Quick guide for Zithir Interactions

This quick reading covers basic interactions with the Repali zithir that inhabit our colonies.  It is intended that this guide be used to smooth interactions, or as a source of basic information, and it should not be taken as a full source of information for individual interactions.


Body Language and Communication

All Zithir, unless a victim of accidents or birth defects, are able to sense emotions, but are unable to sense factual thoughts, plans, or similar information as easily.  In first encounters, some people find it disconcerting how easily Zithir can sense and react to moods, and sometimes react differently than expected to attempts to conceal emotions (for example, hiding disappointment or annoyance almost always leads to a different reaction than expected.)  Thankfully, most Zithir, and Repali in particular, respond to this disconcertment, and adjust their interactions accordingly, so concistent interactions should become smoother over time.

On the flip side, Repali show very little body language compared to most humans of any origin, so can often prove hard to read.  Most other types of zithir compensate by exagerrating movements somewhat, but Repali are said, by themselves and other Zithir groups, to be less expressive than most, so even the exaggerations can be difficult to read.  It is recommended that people as for advice from the Repali themselves and others with more experience at reading the language.  Repali body language among themselves is quite different than what thwey use around us; it seems body language among most Zithir exists instinctively, but is far less important than directly reading emotions, and most who interact with humans or Quental instinctively switch to the body language of the human culture they are interacting with.

Most Zithir who have lived with us a long time have learned a basic version of English or Arabic, however, the grammar and certain meanings of words are often confused.  Classes and practice time for the Repali, twineg, and Rtingle language are also available.  Most Zithir language, these three included, are much more sloopy than ours in exact grammar and word meanings.  In mixed communication, human languages are generally preferred, as they can communicate more exact meanings and details, while Zithir emotion reading works whatever the language used, but adjustments can be made as the situation allows.


Physical Appearence/Physical Interaction

Almost all Zithir are shorter and smaller than most humans, the average Zithir is about 1/3 of a meter shorter, and 2/3 the weight, of an average person.  Some sample pictures of Zithir are shown in the top of the above picture, and some Repali are shown in the picture below.  Like in humans, Zithir can be told apart through faces and voices, in addition, the patterns and sizes, and sometimes the number, of brain antlers, stalks, and tentacles changes from person to person.  Friction has occured at times as people have looked down at and/or acted dismissve of the shorter Zithir, do not be surprised, i this is your first time working with a zithir, if he or she stands on a deck or box to reach a similar height as you.  As much as possible, you should get used to the height difference, as it can some times lead to more difficult interactions with Zithir.

Zithir bodies are far more fragile than human bodies.  If a Zithir receives and injury that could be ignored or quickly treated in humans, such as a small cut or scrape, they should be given full attention to ensure more serious dam,age hasn't occurred.  Injuries such as bruises or sprained ankles should be medically treated immediately, any broken bones, banged heads, or other conditions described below should be treated as a life threatening emergency.  Zithir are also more sensitive to chemicals than huamns, although temperature changes are less severe.  For this reason, Zithir do not take part in rough sports, and will avoid ack slaps or painful punches, or similar interactions.  Avoid these is possible, and ensure that others avoid them as well, the Zithirs usually sense that no harm is intended, but will sense resenment, and be annoyed themselves, at having this problem ignored.

In most large colonies, medical workers specially trained to work with Zithir will treat them.  In smaller colonies, some veterinary or human medical workers will be taught techniques for Zithir, and should be contacted instead.  Information and emergency systems should be made as available as possible if emergencies occur.

Zithir biochemistry works in a number of different ways to humans, and therefore food for one species is often indigestible to another, and neither humans nor Zithir can survive on a diet of the other's food.  Most Zithir food is not poisonous beyond this to humans, although eating large amounts of it can cause gas, bloating, and in extremely cases, problems with bowel movements.  However, the foods witreg and Trareer contain toxins that are deadly in large amounts, and in smaller amounts cause various sicknesses, and Phentlu contains disease causing bacteria like organisms, that can cause dangerous infections all over a human body.  Most Zithir food tastes quite poor, often with unexpected mistures of tastes, due to the different uses for chemicals in most Zithir organisms, although a couple of foods (Phentyo and Lalyaw) have extremely good tastes, which are not found in most food we have brought with us.

Zithir have a much harder time handling human foods, their own digestion having equivalent problems as the human system, but more severe to the more fragile Zithir, and more humans types of food are poisonous in some way.  Sugary foods, such as honey or concentrated fruit, should in particular be avoided, as some types of sugars are used rarely by Zithir, high doses are toxic as a result.


Tasks and Learning

Species wide, Zithir have great difficulty seeing patterns, using skills in new combination or new ways, or understanding how and why certain things occur.  However, they are naturally able to sense the future, through a process we don't yet understand, and sense the results of making certain decisions.  Though we cannot explain all the different ways Zithir and humans can work together, a few common patterns are:

1.  For longer term projects (farming, building, research), Zithir will describe whether an accident will occur, or whether a goal will be reached, while humans will determine how and why a result will occur, and what to change.

2.  In situations requiring fast reactions, Zithir instinctively sense the results of fast decisions with little information, and make the fast decisions, while humans are more involved in preparation and learning.

3.  In areas where the Zithir have accumulated lots of information in their archives, these archives are a far better source of information than what our own data can provide, allowing a great deal of learning when the information is analyzed.  Medical and agricultural knoweldge for nearby Zithir has greatly advanced due to this type of analysis.

In mixed colonies, Zithir are most likely to work in areas with a lot of risk, where their sense of the future is of great assistance, while they work least in low risk, but highly structured, roles.  For almost all tasks, some mixture of humans and zithir is best, and Zithir experienced in some sort of work are highly sought after..


