Kholleasis

New Kholleasis 1

Black ink and colour pencil on photocopy paper.

A female agent has captured a transport carrying semen. The team in the foreground attempt to provide cover as the cargo is retrieved.

New Kholleasis 2

Photoshop.

Captured enemy combatants were often put on public display and for public use in common areas.

After the Newanda period I started doing my first experiments with Photoshop of which this was one of the first. Note that my site avatar is taken from this image.

Old Kholleasis 1

Photoshop.

My second Photoshop experiment.

For some time I had been toying with two separate ideas. One was for a planet where the men ruled and women were a slave class. This was a pre-technological planet. The other idea was for a planet where the genders had separated and gone to war against each other. That is, a nation of women was at war with a nation of men. This was a high-tech (future technology) planet.

I had the idea of making these two different historical periods of the same planet. Thus Old Kholleasis and New Kholleasis were born. This raised the question of how they transition from Old Kholleasis to New Kholleasis. The ideas around this went into the historical period called "Middle Kholleasis", which technologically is similar to our world now. The obvious explanation was a female uprising against their agelong oppression. But that is not the way I envisaged it.

The basic outline of the story of Middle Kholleasis is that at a certain time in Old Kholleasis, an alien spaceship crashed on the planet. It was some years before the survivors were rescued. In the interim the stranded crew associated with the natives. Some of them eventually felt compelled to disregard the prime directive of non-interference with primitive cultures and exposed the world to how gender relations were managed on other worlds. Their prestige as denizens from advanced spacefaring civilizations caused the Kholleasese, in an attempt to be less primitive, to attempt to imitate the model described to them, and there was a great and sudden, planet-wide emancipation of women. The transformation was so sudden in fact that their culture did not have time to adapt as other worlds had.

The women of Kholleasis carried a great deal of resentment from the ages of oppression. The idea emerged among them that they were morally superior to men, and somehow "more human" than men. In compensation for ages of inferiority conditioning, they took it upon themselves to "teach" men how to be human and how to love, in which they were the self-declared experts. The women took possession of the "love" concept, defining it in ways that suited them, and to represent "good" in general. The word "love" came to have the effective meaning of "what women want", while "what men want", to the extent that it differed from this, was deemed "not love", and therefore illegitimate. The phrase "the relationship" also came to have the meaning "what women want". Women across Kholleasis took to wearing a necklace with a stylised heart symbol dangling from it, to represent their treasured mission. It represented two people working toward the single goal of manifesting the feminine ideal. The inevitable impasse created by one of the genders involved in relationships attempting to unilaterally define what they should be, was explained as "relationships are difficult". The great female program of Kholleasis to "fix men" commenced, by attempting to tailor men to suit female wishes and ideals, and align them with female concepts and sentiments. Because women were disempowered in Old Kholleasis, they had been forced to develop an array of manipulative tools to indirectly achieve their ends. These long entrenched, devious habits of female culture they continued to apply in Middle Kholleasis, tempted by their new power. The men in general had never needed to develop these indirect habits, and so walked rather blindly into the self-serving female program, and never really understood what had happened. Some parts of Kholleasis had always resisted female liberation, they now pointed to what was happening elsewhere as vindication of their wisdom.

Because men and women depend upon each other for their happiness, if they cannot come to an agreement then neither can be happy. After several decades of apologizing under a constant barrage of criticism for what they are, and ideas of good defined unilaterally by a single gender, the men, not really understanding what was going on, were beginning to feel they had been misled by an idealised image of sexual equality. The cost of monogamous relationship was going up and up, while the rewards seemed to dwindle. The women sang: "It's raining men!" Grinning from ear to ear. The male society started to view female liberation as a failed experiment, an unsustainable "liberal" ideal. The male society started to shift to the right, and toward conservatism and "traditional values", at the same time that sexual trafficking of women developed into a vast planetwide industry with a brothel on every street corner. The men were quietly retaking the economic reigns to return the women to a condition of economic subservience. When it became clear to the women what was happening, fearing a return to the old ways, they quickly armed themselves. And New Kholleasis was born.

