Smol

Dorarizin Jornissian Karnakian

T.P.H. Information & Links

We’re a group of 3 authors (and 2 engineers) who are building this universe together. Our links are as follows:

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tinyprancinghorse TPH Author Page: https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/authors/tinyprancinghorse#wiki_they_are_smol TaS Series Page: https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/series/they_are_smol TaS Discord Link: https://discord.gg/hSAj9qW TaS Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/TheyareSmol

Fan Works: Series: The Smol Detective and The Big Yoink, by /u/Frank_Leroux *The Smol Detective is considered fanon so good, it became canon. Smol Roadtrip, by /u/BenchnotA It’s a story about… well. A lot of feels. The Smol Engineer, by /u/InfamousVenous Smol + Engineering + No oversight = shenanigans.

One-shots: The Most Important Job, by @not_a_jornissian on the Discord Therapy, by /u/smolsockaccount Absolutely Piratical Smolventures, by @not_a_jornissian on the Discord Fanon so good, it became canon.

Way too much free time on his hands, @SourMonkey on the discord made this spreadsheet that has… everything that I missed - including the lewd stuff. Why you should read TaS and create stuff: The Virgin HFY:

• Pure waifu
• Comedic relief wAIfu
• White Knight MC
• Well written with prewriting and character arcs However

• 0 sneks
• Waifus too pure to hold hands with
• serious topics with no shenanigans
• epic story with engaging characters
• not building a weapon to surpass metal gear
• bears (unconfirmed, but probable)
• not raising a skeleton army and spooking those fuccbois Versus The Chad They are smol:

• Sneks
• Boops
• Shenanigans
• G o o d B o y e s
• Dinos too good, too pure for this world
• Bear-free
• Dakis
• Waifus
• Guyfus
• Accidental invasions of Earth
• Smols
• Nanomachines
• No quality control over content

General Worldbuilding Information Timeline: So apparently, because this needs to be said: This timeline is canonical, however, the apparent disconnect I keep getting is the forward advancement of technology. For example, you’ll note that there’s a 100K gap between the Tol‘s industrial revolution and their “space, the final frontier” comment. This was a meme shorthand for “the tols have invented intergalactic travel and are expanding outside of their home systems”, not the development of space travel. My bad on that one, but apparently no one else got the Star Trek reference.

Also keep in mind that the delay in time can be for many reasons, not necessarily technological progress either, e.g. The entire introduction to Arc 2; interstellar probes are almost always sub-light, and take hundreds if not thousands of years to map out new systems for aliens to then warp into in a matter of days/weeks. Expansion takes time, even if you have super technology.

Super-Ancient Pre-History (250,000 BC) Humans: Staring at the sun until we go blind Xenos: Industrial Revolutions Ancient Pre-History (150,000 BC) Humans: Staring at the sun until we go blind; calling it a vengeful God Xenos: Spaaaaaace, the final frontier…. Pre-History (50,000 BC) Humans: We got us a temple to that Daystar and we are gonna sacrifice so many goats- Xenos: Holy shit we’re not alone (Karnakian + Dorarizin) (Nascent Senate) Xenos + 5500 years: Holy shit we’re not alone - again! (Jornissian GET) (Nascent Senate) Still basically Pre-History (25,000 BC) Humans: Ok, so I got this rock, and if I throw it at …. Everything then I will be unstoppable Xenos: Let’s just expand peacefully Ancient History (5,000 BC) Humans: Man, fuck mammoths. Also let’s stack rocks on each other in the shape of a triangle! Xenos: Let’s stop expanding and work on our societies Ye Olde History: (0BC/0AD) Humans: Let’s march everywhere and also take the one plant that naturally stops women from getting pregnant - yeah that one? Let’s fuck so much it goes extinct. Xenos: Borders good? Rebellions quashed, trade routes established, culture on point? K, let’s expand again. Normal History: (1AD - 2025AD) Humans: Holy shit I can’t wait unitl America is invented - wait we just invented it? Fucc yea Xenos: Let’s expand peacefully again that was nice and we’ve only mapped like, 60% of the galaxy anyway - hey what’s that SMOL HISTORY: (2025AD) (((super-specifically, June 18th.))) They are Smol: Arc 2 (The Invasion of Earth) 2025AD Humans: AAAAHHHH ALIENS - BURN EVERYTHING SO THEY CAN’T HAVE IT Karnakians: By the Space-Dino-God what the hell- Galactic Senate: hey uhhhhhhh Oh fuck they’re so cute Reconstruction & Guidance: (2025AD - 2150AD) Human Population count: 7Bn - 25Bn They are Smol: Arc 1: 2077AD Advanced Human technology is basically nonexistent - there are no human-specific medical breakthroughs, or ships, or anything. A majority of what’s being built is being given to us by our Xenos allies Human Government is fucked wholesale - at least, in the beginning. As part of initial Karnakian reparations: We have free energy; hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost and trillions of dollars of infrastructure is now useless. We have post scarcity; millions of people now refuse to go to their shitty jobs. We can travel the stars; mass-depopulation is a terrifying reality in every country on Earth. World Governments are slowly ceding power to the UN, which is a nascent Unified Terran Federation (UTF). In this period you still have competing Earth laws, governments, and power plays. The UN directly governs and manages all human colonies. Near the middle-end of the Reconstruction Era, there are the following colonies: Selene, on the Moon. Mixed-Species. Reach, floating in a stationary orbit between Earth and Venus. Mixed-Species. Olympus Mons, on Mars. Mixed-Species. Guided Expansion: (2150AD - 2400AD) Human Population 25Bn - 120Bn for initial expansion, 120Bn - 400Bn for second expansion to Alpha Centauri and xenos-controlled worlds. Restrictions on Human populations re: colonization, mixed colonization, job areas are lifted after second expansion. They are Smol: Arc 3 (Smol World) - 2184 AD They are Smol: Arc 4 (Smol Doctors at Large) - 2204 Humans who migrate to xenos-controlled worlds are ruled by the xenos’ species in charge, however with human modification to certain laws. All rights under Galactic Charter are kept - no enslavement, brutalization, etc. They are Smol: Arc 5 (Boxes, Badguys and Boops) - 2190 - 2230ish. (A/N: Undecided yet, but probably concurrent with Arc 4.) The UN has morphed into the UTF - United Terran Federation. They manage all human colonies, as well as Earth: Osore - Mercury Vespin - Venus Selene, Luna, Tranquility on the Moon. Human-Only Earth: Various nation-states are now “territories”, maintaining pseudo-freedom from the UTF. However, nobody’s kidding anyone else - borders have basically dissolved, and you’re a “Terran Citizen” of your particular territory, not a citizen of your particular territory. Olympus Mons, Tharsis Rise, Utopia - Mars. Slightly Mixed-Species, majority Human Jupiter: Voyager, Dura - Io Galileo, Dinaledi - Ganymede Chronos, Theia - Titan Deep Space Stations: Reach - Earth/Venus Cerberus - Venus/Mercury Jíxiáng - Earth/Mars Mos Eisley - Asteroid Belt Touchstone, Floating Rock, Buggeroff - Alpha Centauri Species Parity: (2400AD - 2700AD+) Human Population crests 1T. Human government owns/manages 9 star systems; we’re just densely packed all things considered. We’re also settling with mixed-species worlds because honestly, why not? Human technology is on-par in certain areas with the rest of the galaxy - mainly due to heavy, prolonged investment.

