#starjourn

Heraclites are the smallest large fauna on their home planet, called Heracles by the TENOR explorers that first discovered it. The Heraclites use scent for differentiation and identification within their semi-verbal languages and never developed the practice of naming things representationally the way human languages do. 

First contact occurred in 2428, relatively recently, and the Heraclites are one of the newest members of ALTO. The story of that first meeting is now famous across ALTO: the first thing the Heraclites did when they saw humans was try and toss them into the atmosphere of the low-gravity moon where first contact occurred. One human remarked that they were like “a whole species of Hercules bugs” which prompted an impromptu debate about the Romanization of “Heracles” and the use of the word “bug” that the Heraclites overheard. Admiring the way humans compete for dominance by talking, a new idea for them, the Heraclites went with the perceived winner and thus, Heracles and Heraclites. While names and remembering them can still pose a challenge for your average Heraclite, they’ve quickly adopted human and other ALTO species’ vocabulary whenever translators fail

Heraclites are very, very strong. Akin to some species of insect on Earth, their physical strength is disproportionate to their bodies. Females are larger than males but their physiology means that strength does not differ by sex, but by individual. Compared to humans, it doesn’t vary much but among the Heraclites, even slight variations are critical. Their primary way of resolving disputes, sealing pacts, and entertaining themselves have always revolved around their strength.

This is because the very successful evolutionary strategy their species developed was to simply pick things up and hurl them. This worked on predators, on unwanted pests, and on materials they needed to do things like industrialize. A  great deal of secondary and tertiary industry is unnecessary for Heraclites as each one is pretty much strong enough to move things without technological aid. They can also throw objects, such as trade goods, for miles on their home planet. For a long time, being hit by flying goods was a common cause of injury and death which necessitated the regulation of “tossing path” where teams of dedicated logistics personnel will launch packages from one designated area to another.

The Heraclites have invented many sports that revolve around feats of strength. They domesticated a species of armadillo-like creatures that became their standard ball. After abolishing the practice of using living things, the creature is still a sports mascot and some traditionalist Heraclites secretly raise the creatures for underground hurling leagues across Heraclite, and later, ALTO space.

Heraclite society is highly decentralized due to their approach to socialization. Heraclites evolved to be individualistic and territorial, with each in charge of a personal cultivation territory. Their primary source of nutrition is also the most successful weed on their planet -- it grows everywhere and it’s always been very easy, especially with low industrial impact on ecology, for Heraclites to feed themselves. In times where food was scarcer, Heraclites would take to roaming and challenging each other for territorial rights. This was the equivalent of their heroic era and has taken on a lot of the same glamor, mythologization, and nostalgia as, for example, the ancient Greek heroes and mythology have on Earth. 

Heraclites tend to live apart most of the time, on separate estates similar to farms on Earth. Their “cities” are really places where individuals are tolerant of others enough to live a little closer together in the same region. To this day, Heraclites only tend to meet in large numbers when they have to and their history could be charted with frequency of large meetings as a metric. Heraclite government tends to be localized and temporary because governing is barely necessary outside large projects and Heraclites tend not to seek or enjoy having power over others. To them, proving you’re stronger is pretty much good enough on its own and they derive most of their life satisfaction from highly personal goals and activities. Most Heraclite social activities are seasonal and they’ve maintained the practice of trading, reproducing, and congregating at specific times only. Now that they are a member of ALTO, Heraclites are receiving a crash course in choosing representatives among themselves to interact with other species. It turns out they have little problem being around any number of individuals from other species but they still tend to avoid each other when possible.

Economics among Heraclites are similarly loose and unregulated. They don’t really have merchants or mercantilism, though some think of economic competition as an entertaining novelty. They feel the same way about debates, staring contests, and other forms of competition humans take for granted. They are, however, very interested in our martial arts, wrestling, and thumb wars. Their only disappointment is that they can’t participate in physical contests against most other species without injuring or killing them.

Heraclites, having enjoyed a relatively peaceful evolutionary journey and rise to civilization, have never committed genocide, farmed or hunted a species to extinction, etc. They are remarkably innocent of the kinds of atrocities most intelligent species eventually commit whether against their own kind or others. Heraclites do not kill unless they absolutely must and consider causing accidental deaths to be a grievous stain on their personal moral countenance. The comfort with which others kill is a source of abiding discomfort for the Heraclites who, though they can intellectually understand different situations, usually defer back to their natural prohibition against the behavior. When a Heraclite gives an intellectual argument for their attitude, it usually revolves around the finality of it. They also have a hard time with change as a result, since they acknowledge that it’s difficult to know if a change is permanent. Individual Heraclites can differ about these attitudes but for most, killing is a bone of contention.

