Prawatt

From Siglerpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Prawatt

Home Planet Sanctuary
Ecosystem ?
Culture ?
Traits ?

The Prawatt are one of the major alien races of Galactic Football League Universe. What little is known about the Prawatt comes from adventure seekers who enter Prawatt space knowing they may never return apparently in order to play a rumored combat sport found nowhere else in the galaxy. Much of the following information was compiled using an excerpt from Earth: Birthplace of Sentients, Chapter Seven: Rise of the Machines written by Zippy the Voracious.

Prawatt Physiology

The Prawatt are classified in the biological kingdom named Facticia. Within the kingdom of Facticia, phylum Pedes which includes all artificial sentients existing in forms that move physically. At the beginning of the life cycle, Prawatt are a collective organism. In later stages, they become large, multi-cellular animals.

As an artificially created race, the Prawatt have long been denied universal acceptance as sentient. Recent encounters with a form of the species known as Explorers have eliminated doubts for all but a handful of scientists. However there are still some exobiologists that consider the Prawatt to be machines, believing that they began as a Von Neumann Device. Von Neumann devices are exploratory machinations capable of self-reproduction. They can land on a new planet, draw resources from that planet, use those resources to make more copies of itself, then launch those copies at other planets to repeat the cycle. All exobiologists in the Purist Nation believe the Prawatt to not be sentient because they believe that only the High One can create sentient life.

Lifecycle

Root Factory

Initial creation for all Prawatt starts with the “root factory”, a small fist-sized structure pre-packed with as many as a million tiny, life-emulating machines knows as larvids. Some exobiologists compare these structures to an egg sac, others to insect queens. After disgorging the initial compliment of larvids, root factories are capable of fabricating ten million to a hundred million more, depending on resources. Root factories are capable of movement which they use to find places with the most mineral rich soil. Upon finding a suitable location it begins to active the larvids.

Larvids

Quickly grow into tiny creatures called minids. Four legged insectile automatons weigh slightly less than one milligram. The first wave of minids creates tunnels, chambers and mechanisms that help bring raw materials to the root factory. Many of the minids will link together to create larger organisms capable of defending the nest. In its native state, the next wave of minids starts to build dormant, self contained root factories. The cycle is ready to be repeated.

This process of root factories building root factories creates an exponential growth rate that, left unchecked, could cover a planet’s surface in a matter of months. However the native state is rarely achieved.

Minids

Minids are comparable to the Earth insect known as an ant, upon which the minid’s structure and function are based. Individual minids are not sentient, self-aware, or even intelligent. Rather, they are automata, pre-programmed machines that perform repetitive actions. The more minids you have working together, however, the more complex structures and astounding tasks those combined actions can create.

Minids Show a natural tendency to link together resulting in the minids becoming cells of a larger organism, comparable to a number of biological animals. This linkage forever changes the minids via a process known as fusing. The structure of minids allows them to lock their tiny limbs and coordinate muscle movements as if they were parts of a single entity. When this happens, the minids are no longer individuals – they are cells of a collective organism. At some unknown point, triggered by some unknown signal, millions of linked minids achieve stasis – a self-sustaining state of existence – and fuse together to permanently become a larger being. Minids build internal organs that include structural support, fluid pumps, material fabrication centers and even additional factories that create new minids to replace those that wear out.

Prawatt biological organization seems to only go up – once a minid fuses into a larger whole, it undergoes memory and processing related physical changes that preclude it from operating ever again as a single ant.

When minids link up physically, they also combine their data processing power. The more data a larger organism can process, the more complicated tasks it can perform and the better it is at self-preservation.

Sentience

Each minid’s control center or “brain” has about 80,000 microscopic processors. Scientists consider each processor equivalent to a Human brain cell. These processors work together to handle sensory input, determine reaction to that input, then send signals to the musculature that drives the minid to perform a physical action. Compared to a Human brain that has approximately 10 trillion cells, it would take 125 millions to roughly equal the raw processing power of a Human brain. While scientists cannot pinpoint when a fused Prawatt achieves sentience, it is known that a typical Prawatt becomes sentient when they are comprised of about 110 million minids. Like other organisms, intelligence varies wildly within the sentient Prawatt community. During peaceful interactions, it was determined that the most “Human-like” interaction occurs with Prawatt that weigh approximately 110 to 160 kilograms below 110 kilograms, there are very few recorded instances of self-awareness and above 160 kilograms, there are no recorded encounters (prior to Quentin Barnes touring [[Sanctuary (Planet}|Sanctuary]]).

Death

When Prawatt die, their linkage breaks and the individual collapses in a dust-like pile of millions of lifeless minids, inanimate skeletal structures and nonfunctioning internal organs.

Forms

Prawatt can take several forms although only a handful have been formally categorized.

Explorers

The basic Prawatt adult form is referred to as an Explorer. The trunk of the Prawatt’s body is usually X-shaped, comprised of a pair of foot-thick tubes. An arm or leg grows off the end of each tube, which gives the Prawatt their common descriptive nicknames of X-Walker or Walking X. They are called Explorers because they are the only known sentient Prawatt found beyond Prawatt space. The majority of sentient Prawatts stay in their own heavily defended space, however the Explorer caste seems to show curiosity in learning new things and seeing new places, similar to many of the known sentient races.

