A Spiritual Pilgrimage
The Bufon Ancestral Spawing Ponds are one of the few remaining spiritual pilgrimage sites for the
Bufon people and is likely their most important. The Bufons have long believed that it is the life cradle of their species, the ponds in which the first of their kind spawned and grew from tadpoles numerous millennia ago.
Since its discovery by the Bufon, well before Imperial arrival, the ponds have remained an important pilgrimage site for the surviving Bufon people. The Bufon are highly spiritual, believing in communing with the natural energies of their planet, which they do so by meditating within nature, especially near ponds and rivers. The Bufon Ancestral Spawning Ponds are important to the Bufon as it represents their strongest remaining tie to their home planet, their point of origin.
Before the time of Imperial presence, the Bufon would make yearly pilgrimages to the site. With many hundreds of Bufon sitting within the bubbling brackish waters of the ponds, communing with each other and the planet itself. This meditation was always accompanied by a soft and throaty humming emanating from each Bufon.
In the past, this would give the ponds a constant hum as each of the hundreds of Bufon sang together. Now, the ponds lay mostly quiet, as only a small handful of Bufon are able to reach the spiritual site each year. And most Bufon does so alone or in small groups of only a few, and the mediation hum is often sombre and lonesome, echoing across the ponds seeking its kind to commune with and finding few or none.
Despite this sad experience, the Bufon still make the trip when they are able to. It is believed that once the Bufon abandons or loses this site, the closest they have to a holy site anywhere on the planet, it will signal the end of their species. So, despite the increasing dangers posed by Imperial machinations the Bufon sacrifice whatever is needed in order to reach the ponds, even if for only a short time.
The planet of Phorbaceus Imperia, formerly known as Bufo.
Danger of Being Lost
Recently the Imperial Council of Planets has released news that new on-planet expansions for Imperial housing and work will be discussed during an upcoming meeting between Imperial decision-makers.
Amongst these proposed plans, is a development for a housing block that would reside within the area in which the Bufon Ancestral Spawning Ponds reside. Where the area would have to be completely dug up and drained in order for the groundworks of the buildings to be lain and constructed upon.
This has sparked an immediate concern amongst the Bufon population, as it is their last tie to their spiritual and literal origins on the planet. If the ponds were to be destroyed it would sever that remaining link and destroy the shreds of morale and dignity the Bufon hold on to.
Many Bufon believe that the spiritual mediations conducted at the ponds, despite being few in number now, have kept their people strong and fighting, in the hopes that one day they could see a return to prosperity. And that if these were lost, it would mean the end, a final act to signify the death of the planet's native inhabitants.
Roadblocks
Travel across Bufo/Phorbaceus Imperia has grown increasingly difficult over the last few generations of the Bufon. The Imperials have instituted mandatory check-ins for all non-Imperial sentient races across the planet, including those of the native Bufon.
If for any reason, a non-Imperial is deemed suspicious or dangerous they are detained and sometimes even incarcerated. If the individual is lucky they are only sent back to their assigned city/housing unit for the infraction incurred.
The less fortunate are sent off to intense work camps where they are indentured to work on construction projects non-stop until construction is completed. It is often believed that the Imperials stationed at these checkpoints are instructed to detain a certain number of people per quarter in order to fill needed worker quotas across the planet.
This has dissuaded many from travelling, but for the Bufon the risk is often worth it due to the importance of the ponds. Many Bufon have been detained in the last few decades due to the increased demand for workers.
Summary
The Bufon Ancestral Spawning Pond is the hypothesized location of the first spawning, and hence their place of origin, for the
Bufons people of Bufo (known in modern times as
Phorbaceus Imperia).
The remaining Bufon people of the planet strive to travel to the site, so that they may commune spiritually with the place of their species' origins. But the trip is long and has become harder to take as the years go on as discrimination against the Bufon by the invading Imperials has made cross-planet travel difficult.
Though the time of the Bufon Ancestral Spawning Pond may be coming to an end, as Imperial expansion closes in on the grounds in which the ponds sit. Threatening to dig them up in order to erect new housing apartments and workshops, all to help fuel the war machine the Imperial Council of Planets has come to represent.
A Bufon worker
Bufo and the Bufons
The Bufons are a toad-like species that live on Phorbaceus Imperia, formerly known as the planet Bufo which they are the original inhabitants of.
In the several thousand years since the occupation of their homeworld by the Imperial Founders, their population has dwindled and they have become second-class citizens used primarily as a cheap workforce.
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