Reproduction and Child Care

Zithir have males and females, just as humans do, but instead of being split equally, about 2 males are alive for every 5 females.  Zithir tend to live in extended families, with males and females in about this ration, although richer or larger groups usually have a larger fraction of females.  Almost no Zithir cultures have an equivalent of marriage, and trouble has occurred with humans groups  (In our colonies, mostly religious groups) attempting to enforce a more marriage like arrangement on the Zithir, or encouraging boycotts and other attacks on the aliens for their arrangements.  Conversely, several Zithir have tried to get people to agree to a more mixed arrangement after sensing problems in marriages, without knowing the full history and reasons for arranging things the way we do.

Zithir reproduce using eggs.  When females are fertilized, a small egg grows for a few weeks inside the female.  When the egg is laid, the Zithir mother usually places it in a pouch she has, similar to a pouch on Kangaroos on Earth.  The Egg does not need to stay in the pouch all the time, it can spend hours or days outside and still be fine under most conditions, but must spend a certain amount of time at a particular temperature that a mother Zithir provides, and most also prefer to keep their eggs protected.

Zithir who are generating or carrying eggs should, if in doubt, be treated similar to pregnant human women.  While generating an egg, they will eat a great deal more than usual, and often be far more tired.  Particularly demanding or dangerous situations should be avoided if possible.  After the egg is laid, the mother Zithir's life largely goes back to normal, however, carrying a developing egg is tiring, and it is considered polite to help Zithir egg carriers, as carrying an egg can be physically tiring.

When doing something demanding or dangerous, Zithir mothers will typically remove eggs.  Repali tend to give eggs to relatives to watch, who will store the egg in their own pouches for a time, however, they will sometimes leave eggs with us to watch, or simply place them in an area.  If you are asked ot watch an egg, or keep track of an egg:

1.  When carrying or moving an egg, never drop it, or hit it in any way.  Unlike bird eggs, Zithir shells are leathery and softer, but the developing Zithir inside is still sensitive to injury.  Younger Zithir can be disabled in a a number of ways if their egg is dropped, older developing Zithir easily die if an egg is dropped.  If an egg is to be stored somewhere, make sure it is well supported, and will not roll around or fall.

2.  For short periods of time, eggs can tolerate most conditions in our colonies with little harm, so can be left in any suitable location, however, potentially dangerous fumes should be avoided.  For larger lengths of time (more than about 4 hours is a rule of thumb), they should be stored at the right temperature, in an area with good airflow and some protection.  In larger colonies, we have produced incubation rooms to store Zithir eggs, in smaller colonies, living areas equipped with air filters and the right temperature usually do the job, although the Zithir who's eggs will be watched should be checked first before storing an egg somewhere for a long time.

3.  In the rare cases where a Zithir mother dies, or is injured in a way where she can't watch the egg, it should be given to a close relative or family group as soon as possible.  In Repali family groups, the usual tendency is to contact the family group to report the death or injury, and the family member who wishes to watch the egg will come to take it, other Zithir groups have different tendencies.

Zithir and human children should both be raised by their own species, but early exposure among both humans and Zithir to the other is helpful for learning.  Zithir children learn to communicate quickly, but are far more fragile then adults, requiring constant exercise to build up toughness as they grow.  For this reason, human and Zithir children should not be left along together until several months of interaction, as our own children can be quite physical when trying to play with Zithir. 


Social Activities

Finding way to spend free time together has proven difficult with both types of aliens amongst all colonies, and Repali are no exception.

Sports:  Zithir as a rule have great difficulty with most human sports, either due to the physical nature of the sports, or the complex rules which can be difficult to understand and frustrating.  In competitive human sports that the Zithir have been able to play, they usually have a huge advantage from their future reading and emotion reading abilities.  Zithir physical sports usually are groups doing something, the Repali in particular are known for group lifting, and group throwing.  Contests, and Zithir group fun, are areas where we can spend time with Zithir and both enjoy it.

Meals:  As mentioned, Zithir and Humans cannot eat each other's foods, however, with food separated meals are a good time for both species to interact. 

Games:  Zithir in general take poorly to human card or board games, as they often have difficulty understanding the rules. A few can play simple, more cooperative games, but most are too difficult to be enjoyable for the Zithir.

Art:  As many of you have heard from other colonies, several Zithir have become famous as comedians, actors, and dancers.  Zithir themselves do not enjoy movies or pictures as much, although do perform well when asked to. 

Events;  Large gatherings are an important part of most Zithir societies, and most enjoy and are enjoyed at events such as weddings, birthdays, parties, or other large gatherings.  However, care should be taken in more formal events, Zithir attending should be told rules beforehand, and some acceptance of their difficulty understanding and remembering should be given.  Humans at Zithir events have more trouble; in larger groups Zithir will respond to members of their own group more and loose track of humans, while mcuh Zithir communication simply is inaccessible to us. 

Religious events may seem a good time to involve Zithir, but this is not recommended.   Due to biological differences, some religious rules or expectations cannot be filled, or do not make sense for either alien species.  both species also have trouble understanding mentally the rules, and the divisions, amongst most human religions (Zithir, in particular, often confuse Christians, Muslims, and Jews with each other. as well as confusing divisions within the religions).  Zithir in particular place a high cultural important on contacting ancestors; this is a main source of information for their archives, and often make failed attempts to contact prophets.  We are not sure why the Zithir constantly fail, the most common suggestion is that even the most blessed humans do not have the right biology to communicate across time with Zithir, although scientists and religious authorities disagree on this.  Until religious leaders agree on a way for Zithir to join religions, and explain these differences, it is safer to avoid too much deep interaction.

Zithir History

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

Early History

Records are sparse for our earliest history.  Our visionaries and prophets, but today and from the past, have been able to sense some events from this time, and a few prophets have been able to catch whispers and calls from powerful individuals during this period.

In our earliest history, our species mostly lived as hunting and gathering groups, living off of prey and plant materials that could be found in the area.  Groups did not need the large organizations and leadership we have today, most were like large family groups or work groups, small enough that everyone could sense everyone else's emotions and thoughts easily.  Most groups kept to territories, and mixed occasionally for exchanges, having choldren, or occasional social connection.   When a group sensed resources were rare, it would move, or join another group in a more safe feeling location.

