Tolune

the tolune are a varied mammalian species from the planet nichel.

## Anatomy & Physiology

tolune have fairly standard mammalian biology. if you cut them open theyd work pretty much the same on the inside as any earth mammal.

tolune are omnivores. despite being individually relatively weak, their status as a sapient, social species makes them the apex predators in most enviornments.

in tolune, albinism its own gene rather than a failure of the gene that produces pigment. the albinism gene is correlated with several other genes that increase their odds of survival, such as poison resistance (but not total immunity) and greater strength. however, this is a relatively recent development and all of the genes are recessive, thus why not all tolune are albino.

tolune are, on average, 2'9".

tolune can, theoretically, have any pattern seen on an earth mammal, as well as any color seen on an earth mammal.

tolune are seperated into five subspecies

### Snowtreaders

the snowtreaders are a large, thick-furred subspecies with large claws, short tails and small, rounded ears. they live on nichel's ice caps, and are thus mainly carnivorous and piscivorous. they tend towards having solid or close to solid (eg color point) coloration. snowtreaders have prominent canines, their size ranging from simply poking out of the mouth to full-on saberteeth depending on the individual.

### Islandback Drifters

islandback drifters are a subspecies that live on islandbacks, a type of siphonophore in nichels ocean that grows a biome on its back, making it essentially a moving island. due to their isolation, islandback drifters are exposed to a lot fewer large carnivores than the other subspecies; they also can eat more things than other tolune, meaning they dont have to worry about starvation. because of this, islandback drifters can afford to care about things like beauty and have sexually selected for bright coloration. because of this, islandback drifters can and often do have unnatural coloration, although they tend towards duller versions of said unnatural colors. islandback drifters also have large ears and long haired, multicolored tails. their fur is fluffy.

### Deepdivers

deepdivers are unique, being the only fully aquatic subspecies of tolune. they have short, sleek fur and fins that vary in location and size from individual to individual. deepdivers have downward pointing ears and thin snouts, as well as finned tails reminiscent of shark or whale tails. they tend towards patterns with darker backs and lighter stomachs as a form of countershading. they have gills on their face. deepdivers have small foot claws, but larger hand claws that they use to latch onto fish. they can breathe on land, but it usually doesnt come up often.

### Children Of Oros

children of oros are one of two subspecies defined not by their enviornment, but by a religion they have modified themselves to fit, with the children of oros doing so very intentionally. children of oros almost always have short orange fur, stripes, pointed snouts, violet eyes, and sharp teeth. exceptions to this exist, but they are rare since children of oros without the mentioned features are forbidden from reproducing by their religion.

### Alternacolytes

alternacolytes are also defined by their religion. alternacolytes are the only subspecies with horns, although their shape varies, they also trend towards having black, offblack, grey, offwhite, or white fur. alternacolyte fur varies the most in length out of the subspecies, sometimes being short and sleek and othertimes being long and cumbersome. due to their religion, they seperate themselves into twelve castes, each of which has minor physical differences.

#### burgundy-rank

burgundy-ranks are very disease resistant and have better senses of smell than other alternacolytes. they are usually smaller than other tolune, being only two feet tall on average.

#### brown-rank

brown-ranks are generally weak and thin, with small claws and long, thin tails. they have floppy ears.

#### yellow-rank

yellow-ranks have long, hard claws, more suitable for knapping flint than hunting or fighting. they also tend towards having four or more horns and heterochromia.

#### lime-rank

lime-ranks have small claws and are often brachycephalic. they have long hair more often than other ranks of alternacolyte and sometimes have aquatic features, although never gills.

#### olive-rank

olive-ranks are nimble, with long, sharp claws and pads on their feet for stealth. they tend towards having stripes, and sometimes male olive-ranks will have short manes.

#### leaf-rank

leaf-ranks have dull claws and horns, as well as fat deposits throughout the body that make them soft.

#### teal-rank

teal-ranks are probably what alternacolytes looked like before diversifying into ranks. they also bear striking resemblance to the ancestral tolune.

