Re: Trying to think of a "alien" aquatic race for my world

(details below)
The Nautilus Empire

The Nautilus Empire is a society of psychic cephalopods that controls the littoral zone of
the Stormy Sea. They are a polymorphic race, having 21 basic body types. The basal race
of the Empire is more closely related to octopi and squid than the mundane chambered
nautilus, but the form most often encountered by surface dwellers is physically similar to
a nautilus, thus the name. The majority of the aquatic morphs resemble cuttlefish.

Nautilus towns center around Commentalities, the sessile female form that stores the
race-memory of the Empire. Commentalities are hidden underneath 100m diameter
domes of symbiotic coral, sponges and macroalgae, all carefully arranged by Attendents.
Surrounding this are concentric rings of hollow mounds, built from stone and held
together by domestic corals and sponges. There are fields of kelp and other macroalgaes
arranged around the cities. As the Nautili are entirely carnivorous, the algaes are
foodstock for various domestic species of crustaceans, fish and enchinoderms.

The Nautilus Empire facilitates trade across the Stormy Sea. They build/grow
submersible capsules that are capable of taking dryland cargo and passengers (though not
particularly comfortably). These capsules are carried by the Transporter morphs, which
resemble a cross between a cuttlefish and manta ray. All capsule crossing the Stormy Sea
dock for a period of days at Storm Port - this is where the Nautili process and store the
megatons of food the transporters require. The Nautili take payment in ignots of metal or
precious stones. Capsules have a 64 year lifespan and there are exactly 256 in active
service at any given time. All capsules are assembled at Pt. Penglai.

Stormport is a undersea dome atop a submerged seamount in the middle of the

StormySea. It is noted for its hospitality - all amenities are provided gratis by the Empire.
There are several thousand permanent drylander residents, culled from Patala,
Tenmongoku and the Centrality. Stormport is known for two things, art and psionics. The
Nautili absolutely venerate art, and are thus delighted to sponser a small expat
community of artists, even if most drylander art is incomprehensible to them. The
AcademieSorcerian has built a small adjunct school in Stormport for the study of the
psychic arts.

Stormport, and possibly the whole enterprise of trade, has a secondary purpose: it is a
drylander zoo. A specially developed Commentality under the city scans the minds of all
passers through. The Nautili know that drylanders are dangerous - their civilization is
ancient and they have witnessed the Elven Last War, among other atrocities. They have
deliberately renounced the temptation of isolation, instead they have found a way to
inextricably wrap their tentacles around drylander culture. They are envolved enough to
learn, but hopefully far enough away to be safe.

There is an entire world beneath the waves of the Stormy Sea that the drylanders know
nothing about. The Great Whales, Nereid Faeries, the palace of the Lung Kings and their
legions of Samebito, Susurrussong, the Wildling dragon that the Nautili themselves
fostered, the list goes on. These beings chose not to interact with the drylanders, and the
Nautili are not forthcoming with information about them.

One of the more comprehensible aspects of Nauliti culture is their obsession with art, if
not its manifestations. There are four branches of art: Psisymphonics, Illusionart, Music
and Sculpture. Each of these has several schools, though they do not recognize individual
artists as such. Nautili have been known to fight wars over artistic differences. At least
once a day a town will have an Exhibit or Concert, and everyone will stop to listen.

Aeronauts are the form of Nautilus that interacts with drylanders. Aeronauts look like a
deep water nautilis floating in midair. The tentacles are extra-long, but the resemblence is
acute. Their shells max out at 1m. They have two 1.5m grasping tentacles and six .5m
manipulatory tentacles. Their eyes are a striking iridescent blue. All aeronauts are
biologically male, but have no real understanding at all of drylander gender norms and
have been known to take female names.
Aeronaut shells are a last ditch defense. If an aeronaut is stunned he automatically
withdraws fully and seals his shell. His parasympathetic psionics kicks in and induces a
kind of limited statis and autoredaction. This is necessary - the aeronaut's ability to
breathe air is partially telekinetic and does not function when he is mentally
incapacitated.
Normal Aeronaut levitation is via ground-effect and is effortless. Their ceiling is 3m from
solid ground. Strangely, they do not levitate well over water - this requires true flight. All
Aeronauts are capable of this, of course, but it is energy intensive as is flying above their
ceiling.
Aeronauts are well designed for their tasks. They have both Cultural Adaptability and
Curiousity. They are genuinely likable. At first most drylanders find a lack of
individuality which is to be expected from a communal species, but with time they do
show real personalities. Their most abrasive trait is a total disrespect for the individual
greed and competitiveness that drives most other species - they are often quite vocal in
analyzing the shortcomings of other races in this regard.