During this time, our ability to sense the future was enough to avoid almost all injuries, and the need to move gave children the necessary exercise and toughness to avoid later injuries.  Poisons and disease could be avoided by sensing longer into the future, and groups generally learned quickly which areas and food to avoid, and which were safe.

Our prophets have sensed that, during this time, groups gradually got bigger and bigger, as more techniques for finding food, and organizing such groups, became more commonly known.  Eventually, groups became too large to keep together without some more formal organization, and we turned to prophetic leaders to lead such groups.  These leaders have been easier to sense from later times, and we know more about this period than he earliest history.

It was during this time that farming began, and has grown since than, as we have seen that it can feed more people than hunting methods when land is not available.  Still, resources were often scarce, and we sense leaders at war during this period, and a few stories from later speak of large battles, and tell of annihilated tribes from this time. 


Religion Founding

Our first religious records started from the work of a visionary prophet called Pyth, the prophet who envisioned a method to link minds across long periods of time.  Though we are now far more capable than Pyth was, future prophets respected Pyth to such an extent that we have kept contact ever since.  A contemporary prophet, Vorkum, organized the first archives.  These ideas rapidly spread, and within 20 years of Pyth's creation, were both in common use amongst most of the world.

The time of our religious founding was a stable one, but according to our archives, little changed from previous times.  We lived in medium sized groups, with a mix of cities, towns, and in the country, with farming gradually replacing hunting as a source of food.Trade and diplomatic networks had started to appear between our tribal and city groups.  During this time, government were largely handled by small groups of prophets leading smaller groups within the city areas.

The addition of archives and communication across time changed all that.  Our societies became far more organized, as religious priests and archivists filled in many of the roles of leadership.  New tools were developed much faster, as archives allowed us to preserve previous knowledge far more easily.  Priests began as well to determine the workings of the universe, determining that we were on but one of many worlds within existence, and getting some sense of how existence operated outside our senses.  The first communing groups were created during this time, led by priests searching for a way to communicate with large numbers at once.




Big Conglomerates

Soon after the spread of priestly archives, the smaller city states and tribes that had existed until that time began merging together into larger empires.  All three leadership structures became far more common, with communings involving thousands, and great leaders emerging to lead vast empires.  Inside these empires, we built our first major road networks, taught ourselves more intense physical training methods for laborers, and organized our first education systems.

Towards the end of this period, education and practice greatly improved our mental abilities, and large numbers of visionaries made long term plans, proposing great projects and multigeneration plans for the future.  Our most important meeting forum was started as one of these projects.


The Great Wars

We had fought many tribal wars in the past, but as our settlements and religion expanded, wars was almost nonexistent. However, as our empires grew and became more ambitious, We began to fight over longer goals, and visions of the future.

The first few wars involved arguments over the building of an irrigation structure.  Some visionaries saw that the irrigation was the only way to organize food, while a neighboring community felt that the irrigation would lead eventually to ruin.  The high stakes of the project and disagreements over what results would be, led to strong disagreements.  Eventually, the arguments led to an attempt to sabotage the project by some opponents, that led to the injury of some of the project's workers.  Feelings of anger built on themselves from there, until the killings started.  At that point, thousands came out to fight, and both empires sought allies.

During these first years of war, we were highly disorganized.  Most fighting was done by mobs of citizens, armed with sticks, knives, or other such easy to access tools.  Cities were emptied out as large numbers of citizens heard of events and, in their anger, rushed off to war.  Very quickly, our armies learned to kill far more effectively.  More experiened or well led mobs learned to go after leaders.  New weapons were created, longer knives, thrown weapons, and spears becoming the most favorite.  Mobs learned to organize themselves into specialized groups, with some of us fighting up front, some searching for leaders to kill, some scouting, andsome filling other roles.  Most importantly, we learned, even in the midst of \anger, how many should fight and how many should stay home. 

As each empire brought in allies, and accidental ambushes and deaths embroiled more of us in the conflict, the war spread throughout the entire world.  Over 50 years, empires fought in huge alliances, sending waves of soldiers at each other, and destroying huge areas an land, and much of the cities we had built before.  As empires continued to mobilize, the wars only began to draw to an end around 40 years after they started.  Over these final 10 years, the citizens of the loosing empires began to loose hope and motivation, allowing themselves to be killed by the winners.  Once their morale was lost, the winning empires could finally destroy most of the leaders and important workers in the loosing empires, and over the final 10 years, These empires were eliminated, and the wars finally ended.

Strangely, some citizens of these empires managed to survive, finding members of winning empires who had not been exposed to fighting and would offer pity.  Surprisingly, almost 1,000 members of the original loosing empires managed to survive in this way.

The great wars killed off almost 3/4 of us, and destroyed much of our infrastructure.  Recovering the archives of the losers took a long time, almost 5 generations after the end of the war were needed until leaders and priests of the loosing side were willing to communicate without feeling or sensing a strong hatred from the winners.  After this period, most empires and groups maintained armies, or taught members to use weapons and plan for a fight, to prevent the certain annihilation that would flow from another war.


Rebuilding and Development

After the great wars, life largely settled back into how it had been before they had occurred.  We divided ourselves back into large empires, reorganized our religion, and lived as we always had.  However, long term visions and prophecies had become far more common, and large projects became routine.  We also maintained greater military forces at all times.  Two wars broke out during this period, annihilating three empires, and further refining our skills at fighting.


Industry

After centuries of this style of living, we accumulated enough knowledge to turn to mechanization, such as windmills, watermills, machines, and large scale boiling and chemical processing, to serve our needs.  We learned slowly at first, but accelerated our accumulation of knowledge, organizing even larger and larger mechanical and chemical projects.

Our industrial development occurred alongside developments in our own powers as well.  We learned to consistently sense greater and greater details of the future, able to predict almost exactly the results of a project or course of action, no longer just sensing fear or enjoyment.  We learned to communicate thoughts far more effectively than before.  Archives from this period became for more detailed and organized, needed to hold records of the rapid changes and new technologies in existence.