Galactic Races On Speech and Translators: "Hello" - normal, human speech/tongue "[Hello]" - translated speech via communication bead implant. "" - Jornissian native tongue "{Hello}" - Dorarizin native tongue "|Hello|" - Karnakian native tongue "?Hello?" - Untranslated native-to-alien speech (i.e. translator machine broke) Of course, natives would speak to each other in their mother tongue, or a regional variant thereof; you wouldn't need a translator from American English to British English, for example. When the translator kicks in, it works like.... Well, like a dub on the news; you can hear the native tongue being spoken, but it's drowned out by the translator. This allows the listener to still get some inflection that the translator may have missed. The reason you need translators is that there is no physical way you can communicate verbally with each other - voices and mouthsounds are so radically different from each other that at best you’re nonsensically babbling at your target and at worst it’s just… sounds. Examples of Translator Speech: Human to Alien: “Hello, how are you doing, Ted?” <- Human “[I am fine, Mike. How are you?]” <- Xenos translated via human’s implant Alien to Alien referencing other aliens: “<Yo Sre’rpesn? What is that Dorarizin comic that you like?>” “<You mean [Greshran-of-Grezra]?>” Alien referencing Humans or other species names or untranslatable concepts: “<There, again. [Heckin’]. My matrix can’t pull context from this – it’s used in too many varied and obtuse ways. Who works with [Caroline]?>” Things that would always be translated []: Names - Although each species would come up with their own nicknames for their comrades, the name would always translate out. For instance, a human could call a Jornissian “Hank” but “Hank” would translate into “Esshsan” through the commbead. This also goes for proper names - such as [Netflix] or [Hulu]. Concepts and quirks [boop]s would stay translated, until they became commonplace enough for there to be a separate created word for them in the xenos tongue. “[Hah! Give me your write-up before you submit it; I don’t think [fucking sweet-ass] explosion is the proper terminology.]” Things that would not need to be translated: Any concept, quirk or name that would have a xenos/human equivalent does not need to be translated. For instance, “turn off the lights” would be the same in any [{<| because the concept is universal. There’s no need to write “turn [off] the [lights]” How Translators Work: Translators - especially the human comm-beads (around story arc 1-ish tech) are basically a very very specific computer that runs off your own bioelectricity/kinetic movement, and it does only one thing: Take in what you’re hearing, matches that to a library of languages, pulls the translation out and overrides it in your ear canal. This is why there’s both a slight delay and the “original speech” of the xenos. All the original 1:1 word matching is done via super-powerful AIs in central buildings that use heuristic analysis and other neat buzzwords to make those initial matches and update previous ones, as well as figure out idioms, sarcasam, analogies, etc. Once a significant-enough batch of updates are approved they’re pushed out remotely to everyone elses’ translator implants/comm-beads. So really, the beads just reference a static library that’s updated periodically.

For name generation: Doggo: Males will always have a last name that starts with "A". No females will have an "A"-starting last name. The naming convention is "title-firstname-of-lastname" where lastname is female's pack name or male clan name. Doggo name: When thinking of one of these, go with growling, gutteral noises. Things that would be like gargling rocks. Gr- and Ra- sounds. Snek: They speak in a rolling hiss-purr language; to the human ear it doesn't sound like they ever take a breath. Their words all run into each other, so a snek name would just be one long name - firstname'lastname, if you will. Snek name: When thinking of these, go with rolling, hissing and sighing noises. Things that would be like escaping steam. Ss- and Sh- sounds Dino: They roar-tweet/chirp, like birdsong mixed with rage. the ' in their name are actual musical notes; the rest is the growling-shriek of their natural tongue. Dino name: When thinking of these, go with a mixture of jurassic park and cockatoo. Things that would be primordial. Chirping, sharp snapping sounds. Examples: Doggo - Greweh, Reshrek, Ngrarzeh Snek - Var'Shrak, Shpressn'resk, Ehsshan Dino - Tr'Grakz, Tk'Elge, Trz'ag'rn Universal Sign Language It’s a thing It’s pretty basic - most cultural/racial things are not going to be covered Think of it as like “the most common 100 phrases you’d need to know!” as sign language. On Size So we’re not midgets. Let’s just throw that out there - all the xeno races will end up anywhere from 8ft - 12ft tall, depending on if they ate their wheaties, if they’re standing up straight and if they’re at peak xenos performance.

