Practicum: Limaces
Greetings and sejugation! ...You can’t separate me from what I love! No one is taking me alive! Jokes aside, today is another practicum. This one is one of my most developed and the oldest species in my arsenal; they hold a really special place in my heart, so let’s go!
As per other species, the declension is different from English:
Sg: Limax
Pl: Limaces
Adj: Limacan
Worldbuilding intent
Honestly, this is the one species in my universe, along with humans, that I didn’t design for the purpose of my Stellima universe. I had no original idea for my Limaces in Stellima, but rather Stellima grew from them, and I wanted to put it in a space opera. So where did they originate from?
That is a very long, complicated, and deeply personal story. But the gist of it is that I used to roleplay with a friend, and as we roleplayed, the baseline of Limaces evolved, and I kept building on them because I fell madly in love with them. So let’s get into the bits about them and their being.
Biology
Of course, being Stellima, they are humanoid; did you really expect anything else from me? Well, yeah, the Tshutsi are technically not humanoid but taurus, but still, close enough! There are a lot to Limaces, so let’s get going! A thing to remember is that they are hermaphrodites but tend to have feminine looking bodies.
One distinguishing feature with them is that they have eye stalks. Literal pair of stalks extruding from their heads, and on each of them is an eye. So Limaces can get quite the good view of things by moving their stalks around. They don’t even need to turn around to look at someone! Just turn their stalks around, and they can look at someone behind them.
The stalks have a secondary function to convey emotions: if stretched out or far from their heads, it often signals excitement or curiosity, like they are trying to get a better look at whatever has their attention, while if the stalks are close to the head, it signals worry or fear, like they are afraid something will cut off their stalks.
Another feature on their heads is what are called “frills,” which are just like fleshy hair. I say fleshy because it's literally flesh that gives the appearance of hair, and if cut, they start bleeding. So no frill cuts for them! But the frills come in many variations from short to long, thin to thick. As for colours, we’ll get there soon enough.
Limaces also have a long tail that frill-like structures grow on. Their hands have 5 fingers, but their feet only have 3 toes on them. Internally, they have a lung system that bears resemblance to that of birds on earth, and they actually have three lungs, two main lungs that air gets into first before going into a larger third lung, then from there, it is exhaled.
They also have three hearts: two are located in the chest near the primary lungs, another one is located in the butt. Yeah, they got a butt-heart, and it is funny! This is inspired by the many hearts that octopi have. And come on, having a butt heart is so funny! They also lack any bones and use what is called a hydrostatic skeleton. Fancy words that means that they use the fact that water doesn’t want to compress to stand up and specialised muscular structures for it. And here is an image of their physiology!
Commissioned Art
Another mostly meaningless feature that I did because it entertains me is fiddle with their immune system. The human immune system is what I call “generative,” that is to say, it creates millions and billions of possible antibody variants and hopes through a sheer numbers game and luck that whenever something hits you, you have some antibodies that can react to the enemy. It works perfectly fine but is so BORING! I wanted something interesting and NEW!
So I did a different system, where it lies dormant most of the time until it finds something that doesn’t belong. So instead of creating weapons–antibodies–and destroying the ones that would attack the body, they instead create cells that check if anything in the body is of the friendly variant–inverse antibodies? Anyway, once they find something that doesn’t belong, the body takes it to where the immune cells are made. And then the immune system actively mutates, configures, recombines and so on over many iterations to bind strongly to the antigen, and then all hell breaks loose for the invader. This means generally that Limaces are sicker in the beginning and for a longer time, but their recovery at the end is much faster.
Is it entirely believable? Yes, likely? Probably not, but it was a fun thought exercise!
Colours
I said I’d do this later, and that later is here! Colours play a very dominant role in their society and their biology. Unlike human pigmentation that means nothing to anything, the colouration of Limaces affects their bodies and minds, though as anything biological, it is only in broad strokes, and there are always exceptions.
