[Fugu]

Here I will post useful information that you guys learn about how things work 78,000 years after your civilization perished. Here you have a choice to make. Since you will occasionally learn things individually, your characters will not know everything I post in this thread as soon as I post it. If, for purposes of realism or incuriosity, you don't want to read OOC knowledge, you don't have to read anything here that I don't tell you to. But feel free to go ahead and read as much as you want, since anything I put here will not be terribly sensitive and will be learned by your character eventually.

The following post contains what Morgan learns from the UniDat in the laboratory.

This post has been edited by Fugu: 16 February 2006 - 01:21 AM

[Fugu]

EDIT: I decided that the below had more details than necessary, so I trimmed it down.

The universe you have awoken in is called 'Astra' in Xintus, which is rapidly becoming the standard language for stellar communications. The humans and wariti developed it from a pool of syllaboids that almost all known intelligent beings can pronounce. The A'euh, an economic rival of the humans and wariti who remain left out, accuse the project of being deliberately designed to exclude them from interstellar commerce. Defenders of Xintus claim that it's not their fault the A'euh evolved mouths so big that their jaw muscles could no longer manipulate them. (A'euh speak a purely tonal language.) Also left out are the oenid, the bizarre but highly intelligent lifeforms that developed in space itself, and never evolved the capacity to make sound in their silent asteroid fields. No one has yet heard them complain.

Most of Astra is under the jurisdiction of the Intergalactic Congress, a parliament of worlds and a few astral communities, with a member's voting power based on its contribution to the intergalactic economy. The Wariti control one fifth of that economy and get 2,281 votes. The Gorians control .012 percent of the intergalactic economy and get 1 vote. The IC's primary mission is security--most of the sizable taxes it recieves from members are spent on its military.

Who's who in the universe:

Wariti
First known species to travel in space, first to colonize a foreign planet, and the first to engage in interstellar war. Some 300 years after their first contact with alien species, during which time they had grown immensely, a revolution broke out on one of their colonies. The wariti’s chief rivals, the soong, took the opportunity to assault another one of the wariti’s colonies in hopes of taking it over. The first interplanetary war began. Seven years later, the Wariti had just barely reasserted control over both colonies. Newly aware of their vulnerability, the wariti began to push for the establishment of a galactic body to prevent warring over systems. After a decade, the Intergalactic Congress was formed.

Since then, the wariti have continued to grow. Perhaps the most well-known bit of wariti culture is the musical art form Tem-dorra, which only the wariti double vocal chords can perform, but legions of fans from many worlds enjoy. The stereotypical wariti is charismatic, arrogant, and loves glory above all else. Most other beings have difficulty trusting wariti in personal relations because their complex vocal chords grant them an exceptional ability to manipulate.

Wariti are slight of build for their height (about 1.6 meters) other than their paunch, and have flexible, fragile endoskeletons. Their eyes, ears, and nose are small, and their mouths, teeth, and brains are large. Their skin is a pallid lavender and multihued hair grows from the top of their heads.

(Who's who will continue tomorrow.)

This post has been edited by Fugu: 16 February 2006 - 06:26 PM

[Fugu]

Who's who continued (there are photographs for each species, but since I don't have photographs I instead describe the images your characters would see):

Armichaeans
These formidable beings come from the jungle marshes of Armichaea. Their most famous qualities are their innate mastery over nature, the robust biotechnology made possible by their powers, and their attitude of apparent complacency which seems to be the only thing keeping them from being the dominant force in the universe. In fact, the Armichaean philosophy is poorly understood. Djinu, their martial art/religion, preaches emulation of nature, including its passivity, but the whole picture also includes a complex understanding of the place of sentience and volition that requires years of study to comprehend. The consequences are readily clear to growth-minded species like the humans: the Armichaeans are falling behind.

The stereotypical Armichaean is withdrawn, stoic, and not to be trifled with. Nobody wants an annoyed Armichaean meddling with their physiology. In fact, Djinu would frown upon such behavior as a disruption of the natural flow of existence for a petty aim.

Armicheans have tough skin of greens and grays and boxy faces with cheekflaps framing an apatosauran snout and a pattern of small horns curling around their eyes. Their bodies are broad and hunched like a toad's. Their lean but muscular legs have two knees each: thigh segment points down and forward, middle segment points backward, calf segment points downward, foot segment points forward, toe segments point forward and down—only toes touch the ground. Their arms are scrawny. They stand about 1.6 meters tall normally, but can extend their legs to stand well over 2 meters.

