11,178
edits
User:Dante the Ghost/Sandbox: Difference between revisions
m
no edit summary
m (→Overview) |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 23: | Line 23: | ||
Instead of hair they have a long cartilage "wing" dividing into forked membranous fins and extend outward a little ways; this connects to their dorsal fin heterocercally. Extending from this connection is a single dorsal fin that divides in two when it reaches their pelvis. Their arms are humanoid and end in four, webbed fingers. These are extended when in motion. | Instead of hair they have a long cartilage "wing" dividing into forked membranous fins and extend outward a little ways; this connects to their dorsal fin heterocercally. Extending from this connection is a single dorsal fin that divides in two when it reaches their pelvis. Their arms are humanoid and end in four, webbed fingers. These are extended when in motion. | ||
Crystalian blood is {{Plain|[http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/28276/other-blood-colors yellowish-orange]}} in color, and they "breathe" hydrogen. This process is inefficient compared to oxygen-breathers. Their bioluminescent skin is studded in mottled light bluish-green patterns and can change colors | Crystalian blood is {{Plain|[http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/28276/other-blood-colors yellowish-orange]}} in color, and they "breathe" hydrogen. This process is inefficient compared to oxygen-breathers. Their bioluminescent skin is studded in mottled light bluish-green patterns and can change colors. It is soft to the touch, almost like statin, with small electrical impulses jumping at contact. Their humanoid faces, while smooth and nearly featureless, possess two pairs of eyes, a mouth, and a protuberance which resembles a nose. Gills are located about the neck. The eyes are colored either cyan, magenta, yellow, green, purple, or related shades thereof. | ||
Crystaliens possess little sexual dimorphism and generally resemble ''anthropoi'' females with minor physiological differences; "sex" is instead recognized as a social function, with three different "female" genders recorded and one "male". Monogamy is unknown, likely because of the disparate ratio between the different types. However there is a definitely sexual aspect to their reproductive cycle—any of the three female types can be fertilized by the male, and once this is accomplished, she goes and lays thousands of nearly microscopic eggs near or within crevices, and then abandons them once done. This kind of fertilization may account for the disparate eye color and sizes. Crystaliens live for typically four hundred Titanian years because of their slow metabolisms. | Crystaliens possess little sexual dimorphism and generally resemble ''anthropoi'' females with minor physiological differences; "sex" is instead recognized as a social function, with three different "female" genders recorded and one "male". Monogamy is unknown, likely because of the disparate ratio between the different types. However there is a definitely sexual aspect to their reproductive cycle—any of the three female types can be fertilized by the male, and once this is accomplished, she goes and lays thousands of nearly microscopic eggs near or within crevices, and then abandons them once done. This kind of fertilization may account for the disparate eye color and sizes. Crystaliens live for typically four hundred Titanian years because of their slow metabolisms. | ||
Crystaliens also possess an organ in their frontal temporal lobes which allows them to somehow communicate via the mind. This is poorly understood. Touching one's skin would establish contact yet they can communicate effortlessly with individuals they have never seen before. For hunting prey in deeper waters they use echolocation to sound out locations, and for general communication use their bioluminescence. | |||
===Life cycle=== | ===Life cycle=== | ||
| Line 39: | Line 39: | ||
===Culture=== | ===Culture=== | ||
Crystalien society is divided up into multiple pods or clans varying in size, with some reaching up to several hundred thousand individuals while the smallest is usually twenty or less. Each clan is distinct from the other by utilizing specific melodies and frequencies, and color patterns, to identify and unify their members together. A distinct hierarchy present within the clans, again utilizing color patterns, echolocation frequencies, and melodies to organize it. Certain individuals would oversee newly matured young, others would engage in songs, or attending the biological mother of the group in a court. This mother is the equivalent to an ''anthropoi'' queen. | Crystalien society is divided up into multiple pods or clans varying in size, with some reaching up to several hundred thousand individuals while the smallest is usually twenty or less. Each clan is distinct from the other by utilizing specific melodies and frequencies, and color patterns, to identify and unify their members together. A distinct hierarchy present within the clans, again utilizing color patterns, echolocation frequencies, and melodies to organize it. Certain individuals would oversee newly matured young, others would engage in songs, or attending the biological mother of the group in a court. This mother is the equivalent to an ''anthropoi'' queen. | ||
| Line 50: | Line 46: | ||
Water temples are unique structures not located in any city or community—except for the High Temple—but rather are scattered about the subaqueous landscape, hidden within fields of swaying seaweeds or exposed on flat plains of sand and mud. Neuromancers live in solitude, meditating on their religion, occasionally coming together for certain rituals or to welcome a novice, and sometimes meeting with another non-Neuromancer. | Water temples are unique structures not located in any city or community—except for the High Temple—but rather are scattered about the subaqueous landscape, hidden within fields of swaying seaweeds or exposed on flat plains of sand and mud. Neuromancers live in solitude, meditating on their religion, occasionally coming together for certain rituals or to welcome a novice, and sometimes meeting with another non-Neuromancer. | ||
