I’ve been exploring the animals of planet Gurx three at a time, with a little shot of their habitat. That’s all well and good, but I recently noticed that I still have about sixty of these things left and I don’t want to go past a year on this planet. Howzabout we just bang out some larger posts about animals real quick? No objections? Let’s go.

Awua

A kind of docile aquatic Lapaouger that lives along the island coasts. Counting their limbs, they taller than the average Strondovarian and their “upright” kind of posture led ancient Strondos to think of them as the people of the sea, though they’re actually very dumb by Strondo standards. Awuavarian is an insult (though one considered childish and corny, kind of like calling someone a “stupidhead”). They happily graze on plants on the ocean floor, usually until being eaten by predators visiting from deeper in the ocean.

Okkealil

A forest-dwelling Aehubar species whose top limbs have bonelike hard protuberances that aid in scraping the Gurxian equivalent of trees, which are often covered with nutrient-rich mosses. There are different types of Okkealil, ranging in size from ones that could fit in your hand to ones that (standing on their two lower limbs) would rival a Strondo in height. Most live in small family units and are preyed upon by predators, but their scraper-arms can be used in self defense, so they tend to go down fighting.

Yibbeau

Another animal native to some Gurxian forests is the Yibbeau. Though they evolved from Lapaouger, they’ve managed to lose their limbs in favour of a serpentine bodyplan that lets them climb all over the trees and act as an ambush predator. Rather than using fangs or constriction like a snake, they prey on smaller animals by firing their Rel out of their mouths in a manner reminiscent of Earth frogs.

Thoybrai

An aquatic Vootuph species of extremely venomous predators. The front of a Thoybrai opens into four grasping limbs, each with an eye and, more importantly, each with a stinger. A Thoybrai will stick its prey, then grab it until it dies, then eat at its leisure.

Oshooding

This horned clapbutt is a type of Ekkpay that lives near shallow streams where they stick their nose into the slimy muck and shake it around. Then they gulp in the resulting roiled water and fliter-feed to get all the little stuff that lives in there. They do, of course, also use the horns when fighting over territory of mating.

Gairan

Tiny air-breathing Vootuph that live most of their lives living on other animals. With a tongue that can pierce even thick Gurxian skin to drink blood, Gairan thrive on larger beasts, especially Lapaouger. Strondovarians have creams they rub onto themselves to prevent Gairan from living on them, but wild animals are often covered in the things.

Oyel

A type of flying Vootuph that tends to fly around larger animals and pick the Gairan off them. Even though Strondos have other ways of keeping Gairan in check, they still consider Oyel a symbol of cleansing and they are quite fond of the buzzing sound they make.

Pwiak

An armoured Vootuph that lives along the shores and build nests in the mud. To eat, they wade into the water and prey on smaller animals it catches swimming beneath it. They were a delicacy to Strondos in olden days, and their shells were often used as a decorative material.

As discussed in other posts about Planet Gurx, the Strondovarians have been expanding far from their homeworld across space for about nine thousand years now. They have colonies on other planets and space stations and are building a new homeworld from scratch. In that time, they have encountered multiple species also capable of space travel and the Strondos have had to admit that these alien beings are as intelligent as Strondos are. They call such beings Pwotuvarian, which translates to English best as “Wrong-folk” or “Alien-minds” or something to that.

For various reasons, no Pwotuvarian has yet been made welcome on planet Gurx. Still, making contact with alien life has greatly affected the Strondovarians, so let’s take a look at how Strondos relate to some of the other intelligent species they’ve met.

Pwot Pharvarian
These strange creatures with plant-like appendages were the first “intelligent” alien species met by the Strondos, and it went poorly. The “Rootfolk” are long-lived, so they remember the Strondos as their enemies in the Great Cosmic Conflict and they still hold a grudge. While the Strondos learned from that giant war that they should be more cautious as they explore space, the Rootfolk only learned that they need to be more powerful. Even now the Rootfolk will attack Strondo ships and colonies on sight.

