Omdua

Illustration by Charley Hall.

Bibo digicapitus

The adaptable and fluid Omdua helped to found the Alliance, and they have been present for every stage between the first outposts and its current breadth. Instinctively drawn to imitate the shape – and the expressions – of other species, these tentacled nomads have always drawn strength from their own plurality and the diverse (or diverting) behaviour of others. The Omdua bring a fluid perspective to matters of galactic importance, befitting the fluidity of their own forms.

Omdua Appearance

Requirements

Omdua have thick brightly coloured “crests” on their heads instead of hair, which can vary in appearance from short curves to long tentacles – these may be prosthetics or attached to a wig, headdress, clips or close-fitting hat. Omdua are colourful – feel free to match or contrast the colours of your alien elements!

Additions

• Darker stripes towards limbs and extremities.
• Gills
• Fins
• Frills and organic ruffs similar to those under the bells of jellyfish.
• Fully non-human skin tone.

Avoid

Try not to have your hair on show – crests should entirely cover the back of your head, and any wigs should be styled to have hair fibres look like thin tentacles under the crest.

Variant: Masked Omdua

All omdua mimic the shape of other creatures (in this case, humanoids) in an effort to fit in, but cannot change the appearance of their crest. For a select few omdua this includes their full face, with their full-head crest giving them an unnervingly non-human appearance.

Variant: Luum Omdua

Some omdua have specialised light-emitting zooids called “luum” (loo-oom) as part of their bodies. This natural bioluminescence can be represented using UV or glow in the dark paint, or subtle LEDs that look reasonably organic – use the bioluminescence of comb jellies as a guide when considering the overall look. There is no gameplay difference between omdua with bioluminescence and those without.

Omdua Biology

Omdua are modular or colonial organisms. Their bodies are not one animal, but are instead made up of “zooids” – a series of multicellular organisms which act seamlessly as an individual Omdua’s organs and limbs, with one nervous system and one mind shared between them.

Omdua development is radically different to that of singular species. Their juveniles are unaggregated zooid colonies, visible to the naked eye as a cloud of gel – the source of diplomatic misunderstandings in ages past, when outsiders have been invited to meet Omdua young only to be presented with what appears to be a microbial culture (in, admittedly, a well-appointed and decorated) container or “spawn-cradle”. Adult Omdua are formed when these proto-colonies agglomerate, a process which is as long and intensive as it is shrouded in mystery. The Omdua use assistive technology to compensate for the absence of spawning reefs on planets other than their homeworld, where most Omdua emerge “wild-formed” and ready to join adult society.

When Omdua die (be it from age, illness, or injury), they literally go to pieces as their component zooids disaggregate. While most of the organisms die, zooids responsible for feeding or digestion may survive and go on to form new juvenile colonies – just like the specialised reproductive zooids formed and released by Omdua parents during their lifespans. This means an Omdua may consist of parts of their ancestors, reintegrated into a new spawning colony – and this, in turn, makes determining their exact lifespans very difficult.

Omdua are generally coy on the matter of death, preferring to present disaggregation as a change of state analogous to a metamorphosis. Each newly spawned Omdua presents as a new individual, but may retain memories or instincts formed from ancestral zooids – research is ongoing as to how much information may be retained. An Omdua typically disaggregates naturally from old age after 300 years, numbering them among the longest-lived of all Alliance species.

Omdua bodies are capable of advanced changes and reconfigurations throughout their lives, driven by their needs and the response of their zooids to their environment. On their homeworld alone, they are capable of flight in the buoyant vapour seas in which they evolved; they are landlocked on any planet with a thinner atmosphere, (which is most planets).

The Omdua are noted for their ability – and tendency – to approximate or mimic the shapes of other creatures that they live with, which means they take on a bipedal form among species with similar proportions. All Omdua possess a “crest” in all forms, which works as a multiple-purpose “core” for all vital functions (plus some ornamental ones). Crests vary in length from short sculptural grooves to elongated tendrils, and may be composed of a single zooid or several.

There are two notable Omdua sub-species, both distinguished by unique properties of their crests or zooids.

