diff --git a/Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md b/Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md index b913164..f960357 100644 --- a/Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md +++ b/Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md @@ -10,7 +10,26 @@ The Ethereals are a humanoid species hailing from the planet of Sprout- a densel Ethereals themselves are a biological oddity, with an internal organ structure and life cycle that puzzles even the most decorated xenobiologists. Their skin is translucent, revealing both their blood- a complex, bioluminescent solution similar to battery compositions known colloquially as Liquid Electricity- and their internal organs, which are crystalline in structure. How exactly these crystals function is unknown. Analysis of the chemical makeup of Ethereals reveal that they are not carbon-based, but silicon-based, which has lead some to theorise that the internal working of an Ethereal is much like a flesh-and-blood machine. -When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle (an area roughly equivalent to modern-day El Salvador) before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov. +### Ethereal Reproduction + +Ethereals, as with most of Sprout's living organisms, are entirely sexless creatures- an oddity on the galactic stage, and instead reproduce by a form of inadvertent clonal budding. +One of the most notable features of an Ethereal is their quasi-immortality- any catastrophic damage dealt to an Ethereal's body triggers a kind of pupation where crystalline structures surround the body, which rapidly regenerates itself to a more youthful state. This amazing process is not perfect and tends to introduce imperfections which build up over time, such that Ethereals are not _actually_ immortal and eventually reach a state where regeneration is no longer possible, however that is not the only side effect. + +Once an Ethereal "hatches" from their crystal then they will leave its shattered remnants behind to naturally break down. These crystalline fragments are gradually eroded by the environment (or consumed by Sprout's fauna) but many of them will remain in the soil still primed with their progenitor's DNA, a reconstructive drive, and a small store of organic energy. Over the course of multiple regenerations by multiple Ethereals, these fragments accumulate and are naturally attracted to each other until they condense into a "seed crystal" that erupts from the earth and "regenerates" an entirely new Ethereal composed of composited genetic material from anyone who happens to have "died" in the surrounding area. + +As Ethereal science was still something in its infancy when first contact was made, this process was not really widely understood by the Ethereals themselves who had many and various explanations as to where new Ethereals came from, ranging from divine providence to reincarnation (the latter being surprisingly closer to the truth than sceptical aliens might have expected). + +Ethereals have no childhood stage; they are born fully mature from their crystals and "newborn" Ethereals even typically have vague and fragmented recollections of their many "parents"' memories, at least enough to lead them to a nearby settlement and allow them to converse mostly-intelligibly with whoever lives there. +This method of "accidental" reproduction essentially leaves Ethereals with no established family structure at all, it is impossible for a child to know their parent or vice versa, but very rarely Ethereals _do_ experience siblings. A "seed crystal" which grows to unusual size or is prevented somehow from emerging from the ground will occasionally produce multiple Ethereals after it emerges, either all at once or sequentially after "hatching" the first. These Ethereals in turn may look radically different, or be essentially clones of each other. +This rare event is treated very differently by varying cultural groups on Sprout (or was, prior to their Great Enlightenment) but these groups of individuals are generally assumed to have some form of dramatic and fated destiny; for either good or ill. + +So far this process has never been witnessed outside of the planet Sprout. Human researchers posted on the planet have posited the theory that it is possible that the entire surrounding micro and macro level ecosystem is required to create the right conditions for Ethereal formation, and some are beginning to suspect that the increasing centralisation of the planet, only in its infancy, is already beginning to change the rate at which new Ethereals emerge from the ground. +What this means for their future as inhabitants of an industrialised galaxy is not yet clear. + +## History + +When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. While Ethereal nations trended towards autocracy, lack of children also means lack of any forms of hereditary inheritance; a fact which lead to regular civil wars and kept any individual nation from reliably outliving the death of its leader. +TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle (an area roughly equivalent to modern-day El Salvador) before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov. The uplifting was not gentle, nor was it well received (at first). The Ethereals were ripped from their feudal institutions into the