The Gigazisku

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Nightfish
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The Gigazisku

#1 Post by Nightfish »

Gigazisku (Jig-A-Zis-Ku) (by Utilae)

Intro
The Gigazisku are a race of predators and farmers. They exist in overwhelming numbers, dominating the skies and all other domains on their planet. Now under the orders of their newest generation of queens they are attempting to transcend the upper sky, an unexplored domain. The upper sky is a new source of food, to be controlled and farmed, worth being explored just as a new taste is worth trying.

Homeworld
The Gigazisku live on a large planet called Sivuit, which is covered by mountainous islands, surrounded by a great sea. Around the edges of the islands are steep cliffs that descend 1000 meters below the surface of the ocean. From the surface of the ocean to the upper surface of the cliffs is a distance of about 1000 meters, as high as the oceans are deep. The upper surfaces of these islands are large areas of flat land covered in thick forest vegetation, so thick that it grows down the cliff side and into the ocean. This world is also home to an endless rain, which constantly fills the ocean and helps vegetation to grow.

The sun this world orbits around is quite hot and as a result of the heat and water there is very thick fog, a result of the continual evapouration of the great sea. Almost every from of life on this planet has evolved some means to move from island to island. Such means include the ability to fly through the air, swim the seas and climb the cliffs. There are few creatures that live only on land, as food cannot be sourced from one island alone.

Social Structure
On this planet the Gigazisku have evolved to become the most dominant carnivore. Over many centuries they have evolved into highly intelligent predators. They have ensured that they have an endless supply of food, by farming many of the creatures on this world, which are common prey to them. The Gigazisku patrol the skies, setting up parimeters that divide different creatures into feeding grounds and breeding grounds. These parameters are created by spraying a powerful chemical which prevents any creatures from going near. As a result of being surrounded by a perimeter of this chemical, prey cannot escape an area, as they instantly recognise areas beyond the perimeter as dangerous and so feel safer within the current territory. The Gigazisku are forbidden from feeding in non feeding areas, as it could cause their source of food to be wiped out.

The Gigazisku are rulled by a queen, which is able to live for thousands of years. The queen has a very high breeding rate and can have upto a thousand young at once. The queen is alot larger and tougher than normal Gigazisku and is formidable in close combat, just like any other Gigazisku. As well as this, the queen is heavily guarded by other Gigazisku, making the queen well protected. The chance of a normal Gigazisku being born is very high, while a queen being born is very low, so the queen is a very important member of the race to protect. Each queen retains knowledge from previous queens and also passes some of this knowledge onto normal Gigazisku. This means that as a race the Gigazisku become more intelligent as new queens are born. The Gigazisku queen also has a phychic link to all normal Gigazisku, to send orders and also retain control over the normal Gigazisku, which vastly out number the queens.

Physical Description
The Gigazisku can be thought of as a giant bug, more wasp like then anything else, but very alien. They have a long snake like body, which is thicker around the torso area. The body extends with the same thickness for several meters before narrowing into a sharp needle like tip, at the end of its tail. On the front end of the torso (opposite the tail) is the head. Its head has two large pincers attached, which extend out in front of the mouth of the head. In between the pincers are two smaller mandibles. The head has two large eyes that glow with a gleaming brightness. On the back of the torso are two large lumps, one located at the head end of the torso and the other located at the tail end. Both of these lumps contain very large dragonfly like wings, a few meters long. Each lump has two pairs of these wings, which total to four wings on the left and four wings on the right. In the middle of the torso, on each side are a pair of long arms that have a houlder and an elbow joint. On the tip of each arm is a very long and sharp thorn. On the inner part of the arm (just before the arm part ends and the thorn part begins) is a smaller thorn that extends to the end of the arm (but not to the end of the long thorn).

History
Sivuit had always been a forbidden place to many in the Orion empire. Not much was said, but much was known. Those who went there often would not return, for once stepping off their ships, all mannor of carnivorous creatures would attack, seeking food. Many from the Orion empire (even with all of their technology) could survive for long on this harsh world. Further more, not one creature of any common species could be identified as the threat on this planet.

