Aktangsi
"While we have been able to confirm the names of some of the species that are part of the BDA, how these species appear, what their diets and behaviours might be, all remain unknowns."
Aktangsi are ectothermic, vampiric, and are known to have multiple backup organs. They are believed to be the origin of many myths of man-eating undead on Terra, including vampires. They have many features that are hard to conceal when pretending to be human, including their aversion to light and cold, their own cold temperatures, the smooth hard shells over skin, and their black tongues, most of which they hide by wearing very covering clothes.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Aktangsi, like most sentient species, are humanoid and bipedal, with two arms and two legs, two hands with five fingers and two feet with five toes. Their arms and fingers are notably longer than you would see in humans, made for grappling and holding prey in place not unlike a boa restrictor, and their feet are styled more like a monkey's, for gripping and climbing, than you see in humans. Their skeletal structure is looser and their synovial fluid a different consistency, giving them a slightly wider range of movement than humans can manage.
Why they evolved as humanoids is thought by the Aktangsi themselves to be for the use of intricate tools and the ability to grapple and hold prey to feed from them better. This fits with many similar theories that the majority of sentient species are humanoids due to evolving for tool usage and the finesse offered by fingers. The long angular proportions of Aktangsi relative to humans, especially when it comes to fingers and arms, also support the theory of evolution to facilitate grabbing and restraining.
Biological Traits
Aktangsi biology is very attuned to the dark, humid jungle forests they first evolved from, though they were later able to colonise different climates on their own world and figure out ways to manage in alien environments. While at first glance they might pass as human, a lot of work has to go into keeping their deception up.
Aktangsi are ectotherms, having evolved in one of the warmest and most humid environments on a hot planet. Their skin is therefore devoid of any pores or hair, and in many places where movement is not a priority have large coverings not unlike the shells of earth beetles, aiding both with retaining heat and with deflecting potential damage, though they are now softer and more sensitive than in ancient times as their emergence as the dominant species on their homeworld stopped selecting for such defensive capabilities. What appears to be black hair on their heads is actually very long, fine feathers, which used to be used to hide them and trap warm or cool air as required, but now tends to be kept tied up and back and trimmed shorter, though they retain a level of conscious control over them. Another way Aktangsi control their body temperature is through their diet, drinking the warm blood of endotherms to keep their own internal temperatures up.
As might be expected of beings that evolved in such a biodiverse and dangerous environment, Aktangsi are very resilient. Among other members of the BDA, this is most famously recognised in the fact that they have two hearts and can function perfectly well with only one working, with minimal system connection between the two. However, much of their respiratory and nervous systems contain similar contingencies, such as that so long as an Aktangsi doesn’t immediately die from an injury they are likely to recover with appropriate medical assistance. It also makes them incredibly resilient to serious harm from illnesses or poisons.
Genetics and Reproduction
Aktangsi initially come across as having a matriarchal society, but this is due to a mismatch of sexes with the binary Terran system. In reality they have five sexes and so are usually quite relaxed about the pronouns other species use to refer to them. In Terran translations, the sexes are: Only Female, Only Male, Primarily Female, Primarily Male, and Equal Mix; this makes the vast majority of them hermaphroditic in reality. However, any with Female traits appear as what Terrans and many other humanoid species would classify as feminine or androgynous, with the majority of clothing also tending towards feminine, leading to the false perception that one sex dominates every role. Asexual reproduction, while rare, has been documented internally amongst them, usually in situations of great strife.
Ecology and Habitats
The optimal environment for Aktangsi is humid rainforests like they ones they evolved in. They mostly lived in the first layer of foliage of the giant trees that grew there, but hunted at multiple levels, especially preferring dropping on prey on the floor from branches above, or using the camouflage of foliage to snatch at prey around them. They still prefer to sleep high off the floor if possible, and often sleep in hammock-like structures.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Aktangsi are vampiric and will hunt hot-blooded prey much of the time in order to retain sustainable internal temperatures, having relatively small stomachs and fast metabolisms, requiring multiple small meals throughout the day. This also reduces the risk of poisoning or sickening themselves through something they eat as there can only be minimal amounts consumed, and they can go 4 meals before hunger starts to set in, though this is not good for them. They have two means of extracting blood, a set of large retractable fangs and a long, black tongue that is normally coiled inside the mouth when not being used to feed. This is to maximise the amounts of prey they can feed from, as many creatures in their original diet were armoured and required the drill-like tongue to carve through it, or the leverage from the teeth to remove the shells, large scales, etc.