plasma age in less than 50 years. The decision sent waves across humanity, and the galactic scene- diplomatic protests from the Lizards (who viewed the act as an aggressive expansion by humanity into another species' territory) and the Moths (who viewed the act as an immoral interference with the natural development of another species) would create problems for the project, but once it was started, it was irreversible. @@ -21,6 +40,7 @@ And so, the Ethereals would find themselves thrust onto the galactic stage. * Sprout is located in a particularly isolated region of space, with the most direct route to Human space being via a nebula- too dangerous for most vessels. For this reason, the planet takes a long time to reach from the rest of inhabited space, and particular commitment is needed to visit. * TerraGov advises remaining in and around major settlements while visiting Sprout, as the local flora and fauna are considered quite dangerous. Even in the larger cities, the possibility of a wild Volthound running rampant through the streets is (unfortunately) high. A secondary (and unspoken) reason for remaining in large settlements is the inherent risk of being kidnapped (or worse!) by reactionary militias. * If you've been a member of the TGMC in the past 50 years, particularly as a peacekeeper, you've probably been deployed to Sprout to assist in the pacification efforts. +* Since Nanotrasen scientists shed additional light on where new Ethereals actually come from, some reactionary groups of Ethereals have begun attempting to create "Super Ethereals" by forcing their most successful warriors to successively regenerate in carefully cultivated spaces, without particular success. ### Sprout: From the Ashes Sprout would undergo radical changes alongside the Ethereals during the Great Enlightenment. Major scale land recovery was undertaken, and the feudal society of old was replaced with an interim government set up by TerraGov to handle planetary administration until such a time as the Ethereals were capable of taking over for themselves. Power was seized from the autocrats and monarchs of old in doing so. diff --git a/Species of the Galaxy/Family and Children.md b/Species of the Galaxy/Family and Children.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edd2de0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Species of the Galaxy/Family and Children.md @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ +# Family and Children + +Within Earth's animal kingdom there are about as many ways to have and raise children as there are individual species of animal. As it is on Earth, so it is amongst the stars and in the modern era humanity have been presented with something new; *thinking* animals with their own biology, morals, and approaches to family life with whom they can argue. Every species has their own approach to forming a family, and naturally each thinks they also know best. + +## Humanity + +Human family structures under both TerraGov and the SSC in 2563 are largely based around the contemporary North American concept of the "Nuclear Family". While the precise structure varies widely based on individual circumstances it's still largely typical for children to be raised by an average of two parents who directly contributed to the birth of the child, with an average of one and a half directly related siblings. + +Children (be they "naturally" born or produced by a tube) spend roughly eighteen years being raised by their parents until they reach a point of legal independence and leave the family home to form their own families, usually undergoing many years of public or private schooling in the meanwhile. +Cloning technology and genetic modification allow people who would otherwise find it difficult to produce children access to the opportunity (provided that they can pay for the service) but raising direct clones of yourself is considered socially unusual and generally the domain of rich eccentrics, and the rapid aging technology used to produce adult duplicates of living or deceased humans is generally out of the reach of an average citizen (and since the Felinid incident, also out of the reach of almost everyone else). + +Larger (and smaller) family units are certainly not unheard of, both due to the fact that divorce and absentee parenthood certainly haven't vanished in the future and that commited relationships involving more than two people are more widely accepted than they were 5 centuries before, but these highly capitalised societies still encourage the atomising of larger or multigenerational family units which might have otherwise been more common in other cultures into smaller groups, each of which can be sold their own house and amenities. + +## Felinids +In almost all respects except cultural, Felinids *are* humans. Their designation as a "species" is a legal construct rather than a biological one, as their genetic modifications do not in truth move them far enough from their ancestors to be regarded as a separate animal. +Felinids then grow largely speaking in identical ways to how humans do; giving birth to similar numbers of children after a similar length of pregnancy, meeting similar developmental milestones at similar times, aging at a similar rate, and dying at similar ages. + +Felinids were not generally created en-masse before the