Explorers are quadrupeds comprised of four equal sized legs and exhibiting bilateral symmetry. Their bodies consist of a narrow, roundish case or trunk that contains internal structures such as the nutrient pump, digestions center, signal routers, minid factory and more. The legs have two sections and end in either a foot or hand. Their feet are flexible, resilient structures that provide good traction. Their hands closely resemble those of Humans, with four long finders and a sturdy, opposable thumb. Prawatt can function well as a biped but more often than not, choose to move as a quadruped. When moving on all fours, the Prawatt hand curls in and up and a thick ridge on the back of their wrist supports their body weight. .

Combinations

Prawatt don’t have an organ or structure that operates as a distinct brain. Rather, their entire body is their brain as the individual is the collective consciousness of millions of minids. Minids have a lifespan of 30-60 days and as they wear out internal factories produce a steady supply of new minids. This small scale replacement doesn’t appear to alter the Prawatt’s personality or sense of identity. New minids can link with old minids and consequently, minids created outside of the individual Prawatt can be incorporated into the larger organism. Combined with the fact that minids do not undergo a physical change when they fuse, this means that two distinct Prawatt can combine, merging together to create a larger organism.

Combination marks the end of two individuals and the creation of a new consciousness. This can be the result of mutual agreement between two individuals or as a result of predation. Upon combination, skills and other positive knowledge are combined but, so too, are negative information such as fears, prejudices and hatreds. Once a Prawatt achieves sentience, it is hesitant to combine because combination means the end of self. Effectively, to combine is to die and be reborn as something new.

In The MVP, Cormorant Bumberpuff tells Quentin Barnes that as Prawatt join and combine to find the next level of life, they can create new and unique shapes. Some opt to fly.

History

The Prawatt were first discovered in 2424, but it took almost another century before scientists theorized that the Prawatt originated on Earth in 2015. While unproven, most exobiologists now agree that the Prawatt were created on Earth then subsequently exterminated.

The Prawatt have been considered an “aggressive species” since 2438, when they attacked a Rewall research vessel in the first recorded instance of interstellar combat. In 2456, the Prawatt attempted to exterminate the Kuluko race. In 2552, the Prawatt Jihad was the only nation to boycott the first Galactic Peace Conference. The Prawatt have a deep hatred for the Sklorno to the point of multiple wars and saturation bombing the Sklorno planets so that they were devoid of life.

The Sklorno/Prawatt War of 2556, lasted two years and cost millioins of lives on both sides. It ended without a clear winner, but the Prawatt navy was so weakened that it lost the planet Yewalla to the Rewall Association in 2559. Many think the Jihad still blame the Sklorno for the loss of that valuable world.

In 2558, the Prawatt inhabited Ionath among other planets. The Third Galactic War was in full swing and the Sklorno saturation bombed Ionath in order to kill the Prawatt living there. The saturation bombing destroyed all life on the planet leaving Ionath as a radioactive hulk. Most thought this would be the end of the story of the planet. Unlike Whitok, where the Sklorno used relativity saturation bombs, Ionath was bombarded with nuclear saturation bombs.

The Prawatt were also one of the few nations to successfully resist the Creterakian Takeover.

Culture

Between wars and skirmishes, there have been glimpses of art, culture and sporting events. Because of these glimpses, there are hopes that someday the Prawatt might join the larger sentient community. Allowing the Prawatt to play in the GFL as part of the Ionath Krakens may serve to further this cause.

Religion

They also have a unique take on religion, tending to worship what they refer to as The Old Ones. In The MVP, Quentin Barnes and Rebecca Montagne were allowed to meet with The Old Ones as a reward for winning the sporting match with the Prawatt from The Grieve .

Positions Held in The GFL

The Prawatt are best known in the GFL for their positions in the secondary on defense. Similar to the Sklorno, the blinding speed and ability to jump make the Prawatt natural defensive players that are more than capable of defending against Quyth receivers.

Notable Prawatt Characters

In 2685, the Prawatt joined the Galactic Football League as players for the first time in its history. The four players were named Cormorant Bumberpuff who was previously Captain of the Prawatt warship named The Grieve, Katzembaum Weasley, Luciano Cretzlefinger and Tommyboy Snuffalupagus. These Prawatt GFL players weighed between 280 and 319 pounds. Measured from the tip of one foot to the opposite arm, or one line of their “X”, they measure between 11 feet 4 inches to 12 feet 4 inches. These body measurements make the Prawatt most similar to the Sklorno in body mass and reach.

Racism & Stereotypes

The radical differences in appearance between Humans and Prawatt have opened the Prawatt to bouts of racism. Racist terms used to describe this species are Spiders, Devil’s Rope and Satan’s Starfish as their physiology is reminiscent of stringy ropes or the ancient Earth based sea life form known as a starfish.

One of the predominant fears about the Prawatt is that they can change shape and become species dopplegangers, capable of imitating any sentient race. This stereotype is frequently exploited in many horror-holos casting the Prawatt as a shape shifting evil waling among us and bent on enslaving the sentient races. However there is no scientific evidence to back up this fearful fantasy. The Prawatt are capable of small scale physical adjustments but in observation, a Prawatt is sentient because it maintains a largely consistent shape. Shifting from a Walking X to a Human biped would require so much change that the Prawatt would essentially die and become a new sentient.

Theoretically, the Prawatt can change shapes however this remains only a theory. In four and a half centuries of encounters with this species, there is not one recorded instance of shapeshifting Prawatt accurately emulating another species.

See Also