WIP Slimes

SPECIES
Slime People
Slime People	Play-ability: Round Start General Features: Breathes nitrogen. Breathes slower. Can process 6 reagents at once. Positive Features: Double natural regen. Have a 2x3 internal storage in their body. Negative Features: Damaged by water. Damage Weaknesses: Take 20% more slash and piercing damage. Take 50% more cold damage. Damage Resistances: Take 40% less blunt damage. Take 80% less asphyxiation damage.

Slime People

The Slime People, lacking a better name, are a fairly new Species in the grander scheme of the Universe. Their history is short by every other Species' standards, and their culture is fragmented. Despite this their rise onto the galactic scene has been expedient and dramatic, as they rapidly adjusted to the various societies they found themselves integrating within. Their versatility is perhaps their greatest strength, and it has allowed them to flourish.

Biology

Slime People are an artificial Species, though they were not developed with intentionality. Their existence is accidental, and that shows through in their biology. Slime People possess most of the basic organs that commonly develop. Lungs, stomachs, eyes and ears and mouths. However, they lack many of the tertiary parts generally found in more traditional organics. Their hearts pump to move fluids around the inside of their membranes without the need for any veins or arteries, similar to an insect. Their membranes are highly absorbent and are especially reactive with water, which is caustic to them. Interestingly, despite this, their internal organs are capable of processing water and several require it to function.

Slimes maintain their semi-solid forms through surface tension and internal pressure, lacking any bones. Slimes breathe nitrogen, processing it in their lungs and binding it to their internal fluids, where it is then used by various chemical processes in their body. They are capable of filtering out oxygen and other gases and exhaling them, so they do not require special equipment to function on a space station.

Most interestingly, they lack a traditional brain, instead having a 'core' that fulfills the same role. Slime cores are ill understood - while all Slime People have a core, some non-intelligent slime creatures also do. There is practically no evidence of any difference between slime creatures with a core, and those without, though some test subjects have been seen developing and forming cores in laboratory conditions.

Culture

History

Slime People, and Slimes in general, have developed independently across dozens of worlds spanning the galaxy. They are so widespread that it is believed there may still be upwards of a hundred uncontacted groups of them on various planets across the galaxy. Despite their far-spanning origins, which may imply dozens of unique Species, the Slime People all share a common element in their creation that makes them all biologically related.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, ancient civilizations spanned the galaxy. While almost nothing is known of these people, what they left behind holds great significance for scientists across the galaxy, and for the Slime People. When the ancient aliens vanished, they left behind monolithic structures filled with machinery and devices that we can scarce comprehend. Xenoarcheology has spent decades studying these artifacts, yielding very little in return for their effort.

The megastructures left behind by these ancient aliens, left rotting and decaying on worlds across the galaxy, gave birth to the first Slimes and Slime People. Despite being born independently on planets spread so far apart, this shared origin from the industrial runoff and decay of these ancient structures gives all Slime People a sense of community, and a very similar biology and physical form.

Slime people have only existed for roughly 1000 years according to estimates, but in this time many of their societies achieved what took others tens of thousands of years. Their close relationship with, and worship of, the ancient xeno technology gave them an edge in technological development, with most becoming space faring societies independently. They travelled the stars, finding other aliens and soon one another. As they linked together and refound themselves, their purpose grew in intensity. They strived to discover their Gods, the aliens who's ruined structures gave birth to their Species and their purpose in this world.

Religion

The Slime People were birthed from the ruins of ancient xenos megastructures, which hold religious significance to them. They see these structures and the technology and artifacts found within as holy relics, birthing grounds created by the gods that gave them life. As they ventured out into the wider galaxy, their journey became not an exploration, but a pilgrimage. A journey to find their gods, or at the very least to discover what happened to them. This drive and goal has brought them into conflict with many of the other civilizations in the galaxy, who often pillage these ancient structures for research, desecrating what the Slime People consider to be holy sites.

