Sojoran alien race

   Species: Sojoran
(not native name, humans are unable to pronounce their native name so something close to Sjora and Zora was chosen and accepted)

   Type: Humanoid (Amphibious)

   Home World: Earth-FT

   Description:

   Biology: The Sojoran's are shapeshifters, rated D+ to C- on the capabilities scale with a base ability to changed certain features with greater flexibility with training. In their base form the Sojorans rather closely resemble the Zora from the Legend of Zelda; one reason when choosing a name humans could pronounce that was offered although the root for them Sjora from Scandinavian folklore was considered as well; the resemblance however is somewhat passive and more in the skin texture, facial structure, and being aquatic with an complex culture. The actual Sojorans have longer legs for their torsos, and their heads don't have fish tails but rather a crested ridge along the top of the forhead with either small spikes or wedge shaped horn like prortrusions going back a short distance over the top of the head. However they can shapeshift this down to almost nothing or exagerate them. Thier faces as implied have a soft slope where a nose would be on a human, an almost human like mouth with lips; although with harder teeth able to crush shells with ease; as well as being able to heal damage to their teeth; and able to stretch their lips out  when need be to open their mouths wider. They don't have visible ears but can shapeshift pointed ridges on the side of the head to help channel sound vibrations. The back of the head has hair; in a fashion; it is actually a large number of prehensile tendrils. They can change the color, texture, and even split apart these tendrils. They can look almost exactly like human hair, jellyfish tendrils, octopus like tentacles, or shorten and stiffen up to resemble colorful spikes on the back of the head. Some have been known to keep them long but stiffen up and hold together so they actally resemble some long spike or fin coming down from the back to the head, even able to perform the same purpose down the back as a dorsal fin or protective spikes. These tendrils were their second greatest defense against predators and for catching prey in their early ancestral days according to their historians.

   Their eyes are rather large and colorful, able to change as well. Their bodies as implied normally have a smooth apperance, smooth skin with a silver and blue color scheme, lighter on the dorsal side. However they have chromotaphore like structures able to change skin colors and patterns at will; so often brighter colors and patterns are found, especially during breeding season; although like humans or dolphins they will have sex for fun. They can also create fins and spikes and other structures for ornament or practical purposes in various forms so an exact "this is the base form" is hard to state as a certenty. They can even grow tails with fins on them of various kinds and larger colorful display fins along their backs and heads with bioluminescence. If one removes all these they basically resemble smooth skin aquatic humanoids. Their hands typically have three fingers and a thumb, webbed or not *shapeshifting again*, and may even add or substract fingers as needed. Some with practice can even extend and flex their fingers like small tentacles to help pick things up or grip something tighter among other uses. Much like the hair tendrils their fingers can also stiffen up and become more spike like or claw like as well as spread out with a webbing to help swim. All of this shapeshifting is done quick and smoothly much like the color and texture changes of cephalopods only more complex. There are some who believe some Sojorans can even split apart their limbs into tentacles, pincers, or crab legs as well as alter their density and structure for deeper environments; based on the ability to grow a tail; but they say even if some tribes can this would be an extreme ability requiring years of intense training.

   However they have been seen taking on two apperances vastly different than the norm seen in their native habitats. One they can make themselves look almost human, to an uncanny valley degree however as their eyes are always rather large and the nose is always a tad off or too semetrical, as well as their teeth and lips being what they are. But fromd a distance they are rather good at the immitation; even immitating simple clothing if none are available. When humans first encountered the Sojorans however they were mistaken for reptilians as the Sojorans encountered were in a swamp and were explorers themselves, they had armored up their bodies into "dragon scale", shifted their hands to claws, and their heads had short muzzles, hard head crests, and the hair tendrils were in spike mode; many even had lizard like tails, some with small spikes on them. When the humans saw them shift to their smoother forms at a lake to relax it came as quite the surprise.

   The Sojorans also can resemble in frame female or male humans, some even having what appear to be small breasts which they can inflate or deflate at will. The Sojorans don't lactate but rather like with some other biped species these are for display purposes as well as fat reserves. During breeding season some may even inflate and use various color and bioluminescent patterns on them as well as the typical flexing of muscles and extended colorful lit up fins to attract or impress various mates with different tastes. Which it has been noted the male and female frames are interchangible, Sojorans can shrink or expand their bodies into either frame as they want. They have also been seen compressing their bodies through rather narrow passages leading some experts to believe they may only be restricted by their teeth in what they can fit through; but normally keep a very solid and dense shape unless absolutely neccessary. In short the more flexible the more easily damaged although very elastic. Some changes are questioned in terms of mass change and Earth scientists are convinced their evolution couldn't be natural and some ancestor in their history had to have modified their species through genetic engineering to survive in multiple environments.