For reference, an 8’ to a 6’ looks like: http://www.mrinitialman.com/OddsEnds/Sizes/sizes.html?base_ft=8&base_in=0&comp_ft=6&comp_in=0

And for reference, a 12’ to a 6’ looks like: http://www.mrinitialman.com/OddsEnds/Sizes/sizes.html?base_ft=12&base_in=0&comp_ft=6&comp_in=0

8-10 is going to be your “normal range” with a 12’ xenos being a rough equivalent to Yao Ming.

Neutral Alien Scents: Because this was asked, here you go: For Karnakians, think their neutral is the scent of down; it’s like that fresh-pillow scent. For Dorarizin, it's fluff - a bit dandruffy, but more like sunshine on a carpet. For Jornissians, think more.... leathery, but not as strong, with a light earthy or dusty scent as well. This is assuming they’re fresh out of the shower and haven’t applied any cologne/perfume.

On Food: So, first things first: Generally, there’s a lot of foodstuffs that are edible for humans in it’s base state; protein is protein and carbs are carbs no matter if it comes from a fruit or an animal or treebark or whatever. It’s usually how things are processed that can be a bit of an issue; some alien fruit that might just give a human a stomach ache can, when condensed into a syrup, be a lethal poison.

There’s also the fact that some things are just poisonous to one species and fine to another; look at the various families of nightshade on earth, one of which we put on pizza. That would be reflected everywhere else in the universe - some things we can eat, some we just can’t.

Here are some in-universe/canonical foods, but the key here is make up your own. The universe is vast, and you can easily say the planet your character comes from had this as a local or regional foodstuff. It’s fine. <3

Dorarizin: Ngdzal: Like a pelmini, the dough is actually a hyper-powdered and reconstituted collagen/jerky mix; basically it's a super-chewy yet soft shell of meat. Within it, there's another type of meat, plus vegetables, spices, flowers and herbs. They're roughly the size of your forearm. If you basically... make sure they're not made traditionally and instead have smol-safe foodstuffs in it, they're delicious, and weigh about a pound each. Pitcher-cakes (Grznzd): Think “fried slices of meatloaf dipped in suet” and you’re about 90% of the way there. A great staple food, good for a few days, easy to mix in your veggies too. Drzulr: An oil the consistency of BBQ sauce that acts like caffeine for the species, made from the hard shell of an otherwise-inedible nut. Mixed with spices, herbs and sometimes powdered meat for palatability and preference. Jornissian: Namptha ball: Think Halva, but extremely hard - for us, at least. They can be pressed into balls (most usually) but also strips or little bricks. The outside is smoother but tougher than the inside, and is made up of both ground minerals and various seeds and nut analogues. The inside is soft(er) and is filled with various traditional fillings that give it a savoury flavor - for the sneks. For us, it tastes a bit like licorice-mint.

