Tsukh

3D world map link: https://www.maptoglobe.com/rkPezDBBb

### Tsukhur Biology and Culture

The Tsukhur are an ancient race of mostly gaseous beings with a solid head and the ability to telepathically control the shape and density of the gas that makes up their bodies. They have a physical head, with pale white skin, black hair, dark grey eyes, grey lips, and black “blood”. Tsukhur generally hold their heads in the crook of their arm, strapped onto their necks, or hidden somewhere safe. The rest of the body is made of a black gas that can be controlled and manipulated into any shape with any density, though they usually have a humanoid shape since they consider it particularly aesthetically pleasing. However, this can change depending on current fashion trends and Tsukhur can choose to look however they want; a century ago a sphinx-like form was popular and is still popular in many places. It should also be noted that the Tsukhur are totally color-blind and a bit sensitive to bright light. They don't have cone photoreceptors in their eyes because their world is all black, white, and grey and also rather dark. Instead they have an abundance of rod photoreceptors which gives them excellent night vision. Also, because the Tsukhur are completely colorblind, they have hundreds of different words for different shades of grey, black, and white. Their entire planet is in shades of grey as well. The blood of all the wildlife is even black. This gas that makes up their bodies is contained in a thin layer of white skin, formed from the gas and gathered minerals in the air absorbed into the gas by the Tsukhur if they choose to have actual skin, or is just contained in the dense black gas substance mimicking skin. Only the white skin can feel anything, and can't be easily remade. Most Tsukhur contain their entire bodies only with this black skin. The black substance that they are mostly made of is called \*mokher\* and can be quite acidic or basic depending on what the tsukhur wants it to be at the time by consciously manipulating the concentrations of chemicals in their bodies. They can see with both their physical eyes, and with their smoke, though with the smoke it's more like feeling the shape of everything that touches their \*mokher\* smoke. Because their bodies are just condensed smoke, they also have an incredibly fast healing ability (though not as fast for their heads) since most injuries can be fixed by reforming or dissolving the injured area. Disease, infection, and injury is unheard of for them for their gaseous bodies. Their heads are susceptible to injury, but not for disease since their blood is actually just solidified, specialized \*mokher\* (though in their head it has a more jelly-like consistency, though fluid enough for nutrient and waste exchange). Their heads generally feel a bit colder while their bodies feel warm due to the state of matter their \*mokher\* is in in those parts and because chemical reactions are not as frequently occurring in their heads.

  The smoke, which is called mokher that a Tsukhur's body and head is made of is made of a collective cloud of cooperative plasma cells found in many life forms on Tsukh. Tsukhur cells are sort of made of plasma and ionized gas when free floating, but through electromagnetic signaling can achieve a wide range of functionality. Electrochemical signaling through the smoke cloud allows them to control the placement of countless microscopic gaseous cells so they can control chemical reactions and the fluidity of their form by conscious and unconscious thought. This gives them the ability to condense their bodies into solid or liquid states and take on any form. The consciousness of the Tsukhur, their "brain", is really the entirety of their being; their cells all act as nerve cells with the ability to interact with each other via electromagnetic and chemical signaling and there is no localized location of their mind. There are also certain specialized cells that function differently: their genetic material and their white "skin". Their genetic material is stored in their head and once it is formed cannot be affected by the Tsukhur's electromagnetic field. Their white skin functions the same as the rest of the cells, but is always in the form of a thin solid sheet and contains trace amounts of other elements that give the cells their white color and much greater sensory ability and so are formed into structures such as eyes, skin, nose, and ears, but when it changes state, such as into gas or plasma, it cannot hold onto the trace elements and those need to be organized and put back into those cells to allow them to function as they had before. These specialized cells are primarily located in the head, whose purpose is for verbal communication, sensation (sight, smell, hearing etc) and storing genetic material and is rarely altered. Tsukhur ar actually fairly protective of their heads, mainly due to ancient behavioral evolution because of the important functions of their heads and the high energy cost of creating and repairing one’s head and the specialized cells within. If they are going into dangerous situations they will typically hide their heads somewhere safe and only interact with their surroundings with their bodies. A Tsukhur can be two thirds of a mile from other parts of their body and still be connected to it if that part is a concentrated mass, like their head. However, they cannot be separated too long from those parts, the connection will fade if they're away for longer than about six to eight hours. Also, the Tsukhur would have to construct some way of respiration to feed the separated entity so the cells don't die. Because heads are made of specialized cells, they can actually be separated longer and further away, up to three fourths of a mile away and for up to eight to ten hours.

