THE OGHALDZON
An Alien Race
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THE OGHALDZONAn Alien Race |
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This page is divided into the following sections:
Click on the section names to return to the top of the page. THE SHUNESHU SYSTEMShuneshu is the sun under which the Oghaldzon species evolved. It is a bright red dwarf star (classification M0V) some two billion years older than the Sun, with a radius of about sixty percent that of the Sun and a mass of some forty nine percent of it. Because of its greater age the Shuneshu system is slightly metal-poor compared to the Solar System. Dhoz, the home world of the Oghaldzon, is the largest moon of Orsargal, a large gas giant planet some two thirds larger than Jupiter which lies somewhat outside the habitable zone of Shuneshu. Orsargal provides enough extra heat from itself to make Dhoz habitable, but also generated powerful radiation fields about itself [as Jupiter does]. Orsargal has five other major moons, all of which orbit close to it and all of which are tidally locked to it. Four of these are large enough to have atmospheres and life of their own. All of this life is descended from a single source, and it is assumed it was spread from moon to moon by meteor or asteroid strikes in the distant past. Orsargal also has a small ring of rubble and dust [much like that of Jupiter], and numerous small asteroidal moons. Going outwards from Orsargal, its major moons are as follows:
Outside the orbit of Orsargal is a quite dense asteroid belt known as the Swarm. This is some five astronomical units wide, with bodies up to a thousand kilometres in size within it, and is rich in all kinds of asteroid. Beyond the Swarm lie four small icy worlds. The inner two, Sirroksaen and Gaekseng, are airless ice balls some fifteen hundred kilometres in diameter. The outer two, Vugzaksne and Gvouruega, are both some five thousand kilometres in diameter. Vugzaksne has a thick cryogenic atmosphere [not unlike that of Titan in the Solar System] and seas of liquid hydrocarbons. Gvouruega is an airless ice ball with two small asteroidal moons. At the edge of the Shuneshu system lies a smaller gas giant world, Tsighzusar, some two thirds the size of Jupiter, with two major moons of its own, orbiting far from it. These are both airless ice balls some three and one and a half thousand kilometres in diameter respectively. DHOZDhoz, the home world of the Oghaldzon, is roughly the same size as the Earth, with a slightly lower density and so a slightly lower gravitational field. It has an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere similar to that of the Earth. Being a moon of the gas giant Orsargal, Dhoz is subject to strong tidal forces, which mean there is a great deal of volcanism and tectonic activity on its surface, much more so than on Earth, with more than a thousand active volcanoes dotted across its surface at any given time. Because of this one major difference between Dhoz and Earth is that the atmosphere of Dhoz has a much higher percentage of volcanic gases than that of Earth; it also has significantly less oxygen, though not enough to restrict the activity of the life there [or that of a human should any go there]. The life forms of Dhoz are resistant to the effects of these gases at the concentrations found on Dhoz, but do not need them to live. These gases make the seas of Dhoz slightly acidic, and generate a significant greenhouse effect in its atmosphere which helps to warm the world. Dhoz is tidally locked to Orsargal, so its day length is the same as the period of its orbit around Orsargal, some six Earth days. Because Orsargal orbits close to Shuneshu its year is very short, some nine Dhoz days (fifty-four Earth days or so). The average temperature of Dhoz is some twenty Celsius. However, its long days and nights, coupled with the fact that its orbit around Orsargal varies its distance from Shuneshu by plus and minus ten percent lead to large temperature differences between day and night, and at different points on its orbit. The hemisphere of Dhoz that faces Orsargal is the more hospitable one, as it is warmed by facing the sun when in the half of its orbit furthest from the sun, and cooled by facing away when in the close half of its orbit. The away-facing hemisphere is conversely less hospitable, with temperature variations of some plus or minus thirty degrees Celsius over the course each orbit about Orsargal. These