[Wildspace] Spirians

Reposting some old stuff for the sake ouf our new xenophile members.

Planet: Spiria III
World-Class: Xenos
Population: 0 [Exterminatus]
Tech Level: 0
Tithe Grade: Adeptus Non
Aestimare: Z666

Orbital Distance: 2.3 AU
Equatorial Diameter: 6,920 km
Gravity: 0.73 G
Orbital Period: 180.33 Terran days
Length of Day: 17 Terran hours
Atmosphere: Oxygen-nitrogen mix with a taint of various gases
Surface Atmospheric Pressure: 0.20 atm [Originally 0.88 atm]
Base Mean Surface Temperature: 20.1º [Originally 53.4º]
Hydrosphere: 0% [Originally 98%]
Indigenous Lifeforms: None [Exterminatus]
Satellites: 0 [Originally 1]

Index Xenos – The Spirians

Evolution and history
The Spirians originated from a world that was once almost wholly covered by oceans. The ancestors of the Spirians were ocean lizards, but as the species evolved these aliens began to walk on land and breathe air, whilst still functioning in water. The low gravity of their homeworld allowed the four-legged Spirian ancestors to adapt to walking on two legs quite quickly, despite their considerable bulk, whilst originally using their tail to maintain balance. As aeons passed, the Spirian race grew longer and stronger limbs, allowing them to move on land with great agility and speed.

Whilst the majority of the early Spirian civilisations lived under water, the Spirians eventually ventured more and more to the surface to experiment with fire and electricity. As the Spirians became more advanced, most of their habitats were concentrated in the shallow oceans and their industry was built above the surface, either on land or on top of ocean platforms.

Once the Spirians had developed industrialisation, surface transportation and aircraft, their technology developed with great speed. Two millennia after their first aircraft was created, the Spirians colonised a second world in their solar system. Shortly after, the Spirians created their first warp drive, almost by accident, and slowly began to experiment with manned warp travel.

Unlike humans, the Spirians approached technology with great caution. When the Spirians eventually developed artificial intelligence, they studied it in isolated environments for centuries whilst debating whether or not to use this technology freely. Experiments with isolated communities where intelligent computers either participated or controlled the environment were conducted, but with frightening results. The Spirians found themselves unable to create an artificial intelligence with sufficient ethical insight. The machines judged everything with perfect cynicism, even pretending to follow the ethical guidelines of their masters to gain their trust, only to betray them years later. In the end, artificial intelligence was banned in the Spirian empire. Unlike humans, the Spirians never put themselves in a situation where intelligent machines could threaten their civilisation and never had a war against their own machines.

As Spirian warp drive technology evolved, the Spirians inevitably began exploring other star systems and colonised a distant system with a planet somewhat similar to their own, which they named Arhun. In the early years of interstellar colonisation however, contact between these two star systems was very sparse and so these colonies developed in different directions, forming different cultures. As technology caught up with them millennia later, the great differences between Spiria and Arhun became apparent. On Arhun, many political groups demanded independence, whilst others even took a hostile stance towards Spiria. The Spirian race, having gone through a golden age of discovery, was now thrown into a conflict that would last millennia.

After nearly six thousand years of strife, the Spirians were united once again. The war had caused great casualties and drained the Spirian colonies of resources, but now the two systems formed a new Empire that would act with a singular purpose. In a new age of discovery, the Spirians travelled to hundreds of new star systems, creating several new colonies and coming into contact with new races.

Against all odds, the Jokaero were the first advanced and intelligent race that Spirians came in contact with, as the Spirians discovered an Jokaero fleet by some great coincidence. The Spirians greeted the Jokaero with cautious enthusiasm, hoping to learn much from such an advanced race. The Jokaero, however, were quite unimpressed with this relatively primitive race and after a brief stop to exchange gifts and information, the Jokaero fleet disappeared to continue on its travels. Whilst initially disappointed, the Spirians dwelled long on this incident, studying the Jokaero artefacts they had been given for millennia to come.

Shortly after meeting the Jokaero, the Spirians inevitably discovered the Orks. War broke out immediately as neither race made much effort to make peace. Somewhat ironically, the Spirian government summarised from the first observations of Orks that this was a primitive race, probably limited to a few colonies, and that there was little point in begging for peace. And so began a war between these two races that would last until the end of the Spirian Empire.

Physical traits
The Spirians ranged in height from eight to ten feet, normally weighing four-hundred to four-hundred-and-fifty pounds, depending on sex. They were bipedal humanoids, with two arms, two legs and a large tail. Their hands were quite similar to those of humans, with five long digits ending in sharp talons. Their feet had four digits, three in front and one behind their “heel”. The head of a Spirian was lizard-like in appearance, with two blue eyes with double lids and a jaw filled with sharp teeth. At the sides of the head were great flaps that would normally fold together and hang straight down, but which could be unfolded to cool off in warm temperatures. These flaps were also central to body language. Their skin was thick, coloured bright yellow.

