Illustration from W.B Plaxter’s Field Guide to Alien Life, Chapter 4: Zidophant Biology. Depiction of the Zidophant morphology in the nude.

The Zidophant, hailing from HIP 65426 b or Domovu, is a rotund, telepathic, and quadrupedal species with a keen opportunistic mindset. Their innate psychic abilities have carved a path for them as one of the local galaxies' most substantial Independent economic powers.

Biology

A Zidophant is a small and dense lifeform, measuring only 2 ft / 61 cm tall and 3.6 ft / 76 cm wide but weighing 110 lbs / 50 kg on average. This evolutionary development resulted from their planet's harsh gravity 6x that of Earth. The Zidophant utilizes its stubby proboscis as a grasping appendage to compensate for the lack of mobile forelimbs. The mouth of a Zidophant is positioned on the chest region, just between its two front legs. Two bulbous compound eyes are positioned on the Zidophant head, each with a pseudo pupil.

As methanotrophs, Zidophants gain energy by breaking down their planet's plentiful atmospheric methane reserves. In the absence of oxygen (which the species finds toxic), nitrate ions — most commonly dissolved in Zidophant drinking water — act as the reaction's oxidant. Unique palladium-storing organelles in their cells catalyze the reaction, exhaling gaseous carbon dioxide. Blue methane-carrying blood based on copper flows through the bodies of Zidophants. Compared to humans, the efficiency of Zidophian carrier proteins is lower due to the non-polar nature of methane. This tends to make the species tired more easily, comparable to Human anemia or similar lifeforms.

Being very long-lived, Zidophants don't reach physical maturity until 50 Earth years of age. The slow metabolism of the Zidophant gives them an upper life of 450 Earth years. Their brains, however, never reach full maturity and continue to grow until they expire from natural causes.

The Zidophant's most defining ability is its neurological adaptability to the Infoplane, allowing for the expression of latent psionic and psychic abilities in the material world. This connection is not entirely understood and is considered anomalous. Still, it's hypothesized that one of the three neural nodes within the Zidophant's skull is responsible for handling computational processes in parallel dimensionless spaces.

When a Zidophant is well trained, mentally mature, or chemically enhanced by anomalous psychedelics, the Zidophant can break down its local observable reality into memotic vectors¹, transporting them across space using the Ursaplane as a medium. If the Zidophant is adept enough, he will have the mental ability to reconstruct himself and the objects around him into a solid state after emerging from Infoplane.

Technology

Zidophant technology is comparatively underdeveloped compared to its contemporary galactic trade partners. The Zidophant technology sector is primarily outsourced to foreign galactic powers in exchange for their financial services. This co-partner relationship has resulted in used Zidophant tech being a hodgepodge of varying acquired technological devices from across the cosmos. The Zidophant species lack sizable construction facilities to facilitate the production of their tech, so it's assumed much of it is imported from factory worlds under the financial umbrella of Zidophant rule. Regardless of where their tech is sourced from, it generally follows two fundamental forms of function. Form one is its ease of use; Zidophant weapons, tools, and vehicles can all be operated with a single hand. Secondly, Zidophant technology is always downgraded and minimized for ease of repair.

Technological devices that Zidophants have made by members of their species within factories located on their homeworld are on par with the most advanced man made ships currently at the GRPC's disposal. This includes laser-based weaponry, nuclear rocketry, and semi-autonomous automatons. Orbital Stations in the possession of Zidophant tycoons are entirely that of Human design, with a conventional aluminum frame, spinning rings, and ion thrusters for stabilization. However, onboard life support and automated biosphere systems have been installed by Zidophant engineers to match their preferred high-pressure methane-rich environment. A reinforced frame permits an increased rotational spin rate for added simulated gravitational comfort.

Anomalous technologies under the possession of Zidophant Patriarchs are commonly stored away from the public or sold off to other alien races. The rare expectations are the anomalous items connected to the Infoplane, which Zidophants feel deeply connected to. Anomalous items that help them understand or traverse the Infoplane are highly treasured, studied, and utilized wherever possible.

History

Photograph of the Šňupa drug.

The Zidophant, for the longest time, lived as slaves in a repressive, stone-age empire. The species would live like this until aliens scavenging for devices encountered a religious cult of psychic Zidophants outlaws who lived in the Living Hill Highlands. The cult used their psychic powers of suggestion to compel the alien visitors into handing over their technological secrets. These innovations were then used to enslave the barbaric slaver hoards and force them to cultivate Šňupat, an anomalous drug used to boost one's connection to the Infoplane in most sapient species. Once their homeworld was under the Cult's unified control, the Zidophants turned their attention to the stars. Their first contact with another lifeform was relatively peaceful.

