Ancilicae (Species)

Name:

Omniaudire species name: Ancilicae. (Comparable to the term "mankind". Describes the species as whole, or undetermined large groups)

Single form: Ancilican. (Descriptive form. "That individual is an Ancilican".)

Plural form: Ancilicans. (Descriptive form. "Those Ancilicans over there...)

Noun form: Ancilican. ("This is rare Ancilican silk".)

Self-given name: Callian

Primary speeches: Cili, Zandri, Liqun.

The self given name stems from ancient Cili speech, ''Na'Call Inan. ''The meaning roughly translates to "Being with Callus" in Omniaudire. This was likely to distinguish between Ancilicae and other creatures in the ancient times.

General
The Ancilicae are a pale bipedal humanoid species with two long distinct lobes, called Callus, stemming from the head and falling down until beneath the shoulders. These Callus have very diverse colors and glow slightly in the dark. This glow happens subconsiously, but can be controlled consiously. Ancilicae stem from their homeworld Ancilicus. Due to Ancilicus' s slow spin, the nights and days are quite long. One complete Day/Night cycle is 574 hours long, or almost 24 days. This long cycle has enormous effect on the planetary culture. On top of this long cycle, Ancilicus' s home star is a small, dim red star. This makes the days on Ancilicus dim most of the time. This lack of UV-radiation makes that Ancilicae are a generally pale race.

Ancilicae history is quite extensive but filled with slow technological progress. Despite their slow progress, the Ancilicae's recorded history is stupenduesly long compared to other species and are one of the older sentient races in the Galaxy.

When the Ancilicae joined the Alliance of Systems in 2161, they were easily the most advanced civilization in the Alliance.

Ancilican culture is dominated by their long day/night cycle and its effects. Ancilicus's 3 moons are the primary natural sources of light during the 6 days of deep night and are therefore quite important in pre-modern Ancilicae times. The Callus also glows in its respective color during the night, allowing Ancilicae to see each other in the night. The color of one' s Callus plays a role in familial connections, recognisability and social status.

Social & Political system
Ancilicae have extensive families due to a highly polygamous system. It is common for someone to be married to multiple people. Being married to only a single person at adult age was socially frowned upon, although not actively hindered. General acceptance of amount of active marriages laid between 2 and 5, although royalties of pre-modern Ancilican times could have up to 15 marriages. This has the effect that most of the Ancilican population are related in one way or another. The polygamous system causes very extensive and large families. When one marries someone their 'own' family grows, and their 'direct' family gains the spouse's other wifes/husbands. The wifes's/husband's other spouses are seen as in-laws.

Ancilican royalties were the main planetary powers for millennia, until Democratic systems began replacing them. The change to democratic governments allowed planetary unification to slowly become a thing. The royal families still had large amounts of assets, currency and influence left from their governing days, but their legislative and executive power was greatly diminished.

Physical Attributes:
General Description:

Ancilicae are a pale bipedal humanoid species with two long distinct lobes, called Callus, stemming from the head and falling down until beneath the shoulders. Ancilicae heads were located on a flexible neck allowing them to look in 270 degrees around them. Their two eyes have a limited range of rotation, which they compensate with their flexible necks. Ancilicae generally stand around 190 centimeters by adult age. 170cm by adult age is considered small, and 210 centimeters is considered tall.

The Callus can have many various colors. These colors are mostly decided by genetics, but can change by various factors in one's life. Most Callus are monocolorous, but rare circumstances one' s Callus can have multiple colors.

A majority of Ancilicae is pale, with minorities being white / fair, and sometimes people can have light brown skins. It is speculated that this is an evolutionary trait so people can see each other better in the nights. With more pale skin and the passive glow of their Callus, more body details remain visible in the dark. Another explanation is the lack of UV-radiation from their red sun.

''

Unique Abilities:

The most distinct unique ability that the Ancilicae posses is their dim glowing Callus. This allows them to be better seen in the dark. Ancilicae can increase or decrease the luminosity of their Callus both consiously and subconsiously, allowing them to communicate basic concepts in the dark. Due to living in darkness, Ancilicae have large pupils to absorb more light. This gives them very keen eyesight in dim and dark environments, but causes pain when in bright environments.