Internally, there were not many similarities between humans and Spirians. The Spirians were a cold blooded race with an aquatic origin, capable of breathing both air and water. Vital organs were distributed between their torso and their tail.

The Spirians had three different sexes, best described as two types of males (primary and secondary) and one type of female. To reproduce, both types of males needed to copulate with a female within a certain time frame. Spirian pregnancy would last only a few weeks, and average births would yield around a dozen offspring. At birth, a Spirian child would be roughly the size of a human hand. On average, a Spirian would need twenty years to reach sexual maturity and to reach full size, although this did vary between sexes.

As their homeworld was considerably warmer than Terra, the Spirians were accustomed to much higher temperatures. By extending their head-flaps, the Spirians could live comfortably in temperatures as high as sixty degrees Celsius.

Psychological traits
In terms of psychology, the Spirians were very different to humans in several important ways, making communication difficult at the best of times. While intellectually and sociologically advanced, the Spirians had a much more limited range of emotions. Many human emotions simply did not exist in Spirians, such as envy, regret or boredom. In addition, humans typically found the Spirians to be completely without humor, although this was not completely accurate. (For one thing, the Spirians didn’t laugh, so it was nearly impossible for humans to learn their alien humor.)

Generally speaking, the Spirians were much calmer and less impulsive than humans. The Spirians were also more stable in terms of moods. Where a trivial event might change the mood of a human, this would rarely ever happen to the Spirians. This was also reflected on the Spirian empire as a whole, as the Spirians were very slow to turn against former allies, even when dishonoured or slighted. Meanwhile, they were equally slow to forgive former enemies or trust strangers.

Gender-related psychological differences were often more pronounced in Spirians than humans. Spirian females were typically significantly more intelligent than both types of males, both in terms of social intelligence and problem solving. Primary males were solitary by nature, independent and more aggressive than other Spirians. Secondary males were docile, less intelligent and emotionally immature compared to other Spirians.

Society
As can be imagined, the Spirian method of procreation made the Spirian society very different indeed from human culture. Monogamy was extremely rare in their modern society, but males were expected to be faithful to their female partner, until she rejected them in favour of another male. As a result, Spirian females would juggle between so-called primary males and secondary males as they felt necessary. Traditionally, this meant forming a relationship with primary males before having children. Once impregnated by primary males, females would reject them in favour of secondary males who would then complete conception and support the female and her offspring until they had reached a certain age. At this point, the female would reject the secondary male and look for a new primary male.

Spirian society was highly matriarchic in nature. Because one female would have many children with many different fathers, Spirians would only form close relationships with their mothers, while fathers became distant figures. Traditionally, females would work in government, education and trade, whilst primary males worked in entertainment, construction and law enforcement and secondary males worked in service, health and social care.

Religion
The Spirian Empire had no official religion and almost all its citizens were atheistic. The closest thing the Spirians had to religion was their tradition in meditation, but this was based mostly on science. A few groups within the Spirian Empire had warp-related religions, but these were regarded as irrational and unintelligent and rarely taken seriously by the Spirian government.

Because most Spirians were completely atheistic, they regarded religious humans as quite unintelligent. Faith was a concept the Spirians had great difficulties understanding. During some periods of communication with human colonies in the Anargo sector, the Spirians seemed intent on ‘liberating’ humans from their religious teachings, but this was never successful.

Civilisation
The Spirian civilisation is now gone and their race is extinct. Almost all Spirian colonies have been so utterly destroyed that no trace remains of their proud culture. Only a handful of outposts scattered across hundreds of star systems now remain, still undiscovered by the Imperium. Most were abandoned before the fall of the Spirian empire, as most Spirians returned home to defend their colonies. Some outposts survived the destruction of their homeworld and struggled to survive and rebuild their Empire. Some were destroyed in great power struggles between rival leaders, and the rest were unable to support life as the centuries passed, and their inhabitants died from starvation, thirst or cold.

Technology
Whilst the Spirian race was considerably more intelligent than humans in many ways, they lacked creativity, and this was reflected in their technology. Eventhough the Spirians were an older race than humans, their technology was roughly equally advanced in most areas. The Spirians did have very advanced computer, robotic and aquatic technology that humans were never able to reproduce with equal success, however. In addition, the high intelligence of the Spirians allowed them to learn more from alien technology than was typical of humans. From the orks, for example, the Spirians learned about advanced technologies such as teleportation, tractor beams, energy fields and warp-based weaponry, which humans have had difficulties in mastering. From the ancient artefacts given by the Jokaero, the Spirians were also able to unlock some technological secrets, though they had only scratched the surface by their Empire fell.

