Nian

Nians are large bipedal invertebrates that come from an unknown homeworld. Known for spendthrift behavior, the Nian civilization has been pressed to the fore of developed space in an effort to resolve material shortages in homeworld sectors. Unlike most species in the galactic fold, Nian do not recognize the authority of the Trans-Solar Federation having instead established close diplomatic relationships with their splinter faction, the USSP.

Overview

The Nian, or Nians, are an insectoid arthropod species hailing from the desert world of Dõm in the Garden system. Generations of internal conflict pushed them to the brink of extinction, but the surviving moth nations eventually rose from the ashes to focus on rebuilding. This led to the establishment of the Nionic Trade League, a significant player on Dõm funded by the United Soviet Socialist Planets to challenge the economic dominance of the Trans-Solar Federation's megacorporations. This has led to Nians being big on celebrations, spending, and festivities thanks to their economic system and beliefs.

Every Nian group and government on Dõm operate under a single party Oligarchy of the Trade League, as the merchants and their influence extends across the planet. While their power is evident planetside, it also serves as the main method of employment and travel between regions on Dõm or to other Nionic systems across space. The allure of opportunity within the guilds has made them highly appealing to the Nian, with much of their culture revolving around work within these organizations, to even naming schemes coming from Trade League influence and propaganda. The majority of Nians residing in the Trade League are workers who seek prosperous employment, and opportunity. Or indentured servants, with long lists of debts, failed trade ventures on behalf of the League, or choosing the comfort of servitude over self-governance. Despite this, the Trade League operates more like a megacorporation, with governmental bodies making decisions for those under their authority.

Today, the Nian species has established several government states on Dõm and far systems, all united under the banner of the NTL. Their close partner, the USSP operate under a trade deal in which both groups earn and grow from each other, to financially rival the megacorporation's influence on other species and independent systems. While Nians enjoy these benefits, some choose to forge their own path, and find lives far from the influence of their Oligarchs, perhaps to retire or escape their debts entirely.

Mechanics

Biology

The natural adaptations of the Nian come from their primary homeworld of Dõm, in which the planets climate is majority desertic, with sparse areas of tropics and mountains scattered across the world. The cold nights and dotted heat vents across the world have made the species evolve to utilize their world's obstacles. Wings designed to help them soar with the heat vents, and their insectoid structure to capture moisture, and reduce water loss. Scientist under the NTL also agree that the nocturnal adaptations of the species originate from the dark side of Dõm, in which the planet itself is tidal locked toward the Garden's sun.

Physiology

Nian have a pair of long, fuzzy antennae, a set of bug-like eyes, with hundreds upon hundreds of hexagonal patterns within them and mandibles that surround their mouth. Moths can feel with their antennas, and overall have a light sense of touch throughout their many hairs along their body, being sensitive overall. This does allow them to find their way more in the dark, and makes it a little easier to see in low-light.

Along their torso are a set of two humanoid arms, and a pair of insectoid wings along their back that range from being monotone in color, to multicolored, depending on the age, wealth and status of the individual. Their legs are usually long and skinny, along with their torso being a little smaller than most sentient beings–this assists with flying on their homeworld, being more lightweight.

Overall, they tend to range in height on average between 4’5’’ (134.62cm) to 5’10’’ (177.8cm), with standard deviations up to a foot (30.48cm) in each direction. Where age, experience and wealth allows, moths tend to make small changes to their bodies by organic means (dye, elongated hairs or other features).

Moths aren’t sentient at the start of their life, they are not considered to be sapient in their first years. However upon reaching their XYZ day, at approximately 4-6 Sol years, they undergo a process akin to metamorphosis. This marks the start of a celebration known as XYZ, with the individual emerging after the festivities as a recognized individual possessing faculties sufficient for communication and basic skills.

Wings

The wings of Nians come in a variety of different patterns and shapes across the species. The first grown set of wings comes after their first molt shed, with later molting increasing size and color of the wing until full maturity in which the wings reach their full potential. These variety of patterns are genetic to the Nian and link back to their ancestral roots, or location of origin across the various climates of Dõm. Originally used as a defense mechanism against the many hostile predators, and to act as transportation to glide across the heat vents on the surface, it later would become more irrelevant for survival, and more fashion or cultural descent.

