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[Squeegy]

Yesterday while reading Dune, the seeds of a sci-fi setting were planted in my head, mainly in the form of a race of space lizards that call themselves the "zilji". Most others call them "those goddamn lizard bastards."

This topic is mostly to organize my thoughts on them and other races in the setting and get feedback.

Body
Ziljin are anthropomorphic lizard-like creatures that stand usually 5'3" to 5'9". Females are taller, but males have larger heads. They breathe sulfur and have magnesium instead of iron in their bodies. They have very sensitive head frills and heel spikes to help them balance and hike long distances. They have resilient, tough, leathery skin and vertical eyelids. They mature at 17 years and generally live 70-80 unless KIA.

Society
There are about 57 billion Ziljin spread across 17 planets. 53 billion of those are soldiers or engineers. The other 2 billion are crafters, smiths, builders and farmers. Officially, they are mature at 17 years old, but they are considered adults the moment they are drafted into the military, usually around 8 or 9. It is possible, although rare, to avoid military service, but those who do are considered immature and treated like children until they die.

There are only three ways out of the military. The first, and most common, is to get a pketn, or 'crippling injury', also interchangable with 'discharge'. The second is for there to be a food shortage, and be released to build and maintain more farms. The third is to become old enough where you are no longer fighting near your peak, or suffer memory losses or other things that would show up in testing and get you honorably discharged. The fourth way is to die.

The army encourages fraternization among its ranks. Homosexuality as a recreational activity does not exist in ziljin society. Ziljin have too little free time, and consider romance as more of a business matter or obligation anyway. The common ziljin soldier approaches romance the same way one might approach a minefield pocked with enemy machinegun nests. Complicated and dangerous, requiring lots of tactics and much planning for losses, better off avoided until one is forced to face it. Nevertheless, some form soulmate relationships that are less for sex than for companionship. It is a common saying for the ziljin, "Coruscin come and go, but a kelji is forever."

There is always a war. When the ziljin finish one campaign, they begin another. When they conquer a planet, they assimilate all their technology, wipe the previous owners off the face of the planet, and then move into their cities. They burn the bodies or jettison them into space, or build farms on mass graves.

The government is run by the top generals. Greed is not common. Most ziljin are extremely friendly to each other, polite and professional. Communities are always very tightly knit. They are very forgiving towards each other, although they can hold long-lasting grudges, most of them merely meaning the two avoid each other, politely greeting the other as dali and attempting to avoid having to be in the same room. Elkenni are shunned and usually killed.

Language
The ziljin language is divided into two types of words: friendly and hostile.

Friendly words include:
zilji(n) - literally "comrade", term used for the species, family, friends, fellow soldiers, superior officers, random people you meet on the street.
dali(n) - literally "ally", or "person you can't stand but are forced to work with anyway", closest thing to an insult the ziljin language contains (for referring to other ziljin).
corusci(n) - mate
kelji(n) - soulmate

Hostile words include:
harkonn(i) - literally "mortal enemy", also word for foreigner, never used to describe another member of the species, ever
elkenn(i) - deserter
pketn(i) - lit. "crippling injury", interchangable with "discharge"
gedannen(i) - retreat

Technology
The ziljin are not especially inventive. Most, if not all, of their technology is stolen from races they have wiped out, adapted and copied. They discovered automated farms and copied the design to great effect. They mainly use gauss or laser/maser weaponry.

Their usual battle gear is an airtight helmet with a large plexiglass window, darkened so that the zilji can see out but no one can see in, and a slot for their head frills to stick out. They wear spiked bracers and boots with spiked bottoms to aid in climbing, and thick, reflective vests. They also wear two large tanks of sulfur on their back, hooked up to their helmets. They commonly carry a combat knife and a roll of duct tape.