Not much is known about their first contact with another species. Historical accounts suggest the Zidophants used their psychic powers to uplift a more primitive species² into sapience by altering their minds. What species this was and what has happened to them since is, as of yet, unknown.

First contact with the GT ended tragically when Zidophant Diplomats attempted to use their psychic powers to manipulate GT officials into giving them preferential treatment. These violations of market law and member alien sapient autonomy would see the Zidophant diplomats expelled from the GT until they paid an insurance fine to ensure their loyalty. No Zidophant has paid this fine, nor does any Zidophant political structure participate in GT affairs as of the date.

The most recent species of contact Zidophants have had is with Humans, primarily those residing within the Free Systems of Monoceros. Unaware of the Zidophant's reputation, the Free Systems engineered deals they believed would put them into Humanities debt. Using their ability to read the collective unconscious, Zidophants were able to counter by predicting stock outcomes. Today, 15% of all Free System corporations are owned by the Zidophants through interest or stock shares. While Pro "Humanity First" groups, such as Blue Book, have tried to halt this economic takeover, it's believed that if the Zidophants lost their financial control, it'd likely be the end of Human-Zidophant relations.

Culture and Psychology

The alien mind of the Zidophant is challenging to analyze. What is known about their psychology is their affinity to spirituality and supporting the ingroup. Zidophants will emphasize family, spirit, and community, similar to humans, but that is relative to all the two species have in common. Their paranoia, innate desire for control, and rationalizations for this behavior are so extreme and intrinsic that initiating communication is often difficult. Everything that could threaten the Zidophants is instinctually distrusted, with cross-species friendships, loyalty with other species, and declarations of intergalactic peace being alien to them.

The conclave of Zidophant and their allied alien cohorts is organized in such a way as to prioritize Zidophant supremacy in the cultural and economic sense. The only exception in which a Zidophant feels comfortable cooperating and aiding another alien is when it is under the impression that it is the dominant party. Case examples are anomalous sculptures of their client races with minor ideological hazard properties. The longer one looks at these statues, the further one becomes conditioned to see themselves in a defined underlying role within the Zidophant's interstellar network.

Amongst themselves, Zidophants are relatively relaxed and trusting, with families and close-knit communities very supportive of one another. At the head of the family is a Patriarch, often the eldest Zidophant on the male's side of the family. The Patriarch commands much of the family's decision-making, primarily how future generations will be born and raised. For this reason, Zidophants who cannot have children are often shunned from the family. Modern advancements in medicine and artificial insemination have limited this cultural act, but a few are still outcasted over their genetic disorders.

While many different Zidophant families celebrate varying ritualistic holidays of notable events within their family's historical past, all Zidophant commemorate the "Day of the Taken Star." This alien holiday is a complete day-long celebration. At midnight, the start of the new day, Zidophant priests will psychically implant memetic ideas into their local population's minds. Depending on the alien's sensitivity to the Infoplane, they will experience different levels of ideological perception. Zidophants claim to see a perfect but allegorical depiction of the day Zidophants used their psychic ability to trick advanced aliens into handing over their technological secrets. Humans have reported feeling an odd sense of elation and curiosity for a thing they would one day have, while some reported sightings of spectral forms shifting around them. Androids posited that they felt no memetic effect aside from a slight and unexpected sense of attentiveness.

When the daylight breaks, the memetic show concludes, and an array of reenactments, rituals, and celebrations begins. Plays depicting the alien visit and their subsequent trickery are performed for free, often with the highest levels of practical effects available. Non-native sapient alien races are handed cheap trinkets, which Zidophant children are encouraged to covertly steal and hold onto until the day's end for a reward. Inventors across Zidophant-influenced space are encouraged to present their technical findings and inventions to potential investors. When the day ends, many festivities slow down so Zidophants can celebrate privately with their close families.

Roles and Ranks

As psychic aliens, the Zidophant political framework or method in which their species conduct themselves on a galactic scale is done via shared telepathic consciousness with a supreme entity. The Zidophant race is not a genuine gestalt consciousness, as members of their species are born disconnected from this psychic network and must reach maturity to access it. Most Zidophants lightyears from their homeworld cannot tap into their psychic network, requiring the aid of trained psychic priests.

Dolneey: The lowest class in Zidophant society. Dolneey, are the Zidophants, as mentioned above, unable to peer into the Infoplane or Ursaplane. Most Dolneey are minors, and their status as "lower class" is temporary. However, a mature Zidophant who never develops the potential to use the Infoplane is considered "True Dolneey," an untouchable in Zidophant society. They cannot contribute to the psychic network, have little say in Zidophant politics, are refused entry to most establishments, and are frequently encouraged to leave their Home World to live amongst similar nonpsychic races.

