Hello! You may call me James, Calysto, JC, or OP. I'm brand new here and would like to present an idea for an alien species I have come up with, which I am calling Hexaturns. (See self-made concept art above)
I created this species with heavy inspiration from Andy Weir's Eridians, however I went for a soft bodied approach instead. Below I will include full details for how they function and what their planet is like, but for those of you that just want cool art, there you go.
If you have any questions/comments/constructive criticism, PLEASE let me know, I really want to improve this design.
Biology
Hexaturns evolved on a very low gravity planet that was also very far from their star. In fact, their planet was actually more of a moon, orbiting round a gas giant along with several other moons. Their moon’s orbit would sometimes get very close to their planet’s rings, which would pull bits and pieces out and have them rain down on the surface, or evaporate in the atmosphere as gasses. Being so cold and having such a high concentration of the stuff, liquid helium oceans formed on the surface of the moon, which would eventually be seeded by an asteroid with rudimentary lifeforms on board. This is where their species began, with organisms evolving to take the hydrogen and oxygen that had dissolved into the helium oceans and use them to make chemical energy. From there, three different types of organisms evolved; what we would identify as animals and plants, and a mix between the two, called Flaunor. Floating hydrogen balloons covered in plant-like organisms that spread themselves out to collect the minor sunlight, anchored to the moon by several legs. Hexaturns are more similar to what we define as animals, but do have traits associated with flaunor, such as absorbing radiation and turning it into usable energy, however, this is not required. Hexaturns take in hydrogen and oxygen from their atmospheres and initiate combustion to produce thermal energy that is then absorbed. Excess energy is dealt with due to liquid helium flowing through their bodies, acting as blood and keeping their internals cold. This technically means that Hexaturns can be identified as cold blooded, but the concepts of hot and cold are relative so yes and no. due to having such a low gravity and being full of hydrogen and oxygen, and having no hard, bone-like structure, Hexaturns have similar buoyancy to their atmosphere, which means they experience less of their already very minor gravity. When there are situations of higher gravity than they should be able to handle, they can deflate their bodies as a defense mechanism, which is very painful, dangerous and scary, and re-inflating is also very slow and painful. Rather than muscles, Hexaturns have hundreds of tiny pneumatics (muscles powered by moving air) to move their limbs in pretty much any direction while keeping precision. In terms of actual Hexaturn appearance and body structure, they are hexapods, meaning they have six legs they walk on. All of their hands/feet and prehensile, with four finger-toes that spread out a four-point-star pattern. Their body is structured like that of a ferret or pine martin of Earth; long, noodly bodies, fluid and flexible limbs, and tails for balance. They also exhibit traits we see in other, usually unrelated animals, like a tail and dorsal fin like that of axolotls. On a moon with such low gravity, with such a thin atmosphere, speed is everything, and fins on land are common simply because, well, it works. Light from a star reaching a planet at all requires a lot of things to go right. The star has to be bright enough, the atmosphere can’t be too thick, it can’t have its entire surface covered in ice, and if a bigger planet blocks what little light does reach, well now you have even less light than before. Hexaturns encountered this problem in their evolution. Their planet is a moon, orbiting a gas giant, and very far away from their star, so little light reaches the planet at all, meaning that most of the time it’s very dark, with only light reflecting off the other moons. So, to combat this, their eyes have evolved for drastically lower levels of light, and can see different wavelengths than humans can’t, meaning they can usually see what we would perceive as total darkness. They also have a form of very advanced heat vision. Since Hexaturns, and many other creatures on their moon produce heat, seeing other creatures’heating bodies is extremely useful. The situation in which they evolved is way worse than you might originally think, and most of it is due to their atmosphere. Since it’s so thin, it can barely store any heat from starlight, which is part of the reason it’s so cold. But on top of that, of course, the planet they orbit blocks out starlight that would otherwise heat the planet. These inconsistencies in light and heat, either being far too much or way too little of either or, forced Hexaturns to see well