Making a setting 03 - Choice of Worlds - Aliens and humans in the Triarku system - [POLL CLOSED]

[Ixthos he/him]

Links to other topics in this series.

• Making a setting 01 - getting started - [POLL CLOSED]

• Making a setting 02 - Choice of Worlds - The Triarku system summary and plot

• Making a setting 03 - Choice of Worlds - Aliens and humans in the Triarku system - [POLL CLOSED]

• Making a setting 04 - Choice of Worlds - Magic in the Triarku system – [POLL CLOSED]

• Making a setting 05 - Choice of Worlds - Planets in the Triarku system - [POLL CLOSED]

 

[POLL CLOSED] 

RESULTS:

 

 

Here is the aliens poll for the Triarku solar system. Please be aware that there are other aliens in other solar systems in the universe, but the distances involved and the lack of known FTL systems other than the nanoscale city means that most of those aliens remain isolated from one another, though there is a project in the Triarku system that is attempting to create viable FTL that any species can use.

 

The magic poll should be coming in a day or so, but until then, please let me know what you think, and comment any suggestions or questions :-)

A few quick details:

• The two races that are fixed in place are the Benefactors and the Outsiders.

  • The Benefactors are the nanoscale species that guard and control the city built for them by the Others, the race that saved them and the other native races of the universe. The Benefactors are indeed benevolent, but don't fully understand or trust the human-level universe, though they do have many allies who are human-scale, and some who are both larger and smaller scales than that.

  • The Outsiders are the dangerous, hostile beings that arrived in the universe long ago and disrupted civilisation. No race in the universe could even attract their attention, much less stop them, and they wouldn't have cared if they did. The Others eventually stopped them, and broke the dimension they were making use of in order to trap them, splitting them into three “dead” parts, though as the Outsiders were never “alive”, this is ultimately more of a prison sentence than death. Their dead components are still a danger, and occasionally find ways to interfere in the physical world, as well as sometimes invading the nanoscale city in order to disrupt or control it and thus free themselves and salvage their plans for the universe.

• Humans exist on several worlds, but the majority are on planets that are either a little too hot or a little too cold for human comfort. Thus several humans are adapted to better function on those worlds, but those aren't the only types that exist. The planets have a diverse series of ecosystems, and many possible cultures, not all of which get along.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Ixthos
Added links

[Guest Somebody from Scadrial]

With the way it's going so far, this is my opinions. We seem to be getting two or three of humans and aliens, in the interest of simplicity, I'll be assuming three for both.

Humans:

Underground, flying, and aquatic seem to be the main types so far.

For underground, I would personally like humans with glowing skin. They would likely be strong and/or have hard flat claws for digging. 

For flying, I think humans who have adapted to glide great lengths would be most likely, so I believe a flying squirrel variety would be interesting. If you want, I think you could get some good internal politics between creatures with different wings, such as: normal bird wings, beetle wings, butterfly wings, moth wings, flying squirrel wings, and bat/dragon wings.

For aquatic, having gills would be normal, but you could go the whale route and have them come up for air. I would personally prefer flippers for feet and maybe hands too. They should definitely have fins, I would like the visual of a shark/dolphin fin on the head and a long dorsal (I think?) on the back.

Aliens:

I'll get back to you.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Somebody from Sel
Forgot quite a bit.

[Ixthos he/him]

2 hours ago, Somebody from Sel said:

With the way it's going so far, this is my opinions. We seem to be getting two or three of humans and aliens, in the interest of simplicity, I'll be assuming three for both.

Humans:

Underground, flying, and aquatic seem to be the main types so far.

For underground, I would personally like humans with glowing skin. They would likely be strong and/or have hard flat claws for digging. 

For flying, I think humans who have adapted to glide great lengths would be most likely, so I believe a flying squirrel variety would be interesting. If you want, I think you could get some good internal politics between creatures with different wings, such as: normal bird wings, beetle wings, butterfly wings, moth wings, flying squirrel wings, and bat/dragon wings.

For aquatic, having gills would be normal, but you could go the whale route and have them come up for air. I would personally prefer flippers for feet and maybe hands too. They should definitely have fins, I would like the visual of a shark/dolphin fin on the head and a long dorsal (I think?) on the back.