Dorarizin (aka doggo) Physiology: Males are smaller than Females, but will still be no smaller than 2.8-3m. Males also have a “mane” of fur around their neck and head, but it is by no means a hair analogue; think more like something laying across their neck and upper back. Females are larger and stronger than Males, and also have a stronger scent-drive Males go into heat/rut; Females don’t. Therefore, Males are only fertile for certain seasons, whereas females are fertile all the time. Teeth and Claws molt. Not all at once, but much like a shark; you’ll see them pull a loose tooth or claw out every so often. It happens less and less the older the Dorarizin in question becomes Blood: Blue. Like a hermit crab’s blood. Language/Speaking: The Dorarizin have canine mouths, but have the ability to “click” their teeth together - up to the speed of a dolphin’s clicks. Therefore their language integrates both growling and clicking within their normal speech. Names: The naming convention always goes “Firstname-of-Packname” for the females, and “Firstname-of-Man’sClanName” for the males. All male clan names start with “A”. No female will have an “A” last name, ever. Titles go before first names, so it’ll be Title-Firstname-of-******, but the title basically becomes a second first name. They’re never without the honorific. For the Dorarizin, the Karnakian species name is “Eternal-All-Lights-Within”. For Jornissians, “Forever-Free-Trail-Makers.” Home world is the “Hunt-of-Good-Lands” Parental titles are used/dropped with context: Ma is a title spoken by children, prefixed “nk”. Pa is a title spoken by children, prefixed “xktk” Your own son/daughter would call you “dad”, but would say “Xktk-[firstname-of-lastname]” if they were talking to someone else about you. Your packsibling would call their own mom “mom” but would call another mom “nk-[firtstname]”. Dad is everyone’s dad, so he’s just dad. Wives refer to each other with the prefix “zni” Husbands just call the wives their normal names cause they’re the alpha male what did you expect get out of my kitchen woman I have like 30 pups to wrassle into the space school bus in the next 5 minutes- Family Makeup: You have Tribes, which are made up of Clans, which are made up of Packs. Back when they were a single-planet species, Tribes were nation-states and were very important - nowadays, not so much. Clans are more extended family, and it’s here where most familiar power within Dorarizin society is concentrated. There are more females than males - to the tune of 3-5::1. This means that Dorarizin usually form family “packs”, with the larger females leading the den. Once pregnancies happen, the males are usually left to manage the pups after they’ve been weaned; Each female in turn gets pregnant from Alpha down, and each female can give a live birth of anywhere between 3 - 8 pups per litter. Dorarizin dads are #1, is what I’m basically saying. Scenting: Scent is extremely important to a Dorarizin; it can tell them anything from a fellow packmate’s mood to their age or if they have any sicknesses to them being in season. A Male’s scent drive is not as strong as a Females, for A newborn pup needs to smell of Mom because back in the day it may not have been the only pup around in the tribe, and parents needed to tell them apart. Birth back then was also not easy (murdermachines, remember?) So making sure the pups that DID survive birth survived the following months/years was super important.A scentless pup is neglected at best and abandoned at worst. As the pupper grows it's own scent starts to dominate over the mother's gifted scent, and then you're just another doggo in the pack. Society: Dorarizin live by and large within an Empire, but as to exactly how much power the Empire flexes depends on where you are in the territory. There are, of course, sub-factions and independent nation-states as well. Hierarchy is important, but not inflexible - if you prove yourself you can move to a higher status position. The Empire’s seat of power is literally called “The Throne-at-The-Center-of-All-Things” Jornissian (aka snek) Physiology: Males and Females are roughly the same size Males have a more aggressive, pointed face. Both races have a flared hood - it’s under this hood where their temperature-sensing organs touch the skin. For a female’s hood, it’s more narrow and tapers down a little past their shoulders - a male’s hood is wider and ends at the shoulder. This means that yes, they do have longer necks than you’d normally see on a species. They can control their hood, flaring it out or pulling it tight Males and Females can initiate mating; it’s really “are the conditions right”. They’re not as active as Humans, however, with a drive that only finds release once every week or so. Maybe longer. They do shed skin when growing, but once they reach adulthood most shedding is over with; although they may shed from trauma (such as a scar or callous developing) full-body shedding is a thing of the past. They instead patch-shed, such as a scale or two here or there - much like Humans with dandruff. Blood: Green. Like an emerald. Deoxygenated is watery green. Language/Speaking: Jornissians hiss and purr, and most of the time mix the two. To the human ear, it sounds like they never take a breath between words, soit’sallonelongrun-onsentenceyanno? Purring can be anywhere from a light kitty-purr to a deep thrumming, and the hisses can do the entire range from deflating tire to busted-steam-pipe. There are consonants in there as well, and other sounds, but the dominant words of the day are as if a kitten sprung a steam leak. Names: Jornissian names follow their speech patterns, so it’s all said in one breath, with a ‘ breaking up the first and last names if they occur. So you can have ‘single name’ snakes such as Hsan or Eshhsan, and then firstname’lastname - such as Ashhs’ssk being a first-last name portmanteau. Usually you get the ‘ added to the name if there’s a lot of that one snake name around - like having 10 people in your department at work named “Bill”. Some might be Bill, William or Billiam - but you’re gonna have to start either going last-name, full name or a nickname. To the Jornissians, the name for the Karnakian people is “The Spiritual Stargazers”. The Dorarizin are called “Clutchmate Seekers”. Family Makeup: You have Houses which are made up of Clutches - Houses being the old-world equivalent of, well. Important family houses. Clutches are minor houses and family trees that sprung off from the main branch - and can be anywhere from an individual family to a large group, depending on how the House is arranged. Jornissians usually pair off in sets of 2 - Males and Females are usually equally birthed, so there’s no gender imbalance that would cause a larger family group. This means that you could have a Jornissian family of 2 who gave birth to a Clutch of eggs, and who themselves are within a Clutch. Jornissians give a soft-shell laying of anywhere between 5-15 eggs, with a 0%-20% amount of them being stillbirths/false eggs (think eggs not fertilized but caught up in the pregnancy hormones) which is a holdover from an evolutionary adaptation to a clutch-predator that is long-since extinct. Mom and Dad warm/hatch the eggs, and take turns carrying around their live children - who are very bitey. It’s not odd to see a new parent Jornissian with a couple children attached to their hood/neck/arms by the teeth - which is why one of the first garments ever invented was a baby-pocket-sash to stuff those little bastards in and keep them warm. Society: Jornissians live within a federation of equals; think ancient rome. Voting is important, as is the power of consensus - debate is also highly encouraged and it’s not odd to see a rolling argument/conversation occur over days. There are, of course, sub-factions and independent nation-states, but as long as the patchwork is held together the Federation continues. Heat Sensing/Vision: The Jornissian’s have roughly two special powers, so to speak: The ability to see a wider EM spectrum that Humans, and their extreme sensitivity to temperature differentials. This means they’re very able and capable of hunting in the dark - either they can see you (as you’re partly in the infrared) or they can follow the overall “warm” sense to get ahold of you. Religious Deities: Tons of ‘em. But a few that’ve been named: Harsak-who-devours-the-dead Sotek-who-circles-the-world Nressre-whose-eyes-are-the-moons Karnakian (aka fluffdinos) Physiology: Males and Females are roughly the same size. Think “Jurassic Park” Raptor when movement - arms tucked in before chest, tail used to counterbalance movement. Average walking height for species at the shoulder is anywhere from 2-3M, however when they’re sitting down or “reared” back up they will be taller. Males and Females will have head crests and tail “fans”, as well as fans on the underside of their forearms. They can be flared out at will/subconsciously as part of their body language Blood: Purple. Deep royal hue, deoxygenated is lighter and weaker. Language/Speaking: Karnakian language is a mix of growls (like you’d expect from a dinosaur) and musical songbird notes. So it’s roaring-tweets; it can be beautiful and absolutely terrifying at the same time. Congretory Speaking: Since their language includes songbird notes, there is what’s called “congretory speaking” which is such an advanced form of communication that most translators just give up. There are entire segments of their language that are collaborative only and do not exist in the singular - where each individual approaches the “word” from a different way and the harmonics take off and a complex concept is spoken into being. This means that you can have one group song end in a “note” or “word” that in and of itself is an entire sermon or lecture or song. Old Tales speak of a legend that if every Karnakian spake at once they could say the true and full name of God. But it’s just a legend. Names: They have usually one name, Starting with growling or roaring consonants, and ‘ connoting musical notes. So Tk’ele or Rg’na’kit’ would be fine. To the Karnakians, the Dorarizin species name is “Noble-Family-Hunters-Yearning-For-Life” Family Makeup: Karnakians have Families, which arrange into Tribes, which make up Flocks, which are what a Blessing is made of. Families are usually just the Karnakians who are blood-related; this could be anything from a Mother/Father to a Mother/Father + Kids + Grandparents and even extended relatives. There is no gender disparity, so equal work is given to both male and female when it comes to matters of the home and even matters of the heart - there’s no taboo for an aggressive female to hit on a male, and vice versa. Karnakians will lay between 3 and 7 hard shell eggs, all of them fertilized. The more eggs you lay, however, the smaller and weaker the individual chicks will be. Mom, Dad and other blood-related family will take turns nesting on the eggs until they hatch, wherepuon the whole family will make sure the next generation is raised properly. They will follow around the parents by the knees and ankles, and it’s not an uncommon sight to see a few chicks stuffed under a Karnakian parent’s “wing” to keep them warm and safe. Society: Karnakians live within a Theocracy - as you do when since the dawn of recorded history you could see what you consider is the soul - which is a Diarchy. The actual Blessings - some spanning multiple star systems - are arranged in a divine-mandated federation; You are the bishop both because we voted you in and obviously because the Great Soul wanted you to have that position. They’re a mix between the Dorarizin Empire and the Jornissian Federation, if you want to look at it in a high level. Special Ability: Neural “Electrosensitivity” - They’re able to see (what we assume is) the condensed electrical activity in yo brain, son. Now this does not mean they can read your mind, or understand what you’re thinking, or track you through walls. Just that their second pair of fixed, unblinking eyes are able to see that you’re a thinking being - and hence, have a soul. It’s basically the reason why they’re all so religious; from prehistory until the modern day they can see your soul in your head. Further Clarification: We call it “Neural Electrosensitivity” but we (and they) honestly don’t know why or how it works, and why there’s variances between karnakians in terms of strength or distance. It works to track the “souls” of sapient species - so your dog would not register, but it’s handler would. Human (aka The smol) Physiology: Smol and kinda squishy. We also have to sleep all the time compared to the other races - that and eat. We’re just little eatin’, sleepin’, flailing things: This is our secret strength. Language/Speaking: The problem here is that our normal words are kinda random mouthsounds when it comes to the xenos species - the ‘T’ could be a hard stop in Dorarizin’s language, a rolling “r” is found in Jornissian, whistling is Karnakian - the list goes on. Without a translator, it sounds like we’re babbling in an almost-language. Names: Silly things like Bill and Susan and Nixon. Family Makeup: Lol iunno whatever tumblr says isn’t a thoughtcrime Society: We seem to be federating into an interstellar democracy/republic; how this will evolve only time will tell. Special Ability: We’re cute, GDI. That counts for something. Galactic Senate Senate at-large The Galactic Senate is the largest, most powerful governing body in the history of the Galaxy. It does this mainly by being a coalition of equals - and that coalition is made up of every major species’ factions in the Galaxy. War, total war, is something that is guaranteed annihilation, so it’s in everyone’s best interests to have a forum to make agreed-upon laws canon and to work out your differences.

