Qheuens are radially symmetrical amphibious arthopods, and rather resemble a starfish crossed with crab. They have large chitinous carapaces which contain all major organs. On top of the carapace is a sensory "cupola" that can be retracted ito the carapace. It is ringed with a sensory stip that houses a pair of eyes which can detect the visible spectrum and into the infrared. A Qheuen's eyes can swivel through 360 degrees. Underneath the carapace is the digestive/ reproductive orifice with many feelers. Qheuen have five legs spaced radially around the carapace. There is also a breathing vent in each leg where each leg joins the body. The joints are used to make noise, as they are in the Tandu and other arthropod sophonts.
They are amphibious and have a hive structure society. Proto-Qheuens lived in a matriarchal caste system. Large Gray terrestrial Qheuens dominated the others and lived in caves on dry land. The indemediate Blue and subordinate Red castes inhabited fresh and saline water, respectively. Although all Qheuen breath air, only the Grays lived for any amount of time out of water. This social pattern was retained in attenuated form after Uplift.
The Qheuen use a mixed strategy in terms of the number of young produced. Qheuen lay many eggs. After hatching, the larval Qheuen are free swimming plankton. In a few days, the surviving larva attach themselves to substrates in clusters called gardens, and enter their pupal or childhood stage. Pupal Qheuen are sophont and develop personalities. They are enculturated and schooled. At the end of the idylic pupal stage Qheuen let go their moorings and immediately indulge in an instinctual canabalistic frenzy while attempting to reach land. Roughly one in five survive. Qheuen law and Custom dictate that none may intervene in the frenzy no matter how tallented and promising an individual child might be.
A group of renegade Qheuen is thought to have taken refuge on
Jijo to continue to use the royal caste system in private.
It is unknown whether they live there or not. (by Tim Robinson)
A Bohidisatva race ancestral to the Thenanin.
Humanoid. The criminal humans that landed on Jijo believe the Rothen to be
Humans long lost Patrons.
No Official Entry
There is no official race named "Rothen." However, a group of Humans does believe that this mysterious race is their lost Patron. These rumors are unsubstantiated and there are a number of cults like this, with reclusive races capitalizing on wolfling superstition by claiming to be Patrons. These "Rothen" are supposed to resemble tall and elegant Humans with fair hair. Some Humans (undoubtedly mad) claimed to have escaped from a place called "Poria Outpost" where Humans are kept as servants by "Rothen" who the people claimed to be "Lizards in disguise."
The Serentini are a distinguished Senior Patron race. They are large and arachnoidal, and average about 2.10 meters tall when standing casually. They have
two fore-legs, many-faceted eyes, a carapace and two feeler arms. They are also asexual, but when
interacting with a species (such as any Terragen) that is
predisposed to impose gendered attributes on others, the Serentini adopt a feminine persona. (byTim Robinson)
The Skiano are an august species having the rank of senior patron. They mass as much as 500 kg, but stand completely upright, reaching a mean height of roughly 3.67 meters. A Skiano has a distinctive wedge-shaped head. A flat jaw projects from the bottom of the head. Two eyes, and two pseudo-eyes dominate the Skiano face. The pseudo-eyes are located below the true eyes, and emit a soft light. Skiano communicate by flashing these lights on and off. They mainly use a version of Galactic-2.
Skiano are patrons at the apex of a powerful clan. However, isolationism and non-involvement is cornerstone of Skiano policy. Though subscribers to all institutes, they are active only in the institutes of Tradition and the Library --and then only to a modest degree. After extensive negotiation, and much consideration, Skiano will occasionally become party to bilateral economic or mutual defense treaties. However, because they are an older race, they now have a fairly extensive network of defensive allies. Skiano have a reputation for being thoughtful, sagacious, and truthful --if not necessarily honest.
Recently a Skiano --thought by many to be mentally disturbed --founded an actual religion (itself quite rare among Galactics) preaching that Humans, and their martyrdom as a species, would point the way to recognition of the value of the individual organism, belief in the reality of the "soul," and immortality for the individual soul. The leader and many of his lieutenants were killed by a Tandu commissioned to do this by the Skiano leader. Nevertheless, a small cult survives. It, and cults derived from it, continue to attract adherents from a wide variety of species. Conservative members of O-2 civilization are NOT amused by this potentially dangerous innovation . Also, there is some reason to fear that members of these new ape-loving religions and ideologies might try to hasten the martyrdom of the Human species.