Unconnected revolts

However, these industrial changes were also dangerous.  Mechanical devices could injure far faster and more easily than any previous devices, often faster than the in danger worker could sense the change.  Chemical spill and fumes could injure over time, weakening workers against future injury, and sometimes directly destroying mental function.  Our prophets could sense the dangers, and tried to design devices to prevent injuries, but we lacked the skills to consistently build our new devices safely.  Even worse, some children were being born unable to

The resulting injuries led to a larger swell of unconnecteds, and large camps of these injured ones emerged in most regions.  These unconnecteds were a drain to us, staying out of contact was a great challenge, and in some highly industrial areas the unconnected made up almost 1/6 or so of the population.

It was in the region of Packstor where a prophet called Mikstor envisioned a future where hordes of unconnected, led by a skilled commander, and equipped with unusual weapons, and far tougher than normal for our species, would threaten the uninjured population.  Following this vision, he left his home for the unconnected camps, and started to train the unconnected physically and in weapon skills, while also developing new devices.  Other prophets followed, teaching the unconnected to live without our mental abilities, showing them how to use other methods of thinking.

After a few years of this, rumors spread quickly, and several of us felt fear that these unconnected might actually organize.  Ambassadors were sent to the camp to negotiate and head off any fighting before it started.  The ambassadors were at first repulsed by the unconnected, but were surprised to feel far less fear than they had been expecting, and many switched sides as well.  The unconnected camps gradually became economically important, producing unique products and materials that our own industry could not commonly produce.

However, as the unconnected became more powerful over a period of several year, we began to sense an arrogance among them, feeling that the unconnected might attempt to injure us and, insensitive to our emotions, would commit great harm without realizing it.  A few accidents occurring due to a competing building project confirmed these fears, and several camps were attacked,

Unlike most wars, the attacks on the unconnected camps were not followed by an outpouring of the anger among the unconnected. Instead, the prophets leading the unconnected had to hear of the attacks first, and spend time organizing their armies.  The mobilization was far easier for us, as once the unconnected tried to defend themselves, the injuries caused to our soldiers brought an outpouring of anger, and our armies were rapidly mobilized.

The prophets who led the unconnected thought that this was the war they had seen in their visions, and organized most of the unconnected into a large army.  Our war with the unconnected lasted about 5 years.  The unconnected were physically tougher, equipped with unusual weapons, and used fighting methods that we did not expect.  Many of our leaders were killed in ambushes, and soldiers were killed and injured in floods of chemical gasses and projectiles.  However, the unconnected could not muster the anger and aggression individually that we could as a group, and our ability to sense the future and sense our follow soldiers far out competed the unconnected's skills.  Despite a few victories, the unconnected fell on the defensive for most of the war, and were annihilated along with their leaders.


Great Unification

The victory itself was costly, however.  Though we had won the war, the battles had generated a large amount of new unconnected.  Almost none joined the main camps, as they still hated the enemy they had just been fighting, but the same feelings of fear and anger at treatment found in all unconnected brought on our own fears of a new rebellion among experienced soldiers.

In addition, industrial technology had changed little in some areas, and unsafe methods were continuing to be used.  Fear of more unconnected from these accidents brought some empires to ban industrial technology, but other attempted to retain the benefits and run the equipment more safely.

These fears, around 15 years after toe first rebellion, led to another series of wars.  Most empires stayed out of these, fearfully watching as some empires fought over industrial policy, how to handle unconnected, and other sources of disagreement.  Fortunately for those living in the fighting regions, only half the population of these empires was killed, before safety developments in other empires allowed them to force a stop to the wars.  However, the problems if the unconnected and industrial policy never went away, and within a decade of these wars, new events seemed to suggest that a new set of wars was about to arrive.

It was at this time that two more prophets within empires that had not been involved in fighting suggested a radical solution:  merge all separate empires together.  It had been suggested by previous prophets that we could easily merge, but only with more recent communication abilities could we do so.

Once our empires combined, the wars of the unconnected largely stopped, and most militaries disappeared as well.  Improvements in safety greatly improved our industrial equipment, greatly reducing the amount of unconnected.  now far better organized as a worldwide empire, we finally began to take on new projects, including sea and space exploration.


Space Travel and Lost Colony

Our space exploration, when started, was dangerous, as rockets are difficult and tricky to design.  However, encouraged by prophets who sensed opportunities in space, we persevered, building and running orbiting spacecraft, after a few years, landing on our moons.  Later, we traveled to and from some other planets in our system.  Our prophets insisted that we would one day be able to live on those other planets, and we tested these predictions with longer and longer stays.

After around 30 years of such stays, we finally had the confidence to send large groups of colonists.  As they travelled to their destination, a cold, icy planet we call Mythfyl, they encountered a strange object floating in space.  Most were afraid, and wanted to avoid it, but several prophets looked into the future of the object and saw opportunity.  They soon won the argument, and we moved closer to the object, curious what it was, and sending data back to our archives.  As we approached the object, we suddenly found ourselves racing along in unknown region of space.  At first we were confused, but soon fear gripped the colonists, as we realized that the planets we could see did not resemble our own, and we could not reach our radio signals.  Our archives were confused, and we could not communicate with the prophets or archives from the past nearly as easily.

Greatly embarrassed, the prophets who encouraged us to approach the object sat, confused.  Others, however, suggested that we settle one of the planets in this system, and survive until we could better decide what to do.  Searching out for settlable planets in the system, we saw three:  a planet with a climate much like our own, an icy, cold world, and a cauldron like, hot world.  Though our prophets sensed dangers on each world, they also sensed opportunities, and saw that all worlds could be settled.

Human (Zithir View)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets Cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

Discovery

When our first scouts met the humans, they sensed emotions much like our own colonists; fear, confusion, determination, alertness.  On Phobis Terra, we could sense the differences from other animals, on Cauldron and Cryolith, any creature is a unique sight.  The sight of our scouts appeared to unnerve the humans, but they quickly learned to shape and present themselves in a way that calmed the human scouts down, and most chose not to attack us.

