Alien introductions pt. 1: Swamp Dogs
Swamp Dog is the common English name for the six-limbed amphibian-like aliens. Other English nicknames include Exosaurus, Astrosaurus, Floodmakers, Water Wolves, and the sometimes derogatory ‘small aliens’.
PLANET
Swamp dogs originate from the planet Cgorthae.
Cgor is 22% larger than Earth with slightly increased gravity. The planet has less open ocean area, leaving a significant amount of the planets water to the major wetland biomes including swamps, bogs, flooded forests, wide but shallow rivers, and floodplains. The planets high percentage of water-based biomes ultimately gave way for this sophont to become the most populous boned animal on the planet.
BIOLOGY
Swamp Dogs are underwater ambush predators that rely mostly on invertebrates and fish-like prey. They use their hindmost limbs to navigate and accelerate through the waters, as these back limbs have evolved to resemble paddles. Their middle set of limbs have wide, flattened muscles around the thigh that also aid in direction while swimming. The frontmost limbs are thin, but strong. This allows them to strike quickly to capture prey and pull it to their mouth.
Other notable physical features include:
-An average height of 1m tall at the shoulder, making them the shortest sophont.
-Intricately shaped teeth akin to leopard seals, as well as a tongue equipped with many barbs for stripping flesh off of prey.
-Salamander-like skin. Colors include but are not limited to: turquoise, emerald green, olive, lemon yellow, tan, and muddy brown.
-Purple blood that leads to magenta, indigo, or plum colored flesh underneath the initial green layers of skin.
-Large eyes with ivory-colored sclera. Iris colors include a range of dull pinks, purples, blues, yellows, and browns.
-Ear canals located directly behind the skull. Long, thin, cartilaginous ‘external ears’ emerge from around the ear canal. These do not significantly impact hearing, as they were primarily used by pre-sapient Swamp Dogs as lures while hunting underwater. These lures may have also aided in courting rituals.
-Nostrils located closely behind the ears. Both ears and nostrils positioned on the neck so the Swamp Dogs can breathe and hear the surface while keeping their eyes on the water below them.
-Ridges in the snout allow water to flow directly over the sensitive pores in and around the eyes and nostrils. This allows them to pick up on changes in the water such as oxygen, mineral, and algae levels.
-Four digits on each limb. On the front four limbs, two digits face forwards while the two longer digits face backwards. This gives them support in all directions while dealing with strong flow as they grip the ground underwater.
-When on land, they are able to stand upright on their midlegs. While doing so, they use their hind limbs as a prop, leaning back on them for balance. This stabilized upright posture gave way for the species to learn tool manipulation with their front limbs outside of water, a key step in their development as sapient beings.
CULTURE
‘Modern day’ (At least 200 years into the future) Swamp Dogs are stereotyped as being a treehugger society. This is despite the ongoing growth of global superpowers and major corporations actively destroying the delicate wetland structures that make up a majority of the planet. These similar problems are found on every sophont’s planet, but are most overlooked when it comes to Swamp Dogs. This mostly leads back to their initial introduction to other sophonts excluding most major industrial cities due to the remote location where first contact was initiated. (Swamp Dogs being the last out of five discovered sapient aliens). The global superpowers and large corporations of other alien planets often have to deal with the eyes of all five sophonts when making their major decisions, while people of the same influence on the Swamp Dog planet are able to pass under the radar easier, making it harder to make progress restoring the natural biomes despite the treehugger status given to them by others.
The most influential inventions of Swamp Dog societies include: High speed rail systems, soil-strengthening techniques allowing heavy construction on swampy land, vertical agriculture structures, space elevators, and much more.
Swamp Dog clothing is as diverse as our own, and varies just as much depending on culture. The most popular clothing choices include suits made of waterproof outer layers with reed-based inner layers meant to stay damp. This helps with retaining moisture in the skin during land travel.
It is popular to adorn the neck with hoards of intricate necklaces, weaves, and fabrics. Many wealthy individuals will wear their wealth like such, leaving the rest of their body in simple clothing as a contrast.
Sandals are a common shoe option, allowing the long toenails to be displayed often with bright and intricate disowns similar to our own nail art. Many go without shoes completely, as muddy feet is seen as a normal occurrence, with many building having dirt floors or cleaning stations at entrances.
In many cultures, the head is to be left unaltered. It is considered alternative to wear clothing on the head, and especially outgoing to acquire tattoos or other body modifications above the ears. Even Swamp Dogs with full body tattoos will usually leave their heads completely void of artwork.
SPACE
Swamp dogs made their way to space the slowest out of all sophonts, and had only thoroughly explored about half of the planets in their solar system before being contacted by a Wyrm-operated exploration ship.
As of now, Swamp Dogs are the vast minority when it comes to any space colony and even in total population. Even the few colonies within their own solar system have become majorly inhabited by Wyrm and/or Rabbit crews.
FIN