#### sky-rank

sky-ranks are muscular and large, with big claws. they sometimes have a thagomizer or club on their tails and are slower than other tolune.

#### indigo-rank

indigo-ranks are also large and strong, but lack the offensive addons of sky-ranks, often lacking claws on their hands completely.

#### purple-rank

purple-ranks are terrifyingly huge, being up to twice as large as the average tolune. they often have a thagomizer or club on their tail, if they dont its basically a biological whip. they often also have patches of keratin armor or spikes on their bodies.

#### violet-rank

violet-ranks have gills and fins, somewhat resembling a hybrid between an alternacolyte and a deepdiver.

#### fuschia-rank

fuschia-ranks resemble a larger, stronger version of violet-ranks. they often have decorative frills or tufts of fur.

#### nothing-rank

nothing-ranks are any alternacolyte who, for one reason or another, cannot be sorted into one of the other ranks.

the only idividual in an alternacolyte clan not assigned to one of these thirteen ranks is the clan-mother, a hermarphoditic individual with white fur, no claws, no horns, a stubby tail, and no ability to speak. any tolune can metamorphose into the clan-mother, but a ritual is required.

## Society & Culture

due to their above mentioned properties, albino tolune are near-universally considered good luck to have around.

the most common tolune religion is a form of ancestor worship where a tolune who does a notable thing will be made a god of a concept related to that thing after death, eg a tolune who maps a significant portion of nichel will be made a god of exploration,

due to interactions with Anons and Penodir, tolune have myths about two types of fairy - trickster fairies and hunter fairies

exact culture varies from clan to clan, but yeah.

#### Snowtreaders

snowtreader culture is built on the assumption that, no matter what, no tolune is better than any other. they govern by direct democracy, not doing anything as a clan unless it can pass a vote. theyre the most normal about disabled people, giving them dignity most human cultures dont. snowtreaders will do whatever they can to make sure all members of their clan can thrive to the best extent they can, even if they can do absolutely nothing to contribute to the clan. snowtreaders also have the most cultural memory of what tolune were like before the apocalypse. snowtreaders are also the most advanced, being in the early bronze age when the other subspecies would be in the late stone age.

#### Islandback Drifters

other than bright colors, islandback drifters value two things: creativity and a wide range of skills. they have very efficient labor practices, often able to get a days work done by noon and then spend the rest of the day hanging out and doing what they want. islandback drifter clans have a system of leadership where their clans have two leaders, one who rules in the summer and one who rules in the winter. given that their islands are always moving, this doesnt always align with the usual cycle of seasons. the summer leader is usually more laid back and easygoing - their job is to keep the peace during the parts of the year where food is plentiful and hard descisions only occasionally have to be made, while the winter leader is usually more logical and tough - their job is to make hard descisions during the part of the year where food can be scarce and everyones too focused on surviving to fight.

### Deepdivers

deepdivers veiw the wreckage of pre-apocalypse tolune technology as holy. they dont have any weird policies about reproduction, but if a child is born without gills they just let them drown. deepdivers belive that children dont belong fully belong to this world, only becoming anchored in it once they pass a coming-of-age ritual that varies from clan to clan. the belife is that if a child dies, they will simply be reborn later - only adults become gods or go to a permanent afterlife.

### Children Of Oros

children of oros are the newest subspecies, having been able to achive a distinct look in a relatiely short amount of time due to the vile, vile, vile practice of eugenics. they belive they are descended from a god named oros, who is the only god they worship and is worshiped by nobody but them. any child of oros without the features they associate with their god is disalowed from reproducing and sometimes have the tips of their fingers cut off as a primitive form of declawing. children of oros have a few other peculiar culutural things - reproducing is seen as a duty for those allowed to do so, who you reproduce with often being chosen by the current clan leader. and individual tolune are not seen as individuals - bloodlines are seen as individuals. if your mother was really into something, you are expected to be really into that thing too and complete any work she might not have finished before she died. children of oros also practice ear and tail docking on everyone, regardless of whether theyre allowed to reproduce or not. children of oros clans are led by the oldest member of the clan that is allowed to reproduce.

