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littlest-arc-strider · 3 years ago

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3,675 words of Eliksni headcanons relating to culture, biology, and language because I cannot control myself when playing games with Cool Aliens in them

(Obligatory disclaimer: I am a Destiny noob, so some of these might be inaccurate with canon as they're just stuff I've jotted down after playing. Also, while I tried to stick with believable biology, I also chose to stretch it a bit for narrative fun, because differing biological processes is what makes alien specbio so fun)

*Much of these, including the section on reproduction, can be found under the cut

GENERAL:

-Okay first and foremost, older or more high-ranking Eliksni on Riis had horns and carapace juts similar to their helmet designs because their bald heads just look too damn weird to me. These horns and thick, keeled carapace plates were a mark of strength and maturity, and were due to specific environmental cues/cycles and stressors to trigger them being grown in. Without Riis, its seasons, and many of its native foods, one of those environmental cues for horn growth is gone. No Eliksni know exactly what light cycle, nutrient, or season triggered it in adults (currently I’m thinking that it could have been a mineral used in growing extra carapace that their body now automatically rations bc its rare in the Sol system, like how calcium is required for many reptiles and invertebrates to properly grow in their bones/shells), so now they mimic the general splay of what those horns used to look like as a means of showing off their rank beyond the simple size differences Ether causes

-Draping thin chains of ornaments in complex patterns on or around said horns was similar to human hair braiding, btw! Eliksni just getting their first horn juts would have their parents tie coming-of-age ribbons or bead strings around them once they hardened post-molt, and after that ceremony only very close friends, relatives, or mates would help with the hornaments. It ties into a sort of communal grooming instinct that Eliksni use to strengthen social bonds, but because many hornaments had symbolic meanings tied to colour, style, and fabric used for the jewelry, only those who really knew the Eliksni involved were allowed to adorn them. Even Kells (who often had elaborate hornaments to show off their virtues as a leader) would only allow their partners or nestmates to dress them

-Again, the lack of ability to grow these horns in anew with each moult means that any and all cultural significance to them has been lost. Many shipborn Eliksni don’t even know they can grow horns at all, they just know that only those with the rank of captain or above are able to wear those fancy eye-catching helmets, with those of higher ranks being allowed to customize them for individuality as well as authority

-I'm pretty decisive on Eliksni hair tbh. I don't really know whether or not they canonically have it, but if they do then it's 100% not hair like ours and is gonna be a lot thicker and feathery in texture to get that tough-bristle look to it. Feathers on birds are basically just modified scales, so hair on Eliksni would be modified carapace, making it far more rigid and more like a cockatoo crest on them than our luscious locks. I’m kinda leaning on it being a hatchling/subadult trait to give them a softer, more vulnerable appearance that persists on Dregs as a means of showing their low rank in the hierarchy

-Spiracles are extremely ineffective for delivering oxygen to animals on earth that are anything larger than a generic insect, so on Eliksni they're probably used less for actual breathing purposes and more for gas filtering. They could visit many planets with simple rebreathers (or none at all) because their spiracles would put in double work for filtering out what they need for breathing and what would be toxic in large quantities. So while they’re not doing the full work that their actual lungs would be doing to provide appropriate gas exchange to their entire body, covering them up would still suffocate an Eliksni over time

-Same with the exoskeleton/endoskeleton thing; exoskeletons can drastically limit how big an organism can grow bc of the pull of gravity, so they probably developed internal skeletons to help fight against that, especially when they’re moulting (because then there’s nothing to keep them from being squashed into the Eliksni version of a blobfish while they’re still soft and vulnerable). Their internal skeletons are probably a lot less substantial or rigidly held together than ours, though, because it’s more of a backup stability mechanism than ours is.

-This implies that Eliksni might be able to flatten themselves to avoid danger like cockroaches. Do whatever you want with this.

-The gap in the front of their muzzle is like a snake's- its used for scenting the air. They don't flick their tongue out to gather scent molecules like a snake does, but a deep inhale through a closed mouth forces a stream of air over their version of a Jacobson's organ. Opening their mouth to taste the air like a cat might still work, but not with the same level of precision

-Speaking of which, the fact that they have no cheeks and exposed teeth indicates that they likely have very little to no saliva, like birds. This tracks with the whole mandible deal, since they’d just use their mouthparts and tongue to tear pieces off of things and then swallow them whole, but big F to anyone who wanted oral from an Eliksni bc unless you have some good safe mouthlube for them you’re shit outta luck

-But on the plus side, Eliksni can probably easily open a can or other things with their mandibles and tongue so who's really winning here