There are 14 colours: red, green, blue, cyan, purple, pink, grey, silver, copper, gold, black, orange, white, and yellow. Is that fourteen? Yeah, it is. Anyway, each Limax can be purely one of those colours or have two of those colours. That gives a grand total of 196 different colourations for the Limaces! Those who have two colours are a mix of the properties of each colour. So not max either colour but a mix of the two. So what do the colours do? Well… All right!
Red: More muscular, they develop shell-like plate structures at certain places on their body. They tend to be more aggressive and generally prefer to physically solve issues.
Green: Tend to be taller, and they are very curious and generally more intelligent. They are the brainiacs.
Blue: Have an average build but are socialites. They generally like being social, being with people, and are quick to pick up on social cues.
Cyan: Best described as rule sticklers, they are not physically different, but mentally, oh boy. They have this weird obsession when it comes to rules they have accepted and get very severe anxiety and more if they deviate from them. You cannot make them deviate from the rules they have accepted, but if those rules are by the letter or in the spirit differs from Limax to Limax.
Purple: Ah the royalty colour! Yeah, not creative here. They tend to be leaders, more assertive, and other Limaces have a desire to listen to what purple ones say. Albeit it is not too difficult for them to ignore a purple if they want to.
Grey: Jack of all trades, master of none, that is the greys. They don’t have much in any direction.
Copper: The hard workers, the labourers, they are more muscular than average but not as muscular as reds, and they have a proclivity toward physical labour. However, they don’t have the physical violence red desires.
Gold: Would you be surprised that they love money? Well, they do. They tend to deal with lots of money, trade, etc. They are very good at managing money and making it, and they are greedy. Not in the traditional sense of greedy but in a communal sense where more money overall is what they seek, not more money for themselves.
Black: Tend to be slim. Calling them black is half a misnomer because they have chromatophores that allow them to change colours at will, but when relaxed, they default to black.
Orange: Tend to be of a bigger size body-wise, and they love food. If you want a good meal with utmost care to it, you go to a restaurant where the chef is an orange. They have much more sensitive taste buds to help with this.
White: The creatives, they love to artistically express themselves through songs, drawing, painting, sculptures, and more. You cannot stop them! They also tend to be considerably curvier than any of the other colours for their size.
Yellow: Often called the religious ones because, well, they often are. Their brains are wired such that they are much more prone to religious experiences. One of them is that they see auras around people. Their brains subconsciously and consciously judge a person, and then they apply an aura around the person based on said judgement so they can see on you what they think of you.
Pink: Not the smartest ones of all the Limaces. They are, in fact, the dumbest ones, but they are very sweet and kind. But don’t you fuck with them because the other Limaces will come after you! They are very protective of Pink Limaces because of many reasons, but one is that without pink Limaces and their ability to produce “pink slime,” or just “pink,” the other Limaces literally feel no impetus to engage in anything sexual. I will get to it later, but pinks are absolutely crucial to sex. Details on how comes in a little bit!
Silver: Interesting in that they somewhat trigger similar pathways in Limaces like pink ones do without the slime… but not all the way. To other species, they appear very flirtatious. No one is sure what function they serve, but Limaces nonetheless love the silvers.
These are, of course, just general rules, Pink-green ones, for example, are of average intelligence on average. But within each colour, there are huge variations, and the colours do not dictate your position in life as Limaces don’t put colours in a hierarchy. The one exception is Purple-Pink which is the only top combination; I’ll get back to it.
Reproduction
Given the last two colours, let’s go into their reproduction! What is important to understand is that while Pink Limaces are absolutely crucial for their reproduction, that doesn’t mean that the Pink ones have to actually engage if they don’t want to. Pink Limaces have very high libido so often they do, but not always. The crucial part is the slime their skin produces. It functions as an aphrodisiac in my setting. And yes, it works on all known species.
For obvious reasons, the Limaces hold it very restricted and are super protective of their pink members. But let’s say a couple of Limaces want children; how do they do it? Well, they don’t technically have sex to get children, but more on that later. But if they want to make an egg, then this also means just wanting to have sex. They are essentially a group of asexual people until they are influenced by pink. So they decide to have sex, get pink slime, which can be in a vial and sold, or a pink friend, or something. And then they get busay, and as they are both hermaphrodites, I will leave the imagination to you… Let’s just say that there is rarely only one egg made.