Though they understand fear rationally, Heraclites do not feel much threat from physical sources and have to be convinced to take seriously some dangers obvious to others. They are considered, by and large, to be agreeable and friendly but they also have a confidence so deep and so complete that it can seem arrogant. Fear of loss, death, and change are as deeply felt by Heraclites as any emotional and intelligent species. When a Heraclite doesn’t feel confident, they are reluctant to act, make decisions, or take sides.

Heraclites like stories about single heroes achieving great feats of strength, courage, and wit. They tend to see their species as one “tribe” and apply the same reasoning to other species, even ones with a much larger spectrum of difference. Heraclites, for example, wouldn’t feel much need to differentiate between humans born in this colony vs. that one, where these differences are fairly important in human culture.

Hierarchies and complex command structures like TENOR’s do not come naturally to Heraclites. Their own organizations and ships are free collectives by comparison with cooperation only ever being a matter of free choice and never obligation. Slavery, to a Heraclite, is almost unimaginably evil and is one of the fundamental standards of judgment they use with other species. Any organizing principle or practice too close to slavery and the Heraclites would rather throw you off a moon than talk to you. Ones who have read human history, for example, can become more skeptical of humans and their institutions due to the presence of slavery and slavery-derived institutions. For example, 20th and 21st century capitalism is considered to be a later stage of a centuries-long tolerance for slavery so deeply ingrained that humans are confused about it to this day. This confusion confuses the Heraclites who claim that it is obvious and a good thing humans figured out how to do it different, even if our hierarchies and complex webs and rules of obligation can seem unnecessarily limiting to them. 

Another trait they have retained over millennia is a form of spiritualism that periodically gestated into esoteric cults, religious movements, and attempts at theocratic governance. Reneans believe that a race of Outsider Gods exists beyond conventional space and consider space and the universe to be something like a sacred vessel but subject to the needs of a higher reality that they acknowledge cannot be known or understood by creatures bound to the universe as they, and other sapient species, know it. Reneans are known for being curious and tolerant of other beliefs but are also famous for a tendency to circle everything they learn back to their own gods and mythos. 

The Reneans are extremely social and do not have separate communities. Their folklore indicates that their civilization has always been one with their shared beliefs allowing them an unprecedented degree of cooperation and social harmony. To this day, Reneans prize communications technologies beyond all others and are the leaders in this field.

Reneans face a challenge in acclimating to TENOR and other human-led organizations due to how they are structured and organized to include long departures from “home”. Reneans have special dispensation to furlough home for regular visits. At one time, Reneans who joined groups like TENOR were considered unusual as most Reneans prefer not to deal with things as individuals though they are cognitively individual and have a personal, subjective perspective. They simply feel better facing almost any situation with a few more Reneans close by, but they will settle for non-Reneans in a pinch. 

A fun fact about Reneans is that they are the premiere social organizers and party planners among the ALTO species. This is because they are far more adept at considering the needs of large numbers of sensitive, emotional beings than most other species which evolved to cooperate in smaller numbers and/or separate, often competitive communities.

Perhaps more than other members, being part of ALTO has changed Renean culture. It has become more individualistic and diasporic with younger Reneans often clamoring for a faster rate of adoption of outside customs and technology as well as greater enthusiasm for pursuing lives beyond their homeworld. Most Reneans consider these changes necessary adaptations to life in a much bigger pond. They are encouraged to look at it as an opportunity to grow their huge “family” and many are enthusiastic about including visitors and colonists in Renean communities. Reneans have little trouble forming close bonds with non-Reneans, at least from their perspective, and do not exclude other species. Some non-Reneans are more guarded and will meet Renean suggestions that they are “best buds” with skepticism.

Unfortunately, most non-Reneans find it difficult to adapt to the realities of the lives enjoyed by Reneans at home. One sticking point, for example, is privacy. Reneans are only selectively private. Their tendency to accommodate the emotional needs of others can lead some non-Reneans to feel attended to but always separate in spite of the Reneans’ best efforts to include them. For some, not being able to live like them more directly (as part of their collective community in all respects) is an insurmountable obstacle. Konigiri immigrants have had more success than any at adapting to settlement on the Renean homeworld, as they are able to live both in the wetlands and the drylands, and the two species have become close through ALTO membership. 

The Uluru never developed computer technology and have displayed a cultural taboo against working with computers directly, though they can tolerate being near them. This “taboo” is also unusual in that it is not a source of negative emotion for the Uluru. In general, Uluru don’t seem to experience more than mild negative emotions to begin with.