As we contacted the humans more and more, they became confusing to us.  On the one hand, they were clearly highly intelligent, making numerous tools that we found difficult or impossible to make, and seemed to be well organized.  On the other hand, they ever seemed able to sense emotions, much like an unconnected or a simpler creature, and yet were not frightened by this.

Human communication was learned first as body language to communicate emotions, than as spoken tones, and finally as words.  Without the ability to sense emotions, humans need a great variety of body movements and spoken language to communicate, and a great deal of effort is needed by one of us to use these techniques successfully.

Body

Humans are shaped much as we are, but with simple, rounded heads, and most are larger than we are.  The human body is stronger and more resistant to damage as well, even slothful humans can start physical activity and only suffer small injuries, and large wounds or broken bones that to us are life threatening are survived and healed in almost all humans.  Their entire brain is kept inside a bony structure, with no lobes coming out as ours do, and as a result survives much greater strikes with only small personality changes, if any.

Mind

Anyone who interacts with humans, in any way, quickly picks up on the human mind's tendency towards organization, rules, or systematic thinking.  They are comfortable with patterns, or fixed rules, and use these ways of thinking to make decisions.  Even individuals the humans cal "rule breaking", "flighty", "unpredictable", and many other terms, use patterns from past experience as expectations, or to make decisions.  When confronted with new situations, humans attempt to adapt old knowledge to determine what to do, but with varying amounts of flexibility.  some rapidly learn the rules of whatever they find themselves in, but less successful ones often cling to old techniques.

Although humans cannot directly sense others, most can work out emotions or thoughts from watching body position, movement, and other activities.  Humans who have interacted with us for enough time have learned to read us in this way.

Society

All human societies, whatever their organization, are based on having some set of rules that most within it are expected to follow.  All societies have rules for large scale organization, and many have rules or expectations for single person interactions as well.  Many humans are highly attached to these rules, and punishments are routinely used to force obedience.  Wars have even been fought over disagreements in rules.

Within human societies, a bewildering collection of organizations exists, some highly specialized for a small number of tasks.  Humans themselves may be a part of several of these organizations, but in most societies, family, political, and/or production organizations are the most important.  Most organizations create rules for their own members to follow, but rules for an entire society are mostly created by political organizations.  These political organizations are often a site of much strife, as different groups within a society attempt to decide who will have more power, or who's preferred rules will be used.

Despite these issues, human society can be extremely efficient at getting things done.  Humans do not need to consult prophets for decisions that we might need to, and instead focus on getting the task done.  They can organize extremely complex tasks, breaking the tasks down to simple parts for smaller groups to focus on.

Religion

Human religion confused us the first time we encountered it.  We had learned, by this point, that humans could not sense the future or the past, or sense emotions or thoughts, and yet most of their religions appeared to be based on just that.  Even today, human religion confuses us.  Though it has changed over time to become more like our own religion, that our own society has successfully used for all of our history, suggesting that the humans have some ability to sense the world, the humans themselves we meet show none of this ability.

Human religion is divided to several large groups, many that seem opposed to each other.  Most of the larger religions seem based on individual people, a few are based on long traditions, while many humans claim to have no religion at all.  We have attempted to contact some of these prophets, such as the people called "Jeezes", "Boota", and "Mohamid", but have not been able to.  Some humans who follow the religions of these prophets have been angered by these failures, some calling us "agents of Satan", while others suggest that, being in human, these people lack some ability we have that allows us to be contacted through time.

Human religion mostly acts as another group in society, and is a source of rules for personal interactions.  As with any other groups in human society, humans in certain religious groups often disagree about which rules to follow, to the point where even similar groups (Such as the ones called "Joos", "kristins", and "Muzlims"), despite appearing to be factions of one group, consider themselves to be separate, and often opposing, groups.Religion is a source of great emotional attachment for humans, and it is recommended that challenges be avoided to a humans religion as much as possible.

Science and Technology

The human focus on patterns and rules shows itself most obviously in their craftsmanship, and their understanding of how the world works.  Human craftsmen routinely adapt their tools, and make small experimentation and improvement to their designs.  They are good at spotting small details, that we would miss, that will interfere with or improve a device, and as a result consistently produce high quality tools with far less effort than we could.  In larger scale industry, the humans apply these same abilities, and their plants and machine shops produce enormous amounts of higher quality materials and devices, which are always being improved on.

Contributing to this success are human scientists.  Without any skill at sensing the future, the scietists instead find rules and patterns in the world by testing it.  Contact with human scientists has almost always proven useful for understanding how some aspect of our new world works, and they have even helped us understand how our own bodies and society works.

Combat

Warfare is far more common amongst human societies than it is in our society.  Human groups fight each other for a variety of reasons, from control of resources, to disagreements over how society is to be run, to disputes between different groups in other matters.  Human wars are approached with varying levels of organization, from tightly controlled large scale armies, to weakly controlled collections of small groups.  Humans seem to use violence much more commonly to settle disputes, perhaps because they cannot communicate or trust as easily as we can, and must settle disputes in other ways.

Hearing about all the wars in human history, many of us were surprised that the species was not extinct a long time ago, but humans seem surprisingly willing to stop wars after only a small number of people can be killed.  How the humans can callously ignore the violence of their enemies, and accepts surrenders of treaties, and even work with former enemies, without restarting the war is something we will never understand.  Even more surprisingly, human veterans of wars are strangely able to form friendships with former enemies, with no regard to the violence those enemies attempts toward the human's own friends and themselves during the war.   Perhaps the callousness towards friendships and their own society is caused as well by their lack of sensation of emotions, although human friendships and social bonds are still quite strong even without these.

Human armies must spend a great deal of time learning to work together, and much of the training of more organized armies is in teaching human soldiers to work together and feel a part of a group. Humans also cannot sense the future, and communicate as easily, reducing their fighting ability in a number of ways.  However, human also bring their technical skill into combat, equipping themselves with extremely deadly weapons, such as fast and accurate guns, artillery, and missiles, and being highly skilled in their use.  Although we can often avoid the weapons by sensing where they will hit, the weapons can overwhelm our ability to sense all of them, and any hit is usually crippling or deadly.  Humans are also exceptional at supplying their forces, and moving rapidly, due to their ability to organize supply use, and maintain fast moving transport equipment.

