Important!

>>>This is a free species, but is only free when creating a character for 



The Plark:

Lifespan: 60 Earth yrs

Adulthood begins at 15 Earth yrs

Population: 26 billion total, 25.75 billion in the Seline galaxy (off-planet), approx. 250 million on Dex living in tribes

Avg Height (M): 5’4”/1.63 M

Avg Weight (M): 190 lbs/86.18 kg

Avg Height (F): 6’8”/2.03 M

Avg Weight (F): 275 lbs/124.74 kg

Home planet:

Dex: A planet with an interesting mix of dark plant life and extremely light-colored earth and sand. It is a planet that has four seasons in its temperate climates, but the plark lived naturally in the regions closer to the equator.

Size (diameter): 7113.46 miles (11,448 km)

1 Dex day: 17.6 Earth hours

1 Dex year: 504 Earth days

Gravity: 0.9 Gs

Climate: Similar to Earth from tropical to polar regions

Orbiting: Justiv (white dwarf 12,427.4 miles/20,000 km across) 

Moons: Uren, Festa, Kil, Eprend

Neighboring planets: Elda (gas giant), Yuns (gas giant)

Home galaxy:

The Meridian Cluster (Meridia): A satellite galaxy of Seline, a massive spiral galaxy with some 250 billion stars in its vicinity across 200,000 lightyears. Meridia is one of the closer clusters to Seline and has part-way through one of the spiral arms.

Size (of Meridia): 15,000 lightyears in diameter w/ speculated 1 million stars

Biology: Plark are comparable to amphibians and mammals. They make strong swimmers with their wide hands and feet. The extra blubber on their bodies allows for buoyancy, which means a plark in excellent physical shape won’t show off too many muscles. Plark can live in tropical regions, but the plark are accustomed to staying under the water in the shadows for long periods of time to rest (usually in caves). Since they are hardy creatures, many have found homes even in polar regions (where snow is less common and plant life is still fruitful). Even while resting, plark still need to breathe, so they have gills on the roofs of their mouths. When their gills are in use, a plark can seal their esophagus off so they don’t swallow too much water while asleep and avoid drowning. A plark can’t spend their entire life in the water and can’t continue strenuous activity using their gills only. Retreating to the water to sleep is an especially useful defense mechanism, especially since the plark are at the tippy-top of the food chain of Dexxen aquatic life. Unless a land predator finds their underwater hiding spots, plark are extremely safe.

Plark don’t take in nutrients and water through their skin. It’s too thick and not the most sensitive material.

A plark’s eyes have several muscles that allow the stalk to view anything around them, and even focus on two things at once (their heads don’t get in the way). When defending themselves and when resting, plark retract their eye stalks into their skulls.

Plark are vegetarian and are tall enough to pick fruits from bushes and low-hanging trees. They have an affinity for plankton and seaweed. Some tribes have been known to eat leaves, grass, and sea grass, but as a generality, they will choose another food source if available.

Reproduction is completely external. Every year on Dex, the female lays hundreds of eggs and hopes they become fertilized. If they are, the male stays with the female while she watches over all of their eggs. While the female is on alert a male will usually clean and collect food. If anything threatens their eggs, the female is so much larger than the male that not much stands in her way. In terms of sexual dimorphism, males and females won’t appear very different to a human (without reference to their height), but the plark can tell how desirable a specimen is from over fifty feet away. Plark have more than excellent eyesight to make up for their duller senses.

If the female cannot watch over her eggs, the plark community are always there to help fend off predators and take shifts watching the unborn children. When fending off animals, plark will use large weapons to ward off predators, but will not usually kill them. Often, any animal that threatens plark will be too afraid to cross them again.

Eggs are laid in a moist area in a large hole so that the shells remain soft and moisturized, but not in an overly watery area so that oxygen can penetrate the shell. A plark will never sit on top of the eggs but instead digs a rut around the hole where the eggs are laid. She sits in the center and watches for predators, making use of their 360-degree vision.

After the eggs hatch, the surviving offspring (which amounts to an average of 100) spend their childhood (about 10 Earth yrs) in a plark community and are then shoved off alone to hone their survival skills. Plark young easily grow to be 7 or 8 feet tall during this time and are threatening to even beatren (about beatren: Beatren - Free Species ). Puberty is a horrible, horrible thing for plark-kind. When that passes, the plark instinctually make their way back to their home community and is considered a fully-grown man or woman. “Fully-grown” is in reference to the “shrinking” that happens after puberty and the terror they once were in adolescence is replaced with a more even-tempered, mild-mannered demeanor. They are expected to bring back knowledge of new tools and explain what they have learned while “finding themselves” in the wilderness. Every plark that makes it back returns with a warm welcome even if they don’t learn as much as is expected. Rejection is not often practiced as the plark find ease in forgiveness, and just surviving their exile is a feat on its own.

According to the breatren on Dex, Plark taste a bit like whale but with a sort of fishy taste you get from seaweed.