  Hypothetically, they could construct eyes attached to "memory cells" and some simple means of respiration, leave it stuck to something somewhere, and come back for it later and regain the memories. They also do not have optional memory loss. Tsukhur cannot share mokher gas containing their memories, nor can they mix each other's mokher when  in a gaseous state, the cells reject mixing with each other and will repel each other. They can, and normally do, only mix mokher when the cells have been specialized for passing on genes during reproduction. Due to how their consciousness and "mind" exists spread out throughout the whole being, they couldn't selectively lose memories, nor could they just accidentally lose memories when they reform or puff out some gas. If they tossed a substantial amount of their body then yes, they probably would lose a fair amount of memory, though they also probably wouldn't realize they've lost memories. This would most often affect infants and thrulls, who cannot control their gas very well and dissipate more of themselves more often. Tsukhur early education has to be extremely repetitive and they won't learn a whole lot until they've grown up more and can control themselves better. There is no help for thrulls.

   The Tsukhur do need to take in nutrients, but not as often as other gaseous species because they keep their gas packed around them for much longer than other species instead of always inhaling and immediately exhaling it. Similar species like the animal, the satana [see the fauna post linked below] have bodies which are in a constant state of vaporization so constantly need to consume to survive. For the Tsukhur, whatever they ingest gets dissolved and evaporated by highly acidic and corrosive gas in their bodies that they have to consciously form when they want to ingest solid matte, which is surrounded by a strong basic membrane to not dissolve the wrong things, and the nutrients diffuse into their \*mokher\* and up through their body and up into their neck and heads. For the most part though, the Tsukhur are air-feeders: they get all the nutrients they need from respiration alone. The atmosphere of Tsukh has all the essential nutrients in it, so they can just breathe in what they need, though it is less concentrated and produces more waste gas. All waste simply leaves the body as gas through their necks or out any other exit they construct. It is not uncommon to see a tsukhur with their heads on their necks with a black mokher scarf around their neck to keep their heads in place. The nutrients flow into their heads while the waste flows into or through the scarf and forms more material or just evaporates away. Tsukhur are constantly inhaling and exhaling air, which is why they always have black smoke billowing out of their bodies.

    They prefer to ingest steam instead of liquid as it is easier for their bodies to use and process the steam rather than have to evaporate the liquid and then use it. They also use ammonia and occasionally hydrogen cyanide rather than H2O, though to help maintain the electrical charges they need to function they absorb and potassium and sodium ions. They are more at home in dry environments than wet ones and tend to be cautious around water, especially running water. Unprepared tsukhur have had their bodies washed away and entering water requires them to either close themselves up (thus effectively turning into a balloon on water) or condense themselves (which greatly reduces their size) and makes them sink like a rock. Most Tsukhur don't know how to swim or properly condense their bodies to be able to swim since there is virtually no running water on Tsukh.

Tsukhur do not have internal organs like most species, they are essentially a head and then a large quantity of gas in a thin skin-like membrane, so they obviously don't really have any reproductive organs either. Tsukhur, because they have no sexes or genders, do not have gendered pronouns, instead using neutral pronouns in their language. In translations and general dialogue they will probably be using “they” and such because they do not use gendered pronouns so this pronoun works fairly well for them. They also, due to their general invulnerability to disease and injury and also their general inability to physically feel (only the white skin has the sensation of touch) they don't normally comprehend when other beings are sick or in pain (unless in their heads) and don't normally realize that other beings could get injured more easily. In fact, one of their favorite party games is matchstick: where you see how long you can go doing strange dares while set on fire. So, for example, if they saw someone made of “meat” (for lack of a better word) get stabbed in the stomach, they would probably laugh and think the person is overreacting, they wouldn't try to help or realize the other is actually in pain. They aren't intentionally malicious, just careless, reckless, and a bit ignorant.