All creatures on Sivuit were viewed as hostile, though lerking in the deepest parts of the forest and in the furtherest parts of the skies were the Gigazisku. They had plenty of food available to them and so could resist their feral instincts for a while. This is why the Gigazisku watched the Orion visitors from afar, studying them, while making sure they themselves remained unnoticed. In reality it was the Gigazisku prey that had scared many an Orion visitor away. The Gigazisku would easily be more of a threat to the Orions then the Orions could ever know, though the Orions dissappeared not too long after these times.

Never having the chance to threaten the Orions, the Gigazisku are now in the process of exploring the upper sky (space). If the Orions are still out there, the Gigazisku might finally get there chance to see what might of been and become the greatest threat the Orions could ever face.

Race Attributes
-Excelent farming.
-Homeplanet has a research bonus (queens live there).
-Higher food stockpile cap.
-Excelent ground combat (high speed & attack, defense average).
-Excelent space combat (high speed & attack).
-Very high population growth.
-Very high security (good defense against spying).
-Small ships (ie size 1-4) cost less and are cheaper to maintain.
-Low mining and production.
-Poor research.
-Very bad spying (on other empires), because of their buzzing wings.
-Poor diplomacy.

Moriarty
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#2 Post by Moriarty »

u say they left the planet under the orders of the queen. But why did the queen give such orders?

Impaler
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#3 Post by Impaler »

Nice job Utiale, it sounds like their planet has Low gravity but a thick atmosphere and hydrophspere (possibly do to large numbers of Icy comets in the system).

A little problem with the chemical spray being used to corral animals, if the planet has constant rain and is a jumgle these things will be washed away imediatly. Not to mention that if your hunting an animal (and it knows it) no amount of smell is going to stop it from running away. Also you stated that the rocky islands are so small that all the life forms need to migrate between them so you contradict the whole idea of having the prey animals corraled on these islands (unless you ment its the Gigazisku who must do the migrating).

Here is an alternate idea. All the prey animals are "free range" the Gigaziku (boy you like to come up with crazy names) catch the animals and spray them with a chemical that serves as a kind of identification tag. Some animals are labeled as "food" others "Breeder". No one is alowed to eat a breader (they enforce the law by smelling each other mandables for incriminating sents). By selecting the fatest fastest growing easily caught animals as breeders they have domesticated most of the other animals on the planet.
Fear is the Mind Killer - Frank Herbert -Dune

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utilae
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#4 Post by utilae »

Impaler wrote: A little problem with the chemical spray being used to corral animals, if the planet has constant rain and is a jumgle these things will be washed away imediatly. Not to mention that if your hunting an animal (and it knows it) no amount of smell is going to stop it from running away. Also you stated that the rocky islands are so small that all the life forms need to migrate between them so you contradict the whole idea of having the prey animals corraled on these islands (unless you ment its the Gigazisku who must do the migrating).
Maybe the chemical can survive such rains (if it is possible). Also maybe the chemical isn't just a smell, but has a ractive affect to the animals, tricking them, so they don't don't go beyond the chemical perimeter.

As for the islands, they are large islands, so there can be many areas where animals are confined. The Gigazisku could carry them, ie forced migration.
Impaler wrote: Here is an alternate idea. All the prey animals are "free range" the Gigaziku (boy you like to come up with crazy names) catch the animals and spray them with a chemical that serves as a kind of identification tag. Some animals are labeled as "food" others "Breeder". No one is alowed to eat a breader (they enforce the law by smelling each other mandables for incriminating sents). By selecting the fatest fastest growing easily caught animals as breeders they have domesticated most of the other animals on the planet.
This is a good alternative, because with the perimeter idea, the animals are seperated from their pery, so may not get fed. So yeah, that would be better.

@Moriarty
The queens have an ambition, even though they have enough food, selfish reasons are the excuse here. The queens seek more control, over this upper sky, so in the process they need more food to control this new unexplored domain. Also as part of a driving factor, the Gigazisku as a whole seek the 'visitors' who they once watched come to their world. Much time has passed since then, they feel that it is now a good time to test their might against those who tresspassed so long ago (like a swarm of bees, they will destroy the tresspassers).

Moriarty
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#5 Post by Moriarty »

Ambition hey...
Not quite as good as xenophobic paranoia, but it'll do... ;)
hehehe

Impaler
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#6 Post by Impaler »

How about their method of Reproduction?

Here is a little idea I had, how about reproduction by Budding.