Despite living underwater the Crystaliens nonetheless possess a marvelous culture. In addition to communicating via the colors of their skin and echolocation, Crystaliens have a musical language of haunting beauty. Each song is filled with complex, melodious symphonies which communicate every emotion possible to one another. Due to their telepathy, they have a richly preserved culture, allowing for an individual's achievements to live on enshrined in racial memory. | |||
Courtship is a very involved process for the Crystalien species. The male would approach a certain "female" with a mixture of singing and fluidic dancing. The female could either respond favorably or not. If the latter, the male moves on to another. If the former, she answers in likewise manner, dancing in intricate patterns while singing in harmony, unison, or dissonance. These courtship rituals can last for many months of the Titanian year, as time is reckoned, and are largely dependent on the participants' skill in wooing the other. | |||
===Telepathy=== | ===Telepathy=== | ||
| Line 55: | Line 55: | ||
===Governmental structure=== | ===Governmental structure=== | ||
Each clan is ruled by | Each clan is ruled by its biological mother. Each superclan is ruled by whomever is worthy and well-respected by the group. Cities are governed by females called "lesser Queens", Courts overseen by "minor Queens", and Tribunals, the ultimate Crystalien collective, are ruled by a "Greater Queen". The Crystaliens term this "the Hierarchy of Hierarchies". Nearly every position is held by females though it is not unheard of for males to be involved. Females generally are the ones who govern, as the female/male ratio is three to one and coupled with a low birthrate. | ||
Each lesser Queen decides matters pertaining to her city, advised by the clan-mothers and superclan representatives, while minor Queens handle the task of managing their Courts, making decisions at the local level and resolving disputes in courts of law. Minor Queens handle the regional affairs, resolving disputes between different cities, while last of all is the Greater Queen and her Tribunal, who handles inter-Tribunal relations and acts as the highest court of law should something require her attention. Occasionally, when matters of grave import come about, a number of Tribunals will meet together as a council. These often are to the resolution of mass resource claims, predator migrations needing to be diverted, or—rarely—to address an aggressive Tribunal. Wars are not common, but they are deadly, long-lived, and traumatic for generations to come. | |||
*'''Clan''': | |||
Clans are the basic political form of Crystalien society. | |||
Clans are a small group of ten to twenty families, each composed of thirty individuals, which usually live alone, either on the move or settled somewhere permanent, but sometimes they can come together to form a super-clan. Clan-mothers are the biological ancestor of the clan familes and are attended by a court of lesser females, usually her direct daughters. Her consort, the male who has directly captured her attention multiple times, serves as a coregent. | |||
*Super-clan: | |||
Clans sometimes would join together to form a super-clan. The reasons are varied but mostly to combat larger predators within Titania's subglacial oceans or for protection against other super-clans. To effectively lead such a massive organization, potential leaders would contend with one another in non-hostile ways until only one is left; eventually a ruling dynasty (through the female line) would coalesce if the super-clan has remained together for a significant period of time, and become a permanent form of government. | |||
*City: | |||
A more complex form of administration free of kinship ties was needed when super-clans started living in the same area around a hydrothermal vent, eventually forming organized cities, leading to disputes over resources. The basis for the monarchical feudalistic form of administration was then created; individuals well-respected within the community were granted "queenship" of the city and became the ultimate arbiters of justice; like the super-clan, a ruling dynasty soon formed, and political stability was ensured. | |||
*Court: | |||
Eventually the cities became numerous and soon came into competition with one another for territory and resources. Some allied with one another, forming large empires or coalitions. Others went to war. Eventually a rough groups of disparate collectives were created, and were termed Courts. Made up of anywhere between four to six cities, they were ruled by Queens, while the leaders of the cities became known as Lesser Queens. The Queens handled the international side of things while the Lesser Queens handled their own cities. True to its name, a Court had nobility attending to the monarch. | |||
*Tribunal: | |||
Finally, with the advent of an organized political structure, the Tribunals were created. Composed of between three to seven Courts, overseeing anywhere from ten to fifteen individual cities and thousands of clans, these Tribunals were ruled by the Greater Queen. Those which ruled the Courts became known as Lesser Queens while the cities became known as Minor Queens. | |||
*Hierarchy of Hierarchies: | |||
The last tier of government was created when the Tribunal Greater Queens convened together to figure out a solution to keep mass warfare from breaking out. Due to a war fought between those which lived in the deep oceans beneath the glaciers and the Cronus lake, a way was needed to keep the peace. Thus the Hierarchy of Hierarchies was born—the Hive Monarch was elected out of a group of seven hundred Tribunals. | |||
===Religion=== | ===Religion=== | ||