PHYSIOLOGY
The Ganubian (
Ganubians, plural) species are bipedal humanoids with skin tones ranging from dark red to almost pink in color. Their skin has small ridges which are primarily reflected in their faces. These features are concentrated on the neck, chin and forehead areas Ganubians have black spot patterns beginning above the eyebrow, sloping over the skull and descending down to the lower back. Ganubian ears are pointed at the tip with both tip and lobes attached to the skin of their heads. Their eyes feature incredibly small pupils.
(Left:a female Ganubian), Right: a male Ganubian)
BIOLOGY
Ganubians have a lifespan of about 170 to 200 years with a prolonged adolescence period. The average Ganubian reaches adulthood at around 30 years of age and are considered adults in society at that time. The Ganubian gestation period is 13 months, due to more time required to develop certain complex brain structures.
These brain structures are utilized in regulating neurological functions relating to emotions. Ganubian brains contain the unique ability to completely restrict transmission of chemicals to areas of the brain triggering emotions. Ganubians effectively can ‘turn off’ their emotions at will for short periods of time. The trait appears to be selectively bred into the species, initially influenced by rudimentary genetic modification. This gives Ganubians the advantage of being able to forcefully distance themselves emotionally from a situation in order to make the most logical, rational decision. The drawback comes at a cost of energy. A Ganubian who restricts their emotions for longer than three or four hours at a time will quickly grow sluggish and hungry. Utilizing the emotional restriction past that point will lead to exhaustion and eventually cause significant brain damage.
Because Ganube is in orbit around a F-type White star, days are significantly brighter than a G-type Yellow star. Ganubians evolved to have very small pupils in order to restrict the amount of light entering their eyes. Upon exploration of surrounding systems, Ganubians began to develop light enhancing technology in order to see on darker planets. Those stationed with Starfleet often wear contact lenses that consist of light-absorbing materials which enhance the brightness of what the Ganubian sees. While the image is not quite as accurate as normal vision, it does allow Ganubians to competently serve on Federation ships and starbases.
SOCIETY
Ganubian society is focused on scientific and technological advancement, especially after their first contact with the Romulans. Education is held in high regard on Ganube, with most Ganubians attaining the equivalent of Masters or Doctorate degrees. Educators themselves are held in high regard and are treated with the utmost respect in Ganubian society. Because of the focus on advancement, Ganube has become a sex-equal, post-scarcity society with a plethora of public support systems.
Ganube does not have a formal religious tradition involving deities, but they do follow religious philosophy. The Ganubian philosophy teaches the Two Truths: Conventional Truth and Ultimate Truth. Conventional Truth is physical, observable experiences of one's surroundings in space and time. Ultimate Truth contains the not directly observable patterns in the world, such as quantum physics. Ganubians use this philosophy in order to make a rational and logical assessment of evidence in order to try and gain a better understanding of the Two Truths. Religious medication is highly practiced in two ways; Rational meditation and Experience meditation. The Rational meditation is used to clear the mind and objectively process data and is usually done without use of their emotional restriction abilities in order to avoid taxing the mind. Experience meditation focuses on emotions themselves and is used to immerse oneself in what they are feeling to experience it and to help quantify the emotions.
Ganubians tend to live in small community clusters, often sharing homes with up to a dozen other community members. Children are raised equally by their community (SEE: Interpersonal Commitments) and stay in their community until maturity is reached. They are then encouraged to seek out new and different communities in order to ensure a diverse gene pool. Other adult community movement is usually motivated by career and determined by what resources are required where, however there are instances of Ganubians changing communities due to more emotional grounds, such as disputes with others.
POLITICS
Ganube is ruled by the Central Ganubian Council. This Council is made up of subject matter experts on fields ranging from economics and medicine to psychology and sociology. Subject matter experts serve for a term of five years and each branch is on a rotating schedule to ensure no more than a third of the Council is replaced at a time. During the selection year, the top experts fields up for replacement are given the option of taking the Council Admittance Examinations. This battery of tests evaluates not only the knowledge of a Ganubian in their field but their objectivity, logical and cognitive thought processes, and their altruistic qualities.
