Bwotyaxserrigedda

One of a pair of Aeobaxaen is captured by a falling Stepao

Aeobaxaen

Aeobaxaen are a type of Glounaph, and Glounaph are a type Aehubar that have adapted to life in the air. Though their leg design is like that of most Aehubar, even Strondovarians, the rest of their limbs have taken different roles: the middle limbs expanded into flexible wings that can catch wind currents and allow for flight, and the topmost limbs fused into a single neck-like appendage, on which the eyes are situated. Aeobaxaen specifically are migratory animals, following schools of the seaborne lifeforms they eat.

Stepao

An ocean-living type of Lapaouger that has evolved to launch itself out of the water and then to spread their limbs wide, allowing them to ride high until the spot prey within their reach. The Stepao will them drop down and engulf the target, pulling it back to the ocean where it can eat. Stepao were considered ill omens in ancient Strondovarian folklore and are still used as a colloquial way to describe impending doom.

Outhess

Outhess are typical of the flying Vootuph found on Gurx, but for the end of their life cycle. They spend their early lives down on the ground, eating away, until they’ve gained enough sustenance for their final voyage, then they launch into the sky to mate. The ultimate goal of the pregnant Outhess is to be eaten by one of the other sky-based animals (usually some variety of Glounaph). The seed/eggs bearing the offspring are not digested, but instead pass through digestive system and are expelled down to the ground below to be born and feast on the rest of the waste. It’s kind of beautiful.

A Few Strondovarians

Lembeb

Lembeb has spent the last few years working as the Strondovarian equivalent of a bounty hunter. There’s a lot of criminals on Gurx who are notable enough to be profiled in the Knowledge Bank, and if those criminals are killed, the killer is obviously going to be mentioned on that profile. Lembeb has killed a dozen Boais criminals. It’s risky work, though, because if someone kills Lembeb, they’ll get to be mentioned on Lembeb’s profile.

Nenoaur

Born on a space station near planet Doaphean, Nenoaur first moved to planet Gurx to study at the planet’s prestigious schools, but has stayed to work with a team that designs rubber tires with treads ideal for different terrain. This is a relatively new team, but they’ve provided tires to some of the more prominent exploratory space missions of the last century, which means they have some prominent credits in the field. Nenoaur is content with that. Would it be nice to gain more esteem and become rich among Strondos? Sure, but it’d be a lot of work too. Nenoaur is happy just maintaining a level of comfort and a chance to tinker with non-fame-bringing hobbies, such as listening to audio drams.

Pelkis

Pelkis is marked by a tattoo (“Gloyan”) which means they are Nexvar. In general, Strondos don’t think of occupations the way that humans do. No Strondo would say “I’m a baker” or “I’m a plumber” or whatever. They’d say “I’m baking” or “I’m fixing the plumbing” because they describe the actions, not the person. But then there are the Nexvar, who liken themselves to living tools dedicated to specific situations and are highly rewarded for it. Nexvar put themselves into suspended animation for long spans of time, until they are awakened by someone who needs their help. They deal with whatever they were needed for and then get to live lavish lives until they opt to go back into the box and wait for the next time. Of course, if a Nexvar isn’t noteworthy enough that someone would want their help… Well, they prefer not to think about that. Pelkis has been alive for over 2200 years by Earth’s counting. Pelkis’s specialty is baking.

(You may note that our friend Nibnassin is Nexvar dedicated to educating aliens about Strondo culture.)

Chauban

Chauban is in charge of the import operations in the city of Theebev. It’s widely known that the planet Gurx doesn’t have enough resources to maintain Strondo society as it is, but by bringing in materials from space they hope to keep things running smoothly until construction is completed on New Gurx. Chauban and their workers accept the shipments from space and load them onto boats that bring them down-river and to the rest of planet. Chauban has been at the task for years and has gained a lot of esteem. In time, they plan to leave Gurx and put themselves in suspended animation around the construction site of New Gurx. It’ll be so nice to blank out and wake up to see the ultimate accomplishment of Strondovarian civilization complete at last.

Bwotyaxagedda

The oceans of planet Gurx are vast and full of life. Here, beneath the surface of a region that is not covered with slime, we see a large Tweheak interrupting an Uebie’s meal as they both swim through a region filled with tiny creatures.

Tweheak

Tweheaks are one of the largest kinds of Lapaouger on all of Gurx, but they live on some of the ocean’s smallest creatures. Neither as intelligent nor as social as the whales of Earth they may superficially resemble, the Tweheaks are filter-feeders who basically only need to point their four mouths toward the sounds of food and swim that way. They’re completely sightless and feed primarily at night.

Uebie

Uebies are a type of Vootuph that have found a lot of success in the oceans Gurx. They can swim extremely quickly, helping them to catch their prey and to avoid predators. They migrate through the oceans with the climate, following the smaller creatures they eat as the seasons change. For a period in the era before the Knowledge Base, the Strondovarians considered Uebie to be a gourmet food item fit for only the most special.