Pwot Tibgeddavarian
Another species that the Strondos first met on the fields of space-battle, the “Omnivoroids” suffered badly in the Great Cosmic Conflict. Their planet’s technological progress was blasted back significantly. With considerably shorter lifespans than either Strondos or Rootfolk, the Conflict was thousands of generations ago and lives on in their memory as myths. The Omnivoroids of today are reaching into space once more, and they’ve met the Strondos again. Though the Omnivoroids hold all other beings in contempt (seeing them primarily as potential food), the Strondos are in a more powerful position, so the two species are occasionally able to work together and exchange goods.

Pwot Bulongivarian
Of all the species the Strondos have encountered, they are on the best terms with the “Multitude of Blong” a six-legged people who have not yet travelled far from their home system. Relations between the Strondos and this younger species are so good that the planet Blong has been given devices that allow them access to the Knowledge Base of the Strondovarians, an honour bestowed on no other species thus far. This means that the Multitude of Blong have the information needed to learn the location of planet Gurx, something not given to other species. The Blongians don’t quite have the technology to get there yet, though.

Pwot Verrmiss
A bipedal species that has rarely even managed to leave its home planet, the so-called “Pwot Verrmiss” are not even recognized as “Varian” by Strondos. But some more enterprising Strondo scientists have reached the homeworld of “Earth” and begun experimenting on the Pwot Verrmiss, but most of the primitive people have no idea Strondos exist. Perhaps someday the Pwot Verrmiss will be seen as worthy of the Strondo’s respect.

Infiltrators
The Strondos don’t yet know about the Infiltrators. There is no name for the Infiltrators in the Knowledge Base. And while no Pwotuvarian has been welcomed to planet Gurx, hundreds of Pwotuvarians are there. Posing as Strondos (and other Bwotyaxgurx), they have been working their way into roles of influence and preparing the world for the next wave of their kind to arrive.

Bwotyaxamaouchooev

A Strondovarian stands on slime farm grounds. Near a building, an Embivel drinks from a dish of water. A Nathaie flies above. Visible in the distance is a slime pool.

Embivel

Embivels are one of the first animals that the Strondos domesticated, at some point in history long forgotten, and they now occupy a place in Strondo culture similar to dogs or mules to humanity. An Aehubar species capable of carrying or pulling a lot of weight, most of the work once done by Embivel on Gurx is now done by machinery, but it’s still generally seen as useful to have some around.

Nathaie

A Glounaph species known for bright crests, Nathaie are very territorial and quite intelligent. Strondo farms will often provide a home for Nathaie, and treat them well, so that they will chase off small animals that try to sneak onto the grounds and raise alarm should larger creatures show up.

Palooath

Unseen in the picture, but ubiquitous on the farm, are the tiny creatures known as Palooath. A distinct worm-like branch of Vootuph, Palooath can live beneath the purple grass-equivalent of Gurx and draw nutrients from the soil. At some point in history, Strondos noticed that when creatures ate Palooath, the resulting biological waste was quite good at helping slime to grow. It’s now standard farm procedure to have a lot of palooath around to be eaten by the other creatures and gather the resulting waste to drop into the slime pools.

Although this series of posts has been labelled “Planet Gurx” it is simply the case that the denizens of that planet, the Strondovarians, have spread not only to other planets, but other star systems. Though other alien species may dispute the claim, this is the region that Strondovarians consider to be under their ownership:

The Core
These are the stars which are most populated and trafficked by the Strondos. Every world and moon in this range has been visited, studied, and put to use in some way, whether it be as a colony or being mined for resources to use elsewhere.