(Prior to the discovery of other species, Armichaeans had no word for their kind specifically. They called themselves 'djina' which meant 'willing'. In the Armichaean language (also called Djinu) then and today, all intelligent beings have will and are therefore djina. To distinguish themselves from the djina of other worlds, the Armichaeans adopted the name of their planet.)

This post has been edited by Fugu: 16 February 2006 - 07:15 PM

[Fugu]

The UniDat articles are much longer and more informative than what I've placed here. Morgan will have access to Knowledge: Peoples of Astra when he levels up. A check of that skill will determine recall of details not mentioned here.

[Fugu]

Who's who continued (more to come)

Oenid
Home: Apatir (the ‘living’ asteroid fields of the Genar system)
Oenid evolved in space itself. A oenid is like a slime-covered spore colony that feeds on minerals. It has no skeleton of its own, but it covers some solid object, in primitive times an asteroid, and moves by manipulating the gravitational pull of its surroundings. It can sense the density of objects around it as well has a human can see color. Oenid are very intelligent. They have very little grasp of what other sentient species call 'identity'. 'A' oenid is just a colony of spores inhabiting the same asteroid (or these days, specially designed vacuoles). One oenid can share spores with another, split into two, or even grow into a whole new colony from a single spore. They seem to have decided, however, that a colony about the size and shape of a beanbag chair possesses the ideal weight-to-surface area ratio for maneuverability. Oenid cannot see, hear, or smell, but they can detect lip movement and learn to read it.

Their first contact with other life-forms was a stray Pamnadu satellite that wandered into one of their fields. Nearly a century later, the Oenid encountered the Pamnadu in person. They had become friends by the time Wariti scouts (and hence the galactic community) discovered them. Since that time the two peoples have been close allies in all situations. The Oenid have continued to grow, but the IC now regulates their freedom to settle new asteroid fields.

Oenid have an exceptional taste for games, and frequently engage in community wide sporting events. Games of chance, intellect and just about any other form also find high purchase. They see the world in games. Competition is non-existent; active, communal entertainment is the key. Oenid like to keep busy and dislike sitting still and things like meditation.

[Fugu]

Pamnadu
Home: Harein
Pamnadu are snake-like beings that, in their natural environment, slither on the air. (This is possible because of their home planet's rare combination of low gravity and high atmospheric pressure.) Their broad frills and elegant movements make them majestic creatures. With the help of the Oenid, the Pamnadu have developed the technological means to move normally in most gravitational fields. If bereft of those means, Pamnadu can still slither along solid surfaces. Even more impressively, they are naturally attuned to the porous nature of space-time and have a limited ability to 'tesser' between locations. Pamnadu legends tell of old masters who even learned to tesser between times.

Pamnadu are keen engineers. Their chief export is innovation, not least the famous tesser drive that is the modern standard for long-range travel.

Qua 'Bvu
Home: Psetina
The most powerful aquatic species in the galaxy. Qua 'Bvu are immense, shrewd, and unfathomably greedy. They take pride in their avarice; for them, the lengths to which one goes to acquire a prize, and to show it off, is a test of character. In times past, Qua 'Bvu were extremely generous to one another—almost all conceivable excesses had been done to death, and extravagant gifts were one remaining way to express one's wealth. Individual fortunes actually became relatively equal, since the rich could give away much faster than the less rich (no one would dare admit thinking themselves poor).

Alas, the mindset of competitive generosity did not survive the advent of space travel, which opened up whole new worlds of extravagance. Even their first venture into space was an exercise in conspicuous consumption: getting a million-gallon tank into orbit made Nju' Deodken Wloubpaixh a legend in his own time. Today the power and influence of the Qua 'Bvu is surpassed only by that of the Wariti, whom Qua 'Bvu loathe, thinking them miserly, bad-mannered, and vain (humility is an important quality for Qua 'Bvu).

Qua 'Bvu and many species on their home planet Psetina have a unique life cycle. The first stage looks like the life of most known organisms, ending with a brief metamorphosis almost identical to death--for one, the organs that kept it alive during the first stage stop functioning and decay. But this class of creatures, termed “abvitants” by human exobiologists, remains conscious and in control of its body afterward. Through poorly understood means (Qua 'Bvu never developed a field of medicine, similar to humans and quantum physics for most of their history) the creature transitions to feeding on a kind of momentum of the will that it built up during the first stage. The abvitant creature survives in a state of apparent decay, but generally with no less vigor or mental acumen, and in Qua 'Bvu, increased fortitude and self-control. Qua 'Bvu simply call the second stage adulthood.

Even if killed violently, short of being destroyed, a young abvitant will reanimate as an adult, although his final death will come sooner than normal, since he had less time to build up the momentum for his adult life. Adult abvitants can be killed and will eventually die naturally.

[Fugu]

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