Today, I'm going to mention a little bit about world-building since that's the stage this project is still currently in and focus on the details surrounding the cultures of the alien races from my last post as well as the three main groups of humans: those on Earth, those on space habitats, and those as colonists on other planets. I'm not going to be sharing every minute detail about each culture, but I will share a little.
Amphayan
The culture of the Amphayans might best be described as laid-back. Their eight day week is divided in such a way that four days are considered weekend days which are for relaxation and the pursuit of hobbies rather than work and education. Obviously, some occupations are still working (such as medical) but much like on Earth, Amphayans in the medical field will switch off for their weekends where they still have a four day break, it's just not the traditional weekend days.
The trees where the Amphayans make their homes also bear fruit, which gets incorporated into the six meals they have per day. The most substantial meals are lunch, dinner, and supper while breakfast, the mid-afternoon snack, and dessert are usually a lighter affair and the most likely to consist of fruit picked right from the branches of their homes. Amphayans are mostly vegetarian, but will eat meat though it doesn't make up the majority of their diet.
Amphayans are a social race and spend much of their time interacting with others, whether that be other Amphayans, the dwindling population of Naem'i, or humans. As stated previously, the Naem'i are the former host species for the Amphayan larvae but due to a plague, the numbers have been dwindling and the Naem'i are in no condition to be viable hosts. This doesn't mean the Amphayans just write them off or ignore them, however. Amphayans are working on finding a cure, but it is taking awhile. They also still provide homes and care for the Naem'i because they don't just see them as hosts; they see them as family.
Humans make decent hosts, as far as the Amphayans are concerned. Humans that agree to become hosts can expect to be given upstanding medical care and a new home. It needs to be noted that Amphayans consider it exceptionally wrong to force anyone to be a host and most Amphayans will ask for permission after explaining the pros and cons of being a host. Humans from the colonies or from a space habitat are less likely to agree, but humans from Earth are willing to volunteer, though require more medical care than the others at the offset to get them healthy enough for incubation.
Of course, Amphayans don't just take humans from Earth to be hosts. Amphayans are well known in the universe for taking humans from Earth just to get them off the planet and provide them a better life than the one they've got. And, again, if the human says they don't want to be a host, they aren't forced into it and are still provided and cared for once on the Amphayan homeworld, especially if they're ill.
When it comes to the young, Amphayans have an "it takes a village" mentality. A typical small Amphayan family unit is usually made up of the parent Amphayan, any siblings of the parent, at least one Naem'i, the human that acted as host, any family of that human that came with them, and any other Amphayan children that have gone through the larval phase.
Amphayans have decent trading relations with humans on colonies and with Xethalians. They tolerate the Culicivorans because, while they recognize that the Culicivorans have no control over the fact that they evolved to feast on humans, they don't like it or the fact that Culicivorans will pay the Lunulata to kidnap humans from Earth for them to hunt. The Lunulata are about as close to an enemy as the Amphayans have and it isn't uncommon for a small group of Amphayans to sneak aboard a Lunulata slaver ship and steal any slaves the Lunulata have acquired.
Culicivoran
Hailing from a tropical homeworld, the Culicivorans are best known for their diet. As mentioned previously, they feast on human blood after their regular prey was almost hunted to extinction. They are an honorable hunter race (very similar to the Yautja of Predator fame), though they don't hunt for trophies or glory. They hunt because they need blood and only human blood will suffice. They do have standards, though, and will not hunt anyone younger than twenty, anyone older than sixty, or anyone suffering from an illness.
Where the Amphayans believe in raising the children in a large family group, the Culicivorans have a more hands off approach. Culicivoran young are mostly independent as soon as they hatch, though they will watch the adults to learn the finer points of hunting and creating nets from webbing. Once the young have gotten the hang of creating nets, they're allowed on hunts with the adults. In some cases the young ones are able to make their first kill right away, but others aren't as lucky and an adult will step in to assist just to guarantee that the young has a chance.
