chroniclingworlds

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Kiktins

Home Planet: Chitrill

Joined the Accord: 1,500 years ago

This species lives in eusocial colonies with four distinct castes; Queens, drones, workers and males. Queens are reproductive females who lay soft-shelled eggs, which are cared for by attendant workers. They are distinguished by their larger size and enlarged egg-laying organ. There is at least one queen per colony, but for modern “city colonies”, multiple queens may live together.

Drones are a sterile soldier caste responsible for defending the colony and keeping order within the ranks. They have modified pedipalp appendages which are long, sharp and serrated. The workers are smaller and have more flexible, grasping pedipalp appendages for manipulating objects, as they are responsible for maintaining the colony and growing the fungus-like domesticated organism they feed on.

Males are quite different from the other castes, and essentially act like a male anglerfish; biting onto the female queen and supplying her with sperm, eventually fusing into her body. Queens typically have multiple males attached to them. It is unlikely that they have any degree of higher intelligence due to their simplified bodies and brains.

Given their eusocial nature, the Kiktins refuse individual names, refer to themselves as “we” as opposed to singular pronouns, and tend to travel outside their colonies in groups. Although we humans may assume the queens are “in charge”, it is worth noting that the species representative for the Accord is actually a member of the drone caste.

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Ak’a

Home Planet: Ooana

Joined the Accord: 500 years ago

The Ak’a hail from a world that is technically not a planet, but a moon. Orbiting a gas giant larger than Jupiter, Ooana is a roughly Earth-sized satellite with a moderate climate, slightly warmer than Earth on average. The moon has a very slow rotation, leading to every “night” and “day” lasting several months each.

The Ak’a species are flying, bioluminescent creatures with highly advanced eyesight, able to see in almost total darkness and roughly ten times as many colors as humans. Given their ability to fly, airplanes and spacecraft were low priorities in their technological development, and thus, they are a more recent addition to the Accord. However, it is worth noting that they developed technology to aide their natural flight, including insulated protective gear and lightweight oxygen tanks to allow them to fly much higher than they otherwise would, and in some cultures this was made into a sport, competing to reach the highest flight possible.

They have a vertical mouth which contains no teeth, but rather a long needle-like proboscis used to deliver digestive enzymes into prey. Once the food has been rendered into liquid form, they use this proboscis to “drink” it.

Ak’an relations with the Accord have been somewhat tumultuous, with multiple wars within Ak’an cultures leading to a rise of anti-alien politicians seizing power. Several times the ruling governments of Ooana have considered pulling out of the Accord, but these sentiments seem to be in the past now.

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Assorted sketches of the ryerunner, an ostrich-sized herbivore that lives on the wheat-covered planet Alicanto. Its frilled eyestalks fold over its head, forming a sort of natural balaclava that shields its eyes and upper nostrils in the strong winds. When extended, the underside is a bright, iridescent white; the sudden flash of a ryerunner's frill can be disorientating to practically anything with eyes in the dull sepia landscape.

Though they, as obligate herbivores, have little interest in eating other animals, ryerunners engage in a particularly gruesome form of kleptoparasitism: using their long front claw, they will cleanly "dissect" other plant-eating animals for their stomach contents (and another other occasional treats, such as gestating eggs or large internal parasites). By seeking out this partially digested food, they are able to add significant variation to their diet and include vegetation they would otherwise not be able to access. Attacks on carnivores are rarer, though still not especially uncommon. Herds of ryerunner will sometimes curiously follow animals, nutritional value or no, for up to several hours - both at ground level and by climbing to the surface of the wheat to stalk from above - before killing and carefully "dismantling" said animal as a group, a play behavior that reinforces social bonds and strengthens valuable hunting skills.

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(I haven’t been working on this project much recently, but I have been developing the lore of this universe some and adding new species to the Galactic Accord, so I may shift to posting more of that in the future. Here’s some guys I’ve been working on!)

Niquins (above) and Pyrobians (below)

Niquins

Home Planet: Anatheria

Joined the Accord: 2,000 years ago

These strange organisms have no eyes, instead relying on advanced echolocation to visualize their surroundings. The large sail-like structure on their head is essentially a giant and highly sensitive ear, and directly below it is a fatty melon similar to a whale, used to broadcast high-frequency clicks and gain a mental picture of their surroundings. Their oral tentacles are highly sensitive and act both as taste receptors and hands.