• Ahan: This is, of course, the system in which the planet Gurx is located and the Strondovarians arose.
• Iapway: The first system visited by Strondo explorers millennia ago, Iapway features a lot of the oldest colonized worlds away from home. To prevent the occupants here from straying too far from Strondovarian culture, the technology was invented to sync up the Knowledge Base to other systems.
• Parraeloa: This is the system where Strondos first located other complex life forms, Doaphean. This world was colonized and was highly populated, but was devastated during a cosmic war. It has been rebuilding, but even now, thousands of years later, the scars from that war are felt.
• Gaobaina: Finding no planets here with atmospheres that could be altered for their use, the Strondovarians set up colonies here in underground cities where they didn’t need as much air.
• Chossnox: This is the industrial section of the core where there are many factories or shipyards and such. There is a steady stream of resources being shipped into this system from other ones.

The core is the most highly protected. This map does not even identity what types of stars each system has, because that would make it easier to find the actual location of Gurx, and the Strondos don’t want that. It is assumed, though, that in one of these systems (or perhaps in the space between them) the construction of New Gurx is underway.

The Outskirts

These systems are less populated. In some, there are worlds largely ignored by the Strondos, or there are small frontier populations that the primary Strondo culture consider strange. In several (Heatyee, Semban, Lookaix, and Paikochid), the main presence is automated machines that are strip mining the worlds and bringing the resources to the core.

But there are systems in the outskirts that have some points of interest:

• Briagrog: With many worlds with underground colonies, like those in Gaobaina, this system would probably be considered part of the core if not for its distance.
• Nooabbaeo: A massive space telescope has been built here, with an accompanying science outpost to study its findings.
• Lay: This system has the most space stations, which makes it a nice location for Strondos who aren’t as comfortable on planets (it’s not a small number that feel that way).
• Aekaerin: This system is home to the biggest space station known to Strondos. That’s nice for Strondos who prefer space stations, but not small ones.
• Kloubuoan: A frontier area populated only by Strondos who feel like they need to escape from something, or who think they have some big idea and this is the perfect place to bring it to fruition.
• Eapoas: Another frontier area, this is considered the “last stop” in Strondo space before reaching the star system where planet Blong is located. For that reason, there is a colony here in which both Strondos and Blongians live together.
• Ookig: During the cosmic war against forces much more powerful than they were, the Strondos created a “false Gurx” here and made it seem as if this system was the capital of their culture, to better hide Ahan. Though neither Gurx was successfully attacked during that war, the fake one is generally avoided because it reminds Strondos of that conflict.
• Poaitheem: Is home to “the Graveyards” a remnant of destruction from the cosmic war. Shattered spaceships and artifacts can be found here, and Strondo scientists have gone looking for them, but they usually only find strange occurrences have given the system a reputation for being haunted.

And here is an example of an automated spacecraft that tows resources from one system to another at sub-light speed, so it takes quite a while:

Bwotyaxhugalla

On the shores, not far to the south of the city Varniv, a Bwiak is crawling along the rocks hunting for Eyaedroy cocoons. Before it has a chance to feast, however, a Briapway swoops down with intent to kill.

Bwiak

A predatory type of Vootuph, the Bwiak has a specialized tongue/limb that grasps and crushes its prey. This prey can be smaller Vootuph, but a real feast is Eyaedroy cocoons. Bwiak live solitary lives, making dwellings for themselves among the rocks, and protect their territory from others of their kind, only coming together when it comes time to mate.

Eyaedroy

An ancient species, not closely related to many other Gurxian animals still alive, the Eyaedroy has is born as an inchworm-like creature that moves inland to feast on vegetation. After about a year, if it hasn’t been eaten, it is full and returns to the shores where it can end its life cycle by going into a cocoon, but Eyaedroy cocoons are not solitary. Up to a dozen of the worms may cocoon up next to one another, forming a cluster in which genetic material can be shared. These clusters grow into the final stage of their life cycle: a sessile bulb that functions like a factory to pump out more of the worms.

Briapway

A Glounaph-of-Prey, if you will, the Briapway soars over the oceans along migratory routes, feeding on whatever sea or shore life it happens upon. The fore-limb of the Briapway is tipped with sharp piercers that it can puncture into the flesh of its target. The Briapway’s digits spread slightly causing the piercers, which are barbed such that it can’t easily be pulled out, to hold onto the victim while it bleeds out.