NOMAD Aliens: Onyx Titan | Frank Mitchell's Blog

Physiology

Onyx Titans stand at least four meters tall, and consist largely of dense stone, black and/or with multicolored striations. A large iridescent dome over three meters in diameter takes up roughly the top third of the creature, and shades its limbs and lower body from the intense radiation of its home planet. Six elephantine legs extend from just below the dome and carry the creature along the rough terrain of its home-world in the manner of Earth insects, so that three legs remain rooted to the earth at all times. Midway to the ground, Three to five delicate manipulator arms sprout irregularly from an area in the direction of motion; at least two of these arms can reach to the ground and to its cap. Smaller eye-stalks, usually two or three, sprout from the same area. The torso narrows to a point, from which waste products issue.

A Titan has few recognizably biological parts. Titans evolved from a mollusk-like creature that excreted a stone shield to thin the radiation bombarding it, converting remaining radiation into energy. These creatures built ever more elaborate shells to protect themselves and increase their land speed; limbs used hydraulic principles, iron, and electricity. One genus of mollusk synthesized increasingly crystalline brains, which eventually developed sapience. At a certain point in their history, the Titans consciously sculpted themselves into more efficient forms. An adult titan consists mostly of inorganic material; the only trace of mollusk forebears are symbiotic short-lived animals that rebuild layers of quartz.

New Titans are not born so much as built.

Psychology

Titans live for thousands of years, and have a culture stretching back millions. Like all long-lived species, they plan far ahead and consider long-term consequences. By human standards all Titans are stoics.

With few physical needs they prefer intellectual pursuits: science, art, philosophy, even mystical religion. Titans grow very attached to their pursuits or beliefs, although no Titan would act upon mere supposition. Titans demand concrete evidence or convincing arguments from evidence before they act. With that certainty, however, they react swiftly.

When a Titan dies, its colleagues transfer its knowledge and memories into their omnipresent information systems, and create its replacement from scratch. Loss of a Titan’s brain grieves its kin beyond understanding, and they will pursue an intact brain across the universe.

Ecology

Few carbon-based life forms survive on the Titan home-world under its radiation-spewing sun. Most life forms live underground or with thick mineral shells, like the Titans’ ancestors. A few short-lived predators prowl the barren sands, looking for mollusks or less fortunate surface dwellers. Water is surprisingly plentiful, although constant radiation kills organisms near the surface.

Titans live simply on this planet, maintaining shelters for delicate equipment and stores of rare supplies. Titans get most of their energy from standing under the deadly sun, but they need to consume certain minerals and organic compounds, and to excrete dead symbiote tissue.

Off-world, Titans require massive amounts of radiation and comparatively little “food”. This, and their considerable mass, makes them difficult guests for most planets. They prefer their own ships and sealed environments. Fortunately, Titans invented a gravity-nullifying field that makes escaping gravity wells much easier … but their ships need plenty of energy to counteract inertia.

Culture

Titans long ago developed automatons to perform necessary menial work, and information technologies that operate much like a giant omnipresent brain. Each automaton or communication node has intelligence commensurate with its responsibility. Automatons approaching sapience receive nearly the same rights and respect as Titans themselves; the Titans’ own physiology blurs any distinction between artificial and natural.

Titans travel off-world, but they prefer to explore and interact using sophisticated automatons. Their radiation requirements and unusual physiology make direct interaction with most sapient beings difficult.

Politics

Most other species respect and in some cases fear Titans. While Titans have never started a war, when they defend themselves or others they neutralize opponents swiftly and irrevocably.

ONYX TITAN (Nomad)

Size	Stamina	Armor	Damage	C	K	P	So	St	T	V
Titanic	30	10	5D AV 2D	0	3	4	1	0	3	0