-They have lil lobster-like tails that curve between their legs and tuck over their genital plate/lower abdomen bc I said so. There’s no indication that they’d have this in canon, but I think its kinda criminal that none of the alien races (discounting the Vex) have tails, especially since it would be useful for the Eliksni to have one as a means of quick counterbalance when they go from bipedalism to running on all sixes. These tails also have decorative fans on them that flare out when untucked, and are one of the only means of distinguishing a male Eliksni from a female other than scenting them, though uncurling their tail and flaring their tail fans is basically the Eliksni version of flashing someone and is considered to be extremely rude

-While their sense of smell isn’t really as important to them as their codes of honour, it still plays a big role in identification and figuring out who’s related to who, who’s mated to who, etc. Their scent glands are located on the lower part of their cheeks (under their eyes), on the wrists/inner forearms of their upper arms, and on the interior curve of their tails (which tend to rub together while mating). These scent glands secrete a thin oil that helps keep their carapace clean and healthy, and many physical expressions of affection between family, close friends, and mates involve rubbing cheeks together like cats or pressing the inside of their upper forearms against the other’s back while hugging

-Communal grooming is pretty common and casual, especially since reaching between back plates is pretty much impossible, even with four arms. Picking up a nice thick bristle brush with some shell oil and scrubbing down the back of your homie is a common sight to see if a commune is retiring to bed, and helping to remove stuck molt/shed has joined the communal grooming activities after the fall of Riis, when many Eliksni started to have trouble with moulting due to conditions not being perfect (though the entirety of the moult is generally done in private)

-^ this dude hanging on the side of a ship + Taniks running up a glass wall indicate that they either have some killer gecko footpads on their hands OR some neat specialized claws that allows them to grip any surface, regardless of how smooth it is. Considering the fact that a human being would need sticky footpads that cover 40% of their body to successfully hold their mass with Van der Waals forces and that squirrel claws are limited in their effectiveness by how slippery a surface is, I'm going to guess that they're either using something stronger than Van der Waals forces to stick there, or that they're using a combination of the two to help them cling to things they really shouldn't be able to do with only one or the other

-Did you know crabs don't have hearts? They have an open circulatory system! Which sucks mega ass for larger organisms even if it requires far less energy to cycle the blood around than a closed circulatory system does, so Eliksni very likely have at least one heart. I'm personally leaning towards two that function the same as a normal heart, with one pumping deoxygenated blood back to the gas exchange organs and the other pumping the oxygenated blood (or hemolymph) from those organs back around the body

-Speech works in 2 different ways, with higher tones being produced with a vocal organ at the base of the throat/upper chest and lower tones/subvocals being produced by stridulations of specialized chest plates. These vocal organs work kinda like a 2-handed instrument might, where they can either copy each other's movements to form dual-toned speech or function separately. The high tones are generally used for forming clear words or sentences while the low tones offer inflection and mood indicators (such as growls, clicks, chirrs, etc). Humans speaking Eliksni tend to come off as either quite monotone or oddly stilted in their speech because of their lack of ability to produce these subvocal sounds. Additionally, mandible snapping and teeth clicking are used to accent speech, though none will ever be as pronounced as Variks. Dude's either got a vocal tic/stim or is doing the Eliksni equivalent of rolling all his r's like a pretentuous asshat

-(If you are noticing how many facets of their biology works in sets of 2, that's intentional btw. Most animals don't have 2 mediocre adaptations working together to make one sturdy advantage, but these are aliens and their society seems to be focused on rounded curves and pairs of things, so I thought it would be fun to match it)

-They are not a brutal or barbarous race by nature, but their propensity for ritualized combat is hardwired into them biologically. Much in the way two rattlesnakes will forgo lethal combat to instead focus on a trial of strength, ancient Eliksni would fight others for territory, status, or mating rites before Riis's golden age. These fights were always focused only on proving one's strength or cunning in battle, which lead to the very strict honour system that they follow. It faded into obscurity during their Golden Age, when fighting for resources was no longer a necessity, and returned in a twisted, cruel, unnatural form post-Whirlwind, when these fights for honour turned less from a means of proving one's strength or wit and more of a method of showing dominance

-If anything, Kells docking dregs to keep them below them is a perversion of their nature. The Eliksni are social beings, which means that higher-rankers generally are supposed to protect the weaker members of their society in exchange for greater food supplies, resting spots, and mating rights. Ritualized combat would be a great test of strength and mental fortitude to earn the respect and power they've won, but a Kell that uses their power to harm those they are supposed to uplift are no Kell at all.