While the wings have the ability to push and fly in zero-g environments around space, they also work as an insulator being capable to bend and flap around the body like a cloak. At particular points in life, due to age or bad health, wings can fail to regrow and become impossible to remold after injury. Moths who lose their wings become severely depressed, suffer within their society due to perspective weakness, and hide in shame from age.

Social

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Naming Schemes

An observation would be made at some point–seeing that their ships tended to follow the same description of their deities. Ship names would go along with the artistic focus is:

Rider of Winds, Glider on Aether, Carrier that Wields Starlight, etc.

So they proposed the following name structure for interstellar recognition:

The first name is always the primary skill of the being. It is always bridged with a preposition or prepositional phrase (such as ‘of the’ or ‘for’) The last name is related to a stellar phenomenon that they believe they are related to–by destiny, by family, or other means.

Examples of names include:

Weaver of Antares
Tender of the Crab Nebulae
Knight of Epsilon Eridani
Poet in Service to Cygni-9b
Arkwright Bound by Tau Ceti

Language

Language name: Tkachi The language follows a staccato rhythm.

Moth interactions between one another are often dominated by gestures with their antennae, wings or mandibles–and other times by buzzing or chittering. As such, their entry into Galactic Common was the first grand foree into trying to translate their (outwardly) strange way of interacting with one another was rather chaotic, and had to include some of their gestures to function properly.

When speaking in Galactic Common, Moths tend to express themselves with various buzzes and chitters, interrupting some of their speech sometimes, but allowing it to stay largely understandable.

Homeworld

The world of Dõm is a primarily desertic world tidal locked to the orbit of a red star dwarf in the Garden System, there are two super continents the first being Ṽoᵶt and the second Ỹḛr̃ṑ. A majority of the Nian species live and originate from the border region of Ṽoᵶt along what moths refer to as The Gloom. This region being in the middle of the planets cast a permanent rising sun along the horizon, and a world of complete darkness on the other end. On the solar casted regions of the world lie deserts, completely dried up from constant light exposure, and evaporation. Sandstorms and heavy winds exist in this area, and to most Nian considered it a burning hellscape with almost no survivability outside technological support and infrastructure. On the other end lies the shadow regions of Dom, in which freezing temperatures and total pitch black darkness exist. These areas while also being dangerous to the species, are more adaptable as evolution have made them somewhat insulated due to their micro scales of flattened hair along their body and primarily neck region. Even their vision is somewhat more manageable in these parts, with many Nian groups existing and living in the shadow world of Ṽoᵶt.

Ṽoᵶt

The original residing continent in which the Nian originate from. Its northern regions are dipped in mountains and high plains that act as natural barriers to form water reserves in the highlands. These reserves trickle down to form the G̃ỗntꝋ River, an important and considered sacred landmark that runs south across The Gloom into the south pole's Lake. The middle region of Ṽoᵶt is tropic, with many of the plants and wildlife being more in a color of brown and sandy shades. Due to the planets rain storms, most of the tropic is swampland and bogs, which collectively form the most habitable areas due to vegetation and wildlife. The south world of Ṽoᵶt is dry, and desertic, completely void of most natural life aside a few hardened species of animals. While not as hot or dangerous as the extreme desert landscapes in the light world of Dom, the deserts here are more manageable, with the G̃ỗntꝋ River being the only salvation for habitable life along it. The south pole is connected to the Ṽoᵶt continent and acts as a final point for water in which two branching rivers form. One leading into the light world which evaporates the water and continues the cycle, and the other completely frozen among glaciers into the shadow world.

Ỹḛr̃ṑ

The Ỹḛr̃ṑ continent would be discovered later into the industrial era of the Nian species, as technological advancements allowed the creation of equipment capable to traverse across the shadow world of Dom, and discover a completely hidden world among the pitch black void. Ỹḛr̃ṑ is completely frozen, with the entire region being formed of icebergs, and mountainous terrain. The highest point of the planet resides in the mountain region known as The Spine of Ỹḛr̃ṑ, in which the highest recorded point is 27,210′ on the mountain peak of J̃oranᵵ. Volcanos exist and form a contrast to the frozen hellscape of the Ỹḛr̃ṑ super continent, with most being inactive or small in scale compared to other volcanic giants. The continents value comes from being rich in minerals and materials under the crust of the world, as natural tectonic plates and untapped potential have made it incredibly value despite the hostile and distant terrain. It would later be colonize by ancient precursor Nian civilizations and later collapse after a catastrophic war pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Future colonization would begin under the NTL along its coastal regions, in which water and earthquakes would be the least impactful for the residing Nian species living there. Only a few natural species live in Ỹḛr̃ṑ despite the conditions, mostly fish under the sea ice that have adapted to the frigid waters.

