I'm so sorry pup, this is rambly and incoherent

just type this shit as fast as possible before it flees me. use-name for these aliens is, uh, fuck it, Aliens.

Alien culture is /extremely/ caste-based (define castes later, do it good, too many alien races with castes that are incredibly boring).  Strike that, we're going for the below and a class-based system.

Aliens do not really recieve personal names-- their naming scheme is FamilyNameGenerationalNumber PersonalNumber. To alieviate the obvious confusion that comes here, the Alien language has many, many, many more words for numbers than any human language. To better simulate this, when the Alien name is translated into human languages, they tend to pick freely from various languages' numbering systems. (Also for the purpose of this doccument, lineage names are Japonic because that's the only really foreign naming system I have access to.) Playful nicknames are also common, although discouraged by conservatives.

Lineages are matrilinial althrough it's usually concidered wise in older linages to marry colaterally, especially for powerful members (assume their genetics are more robust to the effects of repeated cousin marriages although for the purpose of not having this proposal kicked out you can't do any marriage that would be illegal in the Qu'ran)

The oldest Lineage is the Imperial one (good time to point out, they have an emperor). The current Empress is Sakamoto143 One. This is generally read formally in English as "Her Imperial Magesty, The One-Hundred-And-Fourty-Third Sakamoto Empress of the Aliens, first of her family")

New Lineages start as a result of either a great punishment or a great reward. Heros can be honored by being made the mythical head of their lineage (although generally female because we're positing a matriarchal society, male heros are permitted to pass their lineage down to their decendents).

Criminals and undesireables who taint the name of a Lineage may be cast out. They are concidered to have no name and are not supposed to reproduce, but if they do, their decendents are expected to take on new Lineage names.

Renaming and casting out can, formally, only happen by will of the Sakomoto Empress. However, she is permitted to deligate authority for chosing when this happens to various servants, and an originally ostentatious ceremony accompanying a very high honor has diminished slightly (think modern knighting).

Alien society is very religious and very competitive. This is one and the same to them. It is believed that all the highest ancestors (the originators of Linages) are embroidled in a grand contest or conflict in the afterlife, and that it is the duty of each Alien to succeed in the name of their ancestors. This is, essentially, a game of "whose family gets the most honor", although there is also some kind of personal component to the fight. Projenators of a Lineage are called Champions (although that name is sometimes denied to the second kind of Champion).

The exact specifics of the conflict are somewhat murky, but it is believed to have some kind of a team component. Harming the honor of families historically close to yours is a stupid fucking thing to do. This is why the first kind of Championing exists-- there is value in an alied Champion, and great honor in producing one elevated to such a status.

The Sakamotos have a unique role in the theology. Sakamoto herself is not believed to take place in the celestial competition, being according to various sources either barred from competing or the winner of the last bout. (Your stance on this will change depending on what laws have been passed recently.) Instead, she serves as a sort of referee, ensuring that the conflict is arbitrated fairly and bestowing upon her decendents the right to create Champions.

There is a good deal of internal religious conflict, the most important schism being between those who believe that those decended of Exiles are winning points for their Linages' champion and those who believe that the children of Exiles do not pass into the afterlife as combattants. Some zealots of the latter faction refuse to refer to Exile-decendents with a lineage name, although doing so is akin to a hate crime.

Alien culture is feudal at its heart. Although the Sakamotos provide some degree of stability (and their ability to Exile troublesome nobles remains a significant deterrant to starting shit), it is divided between numerous fueding regions, each generally secured by a different noble. Sakamoto encourages these divisions as a pious thing to do, essentially keeping the world in a perpetual Cold War to drive progress and honor the Champions.

Nobility is an interesting thing. Promotions and demotions are merit-based and done much more freely than they were in historical feudal societies, but almost every position is expected to be hereditary. As an oldest child, failing to follow the career of your parent is believed to be extremely dishonorable, and the continual holding of important Imperial positions is one of the most important strategies towards (hypothetically) winning the competition. The one exception to the rule in terms of nobles being fairly easy to raise and dismiss is, of course, the Sakamoto Empress, who must be a Sakamoto because of the original Sakamoto's role in arbitrating the Celestial Competition.

The Aliens were originally a warlike race (I mean, as warlike as Dark Ages Europe). The Sakamotos united the world by fits and starts, destroying the Old Ways and replacing it with the religion of Sakamoto. That means, yes, there /were/ other Alien cultures, although now they are largely dead. Convert or die, motherfuckers.

Victory in battle was the original best way to obtain honor for your Champion, but with the loss of any external enemies (except xenos, who, no) it has shifted towards "doing your job well" and "showing up those domestic foreigners nonlethally". Little-C competitions are extremely popular, frequent, and important to Aliens, with their currently prefered combat sport being major league gaming (they value intent to kill and cunning more than they value brute physicality, so virtualized combat is concidered closer to the real thing than ritualized nonlethal combat). This finally answers the question "which race is best at basketball?".

Relations with xenos are strained, since xenos have no champions and all the rhetoric justifying the unification of the planet has re-risen to justify destroying the xenos. There is internal debate as to whether xenos have no Champions (and are thus animals that may be dealt with freely) or have Champions who have not been welcomed into the Competition (this is the rhetoric used to justify the unification, by the way, and would make it neccessary that the xenos be brought into the competetion for their own good.) An official statement from Sakamoto143 One would put the matter to rest (to some degree), but the only thing that has been said about the matter is that associatin with, or even serving under xenos is not dishonorable. She will probably not make a statement until she's in a place to Holy War against them, which won't be for a while. For diplomatic reasons, Aliens with strong anti-xeno setiments are not approved for an exit visa.

Relationships with synths are... weird. Since they've begun to create very basic AI, they've dealt with the synth question before the xeno question. And by "dealt with" I mean "fragmented over arguements about". The mainstream opinion, officially put forward by Sakamoto143 One's predecessor, is that while there are no synth champions, and while synths cannot have decendents or parents and thus cannot truly compete in the Celestial Competition, synths may still bring honor to a Champion through loyal service to a certain family. Alien-formed synths are not quite complex or sophisticated enough to begin argueing this at the moment, and they generally do not import xeno-made synths for this reason. It is, however, interesting that a human-made intelligence could bring honor to an Alien champion, and this logic is often used by Aliens approved for an exit visa to justify making xeno friends. Synths do officially have the Alien equivalent of souls, and could, hypothetically, be made a Champion.

Alien-made synths are named FamilyName-chi PersonalNumber. Giving them nicknames is encouraged, although it is still respectful to a family to refer to their synths properly. Sakamoto-chi Vingt, the personal retainer of Sakamoto143 One, is a household name and almost slang for a devouted retainer.

Uh, right, this is everything but physiology, right?