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Description
another one, this time original.

the Ha-Lyiss are a sentient aquatic ultraterrestrial race from Acamhar, fifth planet, and the second alien civilization met by mankind.

History:
despite their species being younger than human, they reached space age 350 years before mankind(in 17th century) and formed a powerful interplanetary empire made up of 10 star systems, each dominated by a Bloodline(noble house). their first contact with other sentient races was with the Kothrah, then they met the Poleepkwas in 1720, although the three races had a few strifes, eventually they made peace and poleepkwas formed an alliance with the ha-lyiss, poleepkwas are widespread in ha-lyiss dominions. in 2024 they reached Earth, in order to help their poleepkwa allies, and took for themselves a handful of Earth's territories, claiming that 'their biologic ancestors inhabited those territories'...it was partly true: ha-lyiss's ancestor was Basilosaurus, a prehistoric whale, taken from Earth 40 million years ago by an extinct alien race (named by ha-lyiss 'Precursors') and brought on the planet Acamhar, in the Tau Ceti System, where said cetaceans spread and evolved, one branch developed limbs back by atavism and then anphibiousness, omnivorism and sentience. however, ha-lyiss took said territories by peaceful ways(after their warships blew up the american space shield, just to make clear that they had more firepower), mostly using money and/or fear to drive human inhabitants away. the main motivation that drove ha-lyiss to 'colonize' Earth was economic: in 2002, ha-lyiss empire has been ravaged by a War of Assassins that degenerated into full-blown civil war, which caused millions dead and the empire's economy to collapse, so they needed resources to rebuild it, and as they knew from poleepwas about Earth, they thought that expanding commerces with humans would have been a good income. humans, especially canaanites(descendants of israelis, palestinians and lebanese), attempted to bomb the ha-lyiss out many times, however ha-lyiss superior technology (more or less 250 years forward human tech) made each of said attacks end in disastrous defeats for humans, despite humans managing to kill at least 2 millions ha-lyiss over the years, most of them during 2035, as ha-lyiss Earth army had to enforce the main army against a misteryous enemy, and canaanites attacked ha-lyiss city-ships(they live in humongous submarine-like ships, sometimes fleets of these), destroying 5 of these and then taking back Jerusalem and killing all the ha-lyiss in it, mostly by dragging them into temples and slitting their throats in a deranged 'cleansing' ritual orchestrated by religious zealots that wanted to 'purge' the Holy Land from the alien 'taint'. however, eventually ha-lyiss conquered back said territories, but didn't demand revenge...except for a few ha-lyiss Bloodlines, which attempted to glass from space some human cities but were stopped by fellow Bloodlines.
for most of 21th century, ha-lyiss were too busy rebuilding their empire and didn't care about human politics, however they went back during the Venusian War, forcing humans and h'yaech to end it, then they expanded their trading to Venus. in 22th century, they have taught humans and h'yaech wormhole space travel technology.
about Pandora, House Mor'aayxil-ii has been the first one of the ha-lyiss Bloodlines to promote the empire joining ICA, and got from the Imperial Bloodline the exclusive in Pandora's exploration, however other Bloodlines are plotting against it, mostly because of the natural Unobtanium.

"The Green Inferno oozes wealth as much as it oozes death, for those that are willful to fight for it...no matter what the Imperial Bloodline does, a War of Assassins for the resources of Pandora is imminent!"

(Emperor Syiachyyse'Shaahan'Qoorrian, 986th Great Lord of Ha-Lyiss Empire, about Pandora)

Society:
Ha-lyiss society is family- based, just like humans's.
their government is a blend between a monarchy and a democracy, with Bloodlines(pretty much noble houses) working as political parties, common people has access to politics by alliance with the bloodlines. society is made by 3 castes: low, medium, and high. however, castes are meritocratic. ha-lyiss practice slavery over other sentient races, to the point they use gene splicing to create 'Servant Races', even if their concept of slavery is much softer than humans's: slaves have civil rights, are protected by laws from abusive masters, and the ha-lyiss's general attitude is friendly and tolerant, after contact with other sentient races, ha-lyiss even allow slaves to be freed. ha-lyiss consider science to be sacred, and think that the more knowledge is achieved about the universe, so is the knowledge of the divinity, in their society and culture scientists and priests are the same, typically women are the ones expected to be scientists, especially in the fields of biology and genetics, ha-lyiss believe that since females give birth to children, they have a better understanding of 'Creating Life'(this does not mean male scientists are not unheard of). for that, they tend to be arrogant and smug toward races with lower tech level than theirs, and that means everyone except poleepkwas, even if they still consider them worthy of respect.