While not a natural ability, many Ancilicae have keen memory of relationships and people in general. This is due to the complexity of Ancilican family structure and the extensiveness of one' s own family.  

Geography:
Location:

(needs work)

Ancilicae stem from their homeworld of Ancilicus. Ancilicus is a continental planet with active tectonics in the Ancilicus star system. It is the second planet within the system and the planet has 2 major moons and 1 minor moon. Ancilicae mostly live on the largest continent which is located around the equator of the planet. This major continent. There are many cities located on the other continents around the planet, but these are generally smaller and less dense than its counterparts on the main continent.

Climate:

Ancilicus orbits its star on the more inner part of its goldilock' s zone, causing the planet to have quite high temperatures during the day. The planet holds a lot of water in large oceans, and the global humidity is quite high due to the warmth and the amount of water available. This makes it that a large portion of the planet is covered in rainforest and leaftree forests. The more dryparts of the planet still have savanna' s, and no large deserts exist on the planet. The poles of the planet recieve very little sunlight whatsoever, and are covered in ice due to the lack of external heating.

Ancilicae usually like to live on the lush planes on the borders of forests, near rivers or other bodies of fresh water. The oldest Ancilican civilizations arose around these place, or by other fertile grounds such as near vulcanoes.

Terrain:

Ancilicus's active tectonics make for extensive archipelago' s and mountain ranges due to vulcanic or tectonic activity. Area's away from tectonic borders have calmer terrain and consist mostly of flat plains or gentle hills. Many mountain ranges are quite extensive and consist of mostly alpine terrain and climate. These ranges have acted as natural barriers since they were quite difficult to cross before motorised transports were invented. Modern Ancilicae have solved these problems by utilising planes or building infrastructure to cross these ranges.

Mountain Kraa is the tallest mountain on the planet, with the peak being about 9.700 meters above sea level. The peak reaches into the upper atmosphere. The peak was only reached by Ancilicans when airtight pressure suits were invented, not long before orbital satellites became a practical reality.

Hazards:

Ancilicus's surface is prone to vulcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Other "hazards" include severe rainfall near the equator. ''

Economy:
Agriculture:

Agriculture is the primary source of food for Ancilicae. Food is usually produced in proximity to urban centers. Leaf crops are the most planted, with vines, cane and wheat being other major crops. A large portion of the food is fruit, with major area's of forests being designated for industrial fruit production. Ancilican fruit is very diverse and a popular export product. ''

Domestic Animals/Herding:

''What sort of animals have these people domesticated? Do they herd animals?''

Hunting/Gathering:

Some delicacies are impractical to plant / breed or only grow / live in deep rainforests. These special fruits or animals are gathered / hunted. ''

Industries:

Ancilican woodworking is the biggest industry across the entire planet. Other major industries include textile working, mineral mining & processing, and banking & real estate. Agriculture is another major 'industry'.

The many varieties of wood available allow for delicate and professional woodworking. A lot of Ancilican tools and art consists of woodworked artifacts. Many Ancilicans wear woodworked jewelry as a replacement to gem-based jewelry.

Ancilican fruits are a popular delicacy amongst both Ancilicans and aliens alike.  

Natural Resources:

Ancilicus has many usefull minerals, which are widely available for mining in the mountain ranges and hills. Other major natural resources are the wide wood varieties and organic materials. ''

Trade:

The major export products of Ancilica are woodworked items, food, minerals, delicacies and pets.

''What goods do these people trade? Internal trade? External trade?''

Currency:

Ancilicae have access to 3 major currencies: Pecunia, Chimcoins and Werina goldbeads. Pecunia is the official currency of the Allied Systems Federation, of which Ancilicus is a member world. Chimcoins were the global currency before joining the Alliance of Systems. It is still a viable currency on Ancilicus itself, but does not carry much value with alien traders. Chimcoins are mostly used by the general population.

Werina goldbeads are highly customised jewelry pieces that often have rich historical tales of its owners embedded with gold and tiny gems. The value of these goldbeads is dependent on the age of the beads, the historic tales, its previous owners and the gems that are embedded on it.