Despite this hands off approach to child-rearing, Culicivorans do form close-knit groups and will work together, especially during larger hunts or hunts where the humans decide to work together as well. These groups are primarily just formed for hunting and will disband after a successful hunt, then rejoin during the next one. They are also capable of working together to build and pilot spacecraft capable of traveling to other planets, though they prefer not to do this often.
Culicivorans have the best relationship with the Lunulata as the Lunulata are their primary source for humans, but the Culicivorans are perfectly capable of retrieving the humans from Earth themselves. They tolerate the Amphayans simply because the Amphayans leave them be, and the Culicivorans are quite content to be left to their own devices, allowed to hunt and live as they please. They haven't had any interactions with the Xethalians as they've no reason to visit that planet, for the most part, and their homeworld isn't on a normal trade route for the Xethalians.
Lunulata
Ah, the Lunulata. Intelligent, war-like, and very, very squishy. Being as intelligent as they are, they've built amazing, underwater homes in the shallows of their ocean planet, weapons to aid in their conquering of the Cellthonians, and ships capable of traveling the universe. That said, they never bothered to invent armor since it seemed inconvenient to them due to the amount of time they spend in and under the water. That means that they're constantly leaving their extremely squishy bodies open to attacks, though the only ones really at risk of being injured seriously due to this oversight are the single males that act as slavers, traveling to Earth and stealing humans.
Aside from the single males, the majority of the Lunulata are content to remain on their homeworld and work in fields such as technology, military advancements, fishing, and hydroponic food production. The Lunulata military, comprised of males and females, hasn't ventured off-planet yet to conquer another world since their war with the Cellthonians has concluded only in recent decades. That said, they are relying on the slavers to keep a look out on their journeys to Earth for any planet that meets their needs (mainly, be a planet of mostly water like their homeworld) so they can expand their reach.
When it comes to children, the Lunulata have a unique approach. While the children are mostly able to survive on their own from birth, they are very small and unfamiliar with the world as well as Lunulata culture so the parents will educate the children about the dangers of the planet and their language. Lunulata often have several children at once (sometimes six or more), which is good as the Lunulata do believe strongly in survival of both the fittest and the smartest and, while they will spend a little time teaching their children about the dangers of their homeworld (which includes adult Lunulata who will cannibalize the offspring of others), they won't protect them from anything or provide them with food once they're past three months old. At that point, the children are on their own.
Once a Lunulata has managed to survive into adulthood, they're mostly safe but still run the risk of being cannibalized should they show any kind of weakness, injury, or disease. In the case of single males on slaver ships, injuries happen often. In some cases, they will cannibalize the injured one, but in others, particularly in the case of a group that's been working together for several years, they may abandon the injured one with the Amphayans as they know that Amphayans, despite their hatred for the Lunulata, will not kill one, especially an injured one, and have better medical technology than the Lunulata.
Lunulata don't have much of a relationship with anyone aside from the Culicivorans and Amphayans, and even that is only the single males. Not all the humans that the Lunulata abduct end up sold to the Culicivorans. Some are taken back to the Lunulata homeworld to work on the coast alongside the Cellthonians and others are sold in slave markets on other planets. That said, not all humans who come across Lunulata find themselves taken as slaves. The Lunulata will, on occasion, interact with humans from colonies or from some space habitats. It also isn't out of the realm of possibility for Lunulata to attend academies with students from other planets, but this is a rare occurrence.
Xethalian
The race I've done the least amount of world-building for, the Xethalians' homeworld is one with a dense atmosphere and higher gravity than that of Earth. This makes it easier for the Xethalians to remain airborne for longer. Xethalians make their homes in cliffs, scraping away the softer stone of the cliff face with their four extremely sharp and powerful clawed feet. Xethalians are a social race and build their cities in and on cliff faces, much like their homes. While Xethalian homes are nondescript holes into the face of the cliff, cities will sometimes have machinery such as propeller-drill for breaking through the harder rock. The Xethalian spaceships can be found on top of the cliffs.