Human arguments:
"the smug snakes are nazis(of course)!"
"the smug snakes are slave takers!" true, but ha-lyiss's concept of slavery is much softer than human one.
"the smug snakes want to enslave us!": some ha-lyiss consider humans to be too violent (and stupid) to be free, and so to them human should be enslaved in order to prevent them from harming other sentient species. howver, over 90% of ha-lyiss would buy human slaves(mostly criminals sold by human countries as punishment), but don't think they should be all slaves.
"the smug snakes are racist!" ha-lyiss effectively consider themselves superior, but still, their 'racism' is not particularly harmful.

Trivia:
-Acamhar is a Super Terra planet, nearly twice the mass of Earth, and gravity is 150% greater than Earth. because of this the basilosaurus genus grew smaller and smaller, and the ha-lyiss(and most of acamharan fauna) are surprisingly lightweight for aquatic creatures, for this they can also survive outside of water without being crushed under their own weight.
-also, Acamhar is colder than Earth and 90% of its surface is oceans, ice covers the poles and varies in extension depending on seasons, from roughly 10% during summer to over 35% during winter.
-the ha-lyiss can slither on the ground while 'standing' erect, but it is a slow locomotion, they can lay down and use their four arms for extra speed but they consider it distanteful, so any ha-lyiss that can purchase uses prostethic robotic limbs when outside of water, these can either be cyborg implants or not.
-despite they evolved from mammals, they show many non-mammalian features, which make them 'postmammalian', they pretty much are to mammals the same way a reptile is to an amphibian.
-even if they evolved from earth animals, they show alien features: the two whiskers on their chin are prehensile and bioluminescent, used for communication, they have a jacobson organ-like cavity in their mouth, like a snake, and they have rudimentary gills on their necks.

-even if they have gills, they are not efficient enough for them to just breath water, the gills can just supplement their lungs, allowing them to hold their breath for longer times.
-they have particular organs with no equivalent on Earth: one is a secondary liver, and another is a second pair of kidneys, named 'nitrocatchers' that chemically purify blood from nitrogen.
-both their arteries and veins are flexible, their lungs have extra sacs which expand in case of pressure change, and their heart tissue is more flexible than human's. all these features, plus the nitrocatchers, make them perfectly fit for water, they can survive with minor injuries pressure and temperature changes that would kill or at least severely injure a human.
-despite they are, thanks to their prehensile tail and four arms, good climbers, their max land speed is 10 km/h(against human 35 km/h).
-their average swim speed is 25 km/h, athletes can reach up to 50 km/h, and they can hold breath for even 30 minutes.
-humans have two kind of language: body language and verbal language. ha-lyiss have four: body language, verbal language, sonar language(used underwater), and 'Chant', a merge of verbal and sonar, Chant is a very ancient and difficult language that few ha-lyiss master, it is mainly used for art such as poetry, song and theater.
-ha-lyiss language grammar has features in common with hebrew, japanese, and french.
-ha-lyiss language sounds like an extremely articulated dolphin chant.
-on Earth, ha-lyiss have spliced and domisticated sharks, and use them like humans use dogs.

-the ha-lyiss term for dolphins is 'Yus-kyaashesh', it roughly translates as 'Sea Fucker', it has become a slang word for obnoxious perverts.

-racist ha-lyiss refer to other races as 'groundlings', a less offensive term most ha-lyiss use is 'primitives'.

-ha-lyiss are named 'snake people' by humans because reptiles are abhorrent, 'whale people' didn't sound evil enough.

-ha-lyiss are more promiscuous than other races, to them couples are 'open' by default("as long as you wife/husband is ok with it, you can f**k any girl/boy you want!") and laugh at the human concept of fidelity("stupid groundlings, why chastisting yourself for a bit of fun?"), yet they believe in monogamous marriage, and disapprove h'yaech polygamy/poliandry("there can be only one TRUE mate, more than one marriage trivializes the sacrality of it!").