Political Structure:
General Description:

Ancilicae currently employ a planetary wide indirect democracy. They used to widely employ monarchial and oligarchial structures. These old structures used to be governed by nobles and royal and/or powerful families.

The current planetary democracy works with four distinct governmental levels.

The smallest level being local politics. These regional governments govern the administrative, legal and executive tasks in local cities and surroundings. Marriage, Birth, Death, Urban maintenance and other daily life tasks are going through these levels of government. The representatives and people in charge are directly chosen by the local populus. This is also the only pure direct democracy in the governmental levels. Anyone can vote on anyone, but preference usually goes to local politicians.

The next level of government is the national level. This government oversees the needs of tens of millions of people and the according land which those people share. Tasks like tax control, spatial planning and industry are often the main staples of these governmental levels. This is also the government level that the majority of the citizens have the most business with.

The third level is the planetary government. This is the highest form of government for the general population, and controls every aspect of the planetary operations. While being a indirect democracy composed of representatives of the national level, there are many planet-wide advisory referendums. These referendums are free to participate in, and has no minimum validity threshold. The influence of these referendums is proportional to the amount of people that voted, but its advice will never be discarded due to low turnout of voters.

The highest level of government is the local ASF presence. These executive representatives of the ASF council oversee interstellar operations, planetary tax to the ASF and executing the agenda of the ASF Senate. Like on many ASF member worlds, the ASF Government is located in a planetside megacomplex. Unlike the norm for ASF Megabases, the Ancilian base is located quite close to the planetary capital. While many citizens don't really think anything about this and think of the benefits that ASF membership brings, some see the megacomplex as a military occupation of their homeworld by the Humans.

Political History:

Due to the ancient polygamous system which almost all Ancilicae follow, medieval times saw the rise of enormous families with a lot of collective power. A collection of allied families could have populations and assets that rivaled small countries, and often did so. The political landscape of these familial alliances was directed by the respective power of each family. The largest or richest family's patriarch would have the influence to control thousands or even more through indirect familial pressure or arrangements. Diplomacy and war were very difficult and sensitive methods due to the entanglement of families. Family A could hate Family B, but both were allied to Family C. Ever so slight intentions, misconceptions or drama could shift alliances in a matter of moments and plunge entire regions into civil war. This made war dreadful, since you would very likely have to fight indirect family.

In Ancilicus's early industrial times, power began to shift away from classicly powerful families that controlled a lot of land to businesslike families that earned a lot of money through trade, mineral production, and industry. The massive influence and riches of the most powerful royal families would not fade away, and these families began extending loans to the growing industry, which in return gave access to mass-production and new riches. Royal culture reigned supreme and became the global epitome for dreams of wealth and power.

As the Ancilicae approached modern times with the shift from animal riding to motorised transport and travel time shrunk, the traditional families began intertwining so much that everyone on entire continents had familial ties to everyone else. This caused a period in which people began to care less and less about the extended family, since it became unancillicanly difficult to keep track of everyone's relation to everyone else. This period also marked a resurge in the amount of violence and wars. Consumption of resources grew faster than traditional production / excavation of said resources could provide. Wars for territory and resources decimated several royal families and their influence on the world and their populus. Democratic systems gradually began replacing the leading families in legislative and executive functions.

Political Leadership:

In the traditional familial political system, the leading members of a family were often the ones in power. Ascension in the political landscape was often through marriage, inheritance or death of family.

In the current democratic system, almost anyone can become a regional politican if they can rally enough support. From there, it is a game of appointment to ascend to higher levels of government. This appointment is either from above (where you are picked by the higher government), or from below (where your peers support you to ascend to fill in a representative function.).

Political Power:

In the traditional familial system, the leading family's members controlled the power through control of assets. This was often a reinforcing circle process. If you controlled assets, you had influence. You used your influence to gain more assets to gain more influence. This made the patriarch and matriarch of a leading family the most powerful people in an entire region. The structure was also highly hierarchial. The children of leading family had the secondmost influence, then came the leaders of the 'secundary' families. This setup could be broken through if you had sufficient social skill or certain assets that could overrule someone's influence.

