Introducing: The Grek

The Grek

Metallo-Organic Life | Peaceful Herbivores

Nihil Cooperative

"Titanium Titans" (Statues)

To understand the Grek, one must see their world Gol.  To begin with, the planetary orbit is created and bounded by the movements and interactions of three suns; Gol itself orbits a fixed point of empty space.  It is thought that material condensed into orbital gas giants more quickly than could accrete into a central sun, with the result being the central mass being largely divide among three proto-stars and a single mineral rich planet in the center.

As a planetary body surrounded by a trinary star system, Gol has never known night.  Photosynthesis, in one form or another, is the dominant form of energy production, especially with a surplus of ready minerals to serve as biological electron carriers.  Most of the water present on Gol is found in the thick and super-saturated atmosphere.  There are no bodies of water on the surface; subterranean aquifers exist, but are not suitable to supporting aquatic life.

A side effect of the mineral-rich soil (levels toxic to most life forms anywhere else) has been the absorption and incorporation of heavy metals into growing tissue: flower petals like thin aluminum, tree trunks with the tensile strength of titanium girders.  Life which did not evolve to overcome such defenses quickly died out - herbivorous life had to develop the ability to process such tissue for nutrients, as well as stronger teeth, bones, and muscles needed to ingest it.  Carnivorous life had to develop similarly to overcome the armor plating of their prey.  And thus the cycle of the evolutionary arms-race spun in turn.

All life on Gol utilizes some form of photosynthesis to a varying degree for energy, even predators.  The Grek are photosynthetic (thermosynthetic, as it were, utilizing IR radiation) herbivores.  They are peaceful and curious, seeking first and foremost to find life similar to themselves on other worlds.  Although they don't generally approve of the Ra'u and their habit of experimenting on worlds and other species without regard for their well being or consequences, neither are they comfortable denouncing such actions.  This is because the Gol trinary, and by extension Gol and all life on the planet including the Grek, are the result of a Ra'u experiment in system formation and evolution.  The Ra'u are directly responsible for the existence of the Grek, and they are grateful, whatever the original intentions of the Ra'u.  Although the Milieu has extended an invitation to the Grek, the Grek has declined and declared unanimously for the Nihil Cooperative.  Such is their loyalty.  They remain on peaceful, if not necessarily always friendly, terms with the Milieu races.

The Grek are a bipedal, bilaterally symmetrical, 6 limbed race.  Their overall form is a large, metal skinned CHO-main; however, they have two, smaller, raptor-like arms on their chest - possibly to help ancestral Grek climb to reach softer leaves and sunlight.  They see in the visible light spectra, as well as electromagnetic and ultra-violet spectra.  They are hairless, noseless, and have a single, large, featureless white eye (but still manage to have depth perception).  The two genders are nearly indistinguishable visually - gender differences appear to be EM or UV spectra related phenomena.

Although renowned ship builders, they are not often found off-world - the peculiarities of their system make interstellar travel difficult, and physiologically they are unaccustomed to gravity higher than 0.6g.  They require large, bulky exo-suits to support their higher mass.  Still, curiosity and adventurous yearnings do lead Grek to travel the stars in search of the unknown.

Grek names are incomprehensible EM frequency sequences.  They have taken to adopting CHO-main names or words that they find pleasing by some unknown criteria, in order to better interact with other species.