### Communication

  Besides a common spoken language with many different dialects that is spoken on Tsukh, the Tsukhur also have a different way of communicating: through smoke signals. They are always exhaling black smoke which they can mentally control and manipulate into any shape so they have used this as a secondary mode of communication for when they do not have their heads with them or for when those they want to speak to cannot hear them. For example, "hi how are you?" would equal a puff, a thin ring, and then a counterclockwise twirl through the ring. They can puff out complex shapes and patterns which will stay long enough for the message to get across before dissipating in the air (one could think of it as like the smoke language from Arrival, but more inclined to being shaped like a vertical, swirling, and more three dimensional stream). Their written language takes a lot from this and not only is read in vertical lines from top to bottom, like the Tsukhur smoke language, but it's characters also somewhat resemble ancient smoke symbols. For example, the symbol of the “p” sound is a circle with a half circle on the bottom, and the smoke words for many words that start with “p” start with a quick puff split and shaped into a circle with a small puff connecting that letter to the next letter. The Tsukhur like to contain a small amount of phosphorus in their bodies which they will exhale and burn in their smoke when it is dark to provide light. When they burn these small amounts of white phosphorous in their smoke it releases phosphorous pentoxide which causes their smoke to flash and glow bright white. They can absorb other light providing chemicals and burn those as well, though their favorite is white phosphorous because of how bright it burns and how “tingly” it makes them feel when they burn it, and because they are color blind so they have no color preferences in that regard.

  The Tsukhur are a very individualistic, hedonistic, and fun-loving people. They prioritize their own enjoyment and their own needs above almost everything else and generally just want to make themselves happy. They love making fun and memorable experiences for themselves and others. They are somewhat careless and reckless, consider rules they don't like as “suggestions” and love throwing wild parties. As the saying goes “it's not a Tsukhur party if someone doesn't leave with a concussion and a story to tell”. It isn't easy to get them all organized, especially if it's something “boring”, but if it's something very important or exciting, like mining asteroids (which are their main source of metals and other resources) and exploring space, then the public would be more on board with it and would volunteer to help.

### Perception of Time and Age

Another thing to note about the Tsukhur is their measurement of time and age. They are an ancient and effectively immortal race who's individuals live for thousands of years and while they don't have perfect memories, they do have very good ones and use that to keep track of their age. They consider time to be cyclical on certain small and broad levels and generally a very relative concept because it can feel different at different times to different people. Like, on one scale based on the year, they would say time is cyclical because the seasons change and repeat and the planet revolves around its star and starts the cycle again, on another scale based on, for example, the changes on a popular entertainment channel, they would say it is relative because some shows have short lives, some have long ones, and things get cancelled or altered on the whims of its viewers and producers, there is little regularity and life can seem long for some and short for others and differently paced and spaced out. The Tsukhur do have a yearly calendar and they do have records of their births (at least of when they were put into state care, which is usually around birth) so they can know exactly how old they themselves are, but this is only a more recent development. Before the Tsukhur met the Arasthi, who cared very much about the Tsukhur having more accurate record keeping and time keeping, the Tsukhur determined their age by the events they witnessed or experienced in their lives. If one were to ask how old a Tsukhur was, they would say “they were alive when (some memorable event) happened” or “they were old enough to have seen (some other major event)” like a certain president coming into office or a certain comet coming by or when a new blockbuster movie came out. Basically, they would go back to their furthest memory of a significant event that could help define how old they are. While most now can just say the exact number of years they are alive, most can't keep track on their own age and still prefer the event method. The oldest currently living Tsukhur has no idea how old they are because they existed before there ever was a government entity or possibly even the technology to keep any birth records. A lot of what they say about their younger years just sounds like nonsense to anyone that tries to decipher their age because the only memories they have of those times are deeply personal ones and none that would be on any record books. At the end of every year, to celebrate the countdown to the new year, a popular talk show on Tsukh holds a “Defining Event of the Year” show. Here, they recap the top ten most significant things to happen that year (as voted on by the viewers, who vote way more for this than for the members of government) and then right before the new year starts, they'll proclaim what “most defined this last year”. Many Tsukhur will call that year the year of “(whatever happened for #1)” when referring to that year in the event based age measurement method. This show is partly just for fun and entertainment, but also a part of a long tradition of trying to get people to use the same universal markers for their age. Without this, two people trying to figure out who is older could have gone on for hours, with both bringing up events the other doesn't even know about. It may seem strange to other people, but this has been how the Tsukhur measured age for millennia before they kept records of their births. The Tsukhur never used to care much about their offspring to even mark down when they were born so remembering any major events that happened around then was the most accurate they could get.

