Practicum: Raixher
Greetings and salutations! It is your favourite alien Limax again, Vivian! Another practicum by me! This time about my species, the Raixher!
Quick note is that to make them alien, like I do many species, I have plural(s) and adjective forms that do not follow English standards. For this species it is:
Sg: (One) Raixhe
Pl: (Many) Raixher
Adj: Raixhen
I will do things similar to my practicum on The Tsxobjezn in the layout.
Worldbuilder intent
We all know the familiar warrior people. The big brutes that fight each other like maniacs and assassination is often the way to promotion. Well I wanted a warrior people, but one that is less stupid. As much as I love Star Trek and the likes, Klingons are STUPID!
So I looked to history; what famous warrior people are there? The most infamous one was the Prussians.They had a saying related to them that has gone down to history.
Whereas some states possess an army, the Prussian army possesses a state.
- Voltaire
It highlights how extremely efficient they were. They were good at war without fighting themselves, and by being so good at war, they were recognised as a power that was way more powerful than their size should allow them to be. It came with a lot of things that resulted in two world wars, but hey, can’t have everything, right?
So I decided to base my Raixher on the idea of Prussians in space with my own weirdness to it. On top of that, I wanted to do it matriarchal. I should make a post about why patriarchal is so dominant and how to turn it matriarchal. Anne! Remind me! Put it on the list!
Biology
The big thing about the Raixher is that they are not an animal, plant or fungi. They are in fact planimals. Which is to say they are a hybrid of what we would consider plants and animals. How does that work? The way I want it, that’s how! So they have a lot of mixed qualities between them. Like they still need to eat other lifeforms (heterotrophy), but they have a limited ability to produce sugars and more from photosynthesis (phototrophy).
General body
(Image by Melody Knight, owned by Vivian Sayan)
So what are their bodies like? As the image below of one of the characters from my WIP Series: Ambition shows, they are in fact humanoid! Yes, as I have said I think in the last practicum by me, I make all of mine humanoid or very close. I want it that way and I love it.
They are humanoid planimals but as the image shows–Irruma is her name by the way–they do not have hair but rather long vines. The thickness may vary.
The flowers on it are an indication of her sex; she is an ultimale. A primale would have thorns instead of the flowers, and a midmale (the third sex) would have coloured vines. Primales and ultimales have only green coloured vines, but the midmale’s colour depends on the season. Ultimale flowers, however, can be quite colourful.
Notice also they have claw-like structures on their four, yes, four, fingers. These are made out of keratin and cellulose to create a thorn-claw like structure.
They also have long leaf-like ears, and their eyes have a distinctive diagonal slit like pupils. For nearly all raixhe, the pupils are in the shape of / \ when looking at them. A distinctive thing about their sensory perception is the fact that their olfactory (smelling) sense is not tied to their breathing. The four small slits on their nose open into a secondary chamber inside their nose where olfactory cells are quite numerous. They can then push said air into their lungs or mouth depending on how they are currently breathing. So even when holding their breath, they are capable of smell.
Each sex has different height ranges, and ultimales are in fact the tallest, averaging around 180 cm, while primales average around 160 cm.
Reproduction
As I already said, they have three sexes! The madness! It is madness, especially when we get to queer stuff. But not today! You have primales, midmales, and finally, ultimales! One important aspect to them is that they do not have an even sex balance; for every primale, there are 2 midmales and 3 ultimales. Yes, ultimales are 50% of the population while midmales and primales together are the other 50%, what about equality! That is not the point, it ain’t!
Anyway, how does their reproduction work? Well, normally they form what can be described as “Super families”, I will get a better name eventually, that consist of 1 primale, 2 midmales, and 3 ultimales. And here comes one of the quirks of their biology. To the raixher, romantic attraction and sexual attraction are two very different things. They can romantically only want one sex but sexually want a different one, and that is fine to them! So in one super family, the normal structure is that, romantically, you have one primale-ultimale couple and two midmale-ultimale couples. The sexual attractions are, however, that the primale and ultimate seek the midmales exclusively while the midmales seek both primales and ultimales.
