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The Sangriat

Zakalwe

Zakalwe

Inactive Member
After the dramatic failure of my first race, The Helians (which by the way still hasn't had a single response), I made a new one. Hope you like it.

Sangriat

The Sangriat live on a standard planet orbiting a standard star in the south of the Bard Cluster. They on the other hand are not particularly standard.

In appearance they are not altogether that unusual, evolving from mammals in a way fairly similar to humans, and as such are not particularly dissimilar, being bipedal and usually having two arms, two legs, a head with two ears a nose etc. In fact the perfectly standard Sangriat could only be distinguished from a human through lipless mouths behind which is row of thing, pointed teeth closely packed together, standing around 5'4 on average and being rather more heavily built than a standard human. A standard Sangriat is a little stronger than a normal human, but not by a great deal. Their eyes are also unusual, given that they have two pairs – one set which are like human, and another set of large compound eyes. Their skin covers a number of shades from white through gray to black, depending on the climate in which they are descended. All Sangriat are bald, and have no hair on them. The standard Sangriat heals at roughly the same rate as a human, but their life spans are shorter, an old Sangriat is around 50. However with the coming of genetics they can expand their lives indefinitely.

However the Sangriat have a long history of adapting themselves to whatever environment they happen to be living in through genetic modification, and this has led to a startling array of different Sangriat, from those who have modified bones, chest muscles and wings, to those who have gills and various swimming enhancements. A purely standard Sangriat is actually a rarity.

The truly unique thing about the Sangriats is that they don't really have much of a concept of individuality, or individual personality. This is because the race is powerfully telepathic, and they are all in constant communication with those about them, their thoughts flowing into each other unrestrained and unlimited. This results in their thoughts not being their own, and their personalities changing depending on who they are around. Even their memories are uncertain since they remember what has happened to them, and those about them. They do build up a certain concrete persona slowly; a certain amount of individuality, but this takes years and is only extremely subtle. It does take a while for the personality they've built up being around others to erode away and be rebuilt, so a Sangriat leaving a group to go into another one with have his old groups personality for many months, perhaps even a year if he goes out of his way to preserve it. Each Sangriat constantly has the sensory input of all of the Sangriat in the surrounding area, as well as its own (which has higher priority), as well as all of the thoughts, being muddled with his or her own. In a very real way they really are always transmitting their thoughts, and are subconsciously delving into other Sangriat memories. This delving ability does not function on non-Sangriat, although their very considerable psionic power can still be used on them. Associated with this is the fact that the Sangriat are Eidetic, they never forget any memories, not there own or anyone else's. This has something to do with the way their minds works, although strangely the Sangriat haven't really investigated this. They just take it for granted.

This ability has led to some Sangriat living alone as hermits in an attempt to create a personality that is truly there's, but this is a relatively modern movement and can not be understood by the vast majority of Sangriat.

Sangriat culture is shaped by their telepathic ability, and they have a tendency to gather in groups of like individuals with similar interests (an interesting concept since their interests are shaped by those around them, so its more like any group evolves towards a certain interest), and then they embrace it, their telepathy allowing them unrivalled teamwork. These interests can be extremely diverse, from diving to designing specific technology. The entirety of society is broken up into these groups.

Procreation is a rather strange event with Sangriats, due to the sharing of experience. When a groups shared mind (not quite accurate due to the slight difference between members, but as close a concept as can be described), feels the need to procreate, or in fact sexual intimacy they send one off to a group of people gathered for that purpose. They can not do it with another member of the group for several reasons, one of them being that the whole group would feel it. Going to a group with Sangriats you are not yet adapted to can reduce this effect significantly, and it does not feel quite so much like you're having sex with yourself, but the entire group assembled feels it. This being the actual purpose it's not so bad. The experience itself is nigh on impossible to explain, although the actual act of copulation is almost identical to that of humans, unless that Sangriat in question has modified him or herself in some manner. When they get back to the group they all share the memories.

There is one condition that is different. And that is when two Sangriat are perfectly tuned to each other. This does not quite mean that they are the same person, but more that they fit perfectly together. In this situation the couple tend to live alone together, and block out all others (a difficult thing to do).