   Although the theory they were human at one time is questioned by their reproductive cycle. The Sojorans are litterally gender fluid, able to alter their own reproductive systems to produce eggs or sperm. However neither can hold the eggs inside they is usually a third party who acts as the incubator for the eggs for their first month of development. To explain, the Sojorans can have sex for fun, but also have complete control over wether this act leads to reproduction. Normally they have a cloaca which leads to their equivalent of a large intestine and urinary system. When developing eggs or sperm a seperate system is "unlocked" and expands above it; they develop a phallus like ovipositor to deposit eggs or a phallus to inject sperm. While the entire process of fertilizing eggs can be done externally, the soft warm marsh nests needed for that arn't always available for everyone; or as safe as option B; living incubator. Breeding season usually requires three participants. The one who will keep the eggs inside them for a month is the most sought out individual as this means the eggs will be safe till sturdy enough to prevent being eaten by smaller predators like tiny arthropods. They put on displays for breeding and pick and choose each other, not neccisarily monogamous; although some cultures of Sojoran due to have something close to that while others keep to more open relations for breeding. The "female" will deposit her eggs inside the cloaca of the reciever (an intercourse like action); these eggs have micriscopic fibers that adhered to the intestinal wall; however the reciever just to be safe will for the month keep to light foods; although a few lost eggs is to be expected; hundreds are laid. The "male" will then engage in intercourse with the reciever to fertilize the eggs. Multiple "males" can in fact do this with one clutch of eggs being fertilized by multiple partners. This is what has lead to some cultural taboos among different Sojoran on the process. Without an reciever these eggs would be laid into a warm marsh bit where they would attatch to rock surfaces or floating plant life; as well the fertilizing process is alot less precise or assured in this scenario; or as "fun" as they may put it. Although there is usually one or more "marsh mothers" there to orally remove and spit into the marsh the eggs and semen of those who visit them. For the ones being a reciever internally they will watch their diet for a month and protect the eggs inside them. A white foam discharge will alert them the eggs are ready to exit the body and they will seek out a body of water to lay them in, for some "royals" or specific cultures this tends to be a private damned in or locked pond, or else a sacred cave, lake or pond atop a water fall and various other bodies of water. This foam is is protective and gives off the same scent as toxic plants, which they are often laid near; the plants are even cultivated in the select pools for this purpose. The marsh mothers special marshes are usually upstream from these pools as well. the foamed up phase of the eggs will break off from the rocks and plants of the marsh and float downstream naturally for a few days till the foam due to exposure to sunlight turns sticky and they lodge onto whatever is nearby. In a natural setting this would result in a massive mortality rate for the eggs; although culturally at this point they don't generally seem to care much more about the eggs despite their initial protectiveness of them. Although some do a little more than others and have articially created "nursery pond" systems where they can grow. The eggs are not like eggs from Earth species, the eggs themselves act like single celled organisms can feed on nutrients around them as they grow, hence the cloaca canal working out just as well as being in a marsh full of nutrients if not more so. The eggs grow the protective foam first to dislodge then to stick to a new environment and from there act more like regular eggs.

  When the eggs hatch however they are tadpoles, and go through a number of life stages. The mortality rate is said to be rather steep, being eaten by predators, each other, disease, and so on. Some families in some cultures may opt to keep some select eggs in a private growth tank in their homes or a community site. However the high mortality rate is why hundreds are laid at a time; and there is clearly a mental component where most Sojoran don't even mentally register them at this stage as "children" but like free roaming fetuses eating and growing. Within a few months the ponds, marshes, or lakes, will depending on size and how many batches of eggs were laid (keeping in mind despite breeding season being a thing they can still choose not to lay eggs, they completly control this process after all), and how protective they were there would be after several larval stages which are mostly left unseen by human researchers, but seems to look almost like an evolutionary process of metamorphosis including a fish like state and a frilled salamander like state that feeds on small insect, fish, and other animal life before growing into a small "puppy lizard" form that can come onto land and turns omnivorous. In some Sojoran cultures this is the stage where they adopt them from the ponds, with "mothers" who either telling by scent which ones are their own, or are adoptive mothers, usually the marsh mothers; to raise seperatly; often to grow up and become marsh mothers themselves. Other cultures however wait till they change again and look like small child versions of the adults and by instinct are driven to go to the adults for protection. This stage triggers an emotional response in the adults to take care of them. It would be fascinating to research the evolutionary and culturally histories of the various regions of this world regarding past treatment. There are notes some areas may have engaged in cannabalism of the young that looked weak or injured but the modern Sojoran cultures say this has not been practiced anywhere for thousands of years. For caste purposes collecting some to raise in private protected areas; usually because that caste had specialized purposes that resulted in longer development periods (thus more at risk of being eaten by other Sojoran larva/tadpoles that had grown larger into later stages earlier), or conversly may develop faster and threaten the rest of the nursery pond. Generally these two castes are the smaller thinner ones on average better suited to land; or the giants who reside mostly in water. There are a few different ethnicities of Sojoran although aside from the larval stage differences they don't make much notice of it and interbreed as their outer apperances are usually by choice anyway given their shapeshifting abilities; which extends to their genitals so even a giant can shapeshift a smaller ovipositor or phallus for a smaller reciever. Giant being relative, most Sojoran are around 5 feet tall, the giants are about 6-7 feet tall; but tend to also be bulkier; there are rare gigantism cases where some grow much more massive and have to stay in water for their weight but this is again very rare.