If you’re an upstart Dorarizin faction, for instance, and decide to declare war - well… you’ll have every other major faction in the entire Galaxy turn their guns on you. Not a good day.

Senate Representation is streamlined and straightforward: Each species elects their own Senator however they so choose, and could have any amount of Senators that they so wanted, but each Species only gets one vote. As long as you get a simple majority (⅔ before Humanity, now ¾ ) then your law is enacted. Repeals work the same way.

The average citizen will rarely interact with the Senate as a direct action or a governing body; it’s a nebulous thing that does stuff and somehow impacts your life. As long as the status quo is maintained, everyone’s basically ok.

The Senate is also not a single body where everyone sits down in a room; there are multiple “senates” in session depending on the scope and topic being discussed. So you could have a senate in session with representatives for each species that’s only focused on perishable interstellar prepared food trade, for example.

Each species hosts a senate body at their home planet that focuses specifically on negotiations around that species. Negotiations that equally involve multiple species would just be teleconferenced between them. This way, no one terrorist can “wipe out” the senate - they’d have to hit every single species’ home worlds at once. This also gives everyone “equal footing” because, yanno. Every species hosts everyone else.

Society at Large On Income, Post-Scarcity and Galactic Currency: Everyone - no matter the species, is given a universal basic income equivalent. Your basic needs (the bottom few tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy, basically) will be met: You’ll have food, shelter, clothing, power, and all the basic necessities of life met. This frees each and every individual within the galaxy to pursue their hopes, dreams, and what makes them fulfilled - and to do that takes money.

The Galactic Resource Credit (GRC) is the standard trade currency throughout the galaxy, because traditional currencies based on scarcity and culture don’t really hold sway any longer. A GRC is basically a stand-in for a physical unit of resource; as nanofabricators need physical resources to print the thing-that-you-so-desire, you can buy those resources with a GRC. You pay a GRC to get 5kg of copper, for example, or 2kg of silver, or 1kg of lithium, etc., etc.