There isn't really a Childhood for Sangriats, since only a few days after they are born their telepathic gift begins to open, and their minds are suddenly awash with the information of those around them. Coincidentally all Sangriats have a very good knowledge of post-natal medicine. In fact staying in a child's body is really an option, since they have an adults mind a great number of Sangriats transfer body.

Sangriats usually live in houses which are extremely communal, since the concept of individuals in a group ‘owning' something is completely foreign to them. The exception is ‘mementos' which are kept by some Sangriat as reminders of a history that they, and only they, truly had.

The Sangriats don't really have any government industries. When something goes wrong a group of Sangriats will usually devote itself to working out the problem and fixing it. Either that or they call upon a group that is already interested in it. In a similar fashion the Sangriats do not have a real military, but groups, some quite large, that have an interest in fighting and the military, usually working with groups interested in designing weapons and vehicles. However in times of conflict many other groups will associate themselves with these groups, and assimilate their knowledge.

The Sangriat don't actually have a language, communicating completely through telepathy, and not using words mentally but more a flow of consciousness and concepts that go beyond words.

History:

The Sangriats have been around for a very long time, but until around five hundred years ago they stayed in small isolated groups of no more than a few hundred individuals, and where not particularly advanced, being around 18th Century technological standards (although this differed greatly in between groups, some stone-age like, some more similar to early 20th Century). They where aware of the other groups through the connection that all Sangriats have to each other, but made little effort to group up, the few aggressive groups tended to be subjugated with the combined will of a collection of other groups.

However around five hundred years ago one group came to prominence, not a large group, but one led by someone extremely unusual: one who wielded enormous telepathic power, and had a high degree of individuality. He managed to persuade other groups to join him, and the larger the group grew the stronger he became as he could direct the telepathy of the group. Quicker and quicker the small groups fell, but it was a long task, and this individual began sending out scouts that he trained to control the telepathic power of the group, and more and more groups where subjugated until all of the population of the planet. He then managed to direct them to work together, to a degree, and brought on an era of prosperity unknown by the Sangriat, where there technology and culture developed at an incredible pace.

The uniter lived for over three hundred, although it is hard to say whether this was due to some bizarre genetic quirk, genetic technology or because of his divinity (as some groups believe). Under his control the Sangriat left their planet and spread to other planets in their solar system, including one populated one. This race called themselves the Terhek, and astonished and appalled the Sangriat because they where the first properly sentient species they had encountered, and who they could not feel, and used vocal communication which disgusted them.

The Terhek were almost as advanced as the Sangriat, and actually had a more developed military, but where relatively peaceful. The Sangriat in disgust waged war on them. They made a terrifying force, their telepathy meaning that they worked in perfect harmony, their disgust and lack of empathy for anyone outside their telepathic connection leading them to have no remorse, and fearing no death due to telepathic immortality. Not only this but they used their telepathic ability as a weapon, psionic warfare massive telepathic output which scrambled the Terhek's thoughts, reducing their capacity to fight back massively, and forcing images into their minds. Strangely at no stage did they truly communicate, create a true telepathic connection. However the result was a massive genocide, and over five billion Terhek's were massacred, the entirety of their population. However the Terhek's managed to counter attack in one way: an operative born with freak psionic powers, incredible mental defenses, managed to sneak up upon the uniter and killed him along with himself with a powerful explosive device. The very slight independence that had made the uniter great worked against him: he did not leave a Ghost.

After this the Sangriat went back to their own planet, and to a degree fragmented. Their where no groups larger than a thousand or so individuals, and they where spread all over the globe, working together to a degree, but not necessarily communicating with each other, other than long range telepathic communication. There are no great settlements, or cities really, just collections of large houses scattered over the globe. Their technology continued to increase, but not at the same rate as before, but no longer did they venture off their world. A large group came to the conclusion that non-psionic sentients or those who where not part of their collective should not be abhorred or killed, but tolerated, despite lack of contact with any other race than the Terhek. This group migrated around the globe, and their belief became absorbed into the vast majority of the other groups. And this is how things stand currently.

The Sangriat do believe in a God, but the belief is ill defined, differing greatly between different groups. They feel awe towards him, and some believe that the one who united them was part of him. They are fascinated by the concept, since he is the one individual that they can not read the mind of, but who they believe represents perfection even more than they do. Their concept of an afterlife is ill-defined because of a quirk of their joint personalities and memories – ghosts.

