Yefonix

The Yefonix are a species that has arisen on a planet they call Yefon. They are basically humanoid in shape, with flat stumpy legs and arms that have multiple joints allowing an astounding range of motion. They have no sense of hearing and communicate in several ways, including hand gestures and complex written ideographic languages. They can also feel vibrations in the ground through the soles of their feet with extreme sensitivity, which helps them tell what’s going on around them.

Most of Yefonix society is currently in a state we would compare to the medieval level of development on Earth. They build most of their technology from stone and the hides of animals they keep as livestock, with metallurgy being a relatively new art.

Corly is a well digger and maintainer. Surface water has been growing sparse in the equatorial regions of Yefon, so every tribe needs to have at least one well. In Corly’s region, they try to have a well available for every family, so Corly’s services are truly valued. Corly finds the work somewhat mindless, but ultimately enjoyable.

Veveed is a soldier in the service of a wealthy Yefonix tribe. Like most soldiers who can afford it, Veveed wears thick metal armor that limits arm movement somewhat, but protects the body. Veveed has fought in numerous wars and has many scars as a result, and is also mentally unwell, having grown addicted to feeling pain for “good causes”. This addiction has made Veveed a greater risk-taker during fights and can not end well.

The Yefonix have never had a physical currency, but have a system of credit that involves intense record-keeping. Tryder is a wandering merchant whose records are kept in a filing system in a large city, so whenever a deal is done, the proper records are made and attached to a trained flying animal that returns to the city to deposit the records with Tryder’s partners. The hunting of these animals is considered a great crime, because preventing the records from reaching their destination can prevent one from having to repay a debt. Tryder has had to kill several customers who tries to capture his animals after making a deal.

A Fact About Yefonix: One aspect of Yefonix technology that is well advanced compared to our Medieval stage is cooking. They have devised many interesting things, such as ovens that use sunlight to trigger different segments of the cooking process as the day progresses.

Universe: Indigo

Pejjits

The Pejjits live on a heavily forested world and have adapted to glide from tree to tree. Apart from their big gliding wings, they also have two forearms that are capable of tensing up into a rigid hook shape that allows them to swing from branch to branch. When they aren’t swinging anywhere, those arms, as well as the arms with the gliders, are useful for doing dexterous work like building tools and shelter. The proboscis on their faces is adapted for eating insect-like animals that live on and in the world’s trees. Pejjits live solitary lives only coming together during the mating season, during which they climb back up to the mountaintops where they were born. The rest of the time, they have no permanent residence, preferring to just roam wherever life takes them.

Roscon is something of an adrenaline junkie who enjoys climbing to the tallest trees and jumping off to soar off and stay in the air as long as possible, without a particular destination in mind.

Though Pejjits can usually get enough water by sucking from fruit in the trees, when fruits are scarce they occasionally have to come down to rivers to drink. Pebby is native to a region where the trees grow close to rivers that contain a deadly creature that preys on Pejjits. Though it is rare for one Pejjit to actually witness the predator catching another Prejjit and eating it, but Pebby has, so Pebby knows about the danger in the water. Though as solitary as the rest of the species, Pebby is now devoted to warning others about the predators and learning what there is to know about the monster.

Hevden is a cartographer of sorts, devoted to spending the year exploring, then telling the others the findings during the mating season. While the mapping does include information about things like notable trees that have fallen, it is mostly focused on where the tastiest bugs are swarming these days.

A Fact About Pejjits: The Pejjit homeworld is so near the edge of its galaxy that, while one hemisphere of the sky has many stars, the other is relatively dark. Among the lights visible in that dark half of the sky, however, is the galaxy that is home to such species as the Ugder and the Runk. From here, it seems like nothing more than a bright, blurry dot.

Universe: Narsidon

Dellwellians

The Dellwellians are a humanoid species whose homeworld (Dellwell) is in a relatively small, but very populous galaxy, which they call The Circle. In most galaxies, the meeting of two intelligent species is a momentous event, but with over a thousand species in a pretty tight space (cosmologically speaking), it’s pretty standard here. When Dellwellians invented their version of telescopes five centuries ago, there was enough activity present in their skies that there was no doubt, they were not alone in the universe. First contact came and went, and the Delwellians joined a galactic neighborhood that was active and lively.

Some Dellwellians do leave the planet, but many just remain on the homeworld, which has become very built-up and over populated. The planet’s location, near galactic shipping lines, makes it an ideal stop for spacefarers of other species.

Masgel is a typical young Dellwellian. She has given birth to one child, and raises it while she pursues her own education. When she is older, she will abandon her young and go on to a career. She is hoping to get into the entertainment industry.