### Reproduction

   Tsukhur reproduce by pooling some of their specialized \*mokher\* that is filled with their genetic material and stored in the head, and some of their condensed gaseous \*mokher\* substance from their bodies. This mixture must have a high concentration of the nutrients and chemicals they need to sustain themselves and a high concentration of their genetic material to work. One or multiple Tsukhur (there is no specific necessary number, though single parent procreation is highly frowned upon and is basically cloning) mix their \*mokher\* together into some kind of sealed container and let it sit and coagulate for a period of time, usually about ten hours, into a newly formed infant Tsukhur. It takes at least about a pint and a half of this mixture to make a new Tsukhur, though those made of larger quantities mature faster after coagulation. The process itself typically involves all parties pooling their genetic material and nutrient contributions to the container, and all of them “stirring” the substance together until it is fused and none of them can stir it anymore, because none of them are linked to it anymore, it can form into its own being and develops its own consciousness. Once the stirring process is complete the solution must be allowed to congeal for a period of time. Producing offspring is generally considered to be a special process, as it is a passing on and releasing of their essence to create a new, individual, independent being, however the process itself is normally only done out of curiosity, vanity, boredom, or otherwise is a spur of the moment decision.

#### Coagulation

During the coagulation process the new head slowly solidifies first a jelly-like ball surrounded in skin, then the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and such form, with the teeth taking the longest to form. A black skin starts to form on the surface of the mixture and over the course of coagulation creates creases and dips into the mixture and surrounds the head. Then it begins to form cleavages and furrows which separate to form the eyelids, lips, and such. The bottom of the neck is the last to solidify so that the remains of the nutrient rich substance can still flow as freely as possible through the most holes as possible while the rest of the being is being formed. Once the main parts of the head are mostly formed, the remaining mixture begins to turn into vapor. Coagulating Tsukhur are typically kept in closed containers and away from blowing wind while they are forming so that this gas does not disperse before the new being is able to keep the gas around itself. Being psychically linked to one's gas is an intrinsically unconscious action and is considered to be the point at which a developing Tsukhur is considered alive. The gas will start to stay around the new Tsukhur during the stage when the skin is just starting to furrow and finish wrapping. The gas will of course continue to dissipate during the rest of the coagulation process and more gas may need to be donated to the being. These are called during the later half of the coagulation stage after gas retention as a “goop” and in the earlier half as “coagulate”.

#### Early Life Care

A new Tsukhur is usually very small with a large head with black skin until its head naturally absorbs more minerals and lightens. Their bodies also usually just stay in a gaseous state around their heads for about a year until they learn to control it enough to form basic bodies. Parents sometimes take care of their offspring, at least for the first week or two, but then typically leave them in government run schools; Tsukhur are very hedonistic and individualistic people who don't like doing boring things like raising children. Those who do raise their children are considered to be strange and aren't expected to be able to raise their children well; the child might get taken away, but people usually just avoid the “weird” parent and their kid. Also, nowadays most early care schools are run by AI, with Tsukhur teachers filling in after the first year, when the infants, still called goops, are “cute” and fun to teach and raise.  Tsukhur are given names when brought to school and their last names are simply the name of the city they were born in with -aen added to the end, which means "of" when added as a suffix. Tsukhur can change their given names whenever they please though they cannot change their "aen name". Tsukhur usually stay in school for about thirty to forty years to learn all the basics of life, like reading, writing, math, science, life skills, and so on, and are then released to go live their lives however they see fit. There are higher education schools as well, but those are privately owned and totally up to the Tsukhur to choose to apply to attend. Teaching is one of the highest paid professions and is paid for by the government and from city-state taxes.

