Saturday, December 10, 2022

Traveller 5.10 System Generation Part 7: Native Intelligent Life History and Society

In our first part 7, we covered creating the Liobbe. A bilaterally symmetric filtering herbivore with graspers, 3 sexes, and significant senses in their torsos. What I neglected to do is figure their tech level, which, now that that there are Imperial citizens there with a base tech level of 8, and the port probably significantly higher due to being an A port, just where do our gore-filled Liobbes stand?

Going with a flux roll, they are mostly TL-2, living across most of Iomaria. Evolving from the wetlands, the Liobbe are herbivorous filters, with large filtering openings in their torsos. These "mouths" are encircled by a ring of eyes and noses, allowing them to sense the foods they basically suck up and filter through a variety of stomachs. Mostly various grasses and herbs, along with the biomasses that cause Iomaria's atmosphere to be considered tainted. The planet's dense atmosphere, especially in the wetlands, is rich in floating plants that can cause severe and fatal reactions to those not native to the planet. The Liobbe spend a large amount of their time grazing, but as this is a low-intensity thing, they ended up gaining intelligence out of sheer boredom as one sophontologist put it. Having few natural predators, they evolved slower than the major races did.

The Liobbe's social structure grew out of the three genders. While the females carry the eggs and are protective of them, the males appear to have little to no attachment to any specific off-spring but treat all children equally - generally neglect. The neuters tend to be the power behind the rulers, or shamans in earlier times. Males tend to be larger and much stronger than the females or neuters and have a heavy fight reflex when threatened. Generally, males are the titular ruler, but it is not uncommon for females to rule. However - it is the neuters that advise and actually make most of the actual decisions. Neuters are seen as something almost divine, though not in any specific religious sense. There is an intense respect for them, and in the infrequent battles, it is only makes who actually fight. 

From this, early tribalism evolved from small family units to larger "pods". These pods grazed larger areas, eventually merging and branching out. Civilization grew in response, mostly centered around improved agriculture to reduce the amount of time needed to feed. While the Liobbe are generally TL-2, they do have some interesting agricultural techniques and more knowledge on genetics than expected. 

Their tools still tend to be simple: a pair of 4-fingered graspers give them a very hearty grip but not as much fidelity as the human hand. Their tools and weapons tend to be much thicker than human-standard between their graspers and the heavier gravity. While humans can use their tools, they are uncomfortably heavy and have much thicker grips than similar human-styled tools. While on average a bit smaller than humans, though wider, their grip strength has been known to damage human tools. Fortunately, handshaking is not a custom the Liobbe share with human.

Little communication exists between the Imperial settlers and the Liobbe. There have been some interesting architectural finds, but the Liobbe seem to have settled into the TL-2 existence for centuries. They have coastal towns and villages and have spread out over most of the world except for what they call the Teilza, or the Darkness. Their language can be translated and spoken by humans with some difficulty. One disconcerting aspect is that they tend to be eating while talking: their torsos filter the food, yet they have a head and mouth to speak with. Unlike humans, speaking with their "mouth" full is perfectly normal and even expected.

Their skins come in a variety of colors, though tending to the copper tones. 

There are some scientists living in some of the towns, but require frequent supply runs. The dense tainted atmosphere makes living with the Liobbe difficult: humans cannot breathe the atmosphere, and they cannot breathe a standard atmosphere. 

Few Liobbe have ever left Iomaria: requiring significant life support both in terms of atmosphere and their somewhat unique food source, it becomes very expensive very fast. And while a few of the neuters have expressed a desire to see the universe, the operational aspect of this is very daunting. 

There is little trading between the Liobbe and the alien residents of the planet. In the scale of things, the Liobbe are a very minor alien race among thousands throughout the universe. Human expansion is pushing into some areas that the Liobbe want to keep, so there have been minor skirmishes between Iomaria's nascent army and the Liobbe. There is a Liobbe ambassadorial group at the starport, trying to mediate between the various factions. In particular, a megacorporation has been developing an industrial complex in the middle of a Liobbe tribal tlingra, or grazing fields. There are some local human groups trying to prevent the corporation as well, and further development is held up due to the immense amount of red tape.

Okay, not a great write up. And took longer than expected. I think this is one of those cases where it would be great to bounce ideas around. While I generally have a pretty good imagination, sometimes I get stuck. And coming up with a completely alien race is really hard to do honestly. We don't have anything really other than humans to decide what makes intelligence. Yes, some other animals are tool users, and seem to have fairly complex social hierarchies, even they are from this planet and share the same basic biology. An entirely alien biology would create, I would hazard, a completely alien intelligence. Few SF authors have managed this particularly well, I think. Just finished reading (maybe re-reading but if so, I've forgotten the 1st time I read it) A Mote in God's Eye, and even that alien civilization is not really that alien: they have relatable drives and needs. Their biology does dictate things, but it is really just an extreme form of issues we have as humans. CJ Cherryh does some pretty good aliens but for me, most of her books were a hard read for that reason (as well as her human protagonists generally seeming just reactive and not even particularly reactive at that. Though I may be misremembering that as well) 

Anyway - my first Traveller aliens. I think. And happy December!

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