Commentalities are giant sessile minds that grow on the sea floor with symbiotic corals
and sponges that provide support. They are the repositories of all Nautaloid knowledge,
and beyond that, the spiritual centers of the races. Nautili have changed their Essence so
that it is no longer part of the Universal Animus. Instead it is stored in the
Commentalities, and it carries with it some of the knowledge and personality of the
possessor. Commentalities are the only female Nautili - all others are male. Along with
the egg, the Great Mind contributes a part of the Group Soul, providing an extreme form
of continuity.
Attendents are those who care for the Commumentidants. Their body forms resemble
squid, and they hover in swarms above the Commumentidant mounds, making minute
adjustments and providing it with specialized predigested foods.

There are three types of farmer/herder Nautili: the Pelagics, which have telecontrol
powers over fish, the Benthics, which keep corrals of crustaceans, and the Sessils, which
grow macroalgaes, sponges and corals.

Emmisaries are a special remora like Nautilus which attaches itself bodily to the great
Whales. For the most part, they record whale songs, then detach and return to the
Commumentidants with their knowledge.

Gamellectors are a kind of third sex - they mate with all the other forms, storing the
sperm in separate pouches. When they are filled, they return them to the
Commumenidants for fertilization.

Incubatrices receive the fertilized eggs from the Commumentidants and care for the
young. Immature Nautili are unspecialized, it is the hormones of the Incubatrices who
decide their final form.

Geninks are a kind of weird psuedoalchemist. They seek out strange kelps and sponges
and toxic fish and eat them, then use their bodies to mix alchemical potions, which they
can spray out in clouds of ink. Geninks normally have five ink pouches.

Comupaths are the ambassadors, mostly to the MarineFaeries, Selkies and Otters who
share their Sea.

Telespers are mostly sessile being with extreme powers of ESP. They collect knowledge
for the Commumentidants.

Redactors are Nautili psychic healers, found in every colony and especially around the
breederies.

Krakens are the giant warriors of the Empire, mostly fending off SeaSerpents. They also
have a penchant for attacking ships with Mentalist passengers.

Defendecants are smaller versions of Krakadents, who use Mindswords in defense of

their cities.

Psychokenes are a type devoted to building. They have powerful psychokinetic abilities,
including the power to warp, compress and mold stone and metal.

The final four types of Nautili are the Artists: the Psyphonics, Illusionists, the
Polychorads and the Sculptares. All have the same basic cuttlefish body shape but with
 wildly varying psychic powers. To nonmullosks, Nautili Art seems highly abstract,
especially the sculpture, which tends to take the form of looping intertwined things the
size of buildings, sometimes taking hundreds of years to complete.

50% of capsule do straight north-south bhang/tea run. These are owned by Tenmongoku
clans and Patali merchant/noble consortiums. Lady Pengali owns 15%. Ravana owns
20%. Ker-Ys owns 5%. 5% Elathe, 5% private, based out of Penglai.

Each capsule has a capacity of 125 cubic meters and weighs 2,500kg. The capsules are
10m long and 4m wide.

carries 125 metric tons with room for 10 passengers. By agreement, there must always be
a representative of the owner on board and an Aeronaut. Passenger accomodations vary
wildly. Each capsule also has crew capacity for a dozen Nautili of various morphs, mostly
Defendants, and a sealed chamber sea-air access (which I can't call a moongate). One of
the crew is the actual captain, psychically partnered with the transport morph, along with
a navigator and other specialists. The Nautili endevor to keep the crew and the passengers
as separate as possible, for everyone's comfort. It takes about 4 days to travel from Pt.
Penglai to Stormport. Transport morphs consume 5 metric tons of food per day - this
must be included in the cargo and transports always carry 150% of their expected need.

The body of mantasquids are 20m long with a 25m wingspan. The feeder tentacles extend
another 20m, the other eight a more reasonable 10m. The capsules they carry are 10m
long and 4m in diameter. There is an endentation along the mantasquid's back that is lined
with suckers. Mantasquids are capable of feeding themselves - they eat krill and
plankton, but rarely do so. The workers of the Empire produce concentrated bundles they
carry with them, containing massive amounts of protein and carbs.
The mantasquids are fully sapient. They enjoy conversing with their passengers, and
singing with the Great Whales. They spend about half of their time transporting. The
economics of the Nautilus Empire is beyond the understanding of drylanders (the have
psychic currency units of labor, joy and reproductive capacity), but by all accounts, the
mantasquids are well paid.

If average distanct to Stormport is 4000km

Mantas swim at 45kph, therefor average time to Stormport is 3.5 days.

written by
tantric
Dwarf in the Playground
Join Date
Sep 2016
Location
near athens, ga