### Origins and Religion

They believe that their god, Astvas, first created beings out of plasma, but they were too volatile so became the stars. Then the creator made beings out of gas, but they drifted away and became the atmosphere. Then it made beings out of fluids, but they were vicious and couldn't stay together, so they became the bodies of water under the surface of Tsukh. Then it made beings out of solids, but they couldn't move, so they became the land. Then the creator made beings out of all the elements, which went on to become most living beings, but then wanted to make a being with more free will and independence in the world. It finally made beings that could choose their state of being, first the other gaseous species of Tsukh, and then it's perfect creation: the Tsukhur. The Tsukhur would nickname most sapients the Fifth Children, since they have nicknamed themselves the Sixth Children. The Tsukhur originated on the planet of Tsukh.

Besides their creation myth, the Tsukhur have an afterlife myth and an end of the universe myth, though most Tsukhur are secular and don't care much about their end of the world myth. Only a small, radical percentage of the population believes this myth. They believe that when one dies, they just become part of the universe; they “return to being dust in the breeze on the winds of the world”. When \*everything\* ends, it will end in fire and everything will burn as every star and sun explodes (revenge of the first children, they say) and this isn't the first time it will happen, but part of a cycle of the universe being destroyed and then built again from the ashes. The Tsukhur believe that they are made of the ashes of every past universe and will survive the end of the world and are meant to shepherd all other life into the next, but each time the world ends, they forget and have to remember how to do it again. Right now they believe that they know their job but not how to do it. The Tsukhur have mixed feelings about all of this. Most don't care about this job they are supposed to have, others think they can use it against the other races of the world, and some others even think that they are supposed to be collecting the other races’ souls now to bring about the end of the world (mostly by just suffocating others and sucking out their breath to “gather their souls”) This last, very small, fringe group are sort of cultists that most Tsukhur disagree with. Many of these cultists think they will be rewarded if they do their job (everything has a price, doesn't it?) but only these guys think the reward is great enough to justify trying to bring about the end of the world. They're a very small, insignificant little cult that will probably never leave Tsukh, and they mostly just go around killing the local wildlife.

  Astvas, the creator, was initially just a small god that filled the role of scapegoat/excuse for unexplained phenomena of a small nomadic group millennia ago that had now become one of the few remembered deities of the Tsukhur people. The fact that they are remembered at all and have existed since before written text is considered testament to their power; they will never be forgotten. The truth is, there were many “Astvases” throughout the eons, just saying “oh Astvas did it”, or “because Astvas made it that way” was a convenient way explain the unexplainable parts of the world. Their name was mentioned in early written texts and it is known that the whole idea existed before written text, but Astvas as it is known now, did not exist until thousands of years after writing developed. They believe that Astvas has no form or physical existence, they made existence and are the god of existence and other unexplainable things itself. Astvas is a personified and deified thing beyond existence and time itself. There is no real worship for the god of existence other than to enjoy and appreciate life and to not take it for granted. This is also the excuse the Tsukhur give for living such reckless and hedonistic lifestyles. For Astvas!

### Dress

The Tsukhur don't wear clothes, they just reshape their skin to look like fur, clothes, skin, etc. However, they do like jewelry and many wear expensive and elaborate ornamentation, usually headdresses, necklaces, and other things around the head or smoke-release hole on the body. There are several “popular” forms that the Tsukhur prefer, though these come and go and are merely fashion trends for the people of Tsukh.

