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Gorger — The Gulchabrahva v2
Published: 2013-09-07 12:16:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 5128; Favourites: 29; Downloads: 9
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Description
AT LAST I've gotten around to complete this! Complete with updated art and all the things Don wanted to see in species bios from now on. Legacy is finally starting to live again
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Gulchabrahva
(Xamosapiens venefecus)
The Gulchabrahva, or Gulcha as they are colloquially known, are a non-humanoid race located in the western quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy, within Unification space. Native to the planet Luch, they can be distinguished by their extensive use of organic technology and their -thus far- unique symbiotic biology.
Biology
The Gulchabrahva are an amphibious species whose forms, to a Terran observer, may evoke traits of both birds and cetaceans, much like how Spaari bring to mind insects. All similarities end there, however, for compared to the rest of galactic races they possess the most extreme form of sexual dimorphism to date.
A female Gulcha stands around 4ft high and weighs anywhere from 38 to 45 kg. Their bodies are stocky and streamlined, supported by long, muscular legs ending in four-toed webbed feet. Where humanoid races would have arms there are large, fleshy, flipper-like “wings”, useless for flight but allowing their owner to sail across the waters, as well as serving as propulsion while diving. Growing from the middle of the ribcage is the single actual arm, possessing multiple joints and four fingers arranged in a zygodactyl pattern. The head is small and bullet-shaped, showing large, glassy eyes with yellow sclera, a single nostril capable of pinching shut at the owner’s will, a small hearing canal on each side, and 22 thin, sharp teeth. The neck is serpentine and flexible and is fitted with six bony spurs, believed to have evolved for self-defence. Crowning it all is a mane of long, stringy hair, covering everything from the scalp to the neck and the pronounced back hump. On the female’s rear, in a balancing “nub”, one can find the vagina and, right above, the anus. Skin tone varies between shades of blue and grey to white or mottled/splotched patterns. Hair is usually magenta or variations of pink or light red
At 7-9ft in length and 33 kg in weight, the male Gulcha is radically different. While sharing the basic morphology of the female, down to the long neck, mane and canoe-shaped body, it has no limbs beyond barely perceptible skeletal remnants, essentially resembling a large worm or snake-like being. The bone spurs found in the neck are longer and sharper than the female’s, often growing to a point they cross over as the male ages. The skull is larger and more powerfully built, and the teeth are not only much longer but grow outward in varying arranges, creating a threatening display. The pitch black eyes are small and almost embryonic, with predictably poor eyesight, but the olfactory and hearing organs are extremely well developed in comparison. Skin tone is similar to females, but also gravitates towards shades of orange
While the females possess a rather large heart and lungs, males only have a single bag-like lung and their heart is small and structurally simple. Furthermore, a male lacks a digestive or excretory system of any sort, with only a rudimentary tongue remaining, and is thus unable to feed. Aside from the brain, vocal chords and previously mentioned vitals, the only organs left are the genitals, comprised of a single large testicle and an extraordinarily long rope-like penis, considered by some biologists to be the proportionally largest among the known races. It can be said that males are thus born stunted and degenerate, but they are by no means vulnerable. Much of their body mass is comprised of tightly knotted muscle built towards short and quick bursts of activity, and all that structure can be focused on the upper jaw alone. A well placed strike from a male Gulcha can cause serious injuries and has been known to skewer targets the size of full grown humans with those jutting fangs.
This striking difference between genders serves a purpose, for the Gulchabrahva are a race of symbionts and depend upon each other to survive. Though they can defend themselves, males left alone have a lifespan of only hours, lacking most trappings of life. And while females are technically capable of living autonomously, they lack the mental capacity for self-preservation and are extremely vulnerable to outside hazards. Thus immediately after birth, a male must be “bonded” with a female by placing him within a cavity in her back hump, which connects to her spine. As soon as he jams his “tail” on the soft tissue, an enzyme secreted by his body will rapidly melt down his flesh onto hers and merge their circulatory and nervous systems together. Blood will be exchanged and their immune systems will mediate and mimic each other.
The process lasts only a few minutes, and once it is complete, the new couple will be fused for life, complementing each other. The female takes charge of locomotion and all metabolic processes, and receives protection and an “awakening” to a more self-aware existence. The male similarly gains an increase in intelligence, protects the female with his strength and sharper senses of smell and hearing, provides reproduction when she is ready, and shares nutrients and oxygen with her, though his lung and heart remain functional to lighten the load on her body.
