Cetians

Cetians are a psychic humanoid species from the planet A'Mairuno-mot, which orbits Tau Ceti in the Cetian Sector. They possess extensive empathic and psychic abilities. They are allies of the Earth Republic. Their space-based organization is the Astral Directorate, and their two classes of ship are the common Explorer class, and the less common Exigent class.

Humans and Cetians have a long history and have interbred for several generations. Cetians are very similar in appearance to humans and can be considered members of the same species. Because their culture is confined to islands on the equator of a hot world, the Cetians tend to have darker hair, skin, and eye color, though a great deal of variation does exist on Tau Ceti. The pressure, gravity, and humidity of Tau Ceti has resulted in some physiological differences; Cetians have stronger bones than humans and their bodies regulate temperature more efficiently through metabolic changes instead of simple sweating. Cetians tend to wear loose, informal clothing styles.

Cetians are a religious people, with an organized planetary religion, though it is difficult for humans to understand and describe this religion, it being so different from those on Earth. Cetian religion has knowledge and discipline as its focus. In training their psychic abilities, Cetians follow what is called the Way of Klaz.

## Government

The Council of Elders serves as the head of civilian government on Tau Ceti. Governmental structures are informal, which means that one Elder is more or less equal to another. There are roughly a thousand Elders at any given time. Whenever a dozen or more Elders gather, that is said to be the Council of Elders. Communication between Elders is partly telepathic, which makes attendance at their meetings somewhat disconcerting for outsiders.

Cetian society is gentle, due to their empathic nature and therefore general unwillingness to hurt one another, and it is nearly crime-free, which allows the Council of Elders to focus on creating efficiencies that improve the quality of life for everyone on Tau Ceti. The decentralization of Cetian government, and the necessity to reach psychic consensus, makes it difficult for Cetians to commit to military action that is not immediately and obviously required. The Astral Directorate is responsible for protecting Tau Ceti, and that, along with the more recent protection granted by the Earth Republic, has been enough for hundreds of years.

A representative of the Council of Elders is called an Elder, and an Elder may be any gender or sex. They are generally above the age of sixty, in what Cetians term the "latter" stage of life. Cetians, like humans in the twenty-second century, can live as long as 120 years, mostly in good health, so sixty signifies they have passed the halfway point. An Elder has no real authority, but instead makes recommendations for consideration to the Council and to the consensus at large. Most Cetians would prefer to go about their daily lives and not worry about small governmental matters, so it is often a comfort to allow these efficiencies and boring governmental decisions to be made by the Elders.

## Culture

Cetians, amongst themselves, refer to their people as ah'Pel'ah'Oh, which means roughly "peaceful talking peaceful people," but is better translated as "Talkers," which is something of an in-joke among Cetians. They often adopt the appelations given to them by other species, and are happy to call themselves Cetians because it's what humans call them.
The Cetians can feel the suffering and anguish of others, which motivates them to help other species when they encounter them, and discourages them heavily from fighting or engaging in wars. Cetians do not possess a hierarchical society, though they honor wisdom, accrued experience, skills and knowledge. They act based on psychic consensus, a consensus that is limited by space and time. Therefore, a ship that is out of consensus range for a long time fulfills the Cetians' desire for knowledge by learning more about other cultures and worlds, but it undermines their desire for consensus; when a ship returns home from a long engagement, they provide a sudden dump of new information, which the collective at home must integrate back into the whole and come to terms with. If a ship has been away too long, they might have strayed very far from the moderate line of consensus back home, which makes these dumps of information--including decisions that are difficult to swallow or integrate--increasingly hard to handle. Essentially, the longer a Cetian or group of Cetians has been away from Tau Ceti, the more they differentiate.

