The gukuy are a species from the planet Ishtar.
Biology[]
The gukuy were a species of land-walking mollusks. They moved on land on six short tentacles called pegs and six arms to move objects. their bodies were mostly composed of their mantles that flashed a variety of colors that expressed their emotions allowing them to display their intentions to one another. The mantle would rippled with the chromatic, though truemales were only capable of such complexity.
Gukuy spawn only lived on ogoto when they were newly born. Within a few eightdays, they were able to feed on soft meat. But the tough plants which were the exclusive diet of hunnakaku were much too difficult for the young sub-gukuy to chew and digest. So they lived on childfood-the regurgitated contents of the adults' stomachs-for years. Until they were half-grown.
- ochre-uncertainty
- orange- astonishment
- pink-anxiety
- red-fear
- gray-indiffernce
- blue-anger
- green-tranquillity-and love,
- brown-sadness
- white- sexual arousement
- black- impacable
Culture[]
The social structures of the gukuy empire, have basic parallels to civilizaed societies of Earth during the Bronze Age. Their societies are unstable and made up of independent principalities and city-states filled with conflicts similar to dynastic revolts.
Politics[]
One of the biggest diffrences between human empires of old and the gukuy, is that their reproductive methods do not allow for the development of dynasties. Though its an assumtion by human viewers that gukuy society would be matriarchal, the differences between gukuy and human run deeper. While it is true females ar dominant in gukuy society as 'matriarchal', but the gukuy females are not mothers as the species does not have a simple two-sex system like humanity. The big majority of gukuy are sterile females who do most of the work and the fighting making them the dominant gender in gukuy society. Most of the gukuy in these city-states made up of the helot class and members of the lesser warrior clans.
Sex & Reproduction[]
There is a complex sexual relationship in play in the gukuy society. Sterile females dominate the males, but they are not the ones who reproduce offspring. Thus the simple hereditary transmission of power and wealth which is characterized in patriarchal societies of earth's early civilizations do not apply. Instead for any ruling class in gukuy society to maintain its cohesiveness, it instead works through a sort of clan system. All gukuy in a given clan are born to a certain generation of mothers.
Gukuy are indifferent to new-born spawn thus resulting in most spawn dying off quickly from disease and predating one another. Those that survive are adopted into the clan and the clans trace their lineage through succession of generations of mothers even though the offspring are not direct descendants of the strile females who actually rule.
Warfare[]
Warfare among the tribes were mostly compose using bronze weapons. Melee combat was conducted through weapons that could tear and amage mantles of opponents such as fails and forks. The gukuy had limited projectile weapons, and mostly used blowpipes. In the past the Anshac had attempted to experiment with missile weapons like arrows but the effort was deemed useless.
Language[]
Beside their use of changing the pigments of their mantles to communicate their emotional states the guku do have their own verbal languages. There were five languages represented among the gukuy pilgrims. Three of those languages obviously belonged to the same language group. They were among the languages spoken by the civilized societies which lived somewhere to the south. Two of them were quite closely related. (In her own mind, she thought of the relationship between the three languages as being similar to trying to learn French, Spanish and Russian at the same time.) Unfortunately, the dominant language of the three-and the language spoken by the majority of the pilgrims-was the "Russian" oddball. The language in question was called Anshaku, and she soon learned that it was the principal language of the largest and most powerful empire in that part of Ishtar known to the pilgrims. The two other languages belonged to an entirely different language group-the language group spoken by most of the barbarian tribes which inhabited the great plain south of the Chiton.
One of the languages was Kiktu, the language of the largest and most powerful of those tribes. The other "language" was an argot, a Kiktu-based lingua franca which could apparently be understood by all of the barbarians. Of these Anshaku and Kiktu were the most prevalent main language is Anshaku. When they humans encountered the gukuy they began to introduce English as the spoken language as well as Arabic as the written form.
Social Structure[]
The social structure of the gukuy empires superficially parallel to the civilized societies of Earth's Bronze Age. In Earth's Bronze Age the era was of unstable empires, independent principalities and city-states. With constant warfare and conquest and dynastic revolts. However the biggest difference is that the gukuy don't really have dynasties as the reproductive methods of the gukuy don't allow for the development of dynasties.
Gukuy society would be matriarchal, in the sense that human societies became patriarchal after the Neolothic revolution. While females are dominanta and gukuy society could be described as 'matriarchal', the gukuy females are not mothers as their species don't have a simple two-sex system. Each sex is further divided. The big majority of gukuy are sterile females who do most of the work, and the fighting, dominating gukuy society on every level.
But between the clans, and, to a lesser extent, between the generations, relations are based on strict hierarchic domination. Hence the proper term for the gukuy 'empires' is prevalates. Mothers in gukuy society, especially the oldest, are highly venerated as the Paramount Mothers. But their power is mostly symbolic akin to the emperor of the old Japanese imperial system. The Paramount Mothers were a revered figure-a god-like figures with essentially religious duties while the real power lay in the hands of the warlords. However this type of system is prevalent in the southern societies of Ishtar.
The gukuy are as diverse in culture on their world. Among the barbarian tribes, the mothers seem to possess a great deal of actual authority-despite the fact that they are not venerated. The main tribe even has a class of young mothers whom they call 'battlemothers' and participate in warfare alongside the warriors until they become old enough to start producing offspring. This practice though is looked on with disgust by the civilized societies.
