Zunoltians

The planet Zunoltia is homeworld to a species that has become very technologically advanced and is beginning to reach out into the larger galactic community of other alien species. It has only been a generation since first contact was made between Zunoltians and other life forms, so many individual Zunoltians are still growing accustomed to the idea that other aliens exist at all. It doesn’t help that not all contact with other species has been pleasant. Several Zunoltian cities welcome alien immigrants (though only a few have come), and other cities have tried to seal themselves off from the rest of the planet, becoming insular and xenophobic.

One individual that has been trying to smooth relations between Zunoltia and outside worlds is the Astro-Hero, a cosmic Zunoltian superhero who saves the planet from threats like Exomek and other alien invaders, as well as helping friendly aliens both on their own worlds, and on Zunoltia.

Naming conventions of the Zunltions are quite strange to humans, their names being a phrase that is relevant to the individual’s naming ceremony, which takes place a Zunoltian year (almost two Earth years) after they are born. Most of the time, though, the phrase contains a word that does not translate into other languages, which can be used as a proper noun. So, for example, when When Swez Leaves is speaking to an alien with a language more similar to a human one, she would be called “Swez”. This is relevant to Swez’s job, as she is employed by the Zunoltian government as an envoy to other worlds. She’s personally had to be saved by the Astro-Hero dozens of times.

Jimny is Near is a veteran of the war against the Dobraxu, an event that was devastating to the planet and is the source of many a Zunoltian’s anti-alien sentiment. Jimny’s life was actually saved by a Dobraxu soldier during the war, so she tries to think of aliens as potential allies, but still has trouble. It would be so much easier to like aliens if they just didn’t interact with Zunioltia, Jimny thinks.

And Lesna the Quick is a young Zunoltian and therefore has never known any world without knowledge of alien life, or without the alien culture that has been imported since first contact was made. Lesna has been raised in a world where alien music has been popular among the youth and greatly irritating to the elders, who consider it meaningless noise. Lesna has been creating music of her own that uses Zunoltian traditional sounds with alien vocals. It hasn’t caught on yet, but she plans to keep trying.

A Fact About Zunoltians: Several hundred generations ago there was a war on Zunoltia that nearly brought the species to extinction. The world-spanning Zunoltian culture of that time was wiped out, leaving scattered survivors to pick up the pieces. Tales of that original culture lived on in what was believed to be mere myth until recent archaeological discoveries of ancient ruins.

Universe: Green

Vyvtyx

The Vyvtyx of the planet Dwennuar are a quadrupedal species with face tendrils. Though they are as adept with their tendrils as any human is with their hands, the Vyvtyx have yet to create tools in the same sense that humans have. They do, however, have methods of using the other animals and plant-life of their world to the ends they need.

Niidal is a reclusive loner living in one of the least populous sections of Dwennuar. Niidal just got sick of all the complications of ordinary Vyvtyx life, like the mandatory social service, the morning chanting, and the swebzy fuangnag. Who can keep up with modern life? Not Niidal, that’s for sure. So he’s living off the grid, in some cave where he doesn’t have to see any Vyvtyx and doesn’t need to meet with their standards. It can be lonely and hard to live a life along, but at least he doesn’t need to put up with swebzy fuangnag.

One of the most popular technologies of the Vyvtyx is the use of symbiotic lifeforms. For example, they are known to ingest one species, similar to Earth’s tapeworms, that will live in their insides, but will provide some benefits to the host. Myndin is a breeder of such worm creatures, his particular livestock being used by Vyvtyx who suffer from allergies. Myndin’s worms alleviate their symptoms for as long as they are present in the host body, so Myndin’s particularly clever addition to his livestock is a “planned obsolescence” created by breeding them to lower their lifespans. Though Vyvtyx have no currency as we do, they do operate on a barter system, so when allergy sufferers need to replace their worms, they have to give more goods to Myndin. If Mindyn plays this right, he could amass a fortune of wealth in a way no Vyvtyx has before. If the customers catch on that he’s actually making his product less efficient on purpose, he may have to face their wrath.

A popular form of entertainment on Dwennuar is to watch races in which a group of Vyvtyx will pursue an animal and the first to catch it and get it back to the starting line declared the winner. Vyrtym is a professional racer, and is quite successful. Though the modern Vyvtyx may not be as built for speed as their evolutionary ancestors, who hunted for food, the event still thrills them on an instinctual level. Unlike Earthly races, contestants here are encouraged to sabotage their opponents, so long as no serious injuries are incurred.

A Fact About Vyvtyx: When a Vyvtyx gets old, they are seen as being a burden on the rest of the species. There are different methods throughout the species various cultures, but among all of them the elders are ceremoniously killed. If a Vyvtyx doesn’t want to die, it can get very unpleasant.

Universe: White

The Multitude of Blong

The species that calls itself the Multitude of Blong believe very strongly in the concept of fiction. Their system of belief states that all stories made up occupy a mythical realm called the “Ocean of Ideas” which, when full, spills into reality and all the stories come true. They posit that at the start of the universe there was only the “First Storyteller”, a lonely mind that told itself stories to keep occupied, until all those came true. The characters from within those stories then went on to tell more stories. And the cycle continued, on and on like that, until the present day.

Nine Fire is a member of the Blongian equivalent of the police, but a division we don’t have on Earth. Nine Fire’s job is to investigate storytellers who have told stories that contradict other stories. Since they believe that all stories will come true, any contradiction could be ruinous to the fabric of reality itself. Nine Fire’s specialty is examining stories being told on the streets for recurring elements that might be useful in tracking down the original storyteller.

