Date: Thu, 28 Sep 1995 14:59:25 +0100 (MET) From: Anders Sandberg The Leeches (Name for themselves: Several languages. The term meaning "we-of-the-blood" is used by most city-states in the equatorial bands and by the Visionaries) Leech Biology The Leeches have evolved from a squid like parasite on the gas filled beasts of a gas gigant. They look like a flat, red squids about 2 meters long and 1 across and perhaps 30 cm in height, with a set of 12 longer tentacles and six shorter. The longer starts in groups of six at either end, while the shorter starts at the 2head2. The long tentacles (which are about 2 meters long) end in a simple, strong claw, while the shorter branch into a cluster of 10-20 2finger-tentacles2 after about 50 cm. The long tentacles don't have much dexterity, and are mostly used for fastening to surfaces and moving. The smaller on the other hand are very dextrous, and capable of amazingly complex movements. On their upper surface, they have several long, spiny protrusions with poison, and among them sits six eyes on short stalks. On the underside two proboscis are housed inside a pocket of skin. These end in sharp drills, and may lengthen up to three meters. These are used for feeding. They move by gripping with their long tentacles and pulling forward, or by slithering forward on their stomachs. They prefer to use the tentacles, and prefer to climb instead of slithering. The claws simply lock around whatever they are holding, which means they can hang in their tentacles while doing something else or resting. The leeches don't see very well, and see mostly in infrared. They have an acute hearing, and navigate by sonar. They also have a sense for electromagnetic fields in their tentacles, especially the longer. Thunderstorms are regarded as one of the most beautiful natural phenomenon imaginable, and artists have since time immemorial tried to capture their beauty. Their speech consists of long complex, whistling noises. They use two modes of speech, 2nearspeak2 and 2farspeak2. Nearspeak use very high-pitched sounds, which do not reach very far in the atmosphere and have a clear direction. This is used for talking over short distances without anybody else overhearing. This is the usual mode of speaking. Farspeak use lower pitched noises, which carry far in the atmosphere and is used mainly for large gatherings and ceremonies. The language used tend towards the more formal, and uses old idioms only expressible in farspeak. A really good orator is able to use farspeak to be heard over great distances, even across whole cities. This is the reason the word for politician in their language literally means 2talking-loud-and-clear2. They reproduce by eggs laid by the female, which are carried by the males on their backs between their spines. The mother leaves after the eggs are laid, and does not return. The father are their only parent. When the larvae comes out they are tested and judged by their parent, and weak, sick or superfluous are eaten (this is a great delicacy) The survivors are given their names and trained by the males until they have become adults after about 10 earth-years. Their names are often a simple description of them to distinguish them from their siblings. Typical names are 2Only-11-Long-Tentacles2, 2Lots-of-Small-Spines2 or 2Large-Red-Spot-With-Two-Long- Spines2 They use to feed on the enormous beasts which live on their homeworld. This world is a large gas-gigant, where large baloonlike beasts drift in the clouds. These beasts can be more than 10 kilometres across, covered with symbiotic plants and animals. The most common sort look like a lens, with feelers hanging down several kilometres below. Inside, they are filled with helium and hydrogen extracted from the air around. On the top whole jungles of plants grow, getting nourishment from the host and giving it protection and certain nutrients. On the sides and on the underside, other plants, often more wine-like grow, hanging down into the abyss below. Other, flying beasts make their nest here or drift along. The leeches fed upon their hosts, by burrowing their proboscis into its veins and sucking out some of its blood. They used their tentacles and claws to attach themselves to the steep sides and underside, since the top surface was patrolled by symbiotic carnivores which gladly would devour them if they could. These carnivores are mostly extinct, and the leeches now have complete control over their hosts. By injecting certain hormones into the host, they can make it rise or sink, or move in any desired direction. Sometimes a host may do something unexpected or dangerous, but the host-controllers today are very competent, at least in civilised areas. Leech psychology and society The leeches still have a primitive fear of falling. They are not afraid of hanging over an abyss thousands of kilometres deep in their tentacles, but the thought of actually falling or losing all grip is extremely frightening for them. They tend to cling very hard if anybody reminds them of this, and this fear is used as punishment; bungy-jumping is a very hard punishment. The leeches are quite social, gathering together for mutual protection against their enemies (earlier the topside predators, nowadays other city-states). They build cities on, around and in their hosts. Earlier