They seem to think external thinking machines are a hilarious novelty. As if they are unsure if the rest of the computer-having universe are playing some kind of trick on them. “Are you SURE the computer said that?” is a common question that can lead to hours of debate about the epistemology of data. 

Like the Cellenti, the Uluru were able to develop advanced math and gravitronic science without using external computers. They achieved spacefaring technology well in advance of most other ALTO species and are considered one of the most ancient, and mysterious, civilizations in the known universe. Even the best Renean translation algorithms fail to perfectly capture Uluru language. The Reneans cite its “fractal” nature as the cause. Uluru seem given to making nonsensical statements though the Uluru are diligent about corrections and clarifications where needed. The translation issue has made the Uluru language a field of study for many ALTO linguists.

The ALTO Exobiology Council maintains that the rumors claiming Uluru do not experience time as a physical dimension are false and that is not the reason the translations fail. Some “rogue” linguists disagree and routinely publish papers, which ALTO dubs “fringe”, on this subject. The whole controversy amuses the Uluru, as many things do. They are notoriously friendly but considered quite strange (even among the range of ALTO member species). They often fixate on objects, ideas, and phenomena that would be considered trivial or uninteresting to others.

Their containment pods, which are a mainstay when around other species or in otherwise dangerous environments, are non-computational and instead work off a neurological link with the Uluru individual. 

Uluru do not spend much time outside of their pods except in their own territory. Those that spend most of the their time with pods have developed a culture around them and their use that could be compared to classic automobile culture in the US between 1930 and 2045. Uluru hobbyists share plans, parts, and images of each others’ pods and most customize their personal pods heavily or have a range of pods for different uses.

The pods are called HSPEs but, as an example of translation issues no one can fully explain, the acronym falls short of what the Uluru insist it stands for, which is Hermetically Sealed Protection Envelope (HSPE)... For Co-Operation with Other Life Forms for the Sake of Peace and Friendship. Colloquially, the pods are called “Friendship Balls”, a name that has caught on even among the Uluru.

The Uluru “homeworld” is actually Rusupu, a megastructure orbiting the black hole QV Tel. The Uluru escaped a supernova event in their home system and have found living near a black hole to be very stimulating and recommend it to everyone. Unlike most other ALTO species, the Uluru have no colonies of their own. They rarely accommodate other life forms on their ships and stations, due to the environmental issues, and are considered reclusive by the standards of other ALTO members. They insist it’s unintentional and have made periodic and sporadic efforts to create safe areas for “friends” to visit. Some of these efforts are wild misinterpretations and others are downright strange. For example, they once built a habitat on Rusupu to accommodate the Theramoa and Lecronians by adding indoor giant trees... that grew sideways. When asked why, the Uluru engineers claimed it was “more fun this way”.

That the Uluru may have ulterior motives for ALTO membership is a common rumor about them. Some might consider such rumors xenophobic but the Uluru seem to collect and share them both with each other and with any friends nearby. Some of the more popular rumors are that the entirety of Uluru relations to other species is an elaborate prank, science experiment, or both. Others, like the Reneans, suspect that the Uluru are hiding something about their origins and true natures. Whatever it is, it is difficult to believe, when meeting and interacting with Uluru, that it could be anything sinister. Aside from these peculiarities, the Uluru are more or less a normal member of ALTO and have hundreds of individuals working in TENOR, especially aboard long-range ships with a scientific mandate.

When asked why they were petitioning for membership, the Uluru diplomat who “sealed the deal” famously gave a long list of seemingly unrelated, random reasons. The final one was “humans are the most adorable” which became a famous quotation used in a variety of contexts. The Uluru maintain this was a translator error but this does not stop them from making reference to the idea on a regular basis.

Cellenti consciousness can be thought of as a hive mind. Cellenti individuals refer to themselves with plural pronouns and strive for internal unity and consensus. This translates to a strong social consciousness between discrete colonies, with Cellenti as a civilization sometimes acting as a superorganism much the same as an “individual” Cellenti. This synchronicity is considered deeply satisfying to them and they admire patterns of any kind that are made up of smaller patterns cohering into a larger one.

Cellenti evolved with no predators but, unlike the D’Jonzi who are similar in this sense, they have no death or fear instincts and these concepts are abstract to them. They were never a technological species but were able to cooperate, colony to colony, eventually forming culture and discovering mathematics and developing their own specialized form. Cellenti can form “living computers” by having colonies cooperate and act as binary switches, a practice that is highly ritualized and still used as a form of discourse unique to their species. In human terms, the Cellenti not only do math for fun but most of their culture is based on a social form of doing math for fun. Because of their ability to imagine objects, technologies, and states foreign to their context, they were prepared when theoretical technologies, to them, were encountered.

