Aketi

Plant based lifeforms: Air plants (Bromiliad-like)

General description:

The Aketi are a sapient plant race, part humanoid plant, part insectoid in appearance.

Their skin comes in a range of tones from white to yellow to green and through to deep purples and reds. They are often multi-tonal with patterns, stripes, mottling or the tips of extremities colored a darker or even compeltely different shade than the rest of their skin (like pink tips against otherwise green skin).

They come in a wide range of sizes and shapes from short squat figures standing little over five foot to tall willowy forms that are well over seven foot.

Their "hair" isn't hair at all, but rather a cluster of leaves and roots. Their leaves are succulent and ridged with thorns, elongated and pointed at the tips like the leaves of an Aloe or Agave. While the roots tend to be white or very pale greens and yellows, the leaves come in as wide a variety of colours as the Aketi's skin. Some have patterned leaves, some don't and the length and bushiness of these leaves varies greatly.

The Aketi have impish features with flat broad noses, shapely lips and oversized eyes. Their large ears curl into points. They have antennae-like protrusions from their brow along with a forehead ridge that sticks up from the centre of their forehead and curls back over the scalp.
The size and patterning of these structures, like everything with the Aketi, varies greatly.
In general though, the antennae are seldom longer than the forehead ridge.

Their eyes have black sclera and vividly coloured irises that are most often a darker, more saturated tone to their overall skin colour.

They do not have eyebrows.

Their skin is covered in a light down like hairs which are used to trap water and nutrients in the air which is then absorbed through the skin.

They have elongated necks and a body shape that is much like a humanoid cricket or grasshopper in shape. Long insectoid legs with two toes and segmented arms that end in 3 fingers.
They have wings that are shaped somewhat like dragonfly's (as in long and thin) though are half covered by a hardened "shell" (actually a sort of leaf) more like a bug's. These are used for gliding, or more specifically for slowing the fall of the individual. They're too heavy to really properly glide as adults, though juveniles may be able to use these wings to aid in their decent from the treetops.

Naming Conventions: Aketi have no concept of family, so surnames don't really exist. They tend to be given a name when they are accepted into a settlement shortly after leaving the treetops. This name is often extremely literally and descriptive from "He with the bright spots" to "He who came from the West"
While Aketi have no genders as the entire species are hermaphroditic, they tend to use the galactic common masculine pronoun when translating out of simplicity.
When out among non native speakers they translate their name to the nearest common equivalent, or they may just select a name they like the sound of. Aketi language is a complex one and simply changing or translating your name saves an awful lot of mispronunciation problems.

Reproduction and lifespan:

Aketi reproduce two ways. Asexually via cuttings which produce clones, or sexually like most plants. Each individual is both male and female and around the fertile season begins to produce stamen and pistules across their hands and arms. They rub these against one another to cross fertilise, both partners will bear seeds.
These seeds are wind distributed, scattering as they reach maturity.

Because of this they have no concept of family groups and do not pair bond. The act of reproduction is simply a means to increase population and further your genetic distribution, there is no pleasure derived from it and many Aketi will never reproduce simply because they just don't get around to it or just don't want to. They find the act of mating and reproduction in animal species to be rather vulgar and needlessly messy.

Aketi spend the first few years of their lives as tiny epiphytes growing on a host tree.
When they get large enough they climb or glide down and join society.

Aketi mature slowly and live for a very long time, though they seldom count and don't celebrate "birthdays" like many organic species (they weren't born after all, and most have no idea when they seeded) it has been theorized that some members of the species may very well be comfortably into their second hundred years.


Planet: The Aketi homeworld is called Lithos 3. It's a generally wet and humid world, particularly in the rainforest regions the Aketi call home. Aketi build their cities into the trees, high sky scrapers designed to act much like the trees around them, housing and supporting a great many canopy dwelling lifeforms.

They are a very advanced technological society with a great understanding of sustainable resources and a great respect for the environment around them.

Their cities are located around common wind currents and seed dispersal patterns. As they have no reason to build on rivers like many animal species, instead their settlements build up based on concentrations of seeds. Groups of juveniles coming together to form a community, taking in generation upon generation who blow in on the wind.

They seem to possess some degree of genetic memory, an drive to climb down from the trees and migrate toward civilization. There is also evidence that cloned cuttings retain some elements of their parent's personality and skills (the clone of an artist may possess an uncanny natural talent for painting, the clone of an engineer an intrinsic understanding of how things are put together, for example)

Whatever the case, the Aketi pride themselves of living with their environment, not in opposition to it. They are heavily reliant on technology, but they have not forgotten that each and every one of them came from the trees.

