Vanir

First encountered by humanity in the Sagan system 23 years ago, the Vanir are an alien civilization of arthropoidal aliens. So far contact has been relatively limited, and it took years for the two species to confirm that the other was not hostile and to establish rudimentary communications. Since then, ambassadors of the Human powers have visited the Vanir and vice versa, the Intermediary language has been developed, and limited trade has occurred between the Vanir and the Humans in the Sagan system. However, Human understanding of these aliens remains limited, and both species maintain a cautious respect for the other.

Basic Information

Anatomy

To a human, a Vanir superficially resembles an oversized insect. The Vanir has a relatively thin, sectioned and chitinous body, and stands up to roughly 140cm tall, when standing the frontal sections of its body upright. The backside of a Vanir is more heavily armored than the front, though the upper chest also has solid plates. Six-limbed, the first pair of limbs has three fingers capable of fine manipulation, and the four backlimbs are also more capable of articulation than a human foot. Its head is relatively small for its size, with a flat whiskered face, and two pairs of nostrils. Its large eyes look slightly sideways, and are mostly black with jagged white patterns. The Vanir has no teeth, and its mouth is located in its analogue of a chin.

Most Vanir are colored a muted leaf-green, though humans have found that some are naturally almost black, and also that chitin painting is a common form of self-expression among the Vanir. The Vanir have very flexible bodies, and can flatten themselves to run on all six limbs. Doing so allows them to run faster than a human at sprint, though they do tire out more easily and are generally physically weaker than humans. Vanir tend to also average slightly lower bodyweights owing to their thin bodies and limbs, though if laying side by side with a human, the Vanir would be longer.

The Vanir are accustomed to slightly lower gravity than humans, about 0.9G. However, they are much more flexible and can fit narrower spaces, making Vanir structures very claustrophobic for a human. Vanir also have superior climbing abilities.

Genetics and Reproduction

Compared to humans, Vanir are not particularly sexually dimorphic. While they do have males and females, and the females do give birth, they release massive clutches of eggs. Numbering thousands of Vanirlings, the overwhelming majority are not expected to survive after hatching. Indeed, a Vanir father (though sometimes also the mother) traditionally monitors the clutch for days after the eggs begin hatching, which occurs mere days after the female gives birth. The father then seeks to promote the healthiest offspring, eating the eggs that fail to hatch as well as any young that appear to not be thriving in the clutch. Ultimately, the father leaves the few most fitting Vanirlings to continue to grow. In some cases, a Vanir will even eat the entire clutch as a form of birth control.

From the point where the father has whittled the young to just a few, Vanir are very active parents. Vanir grow quickly in the first month, and Vanir larva consume enormous amounts of food. The larva grows at an extremely rapid pace for about 7 weeks, at which point its growth slows down. However, its mental development tends to lag behind its physical, and indeed it is difficult for a human to tell the difference between a 2 month old Vanir and a 1 year old one, though the older Vanir is much more mentally advanced. Notably, Vanir do not begin to differentiate by sex until about 5 months old, and take cues from other nearby larvae, tending to develop a different sex than the closest larva. Thus, Vanir of the same clutch are almost always of different sexes.

Vanir reach almost their full size around 10 years old, though their brain continues to develop until about 19 years old.

Behaviour

"Do they feel? Do they love? Are they smarter than us? Or are they dumber? Do they understand right or wrong like we do? Twenty years, and we don't know yet."

Human understanding of Vanir psychology is limited, as most interactions between the species happen in the Sagan system and there is no large-scale cohabitation between the species. Humans have been able to note that Vanir appear to find comfort in narrow and small spaces, and many of their structures are physically impossible for a human to enter.

It appears that the Vanir care for their young and engage in pair-bonding. They also practice cannibalistic burial and wear jewelry made of the chitins of their deceased relatives. Other oddities are the Vanir's incessant habit of tapping their chest and shoulderplates. They have two different notions of sleep, one in which the Vanir will continue to perform instinctive activities and even basic conversation, akin to human sleepwalking though the Vanir will actually remember what they did and especially where they went with great precision. The other is more akin to human sleep, with the Vanir becoming entirely inactive for hours.

A point of contention between the species has risen around Vanir paranoia. The Vanir insisted on any Human ambassadors being sedated during transit through any of their installations, a point which took extended negotiation to resolve.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Humans around Vanir installations have described the incessant clicking and tapping that can be heard throughout, both from the Vanir inside as well as the various systems they have built. It is believed that their hearing is both highly acute and compartmentalized, and they can innately tell apart various sources of sound. Their sense of direction is also extraordinary. Vanir installations never contain signage despite being akin of mazes of tunnels. Though their sense of smell is believed to be very accurate compared to a human, it is uncertain how this quality is utilized by the creature. The Vanir navigates by counting its own steps, and what seems to be an eidetic memory of locations it has been to.

However, the Vanir is also half-blind by human standards, and cannot see accurately at distance. They also cannot perceive many colors known to humans, though can apparently perceive some things in the ultraviolet spectrum.

Civilization and Culture

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Human-Vanir relations have improved slowly in the 23 years the two species have been in contact. Initially the two were unable to communicate with eachother, but now the two species engage in limited barter in the Sagan system. The humans have proposed joint research operations, but so far cooperation is awkward and stilted. Both species find environments suited for the other uncomfortable, and generally find the other's appearance and mannerisms unsettling.

Though hostilities have broken out once or twice between isolated groups of Humans and Vanir on wolfram asteroids in the Sagan system, major representatives of each species have been eager to throw their more quarrelsome factions to the wolves. Thus, relations have not broken down even though neither side fully trusts the other.