People will charge GRC for moving raw resources from the moon to a station, from the station to refineries, from the refinery to the final product to be shipped to your home - The GRC is a set “value” that has floating redemption rates. If you’re in an artificial station in the interstellar void, well congrats - you’re basically in the space equivalent of Point Nemo and are gonna be paying an arm and a leg for material. You’re a citizen in a resource-rich solar system? Well, your prices will be lower, but only for those materials that you mine/export/refine. Other prices might cost more… you get the idea. You hand-carve this cane from wood as opposed to nanofabricating it? You can charge more GRC for it; same for cooking or shows or the arts…

Each GRC is “minted” by the Senate to stop any one crackpot from saying “I’ve got an octillion GRC, let me buy all of space now pls.” You would think this would give the Senate an incredible amount of power - and it does - but it’s basically every member race agreeing with every other one to only have so much in circulation at any given point of time. GRC are primarily digital, with (what some would say) a ridiculous amount of security features built in to make sure they can’t be copied, double-spent or forged. Physical GRC do exist, mainly as an RFID chip with X GRC value permanently put on it, and then that RFID chip encased in a metal/trinket of your choice.

Human Human society has gone through a ton of upheaval. TL;DR, although Humans have never had it better, our Societies/Governments are all kinds of fucked. Zephyr Stations Zephyr Stations are the end-nodes to Terran space elevators; there are a total of 18 on planet Earth, with the largest of them being Zephyr Nexus 01.

Zephyr Stations: Purpose-built, usually there to ferry off specific ships/cargo/utility. So you’ll have Zephyr Station 8, for example, which is a hub for in-system ships and joyrides, but nothing else. Zephyr Station 14 would be specifically for managing remote drones, etc., etc.

Zephyr Nexus: The largest station by an order of magnitude, a Nexus station - and all inhabited planets would have at least one - is a swiss-army knife of a station. It also caps a space elevator to the surface, however, it hosts a shipyard, cargo processing, foundries, etc. For Earth, our Zephyr Nexus also holds our Galactic Senators, and those senators from other races who deal specifically with Human-xenos relations.

Office of Interstellar Harmony (OIH) The OIH is like OSHA, but for humans in space. Its’ primary goal is to make sure that the humans who are serving on-board primarily xenos crew and those who served with a mixed-species crew don’t lose their minds and put their best foot forward when it comes to presenting Humanity on the Galactic Stage. This also means that they mandate what culture is kosher for sharing to the interstellar community at large.

Known Laws: OIH Demands that any human serving on an all-xenos or vast-majority (80%+) ship or station must spend at least 4 hours a day immersed in human media. This is to help the human mind maintain a sense of normalcy when it comes to their alien surroundings. Approved Human media must: Not give away any, or hint to any, state secrets or methods of operation in re: Military or intelligence assets. Basically, no realistic war movies or docudramas. Not paint humans at large/en masse in negative light or connotations, i.e. panicky, dumb, racist, xenophobic, militaristic, etc. Basically, no riots/revolutionary movies pls Frame all works of fiction so far into the real of fiction as to be unbelievable (Bourne Identity no, Harry Potter yes.) Frame all works of non-fiction in a historical context no later than 1900 (War Horse no, Little Women yes) Have a clear line of demarcation between good and evil, and in such stories must have good prevail (no gray-area moral thonker movies) Frame all cultural exchanges, idioms, examples, etc. in ways that are easily-translated and broad brush; no nuances allowed.

United Terran Federation Basically the governing body for mankind. This is where you get interstellar and planetary laws, law-enforcement, military, etc. This is also where you get people declaring independence from, sovereign citizens citing Black’s Interstellar Law Dictionary at, and general illuminati conspiracy theorists harping on.

Eh. It’s a living. At least it’s not anarcho-capitalism.

The UTF Also doesn’t just pop into being; it takes centuries of consolidation for it to actually have any sort of soverignty over Earth soil, and even then it’s more of a… “each territory ratifies to stay in the UTF every hundred years”. It’s primarily a xenos-facing organization for it’s first few dozen decades.

Think of it like this: You might show an alien your UTF-minted Citizen Identification Card stating that you’re from the North American Territory, but you’ll say you’re a United States Citizen and the rest of you can go to hell you cowardly fucks.

It takes about 600 years for humans to view “Earthers” as goofy, a little weird and unreasonably territorial, what with us still arguing over who owns what bits of land on this one planet in an infinite sea of stars. One of the Jornissian slang terms for an organization of warm-cuddles is a warmhuddle. The UTF, then, would be THE Warmhuddle.

Technology “Although Technology levels among the Galactic Senate were mostly equal - again, egalitarian societies don't mind sharing small tweaks to nanite programming or new ways to harvest a moon - how that technology was put into work for the various physiologies of the member races were all wholly unique.” Warp/Space Travel Warp/Space Travel is basically uniform amongst the species of the galaxy, and it all boils down to Tesseracting - building a bubble of real-space around your ship, then moving that space faster-than-light forward. Scrunch up space infront of you, push it out behind you.

