Zanthier

(zan-theer)

Home Planet(s):

Xent: destroyed during the 12th age; day 336 of the 2808th cycle (or 16,304 earth years since the birth of the Zanthieran species). Referred to simply as Doomsday.

Before it was destroyed, Xent was a very inhospitable place for the Zanthiers. Most of the other inhabitants are much larger than Zanthiers and have a voracious appetite for the little creatures. Zanthierians had only one advantage: their sentience. They quickly formed close knit communities and built cities and towns surrounded by heavily fortified walls and from there their society grew.

Xent had a very cool, but humid climate. Most of the planet’s surface is covered in vast rainforests with large rivers taking the place of oceans; a completely sunny day is rare. Snow is commonplace over the entire planet during the winter months,

Appearance:

Zanthiers are small creatures with an average height of 4 feet tall. They have slightly shorter arms compared to other anthro species, longer chests and shorter stomachs. They have narrow shoulders and well defined hips on both males and females (males still less than females though). Their faces are cat like in appearance with fox like muzzles. They have tall skinny ears with tufts of fur at the end, similar to a lynx. They have plantigrade legs with feet proportionate to the rest of their bodies; the feet have 5 toes with each toe from the inside being just noticeably smaller (not as big a difference as human toes, but similar). Each toe has a small paw pad on the bottom in addition to a large pad covering the rest of the bottom of the foot. Zanthier’s hands have 4 fingers including the thumb. Each finger has a pad on the tip, as well as between each of the joints and one large pad on the palm. Paw pads are the same color as their skin. Skin color ranges from dark navy to dark purple and appears slick or wet even when dry; skin is very smooth and cool to the touch. Zanthier tails are thin and spindly with thick fur near the base, changing gradually to thinner fur near the tip.

Fur colours are monochromatic grey scale and range from almost black to light grey; the insides of their ears are inverse from rest of body. Darker grey tones are most common. All Zanthiers have complex light blue markings in their fur which have been bred into their DNA thousands of years ago. Their fur feels smooth and silky to the touch but can get greasy easily if not washed regularly. Zanthiers have no hair, but the fur on top of their heads is a bit longer and more fluffy.

Their eyes have tall diamond shaped pupils that glow with an ultraviolet light (almost invisible to humans, approx. the same intensity of an indicator LED to other zanthiers), ovular irises ranging from sky blue to ultraviolet with the most common being cyan, and black scleras.

Physiology:

Zanthiers see in a colour spectrum ranging from yellow/green to ultraviolet; reds and oranges would be invisible or appear black to them.

Their skeletons differ from normal to an extent; the bones in their ribcage travel from top to bottom instead of left to right and are tighter packed than most other species. All important organs are inside the ribcage except for digestive organs.

Their mouth only connects to their esophagus, not to their lungs. Zanthiers can only breath through their noses and have a special cavity above their mouths with a tongue like organ in it for speech; this cavity is sometimes referred to as the "small mouth" (literally translated). The acoustics of their nasal passageway mimic that of the human throat so their speech would sound natural and clear, despite coming from their noses.

Zanthiers also have a body temperature of about 68 degrees fahrenheit. They are most comfortable in temperatures of about 50 to 55 degrees but can survive up to almost 100 degrees or down to -50. Temperatures on Xent ranged from 0 to 80 degrees in inhabited areas.

The average natural age of a male Zanthier is 120 years, and 130 for a female. With modern medicine is it not uncommon for healthy individuals to reach 150. The oldest Zanthier on record was 178 years old and died by her own hand.

Digestive system:

Zanthiers mouth structure and swallowing methods differ from normal animals. The back of their throats can completely close and open at will. This is done by a strong sphincter like muscle that basically presses the back of the throat forwards against the back of the tongue, forming a tight seal. Before swallowing, Zanthiers open their throats as their tongue performs a complex wave like motion, carrying food back into their esophagus before closing the their throats. Food is then pulled downward by the esophagus in a normal fashion.

The esophagus travels along the outside of the ribcage in a shallow indentation along the center of the bones. Their midsection below the ribcage has one large stomach which breaks down and digests food. There is no sphincter at the bottom of their esophagus; their stomach is open to their esophagus at all times. The lining of their esophagus is immune to all stomach acids, leading some scientists to argue that the Zanthier’s esophagus is actually a part of their stomach. It is common for acids and digested food matter to re enter the esophagus while Zanthier’s are laying on their sides. For this reason, many Zanthiers will instinctively sleep on their backs.

