Non-Descendant Species of this Universe
Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 8:23 pm
THE NERAKK:
The Nerakk are the most familiar alien civilization to the Descendant Confederacy, for the reason that they not only used to rule a vast empire spanning a fifth of the Milky Way galaxy, but also because because they were close allies of Progenitors. In fact, the Hruka, the most direct descendants of the Progenitors who still inhabit the Cradle System and safeguard it, owe the very existence of Descendants to the help they received from the Nerakk. For this reason, the Hruka also revere the Nerakk and were the first Descendants to make interpreter AIs involving the various Nerakk languages. Before the Progenitors developed space travel, the Nerakk conquered many star systems with their own mastery of wormhole generation.
Today, however, the Nerakk have somehow retreated to a small pocket of space around their home system of Viljanat and are even more isolationistic than the Hruka. It is not known why they retreated, but it has often been suggested that the Mala'akim were responsible for two reasons. Firstly, the gov't of the Hruka can confirm that roughly 120 years after the establishment of the Hrukan Oligarchy, all Nerakk forces in their system left to defend their other protectorates against invasions. Secondly, the Nerakk military are known to attack Mala'akim on sight. The Mala'akim themselves refuse to speak about this, nor can the faeries offer an explanation.
The Nerakk are rarely seen as much as their three-legged robotic Emissaries, but the closest point of reference for a 20th century human is that of a landbound giant squid. The body itself has an almost bullet-like shape with a diameter of between a half and one metre and a length of two metres. The body hangs down on the back, at each side of the mouth (which is located on the blunt end of the bullet-shaped body) protude four sturdy tentacles, between 3 and 4½ metres in length, which the Nerakk use for propulsion and one give-metre long tentacle used for manipulation. This thusly gives an individual Nerakk eight "legs" and two "arms". Oddly, like the Mala'akim, the Nerakk do not have eyes in our sense of the word but rely instead on luminescent optical nerves scattered over the entire body, as well as at the end of their manipulator tentacles. That is not the main source of information for a Nerakk, though - they communicate mostly by sound, and their hearing is amongst the most sensitive of all creatures in the galaxy.
The reproductive system of the Nerakk is difficult to describe because their basic biology is so different from that of Descendants. The Nerakk equivalent of females can actually fertilize their own eggs all by themselves, but in order to produce something else than a clone they rely on the sterile Nerakk male-equivalents, which splice the genetic material between the two picked-up eggs from two females in an organ inside their body, but since they cannot incubate, the second-sex Nerakk also have to return the resulting composite egg to one of the two females. For this reason, Nerakk marriages usually consists of two females and one male. There is also a third biological sex among the Nerakk, known as "thirds" (technically an actual third sex rather than an intersex condition; though those also occur among the Nerakk, Nerakks with them universally view themselves as thirds) which is capable of neither egg-blending or fertilizing. The thirds rely on cloning in laboratories to reproduce and dominate positions of power in Nerakk society for reasons unclear to outsiders. In fact, the rulers of the past Nerakk Empire were uniformly thirds according to the gov't archives of the Hruka.
These days, the borders of the scant remnant of the Nerakk Empire, known currently as the Nerakk Enclave, are patrolled by a vast navy of gigantic heavily-armed spaceships, some of which are said to be several centuries old. Their government is increasingly isolationist, as mentioned before, and are now extremely distrustful of outsiders. In fact, they were found to be behind the Siege of Kiir and they only apologized when the Haenoki joined the Descendant Confederation. As a result, the Hruka are often the only friends of the Nerakk among the Descendant Confederation, which is often considered ironic as the Hruka also distrust the leaders of the other Descendant species, though sometimes with good reason.
The Nerakk are the most familiar alien civilization to the Descendant Confederacy, for the reason that they not only used to rule a vast empire spanning a fifth of the Milky Way galaxy, but also because because they were close allies of Progenitors. In fact, the Hruka, the most direct descendants of the Progenitors who still inhabit the Cradle System and safeguard it, owe the very existence of Descendants to the help they received from the Nerakk. For this reason, the Hruka also revere the Nerakk and were the first Descendants to make interpreter AIs involving the various Nerakk languages. Before the Progenitors developed space travel, the Nerakk conquered many star systems with their own mastery of wormhole generation.
Today, however, the Nerakk have somehow retreated to a small pocket of space around their home system of Viljanat and are even more isolationistic than the Hruka. It is not known why they retreated, but it has often been suggested that the Mala'akim were responsible for two reasons. Firstly, the gov't of the Hruka can confirm that roughly 120 years after the establishment of the Hrukan Oligarchy, all Nerakk forces in their system left to defend their other protectorates against invasions. Secondly, the Nerakk military are known to attack Mala'akim on sight. The Mala'akim themselves refuse to speak about this, nor can the faeries offer an explanation.
The Nerakk are rarely seen as much as their three-legged robotic Emissaries, but the closest point of reference for a 20th century human is that of a landbound giant squid. The body itself has an almost bullet-like shape with a diameter of between a half and one metre and a length of two metres. The body hangs down on the back, at each side of the mouth (which is located on the blunt end of the bullet-shaped body) protude four sturdy tentacles, between 3 and 4½ metres in length, which the Nerakk use for propulsion and one give-metre long tentacle used for manipulation. This thusly gives an individual Nerakk eight "legs" and two "arms". Oddly, like the Mala'akim, the Nerakk do not have eyes in our sense of the word but rely instead on luminescent optical nerves scattered over the entire body, as well as at the end of their manipulator tentacles. That is not the main source of information for a Nerakk, though - they communicate mostly by sound, and their hearing is amongst the most sensitive of all creatures in the galaxy.
The reproductive system of the Nerakk is difficult to describe because their basic biology is so different from that of Descendants. The Nerakk equivalent of females can actually fertilize their own eggs all by themselves, but in order to produce something else than a clone they rely on the sterile Nerakk male-equivalents, which splice the genetic material between the two picked-up eggs from two females in an organ inside their body, but since they cannot incubate, the second-sex Nerakk also have to return the resulting composite egg to one of the two females. For this reason, Nerakk marriages usually consists of two females and one male. There is also a third biological sex among the Nerakk, known as "thirds" (technically an actual third sex rather than an intersex condition; though those also occur among the Nerakk, Nerakks with them universally view themselves as thirds) which is capable of neither egg-blending or fertilizing. The thirds rely on cloning in laboratories to reproduce and dominate positions of power in Nerakk society for reasons unclear to outsiders. In fact, the rulers of the past Nerakk Empire were uniformly thirds according to the gov't archives of the Hruka.
These days, the borders of the scant remnant of the Nerakk Empire, known currently as the Nerakk Enclave, are patrolled by a vast navy of gigantic heavily-armed spaceships, some of which are said to be several centuries old. Their government is increasingly isolationist, as mentioned before, and are now extremely distrustful of outsiders. In fact, they were found to be behind the Siege of Kiir and they only apologized when the Haenoki joined the Descendant Confederation. As a result, the Hruka are often the only friends of the Nerakk among the Descendant Confederation, which is often considered ironic as the Hruka also distrust the leaders of the other Descendant species, though sometimes with good reason.