Nanofabricators The nanofabricators can basically do anything when it comes to building and when it comes to the nanofabricator itself. So for instance, say you had one that built food out of protein and carbohydrate blocks. Well the fabricator would build itself in configuration A, for example. It'd be great at making food, but terrible at making anything else. So now say you want to turn that food fabricator (whose food always tastes a little metallic, unfortunately) to a general-purpose one. So you set the fabricator to configuration B, and it'll ask for Xkg of Iron, Ykg of silicon, Zkg of lithium.... specifically to upgrade itself. You drop it in the hopper, walk away for a day or two, it rebuilds itself into configuration B. Then it takes in different inputs and provides different outputs. The larger, or more specialized configurations cost a lot more resources and take a lot more time, sometimes in the span of years, to configure themselves. Basically the more you're deviating from the current configuration, the more of a bad time you're gonna have. Going from "food processor" to "dessert processor" isn't bad. Going from "food processor" to "general outpost fabricator" is gonna be a long-ass wait. There are general fabricators around in workshops and whatnot - to do small patch jobs and small printing jobs - and the more intricate work ones are in specialized areas. So for instance, fixing a wrench, you just go to a maintenance room and chuck it in and wait a few minutes. You want to build a new translation bead matrix... well shit, that's gotta use a ton of stuff, you may as well go to Manufacturing Bay 7 and start the production queue.

Miscellaneous Q&A: Why aren’t there “true” AIs? Like Cortana? First, let’s get some nomenclature down. AI is just a really fancy-dancy calculator or chatbot. SI is what we’re calling a “synthetic intelligence” and therefore is more what you’re thinking of - a digital citizen.

The xenos - and humanity, eventually - run into the bottleneck of “how’st’d’ve the fuck do you even program a subconsious?” because just uploading your neural pattern to a quantum-enabled computer doesn’t mean (1) it’s actually you, (2) that it’ll function like a real brain once it’s turned “on” and (3) that it won’t get all fucky-wucky in a few hours/weeks/months/days as new neurons “grow” and “die”.

Because the subconscious is the foundation for actual sapeince - the drive of eat/feast/fucc/thonk but also art/music/curiosity/etc, it’s something that’s necessary to bridge the AI-SI gap. So far, that technology eludes everyone.

Why aren’t we all uploading our brains into robots and being immortal? Why isn’t that a thing? Short answer is two reasons: (1) You become a waste of resources and/or consolidate too much and begin to stifle innovation, and (2) You’ll eventually become chaotic evil.

It’s not even really a matter of you actively deciding to be evil one day, it’s just a combination of you getting so absolutely flippin’ bored with everything that you really want chaotic and unexpected stuff to happen just for the change of pace (I.E. your slide into chaos) + you’ve met so many people and seen them all die and met so many more that you can’t find it in yourself to care about them as much as you used to (Your moral compass dulls) + Hedonism is a dead-end street; at some point you’ve tried everything legal that you start slipping into illegal and then why stop there when petty morality comes into play (I.E. your slide into evil.)

It’s not a matter of IF but of WHEN; you could last a thousand years or 100,000 years - but at some point, the mortal brain becomes disillusioned with the world and… yeah. There you go. The senate long ago realized this would happen and that generations are a healthy thing to encourage, and that we really don’t need to be fighting a robot-lich once every 10,000 years as he burns the galaxy because he’s bored. Even at peak chaotic evil you still might not be a raging unstoppable fuckstick who slaughters on a whim, but that’s all a matter of how bored you get, what you eventually find interesting, and whether or not people around you become an annoyance to be dealt with or a non-issue to be ignored. 1K human years is a good rough estimate for the average augmented lifespan of any given tol with access to medical technology, but there will be a variance of a couple hundred years once that plug is pulled.

SPECIES REFERENCE SHEETS & PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS Dorarizin

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Fur patterns & color/Eye colors: Eye colors: The cool spectrum of color Purple – Greweh’s is purple-gray Deep Blue Navy Green Amber Vibrant/bright colors are rare, usually it’s a softer color NOT pastel. Just muted. Fur patterns: Almost always two-toned. Single colors are rare Colors tend to blend into each other and not be a straight border Colors differ on “underside” of Dorarizin versus top; think along the lines of the difference between a white belly and a red back of a fox Fur patterns are usually standard throughout the race, though which specific Dorarizin has what pattern is based on genetics (or gene therapy or dye) Coloration changes around the muzzle Coloration changes around the paws/feet Tapered colorations around tail Change in fur color for ears (inside and out) Coloration changes between “front/underside” and “back/top” Fur Color All fur color is to help them with hunting; their genetics aren’t going to allow them to go into bright or vibrant colors. That said, gene therapy and fur dyes are a thing, but….well. You’d just be the human equivalent of that one chick with the purple hair. Dorarizin eventually will change their fur based on where they live/what planet type they hail from over the course of generations “Home” Dorarizin are mottled dark blue-grays, gray, dark green. Earthy colors, colors that help them hunt at dusk or dawn. Temperate/Tropic climates will also produce “Home” Dorarizin colors given time. Desert/Arid Dorarizin will get brown – deep browns, earthy clay red, muted brown-green colors. The red can be brighter than “Home” Dorarizin, but not like a fox’s vibrant red. Arctic/Alpine Dorarizin will go shades of gray or dusk-blue to almost-white. They won’t have a pure-white fur color (unless albino), and fur patterns will stay the same. Claws Dorarizin claws are a mixture of bio-available metals, calcium, chitin and keratin. It will retain some of the color of the fur – especially the pawfur – but is usually muddled with or tapers to a pure black. We’re talking, obsidian black. They also can be shined; if it’s a “home” dorarizin, they can get to a mirror polish due to the darkness of the claws. Most other sub-races would just get them shiny for formal events – or historically to prove that they don’t do manual labor and can afford such a luxury.