Other Tidbits
2010-09-22 08:28:47-pm <Disst|laptop> What do they do with their dead
2010-09-22 08:36:18-pm <~Squeegy> Disst: they bury them
2010-09-22 08:36:36-pm <~Squeegy> sometimes the families use them to fertilize their own small gardens
2010-09-22 08:37:06-pm <Lokimon> heh, not much ceremony or such
2010-09-22 08:37:36-pm <Lokimon> an open hole funeral is as fancy as it gets?
2010-09-22 08:37:38-pm <~Squeegy> not really, they have little respect for death
2010-09-22 08:37:43-pm <~Squeegy> oh no it gets very fancy
2010-09-22 08:37:56-pm <~Squeegy> for high-brass generals and such

[Talanic]

Well, I have little time before bed, but at the moment I'm not sure how they interact with humans if at all - if they breathe sulfur instead of oxygen, it could theoretically work from a chemical standpoint, but any planet they'd be able to survive on would be waaaay too hot for humans, and any planet humans could live on would freeze their air supply solid.

More tomorrow, when I get up.

[Squeegy]

No, there are no humans in the setting.

[Talanic]

Well, you called it the seeds of a sci-fi setting, and seeds is right.  It may be harder to get readers to care for these lizards if they're not in contact with humans, but it can be done. 

Also note that if you're actually having the Ziljin exist at temperatures where sulfur's a gas, you'll have some trouble with materials.  Just as an example, you mentioned plexiglass on their helmets - there's no chance whatsoever that plexiglass could hold gaseous sulfur without also boiling into gas.

Right now I see that they're at war almost all the time, but I don't really see a reason WHY.  You say they're not greedy but apparently their culture's based around crushing anyone who's not a member of their species and stealing their stuff - when, honestly, the resources available freely in space are enough that conquering anyone for their resources should be functionally absurd.  So unless someone else out there is more dangerous than the Ziljin are, their current military structure doesn't make sense to me...

I'm cutting to the chase and bringing out a list I created a while ago.  This was aimed originally at specifically fantasy creatures, but a little adaptation should do the trick...also please note, none of this is aimed specifically at what you wrote, but should be helpful nonetheless.  The last question is probably the least pertinent to you, but the rest may help.

Questions regarding your Fantasy Race:

1. Are they better than humans at everything?

If you answered yes to that question, then you'd best be very, very careful. It's far too easy to make someone good at everything than it is to make them interesting. Elves in particular tend to fall down this slippery slope. The only way I know of to answer 'yes' to this question and still have a potential story is if they've been nearly wiped out by people who realized that someone who's better than you at everything is a direct threat to your own survival.

2. Are they humans, or enough like humans that they would be mistaken for them by an outsider who takes a really close look at them? This doesn't make them bad either way. I recall reading a series once in which ethnic groups had fantasy race names applied to them--goblins were people from that area of the world, who tended to be short with large noses and lots of tattoos, etc.

3. If they're not human in a physical manner, how are they different? How does this affect their behavior/culture/etc?

The sticky bits here. If your fantasy race has great night vision, do they tend to spend more time awake at night? Spend less on lamps, work in mines, etc?

4. If their attitudes are different, how and WHY? What, in general, does their culture value that's different from what your average human values? What are their taboos? What makes someone in their culture a person of prestige? What kind of things do they love or despise? If more than one culture exists for this race, good for you! See if you can answer for each one.

5. Are humans/other races present also in your stories? If so, is this race integrated with human society? What happens in areas where either side is on top?

6. Is commerce a factor in their relations with others? If not, they're definitely not much like humans. What do they trade for? Where do they get their food, what do they prefer to eat?

7. Give us an event or two from their history--the teachings of a philosopher, a major war, etc. How has this event shaped the way their people see the world? Behavior rarely springs from a vacuum. If you're writing a fantasy race, you want them to be--above all else--people, and people have reasons for what they do. Even if the reason in real life tends to be "that's what we've always done".