Members of the Council are expected to approach problems from a rational and logical standpoint of what would benefit society the most. Solutions are based on current and prior research from all fields impacted by the problem being addressed. While this process leads to more beneficial and comprehensive laws, it does tend to slow down the process significantly. During states of emergency such as acts of aggression from alien species, measures are put in place to ensure a more rapid response.
CULTURE
Because Ganubian society and religion has such a heavy focus on logic and reason, Ganubian culture is the widest outlet for emotions. Much of Ganubian art, music and other entertainment media are meant to be pure expressions of emotion and seek to evoke emotions in others. Music often consists of acoustic string instruments and percussion instruments. Many composers write complex symphonies meant to inspire a variety of different emotions throughout the performance. Ganubian art is often expressionist, featuring bright colors that are more easily perceived by the Ganubian eye.
INTERPERSONAL COMMITMENT
Ganubian society has no marital or mating commitments. Because Ganube is focused on society, children are raised as much by the community than the parents. Ganubians often will live in community buildings where children are attended to by adults serving the role of caregiver and educator through their developmental years. Parents are not expected to be personally responsible for their own children and it is not unheard of for one parent or the other to change communities before their child reaches maturity. In cases such as these, the child remains with the community they were born in and the parent takes up parental duties in their new community. Once a child reaches maturity, they are encouraged to change communities in order to help diversify the gene pool.
Spoiler: WARNING: Contains information about Ganubian mating, click at your own risk!Show Sexual intercourse serves two functions in Ganubian society and is thus approached in different ways. Intercourse designed for procreation is regulated by the Council and partners are matched based on genetic compatibility in order to produce a diverse and healthy offspring. This method of procreation is almost always done while under the influence of emotional restriction and is seen solely as a biological imperative. That being said, Ganubians do have intercourse purely for the purpose of pleasure. This is often a more emotionally involved process and monogamous attachments are rarely formed between partners, leading to a much more polygamous society.
Ganubians have a three tier naming structure. Because parental lineage is not important in Ganubian society, children do not take any part of their parents names. Their third (or last) name is ascribed at birth, taking the name of the community they were born to. This name continues to stay with them, even if they change communities. The first name is their common name, is generally considered personal and is given by the mother at birth. A Ganubian’s second name denotes their current community and changes any time that Ganubian relocates to another community. Ganubians serving on Ganubian warp ships take the second name of ‘Metri’, the name of their star system. Those who serve on other vessels, such as Federation ships do not have a second name for the duration of their service.
TECHNOLOGY REPORT
RATING: Average
As a society devoted to scientific advancement, Ganube has been able to keep pace with the rest of the galaxy when it comes to medicine. Physical and psychological illnesses are quickly treated or managed on Ganube and the planet has been an exporter of pharmaceuticals since a few decades after first contact with the Romulans. Development of the vision correction lenses that allow Ganubians to function in low light environments also took place during this point in time.
Since being given access to Federation information and resources, Ganube quickly adapted to incorporate new knowledge into their medical institutions to eliminate any deficiencies. They continue to produce and export pharmaceuticals.
RATING: Average
Ganubian science has also kept pace with the rest of the galaxy. Ganubians already had enough knowledge of evolutionary biology, neurobiology and genetics to modify and encourage the emotional restriction process their logic-based society utilizes. With the addition of Federation knowledge databanks, Ganubian science quickly caught up to be equal with current Federation technology.
RATING: Average
Upon the first contact with the Federation, Ganubian engineering was a bit lacking. Ship designs were copied and modified Romulan designs, some of which were still based upon old Vulcan technology. Even this knowledge often came second hand, as the secretive nature of the Romulan Empire kept Ganubians from being able to directly learn about their advances in warp technology. Ganubian Engineers often had to extrapolate data purely from observation, though occasionally Ganubian ships would salvage abandoned Romulan ships to attempt to reverse-engineer functional components. Just like medical science, once the library of information from the Federation was made available to Ganube, integration was a rapid process. This led to a mass production of Bio-neural gel packs which became one of Ganube’s primary exports.