Biology and culture: The Aketi are a highly advanced technological species.  They shun magic as "a shortcut" and find it frustrating as they cannot understand or harness it. More frustrating is the species who use magic who cannot adequately explain their own abilities in a manner the Aketi can comprehend. They regard magic as a cheat, a way to compensate for a lack of understanding of a subject and an inability to do something using tried, tested science and engineering. Magic is, to them, unpredictable, unreliable and un-replicatable, it defies their comprehension of how the universe itself works and this makes them extremely uncomfortable.

Aketi do not eat, they gain all their nutrients from the air around them so they have no digestive system. Likewise as they don't breathe like most organic species they have no lungs. They have a very simple circulatory system with a tube heart and a hydraulic system that moves sap and water from place to place as needed. This system is under very low pressure, should you cut them, they ooze sap slowly just like a tree.
Like other air plants, the Aketi store water inside their leaves and within their own body much like a cactus. The majority of their body cavity is a large water reservoir with little else in there.
They have a brain, but their brain isn't like the brains of animal species located in one place. Autopsy has confirmed something resembling brain tissue scattered all over the Aketi's body.

Because of a lack of any real internal organs, Aketi are very difficult to actually kill. Short of poisoning them, damaging their root system or electrocution, even hacking an Aketi into pieces isn't necessarily going to be fatal. That individual may cease to be, but the pieces of them will grow into clones retaining pieces of the original's memories and skills.
Lost limbs, even heads, will given enough time and energy regenerate and regrow, though they may not be quite as pretty or as functional as the original.

They do appear to have pain receptors, but their sense of touch is very dulled. Their vision however allows them to see vastly beyond the spectrum that most animal species can. They have no sense of taste but they do have a sense of smell. They have a normal sense of hearing and communicate verbally.

Their antennae are primarily used for direction sense but do also sense smell and vibrations in the air. They are also excellent at detecting minute changes in humidity and air pressure allowing Aketi a very accurate internal barometer or "rain detector."

They have a small air sac located in their throat. Early in evolution this probably aided buoyancy and was used along with their wings to glide but as they got larger and heavier both structures have lost much of that purpose. Their air sacs now serve only one purpose in adulthood, they allow the Aketi to speak by passing air over vocal chords.

In order to survive Aketi only need sunlight, water, nitrogen and other air born nutrients and carbon dioxide to absorb. This means they're well suited to a very large number of environments and planets.

Their leaves and root systems are host to a large array of insect species. Their "hair" is literally crawling with bugs.

They do not bathe, they do not excrete waste like animal species and they don't eat.

Culturally Aketi value knowledge and scientific advancement above all else. They are not greedy and don't hoard this information, in fact they rather like the sense of superiority that comes from teaching less able species. They have no specific rules against interfering with developing species, no "prime directive" so to speak and there have been several occasions where Aketi have effectively adopted a foundling race and tried to artificially advance their technology level simply to see what happens.
They have been known to seed planets, not just with their own race but with other races, animals and plants to study how worlds evolve and species adapt. They are responsible for some pretty bizarre experimental worlds seeded with species from countless different worlds, all shoved together to see what happens.
Ethics aren't always a priority, they halt progress after all and while they have laws protecting their own species, they can sometimes be seen to treat other sapient races like lab rats and have no real consideration for what harm they might be doing in pursuit of knowledge. Their tendency to consider most other races as intellectually inferior means they can be a little unkind without meaning to be. They're not inhumane, but the ethical guidelines you use for rats wouldn't be the same as the ethical considerations you'd use for a human would they?

Thankfully Aketi are not a naturally aggressive or cruel species and as they tend not to take resources but rather contribute them to any environment, there isn't much ill will toward them in general. Certainly nobody is about to suggest going to war to stop them, they can after all, offer so much more than they ask in return. They are perfectly capable and willing to work with other races, though they can come across as a bit arrogant and dismissive of "meat creatures" and magical beings particularly.

Weaknesses:Electricity (they are mostly made of water, a large enough current will kill them just like an animal), poison (they absorb everything through their roots and skin, any airborn toxins are therefore immediately absorbed and metabolized. While some of these are used recreationally like alchohol to promote feelings of euphoria and lower inhibitions, large enough doses will cause toxicity and airborn pesticides will kill pretty effectively. ), damage to root system (damaging their roots removes their ability to absorb a lot of their nutrients. If their roots are damaged enough, they effectively starve to death.), Parasites (while they have a symbiotic relationship with the ants and other insects that live inside their roots and leaves, sometimes there will be parasites who cause problems, killing leaves and reducing the ability to photosynthesise. There are treatments for this but almost all come at the cost of hurting a lot of their symbiotic insects as well. Thankfully their numbers tend to recover. )