Mareinia

Endless ocean, endless sky (worldbuilding blog, main is pigeonphd)

[mareinia]

Mareinia

Mareinia is an Earth-like planet approximately 70 light-years away from Earth. The planet's surface is 95% ocean, and it is the first alien planet discovered to house extraterrestrial life, including sapient life.

------

Main tags:

planet: details of Mareinia as a whole

location: specific places on Mareinia

biology: the planet's life-forms and ecology

mareinian: details about Mareinia's two sapient species

culture: Mareinian society

stasti: mechanics of Stasti, the most common Mareinian language

character: characters (Mareinian or human)

Disclaimer: I am not a biologist or a geologist or an anthropologist or an anythingologist, for that matter. I just do worldbuilding as a hobby and you should take anything science-y I say on this blog with a grain of salt. My main blog is @pigeonphd.

[mareinia]

Baby Mareinians. They learn to swim only a few months after hatching, but it takes them 2-3 years to be able to walk upright.

[mareinia]

Redesign (and renaming) of the psychopod (st. siakudeba), another alien species in the galaxy. Having no vocal chords, they communicate using both visual sign language and a form of short-range telepathy (which gives them their name). The psychopod empire is very advanced, with technology comparable to Stasti tech, but a history of violence and slavery has left it on very poor terms with the rest of intergalactic society.

[mareinia]

World map of Mareinia, with all the meganations labeled. Meganations are a relatively recent invention, and although these are the official borders, there are plenty of independent regions that reject the meganations' claimed sovereignty over them.

[mareinia]

shoutout to my brain for coming up with the idea that mareinians have two surnames and then IMMEDIATELY forgetting about it

[mareinia]

Here's an oldie but a goodie; this was an early eidiangar design. I changed it because I didn't think this design really conveyed how massive these beasts are, but I am quite proud of this piece regardless.

[mareinia]

Makhi Red (st. Maki Meka) is a well-respected test pilot for the Stasti Spacecraft Development Department. He's rather loud and abrasive, but he's skilled enough that most people let it slide. He's buddies with Kirin, having worked with him on the development of the Independent FTL Engine.

[mareinia]

MAKHI he is a cool dude

[mareinia]

Stast & Gender: Some Notes

There are no gendered pronouns in the Stasti language, and the terms people use to refer to each other or themselves in casual conversation are almost always gender neutral. This is because gender isn't really included in the Stasti conception of a public identity. It's more comparable to someone's favorite color in that people who know you will probably know about it (and might even have some opinions on it), but it doesn't come up in most day-to-day interactions and it doesn't affect the way others see you. On the whole, Stasti culture just doesn't bother with gender.

For Stasti natives who work with humans, the way this translates into human (or, at least, Western) perceptions of gender varies between individuals. Generally, the first time someone travels into a region with a gendered language or culture, their sex will be put on their travel paperwork/passport and they'll just pick the pronouns and terms that typically go with that. For those whose first interaction with gendered culture comes outside of official channels, they'll typically stick with whatever gender the members of that culture first saw them as. However, some Stasti Mareinians are more fond of the idea of gendered presentation than others. Those who are into the local culture (or who need to ingratiate themselves for whatever reason) will adopt some kind of gender presentation, though it may not be the gender corresponding to their sex. On the other hand, a lot of Stasti natives find the whole concept of gender to be distasteful, and will insist on being referred to in gender-neutral terms.

Now to talk about a subject that's a bit more complicated: marriage, sex, and children. The Western human conception of marriage doesn't exist in Stast, but there is a superficially similar public union that is referred to in English as "marriage" for simplicity's sake. Stasti romantic relationships are usually polyamorous, but there is a strict expectation that a child be raised by the two people who sired them. As a result, Stasti marriage is a legal and social contract that lies within a larger romantic network. This can cause a lot of problems, as you can probably imagine. For one, it is common for other partners of the parents to help raise the child, but they will never have a legal claim over said child so long as the married couple stays married, nor will they ever really be seen in society as a "true" parent. (For anyone else to adopt the child, the original couple would have to dissolve the marriage and give consent to the two new parents, at which point the new parents would form a marriage.) In addition, this effectively makes same-sex relationships fine when it comes to romance, but evidence of a moral failing when it comes to parental relationships.

Another problem that arises is family names: legally, every Stasti citizen has two last names and passes one on to a child. Again, this is based on whoever sired the child and can't be changed later, meaning children are often stuck with the family names of people they don't have a good relationship with or sometimes of people they never even met. It's easy to tell by legal names whether a child is adopted, and adoption is not well received by society at large.

[mareinia]

Some character sketching, featuring Tassa (former general and current high-level Stasti politician), Talkal (Tassa's rather naive diplomat child), Kirin (rocket scientist, aristocrat, and my poor little meow meow), and Yagi (an immigrant from Donunia who married himself into a position of some influence).

