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Description
I am a few days late for this Alien of the Month. Oh well.

November's aliens are the Gotan.

Species Information
Four Gotan Tribes

Homeworld:
Gotan. An earth-like planet, a bit smaller than Earth, with a strikingly similar ecosystem. The only difference is that the planet itself is a living entity, aware or itself, and very capable of thought. The details of how this happened are lost to history and there are as many theories as there are people looking into the matter. The planet calls itself Gotan. It identifies as neither male nor female, neither good nor evil, it simply is. It exists and is content in that.

Size:
The four Gotan here, one from each tribe, are all 2.5m or larger. These are the smallest. The others, all far less humanoid, are at least twice this size or larger.

Intelligence:
It is difficult to measure the intelligence of race when only four of them can communicate verbally with us. They range from humanoid with evolved language to creatures that are incarnations of a force of nature that do not communicate outside of other gotan and the planet itself. One gotan was taught to read, and he picked it up very quickly. The rest seem uninterested. They are less "educated" and more "enlightened".

Language:
They speak telepathically to one another and to the planet. The four pictured above do speak, with varied success. They learned this by listening to the DIC colonists who were left there to run the refining plants and to begin to establish the planet as a part of the DIC Empire. (A story for later.) Depending on what colony they were closer to, they speak with what humans would recognize as English with either a rough Cajun or mixed Scottish/Irish accent.

Lifespan:
So far as we know, the gotan do not die unless their planet is destroyed or they get too far away from the planet. The oldest do not comprehend time in a way we understand yet, and the youngest are not even 200 years old. It is said, however, that they never die. They only fall apart into their components, waiting for Gotan and their tribe to wake them again.

Physiology:
The Gotan are not living beings as we know them. They aren't even "alive" by biological definitions. They are constructed of the world around them, predominantly from the world at it's height of each season. They are not bound by normal biological limits and each have a different ability corresponding to their season and place in the world.

Psychology:
They are as varied as humans except in their temper. While they are normally calm and quiet, when pushed too far, they lose their temper and lash out with the elements at their command. Even the smallest gotan have been known to level buildings in this state. They are able to defend themselves and to be social, but are (in general) more inclined to keep their distance from non-gotan. The can share their experiences with all other gotan and with their planet, so don't need to be very close to learn what they need to know. So it could be said that they are curious, but it doesn't look that way to the casual observer.

When the four pictured here were created, they were made in the image of the humans who had come to colonize the planet. While they look marginally human, there is always something off. Something a little sinister in the way humans perceived them. Gotan and it's people had never seen humans before and did the best their could.

Culture:
They are nomadic, and roam from one corner of their world to the other. An old gotan has seen every part of the planet. The only places of permanence are the shrines, one for every tribe. It is where they make new gotan, and meet once a year at the height of their season. They are strongest there, and each shrine is permanently inhabited by a guardian, that the fiction-savvy human would call a "dragon". They are the largest and oldest of each tribe.

There are four tribes. One to correspond with the seasonal extremes. Each tribe is governed by two leaders (called the kings for the sake of discussion), who make all the major decisions but can be overthrown by trial of will if they are found unequal to their status by a majority of the rest of the tribe.

Except for the four gotan above, they have no sex or gender. These four, because they were created in human image in order to facilitate human contact and understanding., look to be either male or female. But they have no mental or emotional concept of what that means. Gotan are attracted to one another and have been known to partner off, but it is strictly on a mental level. New gotan are built and shaped from the world around them, so there culture has been spared the complication of sexual attraction and reproduction.

Other:
The former human inhabitants of Gotan were really only very familiar with the four gotan above. They were even given name. (Nikai the Winter Prince) After the tribes destroyed the refineries that were polluting and harming Gotan, the colonists hunted them and using modern weapons, destroyed some. The rest were eliminated when the shrines were taken apart.

After a small and one-sided battle, the colonists were ejected, and the shrines put back together. The gotan are slowly coming back the way they were.

