousands of years.

However due to the cerebral regression of modern day Sororians leaving them possessing bestial minds, individuals who are subjected to the experiment result in imperfect recollections and function more akin to gramophone or parrots. Such recollections are limited to snatches of words they heard during captivity. In one example it appears that female Sororians have better results as they not only can articulate their own past memories, but their ancestral memories with perfect clarity.

History
Over ten thousand years ago, Sororians were a humanoid civilization similar to twentieth century Earth. The Sororians were a society of medical practitioners, employing apes in their culture as pets, servants, and lab animals.

Over the centuries the apes soon began to develop mentally whereas the Sororians began to suffer a cerebral regression.

This evolutionary advantage allowed the apes to slowly take over Sororian civilization. Men and women that remained in the cities soon had their roles as masters reversed as pets or animals.

Since their ancestors lost their place as Soror’s dominant race, the Sororians have been reduced to savage, naked animals, living in the wilds.

The memory of the ancient Sororian civilization was eventually lost to time by the apes. With their innate characteristics of mimicry, the apes reproduced the Sororians cultural works and sciences as their own. And while the apes seamlessly duplicated all aspects of the Sororians achievements, the new ape society suffered a slow technological growth due to their slow reaction to change and adherence to repeating the copied works of their predecessors.

Culture
Ancient Sororian society civilization was a post-industrial society geared towards medical sciences. There is evidence of a Women's Journal suggesting that Sororian society was at least men dominated or patriarchally but possessed a budding women's rights movement which was present when the apes began to achieve sentience.

Based on the cultural aspects of the apes, which are just vestiges of Sororian arts that they mastered, Sororians possessed various forms of art. They developed techniques for classical paintings, portraits of celebrities, country scenes, etc. They also depicted the female form in their artwork alongside their own version of Cupid, which was later readapted by the apes into a winged monkey. Sororians may have just started out developing impressionist art as well as contemporary art as there are few examples of reproductions done by the simian inheritors.

Sports that Sororians participated in include a form of European football as well as boxing matches. For the latter though the sport adapted by the gorillas to include springboards to launch themselves at their opponent in midair.

In contrast modern Sororian society, however has regressed and resemble gorilla colonies of Earth. They have a fierce hatred for the apes, and any articles (clothes, emotions, etc.) associated to civilization due to millennia of conditioning as animals.

Endangerment
Originally the Sororians had outnumbered the ape population but is falling in decline due to over-hunting by the gorilla clan for sport. Sororians are a valuable animal that fetches a high price on the market as they play an intricate part in medical sciences conducted by the apes. However the capture of specimens has allowed horrific slaughter on innocent men and women for entertainment by the gorillas.

Beside their corpses being used as trophies, human hair is prized as a trophy, similar to the feathers of a rare bird. As an bizarre form of plume hunting, the locks of the best specimens, particularly women, are taken to decorate the hats of female apes.

Intelligence
The Sororians have regressed into a semi-sapient state, and are potentially capable of becoming rational creatures once again. There is evidence found by the apes that the Sororians attempted to relearn tool use, and failed. However the men of Soror's failure to regain their status as intelligent beings has been attributed to the interference by the apes through not only territorial encroachment and over-hunting, but also through the abuse of their medical sciences. Some Sororians under proper instruction could possibly achieve status as civilized beings.

Mating Habits
Sororians are monogamous, though officiating such a union requires an arduous courtship ritual like birds. The male engages in a sort of slow, hesitant dance consisting of steps forward, backward, and sideways. He moved thus in an ever-decreasing circle, a circle whose center was occupied by the woman, who merely pivoted around without shifting from her position awaiting copulation that concluded these preliminaries.

Appearances

 * La Planète des Singes, by Pierre Boulle (1963)