This is where a secondary quirk of theirs come into play. The midmales have two different “phases” or “states”. When in the female state, they look more like ultimales, that is, in a feminine way that humans would recognise. No, there is not a perfect 1-1 between ultimale and female. Similarly, primales are similar to males on earth, but again, not 1-1. What I mean is that ultimales are rounded, have chests and some generic feminine shapes, and primales are more square, lack breasts, and are in a relative sense more muscular despite being smaller, but again, it is not a perfect analogy. When midmales are in their more feminine state, the primales generally find them sexually attractive, and the midmales seek the primales. After sex, with the usual exchange of bodily fluids and acceptance of them, the midmales undergo a change where they become more male looking, including developing male-looking organs, yes a penis. The received sperm and more from the primale is absorbed by the body and combined with their own cells and DNA to create new sperm, which contains the primale’s, and midmale’s, DNA. This is then in a normal fashion deposited into the ultimale where the gestation happens.
The ultimale gets “pregnant” and starts developing a seed that she has to lay within a couple of months. The seed is then planted traditionally in a special garden that is heavily guarded, and after several months of the seed growing, developing a pod with the young child inside, and getting energy from the sun and the earth, eventually out comes a baby Raixhe, screaming and calling for its parents as it lies in a nectar pod that will sustain it for days if the parents somehow were to forget about it for any time. Or be unable to attend to it. After that, the superfamily has their newest member with them.
Now, you might ask, and I will paraphrase the great Anne Winchell here:
Why the fuck do you have this hugely complicated system?
Well, the ratio is simple: I wanted to create a matriarchal structure where the “female”, or in this case, ultimale, are the dominant sex, instead of the “male” version. As for the rest, does three sexes do anything? Does it maybe increase evolutionary speed like two sexes do compared to one? Or compared to zero? No, it doesn’t. It is in many ways complete and total shit. It costs more than it tastes, as we say in Sweden, which is “costs more than it gives/gains” in English, but I did this because I found it hilarious and a great way to do interesting stuff. So my justification is, it happened through random chance in the past, and now they are stuck with it. Just like you humans are stuck having a nerve going from your head down your neck to your chest then back up and do its job in your face through nothing but stupid random chance! Which is why sometimes I say just go nuts if you want crazy, random shit can happen!
Ideology
The ideology of the Raixher and their Empire–did I mention they have an empire?--Well now I have! Anyway, the ideology is also inspired by the Prussians. They are heavily military focused and militarised. As the saying goes:
Where states possess fleets, the Raixhen fleet possesses a state.
Fleet here refers to the fact they are in space and have huge quantities of ships flying about. A lot of their society is entirely geared toward their military and serving in it after the asteroid incident, which will come later.
Of course they are not entirely a warmongering people, albeit they are exceptionally good at doing wars despite their relatively small size in the Concert. They do not go the classical route of “honour” like so many warring people do in fiction. What they do instead focus on is loyalty and have a very fixed understanding of it. They do not believe blind loyalty but rather think such is a foolish thing. They believe that loyalty is something you must earn. It is a great thing to earn loyalty and to have loyalty but you are not demanded to have loyalty toward anyone that has not earned it. This builds a reciprocal relationship between superiors and subservients.
History
Their history is old, as old as it gets. But then again, so is every society’s, even if you haven’t kept track of it! Anyway, up to the middle of the information era, their history isn’t too dissimilar from you humans. They had wars, world wars, empires rose and fell, democracies rose and fell, colonialism and the whole shebang.
But in the information era, it all changed when some astronomers were looking at what should be an empty part of the sky between the planets of their solar system. To their soon to be dismay, it wasn’t empty, as they found an asteroid moving there, and with additional telescopes looking, it was soon determined to be on a direct collision course with Raixhla and would cause a mass extinction event upon impact in only a few years time.
Their version of the United Nations, the “Conference for Nations”, gathered to discuss what could be done, and discussed, and discussed, and it turned into endless bickering with little to no actions being taken by any nation as they only looked out for their own best interests. Fortunately for the Raixher, the militaries of the nations were less than pleased with the developments. An unusually short primale General managed to get the military leaders of all the large nations on his side on what had to be done.
Xhetlo, as his name was, with the other military leaders, staged coups all over the world and removed the civilian governments on all levels that refused to cooperate. They then shifted the world's productions to one singular goal: do everything needed to stop the asteroid before it hit. For the next few years, they built a craft in orbit that would take them to the asteroid and blow it apart. Xhetlo joined in but would never come back. The mission was a success, Raixhla was saved and all her life, and everyone came back but Xhetlo.
In the wake of the celebrations and more, the other generals, now united not by necessity of survival but by mutual loyalty, made Xhetlo’s partner, Fwutla, the new Xhaisin (Empress) of Raixhla and the Raixher, and the throne was then passed to her daughter Xhindra in a new tradition. Raixhla was unified under one government, and through the coming centuries would build an Empire in space, and their traditions of military and loyalty would show known space what it means to be a Raixhe.