With their brains connected, male and female Gulchabrahva retain their individuality but gain access to each other’s minds, experiencing every sensation, thought and emotion together. This allows them to communicate without words, even to the point of finishing each other’s phrases, as well as serving to deepen and develop the bond between them. Incompatibility between couples is treated as a psychological disorder, and consequently treated with drugs and extensive therapy. If either dies, the other will inevitably die as well, but not before entering a traumatic state of hysteria upon “the silence”
The particular properties from the Gulcha homeworld has given them several limitations in respect to other races. They are unable to breathe in atmospheres with high amounts of oxygen, requiring breathing tools, organic suits or atmospheric bubbles when performing tasks off-world. Hailing from a remarkably humid world, they can’t handle heat, and their biosuits are specially bred to keep and retain adequate moisture.
The other great limitation is that the Gulchabrahva biology is, simply put, poisonous to the rest of galactic denizens. Everything in their bodies, from the skin and hair to the organs, is riddled with toxins of various types, and their bones contain high quantities of metals, mercury most prominently. Contact with the breath, saliva, dermal mucous - their analogue to sweat-, feces and even sperm of a Gulcha can result in hard-hitting sickness or severe poisoning depending on level of exposure, while their blood, silver in color and of notoriously foul smell, causes multiple organ failure and a coma that can last for days at best, lead to death at worst. This has unfortunately given rise to a thriving black market of Gulchabrahva body parts and fluids in the shadier places of the galaxy. Ironically enough, the Gulchabrahva themselves are immune to most known poisons, thanks in part to two pairs of liver-like organs present in the females that filter out undesirable toxins from ingested food.
Gulchabrahva reproduce seasonally, with females becoming fertile on the last month of the year - 13 Terran Months - and males reacting to the hormonal and emotional changes by extending their penises all the way to their partner’s vagina in order to mate. Gestation lasts a period of 6 T-months, and the litter of 8-9 pups is born awake, hungry, and covered in short striped hair that gradually falls off with age. Females are already capable of walking upon birth, and for their first month they are fed with an oily “crop milk” provided by their caretakers.
Sexual maturity is reached at the age of 19 T-years, also the age where they are considered fully-fledged, coordinated adults. Average lifespan is estimated at 123.
Psychology
Gulchabrahva as a whole often come across as extroverted and overly friendly, if submissive. Females are typically calm, polite and reasonable, while males, aggressive by nature, possess a more cautious and blunt streak. Their upbringing gives them a drive to be helpful, and despite their feeling of unease towards non-symbiotic sentients, they’re quick to put their trust on others, eager to collaborate towards the common good and well-being of all. This, whoever, tends to cause on other races an impression of childish naiveté, which on the other hand isn’t entirely wrong.
As they are raised on a communal fashion, Gulcha have no concept of family like other races and form no real bonds with any particular “parent” individual, if they even have the interest to begin with. Friendship, however, is something else entirely. The people you choose to be close to, as they feel, are much more important than the circumstances of who birthed you, and as such are to be cherished with your life. The Gulchabrahva are extremely devoted to their friends, and often go to great lengths to please them and prove their loyalty. Conversely, breaking a friendship or otherwise betraying a Gulcha’s trust is one of the worst possible things you could do to them, and the thought of offending or somehow failing a friend causes them intense distress.
What can be said about Gulchabrahva morality is that it is gray at best. Though they are certainly good natured, they are simultaneously unpredictable and pragmatic, often taking decisions and actions that other races might consider excessive or amoral. This extends to matters of conflict, and even professions on the level of assassination and drug dealership. To the Gulcha common sense, as long as it is necessary and beneficial to their clan and the good of all, the “Whole”, any action is a good action. So fanatical they are in this belief, they’re quite quick to sacrifice themselves if the situation calls for it, happily giving up their lives for the sake of helping keep the balance of things. They will never be confrontational, but one should be wary of threatening them.
Diet
Gulchabrahva are predominantly carnivorous, living on water-based animal meats and occasional plant matter. Their teeth are more designed for catching and slicing slippery prey than chewing, so most foods are either swallowed whole or picked apart into more manageable morsels. As supporting two bodies demands a large amount of nutrients, females have fittingly ravenous appetites; a typical Gulcha meal is rather copious, and snacks between hours are frequent.
