#posthumanity

Referring to themselves as “guardians”, [Arcadians] were often composed of societies which had the greatest bio-socio-psycho-emotional link to the lost Earth, and indeed a leading element of the guardian faction was made up of the final generations of survivors from the home planet. This set was determined to re-establish a new Earth on the nearest available Earth-like world, and might be seen as a ludicrous colonial throwback.

— “Posthumanity”, The Book of the War (2002), ed. Lawrence Miles

‘Where are you going?’ Steven asked.

‘The planet Refusis,’ replied the Commander. ‘The Earth is also dying and now we have left it for the last time. […] Only Refusis has the same conditions that we had on Earth. Atmosphere, water, the right temperate zones. […] We are the Guardians!’

— The Ark (1987), by Paul Erickson

Other groups were content to remake or even build worlds to be their new homes. Threatened by the rest of the [posthuman] hegemony, many of the Arcadian worlds eventually united to form a “benign union” (modelled on older world-systems which had displaced classical Greece and Rome as the acme of polite civilisation in the popular imagination). Faced with planetary atmospheres which bred goodwill and quiet contemplation by their very natures, the Arcadians’ enemies simply gave up. The Arcadian Union was isolationist and eventually the majority of its people simply vanished, either sublimating to a higher state of existence or dying of boredom.

— “Posthumanity” (continued), The Book of the War

Finally, on Traken, Nyssa’s home planet, the Master had captured the Source, the font of power for an entire galactic Union encompassing a million star systems. […] Chris recounted the sketchy details that he could remember: Serenity was the only surviving colony of the Union of Traken, a verdant garden world with advanced biotechnology, whose people lived in peace and relative isolation. They believed that at the time of the cosmic disaster that obliterated the entire rest of their galaxy, something called the Source had protected them, at the cost of its own existence. […] ‘We Adjudicators learn about Serenity as an example of a peaceful and just society.’

— Cold Fusion (1996), Lance Parkin

“Waiter! There’s even more Parkin lore in my book!” Or is there? (Emphasis all mine, of course.) From Big Finish’s Lost Stories adaptation of Johnny Byrne’s 1983 television pitch, which he’d shared with Sarah Groenewegen, a close friend of Kate Orman:

Sixth Doctor: Ahh, the planet Serenity of the Benign Union! […] This part of the galaxy, well, holds bad memories for me.

Peri: Do you want to talk about it?

Doctor: Well, you see that patch of darkness there at the edge of the screen? Now that used to be Mettula Orionsis, home of the Traken Union, one of the most harmonious places in the cosmos. […] That was centuries ago. At this point in history, a new union has risen in its place with, at its heart, the world of Serenity. The only planet of the Traken Union to survive.

POSTHUMANITY [Lesser Species: Participants (Posthuman Period)] The destruction of the Earth, approximately ten-million years after humanity’s mid-twenty-first-century “ghost point”, had a profound effect on every society which had originated there. Even those peoples who’d never heard -and would never hear - the name of Earth were effectively deracinated. The single common reference point of human heritage was gone, and a new epistemology for understanding and defining the human condition was required. The species that were post-Earth were also effectively posthuman, forming what’s generally known as the posthuman hegemony.

[...]

Groups, species or more broadly, cultures, that exist in service to higher-powers. Two of the more notable examples of this are the Trviolians, who have turned being a subjugated species into an ecological niche and the Ogrons who have developed a culture that views their own bodies as essentially technological in nature, to be upgraded and improved upon across generations to better attract “buyers.” Humorously,  this makes them one of the few cultures to successfully engage in something resembling eugenics.

Indeed, the Ogrons have been so successful in fulfilling the Familiar role that they have formed a relationship with the Dalek Empire, this set-up is somewhat comparable to the relationship between pilot fish and various deep-sea predators. Oddly, despite the Dalek’s xenophobic hatred of most other lifeforms they have developed a number of familiar bonds, these include; the aforementioned Ogrons, the lupine Werelok and perhaps most infamously, the so-called Andromedans. [1] Other examples of this can be seen among the human and posthuman cults that treat the Great Houses and breakaway groups such as the Celestis and the Ermites with something approaching religious mania. [2] Of course, in the case of the Ermites these groups often worship them in a bid to become them, making it a less clear example of a Familiar Culture. 

The Andromedans were of course, responsible for the extra-galactic invasion of Mutter’s Spiral towards the beginning of the third century under the New Calendar. The Daleks would ultimately be revealed as the true instigators of this invasion, having fled the Milky Way via unknown means following successive defeats during the so-called Dalek Wars of preceding centuries. So while the Andromedans truly alien nature caused a number of problems for the Terrans, the Dalek’s involvement would ultimately mean that it was a threat that originated within the Mutter's Spiral itself. 

The philosopher Richard Harper-Vern would note similarities between Familiar Cultures and the relationship between Homeworlders and their timeships, of course he would also remark that in that case it was unclear who served who. 

NOTES 

Harper-Vern would die tragically young, slipping and cracking his skull open on a tasteful side-table/vase combo that his wife would later claim as having no recollection of either of them buying. 

Text taken from “The Bumper Book of War/Time Facts.”