Cetians largely view sentient lifeforms as interesting, sympathetic, and in charge of their own destinies. They do not seek to interfere without serious consideration and consensus, and often do so only when a race is in dire straits. However, it is possible for the Cetians to revise this assessment and see a lifeform as a "hazard," which is not a wise direction in which to push the Cetians if the race in question is your own. Hazards are no longer worthy of much empathy or consideration--like natural disasters, they require averting, thwarting, and eliminating as far as possible to protect life in their vicinity.

### Coadunation

The Coadunation is an annual spiritual event on Tau Ceti, and draws large numbers of Cetian pilgrims. It is usually the site of powerful psionic manifestations and an intensification of the empathic bonds that cement Cetian culture.

## Philosophy

It is fair to call the Cetians more philosophical than religious, and this philosophy has a great deal to do with how Cetians are to negotiate their psychic powers, both in terms of discipline and ethics. The Discipline of Klaz is mental training used to still the mind and protect it from external influence, by meditating and purging in quiet for a number of minutes; for more difficult tasks, this discipline may take longer or could be beyond the abilities or training of the Cetian in question. The Acolytes and Guardians of Klaz are mysterious groups largely confined to Tau Ceti; they are more powerful psychics, with a great deal more of this philosophical training. It is important for a Cetian to be well-versed in such discipline, as it is an ethical attitude as well; a Cetian understands that it is unethical to read the mind of another flagrantly and without their permission, unless the situation is dangerous. Instead, a Cetian "reaches out," gently feeling for and prodding a mind, requesting its permission before making further contact, and learning as they go. If a Cetian's psychic abilities grow, or they undergo a traumatic event, or need further training in the Discipline of Klaz, there are monasteries on Tau Ceti (and even one in orbit, where non-Cetians can learn and seek sanctuary) where a Cetian may seek peace, stillness, counsel, and further training.

## Language

Though Cetians refer to themselves as "Talkers," their word for "talk" refers to psychic communication, not spoken language. "Talking" and "speaking" are very different words for them, and they are not synonyms by any stretch of the imagination. Cetians mostly communicate with each other through psychic connection and consensus-building, which is generally a stream of direct concepts, sensory input, memories, and occasional words of the kind that might be spoken out loud. Cetians also have a spoken and written language, largely used for recording, discussing contentious or very detailed and precise concepts, such as science, and for the production of art, such as poetry, fiction, and songs. Consequently, their spoken and written languages are split in two, with one intended for precision and recording (used in scientific writing and in logs on ships) and the other used in forms of expression. It is this latter language that can be seen in the naming of things, such as the Cetian people and their homeworld, and the names of Cetian people. This language is soft, evocative, and appealing to the ear.

While it is possible for a non-Cetian to learn Cetian spoken language, Cetians generally prefer speaking to non-psychics especially in that species' own language rather than their own. This is due to the fact that Cetians can essentially "hear" the difficulty and the inner translation going on in the head of their interlocutor, which creates a great deal of pain and psychic noise; moreover, even when a speaker is fluent, they generally cannot impart the correct psychic "shading" to Cetian words, meaning that even when they are fluent, they are still not really fluent unless they are Cetian, normed in the psychic expression of the language, and from Tau Ceti. Another psychic, such as a half-Cetian or Ginali, would therefore also struggle with full fluency. Speech with these groups is always less satisfying due to this incomplete fluency, but it is generally more comfortable than with non-psychics. Moreover, "talking"--psychic communication--is possible with other psychics, making it possible to clear up misunderstandings quickly and feel one another's intentions easily.

Cetian psychic ability is important to communication, and it manifests in infancy, just like speaking in non-psychic species. Their range and abilities both require training; a milestone of early childhood is being able to communicate psychically beyond line of sight. In early life, Cetian babies manifest psychically as a kind of static with basic, sometimes confusing needs; their parents or caretakers are expected to dampen their effect and shield the rest of society from them, and beyond that, basic Cetian mental discipline is capable of shutting out the signals from other people's children. At some points in childhood and adolescence, a child plateau-jumps from one level of ability to another very quickly, causing a great deal of noise or even mischief, and a caretaker or teacher will have to deal with them.