Anatheria has an incredibly thick atmosphere, similar to Venus, which casts the planet in almost perpetual darkness. As such, the lifeforms here never evolved vision and rely solely on other senses.

With no eyesight, the Niquins were unaware of the universe above them for much of their history. However, this certainly did not prevent them from becoming a very technologically advanced species, developing technology at least equivalent to 21st-century Earth. But, with the invention of more advanced radio listening devices, they picked up the noise of stars and planets around them and deduced their existence. Utilizing a similar sonar technology as their other vehicles, they created spaceships that can navigate even vast open stretches of empty space with incredible accuracy.

Due to the high atmospheric pressure and heat of their home planet, coupled with their lack of pigment, they prefer to wear weighted, insulated clothing over much of their body, which they are rendered without in the above picture.

Pyrobians

Home Planet: Ixion

Joined the Accord: 5 million years ago

The Pyrobians are one of the oldest species in the Galactic Accord, and have a strong presence established across the galaxy with dozens of outposts on uninhabited planets and even more space stations. They are a cyborg species, dependent on their robotic suits to survive.

Early in their history, they were free-living creatures which built an advanced civilization. But six million years ago, a catastrophic supervolcano eruption resulted in a mass extinction and the planet becoming nearly uninhabitable. Although the Pyrobians survived in bunkers, they could no longer live on the surface of the planet unaided, so they built protective suits to venture out into this post-apocalyptic world. Over millennia, they became ever more dependent on their technology until they integrated with it fully. Although their planet has now largely recovered from this disaster, the Pyrobians are unable to return to the free-living state they once enjoyed.

However, this interdependence with their technology has allowed them to move to other worlds that would be difficult for a fully organic species to adapt to. These resilient cyborgs can continue to operate in extreme heat, extreme cold, a variety of different atmospheric conditions, adapt to various levels of gravity, and even survive in the void of space, making them true space-farers.

All members of the Pyrobians are technically female, reproducing via parthenogenesis.

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Blood Squid

Although ominous sounding, the Blood Squid is named after its brilliant red coloration. It may look like a relative of the much more common Pentasquid, except with longer arms and a heavily reduced shell, but they are actually only distantly related. In the distant past, Blood Squids were much more abundant and occupied many of the niches currently inhabited by Pentasquids. However, during the last mass extinction, the vast majority of Blood Squids died out and the Pentasquids diversified and took their place. Pictured is one of the few remaining species of Blood Squid, all of which are now found in isolated populations in the deep sea. This species is bioluminescent, illuminating the water with a red light that most deep sea creatures cannot see, allowing it to ambush prey without alerting them to its presence.

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Pentasquids

These five-sided creatures have a reputation for being pelagic apex predators, cruising through the open oceans with their smooth jet-propulsion system propelled by two of their five hearts. Although these impressive predators are certainly the most well-known of the Pentasquids, this group also contains small reef-dwelling species, mysterious deep-sea varieties, and even benthic Pentasquids that lurk in rock caves and feed on subterranean animals. Despite having many different lifestyles, all Pentasquids have similar features; five long, grasping arms with hooked barbs for holding prey, five advanced compound eyes, and a tough shell. Although all Pentasquids have a shell, only a few smaller species can fit inside. In larger species, it houses buoyancy organs and streamlines the body for fast swimming. All of these animals are quite intelligent, often living in groups with complex social structures. In the above scene, we see a mated pair of pelagic Pentasquids ambushing a school of Siphonoids.

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Moss Crawlers

In the distant past, one lineage of Tribracha took a massive evolutionary leap, moving onto land. These small organisms now live across most landmasses, their bodies adapted to crawling along the ground and feeding on plants and organic matter. Although they live on land, they still have gills and must keep them wet, so they live much like the pillbugs of earth, surviving in moist soil and burrowing during periods of drought. There are thought to be thousands of species, and many are endemic to certain islands. Coming in many sizes, they range on average from less than a quarter of an inch to a few inches in armspan. One notable exception lives on the islands of Illidale, where isolation and lack of predators have resulted in some species growing up to a foot in size.

