General Knowledge
ALIENS
1) The Chukats:
Furry, pseudo-mammalian spider-like creatures with six main limbs, described as what a spider monkey might look like if created from an actual spider. They are arboreal and social. Their limbs have many joints, but are not “tentacles”. The limbs divide and divide again towards the tips, giving them four usable digits at each arm tip. Two additional digits used for holding are located along the length of each arm.
Chukats are an old race, and the ones who developed Jump Technology, passing it the Oumo and others, and eventually to Humanity. They are the first technological civilization to survive the Carinans, and this seems to be part luck: their rise, actually their second after being reduced to pre-technology by a Carinan attack, coincided with a gamma ray burst that decimated the Carinans. The Chukats then decided that they would resist the Carinans, and develop and support other civilizations which would unite their efforts.
Today they are rarely seen. They are remote, and aloof, and possess advanced technology no other race has. They are unwilling to expose their technology to accidental loss or capture, and so take a reserved, indirect approach. Their worlds are unknown, and distant, with no nearby colonies.
2) The Oumo
These strange heavy world aliens from a “super terran” world are the primary contacts and main designers of the social system by which Humanity was integrated into larger interstellar society. They claim to have been observing Humanity for thousands of years, occasionally destroying Carinan probes in the vicinity. They were forced into action by Humanity’s unanticipated sudden technological growth.
The Oumo are not a single species, instead, at least a dozen species of their planet exists in a single combined social structure. Functions are delegated by species- the large Momo, which have been described as a something like a squashed rhinocerous with a squid for a face, are the leaders of each group, and the much more commonly seen, taller and smaller Amimo are couriers, agents, and “liaison officers”.
Their native gravity is significantly higher than comfortable for Humans, and low or zero gee causes medical problems for them, so they do not live permanently among Humans. They do have some colonies in Human space, on worlds that Humanity does not want to colonize because of the gravity.
Their method of integrating Humanity has been to create a governing system that in some ways resembles their own. They created the Commonwealth, and the system of Governors who have no blood ties, allegiance, or economic interest in the territories they govern-presumably making them immune to the lures of corruption and self interest and the traditional rivalries and loyalties of the people they govern. The Oumo disdain for Human democracy is in part related to their own experience: there is no democracy in Oumo society. The Momo are the smartest and most capable rulers, and the very idea that others should have an “equal” voice is absurd to them.
3) The Crossers:
Biologically and psychologically one of alien classes more similar to Humanity. They resemble bipedal, tailed dinosaurs, like small tyrannosaurs with large brains and well developed forearms.
Generally friendly and interested in Humans.
They have lost their homeworld in the Carinan war, and have no known colony planets. They claim to have a small, scattered population living on large Home Ships, traveling endlessly and engaging in trade.
They are skilled in large scale space engineering, such as habitat construction.
Their name derives from their own translation of their species name, unpronounceable by Humans. The fact that this relates to their current nomadic existence means that it has replaced their earlier self-name; their civilization is believed to have been destroyed by the Carinans over a hundred thousand years ago, with relatively small numbers evacuated successfully by the Chukats.
4) Lipaps.
The Lipaps are an amphibious species resembling bipedal frogs. Biologically, they are easily understood but their philosophies disturb many Humans. Lipaps breed in very large numbers, the females laying hundreds of eggs at a time. A handful, if any, reach maturity. Lipaps feel no grief at the loss of juveniles, only pride in the “strong and worthy” that survive. It’s not unusual for Lipap parents to kill some of their own offspring themselves- even during the later juvenile stages when the young are clearly sentient creatures. Newly adult Lipaps feel little bond for their parents, but do have family attachments.
Lipaps seem to take some of these life lessons into other areas. Creative destruction is a necessary thing for them. All things deserve to be tested, abused, pushed, prodded, provoked… how else does one measure the true strength of a thing? As friends, Lipaps are known for pushing the emotional boundaries. For them, this tests and therefore displays the strength of the underlying friendship.
Lipaps are the second most capable warriors available to the coalition after Humans. They are agile and quick like Humans, and quite brave, being eager to face challenges. On the other hand they do not seem to coordinate with each other as well, and have trouble forming stable command structures.
5) Antarean Ecosentience.
Named not for Antares, but for the region of space in which their homeworld is located. No human has ever seen it. The Antarean Ecolosentience is an example (according to the Chukats there are more, but none have been detected) of an entire planet’s biosphere sharing a single sentient thought-network. There are no individuals- even freely moving creatures attach themselves to the network, joining with the single giant mind of the planet.
The Ecosentience is able to create independent entities, apparently it can tailor their forms and characteristics. These are something between free willed beings and organic robots, and can exist for years before being reconnected to the Ecosentience. Traveling Antareans are always of this nature, even their ships are partially living beings.
There are believed to be at least five “daughter worlds” of the original mother world. In colonizing space the Ecosentience has achieved the ability to reproduce itself. One of these is in Human space, on Kayon. Here, the Ecosentience is not planet-wide, but it is spread out over a considerable area of the tropics.