   To give some idea of how detatched they can be about their eggs, when they met humans and breeding season came along while they shared information with the human scientists about the various processes they go through; they had no problem giving the humans some eggs to raise themselves with the agreement when they reached a certain stage they needed to be released into Sojoran water ways to instinctively swim back home; which in ancient times they would. While frowned upon by most Sojoran cultures in modern days (although not illegal) it was common to lay the eggs in marshes and the streams carry them down river and the eggs attatch by roots and rocks going down stream and the tadpole larva to just end up in random swamps, rivers, ponds, and lakes, and the surviving larva when old enough to instintively swim back up stream to be adopted by families who find them. This practice is not illegal and some "traditionalist" groups will still practice it, "wild born", being a translation of what the practice is called.

  On that same note the Sojoran were also curious if humans, given the human scientists speculated given the multiverse aspect here, that the Sojoran may have been human prior to some apocalyptic change to their world and genetic modification; could interbreed with them. Which as a note their world is home to six other sapient species, none of which can interbreed with the Sojoran but can act as recievers; a practice that became common for the Floating City Sojorans when developing ties with other species. As expected humans couldn't fertilize the eggs or Sojorans fertilize humans, although the marsh mothers seemed to enjoy the experience stating humans had a unique flavor to their seminal fluids and wouldn't mind them coming back just for that. However humans can act as recievers, in fact the human body temperature and intestinal lining was found to be perfect; and the human extremental process, especially with a diet of lighter foods for that month, provided excellent nutrition for the parasite like eggs. The human volunteers said it was hard to keep the foam eggs in and ended up having to be closely monitors near collection tanks as it was ast they described, like being full of lube. The intercourse parts however were described as incredible. The experiment also had women volunteers try to keep the eggs inside their vaginas and not just the rectums; which was concluded to also work, although the nutrients for the eggs was greatly reduced and they canabalized each other till only a handful remained. These were grown in a special tank and found to be rather big and strong; not surprising given some of the species the Floating City had interactions with, saying this was less random digested nutrients and was pure protein from the vaginal fluids, cannabalism, and the menstrual cycle; which had been feared would just expell the eggs rather than feed them. In general humans can outside of the breeding season safely engage in sexual activities with Sojoran. Although humans are warned if they go to Sojoran settlements during breeding season they may be propositioned to be recievers by any number of Sojoran thanks to word getting around humans were perfect recievers. So unless one is comfortable being penetrated twice by the "female" and "male"...possibly several; and guarded over for a month in the settlement; it is best to avoid them. But if that is favorable for a month off work it counts as a tax deductable diplomatic expense; as well as being paid for the role in some communities.


  City Structure: Of importance is noting how their cities, villages, and towns are structured. Despite being able to breathe underwater and able to armor up their bodies and adapt to greater pressures; they have a preference for shallower waters; as well as prefering fresh over salt water. They have taken excellent care of their waterways as a result and while much of this world has lower elevations than most versions of Earth and far mashier and river filled climates they have engineered alot of areas to flood them and build canals, systems of connected lakes, and aquaducts. In truth this has also made them popular with the other six sapient species on their planet as Sojoran mean clean and available waters. Aside from the guarded nursery ponds, save for the whole wild born tradition; the Sojoran structures are mostly floating homes, bridges, and stone structures that protrude out of the water and have indoor pools, constantly flowing water falls, and wet areas. One may even relate it to a water park, or the comparison to the Zora from Legend of Zelda except with more "fantasy elf" like structures like huts and floating or anchored wooden raft trading or guard posts. Boats about sums up alot of their structures including nomadic ones. After all the need to transport supplies, trade goods, and those not able to swim due to illness or injury were definite musts in their society as it developed. The Sojoran even have "dry labs" where they would research materials and ideas; and then find ways to adapt them to their wet home environments. Electricity was tricky, but they also enjoy cooked food so special dry huts for cooking became common in their cultures as a result and these adapted to being dry labs and dry storage for spices, herbs, and other ingredients which could easily break apart or become moldy if wet.  However unlike with humans it is common to see Sojoran swimming around their water ways not just boat traffic. Modern Sojoran have really sophisticated technology, the second highest of their world; and without using polluting fuels and water waste. Humans have entered a number of trade agreements with the Sojoran explicitly to learn about their waste management, water cleaning techniques, and the energy source they discovered to light their homes.