Chisnee is one of those few Dellwellians who spend more of their life off Dellwell than on. Working with a shipping company, Chisnee is a translator who tries to keep language and customs operating smoothly between the many different species encountered on a regular basis. Since the galaxy has been operating like this for a long time, there are vast databases on the subject, but it seems like there’s always some new thing that alien species will find to hate about one another.

Skeedoy is the Dellwellian equivalent of a private detective. If someone needs a problem solved, they hire Skeedoy to do what he can to help. Because of this occupation, Skeedoy has seen the worst that Dellwell has to offer, and the worst that the rest of the galaxy brings to the planet. He’s become a very cynical and bitter sort. He’s not just world-weary, he’s galaxy-weary.

A Fact About Dellwellians: When Dellwellians reach sexual maturity, they are female-like in nature, possessing something similar to the egg and womb system of humans. When they run out of eggs, their body switches to a more male-like form, providing the sperm equivalent. After that they spend the last half of their life asexual.

Universe: Orange

In the vastness of a dozen alternate universes, there are bound to be all sorts of strange coincidences. The odds are pretty high that a species would evolve that would just happen to look like a cross between jack o’lanterns and spiders, but with that many universes, even the unlikeliest events can be realized. Which is convenient because it allows me the chance to present this Halloween-themed alien species:

Jack O’Spiders

The planet has been called “Hellcaveworld” by other species, since the natives don’t have a spoken language. The caves of this world are home to the Jack O’Spiders.

Facebiter is a fairly typical example of the species. Hellcaveworld is also home to numerous items that are useful in mystical rituals, so adventurers from other worlds often come here to plunder these goods (not to mention all the weapons and treasures dropped by other fallen adventurers). Jack O’Spiders like Facebiter hunt and kill these invaders.

Scarecrawler is another typical Jack O’Spider, but who is less likely to actively hunt the invaders. Scarecrawler will fight if cornered, but prefers to try to scare invaders away from caves where eggs have been laid.

Corpsestealer is too scared of the invaders to actually attack and kill them, but is perfectly happy to scavenge their remains. In this way, Corpsestealer has amassed a great collection of wealth in a deep cave, enough treasure that any adventurer who found it would be set for life.

A Fact About Jack O’Spiders: The glowing mouths of the Jack O’Spiders evolved as a way for the species to illuminate their way in the darkest of caves. Their eyes do not emit a glow, but do reflect the glow of the mouth, thus completing the resemblance to our jack o’lanterns. In spite of this evolved trait, the Jack O’Spiders can actually see in the dark, so the cause for illuminating the cave may actually be to shock their prey who are confronted with the sudden appearance of a scary glowing face in the dark. I guess prey doesn’t like that.

Universe: Brown

The Collaborators with Gkethargg

On the fog-choked planet Ukkasiak, the shineless spirit Gkethargg has established a nest. The lifeforms of that planet, have chosen, not that they had any true choice, to serve the Coming Shatterer of Flame. Perhaps, had the powerful entity not chosen its home there, they would have been different, but their history and existence as it is now is based fully around their collaboration with this extra-planar intelligence thing. Life has no meaning for them beyond serving the Power That Rumbles.

The Collaborators with Gkethargg have nothing that even comes close to human language, so I have just arbitrarily assigned random human dude names to this batch of individuals.

Phil dutifully mars the landscape of Ukkasiak. The Collaborators believe that is only for Grand Nightform to decide what can make its home on this planet. Phil, like all the Collaborators, needs not sleep and needs only drink in the otherworldly energies of the master for nourishment. So instead, Phil spends all its time crawling the planet’s surface making sure nothing grows without permission.

Jeff is a Gkethargg dancer, and so ever circles and writhes, gasping out a tuneless song that allows the dimensional barriers to remain in synch with the Voidborn Ruler of the Mists. Jeff never does anything but dances and sings, dances and sings, and never wants for more than that.

Ron comes up with new things to call Gkethargg.

A Fact About the Collaborators with Gkethargg: In addition to not needing to eat or sleep, the energies of their otherworldly benefactor also keep the Collaborators from aging and heal their physical wounds. Other species might see their lives and think the Collaborators are more like slaves than allies to their god-like being, but the Collaborators themselves certainly feel like they get a good deal out of the setup.

Universe: Grey

I was trying to come up with some sort of “monster-y” theme for some aliens, since it is late October, when I noticed that I had completely neglected making any aliens in the Universe Grey so far during the Alien Sunday year. Oops. But now that is remedied.