The City Builders are one of the hominid species of the Ringworld. Sentient, they are one of the most intelligent species produced by the Ringworld, being the only species that managed to develop spaceflight capabilities after the fall of the Pak, as well as the only one capable of extensively modifying the ring itself.[1][2]
Appearance and biology[]
City Builders are usually described as being mostly bald with a fringe of hair growing above their ears and joining at the base of their skulls, some seem to have no hair at all, they're pale, with small delicate noses, and extremely thin lips. Children City Builders seem to have very fine hair covering their scalp which likely starts to fall after entering puberty except for a lower strip which thickens. They are omnivores.[1][2]
The City Builders are very fertile with the act of mating always resulting in pregnancy, as such, rishathra is regularly used by the City Builders as a sexual outlet and it has been practiced since very early in their culture.[2]
It's implied that City Builders are able to produce hybrids with some of the Ringworld's other hominid species. This might be possible by some of these other species being more closely related to the City Builders and maybe even being descended from them, as Louis Wu remarks that a shaved member of one of the hominid species met in the first Ringworld expedition looks remarkably like a City Builder.[1]
History and culture[]
The exact history of the City Builders is not known but it is speculated that they evolved on the Ringworld from Pak breeders like humans did. At some point in their history they started to use compasses which led them to inadvertently discover the Ringworld's superconductor grid which at that point they used to make maps. Eventually, the City Builders rose above other species of the Ringworld, possibly aided by their superb ability at rishathra, and created an empire spanning the world. During this golden age the City Builders developed various pieces of technology among them water condensers, aircars, superconductor material, electromagnetic repulsion, interstellar ramships, computers, linear accelerators, the youth drug (possibly), reading screens, book spools and the cziltang brone. They also modified the ring itself by creating the rim transport system and removing attitude jets to power their ramships. This all indicates the City Builders achieved a great deal of knowledge of how the Ring worked.[1][2]
How the City Builder Empire was governed and its exact relationship with the other sentient hominids of the Ringworld is not clear. The existence of an emperor who ruled from the building Rylo is known, as well as of the City Builder ruler Zrillir, who ruled all the lands under his castle, called Heaven, from edge to edge and exacted tribute and retribution from his subjects, who were likely not of the City Builder race. It's possible that various forms of governance coexisted under a ultimately unified ruler or authority such as the more contemporaneous Machine People Empire. It's also known that the Night People were a source of information or even a spy network for the City Builders during their rule.[1][2]
City Builder rule ended after the Ringworld was infected with a superconductor eating bacteria in a plot by the Puppeteers. The plague spread across the Ringworld's technology and made it useless causing an event known as the Fall of the Cities when the floating buildings created by the City Builders fell all at once after the power receivers of the Ringworld failed. This event was disastrous, possibly killing most of the City Builder leadership as well as millions if not billions of civilians. Many cities were damaged beyond repair and communication across the Ring failed. Space travel and ring travel became unavailable as the cziltang brone and the rim transport system failed.[1][2]
The City Builders never recovered from this. Their population seems to have dwindled massively, with City Builders being largely absent by the time of the First Ringworld Expedition.[1]
By 2880[3] a small City Builder population survived on a still working floating city in the Machine People Empire. They were under the dominion of the Machine People who controlled their water supply and prevented visitors to the city from sneaking technological supplies to the City Builders, that might lessen their dependency of the Machine People. The city contained an arrayed of different buildings, each inhabited by a different family, among them a shopping center, a weapon storage, a health club, an emperor's castle, a condominium, a courthouse and a library. The library building allegedly contained all the information ever gathered by the City Builders and also functioned as an education center so that despite the City Builders being prevented from repairing their old technology they still knew more about technology and science than the rest of the Ringworld's population. [2]
It is known that after the fall of the City Builder Empire there were interstellar ramships abroad, among them Halrloprillalar's ship, most of these ships never came back to the Ringworld, or at least they never bothered to land in the space ports. It may be that after realizing the fall of civilization in the Ringworld they fled and started colony worlds elsewhere (as Halrloprillalar's crew thought about doing) as it is known there were habitable worlds in range of the City Builder's ramships. Some of the ships may have also taken off as civilization collapsed as Louis Wu speculated.[1][2]
In some areas of the Ringworld the local hominid species have conflated the City Builders with the Ringworld Engineers and refer to them as such. They have also developed religions around them, with surviving City Builders becoming venerated as gods and goddesses and ruined cities becoming worship places. In some of these religions the priests shave their faces and heads in imitation of the City Builders.[1]
The City Builder language became widespread during their time and several other species came to adopted. Bastard forms of it are still spoken on the Ringworld by descendants of these species, while the original form has become holy for some who revere the City Builders.[1]
City Builders by 2880[3] use compound six syllables names made up of their first name and their family name together, such as as Laliskareerlyar and Fortaralisplyar where the family name is Lyar. City Builders from the time of the Empire don't seem to have followed this convention as Halrloprillalar has a six syllable name and another last name, Hotrufan, while the ruler Zrillir has a two-syllable name.[1][2]
Known City Builders[]
- Zrillir
- Halrloprillalar Hotrufan
- Laliskareerlyar
- Fortaralisplyar
- Arrivercompanth
- Filistranorlry
- Harkabeeparolyn
- Wilp
- Kawaresksenjajok