Cloner Incident rather than as small groups and individuals and not even a single generation has passed since they were thrust into the limelight as a "distinct known species", and as such they largely live entirely in mixed enclaves with other Humans or in isolated conclaves surrounded by a wider Human culture rather than having any exclusive territory of their own. Resultingly they have not had time to diverge significantly from the wider Human culture to any significant degree, however there are a few important things to note. + +While Felinids are entirely reproductively compatible with the rest of humanity they are an oppressed minority within Human space and so tend to be insular and stick together. Mixed relationships are inevitably actually quite common, but are often viewed with suspicion or distate by *both* Humans and Felinids for different reasons. + +The children of mixed parents predominantly present Felinid genetics quite strongly but more rarely can result in children who have either the iconic ears or tail but not *both*, or every so often a child which is indistinguishable from a "baseline" Human but who still carries latent Felinid genetics. +The idea that someone could *appear* to be totally human but produce "surprise" children with their grandparents' ears and a tail is often drawn upon in modern soap operas and entertainments as a source of cheap drama, despite the fact that actual cases of this have been few and far between. diff --git a/Species of the Galaxy/Lizards/Family and Children.md b/Species of the Galaxy/Lizards/Family and Children.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad82bd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Species of the Galaxy/Lizards/Family and Children.md @@ -0,0 +1,54 @@ +# Family and Children +When Humans first encountered and clashed with Lizards and their galactic empire, there were numerous points of culture shock. One of the larger ones was about their childhoods. While all the child-rearing peoples in the known galactic sphere will champion their own methods as the best and most moral, most will also quietly agree with each other than the way Lizards treat their young is *unusually* cold-blooded. + +Humans and many other large mammals utilise a reproductive strategy where they produce a small number of children (usually one at a time) and then invest a large amount of effort and resources into raising and protecting them, but that isn't the *only* evolutionarily successful reproductive strategy. Many other animals go for a different approach; producing a very *large* number of children and investing much less into each individual one, trusting in the law of averages to preserve their genes into the future. The Lizards of Tizira are one of these species. + +## In the Past + +In their evolutionary past, Lizards would form large matriarchal clans within which a small number of females would mate with multiple roving males, protect large collective clutches of eggs, and essentially leave the hatchlings to wander the clan's territory under the loose protection of their relatives, figuring out for themselves how to become a useful member of society. +Lizard hatchlings are born significantly more independent than human babies and are able to walk at around the time they are capable of breaking out of their own eggs, but cognitive development during the first four or five years of their life is significantly slower and they rarely begin to speak until after this point. Hatchlings born at the same time instinctually form bands which wander and observe the adults, picking fights with *other* bands of children, and generally ignored by adults unless they get in the way. + +Because all children are raised communaly, there is no particular special relationship placed between "parents" and "children" and in fact parentage is not even always often very clear, inbreeding being avoided by most pairings being made from lizards from other communities. Instead, Lizards tend to have a primary close relationship to their clutchmates and a secondary one to the community they were brought up inside of. + +As they age and begin to be able to express thoughts and opinions, they would generally be expected to gravitate towards adults performing interesting tasks and would pick up the ability to be helpful through observation and eventually through tuition, eventually being recognised as individuals. This developmental stage is generally accompanied by a change in scale colour from drab camoflague patterns to more vibrant ones which can be used to relate socially with other individuals. +Alternately, some children would inevitably simply wander outside the protection of the clan and disappear into the wild, an unfortunate fact of life. + +Having large amounts of children was developmentally useful to Tizirans both in the past and in the present; Lizards adapt very rapidly to novel environments and are quick to recover their population from catastrophic events like wars. Some human scientists also speculate that this contributed to their Empire's drive to claim large amounts of territory through violent conflict, although that same urge is not necessarily untrue of Humans. + +## In the Present + +In modern times now that Lizards are no longer "merely" intelligent, roaming predator animals things cannot quite work