#red orb

RED ORB

Red Orb’s ocean is red and covers nearly all land. Islands are very small and in clusters, typically connected to a volcano. Some feature sky islands connected by vines. The sea is a violent thing, being in low gravity makes waves massive and crash hard.

Iron based life forms living in a salty, iron sea. All life uses iron oxidation for cellular respiration.

plants and animals on this planet evolved similarly; both having chemoautotrophic bacteria which feed off of iron. Plant cell walls are thicker than animals, but that is the only difference between plants and animals on this planet. Kindof like how charnia is an animal.

muscles work in cycles by both pushing and pulling cartilage or bone to move.

INTELLIGENT LIFEFORMS

The drive for their intelligence came from the unstable, unpredictable environment they lived in. They had to evolve to predict tides, avoid predators, and navigate complex social structures. Squidaliens excel at prediction, structure, organization and strategy. Additionally, there was another intelligent species evolving at the same time they were, and they are still in a race for intelligence.

COMMUNICATION

They communicate electrically. In their tails they possess an electrical organ which sends signals to other members of their species. An advantage they had over their echolocating competitors was that they could stealth around them. Squidaliens had echolocation at one point but their vocal chords became vestigial after not being used.

In addition to electrocommunication, they communicate with body language, pheromones, and written text.

Squidalien evolved alongside plants as their language grew. They selectively bred plants for functions similar to technologies now.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE

There are two distinct types of societies squidaliens have: Colonial and nomadic. Colonial is categorized by an authoritarian system, functioning under a central hivemind consisting of deceased ancestors or minds made for ruling. These hiveminds are called Queen Systems

Queen systems operate similarly to computers, they are a storage of minds of past and present, and hold encyclopedic knowledge on everything. Queens can operate and communicate simultaneously. Scientists, those studying law, and similar minds are added to the pile, but very rarely workers are.

Ideally, they are not biased, and value their underling’s lives and individuality, but there are outliers.

Princesses are individuals set to become part of the system. They are intelligent, typically older individuals with boundless wisdom and information in their brains. They are very specialized in what they do, and have stuck to it their whole life. Princesses are fed a diet which enhances their memory retention and recall, while shutting down every other system in their body not directly benefitting brain function.

LIFE OUTSIDE THE COLONIES

Nomads do not operate underneath queen systems. Rather, some choose to work alongside them rather than directly under. Those operating under queen systems revere them as religious, containing the memories, minds, and knowledge of their ancestors. It is considered an honored death to be preserved in this way.

Nomads are physiologically different from colony squidalien. It’s like comparing a specialized dog breed to a wolf.

Above is a colonial squidalien, they are typically skinnier and smaller.

Above is a reeds nomad, traveling between islands. They are an example of “John Squidalien”

Nomads possess a cap that sits above their head which blocks and scrambles electrical signals in their brain, allowing for less electrical signal pollution in the ocean. Colonial squidalien don’t have this cap, it allows for their queens to read the brain signals of their workers and manage them further.

Nomads live in clans which are then split into pods and then family groups. One family group leads, and the other members in the leading pod have authority over others. Duties are split between pods.

Governmental duties are split between mediators (legislative), guards (judicial), and police (executive). more explained in the doc but its boring and long.

Nomadic life has its clear advantages, being more individual than colonies, but they give up the protection and certainty of the queen and staying in one location.