[mareinia]

Two other intelligent alien species that exist in the universe: Yebadeba/Novastellarians and Epama/Arthropedians.

Novastellarians are the largest known sapient creatures at 8 to 9 feet tall. They have no vocal language, instead using their tentacles for an elaborate sign language. They're very gregarious, and considered quite chaotic and aggressive by Mareinian standards.

Arthropedians are much smaller at around 4 feet tall. While they do have a vocal language, it's quite unique–consisting of words overlaid with a high-pitched humming. Not only is this language completely impossible to speak for every other sapient species, but Mareinians can't even hear their humming. Instead, Arthropedians replace the humming with their own sign language (much simpler than the Novastellarian language) when speaking with offworlders. Their culture is quite religious and they tend to stay in the area they grew up in, meaning they are a rare site outside of their home planet.

[mareinia]

International Mareinian Classification of Civilization

Ratified by representatives of Stast, Na'aka, Donunia, Mesna Mas. For use in classifying offworld civilizations. NOT to be used to justify or denounce civil intervention. NOT to be used to justify or denounce communication or trade. Note: Mesna-Maka ratification pending additional amendments, see proposal 23.1

Stage 1: Persistent Knowledge A civilization must have at least one robust universal language to be considered a Stage 1 civilization. A civilization must also have a system of recording knowledge that is independent of time, location and individual.

Stage 2: Mass Resource Distribution A civilization must have an effective, large-scale method of transport to be considered a Stage 2 civilization. Transportation must be capable of distributing necessary resources to populated regions in a timely manner.

Stage 3: Universal Security A civilization must have a qualifying system of universal security to be considered a Stage 3 civilization. Given normal circumstances and sufficient resources, this system must ensure the health, safety, and basic happiness of each individual of the civilization.

Stage 4: Lack of Civil Unrest A civilization have no severe or recurring civil unrest to be considered a Stage 4 civilization. Severe civil unrest is defined as civil unrest that noticably impacts or alters the behaviors of at least 1/6th of the population. Recurring civil unrest is defined as civil unrest originating from the same discomfort but occurring more than two times.

Stage 5: Faster-Than-Light Travel A civilization must be capable of faster-than-light travel to be considered a Stage 5 civilization. The method of faster-than-light travel must be repeatable and relatively non-destructive.

[mareinia]

Some color/marking notes. This applies to both northern and southern Mareinians with some probability differences between the two species. For example, southern Mareinians are more likely to have saturated skin colors and green eyes. The only color trait that is exclusive to one species is the rare striped mutation, which only shows up in northern gene pools.

[mareinia]

Taoskanta or "floating forests" are unique ecosystems. The skeleton of a floating forest is the taoska plant, which has a stiff, sail-like leaf and long roots. These plants are always found interlocked with others of their kind, forming a blanket on the ocean's surface. The floating forest, however, is not complete without the countless other organisms living alongside the taoska plants, forming a dense and diverse ecosystem nestled between and below the taoska plants' roots. Most floating forests are relatively small, but a few of them stretch out for miles.

[mareinia]

I'm also just now realizing I never posted these sketches. Aganestark are highly specialized to live in chasm rivers. Strong currents flow through chasm rivers almost year-round, which makes them a good environment to escape predators not adapted to the currents.

[mareinia]

Some of the unique animals hailing from the Kreid Highlands, a large, flat plateau on a landmass in southern Stast. Because the ocean is near-inaccessible from the highlands, the native creatures here are adapted to a fully terrestrial lifestyle. This ecosystem was once threatened by mareinian settlement of the landmass, but nowadays the Stasti government has declared the whole plateau a protected region.

Eifra Naker: An accomplished glider the size of a small cat, the eifra naker takes advantage of the plateau's harsh winds to quickly escape predators. It feeds mostly on small invertebrates and carrion.

Getia Nasta: This strange-looking creature is a relative of the far plumper niakia. It grazes plants across the highlands while using its impeccable sense of smell to detect predators from miles away.

Tasahi Mesta: A smaller, less powerful cousin of the fearsome mareinian-eating tasahi nasta. Living and hunting in packs, the tasahi mesta is the indisputable apex predator of the highlands because of its intelligence and incredible speed. Like their larger relative, tasahi mesta are aggressive toward mareinians and are a major threat to unprepared travelers.

[mareinia]

Experimenting with some Mareinian clothing styles. Left is a dancing and/or ceremonial outfit–meant to be flowy and flashy. (Everyday Stasti clothes aren't that revealing, but it's not really seen as scandalous to let your butt hang out–just usually unprofessional.) Right is an underwater mechanic's outfit. Underwater clothing like this tends to put pockets, belts, etc. on the legs and tail, where they don't get in the way as much when the worker is floating.