During the Supernatural Sundays I did a bunch of alien wizard called Wallfixers and several members of that group were of a species called the Pllvm. These undersea octopusish people, I decided, exist in many alternate universes because humans aren’t the only ones who get to be ubiquitous. Today, let’s take a tour of some of those universes:

Bubllpub is an aide to the Pllvm’s royal family. In his universe the Pllvm homeworld is ruled by a single government, a monarchy whose lineage stretches back many generations. The royal family is not perfect, a few of the members are particularly cruel and set upon conquering other worlds, but most of them are decent enough rulers of the planet. First contact with alien species was only made in the current generation, and it has not always gone well. Bubllpub has been personally assaulted by six different alien beings. Still, he holds out hope that the planet’s entry into the galactic community will end up being beneficial for all involved.

Universe: White

On a Pllvm homeworld that has not made first contact and has hundreds of separate nations spread over the oceans, Bublupp is just a working class “normal” person. He makes a living by delivering batteries to businesses with energy subscriptions and it is pretty easy work and he doesn’t hate it. Bublupp is focused on raising a family, and has two children, though his mate was killed in a tragic accident. He tries to be a good father, but the pressure gets to him sometimes and he will eat illegal intoxicating plants to relax.

Universe: Blue

Lollipop, whose name being similar to an English word is just a coincidence, is a criminal for hire. Living in a significantly corrupt society, this sort of criminal mercenary work is about the best one can manage. But that doesn’t mean that Lollipop doesn’t have other ambitions. He daydreams of being able to make a living doing comedy. He stays up late at night working on his material alone.

Universe: Red (also home to Plplppow)

Though her homeworld is the capital of a federation that spans several star systems, Pulubbul has never been off-planet. She’s a homeworlder who thinks that the planet has everything she’s ever going to need and that other planets are basically for rustic idiots. That attitude is going to give her trouble when her rich uncle on a farming planet dies and leaves her his estate at the same time she gets kicked out of her apartment and has to go live with the “country bumpkins” she had no respect for. It’s a real fish out of water situation, except still very much in water.

Universe: Green (also home to Polpplplo)

Lubgug‘s version of the Pllvm homeworld is beset by demigods. Some of the Astrolympians have visited this world, so naturally they’ve had children here. Those children of the gods have, as is their wont, been unruly and tend to fight one another. Lubgug is in the employ of one of the nicer demigods, called Helper, a compassionate being who pities the Pllvm and tries to stop the meaner gods. Lubgug and the other members of Helper’s following try to clean up and repair the damage after the fights.

Universe: Silver

The Pllvm homeworld of Vmblb was once twisted by a dark magical entity, and Vmblb was among the Pllvm who were mutated and forced to serve that being. Though the monster was driven away and the mutated horde regained their free will, Vmblb has had trouble returning to normal society after all he’s been through.

Universe: Brown (also home to Lupplol)

Bvplob is a scientist on her version of the Pllvm homeworld. This version of the planet has two rival governments waging open warfare and Bvplob is employed by one of them to create super soldiers. Bvplob does her job, but she has doubts about whether her side is any better than the other side when it comes down to it. As she goes about perfecting her formulae, she makes plans to use the resulting super powers on herself to try to put an end to the conflict she sees as pointless.

Universe: Orange

Thisus

The natives of the planet Thisa call themselves Thisus. Their world is cold and craggu, often swept by bitter winds and chilling storms. The Thisus are a large, blubbery people covered in white fur who live in caves along the shores of the planet’s icy seas. Though adapted for swimming, they are air-breathers who can seal their eyes and snouts for long periods for swimming. Nations on Thisa are largely theocratic in nature, led by Elders who partake in hallucinogenic rituals. These Elders, believe that in their rituals they enter a mystic realm called the Aoaoba (literally the “Always and More”) in which they can communicate with their ancestors. Roughly a hundred years ago Thisus developed rocketship technology, with which they have reached several of their planet’s moons and neighboring planets.

Son of a Long Past the operator of a large electricity farm. Electricity on Thisa is mostly provided by large turbines that harness the ocean’s tidal forces. Instead of living in caves on the shore, like most of the species, Long Past and her workers have an anchored raft floating above the turbines where they live when not diving down to work.