Zithir (Quental view)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

First Sights

Our scouts had a hard time spotting the Zithir, but what they saw did not look too challenging.  The Zithir were small, and fragile when attacked, but always seemed to dodge attacks and avoid scouting parties.  The Zithir also learned very quickly to tell when our scouts wanted ot fight, and when they did not, even before we had spotted them.

Further contact with the Zithir convinced our scouts that the Zithir were thinking, and over time we discovered ways of communicating with them.  Many Zithir were angry over our scout's attacks on their own scouting groups, but more peaceful contact was established with them.

The Zithir, at first glance, are greyish to dark colored creatures,shaped like grunts or some laborers, but much thinner.  Their heads have large lobes, and several tentacles, which we have learned are used for their psychic abilities.

Mental Abilities

The strangest abilities of the Zithir, not seen in any other creature in this system, are the abilities to see into the past and future, and to sense emotions of nearby creatures.  With these abilities, the Zithir can sense incoming dangers, coordinate smaller groups in a way not seen anywhere else, and talk to others from the past.  Everything the Zithir do relies on these abilities.

Dominance

Zithir do not use dominance pheromones in the way we do.  Instead, the ability to read emotions allows small Zithir to work together without any need to know who has dominance over who, and these can shift from time to time.  In larger Zithir groups, some members appear more respected than others, and a few are considered far inferior, but Zithir do not attempt to determine everyone's place in relation to each other outside these special ones.  Many decisions are still made by sharing thoughts and emotions, usually during special large gatherings where they can focus their mind reading abilities.

As far as we can tell, Zithir defer to members of their society known as "archivists" and "prophets".  Archivists maintain records of previous Zithir events, and communicate regularly with Zithir from the past on present issues.  Prophets are unusually skilled at sensing the future, and Zithir turn to them to see how different decisions will turn out.  Most major decisions Zithir groups make are influenced by at least one of these, and/or communing, to choose a course of action.

Far inferior to other Zithir are the "unconnected ones", Zithir who have lost their mental abilities.  The position of these Zithir within their societies shocked the Quental who saw them, as the unconnected ones are not merely seen as less dominant, but are often cut off from the rest of Zithir society, with only some family support given, and no change to perform some roles and show themselves to be useful again.  Zithir who have encountered the unconnected ones describe the constant fear and uncertainly experienced by those who loose their abilities, and it seems that other Zithir avoid these unconnecteds to escape these constant and strong emotions.  The revulsion and desire to avoid the unconnects is sensed by other Zithir, and spreads throughout their society.

Building and Production

Zithir building and production relies heavily on their mental abilities, and on their prophets and archives.  For smaller scale production, craftsman rely on archives and shared information to learn their roles.  To try something new, craftsman must rely on trial and error, using their ability to sense the future to test possibilities, and using trial and error on the ones that seem workable.  For larger projects, the Zithir rely on prophets to sense farther into the future.

Zithir cannot modify their bodies to better perform tasks, and the bodies they have are very fragile and heal poorly, so they must use unusual tools and techniques to do physical work.   To avoid injuries, Zithir laborers must excercise for a long time before working, and must use their future sensing abilities to avoid accidents.

Conflict

Zithir do not fight often, but when they do, they are highly destructive.  Feelings of hatred and anger during a war spread rapidly through their society, and the desire for violence overwhelms other thoughts that might slow Zithir soldiers down.  The Zithir do not merely kill soldiers, but in most wars, attack nonsoldiers as well, and many settlements have been utterly destroyed by Zithir attackers.  Of our own forces win battles against Zithir, they continue to fight for a long time, and only when highly demoralized will accept a loss to the Quental who fought them.

Zithir soldiers are highly fragile, even with strength training, but they are excellent at avoiding attacks and striking weak spots due to their ability to sense the future.  Our own soldiers often are greatly frustrated at the inability to hit Zithir, but once a hit occurs, the Zithir falls hard.  Zithir also can sense and target leaders, or more dominant soldiers, in combat, further disrupting enemy armies.

Zithir (Human perspective)

(The creatures I'm writing about belong in he same world as the planets cryolith, Behemoth, Cauldron, etc., hopefully for a future mod.  To make things a bit more interesting, I'll try and describe the three species involved from each other's point of view, although the "Human" perspective will be the most basic.)

First Glance

Scouting parties on Phobis Terra at first did not notice anything unusual about the Zithir.  With the wide diversity of life on Phobis Terra, the Zithir appeared to be nothing more than another stragne social animal when first spotted.  In addition, Zithir parties were quite good at sensing that people were approaching, and often hid or ran away before details could be noticed.

Zithir on Cryolith and Cauldron were far easier to spot, due to the lack of other life on those planets. Because of the protective materials they wore, however, those Zithir were often mistaken for other human groups, and it took some more close encounters, and many failed communication attempts, to realize that they were a different type of life form.

As contact became more common, Zithir gained a reputation for rapidly learning human mannerisms, and for being the less aggressive of the two alien species landed in this system.  Zithir seemed to be able to sense quite easily the fear and curiosity of human visitors, and to quickly figure out how to react in nonthreatening ways.  As contact increased, Zithir communication styles were worked out, more contact was established, and deatils of their society and biology were opened to human colonists.

Anatomy/Biology

Zithir, in a general sense, resemble humans.  They walk upright on two legs, have two arms, with hand like features at the end, and have a head at the top with eyes, most of the nervous system, and other sensory organs.  They are on average much smaller than humans, about half the weight and somewhat shorter, with a thin appearance.  Their most distinctive features are a set of two large, and several smaller, protrusions from their heads.  These features are extensions of their brains, housing structures responsible for their tremendous psychic and empathetic abilities.  The larger protrusions appear as a set of lumpy antlers, and contain numerous distinct nerve clusters, while the smaller protrusions resemble tentacles, and act as sensors.