In the Dark Millennium, Spirian artefacts are unofficially sought after by certain organisations in the Adeptus Mechanicus, who employ free traders and smugglers to acquire these artefacts without drawing attention from the Inquisition. In particular, teleportation units and warp-based weaponry are considered extremely valuable.

Culture
Even after the creation of the Spirian Empire, there was not much contact between Spirian colonies for several millennia. Hence, the cultural differences between each colony were considerable. Overall, the Spirians were not as concerned with arts as many other races, such as humans. Their minimal contact with the Jokaero changed this to a small extent, and the Spirians even incorporated some of human art into their own culture, but on the whole they were more pragmatic.

The highest art forms in Spirian culture were those of prose, painting and sculpting. Music was not an important part of Spirian culture, usually played as soothing background noise if at all. The pragmatic nature of the Spirians was evident in all their art forms; realism was the highest goal and abstract, alternative art was held in low regard.

The Spirians created a wealth of literature that was quite overwhelming considering the size and age of their civilisation. Not only did most adults spend an enormous amount of time reading and writing literature, but the Spirians were able to commit extreme amounts to memory as well.

Collective physical and mental exercises were an important part of Spirian culture as well. Again, pragmatism influenced their preferences, as martial arts and achievement sports such as running or swimming were most popular. Games were hardly appropriate even for children on most Spirian worlds. Within the realm of mental exercises, meditation was a central part of Spirian culture, as most adult Spirians would spend time each day to meditate on matters in their life. Spirian meditation did not focus on spiritual enlightenment or abstract goals as much as it did on everyday matters. For the Spirians, meditation was a way of clearing your mind and achieving greater focus.

Military
The Spirian fleets were generally more advanced than most pre-Imperial human fleets and were quite able to hold their own against ork ships. When the Emperor’s fleet arrived during the Great Crusade, however, the Spirian ships were outmatched and outnumbered. To make matters worse, Spirian ships did not have the advantage of Imperial navigators, and so found themselves easily outmanoeuvred. For this reason, the Spirians used their fleet only defensively during the early Age of Imperium.

As the Spirian homeworld was a water-world with hundreds of thousands small islands, the Spirian military never developed land-based vehicles to the extent that many other races did. In the early history of the Spirians, the key to victory was a mobile infantry force, supported by accurate and long-ranged artillery. As Spirian technology became more advanced, airborne forces became the most powerful weapon, but always supported by infantry and land- or sea-based artillery.

Thus, when other races encountered the Spirians, they found them surprisingly difficult to bring to battle. On their own colony worlds, the Spirian armed forces were found at sea. When attacking, the Spirians relied mostly on aerial warfare, supported by infantry inserted by air or by sea.

On their own ground, the Spirians also had the significant advantage of being experienced in fighting in low gravity. Where other races moved awkwardly, the Spirians moved with surprising speed and agility for such large creatures. Of course, this put the Spirians at a disadvantage on worlds with terran gravity or above, and the Spirian front-line troops were known to use basic power armour to facilitate movement when invading human and ork worlds.

Psykers and chaos
The Spirians had virtually no psykers and the few who were in fact psykers rarely discovered the true nature of their own powers. On the whole, the Spirian race was only vaguely familiar with chaos. Much of what they knew of chaos, they learned from humans, who seemed cursed by it more than any other race.

Spirian timeline

-   Circa 30,000 B.C – Spirians begin to colonise on land.
-   14,500 B.C. – Spirians invent aircraft.
-   14,300 B.C. – Spirians make first journey into space.
-   13,000 B.C. – Spirians colonise one of their moons.
-   12,600 B.C. – Spirians colonise a distant planet in their solar system.
-   12,500 B.C. – Spirians invent warp drive.
-   11,100 B.C. – Spirians create A.I.
-   11,000 B.C. – Spirians colonise a second star system.
-   9,000 B.C. – War breaks out between the two Spirian systems.
-   3,700 B.C. – Peace is made between Spirian colonies. The Spirian Empire is born.
-   0 A.D. – Spirian Empire consists of seven colonies in four star systems.
-   133.M04 – Spirians encounter Jokaero.
-   602.M05 – Spirians encounter Orks. War breaks out.
-   820.M23 – Spirians encounter humans in the Anargo subsector. War breaks out immediately. The human colony is able to drive off the small Spirian fleet, the remainder of which proceeds to attack Nova Cerkes in the Archaios subsector.
-   358.M32 – The Great Xenos Wars. In a war that lasts less than a century, the Imperium ruthlessly and systematically eradicates the Spirian Empire. Exterminatus Extremis is unleashed on all Spirian colonies known to man.