REPRODUCTION

-Eliksni don’t have haploid gametes like us. They engage in double fertilization like angiosperms (where two sperm merge with one egg, but one type of sperm has a nucleus that triggers the genesis of a fatty protective layer around the egg while the other doesn't, with the main difference between plants and Eliksni being that the embryo is diploid; plant sex is complicated and I’m not gonna get into that here). This basically means that instead of having half n'half genes from your parents, aka a diploid fertilized egg, an Eliksni hatchling is gonna be either 1/3 of one and 2/3 of the other, or 1/3 of one, 1/3 of one mate, and 1/3 of a second, etc, or triploid.

-This allows for detrimental recessive genes to be more rare in smaller populations, which means that suffering from genetic disorders are relatively more infrequent than they are with us because an Eliksni hatchling (and any other sexually reproducing organism from Riis) has a ⅓ chance to get a sucky gene vs a ½ chance like a sexually reproducing Earth organism

-They are technically hermaphrodites by our definition in that they both have the same sets of genitals, but it gets a little complicated with who is currently producing which gamete. Females produce sperm without a nucleus as well as the egg cell, while males produce only sperm with a nucleus as well as develop the eggs that the female implants in them. Both have two phalluses and a slit that leads to a vaginal cavity + brood pouch, but the appearance and function of these organs varies based on the hormones currently at play. Females will have two distinct phalluses that slide out the more they're aroused (one for ejecting sperm and one for eggs), but on males, they will only fully unsheath if no attempts at penetrative sex are made. This allows for 3 breeding Eliksni to either be made up of 2 males and 1 female or 2 females and 1 male no problem, though in the case or 2 males, the larger will always be chosen to carry the eggs.

-Typical sex with the intent to breed involves 2-3 Eliksni and is spread out over a couple of days. Usually, the male will mount the female to trigger ovulation/get a jump start on fertilization, as well as fully induce her cycle if needed. Flash forward a few days, and the female will penetrate the male's brood pouch to lay her eggs + seal everything off with a sticky sperm plug (well, its not solid, more glue-y) laced with the correct hormones to get him to tighten back up. The third Eliksni just jizzes in everyone else if they don't egg or be egged

-If this sounds complicated, its not. Tdlr is that everyone has the same set, which ones are working depends on which sex hormones are predominant in the bloodstream, and sex itself boils down to 'get a female riled up so that she lays eggs in the male, and then either have a third party jizz in him to plug him up or she'll do it herself'

-As you can guess, monogamy is not really a thing with the Eliksni. Having a deep romantic bond with one or two others is the most common, however

-The predominance of which set of sex organs is active depends on hormonal cycles that are influenced by stress, pheromones, and health. Normally Eliksni would cycle through sex changes every 200-300 years on Riis, but now do so every 100 or so years in space, with some being pushed to 50. Shorter lives with more stress and childdeath = 'oh shit gotta fuck more and make sure said fucking results in babies bc we are UNDER ATTACK'

-This happens because temperature drastically affects the amount of females or males hatched, so needing to change sex after x amount of breeding cycles helps stave off male/female imbalances, especially since they're so long-lived. Hormone therapy can be used to keep this cycle from triggering or to trigger it early if needed

-Eliksni gender is thus not really tied to current sex and more tied to preffered sex, as dimorphism is almost nonexistant. Those who are female when they hit their adult molt have a tendency to be smaller or thinner-bodied than males, but it's not a definitive thing and will resolve itself eventually-the only thing that really matters is what pheromones you're giving off. Assigning subadults male or female pronouns is used solely as a means of keeping track of healthy growing patterns (as males and females grow at different rates + bulk up differently), while choosing which pronouns to use/if you use pronouns at all in adulthood is purely for self-expression

-Long-term partners will synch their sex-switch cycles after a time to almost always be the opposite for breeding purposes, but this requires actually synching and spending heats to trigger it. Ace Eliksni often are never on cycle, newly paired Eliksni will not synch their cycles, and sex differences have very little impact on sexual preferences.

-As for who gets to breed: the answer would be barons, captains, and kells only. Vandals and dregs can technically have clutches if they try hard enough, but lower ether rations = lower fertility, and their genes don't take their stunted size into consideration. Captains and up are the only ones who can become gravid without worrying too much about eggbinding, as well as the only ones who can be guaranteed to earn help if it occurs.