Biological Cycle
Having evolved in a very stable environment, Aktangsi do not respond well to climates with seasons where the temperature changes. Their idea of seasons is 'dry', 'wet', and 'stormy'. Similarly, with them living and hunting on the lower levels of the rainforests, they aren't used to day/night cycles having a large effect on them, with very little of the light on the ground level coming form the sun. Due to the normally dim conditions they're used to, Aktangsi prefer to be awake during night-time and the periods between that and the day when they're in other environments.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Aktangsi have quite strong social bonds, but not a statistically significantly higher Dunbar’s Number than Humans. In fact, their settlements never grew too large, with their infrastructure consisting mainly of a high number of smaller settlements, never more than a few thousand in number. One might have thought this made global representatives for interstellar communication difficult, but the Aktangsi have never had much time for conflict with each other when there was a conflict with the rest of the planet to contend with. The Aktangsi Circle consists of those actually interested in interplanetary matters, but for big matters they will call for a vote, for which every settlement head gets a vote worldwide. For particularly urgent matters they will set a time limit when the vote is sent to the head’s comm, but most of the time they are given enough time as they want to ask their settlement’s people, deliberate, and make their decision. Overseers are not allowed to be leaders of a settlement and therefore lead nomadic lives, much like ‘krrraktikat’, but are allowed a vote of their own and are always able to petition the Circle for things.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Aktangsi originally evolved in the tropic jungles that cover up to 46% of their home planet's landmasses. Despite this, they have managed to spread to establish settlements across much of the planet's surface, though they avoid some of the colder climates. For them, the care and measures they'd have to take to avoid dying in climates below a certain average is simply not worth the risk.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
To facilitate hunting their warm-blooded prey Aktangsi vision evolved to work well in the moving dappled shade, and in the modern environment is middlingly useful in the dark and quite useless in bright light, as despite their night vision they are fairly short-sighted visually. This is because they also have an excellent sense of smell as well as an infrared vision to a larger range than their normal visual, usually using normal vision mostly for avoiding obstacles and later for construction and tool use. Aktangsi still primarily recognise each other via scents and heat patterns from their scales.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
When going off planet, Aktangsi will pick what they call sky names. This is due to an old belief that names are connected to their souls, and in more modern iterations, that leaving their names behind will ensure that even if they die in space, their souls will return to their homeworld. There is a general preference for sky names to be slightly archaic, elegant, feminine names, as they find them aesthetically pleasing to the ear. The names of Aktangsi that have been recorded so far are Lucinda Bell, Evangeline Custodio, Vincent, Veronique, and Martinique.
Common Taboos
Aktangsi have an honour-led society and in modern days have strict rules about fighting, including not using their feeding fangs or tongue in combat. Those that don't follow these rules are considered ‘krrraktikat’ and social exiles, as it is not necessarily the highest crime one can commit but certainly one of the most socially unacceptable. They differentiate between legal rules and social rules, and judgements and punishments are handled by different departments and different people, though a social taboo might sometimes also come with legal consquences.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The BDA considers them the second most honourable of the alliance, after the JaqHadan. A deal with an Aktangsi will never be broken, and neither shall a debt. They are known in the BDA military mot for their Shadows, and a lone Aktangsi can sometimes be met with weariness, as a disruption of their usually tight social bonds can indicate a previous danger.
Aktangsi are one of the hardest BDA species to hide amongst humans, due to the vast differences in physiology. Many issues are solved by wearing covering clothing and avoiding skin-to-skin touch. They also make liberal use of thermal regulators , usually hidden on their person, to handle the differences in heat and humidity, and pick up night or underground jobs to handle light differences. When that doesn’t work, stylish sunglasses do, and they don’t make much difference to their bad depth perception anyway. While they can eat small amounts of human (and other solid food belonging to other species) food without too many bad effects, they often just avoid being seen consuming their rations or mix it into hot caffeinated beverages.
Lifespan
140 Terran years
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
It isn't so obvious in their natural habitats, but when in other places it becomes very clear that Aktangsi have an overall monochromatic appearance. Their skin has a cool grey undertone to it from the chitin in it, giving their midtoned skin a desaturated, washed-out look. Their 'hair' is always a deep, glossy black. The only real colour in their appearances tends to be in their eyes, and even then the vast majority is a pale yellow, with the rest still having quite pale eye colours.
Related Ethnicities
Related Technologies
Turns out Intelligence had their eyes in the right places. The Sanadasin secret police agreed that Aktangsi was one of the species there, and had some semblance of an idea of how they fit into the greater BDA and their wars. They knew enough for one of their operatives to recognise an Aktangsi Veilwalker when he saw one. As our relations with the rogue BDA group onboard improved, so did our knowledge of what these people were and what they were capable of. Please find everything we have gathered between us attached, and if these messages have actually been sent... may the spirits have mercy on our souls.
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