Middle Kholleasis 1
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Most worlds tend to forget that the primeval suppression of women wasn't because of their innate powerlessness and susceptibility, but was a coordinated and serious programme by men to curtail and control the natural power of women. When the ideal of the benign and helpless woman caused those controls to be naively released, men were suddenly reminded of what had caused them to impose the controls in the first place, long ages ago. But on most worlds, the social evolution was so slow this was only ever dimly recognised, as each generation unconsciously adjusted the society little by little to adapt, so that at each small step the problem seems rather trivial. Each of them was able to muddle through without ever having defined the problem. Kholleasis is the only world on which a large scale gender war has occurred, and the blame has been laid on the crew of the crashed spaceship who failed to abide by the prime directive. The nickname for the planet Kholleasis on other worlds during the New Kholleasis period was "POPW", pronounced "pop double you". It stood for "planet of prehistoric women".

Herakles 1

Pencil on photocopy paper.

In the days before the AI Act forbade the creation of new artificial intelligences by humans, learning software was being put into everything from toasters to city utility management systems. Long distance unmanned probes to other star systems was among the list of uses. The belated realisation that these devices may attain sentience in the course of their lonely and one-way journey to nowhere, was one of a long list of thoughtless applications that prompted the act.

One such probe, it was thought, may have been that sent to the Ophos system. This probe, after 70 years of travel, arrived at the star Ophos and returned the exciting news that 3 of the planets orbiting it appeared to support life. These were poetically named "Ophos A", "Ophos B" and "Ophos C". The probe made a close approach to Ophos A, which appeared almost entirely covered by a single city. However the city appeared to be uninhabited. Plants and animals could be seen. None of the animals appeared to be intelligent, judging by the amount of time they spent grazing. There were also what were concluded to be maintenance robots. These appeared to be performing routine tasks and did not appear to be interacting socially. So it was surmised that the intelligent population had either fled the world for some reason, been wiped out, or had evolved to some non-corporeal form.

Ophos B was a jungle, thick with life but no modern cities, only overgrown stone structures. Ophos A and Ophos B were in orbit around each other. Ophos B was slightly smaller than Ophos A. If Ophos B had been a little more small, it might have been classed as a moon of Ophos A. The strange thing about Ophos B was the amount of radio activity there. Powerful and widespread. It was speculated that there might be an underground civilisation, or that radio was being produced naturally by the plants or creatures that inhabited the world. As the probe neared Ophos B it had some kind of breakdown. It may have been some problem with the probe itself, since it appeared to go mad. But the impression was also that it had somehow been hacked by Ophos B. Communications from the probe ceased at that point.

The probe never returned close up information on Ophos C. But long distance information suggested a high probability that it was inhabited by a species performing agriculture and burning fossil fuels. Ophos C had its own separate orbit from Ophos A and Ophos B.

The mission of the Andrea was to investigate the Ophos system, and if possible, to retrieve the probe sent there. The Andrea itself could not land on a planet. It had to remain in space. When it reached the Ophos system, 3 smaller ships were deployed, one each to Ophos A, Ophos B, and Ophos C. The Ophos A mission learned the name of that world to be "Mistikyte". The Herakles was sent to Ophos C, where it would learn the name of that world to be "Kholleasis". The Ophos B mission never got to learn the name of that world. The Herakles is a drop ship, or planet hopper. It can travel between planets within a single solar system, but is not equipped for interstellar travel. For this it requires the Andrea (see Andrea 1 on New Stuff).

The Andrea was one of the first ships to use alien technology to make its journey after Owel became a "contacted" world (see GSR). While the use of this "faster than light" technology was soon to be made widely available to Owel, it was with the proviso that it would not be made known how the technology worked. Owel scientists were not permitted information on the drive. It was installed by alien engineers as an independent system within a spaceship, and interacted with by means of an interface. The rest of the spaceship was built by humans according their own conventional technology. Ships were sometimes attended by what were called "Drive Engineers", humans who had been provided with information about the drives and who were authorised to enter them. Although they were called "engineers", they didn't appear to possess appropriate engineering knowledge. They had more the character of intelligence agents or cult members. Each of them had an implant which prevented them disclosing what they knew to unauthorised others, and would kill them if removed. That was the price of becoming a member of their elite club of secret knowers.

