Asronian



Asronians are one of two sapient species, and the only sapient animal species, to have evolved on the moon Asronis in the Ta system (Kumara 5.1.6.A.9.4). As of the most recent Imperial Census (356B0), there were 22,693,852,882 Asronians, of which 6,260,763,034 (or 28%) lived on Asronis. “Asronian” is the general, translated term for this species. The name which they give themselves is “the Ta people.” The name Ta is believed to descend from an archaic Asronian language word meaning “children,” and is generally believed to identify the Asronians as “the children [of the Navoonoids].”

Biology
Asronians evolved to adapt to the cold, radioactive environment of their homeworld. They are Type 1 Bipeds, featuring bilateral symmetry and having two arms, two legs, an attached abdomen and torso, a neck, and one head, which houses the brain and most sensory organs. Their skin ranges in tone from blue to black, with body hair that is typically black, brown, silver, or white. Asronians are above average height and mass for Type 1 Bipeds, and are generally both muscular and layered in subcutaneous fat deposits (blubber). Their skin contains significant deposits of heavy metals (primarily cobalt and lead) arrayed in a kind of matrix across its surface, which assists in some degree in reflecting solar radiation. This gives their skin an iridescent sheen when in the presence of significant UV radiation. More significant deposits of metals exist at the “hard points” of the Asronian body, where they form visible, silvery caps or points; these are primarily at the knuckles, brows, elbows, and knees. As Asronians age, the deposits grow both above and under the skin and eventually form into dense, plate-like structures on the forehead and arms.

In general, Asronians are capable of digesting or metabolizing various compounds that are inedible to many other species. Their digestive tract features an organ translated as a “gizzard” that contains solid calcium deposits to further break up materials like cellulose. Asronian skin is thick and has a slick, slightly rubbery texture that helps make it somewhat impervious to liquids. (Asronians can not sweat.) Like most animal life on Asronis, Asronians have some bioluminescence, considered to be a secondary sexual characteristic. It fades as they age. All Asronians have deuteranopia color blindness, meaning their eyes have no receptors for green light. However, they are capable of seeing further into the ultra-violet section of the EM spectrum much farther than the Imperium average.

Asronians are omnivorous but show a preference for meat, as they require a high caloric intake. Their blood chemistry is cobalt-based, which is so far unique among sapient member-species of the Imperium, giving their blood a deep and vibrant shade of blue when oxygenated. Asronians tend to have relatively large teeth for Class 1 Bipeds, with the largest being tusks that protrude upward from the lower jaw. Asronians have relatively less sexual dimorphism compared to the Type 1 Biped average, with the only significant difference being the presence of mammary glands or lack thereof. Adult Asronians of all sexes average between 18 and 30 units in height and between 432 and 648 units in mass.

They are viviparous and placental, with a gestation period of 390 standard days. Asronians tend to rear their children communally, and their society is largely based on a hereditary system of extended family units known as lines, or clans. Asronians exhibit relatively high rates of infant mortality, especially mortality during the process of giving birth, that to some degree cannot be ameliorated without significantly changing Asronian biology. Asronians also see higher rates of natural sterility than the average. As such, population growth among Asronians is significantly less than the average. Asronians are capable of breeding at any time of year. The average life expectancy of an Asronian is 181 standard years.

Government
The native government of the Asronians is known as the United Asronian Realm and is a hybrid hereditary-democratic system in which hereditarily-defined ancestral groups (lines) elect their own leadership, who then participate in the Asronian government. A legislature known as the College of Chiefs is the prime law-making body. A formal executive known as the Chief-of-Chiefs is the nominal head of state and is the Asronian representative to the Imperium Council. The head of government, who handles the actual day-to-day administration of the executive, is known as the Chief-Administrator. Of the five Senators the United Realm are currently allotted in the Imperial Senate, two are indirectly elected by the College of Chiefs, and three are elected by the entire Asronian population at-large. The current Chief-of-Chiefs is Tengar, formerly Tengar, Chief ro Doka.

