Bestiary Entry One - Fissers (Patreon)

Apologies for the gap in updates and lack of promised video. I was working on a mega post on every alien whose look I've modeled and whose backstory I've at least begun to sketch out but that was proving far too unwieldy, especially as random details began to emerge the more I wrote.

Instead of a megapost it seems like a way better idea to just do a series of posts, individual entries in the Xenocidaire bestiary on the civilizations, beings, and things you'll encounter in game. 

The first entry is a humble one, a look at the little mole guys who will appear in a largely friendly role in game.

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Fisser - Fissers, fissies, fizzies, etc. All refer to the initial report of highly radioactive, surprisingly fast, and dangerously large fission engine craft emerging from the Jupiter gate without any of the pre-warnings typical of intergate travel (probes launched ahead of schedule broadcasting messages in a variety of languages, radio emissions aimed at the gate, etc.) The Fissers surprise appearance at the Jupiter gate came due to the policy of other, more civilized systems that disallow fission based travel and possess the technology to divert would be entries into other gateways. 

the small crew compartments and colossal engines indicated to the gate warden AI that some form of warship or kamikaze craft had emerged from the gate--Thankfully, the faulty AI failed to activate the vector mines and x-ray laser installations that formed the first line of defense of an incursion into the solar system and communications between several human polities and the Fisser exploration fleet, representatives of the Fisser's "Greater Family", could begin in earnest. 

A face to Fisser meeting revealed that the Fissers were close to the size of a somewhat plump human child, bony but technically spineless like so many species encountered by humans--The bipedal, vertebrate body plan of both Humans and Myrmivores is credited for part of the mutual understanding that exists between those two expansionist, ape-ish species.

The Fissers were subterranean, the interior of their habitat modules cramped, dark and humid. On their home world (the star still unknown and not revealed as a part of the Greater Family's policy on interaction with space travelers.

Their untranslatable, secretion based name translated to the incredibly unhelpful 'people', and so as with so many species humans used whatever nickname or designation stuck--Though Martians refer to the Fissers as the Intruders and officially Cythereans dubbed them Gryllotalpas.

The Fissers entry into interstellar civilization turned out to be not too far from humanity's own: the beginnings of a type-1 civilization, though less successful in implementing fusion and without the history of atomic wars that made humans slightly (only slightly) cautious about building kilometer long Orion drive spacecraft. The Fissers, in the course of exploiting the resources of their solar system, encountered a dormant Gate seed whose awakening only devoured a good portion of their asteroid belt and the billion or so Fisser lives that had built thousands of hollowed out terraria. 

Civilizationally, the Fissers were nearly post-scarcity, by their own frugal definition, and organizd into a socially complex, collectivist society of species wide kinship that was a replacement for the clan based societies that existed as their largest, pseudo-national entities. Cosanguinity determined social status in their long dark ages, and the current Fissers are highly homogenous genetically and morphologically partially because of successful eugenic and anti-speciation movements in their past. There are no known Fisser sub-species, and if they exist the Fissers have made no mention of them. 

The Fissers experience the world through a multiplex of smell, taste, and touch. When speaking to humans it may sound as if they're experiencing synthesia, tasting colors and smelling textures, but to their highly refined sensoria the contours of an object can be described in many ways at once. The refinement of their senses is modulated through their computers and implants: fungal based, unique in function and appearance but testing has shown their mycelium processors were cultivated from the same strains found on Giraffe-8 and in use among the Myrmivores. It's likely they traded or were gifted the spores centuries ago, early in their interstellar stage. 

Fungal computers are known for their ability to detect chemical patterns emitted by a variety of species and communicate it to users, enabling sophisticated translation devices that can interpret the chemical signals and involuntary releases of stress hormones that are fundamental to interpersonal interactions among many species. The most sophisticated of these computers function as lie detectors, and when coupled with well trained kinesis analyzers it's possible to read the intent of a being who is not only culturally alien but also has a wildly different body plan from oneself. 

The Fissers make wide use of these devices for communication but also for the profession that a number of Fissers perform for the Myrmivores, Cythereans and others: surgeons. Smelling, tasting and hearing chemical changes in the body in a way that is truly total, artistic even, a Fisser surgeon is able to detect and treat ailments with a delicacy and accuracy beyond the native medical knowledge of a species own medical professionals. 

The Cythereans waging their little war on Giraffe-8 have several Fisser surgeons among their crew, both to treat their own wounded but also to assist in the examination and dissections (and vivisections, though the Fissers show more hesitancy in that arena than human scientists such as Surgeon-Captain Dreske) of novel life forms and biotechnology.