Xethalians are social and enjoy traveling the universe, usually as traders or explorers. This is more common with females than males, but there are usually still a fair number of male Xethalians that become spacefaring. They have established trade routes that take them near the Amphayan homeworld, most colonies, several space habitats, and Earth, though they rarely stop at Earth due to the lack of trade goods and pollution. Xethalians will also pass near the Lunulata homeworld, but rarely stop there due to the Lunulata reputation and propensity for enslaving other races. Any trade happening with them takes place on a neutral third party planet. Xethalians, after Amphayans and humans, are the ones most likely to be found on spaceships with other races as they work well with others and are very social. They don't have any particular feelings one way or the other toward Culicivorans because, as a whole, neither group has interacted, though individuals have sometimes crossed paths.
When it comes to children, Xethalians are very hands-on. At least, the fathers are. The mothers leave soon after the eggs are laid, leaving the fathers to incubate the eggs then raise the chicks. This is very similar to cassowaries. The males will raise the chicks as single fathers, caring for and protecting them until they are old enough to survive on their own. The males teach the chicks how to fly when they're about seven years old, then continue to care for them until they are at least sixteen at which point they are considered adults and are able to strike out on their own now that their primary education is finished. Some chicks will remain at home with their fathers for a bit longer while they decide on a career and attempt to find a suitable space for their home. Some will even remain with their fathers once they have chicks of their own, relying on their fathers to show them what to do. Orphaned Xethalian chicks are usually adopted fairly quickly by males who haven't mated, males who weren't able to sire children, or males that just plain weren't interested in mating.
Earth
A polluted, nearly depleted and devastated planet, Earth has become a scavenger world where everyone is doing what they can to survive. Farming, fishing, and hunting are the primary sources of food and income. Most of the humans that remain on Earth are those who couldn't afford to buy an apartment on a space habitat or weren't able to secure a position on a ship heading to a colony. Due to radiation and pollution, most humans are ill and in debt trying to afford medical care. Their best bets to get off-planet is if they join the military (which will have the added bonus of providing them with money they can send home to their families) or if they're captured by the Lunulata and then rescued by the Amphayans.
Avalon (space habitat)
One of several Stanford torus-style space habitats orbiting Earth, the Avalon is home to 140,000 humans and a varying number of synths (synthetic non-sentient humanoids) that perform the day-to-day maintenance, agriculture, waste removal, and other jobs onboard such as barista, waiter, chef, housekeeping, gardening. Humans onboard the Avalon do not work and spend much of their time lounging, reading, enjoying the parks and artificial lakes, working out, and spending their money on things such as the finest food, the latest fashions, the best medical care, trips to destination colonies, cybernetic enhancements or bio-modifications. Humans that were able to secure a spot on the Avalon are the richest of the rich.
Zion (colony)
Zion is a relatively new human colony on the moon of a gas giant. It isn't the only colony on the moon; however, it is the only all-human settlement. Zion is mostly a mining community due to the amount of mineral resources available, but also plays host to researchers and farmers as well as families. It should be noted that Zion is one of the few colonies where it is a crime to be gay and non-traditional families aren't accepted. The atmosphere isn't breathable for humans without a breathing apparatus so they stay inside the colony except for when they're boarding a spaceship which will take them to another planet, which sometimes includes Earth as more people are always needed to fulfill the needs of the colony. At the moment, no terraforming can occur because of the other colonies on the planet, but there are discussions between the leaders of each colony regarding this.
So, there you have it: a little about each culture. Now, as I said before, these are just the races that have been worked on and named so far. There are going to be others because it's a big universe. Also, you'll note I mentioned academies that the Lunulata could attend with other races from other planets and the military being a viable option for humans hoping to get off Earth, but I didn't go into any detail about those. That's because those are the subjects for upcoming posts so keep your eyes peeled if you're interested in reading more of my ramblings about this science fiction setting.