same effects also occur on the other moons of Orsargal, but are less extreme on the moons closer to it, and more extreme on Ghoekog, the only moon to orbit Orsargal outside the orbit of Dhoz. These temperature differentials drive powerful winds around the planet. They also cause a great deal of evaporation on the hot side of Dhoz, which causes a great deal of fog, rendering much of the surface of Dhoz foggy more often than not. This makes visibility very low. Taken together this makes the weather of Dhoz very violent, with lots of precipitation. Because of the violent weather, there is a great deal of erosion of Dhoz. On the other hand the high degree of volcanism builds up new land as fast as it is eroded away. Some sixty percent of the surface of Dhoz is covered by water. The land surface is divided between eight minor continents (there are no major continents as there are on Earth), twelve major islands and eleven major archipelagos, as well as vast numbers of smaller islands and island groups. There are ice caps at the poles of Dhoz. Because Dhoz is tidally locked to Orsargal, Orsargal does not induce tides in its oceans. Instead, there is a large 'bulge' of ocean in the centre of hemisphere directly facing Orsargal and also in the centre of the hemisphere facing away from it. This makes the oceans there significantly deeper. This means that most of the land of Dhoz is around the band of planet between the two oceanic bulges. The only tides on Dhoz are from the sun, which are very slow because they occur over the orbit of Dhoz around Orsargal, and from the other moons of Orsargal. These are all fairly small. Dhoz has a powerful magnetic field, which protects the surface from the high radiation produced by Orsargal. This is tied into the magnetic field of Orsargal, and so does not flip from time to time as the magnetic field of Earth does. There is evidence of magnetic field flips from long ago in geological time. These are all associated with mass extinction events resulting from the radiation of Orsargal being able to penetrate to the surface of Dhoz. Because of its high magnetic field Dhoz and the other five life-bearing major moons of Orsargal, which also have high magnetic fields, are constantly wreathed in intense auroras from the poles to the equator, making them all glow in a way that is beautiful to human eyes. From Dhoz Orsargal is some ten degrees wide in the sky, that is, some twenty times wider than the full Moon from Earth, while the sun Shuneshu is some two and a half degrees wide in the sky, that is, some five times wider than the Sun as seen from Earth, although, of course, much dimmer than it. Orsargal does eclipse Shuneshu from time to time. THE LIFE FORMS OF DHOZLife on Dhoz is based on roughly the same chemistry as that of Earth, with DNA used for storing genetic information. The chemistries of Dhoz and Earth are reasonably compatible, so each can eat most of the food of the other without starving or being poisoned, though both would suffer deficiency diseases in the long term. Thus the plants of Dhoz would grow on Earth given the opportunity, though how well they would compete with Earth life would depend on the circumstances of this; their chemosynthetic life would probably do best. The harsh environment of Dhoz has retarded evolution there, and caused many genetic bottlenecks and periods of rapid diversification. Endoskeletal life has existed there for more than a billion years [as compared to vertebrate life on Earth having existed from some five hundred and thirty million years], but the high rate of natural disasters has hindered its development into sentient forms. Another effect of the harsh environment of Dhoz is that natural selection there runs faster, more harshly and with a much stronger random element than is the case on Earth. Because of this species tend to survive for a rather shorter time than on Earth, on average, and there are far fewer 'living fossils' which have been able to survive in a specialised, unchanging niche. There is some speculation among Oghaldzon palaeontologists that some of the mass extinctions that form part of the history of life on Dhoz were caused by the arrival of meteors carrying virulent bacterial life from Eguerrg, the third moon of Orsargal. There is no solid evidence for or against this, but some scientists do worry that rocks harbouring dormant life from Eguerrg are still drifting in space around Orsargal, waiting to land and cause devastation.
