Location[]
Universe-->Basilicus Prime Cluster-->Basilicus Prime Galaxy-->Ionro Arm-->Arrq Sector-->Ghürg System-->Uljghersn
Statistics[]
Drawing of a Skäetr
Common Attribution: Skäetr
Categorical Attribution: Tetraetes Telepatae
Evolutionary Star System: Ghürg System
Star System of Prominence:
Population: 23 billion
Civilization Class
Type C: Interterrestrial Society
Overview[]
The Skäetr are a race of psyonic hyper-intelligent beings created by the Kjark in a vain attempt to preserve themselves when they noticed their own brains were getting smaller. The Skäetr possess no usable limbs having four stumps and no legs (whereas their progenitors had two arms on each side of their torso and no legs). Telekinesis gives them mobility and they can be seen floating most everywhere. All Skäetr have pearly white skin, no muscles per se (cartilaginous reflexive tissues), a strong agile skeleton, a vertical mouth situated on their apparent throat (always appearing open allowing for respiration) and three large, onyx-black eyes placed in an inverted triangle fashion on a bulbous head, capable of near perfect sight in the dark.
History[]
Around three hundred years ago, a highly intelligent race, the Kjark, that lived in Uljghersn, noticed that their brains were getting smaller with each generation. They decided to use their knowledge in genetics to create a more intelligent species, not affected by evolution, that could take care of them when they became mentally incapable of doing so.
For that reason, that species should not need much food to survive, but a big brain needed too much energy so they needed to use less energy on other areas. They degenerated much of the muscles and bones of a normal Kjark, degenerated the digestive system to only one organ and eliminated the necessity of an excretory system and lungs. The digestive system simply filtered sjurgh from the atmosphere and converted it to energy and organic components. Due to the high chemical energy value of sjurgh, this made the Skäetr need next to no food, so the Kjark could have thousands of them without having to work much to feed them.
But they still needed to solve the problem of how the Skäetr would move without muscles and limbs. A Kjark biologist, Jgum Hafk, decided to test one incredible theory: since a brain uses primarily electric energy to send impulses to the rest of the body, if they could maximize and control this electric energy, it could be used in a variety of ways, from movement using static electricity to direct brain to brain communication. If this theory proved true, (which it did) the Skäetr
(Or "thinkers" in their language) would be able to move about, interact with the environment, communicate, and some things that a Kjark would not be able to do. All the while consuming meager amounts of food.
After three generations of Kjark, the Skäetr had managed not only to keep the considerable advancements the Kjark had made, but also improved on them, managing to create completely new organisms from little more than carbon and sjurgh, organisms engineered specifically to serve as a source of food, shelter and comfort to the Kjark. The Kjark however, had become lazy, treating the Skäetr as slaves while exploiting the comforts the Skäetr provided. The Skäetr soon decided that, if they were to reach a higher level, as a civilization, they needed to control the Kjark, or eliminate them.
The Skäetr knew that through direct brain interface they could slightly control the Kjark, but their willpower was far too great for complete control. So they decided to accelerate the inevitable and during years, whenever a Kjark baby was under a Skäetr care it was taken to a vat, where genetic changes were made to each individual cell, accelerating growth on some areas and stalling it on others. Soon the Skäetr managed to build an army of Kjark with underdeveloped brains, which could be easily controlled.
The Kjark, believing that evolution was just acting a little faster than they had thought, did not notice the ploy and in mere twenty years the Skäetr had gained control of the entire Kjarkan race. And in another twenty the Skäetr had colonized Lkufast and Konghund. Along the way founding the Kjarkskäetr protectorate.
More recently, after recent contacts with other races, some Skäetr left the protectorate, trying to form a better society, with a centralized government, an economic system and an official system of laws. They call themselves the "Wlg" (superior in their language).
Biology[]
The Skäetr didn't evolve, but instead were formed from genetically engineered Kjarkan zygotes. Programmed to form a completely different species adding and removing certain genes. After three failed tries, the current form of the Skäetr was created. The Skäetr cannot naturally reproduce and depend on cloning for the survival of thei species.
A Skäetr have four vestigial bony stumps, where the four Kjarkan arms would be. They were kept there to maintain balance. There are no vestigial legs as the lower part of the body was mostly devolved until only the spine remained.
The bones are composed of a mixture of magnesium and some base elements of sjurgh, which makes them incredibly strong and light. The skin is thick, composed of sjurgh elements and carbon. It is soft, but it regenerates rapidly whenever scratched, bruised or cut. It is where most sensorial nerves are, except the pain ones, which are mostly located in the bones.
The cranium is an egg-shaped spherical bone (with one and a quarter nanopar tall and half nanopar wide), even stronger than the other ones. Inside the cranium there is the brain, which is the biggest organ of a Skäetr. The eyes are directly connected to the brain, but are outside the cranium. There are three in total, they are milky black and half-circle shaped. Each of their eyes pick up a different kind of radiation. The upper eye detects photogenic radiation, (and is able to amplify it, if it is too dim) detecting light. The lower right eye detects colors. And the lower left eye detects infrared. Skäetr can only see through one eye at a time.
The stomach, where the sjurgh is divided in its basic elements and transported through tiny canals to all cells of the body, is located just below the vertical, always open, mouth, which is located on the throath. The mouth filters the air while a Skäetr moves. The Skäetr are unable to live without great quantities of sjurgh, that isn't a problem in Uljghersn, but it made interplanetary travel a laboring task.