The technology wasn't perfect. When its use became widespread there were occasions when a ship simply didn't appear at its destination. There were also occasions when individual passengers or crew disappeared en route never to be seen again. No explanation was forthcoming from the aliens as to what may have happened to them. They just said it was one of the attendant risks of the technology. They stated that the disappeared had ceased to exist, but that they had not suffered. People accepted the risk for the convenience of speed and the possibility of interstellar flight (see Memory).

Herakles 2
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Herakles 3

Pencil on photocopy paper.

The Herakles initially remained in orbit around Kholleasis, sending down a small two-occupant scout ship to observe the inhabitants from a distance. The Herakles encountered an object in orbit around Kholleasis, organic, roughly spherical, with an uneven surface, like a big seed pod. They brought it on board. That night, one of the crew dreamed the image above.

Herakles 4

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Herakles 5

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Samples revealed that the seed pod exuded the same chemical compound as The Red Worm (see Zulu and Newanda). Over a few days the seed pod unfolded, becoming a sex monster. It ran amok through the ship, ultimately causing it to crash into the ocean on Kholleasis.

Herakles 6
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Herakles 7

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Most of the crew escaped in pods, but one remained aboard. He got out while the Herakles briefly hovered over the surface of the ocean. It dropped into the ocean some distance from him in a colossal eruption of steam because its engines were still running. He was wearing his environment suit, so he didn't stay on the surface for long. He sank slowly to the bottom. He was dropping onto a shelf that was not too deep, but the Herakles was disappearing over the edge of the shelf, in a glowing cloud of bubbles, into the deep.

He made his way to the coast bouncing slowly along the bottom, sometimes pulled sideways or backwards by the strong currents. He reached what looked like a mountain of rocks, leading up to the surface where great waves crashed against the rocks. The escarpment seemed to go on indefinitely to the left and right.

Old Kholleasis 2

Pencil on photocopy paper.

After travelling along the base of the escarpment for some distance he eventually decided to brave an ascent at a bay-like indentation. After a prolonged struggle with the currents swirling around the rocks he finally made it onto land, where he removed his helmet and lay immobile with exhaustion for some hours. When he was ready to walk it was night. He found a house a short distance away.

He was hesitating about going up to the house when he noticed some movement behind it. A pair of tall women, their long hair tied back in a ponytail. An artificial ponytail held by leather straps to their butt. Their heads were also in a harness. He didn't know what to make of the long horizontal wooden poles at hip level they seemed to be attached to. They wore thick soled black thigh boots but nothing else. They moved in a slow lazy clip clop, gazing vacantly about. As they continued to emerge from behind the house he realised they were attached to a carriage. Their behaviour implied the situation was familiar to them.

Old Kholleasis 3

Pencil on photocopy paper.

The Kholleases carved many of their cities from the solid bedrock. It was not considered lowly work but an occupation many of the men typically did for a time. Between this and the warrior ideal, Kholleasi men were typically well chiselled. The enslavement of the women also tended to keep them lean and active. As teams of thousands of labouring men were sprinkled over the great stoneworks, thousands of women brought them food and water, bathed them and gave them blowjobs.

Old Kholleasis 4
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Kholleases routinely killed male babies at birth to keep the ratio of women to men at about 5 to 1, so men "will have someone to look after them". While poor Kholleasi men may only have a single woman, the average was probably around 3, and the wealthy had many more. So men formed a controlling minority on Kholleasis.

Old Kholleasis 4a
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 4b
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 4c
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 5

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 6

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 7

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 8
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 9
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 10
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 11
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 12
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Old Kholleasis 13

Pencil on ruled paper.

A very early drawing. The earliest drawing I've identified of what became Old Kholleasis.

New Kholleasis 3

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Spaceship from New Kholleasis 1

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Spaceship from New Kholleasis 2
Pencil on photocopy paper.

New Kholleasis 4
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Defector 1

Pencil on photocopy paper.