The most astounding, and unusual, feature of the Zithir are their psychic and future sensing abilities.  All Zithir are born with a limited, but trainable, ability to sense emotions in any creatures around them, and an ability to sense events in both the past and future.  The discovery and acceptance of these abilities (As opposed to explanations such as strong intuition and/or unusual sensitivity similar to some Earth animals) was a long and difficult process, involving numerous experiments and alternative explanations, and scientists are still struggling to explain how exactly the Zithir do it, and what the implications are for the physical universe.  What is known is that these abilities mostly come from the Zithir's head appendages, with the smaller tentacle appendages involved in somehow sensing outside stimuli to reveal emotions, while the larger, lumpy antler protrusions are involved in time sensing through their numerous nerve clusters.  Zithir main brains, in addition to other functions, coordinate these processes, and make sense of the input.  These abilties, and their implications, are the greatest influence on how the Zithir form societies, and interact with the rest of the world.

Zithir biochemistry uses some materials in common with human biochemistry, but more colplex molecules and molecular building blocks are often different.   While humans can partially digest a small fraction of Zithir food, and vice versa, eating foods of another species is not recommended as the nutrients that can be extracted are poor and highly limited, with poisoning always a possibility.  Some Zithir soil organisms, bacteria, and non-moving life does combine well with human life for fertilizing soil, and crop rotation agreements are often established between Zithir and Human groups on good terms with each other.  Zithir phychic appendages require enormous amounts of energy to function, so despite their smaller size, Zithir typically require a larger amount of energy than an equivalent human would.  However, they require less building material nutrients (Equivalent to proteins, some minerals, etc.) to maintain their bodies.

Zithir bodies are known to be highly fragile, inujuring easily, healing much more slowly, and are highly sensitive to poisons.  It seems the Zithir future sensing abilities allow them to avoid danger more easily than other creatures might, and can as a result avoid injuries rather than having to take them.  Zithir bones are weak enough that simply falling down often fractures them, while cuts and bruises apart from the very smallest require Zithir to reduce activity significantly, and be careful to avoid further injury.  Because of this fragility, correctly managed physical training is a life or death issue for young Zithir and Zithir in physically demanding roles, as without it, day to day physical activity alone will cause life threatening fractures and injuries, let alone the more physically demanding roles Zithir may play.  Even with all these dangers, the most feared injury to almost all Zithir is the loss or damage to their head appendages.  Once functions of these appendages is lost, it never returns, even with practice and training, and Zithir who loose those abilities find themselves unable to interact with, and usually cut off from, society.  Zithir call them :unconnected".

Government/Social Organization

Zithir societies are the most close knit of the all three colonizing species in this system, due to the ability to directly sense emotions.  Individual crimes happen rarely enough to be strange stories, as criminals would sense the damage they do much more readily, and others would easily be able to figure out who did it after it occurred.  Zithir working groups rarely encounter interpersonal issues, for similar reasons, and small such groups work together very smoothly.  Groups of Zithir up to around 1000 or so can often manage a large number of day to day affairs without using more formal structures, simply relying on the basic emotional sensing most share.

Somewhat frustratingly for scientists or anyone who must communicate with a Zithir, the strong emotional connection seems to lead to Zithir communication being very bare bones, and hard to detect patterns in.  Since Zithir can sense emotions directly, face to face communication typically leaves out any signals, such as voice tones or body language, that is common in other species.  Although Zithir languages do have such words for longer term communication, they did not use these in the small groups originally studied by scientists, in in interactions with humans Zithir will often forget such signals unless very experienced already.

On larger scales, or for tasks where simple emotional sensing or direct communication is not enough, Zithir must organize more structure.  Three main structures are by far the most common, and large Zithir societies have all of them to some extent.  Religious authorities, in charge of preserving traditions, accumulate knowledge from past events, and often communicate with powerful Zithir individuals or groups from the past, and this information is used for present day purposes.  Zithir societies also organize training, and/or special events, where members can focus better on sensing emotions, and even direct thoughts, of other members of society. These gathering, often called "communes" by humans, allow the Zithir to coordinate much larger groups, and to rapidly share and put together large amounts of information from throughout the society.  Finally, certain Zithir within soceity are usually much more skilled at future sensing than others, and these Zithir, once they prove themselves, become what humans often call "prophets" or "demagogues", with widespread influence and are given heavy decision making responsibility.

Zithir Religion

Unlike for humans, all Zithir societies seem to follow the same religion.  furthermore, all descriptions of Zithir history suggest that their style of religion was established early, with only 1-2 consistent stories of ancient competing beliefs, no stories of enemy cultures that were defeated as a victory for their current system, and no schisms ever talked about in any form.  While some historians speculate that the Zithir societies at some point managed to forget memories of previous religions, the Zithir do not generally treat the rest of their history in this way, and evidence for the loss of records is consistently nonexistent.

Zithir religion mostly revolves around archives, and communications with powerful individuals or groups in the past.  Different sets of priests are in charge of these functions, but any Zithir within a particular group can commune with the past, and archives are typically open to anyone who wishes to read them.  From these sources, rules are made, and questions answered, for the present day (when the question was asked.)  Rules made in this way are not expected to be timeless or consistent, however, with most rapidly being discarded after a few months or so.  A few societal rules, however, have lasted through generations, and the ones who discovered them are highly celebrated by the Zithir.  However, even these rules are expected to be changed or lost at some point.

This communing method is also used to answer questions about how the universe works, how it was formed, and philosophically related questions.  The Zithir religion's answers to these sorts of questions, as with their laws, are often different from time to time, although some answers are broadly consistent over time.  Most Zithir do not think of the universe as being heavily controlled by particular gods, but think some being or beings have some influence/.  Some sort of afterlife is expected, but the exact form is unknown, and details change from time to time and group to group.

