Jawmeodds

The Jawmeodds are a four-legged species who have two arms growing out of what we might call their head. They have a large mouth on their forehead with a frog-like projectile tongues. Though they live underwater, the Jawmeodds are actually unable to swim, instead walking on the floors of their world’s oceans and lakes. Jawmeodd culture is currently very fragmented, with thousands of individual nations spread over the planet (which, in their most prevalent language, is called “Desthup” which is their word for “All Waters”), and there is political turmoil and war, all the things you’d expect. Most of these nations are made up of theocracies who worship the souls of the founders of the nation who they believe have ascended to godhood (often, the supposed founders are purely fictional anyway, the real founders having been long forgotten).

Mativox is a denizen of the shallowest nation on the planet, Etekko. There are parts of Etekko where one could wander so close to the shore that one can stick their hands above the surface (though this is risky, as there are predators up there). Mativox is the Jawmeodd equivalent of a fisherman, except Jawmeodds have traps that float to the surface and attract animals there, which are then caught and dragged below to drown. This occupation exists in all the nations on the planet, but most of those are further from the shore, so they can only trap the planet’s numerous flying surface animals. Etekko’s, and especially Mativox’s, specialty is rare land-dwelling delicacies that are the exported across the planet bringing much esteem to the nation.

Frandox is a mime. They have mimes on Desthup.

Pryzzz is an ice manufacturer. The temperature on the planet never gets below freezing (except on mountaintops that have never been seen my Jawmeodds), so the discovery of ice was fairly recent and, as of this point, can only be achieved in technologically advanced nations, and even there, ice manufacturers are seen as the height of intellectual types (the way people might talk about “rocket scientists” on Earth).

A Fact About Jawmeodds: There is a form of art on Desthup that involves creating a box, the inside of which is covered with interesting textures. The viewer will go inside the box, unable to see or hear outside, and feel the textures.

Universe: Indigo

Strondovarians

The Strondovarians are an intelligent people. Their planet, Gurx, is not terribly large and it had quite limited resources, which meant that the Strovdinians had to learn quickly to work together. Their culture came to value intellect and cleverness because those were the traits that ensured their survival. But for all their focus on brains, they are not weak by human standards. The average adult Strondovarian stands over two metres tall and their four powerful arms are strong at both pinching and punching.

Gloueb is an astronaut. With the resources of Gurx running out, the Strondovarians were quick to seek out other worlds that could be useful, and they found them. They now have a vast space network of spacecraft that are gathering resources to build a New Gurx, a giant artificially-created world that will be more appropriate for their race. Astronauts like Gloueb have, for generations, been collecting asteroids, comets, and materials from other planets and gathering them together in orbit around the chosen star where construction on the superstructure has begun.

Evpel is a contributor to the Knowledge Base Of The Strondovarians, the massive digital collection of all information deemed important to the species. For whatever reasons, the Knowledge Base is not a complete repository of information, but just that they deem “Noteworthy”. It is part of Evpel’s job to determine what is Noteworthy and, unfortunately for Evpel, there are Strondovarians who want little more than to be remembered throughout history by getting declared Noteworthy. These attention seekers don’t care what they get famous for, as long as they are famous, so they will try to become famous for all sorts of criminal acts. On one occasion Evpel was even kidnapped by someone trying to prove their importance. After Evpel’s was rescued, all information that could even suggest the kidnapper existed was stricken from the Knowledge Base, from making sure the crime was not mentioned, all the way to reducing the stated population for Gurx by one.

And Bukkel is devoted to the study of the mind and unleashing any and all mental powers that could be possible. A lot of Strondovarians consider the ultimate goal of life to be the transcending of physical form to become beings of purely mental energy. That may still be a long way off, but Bukkel is hoping to make strides toward turning that into a reality. A lot of the research involves actually performing operations on living subjects, either volunteers, infants bred for the purpose, or unwilling subjects sentenced to this as punishment. Bukkel also makes puzzles for fun.

A Fact About Strondovarians: The design of Strondovarian knees (which they have several of in each leg) is such that they move almost every which way. This makes it very hard for a Strondovarian to be knocked off balance, but they can’t run particularly fast because of how complicated it gets.

Universe: Blue

Srimuns

Srimuns are native to the planet Throil orbiting a red star called Sudge. Their bodies are probably best described as being T-shaped snakes. On their head they have a sort of beard, which conceals small pincers they can use to hold things (though coiling tails around things is also used for less delicate work). Srimuns have two eyes, which are on retractable stalks, as well as two mouths, one for breathing and speaking and another for eating.

Over the course of nine-thousand years the Srimuns rose from simple hunters to develop cities and spread to all the other habitable valleys on their world. They developed submarines to travel their depths and computers to store their information and communicate. Wars were fought and, though they never split the atom, they developed many powerful weapons. Srimun society rose to some pretty nice heights, but then went into a decline. Srimuns had become too dependent on their technology. They no longer farmed, hunted or built things on their own. Cities were falling into disrepair and young Srimuns were not being trained in the necessary skills to maintain the technology. It was at this point that the Ugder first arrived on the planet. Had they arrived only a few generations later, they may have found only the remains of the Srimun.