Mud Storms

Rain on the planet is different, in which due to the vast deserts and heat vents of the Sun zone cause sand and dirt to fly into the atmosphere and create massive dust storms that reduce the perception significantly. These storms mix sand and dirt, with clouds to cause mud storms in which all rain becomes dirty mud. These storms usually occur in a few times every Sol year, and can even form into hail storms if originating from the dark side of the world.

A Brief History


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Home planet is a desert world that orbits a red dwarf star; was largely unfeatured. Planet is naturally darker due to the low-light star. There are three moons with very reflective surfaces that keep a somewhat stable level of light at most times.

Determined to not be as bored with their surroundings, the moths started building things of their own. There were not enough materials to produce a mass industrial revolution for them on-planet, so all items tended to be hand-made, crafted with care and caution. Many items had to be reused or recycled to properly maintain their level of development, until they gained the ability to go into space.

Oftentimes, they would go into debt so their surroundings wouldn’t be so drab and boring. Guilds were made to manage materials and create new things, making things generally better than individuals. They ended up controlling more and more resources, merging to make better and bigger, and more intricate objects and structures.

Over time, the Guilds would collect debts from individuals, and use them to induct new members into them, creating a worldwide dependence on them. All moths would sink themselves into further debt to acquire more luxurious items and living standards, often not caring about how far in debt they ended up in a negative manner; becoming a prideful boast to some as they could afford to pay the interest on all of it instead of going bankrupt.

Guilds got together and formed a body that managed the debts as nobody trusted anyone else to be able to pay each other back. It became a power statement, and a fashion statement to have more debt to ‘show off their stuff’.

As materials shrunk in quality and quantity, the Guilds came together, deeming the situation an emergency. After some time of deliberation, they came to the concept of formulating a space mining cooperative that they all could stand to profit and grow from. Assembly lines of craftworkers–thousands long–would stand to be able to produce the parts necessary to create the first spaceships of theirs. Many individuals went bankrupt in this venture, and many lives were lost–a 24 carat golden plaque being set down in their honor in the capital.

Eventually, they ventured out into the stars and brought themselves to various planetoids, mining or pulling entire chunks away back to their homeworld to help customize it out. As a result the mass of their homeworld has increased by 13% to date. This has led to the need for gravity-adaptive technologies. This has also helped to drive the need for greater/newer monuments: older ones simply weren’t designed for the higher gravity.

Their first contact with the Synthetic Union happened when the moth people ended up in the system that New Canaan inhabited. First contact between the species consisted of the moths being distraught by the blandness and industrial-look of the Machine People. Without hesitation, they offered to grant some basic well-crafted baubles to try and attach to the machines, some of them learning how to stylize parts on a machine person just to help make them less boring.

As such for the gifts, the Synthetic Union responded favorably, providing templates and basic parts for the moth people to modify and adjust into newer, more interesting parts. A proper trading system went back and forth–with the machines gathering supplies to investigate individualism with their newly freed selves, and the moth people gaining raw resources, stock parts and other supplies to help thrust their people into a more industrial age, with all the bling they could slap onto their add-ons.

After some time, the USSP began contact with the Synthetic Union, and they met, learned about the moths, calling them ‘Tkachi’ spreading the knowledge of them to the greater galaxy–allowing more and more peoples to learn and interact with them.

Culture

The following are political powerhouses within the society of moths themselves, by affluence, by amount of total debt they wield against others or by the total amount of assets they wield together.

The Central Debt Mediators are those that volunteer their lives to oversee the regular work and flow of society along with being the collective that organizes the moth people into some sort of a government. They act as mediators between the larger Accounts throughout society to ensure the validity, sanity, and integrity of all obligations and debts within the species.