At all times, the stomach is filled with a dark grey viscous fluid (like syrup but not sticky) that simply soaks into the food and acts as a catalyst for digestion. When the stomach reaches half capacity, a glowing blue liquid is dispensed from a hole located at the top of the stomach that breaks down the food inside. About 20 to 50 minutes later, a purple liquid is dispensed that neutralizes the acid and aids in the absorption of nutrients. Minutes later, when all the liquids are well mixed, microscopic pores open in the lining of the stomach wall that absorb nutrients over the course of about 4 to 6 hours. During which time, the stomach walls ripple around the entrance and exit in a uniform manner; this helps keep the pores open and functioning efficiently.

When all or most of the nutrients have been absorbed, waste from the stomach is passed into a short large intestine which absorbs all moisture and is immune to the stomach acid; their large intestine also acts as a rectum for storage of waste. Waste can be defecated before all moisture is absorbed if needed; Zanthiers do not need to urinate.

Zanthiers are omnivores, but mostly prefer to stick to a herbivorous diet and will generally only eat meat when there’s nothing else available. Meat can cause indigestion, constipation, and can take up to 48 hours to completely break down inside of a Zanthier’s stomach with an additional 12 hours to be completely absorbed before waste is expelled from the stomach.

Reproduction and sex:

Zanthiers have a more evolved reproductive system compared to most. Females do not have a period each month, but instead only form an egg when they want to have a child. It takes a little over a week to form an egg, with a gestation period of about one year once fertilized. If the egg does not get fertilized within a month, it is passed almost painlessly in a similar fashion to a bowel movement. The vagina consists of a small hole, similar to an anus, but slightly horizontal in appearance rather than vertical and is located slightly higher than what would be expected. It is protected by a puffy ring of flesh, similar to the labia majora of a human vagina, but perfectly round. Vaginal fluids are bright blue in appearance and extremely viscous but become thinner when aroused. After sex, a female can seal her vagina or expel most of the semen voluntarily.

Males have internal testes and a smooth, rounded tip penis with a slightly horizontal, ovular shape to better fit into the female's vagina. When not aroused, the male’s penis retracts into his body and inverts itself, forming a small pouch. From the outside, the entrance to this pouch looks almost exactly like a female zanthier’s vagina. Semen is thin and watery with a milky cyan and purple appearance. The male can keep his penis retracted inside of his body when aroused, but can not extrude it when not aroused; the average length of an erect zanthier’s penis is 4.5 inches.

Sex with a female Zanthier is much like having anal sex and is normally taken slow, but lasts for 5 to 10 minutes from the point of insertion until ejaculation. Zanthiers commonly enjoy oral stimulation before sex. After sex, the mixture of semen and vaginal discharge forms a sweet and sour liquid that can shrink the drinker to about 1 or 2 inches tall, normally for about a day. It is rumored that, in the early years of Zantherian evolution, the female would force the male to drink this mixture after sex so that she could then devour the male whole. In current times, males will still sometimes drink the fluids after intercorse, after which the female will insert the male into her vagina for however long she wants. This is considered a an extremely personal and passionate act, only to be carried out by the closest of lovers, never by friends or strangers. On rare occasions, the female will drink the mixture, at which point the male will insert her into his penis pouch. Homosexual couples also participate in this act by the means of artificial shrinking.

Zanthier kits are normally about 4 to 6 inches tall and grow relatively quickly until they reach about one and a half feet in height. Birth is still a painful affair for Zanthiers due to the small size of their vagina. Kits are considered adults at about 20 years of age and generally learn how to speak 2 years after birth. A Zanthier kit’s cry is high pitched and squeaky, but not very loud.

Society:

Zanthiers are, for the most part, calm and peace loving; fights and crimes are rare amongst purely Zanthierian communities. They are also very sociable creatures and rarely spend any time alone. Zanthiers mate for life, but sexual acts among friends are not considered taboo and are quite common.

Zanthiers normally dress in bland loose fitting clothes, commonly in varying shades of off white. Thin poncho like tops with loose fitting shorts or pants are among the most popular (casual wear), with robes and gowns following shortly afterwards (formal wear). Ships captains and staff are normally seen in blood red robes, which appear black to other Zanthiers. It is also acceptable for men and women alike to go topless.

Since their home planet, Xent, was destroyed, Zanthiers mostly are found in massive stone space ships the size of small cities, drifting through space. There are 23 Zanthier city-ships drifting throughout the universe, all in constant communication with eachother. Each ship acts like its own state or city, following rules and regulations set by the Zanthierian government which is located on one of the larger ships.

They have a simple government which consists of a council with 2 representatives for each ship, and a royal family. The council proposes and votes on laws created amongst themselves and as suggested by citizens, but any new law or decision must be accepted by the royal family. All Zantherian ships gather when the current king or queen dies to reign in their new ruler and celebrate the passing of the previous ruler.