6) Mimosans
Mimosans are mollusk-like swamp dwellers, creatures with natural shells, and protruding limbs and sensory organs of several sorts sharing a common opening in the shell. They breathe a dense, hot, moist atmosphere unbreathable to Humans. In turn, Earth atmosphere will not support Mimosans. They are named for a bright star in the general vicinity (it is believed) of their home world. No Human has visited the Mimosan home world.
Mimosans can be challenging to deal with, even though their skills with language translation are the best of any known species. They carry some concepts to the point of obsession, such as their pursuit of perfectly clear, ambiguity-free language. They also have perceptions that differ wildly from the Human experience, for example, they apparently perceive relationships in complex, interactive networks as tangible and physical things. The first Humans to learn this reacted in disbelief, but the Mimosans reminded them that Humans perceive differences in electromagnetic wavelengths as “color”, a concept that has no direct meaning to Mimosans. It is thought that the radically different perceptions of Mimosans have allowed them to develop sciences that are virtually incomprehensible to Humans. Their technology is very advanced.
7) Velorans
Another “refugee race” evacuated with the help of Chukats and Oumo. They were a barely technological society, given great aid by the other races as they were between the Carinans and the Mimosans. Before the Carinans reached their space they had achieved a modest group of colonized systems, including eight habitable planets. All of these have been lost, and the Velorans have been relocated elsewhere.
Velorans are tall, slow and graceful, with four long legs and two long arms. They have been likened to “giraffe centaurs”. They live in extended families, polygamy is common. They are the tallest known sentients, and this makes space flight awkward for them. As a result, they are rarely seen.
8) Droyne
The Droyne might be have a history even longer than the Chukats, if their stories are true. They are short, winged humanoid creatures with outsized heads and eyes and wings that can only provide flight on worlds with gravity less than .8 G and at least standard atmospheric pressure- not a common combination for habitable planets. Droyne prefer these worlds, though, and so their main enclave in Human space is on the planet Terpsichore (though they are very much a minority here). They are one of the few species that can comfortable coexist alongside Humans, though their very different mental and social structures keep them socially distinct.
Droyne have three genders, and six castes, with the castes being biologically as well as socially distinct. Droyne of different castes can share the same parents, though: it is believe that their differences develop before birth, with certain as yet unknown triggers activating different sets of genes.
Droyne have almost no personal freedoms, nor do they seem to wish for any. The lower castes are not mindlessly obedient, but they are obedient, and see it as natural. The Human preoccupation with freedom, as it often comes at the expense of the group, is alien to them.
9) Flialeesh
Often called “Frillies” by Humans.
Native to a low gravity (.85G) and low pressure (about half an atmosphere) world, the Flialeesh evolved in an ecosystem where plants and animals never diverged long ago. Divergences, where they occurred, were much later, therefore there are mobile creatures with some plant like features, sessile creatures with some animal characteristics, and all kinds of intermediate states. The Flialeesh themselves are tripodal creatures with long, colorful clusters of breathing fronds- their “frills”. In addition to their three legs they have three “sensing stalks”, one of which has evolved into a sophisticated manipulating appendage. It is both strong and dexterous, though having only one is a disadvantage when compared with Humans, who are gifted with two. They are intelligent but not advanced, being in a “stone age” culture.
The Frillies are the first and thus far only alien race discovered by Humans, who reached their homeworld at BD+33 4737 on a long range survey about fifty years ago. This world is on the remote “back end” of Human space, 155 light years from Earth. Several expeditions followed, but when word got out to the Oumo they demanded that they oversea the delicate “first contact”. This, however, had already happened, to a very limited degree. Human explorers had chosen to make contact only with one remote subgroup of the pre-technological Flialeesh.
Elaborate gestures along with color changes and movements of their frills are part of their communication. They can communicate by sound alone- their voices are squeaky and high pitched- but consider this a limited, “cold” form of communication, as if Humans were communicating only by Morse Code.
10) Riders
The Riders are intelligent symbionts, looking like long slugs with many legs. They have evolved to “ride” a number of different species on their planet. Sometimes, a single Rider may own a number of “bearers” and alternate. This is a measure of status in their culture, however it has some cost: switching a bearer is not a quick process as the neural connections must grow into place and the rider must learn the use of its new body.
Like the Velorans and Crossers, the civilization of the Riders on their homeworld was destroyed by the Carinans, and the current civilization is a much reduced remnant, evacuated to new worlds with help from others.
Though the animals used as bearers are non sentient, they do have brains, and this results in interaction with the rider. The two link, and the personality and self-experience of the rider becomes a fusion. Riders report being very “different people” when attached to different bearers.
Maintaining suitable numbers of bearers is a major task for the Riders. It is a significant drag on their productivity, described as being something like a requirement that every human raise horses. But as the riders see it, the Humans have a disability- Humans are permanently joined to their host body, and cannot leave it for a different one, even when it dies. The idea of being trapped in a body, and dying when it dies, is frightening to a rider, which would instinctively slither off and find a new bearer were the old one to die suddenly.
Human scientists believe that Riders are a devolved form of a different, more independent species. Horror fiction aside, though, there is no chance of a rider joining with a Human- it is highly fine tuned by its own evolution, adapted to the specific forms of animals of its own planet. Riders, though, have discovered that the idea of parasitic mind controlling aliens has been popularized in Human fiction, always in a monstrous way, and find it strange and somewhat amusing.