8. Where did they come from? Were they always there in your setting? Are they a mutation off of another race, or are they human-descended? Did a wizard happen to sneeze while cooking dinner and accidentally create a race of free-willed pastry men? Or is it just a complete mystery? Do they have a creation myth of their own? Whether or not the READER will know, YOU should know.

[Squeegy]

Well, you called it the seeds of a sci-fi setting, and seeds is right.

Jerk.

Body

1. Are they better than humans at everything?

No. What? No.

2. Are they humans, or enough like humans that they would be mistaken for them by an outsider who takes a really close look at them?

No. What? No.

3. If they're not human in a physical manner, how are they different? How does this affect their behavior/culture/etc?

I wrote a whole bit on their body and culture above and I'm not repeating it.

Society

Right now I see that they're at war almost all the time, but I don't really see a reason WHY.  You say they're not greedy but apparently their culture's based around crushing anyone who's not a member of their species and stealing their stuff - when, honestly, the resources available freely in space are enough that conquering anyone for their resources should be functionally absurd.  So unless someone else out there is more dangerous than the Ziljin are, their current military structure doesn't make sense to me...

They are massively xenophobic angry little lizard warmongers. They war for space, they war for more room for farms, they war because it is deeply embedded in their culture, they war to steal better technology, they war for what they believe is theirs. Of all the complaints you could have with them this is the one I understand least.

4. If their attitudes are different, how and WHY? What, in general, does their culture value that's different from what your average human values? What are their taboos? What makes someone in their culture a person of prestige? What kind of things do they love or despise? If more than one culture exists for this race, good for you! See if you can answer for each one.

See above. They like guns, war (and rock and roll). Interests generally vary wildly from lizard to lizard, but they are very work-focused. Mostly when they are not fighting they are doing paperwork, or sleeping.

7. Give us an event or two from their history--the teachings of a philosopher, a major war, etc. How has this event shaped the way their people see the world? Behavior rarely springs from a vacuum. If you're writing a fantasy race, you want them to be--above all else--people, and people have reasons for what they do. Even if the reason in real life tends to be "that's what we've always done".

>major war
Heh.

In the beginning, there were Ziljin. Ziljin crawled through the reeds, sunned themselves on the rocks, made spears out of the sparse, tough trees of their home planet. They gathered together in tight groups, sleeping lazily through the day. One such group was nestled in some parched grass when there was a low whistling noise from above. The group looked up and scattered into taller grass and behind rocks, watching as a strange object slowly descended. It was a small spaceship, and it landed lightly on the turf and started to open.

The ziljin gathered behind it, climbing on top it and underneath it, brandishing their spears. They watched carefully as two aliens wandered out, and were instantly repulsed. They had never seen anything so revolting. One of them, perched carefully atop the spacecraft, threw a spear at one of them as it glanced around the landscape and fanned themselves in the heat. It hit it in the neck, and it went down gurgling.

As if on cue, all the rest threw their spears as well. A few impaled the alien in its neck and legs, bounced off its armor, hit the other one, or missed entirely, but it fell to the ground. The ziljin group swarmed forward and began savaging them, punching them and chewing on them, as others started to drag off their armor. One of them wriggled into it, stood up, and promptly fell over. A few more wandered into the spacecraft and began playing with the controls. The spaceship ascended slightly, hovered, then lurched violently to the side, spilling the incautious lizards out the still open door.

They climbed on each other to reach it again, and sent messengers to all of the other nearby tribes to gather here and look at these strange new things. The aliens lay dead in the dirt. A few of the more practical-minded Ziljin nibbled on them while they worked.

Technology

Also note that if you're actually having the Ziljin exist at temperatures where sulfur's a gas, you'll have some trouble with materials.  Just as an example, you mentioned plexiglass on their helmets - there's no chance whatsoever that plexiglass could hold gaseous sulfur without also boiling into gas.

When I thought it up, it was originally 'plexiglass-ish'. I would say it is more of a space plastic.

And there you go! Hope I didn't come off as too ornery there.