One of four sapient species currently referred to with the Galactic-6 word Skyiano, that can be translated into Anglic as "persistent" or "tenacious." The Skyiano ab-Pila were uplifted from territorial omnivores found on a Pilan colony world. The planet was transferred to the Skyiano as a Home World under Pilan guardianship pending Skyiano maturity. The Skyiano Home World is somewhat more massive than Earth.
Skyiano are level two clients, and quite junior members of
Clan Soro. They are less methodical but more adept at
improvisation than their Pilan patrons. Pilan officered Skyiano ground troops fought quite effectively
during the Siege of Earth and on Calafia. Their disposition is sometimes described by
Terragens who have encountered them as "terrier-like."
Senior Patron species extremely hostile to Earth. They are large plump reptiloids with leathery, brown, scaled bellies, multiple abdomens, whiskers, a mating claw and multiple tongues. They lay leathery eggs. Battle hormones accelerate the birthing process, a reason why ancestral females did not participate in war. Stronger, younger females are expected to defeat and kill older and weaker leaders in ritual combat.
The Soro intervened to end the Pila's indenture to the Kisa.
[Illustrations: Side view of a
female Soro; Central skeleton of a female Soro]
The Soro are one of the most magnificent and powerful races in the Four Galaxies. With some of the greatest military might seen in mega-years, the Soro and most other Clan members are jingoistic zealots and will do anything for the glory of their clan. These conservative Senior Patrons carry great political clout as well as having military strength. They are a chief enemy of Earthclan in the current conflicts.
The Soro, though essentially bilateral, have three spinal columns. One spine is located ventrally and medially, the other two are located dorsally on the left and right of the Soro's body. The spines join just dorsal of the geometrical center at the anterior of the trunk to enter the Soro's neck and brain case, located in the skull. The spinal columns also join medially and dorsally at the extreme posterior of the Soro trunk to form a long and powerful tail. The tail of the adult female Soro ends in a large, clasping mating claw --rather like that of a crab. Inside this claw are jelly-like sacks that excrete various hormones and substances when the female Soro is aroused for sex or battle. The primary purpose of these enzymes is to initiate encysting of sperm in sperm-packets by the dying male Soro. However, several components of the fluid produced by the female Soro's mating claw are also broad-spectrum poisons. Terragens are quite susceptible to several of these components. When interacting with other Galactics, Soro females frequently wear a sheath over their mating claws. These sheaths may or may not be tipped with a knife or large spike. The tails of male Soro end in vestigial nails that have no clasping ability.
The Soro have nine limbs --six arms and three legs. The legs are attached to a pelvic structure. The Soro have the bird-like stance of a raptor dinosaur, and are capable of the kind of speed one would expect of pack-living hunter-chasers. The four arms attached to the two dorsal spinal columns have more freedom of movement forward than to the rear, and have strong shoulder harnesses. The two arms on the ventral spine lack strong shoulder attachments, and hence lack the lifting strength of the arms attached to the dorsal spines. However, the ventral arms are attached by simple ball and socket joints, so they have a wide range of motion. Soro frequently use their ventral arms to steady awkward objects held by their stronger dorsal arms. Soro hands end in six digits. They rather resemble koala hands, having two adjacent thumbs. Of course, they have four fingers instead of three on each hand. The two middle digits have disappeared on the Soro's three feet that have two large inner toes, and two smaller outside toes. All Soro hands and feet end in substantial nails that the Soro usually carefully conserve --incessantly cleaning, painting, and sharpening their claws.
