Coalition Universe Species

[Monroe]

And I love the uniforms!

Likewise. I'd love to see more examples of Uniforms and Empires. So far you got the Coalition and triceratops but I'd love to see more.

I really like this universe you created.

[Graham Kennedy]

THE PALLIAR



Status : Coalition members

Vital Statistics (100% = average Human male) :

Height : 165 cm
Strength : 32 - 45%
Lifespan : 48.5 styr
Mass : 40.2 kg
Endurance : 34 - 50%
Visual Sensitivity : 68%
Aural Range : 200 Hz - 15 kHz
Visual Resolution : 81%
Aural Sensitivity : 73%

Physical :

Normal Palliar skin is yellowish in colour, with shades ranging from green through to brown. They are humanoid, but tend to have longer and slimmer limbs than humans do. There is no neck as such, but the upper torso is long and flexible enough to allow the head to turn about 60 degrees to either side.

There are four genders, a male and female and two "intermediates". One of each is required to participate in a single sex act for a successful conception to take place; details are rarely forthcoming as the Palliar are notoriously shy about sexuality. The gestation period is six months, and two to four offspring result from a typical pregnancy. Palliar offspring are physically independant of the parents within as little as two years, though four is the legal age of adulthood.

The natural environment for the Palliar is swampland - their prominent snout is used for sifting through and straining mud to find Alayna, small shrimp-like creatures which have made up the basic Palliar diet since before they developed intelligence. Even modern Palliar eat little else but raw Alayna - live if possible - and rarely drink anything but water. They are known for being inept at and uninterested in cooking of any kind.

The Palliar skeleton is similar to the Human skeleton in basic layout, with the major difference being that the spine and ribcage extend above the shoulders. The bones are thinner and weaker than their Human counterparts, and contain no bone marrow. Damage heals extremely rapidly - a fracture will normally heal within a day and even a full break in under a week. Palliar are generally regarded as being frailer and more easily damaged than Humans, but more capable of recovering from damage.

The long limbs of the Palliar are likewise somewhat more fragile than their Human equivalents, and broken limbs are relatively more common for them. The Palliar are, however, reknowned as being amongst the greatest known runners.

Cultural :

The Palliar government is, in at least a sense, democratic. Their government functions are carried out by an artificial intelligence system whose central node is located on their home planet, with subsidiary nodes on other worlds. The Palliar claim that the system is entirely benign, with strict inbuilt limits on its personality which make it impossible for the system to do other than act in the genuine best interests of the Palliar themselves. All Palliar have a right of access to the government network; they can discuss the political and social issues of the day with the system at any length they desire. Their views are statistically weighted and taken into account in government decisions, a form of techno-democracy. The system is not, however, bound simply to follow the whim of the majority. Recognising the "whim of the electorate" as a major flaw revealed in previous attempts at such systems, the Palliar have designed their AI to balance public opinion against its own judgment of practical considerations.

In a galaxy where fear of AI systems is rather commonplace, the Palliar system of government is highly controversial in many circles. Criticisms range from claims that the AI system is not democratic enough in its considerations right through to the anti-AI extremists who regard the Palliar as little more than slaves of a machine god. The acceptance of such a system by one of their member species is a decision that has cost the Coalition politically on more than one occasion.

The home planet of the Palliar is Panthral.

[Graham Kennedy]

To scale :

[Bryan Moore]

I've noticed you've kept most of these species significantly weaker than the humans. Interesting. Who's the lanky person?

I'm also imagining said lanky person swinging little green dude by the eyes.

[Mikey]

Graham had mentioned that he wanted a universe in which the humans weren't the 98-lb. weaklings.

[Teaos]

I'd really like to see some more multi limb species, since your not making a TV show you have the freedom to create creatures that arent the standard bipedal ones we normally see.

[Graham Kennedy]

Yes indeed, one of the things I don't like about Trek is that virtually every species you come across is physically superior to Humans. Klingons are, Breen are, Founders are, Jem'Hadar are, Vulcans are, etc. Partly I just want to do something a bit different, but partly having physically superior enemies leads to silliness when you then get Humans into a fight with those enemies and have them win. Jem'Hadar are often shown physically superior to Humans in Trek, but in To The Death and other episodes, the Humans take them on in hand to hand and win without trouble.

Whilst Humans are not the physical uber-gods of the Coalition universe, they are better than average. The typical galactic resident would look at Humans about how Humans look at Klingons in Trek.

The big tall one is a Turgran, by the way. I'm going to move the posts about Turgrans and Zaketh from the general universe thread into this one.