In the modern democracy, the officials from the levels of government hold the executive power. Law states that the political process must be transparent enough that the general populus can control their government. Through local elections and worldwide referendums, the general populus holds sizeable influence over their government and it is not uncommon that politicians are cast out by the populus by popular vote. Having a positive reputation as a politician was one of the best ways to remain in a position of power.

Political Structures:

(needs way more info)

''Wat voor structuren zitten er in het systeem? Zijn er glitches in het systeem? Corruptie? Waar ligt de macht, aan de top of de bodem van de pyramide?''

The current democratic system is effective with its processes, but is prone to corruption with reputation. Having a positive reputation is more important for political survival than competence of effectiveness. Cutthroat practices are also not uncommon, in which one party publicly undermines another party with the intent of destabilizing them and getting them kicked out due to manufactured negative reputation with the general public. Making big promises in campaigns is also a high risk - high reward play in politics which can sway the vote of swaths of the populus, effectively making of breaking your party.

The system has stabilised somewhat with the introduction of the ASF governmental level on top of all other governments. This allows outsiders to evaluate and intervene in politics to avoid corruption and populistic campaigning. However, some political party's propagade this as oppression of the system, and can easily gain media traction with bold statements, which leads to easy and quick votes.

Religion in Politics:

Religion has little sway in modern Ancilican politics. There are religious party's, but these are often very small and hold little influence.

Traditional Familial politics were more prone to religious influence. This depended on the beliefs of the ruling houses.

Views on other Cultures:
Subcultures:

''What kind of sub or non mainstream cultures exist among these people? How are they seen by the mainstream culture? What kind of interactions are allowed with this subculture?''

Minorities:

''What kind of minorities exist within these people’s society? How are they preserved? Are they treated as equals or as second class citizens? What kind of interactions are allowed with these people?''

Foreign Cultures:

Ancilicae generally are cordial towards foreign cultures, although they have a underlying view of Ancilican superiority. They view their ancient and rich culture as being second to none. Ancilicae generally see Humans as a capable species, being official allies since 2161. Despite being allies, Ancilicae are wary of humanity's history with war, expansionism and oppression, and have a internal fear that when left unopposed, Human culture will eventually start overtaking the Ancilican cultural supremacy. Ancilican polygamy and Human monogamy are occasionally intertwining, since the two species are genetically compatible to produce offspring. These halflings are generally accepted, but still occupy an awkward grey zone fin both species's cultures.

The Votos are seen as little brothers who are in need of Ancilican guidance. Even still in the early 2300's, Ancilicans see the Votos as young and needing to learn to be truely civilised.

Ancilicae generally despise K'adurbian culture, seeing it as barbaric, uncivilsed and oppressive. This became increasingly apparent after the K' adurbian invasion of Ancilicus during the ASF-K'adurbian War. After the war ended, the Ancilican government was one of the biggest adversary against the new exchange programs between the ASF and the K'adurbian Star Imperium.

Several large royal Ancilican houses have positive relations with the Borian Monarchy, seeing them as a sort of Royal equals. This notion extends downwards to the general populi of both the Ancilican republic within the ASF and the Bor Empire.

Cultural Appearance:
Adornment:

Many wear decorative jewelry made of wood, precious metals or gems. These objects often have tales or life lessons embedded in them and often hold emotional value to its wearer. Some use them in popular fads, and some use them to suggest social status which might not be true. A lot can be said about one's personality judging by the decoratives that are embedded in their clothing and jewelry. These complex meanings are often above the average alien tourist, which Ancilicae often use to prank them or create a internal gag. There are some Ancilican counter movements that deliberatly wear "incorrect" attire simply to upset the established order or current trends. 

Tattoos/Scarification:

Ancilicae generally don't practice scarification. Some Ancilicans like the idea of having their skin marked and brand familial ties, beliefs or signs of social status on various locations. This is usually on the arms, but in rare cases people brand their back or chest for more elaborate but also more private tattoo's. Having tattoo's is unpopular by the majority of the population and by extend not very common.''