They operate in a maternal dominant society. The females have multiple bloated abdomens for laying many eggs. The skulls of Soros have a high-topped cranium with eyes pointing up and forward. Because of this, most Soro prefer to keep their snout down to have maximum forward vision. This predatory look seems to have been brought on after their completed Uplift. (Their Patrons, the Hul, would never let a Clients' binocular vision be less than perfect --or much else for that matter. Soro compulsiveness is largely an echo of their Uplift Patron's socio-biology.) The lower jaw and small chin is crested by long mammalian whiskers. Mating rituals are "cannibalistic," with the Queen having to kill the male with her mating claw for the courtship to be successful. As among Wolves and African Wild Dogs, reproduction is largely the privilege of alpha females (queens). However, in Soro society dominance challenges are almost always lethal. They are always ultimately lethal for queens, who are never allowed to "retire," probably for reasons having to do with the hormonal psycho-biology of Soro reproduction. Such a violent legacy is one of the reasons why the Soro are so dreaded.
The Soro have a mighty Empire with colonies on hundreds of worlds.
Tg.M.A.A.: The Soro's current intent to conquer and transfer title of the garden world Calafia must certainly rank as the Confederation's primary security concern at present 1. However, the Tg.M.A.A. does not believe they are our greatest long-term problem. The long-term Soro threat is eclipsed by the Jophur and the Tandu, who have hysterical fears and irrational hatreds of all Clan Terragen, which they would clearly like to see exterminated, root and branch. The Soro, in contrast, are at least expedient, opportunistic, and pragmatic folk with an exaggerated maternal instinct. They merely want to put all three Terragen species in iron-clad uplift indentures and take over their assets --especially that biological treasure-trove, Earth.
Psycho-Historical projections indicate that Clan Soro will cease to be a major threat as soon as the Confederation's political-economy reaches the size where open Soro-Terragen conflict is less rewarding than alliance. The volt face is likely to be relatively abrupt, taking no more that two or three decades. At this point, the Confederation is no longer a rich target of convenience (it is now --by definition --a rich, but inconvenient target) and becomes a diplomatic pawn (or knight, or bishop) [see chess] to be coopted or diplomatically neutralized, depending on our policy toward Clan Soro. Later --much later --if ever, we will again become targets of Soro enmity should our Confederation gain enough political-economic clout to be a competitor with Clan Soro.
This behavior is already much in evidence. First the Soro volunteered for the ground invasion of Calafia. Then citing real ecological violations --predictably and obliging provided by the Tandu forces --they drove them from the planet with heavy Tandu losses in a surprise attack that started at the same moment as the official announcement of eco-vandalism charges. The Soro then began an even more dismal psycho-historical campaign to lure away Neo-Dolphins than the one waged by the Gubru on Garth. However, after our alliance with Don Compadre Thennanin ab-many ul-Chooser, ul-many others, the Soro abandoned their Neo-Dolphin efforts AND many of their less popular anti-Terragen positions in the Institutes, while converting the occupation of Calafia to a --potentially legal --War of Planetary Transfer by Military Conquest. That, unfortunately, has gone better than the Dolphin campaign, though they still do not accord the oceans what would seem to be a reasonable amount of strategic importance.
(Almost all Galactic O-2 species are terrestrial. Thus, almost all readily available G.L. battle information is for land warfare. Submarine warfare, let alone against a marine civilization, probably has not been waged on this scale in the last hundred mega-years. It doesn't hurt that all G.L. library units seem to directly answer only those questions that are directly asked. [Although most branches seem to have the capacity to do much more]. However, the Soro do have the Pila and Paha on their side . . . .)
Ironically Earth Clan has a large and growing trade surplus with Clan Soro, mostly in cultural products. Clan Soro is now our third largest trading partner after the Synthians and Tymbrimi, and the only major trading partner with which we enjoy a trade surplus. We do especially well on the old stuff, like two-d motion pictures where costs were amortized long ago, but which are all new to the Soro and their clients. The more violent the better. Soro-and-Sons have been instrumental in giving Hollywood and Bombay the capital to move aggressively into Galactic markets. Prior to the invasion, there was even an infant hybrid holofilm industry on Calafia. Its productions used Synthian capital, Terragen entertainment know-how, and Clan Soro actors. (Who would have thought the stage and screen were made for Paha.) The invasion drove all Terrans off Calafia's surface, and with them went this new industry from New-Honolulu, though a few independent Paha, Forski, and Gello struggle on. Their work is promising, but primitive, and they could use the Human production staff back in a big way.