There is another system of leadership practice by the gukuy, specifically in the far west, called the Utuku. Under their culture the pattern of sterile female warrior dominance is carried to the extreme. All eumales are slaughtered; as well as all truemales beyond the minimum necessary. Whereas the mothers are venerated in other gukuy culture, in Utuku they are simply slaves and breeders. The practices of the Utuku are brutal as the mothers are cripple at birth and the tribe practices eating owoc and cannibalism on other gukuy. The cultures of the gukuy to the west of Ishtar are not all savage as there are a number of tribes who are pastoralists that raise gana.
Another dominant tribe of Ishtar is called the Kiktu. They are regarded as barbarians by mainstream gukuy, but whereas the Ansha and Utuku see the owoc as inferior species to be enslaved or eaten, the Kiktu religion venerates the owoc. They practice a sort of animistic totemism and do not mistreat the owoc themselves, but they will not allow others to do so even resorting to massacre for the affronts.
Religion[]
The gukuy have many beliefs and rely on priests who divine using shells to predict omens.
Pilgrims of the Way[]
In recent years a new religion has been formed in Ansha, originating from gukuy sage named Goloku who was a warrior but spoke against violence and only used it as a resort unless to defend herself. In analogy Goloku would have been considered the gukuy equivalent of Siddartha Gautama the Buddha.
Even after her passing, her teachings continued to spread. Among Goloku's followers was Ushulubang who formed the religious sect known as the Pilgrims of the Way. Her beliefs were not accepted by mainstream gukuy and the Tympani of Ansha set pogroms upon her followers. the Pilgrims were forced to escape religious persecution fleeing to the outskirts of the prevalate and to the Chiton.
The Pilgrims eventually came into contact with the stranded human colonists. Due to the gukuys inability to see human motions visually, they were assumed to be demons. The Pilgrims maintained a dialogue with the humans, learning their language of Enagulishuc. The language being clear and logiical and it written form easy to learn, the Pilgrims adopted it as their standard. The humans introduced it as a universal language to the gukuy, dressing it as a language brought by demons from beyond the sky, so that all peoples and tribes can learn to speak without fearing their own culture will be subordinated.
Terminology[]
- Adkapo: A river on Ishatar.
- Anshac: A tribe of the Ansha Prevalate.
- Ansha Prevalate: A empire of the south from the Chiton on Ishtar. Ansha is a realm in which the Ansha clan prevails over all others.
- Anshaku: The dominant language of the Ansha Prevalate
- apashoc: A newly initiate of the Pilgrims
- ashu-chamber: A guku bed.
- awosha: Ruling Council of the Ansha
- battlemother
- Chamber of Mothers: A royal court in the Divine Shell
- Chiton: A mountain some distance away from Shakutulubac and according to legend was home of demons.
- dikplo: A water-breathing creature.
- Divine Shell: Domicile of the Paramount Mother.
- Eightdays": A equivalent to a week but composed of eight days
- Enagulishuc: The gukuy word for English
- Fagoshau: A barbaric gukuy tribe
- gana: Cattle
- Goloku: A gukuy sage who reached enlightenment through peace.
- glowmoss: A bioluminscent moss used for illumination in gukuy cities,
- Great Kaken: A mythological creature that is said to fly in the skies of Ishtar
- Great Mother: Guku matriacrhal leader
- hunnakaku: A gukuy name for owoc and believe to be sub-gukuy
- Gurinu: GUkuy word for grim
- idu
- infanta
- kakapoy: A snail-like predator
- Kiktu: A fercious tribe that bore hatred to slavers and hold the owoc to be sacred calling them to be the Old Ones.
- Lolopopo Swamp: A swamp on Ishtar.
- Meat of the Clam: A phrase similar to "on Earth"
- Mistresses of the City: Nobility of the gukuy society.
- Motherguard: A guard of the Paramount Mother
- Mother of Demons
- Mother-of-Pearl: The sky of Ishtar
- ogotoAn Anshaku word for childfood
- Opoktu
- opoloshuku: Religious leader of the Pilgrims
- oruc: A plant eaten by the owoc.
- Papti Plain
- Paramount Mother: Matriarchal leader of a prevalate
- pashoc/apashoc: kin of the road
- Pilgrims: A secret gukuy order that has slowly been in contact with the humans in the Chiton, compiling a written record of enagulishuc.
- puopoa: A flying creature native to Ishtar.
- putoru: Kiktu word for childfood
- ruporeed: A plant native to Ishtar
- Shakutulubac: Captial of the Ansha Prevalate
- shororku: The art of maintaining a gray mantle and was a skill found only among high-clan gukuy.
- "the Shell of Beauty
- tureen
- Tympani
- uduwo
- uglandine: A predatory beast native to Ishtar
- Uk: A guku goddess of the Kiktu tribe who they believed created the owoc.
- Utuku: A hostile guku tribe that recently began conquering the other tribes in the west.
- upunu
- warflail: A gukuy weapon stone-tipped whips
- warfork A gukuy weapon usually composed of either twofork, sixforks or eightforks. long-spiked morning stars.
- Warrior's Square
- Way
- Ypu: A god that personifies the world and also known as "The Clam-That-Is-The World
Sources[]
- Mother of Demons by Eric Flint