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Siphonoids

Related to the spoon-arms, these creatures have lost their paddles in favor of a faster and more efficient swimming system. They have adapted their water-pore into a jet propulsion system, allowing them to cruise along without expending much energy. To complement their active lifestyle, their eyes are more complex than other Tribracha and oriented forward to give them “trinocular” vision. Like their relatives, they feed on plankton, but have also been seen actively hunting small free-swimming animals. Fast and agile, they inhabit the open ocean and deeper coastal waters, traveling in groups that can number in the hundreds or thousands. Although they are much quicker than their cousins, their jet propulsion is still more primitive than the pelagic Pentacrusa that share their habitat, meaning they are a common prey item for these larger and faster predators. Although these animals can be found throughout the deep sea, most of their diversity is found in the sunlight and twilight zones.

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Spoon-arms

Taking a very different path in life from their sessile and bottom-dwelling cousins, the spoon-arms are pelagic animals. Adapting their three long arms into powerful paddles, these creatures can both actively swim and float with arms outstretched to catch the current. These animals eat plankton, swimming through swarms of tiny creatures with their mouths open. They are a fairly ancient and primitive lineage, having been largely outcompeted by their more advanced relatives, the Siphonoids. But these incredible animals can still be found in deep sea environments, especially around seamounts and trenches where upwellings bring rich amounts of organic material. In the above picture, we can see a spoon-arm in the lights of a submersible near the Illidale seamounts, surrounded by bioluminescent plankton.

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Trangles

Creeping slowly across the sand with their long arms, the Trangles sift through the seabed for edible material. Depending upon the size of the animal, this can be anything from microscopic organisms to plant matter to larger burrowing creatures. In the scene above, we can see a large Pyramoid and several comparatively tiny Sand Stars inhabiting a sand flat in the midst of a thriving silica reef. Although this is the most common place to encounter them and seems to be home to the largest variety of species, these creatures live everywhere from the sandy intertidal zone to the depths of the deep sea. Although the pyramidal body shape of many of these animals may seem awkward or unwieldy, it may serve a protective purpose, making it more difficult for predators to attack due to the rigid silica exoskeleton. While they may not look much alike, many of the coral-like animals pictured are the closest living relatives of the Trangles, having lost their three-sided symmetry but reinforcing their complex silica skeletons to help anchor them in place to the seabed while their cousins free-roam through their reefs.

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Jelly Rays and Orbfish

These two organisms are closely related, despite having very different life strategies. In the distant past, the ancestors of these creatures split into two unique body plans; one became a passive, planktonic hunter, using cilia to swim and casting two long tentacles out into the water to catch prey. The other became an agile swimmer with two fins, an aerodynamic shape, and primitive eyespots. The former are known as Orbs while the latter are referred to as Jelly Rays. Living all across the seas and found in almost all the zones of the ocean, these make up the bulk of species within the Globulum. They range from smaller than a human hand to larger than a great white shark, but all feed on plankton that they catch with their tentacles. Both produce bioluminescence, which allows them to attract their prey. The Jelly Rays are especially fascinating, as they have more advanced sensory organs than their relatives. With simple eyes and highly sensitive cilia that allows them to both feel and detect chemical signals, they can see obstacles and actively hunt. These are by far the most “advanced” Globulum, at least by vertebrate standards, and even seem to display curiosity towards Ixia-Dal and other organisms.

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Devourer Worm

These strange Globulum have lost their venomous tentacles in favor of a more simple method of eating; consuming their prey whole. They swim with a water-propulsion system that allows them to jet along at a steady pace or shoot forward with surprising speed if they sense prey nearby. Opening their gaping mouths, they swallow anything in their path, and their highly elastic bodies can contain prey items that are nearly as large as them. As most of these animals are deep-sea dwellers, they make the most of their meals and digest very slowly. One meal can last them many months. Occasionally, upwellings will bring these creatures to the surface to prey upon shallow-water animals, and according to rumors they have even consumed Ixia-Dals. However, that has never been confirmed. When observed in their natural habitat of the deep sea, these creatures glow in a variety of colors and patterns. This map indicates where individuals have been documented, but because of their deep sea habitat, their full range is not known.