in the same way, but the facts of their biology remain the same. Tiziran children are born in great numbers and simply not considered to be "people" until their fourth to sixth year of life. The death of an infant is considered to be *unfortunate* but more on the level of the death of an animal than a child. Resultingly, little care is taken to "child-proof" Tiziran settlements and infant mortality rates are *significantly* higher than among virtually any other known group in the sector. + +Traditional Tiziran values tell them that this leads to strong children and a better species, an ideology known on Earth as "eugenics". While many other species look on these statistics judgmentally, it's unarguably true that if every Lizard child survived it would only take a few generations for them to totally outpace the capacity for their planets to provide for. + +Your average Lizard (absent influence from other cultures), when presented with the common moral choice choice between saving a mother or a child would virtually always choose the mother- an adult is simply more helpful to the greater whole and there will always be more children. +This also leads to a somewhat unusual attitude towards disability; Empire culture will invest significant resources into preserving and extending the lives of adults, the elderly, and those wounded in the process of performing their jobs because these people have already "passed" their genetic filter. Children born with inherited conditions though have a significant uphill battle to even survive until the point where they will have any access to these resources and experience significantly worse outcomes than among other species. + +## The Tiziran Empire + +How Lizards deal with the constraints of their biology in modern times tends to be heavily dependent on their class, Empire Tizirans live in a significantly unequal and stratified society and the way that childhood is handled for the bulk of the population differs from that of the very rich and the very poor. + +In the modern day, Tiziran child rearing tends to be based around *neighbourhoods* rather than family-owned territories. Adult Tizirans form strong romantic and platonic bonds with multiple other adults and cohabit in shared housing with large groups of peers who are considered equivalent to a family unit, despite not being related. Any eggs which might come out of this household are raised in facilities shared by multiple households which are either state-run or funded by the local residents. + +The richest and most powerful lizard families still live in large (although not necessarily matriarchal) family enclaves, spreading their familial connections through society to cement their own power and keeping careful track of which young are most promising to push towards certain positions, and which would make better foot soldiers. + +Poor and rural Tizirans are forced by circumstance to live in the manner most similar to their ancestors; if there isn't a whole village with the resources to raise the children then the hatchlings will have to either be allowed to roam or an attempt made to trade off eggs to more affluent Lizards. + +In all cases, a significant quantity of unwanted and unexpected eggs, or hatchlings which wander outside of anyone's particular oversight, find their way into the care of the Empire's military service, which has a strong interest in replenishing the ranks following their ruinous clashes with Humanity. + +## Outside the Empire + +It is also worth noting here that significant numbers of Lizards now live far from their "Homeworld" in conditions significantly unlike those of their ancestors, in Human cities and stations. Most Lizards you might see employed on Nanotrasen research stations were probably raised under such conditions. + +Humanised Tizirans experience *significant* pressure to conform and attempt to fit themselves into what Humans consider to be a proper family; too few parents to take care of the number of children a pair of Tizirans can have. Resultingly, many adapt to this by destroying a significant amount of a clutch they have laid and then attempting to raise their more manageable number of hatchlings as a nuclear family. + +Members of other species can point at the success of these attempts and argue that the fact that it can be done means that the continuing situation around Tizira is unacceptable; in return the Tizirans would say that the number of children killed by these methods is actually much *higher*, it's simply that their detractors are drawing the arbitrary line of where personhood begins in a different place than they are. + +Most human polities have accepted that Lizards under the age of 6 cannot be tutored in the same pre-school environments as human children, as it's not realistically possible to socialise them against biting people who weren't born in the same nest. + +## Ashwalkers + +While you would perhaps think, given their lifestyle and conditions, that Ashwalkers would represent a reversion to a tribal ancestral state... nothing could be further from the truth. +The lifestyle of the Ashwalkers is entirely artificial and sustained totally through their interactions with the mysterious Necropolis. Ashwalkers are a single group who primarily work in service of this sinister parent, whereas if left to their own devices they would likely have formed several competing societies and spread further across the planet's surface. + +Within the enclaves of the Ashwalkers, all eggs are produced by mysterious tendrils that erupt from the ground and hatch as fully-formed, mutated Tizirans who already know several of the skills they will need in order to survive their harsh environment, as well as an instilled affection towards The Necropolis. Whether they even maintain the capability to reproduce in a more typical fashion is unknown. diff --git a/Species of the Galaxy/Moths/Children and Family.md b/Species of the Galaxy/Moths/Children and Family.