Despite the preference to speak to non-psychics in their own languages, Cetians can have some difficulty with the languages of non-psychic species; given that their spoken and written languages are meant to do all of the things that Cetians rely on both psychic communication and spoken and written languages to do, these non-psychic languages are complex and difficult, with extensive lexicons. A Cetian of the Astral Directorate and other outward-directed organizations must undergo grueling mental training to master this communication style, and while these Cetians can communicate with non-psychics with basic fluency, they tend to rely on some amount of passive mental riffling (pulling language out of the brains of their interlocutors) to communicate deep or difficult concepts.

## Relationship with Humanity

The Cetians refer to humanity as the "Vehelo" people, and their planet, Earth, is called A'Vehelo-mot. "Vehelo" is a difficult concept to translate from Cetian, meaning essentially "that which is important and was nearly lost." Cetians possess what can only be called a "special" relationship with mankind, as they were the first alien race to make contact with humanity, they are humanoid, and they stepped in to assist the human race when it was at risk of destroying itself from radioactive and biological agents. Essentially, Cetians and humans have always been close neighbors, and Cetians have known that humanity was there for a long time, but they did not reach out until it was clear humanity was about to destroy itself, and Tau Ceti found it could not live with that eventuality coming to pass. In what might be termed an emotional decision, Cetians made contact with the International Space Program first, before news of the aliens spread around the planet and showed humanity that they were not alone. The Cetians helped mankind repair Earth's biosphere, use cleaner power, and showed them how to use hyperspace to travel between stars. They have been dismayed by how much of this technology has, in human hands, been used to create weapons, and they are unwilling to give humanity more technology for this reason.

In return, however, contact with humans has given Tau Ceti the ability to expand. Wherever a bellicose ERSN ship travels, a Cetian Explorer is sure to follow, to build Acculturation Centers and learn about alien worlds and cultures. ERSN ships protect fragile Explorers and receive assistance traveling through hyperspace and other helpful scientific services; wherever the Earth Republic have expanded and explored, the Cetians are sure to have a presence. The two governments share scientific information and discoveries, and, as neighbors, have a mutual interest in terms of defense. Republic Space serves as a natural buffer between the Cetian Sector and many other belligerent species, and, being far more aggressive, the ERSN serves as a canary in the coalmine for Tau Ceti when danger is approaching.

More importantly, however, the two species are spiritually and physically family. They are capable of having children, and many half-Cetian, half-humans exist, as do the romances that produced them. The Cetians are not "allied" with any other race. Humans are gregarious, belligerent younger siblings who are half exasperating, and half wonderful. At times the two races do not entirely understand one another, and Cetians can appear incredibly patronizing to humanity, often feeling as though they are saving mankind from itself. Unfortunately, however, this is true to history, and not enough time has gone by for the Cetians to entirely believe that mankind will not destroy itself. The genetic fact that humans and Cetians, and a great many other humanoid races, are compatible and so very similar remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of the galaxy.

At the end of the day, what holds the Cetians to humanity is love. Though there are many arguments to be made about the mutual advantages of being allies, and many arguments to be made about the philosophical incompatibility of a military alliance between the two races, humans and Cetians are family now, and invested in each other's survival.

## Half-Cetians

Due to eighty years of intermarriage and having children, there are quite a number of half- and quarter-Cetians on Earth, as well as people with human ancestry on Tau Ceti. Half-Cetians have more limited psychic abilities in general than their Cetian parent, with some amount of human gregariousness to offset the loss. There are certain psychic abilities they generally cannot reach, and they cannot communicate as far, as clearly, or as well as full Cetians. Most half-Cetians are thought to struggle on Tau Ceti, so many of them are raised around humans instead. As a consequence, they have less psychic development and discipline, with a lower range, and have trouble with Cetian communication and consensus. Many of them are not allowed to stay long-term on Tau Ceti; some cannot visit the planet at all.