this is the first race I post here so I hope to get some feedback how you liked it. Of course I am open to suggestions if you got any and I would be really happy if some artist tried to visualize the Chato'matou'Gormoshk.
Have fun reading all or you (sry, but one I started I couldn't stop, so the discription got rather long
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Chato'matou'Gormoshk
Back story
The Chato'matou are a species of sentient Crystals. Their crystalline structure enables them to absorb sunlight and transform it into electricity thus giving them the energy they need to live.
For thousands of years the Chato'matou have lived in a largely dormant state, standing in close proximity to each other in the hot desert sun of their world, Thor'xanis.
As they had no means of moving from one place to another they could only spawn their offspring in very close proximity to themselves using a special crystalline outgrowth. Only the Chato'matou at the borders of a colony could produce offspring, as there was no room left in the middle for more of their kind.
Over the centuries large colonies were established. The oldest Chato'matou living in the middle of the colonies, the youngest at the borders.
At first Communication was a very complicated process in their culture. Every Chato'matou could only reach those of his fellow Chato'matou, which were in very close proximity, by using crystalline outgrowths of their main bodies to transmit electric signals to them. To reach members of their colony farther away, they had to rely on their neighbors to relay the message for them. So, very early in their development a system was established to transmit signals without delay throughout an entire colony, enabling them to converse with near the speed of light. This greatly enhanced the species mental capabilities, as all new ideas and theories could be instantly processed throughout the colony.
New Colonies could only be established however, when a Chato'matou was moved to a distant location by a storm or a flood, so, for a very long time there were only a handful of colonies throughout the planet. Those didn’t have any contact, or even knowledge of each other. The existence of other colonies was suspected, but never proved by many colony elders.
Having no natural enemies in their world, the Chato’matou had no drive to strive for greater things. For millennia the nearly immortal crystals existed in a more or less passive state, philosophizing and thinking, but doing nothing else. All the energy they needed was provided for them by the sun.
Due to their lack of extremities the concept of movement was only known to them theoretically. Some of their greatest thinkers had predicted such a thing had to exist, but still it was only an abstract concept for them without any meaning.Their lives took place entirely inside the complex colony networks.
All this changed only a century ago. Heavy Storms and rainfalls in the vicinity of an equatorial Chato'matou colony resulted in many of the younger Chato'matou being swept away by the masses of water. Most of those remained in bright sunlight, and as their forefathers had done, began establishing new colonies at the locations they had stranded.
One young Chato'matou however was swept away into an underground cave where no sunlight could reach him. At first the Chato'matou conserved the little energy he had stored and waited for the sun to return, so he could found his own colony and finally be connected to the network again. After a few days, when his stored energy began to dwindle he grew more and more desperate. He knew nothing of his surroundings, didn't even know what a cave was, but he knew that the lack of sunlight would kill him within a few weeks, even if he conserved what precious energies he had left as best he could. He would first enter a hibernation state and then slowly die away without any consciousness left. He would die alone, without the soothing chatter of the network around him.
He was determined not to let that happen. In a desperate last attempt either to reach a small amount of sunlight, or at least to end his misery quickly, he put all the energy he had left into producing an outgrowth and extending it as far as he could into a random direction.
When his outgrowth reached no sunlight, as he had already knew it would at heart, he prepared himself to die. There was no more energy left in him.
Just before losing consciousness however, he felt something at the end of his outgrowth. It was not what he had expected, but it was SOMETHING. Electric signals, almost as those he would feel from a fellow Chato'matou. It was not much energy, but it was enough to sustain him for the time being. Curious now, and just a little hopeful, he began to explore the source, to feel it as only a Chato'matou could.
After a few hours he was sure: he had found another life form, however this life form was not a Chato'matou. He spent all his time trying to communicate with the life form, which was so different from him, but like him emitted electric signals. After some time he learned that he had direct access to the consciousness of the creature and worked even harder to communicate.
Suddenly the creature vanished. For a Chato'matou who had no means of transportation whatsoever, this was baffling. Slowly panic began to build up again. He had had his salvation within his reach, but had failed to grasp it. Fear and anger were fighting within him, when, suddenly, the creature returned. In fear it could vanish again, he used the little energy he had extracted from the life form to extend his outgrowth a little further, bury it into the creature and attach himself to it.
He felt the creature panicky trying to get away but it was now firmly attached to him. He was safe, at least for the time being.
Over the course of the next weeks, even months the lone Chato'matou learned a lot about the creature he rode on. It didn't seem to be nearly as highly evolved as the Chato'matou were. Its consciousness was small and very limited in its functionality. The species he named the Gormoshk lived within a great hive structure located in an extensive underground cave-system. They came to the surface of the planet only to hunt for food at night. Being a little more than animals, they possessed a complicated social structure which, however, the Chato'matou was not able to comprehend.