This included starships and while the Nirojanni ignored Cellenti appeals to leave them alone, leading to their first experiences of death and fear, ALTO did not. With ALTO’s help, the Cellenti won independence from the Nirojanni during the First Nirojanni War when they were discovered by TENOR captains occupying Nirojanni outposts on their planet.

In the aftermath of that war, the Cellenti became full members of ALTO specializing in the helium trade With the help of ALTO engineers, Cellenti developed containment suits that allow them to serve aboard ALTO ships and live among the other ALTO species in their colonies and homeworlds. These suits come in a variety of forms, specialized according to the needs of the colony. Suits designed for combat and security services are hardened against damage. Though containment breach is seldom fatal for a Cellenti colony, it is inconvenient especially if it leaves a colony stranded in space.

They are as individualistic and subjective as humans but organize into a rigid caste system that has existed for eons. Effectively, this makes Telenemites a “monoculture”. This system divides “high” cores and “low” cores with a range of specific roles, categories, and obligations. This is based on lineage, with all Telenemites tracing their origins across a specific type of core. It also has a secondary social layer based on shape, the most important aesthetic category for their species.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the Telenemites were a spacefaring empire that focused primarily on the cultivation of barren, mineral-rich worlds. They occasionally encountered desirable elements on planets already occupied with life forms, even intelligent ones. In the past, Telenemites had a “manifest destiny” style policy of colonization which ALTO classifies as genocide. A revolution shortly, by their standards, before first contact with ALTO, demolished the old imperial system but their civilization is still finding its footing, a process that may take eons. Many believe that belonging to an interspecies, pan-galactic community will give their people a new purpose and new vision. One of the more contentious issues is the caste system, with many younger Telenemites advocating for its abolition. 

Telenemites can survive the total destruction of their outer bodies so long as their cores survive. Damage to the core manifests as physical and mental disability and is often incurable. Telenemites can regrow new bodies, much faster than the initial accumulation that represents their maturation, and often do so with a greater degree of control over the final outcome. Most come back a little different than before and, depending on circumstances, the renewal of a Telenemite body can be a happy event celebrated similarly to a birthday.

Telenemite do not require two genetic lineages to procreate and any Telenemite can have a child if they want to. The child will always be the same core which has some implications for appearance and personality that are analogous to human genetics but they are not clones, contrary to a common misunderstanding about them. 

Children are created in “mineral pools” in special nursery creches that cut down the time it takes them to grow, though some parents prefer natural growth rates (or are stuck with them) and will forego this part of the process. Telenemites spend many years as little more than a gemstone immersed in sludge. When they emerge, their bodies are tiny and nearly featurless. As they mature, they gain better control over the growth process and begin to shape themselves, usually in keeping with broad norms and aesthetic standards. No two Telenemites, even relatives and even from the same caste, tend to look much alike (though exceptions exist here too). Different types of cores have different mass tolerances and a Telenemite will stop growing when she’s reached hers. 

Telenemites may appear feminine to humans but they have no biological sex or social gender. In languages that have them, however, they typically use feminine pronouns though exceptions exist, especially among Telenemites that learn about gender constructs from other civilizations.

Telenemites are, perhaps surprisingly to some, deeply emotional beings and experience feelings humans would call love, affection, and even a form of sexual desire. These kinds of feelings have a history of repression in their culture as they were long considered an aberration from “purpose”, which is often the single most important value to a Telenemite. A Telenemite without purpose is like a ghost, according to their customs, and cannot truly live until they’ve either regained the loss or found a new purpose. Because of this, exile is one of their most enduring and severe punishments. In exile, a Telenemite has no purpose but their own survival, which is considered base and pitiable. More recently, many Telenemites have come to consider the repression of empathy and emotion to be the result of social engineering, meant to keep individual Telenemites from bucking the caste system or protesting policy decisions about other living things in the universe.

Telenemites harvest and consume minerals, rock, and crystal. They have special rules about this because most mines are also farms and this dual industry, as far as they’re concerned, is the most important one and subject to the most scrutiny and regulation. Telenemite miners are highly sought after as they can save a lot on, for example, prospecting equipment. Telenemites consider asteroids to be fair game in all respects, placing special significance on planets and moons, and Telenemite spaceship technology is primarily based on hollowing out asteroids and sticking engines on them. Their ships and stationary orbitals tend to be huge, weird, and slow but very difficult to destroy.

The harsh conditions they evolved in have better prepared them for life in space than most known species. They can survive for days in vacuum with this and their onboard light source causing some to joke that they are “walking vacsuits”.