Reproduction is not regulated; Zanthiers subconsciously know when they need to breed and rarely have kids unless their instincts tell them they need to. Despite this, having more than 2 kids is frowned upon though accepted in case of triplets or quadruplets ETC.

When a Zanthier dies, all usable organs are harvested (if needed), then the body is normally vaporized by a powerful laser during a funeral celebration. Zanthiers rarely mourn the deceased, but rather celebrate their passing with a small party of sorts to honor them and help them move on to the afterlife.

Technology:

Zanthiers are an old race with highly advanced technology; short range teleports, faster than light speed travel, spaceships, artificial gravity you name it. They get their power from artificially made micro stars that act like batteries and never need recharging. Once a micro star is made, it will provide power for approximately 100 to 200 years depending on how heavily it's used. The largest micro stars are used to power cities and large spaceships and can measure about as large as a small house. The smallest stars are about the size of a small beach ball and are used to power small spacecraft (car sized) and sometimes small homes. Portable devices still use batteries mostly due to the inherent instability of trying to contain a small star. A complete assembly including an active micro star, means of containment and regulation, and power converters is commonly referred to as a star engine.

Star engines produce almost no waste, a burnt out star produces non toxic waste about %2 of its total size once the star has burnt out. Even with little maintenance, a star engine can last for thousands of years. Some more advanced engines even have the means to create new stars automatically once the old one has extinguished itself and are almost completely self sustainable.

Holo-Bands are also common place amongst the mid to upper classes. A holo band is a microcomputer that in the shape of a half circle that wraps around the back of the head and projects a holographic screen in front of the users eyes. It is telepathically controlled and links to one person; it can not be shared. Telepathic control is still somewhat iffy, a new Holo-Band normally takes one or two weeks to seamlessly interface with the users mind and can still be erratic up to a year later. For this reason, telepathy is not used to control vital machines such as spaceships, life support, engines, ETC.

Spaceships:

City ships are made almost entirely out of stone and always have an inverted triangular shape with a slightly tapered front/back. The point of the triangle is the bottom, and houses the ships engines and mechanics as well as storage. Above that, the inside consists of a massive courtyard surrounded by restaurants and shops on the first two levels, with housing continuing up about 40 or 50 stories. Food is grown throughout the courtyard and it is considered a crime to harm any of the plant life beyond picking their fruits.

Due to the shape of the ship, the houses on the upper levels have the most space and house the richest people while the houses on the lower levels house the middle and lower classes. Upper and lower classes commonly shop, gather, and befriend eachother with little distinction between the two other than the size of their homes. The captains and crew of each ship live in the foremost houses on the top level, with the control room being in the very center. Captains and crew also shop and gather with the rest of society, and are treated no differently than anyone else.

Smaller house ships are also common, normally containing two or more families. They mimic the larger ships exactly, having a courtyard in the middle of the ship with rooms surrounding it.

Each house has windows looking out into space, made of a thin blue tinted glass that glows slightly when under stress. From the outside, they look like lights rather than actual windows.

The top of each spaceship has a large outdoor garden, protected by an oxygen field with a more relaxed environment compared to the courtyard inside. Parties and special events are commonly held in the upper garden so as not to disrupt business in the lower courtyard. There is also a large landing area for guests, also protected by the oxygen shield, that takes up a quarter of the total surface area.

The insides of their spaceships are normally dark and lit by floating blue orbs of light that brighten and dim to simulate the sun rise/set on their home planet. Vines line the walls and balconies and give ship the appearance of a decaying old ruin. Zanthierian ships maintain a warm and welcome atmosphere, whilst also portraying a mysterious environment. A reporter visiting the ships described his visits with the Zanthierians as “ethereal; like being in the company of the kindest people you can imagine, as the most inhospitable people lurk in the shadows.”

All city ships have two self sustaining star engines as a fail safe. To keep each engine maintained, when one engine’s micro star is nearing it’s death, the other engine will create a new one; the load automatically switches from one engine to the next with no apparent loss of power to the ship.

Weaponry:

Zanthiers are a peaceful species, therefore their weaponry might be considered outdated in comparison to the rest of their technology. Their primary weapons systems consist of powerful burning lasers and bombs transmitted over teleports. Portable weaponry mostly consists of rail guns that fire heat seeking (optional) projectiles that explode upon impact as well as laser guns. As a last resort, it is also possible to fire a mini star at enemies, though the extremely erratic flight path of launched stars makes this method only viable at short range. A practical containment system that can withstand launch has not been developed yet.