Modern Culture
History is fun, but so is the present! What is modern culture like? It is a huge empire by our standards with at least dozens of species within that they have conquered. Don’t worry, they are not mean to their subjects! Actually, we can start there with modern culture! I am amazing.
The Raixher do not think of the species they have in the past conquered as worse or lesser. They are part of the Empire, and as deserving of the same rights and opportunities as a Raixhe would get. This is because the pragmatic view of the military permeates their culture, as many go into the military. This is done because having been in the military unlocks many more opportunities. This includes ability to run for office, vote, and a few other things. Now, it is not like in Starship Troopers where military service is a hellhole bootcamp. It does not work for everyone, and not everyone can be anything remotely close to any frontline. The Imperial Fleet checks you and your abilities out and determines how you can serve the military the best. So if you sign up as an educated doctor or already have good abilities in medicine, you will likely be put into doing that for the few years you need to serve. Once done, you are free to leave. As they say, “It is our job to find the best way to get the most out of you.”
Notice however education, healthcare, and such are still things that everyone gets; your life and opportunities for such is not restricted. The planets have individual cultures that deviate to varying degrees from the overall culture of the Empire, no monolith here! And of course, local cultures of conquered people are allowed to flourish, as long as they do not question the rule of the Empire.
Hierarchy
Due to their heavy focus on loyalty and military, they have a complicated hierarchical system where of any two people, there is always one that is superior to the other. But a common thing for the Raixhen species, for example, is that ultimales are on top and primales are at the bottom, and midmales can be anywhere in the middle, superior or not, depending on the individual relationship (fitting, eh?). Again, do note that this does not mean any of the sexes are barred from anything only that it is a common ranking they do. After all, their one and only Xhaiser (Emperor) was Xhetlo (a primale), who they venerate to this day.
Government
Their government is not an easy one, but we’ll get through it! Anyway, as an empire, they have a monarch, the Xhaisin. She is, however, not absolute. There is a Council of Generals just underneath her that can overrule her if they feel the decision she makes is not beneficial to the Empire. Though outright refusals are rare, there are refusals, quite frequently in more subtle ways that look better to the outside. This is the executive branch of the Empire.
The legislative branch is a semi-democratic one. It is a parliament where people who have served in the Imperial Fleet are elected in accordance with popular votes. However, half of the Parliament has to be currently in service. There are seats for each of the planets, including the conquered ones, which are distributed based on population size. They make the laws of the Empire which are then sent to the Council of Generals to be looked over and are then passed on to the Xhaisin to sign. It is generally only a rubber stamping process, but if the council or the Xhaisin find it highly objectionable, it can be sent back for them to rewrite and revote on. If it is only the Xhaisin objecting, a ⅔ majority in the parliament along with the support of the Council is enough to overrule her objections. If it is the Council objecting, it requires an even larger supermajority to overrule them along with the Xhaisin’s support. If it is both the Xhaisin and the Council objecting it would require such a huge supermajority in the parliament that it is considered impossible and thus the bill is dead.
Local governments on planets are allowed more flexibility but are required to have at least 50% of their government composed of people who have served in the Imperial Fleet.
Flag
We’ve all seen the double eagle version of old flags in Prussia, Austria and more. So I decided, why not do that? Except pterodactyl! Well pterodactyl-like, I imagine their world has those a lot more than bird-like beings. So a double headed one looking in each direction with its wings spread out to show its spread and might. It is on top of a circle to symbolise a planet and within it is a flower to symbolise the Raixher and their planimal nature. Colours are chosen for the same reasons.
Summa Summarum
The Raixher is a species and people based on the Prussian model infused with modern concepts as well. As I hope I have illustrated, you can do sensible matriarchies by switching around with the reproductive nature, just like I did with Raixher. I also showed that you can break vexillology rules somewhat as long as you do it very intentionally like I did. A lot of fun can have been had if you chose to take weird inspirations and some historical things too. Hopefully this has inspired you all!
We are one people of one world with one goal. Together, we’ve done the impossible many times before; together, we will do it now once more; together, we will again and again in the future.
- Xhetlo
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Copyright ©️ 2023 Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. All ideas and concepts related to the Raixhen species and all traits, characteristics, and history as well as all language and exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. The illustration is created by Melody Knighton and owned by Vivian Sayan and cannot be republished elsewhere. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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