However, Soro reading of Earth art and literature is not predictable. For instance, they love fiction placed in historical settings, historical novels, novelized history, plus popular and academic narrative histories. However, they cannot reliably tell which genre they are reading, nor do Soro seem to completely understand why one would want to.
More tellingly, when Disney, Turner, and Time, Inc. opened a theme park on the Gello home world in 253 AxY, they brilliantly included a holographic coliseum, complete with lions, Christians (Soro really HATE the Christians) and gladiators. As we all know, the Disney Coliseum proved tremendously popular and still plays to packed houses all day, every day. Indeed, REAL coliseums with real gladiators, real blood, and real death; togas and faux laurel-leaf crowns are now all the rage in Soro space. Furthermore, so impressed are the Soro with one old Human gladiatorial institution that the Nine Crimson Queens themselves issued a decree giving Clan Soro its very first law enabling slavery. The Soro think slavery sounds like just a wonderful thing to have. Neither our scholars, nor those of our Alliance for Progress allies can find any Galactic Tradition that outright bans slavery per se in Galactic Civilization.
[For further reading: Hanuman de Basse-Terre, You Always Hurt the Ones You Love: Hyper-Oedipal Features of Psycho-Social Development Among Female Soro.]
One of several Uplift failures, like the Bururalli, 40-50,000 hab-years ago.
By almost any standard the Stheee are an unusual O-2 sapient species. They belong to a genogroup that characteristically has both saprophytic and photosynthetic means to obtain energy and with tendency to produce large amounts of free hydrogen as a metabolic byproduct. Whole families of species in the genogroup float through the skies of many planets. However, the Stheee developed on a high gravity world with a remarkably dense lower atmosphere and very high partial pressures of oxygen. Thus members of the Stheee family could grow to enormous size.
The Stheee lived over reefs and estuaries, fishing for a living. They were discovered and claimed by the GIM which put uplift rights in the species and their homeworld's lease up for bid. The GUI documented a significant amount of telekinetic and telepathic ability in the species. The young Soro moved heaven and earth to finance the high bid, little deterred by the complexity of uplifting a species with the exacting needs of the proto-Stheee.
Outwardly, today's Stheee are little changed from their pre-sapient ancestors. Overall, they resemble enourmous translucent, air-filled bowls with a slight dark purple tinge. (The color of their photosythesizing organelles is purple.) In their natural state their body is roughly 12 meters high and 20 meters in diameter. A head topped by motion sensitive leaves is centrally located on the dorsal side of the hydrogen filled lifting bell. The head bears an uncanny resemblance to a pineapple with eyes. Immediately forward of the head is a gas overflow vent. It has been modified to give the Stheee audible speech. The viscera are contained in the very bottom of the lifting bell where they act as ballast. A sheathed neurochord-and-brain connects the dorsal head to the viscera. A single arm is located just posterior to the oral apature. The arm has a poisonous barbed spike on a subsidiary stalk, and six eyes along with a two fingered hand on the main arm. Two "feet" help propell the Stheee. The feet are most effective when in contact with water or land, but can also move the creature slowly through still air.
Because of their enormous volume the Soro devised a medical technique for compressing a Stheee's hydrogen flotation sac. Galactic medical technology allows the procedure to be performed with minimal pain and risk to the subject. However, a compressed Stheee must consume a huge number of medications to survive in a compressed state, and even then they seem to be in less than perfect health. Most Sthee abroad in service to the Clan are compressed and must wear an anti-gravity harness even to stay alive. This is no doubt the root of the viscious rumor that the Soro simply optimized the Stheee as psychic tools with complete disregard for Uplift Tradition, aesthetics, or even practicality. It does not help that natural, uncompressed Stheee also usually require a g-harness to function in environments with too little pressure to provide adequate bouancy, or with too little oxygen to support the metabolic overhead of generating lifting gas.
The Stheee proved to be even more promising psychics than indicated by the initial GIM-GUI prospectus. Proto-Stheee communicated telepathically, and also used their telepathy to search for other life forms. They augmented their physical locamotion with the ability to telekinetcally increase their speed for short bursts. The proto-Stheee also had very short range clairvoyance that they used to help with their fishing. The Soro capitalized on all these abilities, and today the Stheee are arguably the most powerful general psychics in the Galaxies.