The food itself is preferably eaten raw with generous condiments, though pickling and marination are just as enjoyed. Gulchabrahva enjoy intense flavours, especially sour and bitter ones. Alcoholic beverages are popular, but they rarely have an effect on them beyond an apparently enjoyable “tickling”
Religion and spirituality
Everything in Gulchabrahva society revolves around the concept they call Oto, “The Whole”. It is the balance of the world, the “warm light in the storm”, the order that brings peace and prosperity to all things against the impure chaos. The Gulcha consider themselves the agents of the Whole, its gifted children, and that it is their duty to maintain and nurture this equilibrium, lest the world collapse into disarray. From the moment they emerge from the womb until the moment they die, every Gulchabrahva “couple” must serve the Whole in the best way possible. They will devote their lives to it, and will die for it if necessary. To refuse contribution is a sinful crime, performing an activity that simply does not contribute to the Whole or goes against its very ideals is an utterly blasphemous act deserving of righteous execution. That the rest of the galactic races do not follow their beliefs is something the Gulcha are aware of and understand, but in the opinion of many it is only a matter of time until they can be guided towards achieving the common good.
There still exists a small pantheon of gods, whose prominence has waned between the unification of the Gulchabrahva race and the rise of the Whole; modern belief is that the gods themselves are different aspects of the Whole, brought to the world to teach them the ways of balance. The most important deities are known as Mwaru - Cebl, “the Overlovers”, depicted as an ethereal couple in eternal sexual intercourse. Progenitors of the entire Gulcha race, it is to them their souls will eventually return upon death, to merge with their bright, limitless soul and experience the enlightened bliss of the Whole as one mind.
It must be noted that the symbiotic nature of the Gulcha has left its mark on how they see the world. Individually, each of them is an incomplete being, vessels of a half-formed soul. Only by bonding do they become complete creatures, able to enjoy what gifts life provides to the fullest. By the same rule, animals and the living tools they breed are similarly imperfect, but they are blissfully unaware of it, and the Gulcha do them a favour by giving them direction and purpose. One of the reasons they enjoy teamwork and are most comfortable in groups is because by collaborating together, the general feeling is as if the collective forms a single soul, which motivates the Gulcha and is beneficial to the Whole.
Needless to say the discovery that the galaxy is ripe with sentients that aren’t symbiotic has shaken the Gulchabrahva to the core. Species like Humans, Alaerin or even the A’via makes them feel visibly unnerved, for to their logic these are beings that go throughout their lives in a state of incompleteness, and are perfectly happy with it. (hence the term Cambrahva, “half person”). This innate fear is, much like Juntians do, overcome with years of conditioning, as the Gulcha won’t let such matters hinder the development of new allies and stability of the Whole, thought a degree of uneasiness will always remain. About the only ones they don’t have this response towards -anymore- are The Risen, their first allies, who are also said to be the only race they feel completely comfortable around.
When a Gulchabrahva couple passes away, the skull and spinal column of both partners are ritually preserved and taken to their clan’s communal graveyard (as they believe the spine is where the soul once resided), but the rest of the corpse(s) are sent away to be processed into nutrients at the food farms. This practice, assumed to be derivative from the stretched-thin conditions ancient Gulcha lived in, is considered by other races to be certainly revolting, but to the Gulcha themselves it is only logical, for when souls are gone what’s left are just empty husks, and offering your flesh and blood for the survival of your kin is but the final contribution to the Whole before returning to it.
Language
The modern Gulchabrahva tongue, Gulchunn, is a coarse and wet-sounding dialect composed of a rapid string of croaks, snorts, barks, clicks, hisses, and a plethora of gurgling and honking noises. Almost every sound is guttural in nature, and body language such as the stance and the position of heads, necks, arm and “wings” play a just as important role.
Being complicated to both learn and replicate, most non-Gulcha tend not to bother learning Gulchunn and resort to translator devices to communicate with them. The opposite also occurs, as the Gulcha have limited facial expressions and often lack the vocal range to speak other languages. Translated Gulcha speech, invariably, comes out somewhat broken and plagued with “best fits”, giving those with little experience on dealing with them a false impression of poor intelligence.
The Gulchabrahva never really developed writing as most races know it; The closest analogue consists on a limited series of complex glyphs, often strikingly colored and that are sometimes combined to convey different meanings and messages.
Culture
The Gulchabrahva have produced a large diversity of ethnicities, cultures and societies since their early beginnings, but uniting under a single banner in marginally recent times has resulted in the race going through an steady homogenization as generations pass. Nevertheless many ethnic groups in the modern age retain some of their old traditions alive, while still contributing to the Whole.
With no concept of literature, oral tradition is highly important, as it keeps their history, myths and knowledge alive and satisfies their creative needs. The Gulcha simply love stories, be they in the form of movies, recordings, plays or live narration, and within their society it is a thriving and highly successful industry. Music and dancing similarly enthrall them; there’s hardly a celebration that doesn’t include singers or storytellers to entertain the crowd.