THE OGHALDZONThe creatures from which the Oghaldzon evolved were omnivorous social creatures from the tropics of Dhoz, living in groups of some tens of individuals. A period of solar flare activity on Shuneshu caused changes in the environment of Dhoz over a relatively short (in geological terms) time that forced rapid adaptation and drove their ancestral species into sentience. As with the other creatures of the group their species form part of, the Oghaldzon have a triangle of walking limbs, two at the front and one at the very rear, with a horizontal body, six handling limbs, and a featureless ovoid head consisting almost entirely of their sonar 'melon' at the front. In this group the rear leg is very muscular, and there are two arms in front of and one arm behind each front leg. These are long enough to almost reach the ground while the individual stands upright, and are flexible enough to allow them to scratch their backs and so on. In the Oghaldzon this results in creatures with a tall deer-like profile with long, thin legs, roughly as tall as a human, though with a very different profile. Oghaldzon arms are thinner and weaker than human arms, but they automatically use two or all three arms together as a unit if a task requires it. Because of this, taking all of their arms together they are roughly equivalent to human strength. Oghaldzon hands are basically a more flexible continuation of the limb, with more joints per unit length than the limbs as a whole and prehensile tentacles and flaps of skin on either side to give the ability to grasp and manipulate. The number, form and exact arrangement of these side digits vary from individual to individual. Their feet are, like their hands, extension of their limbs, though less flexible, and with the sideways extensions forming a foot pad. Individual Oghaldzon favour their left or right sides much as humans do. However, there is no physiological advantage to one 'handedness' over the other so that roughly half of the species is of each handedness, with a very small percentage being ambidextrous. The Oghaldzon mouth is under the 'melon' of their head, at the front of the body, while they breathe through a 'nostril' on the top surface of the body above this. In females the breath is taken in through their hadrosaur-like crest, via which sperm are filtered from the air. Their hearing and sonar extends over a very wide range of frequencies, from below to far above the human range. Their language likewise uses a very wide range of frequencies. To human ears it sounds like complex barking and clicking punctuated by gaps, but to the Oghaldzon themselves there is, of course, much more to it than that. Because of their way they generate sound there is no visible movement of external parts of their bodies when they speak. The Oghaldzon could theoretically learn to speak human languages, but unaided humans simply do not have the vocal and auditory equipment to speak Oghaldzon languages. The Oghaldzon do not have facial expressions, but they do have body language as extensive as that of humans. They are warm-blooded, but not mammalian. Their bodies are covered with skin without any hair, fur, scales and so on, not unlike that of humans. This varies in colour, but as Oghaldzon do not see colour this is irrelevant to them. To humans they would appear in a variety of shades from dark grey to black. They shiver when they are cold for the same reasons as humans, and pant when they are hot; this is because the generally moist air of Dhoz is not very conducive to cooling by sweating. Their bodies are adapted to be most comfortable when exposed to the six-day hot-cold thermal cycle caused by the orbit of Dhoz around Orsargal, so as much as possible they maintain this cycle in their cities, space habitats, space vehicles and so on. Being creatures from the tropics of Dhoz, they require protection (clothing) to survive on other parts of the planet. They are roughly as resistant to acceleration and pressure extremes as a human being, but rather more vulnerable to hard radiation. In their primitive state the Ogahldzon suffer as varied a range of diseases as humanity. However, most of these have been conquered by advanced in their medical sciences. They are also helped by the fact that Oghaldzon prone to disease tend to be weeded out in the larval phase, so the species as a whole is somewhat more disease-resistant than humans. Both males and females have vulnerable points; females their crests, males the patches where their 'sperm' grow. Both are very sensitive, and their owners do not like them to be touched; however, this is simply because they are sensitive; they are not like human sex organs and there is no sense of violation involved. Because both genders have such areas and young are not carried or cared for there is no particular physical advantage between genders. In the case of the Oghaldzon, their larval phase lasts some one hundred great cycles (some fifteen Earth years). When living in a primitive environment their lifespan as an adult is some one hundred and fifty Great Cycles in addition to this (some twenty-two years). With the growth of civilisation and the development of medical technology their life expectancy has grown greatly, so that now they average some five hundred Great Cycles as an adult (some seventy-four years). To the Oghaldzon, Dhoz is not the dark and grim place it is to human eyes. To their senses it has the potential to be as bright and inspiring as the Earth can be to humans. To human eyes an Oghaldzon viewed from the side would vaguely resemble a three-legged grey or black deer perhaps dressed in some sort of coverall. But instead of a head and neck it has a featureless dome not unlike half of a rugby ball, which protrudes from any clothing worn, and three long thin arms down each side, two in front of and one behind the front leg. The hands of these limbs protrude from the ends of the sleeves of any clothing worn. From the front or from above and below they appear much more obviously alien as from these angles it is much harder to miss their three legs and alien body plan. The following is a very rough sketch of an Oghaldzon. The dotted shape on top of the body indicates the female breeding crest. The dots around the body are the Oghaldzon eyes.
