The Xiang

The head, located at the front of the body, has two large, somewhat bulgy eyes, one located on the left side and one on the right side of the "face," which allow binocular vision.  A row of four small eyespots is located between these two large eyes, with two more, slightly larger, eyespots located just above the middle two small eyespots.  Below the row of eyespots is a sizeable, beaklike mouth which is surrounded by four small, armlike structures.  These tiny arms, dubbed "mouth-arms," are equipped with small, two-fingered hands, which are used to help pass food into the Xiang's mouth.  The Xiang mouth needs no teeth or lips, since a gizzard-like structure within the throat grinds up chunks of food once they are swallowed.

At the end of the body, opposite the head, is an ovipositor-like structure which is used for egg laying by the female-phase Xiang and egg fertilization by the male-phase Xiang.  The Xiang body is roughly as long as the Xiang is tall ( about one meter).  Most of the Xiang's height is taken up by its long legs, which have three joints ( one ankle and two "knees") and which are stilt-like in appearance.  The legs as well as most of the Xiang body, are covered with a tough, carapace-like exoskeleton.  This exoskeleton, however, is not the sole means of support for the Xiang body, which also has a cartilaginous internal skeleton.

The Xiang's symbiotic partner, the dirt-mother, is a large mound-like organism, roughly circular in shape, which is about five meters in diameter and about one and a half meters tall at the center of the mound.  Eight orifices, each a little under a meter across, are spaced at regular intervals around the base of the dirt-mother.  At the very top center of the mound is a large, round depression which is about 35 centimeters deep.  A thick ledge, roughly three centimeters wide, hangs out over and encircles the periphery of the depression.  Most of the surface of the dirt-mother is covered with a tough, bark-like substance which is a dark greenish-brown in color.

Senses: From all indications, the Xiang seem to possess the same set of senses as humans do, although the Xiang sensitivity levels differ from those of humans.  As with humans, sight is the predominant sense on a Xiang.  Only one pair of the Xiang's eight eyes, the largest ones, which are located on the sides of the head, are capable of vision with resolution comparable to human vision.  In most cases, the visual acuity of these large eyes is actually better than the best human visual acuity.  Wavelength sensitivity range is comparable to that of humans, although the Xiang seem to be slightly more sensitive to infrared wavelengths than humans.

The other two eyes, including the mid-sized pair on the forehead, appear to be capable only of distinguishing conditions of light or darkness and have no real resolution to speak of.  These lesser eyes ( usually referred to as the Xiang eyespots to distinguish them from the true eyes) have no eyelids, but instead have a tough, rigid, lens-like membrane covering them.  The true eyes, however, are equipped with protective eyelids which have a vertical closure rather than a horizontal closure like human eyes.  With an amber-colored iris surrounding an hourglass-shaped pupil, the true eyes also differ in color from the eyespots, which are a featureless dark brown in hue.  No sclera ( the "white" of the eye) is visible either on the eyespots or the true eyes.

After vision, the second most important sense to a Xiang is the sense of smell.  Olfactory perception in the Xiang is highly acute, allowing the Xiang to differentiate between a myriad of scents too subtle for humans to perceive.  The average Xiang is able to identify an individual Xiang by scent alone ( providing that individual has been encountered previously), usually well before that individual is within visual or auditory range.  Complimenting their olfactory abilities, the Xiang have developed highly individualized scent glands which give each Xiang a distinct and unique odor.  The strongest components of a Xiang's scent are easily perceptible to humans and are usually very similar among members of the same Xiang clan.  This odoriferous characteristic of the Xiang was what prompted the selection of the species name by the Manchurians ( "xiang" in Chinese means "fragrant" or "fragrance" -- an apt description for this alien species).

With most of the Xiang body covered by a tough, carapace-like hide, the Xiang sense of touch is limited mostly to the sensitive "mouth-arms" and to the foreleg hands.  Tactile sensitivity is more pronounced on the "mouth-arms" than on the foreleg hands, which have a touch threshold level comparable to the average human hand wearing leather gloves.  The exact level of tactile sensitivity of the mouth-arms is unknown, but it is believed to be better than the most sensitive areas on humans.  Because of this sensitivity, the Xiang have developed a method of touch communication using the mouth-arms, but this appears to be used only by members of the same clan.

After sight and smell, the third most important sense to a Xiang is its auditory capability.  Xiang hearing appears to encompass roughly the same frequency range as human hearing, although Xiang are able to perceive some ultrasonic frequencies that humans cannot.  Volume sensitivity in the Xiang is also comparable to that of humans, and a few Xiang are able to detect sounds below the volume threshold of the average human ear.

Taste is a fairly minimal sense in the Xiang.  Although the oral cavity in a Xiang does possess taste receptors, they are of limited sensitivity.  Consequently, the Xiang tend to regard tastes as a background sort of sensation, and they perceive the odors of foodstuffs more than they do the tastes.  From studies performed, it appears that the Xiang sense of taste becomes more pronounced as the Xiang ages.  The reason for this enhancement, both physically and evolutionarily speaking, is still unclear.

Respiration: The atmosphere on the Xiang homeworld is remarkably similar in both pressure and composition to that of Stark, the Sung homeworld, which allows Xiang and Sung to comfortably breathe the same air ( the atmosphere on the Xiang homeworld is slightly thinner than Earth's).  The Xiang respiratory system has some similarity to that of humans, with a diaphragm providing pumping action to drive air in and out of lung-like sacs.  In the Xiang, however, there are five air intake openings: the oral opening and four openings in-between the front legs ( two openings per body side, with one between the first and second legs and one between the second and third on each side).  The oral cavity leads to the largest air sac in the body, while the side openings lead to smaller sacs.  These side breathing holes allow the Xiang to breathe while engaged in eating.  The olfactory receptors in the Xiang are located both within the oral cavity and on the lining of the tubes leading from the side breathing holes to their respective air sacs.