-Likewise, the amount of mates that one Eliksni might be allowed to take increases with status. Dregs and Vandals are allowed to have partners but having eggs is discouraged, Captains can breed with their partners as they wish without fear of eggbinding, Barons can and will sleep around with anyone willing that doesn't catch the Kell's eye, and Kells generally can have anyone they want because their size and strength net them a lot of physical attraction points that the others can't contest with. Very few take advantage of this- and those who do are heavily frowned upon- but even those who don't give a shit about casual mates will have a lot of Eliksni admiring them from afar because being big and strong and in power trips a lot of that primal hindbrain attraction that screams 'oh this one has good genes my hatchlings will be strong'

-On Riis, this was less dramatic; usually only older Eliksni would have more mates, as fertility increases with age (like lobsters) and with the presumed knowledge, strength, and experience said Eliksni had. Now it's more a matter of 'I am Kell, I can fight for whomever I wish to fuck, and you cannot contest me because I am the biggest and the strongest and the best to breed with here'. The harems are not a status symbol, they're something that happens as a consequence of it

-SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE THOUGH is that status is not socially passed down from broodparent to hatchling. Sure, a Kell might have the easiest time having a clutch and the best quarters to brood them in, but once the babies are hatched, everyone in the community pitches in to raise them and are considered equally responsible for their wellbeing. Being the child of a Kell might make you stand out a bit or give you higher expectations than your peers, but all hatchlings will be expected to claw their way up the ranks on their own, regardless of who their parents are

-Similarly, adoption is seen as basically the same as actually having a clutch, with distinctions only being drawn for keeping track of lineages and the like. Brood-parent and soul-parent are two distinctions often referenced casually in Eliksni culture, kinda with the same importance one might distinguish two shades of red as crimson or maroon.

-Now onto clutch sizes: these range from 1-6 eggs, though they can get up to 10 or more in the case of barons and kells because of their ether rations and size. Females lay many small eggs into a male's brood pouch, but very few will properly implant and allowed to develop before the sperm plug dissolves after breeding. Eggs are softball-sized when laid and have thick leathery shells that would slowly harden over time. They never become fully calcified like bird eggs, but they're not as delicate as snake eggs, either.

-Eggcloth is spun from a sturdy layer of silklike material (I'm thinking natural polymers) that resides just under the leather shell. Peeling it free from the eggshells is a very delicate process, but once gathered, pulled carefully apart, and dried, it can be spun into a true silken cloth that young hatchlings are swaddled in. The fabric is soft, so it doesn't irritate soft carapace, and little hatchling claws cannot snag in it very easily. On old Riis, eggcloth for each hatchling was usually carefully kept throughout the young Eliksni's life until they hit their adult moult, after which their parents would adorn them with decorative ribbons formed from their old eggcloth to signify them coming of age and transforming from a child to an adult

-The practice has since faded into obscurity post-Whirlwind. Hatchlings simply don't live long enough and cloth is too badly needed to warrant such frivolity

-Nests are usually made from large, shallow metal basins that are then thoroughly padded with thin cushions and soft cloth by any of the Eliksni involved. In contrast to their usual communal sleeping habits, these nests are typically set up in small, closed spaces that can be easily guarded by mates or close friends to the gravid individual(s). Once laid, the eggs will be carefully covered in layers of fabric to keep them at a nice, stable temperature, with at least one trusted Eliksni always by the nestside keeping tabs on how warm they are and carefully turning the eggs to make sure they harden evenly. Depending on the personalities of the parents, a broodspace can either have a few nests closely lumped together in a nice cozy padded room (common with polycules or close friends), or be a singular nest in a vent with only one broodparent allowed in at a time

-Any Eliksni parenting a clutch will jealously guard these eggs until they hatch, and the babies undergo their first molt. Pre-molt babies are translucent, fragile, and easily crushed by their older peers, so parents will usually only start to gradually add them to the communal baby pile after they shed the paper-thin carapace they were born with and got a couple days to grow a bit. They'll be carefully watched, but a cousin squishing them on accident is still a major concern

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littlest-arc-strider · 3 years ago

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Morphology of Different Eliksni Houses

*Quick note: These are all generalizations about what members of each House generally looked like back on Riis, and do not reflect all members of all Houses. Likely there was a lot of genetic drift pre-Whirlwind, with some of the ancestral traits becoming more pronounced or dying out post-Drift after the Houses became too mistrusting of each other to interbreed. I also headcanon the Eliksni to once have had horns (facial carapace spines essentially) on Riis, which no longer develop post-Whirlwind due to a lack of essential horn-building nutrients that are scarce in Sol

House of Kings: The 'typical' Eliksni, with a rounded face, brown-ranged carapace, and purplish skin, dwelling in scrubland and by the oceans of Riis. Eliksni from the House of Kings have the largest size difference between the young and their elders, with Kings generally staying small until they hit a huge growth spurt later in life. Out of all the other Houses, they have the sleekest, most rounded appearance (yes that includes weight too), which was theorized to have been a leftover from when the Eliksni moved from the sea onto land. Lightly speckled carapaces were occasionally seen, but the most distinguishable King trait other than the face and carapace shape would be a markedly lighter underside with a darker back. Very small, rounded horns were common (more like nubs than actual horns), but the keel on their back plates was typically more pronounced than those of other houses.