OGHALDZON HISTORYThere have been civilisations on Dhoz for hundreds of thousands of Earth years (millions of Great Cycles), rising and falling in a continuous cycle of civilisational build-up followed by its collapse following a natural disaster, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, solar flares, starspot-caused famines and so on. While some of these civilisations were able to build up to a fairly high (at least early twentieth century) level of technology, none were able to advance enough to allow them to survive the major disasters which are a regular feature of the environment of Dhoz. Only the current civilisation has been lucky enough to arise in a quiet period of the tectonic history of Dhoz, which gave them enough time to advance to a point where they can now survive disasters there without their civilisation collapsing. In addition to this, the hostile environment of Dhoz, in terms of weather and tectonic activity, had retarded the technological development of the race, as some things, such as navigating the oceans of Dhoz, are simply very hard to do below a certain level of technology. A third factor which has retarded the development of the Oghaldzon as a race is war. Although because of their biology there are no conflicts over sex as such in their society (and among the other animals of Dhoz), there is still conflict over food supplies, living space, resources, greed and so on. In particular, there have long been wars over stable living space on Dhoz. That is, living space safe from the volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and so on that wrack so much of the surface of Dhoz on a regular basis. The domestication of the animals of Dhoz also occurred slowly, as, although animals with undesirable traits can be culled, it is much harder to breed those with desirable traits together. Because of this domesticated Dhozian animals are largely unchanged from the form of their wild ancestors, much more like cats or elephants then (for example) dogs. One exception to the slow development of the Oghaldzon is that their biological sciences have long been quite advanced, as the Oghaldzon can use their sonar to 'see' inside one another. Likewise they developed radar before developing telescopes, and radio before optical astronomy. Their radars use similar principles to their own sonar and are very hard to jam. The science of acoustics was also developed early and well. Due to the violent geological history of Dhoz the Oghaldzon have only limited knowledge of palaeontology and the history of life on Dhoz and the other moons of Orsargal. On the other hand, for the same reason their knowledge of geology and volcanology is very advanced. Despite these limitations, based on what evidence there is they have developed a theory of evolution and natural selection. Because of the cycles of their civilisation, cities in the stable regions of Dhoz are often built on huge flat-topped mounds rising above the local landscape which are made up of hundreds of layers of older cities and settlements, dating back to the dawn of the Oghaldzon as a species. [These are not unlike larger versions of Tell Brak in Syria on Earth.] These mounds are often not as tall and prominent as they might be because the remains of older civilisations have been repeatedly mined for resources by their successors. Because of the drive of the Oghaldzon to preserve and pass on their way of life and culture derived from their method of reproduction, the history of Oghaldzon civilisation is one of warring memeplexes [groups of ideas - memes - which propagate as cooperative groups], with the extermination or conversion of defeated memeplexes playing a frequent role. Each memeplex is the equivalent of a tribe or nation of humans, but rather than genetics, each one is linked by a common set of ideas in which all members have an investment, one as strong as the investment humans put into their children. In effect the ideas of a group are their parents and their children. As another part of this, although the Oghaldzon are quite capable of killing and torturing one another (and have done so for much of their history) there is no rape or sexual violence among them. Indeed, the very concept is extremely alien to them. They have agriculture and farming, these being some of the earlier memes developed by the species. Likewise the meme for systematically teaching the young so as to propagate ones meme-group was one developed early on in their history. The larger a meme-group grows, the more mass appeal its memes have to have, otherwise it simply will not grow, or last. Oghaldzon history is filled with examples of this, where meme-groups stagnate or fragment over time, leaving themselves open to more dynamic meme-groups. Inflexible meme-groups simply lost to those who could innovate. Of the flexible ones, competition over time let only the fittest survive. The harsh environment of Dhoz has done far more to weed out meme-groups with less ability to survive than has been the case in the relatively benign environment of Earth, where such ideas linger even in many mainstream societies. In time one memeplex evolved which was aggressive, disciplined