The Crafting Guild are those that follow a series of vigorous tests and training to create and customize items, foods and structures. The quality of their work is often a good determinant of their status among the guild and how good their mood is. The more varied, vibrant and exuberant the items they make, as long as they still serve their function, the better.

The Warrior Guild are those that choose to express their own various talents of artistry through battle and duels. It’s described that their combat system often looks like dancing at quick paces–and ranged weapons are frowned upon in their society where it can be helped. They will not shy away from using ranged weapons, though they have a heavy preference for melee on the basis of honor and beauty.

The Merchant Guild are those that are trained from early after cocooning in the value of everything. They are taught proper trading techniques, proper ways to approach individuals, proper ways to calculate worth and proper ways to try and extract as much wealth as possible. They are seen as a necessary evil to survive by some of the moth people, and by others, they are seen as a very important structure to civilization, and are respected as such.

Due to their predilection for luxury Nianae have long held the belief that more powerful people accrue larger debt as well as take on the debts of others in exchange for goods and services. As such, debts are often accrued from individuals whose skills are on loan to more powerful moths and organizations.

This ties into one of the two major reasons for the success of their guild-based society in that when a powerful individual dies/an organization fails ceases all belongings are liquidated to cover personal debts and any outstanding debts are distributed to those below them. The other being that those who manage to rise higher in the guilds often can afford to go into debt due to using debts owed to them to pay off interest.

Whenever celebrating, moths tend to go overboard with decorations, food, gifts, or other items. They are taught from an early date in their sentience that ‘excess is success’ and that doing things in a minimal amount, or with a minimal amount of effort is an affront to the gift of life that they have been given.

The cocoons that their young generate are considered an important source of silk for the people and no matter the caste, it is expected that part of the cocoon be made into an object of value or worth for the individual.

Religion

A foreign observer of Moth culture would detail the following: their religion seemed to relay deities without names (such as ‘he who moves the sun’, or ‘she who weaves the storms’).

Moth religion can best be described as a non-denominational polytheistic structure; with a long oral tradition that delves back into the mythos days of their ancestors and a more formal literature that attempts to put some of them into scripture.

There is no central church, however there are organizations of those that appreciate the same figureheads–the most popular three including:

He Who Channels the Winds - An entity that derives its power from the Nianen latent affinity for bluespace manipulation and the fervency of their belief, this deific figure inscribes objects with power based upon their aesthetic beauty. The more time, effort, and design put into an object, the more powerful the phenomena are.

She Who Guides the Stars - An apparent neutral being that guides the spirits of the deceased up into and around the cosmos, bringing their souls into the stars of young, middle, and old ages, depending on their actions in life. If a moth lived a particularly virtuous life, it would be placed into a star on the edge of a supernova, to be reborn anew, elsewhere.

The Beasts that Change Us - A benevolent, two-headed being of undescribed look, who grants a small portion of its own intelligence to every Moth that cocoons, granting them sentience from their previous non-sentient state. This one is particularly venerated among most.

New Horizons

. . . of an insurmountable age. Yet in spite of their years, the Pilot climbed the dunes ahead: the tail of the Alumn Comet his guide. Rising over the highest dune it came to be, that the great thread of Naksyhr, He Who Channels the Winds, revealed itself unto him. When the pilot gazed unto the plateau, the air hissed in a shudder to whip strokes through sand like so many brushes. Naksyhr spoke, "you who have followed the Pashann, who carry the sorrows of our peoples, shall bear witness to my art." It was then that before the Pilot, among dancing dunes, a great beauty was revealed.

An insight to end all hardships; an art to end austerity.

- In The Disquiet of our Stars, Chapter 3, "Pilot of the Alumn Comet," 838.

NIAN is an IPC derived acronym and the official recognised name for their species: Natural Insectoid Artisans of the Nebulae.
They are also colloquially referred to as Ткачи (Tkachi) by members of the USSP.
The Nian abide by either of these, but officially recognise neither: Nian contend that a species is recognised as something occupying a role rather than as a discrete category.
While not a one-to-one translation, Nian typically understand themselves to be "We who Incarnate Stars into Tapestry."

Species on Paradise Station

Dionae