First contact with the Ugder went extremely well, the language barrier being the biggest challenge. Embo Bount was one of the first Srimuns to meet the Ugder, the closest thing to an linguist on the planet in their days of decline. For whatever cultural reason, Embo and the others had no innate fear of the alien outsiders, so the efforts to learn to communicate with these strange beings went very calmly in face to face meetings. In time, the Srimuns learned to approximate Ugder speech (though the Ugder are unable to reproduce the sounds of Srimun languages) and the two species have been at peace ever since. Embo has gone on to visit the Ugder homeworld as an ambassador on many occasions.

With the arrival of the Ugder, knowledge in things like science and technology came back into vogue on Throil. Tuss Kubba, once a youngster who was content to wile away the days playing games, has now become devoted to researching the old sciences to learn the ways of the high-tech ancestors.

After being taught the ways of space travel by the Ugder, the Srimuns colonized the planet Nush, which is another world in their system. Bebb Lemb is one of the colonists there. Because Nush is much further from the sun than their homeworld, the Nush Srimuns live in heated and artificially illuminated tunnels below the surface. Bebb runs the colony’s machinery for converting surface ice into potable water.

A Fact About Srimuns: Srimans have domesticated a species of animal that somewhat resembles a flightless bird. These creatures are used both as pets, and also as steeds, which the Srimuns ride by coiling themselves around the beast’s torso.

Universe: Narsidon

The Wenwehhek

The Wenwehhek are a species that dwell in the many rivers of the planet Duvvked, a world of almost perpetual rain that is teeming with life. Although they are adept at swimming, the Wenwehhek are air-breathers, living in nests that line the shores of the planet. They have two paddle-like feet and four little appendages on the “chest” that they use like fingers. A blowhole on their head allows them to breathe even when wading almost entirely into the water.

Rappuko is a teacher at a Wenwehhek nursery. The Wenwehhek lay eggs in communal nurseries where teachers raise the pupae, determining what their ideal use in society should be, and teaching them what they need to know to do that. Rappuko cares pretty deeply for her pupal pupils, and tries to set them up with occupations that will make them happy. But if everyone just goes into the jobs that they will enjoy, who is going to do the crappy jobs? Rappuko is going to make someone unhappy, or else society itself could be doomed.

Aflicksh is the type who constantly wants to talk about how great he is to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately for Aflicksh, he isn’t so great. For instance, he tries to tell people he can swim faster than anyone in the local river system, but he can’t. He has actively avoided many challenges to race and prove his speed, but he never accepts them. “I haven’t got to prove anything to you,” he says. The same thing goes for Aflicksh’s claim that he is the loudest yeller on the planet. He likes to say it, but never seems to have the time to prove it to anyone. It seems like that might be an effective way of deflecting the issue, but really it has gone on long enough that nobody think Aflicksh is anything but a jerk. That includes Aflicksh, though. He’s so sick of putting up with his own lies, but coming clean at this point would be so embarrassing that he can’t do it. He’s just fully committed to being the big jerk who talks about how great he is.

Creditt is the loudest yeller on the planet. He doesn’t know it, though. He played yelling games when he was younger, but never at a professional level, so even though he knows he was good, he has no idea that he’s the best. It doesn’t really come up much in his job, which is to clear rivers that have been blocked by mudslides.

A Fact About the Wenwehhek: The Wenwehhek don’t really eat for pleasure. Feeding is remarkably casual for them, accomplished by just resting their heads on the surface of the river, with their open mouth in the water, and waiting for small animals to drift in, then snapping the mouth shut. In strange circumstances, like an emergency trek through one of the planet’s rare non-rivered areas, they might fill a bowl with water and food to recreate this, but usually eating is just a matter of taking a break and stopping off at the closest stream for a minute.

Universe: White

Niftari

The Niftari are a species that lives on a planet called Carasteranak. They are a furry, slow-moving species that walks on hooved back feet and the elbows of their forelimbs. They are very solitary creatures and, once they leave their litter, they only join with other Niftari for the purpose of mating. Any natural predators the Niftari once may have had were gotten rid of in earlier times, so now Niftari are free to leisurely wander their planet occupying their time as they like.

The planet Carasteranak is smaller than Earth but its gravity is actually stronger owing to its unique makeup. Also, its days and years are both much longer than Earth’s. In most ways it seems like a very slow-paced world.

Vennis is a clockwork maker. The most advanced technologies of Carasteranak are clockwork masterpieces and Vennis’s are quite advanced among these. Though Vennis has created many things, the last several years have been spent on the latest project: a vast, complex device that can do complex mathematics, which Vennis suspects will make it even easier to calculate the best way to make still more complex clockworks.

Beodsom is an expert at mixing ingredients (plants, fluids, etc.) to create powerful potions of medicinal value. Though they are an asocial species by nature, Niftari “medics” like Beodsom are wont to track the scent of others who smell sick and give them potions to make them well again. There is no exchange of goods or currency for this (or for any other occupation on the planet), and the only reward the medics get is knowledge that they have helped others, and respect for doing so. These rewards are enough, though.

Igidup is an explorer. Though Carasteranak is small, and almost all of it has been traversed by Niftari of the past, no maps were ever kept. That means that every new place Igidup reaches is new to Igidup, at least. There’s little danger in exploring either, so it really is a nice quiet life.

A Fact About the Niftari: Niftari eyesight is such that they have never seen the stars in their sky, except the one around which their planet orbits. Still, they are a contemplative enough species that the idea of other worlds with other life has occurred to them, at least on a theoretical level.

Universe: Silver