The end of their Tail breaks off and becomes a self sufficient worm like offspring. At the site of the break a Lamprey like mouth is present. These worms are keept in large brood pits by the adults who feed them raw prey animals which the worms ravinously devoure. After growing large enough the worms climb into trees and coccon themselves. They them Metamorposis into smaller versions of the Adults and hatch. Once they reach adult size they can reproduce, each time they regrow a new tail from the stump and it breaks off again. All their reproduction is Asexual with a high degree of random mutation that occures durring the metamorposis.
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utilae
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#7 Post by utilae »

Hey, that sounds cool.

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Krikkitone
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#8 Post by Krikkitone »

Actually that probably depends on how you want Gigazisku society to behave. If you want it to be

1. Highly free associating and chaotic then the Asexual sounds good as an explanation for that (no wide ranging family ties, indeed with that method no family/social ties at all if the young are thrown into brood pits...perhaps they grow up in the oceans and hunt for themselves)

For a modification,

2. There are strong parent-child ties, and maybe sibling ties (parents may have a young 'grow' on them, and then break out of a pouch and begin flying freely within a few minutes to an hour) parents care for their children, and siblings for eachother, but otherwise society is ruthlessly competitive, me and mine vs. everyone else

If you want it to be more organized use the mass reproduction via the queens which could go two ways

3. The queens only cooperate minimally, society is vast and feudal..chaotic but in a stable way, the surface may change a lot but not the actual structure of society.

4. The queens cooperate very well, society is heavily planned and coordinated.


From your description I'd say 4 (and the queens seem to have an Idea of the more masses the better from the picks)

I'd probably cut out the HW research bonus (because you'll need queens on every planet for reproduction then, and so the justification doesn't work)

The queens wouldn't necessarily need a psychic link, Gigazisku would probably just be instinctually obedient of the queens...possibly with some chemical effects.

That would still give good unrest supression

Finally I might cut back on the food production, given that the Gigazisku are hunters and therefore won't be turning food into people at optimum efficiency.

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utilae
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#9 Post by utilae »

Krikkitone wrote: 4. The queens cooperate very well, society is heavily planned and coordinated.

From your description I'd say 4 (and the queens seem to have an Idea of the more masses the better from the picks)
Yes, no 4 seems better.
Krikkitone wrote: I'd probably cut out the HW research bonus (because you'll need queens on every planet for reproduction then, and so the justification doesn't work)
Well it's more a matter of the queens retaining the past memories of research, so they intern instruct the othe Gigazisku to research from a certain point on.
Krikkitone wrote: The queens wouldn't necessarily need a psychic link, Gigazisku would probably just be instinctually obedient of the queens...possibly with some chemical effects.

That would still give good unrest supression
Hey, chemical is good to. Good unrest suppression, didn't think of that.
Krikkitone wrote: Finally I might cut back on the food production, given that the Gigazisku are hunters and therefore won't be turning food into people at optimum efficiency.
Not so much hunters as farmers. I said execelent farming, but they should at least have the extra high food cap, so that stocks are always plentiful.

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utilae
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#10 Post by utilae »

Here's a pic of the Gigazisku that I created (based on the description):
Image

That Guy
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#11 Post by That Guy »

I have tried to model this race, but it is crued, and basic. I was just fooling around, and testing my skill with the skin modifier. I can put him in any position. The face isn't done either.

http://www.geocities.com/fothatguy/giga.jpg

You might have to copy that in the address bar, it is geocities...
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utilae
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#12 Post by utilae »

Hey, cool.

I have also posted pics of two other races of mine. The Nocias and the Ordistant.

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#13 Post by That Guy »

Ya, I am having abit of trouble with the texture, and the arms are abit too long, and the body/tail is abit a awkward, but I plan to refine it.

This was mostly a test of making an organic/bone controlled model, and since it was my first, it is a big sucess! lol

And I have looked at your other ones, abit unconventional. That is wh I did this one first.
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utilae
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#14 Post by utilae »

Yeah, it looks good so far.

Hey, how long did it take to do.

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#15 Post by That Guy »

Jeez, it must have been only 3 hours, and I had to learn how to do skinning through trial and error. But I also used 3d studio generated textures, so though it doesn't look so good, it took me that much less time. Add an hour for good textures.

I want to add more detail add other stuff, but my comp isn't so great, so it is laggy. But I will manage.
"The one perfect impossibility is perfection."

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