Makeup:

Ancilicae mostly use organic colored dyes for body paint, and chemical makeup on clothing and masks. Makeup is mostly used for formal, religious or celebratory events.

Makeup can vary from subtle coloring to full body paint.

Ancilican women with intergalactic professions (ex: being an ASF officer, trader, traveller, etc.) often wear makeup with influences from Human culture.

Clothing:

Ancilicae like to wear open and ventilating clothes to compensate for the warmth of the days and more tight and insulated clothing during the nighttimes of the planet.

Casual day clothing is......

while Casual night clothing is.....

Fancy daytime attire consists of elaborate and colorful dresses and suits complementing one's social status or familial ties. Fancy nightclothing incorporate artificial Callus that is linked to one's own Callus. This allows for people to remain colorful and apparant even in nighttime, complementing their natural glow-in-the-dark approach with organic Callus.

Hair:

Ancilicae have very little body hair, and any body hair is usually insignificant enough that it does not require major styling. ''

Attraction:

''What is considered beautiful by these people? What are the standards for men and women?

''What is considered ugly? What is the difference between cute/handsome and ''hot/sexy?

Cultural Creations:
Architecture:

Wooden buildings have been popular since ancient times. Ancilicus's diverse forms of wood allow for complex and large buildings using supportive trees and strong compressed wood as foundations. Treehouses are a common sight in forest rich regions. Although rarer, there are entire villages build uit in the trees. These forms of living are not practiced as much anymore in modern times due to heavy equipment. However, they are still quite popular under the poor, tourists, vacationgoers or naturalists.

Monuments or world wonders were often built with stone or metal, which would stand for way longer without the detoriation that wooden buildings plagued. The oldest monuments on Ancilicus include the Obelisk of Vi, a large stone monument built by ancient Ancilicae, and the monastary of Im'Vhemm, an ancient religious center on the slopes of the Mountain Kraa. Ancient Ancilicae believed that a powerful entity lived on top of the mountain.

In modern times, Ancilicae use metal-based building materials and concrete for their buildings. This was necessary to build the tall buildings that Ancilican cities are littered with. Suburbs still use wood as a building material, although this is not the norm.

Many houses are also half embedded in the ground, using the ground as insulation against the elements. This is more regulary used farther away from the equator.

Art:

What sort of art do these people create?

Woodcarved jewelry is a commonplace artform. The adornments contain carved stories, images, riddles, events or lessons on them. pieces of these wooden adornments were often chained together to form long necklaces or wristbands. They were also hung indoors or on clothing. Family history was also carved into these adornments, passing them down from parents to children.

(to be expanded)

Artifacts:

''What sort of physical artifacts do these people create? What kind of items are decorate and which one’s are left plane?''

Symbolism:

What sort of symbols hold significance to these people?

Symbols relating to familial tales, relationships or position were considered to be very important. The conceptual symbols used in writing and speech were also understood globally.

Literature/stories:

''What sort of writing do these people create? Do they follow standard genres ''or archetypes?

Ancilican writing and speech relied heavily on concepts and archetypes. These concepts were universally understood and simplified stories. These concept often held strong emotional weight and simply saying the word of a powerful scary archetype could make a grown Ancilican burst into tears, crying on the floor. Powerful concepts were thus spared and used infrequently. More general terms would be used in casual conversation as placeholders for irrelevant details that would clutter conversation. 

Music:

''What sort of music do these people make? What kind of instruments?''

Food:

What sort of food do these people create?

Calendar/Time Keeping:

How do these people record the passage of time?

Ancilicae used a Bi-munar calender in which they tracked the orbital progress of their two largest and brightest moons. The orbital position of the moons were compared with each other which resulted in a month-like progression system. Since the days and nights were way longer than Ancilicae could stay awake or asleep, they adopted this munar calender to keep track of time. The day/night cycle caused half of the month to be lighted by the sun, while half of the month was dark and only illuminated by the 3 moons.

After the Alliance of Systems was reorganised into the Allied Systems Federation, Ancilicae switched to the newly introduced Galactic Time. This calendar was mostly used in official recordkeeping, governments and research & engineering institutes. Regular citizens retained the use of the Bi-munar calender.