The College of Chiefs consists of 1,152 members, each of which is the Chief (elected executive) of a line, otherwise called a clan. The College elects one of their own to be Chief-of-Chiefs for a single term of 14.28 standard years (the figure is 6 Asronian years), at which time that Chief is no longer considered a member of any line, and their previous line elects a new Chief. The lines serve as the primary jurisdiction under which Asronians are governed, regardless of the physical location of the members of that line. Lines set up their own legislatures and, to an extent, their own judicial systems, according to terms laid out in the Asronian constitution. There also exists a nationwide judicial system, from which appeals are made to the Imperial Tribunals.

The United Asronian Realm acceded to the Empire in Archival Year 31B87. The terms of their accession were largely standard, with two major exceptions. First, the United Realm has total authority to regulate environmental standards in its own worlds, and secondly, the Navoonoid life forms of Asronis are subject first in all cases to the sovereignty and law of the United Realm before that of the Empire. (In legal terms, the terms of accession define the United Asronian Realm as a palatinate.) In exchange, the United Realm agreed to host an Imperial prison at its expense and to a higher rate of taxation and tribute.

Technology
Asronians developed space travel, including faster-than-light travel, independently. Their adaptations to various environments mean that a significantly higher number of planets are habitable by their standards than the average for Type 1 Bipeds. Asronians live primarily on seven settled worlds, most of which have similar environmental standards to Asronis. One Asronian settled world, Ítakvronavís, is an artificial ringworld constructed by a society that is believed to have since become extinct. Asronians are also active in interstellar commerce, and in particular are known to manufacture a particular type of energy shielding for spacecraft, officially known as “photograviton effect fields” but more commonly known as "hard light" that is both remarkably resilient and particularly energy efficient. The manufacture of hard light generation systems can only take place on Asronis due to the particular profile of radiation present on that world, and there are several other proprietary trade secrets involved in the manufacture of Asronian shielding that make it highly lucrative. Asronian-native G-drives are also known for their energy efficiency, though this technology has already been integrated into the Imperial base of knowledge. By virtue of these economic and biological advantages, Asronians can be found all across the galaxy, and are often sought after as employees in ventures on harsh worlds.

The native technology of the Asronians depends in many cases on the Navoonoids, the collective hive-minded fungal lifeforms they share their homeworld with. The Navoonoids act as one large biological supercomputer or neural network and provide the bulk of Asronian computing power. In exchange, the Asronians take care of all of their biological needs, including providing the bodies of their deceased to the Navoonoids for nourishment. Asronians can interface directly with the Navoonoids or indirectly through communications systems. Though not without logistical complications, individual Navoonoids can be separated from the main mass and still contain significant knowledge and computational power. Though Navoonoids are not required to be present for most Asronian technologies (such as spacecraft), they are generally present anyway.

Antigravity Technology
The relatively small size of the moon Asronis compared to the average for terrestrial worlds results in gravity being approximately two-thirds below standard. The Asronian body contains high levels of heavy metals, both inside the bones and on the surface of the skin, that build up as Asronians age. As a result, in standard gravity they are relatively heavy—so heavy, in fact, that older Asronians risk not being able to move or even breathe if exposed to standard levels of gravity. As a result, since acceding to the Empire, Asronians have readily adapted antigravity technology for significant personal use.

Aside from hard light, the most common technology associated with Asronians is the powered exoskeleton. There are many worlds where it is impossible for an Asronian to be seen in public without one. In frontier areas where equipment needs to be both strong and durable, the Asronian body may not even be visible, while in areas where Asronians can either use less power or have reliable access to charging infrastructure, the suits can be much lower profile and consist of, for example, braces worn around the joints accompanied with antigravity-equipped shoes and a necklace. Asronians use exoskeleton technology in other areas as well, with the usage of commercial-grade exoskeletons by single operators far exceeding the use of vehicles or purpose-engineered industrial equipment in fields like mining and construction—even on worlds with gravity that would not otherwise require their use for Asronians to comfortably move.

Culture
Asronian culture was martial in antiquity, and though the focus of their culture has since shifted to the economy, strength is still highly valued. Asronians are vaunted athletes and adept at martial arts as well as the crafting of both traditional and conventional weaponry and defensive equipment. This has engendered a galactic reputation that the Asronians are a brutish or harsh people, though Imperial statistics actually indicate that they are less violent than the average for Type 1 Bipeds. The extended family unit remains the central foundation of Asronian society, with most settlements being composed of communal housing blocks occupied by a few generations of a particular family, often all descendant from a single breeding pair who were the first to inhabit the block. Children are raised communally by members of the block who have chosen to tend to children; in most circumstances these would be priestesses or other clerics. Communal housing blocks in major metropolitan areas will often operate many of their own amenities independently, such as restaurants, recreational areas, social clubs, religious facilities, cultural institutions, and the like. Housing blocks act like governments in that they provide services and receive funding from members to cover expenses, and each one will have a single leader, the Head of Household, who holds considerable sway over decisions made in the housing block.