Culture and History: The golden-colored jewelry in the image above is what the plark tend to wear now that they are a space-faring race instead of a skin-tight space suit. Today, it is far easier for a plark to get their hands on brightly-colored materials as Dex is a relatively colorless planet. Traditionally, metals would have been shined to bring out their colors. Flowers are considered sacred by the plark, especially the rarer, more vibrant ones. When a plark would discover a group of flowers, they would be picked and squeezed into dyes for brightly-colored clothing. Because of this, Dexxen flowers have been bred to become more vibrant and farmed all across the planet.

Bright clothing like this is plark-kind’s expression of beauty in a bleak environment. The beatren, another sapient Dexxen species, have enslaved the plark for the past couple thousand years.

Beatren took other sapient species as a threat, and plark-kind were no exception. Plark-kind made it to space after the disastrous relationship with the beatren, against all odds. For thousands of years the two species were at war. For the beatren, the goal was world domination. For Plark-kind, a shared world with mutually beneficial relationships were in mind. While the beatren were stocking up their resources to hand a massive attack to their enemy, the plark surrendered. They couldn’t keep up with the Beatren’s advances and were unable retreat to space yet. Instead of facing imminent death, they agreed to become slaves to the beatren and save their species.

During the time plark were enslaved by the beatren, it was agreed upon that any adolescent plark be constrained within beatren city borders. Beatren didn’t quite understand fully that plark instinctually return to their homes after maturing, but beatren didn’t trust the plark enough to release them in the wild for a few years. Adolescent plark were constrained throughout maturation and their natural growth was stunted. The beatren liked this; they became less threatening when they did not grow into a healthy specimen.

In this time, plark communities had moved on to tribe-like settlements and were beginning their own research, just like the beatren. Instead of following the beatren and researching advanced weaponry and coming up with war tactics, plark specialized in medical research, transportation, and more efficient ways of farming. Plark detest violence and are actually more intelligent and reasonable than beatren, who look toward violence to resolve their problems. The beatren often look at a large and threatening adolescent plark and think of them as nothing more than animal, especially paired with their often dopey-looking facial features. The truth is, Dexxen species are not the sharpest, but plark are considered the most enlightened and intelligent of the two dominant creatures.

While under the beatren’s rule, another alien race posed a threat to planet Dex. Dex was to be wiped clean by a few slimy pirates and turned into a retreat for space-faring races. Luckily, the Beatren were ready for an attack and the pirates never assumed a species barely searching the stars with telescopes would have this much firepower. The pirates’ ill-prepared ships were destroyed and news of this incident spread across their galaxy when distress calls flew through space. Dex was given funding to advance the beatren and plark to space. When the two races were registered in the universal database, the plarks were reluctantly released by the beatren upon agreeing to receive resources by other space-faring species. Any resources given to the beatren had to be done on the lines that they were the only sentient species benefiting from the technology. Resources significant enough to sustain an entire species is a huge sacrifice, even to a wealthy alien race. The plark were kicked off of the planet by the beatren, but plark-kind are known to be generous and likable to a wide variety of aliens. They alone were able to create strong relationships with neighboring species and offer reliable work for a fraction of its worth. Plark were poor at the time and their contagious, positive outlook earned them resources while beatren invented, yet proved to be a more bloodthirsty species.

After civilized plark were banished from Dex, they began settlements on other planets and made homes on several ships. Because of their agreeable nature, they gained favor with other alien races quickly and their economy boomed. Plark now have an exceptionally high number of alliances and are one of the most respected races in Meridia for persuading many warring races to make peace at the risk of their own people’s lives. Although controversial, plark have chosen to give technology to alien races that have great potential to positively impact the universe. A species called kuil were one of the most notable races to benefit from plark-planted technology. More detail can be read about them here: The Kuil - Free Species

Some aliens think the plark are making huge mistakes by handing out technology to premature alien races, but others admire their generosity and desire to watch progress happen. In the grand scheme of things, plark just want every living thing to get along and exchange information to advance life as a whole. Plark believe their part is to cool down conflict where profitable relationships can arise. They will even attempt to make peace with races long thought to be irrationally violent, after all, they lived with the beatren for thousands of years.

Demeanor: Most aliens find that the plark are absolute joys to speak with and make loyal friends. Native Dexxen plark tend to be selfless and always thinking about how they can strengthen their relationships with others. Some aliens, on the other hand (we’re looking at you, beatren), find plark to be clingy, especially if they can’t find the guts to tell them to give them space. Plark will oblige, since they have another group of friends ready for them on the other end. Usually, though, plark will detect that you don’t enjoy their presence and will usually back off. Besides that, adult plark seem to have a certain air about their presence that makes other aliens feel comfortable.

A plark will typically choose a job in law enforcement, politics, agriculture, or the medical field (usually as a doctor or nurse) and don’t tend to gravitate to enlisting in the military.

Technology: Dexxen species haven’t added much in terms of advanced technology (their technology was originally funded by a third party), but beatren have added a vicious force to be reckoned with and the plark have handed over experienced diplomats. Because plark have brilliant eyesight, their spaceship designs and architecture are considered beautiful to many aliens. The plark observe what other aliens consider beautiful and incorporate as many of those standards as they can into their cities and fleets. For this reason, many different aliens are positively drawn to plark.

___


I showed my dad this and he pointed out that these critters look like the gungan and ithorian from Star Wars had a baby... I mean, he's right, though. Hehe.