Possible new premise for my uni - take 2 - please critique

[Somes J]

OK, I've been thinking about this, and I think I've finally hit on a premise for my Omniverse One universe that actually works fairly well. Again, I'm posting it here instead of in my universe section because I'd really like to know whether people like or don't like it and to get some input on it.

I'm going with the postapocalyptic story, but I'm changing it around quite a bit.

The beginning of the timeline is maybe several hundreds years from now, when man has colonized the solar system. A dispute develops between the faction of humankind in space and the much more populous but largely planet-bound faction on Earth. This dispute leads to a several decades long cold war, which eventually goes hot, resulting in the near self-annihilation of humankind with extremely destructive kinetic energy weapons. The spacenoids smack Earth with a small dino-killer, basically destroying all of Earth-bound humanity except a few scattered survivors, and the asteroid bases, space stations etc. of both sides are largely destroyed. I'm thinking the handful of survivors in space probably eventually leave the solar system entirely, no longer wanting to reside in the scene of such complete carnage. Meanwhile, the handful of survivors on Earth have been reduced to a Paleolithic state.

The twist is that before the war humanity had mastered biotechnology and had introduced commercial biomods, sort of like the Plasmids in Bioshock but without the negative side-effects and quasi-magic effects. Most of Earth's technology was destroyed, but inevitably some of those who had altered themselves in such a manner survived. Most of these probably mated back into the baseline human survivors, and that was the end of them. Others were one-offs or too scattered to find mates like themselves and so were evolutionary dead-ends. Others were sterile or could not pass on their genemods, and likewise those were evolutionary dead-ends. Others simply couldn't adapt to their changed circumstances and gradually died out. But a handful managed to survive and begin breeding among themselves and so became viable species. Over thousands of years, the most successful ones managed to spread over much of the planet.

Here are the species I've managed to come up with, and backstories for them:


HOMINID SPECIES:

Humans: descendants of baseline/nearbaseline humans that recieved little or no genetic modification, should be self-explanatory.

Furries: OK, it's not what it sounds like... Seriously, these are human offshoots adapted to extreme cold. They range over what is now Canada and the northern US and Siberia and northern Europe. They are similar to humans but somewhat fattier and totally covered in fur (usually brown or blond but "redheads" are occassionally seen as well). They survive on a largely carnivorous diet. I'm thinking they started out as either survivalists or guerilla fighters during the war. The genemods were to allow them to survive in the wilderness with an absolute minimum of technological support.

Killer People: These started out as a failed project to produce genetically enhanced supersoldiers during the cold war. The bioengineers gave them superhuman strength and senses and spliced in genes from various predatory beasts. They turned out to not actually make particularly good soldiers, but since the whole project was classified turning them into humans and trying to introduce them to human society would have been problematic. So the handful of test subjects were placed in a comfortable but isolated retirement home/prison to live out the rest of their lives. Then the war came, and everybody forgot about them, and with the guards gone they easily broke out. They quickly began to breed among themselves and established themselves as a viable species. They have since spread over much of the planet. They live entirely on hunting game; they're basically human lions, sort of. They look rather like humans, but they have large shearing teeth and possibly claws and they're mostly nocturnal. They're rather dangerous as they'll attack and eat other human types if they're hungry.

Water People: These are humans that have basically taken the ecological niche of seals, nesting on beaches and living in the ocean, surviving on fish and other sea life. They are similar to humans but have a variety of adaptations to living in water. I'm thinking they either started out as workers on aquaculture or some other undersea work who'd modified themselves because it was cheaper/more convenient/safer than using baseline humans kept alive by technology, or like the Furries they started out as guerilla fighters during the war who modified themselves so they could hide from the enemy underwater. They look kind of like pudgy but streamlined humans with webbed fingers and toes, and it's difficult to tell males and females apart visually.

Hedonists: These were roughly inspired by the Hedonists in Nemo Ramjet's All Tomorrows, hence I'm calling them that until I find a better name. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them now. I'm thinking either they're descendants of people who went in for relatively mild transhumanism upgrading, or they started out as a bunch of kooky hippies and hence now have a rather different social structure from normal humans.

Blind People: These ones are difficult. They're cave-dwelling humans that lack eyes. What I'm thinking now is that they're descendants of a group that migrated into caves during the war, figuring it was safer there. They used some biomod tech they'd salvaged to turn themselves into a form better equipped to survive there. When the war was over they planned to turned themselves back into humans and go back to the surface but in the mean time they'd had some children, who'd never known any other life and didn't want to leave the caves. The descendants of those are the present Blind People.

There may be others but these are the ones I have in mind right now.

Feedback?

[Somes J]

On second thought, you know what? Screw trying to integrate it with RL timeline. It just doesn't work. I can't think up any way to do it that doesn't sound contrived.

I think what I'll do instead is I'll go back to the original idea but discard the alternate universe premise and make it straight up alternate history. Sometime during the last 200,000 years a nonhuman hominid develops an advanced but geographically restricted civilization somewhere in Eurasia. They use humans (Homo Sapiens) as slaves and create a variety of specialized slave races. Then their civilization destroys itself. Some of the slave races survive and eventually spread across the planet.

Since it's an alternate timeline diverging from ours maybe 2-100 KYA I don't have to take it to the ridiculous levels I did in the original universe, with evolved hominids filling every ecological niche. And it eliminates the Deus Ex Machina aspects associated with the original universe that I didn't like. And an alternate universe makes a lot more sense than trying to shoehorn it into our modern world.

[Magister Militum]

I don't know, I was actually rather fond of your original concept. The idea of the remnants of humanity genetically modifying themselves to survive the hostile nature of their world really does appeal to me. Then again, so does the concept of alien overlords screwing with humanity and producing a myraid of offshoots. Really, it's ultimately up to you in deciding what works best.

[Somes J]

I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a backstory I like. I think I might just sit on it for a little while and see what ideas occur to me.

[Ford Prefect]

I personally prefer this take on it. I find that the premise that the different types of creature are the result of breeding between biomodded humans to be pretty elegant. How much time do you envision having passed between the rocking of earth and the 'current' period?