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+--- Thread: GUYS I MADE ALIENS (/showthread.php?tid=6494)
GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Essent Rose Allison - 07-02-2017
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0ruIiBMLUFTjlPJJMqfNj-U56zDPz2vjAyVdy7xf3o/edit?usp=sharing
These guys have been a year in the making! Government, culture, planet, everything! I even have a few OCs prepared! What do you guys think? Want to make your own?
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Okor - 07-02-2017
It's kind of weird how every continent has only one defining trait that none of the others share. What happens if you need to be educated? Will you leave your family, travel to Enlight, and spend years learning? How fast do they mature, anyways? Spending 50 years as a kid must mean that they develop painfully slowly. They seem to have a very strict caste system, if each continent is entirely devoted to master of one craft, and that no ship can go without someone able to demonstrate these abilities to outsiders. Their tendency to evaporate on death really makes me curious as to their physiology, as they seem to be some kind of incredibly weird life form, rather than anything comparable to humanity.
They're an innately weird and inhuman species, making a lot of our culture inapplicable. Do they remain in their school for decades, or do they stay for a few years as people do?
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Essent Rose Allison - 07-02-2017
They go for decades three days a week. Each day has two classes depending on the classes chosen by the family. Once out of Master School, the rest of the other schools are optional. There are schools in the other continents as well but Enlight is the education capitol. And it's not really strictly caste... You don't really have a predetermined role depending on where you live. Illumina have free will even if it doesn't really seem like it. People born in different continents don't stick to their birth continents.
As for physiology... I'm starting to feel like they're like Gems from Steven Universe combined with the Novakid from Starbound. Hard-light bodies capable of being wounded, bleeding plasma and having a dense core.
Anything else I should develop?
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Okor - 07-02-2017
It still sounds like a highly divided society based off of people's interests. I can certainly imagine that a continent of scientists and a continent devoted to entertainment would be at odds at times, due to the widely different cultural values. As for the length of the schooling, even with them spending less than half the week engaged in education (Which really begs the question how serious they are about it), several decades is far too long to master their chosen craft. What with their ability to live for a thousand years, it seems that a painfully slow learning process in comparison to other species would be less of a problem for them.
In regards to physiology, keep that degenerate hand-holding out of here. This is a family website, damn you.
How is the council chosen? Are they democratically elected? Is it some sort of grand competition where the best at a continent's crafts becomes a member? I can see the latter being an issue, as the best musician is far from guaranteed to be best suited to handle the needs of a continent. Are these crystals in high demand throughout the universe? If so, I could imagine some organization attempting to acquire infinite power for themselves. Inlumnia seems to have no notable martial tradition, so unless their telepathy is strong enough to make a planet of teachers, scientists, dancers, and musicians into a fighting force, I imagine there might be a good deal of political pressure from more militaristic entities seeking their crystals.
All in all, with almost half their planet devoted to entertainment, centralized power plants that can disable a continent for weeks on end, naturally developing power crystals, and seeming disinterest in education give the impression that they're not exactly intellectuals. They've had natural geothermal power and magical space crystals handed to them on a silver platter, and I'm not sure they can stop someone who's had to invent their own means of power and survival from taking it for themselves.
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Essent Rose Allison - 07-02-2017
This is more complicated than I thought.
Should I open up the document for editing by other people?
EDIT: You guys are better than me at this. Feel free to suggest on the document.
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Oleander - 07-02-2017
Think of it this way; there is a bit of yin to every yang. No one continent is going to be based around one premise, while another lacks it entirely. Start with a world of countries that is perfectly even in every field. They preform 100% effecient in EVERY aspect. From here, start tweeking. Go down 20% on scientific discovery but up by 50% in cultural exports (foods, art, etc) because they are excellent craftsmen in a quality that a scientific nation (who mass produces things) doesn't quite achieve. 50% efficiency is as low as you want to go and 150% is about as high as you want to go to maintain a "modern" world feel. These are extremes, mind you. Sometimes a +10% bonus is major, when comparing to a country with -10% because that creates a balanced trade.
China as Mass Production +25% because of their lower efficiency on labor laws, but America has the opposite, so we do great trade with China.
Canada has better Healthcare. Japan has better public transport.
Don't forget you could break it down from countries to what your equivelant of "States" would be. Say New York has better colleges than Georgia, but Georgia has more farmland than New York.
RE: GUYS I MADE ALIENS - Okor - 07-02-2017
I mean, it's a start. You've created an alien race, but it needs to be more alien. Right now, they're humans with tusks, fancy crystals, and a gaseous existence. You need to work on giving them a proper alien mindset.
Here's my suggestion: Start with a particular value that their culture will hold dear. Loyalty, strength, knowledge, power, honour, spirituality, all that good stuff. Work on expanding out from that, and consider how a focus on this value would affect their civilization. Don't forget to give them a drawback, such as being slow to learn, short-lived, physically weak, or dogmatism.
For instance, Gaseous Aliens that have a culture based around spirituality. What's the biggest gaseous objects we know? The stars. Let's make those their sacred ancestors. What about their science? They're gaseous, so their experience in warfare would likely revolve around using fire to get the enemy to combust. That'll mean they'll have plenty of lasers. With their worship of the stars, that extends well to space travel, solar power, and radar dishes to listen to the stars for wisdom. Astrology would probably play a big part in their religion, so waiting to do something until the stars are right would be a common occurrence. Couple that with near-immortality, and they'll be able to wait for an incredibly long time.