Biology
In comparison to Human and Teuthidoid biology (the two of which are pretty much identical in terms of chemistry), Proximan biology is best described succinctly as ‘weird’ due to their non-carbon based biology. In Proximan biochemistry, Nitrogen and Phosphorous take the place of carbon, liquid Ammonia takes the place of water (acting as the biological solvent), and Nitrogen takes the place of Oxygen (they inhale Nitrous Oxide in their natural environment and exhale Oxygen). This is made even weirder by the fact that the current conditions of their homeworld should not allow for liquid ammonia as the biological solvent in their chemistry. Geological records show that at one point in time the atmospheric pressure on Proxima Centauri c was high enough for liquid ammonia to exist in a natural state, and over time the pressure lessened and lessened until liquid ammonia was no longer able to be found. The lifeforms on the homeworld were able to adapt and evolve into their current state, with high-pressure fluid transport systems, and biological processes capable of creating ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen compounds found in their diet. Proximans range in height between 1.4 and 1.8 meters and have no innate capability for magic. A Proximan’s circulatory system could be best compared to a series of extremely resilient pipes, containing liquid ammonia (and other things) at around 1,070 kilopascals (around 155 PSI).
Proximan eyesight is adapted for life orbiting a red dwarf star, and as such they have a different visible spectrum from Humans. They have evolved a limited ability to see into the infrared spectrum, but they are also consequently colorblind above the human color yellow – leaving them perceiving blue, green, indigo, and violet as increasingly dark shades of black.
Proximans are resistant to a wide range of temperatures, and are comfortable between -100 and +25 Celsius. Proximans can safely survive temperatures ranging from +26 to +37 Celsius for periods of time, but they are extremely uncomfortable as they risk de-ammonization, a condition similar to dehydration in humans. In this temperature range they traditionally wear refrigeration bodysuits to avoid excessive ammonia boil-off. The standard Proximan atmosphere is mostly nitrous oxide, their bodies contain an amazing ability separate the oxygen from the nitrogen in their lungs and they exhale the oxygen back out.
Structurally, they are humanoid, with numerous bony growths on their bodies. On their heads, these growths are located above their eyes and extending downwards from the sides of their chin. On their limbs, these bony extensions are found in positions where they can protect joints – such as extending down from the upper arms to protect the elbow, or down from the upper legs to protect the knee. Further bony growths are found over the rib cage in the form of tough plating to protect the torso. Their ‘hair’ is actually a fine, flexible, bone-like substance which naturally grows in structures comparable to the dreadlock hairstyle. Males have a structure of this substance which grows between the chin bone growths, comparable to a human beard.
At the end of their arms are manipulator hands which have two opposable digits plus four additional digits. Their legs end in tetradactyl feet with three appendages pointing forwards plus a fourth pointing backwards. Their eyes are sunken into their heads, and are protected by bony plating on their eyelids. Blink reflex is extremely strong in Proximans, with the blink starting long (proverbially speaking) before an object comes in contact with the eye. This, combined with the strong plating over the eyes, makes Proximans very difficult to impair visually. The Proximan olfactory senses are contained within two consciously-sealable slits on their face. Their mouth is small and sunken in, surrounded by lips which are comprised of bony plating to protect the mouth. Inside the mouth is a single row of small teeth of a single type – pointy teeth suitable for sawing and tearing chunks off of their food – they have no molar-equivalents, as the majority of food processing takes place in their digestive system.
Nutrition and Diet
The Proximans have one notable advantage in their ‘odd’ biological makeup. Since Nitrogen and Phosphorous are the building blocks of their biochemistry, they must consume these two elements to survive. However, in actuality, they only need to consume Phosphorous – as they take in all the nitrogen they need to survive by breathing in nitrous oxide. Their lungs contain cells which chemically separate the nitrogen from the oxygen. The nitrogen is then absorbed into their bloodstream, and the oxygen is exhaled back out into the atmosphere.
Proximans clearly evolved from a meat-eating species, but these days, most Proximans abhor eating slaughtered wildlife of their homeworld, instead choosing to eat synthesized meat products made from plantstuffs.
Biological Vulnerabilities
The Proximans are extremely hardy beings, but they are not without their vulnerabilities. A Proximan’s vital fluids rapidly boil off when exposed to any temperature and atmospheric pressure condition where ammonia is a gas, leading to catastrophic organ and musculoskeletal structural integrity failure, which poses a grievous danger to anyone nearby. Furthermore, ammonia is also highly flammable, and one injured Proximan near an open flame could theoretically create a large amount of damage.