[IanKennedy]

test

[Graham Kennedy]

Okay I copied the Turgran and Zaketh stuff in, along with the replies to them, but I buggered it up and they ended up at the start of the thread rather than the end. So go take a peek if you like.

[Teaos]

Ah you split and merged them from the old thread. I did that with some stuff in the Daystrom RP, no way around it going into its chronolgical order. You could just re submit it in a new post if you wanna keep everything in order.

[Graham Kennedy]

The merge function is weird. You have to pick a topic then say "merge it with that one"... but the one you pick to merge it with goes on first and the one you start with goes last!

Actually I find the mod tools in general quirky and hard to use. See what we mods have to put up with to keep y'all happy?

[Graham Kennedy]

CRYSTALS



Status : Coalition members

Vital Statistics (100% = average Human male) :

Height : 20 - 40 cm
Strength : 20 - 50 %
Lifespan : 1,000+ styr
Mass : 0.1 - 30 kg
Endurance : N/A
Visual Sensitivity : N/A
Aural Range : N/A
Visual Resolution : N/A
Aural Sensitivity : N/A

Physical :

The Crystals are one of the few entirely inorganic species. They are composed of a variety of elements, most notably beta-silicon, germanium, and uranium. The uranium is contained within the central core of the crystal, and generates a small amount of heat which the Crystals then convert into electricity via a thermo-electric effect. Attached to the core are numerous appendages. Most of these contain crystal lattices which are essentially similar to semiconductor-based computer systems, and these are networked together to form the 'brian' of the crystal. Others act to generate electromagnetic or other fields, which the Crystals use for communication and manipulation of their environment. Still more act as sensor systems, detecting sections of the electromagnetic specturm and electric and magnetic fields.

When they are large enough, the Crystals are able to produce fields of sufficient magnitude to lift themselves against the planet's powerful magnetic field, overcoming the weak gravity. They are thus able to move, albeit in a slow and limited fashion.

Their homeworld of Priana is a small, low gravity planet with no atmosphere. The axial tilt is 78 degrees; although the planet is close it its sun, the large permanent night zone averages less than 30 Kelvin and the polar region is only 15 Kelvin. This is where the Crystals live - at these temperatures their materials are superconducting, vital to their operation. The planet is very rich in various raw materials, many of which are found in quite a pure state since there has been little to no oxidation.

The Crystals live exceptionally long lives, typically in excess of a thousand years. They reproduce by slowly fashioning a small "seed" crystal, gathering raw materials to build a nest within which they deposit the seed. This rudimentary being is able to gradually build on its structure, growing larger and more capable over decades.

Cultural

The Crystals must have a supercold near vacuum environment to function, and as such cannot survive for more than a fraction of a second within a standard environment. Their powers to sense and affect their environment directly are also weak but as they develop their abilities the Crystals are able to manipulate matter well enough to make first simple and then complex tools. From early in their history the crystals have built tools which used electrical and magnetic fields to manipulate their environment in a manner similar to their own abilities but with greater range and power. They eventually developed forcefield variants of these basic tools, and over time have become adept at building and using small scale forcefield systems.

Their extreme susceptibility to environmental changes means that the crystals almost invariably travel within some form of robotic host body equipped with scanners and manipulator arms and fields while outside the polar region of their own world. Using these they have extensively populated their own world, occupying a large percentage of the night side and even establishing outposts on the day side. They are widely regarded as the Coalition's greatest experts in field technology and robot construction, but their small population and industrial base means that they cannot mass-produce in sufficient quantity to challenge the larger Human and Turgran companies. They therefore concentrate on producing extremely sophisticated technology for special operations.

The Crystals achieved both space and star flight independently, and had established several hundred colony worlds by the time they joined the Coalition in 2912. Their unique environmental requirements make for little competition from other Coalition species and many Crystal colonies have been established within systems already occupied by Coalition members.

Crystals tend to be xenophilic, and are a very friendly and inquisitive people. They are naturally nomadic and many of them travel widely both within and beyond the Coalition, although their relatively small population makes them a comparatively rare sight.

Given their unique structure the Crystals could be regarded as AI systems of a sort. Most do not look upon them in this way, given the natural way in which they evolved. The fact that their intelligence, lifespan, and physical capabilities are limited to worse or little better than that of biological beings is also something most find reassuring.

[Reliant121]

I couldna see the pic.

[Graham Kennedy]

I couldna see the pic.

I had the file name miscapitalised, it should be fixed now?

[Mikey]

Yep, I've got it.

In the words of Sgt. Schultz: "Verrrrry interesting."