a single host could have lots of different small villages, but now they tend to be dominated by a single city-state. Older cities tended to hang from the underside or on the slopes, but new cities lie on the top of their hosts. Their society is complex. They have different kinds societies for males and females (the males have larger spines and thinner tentacles). The males protect their young, teach them the basics and are planners, thinkers and craftsmen. The female are hunters, traders and travellers. There are also some rare hermaphroditic individuals. These are held in extremely high esteem, and generally regarded as leaders. These few bridge the male and female societies, and are in a way the leeches diplomats. The male society is rigid and very hierarchic. An individuals station depends upon their parents station, their age, their occupation and achievements. Status is formalised into levels of different occupations, ages and virtues, which vary from area to area. Their names and lineage is important, and they often chant their full name, which includes their fathers name, his fathers, and so on as long as any can remember (genealogists are a very respected profession). Status is awarded in a formal manner by the most powerful males, often through elaborate ceremonies. For example, if an artist is very successful, he can be awarded with advancement to the next artist-level. This is done with a complex ceremony, there all other higher ranking artist give the teacher some blessed blood to drink while they enter his name into the Chant of Artists. Female society is on the other hand loose, democratic and very flexible. There are no formal status, except the renown for achievements or simple physical dominance. The females move around in packs or alone, travelling between different cities, bringing food, news and trade (of course, in modern times vehicles have simplified this, which has somewhat turned many of the females into glorified truck-drivers). While the males are the thinkers, the females are the doers, which spend little time chanting their lineage or performing ceremonies. Instead they tend to be blunt and reckless (according to the males, at least), and they are often the first to try new things or invent radical new solutions. The hermaphrodites are the co-ordinators between males and females, high and low, different cities and so on. They are ritually painted with different paints (somewhat like the wig of a judge in England) and required to lead the others and lessen friction between different groups. If they do not do so, or mess things up, they are ritually thrown off into the abyss(at lest in more conservative cities). To be thrown off is the most horrible punishment imaginable for the leeches. Sometimes a short fall is used, when the offender falls only a few meters in a kind of 2bungy-jump2. For harder crimes, the offender is left hanging for several hours or even days. This is usually very effective, and a powerful deterrent for crime. The blood is the life. They regard blood as something sacred, and have more names for different types of blood than the Eskimos have for snow. Many of their ceremonies end in a ritual burrowing for blood in the ritual site. To drink the blood of someone else is of great importance, and is surrounded by complex rules and rituals. When two drink of each others blood they are bound together for ever. This is used to seal the most important diplomatic ties between cities, or the permanent alliance between two individuals (somewhat like blood brothers). To drink someone else's blood means that you bind yourself to him. This is used when someone swears allegiance to a lord or a city, and this is how the larvae feeds the first month. In battle, the blood of a fallen enemy is drunk as a recognition of the enemies honour and worthiness, while drinking the blood of a fallen comrade is used as a promise for revenge. Most ritual bloodsucking is very controlled, and they suck only a symbolic amount from the giver. The blood is sucked from a certain vein running just below the 2neck2. The exact spot is often decorated with complex paintings, which are changed each time some blood is taken to reflect the individuals new ties. A growing concern is diseases transmitted through the blood. The penalties for giving diseased blood is very stiff, and much of their medicine is studying ways to cure or avoid this problem. Leech Philosophy Their most common philosophy is built on the idea of the host. They look at the state as a kind of host, which gives them their wants if they protect and nurture it. In the same way, their great leaders are often thought of as 2blood-fathers2, a father for the people which unselfishly gives of his blood and protect and nurture them. In some cities (and especially among the Visionaries) this is literally true, and at special occasions their leaders give of their blood to the citizens to renew their ties. They don't seem to have the diversity of philosophies and religions as humans have (at least in the secularised equatorial regions). Instead they have the unifying philosophy of the Great Host, which many identify with the Universe. The Great Host is the ultimate host, which will give of Its nourishment to anyone who can drink of it. But to be able to drink of The Host, a