Gulchabrahva seldom wear clothing, considering it impractical for anything but work protection and status as it would get in the way of swimming and their planet’s weather changes little throughout the year. Instead they adorn themselves with body paint and decorative symbionts, as well as stylizing or dying their manes. Off-world, though, where Gulcha must wear environmental biosuits at all hours, it becomes a moot point and they limit themselves to personalizing these with custom colors, markings and shapes on the protective skin.
As amphibious creatures Gulchabrahva are at home in the water, and frequently engage in recreational swimming with or without the aid of organic diving systems. Many more take to fishing and hunting, but this is more of a necessity than a luxury, allowing for the males’ aggressive instincts to be vented before they start causing mental stress to both partners.
The Gulcha dominion of genetic engineering naturally has its niche on the realm of entertainment. Art pieces range from one-off, sessile, baroque lifeforms, to more mobile bioconstructs designed for the elaborate arrangement of their shapes, or their delicate movements, or the pleasing, dazzling display of their bioluminescence, to say a few examples. Many Gulcha dwellings even have small, self-contained ecosystems owners can observe, take care of, and alter as they please.
Gulchabrahva do not experience love like more conventional races do, best described as an extreme form of monogamy. Connected in body and mind, male and female share a remarkably strong emotional bond, part romantic, part sibling-like affection. For obvious reasons, the concept of divorce is completely foreign to them, and they don’t seem to understand it very well.
The seasonal nature of the Gulcha reproductive cycle has lead them to not treat sexuality with any particular taboos. Females are only fertile for a short time of the year, and neither gender experiences sexual thoughts until then, thus the act of copulation outside mating season is treated as yet another recreational activity, a simple game that’s pleasurable for both genders and further deepens their bond to each other. Close Gulcha friends might even mate - that is, have each male insert his penis in the other’s partner - as casually and innocently as human children thumb-wrestling.
That said, they’ve only recently learned to keep this custom private, for few races are comfortable with the sight of a Gulcha couple starting to have sex in the open out of sheer boredom.
Society
Modern Gulcha organize themselves in what are known as Gul’chee or “flocks”, descended from pseudo-clannish tribal societies in the distant past. In turn, every flock, in-world or off-world, is united under the Ur’ Oto, the “Nation of the Whole”. It is governed by a council, whose members are the leaders (Gulcheron, “guides”) of the eight most powerful and influential flocks. They take the most important decisions and determine the ways their people should act, and outside the abysmally rare exceptions, citizens will happily and eagerly oblige. Benefiting and nurturing the Whole is an eternal presence in every Gulcha’s mind, and anyone that pays attention to their society will notice an energetic, borderline festive feel to it.
Born communally in established nursery bogs, young Gulcha are raised and educated by flock nurses, who will also be the ones to introduce them to the Whole. At the age of 10 T-years, they are considered Gul (“Helpers”) and begin their contribution by dedicating themselves to basic, menial labor, effectively becoming a vital component of Gulchabrahva day-to-day society. Upon hitting sexual maturity, adolescents become proper, legal adults and are free to pursue their own way of serving the Whole. Many will seek a future off-world, though part of their earnings will always be sent back home for the benefit of flock and Whole.
The principal export of the Gulcha consists of their organic technology and bioconstructs, seen across the galaxy as exotic novelties, but there’s also a surprising demand for assassins and spies, for a race whose very being is toxic to other races always proves itself profitable on certain sectors.
While the Gulchabrahva indeed hold a friendly, respectful attitude with other races, it is the Risen who are held in highest regard among them, for they are their first allies, the ones that opened the galaxy to them, and studying their technology allowed for Gulcha biotech to get more advanced than ever before. Unfortunately this very event also resulted in the first major sundering of their race since the ancient ages. A faction of extremist Gulcha, calling themselves Hap'r Bk'a (“Sin Breakers”) consider this alliance a blasphemy against the Whole, and that the Gulchabrahva should have achieved progress and balance without any influence from “half-living fiends” from “outside”. To this date they have been responsible of several, exceedingly brutal terrorist attacks, and they are an intense source of shame for other Gulcha and the Nation of the Whole, who are taking steps to ensure their swift extermination.
Technology
In a world where the air is thick with humidity and intense storms are a daily occurrence, the Gulchabrahva found fire a challenging element to sustain and put to good use. And possessing only one hand, development of even the most basic tools proved to be a just as complicated affair, if not more so. Thus, in the road towards technological advancement, the Gulcha took a wildly different path than other races in the galaxy: They bred their tools and machines for them.
