Suicide Kings

Suicide Kings is the nickname given to the extinct species found on the moon Himinglæva in orbit around the gas giant AEgir in the Epsilon Eridani system.

History
Archaeological teams have done extensive studies on the moons of Epsilon Eridani to look into who this species was and how it became extinct. The available evidence discovered so far indicates that they were a reptilian species spread out on the three major continents of the moon Himinglaeva.

Philologists are still trying to decipher their written language. Thus we still do not know what they called themselves. The name "Suicide Kings" was given based on what records have been translated. It seems as a race they were divided as the Earth was in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Apparently the citizens on each continent was centered around a huge nation-state, alliance. or ideology. This led to their own version of a cold war. Based on available records that have been translated, it it appears a religious group thought this stalemate intolerable. They believed in a philosophy that mirrored the Cosmopolitan Movement that was responsible for the creation of the UE.

It took the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction they caused to give the movement the emphasis to create the United Earth government. On Himinglaeva, this religious sect decide to create a scenario that would cause the various factions to unite in common cause and bring unity to their race. That was the creation and release of a virus that caused infertility of their race. Surely in the face of the eventual extinction of the race, all factions would join together to find a solution and realize they had more in common then they realized.

Alas,instead the governments took the opposite approach. They decided on a zero-sum approach. It was not enough that they and their citizens survive, but that their rivals die. Unfortunately within a generation they realized their mistake. As older generations died, their was no younger generation to replace the institutional knowledge that would be needed to hunt for a cure much less keep society functioning.

It appears this resulted in a total breakdown of society with suicides, anarchy,mass murders, and the appearance of apocalyptic cults. Communities went from nation-states to city-states to finally towns and villages until the last of the race died off. It took less then a century for this to occur. Despite this, the bio-weapon remained living in the atmosphere until the crew of the first explorer ship,the Argo arrived. The crew would become carriers of what would become the XY Virus.

=== The Mystery of Himinglaeva ===

Himinglaeva and the Suicide Kings has provided a interesting conundrum to scientists. The system is between 800 and 900 million years. Much too early for many of the moons on AEgir to reach their status. Especially too early for Himinglaeva to become a Class M world and have a species rise to the point of sentience. In fact the race had started interplanetary travel. Ruins of colonies have been found on several of the other moons of AEgir. This has sparked several theories, based on the fact that the Suicide Kings did not evolve on Himinglaeva.

1.    Himinglaeva was terraformed by the race and colonized by them. As such members of the race might still be found on another planet. But no evidence of their technology indicates they had the ability to terraform planets, much less had access to FTL capabilities.

2.    The moon was terraformed by members of the race, but those on the planet were somehow undesirables and abandoned there. In some ways similar to how Australia was settled by the British Empire. This could explain why there was such a sharp division among the political factions.

3.    The moon was terraformed by an altogether different race. They were responsible for placing the Suicide Kings or they found or crashed on the planet. Thus becoming a colony that eventually became the dominant species.

Research is continuing to determine the truth.