leech must learn how to drill for it, as he learnt how to drill for blood by his father. This is the role for their priests, artists, scientists and leaders; to teach the people how to drink the blood of The Host. Note that most leeches don't regard The Host in a literal sense, but only as a great metaphor for the Universe (like earthlings often say 2mother Earth2 but seldom mean that the Earth is a actual being) Leech Architecture Their architecture reflect their anatomy. Since they prefer to hang from the ceiling or the walls, ceilings and walls are often covered with pipes, handles and grips so the inhabitants can comfortably hang while doing their work. The floors are often used as stores or not used at all. Instead of stairs and elevators they have shafts with pipes running around the sides and long cables hanging down from the top. In modern buildings these cables are moving up or down and used as elevators. Everything is heavily ornate, at least among the Conservatives. The buildings are mostly of wood, often lacquered, or parts of the host which has been forced to grow in the right shape. And there are plants almost everywhere, both on the outside and the inside. A room without plants is almost unthinkable. Not even the most puritan visionaries want to live without plants. It is a sign of status to have a indoor garden. Gardening is not only a widespread hobby, it is an art form. The great old gardeners are revered in the same way humans revere their great composers or philosophers. Geography When the race learned how to manoeuvre first smaller flyers, and then their own hosts, civilisation spread in the atmosphere. The females have by tradition been the warriors and explorers, colonising other hosts and conquering other city-states. Since geography is quite changeable (you don't like your neighbours? Just move your city.) no large empires has formed as on Earth. Instead the Leeches tend towards loose alliances of city-states on different hosts, which has very little to do with geographic areas. If a state changes its mind, it will simply drift away to another area (or rather, volume). Different bands in the atmosphere have very different cultures, due to the difficulties in crossing the borderzones. The atmospheric dynamics on their homeworld is quite normal for a gas gigant. The atmosphere is divided into several bands, which have different wind-speeds. Inside each band the winds are quite constant, and not very apparent for someone floating along like the balloon-beasts. But the borderzones are dangerous, with strong wind differences, hurricane-like weather systems and sudden shifts. To travel across a borderzone is regarded somewhat like sailing around Cap Horn. Most city-states prefer to simply stay in their own band (which after all is enormous in earth-terms. It is about 10-20 kilometres deep, several thousand kilometres across and stretches around the whole planet. Different bands have quite different cultures (the Conservatives and Visionaries stem from the equatorial bands), ranging from the modern equatorial bands to the primitive tribes who live in the southern temperate bands or the rigid theocracies in the northern polar band. In this essay I have described the culture of the equatorial bands, which is the most technically advanced and the only culture which has any contact with other races. The other cultures differ in several ways. Technology and the Conservative-Visionary struggle The leeches technology varies between the Visionaries and the Conservatives. The Conservatives had developed a technology based upon biological materials and plastics based on the chemistry of plants and the atmosphere (there are almost no accessible metals in the atmosphere). Using synthetic hormones they could manoeuvre their hosts or make them grow in useful shapes. Using advanced plastics and resins they managed to build zeppelins to travel between city-states. Their materials science, biology, medicine and chemistry is very advanced. Other areas they have great knowledge in are meteorology (quite obvious for a race of atmosphere-dwellers) and simple astronomy. While the dense atmosphere makes most stars impossible to see, the 5 largest moons and the ring make good landmarks. And since there is no fix geography, navigation requires good astronomy. The Conservatives did not manage to develop electricity and advanced mathematics. The greatest schism in their society is between the Conservatives and Visionaries. The Visionaries started as a group of religious fanatics in several city-states, which they took control over. They were led by 2Hermaphrodite-with-Five- Large-Spines-and-Two-Small2, their prophet. They were a small but dedicated group, which toiled for several centuries with their great project; space flight. They managed to develop new technologies like math, aerodynamics, electronics and astrophysics. Finally, they managed to establish a beachhead on the closest of the moons. Soon they had a large base here, and started to develop a metal-based technology. They have a technological advantage over the Conservatives, but they don't use it against them. Instead they mainly sell their advanced products to the stay-at-homes (which has slowly revolutionised planetside society). The Visionaries have a problem in their space-habitats; the