Description
another one, this time original.

the Ha-Lyiss are a sentient aquatic ultraterrestrial race from Acamhar, fifth planet, and the second alien civilization met by mankind.

History:
despite their species being younger than human, they reached space age 350 years before mankind(in 17th century) and formed a powerful interplanetary empire made up of 10 star systems, each dominated by a Bloodline(noble house). their first contact with other sentient races was with the Kothrah, then they met the Poleepkwas in 1720, although the three races had a few strifes, eventually they made peace and poleepkwas formed an alliance with the ha-lyiss, poleepkwas are widespread in ha-lyiss dominions. in 2024 they reached Earth, in order to help their poleepkwa allies, and took for themselves a handful of Earth's territories, claiming that 'their biologic ancestors inhabited those territories'...it was partly true: ha-lyiss's ancestor was Basilosaurus, a prehistoric whale, taken from Earth 40 million years ago by an extinct alien race (named by ha-lyiss 'Precursors') and brought on the planet Acamhar, in the Tau Ceti System, where said cetaceans spread and evolved, one branch developed limbs back by atavism and then anphibiousness, omnivorism and sentience. however, ha-lyiss took said territories by peaceful ways(after their warships blew up the american space shield, just to make clear that they had more firepower), mostly using money and/or fear to drive human inhabitants away. the main motivation that drove ha-lyiss to 'colonize' Earth was economic: in 2002, ha-lyiss empire has been ravaged by a War of Assassins that degenerated into full-blown civil war, which caused millions dead and the empire's economy to collapse, so they needed resources to rebuild it, and as they knew from poleepwas about Earth, they thought that expanding commerces with humans would have been a good income. humans, especially canaanites(descendants of israelis, palestinians and lebanese), attempted to bomb the ha-lyiss out many times, however ha-lyiss superior technology (more or less 250 years forward human tech) made each of said attacks end in disastrous defeats for humans, despite humans managing to kill at least 2 millions ha-lyiss over the years, most of them during 2035, as ha-lyiss Earth army had to enforce the main army against a misteryous enemy, and canaanites attacked ha-lyiss city-ships(they live in humongous submarine-like ships, sometimes fleets of these), destroying 5 of these and then taking back Jerusalem and killing all the ha-lyiss in it, mostly by dragging them into temples and slitting their throats in a deranged 'cleansing' ritual orchestrated by religious zealots that wanted to 'purge' the Holy Land from the alien 'taint'. however, eventually ha-lyiss conquered back said territories, but didn't demand revenge...except for a few ha-lyiss Bloodlines, which attempted to glass from space some human cities but were stopped by fellow Bloodlines.
for most of 21th century, ha-lyiss were too busy rebuilding their empire and didn't care about human politics, however they went back during the Venusian War, forcing humans and h'yaech to end it, then they expanded their trading to Venus. in 22th century, they have taught humans and h'yaech wormhole space travel technology.
about Pandora, House Mor'aayxil-ii has been the first one of the ha-lyiss Bloodlines to promote the empire joining ICA, and got from the Imperial Bloodline the exclusive in Pandora's exploration, however other Bloodlines are plotting against it, mostly because of the natural Unobtanium.

"The Green Inferno oozes wealth as much as it oozes death, for those that are willful to fight for it...no matter what the Imperial Bloodline does, a War of Assassins for the resources of Pandora is imminent!"

(Emperor Syiachyyse'Shaahan'Qoorrian, 986th Great Lord of Ha-Lyiss Empire, about Pandora)

Society:
Ha-lyiss society is family- based, just like humans's.
their government is a blend between a monarchy and a democracy, with Bloodlines(pretty much noble houses) working as political parties, common people has access to politics by alliance with the bloodlines. society is made by 3 castes: low, medium, and high. however, castes are meritocratic. ha-lyiss practice slavery over other sentient races, to the point they use gene splicing to create 'Servant Races', even if their concept of slavery is much softer than humans's: slaves have civil rights, are protected by laws from abusive masters, and the ha-lyiss's general attitude is friendly and tolerant, after contact with other sentient races, ha-lyiss even allow slaves to be freed. ha-lyiss consider science to be sacred, and think that the more knowledge is achieved about the universe, so is the knowledge of the divinity, in their society and culture scientists and priests are the same, typically women are the ones expected to be scientists, especially in the fields of biology and genetics, ha-lyiss believe that since females give birth to children, they have a better understanding of 'Creating Life'(this does not mean male scientists are not unheard of). for that, they tend to be arrogant and smug toward races with lower tech level than theirs, and that means everyone except poleepkwas, even if they still consider them worthy of respect.

