Old Gaiad/22

Cambrius and Spriggina were great heroes, rulers of the world, but when they were gone their two sons were left: Protos and Dutrus

Each disagreed on the legacy of their father

Protos saw the first hole as the mouth and the second as the anus. He saw the Mesoderm as being first and foremost Mesoglea. His mouth was full of tentacles like his fathers before him.

O ye heathen is the anus not the locus of progress? For generations we bathed in our own filth. But that is no more, now we keep our mouths clean and eat all the nutritious food we find. The endoderm is the endoderm, the ectoderm is the ectoderm, and the Mesoderm the mesoderm. Aye these three layers shall never mix for they are the foundation of civilization.

Dutrus saw the second hole as the mouth, and the first as the anus. He saw the Mesoderm as being beyond the Mesoglea. A true reunion of the fisherman and shieldmaidens of old in the time of Metazo. His mouth was like a sponge, with gills and pores to filter the future.

O ye heathen is the mouth not the locus of progress? What we take into ourselves is our future and what we expel is the past. By reuniting Choanoderm and Archaeocytes are we not bringing a glorious future.

And so war began. Whose vision would shape the Cambrian legacy? Only time would tell.

Each son bore two more sons:

Dutrus bore Dietrich and Saccorhytus

Protos bore Ectus and Spiralius

Saccorhytus was strange. With no anus he did nothing. So the legacy of Dutrus was continued by Dietrich the loyal

The sons of Dutrus are famous across the world for their heads, but Dietrich had no head

Dietrich built for himself a tail to move through the ground. With a tail and two nerve cords he grew prosperous like none before. He settled and built a great colony

Spiralius was a great man. He held true to the values of his father

He built his city as a trochophore and was the greatest fisherman

Trochophore With great tentacles he was a better fisherman than any before him

He settled and became wealthy and prosperous

Anatomy of Spiralius Ectus was a resentful secondborn

So he sought to be the greatest among the sons of Cambrius. He made his tentacles into ferocious teeth, and shed his skin to maintain his youth. With great muscles he launched at his prey

Ectus declared war on Dutrus and Spiralius alike, eating all he could find.

O ye eldest sons beware. For the legacy of Cambrius belongs to the strong.

Anatomy of Ectus And so the sons of Dutrus, the sons of Spiralius, and the sons of Ectus were brought into war. These three great tribes would define history. So began the Cambrian explosion