There are many sects of the Slime People's religion with different beliefs, often derived from the environment they were birthed from. Those from factories tend to believe their creation was deliberate, the will of the gods. Those from bunkers and cities believe the gods created them as a last ditch effort to survive whatever calamity destroyed them, that they are the inheritors of their gods' legacy. Others still believe their creation to be an accident, happenstance. The largest schism in their faith stands between those who believe their gods are dead and seek to discover what happened to them, and those who believe their gods are still alive somewhere in the galaxy. This schism is one of the few things that has ever driven the Slime People to war amongst themselves, disturbing the typical unity they find in their shared faith.

Family and Community

Slime People lack a strong sense of community, in part due to their own individual struggles with identity. They tend to conform to whatever communities they find themselves within, molding themselves to those expectations and norms rather than imposing or preserving their own. Because of this, depending on where a Slime is from, their views on many things can vary wildly. If a culture is more monogamous and has a strong image of a 'nuclear family', they will adapt it. If the culture is polymerous and trends towards communal raising of their offspring, they will adapt that instead. This much variety in their culture has also caused conflicts in-between the Slime People.

Fashion and Aesthetics

Like everything else about the Slime People, they tend to adapt to whatever culture they find themselves living within. Some elements of their original culture do shine through here, however. These influences are often a consequence of the megastructure that birthed them. Much of their architecture and design aesthetic tends to match these alien ruins, with geometric brutalist shapes for important buildings, usually adopted by Slime People birthed from factories and cities. Other ruins have a more smooth, almost bubbly organic style which is reflected in their culture, with flowy clothing and curved buildings.

There is a strong unifying trend between all groups, however. While important government buildings, factories, and other places that are meant to reflect authority heavily draw from the design of the ruins that birthed them in shape and coloration- drap dark and almost depressing, Slime People's clothes and social spaces tend to be exceedingly colorful, ranging from Cyberpop to Decora in design and coloration. It is far from uncommon to see brightly colored suits and uniforms worn by officials, even those working in the dreariest government buildings, and several architectural movements have occurred in their past that tried to blend the two aesthetics, with brutalist and harsh architecture colored in bright pinks and blues. This extreme contrast became one of the exoticized features of their culture that other Species tend to focus on when trying to 'replicate' the 'authentic' Slime People style.

Society

Government

The Slime People governments follow standard trends in the galaxy, monarchies that evolved into democracies of various flavors. The acceleration that occurred due to their access to xeno technology made the transitionary periods incredibly rapid, and very violent. On the galactic scale, all planets occupied by Slime People have integrated fully into the various other galactic powers. Seven worlds are members of the Trans-Solar Federation, nine world are members of the Skrellian Central Authority, and two worlds are members of the Union of Soviet Socialist Planets. Another dozen are members of smaller coalitions and federations. Almost none have bothered to keep much of their autonomy.

Economy

While strictly against the foreign use of their relics, the Slime People have often found a place in the market to sell their own technological inventions derived from those relics. They also often export their textiles, with Slime clothes finding a popular foothold amongst the younger generations closer to Earth especially. Due to their rapid expansion and disjointed points of origin, they lack a strong economic base and a notable number of their worlds are less than ideal for habitation and heavily rely on imports of food from the governments they have integrated into, making these worlds susceptible to famine and material shortages. This is of little concern to them, despite the anxiety it induces in their allies- a famine now and then means little when their population can bounce back so easily.

Trivia

• Some Slime People smell and taste vaguely fruity.
• While Slime People, generally, dislike what they consider to be theft of their holy relics, which usually puts them at odds with Xenoarcheologists, their adaptable nature means that quite a few have found themselves working in these exact same scientific institutes themselves. No culture is a monolith after all, not all Slimes are religious anymore.
• Slime People can procreate naturally amongst themselves, and this is how the majority of them are born today. They do also still form naturally on their home worlds, in the holy sites they hold so dear. There is a small amount of assumed specialness and elevated expectation placed on these 'natural' Slimes by their kin, but it varies from world to world.