Zoharans

**Zoharans** are an alien species that appear to be human, and can interbreed with humans without genetic counseling, unlike many other species. They are known for their more open relationships, and need to take pheromone inhibitors to serve on Starfleet vessels so their presence doesn't disrupt the normal operations of ships. There are about 4.7 billion Zoharans.

## History

The Zoharans evolved around 500,000 years ago on their planet based on archaeological

## Physical Description

Zoharan men are between 5'8" and 6'8" overall, weighing 180 lb to over 240 lb, depending on their exercise regimen. Zoharan women are between 5'6" and 6'8", weighing between 145 lb and over 200 lb, depending on their exercise and diet. Their faces are symmetrical, their eyes, nose, and mouth obeying the golden ratio of proportions; no Zoharan has one eye open wider than the other. Men and women are both more attractive than the average human, and women are found to be curvier and more endowed than the average human female.

In comparison to humans, male and female Zoharans have a much higher pheromone count that is consciously controllable that is part of their reproductive process, better nasal sensitivity to pheromones of others, along with a subvocal oscillation that is very effective on non-Zoharans, in concert with their pheromones, in making other species extremely susceptible to suggestion (see Eden McCain from Heroes). Coupled with their longer and more intense mating practices, this led some to dub them 'space incubi' and 'space succubi', a label the Zoharans find offensive. Their subvocal oscillations are to them a way to communicate attraction to one another, triggering a response in their life partners or potential life partners. Humans can't consciously hear these frequencies, and can consider Zoharans manipulative due to that misunderstanding. Humans can also find Zoharans good liars, but to a native Zoharan, certain auditory frequencies and skin blushing let them know when they are fibbing more easily than humans, whom Zoharans tend to find dishonest or untrustworthy without those signals if they don't remember that humans are different from Zoharans.

Women are induced ovulators which can have multiple children at once, but have one child about 2/5 of the time with a gestation period of 10 months, with men being born slightly less often than women. This, along with the more dangerous occupations of men resulting in an excess of women, leading to the remaining men taking more than one partner to ensure the survival of their genes. Women often dance enticingly to attract a man (Vina in the Cage, Shakira, etc.).

Men and women are very insightful and have eidetic memory, both having strong spatial and visual abilities, both being visually attracted to the same degree, leading to their tendency towards tighter or more revealing clothing for men and women to show off their physiques. Zoharan metabolism is naturally higher than human, and they tend to eat meat rawer than humans do, with 'medium' being Zoharan 'well done.'

Zoharans' eyes turn from brown to hazel around 9-11, and to blue, green, gray, red, yellow, or purple, depending on where on the planet their ancestors came from when they reach maturity and are considered an adult. They have excellent night vision, able to see a bit into the UV and IR part of the spectrum. They have 5 color cones in their eyes, seeing a much wider color gamut than humans, and even polarized light, their eyes reflecting light a bit like cats in pictures with older cameras.

Alcohol takes more and longer to affect Zoharans, but when it does, it inhibits their ability to control their pheromones and increases their reaction and sensitivity to others' pheromones. Chocolate has little effect on Zoharans but cinnamon and other Terran spices are quite prized.

## Culture

The Zoharan species evolved into a culture that encouraged polygyny (one male, multi-female) relationships due to a large number of large predator species during the evolution of the race as a way of ensuring the survival of the race, as well as provide females protection and access to greater resources with other women being willing to help child-rearing while male Zoharans hunted and protected the clans.

Slavery was outlawed about 700 years ago, about the same time various nations across the planet abandoned efforts to introduce monogamy and legitimized marriage between 3-5 women to one man to solidify inheritances and family names. Family names are dual in nature with the father and mother, along with the tribe name. For example, Ja'an Rothbardsson Karasson Schilding is roughly translated as John, son of Robert, son of Kara, Shielding tribe. His sister would be Jana Rothbardssdoghter Karasdoghter Schilding, reflecting her status as a daughter. Some older Earth names became quite popular in the 2180s when the early Federation Starfleet encountered the species for the first time and they began sharing histories, one of the engineering officers shared his 'Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic names' book, which had a more profound effect than intended, creating a trend of new names that exist beside older, more established names.