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d335b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Species of the Galaxy/Moths/Children and Family.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +## Life Cycle + +Moths, as you might expect from an exoskeletal invertebrate, go through several different life stages before being considered adults. +A moth is born in a clutch of three to five eggs and raised in a creche alongside any other children on the ship. A newborn moth is a grub the size of a human infant with six limbs used for mobility and a front pair with crude graspers which can manipulate small objects. + +Moth grubs spend 2-3 years in this shape, during which they eat as frequently as possible and grow rapidly to try to achieve the bulk they will need to transform into an adult. Moth grubs instinctually try to spend their time in warm, confined spaces and so an appropriate environment and supervision is usually required to prevent them from wandering off into vents. + +Despite their appearance, these grubs are actually no less sapient than a roughly equivalently aged human child and reach several developmental milestones more quickly. Their care is considered to be an extremely important position in Moth society: the future of each ship in the fleet depends on it. Usually they are taught a form of sign language compatible with both Moth and Grub limbs at as early a juncture as possible so that they can make their needs known, as they lack the vocal chords to make any kind of intelligible speech. + +After reaching an appropriate size a Moth grub will spin a coccoon in what it feels is a secure area (adults in the fleet try to provide various appropriate receptacles for this such that they don't try to pupate in inconvenient locations) and dissolve their own bodies over a period of a month, reconfiguring into their mature shape. + +An interesting quirk of Moth biology is that almost the entire brain is reconfigured during this process and childhood is largely only remembered as a series of vague impressions; while Moth grubs are intelligent enough to be taught language and mathematics they will not remember any skill they had during childhood after their pupation and so further education before this point is not usually considered to be particularly worthwhile. Moth caretakers, despite probably knowing grubsign at some point in their infancy, generally need to relearn it again as adults from the other side. + +Post-pupation moths begin a series of yearly moults where they shed their entire exoskeleton in order to grow to an adult height, and during this period they will also receive an education. Young moths are taught collectively in ship-wide schools (or communte to other ships with better facilities in the case of the smallest ships) and eventually graduate towards an apprenticeship under another experienced Moth after shipboard leadership have evaluated each in terms of their professional skills. Teaching is *also* considered quite a prestigious career path, and is quite a difficult position to qualify for (on a similar level to ship navigators or command-level staff). +Usually by the time they have finished moulting for good and reached their final height, a Moth will also be ready to enter the adult world. Failure to be fit for any particular independent duty by this time is considered a cultural sign of failure as an individual, but also for the people who were tasked with that Moth's education. + +On very rare occasions a grub will fail to pupate at all and will simply continue growing as a grub. This is actually less of an impediment to life than you might expect, as the close quarters of ships are reasonably easy for a grub to navigate, and their *cognitive* development continues to the extent that an adult grub can be a fully participating member of shipboard life, often employed themselves in tasks such as care or education of other Grubs, maintenance of devices that favour their smaller limbs and frames, or nonphysical managerial and command positions. +The Fleet needs every available hand to contribute, and so simply doesn't have the luxury of turning down an appropriate mind even if it has an inconvenient body. + +## Family + +The smallest family unit within the Mothic Fleet is the ship. Everyone on board your ship is your family and everyone is expected to pull together to support their family. Moth children are raised knowing every adult as a parent and every other child as a sibling, with a similarly strong taboo against *having* children with other people who were born on your ship. + +Adolescent Moths then are often expected to journey to *other* ships to work for a time, sending resources back home to