In the late stages of the war of New Kholleasis, a Kholleasi woman appeared on an isolated world far from the Ophos system. She was concerned at an alliance the female collective had made with offworlders in the wake of a series of serious setbacks, and wanted the "outside world" to intervene and broker peace.

Defector 2

Pencil on photocopy paper.

Sex Monster 6

Black ink and colour pencil on photocopy paper.

This is not a Kholleasis picture but was done during this period. This is another from my "tracing period" (see Miras Exterior 1 in Miras for explanation). In this case, it is the figures in the top left-hand corner of the image that were traced from a magazine. The "tracing period" was after the Newanda period.

New Stuff Prep.

Drop Ship
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Although the Herakles was capable of a terrestrial landing they didn't want to attract attention. Infrared scans of the surface gave them a good idea of the population distribution so they could land somewhere isolated, but they didn't want to then have to trek hundreds of kilometres to reach an inhabited location. So they sent down a small two-person drop ship with a crew of one human and one humanoid robot. The ship hugged the valleys till it got close to an area dotted with small villages. They kept themselves hidden but spied on village life from the foliage.

The River 1

Pencil on A2 cartridge paper.

In accordance with the recurring theme of women who prefer to give blowjobs than have sex, Kholleasis has the idea of addictive semen. Many regions of Old Kholleasis have a plant with a hard, woody seed pod, fibrous and looking like a cross between a pomegranate and a walnut. If they ground it into a powder and mixed it with food given to men, their semen was affected. The effect was similar to nicotine, not narcotic but strongly habit forming. The Herakles crew decided to name the plant "Soma".

The River 2
Pencil on A3 photocopy paper.

The village was on the high ridge, but a steady procession of women took the long trail down to the river for water to carry back up in urns, or to do their washing in the river. Before making the return journey they would spend some idle time. Young men from the village would congregate on the grass by the river and offer their semen.

Mountain Village
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1a
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1b
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1c
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1d
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1e
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 1f
Pencil on photocopy paper.

The lizards took their turn with the women.

Lizards 1g
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 2a
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Lizards 2b
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Certain animals would also consume the soma seed pods. In particular the sex lizards. In their case, the effect was concentrated, making their semen strongly narcotic. The narcotic effect could also be transferred through depositing semen in the vagina or rectum, after which the woman would be strongly addicted and led to voluntarily pleasure the lizards.

Sex Lizards in Prison

Photoshop.

Women in prison were sometimes forced to share a cell with one or more sex lizards. This is an early attempt at drawing on the computer.

Carnivorous Lizards

Photoshop.

There were other kinds of lizards on Kholleasis. These were not sex lizards but of the people-eating kind. This was another early attempt at drawing on the computer.

Apes 1
Pencil on photocopy paper.

The apes had about two dozen women sequestered in their camp. This one had managed to sneak out and was making a run for it through the forest. The apes pursued her through the trees. At a certain point she was grabbed and hoisted up into the branches. By the not very anatomically correct apes.

Location of the Ape encampment
Pencil on photocopy paper.

An earlier draft of the location of the Ape encampment
Pencil on photocopy paper.

An even earlier draft of the location of the Ape encampment
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Apes 2
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Apes 3
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Apes 4
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Apes 5
Pencil on photocopy paper.

Sex monster
Pencil on photocopy paper.

These large insects lived in cave networks on Old Kholleasis.

Slave 1
Pencil on photocopy paper.

OK War 1

Pencil on A2 cartridge paper.

The Old Kholleasis War refers to the wars that gave rise to the first and only Kholleasis empire. It commences with a series of conquests of independent city states by an aggressor city state. The remaining city states form alliances of ever greater numbers in the face of the growing empire, till the final battle between the empire and the federation of free states. Several months before a planned attack the empire would send spies into the target city for reconnaissance, and hopefully to open the city gates from inside during the actual attack.

Soldier of the Empire
Pencil on A2 cartridge paper.

Overrun 1
Pencil on A2 cartridge paper.

Overrun 2
Pencil on A2 cartridge paper.

The attackers had more than enough soldiers. By the time the rear of the army passed through the gates of the city there wasn't much for them to do except take what they want.



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