The egg is not like a bird's egg with a hard outer shell; they are softer and more like frog eggs. The colours of the egg actually reflect the colour of the Limax that will grow from it, so you can tell by looking at the eggs. The eggs are put into nutrient rich, gently moving water where they start developing, and after a few months, a baby Limax emerges from it screaming, and the new happy parents have their child. It is very tough toward the end because the egg cannot be left unsupervised.
If an egg is left in a humid environment so they don’t dry out, and it’s somewhat cold, the eggs can actually be stored and won’t start developing, so they do have actual storages of eggs.
So beyond a soft egg and hermaphrodites, there isn’t that much weirdness to them. There is no sex to determine, they are all hermaphrodites.
Resurrective
In my post on Linathre, I explained that there are species that I call “resurrective,” which means they have a clearly defined way to cheat death. And it is not an immortal way, either, as there is always some method to kill them ultimately. Limaces are another species that are resurrective.
One thing that is required for this is that the head and torso cannot be obliterated. If either of those are too destroyed, no can do. But if those are whole and the brain intact, the Limaces will actually produce an egg-like thing called a globus. For the untrained eye, telling a globus and an egg apart can be difficult, but there are visual differences.
The difference from the Linathre is that while Linathre grow into an individual on their own, Limaces need a pre-existing individual. The globus has to fuse with another person who can be of any species that transforms them into a Limax, and it fuses with the brain/mind of the individual. This process is not one that takes over the brain and erases it or the likes; the new mind is more like an amalgamation of both minds with extra bits on to
It is documented that the person who emerges from this fusion has memories from both the former Limax and the person the globus was applied to, but the personality is neither of them and shares nothing but basic similarities that most people have anyway. The process is not entirely understood, but it is believed that many new personality traits arise as a product of the new merged brain trying to sort out conflicts that arise, and how it settles to avoid the conflicts is unpredictable.
This fusion process is also known to cure virtually all known physical ailments, but due to the rather extreme transformation and mental processes, the weak often do not survive the process. The transformation of the body takes 24-48 hours usually, but the mental transformation can take from that length up to 2 weeks, during which the person remains unconscious.
Ideology
Limaces, as the founders of the Divine Dominion starnation, have an overarching ideology. And it is fundamentally tied to their religion of Limacism as the starnation is a theocracy, so let's go into the religion.
Limacism
Limacism, despite being called a religion, might be described as a term for many different religions that share a common core. The core is related to their central deity known as Divinum. Zhi is always portrayed as a hermaphrodite. Anyway, all denominations of Limacism must hold Divinum above all as the creator of all, the origin of everything, and the ultimate source of all life. All denominations must also accept that the Vivissiah is the mortal incarnation of Divinum in the physical world.
The Ecclessiarchy, or central church, is very strict that these two tenets, or cruxes, are maintained. After that, the various denominations can differ wildly in how they choose to interpret any parts. The exact relation between Divinum and the Vivissiah is one of the many aspects that have spurred many denominations branching off. Some, for example, believe that the Vivissiah is literally Divinum and thus Zhir god form is no more, others believe there is a connection, but the two are distinct entities.
Some believe that Divinum is the lone deity and that there are “saints” that help, others believe Divinum is the supreme deity, the urgod or origin god, that spawned other deities and thus are more polytheistic than monotheistic. There are also discussions about the relation between omnivita and Divinum. Omnivita is the idea that an essence permeates the universe that makes life possible. The fact that there exists a physical field that life does excite and thus can be scanned has been taken as evidence for the omnivita. Some denominations believe that the omnivita is part of Divinum, others say it is Divinum, others still say that it is Divinum’s daughter Vita that is the Omnivita, others think Vita maintains the Omnivita.
