Watami — Stephen Donald Huff

Denizens of Watami are more human than human. Though ‘normal' citizens hysterically fear them as obscene chimeras, the pastoral Nascosi way of life embraces principles of passivity and altruism to selfless… some would say ‘suicidal'… extremes. When a deviant dictator determines to exploit these deep-seated genocidal animosities for political gain, he finds the peace-loving Nascosi ‘morphs' to be easy targets and convenient scapegoats in promotion of his sinister designs. This, an ancient conflict writ large in tomes of human history and often inked in blood, if only because such injustice generally resolves in warfare.Since the Nascosi refuse to take up arms to defend themselves, however, they will ultimately disappear into the vaporous anonymity of extinction with the grace of smoke billowing into vast, uncaring heavens. Although the Nascosi must inevitably perish, their canny biological technology will evolve. As with all modern leaps of evolution, Anzian-kind will subsequently rise on a gush of gore, but they will descend upon a galaxy drastically altered â€" afterward, humankind will be unknown.