Aliens:

I'll get back to you.

Hmmm ... interesting take. I like the idea of glowing humans for underground - and if they make it I'll name them SomSel ;-) - and I was planning on the flying type to be more like gliding, but that is still ... (upintheair) ... sorry :-P I also am trying to keep them sufficiently different from another species in another universe, but the idea of different wing types being a thing between cultures could be interesting. I like your idea of insect type wings though - I want to keep the morphologies consistent, and there are many different types of insect wing. I might use an idea from another species which has insectoid wings along with feathers, but I'm waiting until later before making any fixed decisions.

The gills for the aquatic, unless I make them more like dolphins as you suggest, would be along the sides of their bodies, but I am leaning more towards them whale-like. I'm not a huge fan of a fin on the head though - I need to see how they would move through the water, and then determine where a fin would go. I am also wondering if I should bring them more along a crab route, though this is still early, and they could go either way.

 

Because the aliens so far are fairly neck and neck, I might take the ones which don't make it and split some of their traits with those that do, so have some of the plant alien's have minds be exiles in the city, being a species that is present on a few worlds and some were forced to flee, etc. Mainly I want to integrate them rather tightly into the story, and so I'll only make a decision once I've closed the poll and mulled over the choices for a few days - until then, I don't want to speculate too deeply as the poll could suddenly change which ones are in the lead as others vote. I am planning to make another post outlining other possibilities for the poll when it is closed though, so if the votes had gone differently what other species or humans could have been the result.

[Guest Somebody from Scadrial]

10 hours ago, Ixthos said:

Hmmm ... interesting take. I like the idea of glowing humans for underground - and if they make it I'll name them SomSel ;-) - and I was planning on the flying type to be more like gliding, but that is still ... (upintheair) ... sorry :-P I also am trying to keep them sufficiently different from another species in another universe, but the idea of different wing types being a thing between cultures could be interesting. I like your idea of insect type wings though - I want to keep the morphologies consistent, and there are many different types of insect wing. I might use an idea from another species which has insectoid wings along with feathers, but I'm waiting until later before making any fixed decisions.

The gills for the aquatic, unless I make them more like dolphins as you suggest, would be along the sides of their bodies, but I am leaning more towards them whale-like. I'm not a huge fan of a fin on the head though - I need to see how they would move through the water, and then determine where a fin would go. I am also wondering if I should bring them more along a crab route, though this is still early, and they could go either way.

 

Because the aliens so far are fairly neck and neck, I might take the ones which don't make it and split some of their traits with those that do, so have some of the plant alien's have minds be exiles in the city, being a species that is present on a few worlds and some were forced to flee, etc. Mainly I want to integrate them rather tightly into the story, and so I'll only make a decision once I've closed the poll and mulled over the choices for a few days - until then, I don't want to speculate too deeply as the poll could suddenly change which ones are in the lead as others vote. I am planning to make another post outlining other possibilities for the poll when it is closed though, so if the votes had gone differently what other species or humans could have been the result.

I still enjoy speculating, and it helps me work my brain, so 

Aliens:

The hive mind plant ones seem the most interesting to me, so I'll be doing more information for my ideas on them.

I think these should be most distanced from a human mindset. They should think in an abstract whole, rather than a singular, often selfish, organism. I think these would mutate faster similar to Sleepless. I don't think intelligence on a human level makes sense for them, and I see them as being able to work as spies using mind-control if that exists.

The space faring mounts would be pretty close to a human mindset and could likely have wildly different opinions on humans. I think of these as space horses, but they would likely look very different. I like a kinda giant black beetle looking creature with a rhino horn. I think when the beetle goes into space it should cover its breathing points with a Transformor-like mask. A human would need a mask to breath, but you could have large air stores that they have learned to extract it from, they wouldn't need giant equipment then.

[Ixthos he/him]

@Somebody from Sel Go for it :-) (though for the sentient mounts in my mind I'm having difficulty moving past thinking of them like Tauntauns from The Empire Strikes Back :-P though the space faring transport would be much larger. I'm thinking of potentially combining them with the sentient mounts though with the mounts as juveniles.)