UrDail
| UrDail | |
|---|---|
| |
| Mundo | ReDawn |
| Universo | Cytoverse |
“The UrDail have been a spacefaring people for centuries now. You have nearly reached primary intelligence and have a functioning world government. Normally, you'd have been invited among our ranks generations ago. ”
The UrDail are a nation of aliens that live on the planet ReDawn.[2] They are not a part of the Superiority and have allied with the humans in the past.[1] It's unknown whether "UrDail" is also the name of their species or if they have a different word for themselves.
Appearance and Biology
“Saints and stars. She's beautiful. Almost… almost like a devil from one of the old stories… ”
The UrDail are humanoid in both size and shape, albeit with purple skin and white bone ridges under their eyes. Their hair can be white, and their eyes can be purple; it's possible they come in other colors as well.[4] Like humans, the UrDail appear to have at least two sexes, and breast-feed their children. Their dietary needs are likewise similar, though there are some foods that humans can eat and UrDail cannot, and vice versa. Most notably, they eat less meat and more nuts, and do not drink milk from other creatures; not out of inability, but rather because they consider it gross.[5]
They have very few cytonics, with Alanik being one of only five at the moment.[6]
History
Little is known about UrDail history. During the Third Human War, they were allied to humanity, although later, the UrDail politicians would come to call this period an occupation by human forces.[3] Regardless of the facts, this has led to them being perceived as aggressive by the Superiority, and thus denied citizenship for many decades.[1]
About a century after the Third War's conclusion, Cuna of the Superiority's Department of Species Integration decided to send out a call for non-member species to join the Delver Resistance Project by sending pilots, promising citizenship for those who would. The UrDail were the only such outsider species to answer.[1] However, their emissary, Alanik, instead sought out humans, and as a consequence, she crashed and fell into a coma on Detritus, with Spensa taking her place and travelling to Starsight disguised as her.[3]
Spensa eventually contacted the UrDail and explained the situation;[7] though unhappy, the Unity government agreed to play along, and ran interference when Cuna sought out information on Alanik.[8] Cuna eventually figured out that something was up, and assumed that the UrDail were after the FTL drive rather than citizenship, but Spensa cleared up the matter before it could become dangerous to them.[9]
Culture
The UrDail make their home on ReDawn, though they have been exploring and exploiting space for several hundred years.[10] They have a single overarching government, known as the Council, which is lead by the Council President. Members of the Council are elected in events known as balancings. The UrDail have two main political parties, Unity and Independence; each party is lead by a member known as its High Chancellor.[6] The UrDail make use of Superiority's FTL technology, but are not themselves a member species, and seem deeply suspicious of them.[9] They do, however, seem interested in pursuing citizenship, enough so to send their sole cytonic when a call for pilots goes up.[1]
Since the miasma that fills ReDawn’s atmosphere is toxic, the UrDail live in enormous island trees, up to 50 kilometers tall. These have atmosphere generators that make a pocket of breathable air. There are walls and railings on many branches to keep the UrDail from accidentally falling off. From a young age the UrDail are taught to not walk near the edge of the branches, lest they fall off and die. Falls are uncommon, and usually only occur do to equipment failures, such as a cord breaking while rubber-jumping.[11]
There are multiple cultures within the UrDail, and apparently at least a few native languages; the only known one is airy, but similar to English, though the two aren't mutually intelligible.[3] The UrDail appear to be somewhat religious, and have a series of holy books named the cadamique, filled with numerous stories of the past.[12]