### Alternacolytes

alternacolytes are the descendants of a clan that a troll ship, bearing records of the conditions on alternia, crashed in the middle of. the clans preist took it as a command from the gods as to what tolune society should be like, although in the modern day how much a given clan adheres to this doctrine varies heavily. it can even vary within a clan depending on the attitude of the current fuschia-rank. the leader of a given alteracolyte clan is, of course, its fuschia-rank. in clans that care more about that sort of thing, each caste has a defined role within the clan. their clans are generally spread out across a larger area than others, as they consist of three camps: one for the clan-mother, babies, and leaf-ranks (referred to as the brooding camp), one for kids and teens, and one for adults.

#### burgundy-rank

burgundy-ranks are the clans undertakers and garbage men, also doing any odd jobs that dont fall under the jurisdiction of the other ranks.

#### brown-rank

brown-ranks deal with all things plant, from harvesting berries to clearing grass to expand the camp

#### yellow-rank

yellow-ranks make weapons, tools and traps

#### lime-rank

in clans where lime-ranks arent immediately culled, they serve as the doctors of the clan

#### olive-rank

olive-ranks hunt small prey animals to feed the clan

#### leaf-rank

leaf-ranks stay in the brooding camp their whole life, tending to the babies and the clan-mother. in clans where lime-ranks are culled, a small subset of their population also serves as doctors

#### teal-rank

teal-ranks are messengers and spies of the current fuschia-rank, making sure their will is known and followed

#### indigo-rank

indigo-ranks generally deal with construction or any other undertaking that requires notable strength, as well as aiding teal-ranks and purple-ranks with law enforcement

#### purple-rank

in clans that care about that, purple-ranks are in charge of culling, thus them being so large and intimidating. in clans that dont cull, purple-ranks are just general law enforcement, as well as aiding sky and indigo ranks in their tasks. in either type of clan, a handful of purple-ranks are usually stationed around the brooding camp to catch any mutations early and/or guard the camp.

#### violet-rank

violet-ranks forage for food in the ocean

#### fuschia-rank

fuschia-ranks are, of course, the leaders of the clan. unlike the other castes, which have no limit on their numbers, there may only be two fuschia-ranks per clan: the leader and their heir.

#### nothing-rank

in clans where they arent just immediately culled, nothing-ranks do odd jobs that dont fit under those done by other members of the clan

## History

the tolune were once a highly advanced race, having been on the verge of reaching Elgavan-level technology. but unlike elgavans, they were not a unified people.

on the night when they would have reached truly elgavan level tech, war broke out, and the tolune nuked themselves back to the stone age. someone also released a different kind of superweapon, one which flooded nichel, only leaving the tops of mountains unscathed. luckily nichel was a relatively mountainous planet, but yeah. almost all of the tolune race's technology was either destroyed by the bombs or left at the bottom of the ocean.

for most of the world, only barely enough tolune survived to repopulate. on one ice cap, however, groups of arctic researchers from each nation remained unscathed, and came together to survive. their descendants would become the snowtreaders.

a few hundred years later, a clan decides to probe the depths of the sea for food and bits of nonfunctional pre aocalypse technology. their descendants will become the deepdivers.

a few thousand years later, about halfway to the modern day, a subset of a clan that had outgrown its island takes advantage of a passing islandback. their descendants will become the islandback drifters.

just after their departure, a troll ship crashes on the island the future islandback drifters left. the descendants of this clan will become the alternacolytes

thousands of years later, just a few hundred years before the modern day, a preist named oros gets it in his head that he is a living god and starts a religion about it. his descendants will become the children of oros.