However, unlike the Tandu clients, or even the Oluminin ab-Thennanin, Stheee are seldom used in combat --except aboard the largest Clan ships. Instead, the Stheee come into their own as negotiators. Ouanaaaleeii, the former charge d'affairs at the Soro Embassy on Luna is perhaps the best known Stheee in Alliance for Progress space. Indeed, he was well regarded by his Human opposites, and the Terragen Confederation donated additonal space to the Soro Clan Diplomatic Compound to build proper Stheee quarters. Ouaanaaaleeii served the last 200 years of his career in his natural state. His prominence in Embassy affairs is the more remarkable given the difficulty most Galactic telepaths experience deciphering 'undisciplined' Terragen mental activity (leading to Tytlal jokes about Earthlings refusing to even think Traditionally).
The Stheee are reasonably well liked by the Soro, but most other clanmates of same generation are less than enthusiastic about the company of their Stheee bretheren. The Paha and Gello profess to find them dry, overbearing, and often arogant. The Forski and Stheee neither like nor dislike each other, but seem to become mutually bored when forced to keep company. The Stheee do better with the Soro grand-clients and have a positively avuncular relationship with the Pila that probably explains why Kisa-Stheee relations became cool shortly before the Pila emancipation and have remained so ever since.
Including their Home World, the Stheee have only three full planetary leases --one of which they share with the Pila. They have a half-dozen Class B leases and a few very large space stations. (Stheee are remarkably comfortable in low gravity, high presure space stations, but the enourmous volume of a Stheee makes this a very expensive housing alternative for the species.) They are by far the least numerous mature member of the Soro Clan. They are not very industrially productive and make most of their revenue as brokers and negotiators --especially with members of the Hydrogen and Mechanical Orders.
(See also images of a Stheee in its natural state, and a compressed Stheee.)
One of three species friendly to Earth. Fanatically self-centered and famous cowards. Balls of fur with whiskers and shiny fur, bearing an uncanny resemblance to raccoons. Synthians are the only members of the Alliance for Progress lacking a sense of humor. They do have a sense of irony. Synthians are noted for their unpresupposing personalities and the high level of production and technology within their modest, but prosperous, clan.
Tg.M.A.A.: We strongly protest this unfair characterization of one of the Terragen Confederation's closest and most valuable allies. While it must be admitted that Synthians are highly averse to physical risk and danger, on those rare occasions where they have had to fight enemy forces, the Synthian military has fought with rabid determination. Triggering the Synthian "fight" reflex --while difficult --is generally ill advised. Furthermore, Synthian arms are of the highest quality, and their security apparatus is widely regarded as among the best in O-2 space. They are also masters of sneak-ship tactics. (Sneak ships are analogous to submarines.)
Just as important, the Synthian Clan's economy is by far the largest in
the Alliance for Progress. And far from being
self-centered, the Synthian Clan's economic, technical, AND military assistance to the
Terragen Confederation all exceed what any other Clan gives to New York, both in terms of the absolute
amount of aid donated and in terms of percent of donor GDP. In addition, the Synthians and their
Clients have a long history of rapid and generous responses following disasters.
1. In Heaven's Reach, D. Brin says that the Brothers of the Night invaded Calafia. This is not the case in my variation on the Uplift Universe.
Return to Index of O-2 Species
e3v5r1
Terragen Confederation Security Council Resolution: Terragens are reminded that by far the bulk of evidence points toward the total --or the very nearly total --natural and spontaneous development of intelligence and civilization in Homo sapiens sapiens. It remains the position of the Terragen Council that if Humanity should have an Uplift Patron (and we almost certainly do not), and if this species is not extinct, then they had best have an EXCEEDINGLY good reason for their behavior, otherwise Terragen forces will be LEADING the Tandu in the offensive on our so-called patrons' homes, factories, and military installations.
Out of love for our way of life and their fellow Terragens, the Terragen Council urges every decent citizen to immediately report ANY contact by sapients claiming to be from, or to represent, H. sapiens' long lost "patrons."
(See also: Gray Matters: a Terragen Reliability Survey white paper)