Agloanikoi: The Gameplayers (Species Shock)

Worldbuilding can be hard, especially when it comes to aliens. All too often, fictional aliens feel like they're really just humans in costumes. Even when they are weird enough to feel truly nonhuman, they're usually still suffering from a serious case of monoculture-itis. and nbsp;Species Shock aims to supply you with truly alien extraterrestrials, covering everything from planet of origin to biology, culture, a few of their thoughts about humans. and nbsp;

This violume features and nbsp;the Agloanikoi, or aglos, a species of many-legged tree-dwelling aliens that are carbon-based and breathe oxygen, like us, but evolved on a world where jaws never developed and the most common form of blood is cobalt-based. and nbsp;

Sexually dimorphism is nothing new, but the aglos carry it to extremes rarely found on Earth: the males are herbivorous and the females are carnivorous. The sexes differ in other behaviors as well, including their spiritual inclinations, social behaviors, and the females' fondness for ritual battles that the xenolinguists translate as and quot;flowery warfare. and quot; This phenomenon is one of the chief forces responsible for the shaping of their society, as influential to their history as monarchies and capitalism have been to our own. and nbsp;

This book covers a wide range of subjects, including: and nbsp;

• Geography, climate, and relevant information pertaining to the homeworld itself, including the phenomenon of hypercanes, terrible storms that human scientists have theorized about but, thankfully, never had to deal with because our oceans aren't big enough to support their creation. and nbsp;

• The evolutionary history of the aglos and other species on the planet, explaining the development of various notable characteristics (not the least of which are their jawlessness and dietary sexual dimorphism) and show their place in their world's great tree of life.

• Diet, physical development, and other features of their physiology, including the nature of perceptory fronds, a set of multipurpose organs that serve as both ears and nose for aglos, among other things.

• A discussion of the nature of art as aglos understand it, plus popular forms of art, including and quot;hanging hardens and quot; and literary genres like and quot;banquet fiction and quot; (or and quot;nomfic and quot;), a sort of culinary travelogue.

• Fringe cultures, subcultures, and other exceptions to the norm, including the Thalassocracy a collection of near-failed states that have maintained their sovereignty, such as it is, through the fortuitous early development of nuclear weapons.

• Entries on close relatives, distant cousins, and other life forms on the planet, from macropedes to spiderbellies.

• An appendix with all sorts of numbers from population demographics to the sizes of just about every region you'd care to look up.

This product is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. You can use, transform, and distribute these cultures however you'd like, so long as you allow others to do the same. and nbsp;