Jovians

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.

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Nalorgian Colony Beings

Inspired by an original concept by Fred Graves

Description

Nalorgian colony beings are not individual organisms, so much as the symbiotic fusion of four different species.  They stand about 1.5 Meters high, and most of the component organisms live on average about 20 years, although the combined symbiotic organism can live substantially longer as new organisms replace those that die.  Their "feet", and the ends of their "fingers" are suction-cup like organs that allow the Nalorgian to hold onto things.  Nalorgians are omnivorous.

The symbiotic nature of their anatomy gives Nalorgians the distinct trait of being modular.  If one of the constituent organisms dies, it can be replaced by another of the same gender and species.

Nalorgians are native to the planet Artanis 4, but have spread throughout the galaxy.  Nalorgians lived at a level of technological development similar to the Victorian period when they were conquered by the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns.  Many Nalorgians later joined with Ool-Tyr pirates, and together they formed the Nomad Armies, the fiercest and most dreaded enemies of the E1MS.

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Anatomy

The body section, and the head section of the Nalorgian are the female, and the male members, respectively, of a semi-aquatic species, and live in a mated pair until one or both die.  This species includes some different subspecies that give certain populations of Nalorgians distinct body plans.

The arm sections are from an aquatic, fish-like species, and they also live in mated pairs, which takes place through the mediation of the body section.  The left arm is always male, and the right is always female. 

The leg sections are a third, fish-like species that also live in mated pairs, joined by the body section.  The left leg is always female, and the right is always male. 

Finally, Nalorgia is a microbe that lives in special organs found in the three other species, and acts as a central nervous system, coordinating the others.

Life Cycle

The component organisms of a Nalorgian are all either aquatic, or semi-aquatic, and they start their lives in shallow ponds, like those that cover much of the surface of Artanis 4, their home-world.  These ponds are teeming with the Nalorgia microorganism that permeates the others. 

As they mature, the head and the body mate first.  Then they are joined in the water by the arms, and finally the legs join the symbiosis, and the fully formed Nalorgian stands up, and wades out of the pond. 

Adult Nalorgians spend the majority of their time on land, although they can live comfortably in the water as well.  From time to time, adult Nalorgians seek out a pond to lay the eggs of the three bodily species, and to release some of the Nalorgia.  If one of the component organisms dies, the remaining portion of the Nalorgian, (if viable), will seek out a breeding pond in order to find a new, compatible mate.

Related Life-forms

The Grand Nalaxian was a sentient complex of spawning pools that served as planetary governor, and created the Nalaxian Code.

Subspecies

The Climber is adapted to rough, mountainous terrain.

Thanians

Thanians are an intelligent, aquatic species from a planet almost entirely covered by water.  The home star of the Thanians is an anomaly, as it burns primarily with green light, not overpowered by other wavelengths in the visible spectrum.  The reason for this is unknown, as nature does not normally produce green stars, and the thanian home-world lies in remote, relatively unexplored sector of the galaxy.

Physiology: Thanian physiology tends to be fairly variable, largely due to bio-modification technology.  What follows is a description of the most common traits.  A Thanian’s head resembles a cephalopod, with two large eyes facing forward for hunting.  Thanians tend to be blue-green in color.  Thanians typically have a torso that resembles a human torso, but with four arms instead of two.  Most Thanians do not have legs, but do have a tail, configured horizontally, like a whale’s.  Thanians breathe water through gills, like fish.  The gas-filled organ that Thanians use to control their depth is also capable of producing a wide variety of sounds, this is used both for communication and echolocation.  Thanians are omnivorous, but are biased toward eating meat.  Contact with the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns has introduced Thanians to bio-modification technology, which has produced a wide variety of forms, including land-adapted Thanians.  

Thanians are an egg-laying species, and the physical characteristics that distinguish male and female Thanians are not immediately obvious to casual human observers.  Thanians are similar to humans in proportions, with adults generally ranging from 1.5 to 2 meters in length, massing 50-100 kg.

Culture: Thanian society and culture had advanced to a state similar to that of the middle ages, before they were conquered by the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns.  Government was based on a feudal model, with fairly large, settled kingdoms divided into smaller fiefdoms.  There were also significant populations of nomadic Thanians.  Like the middle ages on Earth, religion tended to dominate Thanian politics, with the largest religion wielding substantial power over the dealings of many of the larger states.

The largest, most influential Thanian religion worships a huge creature, said to be sleeping in the deepest part of the ocean.  The trench where the creature is said to lie is so deep that the pressure is too high for Thanians, or even the most advanced submarines to descend.  The faithful say that one day the creature will awaken, and ascend to destroy the world.

Tech: Thanian technology was primitive compared to their culture, due to the fact that the native environment of Thanians is underwater.  Without fire, metal could not be smelted.  Even though some wood-bearing plants could be grown in the shallower areas, wood was rarely used as a building material, and the manufacture of paper was basically impossible.  Thanians also did not develop dyes, although the seaweed of their homeworld grew in a wide enough variety of colors for most purposes.  Most Thanian tech consisted of stone, seaweed fibers, and the scales, shells, and bones of the local fauna.  Bioluminescence also figures prominently in Thanian technology, as many deep-dwelling species produce some form of the phenomenon.

Thanian writing systems are typically achieved by tying knots in cords made of seaweed fiber, similar to the Incan system. Their arts include poetry, drama, and song, with the visual arts lagging behind due to technological limitations, although they do have some, mainly in the form of earthwork sculpture made from stacked earth and stone.

Thanian buildings are made primarily of stone.  The first Thanian buildings were communal nests to protect their eggs from predators.  These later had storehouses attached to them, and eventually developed into elaborate, underwater castles and temples.