Even before the species became sentient, the Gulchabrahva traversed the endless waters of their planets, ripe with myriads of life forms, and always adopted and controlled those they found to be useful in some way. As civilization grew, so did the process of domestication, and soon they were able to willingly modify these creatures through selective breeding and conditioning, seeking specimens fit to suit their needs. The process was slow and hardly infallible at first, but once underway the results spoke for themselves. Advances in genetics rose and rose, and by the advent of the modern age, the Gulcha have become masters of genetic engineering. Animals are hardly even needed nowadays, for any trouble at hand can be solved by simple manipulation of cultured tissues and stem-cells.
Everything the Gulcha use in their daily lives is alive, from huge endoskeletal dwellings to vehicles, clothing, television, radio, furniture, ornaments, engines, weapons, basic utensils and countless other devices. Most bioconstructs are developed in forge-like wombs of varying sizes, while others are literally grown, and specially complex specimens are, for lack of a better term, “built”. Powering entire flock-cities are massive heart-like organisms, eternally pumping nutrients through a network of oversized veins; the Gulcha equivalent of a power grid. At night the communities are ablaze with bioluminescent light.
As stated before, the introduction of Gulcha biotech to the galactic community opened a whole world of possibilities to its inhabitants, and the former latched to this as their biggest source of outside income. All manners of genetically engineered food, pets, medicines, drugs and tools are sold all over for the curious and the daring, alongside biological and chemical weapons to those interested --- again, this is not amoral to the Gulchabrahva, for it brings benefit to the Whole all the same.
What the Gulcha consider the pinnacle of their industry, however, are their living spaceships, marvels of genetic craft powered on organic FTL engines that have allowed their race to conquer that most hostile realm that is space. This, along with living environmental suits and power armor, was born from studying and reproducing the technology lent to them by The Risen upon first contact, and has made them see the universe with adventurous eyes. Gulchabrahva scientists (Gulluba, “Fleshers”) are always eager to receive gene-samples and biological information of every form of life, including other races, for what other wonders might be waiting among the stars? And how can they be used to benefit to the Whole?
History
The origins of the Gulchabrahva lie within the planet known as Luch. Believed to have been a verdant, fertile world in its prehistory, fossil records suggest at some point Luch suffered an ecological disaster of enormous proportions, vomiting countless quantities of hazardous materials into the atmosphere, and shattering the land masses beyond recognition. What was left became Luch as it is known today; a bleak world sprinkled with small, scattered islands, archipelagos and isolated sub-continents, where the air, water and soil are low in oxygen and thick in toxins, and soggy, bloated clouds crowd out the sun to disgorge storms and acid rain on a daily basis. Mass extinctions were quick to follow, but life was able to climb its way back, and those life forms that didn’t develop to accept the poison in their bodies instead evolved towards symbiotic relationships with others in order to survive. One such example was a widespread lineage of predatory fliers, and from a branch that gave up on flight to sail and wade in the endless waters, the Gulchabrahva were born.
Those first steps into civilization would later be known as the “Broken Times”, and come to be regarded by modern Gulcha with shame. A fractured world gave rise to a tremendous diversity of cultures, but with very few resources to come by, competition was extremely fierce. Generations of bloodshed ensued as tribal flotillas tore each other to pieces across sea, swamp and river. Nomadic societies plundered and enslaved wherever they went, and feasted on the flesh of the weak and the fallen.
Eventually, it was a particular tribe, the Bag’uli flock, that rose amidst the cycle of conflict to put an end to it. Blood had been spilled on the waters for far too long. Surely the gods had not brought them to the world for them to plunge each other in death and pain. There had to be a better way. They could live in a world without hunger, without fear, without suffering. They could have a future. In a few words, they could have peace….but to have it, they had to work together.
Slow but surely, the Gulcha managed to unify. The seeds of the Whole had been planted.
Upon solidifying their new world order, Gulchabrahva history after that point progressed rather uneventfully and had yet to develop spaceflight technology by the time they were encountered by the Risen. While that first contact almost ended in disaster, the telepathic talents of the Risen soon allowed for an understanding of both parties, and “uplifting” was quick to follow.
At present, the Gulchabrahva’s status within the Unification remains tentative, as their strange morals raise suspicion among its members, and the Risen feel they must earn their place. Nevertheless, they continue to thrive and adapt in the galaxy that has been opened to them, and having recently obtained their first off-world colony, they are more determined than ever, excitedly working towards finding their place in the new world and expand the good fortune of the Whole.
------------ Role in the setting ------------
The idea behind the Gulcha from the beginning was to add a sense of variety to the Legacy setting. Nearly all the alien races in the setting are human-like, and the other non-humans, while clearly alien, are still recognizable as Earth animals. So with them it’s the opposite spectrum, something very alien that stands out from the others design-and-biology-wise and whose customs and morals come off as strange or twisted in comparison. Even if a sci-fi setting is meant to evoke Star Trek, and all those humanoids are there for a reason, it still adds a whole new angle to have extremely non-human sentients, and keeps the audience intrigued.