Art, Characters, and Story © NuisanceBearEull

Description
I am a few days late for this Alien of the Month. Oh well.

November's aliens are the Gotan.

Species Information
Four Gotan Tribes

Homeworld:
Gotan. An earth-like planet, a bit smaller than Earth, with a strikingly similar ecosystem. The only difference is that the planet itself is a living entity, aware or itself, and very capable of thought. The details of how this happened are lost to history and there are as many theories as there are people looking into the matter. The planet calls itself Gotan. It identifies as neither male nor female, neither good nor evil, it simply is. It exists and is content in that.

Size:
The four Gotan here, one from each tribe, are all 2.5m or larger. These are the smallest. The others, all far less humanoid, are at least twice this size or larger.

Intelligence:
It is difficult to measure the intelligence of race when only four of them can communicate verbally with us. They range from humanoid with evolved language to creatures that are incarnations of a force of nature that do not communicate outside of other gotan and the planet itself. One gotan was taught to read, and he picked it up very quickly. The rest seem uninterested. They are less "educated" and more "enlightened".

Language:
They speak telepathically to one another and to the planet. The four pictured above do speak, with varied success. They learned this by listening to the DIC colonists who were left there to run the refining plants and to begin to establish the planet as a part of the DIC Empire. (A story for later.) Depending on what colony they were closer to, they speak with what humans would recognize as English with either a rough Cajun or mixed Scottish/Irish accent.

Lifespan:
So far as we know, the gotan do not die unless their planet is destroyed or they get too far away from the planet. The oldest do not comprehend time in a way we understand yet, and the youngest are not even 200 years old. It is said, however, that they never die. They only fall apart into their components, waiting for Gotan and their tribe to wake them again.

Physiology:
The Gotan are not living beings as we know them. They aren't even "alive" by biological definitions. They are constructed of the world around them, predominantly from the world at it's height of each season. They are not bound by normal biological limits and each have a different ability corresponding to their season and place in the world.

Psychology:
They are as varied as humans except in their temper. While they are normally calm and quiet, when pushed too far, they lose their temper and lash out with the elements at their command. Even the smallest gotan have been known to level buildings in this state. They are able to defend themselves and to be social, but are (in general) more inclined to keep their distance from non-gotan. The can share their experiences with all other gotan and with their planet, so don't need to be very close to learn what they need to know. So it could be said that they are curious, but it doesn't look that way to the casual observer.

When the four pictured here were created, they were made in the image of the humans who had come to colonize the planet. While they look marginally human, there is always something off. Something a little sinister in the way humans perceived them. Gotan and it's people had never seen humans before and did the best their could.

Culture:
They are nomadic, and roam from one corner of their world to the other. An old gotan has seen every part of the planet. The only places of permanence are the shrines, one for every tribe. It is where they make new gotan, and meet once a year at the height of their season. They are strongest there, and each shrine is permanently inhabited by a guardian, that the fiction-savvy human would call a "dragon". They are the largest and oldest of each tribe.

There are four tribes. One to correspond with the seasonal extremes. Each tribe is governed by two leaders (called the kings for the sake of discussion), who make all the major decisions but can be overthrown by trial of will if they are found unequal to their status by a majority of the rest of the tribe.

Except for the four gotan above, they have no sex or gender. These four, because they were created in human image in order to facilitate human contact and understanding., look to be either male or female. But they have no mental or emotional concept of what that means. Gotan are attracted to one another and have been known to partner off, but it is strictly on a mental level. New gotan are built and shaped from the world around them, so there culture has been spared the complication of sexual attraction and reproduction.

Other:
The former human inhabitants of Gotan were really only very familiar with the four gotan above. They were even given name. (Nikai the Winter Prince) After the tribes destroyed the refineries that were polluting and harming Gotan, the colonists hunted them and using modern weapons, destroyed some. The rest were eliminated when the shrines were taken apart.

After a small and one-sided battle, the colonists were ejected, and the shrines put back together. The gotan are slowly coming back the way they were.

Art, Characters, and Story © NuisanceBearEull