[caffish] Request for questions: Alien worldbuilding!
I know I have several excellent worldbuilding people on my friendslist, not just the one I've already been consulting, so I thought I might should throw open the gates for questions about a race of aliens I've (slowly!) been constructing.
I thought it was very sad that almost all of the aliens I could think of were terrestrial. I also thought, "I love catfish with a deep and possibly unholy love." I combined these two ideas into aquatic spacefaring catfish aliens!
They're a communal species, first off, with collective decision-making in a very literal fashion. They school together, which serves the purpose of discussing issues in an almost instinctive form, and they don't stop until they have a decision. (They do select delegates when necessary, more because of space limitations than anything else. Delegates are often switched out with individuals deemed to have more pertinent information.) Individuals can manage just fine by themselves, but they can't/won't make decisions that affect the shoal without consulting with them. Their spaceships do not have captains, but they do have a Central Shoal containing members of all the other 'departments.'
They don't have what could really be called a 'verbal' language. They communicate in several different ways, primarily touch, gesture, taste/smell, vibration, and electroreception.
Yes, REALLY.
One personal rule I have is that I can't make up words for them. I have to use Real Words, since there IS no way to pronounce their language. Which is why their species doesn't have a name yet! Their own names tend to be adverbs or adjectives relating to the senses, especially touch and scent/taste.
How would they communicate over distances if they can't "talk on the phone"? The answer mildly exploits quantum mechanics: they found/create a sort of a mud mixture of metallic particles, regular dirt, and quantum. The mud instantaneously 'knows' what's happening to parts of it that are separated from the main part. So you immerse yourself in the mud, and can communicate through gesture and electrocommunication. (Somewhere, a physicist is crying.)
Likewise, how about writing? Writing is much easier. It... involves a lump of clay, pretty much. Impressions are made into the clay with the feelers, and then read by tracing over the marks. ...that's the most basic version, anyway. It gets more complicated with stuff like plaster and thicker quantum mud mixtures, but that's the gist.
I spent a LONG TIME trying to figure out how they could achieve spaceflight, since they don't actually, you know, have fire. The answer is geothermal energy and electricity! Their spaceships are generally ugly hollowed-out chunks of rock filled with water, plants, and everything else they need. Kind of like an Ecosphere, except they actually work, unlike Ecospheres. The very first spaceships were powered by electric whales. :D It took trade with Dessicated Things to acquire other sources of power, but the whale-powered ships are still around. The vast majority of each ship is devoted to whale living space. The catfish actually live in the shell of the very thick-walled ship. (They like closed-in, messy spaces.) The ship itself often resembles an asteroid, probably because they are.
I felt like I had to establish all of these 'hard sci-fi' details before I could really get into much culture, which is where I would like to focus next. Unlike humans, they're NOT apex predators - those electric whales are predatory. I know they love detritus and junk, because catfish are scavengers and opportunists; they're also kind of agoraphobic. I'm pretty sure they spawn communally, though I haven't entirely put the thought of brood parasitism from my mind. (I love my cuckoo catfish don't judge meeeee.)
I must reiterate here just how sensitive to environmental conditions and water quality they are. They don't pollute much because they CAN'T; they'll kill themselves. They're also AMAZING terraformers; this is actually their 'profession' in their universe.
I think that they revere plants above just about anything else. I saw a book title once, called "The Sweet Breathing of Plants," and I'm probably going to use it as an expression. They KNOW that plants purify and oxygenate water, after all. I know there must be more to it than that, though, because they're not apex predators, and all of that fear has to go SOMEWHERE.
So there you have it! Suggestions, comments, or questions are all much loved, especially ones that make me think hard about stuff.
I thought it was very sad that almost all of the aliens I could think of were terrestrial. I also thought, "I love catfish with a deep and possibly unholy love." I combined these two ideas into aquatic spacefaring catfish aliens!
They're a communal species, first off, with collective decision-making in a very literal fashion. They school together, which serves the purpose of discussing issues in an almost instinctive form, and they don't stop until they have a decision. (They do select delegates when necessary, more because of space limitations than anything else. Delegates are often switched out with individuals deemed to have more pertinent information.) Individuals can manage just fine by themselves, but they can't/won't make decisions that affect the shoal without consulting with them. Their spaceships do not have captains, but they do have a Central Shoal containing members of all the other 'departments.'
They don't have what could really be called a 'verbal' language. They communicate in several different ways, primarily touch, gesture, taste/smell, vibration, and electroreception.
Yes, REALLY.
One personal rule I have is that I can't make up words for them. I have to use Real Words, since there IS no way to pronounce their language. Which is why their species doesn't have a name yet! Their own names tend to be adverbs or adjectives relating to the senses, especially touch and scent/taste.
How would they communicate over distances if they can't "talk on the phone"? The answer mildly exploits quantum mechanics: they found/create a sort of a mud mixture of metallic particles, regular dirt, and quantum. The mud instantaneously 'knows' what's happening to parts of it that are separated from the main part. So you immerse yourself in the mud, and can communicate through gesture and electrocommunication. (Somewhere, a physicist is crying.)
Likewise, how about writing? Writing is much easier. It... involves a lump of clay, pretty much. Impressions are made into the clay with the feelers, and then read by tracing over the marks. ...that's the most basic version, anyway. It gets more complicated with stuff like plaster and thicker quantum mud mixtures, but that's the gist.
I spent a LONG TIME trying to figure out how they could achieve spaceflight, since they don't actually, you know, have fire. The answer is geothermal energy and electricity! Their spaceships are generally ugly hollowed-out chunks of rock filled with water, plants, and everything else they need. Kind of like an Ecosphere, except they actually work, unlike Ecospheres. The very first spaceships were powered by electric whales. :D It took trade with Dessicated Things to acquire other sources of power, but the whale-powered ships are still around. The vast majority of each ship is devoted to whale living space. The catfish actually live in the shell of the very thick-walled ship. (They like closed-in, messy spaces.) The ship itself often resembles an asteroid, probably because they are.
I felt like I had to establish all of these 'hard sci-fi' details before I could really get into much culture, which is where I would like to focus next. Unlike humans, they're NOT apex predators - those electric whales are predatory. I know they love detritus and junk, because catfish are scavengers and opportunists; they're also kind of agoraphobic. I'm pretty sure they spawn communally, though I haven't entirely put the thought of brood parasitism from my mind. (I love my cuckoo catfish don't judge meeeee.)
I must reiterate here just how sensitive to environmental conditions and water quality they are. They don't pollute much because they CAN'T; they'll kill themselves. They're also AMAZING terraformers; this is actually their 'profession' in their universe.
I think that they revere plants above just about anything else. I saw a book title once, called "The Sweet Breathing of Plants," and I'm probably going to use it as an expression. They KNOW that plants purify and oxygenate water, after all. I know there must be more to it than that, though, because they're not apex predators, and all of that fear has to go SOMEWHERE.
So there you have it! Suggestions, comments, or questions are all much loved, especially ones that make me think hard about stuff.