absence of a host. This was one of the hardest problems to solve. For the moment they use a specially bred type of balloon-beast which is quite small, only a couple of meters. These are kept in growing-chambers, and produce much more blood than wild specimens. Their gas chambers have been transformed into blood tanks, and they are used as a food sources. This 2artificial blood2, as the Conservatives call it, does not taste very well even according to the Visionaries, but has to do until a real host can be transported and kept in their bases. They import much blood from the homeworld, and try to use blood substitutes in times of crisis. The Visionaries are very interested in technological and scientific progress, but only as a tool for their true goal. Exactly what this goal is, is hard for aliens to understand, and the Visionaries do not tell. Hermaphrodite-with-Five-Large-Spines- and-Two-Small teaching, known as The Vision, is never shown to anybody outside the Visionaries. They are almost obsessed with finding out certain things, among others ways of terraforming planets, advanced physics and stellar dynamics. They are very eager to trade with other species, and do their best to make useful contact with everybody else. This is also a short term goal. Whatever the Visionaries long term goal is, it seems to be very big. They have worked on it for centuries and developed whole new sciences only to achieve it. They won't allow anything or anybody to stand in their way. The Visionaries revere their thinkers and planners, and they have more status than among Conservatives. The artists have less status than among the Conservatives. The Visionaries are a bit of puritans, and try to avoid excessive decorations (like those of the Conservatives). This is not only a political statement, but have also practical reasons. In their space habitats it is often more important with functionality than aesthetics. This functionality has spread to their city-states on the homeworld, in honour of the space heroes. They also have dispensed with much of the most elaborate ceremonies and are using much more modern rituals (but their males are still extremely ceremonial by human terms), and many occupations have almost disappeared, like genealogists (who needs them, if you have computers?). The most important difference is that the Visionaries have almost dispensed with the city-states, and are one monolithic state. The different city-states, colonies and outposts have their own rulers, but they are required to serve the Vision and the council. They only have power over their own affairs, and may be replaced if they do not agree. Amazing (at least to humans) this almost never happens. The Visionaries are a most dedicated group, and they seem to be able to avoid internal strife extremely well. One reason is of course that the Visionaries are a very small group, so there is not much room for internal dissent. In the top the High-Hermaphrodite-Diplomat resides, with its council of 22. The council has one representative from each occupation or group of occupations (like the representative for astronomers, the representative for transports and so on). These representatives have differing power (the representative for host-manoeuvring is left for historical reasons, and have no power at all, while the representative for planning have a lot of power). These representatives are chosen in their own group by differing means. The representative astronomer is chosen democratically among astronomers, while the representative for planning is the one who has been most effective the last year. This structure is however very dependant on the Priests of the Vision, which are its advisors in ethical and philosophical matters. They are by tradition females, and have very little hierarchy. The make sure everyone is dedicated to the Vision, and try to convert the unbelievers. The Conservatives dislike the Visionaries, but are politically fragmented in city states. The Visionaries technology is changing their society in unexpected directions, and many city- states have even forbidden their citizens to associate with visionary technology. Others are happily embracing it with all tentacles, and some of the more radical city-states are trying to develop their own space flight. The Visionaries are driven by their Vision, but are a small group. They try to recruit others to their cause, with limited success. Their society differs so significantly from the Conservatives that they have an cultural barrier between them and possible recruits, and many leeches are suspicious of the fanatic Visionaries. The Visionaries are eager to contact other life-forms, especially those who may give them the information they want or even help them. Unfortunately they have found that many other races tend to be a bit put of by their taste in food or other habits. Their diplomats are working on this problem, but are hampered by their own prejudices. For example, the leeches regard herbivores with disdain, and tend to think of them as food-animals at best. And flying beasts are all stupid. And ground based beasts are simply weird and utterly alien. Even if their diplomats know of their own prejudices, they can be hard to shrug off. Still, they are doing their best to understand all those weird and disgusting aliens.