### Social Structures

The Tsukhur have one global government brought about by centuries of constant war and fighting. Ultimately one group, the \*sots’ialistakan kusakts’ut’yuny\* (now known as the \*Sots’yuny\* or \*the Council\*) took full control. Their government is very decentralized with minimal power and doesn't regulate or get involved with much around the planet. They probably couldn't even if they wanted to, and they have tried - to little effect. There are 277 loosely united city-states across the desert world of Tsukh. The Tsukhur are socialists with a democratic form of government, who generally don't really care that much about their government as long as their needs are met. This is essentially the main purpose of the government at this point: provide bread and circuses so they can get away with getting more power and influence for themselves. They provide free healthcare, food, and a standard universal income while the people turn a blind eye to their lawmaking for private interests, cronyism, embezzlement, and all the other general corruption in the government. Tsukhur rarely follow laws they don't like anyway and most prefer the government just giving them money, free food, free healthcare, and free housing so they don't have to worry about that and can just do what they want and enjoy life without basic worries. However, there are plenty of Tsukhur who do work and earn a wage in addition to their standard universal income, though mostly just in “interesting” jobs like in the entertainment and media industry and engineering and technological fields. The Tsukhur vote for those in office every fifty years or so.

  On the Tsukhur homeworld the factories around the cities belch carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, cyanide, potassium cyanide, nitric oxide, methane, ethane, propane, dihydrogen monoxide, hydrogen peroxide, ammonia, and many other chemical substances into the air for the denizens of the area to ingest. Though these chemicals are also in fairly high abundance up in the atmosphere, the factories just put it at a greater density at ground level for convenience. There are virtually no restaurants or other kinds of public places to eat here because the government puts all of the tsukhur dietary requirements into the air, and breathing in this air is much easier than ingesting liquid or solid matter and converting it into gas for their cells. The gas is released from vents in the ground along the streets and sidewalks and in "nutrition vents" on the ground floors of most public buildings.

  All citizens receive money from the government in the form of a basic universal income, which is a percentage of the income the government gets from annual GDP and taxes based on how much one earns: corporations pay tons, the average tsukhur pays almost none because they don't make much money since most just get money from the government and give back via spending it and paying sales taxes and such. They probably wouldn't pay taxes anyway if it wasn't for the fact that tax collection occurs automatically by deducting the money from the people's bank accounts or subtracting the funds from the person’s next income payment. Also, if a Tsukhur commits a crime, most punishments are just fines, so the government takes a portion of their wealth from their bank account and deducts the rest from their monthly income, as well as a requirement to make up for the crime (like if they steal, they have to give it back, etc).

#### Life Beyond the City-States

While law and order are more or less maintained in the cities that dot the land, it is the caravans of nomads that keep the government from collapsing. These people are usually those who have always lived in caravans, or people who “want to live free with no laws”, want to get away from city life, or otherwise want to live the nomad lifestyle. They travel through the deserts, across the mountains, and across the barren wastes to deliver supplies and goods between cities. Most cities are are massive metropolises built around oaseses of chemical vents, gas emitting fissures, geysers, or other geological vents and so getting other resources requires those resources to be transported across the land, as well as the transport of packages from city to city. In the distant past these caravans traveled on animal back or on foot, but in modern times they travel by aircraft from place to place and automated machines do most of the work. The people who live on these caravans eat, sleep, and work in the air and make sure their crafts are kept functional while they travel between “contracts”. Caravans make contracts with certain cities for the rights to transport goods to these places and therefore for guaranteed business to keep them afloat. Territorial disputes are not uncommon and can become lethal as different groups fight over contracts to major cities and lucrative locations. It is very difficult to implement the laws in these areas and whenever the government has tried to put in police drones and such in place to enforce law and order over the common routes, they have always been met with outcries from the people, both in caravans and cities, against the government “trying to force control over the people”; Tsukhur are highly independent people and have romanticized the nomad lifestyle. The nomad lifestyle is less “living free in the open air” and more “Mad Max: Fury Road” but in the sky and with better weaponry. Caravan families scrape together whatever scrap equipment they can find in the desert/salvage from defeated rivals/ or acquire at their contract sights and use those to fight with each other. City officials always search the caravans before they enter or leave the cities and if they are caught with illegal materials they'll have their contract revoked, so they've gotten very good at hiding supplies out in the desert and also building illegal weapons and such themselves from pieces they've bought, stolen, or salvaged. Most of a nomad’s life is focused on repairing and maintaining their ship or finding a use for whatever they've “acquired” out in the lawless wastes.

