Golgian Lore

--ORIGIN: Golgians arose more or less spontaneously from a soup of chemical sludge and alien microorganisms imported to their homeworld from across the sector.


--HOMEWORLD: A sectoral garbage dump, used by many different races. While mostly barren, toxic, and dotted with the wrecks of possibly thousands of old ships, it plays host to a variety of exotic life forms. While it is the Golgians' place of birth as a species, however, they hold no particular attachment to it.


--BIOLOGY: Golgians are comprised entirely of a thick, viscous, semi-trasparent mass of complex microbial machines. These 'cells' are virtually identical and highly multipurpose, all being able to relay oxygen, nutrients, and synapse signals to their neighbors and produce and receive vibration and light signals (though only a few have been able to figure out how to glow in the dark, similar to other species learning how to control usually unconscious or individual muscles). As such, they have no complex organs in the traditional sense- their entire body is a singular organ, acting as their eye, brain, stomach, lung, vocal chords, muscles, etc. This makes them quite resistant to trauma, as they can simply part around attacks that would otherwise injure them; as cells die, they and waste nutrients are ejected and simply sluice off of the greater mass. This last trait is what actually gives them their 'slimy' feel, as the Golgian's body mass is quite cohesive under conscious control and does not 'leak' water- though some of them do appear to 'melt' into a formless mass when they sleep.

Similarly, many of their 'humanoid' traits are cultural and memetic in nature: the human body structure is not 'natural' so much as it is familiar and convenient to them; they generally choose to eat in a fashion similar to other races (despite being incapable of actually chewing their food), but are capable of subsisting quite happily through a combination of photosynthesis and dissolving earth and plants they pass over for nutrients; their societal gender roles imitate those of other species (particularly the Glitch), but Golgians are asexual and reproduce via mitosis, their gender being entirely aesthetic and invented by the individual; clothing and armor are perceived to be useful and/or stylish and Golgians posses a nudity taboo, despite the fact they have no default genitalia and clothes are technically unnecessary (except inasfar as protecting them from extreme cold, their primary vulnerability).

Being a biological freak accident of nature with no proper place in their native ecosystem, Golgians have no definite lifespan; they are born fully physically mature, and age is largely a social construct to them (though the amount of knowledge one is capable of storing and processing is restricted by its total body mass; their distributed consciousness means they have essentially perfect memory recall and the ability to manually forget things by jettisoning the relevant cells), and, separated from society (as many adventurers are), many simply choose their physical age of preference (those who choose childlike forms often using their spare mass to give themselves particularly long hair or simply leave it as a puddle around their feet).


--CULTURE: Golgian culture is inspired by the (often incomplete, garbled, or mistranslated) media of interstellar civilizations salvaged from the wrecks and ruins scattered across their homeworld, and, as such, they have a somewhat skewed interpretation of the world. Superficially, their society is similar to that of the Glitch or medieval Earth, but Golgians take it to bizarre extremes, individuals and society as a whole seemingly preferring what is subjectively 'cool' over what is realistic or practical (Agriculture, for instance, is rather boring, and most Golgian settlements would nominally not have enough food to sustain their populations, but see Biology, above). Golgians are often loud, bombastic, dramatic (even to the point of awkwardness), and fiercely independent, and Golgian devices and machinery are noisy, flashy, and spiffy looking first and functional second- this ideology also extends to their arms and armor, which are often a chaotic mishmash of styles; highly customized to the individual's tastes and completely worthless to species with vital organs they'd prefer to not be stabbed in, as Golgians lean heavily on their natural strength and resistance to damage.

While Golgians are not monolithic, being divided into independent kingdoms and townships, they are united by the notion of the Grand Quest- a sacred charge bestowed upon them by the Goddess Tasketia that they are both destined and uniquely qualified to perform. Unfortunately, what the Grand Quest might actually have originally been has been lost to time, and no two Golgians can seem to agree on what the Grand Quest actually is, what it entails, or how close they might be to actually completing it.

Despite ostensibly following traditional gender roles (see above and Biology), both genders are wholeheartedly encouraged to become adventurers and members of the clergy, and masculine titles (e.g. Prince) are often used by either gender.


--RELIGION: Golgian faith is polytheistic, and revolves around two sister Goddesses, locked in eternal conflict: Fait and Tasketia.

Fait is Yin; an antagonistic character, representing inevitability, stasis, entropy, and helplessness. She is fatalistic and mechanistic, playing mortals like puppets on strings as She slowly drags the universe towards its inevitable and ultimate destruction. She is thought to be the ruler (and perhaps even the creator) of the Enpici peoples (see below), and the slothful and downtrodden worship Her in return for Her affection, solace, and protection from the cruel and uncaring world.

Tasketia is Yang; the patron goddess of adventurers and of the Golgians as a whole, representing action, creation, initiative, ambition, amd struggle, who rails eternally against the dying light and Her sister's uncaring waltz into oblivion. Inspiring deeds of heroism, She is said to have bestowed the Grand Quest upon the Golgians at the dawn of their civilization, and Her subjects are always striving towards greater achievement and mastery of their skills. It is said that those Tasketia favors can hear whispering from Her shrines, bestowing upon them Quests great and small, with the promise of rewards both in this life and the next.


--RELATIONS: Golgians are generally quite friendly to alien species they encounter, but aren't particularly attached to any of them, and can often be quite patronizing, due to the belief that they themselves are the only sentient beings that possess true volition: all others (with the exception of, perhaps, their greatest heroes, leaders, and converts to Tasketia) fall under the category of "Enpicis"; those enthralled to the whims of Fait and incapable of properly free will. Most Golgians who travel the galaxy (alternately adventurers, heroes, or champions) tend to regard the Enpici races with sympathy or pity, though those with less moral integrity see them as non-entities who exist only as a means to the end of the Grand Quest- either as tools, auxilliaries, or, like other beasts, fodder for combat experience (so that they might raise their 'Level', an abstract measure of their capacity to advance the Grand Quest which has as many interpretations as the Grand Quest itself).

-Beldehor: Due to their superficial similarities, Beldehor are more polarizing to the Golgians than other races, seeing them alternately as distant cousins that should be brought into the fold (their racial ambitions only supporting this notion), or monstrous, mutated forms of themselves.