They also play with the trope of organic technology, which is by now a classic of science-fiction and in my opinion was a long time coming since the closest before was the Xasheen cloning their war beasts. I should also add that for their concept I drew from the Orz from Star Control. Silly-looking, even stranger dialogue, very much want to be your friends, and just weird enough that people just dismiss them sometimes (What are they doing? Who knows, they’re Gulcha!) but with a morality that is unpredictable at best and grey at worst, and you do not want to make enemies with them.
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Comments: 24
Great job with this highly detailed species bio.
The Gulchabrahva are my favourite of all the LegacyVerse races. They are really the only truly alien race in the setting.
I love how the symbiotic male-female relationships give the gulcha the feeling that other races in the setting are "incomplete beings". The whole thing about their biology being toxic is somewhat interesting too. It means that different races have to overcome some truly huge differences when interacting.
I do have a few criticisms though:
Firstly, the whole thing about their bones containing high quantities of mercury and other heavy metals doesn't sound particularly plausible (though of course, the excessive heavy metals in the body thing is also an issue in the vorn).
Also, that the risen came and advanced their culture is, I feel, quite unnecessary. Not to mention a bit ironic, seeing as a fully aquatic race like the risen would face even bigger problems in developing civilisation and technology than the gulchabrahva (indeed, I personally doubt a fully aquatic race even could become technologically advanced, unless technology was given to them by some other race).
My biggest criticism though is that whole thing about the entire species having just one religion. I mean, I get they are more unified than other races, but still one would expect things like historical cultural isolation to allow for multiple religions, and things like gulcha male-female bonds being independant from other male-female bonds to allow for not believing in what the others are believing in.
But anyway, it was overall good to learn more about this species.
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1 - Well, they're aliens, just like in sci-fi we get a lot of silicon based lifeforms, one with mercury in its skeleton isn't that far fetched
2 - All the Risen really did was show them their spaceships and go HEY WE CAN USE THIS TO TRAVEL THROUGH SPACE, AND WITH A BIT OF EFFORT, YOU CAN DO TOO! The Gulcha simply studied what they got them and replicated it in a biotech form
3 - The Gulcha DID use to have many religions, but the thing is that now they're unified it's all begun to meld together into one thing. They still have different customs and beliefs depending on who you ask
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I'd say you're about right on number 2. While I doubt any species has a proper, super-strict 'prime directive' like in Star Trek, I imagine the general feeling is that too much uplifting is a bad thing. You can't just give people technology before they're ready for it, that leads to madness. The gulcha are a bit of a special case in that you can't even, like, given them things like enhanced medical tech and stuff, since their biology is so very alien. So, while I don't think the risen would give them anything too advanced, I would imagine seeing friendly aliens zooming around in spaceships would motivate people to mimic them. I'm sure gulcha have dreamers just like everyone else. And a benevolent alien species with advanced technology seems like one heck of a motivation for such people.
I think Tart may have a bit of a point about religion though. Could be a wider variety of religions, cults, sects, etc... they just all serve the Whole. That could be more of a social construct than a purely religious one. Or very likely, a mixture of both. Could be what the predecessors of the Hap'r Ba'k were raising a fit over before aliens. Other religions/spiritualities that they just did not feel suitably served the Whole. And when they lost that battle since, I'd assume, most gulcha don't care about your religion so long as you serve the Whole properly, they just wound up changing their particular gripe to the half-souled aliens. Same sort of struggle, just in a different context. Hap'r hate what's different because they don't believe it meshes with the Whole. While average gulcha are fine with differences, and believe there are many ways to contribute to the Whole. So who are they to judge.
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That's a very good point actually. I wanted to imply that when I rewrote the bio, but I guess i should have expanded more on it like you guys said. The Gulcha as a race are a clusterbunch of different ethnicities that have had their own beliefs before the Whole united them. There might be a lot of followings, cults, preachings, myths and religions that could have been lost, but others could still endure, because as long as you serve the Whole what matters what you worship? The Gulcha see the other races this way, so it's safe to assume they would too among themselves
That bit about the Hap'r also gives them an even bigger depth if you ask me. When you think about it that way they almost come off as the natural result of the pressures of a single doctrine/world order on a people that were fractured and violent ages before it happened. They got a lot of bottled up bitterness and the existence of the half-living aliens was either the last straw or the perfect scapegoat
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To be fair, conveying different ethnicities, religions and spiritualities are probably the toughest aspect when making a species. I mean, with humans we just assume it because... well, we're humans. But it's easy to generalize with alien species, and also for people to take those generalities and apply them to the whole species. Short of some crazy totalitarian civilization like the Immaculate State, pretty much every species is going to have all sorts of religions, ethnic quirks, cultural baggage and so on. Just, not really possible to convey the total breadth and scope of an alien culture. It'd be like trying to describe human spirituality in just a few paragraphs. All you can really do is give a few of the generalities and high points.