So as it can be seen, there are a lot of differing opinions on the theology and beyond the core two cruxes, there is a lot of leeway. The Ecclesiarchy realised long ago that trying to maintain a single faith would be an herculean task and, in the end, essentially pointless. As long as people adhere to the decrees of the Ecclesiarchy and adhere to the cruxes, the rest was of lesser importance, and having a multitude of variants would only help in their quest to actually convert people. A lot easier to get someone to sit at the table with you if you have a lot of dishes to entice them with, right?
If there is a one sentence summary of their religion, it is that they want life and want to spread it. In their religion, the Limaces were also chosen to host the Vivissiah. The religion does not state why but puts emphasis on that, meaning Limaces are expected to live to higher standards compared to other people.
Terraforming
One thing I have in my universe is planetary destruction technology and weapons, but no one really uses any of those. Why? Because they are needlessly expensive. There is no economic gain to be had in blowing up planets, so unless you make it super easy, it's a waste of resources unless the planet itself is the goal. And as a weapon, come on, what costs more? Blowing up a planet from the inside or just sterilising the surface? The latter takes barely any work, while the former is a huge cost. It takes a lot of effort and work, machines, energy, and all that, so money is better poured into other projects like finding new planets or more guns on more ships.
The outlier is the Divine Dominion and the Limaces, but they don’t use this technology to destroy planets–they use it to terraform them. As I stated, their religion mandates an expansion of life, which is named the “Crusade for Life.” Any candidate planet that can be terraformed, they will terraform. They are ready to throw a lot of money at this cause and will do it for as long as they can. Several starnations that have needed terraforming projects have gone to the Dominion asking for help, and the Dominion’s response? Happy to do so.
History
Their history is actually fairly unknown. When the Cognisphere, Stellima’s interstellar internet, was developed and they transferred their data over to it, what is known as the “Great Digital Crash” happened. No one is sure how or the details, but large swaths of historical data and other information were lost. It is also unknown why it wasn’t recovered in any fashion. One of life’s great mysteries.
What is known, though, is that sometime between the start of the Industrial Revolution and the Crash, Divinum had arrived as the Vivissiah and eventually unified the Limaces under Zhir reign and dominion. Some great war happened that involved highly advanced computers that laid ruin to the world, and Zhi helped rebuild everything.
Since the introduction of Discrete Drives, their Faster Than Light, and their entry to the interstellar plane, the Limaces have expanded outward and been quite eager to settle Tau planets, or earth-like planets. This brought them into conflict with a lot of other species in the Era of Strife. One thing the Dominion has had for it is that it never starts a war, but it does finish every war.
Despite the Divine Dominion’s propensity to hold onto anyone foolish enough to start a war, and its openly stated intent to eventually rule everything, in modern times, they are proponents of peace, seeking to maintain that peace, and have helped keep space peaceful for centuries.
Modern Culture
In modern times, the vast majority of Limaces live on Limopolis, an ecumenopolis at the centre of the Dominion. It is where Divinum, the Vivissiah, lives in the Divine tower. Speaking of them, an important thing in Limace’s culture is which title to use despite referring to the same person, their leader. Divinum refers to Zhim as a deity and is the most sensitive. You better not start talking ill, then, because they will get hostile. Vivissiah you can talk in some cases negatively, but not too much. The official non-religious way, and the one where you can say any opinion you want, is Archecclesiarch, as Zhi is the leader of the church and state, and this is the formal title as the leader. The balance between the three titles is difficult for those unaccustomed, but defaulting to Archecclesiarch is the safest option when uncertain.
While their religion plays a major part in their life, it is not everything, and they don’t think less of anyone for not being in their religion. Odds are, in fact, that they are much more lenient toward those outside of the religion than anyone inside the religion. This is because they believe that someone within their religion should behave better and be more sympathetic than those outside. That is why, despite being a theocracy and the ones with the most power in it, Limaces tend to get harsher punishments for crimes, and other species get more lenience.