Aside from the clan system, Asronians divide themselves into three groups, called “nata,” a term that has no direct translation in any language other than Asronian. It is sometimes translated as “gender,” and other times as “caste.” The three nata are known as (translated from Asronian): “Orkar-walkers,” “Bricklayers,” and “Sod-cutters.” In ancient times, these categories were strictly defined and came with various social expectations and mores that tied into the individual’s sex and how they performed labor. Modern Asronian culture has relaxed these expectations over time. In general, though, “Orkar-walkers” deal with labor “outside the community” (i.e., in the wild, accompanied by Orkars), “Bricklayers” labor “inside the community” (i.e., building structures, historically out of bricks made from volcanic mud), and “Sod-cutters” labor “inside the family” or “inside the home” (sod was used in ancient times as fuel for hearths). These nata, in the past, tended to correspond to sex – Orkar-walkers were “female,” Sod-cutters were “male,” and bricklayers were mostly “male” but sometimes “female.” In modern times, individuals of all sexes can be each, and Asronians are free to switch between the three as they wish, though a switch in nata can come with a societal expectation to change their career or move to a different location.

Reproduction among Asronians takes place outside the context of interpersonal romance. The reproductive act is performed generally as a sacred/religious rite. The priestly class of Asronian society exists outside the system of nata, and Asronian priests are sometimes referred to as “genderless.” However, the ability to become pregnant and bear young is required to enter the priesthood in Asronis. Individuals who become pregnant are expected to join the priesthood, or live among them during the duration of the pregnancy. Outside of sacred mating rites, sexual activity is common but generally expected by society to be undertaken by individuals who cannot together reproduce. All children are raised communally by the priestly class.

Imperium Reputation
Since joining the Imperium, Asronians have garnered a reputation for serving as traders and merchants, particularly in industries such as mining or other kinds of resource extraction. Due to their adaptations to harsher environments and their noted technology in exoskeletons, Asronians can undertake resource extraction in cold or otherwise inhospitable environments at far less cost than can many other species. They have a special relationship with the Fokraxtians, who granted the Asronians access to their own space to undertake economic activities on Fokraxtian-owned worlds that they themselves could not reasonably inhabit.

Another item the Asronians tend to be known for among the Imperium is food. Due to the presence of a gizzard-like organ, Asronians are biologically incapable of vomiting. As this is an adaptation developed by many species against ingesting toxic substances, Asronian biology has adapted to toxins instead by developing various traits that allow Asronians to consume almost anything safely. With this ability, Asronians have become known as "adventurous eaters" in the sense that they are, in general, capable of eating almost anything that any other Imperium member species considers edible food. While the planet Asronis is extremely harsh environmentally, there is some tourist draw primarily due to what Interplanetary Cuisine Magazine called "the most diverse food scene in the galaxy" in 356A9. Asronian first contact with many species has centered around food—in one particularly well-known anecdote, the Humans of Earth were so impressed that Asronians were the only species they had yet encountered that could tolerate and enjoy "spicy" foods (containing the powerful irritant capsaicin) as much as they could, they almost immediately formed an alliance with the Asronians after meeting them.

External Relations
No rebellion of Asronians, nor Asronian internal war with any other member of the Empire, is on record. Imperial political theorists generally ascribe this to the fact that Asronians very rarely need to compete for space anywhere, as the worlds best suited for them are in lower demand. In the most recent Imperial Census, 72% of member governments rated their relationship with the Asronians “neutral to cordial.” Among major powers, the Asronians are most closely allied with the Imperial Electorate of Humanity. Among regional powers in the area, of which Asronis is generally counted as one, the Asronians are known to have significant trade and diplomatic relations with the Voranians (or Vorat) and the Fokraxtians (or Fokraxti).