Scarcity was a defining feature of their social and biological history. Eziccs evolved to be tough and adaptable across the biomes of their aquatic world with their early societies akin to human hunter-gatherer nomads. Their civilization began with complex rituals and communication around the sharing of geothermal vents, the primary source of nutrients for complex life on their planet. Later, Eziccs formed more complex regional societies, analogous to clans, that remain important to them to this day. Ezicc clans often came into conflict with each other and war was a common feature of Ezicc history.

Eziccs put clan first and the common belief seems to be that each clan is wildly different, though to non-Eziccs the differences are so specific and so rooted in historical record that they seem insignificant. These difference are often excuses for competition, prejudice, and even war. When ALTO first came into contact with the Eziccs, they were in the middle of another civil war between rebellious colonies and the homeworld.

Since this kind of conflict is often an inflection point as sapient species reach spacefaring stage, ALTO was able to provide arbitration that helped the Eziccs achieve peace and apply for membership. As their peace is recent, ALTO has granted provisional membership, a part of which is mandatory putting forward of Ezicc candidates for service in TENOR, which is one of the ways ALTO evaluates newer members into the organization.

ALTO impresses the average Ezicc, whose culture still thinks of the sheer scale of the universe as a miracle. They think an organization like ALTO is similarly miraculous and most are enthusiastic about ALTO membership and wish to prove to the other members that the Eziccs deserve full member status.

Konogiri are exceedingly difficult to kill, for example, and they attribute this both to the planet they evolved on as well as a particular species of aggressive herbivore for which they were the primary source of nutrition. Konogiri attribute their sapience to a fungal species that formed a symbiotic relationship with their distant evolutionary ancestors. This species is thought to be the basis of the Konogiri “brain”, really a decentralized network of glial cells, nerve tissue and microscopic mycelial strands connecting it all together.

Nowadays, the Konogiri have nothing to fear from other life forms on their planet. They can visit and gawk at zoos and wildlife preserves hosting the creatures that used to eat them, and still would if the Konogiri ever gave them the opportunity. Unlike other species, which might have wiped them out, the Konogiri have a sort of traditional gratitude to these predators. In their mythological tradition, the predators are often personified and take on roles similar to human trickster and Promethean figures. They are fascinated by these parallels with humans as well as other species.

Konogiri are a photosynthetic species that evolved on the surface of their planet. A few other species also evolved here, including an intermediary species necessary to Konogiri reproduction. The details of this process are carefully guarded secrets but it is known that the process takes place at night and that Konogiri ready to mate begin to flower from the tops of their heads, which is also where their primary photosynthetic cells are centralized. 

Konogiri have tough, bark-like skin that is a natural filter and allows them to survive atmospheric and aquatic conditions that would kill most living things. Their bodies are highly regenerative and they can recover from almost any injury, especially if submerged in water. To them, immersion in water is a physically and emotionally fulfilling pastime more similar to bathing than swimming.  

They require water as much as sunlight but can store significant quantities of both, allowing them to “tap into” these elements at will, which provides them with the ability they call “bursting”. It is similar, if more dramatic in terms of effect, to human adrenaline surges. During a burst, Konogiri are even more hardy and strong than usual, but it’s the speed increase that really makes the difference. Konogiri usually prefer a slow pace of life, with bursting considered a fight or flight response mainly, and can seem to both talk and move very slowly compared to some other species.

Though effectively “monogender”, Konogiri do display regional and individual differences in the usual forms. All Konogiri are a shade of green and all are bottom-heavy or pear-shaped with minor size differences. The shapes of their heads, eyes, mouths, and locations of quills and skin ridges are their primary anatomical differences.

Accustomed to fighting for survival but reluctant to strike first, the Konogiri suffered at the hands of the Nirojanni for hundreds of years before developing the military acumen and technology necessary to fight back. After this, they successfully defended their territory but also began an aggressive expansion phase where they came into conflict with a series of other intelligent species, including some ALTO species such as the Lecronians and Theramoans.

After the Second Nirojanni War, ALTO membership was fast-tracked in an unprecedented resolution that has remained controversial not only because some still harbor doubts about the Konogiri, but also because it is well known that the primary reason policy changed and obstacles were removed is that their territory provides a strategic buffer against the Nirojanni. Some Konogiri mistrust ALTO and share cynicism about their membership with non-Konogiri critics -- they argue that it is not their species’ job to protect the rest of ALTO when they were locked out for so long. Most Konogiri, however, realize the value of ALTO membership is less about military alliances and more about being part of a galactic community where peaceful diplomacy, scientific inquiry, and exploration, as opposed to expansion, are paramount concerns.