Additionally, a Proximan’s ammonia-based nature means they respond poorly to water (dihydrogen monoxide (H2O)). While mere exposure to water will not harm a Proximan thanks to their sealed skin layer, ingested or injected water is effectively a lethal poison to them.
Fire is also a major threat to an injured Proximan as their ammonia-based bodily fluids are also combustible. Thankfully, their adaptations to life in the cold, as well as their homeothermic (ability to maintain a stable body temperature regardless of outside conditions) nature leave them seldom relying on an outside source of heat.
The Proximan’s ammonia-based bodily fluids also have another downside, in that foreign chemicals introduced into them travel through their body extremely fast. However, their efficient and fast metabolism has a habit of burning these chemicals off rapidly, presumably this is an adaptation that arose as a means to combat the apex predators on their homeworld, most of which are poisonous in some form (to Proximan lifeforms).
It is also worth nothing that while Proximans can breathe an earth-standard atmosphere, the higher concentration of atmospheric nitrogen (in pure form) slowly overloads their biology, creating symptoms that are a mix the effects of lysergic acid diethylamide on humans and symptoms similar to oxygen toxicity – a condition referred to by Proximans as “having the vapours.” Proximans can utilize a breather mask which cuts down on the amount of nitrogen they inhale, but Proximans who spend long amounts of time in Earth-standard atmospheres have taken to utilizing an implant in their throat which performs the same functions as the mask.
Culture and Government
The Proximans are an enigma among galactic culture. While they are clearly a very combat-oriented species, they have evolved culturally to avoid war among themselves, most likely due to their low birth rate and susceptibility to mortal injuries when their bodily structure is compromised. Instead, they satisfy their combat urges with gladiatorial combat of varying types (but almost always nonlethal).
The Proximan family structure is centered around the clan, a collection of five to ten families who all share a common ancestry. These families are genetically divergent enough that interbreeding is viable, but it is usually frowned upon due to societal norms. The only designated familial role is that of the Lore-Keeper, who are the Proximans only institutionalized tradition of magic. In the Terran system of magical classification, Lore-Keepers are Contractors, bound to a spirit that has been contracted to the Lore-Keeper of their family for countless generations. Each Lore-Keeper designates a successor, and when they die the spirit passes to that successor. The role of the Lore-Keeper has fluctuated over generations, what was originally seen as a kind of warrior and champion for the family has since evolved into something more along the lines of a family historian. Some families, however, keep the old traditions alive and their Lore-Keepers go off to serve as gladiators, soldiers, or politicians.
Governmentally, the Proximans are best described as a Suzerainty. The entire Proximan domain is controlled by a single leader (the Suzerain), who oversees 36 vassal states. Each vassal state has a internal autonomy and self-rule, but foreign affairs (such as the relations with Earth) and inter-state relations are handled by the Suzerain and his independent, 37th state. The position of Suzerain is hereditary, and has been handed down the line of Naicun since Naicun the Great unified the planet and brought peace to the warring tribes. Each vassal state sends two representatives to the Suzerain’s court to serve for a single Proximan year (which is about 300 Earth days), an advisor to serve on the Suzerain’s Council, and a consort for the Suzerain’s harem. At the end of the year, these advisors return to their home vassal state, and any child sired by the Suzerain with that consort during that time remains a High Prince or High Princess but returns to be raised in the consort’s vassal state. The Suzerain and their state are responsible for coordinating the global military efforts of Proxima, along with any worldwide projects. This includes offworld projects, such as flux space gateways, interplanetary travel and mining, and military cooperation with the Terran Alliance.
Each individual vassal state is free to govern themselves as they see fit, and this has lead to a wide diversity in governmental structures among the states. Of the 36 vassal states, nine are hereditary monarchies, seven of them are representative republics, five are technocracies, four are gerontocracies, three are meritocracies, two are corporate states, two are perfect democracies (in the sense that every citizen has a vote on everything), two are theocracies, and one is an anarcho-syndicalist commune.
Socially, the Proximans exist as a semi-feudal heirarchy. While the days of true feudalism are gone in the Suzerainty, the overall social structure still exists. Unlike in a true feudalistic society, social mobility is a very real thing, and Proximans move up and down the social ladder with regularity. One of the most reliable methods for social mobility in this structure is military service – higher rank and better performance in training, wargames, and (more recently) field action are commensurate with upward mobility in the ladder. A Proximan’s parents determine a child’s starting position in the social ladder, but once the Proximan reaches adulthood (15 Proximan years), they are in charge of their own social fate.
