Exomen

An Exomen

## Biology

The modern Exomen, is a medium sized quadruped creature with a thin neck and an external brain like organ contained by a semi-transparent keratin like dome. Each foot has two clawed fingers with an additional opposable digit on the hind feet. General design varies greatly, with number of appendages, presence of a tail, dome placement, and eye color remaining consistent throughout all members of the specie. All members additionally possess the unique ability to manipulate matter itself, which has been used to create life and craft planets.

The bodies of these creatures are technically separate from the organ controlling them, and will lose all power if detached or removed from the fluid contained in their domes. If returned within a particular amount of time, the dome will repair itself in time and the creature may continue life like normal. If not, however, their bodies will begin to break down at an extremely fast rate once it fully loses all of the stored energy it had. Their bodies do not decay like what would be seen on Earth, they instead begin to revert back to their original compositions which ends up as a very bright and delicate dusty compound which glows due to its remaining power. This substance will quickly be swept up into the galaxy from whence it came as even the lightest of breezes will scatter it like ashes.

Their bodies contain many inflatable bladder like sacks that serve different purposes, the most notable being that of one contained in their otherwise skinny necks, which when inflated, can increase to nearly 4 times its size in a display comparable to a frog, this is the only bladder that typically impacts an Exomen's visual appearance. They inflate their necks mostly unintentionally when experiencing strong emotions, especially when angry. The second most notable air bladder is a rather large one located in their abdominal area which is inflated with a gas lighter than Earth's air, though it is substantially more so in their home planet's atmosphere. When inflated, they can achieve fairly basic controlled flight, though once in the air, most of them are quite slow, the exception being Exomen originating from Xylafountiia, a floating continent on their homeworld, whom are capable of powered flight. The remaining bladders are located in each of the Exomen's feet which cannot be deflated, they cause a hollow drumming like sound when they step heavy enough.

### Reproduction

Exomen reproduce asexually, however, one Exomen does not posess enough power to create offspring capable of the signature matter manipulation trait. It is still quite rare for even two Exomen to create offspring of their own, as it is part of their religion for entire generations to give up their life en masse to create the next generation all at once, leaving only their leader, a few of her original offspring, and some select "Elder" Exomen to be the ones to raise the next generation.

A young Exomen is incubated in an egg with a fairly long gestation period. Upon hatching, an Exomen is pure white with protruding fangs and dependent on its parents for a relatively short amount of time in relation to their lifespan. During those years they begin to develop pigment dependent on the colors of its parents, however, Exomen possess the ability to greatly manipulate their forms, and often choose a new coloration, tail shape, and neck crest shape. Most aspects will be manipulated based on an energy link between what they create. There are many cultures where an Exomen will choose to not manipulate their form at all, and embrace and innate energy link with the spirit of their long gone parents.

## Social Structure

Exomen comminicate in a very tonal way, and their language can easily be described as meoldic. Accents in Exomen are similar to different generas of music, and more funnily, swears seem to take the form of loud and abbruptly off key sounds.

Exomen are a sheepish and shy little creatures, priding themselves as creators, and Exomen would typically never engage in any sort of serious conflict, often skittering away from each others own off-key noises. They have absolutely no self defense skills and extremely frail little bodies which are comprised mostly of air. Since Exomen have crafted their entire world around them, selectively creating the fauna and flora that surrounds them, they never had a reason to evolve around their environment.

For eons upon eons, generation after generations of Exomen have been crafting life on planets scattered throughout the galaxy. It is common for an Exomen to create prototypes of theirs creations as they hone their creation skills, in an extremely long process of trial and error, life spans are put on creatures so that an Exomen can repurpose their matter in the most humane way possible. Occasionally, species will breed on the home planet and become invasive for short periods of time.

Once a creation is crafted upon the planet, a strong soul link is connected to that creature and its Exomen creator, which will often times cause the Exomen's body to evolve along side its creation. Exomen do not visit the planets that they decorate, for a large sum of reasons, mostly because their frail bodies would likely not fair well in different atmospheres, but also due to the fact that they lack proper transportation, as Exomen craft their planet around their needs, they never had an industrial boom or whatever.

### Religion

Exomen are the product of the Starmaker, and ancient reptilian creature said to have been the creator of each and every star in the galaxy, after which she lamented her loneliness among her beautiful starfield. It was with her burning desire to share her creation that she gave up the very last of her power to create the first two Exomen, Life and her brother Death. They both celebrated what the Starmaker had given and what she had lost, and with this, began the first decoration of the planets that begun to orbit the stars. When the two grew to an ancient age, they chose to each give up half of their power to create Birth, A mother for the new Exomen, someone who posessed such great power that she could single handedly continue the species.

After eons, Birth's energy had begun to wear thin, as such, a new order of reproduction was put in place by the Exomen, where the current generation would squander themselves entirely, putting their mass amounts of energy together to create an entire new generation of Exomen all in one fell swoop. Initially, Birth detested the idea, and struggled with the concept of giving up what was thought to be her only purpose in life, though she was eventually able to be convinced, as she shifted her objective to being a teacher instead.

Exomen as a species have been creating for as long as there have been things to make, but once that generation is gone, evolution is up to chance. The Adumbral Empire was one such creation that grew to unforseen sizes. What was originally a small colony of creatures that fed through photosynthesis had evolved into a ravenous empire of solar starved monsters that feed exclusively on stars, and as such, seek out to destroy any solar systen that stands in their way, even if they wound up being the descendents of their own creators.

The empire was vicious in their rampage of Xeptuthina'koff, the homeland of the Exomen, taking pure advantage of the Exomen's cowardly nature, and after the fall of their leader Birth, the poor creatures were fish in a barrel to the coordinated attacks of the swarm. When things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, the Exomen were enslaved, and forced into doing the bidding, being given ghastly names with the goal of transferring the intent of those words to convert the creatures into being violent. This did not work.