My name is Cirus Naut, I am a scholar of the Zeflopidian Galactic Collective, and the author of this educational publication. When the Collective wants to determine if establishing interplanetary trade would be a mutually wise choice, a preliminary agreement for an ambassadorial exchange is made between us and the civilization of interest. The civilization in question for this publication is the Eas-Enerang Apiary.

To learn what we can about our potential planetary partners, the Collective always send academics like us as its ambassadors. We are experts in our designated fields, ranging from the arts, to politics, to dialects, and within each field of research we are separated into something more specialized. My study group specializes in history. It is deemed more of a catch-all type of field since to understand the state of a subject one must understand its past. Based on that rationale, some of my fellow historians are specialized in more broad histories and are often paired with other groups, like art and politics, to aid them. Some histories are narrower in scope, like mythologies or an individual’s biography, and work by themselves or in a team no greater than three. There are a few histories, however, that would yield very little record of substantiality.

The history of the Anuh-Kaj and their Apiary on Eas-Enerang is a prime example. It was always a civilization of a single culture and species that shared some form of a hivemind. Apart from a few sporadic culling events which occurred out of desperation during the worst of times back a few thousand cosmic millennia – as well as their continual technological progression – there was no real internal change or momentous disputes of note. There was trade, but not in a “traditional” sense familiar with many other cultures throughout the known galaxy. The closest to wars of violence they would have were against a massive predatory protozoan species known as chlithes-nok, which would descend from the sky every couple of Eas-Enerang’s millennia for a deadly and near devastating three-day rut. The Apiary’s advances in technology over time made living through the rut more doable, though not to be underestimated.

With the Apiary lacking any outstanding historical record, one like myself – a historian in colonial history on alien worlds – could assume that a few paragraphs of the Apiary’s choice to colonize the planet Tir-Torzor would be enough; however, this is the period where things get interesting. This is where everything truly changes for the Anuh-Kaj and four other races vying over the same place. By the time we enter this era, the conditions were ripe for colonization. One race’s empire was the Apiary’s only potential rival but it had a weak foothold. Meanwhile, the two native races were desperate, and an ancient race unknown back then was still hibernating deep underground.

The history telling style of my kind finds ultimate value in the most personal record keeping forms. We do not take them on face value automatically, but instead we compare through cross-referencing against a variety of verified sources to learn what is objective fact, subjective point of view or purely fiction. Presentation of our findings depends on the type of records. Written records and transcripts of recorded audio and visuals are translated to the language of the intended reader to the best of our ability, though some terms or passages are not for the authenticity of the moment. I hope it is not all too alienating, as I believe you will get the most out of learning from what information we could readily gather and present. I hope this will be most engaging in your comprehension of the general subject.