View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
The planet looks like an ideal spot for colonization from a distance. Covered with a range of biomes, from lush forest to long coastlines to roaring rivers. However, when the Amentans arrive they quickly notice anomalies on their scans.
A population of humanoids lives on the planet, scattered - sometimes individuals are spotted alone and other times they appear in groups of up to a few thousand. They appear similar to child Amentans, except for a general lack of bright hair colors. Civilization appears primitive - in some cases so primitive that it's confusing how they survive at all, with small groups managing to survive in environments as harsh arctic tundra huddled around campfires, in sandy villages in a desert with a single well. A small number of cities exist, most without obvious sources of sufficient food to support them.
As the Amentans investigate further they notice more anomalies of a far less consistent nature. There's an aurora in the northern hemisphere that shines continuously, day and night. One of the cities appear to change subtly in composition and position constantly, with no obvious construction visible. A group of the humanoids appear to live underwater, alongside a gigantic manta ray, hundreds of feet in breadth. A giant skeleton statue of green crystal seems to be moving. A blur of feathers and wings zooms across the planet like a missile at one point. Except for the humanoid species, none of the anomalies repeat.
These are just the anomalies they notice easily from orbit, more may be found on closer inspection.
"I can learn the language if I have to to go to a new place!"
The other amaliens look scared of the idea of learning a new language but she's brave and really really wants to go to the other planet.
She tries thinking of the best place for them to live.
"There's lots of space and food we don't usually eat underwater and not as many monsters in most of it. It's kinda uncomfortable since there's no air and it sorta squishes you down in some places but maybe that's worth it for you to have a very empty and nice new place to be in? There's also a friendly monster that can help you breathe but doesn't have too much more room since lots of amaliens live with it."
"We can't live underwater very well; we could build something to let us do it, but it would be a lot easier to live on the land."
"Oh. Well, there's lots of friendly and nice places to live and I'm sure lots of amaliens would be happy to show you them."
"Aside from not being underwater, what sort of things would you need?"
He wants to catch any difficult surprises early, before a bunch of the Amentans have settled.
"We prefer to live places that have seasons, so not at the cold ends of the planet or the hot band of it around the middle. We need fresh water and the land needs to be able to hold a lot of weight because we like our buildings to be pretty tall. We have lots of different kinds of food that grow in lots of kinds of soil, so a variety of soil is good. A lot of the things we like to build need metal so it's good to know where to dig that up and whoever's digging it up will want to live convenient to that."
The amaliens have so many questions.
What's metal? Why do you like seasons? Is it cause the weather is more interesting that way? How tall do your buildings get? What types of food do eat? What is the tastiest? Can I climb your buildings? Do you want to live in the Esteel Tree? How often do you move where you're staying?
These objects are made of metal, mostly steel but some aluminum and titanium and a bit of gold! It's because Amentans have a seasonal cycle, do any animals here do something like hiding underground in the summer or the winter or flying to a different place some of the year, it's sort of like that. Some buildings are more than a thousand feet high! The amaliens can try these foods they have along though they are not the best because they had to be okay to bring on a spaceship trip. They all have different favorites. Buildings usually get climbed from inside, not outside, in stairs, and some buildings don't have stairs at all and just have elevators, which are like so. What is the Esteel Tree? Amentans move when they need more room in their home like because their family has gotten bigger, or if they have changed jobs and want to be closer to what they do all day when they're not at home; this is usually not too often, a few times a year at most.
Fika is pretty sure she's seen gold before but not the others and wants to try biting them.
A thousand feet is really tall! That's bigger then the Esteel Tree! Oh wow all these foods are really yummy treats! Elevators sound sort of boring, unless they go very fast. The Esteel Tree is a monster-tree that is friendly and a few hundred amaliens live in it (like Fika) and a bunch more live nearby.
How big do families get? Why don't they just make the roofs taller instead of making new homes? How big do amentans get?
Fika can bite most of the sample objects.
Amentans stop growing when they are about this big, though some are a bit taller? A growing family means someone new joining you to live with you, like a baby, since Amentans have those, or a spouse, since they have those too.
"None of us are really great artists, but we can show you pictures that we took with machines!" Behold, downtown Shapto. Amenta from space.
Amaliens ask what various things are in the pictures, such as the shops, streetlights, and farmland.
The Amentans can show closeups and explain about shops and streetlights and farmland.
"Some people really like them, and they're where we grow our food. We need to eat every day."
"Some amaliens might get upset if you get rid of places they are visiting to make farms, is I think what Fika was suggesting."
"That's why we're asking where would be a good place. We're not planting any farms today."
"I can help you find some places, lots of amaliens travel but I'm sure they'd be happy to have new neighbors even if some parts of the places have to change for that to happen."
Fika and some of the amaliens get distracted, but most of them work on and off with the Amentans to figure things out. Lucien doesn't get distracted at all, and Meelia sticks around even if she starts daydreaming when they arn't talking about amelians visiting the Amentan planet.
The Amentans have orbital photos of the amalien planet, if that helps with choosing sites to investigate/ask the neighbors about/meet the monsters near.
Meelia will talk about all the different dangers places on the map have and where there are nice monsters and where there are less friendly monsters and where the weather is really rough and where there are really pretty views.