Buildings tend to resemble timber-frame houses found in the English Tudor period and in traditional Germanic cities, with cities featuring a market area for goods to be sold on Market Day, and some older houses resemble traditional Celtic thatched houses. Zoharans often talk about retiring to a house in/near the forest of such design.

Family structure tends to be clan-based, with lineage highly important and traceable through the male line, and the clan head being the eldest or alpha male of the clan, who passes clan leadership to his chosen successor. Sons are highly prized since they happen less often, and women compete intensely for men. Women are very important to the clan, as they can choose to let other women into the clan or exclude them, and help decide the day-to-day life of the clan moreso than the men of the clan, who are often focused on resource collection, be it money, food, or whatnot.

Men in a clan are prized on their ability to fight or gather resources for their clan, while women are prized for their ability to have and raise children as well as keep their husband alive to have children, and bring in new women for their husbands.

Inheritance - men and women can inherit and pass on property to their heirs. If a husband dies, his property goes to his wives first, then his children. That family unit is then run by the first-wife until a new husband is found for the women, who must be approved by all the wives before he can marry them.

Despite appearances, women hold a lot of power and control in this society. They run much of clan life and much of family life is decided by the women, though with a lot of deference to the men. Women are by necessity found in all positions in society - teachers, managers, politicians, etc. Men theoretically have a dominant position in society and often hold leadership positions but what Earth people would consider 'male chauvanism' (i.e. how men in Mad Men treated and talked about women) is more often found in female Zoharans, though what Earth experienced in the restriction on advancement of either gender does not occur on Zohara. Women do tend to objectify men and other women from the perspective of humans, but for Zoharans, they enjoy their appearance being appreciated. Zoharans tend not to form friendships with humans who don't throw in compliments about their appearance, leading to the belief that they are vain or superficial; it's merely a cultural difference.

Food and drink are what humans would call 'organic,' as the Zoharan taste palette is sensitive to chemicals and artificial flavor enhancers, but they do tend to enjoy foods with some spice to them, be it pepper or fenugreek, or other spices. Overall, Zoharan cuisine is as varied as that on Earth, mostly prepared fresh as their taste receptors are more sensitive than those of humans, and the food is often considered more flavorful than that of Earth. Zoharans who have eaten Earth food tend to find it bland and uninteresting; conversely 'bland' Zoharan food to humans is a slightly above average spiced food. Food smells are much richer for Zoharans, as their noses evolved to be more sensitive, with complex aromas that humans have difficulty describing in their limited languages, while Zoharans conversely find much human food bland-smelling in comparison to their own native cuisines. Common cuisines across the planet resemble, across a spectrum, traditional Indian food, Middle Eastern food, Turkish food, Mediterranean food, Celtic food, and Germanic food, with many blendings in between. Curries with Wurst or Lamb stews with saffron and turmeric are common across many cultures. What humans tended to consume in the late 20th century - common hamburger, common hot dog, common spaghetti, common cheese or pepperoni pizza, common chicken fingers, common french fries - mass produced cheap food, does not exist on Zohara.

Medicine is largely herbal, with petroleum-based medicine having nearly killed 400 million Zoharans about 800 years ago due to profit-seeking by multi-continent corporations.

Vehicles are electric, with a range of 500 miles or so, charging stations being ubiquitous.

Politics are less party based and more tribe-based. Rural tribes tend to work together, while urban tribes tend to work together, though this is not a hard and fast rule. Various nations on Zohara are divided into provinces, then shires, ridings, and hundreds, where each hundred is either a land-hundred or town-hundred, or mixed-hundred. Cities tend not to be more than 10 million or so in size, before Zoharans break off to found a new city or settlement. Zoharans tend to get antsy and a bit uneasy if they feel opportunities get closed off, so once they find a life partner, they tend to want to start their own settlements, returning to the city only to find new partners.

Marriage in Zoharan society is typically voluntary with almost no pre-arranged marriage, with men finding their first mate when they are between 18 and 22. Competition for men is high, as their numbers are lower, and they are highly prized when a woman finds a man she can claim as her own. A first mate becomes the alpha female, and after the couple formalize their union, the woman will then go out to find other women for her man, so that they can help raise children and defend the family. If the first mate dies for any reason, the second mate becomes the new alpha female in the family unit.

