Blockheads
Not all adopted by Inom are graced with... communication skills. Or to rephrase-- not all adopted by Inom are physiologically capable of communicating with other species on any convenient level. What is one to do without any sense of hearing at all and weak eyes only good for gauging depth, relying almost solely on thermal vision for every activity? It doesn't help either that "Blockheads", as they're called, look like they walked out of a Japanese horror game, with their fused feet, extra fingers and knuckles, thoroughly yonic features (with teeth to scratch that vaginal dentata mythological itch), and namesake cinderblock-shaped heads.
Blockheads have a reputation for being barely-sapient savages who view all other intelligent beings as nothing more than prey. This depiction lingers even past the development of merfolk-to-blockhead sign language and admission into civilized society. While true that they view their neighbors as prey, they at least know not to eat anybody they like.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Blockheads are one of the more humanoid species on Inom, all things considered. If you squint and they're obscured by shadow. Same number of legs and arms, at least. They're a lot freakier when one is dangerously close.
Immediately one will notice the block-shaped head with the giant, two-clitted (one on either end) vagina going right up the front. And then that gets pulled back to reveal the wall of curved, sharp teeth and quartet of heart-shaped eyes. And the two gullets, which lead all the way to two anuses beneath the tail. The one higher in the head is non-functional as a digestive system, better used for storage. On blockheads with dicks betwixt their thighs, there is a horn atop the blockhead's skull, also marked with a heart.
One might ask where the brain is, if the blockhead's block is mostly mouth. Well, blockheads' brains are hemisphered like humans', but with a much larger gap between them. They form pad-shaped masses on either side of the mouth, with the bridge between them situated above the upper throat. Blockheads also do not breathe through their mouths, instead respiring through the heart-shaped hole on their necks.
Their hands are five-fingered instead of humans' four and their knuckles on each digit number one more than humans', with nails that curve back away from the palm. In contrast, their feet have no toes, instead being padded underneath by partially-cartilaginous and partially-bony nubs that serve to mitigate injury when walking on, say, gravel or hard stone. Their tails are a lot like devils' tails, except if they were also ink pens, with a sac of ink just behind the nib.
In addition to their heart-shaped eyes, blockheads have heart-shaped nipples, glandes, and testes. Like on their facial slits, those with vaginas have a clit at either end. Hermaphrodites are noticeably rarer among blockhead populations and typically bear the horn indicating bedicked status while their upper clitoris is replaced with a scrotum.
Biological Traits
Other than by skin-tone and their sex's horn-or-no-horn, there is little to distinguish blockheads from one another visually. They self-distinguish through their natural pheromones and they don't want their homeworld's flora or fauna seeing more than a rock-colored blur.
However, there exists a noticeable distinction between blues and the other races-- the blues tend to be able to hold their breath anywhere from four to sixteen times as long as their in-land originating counterparts.
Genetics and Reproduction
The pattern resembles that of humans, although with a tendency towards twins or triplets and about a month and a half less spent in the womb. Where the bearer of the children is underfed and in such a state as to make hunting nigh-impossible, the sire is obligated to handle hunting or otherwise be eaten by the bearer. The child's skin color directly correlates with the bearer's skin color.
If there is a dearth of bearers among a population of blockheads, a bearer is capable of unbirthing a sire and changing the sire's sex into a bearer, though the horn tends to remain and attempts at pheromone communication are often clumsy. As the blockheads on Inom have discovered, this works on alien species too (despite the sense that doesn't make), allowing the now-hybridized alien to learn how to communicate using these pheromones.
Blockhead breasts produce a milk which tastes a little like ash and a little like sharp cheese. Since blockheads grow their teeth in after a month and need breastfed much longer, the blockhead's breast is designed to be difficult to bite and release its milk at the discretion of the caregiver.
One final note-- though, by all metrics, the blockheads of Inom should be extremely inbred, they are surprisingly not. This is a mysterious trend observed throughout all species which came to Inom few in number-- it isn't until their populations are massive that inbreeding begins to reassert itself as a threat to health.
Growth Rate & Stages
Blockheads shoot up like weeds, growing to adulthood in eleven to fifteen years depending on how well they're fed. Fortunately, they grasp their own pheromone language as soon as they're born, so they get a head start on social and intellectual maturity that other species aren't fortunate enough to have. Teeth grow in after a month, and will continue to be replaced until the blockhead's death.
Ecology and Habitats
Blockheads hail from a barren world of sand, clay, stone, and gravel, where the sun is unbearably hot during the day, lethally so during the summer. Vegetation is sparse, durable, and often knows how to defend itself. The blockheads, then, evolved to be carnivores sleeping in caves all day and hunting at night.
Then a band of space-farers end up on Inom, where the sun is tolerable; the vegetation, thick and predominantly harmless; the prey challenging to hunt, plentiful, and more species frequently introduced; and the architecture riddled with hidey-holes and confusing warrens. Blockheads thrive on Inom like their planet never allowed them to.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Blockheads are strictly carnivorous. Plant matter comes out about the same as when it went in. Since there are no non-sapient animals on Inom, this causes problems between blockheads and the other species.
