Dionae (less formally Diona) are spaceborn creatures with unknown origins. Most of their life cycle is spent as juvenile nymphs gaining nutrients from solar winds. When nymphs choose to enter adulthood; several form together into a singular, new adult identity. In their native habitats, nymphs typically have no reason to grow past their juvenile stage due to the lack of stimulus in space. Nymphs in settled systems which notice activity form gestalts, which then attempt to make their way to a settlement. Gestalts tend to be incredibly impressionable in the first year of their adult life, and their consequential personality is heavily informed by its experiences with other intelligent life until its unique personality, the sum of its nymph parts, coalesces; and it becomes an established individual. Dionae have no known government except that which they adopt upon entering adulthood.

Important Notes

Job Restrictions

Dionae are restricted from First Responder roles due to their heavy slowdown.

Life Cycle

Nymphs

Nymphs are the juvenile form of dionae. They are a slug-like creature very comparable to a plant. On their own a nymph’s intelligence is comparable to a dog, although through experiences and genetic learning by absorbing genetic material by "biting" a creature, a Nymph can become about as intelligent as a young child. Nymphs are capable of speaking most languages once it samples them.

Dionae Gestalt

A Gestalt is the adult stage of Dionae. It is a group-mind of nymphs that have fused together. There is no upper limit to how many nymphs can fuse, with some gestalts being as large as small spacecraft, though gestalts of this size reach a state of diminishing returns due to nymphs’’s difficulty in maintaining harmony between its many parts; at a certain point the gain of additional nymphs is offset by the loss of detaching nymphs.

Each nymph has independent thought even while sharing the new gestalt consciousness. While each nymph is capable of speaking in a gestalt, some may elect to have one nymph speak for the entire gestalt while others will have each nymph speak at once.

The most common and well known gestalts are the Cyclops forms, made up of half a dozen nymphs that take a bipedal form, a product of nymph mimicry of the bipedal races they interact with.

Language

Nymphs are born knowing their language of Rootsong. Rootsong is spoken through a combination of sounds created by limbs, membranes, and movement that all come together to create a “song” that can be understood as words and sentences. It has been compared to an orchestra of leaves rustling in the wind, branches rubbing together, and sometimes softer instrumental sounds such as a flute. Emotion and intent can be understood through pitches and speed of the sounds, with faster, lighter pitches used for happier words, and lower, slower pitches for more negatively-inclined words. While it is impossible for other species to fully understand or speak Rootsong, it is possible to create translators that are capable of translating it to another language.

If necessary a gestalt can grow the required parts to portray a language onto their body, such as tails. Dionae are only limited when a language is entirely digital or requires organs that can’t be integrated into the body - such as the Vaurca and their Hivenet.

Naming

Dionae naming conventions vary heavily based on the gestalt, but have one consistency; They do not go by just a first name and last name but instead use experiences, emotions, actions, or ideals as their source of identification. These experiences that define them can change just as the individual changes and therefore can be both literal and metaphorical. Some examples of where these might come from can be from routines in their lives, remembrances of mortals, a particular fascination or emotion, a unique location where an important moment occurred, or even just a defining feature on their body. While there’s no limit on the length of a gestalt’s name, they tend to have them shortened to four to ten words to make them more readable when written.

Individual nymphs normally take a short, less nuanced name only containing one or two words. Younger nymphs tend to use less refined words meanwhile an older, more experienced nymph will have a more nuanced or more complicated name, an example being “Bright warmth” for a younger nymph’s name and “Incandescent Comfort” for an older nymph.

As a player, it is up to you to decide what makes an experience, and you have a whole galaxy of cosmically ageless ideas to choose from. Be creative!

Experience Is What Matters

Dionae crave the adventure of new experiences, escaping their former stagnant life floating in orbit of celestial bodies. Older gestalts will share knowledge with younger gestalts, but often this is simply to get the newbie up to speed so they can be quicker on their way to learn more about their particular interests, whatever that may be. Gestalts otherwise eagerly encourage nymphs and other gestalts to interact with the other alien races of the spur such as the humans.

Appearance

Whilst Dionae “bark” - a substance mixed of particulates and saliva - is always brown, Dionae are capable of being grown with different shades and hues of bark. This is primarily affected by their age and the conditions in their growth site such as temperature and the type of radiation they were exposed to.

The following is a rough idea of what conditions would affect their bark’s shade:

Default: Generally grown in a pressurized space station or temperate planet, and being exposed to a mixture of stronger and weaker radiation types.
Lighter: Generally grown on warm planets, and being primarily exposed to weaker forms of radiation such as light.
Darker: Generally grown in space or colder planets, and being exposed to stronger forms of radiation such as cosmic rays.
Green: Younger Diona will generally have a greenish hue to their bark, although this will fade with time.

Psyche, Individuality, and Law

Dionae have a psyche unique from other alien species. They consider that a group-mind of nymphs, the gestalt, is considered an individual when it possesses five aggregates: Form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. Mental formations refers to the narratives, emotions, concepts, and choices in how we understand and interact with the world. Consciousness is the simple quality of being aware of sensory experiences as they happen.

When a Dionae ‘splits’, the individual gestalt doesn’t die but continues on in the individual nymphs. Those nymphs can reform into the former gestalt with no loss of self, or they can diffuse themselves into other gestalts and carry parts of the former gestalt’s consciousness and mental formations. This whole affair is often shorthanded to the gestalt being ‘asleep’ during a splitting and then ‘waking up’ when the nymphs reform. If some nymphs of the gestalt die, it is usually extremely stressful to the reformed gestalt but their identity continues uninterrupted. There is no single nymph that holds particular experiences and memories - even a single nymph can completely regenerate into its greater gestalt.