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Sailboats

This aptly named variety of Globulum has evolved a unique life strategy. Their ancestors were free-swimming, jellyfish-like organisms, but all modern species have adapted into buoyant animals that sit at the surface of the water, using wind to push them along. They have tall, sail-like structures to catch the breeze, and some have evolved into truly massive creatures, taking advantage of the strong ocean wind to travel long distances. Because they travel by wind power, they often end up in large herds, sailing together through the sea. However, they do also have a “rudder” on their back that allows them to shift directions if they sense danger, including a collision with another individual or shallow waters. Their poisonous arms trail below them in the water, spearing prey that swims too close. Like their cousins the Red Curtains, large sailboats often have companions who stay close to them, feeding on parasites and sheltering from predators. The open ocean is much like a desert, and any floating object provides an oasis that quickly attracts a crowd. These animals have a special place in Ixia-Dal cultures, often revered as guides who show the way out of dangerous situations or spiritual guardians. It is likely that these animals inspired the designs of the first sailing craft, and even the floating cities of today bear a resemblance to them.

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Red Curtains

This massive Globulum is likely one of the first branches off the tree of life, but the modern versions are many times bigger than their tiny ancestors. These animals can reach lengths of several hundred feet, and their stinging tentacles may stretch up to 50 feet deep into the water. Most of these living curtains have positively buoyant gas sacs in their bodies, keeping them suspended at the surface while their tentacles drape down below them, trawling the waters for prey. Other species are neutrally buoyant, hovering in the water column. Although most species live at or near the surface, there are some known deep-sea species as well. All live in open water, far from land. While the toxins housed in their tentacles can kill many creatures, others have evolved to live alongside or even within these poisonous forests, keeping safe from predators and feeding on animals that may parasitize the curtains. In many ways, one curtain is an ecosystem in itself, hosting hundreds or even thousands of other animals that live nowhere else. These strange organisms grow continuously throughout their lives and can reproduce asexually by breaking off a segment of their body, which will grow into a new individual. They also reproduce by broadcast spawning, releasing both gametes into the water simultaneously. Although these curtains may form a seemingly impassable obstacle, they are actually quite delicate and watercraft will usually tear through them rather than going around. However, this is not detrimental to the animal as the two halves will regrow into new individuals.

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Zones

Because the ocean is a 3-dimensional habitat, each animal we discuss will show their range on the map and also where they live on the depth chart. For this project, we will use the standard terms for Earth’s ocean zones, but adjusted for Iridia’s deeper water. The photic zone encompasses depths from 0 to 700 feet (much like Earth), the twilight zone extends from 700 to 4,000 ft, the midnight zone will encompass from 4,000 to 42,000 ft and the hadal zone is from 42,000 to 79,000 ft. Benthic refers to animals that live on the sea floor, while pelagic refers to animals that live in open water. Due to the inherent difficulty of studying deep-sea life, this project will likely be over-representative of animals which live close to the surface, and much undoubtedly still waits to be discovered in the depths.

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Xenochordate

These are the “vertebrates” of Iridia. With an internal skeleton and a dorsal nerve cord, they encompass many fish-like creatures as well as some more exotic forms. This is the lineage that led to the Ixia-Dal and some other land-dwelling species, but the vast majority of Xenochordates inhabit the ocean. Pictured is a species of Sicklefish that is abundant on tropical Silica Reefs.

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Palliinum

Named for the “skirt” of external gills that surround their body, this is a diverse group of bilateral animals. The gills are feathery and delicate, but protected by tough plates. Both the gills and the plates are capable of regeneration if damaged. In some, the gill coverings have evolved into powerful paddles for swimming. Pictured is a predator that uses its gill-paddles for cruising through the ocean.

Other species move along the ground using muscular ripples along their underside, similar to the foot of a snail. All of the Palliinum have a cuticle that covers their body; in some species this cuticle is hardened almost like an exoskeleton and in others it is soft and squishy. They possess complex eyes composed of several lenses, as well as an acute sense of smell and taste from sensory organs on their mandibles and jaws. The mandibles are reinforced by a chitinous material and are often the only truly hard part of their body, used for cutting and shredding food into bite-sized pieces. Most of the Palliinum are hermaphroditic but still need a partner to reproduce.