Blockheads tend not to stockpile food. The closest they get is they'll store prey in their storage stomach if they intend to continue hunting, then bring their prey home and hold onto them until they're ready.
Biological Cycle
Red and grey blockheads don't much care for the wet season, since they evolved to not need much water and being drenched invokes latent fears of being devoured. Of course, they appreciate that the torrents further assist in obscuring them from their prey. Blue blockheads mind the precipitation a lot less, as they had adapted to a semi-aquatic lifestyle back on their homeworld.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Though blockheads on their home planet are a bit more civilized due to being the dominant species on that dusty rock, those of Inom have reverted to more tribal structures. These tribes are mostly distinguished by skin color, as each color had a notable mother among the original colonists which shaped their beliefs. For a detailed explanation of what niche each tribe fills, see their individual pages.
Facial characteristics
Giant vagina lips hiding four heart-shaped eyes, a wall of curved and pointy teeth, and two gullets stacked atope each other. Those with phalluses have horns, which themselves have a heart-shaped cavity in the front.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Outside of their homesystem, they are only found in Anicoja.
Average Intelligence
Varies wildly, due to their solitary natures and the fact that those without vaginas are incapable of pheromone-signalling. They tend to be very cunning and very poorly-educated.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Blockheads have no sense of hearing whatsoever. Their eyes aren't much better, being colorblind such that they can only see reds, purples, and blues, and as such are only brought out from hiding behind their lips when: they need to distinguish between the colors they can see, they need finer depth perception, or their thermal vision isn't telling them what they need. Yes, blockheads are primarily dependent on the infrared sight provided by the clits at either end of their facial lips. These nubs can also sort of smell, though they're attuned to the pheromones of their species more than anything. It should be noted that though any blockhead can understand these pheromones, only the bevagged can produce pheromones.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Blockheads have an inherent name in their pheromone system. When trying to name them outside of pheromones, they typically either adopt a title. such as with the Mothers, or are given a name in a spoken language by those close to them, in whatever language means the most to the namer.
Major Organizations
At their core, they are divided into the ethnically/racially-based Five-and-One Tribes (Palespawn, Ashlings, Slatespawn, Indies, Redspawn, Midnighters), so-named because the Palespawn are sort of a tribe but not a tribe at the same time, being solitary and rejecting society yet maintaining a strong pheromone-repeated tradition.
Tribes which willfully structure themselves tend to form organizations which most members of the tribe are part of. The Redspawn operate a family mercenary business in thriving, the Midnighters are members of the Opulence's Thorns cult to the last woman, and the Slatespawn are a geopolitical entity, for instance.
Average Technological Level
It varies wildly. The Palespawn are practically trapped in the stone age, while the Redspawn have access to Thriving's firearms industry and the Midnighters put up an even fight with the Redspawn.
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Besides the pheromones and Blockhead Braille brought over from their homeworld, the blockheads have since then helped establish Blockhead Signlang and though that been able to learn the written forms of many other species' languages.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
All blockheads on Inom originate from the Blockhead Empire. How faithfully they've retained the practices of the Empire varies. Usually the answer is "not at all".
History
The blockheads came to Inom numbering six-and-sixty back about a century before the merfolk arrived. They near-immediately destabilized the entire continent of Anicoja, mostly traceable to just the Ashlings, Redspawn, and Palespawn. It wasn't until later that the Midnighters started to get really active and Slatespawn land claims started to clash with merfolk corporate interests.
Historical Figures
The six Mothers (Pallid, Beet-Red, Indigo, Navy, Ashy, Slate) are the direct ancestors of most surviving members of their tribes. Every tribe has a mother, though the Indigo Mother is sadly not with the Indies anymore, slain by the Slate Mother.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Historically, blockheads have been the shadow-stalking, constantly-raiding savages of the Jungle of Queens. This has eased up now that means of communication are available.
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Blockhead Homeworld yonic block-headed woman
Origin/Ancestry
Red (Pallid & Beet-Red), Gray (Ashy & Slate), Blue (Navy & Indigo)
Lifespan
Blockheads live long enough that most of the original crash-survivors are still around, and they did not crash down recently. So, at least two and a half Earthly centuries.
Conservation Status
However many you think there are, there's always more in the woodwork.
Average Height
5'5'' to 6'1''
Average Weight
123 to 178 lbs
Average Physique
Fit and sleek. They're huntresses.
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
A representative of every blockhead skin color came to Inom-- beet-red, pallid pink, ashy-gray, stony slate, deep navy, and dusty indigo. The tissue of their more sensitive flesh tends to be a darker and more intense hue of their skin color-- an indigo blockhead will have navy nipples, while a slate or navy blockhead will have rubber-black bits.
The different colorations evolved not as sun mitigation like in human melanin (the blockhead sun's lethal half the time) but as camouflage. The grays and reds developed to blend in with the plentiful stone and barren soil, while the blues developed with nighttime and aquatic environments in mind.
Related Ethnicities
Related Myths
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