and obedient, but also innovative and flexible, with initiative and memes for incorporating new ideas and technology into their memeplex. This gave them the advantage over all other meme-groups, and over time this pragmatic, empirical, flexible set of memes spread across Dhoz and came to dominate the meme-groups there, simply because it was the one that made groups with it best able to survive. However, different disparate groups adopting these ideas, combined with the frequent falls of civilisations resulting in regression and fragmenting of meme-groups, meant that the groups incorporating these memes never formed a single unified ideology, although they did all have similarities. Eventually one memeplex refined these memes and developed into a group able to take over all of Dhoz. The memetic similarity of many of the memeplexes across most of Dhoz did mean that this dominant culture was eventually able to impose its ideas on Dhoz without having to engage in 'memocide' [the Oghaldzon equivalent of genocide]. Their culture is quite argumentative. But its discipline also means that discussion has its place. Now the dominant memeplex walks a fine line between losing innovation and stagnating, or fracturing into sub-groups [this could be way to defeat them should it be necessary]. [Note that the dominant Oghaldzon memeplex is deliberately somewhat similar to that of the West on Earth. This is because there is evidence from the real world that these memes are successful, and helps to give a point of reference for readers.] The Oghaldzon did not discover optics, gravity and astronomy until late in their development. They discovered the sky through radio and radio astronomy, investigating the sources of interference in their transmissions, which led them to discover the emissions from Orsargal, Shuneshu and eventually the stars. This led to development of astronomy, a theory of gravity and eventually space travel. The long history of the Oghaldzon, and the rises and falls of its technological civilisations over time have generated significant quantities of greenhouse gases. However, compared to the greenhouse gases generated by the natural volcanism of Dhoz these have not significantly affected the climate. The Oghaldzon have never made great use of gunpowder weapons, because the noise they produce 'blinds' their sonar. Instead they used spring-powered weapons such as crossbows until much later in their development than humans, until they were replaced by air guns and silenced gunpowder weapons. The limitations of their sonar gave them no motivation to develop very long-range weapons before the development of sensors such as radar. With their development of more advanced technology magnetic accelerator guns and directed energy weapons are widely used by their military. There are now some eight billion Oghaldzon on Dhoz, inhabiting a large number of cities. The largest of these, the capital of Gitslonae, has amalgamated over time from many smaller cities, and now has a population of some two billion individuals, and covers most of the area of the safest continent on Dhoz. There are also some seventy cities with tens of millions of inhabitants, hundreds with millions of inhabitants, and thousands of smaller cities, towns and villages. Most of these are earthquake-proof arcologies (or collections of them) built on relative small areas of stable land. Tens of millions Oghaldzon also live in facilities in orbit around Dhoz. All of the orbital population of Dhoz (and the other moons of Orsargal) live in habitats very well shielded against the radiation generated by Orsargal. Most of these are based around asteroids moved from the Swarm and hollowed out by mining. The meme of expansion of the dominant memeplex has led to the colonisation of the Shuneshu system, first the other moons of Orsargal, then the Swarm, then the smaller worlds and moons of Tsighzusar beyond. By the present day the other moons of Orsargal have populations of tens of thousands, tens of millions, none, hundreds of millions and tens of millions respectively. In addition to this, more than a billion Oghaldzon live in the Swarm, with hundreds of thousands on each of the smaller icy worlds, millions on the inner larger one, tens of millions on the outer (with thousands and tens of thousands on its two moons respectively). Millions of Oghaldzon live on the larger moon of Tsighzusar, while hundreds of thousands live on the smaller. There is a network of cycler transports linking all of the inhabited moons of Orsargal, particularly those with large populations, using efficient low-energy orbits. Other cyclers travel into the `Swarm. Oghaldzon space flight also makes use of gravitational slingshot manoeuvres using Orsargal. From the Shuneshu system they went out to the stars. Which may lead them into contact with humans. OGHALDZON CULTURE AND SOCIETYSOCIAL STRUCTURE AND GOVERNMENTThe original social hierarchy of the Oghaldzon species was based not on sexual dominance, but still on the biggest and strongest individuals, that is, on physical size and power. This did not give any advantages in mating, but it helped an individual sire more offspring (although that