As for the Hap'r, I also think it kind of follows the same sort of pattern as a lot of human hate-groups. They fight, tooth and nail until they just overwhelmingly lose that particular battle in the culture-wars and can't actually win any new people to that cause. Then they pick a new target that is still marginalized in society, and tangentially related enough to the things they hate to where they can switch their focus to it instead. Until they lose that battle too, and repeat.
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1. The difference here is that silicon-based life forms are actually somewhat plausible. Mind you, the limitations of a silicon-based biology means that silicon-based life would likely be a lot less common than carbon-based life and also unable to evolve to the high levels of complexity that carbon-based life potentially can. But still, silicon can, like carbon, form organic chains, and thus one could conceivably get silicon-based life sometimes.
Mercury in the skeleton, on the other hand, does not sound plausible. Heavy metals and biology just don't mix well. Even if you somehow had life forms living on worlds with unusually high heavy metal contents, it would make more sense for them to have ways of keeping all that metal out of their bodies rather than incorporating it into their biology.
2. Still, it seems a bit unnecessary. There doesn't seem to be any reason why the gulcha couldn't just have developed their biotech ships on their own, given enough time.
3. So is it more sort of like how it is in theocratic cultures, where a single religion is forced upon the populace, and no respect is shown for those of different religions or of no religion?
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Sorta, like how Christianism started, except that instead of forcing others, everyone just sort of followed it at their own pace until it was the default
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I imagine there would still be a fair number of gulchabrahva not following the main religion though, as one could never get an entire species into a single religion. Especially seeing as its voluntary, which means that certain gulcha male-female pairs could be free to be choose to not follow it. And even if it were forced, that would just mean that those who don't follow the religion would merely pretend to follow it for their own safety and the safety of others they care about.
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I like this. A lot.
You kept in the original ideas that worked, added in some that have come up since, and gave it all a nice, more focused fine-tuning. Weird, interesting, and a neat combination of various things. The idea of them being almost childishly enthusiastic, while also being unabashed pragmatists seems like a fun combination.
Only thing I will say is that some of their tech would need to be non-organic here and there. Fusion reactors, some electronics. Probably has some organic elements here and there, of course. But more... cyborg than purely organic. Not that they haven't tried, but there's just probably nothing organic that can house and contain a fusion reaction properly. A lot of the actual armor on their starships is probably good old-fashioned metal alloys too. Not that they can't use organic processes to help make them, or to attach them to the ship instead of just bolting and welding. There's a lot of neat potential to play with, basically. Between their, historically, nearly exclusively organic tech-base, and other technologies that, while not capable of having an organic analogue, can have organic elements mixed in.
Would be curious to see how alien culture influences offworld gulcha. lol, they probably wind up being considered a little weird by their own flocks.
But yes! Great overall.
Also, seriously, accept that skype invite. Been sending it for months o: Zach and Robb can vouch for me not being crazy.
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Their technology USED to be cyborg-y in the first draft of their bio, but later on I realized the Xasheen also use half-mechanic beasts of war, so making everything they do fully organic feels more unique and different from all the others
They could have used mechanical stuff in their early ages before living tools became commonplace tho, I wouldn't rule it out
I am curious as to how the Risen feel at having an entire race of obedient fanboys tho XP
Aaaaand I'll consider it. I'm really glad Don is mobilizing everyone to work again, this entire setting has too much potential to just be left to gather dust
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Hrmm... I think pure biotech can work for a lot of their stuff. Just, dunno. Feel like there's just some things that wouldn't necessarily have a biological analogue. Or would be a mixture of bio-tech and mech-tech. But, then again, who knows. Just something to consider if you ever go into designing the inner workings of their ships in any great detail.
I could see increasing use of mech-tech being a point of contention to be honest. Younger, more ambitious gulcha wanting to use some of the machines of the older races. Wanting to use them to benefit the Whole and uplift their species fast. While other gulcha see that as wrong, and would rather do things 'their way' no matter how long it takes.
Well to be fair, it wasn't gathering dust before. Not quite anyway. It was just a slow process to reform the canon. And it isn't still totally there, by a long shot. But its there enough to get back a little more active again.