House of Devils: Broad, square jaws with a sturdy frame and long limbs make House Devils, who once lived in the grasslands/wetlands and new-growth forests of Riis. In terms of growth without ether, they're usually a moderately large clan, and generally sport a ruddy brown carapace, though more blue or grey shades are not uncommon. Despite their sturdy build, squared-out frame, broad shoulders, and sloped muzzles, they're more genetically related to House Kings than others, and some theorize that the similarly long-legged frame of the House of Wolves was the result of some Devils running away to the forests to found a new House. They've got the highest chance of red or pink eyes out of any other group, and sometimes had thylacine-like markings on their carapace. Often had very straight, sharp, cone-shaped horns jutting back from their head, with some smaller ones flanking the cheekbones or jaws.

House of Wolves: Like House Devils, they have square jaws than other houses; unlike House Devils, however, the members of the House of Wolves often have a more triangular headshape, with a wide jaw, roman nose and a much narrower muzzle than other Houses. It was this distinct facial feature that won them their name in human tongues, paired with their ferocity. The House of Wolves lived in the forests and foothills of Riis, which reflects in their carapace colours- they are much darker than other Eliksni, with shells that can shade from midnight blue to indigo to purple, and eyes to match. Wolves generally tend to have more height than mass, and typically horns that sported a gentle curve to them

House of Stone: Generally large and heavyset with a thick exoskeleton, which earned them their name, as they appeared to be carved from rock. Pronounced brow ridges and heavily-keeled carapace plates was their distinguishing trait, along with chances of dappling around the mouth and hands. The House of Stone was large and sprawling, so they didn’t often settle in just one place at a time, but their ancestral home was typically on hills/plateaus with lots of exposed rockfaces or scattered boulders. Horns tended to stick out from the head and have a pronounced curve to them. Pale grey or tan carapace colours with darker marks were typical to members with ancestry from House of Stone. Albinism was more common in the House of Stone than with others, and green or yellow eyes were often found in a good portion of the population.

House of Rain: Typically smaller and blue-grey in colour, with rounded cheeks and a gently sloping, tapered muzzle. Freckles were common, and their horns, though small, sometimes would have prongs near the base. The House of Rain was named not for their freckles, which was often referenced as looking like raindrops on their carapaces, but because they typically lived on the lakes of Riis, in floating settlements on the water. Many spiritual leaders came from or were tutored by House Rain, but their unique propensity for floating dwellings generally kept Eliksni not born to their lifestyle from moving into their settlements. Pale blue or purple eyes generally outclassed the normal bright cyan. Shoulder, back, and elbow spines occasionally popped up among members, giving them a more crocodilian appearance.

House of Judgement: Members are almost entirely made up of relinquished orphans and thus have no set house traits. While breeding is discouraged to prevent the House from becoming too overwhelmed with hatchlings, many of the broodnests tend to have mixes of features of many different houses.

House of Scar: Once a desert-based house, these Eliksni are typically smaller, reddish-brown in colour, and have flatter, wider, boxy heads with many small carapace spines that jut outwards (like a horny lizard). Instead of piercing blue-greens, they often had warmer eye colours, ranging from red to orange to gold to match the red-oranges of Riis’s arid areas. Dark marks around the eyes to filter out sun glare were typical of House Scar, with mottled striping around the shoulders and a pale underbelly. The teeth at the end of their mandibles were also larger than those of other Houses, and their carapace was more spined/barbed instead of sleek to help capture dew along their backs in the early morning, which ran down grooves in the plates onto points with high circulation to keep them cool later in the day. Like House Winter, many had flat feet with thick carapace pads to better withstand unstable ground and extreme temperatures.

House of Winter: Named for their affinity to mountains and polar regions of home-Riis, these Eliksni still show their ancestry quite clearly. House Winter purebreds tend to have carapace that is a lighter grey in colour, and can vary to near-whites or blues in some morphs. They're heavybuilt, naturally one of the largest of the Eliksni, and often have pale blue eyes with much darker skin. Spacefaring and interbreeding has darkened them somewhat, but their chunkier frames and distinctly rounded features set them apart even now. They had the highest fat to muscle ratio of any Eliksni, and partial albinism/piebaldism (albinism only of the skin, not the carapace) would sometimes lead to pale Eliksni with light purple skin. Generally had broad feet and hands with thick carapace pads to deal with cold temperatures, and serrated claws to help them grip the ice.

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