Human arguments:
"the smug snakes are nazis(of course)!"
"the smug snakes are slave takers!" true, but ha-lyiss's concept of slavery is much softer than human one.
"the smug snakes want to enslave us!": some ha-lyiss consider humans to be too violent (and stupid) to be free, and so to them human should be enslaved in order to prevent them from harming other sentient species. howver, over 90% of ha-lyiss would buy human slaves(mostly criminals sold by human countries as punishment), but don't think they should be all slaves.
"the smug snakes are racist!" ha-lyiss effectively consider themselves superior, but still, their 'racism' is not particularly harmful.

Trivia:
-Acamhar is a Super Terra planet, nearly twice the mass of Earth, and gravity is 150% greater than Earth. because of this the basilosaurus genus grew smaller and smaller, and the ha-lyiss(and most of acamharan fauna) are surprisingly lightweight for aquatic creatures, for this they can also survive outside of water without being crushed under their own weight.
-also, Acamhar is colder than Earth and 90% of its surface is oceans, ice covers the poles and varies in extension depending on seasons, from roughly 10% during summer to over 35% during winter.
-the ha-lyiss can slither on the ground while 'standing' erect, but it is a slow locomotion, they can lay down and use their four arms for extra speed but they consider it distanteful, so any ha-lyiss that can purchase uses prostethic robotic limbs when outside of water, these can either be cyborg implants or not.
-despite they evolved from mammals, they show many non-mammalian features, which make them 'postmammalian', they pretty much are to mammals the same way a reptile is to an amphibian.
-even if they evolved from earth animals, they show alien features: the two whiskers on their chin are prehensile and bioluminescent, used for communication, they have a jacobson organ-like cavity in their mouth, like a snake, and they have rudimentary gills on their necks.

-even if they have gills, they are not efficient enough for them to just breath water, the gills can just supplement their lungs, allowing them to hold their breath for longer times.
-they have particular organs with no equivalent on Earth: one is a secondary liver, and another is a second pair of kidneys, named 'nitrocatchers' that chemically purify blood from nitrogen.
-both their arteries and veins are flexible, their lungs have extra sacs which expand in case of pressure change, and their heart tissue is more flexible than human's. all these features, plus the nitrocatchers, make them perfectly fit for water, they can survive with minor injuries pressure and temperature changes that would kill or at least severely injure a human.
-despite they are, thanks to their prehensile tail and four arms, good climbers, their max land speed is 10 km/h(against human 35 km/h).
-their average swim speed is 25 km/h, athletes can reach up to 50 km/h, and they can hold breath for even 30 minutes.
-humans have two kind of language: body language and verbal language. ha-lyiss have four: body language, verbal language, sonar language(used underwater), and 'Chant', a merge of verbal and sonar, Chant is a very ancient and difficult language that few ha-lyiss master, it is mainly used for art such as poetry, song and theater.
-ha-lyiss language grammar has features in common with hebrew, japanese, and french.
-ha-lyiss language sounds like an extremely articulated dolphin chant.
-on Earth, ha-lyiss have spliced and domisticated sharks, and use them like humans use dogs.

-the ha-lyiss term for dolphins is 'Yus-kyaashesh', it roughly translates as 'Sea Fucker', it has become a slang word for obnoxious perverts.

-racist ha-lyiss refer to other races as 'groundlings', a less offensive term most ha-lyiss use is 'primitives'.

-ha-lyiss are named 'snake people' by humans because reptiles are abhorrent, 'whale people' didn't sound evil enough.

-ha-lyiss are more promiscuous than other races, to them couples are 'open' by default("as long as you wife/husband is ok with it, you can f**k any girl/boy you want!") and laugh at the human concept of fidelity("stupid groundlings, why chastisting yourself for a bit of fun?"), yet they believe in monogamous marriage, and disapprove h'yaech polygamy/poliandry("there can be only one TRUE mate, more than one marriage trivializes the sacrality of it!").