Does Not Talk, who in spite of his name is fully capable of speech, is a waylus breeder. Wayluses are a large fish-like animal used as a beast of burden. Does Not Talk’s stock of wayluses have a good reputation, a result of them being entered in waylus games, events such as races or pulling heavy weights, and frequently winning. Though there is no form of currency on Thisa, all transactions governed by Elders, Does Not Talk gets treated with extreme respect for the high quality of merchandise, and is given extra consideration when the Elders dole out rewards.

Rememberer of Stories is an scientist who studies the remains of Thisar, giant mammalian-style animals that lived on Thisa millions of years ago. Though the Thisar fossils were discovered ten generations ago, the fact that they are primarily located on land has made it difficult for Thisus to study them. Instead, Thisus have simply debated what the existence of these large extinct creatures says about their place in the universe. Rememberer and other such scientists don’t care so much about that debate, or at very least want more information first.

A Fact About Thisus: The range of hearing for Thisus is much lower than that of humans, and their speech is ranged down accordingly. If a Thisus were to speak to a human, the sound would be too low for human ears to pick it up. If a human tried to speak to a Thisus, the noise would be too high.

Universe: Narsidon

The Zesstak

Planet Zesstak is home to a species that have used their technology to become a unique sort of dual-bodied entities: two forms combined by a single consciousness. Unfortunately, the rulers of the planet are violent dictators intent on conquering other worlds, so this fascinating technology is primarily used to create soldiers sent to other planets. The tradition is to send a single soldier to a world targetted for invasion, one of a their forms being a shape known to be successful on the target planet and the other to be a flying serpent creature. If the lone soldier finds the planet worthy of conquest, and can beat the locals into a weakened state, a much larger fleet is sent as a follow-up. The Zesstak species has gone to war with several other species, and when they’ve won, they’ve wiped those species into extinction.

Krytag is a Zesstak soldier who has been sent to Earth as an invader and was featured in a Supervillain Sunday post.

Emmernan is a young Zesstak soldier being groomed for a trip to Earth, as a replacement for Krytag. The Zesstak government has grown impatient with Krytag, who seems more interested in battles against Earth’s superheroes than in furthering the invasion of that world. Emmernan has been given a similar humanoid dual-body is being given all Krytag’s reports on the planet and its occupants. His mission will be not only to neutralize the human heroes, but also Krytag himself, who is now considered a liability.

Millvok is the Zesstak soldier sent to scout the Pllvm homeworld. Millvok has been captured (one of the six aliens who have attacked Bubllpub), and is now held in the planet’s most significant prison. As the Pllvm have recently entered into contact with other species, they are discussing what to do about Millvok among their diplomats, but all Millvok wants to get out and kill in the name of Zesstak.

Guigarr is not currently assigned to any world as an invader, but is one of the thousands of soldiers being trained as an part of the invasion force to be sent in once one of the scouts has accomplished enough for a follow-up team to be sent. Guigarr’s four-legged form is designed for hunting down fleeing targets. The training for this kind of soldier focuses less on intellect and strategy and more on breeding an indiscriminate hatred of other species. In Guigarr’s case, this has been wholly successful.

A Fact About the Zesstak: The rulers of the Zesstak government, and some of their non-altered citizens, are still dual-beings connected by tethers, but both halves of their being resemble the flying serpent form, albeit less armored. Presumably their original forms, before the use of their modern technology, must have in some way resembled these.

Universe: White

Kymarks

The Kymarks are a bipedal species with four forelimbs, tails, and tusks. They evolved on a planet they call Bruundac that orbits a binary star system. Bruundac is a planet largely covered in water and sandy shores. The Kymarks live in cities along these shores. They eat by digging with their tusks to root out worm-like creatures that make up most of their diet. The Kymarks have learned how to breed these worms in immense number, but unlike our farming they don’t keep the animals around. Their goal is to make sure there are plenty of animals in the wild, instead of in custody.