In Dominion culture and Limax culture, one is not demanded to adhere to the religion, but it does give slight perks: 5% at the local starbucks! I am joking, but there is a point to it. The perks you get are very minute and are primarily there to say they are a theocracy and give preference, but not enough that anyone will really care that much. Given their love for life, they take helping people of all kinds very seriously. Which leads us to…
Children
Despite what I said about reproduction and how they lay their eggs and how they develop, that is not how their families are generally formed. Yes, they produce eggs, but those eggs are virtually always given up to the Ecclesiarchy, who takes care of eggs. This is because in their culture, it is believed to be a great misfortune to raise your own eggs. No one knows where this belief comes from. It does not exist in any texts and such, but it is firmly believed.
This belief is so bad that if they so much as suspect that the child is related to you, both you and the child will be shunned. It is bad luck to be around you or the child. Great misfortunes will fall upon you, etc. So having children that share your and your partner's colours are avoided like the plague. They adopt eggs that do not have any colours of the parents. That way there is no way they are related.
So when eggs are laid, they are handed to the Ecclessiarchy, and when Limaces actually want children, they go to the Ecclesiarchy to adopt eggs of different colours. This has led to them having a culture where family is chosen, not based on blood. And this also leads to the fact that the Limaces in Stellima are the species most known for adopting children of any species to be in their families; after all, they value chosen family rather than thinking in terms of blood.
Government
The government is officially a theocratic autocracy meaning that the Vivissiah/Divinum/Archecclesiarch is the top one in charge of everything. In formal work, Zhi is the head of the church, the banks, and the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. So it is de jure and Zhir word is law. The Vivissiah/Divinum/Archecclesiarch generally does not like to meddle in affairs and prefers setting up systems that work with minimal input from Zhim. The face of the Vivissiah is rarely seen, if ever, but an appointed Limax, titled the Herald, speaks for Zhim in meetings and much else.
De facto, the Dominion works very differently because as I say in my rules for rulers post, no one rules alone. Zhi may have slightly lesser issues on a lot of parts because of people's religious beliefs in Zhim, but even Zhi cannot escape the need for others executing Zhir will.
In practice, the Dominion works more like a hybrid between an oligarchy and democracy than a theocracy. The executive branch functions as an oligarchy where you have the cardinals, which consist of purple Limaces, one sharing each colour except for purple-pink, which is reserved for Divinum. So excluding Zhirself and the Herald, who can be any purple colours, there are 13 cardinals, and their job is to keep the rest working in the executive branch.
For the legislative branch, it is more democratic. Named the Curia, people inside are elected by the population from within the Dominion in whatever manner the local population of the planet desire. If the planet wants it to be a hereditary position, then so it is, if they want an election every 3.1415 years, then so it is for them. The representatives here are in charge of legislation for the entire Dominion and its functioning. Unless the Herald comes in and says that a certain legislation needs fixing or even needs to be scrapped, the Curia is mostly free to work on their own.
Similarly, the church, bank, and judicial systems have their own systems to work distinct from the others and Divinum, who is above all and dictates all, rarely interferes. The sign of a good system is one where you don’t need to meddle with it constantly, as Zhi views it. It is generally considered bad if Zhi feels the inclination to interfere more than once every few decades years. Because of that, people outside of the government sometimes question Zhir existence due to how little Zhi prefers interacting and has things simply working.
A lot of the inner workings of all of this for ordinary people is carried out by an organisation called “The Cyan” which is named after the cyan Limaces and their rule obsession; who is better to do rules and such than those obsessed by it?
Flag
And to their flag!
This is their flag. The colours are fairly simple in symbolism: purple because that is one of the colours for the Vivissiah, and the other colour is yellow. I had thought about pink as the second colour, but that looks like garbage, and it also doesn’t feel like it would fit Zhim, too egotistical. So yellow became the second as it symbolises their focus on their religion.
The eye comes from their belief that Divinum is omnituent; that is, all seeing. Not all powerful, not all knowing, or the likes, but all seeing. It is made into a star because it is a starnation, and they are spreading out into the galaxy.
Summa Summarum
And so we are at the end with the species that essentially started this entire universe and a friend helped with. What have we learned? I am not sure, but I love them, and I hope it shows. I also hope that all my ideas give people more ideas to do well on anything.
Anyway, bye! 😀
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