  All caravans are set up in the following way: the “boss” who is the leader of the caravan and the official contract owner. Then the “second mate” who is the next person in charge, there can actually be several second mates, though they are usually people of equal rank but put in charge of different aspects of caravan life. The “runners” are the ones who go out and deliver the goods as well as transport messages, act as liaisons, diplomats, and whatever else for the group. Then there are the “pilots” these are the people who monitor the craft while it's on autopilot and fly the crafts when they need to go off course; typically during fights with animals or other caravans. Below the pilots are the general crew: engineers, teachers, etc, essentially almost everyone else on the ship. Sometimes caravans also have “thrulls”; these are hastily made, mass produced, “undercooked” Tsukhur who are almost treated as expendable soldiers by the bosses. They are mentally slow/damaged and cannot completely control their bodies, so are always in a semi-gaseous state with their \*mokher\* always flowing around them. Thrulls are made when caravans are worried about conflict with other nomads and want to quickly make a high number of expendable soldiers to help them when a fight breaks out. They age into adults faster than normal Tsukhur and are generally “cooked” just enough to be able to follow orders and shoot straight, but not much else. They are generally illegal to make; if a caravan is caught with thrulls while at a city, they will be arrested, have their contracts taken away, and the thrulls will be sent to the local hospital and then are rehabilitated into society or kept in (poorly staffed) assisted living homes if they can't live on their own.

  Also, since the advent of space flight on Tsukh, the space around the planet and its asteroid belt has created a new but somewhat similar situation around the planet. Caravans of small personal spacecraft have made way for large ships owned by major mining corporations, but the nomads still exist. While the corporations fight their battles in courtrooms and behind closed doors, or simply work together, the small caravans have resorted to piracy and owning small private companies. Those who live in these small, personal craft (which usually hold ten people per ship) hide in the asteroid belt and rob transport ships or kidnap people and hold them for ransom. Many of these “raiders” as they are called, are descended from both terrestrial nomads looking for more lucrative work, and disgruntled people who worked in space for the mining companies and now want to fight against them. While there are over a dozen major mining companies, there are typically mostly many small companies out there and being robbed can be devastating to them. Many small companies pay the more powerful “bosses” to protect their ships, or hire their own bands of raiders, some even are raider bands themselves. On top of this is the fact that piracy is highly illegal and a raider ship can legally be destroyed on sight, regardless of if it was engaged in a theft or not at the time. This causes all sort of issues out in the belt region, but the lawmaking council will probably never get around to revising and fixing the problem. The major mining companies act as sort of governors out beyond the planet, though their power is derived from brutal destruction of raiders and rivals in their territory. The Tsukh belt resembles the Tsukh of centuries past more than the modern planet does now.

### Technology

Their technological level is high enough that they can set up bases and mine the asteroids around their planet, as well as travel to the other planets in their system with ease. Transportation on the planet is mainly in the form of hovercraft though there are plenty of domestic animals that people like to ride for fun. Their space ships are solar powered and fairly large, as they are mostly for transporting goods to and from the asteroid belt, and fairly tough with strong shielding so they don't have to worry about small errant asteroids hitting their ships. Their ships are smooth, black, spherical crafts covered in a “skin” of small solar panel cells that are easily replaced by pre-programmed self-replicating nanobots stored under the surface of this skin if the solar cells are damaged by errant asteroids. There are always several tech experts and programmers onboard ships to make sure the nanobots are functioning correctly and aren't hacked. The nanobots main function is to repair damage across the ship, especially from micro meteors and such; they can also repair themselves by cannibalizing dead and deactivated nanobots and gathering pieces of metal and debris that come in contact with the ship. Tsukhur ships also have force fields to protect themselves against pirate attacks and larger asteroids. It feeds off the power supply of the ship itself and is connected to an internal capacitor within the ship to help with energy overloads. Physical objects get deflected, while energy gets absorbed and either nullified or used to fuel the ship. Energy attacks can also overpower the field and overload and short out the field until repairs can be made. A strong enough energy blast may even be able to shut down the whole ship and leave it dead in space until it can be fixed. Many space pirates try to overload these fields and hack into the nanobots programming and wreck havoc on supply ships. There is always a constant battle between hackers and counter hackers on the ships to destroy each other. There are also no artificial gravitational fields in Tsukhur spacecraft because the Tsukhur don't particularly mind the lack of gravity.