Jornissian

Physical Adaptations: Cold Climate vs Warm Climate Cold Climate Jornissians have more fat on their bodies to retain heat; for men this just makes them larger, heavier - daddy mode. For women, this gives them wider hips and (what we would call) breasts, but they’re not an erogenous zone; it’s literally fat to keep your core warmer in colder weather. Warm Climate Jornissians have less fat on their bodies and are overall sleeker in order to bleed excess heat. This is your more traditional viper-looking Jornissian, and yes - this means no breasts, flat chests for everybody. Viper versus Python There are both, calm down. Jornissians either hunt (traditionally) by venom or by constriction; both killing techniques are quick, but usually it’s an either-or. Rarely would you get one who has both traits, or can hunt both ways. Viper-type Jornissians are going to have a more aggressive look and a sharper hood; triangles. Triangles everywhere. Think speed, think ferocity. Python-type Jornissians are going to have a less-aggressive look and a smaller, thinner hood; more circles. Think calculating as opposed to speed and antagonism. Scale Color: Scale color depends on the genetics of the parents and their climate, per usual. However, they’re ambush predators, and as such their patterns are going to be more geometric, more splotchy, and more standing-out-onboard-a-ship. Geometric like diamonds, circles, squares, triangles…. The list goes on. Splotchy - think like modern-day military camoflauge, ranging from large splotches of color to an integrated patchwork of scales. You won’t have splotchy geometry; it’s almost always one or the other. Jornissians will change scale color dependant on where they’ve lived for a few generations - but also whether or not their particular family line retains their potent venom More Venemous Jornissians are going to be brighter - as a “do not eat me I am DANGER” response Less/Not Venemous Jornissians are going to be muted - to make it even easier to hide and strike from the shadows. Colors: Red: Can be a main or accent color; anywhere from vibrant cherry to muted red clay. Blue: Can be a main or accent color; anywhere from sky-blue to ocean-blue. Green: Can be a main or accent color: anywhere from emerald green to deep grass/shaded grass green. White: Usually an accent color, but can be a main in some circumstances; You’ll find white scales breaking up other colors in geometric patterns, but to have an all-white Jornissian is usually either (1) an albino or (2) an arctic-bred Jornissian, which is extremely rare. There’s cold and then there’s cold, in other words. Brown: Usually an accent color; used in scale patterns to add flow between deep colors such as red and green. Black: Usually an accent color; used in place or in addition to white to break up other colors in geometric patterns. Scale dyes/gene therapies are a thing, so in more urban and metropolitan areas you can get crazy combinations… like hot pink. Eye Color: They have a Diamond Iris; this tightens or expands based on available light, but does not go into a full reptilian-slit like what we’re used to. Blue Green Gold Orange Red Silver The main point in all these colors is that they’re intense. They don’t blink like we do - their eyelid is basically under what we would consider the eye, and they just shed the lens cap when it gets old. Even in muted Jornissians (non-venemous) you’re going to have intense stares.

Karnakian They did literally nothing wrong Physical Characteristics: Anatomical Constants Karnakians are going to be around the same height as the Dorarizin - 2.3-3 meters tall - when they’re working/moving. As they have a raptor-like body, their tail helps them balance in their movement - so they’re tall but not at their full height when moving If a Karnakian were to rear up to its full height, it would be a minimum of 2.6m tall. Karnakians will all have head-crest feathers, draping arm feathers (like the wings of a bird) and feathers along their body and tail. They “flag” with their feathers sometimes to give nonverbal cues - can be emotional, actual sign-language, etc. Climate Adaptations Cold Weather: F L U F F Y More feathers, more down - they have the appearance of being bulked up, but most of that is actual featherweight. These guys will also have more feathers covering their body, and less scales - though, there will always be scales on the hands/claws, muzzle and feet. Warm Weather: LESS F L U F F Y You’re going to see more scales, less feathers - in the extreme cases, no feathers at all except for a head-crest, arm-drapes and tailfeathers, though this is extremely rare. Overall, you’ll just see less feathers; they’re still filled with down and still have rows of them on their body, but wont’ be as “thicc” as the cold-weather adapted Karnakians Feathers Patterns Karnakians usually (but not always) have lighter feathers on their “underside”, under their tail and between their legs. Darker feathers are usually on their back and the rest of the body. Monocolor Fading from quick to tip Fading from tip to quick Outside of feather different color than underside Some Karnakians can be “spotted”, i.e. they have mottled feathers Some Karnakians can be “dressed”, i.e. their feathers will form patterns, such as a collar of light feathers around their neck, bright feathers on their ‘wings’ and tail but dull on the body, etc. Colors White Black, Gray Green - Emerald, usually, though muted colors do exist Yellow - Dull, sandy. Rarely the color of the sun Blue - bright, vibrant Orange - Dull, muted. More copper than Orange-orange. Red - Ruby to Blood Iridescent Scales Scales are going to be universal under the skin, except for when molting, having a skin condition, or discoloration due to age. Green Brown Tan Cream Black Eyes The Karnakians have two sets of eyes - one right behind the other. The first set of eyes is where you’d normally expect them to be on a raptor, with the second set being smaller, but opened “wider” - or at least, having that impression. The second set of eyes is also “fixed”, but is actually multi-directional; it literally doesn’t need to move because it’s FOV is so wide. The first eye is for looking through the EM spectrum; Karnakians see just a little bit wider than Humans, but not by much. The second, fused eye has the ability to “see the soul”. In reality, it’s more like “being able to detect electro-magnetic pulses that occur within other animals” and there is really no good description that they can give us to explain what that actually looks like You could assume it’s that they can see an “aura” You could assume it’s that they can see other sapients “glow” You could even assume it’s that they can see your neurons/nerves firing off in a kaleidoscope of light and life Point being, they can see something, but the big point here is that they can only see it in other sapient species. So, they can see it in us, Jornissian and Dorarizin - as well as each other - but not in your kitty. Srry bby.