History
Bravaxians are an intelligent species from the planet Bravaxia. They lived at a stone-age (paleolithic) level of technological development before they were discovered by the Convergence (about 5000 years ago).
The Bravaxians were enslaved by the Convergence as farmers, growing certain plants and animals from their home planet that the Convergence valued as food. Chief among these were Garbage-fruit, and the Grunkle-fly.
The Convergence controlled the Bravaxians by creating "gods", bio-engineered beings with cybernetic brains, designed to resemble gods from various Bravaxian religions.
Believers flock to see Oovex Snirk, one of the gods created by the Convergence. Snirk was a god of the hunt, and was used to teach the Bravaxians agriculture as well as to collect sacrifices of valuable foodstuffs.
The Convergence also came to utilize the Bravaxians themselves as a food source, (as an extension of the Bravaxians' own cannibalistic practices), and this was facilitated by having the "gods" demand sacrifices. Bravaxian flesh is prized by the Convergence, because it has a narcotic effect on Greys. The Greys who oversaw and harvested the Bravaxians always made a show of being the servants of the "gods" they created.
During the third Convergence War, the Planetary League liberated the Bravaxian home-world, which became an independent world.
Biology
Bravaxians are oxygen-breathing, omnivorous vertebrates with three sexes.
Their skeletons are made of a cartilage-like tissue that is softer than the skeletons of most life-forms.
Their mouths are bordered by a set of four prehensile tentacles that give them a limited amount of fine manipulation ability. Bravaxian saliva is dark blue, but also slightly phosphorescent.
Their short legs make them slow, and easy targets for predators, which drove them to work together for mutual defense, causing them to develop culture and language.
Female Bravaxians lay eggs, which are then fertilized by one parent of each of the other two sexes ( "left-male" and "right-male"). Female Bravaxians make up about 20% of the population, while left- and right- males each account for about 40%. To untrained human eyes the three sexes of Bravaxian appear indistinguishable. They are mainly identified by scent among themselves, but subtle variations of coloration and tentacle length can reveal the sex of a Bravaxian as well.
Culture
Before the coming of the Convergence, Bravaxians lived in small tribes and villages with polytheistic and animistic religions. They lived in simple covered nests, and subsisted by hunting and gathering.
Cannibalism is fairly common among Bravaxians, usually by one's own family members after a violent death (they avoid eating family who died of disease). Bravaxian flesh is sweet-tasting, but mildly toxic to humans.
Bravaxian writing was traditionally accomplished via tentacle, using saliva on pieces of wood. Their saliva being dark blue, yet phosphorescent remains visible in both light and dark conditions, which is useful in the flickering light of the forest floors where Bravaxians live. In Bravaxian culture, a written statement isn't considered authentic or sincere unless it is written in the author's own saliva. This was initially a problem for the Convergence in their dealings with the Bravaxians, as Greys (like humans) have transparent saliva, meaning they were seen as inherently untrustworthy because things written in it could not be seen. The Greys who dealt with Bravaxians on a regular basis genetically modified themselves to have Bravaxian-style saliva, in order to circumvent this problem. After long subjugation by the Convergence, little remained of traditional Bravaxian cultures, and most learned to write in Convergence Script.
Each of the sexes generally exhibit one of two genders. The genders are defined largely by what role they play in daily life, either tending the nests or hunting/gathering. The majority of female Bravaxians are of the nest-tending gender, (being both relatively rare and biologically important as egg-layers, there is a lot of social pressure to keep them safely at home), while left- and right- males both tend to take up the hunting/gathering genders.
Habitat
The natural habitat of the Bravaxians is the floor of the wind-forests of Bravaxia. These forests are dominated by tall trees. The leaves of these trees are constantly agitated by the wind, creating constantly flickering daylight on the floor of the forest, which bravaxian eyes are highly adapted to. After their liberation, when Bravaxians were able to build their own technological civilization, this adaptation to flickering light found expression in the form of their light fixtures which are designed to flicker constantly, much to the annoyance of other species.