Thanians tend not to wear clothing, but are biologically well adapted to a wide range of temperatures.  Their blood contains a natural antifreeze agent.

Thanian warriors generally use two distinct weapons, a double-ended trident, and a net with weights attached around its perimeter.  The tridents are traditionally carved from the bones of large fish, although after contact with the outside world, metal and composite models became popular.

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Ool-Tyr

Description

The Ool-Tyr are an intelligent life-form from the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns that evolved in zero-gravity.  When the first explorers from the E1MS reached the nebula known as Ool-Tygnoth (home of the Ool-Tyr, and one of the early systems explored by the E1MS), the Ool-Tyr lived in a pre-technological state, hunting and gathering the plants and animals that grow there.  After they were conquered by the Empire, the Ool-Tyr often took on the role of piloting spacecraft, for which their lives in free-fall made them uniquely well suited.  Eventually, many Ool-Tyr ended up buying or stealing their ships, and setting out on lives of piracy.  In fact Ool-Tyr pirates became so successful, that they helped drive the Empire into a defensive stance, and an over-reliance on star-gates for interstellar travel and trade.  

An Ool-Tyr's body is spherical, with four large tentacles in a tetrahedral arrangement, and four large eyes, also in a tetrahedral arrangement.  Eating, breathing, reproduction, and removal of waste are all handled through body orifices, which are between the tentacles.  The tentacles are used for locomotion (both by grappling, and by expelling inhaled air through orifices in the ends of the tentacles), and for speech (through the same orifices).  

Ool-Tyr vary in color from light blue to dark purple.  As they age, their color gradually fades to grey or beige.

At birth, an Ool-Tyr is about the size of a basketball.  Since they live in free-fall, gravity imposes no limits to an Ool-Tyr's size, and they continue growing throughout their life-cycles.  The oldest of them can be quite impressively large.

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Greys

Description

Long ago, before the 1,000 Years War, the Greys split off genetically from the Cielioid Grey Subspecies.  The Cielioid Greys are specialized trash collectors and scavengers, and as such tend to work at night.  As a result of this, they lost their photosynthetic pigmentation, and took on fungal characteristics.  They also developed specialized organs for communicating non-verbally using radio waves.  Greys lack the dual-metabolism of Cielioids, and as a result are pure oxygen breathers, like humans.

When the Greys split from the Cielioid Greys, they lost their beaks.  They speak rarely, using only simple language.  As a replacement for speech, their brain-to-brain radio linking ability took over to the point that they freely form hive minds among themselves.  Individual Greys have only vestigial personalities.  Because of this, they are sensitive to radio interference, as it disrupts their ability to think.

Sensitivity to radio interference drives Greys to seek out isolated parts of space, far from other technological civilizations.  Greys tend to take a hostile view toward civilizations that produce a lot of radio noise, but this hostility tends to be expressed passive-aggressively in the form of information and psychological warfare tactics.

Grey cuisine tends to be in the form of mushes and soups made of scavenged and recycled organic waste.

Greys reproduce asexually, through spores, and have lost the outward manifestations of their reproductive organs.  The spores are released through small pores located near the center of the abdomen.  These spores are deposited in communal nurseries, where they form a mycelium-like structure, and are tended by designated caretakers.  In time, the mycelium develops a fruiting body that grows into a new Grey.

Some Greys still live in the Empire of 1,000,000 Suns, but the majority of them left to form The Convergence, one of the first of the Breakaway States, well before the 1,000 Years War.

Notable Subspecies

The Brute is a subspecies of Grey engineered for physical strength.

The Convergence Node is a subspecies developed within the Convergence that acts as a communications hub.

The Spring-heeled Jack is a subspecies of Grey engineered to hunt down the enemies of the Convergence.

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Cielioid Centaur

Subspecies Description

The “Centaur” is a Cielioid adapted just to perform manual labor.  This subspecies was first engineered during the 1,000 Years war, when industrial robots rose up against their masters.

The Centaur's form is designed to assist in the carrying of heavy loads, and to perform repetitive tasks.  Centaurs can be found in a variety of roles, but generally perform unskilled or semi-skilled labor.

Due to their higher metabolism rates, Centaurs generally live shorter lifespans than other Cielioids.  An average lifespan for a Centaur is 80 years.

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Cielioid Boxer

Subspecies Description

The boxer is a Cielioid adapted to hand to hand combat.  The Boxer cuts a towering figure, heavily muscled with hands built to inflict the maximum amount of damage, and no head or neck separate from its body.  The biggest psychological adaptations of the boxer subspecies are a propensity for aggression and respect for authority.

Most boxers find employment in law enforcement or the military.  Boxers are also in demand as enforcers among criminal organizations.  When boxers are employed outside of these fields, care is usually taken to place them under the command of a mentor/ boss who they respect, and to minimize their aggression.  Under the right circumstances, Boxers also excel in performing heavy labor, which was significant in the 1,000 Years War.

Boxers generally live shorter lives than most Cielioids, due to their high metabolisms.  A typical Boxer lives to about 50 years old.

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Cielioid Grey

Subspecies Description

Cielioid Greys are the sanitation workers in Cielioid society.  They generally work at night, and because of this have lost their photosynthetic cells, and have taken on fungal characteristics.  Also, the Ceilioid Greys have developed the ability to communicate non-verbally using radio frequencies generated by a special organ connected to their brains.  Cielioid Greys are short, have smaller reproductive organs and beaks, and take longer to fully mature compared to other Cielioids.

While Cielioid Greys are still a subspecies of Cielioid, they usually mate with other Cielioid Greys, and a faction of them have split off entirely to become a new species, the Greys.  Since Cielioid Greys work at night and have the ability to communicate directly via radio, they don't speak much.

The average lifespan of a Cielioid Grey is 80 years.

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