does not directly affect an individual), and it still helped those individuals get more food, better shelter and so on. Over time this evolved into leadership by contribution, where those best able to hunt or work led groups. This in turn developed into a leadership of ideas and intelligence. In the dominant memeplex of the Oghaldzon, members of the race with the most practical ideas lead; as such it is a form of meritocracy. The idea to do this is another winning meme that has developed over time. Ideas that are impractical - such as stories - have a place too, but not on as part of the leadership of their meme-group (the few 'entertainer-cracies' that developed during Oghaldzon history did not survive long). The government of the dominant memeplex consists of a number of interlinked councils which perform the roles of government. At the top of the government is a Council of Councils which links them all into a unified whole. Because of their lack of a diurnal or nocturnal cycle, Oghaldzon society is permanently functioning, with different individuals working, sleeping and so on at different times. Even the largest and most stable memeplexes have smaller groups with radical views that do not fit in with the mainstream memeplex constantly splitting off from their 'edges'. Many of these are primitive memes, whose memeplexes, on Dhoz, live in what are essentially cultural reserves. However, some are radical groups whose wishes for advancement, by the avocation of things such as genetic engineering and cyborgisation, also lie outside the fringe of mainstream society, but in a very different direction to those of the 'primitives'. In terms of religion they do have some hanger-on memes of such things, but in general the dominant memeplex benefits from its memes of rationality, pragmatism and empiricism. The rare feral Oghaldzon which occur on Dhoz and the other Oghaldzon worlds are, regretfully, killed as dangers to the species. Their economy does use money and so on, but also memes for caring for ones own which have led to a society which has a form of social welfare. They do not have racism or sexism, but they do have 'idea-ism', bias against those of certain memeplexes. In its most extreme form, idea-ism is the basis of their crimes of passion. TEACHERSTeachers are very important in their society as it is via them that their memeplex is propagated. Although they do teach academic subjects their main role is to teach young Oghaldzon how to live within and as a contributing part of their memeplex, in the same way that parents are supposed to do for humans. As such they live with their charges almost full-time when they first join a memeplex, spending less time with the developing adults as they mature. Because of this teachers are very much the glue that holds the Oghaldzon memeplexes together. To ensure that all teachers and what they teach are aligned with the memeplex and with one another (as to do otherwise is to risk the fragmentation of the memeplex) there is constant communication between teaching groups across the memeplex, and an equally constant rotating of teachers from group to group; this last is done is such a way that there is as little disruption of the relationship between teachers and students as possible. CRIME AND LAWBecause of the investment that individual Oghaldzon have in their memeplex, crime rates among the Oghaldzon tend to be low. However, crime does happen from time to time. When it does occur it is considered to be because an individual has suffered contamination of their own memes, causing them to become misaligned with those of the memeplex as a whole. As such crime is considered to be a memetic disease within the memeplex which must be treated by it for the benefit of itself and the criminal. For most crimes this is done via a process of re-education in which the memes of the criminal are re-aligned with those of the memeplex. However, for some serious crimes, such as treason, it is considered that the memes of the individual have become so misaligned with those of the memeplex that it is impossible to re-align them. In this case the individual is regretfully executed, in much the same way that the rare feral Oghaldzon are executed, and for very similar reasons. In all cases it is considered that not just the criminal is responsible for the crime, but also all of those who contributed to their misaligned memes. Thus not just the criminal but many of their associates may be re-educated when a crime is committed. Of course, all of the assessment of an individual is done by other Oghaldzon, and so the process is not perfect. However, it is as good as it can be, and mechanisms for ensuring it remains so are an integral part of the dominant memeplex of the Oghaldzon. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSIn terms of their home life they do not have physical affection. They do have friendship and love of their meme-group and so on. They live together in small groups based on shared interests, either work, or their hobbies. They usually take all of these things very seriously. NAMESIn the dominant Oghaldzon memeplex names are structured in the form of 'personal name-educated by'. This is equivalent to humans being named in the form 'personal name-child of'. This gives Oghaldzon similar linkage to others, and continuity and traceability over time and generations that human families give. [So to use a human analogy instead of 'Fred Bobs-son', you might have 'Fred Eton-student', 'Bill Harrow-student' and so on.] The 'educated by' part of the name implicitly includes an indication of possible occupation, but does not tie an individual down to it. This allows an individual to map their own future rather than be forced down a specific path. At most the name is an indication of an individuals' past, not their future. It is entirely possible for Oghaldzon to have double-, triple- or even more-barrelled names, depending on the level and type of education they have had; each establishment, including their equivalent of universities and military academies, adds an 'educated by' to their name. Company or unit name and occupation are not part of the name of an individual any more than they are for humans. Military ranks and so on are an addition to ones name, but not part of it, so that the name of a soldier is constant, but their rank and unit may change. OGHALDZON CITIESAs Oghaldzon technology has developed and their population has grown, many of their cities have evolved into vast earthquake-proof arcologies, built on stable land. Many of these are tetrahedral pyramids to maximise their strength. Oghaldzon cities are all earthquake-resistant and have significant areas of wild parkland, to provide the living space that their larvae require. This is the case for cities of all technological levels throughout their history; those civilisations which did try to do without these areas of wild land tended to rapidly die out as no larvae were able to survive to form their next generation. They use triangular or hexagonal rooms. All rooms and other enclosed spaces have discrete exit holes for larvae to escape into the wild. In spaceships these lead instead to chambers where the larvae are euthanised before they can become a nuisance. Geothermal technology is very widely used on Dhoz to power their cities and other facilities. Likewise wind energy. NUMBERS AND TIMEThe Oghaldzon divide time into Greater and Lesser cycles. The former are an orbit of Orsargal about the sun (so there are roughly six and three quarters of these per Earth year). The latter an orbit of Dhoz about Orsargal (there are exactly nine of these per Great Cycle and so almost sixty one per Earth year). The lesser cycles are divided into thirty-six sub-cycles (of some four Earth hours each), which are further subdivided into thirty-six sub-sub-cycles (of some seven minutes each), which are again subdivided into thirty-six sub-sub-sub-cycles (of some eleven seconds each) and so down the time scales as required. Likewise, for longer timescales Great Cycles are grouped in powers of thirty-six (so into thirty-six Great Cycles - five Earth years and four months, 1296 Great Cycles - some 192 Earth years - and so on). The weather and climate on Dhoz is synchronised with the Lesser Cycles and to a lesser extent, the Great Cycles; this is, of course, what originally caused the Oghaldzon to use them. As such the intensity of the very short summers and winters which form part of each Lesser Cycle vary over each Great Cycle. They count in base six. WRITINGThe Oghaldzon script is a tactile one, analogous to Braille so it is visible to both sonar and touch. Some scripts use texture on top of this to give more information or layers of meaning. Likewise their dials, gauges and so on are designed in the same way, and so look very odd to human eyes. Their displays, equivalent to a computer monitor, use pixels made of pins which move in and out to give a changing display to their sonar. They may also have sonic 'hologram' technology. ARTSThe Oghaldzon do have a sense of beauty, and members of the species do vary in attractiveness to other members of the species. Although not directly linked to mating, this attractiveness is an indicator of genetic fitness to other members of the species, much as it is with humans. The Oghaldzon have many arts, with as much diversity as those of humanity, including music, theatre, dance, sculpture and 'texture paintings' or collages. Some types of Oghaldzon music use a choir to evoke what are effectively sonic illusions that are perceived by the audience as real objects. Because of their using sonar rather than light to 'see', the military of the Oghaldzon do not use flags and banners. Instead they use distinctive sequences of sounds, a type of anthem, or a form of standard using solid shapes and figures, not unlike a Roman aquila. DRESS AND DECORATIONThey wear clothing in a variety of styles, for protection from the environment. These come in many styles, but do not usually include robes as they can tangle their legs. The texture of their clothing is an important feature of them, performing much the same role as colour does in the clothing of humans. Their jewellery and other forms of decoration, on buildings and clothing and so on are made to be attractive to sonar rather than visible light. OTHER THINGSOghaldzon vehicles