Veneri Species

Veneri Species

article by Birdird

Detailed Anatomy of the Veneri Species

They did not drink liquid water. Rather, they drank liquid methane. The relationship between the methane and their bodies seemed to be "1 to 1", that is to say, other than the bizarre method of retrieving the liquid (more on that in chapter two), the way their silicon bodies processed methane was pretty much the same process our carbon bodies process water. One benefit of their silicon-origins would be their ability to retrieve minerals from the liquid methane they drunk and from processed tholins. These minerals built up on mature specimens, creating an armored shell that protected against especially hot cryovolcanic events.
These shells were likely one of the reasons for the rapid development of melee armaments within the Veneri aliens.
Their skin itself - under the shell - was neither soft like ours or like a crab's, with recently retrieved cadavers having firm and coarse skin that would bend but not without effort. The Vener had a diet consisting of microbial life living in tholins and they feasted on their own kind.
Their spitters were lined with small tentacles able to strain the tar of its bountiful community of microbes. IF famine struck due to excessive discharge of liquids from Sedna's surface, a Vener contested the leadership of its clique, or even full scale war, then fighting would erupt. The victor would then consume the loser's corpse. More on that in chapter three.
Now that the broad strokes of Veneri physiology have been elucidated to you, this chapter will explain the form of their species. Reference the information in this chapter to the provided sketch.
The legs of Vener are five to seven meters tall, consisting of four digits.
The skin on their legs is pink, granite like, firm.
Much like an exoskeleton. It is believed that, due to their regular submersion in tholins with hazardous microbes and "hot" cryovolcanic flows, the Vener's leg-skin evolved to be tougher than the rest of its body. Tests have shown that the mineral shell covering the rest of their body does eventually wear away when submerged in liquid water for extended periods of time. So they avoided having continual damage by simply hardening the skin of the legs.
There is an ebony disc encircling the "cog" mechanism of the Veneri torso-leg joint. A slightly maroon disc was viewed as a sign of industriousness in Veneri society, but it is unknown if that was ingrained behavior or not. The cog mechanism itself is similar to the now extinct leafhoppers of earth. It allowed them to jump higher than otherwise.
On the other end of their legs, the feet of Vener are rather unique. On first glance, they may look like ordinary insectoid feet, but they actually hold several glands on their bottoms. These glands produce processed tar that allows them to stick to the ground better during activities that required so. They also produced an oil that immediately counteracted the cohesion of the tar, letting them get up and running as soon as they need to do so.
The Veneri tails are very long and dexterous tentacles. They end in two points that serve as fingers.
The entire tail was most often used like a arm to manipulate the creature's environments.
Additionally, they sometimes aided in balance.
Vestigial eyes are spread across the creature's rear, covered in sphincter-like eyelids lacking the muscles necessary to open themselves. If need be, they can rotate their body 140 degrees backward. This allows the tail to more directly manipulate the environment.
Inside the backside are muscles that aid in the propulsion of liquid water from the stomach.
The final noteworthy thing is the pair of breathing holes behind the leg-disc, which bring in air from the outside.
I think the avian feet fit them more than the insectoid feet. They probably have blunt claws, like dogs, though I would imagine they use power claws
The brains of Vener were more than capable of creating an intelligent xenos. Intelligent being the ability to not jump into lava thinking it was a gourmet cheese dip (haha).
And they support the eyes of the creature, which are quite similar to the mantises of Terra.
They appear to have two pupils, but that is not wholly true. These pupils are merely the way their compound eyes look. The eyes on retrieved cadavers wrap around the sides of the creature to the front, allowing for all but a mere 90 degree blind-spot behind the creature's head to be visible to Vener individuals.
The creature has three stomachs. One of which is nothing but a vestigial bean hidden under the spine, one of which dissolves food and sends it to the Parab organ, and one of which serves as a water cannon! See, on Sedna, the temperatures are so low that methane is rarely outside of its solid form. To counteract this, the Vener have learned to shoot liquid water - which is retrieved from cryovolcanic hotspots - at solid methane. Whereupon they slurp up the methane-water solution.
This action is supported by the creature's dexterous mouth. It must have been good at devouring rival Vener, aswell. Lining the mouth are hairs that filtered through tar for silicon microbes during feeding. They also are lined with heat-sensitive nerves. A small tidbit from a Veneri battle recount indicates that the hairs were sensitive to heat, preventing unwanted exposure to anything too hot for their heat-sensitive forms.
They'd have a jaw not dissimilar to archer fish
They are on the sides and are partially front facing, But mostly side facing

History

We believe that the Vener, close to 10,000,000 years ago, were actually more like beasts than an intelligent species, and were part of a menagerie kept on the voidships of some now long-forgotten xenos species. At some point in history, the voidships belonging to this unknown xenos crashed into the Tholin Pits of Decius. The scattered fossils can't be carbon-dated (silicon life), yet their range indicates that after the crash, the survivors left the voidship along with their animals. Most of them appeared to die in the first few years. One of their pets, however, were able to not only survive but thrive. While everything else that landed on the planet was dying, the Vener evolved to live on the harsh planetoid of Sedna. They learned to hunt eachother in packs, spit water to melt vital methane, and strain silicon bacteria from tholin pits.
But 52,000 years ago, the first use of geothermic heat collectors allowed for the mass-melting of methane, expanding the potential population for their race exponentially. Whichever tribe first invented this technology slowly absorbed the others until it ruled all Sedna, spreading their advanced ways across its breadth. Even when this tribe collapsed, their technology continued to develop and branch off into numerous avenues of research over the course of tens of thousands of years. Their culture evolved from one based on the pragmatic philosophy of spreading one's genes, into a collective of egotistic individuals who recognized eachother's prowess and so helped one another. Coinciding this evolution was the adoption of numerous gods, both created naturally by the Vener and taken from inscriptions left behind on their progenitors' voidships. And similar to the Dark Age of Technology, the Vener explored all venues of research, including but not limited to: Practical applications of three of the fundamental forces (strong force, weak force, electromagnetism) in warfare and energy production. Sorcery (possibly hints at a Cult of Tzeentch having existed within their society, atleast before the useage of golems made their sorcery harmful) Quantum tunneling The binding of souls to objects Research into their own origins
The Vener that would fight so fiercely against the Iron Warriors, Ghost Legions, and Imperial Fists Legiones Astartes--came into their own upon the invention of the golem. [redacted], psionically binding a brain to the object upon the completion of the wedding. Note how this process is not entirely dissimilar to [redacted]. The use of psionics allowed for the transferred brain --and said brain's respective soul-- to finely control the object it was attached to. This expedited the construction of grand cities which not only covered Sedna, but burrowed deep into the planetoid's core. This technology coincided with a dramatic decrease in recorded accidents. From factories to their first attempts at space-travel, the golem made life easier for the Veneri species. And indeed, the Vener seemed to appreciate these new comforts. Worship in gods dropped substantially. In its The animalistic violence against their kind turned into a complex web of schemes and alliances between powerful members of their society. (edited)