Ghosts are what are left of individuals even after they die, and are actually an entire individual, all of their thoughts, memories, their personality, and it lingers within the minds of others, all they ever where. As such they never die, they will always live in others and the only way to truly kill a Sangriat that is not a hermit is to kill there entire group in one attack, or to make sure that no member of the group comes into contact with any other. Hermits have radically different beliefs, but many believe in an alternative after-life.

Technologically the Sangriat linger a long way behind Yamatai. They have mastered a simple form of gravity drive for STL, but lack any form of FTL. Weapons they use are laser and rail based, with some anti-matter use (it's what they use to power their ships). The rest of their technology is at this level, although it fluctuates between groups.

System:

Name: The Sangriat do not use a name for their system.

Star:
Size: One solar mass.
Spectral Clasification: G2V
Luminosity: 1

Planet:
Name: The Sangriat do not use a name for their planet.
Size: 1.2 Earth Standard.
Gravity: 1.2 G
Climate: Temperate in the main, although there are some sizable deserts and Polar Regions. Most of the world is dominated by thick forests.
Distance from star: 0.999 AU.
Water/Land distribution: 70.2% Water, 28.8% Land.

Atmosphere:

Nitrogen: 72%
Oxygen: 26.28%
Argon: 0.9%
Carbon dioxide: 0.03%
Water Vapour: Trace.

Satellites:

Primary (has no name):
Size: 0.273 Earths.
Orbit: 0.0028 AU

Secondary (has no name):
Size: 0.201 Earths
Orbit: 0.0019 AU

Other planets:

Other planets in the solar system are the Sangriat's closest neighbour, where the Terhek's once lived, although now it is only a ruined planet, with crumbling ruins.

There is a series of four gas giants, before the Oort Cloud, of various size.
 
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looks good to me, though if they have a name for their race why not for their star, planet, satellites, etc?
 
The history behind that one is rather interesting.

The Sangriat's do not have a name for themselves, but that name was taken from Terhek, the name that they where known by. In the Terhek tongue it actually loosely translates as "Drone fiends." The name was taken loosely by the Sangriat as their name, because it fascinated them to have something that set themselves apart from everyone else, but also because it served of a reminder of what happaned to the Terhek's. As such the word 'Sangriat' has a unique position in Sangriat culture because its vocal sound is telepathically 'sent' quite different from the flow of consciousness which is in all other situations the case. They still don't use it much though, since they have no call to.

The Terhek did of course have other names, for the different starts, planets, the sun and so forth, but the Sangriat had no interest in these names, and they are no longer known, except perhaps inscribed somewhere on the dead planet.

I hope that is an adequete answer.
 
Zakalwe said:
The Terhek did of course have other names, for the different starts, planets, the sun and so forth, but the Sangriat had no interest in these names, and they are no longer known, except perhaps inscribed somewhere on the dead planet.
Click to expand...
alright, then...what do the possibly existant inscriptions say?
 
Well that would be the remains of everything that was written in the Terhek tongue.

In particular would be the great stone writings. These existed in the temples of the Terhek, tiny words inscribed on huge plates detailing the incidents of the years, the passages of the stars and predicting the future. They where of great beauty. However the Sangriat had no interest in their religion, and only took advantage of their places of worship as far as it was a place where the people fled to when they panicked, and thus a place that they could be killed.

Many temples where destroyed in their entirety, however some remain, along with their great stones detailing everything that happened to the now dead race, including all the names that they called the planets and stars, however the Sangriat had no interest in these and left them where they where.

The Sangriat do have a written language: an incredibly complicated flowing series of lines which are not meant so much to be read as to encourage a certain line of thought. They work quite well for some reason or another, especially if the reader can call on some of the memories of the writer, but is completely illegible for a non-Sangriat.
 
*sighs* Well although it's not altogether relevant, I'll answer your question (I didn't exactly understand the thrust of it before).

The Terhek named the system Ahrbeg, which in there tongue translated as 'Great Light', as was the name of their star, who they worshiped as a minor divinity. Many of there temples channelled the light of Ahrbeg for various rituals with stunningly beautiful sets of mirrors.