Eventually he learned to interpret the electric impulses which moved through the Gormoshk's nervous system. He learned to see through its eyes, smell through its feelers, even taste the food it ate. And then, after even more time had passed, he had learned to control the Gormoshk.
He no longer was a Chato'matou he now was a Chato'matou'Gormoshk.
With the new knowledge he had gained he returned to his colony. This happened about a century ago. Now nearly every Chato'matou has a Gormoshk to ride on. The Chato'matou are busily implementing and testing all the scientific developments they had only been able to consider theoretically until not so long ago. Chato'matou society is in the flux, finding its new racial identity and the Chato'matou will, very soon, reach for the stars.
Physical description
The Chato'matou'Gormoshk are actually two species together, however it is not entirely clear if the connection between the species should be called symbiosis or parasitism. Even the Chato'matou themselves are not so sure about their relation the Gormoshk.
The master species are the Chato'matou, crystalline life forms about 30 Centimeters in height and 10 Centimeters in width. Their color ranges from a light blue to a deep crimson. They get all the energy they need to live from the sun, or, if the sun is not available, they can live from the energy of the Gormoshk they are attached to.
The Chato'matou, if in a larger group and attached to each other are able to communicate at an incredible speed, forming a kind of network. This network enables them to combine the power of their minds, not unlike a crystalline supercomputer making it possible to research much faster than most other races.
The Chato'matou can not move on their own, rooting them to the spot without their mounts, the Gormoshk. When attached to their mounts, a Chato'matou can use all sense organs and all muscles of the Gormoshk, taking control of it completely.
The Gormoshk normally live in underground caverns beneath the surface of the planet. They are predators who leave their caves at night to hunt for their prey. Their bodies are flat and round and rest on five insect-like legs. They possess five protruding eyes, one above each leg. Also above each leg (and beneath the eye) there is a mouth with grinding teeth in it, on either side of the mouth a three-fingered chitinous claw for grabbing their prey.
Their entire bodies are covered in rough grayish hair, which also serves as their organ for smelling and feeling the heat of their prey in the cold nights of their homeworld. Communication between Gormoshk is achieved through this smelling organ and special glands which emit chemicals.
The Chato'matou attach themselves to the flat part on top of the Gormoshk's bodies, directly above the brain. Through a crystalline outgrowth they can control the Gormoshk completely.
Homeworld
The Chato'matou'Gormoshk come from the desert world of Thor'xanis. It circles around a bright yellow star named Thor'x. Nearly the entire planet is covered with an endless desert. The days are extremely hot and the nights bitterly cold on Thor'xanis. However, an ample supply of organic life can be found there, centering around the few oasis' and the cooler polar regions. Most of these life forms stay out of the sun during the day and come out only at night to search or hunt for the food they need.
Social Structure
In Chato'matou society (Gormoshk society is not important, as the Gormoshk have nothing to say in any matter), age is the most important factor. The Chato'matou are nearly immortal, and each generation is spawned by the last and therefore further away from the center of the colony (or at least it was that way until a century before). The oldest, wisest and most influential Chato'matou traditionally (even after the Gormoshk were found for transportation) live in the center of the colony. Every command they issue is obeyed at once and to disobey an elder is the greatest crime in Chato'matou society.
If a decision affects more than one colony the eldest Chato'matou of all colonies, but at least one Chato'matou from every colony, come together to decide which action is best for the whole race.
The Gormoshk are valued as mounts and well cared for under normal circumstances, however they are also seen mostly as animals. No Chato'matou would ever allow a Gormoshk to do anything against his wishes. There are no free Gormoshk left on all of Thor'xanis.
Race attributes
- Chato'matou can live without food.
Gormoshk slowly die like population of other races. Any Chato'matou who no longer have a Gormoshk to ride on, will automatically begin to research, however at only 1/2 of their normal efficiency (research is kind of hindered if you can’t move). When food is available again, the Gormoshk population slowly increases to its former level and the Chato'matou automatically resume their former jobs.
- The Chato'matou get a bonus/malus to their research according to the brightness (type) of their sun (more energy)
- slow growth rate (traditionally few "birth”)
- High research (many ideas due to century long period of pure thinking, bonus because of supercomputer-like network between Chato’matou)
- Bad industrial production
- Very bad food production (Chato’matou don't have a clue how to grow things)
- Bonus researching, producing and using beam weapons (Can research, produce and use lasers, etc. very easily due to their crystalline structure)
- bad ground attack (slightly sluggish movements)
- average space combat
- Normal diplomacy (Never had natural enemies, so they will be friendly to any race they encounter, at least at first)
