First contacted in GSC 205 by an expedition led by Zoe Bonnard, the Jovians are an intelligent life-form from the planet Jovium (the name of their planet in their most widely-spoken language, and the origin of their name).
Species
There are two distinct, but closely related species of Jovians. They are nearly identical in appearance, but vary widely in behavior.
Bon Jovians, (the "Bon" comes from the French, meaning "good", but feel free to insert your favorite Bon Jovi jokes here), are the intelligent species, the ones that formed tribes, and ended up joining the Planetary League. They have language, technology and culture. They wear clothing, and most adhere to a local animistic or polytheistic religion.
Kal Jovians (simply known as the Kal to the Bon Jovians) are wild predators. While they look like the intelligent Bon, they have no culture or technology, don't wear clothing, and will even hunt intelligent life-forms. The Kal regularly hunted and ate the Bon (greatly affecting the culture of the Bon), and even regularly cannibalize their own kind. The similarity in appearance makes the Kal especially dangerous, as it is easy to mistake one for a Bon.
Anatomy
Jovians are generally humanoid in appearance, with a number of unique features.
Their hands and feet each have two opposing digits (one on either side).
Their eyes and ears reside on retractable stalks. Jovians can see into the near-infrared spectrum, but not colors in the blue part of our visible spectrum, owing to their cooler sun that emits most of its light at lower frequencies.
Jovian hair grows in thick tufts, and comes in a number of colors not naturally found in humans. Similarly, Jovian skin is brightly colored, generally ranging from blue to purple. Because of their inability to see colors in the blue part of the spectrum, most Jovians look black to one another, although humans can see their color variations.
Jovians also tend to be taller than humans, averaging between seven and eight feet, owing to the slightly lower gravity of their home-world.
Jovians are strictly carnivorous, and have sharp teeth and wide mouths to accommodate their diets.
In Jovians, the functionality of respiration and circulation of blood is combined into a single organ located in the chest cavity.
Female Jovians have four breasts, (a feature that makes them popular in Rishathra parlors across the galaxy). Jovians are typically born as twins or quadruplets.
The hands of Jovians resemble the occult symbol, known as the Hamsa (for which the religious police in the Holy Empire of Man was named). Members of certain sects of the Church of God would hunt Jovians to get their hands to use as religious fetishes. This mainly led to the hunting of the Kal, (although not only the Kal were used in this regard), and as a result Kal Jovians went extinct during Era-2, with Bon Jovians also seeing a significant decline in population.
Culture
When first contacted, Bon Jovians lived in scattered hunting, herding, and fishing tribes with technology similar to that of neolithic cultures on Earth. It is widely believed that the carnivorous diet of the Jovians prevented the development of technology on their planet, as they never had cause to develop agriculture. Several easily domesticable plants grow wild on their home-world, but the Jovians had scant reason to utilize them, as they relied on herding and hunting to earn a living.
Single births among Jovians are rare enough that when they do happen, it is a major event, and most Bon Jovian religions believe that a single birth is a sign of a special destiny for the child.
One upshot of the Bon being regularly hunted by the Kal is that when a Bon Jovian meets someone, the first thing they do is to ask a question. Since the Kal have no faculty for language, this is a simple test to make sure the encountered party is safe. If the stranger gives no answer, or an unintelligible one, they are assumed to be dangerous.
After contact, knowledge about the Planetary League spread across the planet, and there was a movement to create a common culture as more tribes sought contact with outsiders and the knowledge they brought.
In GSC 705, on the 500th anniversary of first contact, a body representing the majority of Bon Jovians voted to join the Planetary League.
Notable Jovians
Burlix Hubart was the mayor of Fructose City on Neo Jalisco.