and buildings do not have windscreens or windows as such, because their sonar would not work through the glass. Instead, thin screens of fabric or other such materials are used, which allow sonar, but not light, through. Even so the limited range and often open-topped nature of Oghaldzon vehicles limits their speeds compared to human vehicles, at least when driven without the aid of additional sensors, such as radar systems. With the advances in their genetic technology over time it would now be possible for Oghaldzon to trace their ancestors and descendants. However, because of the way their society is constructed this is considered at best highly egotistical and at worst as utterly perverse. Domesticated animals are considered to be second-class members of a memeplex, because as non-sentient creatures they cannot fully invest in it as an Oghaldzon can. However, they are considered to contribute to the memeplex, and as such gain rights and benefits from it. The same logic is used in the treatment of brain-damaged Oghaldzon; as they are all brain-damaged in adulthood (brain-damaged larvae almost never surviving long enough to become adults) they too are considered to be members of the memeplex and to contribute to it, however minimally, gaining rights and benefits from it in return. OTHER RACESAre humans the first aliens they have encountered? Or not? Perhaps... Sexual races such as humans are just filled with 'bad memes' as far as the Oghaldzon are concerned. For example putting their genes over their memeplex [their culture and ideology]... Depending on precisely how contact progressed, the Oghaldzon could come to see humans, either as a whole or as individuals, as potential full members of their civilisation, as second-class citizens incapable of ever fully investing in it as the Oghaldzon do, or as a dangerous memetic disease to be regretfully eradicated. Above and beyond this they would consider pregnancy and so on to be very odd. The Earth would be a very clement world for the Oghaldzon, to the point of being a second home for them, apart from the high (for them) levels of ultraviolet put out by the Sun. However, this could be avoided by their adopting a nocturnal lifestyle. In terms of regions they would find hospitable, Kamchatka and the more temperate regions of the Ring of Fire would suit them best. Obviously humans would find it very hard to use Oghaldzon machinery and weapons, and vice versa, because of the very different arrangements and numbers of limbs between the two species. Assuming a level playing field in terms of technology and force levels, it is anyone's guess as to who might win a confrontation between the Oghaldzon and humanity. The Oghaldzon have had to develop into a stable, well-adjusted civilisation. This means they unify and cooperate better than humanity, but perhaps at the cost of some of the spontaneity and randomness of which humanity is capable, so that overall neither side has a particular advantage over the other. NOTESThe Oghaldzon race was inspired by this post by Chris Nuttall, the author of the story 'False Profits' posted on the AlternateHistory.com discussion forum, in which he said 'Design me an alien race and I'll use it some time...' So, here it is! The discussion there has guided the type of alien race I created, so that the Oghaldzon are both non-humanoid, and also a race to whom both sex and sexual violence (though not other forms of violence) are alien concepts. The Oghaldzon were intended, as a species, to be as alien, as different from human, as I could imagine a high technology race of individuals to be. Perhaps it is my limited imagination, but the still seem, to me, to have a good deal in common with humanity. Ideology. Friendship. Passions. Patriotism, in their way. A form of society that unites them and allows advancement. Perhaps any innovative, individualistic species has to have these things to allow them to advance technologically, regardless of their other differences. I do not know. I have deliberately not specified very much about Oghaldzon technology, apart from saying that they have gone into space and colonised their own solar system. This is entirely intentional, as it makes the race reasonably generic so that they can be tailored to fit into different backgrounds as required. The Oghaldzon were created with the help of my Ur-Creature Generator using the rules from GURPS Uplift, extended using my own ideas. Their solar system was generated with help from the star system generation system of the Traveller roleplaying game, again extended using my own ideas. Most of the Oghaldzon words used here are actually in the language of the Vargr race, from the Traveller role playing game. There is a Vargr word generator which I used online here. An interpretation of the Oghaldzon as they are presented here has been used by Chris Nuttall in his story 'Thunder and Lightning'. The image of a red dwarf star used on this page comes from the Internet Encyclopedia of Science. Send any comments to me at tony {dot} website {at} clockworksky {dot} net. My Roleplaying Page | My Science Fiction Page | My Traveller Page
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