in low or high light, and control their own body temperatures all by themselves. Liquid helium is great for cooling down, but not for staying warm, and you can’t just solve everything by taking a bath (plus, submerging in any liquid is extremely dangerous because Hexaturns are covered in spiracles). So their helium blood was repurposed as a way to control their body temperature even further. If it’s too hot, pump more blood around and cool off, or jump in a helium lake. If it’s too cold, hold your blood in roughly one spot, and let the chemical heat energy from your body keep you alive. Hexaturns later figured out how to hijack their own biology, by either injecting themselves with more helium blood, or drawing some out so your body produces more heat. There is a limit to this of course, because you need your blood to survive, but it does mean that you can essentially survive space temperatures by sucking out your blood. This is very dangerous obviously, but this was the Hexaturn’s first attempt at surviving off their own planet. Thin atmospheres have more problems than just heat however. Sound requires a medium of some form to travel through to, well, function. Not enough density, no sound. Too much, also no sound. It’s like light in a way. Because Hexaturns have such a thin atmosphere, all their sounds are muted in comparison to what we’re used to. Sound is near useless to them, but it’s also one of the best ways to communicate. Hexaturns evolved very powerful vocal chords, and extremely sensitive ears. Their vocals are less like speech and more like clicking, which when distorted by their thin atmosphere, sounds akin to a cat chirping, chattering, or twittering at birds. On the source face of their skin, Hexaturns grow very short, very soft hairs akin to that of the subtle body hair of humans. The difference is that these hairs grow in high density with each other and have more colour variation. They have faded black and white patterns along their backs, faces, arms/legs, and tails. These patterns are used as identification among the species, as well as age identifiers and mating potential. The older a Hexaturn, the more pronounced their patterns are, and the healthier, the darker the colours and higher the contrast with their pearly white skin underneath. Hexaturns only have one sex, and reproduces sexually. When Hexaturns mate, they swap sperm and both individuals have their eggs fertilized, and after a gestation period, the eggs will be laid on the ceiling of caves or Hexa-built structures and eventually hatch with only a thin membrane to protect them and hold everything inside. Each mating session typically results in one fertilized egg for each individual, however, there are rare occasions where none or multiple fertilized eggs are produced from one individual, the most ever recorded being seven. Laying eggs is easy and not physically dangerous for the individual so long as they are healthy because their bodies are so flexible. If something goes wrong in the gestation process and the egg fails, the body recycles the biological material.
Culture
Hexaturn culture is complex and well developed, similar to humans at the point when their civilizations make contact. Hexaturns are incredibly social creatures, with their societies often consisting of forty to one hundred thousand, with subgroups of four to six. These subgroups, called a Populus Group, are much like families or close friends in their relationships. Notably, genetic relations is not a requirement by any means, and is actually pretty uncommon in Populus Groups. They care for one another, spend time together, bring each other trinkets and objects of interest, discuss topics, and sit silently in each other’s presence in an activity called Periodic Symbiosis. Periodic Symbiosis (PS) is when two or more Hexaturns sit together in silence, either sleeping, simply resting, sitting quietly, or doing quiet activities with or without the inclusion of the other individual(s). PS does not require physical closeness, or perfect silence, though it is considered taboo to be purposely disruptive during PS. Hexaturns do not necessarily mate for life, however most often do, and mates are known to have PS’ more often than the typical Populus Group. Hexaturns construct their homes in caves and on the undersides of different species of Flaunor. Their homes are akin to that of windchimes or flutes in appearance; shafts of material hung or chained to a fixture above, with holes along the sides for entrance. Hexaturns float up to these homes and bring their comfort inside. These hanging houses were originally made by cave-hexaturns who wanted to live out of reach of predators. Despite the fact that this is no longer a threat, such traditions have persisted and are standard practice for their culture. In their modern day, they even go so far as to construct platforms high above the ground on stable legs from which to hang new homes.