The Zoharans are polytheistic with several gods based on natural elements and themes: Zohar and Zohara, the chief god and his sister, who created the Zoharans; they are the god of wisdom and the sky, and the goddess of beauty and family. Graagh is the god of wrath and vengeance, whose father Goragh was blamed for the last destruction of Zoharan civilization (a historic recorded asteroid impact). There are gods of agriculture, medicine (the children of the god of agriculture), lightning (Vrithron, god of lightning, child of Zohar), and more. Zohar has five wives and Zohara even brought two Zoharan women and made them goddesses for him in their mythology.

Due to the eye structure of Zoharans, their clothing fashion cannot truly be appreciated by humans, whose eyes are, to Zoharans, dulled. Their clothes have unique patterns into the IR, UV, and polarized light spectra that enhance their beauty. When encountering humans, Zoharans found their clothes 'garish' to 'repulsive' given the lack of attention to the IR, UV, and polarized light their clothes gave off. This has also led to a tendency for Zoharans to try to dress humans in Zoharan fabrics and textiles, more for their own ocular comfort, but also for true friendship. Zoharan computer screens also tend to display information in areas of the visual spectra humans cannot see or appreciate.

Pets are an important part of family life, with many Zoharans having pets for every child. The planet has feline and canid animals that uniquely appear to have some kind of distant relation to Earth canids and felines, leading to speculation of influence by the so-called 'Preservers.' Zoharan felines come in sizes from house-cat size to 100 kg and 100 cm tall, and are very trainable and affectionate to 'their' Zoharan, whom they tend to follow around the house. They learn plenty of commands much like Earth dogs, and Zoharans tend to think of earth cats as 'dumb' in comparison. Zoharan canids are much like Earth dogs. Both species are often used in hunting and guarding livestock. Zoharan felines can learn to open doors, fetch, and other tricks.

## Economy

The economy is largely based on hunting and small-scale agriculture, and a large service industry and resort industry, with math and sciences leading to computers, technology, and space-flight and warp drive having developed within the last 600 years. Interstellar mining is a long-established industry.

The world currency is metal-based, with no cryptographic currencies having developed.

Hydrocarbon fuels went out about 620 years ago when solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric finally able to provide enough power, along with low-energy nuclear fusion meaning that clan-groups are very independent.

Education is entirely private and takes place within several clans at a school. Medicine is largely herbal and is not the most profitable business. Most medical care involves natural and plant-based remedies, with hospitals relegated to emergencies like broken bones or major surgeries.

The service industry is a huge industry, with hotels, restaurants, resorts, amusement parks, and other diversions common.

## Planet

Zohara IV had 8 continents with only a southern polar ice cap. There are a number of extreme mountains and volcanos but very few deserts.

The planet is unique in having historically had a lot of large predator species, with several prior primitive Zoharan-anthropoid species occupying the planet at the same time due to occasional ice ages creating land bridges between the various continents at points in the past. Within the last 500,000 years, anatomically modern Zoharans emerged, though the predatory pressures on them resulted in the unique polygyny found in their culture.

As the planet was settled and larger predators were hunted, the population pressure was lessened, and the world population increased. Hunting remained an honorable and respectable profession even to this day, provided the animal was caught in accordance with tradition, dispatched humanely, and it was killed for food, not for sport.

Vulcanism is often found, and there have been multiple years with no summer in recorded memory due to volcanic eruptions.

The year is 366 days of 24 hours a piece, with a leap day every 5th year to keep the calendar and seasons in line. There is one moon that has an orbital inclination half that of Earth's moon, making eclipses more common. The month is 30.5 days, and the moon is slightly larger and slightly farther away than that of Earth.

The solar system has 12 planets and two asteroid belts, and has suffered several recorded asteroid collisions in its history, that have figured in the myths of the Zoharan people.

There are space stations at all 5 Lagrange Points, forming an important part of the defense and research efforts of Zoharans.