Sororian Ape

The Sororian Apes (Simius sapiens) are a civilization composed of three separate races of sapient primate-like humanoids from the planet Soror, in the Betelgeuse System. The three Ape species: Gorillas, Chimpanzees and Orangutans, all live in the same cities, speak the same language and operate under a unified government.

The Sororian Apes share their planet with the unintelligent Sororians, whose physical appearance is indistinguishable from that of Earth's Humans.

Biology
Physically, the Sororian Apes closely resemble their Earth counterparts, although with some key differences, such as the Gorillas being meat-eaters. They tend to walk bipedally, although the Orangutans in particular may also use their arms to aid in locomotion. All Apes have prehensile feet and are excellent climbers, to the point that some Ape scholars believe that their possession of four manipulatory appendages (hands and feet) and capacity to operate in a tridimensional environment has been the key to their emergence as an intelligent species, as opposed to Soror's humans.

Culture and society
The entire Ape civilization currently consists of one nation spread across the entire planet. The government is presided by a council of ministers and a triumvirate composed of one representative of each race: Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Orangutan. They also have a parallel government consisting of three parliaments, one for each race, which are concerned with matters of interest to their races specifically, rather than Ape civilization as a whole.

These three races are considered equals. They inhabit the same cities, speak the same language and have the same legal rights. Generally speaking, however, members of each race usually tend to be more inclined towards different social roles.

Gorillas
The Gorillas are known for their physical strength and for their skills in leadership, organization and management. In the past, they used to be the sovereign rulers of the planet, and their armies excelled in military discipline. Today, they're commonly found in positions of authority, as directors of many research centers or as leaders in businesses, renowned for their ability as entrepreneurs. In contrast, due to brute strength, they're also commonly found as menial laborers as well as hunters and security guards.

Orangutans
The Orangutans are an intellectual race, but are infamously known for their blind skepticism, love of tradition and resistance towards new ideas. It's even been implied that their dominance over academic circles has been the main cause of the stagnation of Ape science for several millennia. In addition to scientists, those who pursue fields such as politics, arts and literature are no less traditionalist and unoriginal. They're known for having an excellent memory and can become incredibly knowledgeable in several subjects, but their knowledge is usually limited to repeating what they've read.

Chimpanzees
The Chimpanzees, in contrast, are the most inventive race, known for their creativity, critical spirit and open-mindedness. Most (although obviously not all) scientific discoveries and inventions have been made by them. Although the academic world is vastly dominated by orangutans, there are a number of chimp researchers. Besides that, they seem to be found in all sorts of professions, although more commonly as assistants to the other two races.

History
About 10,000 years before the Antelle expedition arrived on the planet Soror, the human-like Sororians were actually the dominant species, and the ancestors of the modern Apes were treated as laboratory animals and household servants. In the following eras, however, the social stagnation of the Sororians combined with the Apes' natural instinct for imitation resulted in the servants gradually switching places with the roles of their masters. With the Apes learning to operate technology and giving orders; and the humans having become too placid to resist properly; the Apes soon drove their former masters away and took over their cities. Meanwhile, the humans took residence in the wilderness and slowly lost their intelligence, becoming more and more animal-like in terms of mentality.

After an initial period of wars, the Ape-dominated Soror was eventually unified into a single nation, and while the Gorillas started out as the dominant species, all three races eventually managed to reach a state of social equality. Their recorded history lost all track of anything that happened previously, and they had no reason to even suspect that the humans had once been intelligent, let alone dominant. From that point on, the Apes' civilization has remained mostly unchanged for the next ten millennia. It was only in the beginning of the 29th century that a new technological revolution started to take place.

As of the year 2850, the Apes' technology includes electricity, automobiles and airplanes. Their space exploration is limited to a few orbital satellites. As a species, they have exhibited intense curiosity about their own origins and the mystery surrounding the unexpected rise of their sapience, which has fueled a worldwide interest for biological research and experiments involving men, the closest evolutionary relatives of the Apes, which are considered no more than animals on their world.

Appearances

 * Planet of the Apes, by Pierre Boulle (1963)