Here’s the breakdown of my story:
- Humans have basically destroyed Earth, milked it of all its natural resources. We've set on finding new planets to find a new place to live. The result: The discovery of crops and materials on other planets that can survive in drastic conditions. We're basically colonizing the galaxy and new life we've found, some of which live on planets with harsh weather conditions, varying gravity ranging from 1/10 to 5x Earth’s gravitational pull, etc.
- These planets are all capable of harboring the bare minimum of life; Earth-like atmosphere, water sources; a tardigrade would live a nice life.
- I’m not looking for an entirely different species worth of genetic evolution, more so I want them to be visibly different (i.e., some can reach up to 7 feet, or have bulkier legs/arms/thighs/biceps), especially since it’s in the form of a graphic novel; nothing too different from our current form.
- Any time that’s needed between the second everyone splits off from Earth to the minute it’s obvious that these people have evolved I need to make up a bunch of technological/sociopolitical filler for, but I was hoping this could realistically span over the course of a few hundred years.
- Along with the technological advancements that would come, I can also incorporate genetic modifications as an excuse to justify human survival and accelerated evolution depending on how much it would help. Let's assume the baseline is minimal genetic changes, enough that we could survive a month on a certain planet without the help of machines or artificial biomes.
I’m aware it’d take about a million years on Earth for us to evolve into a different species, however if subjected to drastic changes in the environment (or even with the help of some ✨science magic✨), would it be excusable for humans to evolve into distinct races within a few hundred years?