Niori

The Niori are a sapient, spacefaring alien species.

Biology
Niori are tall, erect, four-armed bipeds whose bodies are covered with plates of pale integument. Due to their particular growth rate, it is possible to deduce a Niori's age from the width of the growth-areas between their armour plates. Their heads are helmet-shaped with a smooth pale-cream porcelain-like texture and beautiful blue markings. They have two glowing violet eyes, set widely apart, and a curved crest which glows with a frost-blue luminescence.

Culture and society
Like the majority of sapients in the galaxy, Niori culture and attitudes differ from Humans to the point of being nigh incomprehensible. Cooperation seems to have played a much stronger survival factor in their evolution than competition, so much that the latter appears to be virtually nonexistent among them. The Niori never kill, harm, steal, deceive, plot against or exploit each other in any way. Disagreements never lead to anything more serious than educated debates. Niori merchants label their goods with how much they cost to the merchant, and buyers pay as much higher as they can afford.

Niori cities consist of enormous beehive-like buildings. They don't have the same forms of art and entertainment as Humans, but have others that are hard for a Human to comprehend, including an activity in which Niori gather in a circle of six or eight individuals and repeat sequences of words in a seemingly nonsensical way, without a discernible pattern.

The Niori language has 43 phonemes, each represented by a unique letter, making their written language entirely phonetic.

Appearances

 * "The Earth Quarter", by Damon Knight (1955)