## Naming Conventions

to name a tolune, take 2-5 random syllables from the following list, put them together in any order, and modify the result until it sounds like a name. tolune typically only have one name. list is numbered to make rolling a dice about it easier. alternacolytes tend towards six-letter names

1. `duk`
2. `van`
3. `kir`
4. `ro`
5. `ta`
6. `ku`
7. `nu`
8. `pri`
9. `no`
10. `don`
11. `lur`
12. `tata`
13. `adam`
14. `kuduklur`
15. `big`
16. `eye`
17. `d`
18. `ape`
19. `ear`
20. `nose`
21. `arc`
22. `tic`
23. `ram`
24. `fox`
25. `bal`
26. `ence`
27. `bear`
28. `ye`
29. `na`
30. `blue`
31. `bird`
32. `crab`
33. `bit`
34. `de`
35. `fen`
36. `der`
37. `do`
38. `ming`
39. `fish`
40. `clown`
41. `koi`
42. `raz`
43. `or`
44. `ah`
45. `nah`
46. `gold`
47. `leech`
48. `in`
49. `sect`
50. `peace`
51. `ful`
52. `rab`
53. `bil`
54. `stag`
55. `mole`
56. `wal`
57. `rus`
58. `deer`
59. `tiny`
60. `green`
61. `mea`
62. `dow`
63. `grass`
64. `ad`
65. `ven`
66. `ture`
67. `archi`
68. `pel`
69. `go`
70. `burn`
71. `ing`
72. `sav`
73. `nna`
74. `rain`
75. `for`
76. `est`
77. `first`
78. `snow`
79. `over`
80. `grown`
81. `jun`
82. `gle`
83. `swam`
84. `py`
85. `hill`
86. `min`
87. `gle`
88. `whale`
89. `is`
90. `land`
91. `oasis`
92. `sum`
93. `mer`
94. `moun`
95. `tain`
96. `tains`
97. `long`
98. `winter`
99. `cross`
100. `ing`
101. `slee`
102. `py`
103. `reeds`
104. `jun`
105. `gle`
106. `gate`
107. `deep`
108. `frost`
109. `lands`
110. `dead`
111. `ly`
112. `hills`
113. `home`
114. `rock`
115. `mud`
116. `cac`
117. `tus`
118. `ter`
119. `mite`
120. `plant`
121. `ber`
122. `ry`
123. `bush`
124. `tree`
125. `a`
126. `b`
127. `c`
128. `d`
129. `e`
130. `f`
131. `g`
132. `h`
133. `i`
134. `j`
135. `k`
136. `l`
137. `m`
138. `n`
139. `o`
140. `p`
142. `q`
143. `r`
144. `s`
145. `t`
146. `u`
147. `v`
148. `w`
149. `x`
150. `y`
151. `z`
152. `call`
153. `er`
154. `heal`
155. `nut`
156. `crack`
157. `hunt`
158. `gather`
159. `rust`
160. `burg`
161. `un`
162. `dy`
163. `bronze`
164. `gold`
165. `lime`
166. `ol`
167. `ive`
168. `jade`
169. `teal`
170. `cob`
171. `alt`
172. `in`
173. `di`
174. `go`
175. `pur`
176. `ple`
177. `vio`
178. `let`
179. `fus`
180. `chia`
181. `fert`
182. `ile`
183. `strong`
184. `kind`
185. `heal`
186. `thy`
187. `swim`
188. `mer`
189. `fly`
190. `fast`
191. `acall`
192. `ana`
193. `re`
194. `is`
195. `me`
196. `ra`
197. `ko`
198. `si`
199. `la`
200. `len`
201. `el`
202. `ta`
203. `mi`
204. `mesi`
205. `isme`
206. `remera`
207. `qy`
208. `koana`
209. `ralasi`

## Trivia

* the tolune are based off nichelings from the game niche: a genetics survival game
* the five subspecies are loosely based off my saves within the game (to be clear, i do NOT condone eugenics, the children of oros are based off my story mode clan, where those with home island immunity are given priority in terms of reproduction to increase the likelihood of having it in my clan upon reaching the home island)
* the syllable list is copied direct;y from the (modified) file my niche game uses to generate nicheling names