The planet of the Sangriat, before their first proper contact with the Sangriat, was called Kygal, or Sky Jewel, named after the beautiful colour of the planet as seen from Terhek telescopes. It was regarded with some affection as Terhek's sister planet, and a considerable amount of speculation went to whether there was a sentient species on the planet or not, although the Terhek's never launched anything more than a satellite into space, preferring to concentrate economically on their own planet. In the brief time between contacting the Sangriat and their annihilation the planet was only known as Relto or ‘Cursed Planet', except Rel has a far great revulsion factor than the word ‘cursed'.

The two moons of Kygal, later Relto, where first known as Yeher and Tach, two figures of Terhek mythology. In this myth they where twin sons of a light god who came to serve the land from a dominating king. During the prosecution they where known as Wrin ‘Fallen Heroes'.

The Terhek's had two names for their planet, the first one simply being Terhek, and that was the name most often used. However they had another word representing the planet as a spiritual entity, Goho. Terhek was a dry planet with great planes and deserts, but also great lakes and an abundant ecosystem. Since the destruction of the Terhek all their great cities and buildings have fallen into ruin, now dominated by plants and wild animals.

Terhek had a single satellite, named Opo or ‘brother'. It has a size of 0.270 Earths, and an Orbit of 0.0027 AU. It played a very important part in Terhek mythology as the great guardian of heroes and righter of wrongs. By the end some began to refer to it as Tah or ‘traitor' or Roh ‘Failure'.

The four gas giants in the system where each named after a minor God: Rin (a river god), Shi (a fire god), Yo (god of beasts) and Kir (a god of justice). During the persecution they weren't mentioned much, and as such their names did not change.

I must mention that these names will only be found with investigation, and quite a bit of investigation, of the ruins of Terhek.
 
The compound eyes, in their positioning on the head both higher and to the side of the 'normal' set of eyes, serve to increase the Sangriats field of vision, as well as allowing for superior detection of fast movement, the ability to detect the polarization of light and greater peripheral vision.

So basically it means they can see things out of the corner of their eye that much easier, and track moving objects, while their main eyes make up for the Compound Eyes poor image resolution.
 
Zakalwe Mason: Ask about other animals on the planet, the physiology of the Terhek etc.
Zakalwe Mason: If they are vegetarian or omnivorous!
Jatsu: uhm...yeah, ok. consider it asked.
Zakalwe Mason: No no no.
Jatsu: now go answer it
Zakalwe Mason: It's more fun if it's posted.

there you go, I asked.
 
Alright, you got me *laughs* Jatsu asked good questions and so I was prodding him to ask more questions.

And now I shall answer them, although I'd still prefer it if he asked something original.

First, the Sangriat are Omnivorous. Their telepathic ability lends them to coordinated pack tactics and using this they became highly efficient killers in the past, using their coordination and superior weaponry to hunt their prey. In these days the Sangriat actually eat minimal amounts of meat, although some groups do so, the majority eat a genetically engineered crop that has the constituency of malt loaf and is engineered to taste delicious. There are hundreds of different flavours, and each group tends to grow its own in vats, and requiring different flavoured breeds through communication of the desired flavour through a telepathic link to one of the genetic modification groups. They drink water but have developed a highly advanced form of dissolving pill which changes the flavour of water to a far more pleasing taste, again with many hundreds of options and more designed upon request. The Sangriat are not susceptible to alcohol poisoning, and as such never took to drinking it. Some groups keep domesticated animals for food, some eat vegetables, and some design their own food.

The planet on which the Sangriat live has a highly diverse ecosystem, and of course none of them have any names, not even in Terhek literature since on Terhek ever stepped foot on Kygal or Retol.

There are the pack creatures that are somewhat like Bison in their behaviour, but the size of elephants with a slimy skin covered with a potent poison, completely without hair, and with a head that looks like a huge grinning skull, except with large protruding teeth and four straight horns, and a tail that ends with a scorpion like barb. They where never hunted by the Sangriat because of their poisonous flesh, but have recently been seriously culled as they presented a risk to Sangriat groups.

There are another branch of the Sangriat family, as gorilla's are to us, intelligent in their own way and with some minor telepathic gift that allows some barely sentient thought transfer, although they have a far more developed sense of the individual, and are smaller than the Sangriat, usually hiding in forests. The Sangriat usually look on these creatures with a sense of pity or ridicule, and sometimes use them as slaves or amusement. In the past they were sometimes hunted for their individuality, but since the Terhek slaughters, the Sangriat have been more tolerant.