Yena

Yena are tiny Vootuph that feast on the planet’s equivalent to algae and plankton and all that. This makes them a nutrient-rich food source for lots of other ocean life. To survive being a common food source, Yena eat voraciously until they are full, then sink to the ocean bottom to give birth to an innumerable next generation to repeat the cycle, or get eaten in the process.

The Knowledge Base of the Strondovarians

The single most important element in modern Strondovarian culture is their collection of all information deemed important enough to be noted for all time. While it has several euphemistic names in Strondovarian language, it is most frequently called the Revariax and it began, over 10000 years ago, as a physical collection of scrolls or tablets or any kind of physical record. In time those who maintain it came to realize that the physical collection was not as important as the information itself. When they developed computers capable of storing the information, the Strondos kept their information in a systems of well-protected and redundantly saved locations (including beyond the planet Gurx), but accessible to any and all Strondos. A human may check a clock on their phone to see the time or date agreed upon by their culture, but Strondos sync up their devices to the Revariax to see the information their culture agrees upon to make up reality. What political leader is in charge of a nation? What are the latest fashions? What is the goal of Strondovarian culture as a whole? It never hurts to check the Knowledge Base before starting your day.

One important aspect of the Knowledge Base is that, on subjective issues or those open to discussion, it allows Strondos to weigh in. If a Strondo wants to be the ruler of a nation, there is no actual election process, they only need to state it as fact on the Knowledge Base. Strondos who review the fact can either support or deny it. If enough support it, it’s true. Any Strondo who can convince enough others to vote for them can do almost anything they want. For this reason, fame has become the currency of the Strondovarians.

A “Noteworthy” (or “Boais”) Strondo is wealthy. Once their accomplishments are listed on the Knowledge Base, they have something to point to that proves their worth. Strondos who are less famous will clamour for the chance to be linked to the famous ones, and so will happily work for them on projects to be listed and credited in articles, and the Boais will only pick those who are esteemed enough to deserve it. Still less famous Strondos will work for that tier, hoping that their hard work will earn them credits that will get them noticed by their higher ups. And so on. There is, of course, a strata of non-famous Strondos who have no respect and, therefore, in the eyes of their fellows deserve no respect. Strondos who consider themselves better than these dregs can push around or even kill these poor souls, and nobody cares.

I’ll get back to talking about Strondovarians in the future, but they aren’t the only life on Gurx, so we should periodically look elsewhere. The Strondos consider themselves the dominant species on the planet, but there’s also the Bwotel, which is the Strondo word specifically for Gurxian animals (alien animals are called Pwotgedda). The Strondo word for the kind of Bwotel that live in a particular region is “Bwotyax” and the word for the oceans under the Slimelands is Chagheam. So today, we’ll look at:

Bwotyaxchagheam

Most of the Chagheam is under a layer of slime so thick that no sunlight reaches it. But along the shores of the slimelands there exist a lot of animals who want to live off the nutrients in the slime. In this scene we have a colony of Twooay sending gatherers out to harvest from the bottom of the surface slime while potential predators swim nearby.

Twooay

Twooay are an aquatic kind of Vootuph (four-sided animal) that live in tunnels on the ocean floor. They are eusocial creatures that can live in massive colonies. Seen here are members of the gatherer caste, sent out to gather slime and return to the tunnels where it is stored and used to feed the colony. Their mouth is in their backside, on the opposite side of their four-segmented eye, so when they reverse up to the slime to take some into their mouths, they can keep watch for predators. There are also worker Twooay, that dig the tunnels and place rocks near the entrances to help protect them and will come out to fight when the colony is threatened. And, of course, there is the parent caste, who exist to be taken care of while they reproduce.

Ubeelih

Ubeelih are an example of Lapaouger (six-limbed animal) that did not evolve to live on land, but instead to become aquatic killing machines. Their lower limbs have fused into a streamlined fin, and their top limbs into grasping appendages that can grab prey and hold them in place while the Ubeelih feasts. As with most of the creatures on Gurx, the Ubeelih have no teeth, but they do have inward facing barbs that can make it very difficult for prey to escape once grasped. Solitary animals, there are a lot of types of Ubeelih across the oceans of Gurx. The one in this image is a juvenile from a species that stays close to the slime shores and preys on the life that come there for easy meals, such as Twooay.

Loyoloy

In the scene above, a Loyoloy can be seen moving through the strands of Haara, plants that grow from the sea floor up into the slimelands on the surface. As we move inland from the shore of the slimelands, Haara get more dense, but here there is room enough for a large Loyoloy to float about freely. A creature similar to what we call jellyfish on Earth, Loyoloy get extremely large as they age, so while they can excel in the darkness of the Chagheam while they’re young, they eventually get too big to easily move through Haara, so they come out to the shore.