Prototype Of A World

Galta is physically typical, as far as their species is concerned. They work alongside Kane in human-alien relations, showing the general human population that they are capable of empathy and quash any ridiculous notions they may have about intelligent non-terrestrial beings. 

Unfortunately, Galta doesn’t quite “get” human social nuances like Kane does (who was practically raised human) and tends to accidentally offend and embarrass more often than they pacify. The art of avoiding certain topics, using euphemism, tact, etc is a difficult concept to grasp. 

Humans are a terribly sensitive, cultural kind... and Galta took a permanent backseat in the whole human-relations thing after that one incident where they may have offended an entire political party and lost a chunk of funding in a discussion-turned-debate about some church (they spent months trying to erase that stigma), leaving Kane as the face of their species. 

1) Morphs will periodically reproduce through a process that may involve a single or multiple mature morphs. Lacking the alien equivalent of earthly hereditary genetic material (DNA), new individuals are formed through duplication of the parent’s central nervous systems into a separate body.

Where a single parent is involved (occurring by will under prime physical condition), the descendant is a perfect replica of the parent’s core personality and behavior, and inherits a fair bit of their recent memory.

Poly reproductions between many individuals requires the exchange of CNS matter between parents. I’ve yet to flesh out that process, but I imagine it happens between bonded individuals in a safe setting. A single individual develops and breaks off from each parent involved (rarely, there are more). Morphs born from multiple parents inherit physiological, motor, and behavioral characteristics from all parents, though these features are adopted in modular fashion (think Frankenstein) to avoid producing clusterfuck children. Some children take after almost exclusively one parent. Ie, pairing Becky’s right arm homoculous with Ron’s left-leg motor memory might lead to a “I’m trying to run, but I feel like I’m getting punched in the arm!” situation. And that would be a Bad Thing Indeed, if it were even possible.

Young morphs act similarly to their parents, with a generous pour of insatiable hunger and poor motor control. Also, they are very flighty. Children produced from multiple parents are particularly likely to experience confusion and lack of control over their body and impulses. They don’t exhibit strong dependance on adults, but tend to stick around the pod and observe, which tends to help them develop faster. Their only developed sense is electroreception and olfaction, meaning they are 100% blind and deaf (not that that stops them).

2) Physically, young morphs are almost exclusively bipedal and exhibit the same general physiology the moment they are detached. The physiological memory inherited from parents is initially dormant, and awakens after a month of neural duplication and weight gain. While this is the primary driver of the child’s maturing body, nurture strongly influences the final basal physiology of the Morph once matured (and even then, that’s highly subject to change).

The CNS develops and shrivels into a more wrinkly configuration. Brain duplication places most mass towards the back of the individual. Sensory organs mature, specialize, and duplicate as well. Still pretty confused and hungry, but their fine motor skills rapidly improve.

3) A critical point in growth is achieved at a minimum mass and CNS duplication (from 1 at birth, to over a dozen by the time they’re three months, under normal circumstances). Mass has increased at least sixfold.