their family, and then ideally to *return with a spouse*. Managing to bring a valuable worker with rare skills home with you is a mark of a very successful Moth and greatly celebrated, or the same to entice someone to decide *not* to return home and instead set up permanent residence upon your own vessel. +These complex webs of immigrant relationships between parts of the fleet can lead to long term loyalties and rivalries that people from outside often find hard to follow or comprehend, making Moth Fleet dramas somewhat unpopular with any other species. + +This principle is additionally stretched a little upon the largest capital ships which can house thousands of inhabitants, but these tend to cope by subdividing themselves into smaller "ships" which more accurately represent departments and subdivisions where the majority of adults work and sleep. + +## Outside the Fleet + +While the much smaller family units employed by humanity can come as a bit of a shock to Grand Fleet Moths (and often create comical misunderstandings) it also plays some part in their good reputation outside of their own spaces. +Moths who travel outside of their home ship to another are essentially expected to treat wherever they end up as a *second* family, and resultingly to try and get along with everyone there in case they decide to stay, and this amicable instinct tends to make them quite good house guests. + +To a traditional Moth raised among other Moths, the entire crew of a space station you work on might be under evaluation to become your new parents and siblings, and so should be treated well. Unfortunately this can also leave Moths in crews without other Moths feeling lonely and left-out, as their Human coworkers rarely return what they feel is an appropriate level of closeness in kind. diff --git a/Species of the Galaxy/Plasmamen/Plasmamen.md b/Species of the Galaxy/Plasmamen/Plasmamen.md index 2d518aa..3644d39 100644 --- a/Species of the Galaxy/Plasmamen/Plasmamen.md +++ b/Species of the Galaxy/Plasmamen/Plasmamen.md @@ -35,8 +35,14 @@ Space Station 5's Chief Engineer Ruth Blarbo instead remarks "They're cool I gue Not everyone has reacted as positively, however. The Animal Rights Consortium and other ethics organizations have taken the news of a new species made of human corpses and alien goop being introduced to Nanotrasen stations, and especially the horror stories about envirosuit testing (how many had to burn before the product reached the market?) particularly badly, and have been steadily extending their Nanotrasen Book Of Grudges, motivating the rest of the Syndicate ever more for the next attack. +# Family Life +Plasmamen obviously don't _have_ families, as they emerge dripping and fully-formed from a lake of plasma as adults and cannot attribute any particular entity to be their relative apart from perhaps "the bacterial soup in general". +That said, emerging from the soup can be very confusing and disorienting and resultingly Nanotrasen have organised a programme of "mentorship" where newly emerged Plasmamen are paired up with older volunteers, who can more easily show them the ropes of this new world they have arrived in. This move has been largely quite successful at increasing the speed of integrating new workers into Nanotrasen's corporate structure and understanding the ins and outs of life in an envirosuit without too many unpleasant mishaps, but is also perhaps the beginning of a means of Plasmamen to pass on a unique culture from one generation to another. Younger Plasmamen _do_ tend to remain socially close with their mentors following their "graduation" from the programme, and those who had a positive experience are themselves more likely to volunteer to mentor other new Plasmamen in the future, in turn creating widening social circles of Plasmamen with close bonds to each other. + +Several distinct "family trees" of mentors and mentees are beginning to emerge over time, occasionally covertly favouring each other over other un-"related" Plasmamen with what little power and influence they have. What long term effects on this burgeoning race this accidentally-introduced social structure might have in times to come remains to be seen. + # Fun Factoids: * Since Colonids are native to the Icemoon, the liquid plasma pools on the moon are teeming with them. Falling into one of these pools may result in becoming the next Marcel Delacroix. * Plasmamen can infest any skeleton, or really any organic surface- those seen on Nanotrasen stations are generally human skeletons, as Nanotrasen is able to source them cheaply from the bodies of convicts. Yes, this means plasmamen can infest things like dinosaur skeletons, and yes, this is badass. * Plasmamen have very human mannerisms, due mostly to their integration with human society on the frontier. That said, they have developed their own distinct culture in their short time on the galactic stage. -* Plasmamen are not only immune to radiation, but utilise it very efficiently as an energy source. Even the small amounts given off as background radiation on the Icemoon are sufficient to sustain them. \ No newline at end of file +* Plasmamen are not only immune to radiation, but utilise it very efficiently as an energy source. Even the small amounts given off as background radiation on the Icemoon are sufficient to sustain them.