This puts dionae in an incredibly complicated situation in the legal systems of the galaxy - philosophically shooting a dionae and killing three of its four nymphs is arguably killing four separate individuals, but the fourth nymphs can regenerate and testify in court as a singular person again. While some legal systems vary, the galactic convention is to “simplify” matters into things judges can understand practically - if a gestalt and all of its nymphs are killed, it’s considered a murder. If enough nymphs survive to regenerate, it is attempted murder. Killing a lone nymph that considers itself part of a gestalt is considered murder. Nymphs that do not consider themselves part of a collective, whom have no experiences at all - such as the ones grown in botany - are not considered sapient, even by other dionae, and are protected by laws governing animal welfare. Once one of those nymphs develops an awareness and individuality it is protected by person-hood laws.

Dionae and Violence

Dionae’s primary goal is to seek out new and diverse experiences and stimuli. While they themselves play very fast and loose with their own concept of individuality, they eventually come to learn about the indivisible nature of the other aliens. That being, if a creature dies without access to cloning they are permanently deceased, thus decreasing the diversity of the universe. Dionae with exposure to space faring races therefore seek to avoid killing where possible. However, as individuals Dionae still have a myriad of responses and feelings to the matter. Dionae should always follow the rules on escalation and violence when present in-game. Creatures which exist as a set of clones confuse Dionae but they tend to conceptualize them as ‘nymphs’, to be treated both as sums and a whole part.

Biomass - “Bark”

All nymphs and gestalts use biomass and can create ‘bark’, which is a substance of particulates and saliva. It’s similar to a termite mound. Dionae can build entire structures out of this bark both big and small. Historically they don’t build traditional houses or enclosed structures due to their instinctual need for light and radiation - dionae “towns”, whether in space or on a celestial bodies’ surface, tend to be built around a core “trunk” with branches extending out that dionae attach themselves to. It is functionally living on the outside of massive, asteroid-sized trees. Where interior structures are present they are often riddled with holes or translucent biomass to allow light inside.

In highly rare instances space-born dionae communities have been able to construct a singularly massive spire analogous to a space-elevator using bark, allowing them to travel from the surface of a world to orbit. This is typically the result of environmental stresses, such as when a planet is uniquely rich in radiation and nutrients but has conditions where the surface or orbit can only be safely inhabited at alternating intervals - usually the result of tectonic, volcanic, or climate stressors

Dionae bark has revolutionized some aspects of space travel. Some factions with cooperative gestalts ‘grow’ their spaceships, with the gestalts creating the vessel around a central hull, causing considerable reduction in resources needed - beyond the initial hull, a spaceship can be created with only sunlight and time. On conventional vessels Dionae can seal hull breaches with their biomass until permanent repairs can be made.

Other Dionae Niches

Dionae nymphs, with their ability to understand any language via sampling of blood, has led to gestalts or individual nymphs popularly being employed as translators for galactic diplomats and merchants. While synthetic translators exist, diplomats tend to pride the ability for gestalts to translate intent and meaning better than synthetics who tend to give the literal translation. A Dionae is also more difficult to subvert than a synthetic translator, and also has a myriad of other applicable skills.

Nymphs can also be used to replace the limbs of physically disabled individuals. The process requires a degree of trust, but a nymph which spends time with such a person can form into the missing limb. With the right level of integration it can ‘sense’ the intent of its wielder via their shared nervous system and move as naturally as any prosthetic. Individuals who cannot or do not use synthetic prosthetics can opt in for a nymph prosthetic.

Some religious groups in the galaxy revere their body being consumed by a gestalt upon death.

A gestalt with a communication device can be deployed in space as a navigational buoy for spacecraft in situations where a normal one is disabled, but this can be very stressful to a gestalt over a period of time and is usually only done with the gestalt under duress.

History

There is no known true origin or homeworld of the Dionae, instead, they have only been found spread throughout the known galaxy in orbit of stars and gas giants, or on the surface of planets where gestalts managed to somehow de-orbit. Every species which gains FTL capability eventually discovers Dionae in an explored system sooner or later - or the dionae even came to them - and every species’ had their unique first contact and later developed relationship with them.

Mechanics

Access to the species' unique language, Rootsong with,q prefix.
Lives off of light and radiation, will take damage and eventually die if they lack either for too long
Heals damage while in light or radiation.
Not affected by lack of atmosphere or pressure.
Inability to run.
Can split a nymph from their gestalt and control it. Can also switch between the split nymph and original gestalt at will, as well as still hear what’s happening near the other.
Can split completely into several nymphs through an ability or when they take too much damage, as well as reform into a gestalt with enough biomass.
Can regrow limbs with enough nutrients and while exposed to light or radiation, faster with radiation.
Can devour certain creatures and objects by grabbing them, aiming for the mouth, and clicking yourself.
Can use the Create Structure verb to form their biological mass into a wall, floor, or glowing bulb.
In an emergency can absorb the local atmosphere for nutrients.
Can be stunned with a flash, causing them to fall down for a few seconds. Cannot be protected against with normal equipment due to the nature of a Dionae’s eyes.
Can emote with *chirp and *mchirp.
Can feel pain, with Coeus being more sensitive to pain compared to humans and Geras being significantly less.
Increased movement speed for Coeus, but reduced movement speed for Geras.

Important things to think about when creating a character

While creating a Dionae there are several details about them that you should consider:

What does their name mean and why did they adopt it?
Where do they come from? Was it a planet or a cluster? How could it affect their view on other species? Will it affect their bark color?
What type of mind type do they have? Is it something unique or something listed on the mind type page? Why did they develop it?
What brought them to work on the station?