• Onaay Omdua possess crests that extend to or cover the face, or the entirety of the head when they take bipedal form. This gives them a distinctly non-human appearance, and is theorised to be a vestigial throwback to a rigid shell or “headplate” originally evolved for defensive and/or display purposes.
• Luum Omdua have specialised light-emitting zooids called “luum” (loo-oom) as part of their bodies, giving off all kinds of light. The function of this varies, but culturally many Omdua enjoy using this as self expression or for communication.

Omdua Culture

Omdua have a much more mutable and expansive sense of self than many other species, appropriately enough for the flexible nature of their biology and the shifting clouds of their planet. They are collectives on a fundamental level, and each Omdua contains a unique network of co-operating structures and roles within themselves. This may lead Omdua to present themselves as plurals rather than individuals, or to identify first and foremost as part of a relevant social group or organisation (in addition to, or instead of, typical individual gender expressions – Omdua do not have distinct sexes as other species understand them, but can and do express preferences for gendered pronouns and presentation according to their individual senses of self).

Viewpoints and philosophies among the Omdua are as varied as the planets they inhabit, especially as Omdua often prioritise mimicry, social cohesion and systemic integration. In the current era of Uncertainty, the values of many Omdua are rooted in being adaptable and patient. This can lead to Omdua seeming to be mercurial, evasive and untrustworthy; from their perspective, they are simply gathering information through careful observation carefully without jumping to conclusions or (prematurely) picking a side.

Omdua society has always prioritised technology, and scientific knowledge has been retained across their history whereas philosophical tenets and tendencies are frequently discarded. Omdua were among the earliest spacefarers of the Alliance, seeing space just as a bigger sea to swim in. Omdua technology often emphasises biological forms and organic materials – rubbery, flexible, membranous – and is often idiosyncratically adapted to uses that are only intelligible to other Omdua.

As far as cultural expressions go, Omdua have a particular affinity for kites. Kites and gliding apparatuses have always been a low cost and efficient way of augmenting travel through the seas of Geel, and they are used practically, recreationally, and for artistic expression in Omdua society. Kites as means of self-expression have proven to be an enduringly popular by-product of interaction with the wider Alliance, and every major planet has its own spin on the formula – from the upcycled windsocks of Marzion IX all the way up to the anchor-kites on Sultonia’s fearsome Whipscorch pylons.

Naming Conventions

Omdua language often uses doubled vowels, because pairs symbolise the species’ natural mimicry – these are pronounced with a gap between the vowels (see below). Consider altering the names of jellyfish and hydrozoan species or their life stages (or those of other aquatic creatures) to reflect the inspiration behind the omdua.

Language examples: Geel (gi-iill, homeworld), luum (loo-oom)

Name examples: Laanu (lah-ah-noo), Meduus (meh-doo-ooze), Neem (nee-eem), Oliip (oll-ee-eep), Stoolo (stoo-oh-lo), Aarsia (ah-ar-sia), Theeca (the-ee-ca)

Omdua Homeworld

Geel

Galactic Co-ordination System: Vista, ULIILU-2

Geel is a world blanketed by a shifting vaporous ocean, itself punctuated by crystalline landforms. This sea is not naturally survivable, or traversable, to species that evolved on other planets, but technology is widely available to make it so – any species that visits Geel can cross the landscape through sealed pneumatic tubes, or by means of powered aerobarges (which resemble sealed submarine vessels, albeit with gliding surfaces).

As a naturally aeronautical species, the Omdua prioritise the shifting currents of the oceans in their understanding of geography on Geel. To them, the planet does not have a fixed form, but rather a constantly shifting series of networks and systems, made up of structures both physical and social, natural and artificial alike. These systems are known as “Patterns”, of which there are three major forms:

• The Abundance pattern, which creates, converts, and conducts the flow of resources essential for Omdua health and happiness – and in more recent eras, the supply of goods to the rest of the Alliance. Natural structures in this pattern are the nutrient currents in the deep pools and eddies under the surface of Geel, while artificial manifestations include trade networks, eateries and the Omdua merchants and nutritionists who operate within them.
• The Awareness pattern is largely artificial, as it is responsible for collecting and collating information on everything from animal populations to individual spaceborne threats. Structures of this pattern may be found wherever information is gathered – the monitoring stations built atop the “dry” spires that project above the sea’s surface Geel’s landforms are an excellent example, along with the satellites they interface with. Professions belonging to this pattern include Omdua data technicians, journalists, and drone controllers.
• The Autonomy pattern is simultaneously analogous to a political system, a knowledge network, and a collective memory; it is responsible for maintaining useful information between eras, and for helping the Omdua to process who they are and what they want in response to change. Nomadic by design, the basis of this pattern and its “nerve centre” is a flotilla of kite-cities in constant movement across Geel’s surface. It is served by Omdua lecturers, intelligence officers, and artists.