Seventy Throng is very unhappy. Seventy Throng has been told, as every Blongian has, that their life is a story that someone told in the previous cycle now come to be real. Well, Seventy Throng thinks that the person who told that story was an idiot. Seventy Throng’s life has been a total mess. There’s been plenty of suffering, but not an excessive amount. That would have at least make it clear that it was a tragedy. Instead, Seventy Throng’s life has been confusing and utterly mundane, full of events that don’t seem to come from anywhere or lead to anything, and individuals who never seem to stick around long enough to serve any narrative purpose. Long stretches of boring peppered with hasty nonsense. If this life was a story ever told by anyone, what was the point? What could possibly be interesting about any of this? Seventy Throng would like nothing more out of life than to meet that particular storyteller and cause them a lot of bodily harm.

And then there’s Sixteen Dunce. Sixteen Dunce is a stunt performer. Driving vehicles off ramps and climbing steep cliffs while juggling. Death-defying feats that really bring in the crowds and make Sixteen Dunce famous all the world over.

A Fact About the Multitude of Blong: All three of these examples from the Multitude of Blong are from a culture with a specific naming convention. Newborns on this planet are hatched in caves, and the number part of the name represents the order in which they climb out. So, Nine Fire was the ninth to climb from that cave during that hatching season. The last name is related to the year the hatching took place, years in the Blongian calendar being given titles. Other cultures on the planet have different ways to name individuals, but this is by far the most common.

Universe: Blue

The Schurdle

The Schurdle are a species of tall aliens from a planet with gravity lower than Earth. They live primarily along the world’s equator, the rest of the planet being too cold for their liking. Their diets are mostly vegetarian, grazing from tall plants, but there are some who supplement this by eating small insectoid creatures found in streams and rivers. They have no natural predators, having successfully hunted several species to extinction many generations ago. Tales from that time live on only as myth.

The Schurdle live in packs, with each pack taking up a “job” in society in the way individual people do on Earth. Faa-Russ is a pack leader in a mountainous region, working as a farmer. During the wet season, this can be a dangerous job, with mud slides always a concern. Faa-Russ has lost many packfellows over the years and grows hardened to loss and wistful for earlier days.

Jot-Kar is part of a reporter working in the valley with the planet’s highest concentration of Schurdle, almost what we’d call a city. Jot-Kar has a particular knack for trailing others without being seen, which has come in handy when investigating individuals suspected of wrongdoing. This has resulted in there being a lot of individuals who would be happy to see Jot-Kar dead. Jot-Kar and packfellows have survived many assassination attempts over the years, but it hasn’t made them scared to do their job. If anything, they see it as a sign they need to work harder to rid their city of corruption.

Very young Schurdlings, such as Tee-Nam, have beards. They remain with their parent pack for their childhood, but when the beards are gone, they leave to establish packs of their own. Tee-Nam is a daydreamer, often playing in the fields imagining how great it would be to run a pack.

A Fact About the Schurdle: The fore paws of the Schurdle have a design unique among the animals of their planet. It resembles a ring of musculature that can constrict around things, allowing the Schurdle to grip and manipulate objects. This appendage has allowed them to create technology that has brought them to a level comparable to the Iron Age on Earth (Though they’re much more advanced in making medicines than humans are even now and also they have invented surf boards). Not even the surviving species most closely related to the Schurdle have this appendage and that fact has not gone unnoticed by them. It is seen as the cause of their dominance of their world, almost all religions on the planet describing it as a gift from god.

Universe: Narsidon

Trabbans

The Trabban homeworld is one of varied climates and regions, but one dominant species has taken over. The Trabbans have no concept of nations or tribes, and a single Trabban language is spoken worldwide. This single culture hasn’t had a lot of reason to change over the years, so for hundreds of generations, their technological level has been stuck at a level comparable to our middle ages. Also, they kinda look like rabbits.

Doofsy is a farmer of the fungus-like food that makes up a large portion of the Trabban diet. Farms like Doofsy’s are large tunnel systems that need to be kept damp, but the farmers have to be on constant watch for lobburs, which are large worm-like creatures that love to dig into the tunnels and feast. Doofsy, unfortunately, has a strong fear of lobburs, which can make the work pretty hard.

Wuvva is a producer of the one type of clothing that Trabbans wear. It is a known fact that in ages long past Trabbans used to wear different kinds of clothing, but once the current style was designed, nobody saw any reason to wear anything else. Trabban clothing is probably the most advanced technology on the planet, creating a sort of internal climate that keeps the wearer at an ideal temperature, resists all sorts of physical damage, is ultra-hygienic, and even feels comfortable. They’re so great that Trabbans don’t even care about variety anymore. Trabbans like Wuvva have to study for years to make them, but are very respected by their peers for their work.

Flerfy is a sky sailor working on the zeppelin-like ships that are the main source of long-distance travel on this world. This form of transportation is one of the reasons a single worldwide culture is so possible. But Flerfy doesn’t care about that. Flerfy is convinced that there is still new and exciting things in the world, even if nobody else is looking for them. Seeking novel experiences, Flerfy now sails the skies into the least populated regions seeking any kind of danger or thrills or adventure. It seems entirely likely that if anything interesting ever happens to the Trabban homeworld, it’ll be because of Flerfy.

A Fact About Trabbans: The Trabban astronomers have detected the fact that the universe is expanding and everything is getting further apart, but their current theories ascribe it to the idea that everything in the universe is decreasing in size.

Universe: Brown

At this point it is a tradition for me to do something rabbit-related in every Super Sunday theme, so this is the one for this.