There are the predators who stand twelve feet tall on four legs, yet stand like a bipedial (basically a bipedial with two more legs), two feet long claws at the end of its four arms and capable of wrecking havoc on a Sangriat settlement with its ability to cast its sound, and to work in teams of up to four, communicating through whistles above the Sangriats hearing range. This race has almost entirely been annihilated, but due to a surprising amount of cunning and camoflague ability, there are still some in the wild.

Then there are the creatures that where once hunted as food, the large bird creatures that cannot fly but walk, defending themselves with a sharp beak and sharper talons. Standing seven feet tall and usually living in a family of four or five, their flesh was regarded as a delicacy, if not only because procuring it was a difficult business.

There is a well developed insect ecosystem, which because of the slightly higher than earth oxygen level and providence has been able to grow large, including the cat like bugs that scurry around on dozens of legs and are regarded as both a pest and a food source by most Sangriat.

That's only a few, but enough for now I think.

As for the Terhek:

The Terhek would have looked familiar to a human, because they did look extremely human. The difference would have been that there was always something ethereal about the Terhek, they valued grace and beauty over all things, and through a case of accidental eugenics they would have been stunningly beautiful to human perceptions. Physiologically there where a few differences, the Terhek lived on a darker world, and had larger eyes, with larger iris', and their skin was paler. Their skin also had chromatophores, which in the past had allowed them to change colour to fit in with their surroundings, but at the time of the Sangriat invasion they had lost the ability to do this, whether through loss of the genetic ability or inability to access their body in such a way is unknown, and would only change colour for emotional reasons. Other than that they where a very stealthy people, capable of moving very quietly, but this simply did not help them much against the Sangriat who always hunted in groups that observed every angle, and organised resistance was next to impossible through orbital surveillance and psionic attacks. In terms of dress both male and female Terhek grew their hair long most of the time, and wore bright colours in terms of clothing. They where more cold resistant than humans, and as such tended not to wear much, even though their planet was colder than an earth equivelant.

Terhek myths always held that they did not originate from Terhek, but came from somewhere across the stars guided by the Ehep ‘Thinkers', but the truth behind this is completely unknown, and despite rigorous archaeological exploration of their planet they could find no evidence for ships which they might have come to Terhek in.

Of course now the Terhek are all dead, although perhaps some of their genetic material remains somewhere on their planet, or in the hands of one of the inquisitive Sangriat groups.
 
They're like humans, but better.
 
The Sangriat or the Terhek?

The Sangriat have a completely different culture, personality, and mindset ... it's pretty much as different from humanity as you can in some respects, and no-more human like than many many other races.

The Terhek ... well that's sort of the point. The question is: did they evolve on their planet, or are they decedents of human colonists altered in some way, the relic of some long ago experiment or something of that variety.

If you could point out the problem a little more specifically ...
 
The race seems sound enough to be worthy of approval. I wonder though, seeing how the Lorath turned out... just how do you expect the race would interact if it got into contact with the Star Amy? You have an idea of how the YSE deals with other races, so, I think it could be a good idea to put some forethought into this and perhaps outline some expectations about them?
 
The compound eyes, in their positioning on the head both higher and to the side of the 'normal' set of eyes, serve to increase the Sangriats field of vision, as well as allowing for superior detection of fast movement, the ability to detect the polarization of light and greater peripheral vision.

So basically it means they can see things out of the corner of their eye that much easier, and track moving objects, while their main eyes make up for the Compound Eyes poor image resolution.
Click to expand...

Is this necessary though? Wouldn't two more eyes on the side of their heads (think horses) be much better? I'm not a biologist or anything, but I believe insects have compound eyes only because they can't possibly afford the energy upkeep associated with regular eyes. Compound eyes are strictly worse in performance compared to regular eyes, I believe.
 
No, compound eyes offer greater ability to detect movement, and are also capable of detecting the polarization of light. I'm not entierly sure what the second one means, or what it's advantage is, but apparently these are the advantages of a compound eye over a normal one.

A normal one has superior depth perception.
 
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