Whilst most structures and locations on Geel are understood as part of the pattern they serve, there are a few exceptions – generally structures built for the use of other species. The most notable of these is Anchor, which consists of a surface-to-orbit elevator and its reception area – a city-sized habitat and diplomatic staging ground – built into the heavier of the planet’s polar landmasses. Anchor is where all of Geel’s formal diplomacy with other worlds and other species takes place, and it is accordingly built to comfortably support all of the species of the Alliance in comfort – though the architecture is still distinctly fluid and organic, a reflection of the Omdua and their home.

Omdua History

The Omdua conceive of their history as a series of distinct epochs divided by hard paradigm shifts. While there are holdovers and retention of useful knowledge between these eras, they are delineated by a mass adoption of new technologies and ways of living – such that the lives and beliefs of one era’s Omdua would be mutually unintelligible to those raised in the age that follows. These periods are named, in order:

Prehistory to A -2500

The era of Emergence. Climate historians and paleoneurologists theorise that the cooling of Geel, the Omdua homeworld, led to a slowing of the intense chemical processes in its vapour oceans. Wild protein blooms developed into colony structures and reefs, which in turn produced the first proto-Omdua polyps – which went on to evolve into the sentient Omdua.

A -1000 to -700

The Dynamic era. Omdua society, now globally dominant, specialised at a spectacular rate. Extraplanetary space travel via solar sail was achieved far ahead of other comparable technologies, followed by the development of manifold collapse technology and exploration outside the local Uliilu system. Had the Omdua encountered a hostile spacefaring species at this stage in their development, it is likely that their lack of experience in defense or diplomacy would have led to disaster.

A -700 to -500

The era of Difference. The Omdua reached the Forest arm of the galaxy and the planet Arliris, where they encountered the Tever. First contact was rocky, and the Tever managed to steal FTL technology before relations normalised. The Omdua were intensely fascinated by Tever culture, which challenged their sense of self; Omdua society underwent a period of intense Tever mimicry (sometimes termed the sub-era of Resonance) before re-stabilising.

A -500 to -350

The era of Calling. Omdua ships encountered MOTHER and attempted to initiate diplomatic relations; delegates were variously rebuffed or captured for ransom, and the situation was only resolved by Tever military violence – at a terrible cost. The Omdua took this disaster as an opportunity to mature, and out of the consequences of their naivety came a formal, though prototypical, alliance with the Tever – the birth of the modern Alliance. The end of this era coincided with the defense of Ok Yator from MOTHER in A -364, which in turn brought the Skala into the Alliance.

A -350 to -250

The Boundary era. Contact with THRONE prompted the Omdua to consider what they are not, and what they do not wish to become. Patterns of reactionary thought emerged, and many avenues of scientific inquiry were blocked off for fear of the consequences of change. This created a feedback loop feeding increased militarism and paranoia in the nascent Alliance, with the joining of the Vari as a high point in an otherwise insular era.

A -250 to -150

The era of Complexity. After an age of stagnation and troubled reflections on their history thus far, the Omdua were jolted from their soul-searching by the appearance of Earthlings – followers of an ancient Omdua call to other lifeforms. Observation of another mode of mutualism prompted the Omdua to reconfigure again, and they began to push Alliance politics towards a new vision – softer, kinder, more hopeful.

Present

The era of Uncertainty. Torn between optimism and introspection, the internal politics of the Omdua still seem inscrutable to outsiders; perhaps because they don’t truly know themselves. An ever more complex galaxy requires Omdua to be at their most variable and viable, whilst still figuring out who they are and what their purpose is – a tall order, but one that their friends in the Alliance are poised to help them fulfill.