Roboceey: The middle class. Roboceey makes up the bulk of Zidophant society, contributing to the specific aims of developing its economy, trade, efficiency, networking, and expansion. Due to the general shared goals of Zidophant society, Roboceeys are granted a wide range of self-autonomy, such as the right to own weapons of mass destruction, a spacecraft, property, and foreign alien assets. Most military regiments are staffed with Roboceeys. Their psychic fortitude is strengthened to assist in FTL Ursaplane Drifting maneuvers and a shared stream of psychic combat experience undetectable or interceptable by radio equipment.

Mówceey: The priestly cast of high Zidophant society. Mówceeys operate as anchor points or radio towers in the Infoplane, playing a vital role in upholding the psychic network. Their immense psychic power over memotics makes them masters of suggestion, persuasion, and prediction. Most armed squads in the Zidophant army or ships in the Fleet will employ a Mówceey to link their combat forces to each other and the Home Systems.

Myśli Boga: The highest rank one can hold in Zidophant society. Myśli Boga helps anchor all Zidophant Infoplane activity. A monolithic memetic being, Myśli Boga solidifies their psychic network. Zidophants universally revere it as a telepathic God. Little is known publically as to who or what Myśli Bogais is, where it's located, or what it seeks to achieve. Infoplane-sensitive aliens in the GRPC and PsyCorps have reported glimpsed sights of a mighty shadow lurking in the Sea of Forms, positing that this could be Myśli Boga. Other Infoplane-sensitive aliens in the GRPC have reported feeling its presence and glimpsed sights of a shadow of something powerful lurking in the Sea of Forms adjacent to Zidophant Space.

Government

With the shared psychic network comprised of living telepathic nodes, the need for a Government is minor. Leaders in Zidophant society are often mouthpieces for the local community's collective unconsciousness. These speakers, while making little policy of their own, can help channel unspoken feelings into constructive thought. These thoughts can create positive feedback loops in the minds of Zidophants, reaffirming their desires.

Examples of these speakers can be found in all known establishments, such as science labs, market analysis firms, writing departments, and shipping companies. These speakers are most well-known for their work in alien space. Often partnered with a Mówceey Telepath, the speaker will attempt to compel or coerce other alien species into partnering with or trading goods with Zidophant society. Depending on how the aliens feel, the speaker can convey the aliens' collective feelings to his Mówceey cohort to devise a way of memetic deception or uplifting.

If a trading post is established, an alien race is uplifted, or an embassy is constructed, these speakers will stick around to monitor the psychological situation of the alien lifeforms around them. If they feel an attack on Zidophant assets is imminent, the speaker is often permitted to request a military deployment to his location. The locations or circumstances can not permit a Zidophant strike team to assist. In that case, the speaker is permitted to use whatever means necessary to ensure the safety of the establishment's operations.

Diplomatic Procedures

Despite all warnings, the Human/Slyth Faction of "The Free Systems of Monoceros," a member of the GT, has continued to trade with Zidophant Space despite the Council's warnings. Due to this tenuous relationship, the GT does not officially recognize Zidophant Space or their Consortium of Corporations as protected assets under the Galactic Treaty; therefore, GRPC Captains are permitted to engage in active anomalous reconnaissance into their affairs.

For member aliens of the GT who wish to spend their vacation time on one of the many Zidophant worlds, speak to a member of the Galactic Travelers Corp to learn about your compatibility with Zidopahnt methane-rich xeno-biospheres. If one refuses to wear a vac-suit for cultural, religious, or physiological purposes, the GRPC suggests visiting one of the many Zidophant-allied homeworlds with atmospheric conditions suitable for you.

Photo from W.B Plaxter’s Field Guide to Alien Life, Chapter 5: Zidophant Society. Scenic photograph of Domovu landscape at night.

For those on business trips to Domovu, the Zidophant Homeworld, extensive cybernetic augmentations will be required to support your body in 6g. While a Null-Gravity generator suit is recommended, cybernetic augmentations are highly encouraged; the list of implants is as follows:

• Lower extremity venous pump implants
• Carbon nanotube-reinforced skeletal frame
• Radiation scrubbers

Remember to seek permission from a Zidophant Speaker before landing unannounced on any Zidophant Homeworld.

Due to the ongoing cold war between Zidophant Consortium market zones and the Sodality, GRPC Captains are advised to avoid the two's military exercises. If actions are required to halt the development of an Omega Black class anomalous super weapon, Captains are permitted to take action within reason for the safety of the GT. Despite the tensions between pro-market and pro-collectivist factions, Zidophants have yet to make any significant aggressive pushes or shows of force against the Sodality. The Zidophant's preferred modus operandi is subtle modems of memetic warfare against Sodality Space's population centers. So far, two massive revolts have been sparked in the Human-Founded Union Soviet Satellite Republics Martain Capital and three minor revolts on Volx-Founded Red Collective orbital construction platforms.