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Aliens: Kaelen
Best described as six-foot stick insects. They are an extremely old race, almost as old as the Parkry, although more stable racially/genetically, as the only modification they show is one that occurred very early on in their development, substituting their two rear legs for one, making them tripedal. Their society is based mainly on ideas of indebtedness; if you do a favour for a Kaelen, the entire race is obliged to mitigate that debt somehow, so don't be surprised if one day, a Kaelen that you've never met before repays you. They are unusual in the realm of insect-based species in that they have a sense of humour, possibly due to their low degree of attachment to the traditional insectoid order of things (worker/soldier/queen etc.)... which isn't to say that they don't hold a great deal of respect for their hive-leaders, although they tend not to live in hives these days, preferring rubbish-bins. Main forms of communication are by high-pitched sounds and pheromones: `... when requesting respectful silence for the involved "Hive Separation" ritual, the Kaelen Queen emits a pheromone (scent chem.ref 976541) and emits a traditional "cry of distress" screech-tone (hear aud.ref 976537)'
- Martini Baton, `What the hell is THAT?', chapter Nine Use of their rudimentary antennae has devolved to the level of social modifiers, much like human use of eyebrows or Pthalklin Ervae's use of the lace-wing caste. How to show a Kaelen that you think the joke it just told you is funny: If you don't have antennae, use your fingers. it isn't necessary to hold them up next to your temples; make a fist, extend your index finger, then extend your pinkie while withdrawing the index finger; then withdraw the pinkie into your fist again. a significant delay between the index finger and pinkie finger movements is interpreted as sarcastic laughter, so be careful. There are many different varieties of Kaelen; some of the lower orders are almost what we'd consider to be biological mobile phones; they exist to generate the pheromones that was once a major part of the Kaelen language. Some of these pheromones have unusual effects on other races. |
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