The exact method of communicating is not something scientists have determined, nor do the Zithir understand how it works.  The methods currently used have been built up over a long period of time, and appear to focus the Zithir's own ability to sense different points in time.  What is known from current day Zithir prophets/demagogues and strong groups are that questions do seem to be sensed from the future, but record keeping of such communications has shown that they are not enough to fully explain expected future communications.  Fakery or coincidence is expected at points, but the Zithir themselves do not show evidence of lying, and the information itself shows no differences in response from confirmed communication.

Zithir religion occasionally makes use of present day prophets/demagogues to answer these sorts of questions, and prophets from the past are by far the most common group that priests communicate with.  In the early days of the religion, such communication was far more common, but as archives and communication abilities increased, religion had much more to draw from, and present day communication became much more rare. 

Because present day profits, and large communes, are the main ways Zithir perform other functions such as science, engineering, craftsmanship, etc., Zithir religious archives and past communication are a vital part of these activities as well.  Through these, traditions and knowledge are preserved, and can be consulted, greatly assisting present day work.

The differences between Zithir and Human religions have contributed to numerous conflicts and diplomatic/trade incidents.  Human religious leaders, particularly monotheistic ones, view the Zithir rituals as Satan driven, highly resembling pagan rituals struggled against in the past.  Particularly unfortunate incidents have occurred where Zithir have attempted to communicate with important religious figures, such as Jesus or Buddha, or with an actual god, and have been unable to, angering members of those religions.  While others suspect that something special about Zithir only is what allows such communication, moods after these events are worsened.  Athiests, on the other hand, have struggled to explain or understand evidence of why particular Zithir religious rituals do seem ot work, even when evidence is otherwise lacking.  Zithir are often surprised at human tendencies to maintain laws for long periods of time, and have often broken relations with groups out of disagreements over this.

Zithir Science and Technology

While Zithir amaze with their psychic and communication abilities, they have enormous difficulty with the type of thinking needed for sciences, engineering, craftsmanship, or other such disciplines.  When isolated from other members of society, or sources of information, Zithir resort to blindly trying different methods to solve a problem, and do not seem to learn patterns from what does and does not work.  On a societal level, as a result, Zithir science, engineering, design, and other such processes are slow and painful, relying greatly on the use of religious archives, and requiring powerful prophets/demagogues to sense the future outcomes of any new designs.  Over time, these methods have accumulated a large body of knowledge and tools that the Zithir can call on, but new developments are always tricky for them.

Surprisingly, despite the Zithir need to directly copy designs, Zithir tools and equipment are generally less reliable than that from humans.  It seems, while Zithir try to copy a design exactly, they may miss important outside conditions, or important details, in why the design works, so attempts to replicate something without those details often go wrong.  Human tools are considered highly valuable among the Zithir for this reason.

The one advantage Zithir science and technology has over Human science and technology is the ability to retain information.  With Zithir communing as a way for society members to share information, and religious rituals allowing communication with the past, loosing knowledge is extraordinarily rare.  Examples are known throughout Zithir society, and major struggles have been undertaken to rediscover this knowledge.

Zithir lack of systematic thinking also shows itself in society organization.  Laws among the Zithir are not consistent and do not last long, nor are they expected to be, and Zithir almost never consider it until interacting wit humans.  Trade is largely done through barter, or by gifting, and large organizations are usually run informally, without specific rules or systems in place to organize them.  Zithir society organizations (Religion, communing, and prophets/demagogues), and ability to share emotions more generally, mean that these losses do not hurt Zithir society, and including such systems would actually interfere with the society.  However, interactions with, and understand of, human organizations are greatly impeded by these lacks.

Zithir Warfare

Like all groups who have settled this system, war has been common from early periods within Zithir society.  While conflict with Zithir scouting groups was uncommon, it did occur from time to time, and in those fights the Zithir proved formidable opponents.

Fighting among Zithir is almost unknown between small groups, but among larger groups, fighting becomes much more common.   When it does occur amongst the Zithir, warfare is frighteningly destructive, much more so than might be expected in human based warfare.  Because of the ways emotions within the Zithir spread and enhance themselves, any feelings of conflict or dislike that lead to a war can quickly spread throughout a society, than reinforce themselves to become feelings of extreme hatred. As a result, Zithir wars are far more intense than human wars, with what would be simple border disputes becoming large scale invasions, and large scale invasions becoming total wars.  Zithir who succeed in an attack are known to take no prisoners, and to utterly destroy what they are attacking.  Stopping wars requires heavy involvement and effort, either an overwhelming flood of emotion from victims, enough to stop the flood from attackers, a large amount of religious communications, or heavy involvement by third party peacekeepers can stop these wars.

Zithir history is filled with tales of such extreme fighting, either by disagreeing prophets, resource disputes, occasionally disputes religious laws, or simply large groups where some disagreement happened to build on itself.  Zithir themselves in communications with were amazed that the species had survived after hearing about the numerous wars in human history, only to be further surprised by how quickly some of them seem to have stopped.

Zithir armies do not have the equipment or organization that a human army might, but make up for it with their unique psychic abilities.  The Zithir ability to sense the future makes them dangerous enemies in fast moving, split second combat, where they can sense attacks coming and react much faster than other creatures or aliens might, and also easily find weak spots quickly on their own.  Soldiers are very good at sensing leaders within enemies, or enemies that others look up to, and targetting those first.  Though Zithir equipment is generally poor quality, they can compensate somewhat using a sense of the future.  Finally, the strong bonds within any Zithir group, and ability to read emotions, greatly assist in cohesion.


Explanation

Since this is a planned game mod, the three species within it need to be roughly equally power, but different, in order to be interesting.  For this reason, I'm having each of the three species within this system have a different strength:  Humans are the systematic thinkers, resulting in more effective engineering, science, lawmaking, and such, Zithir get the psychic abilities, and are better with religion, some types of social organization, and seeing some future actions, while the third is going to be biologically adaptable.

Within this particular universe, I'm assuming that the Zithir actually have the best grasp on how religion works, but with the assumption that human religion has been getting more accurate over time, so the religion itself, as I flesh it out, should "feel' more later human religions (Buddhists, the big monotheistic ones, etc.) than earlier ones (Polytheistic ones), but still quite different overall.