The clothing worn by Kymarks are meant to be permanent. They are designed with colors and designs relevant to family histories and presented to Kymarks at their adulthood ceremony, and are intended to be worn for life. But that makes it easier for Kymarks with something to run away from, such as Wirpdi, to slip away. It does require surgery to remove ones outfit, but to Wirpdi that’s an easy price to pay. Now wearing a counterfeit outfit and having run away to a city on the other side of the world where nobody knows that Wirpdi has been completely submerged underwater and then come back to the shore, a crime punishable by death (Ancient Kymark myths insist that anyone who has been completely submerged could easily have been replaced by an evil duplicate. Modern Kymarks don’t believe this, but the rule is still there.)

Soffdo is a corpse sniffer. That’s a job, not a hobby. It’s Soffdo’s job to smell around the city for any Kymarks who may have died unseen in some hidden corner (Kymarks sleep hidden under piles of cloth or other similar holes). When Soffdo finds a corpse, it is given a proper burial at sea. Soffdo’s lower right forearm is damaged. Damaged arms are unfortunately common for the species.

Evdok is an orator. In the system that the Kymarks have set up, the orator is not giving their own point, necessarily, but is hired by others to make a point. Evdok may believe that razing a forest to make room for more city is a bad thing, but will passionately argue the opposite if hired to do so. It isn’t considered hypocritical in this culture, because Evdok would not be pretending to actually believe it, the audience is aware of the way it works, but is instead simply a Kymark doing their job.

A Fact About Kymarks: Kymarks have six eyes, with one large center eye surrounded by five smaller eyes that each specialize in registering a different range of the light spectrum. If one of the smaller eyes is lost, through disease or injury, the overall vision can become colorblind to that eye’s specialty (if the large eye is lost, that’s just blindness no matter the health of the other eyes).

Universe: Orange

Nice Pals

Over on planet Yeskobegg there is a species that call themselves the Nice Pals. They are quadrupeds, radially symmetrical, with a large sense organ on the top of their heads (their primary sense is not sight, but similar enough that we’ll call that organ an eye). Around the eye are six appendages that can protect the it, since there is no eyelid equivalent. There are also six appendages surrounding the bottom organs (including mouths, a nose, and retractable waste tube).

The Nice Pals believe in giving things positive names. They call themselves “Nice Pals” because they hope that will encourage them to exist in friendly terms with the rest of the universe. Offspring are given adjectives that the namers hope will encourage them to act well in life. While that makes some sense, as the names are meant to remind one how to act, it has also carried on to a more superstitious aspect. For example, there is a species of animal in Yeskobeggan oceans that they have named “Hopefully Won’t Eat Us”.

A significant percentage of the population of Nice Pals serve their communities as latherers. Scrupulous Hiip, one such latherer, spends the work cycle applying foam to the walls of Nice Pal structures, which both cleans and strengthens them. Scrupulous Hiip, like most other latherers, does the work because it is easy and does not require a lot of training, and there are so many latherers that they have one of the shortest work cycles on the planet. This allows for a longer pleasure cycle, and that’s what Hiip prefers.

Friendly Twill is a settler who has travelled to a remote region of Yeskobegg and is trying to establish civilization there. It has not been easy, the region is cold and rocky and Nice Pals have not yet developed seagoing vessels strong enough to reach its shores. But Twill toils hard, digging wells and building shelters in the hopes that others will come and help with the work, making it all worthwhile.

Honest Biot is an inveterate liar, but feels bad about it. The pressure of living up to one’s name is powerful, overwhelming even, and Honest Biot can’t take it. Life is hard. Lying makes it easier. None of that is Biot’s fault, why is it Biot’s problem. Just because of that stupid name assigned by a parent that didn’t even know Biot yet. How Biot hates the name, and that parent.

A Fact About Nice Pals: Though the Nice Pals do try very hard to be nice, theirs is still a society in which personal matters are occasionally solved by duels to the death. When a disagreement arises, one Nice Pal will challenge the other and the other must accept or lose the esteem of the rest of the community. Duel specifics vary across the planet, but most commonly the challenged party gets to choose the details.

Universe: Indigo