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Now that's a possibility! Blaz and me thought the Xasheen and the Gulcha could become allies from the common interest of using altered creatures to do their bidding, so collaborations of both species would result in bio-mechanical constructs here and there. Lots of ways it could go really
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*nodnod* and keep in mind, the cyber-beasts are just one tiny facet of xasheen tech. Most of their other stuff is relatively traditional metal and plastics. You aren't going to be stepping on too many toes if their starships and aircraft just happen to have a few metal bits jabbed in here or there. Or have actual batteries, reactors and such linked up to their organic systems.
There's a lot of neat ways to go with it. Just ideas to keep in mind ^^ It's mostly the higher-end stuff I'm talking about. I imagine pure organic does fine for everyday things.
Huh... wonder how their electronics work. I mean, they're a spacefaring civilization. There'd be cell phones, and radios, maybe even computers and an equivalent of the internet.
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....wow, never stopped to think about the internet. That's going to be so strange to look at xp
Their computers are basically hunks of meat with oversized brains that form images in their skin with either luminescence or chromatophores. Radios, telephones and walkie-talkies are little things with finely tuned ears and mouths that pick up brain signals (or a sort of morse code in earlier times) and parrot words as they come. With the study of Risen and Alaerin DNA this is all improved with a sort of telephatic Wi-Fi
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There's a lot of really neat ways to go with it. Keep in mind, we're talking about excessively alien biology too.
Who's to say they couldn't engineer organic machines to use metals too. A lump of meat with literal wiring for nerves, for example. Or, special pores on starships that secrete a carapace that's part organic, but also a whole lot of metallic compounds. You just "feed" the ship metal ore, or raw alloys while its in port, and it can process them and incorporate them into the carapace it secretes. Maybe part of a gulcha ship's regular maintenance cycle is returning to port to shed its old carapace and grow a new one. Could then recycle the starship carapace into other construction materials too.
If the gulcha have mercury in their blood, it isn't a stretch to think that other wildlife from their homeworld also incorporates heavy metals into their biology.
As for computing, that's going to be a weird mix. In theory you could grow molecular circuits (what you'd use for quantum computing) in a chemistry lab. I don't know if anyone uses proper quantum computers, but I believe just about everyone is using a hybrid system, or a sort of in-between step between modern circuits and molecular ones. Could probably induce organic tissues to grow similar components. Would just have to introduce plastics and metals into the system for it to use.
Maybe gulcha windows are grown too. Like, a lump of meat that you feed metal and ceramics, and it secretes them into into a flat sheet until it fills the space.
Still think there would need to be a couple purely mechanical components though. Reactors and grav blades in starships, for example. But then again, when you're getting into organically grown metals and alloys, the line between organic and inorganic becomes somewhat blurry.
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That first part is how I envisioned some of the biotech working. For things like war-beasts, buildings and specially starships, alongside nutrient fluids the Gulcha pump ores and minerals into the construct so it develops a resilient bone structure, or flesh as tough as a regular metallic hull, or straight out "grow" metallic plating. Or they just develop every muscle, bone and body part separately and just kind of "assemble it" together. Large Gulcha bioships usually have a furnace-stomach so they can consume and digest space debris to add the inorganic materials into their structure.
Almost every Gulcha bioconstruct is at least a bit inorganic in its biology for better maintenance, really. Sorta like the kaiju in Pacific Rim
As for reactors, the equivalent is in essence a heavily modified secondary heart that can be shut on and off with ship-brain stimuli. As for gravity related stuff, it could be derived from something similar to swim bladders in fish
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*nodnod* I imagine when you can insert mechanical systems into organic ones, or have organic ones straight-up grow mechanical features, the line gets super, super blurry.
"...You know you could have just spliced in a grav-blade, right? You didn't have to... grow one."
"This better." ^^
"....Ooookay."
Gulcha vehicles and ships, and even buildings and towns are probably fairly interesting. It's easy to think of giant, living structures and ships. But, I could see most of them as more composite creatures. Like a coral colony. Not so much a single huge organism, but dozens, hundreds of smaller, specialized creatures all just kind of, stuck together.
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Pretty much! A Gulcha city is like something between a coral reef and a stage in Abadox, a whole collection of different shapes and textures and lights and colors, meshed together in an alien conglomerate that nevertheless teems with life and contains as much dreams and stories as any other city elsewhere in the galaxy
If there ever is a book or anything in Legacy that requires illustrations i'd so love the chance to draw it
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Thanks! But you can't possibly have read all of it this fast XD
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I'm a fast reader! Though I'll admit I didn't read it all, the parts I did browse were very interesting, and the sheer volume of information is impressive!
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Let's just say I'm dedicated when it comes to world-building
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As a DM I know what you mean!
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