Welcome back to Curious Archive.
This video is the second part of a two-part series exploring the incredible speculative
alien world of the Birrin, so check out part I if you haven’t already.
The world of the Birrin was realized by Alex Ries — an exceptional designer and worldbuilder
who worked on the video game subnautica — and I have links to where you can follow and support
him in this video’s description.
In part one, we broke down the biology and early history of the Birrin, a six-limbed
sentient alien race at the center of this fictional world.
But there’s still a lot to cover.
Which is why, In this entry into the archive, we’ll be chronicling the next several eons
of Birrin history, following their incredible arc into the far future.
So, let’s get started.
When we last saw the Birrin, their civilization had undergone an apocalyptic reset back to
the preindustrial era, due to an event called ‘The Fall’ — which turned the equatorial
region of their planet into an inhospitable wasteland known as ‘The Kiln.’
This vast, super-heated region cut the Birrin populations north and south of the area off
from one another.
And Birrin aren’t the only species on planet Chriirah effected by the Fall.
Organisms like the Irridalli, a group of unique spear-faced predators that thrived in the
tropical oceans, suffered a disastrous population decline as their biome — and indeed, the
entire planet — turned upside-down.
But even after The Fall, many Birrin, though bereft of certain technologies, continue to
live relatively average lives.
Some populations live as farmers of a plant-like organism called Bluestick — essentially
returning to agricultural societies.
Although the lives of these post-Fall Bluestick farmers are just a single, small blip in the
vast history of the Birrin — Alex Ries has mapped out every single aspect of the agricultural
practice — making his fictional world feel all the more palpable.
This diagram showcases in detail how Birrin Bluestick agriculture works.
The Bluestick grows best alongside channels of Brackish water: hence the design you see
before you.
Interestingly, the bluestick can’t photosynthesize, but grow symbiotically with the red-tinted
organism called Raftweed to produce food.
Indeed, most of the plants on the Birrin world are composites.
Here, you can see the life cycle of the strange tree-within-a-tree organisms that dot the
landscapes of Bluestick farms.
Once again, the level of detail here is impressive.
The Bluestick plants are preyed upon by the glassworms: a group of small, translucent
pests.
These creatures have evolved a specialized hierarchy, and can be divided into queens,
soldiers, and workers: much like the complex social structures of ants here on earth.
The glassworms are in turn preyed upon by the Chattertails, which are greatly valued
by Birrin Bluestick farmers thanks to their natural pest control capabilities.
Their alarming looking mouths are in fact folded forelimbs used to ensnare prey.
When the time is right, these sharp limbs snap forward and ensnare the unlucky glassworms:
keeping the bluestick crop safe from harm.
Elsewhere on the Bluestick farm, we have the thoroughly-detailed Bluestick Mill — a manufacturing
structure that uses a large wind turbine to power a mortar.
The technology here is based on pre-fall designs — showing that Birrin civilization isn’t
quite starting from square-one.
The Bluestick mill grinds the raw crops into a concentrated gel.
This processed Bluestick is profitable for its medicinal, industrial, and chemical uses
— especially now that older industries have all but collapsed.
Helping to farm these Bluestick fields are groups of Giants, the second intelligent race
on planet Chriirah who also suffered a population decline due to The Fall.
While giants and Birrin don’t always get along, on this Bluestick farm, the Giants
work alongside Birrin, as you can see here with a group taking a well-deserved break.
And there’s something about this image in particular which captures strangely familiar
and almost human emotions.
But the pre-industrial reset wouldn’t last forever.
The Birrin technology which supported a space-faring civilization, though forgotten and in ruins,
was still out there, waiting to be rediscovered.
Eventually, global shifts in the post-Fall Birrin world reach the bluestick farm.
Here, a motorized vehicle from an emerging global power called the Reclamation arrives
to assist the laborers in a gesture of goodwill.
It’s a sign that after many centuries of recovery, the world is being reborn.
And over the course of the next era, the rebirth following The Fall picked up speed.
Eventually, the lethally warmed equator could be navigated once more with the rediscovery
of flight.
Here, a primitive aircraft called the Kilnrunner flies high over the expanse to avoid the searing
heat.
Crafts like this one help reconnect the north and south Birrin populations for the first
time in over a thousand years.
In this next image, you can observe two Birrin scaling the First Mountains — one of the
few places on the planet that still possess frigid temperatures.
These explorers are another sign that, long after the Fall, the world is starting to reconnect.
One detail I especially like is their unique suits come with mouth-operated multitools,
since Birrin often use their beaks as well as their front limbs when manipulating objects.
In another scene showing the Birrin society making impressive strides towards a more technologically
advanced civilization, here, a Reclamation heavy-lift delivers a wind turbine to the
Birrin of a river valley.
This image shows that long forgotten technology is returning to the society of the Birrin
— and the disparate populations are reconnecting with each other more and more.
Like any movement, however, the so-called Reclamation is complicated.
Many parts of the faction are more interested in empire building than helping to rebuild.
Indeed, one thing I like about the Birrin world is that its history isn’t a straight
line, but a long road of progress and backsliding.
With the mistakes of past civilizations still in many minds, however, overall the Birrin
species would begin to move towards a better tomorrow.
Here, you can see a twin-mast Reclamation ship coasting along the coast of the Tuktalli
region, marveling at the ruins along the coastline — which has not been seen for thousands
of years due to the fall.
Since the Tuktalli region is located deep within the Kiln, it would have been inhospitable
for quite some time.
By now, Birrin society is at last entering a second age of scientific advancement.
Soon, more egalitarian reclamation efforts would emerge on both sides of the Kiln.
Here, a Birrin plane-like vehicle called the cresting wave begins to make its ascent in
front of a sustainable, gleaming city: showing that the gloom of the Fall is truly lifting.
Even more striking, in this image, you can see the Birrin rediscover rocket technology
through reverse engineering ancient, pre-Fall designs.
These rockets aren’t as effective as the old ones, but advancements would continue
throughout the next several centuries — as Birrin technology ultimately advanced beyond
that of their predecessors.
Here, at an even later date, we can see the space program has expanded, as a Birrin astronaut
explores a nearby planet as part of the species’ first program to explore the further reaches
of the Birrin solar system.
Considering all the suffering the Birrin society endured, it’s a stirring image of all they’ve
overcome.
Eventually, it’s possible the Birrin would even encounter some future version of humanity.
This image is no longer officially ‘canon’ according to Alex Ries — but it shows an
intriguing possible future where technologically advanced humans and Birrin study interactions
between babies of both species to gather data for a hypothetical joint colony.
It’s a hypothetical idea I find very intriguing.
But perhaps if the Birrin even encounter humanity, it won’t be humanity as we know it.
In this final, famous image from an unknown point in the Birrin’s future, we see two
Birrin meeting an awe-inspiring visitor simply called the ‘meta-human.’
Is this powerful being an artificial descendant of humanity, several millennia into the future,
at a time when our technology has turned us into something we scarcely would recognize?
That’s certainly my theory, although it’s left up to interpretation.
It’s an enigmatic image purposefully left vague: a story which has yet to be told…
In the end, the Birrin are both a cautionary tale and an uplifting one.
The story of a civilization that rose, and fell, and rose again.
If you liked this exploration, I’d encourage you to check out more of the Birrin on Alex
Ries’s own page: there are extra details on his site, including his creative process
behind some of these images.
Once again, links are in the description.
Like I said in part I, Alex Ries is also planning to release a full book about this incredible
world sometime in the future, so stay tuned for that!
Also, thanks for watching.
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See you in the next video.