Philosophy
Proximans love to fight. ‘To deny this would be to deny millions of years of evolution and history,’ Proximan philosophers are known to say. All Proximans feel an innate urge to do battle, but the species has tempered this over generations with a belief that all life is important. The more martial-minded (and bloodthirsty) Proximans tend to view this more as ‘it takes more skill to leave your opponent alive rather than simply killing them.’ This curious worldview is thought to have started to arise during the period of time that their homeworld was transitioning into its present state. The biological adaptations evolved by Proximans (and other lifeforms on their homeworld) left them hardy enough to survive this environment, but it also left them with a glaring weakness – when injured heavily, they will most likely explode due to blood boil-off. This left the species with a hesitance to heavily injure other native lifeforms, as doing so would most likely injure themselves.
“Armstrong”
If the Proximans had to declare a ‘planetary favorite sport,’ it would probably be the one who’s name translates roughly to ‘Armstrong.’ Armstrong is a martial combat event, in which two (or more) teams compete to see who will be the last one standing in a competition of combat. Armstrong is played in almost any setting imaginable, from matches in faux-urban arenas, to wilderness regions, to gladiatorial arenas. The PAL (Proximan Armstrong League (rough translation)) holds matches on almost a daily basis. It is worth nothing that the rules of Armstrong prevent actually killing your opponent, but accidents do happen from time to time.
Naming
Male Names: Bishie, Pakkul, Shodrik, Zhoar
Female Names: Kirosh, Otalka, Rolaka
Clan Names: Duruni, Naicun, Tareek, Uthargal
History
The early Proximans evolved from a mid-level predator on their homeworld. Their superior brain capacity allowed them to develop a primitive form of weapon that gave them an edge over the apex predators – the Stone Sword. The race marched their way up the food chain to the dominant species on the planet. For countless millennia, the primitive Proximans were comprised of groups of warring tribes who fought with each other over the fertile areas of the planet. This all changed when the largest tribe came under the leadership of a charismatic ruler named Naicun (later known as Naicun I and Naicun the Great). In a few short decades, he managed to unite almost all the tribes.
The Proximans first became aware of Humanity during Earth’s mid-20th century, by means of radio and TV signals Humans were broadcasting out into space. Realizing that they were more advanced than the “primitive earthers” they decided against making contact, however, they did grow to enjoy what the signals, which became a favored form of entertainment. They particularly enjoyed what they believed to be large-scale gladiatorial combat (in reality, these were news reports on the military conflicts of the 20th and 21st century), and were horrified to learn after First Contact that these were in fact actual battles with large casualty numbers. This did however, mean that they had already developed a system to translate their language into a variety of Human languages, and vice versa (mainly English, German, Chinese, Russian, French, and Spanish). The Proximans are aiding the Terran Alliance in scientific endeavors, but are hesitant to share any weapons technology with the humans. The main focus is the adaptation of flux-space technology to ship-level drives.
First contact (in the flesh) with an extraterrestrial race was when the Proximans actually met the Terran Alliance on August 4th, 2025, on the outskirts of the Centauri system. The TASS Feng-Huang was approaching the system on a mission of colonial founding, and the Proximan vessel Haoan’tuich was on a routine patrol of the system outskirts when it detected the incoming Phoenix-class colonial vessel.
Military Forces
Military service laws are set at a state-level in the Suzerainty. The Suzerain requires that all vassal states contribute a number of troops to the Suzerain’s military commensurate with the state’s population. How the states go about getting these numbers is up to the individual state. Most states use voluntary service, but still others have mandatory service time, and two of them engage in random conscription. Proximan military doctrine centers around rapid force assault, boarding operations, and a destroyer-centric fleet.
Proximan ground forces are highly-skilled shock troopers specializing in close quarters combat, perfect for boarding operations and urban combat. In naval operations, the most common Proximan tactic utilized consists of disabling anti-ship defenses on target vessels and then boarding the vessel to seize it intact. Other techniques utilized by Proximans include stealth vessels which can covertly attach themselves to the target vessel’s hull, computer specialists trained in disabling enemy ship systems, and martial arts that have extensive techniques for crippling the limbs of one’s foe.
Proximan man-portable weaponry has a distinct slant towards nonlethals or weapons which can be used as lethal or nonlethal weaponry, while their vehicular weaponry leans more towards ‘things that make satisfying kabooms’ and other large-caliber and highly destructive weaponry. They have also developed methods of disabling enemy ships by overloading their systems with high-voltage electrical discharges, though this is less than effective against properly shielded ships or ships sporting exotic systems.
Imports
Exports
Oxygen (which they consider a waste product),