  Most menial and hard labor jobs are done by machines (because no one wants to do boring work) and the entertainment industry is the highest grossing and most technologically advanced industry on Tsukh. Also, long ago, laws were made to protect the rights and freedoms of sentient beings, which included AI, since these laws were made back in the age of the first advanced AI technology being created. According to these laws, sentient machines are legally people and all the laws that apply to the Tsukhur apply to them as well. Because of this, sentient technology, such as sentient AI, are not built on Tsukh, though they are advanced enough to invent them; mostly because it would be a legal hassle and almost-sentient intelligent machinery work well enough and the question of free will, autonomy, and “basic rights” don't have to be raised for non-sentient machines. Also, since contact with Arast over a century ago the Tsukhur have gained the technological advances that Arast has but those are not integrated into their society as fully as they are in Arast.

### Death and Dying

Tsukhur do not get sick and if they get injured they can heal themselves fairly quickly by reforming their bodies. As long as they are kept fed and more or less stay together, they can live indefinitely. Most Tsukhur live for thousands of years and the birth rate is fairly low. Modern Tsukhur have neither a sex drive nor a drive to reproduce, they consider procreation to be a special process, but the only motivations they have for doing it are curiosity, boredom, and/or vanity. When a Tsukhur has grown tired of life and doesn't want to live anymore they throw elaborate “suicide parties” and invite everyone they know to celebrate [totally inspired by the penultimate parties of the aetherborn in Magic: the gathering]. These are celebrations of the person’s life, a handing out of their worldly possessions, a chance to have a final word with everyone they want to speak to before they die, their own funeral, and the last party they will ever throw. Some Tsukhur spend decades saving up for their suicide parties; the more memorable the party the better- it's not a Tsukhuran party if people don't leave with concussions and stories to tell later. Tsukhur say people die twice: first when they \*die\* (in this case by dissipating their bodies and chucking their heads off tall buildings at the end of the party so that their heads splatter and dissipate dramatically), and when they are completely forgotten. The suicide party is a way for them to try to make sure people don't forget them for as long as possible. Tsukhur can be quite vain and hate the thought of being forgotten. Ironically, Tsukhur generally fear death and fear the idea of not dying on their own terms, especially if the death is somehow slow and painful and not instant like in at a suicide party. Suicide parties are a joyous occasion and are essentially a way for the Tsukhur to take away death’s power over them by showing everyone that they are not afraid of death, they have the power to say when and how they die, and to laugh at the fear of death, which is almost every Tsukhur’s greatest fear. When Tsukhur die, their bodies dissolve into gas and they are blown away in the breeze so there are no burials for Tsukhur and they quite literally become part of the world. Also, before a suicide party, as part of the preparation process, the suicidal Tsukhur has to notify the local police so their death isn't investigated and the police know it's not a murder or anything like that. An incredible amount of planning goes into a Tsukhur’s Penultimate Party and the parties are always exciting and memorable. Several centuries ago, one group of celebrants once managed to gain control of the Sarykria their city was built on and got it to climb up a mountain; they almost pushed their entire city off the side of a mountain if the authorities hadn't caught them. The only reason their names are lost is because the authorities systematically scrubbed their names from all records so no one would try to imitate them at their own parties and be immortalized in notoriety.