Health: The Xiang are, overall, a remarkably healthy species.  From all indications there appear to be no diseases native to their homeworld that affect them.  Both the Xiang and the dirt-mothers, however, are prone to parasitic invasions.  In the Xiang, the parasites that are most common are a small, mite-like organism that tends to attach itself in the crevices of a Xiang's ankle joint, and a tiny wormlike creature that likes to live in the folds of a Xiang's neck.  Neither of these parasites is a particularly serious problem; both are generally a nuisance at worst.

On the other hand, dirt-mothers are prone to some serious parasitic infestations, which, if left unattended, can result in the death of the dirt-mother.  The most serious of these is a wormlike borer which likes to eat his way through the tough, outer layer of the dirt-mother.  Once through the outer layer, the borer makes his way through the central tissue of the dirt-mother, where it lays a large cluster of eggs.  Once these hatch, they eat out the core of the dirt-mother, which results in the dirt-mother's death.  Since this would cause serious problems for a Xiang which has not yet laid eggs ( or to a Xiang whose eggs were still unhatched inside the dirt-mother), most Xiang carefully and regularly check their dirt-mothers for these parasites and remove any that are found.  It is not uncommon for young, inexperienced Xiang to miss some of these parasites, resulting in the premature death of their dirt-mothers and leaving the young Xiang without any way of producing offspring.

Genetic basis: Biochemically speaking, the Xiang have essentially the same genetic basis as both humans and Sung, with DNA, left-handed amino acids, and a carbon-based body chemistry.  Beyond those common characteristics, the similarities end.  The Xiang possess 20 pairs of chromosomes, fewer than the human 23 and the Sung 29.  Of the 20 chromosome pairs in the Xiang, there are no sex chromosomes since the Xiang are a metamorphosing, hermaphroditic species ( Xiang start out as neuter, mature into female-type egg laying form, then metamorphose into a male-type form capable of fertilizing eggs).

Reproduction: The Xiang are a hermaphroditic species; thus, each Xiang lays a clutch of eggs once in its lifetime.  It is during the egg-laying stage that the symbiotic relationship between the Xiang and the dirt-mother is most important.  For protection from the elements and hostile scavengers, a Xiang in its first sexually mature state ( the female analogue stage) lays a group of four to six eggs in a deep orifice on the top side of the dirt-mother.  These eggs are then covered with a fluid produced by a different Xiang -- one who is in the second sexually mature state ( the male phase).  This fluid serves the purpose of fertilizing the eggs, as well as covering them with a protective layer that will completely harden within approximately an hour's time.

Once the eggs are fertilized, the dirt-mother begins to undergo a series of changes which seem to be triggered by chemical compounds within the Xiang fertilizing fluid.  A tough, bark-like overgrowth is quickly produced by the dirt-mother to cover and seal the Xiang eggs within their orifice.  This cover is usually complete within a couple of Terran days and is essential to the production of the eggs during their maturation stage.  Without the dirt-mother's overgrowth, the protective layer resulting from the fertilization fluid deteriorates within a Terran week's time, thus leaving the eggs vulnerable to both adverse weather conditions and any predators with a taste for Xiang eggs.  Failure of the dirt-mother to produce the protective overgrowth is a rare occurrence, although it has been known to happen, resulting in the tragic loss of an entire clutch of eggs.

While the eggs are maturing, the dirt-mother undergoes reproductive processes itself ( probably triggered biochemically by the fertilizing fluid of the Xiang).  Small dirt-mother "buds" begin to grow along the lower sides of the egg-holding dirt-mother.  These buds are symmetrically arranged in a circle, with one bud usually located in-between each of the eight food orifices on the dirt-mother.  As the Xiang eggs develop within the center of the dirt-mother, these buds also develop and gradually take over most of the tissue space in their respective octants.  Once mature, these buds separate from the parent dirt-mother, leaving the tough, upper husk empty except for a relatively small central area of tissue ( which encompasses the Xiang egg chamber and surrounding support tissues), which is all that remains of the parent dirt-mother after reproduction.

When the dirt-mother starts budding, a saplike substance seeps into the egg chamber.  This sap insulates the eggs and slowly thins the egg shell through an exothermic chemical reaction ( which helps keep the eggs warm), eventually resulting in paper-thin eggshells just as the Xiang are ready to hatch.  Once the Xiang eggs hatch ( which is before the dirt-mother buds mature), the young Xiang use their front claws and their beak-like mouths to scratch their way out of the egg chamber, which has started to deteriorate from the sap coating the inside walls.

In the process of breaking the egg chamber's top, the newly hatched Xiang end up ingesting some of the sap, which contains compounds highly addictive to the young Xiang.  The young Xiang must continue to get regular ingestions of this sap until it undergoes metamorphosis into the sexually mature female-stage ( first taking sap from its dirt-mother, then getting sap from its own dirt-mother once it becomes independent).  For the first two years of its life, the young Xiang is relatively dependent on its parent, who takes care of it.

Life cycle: The Xiang are a relatively short-lived species with an average lifespan of only about thirty years.  After hatching out of its egg, the Xiang is a small (about ten centimeters), neuter version of the adult Xiang.  During the first two years, the young Xiang learns to hunt, communicate, and take care of its dirt-mother.  A growth spurt occurs near the end of the second year, causing the Xiang to reach its youth height of about thirty centimeters.  At the end of its second year, the Xiang takes its now barely mature dirt-mother bud off to a plot of land of its own, where the dirt-mother can be "planted" and allowed to start its growth into full, adult maturity.

It is at this time that the young Xiang is most vulnerable.  Since it is small in size and relatively unexperienced in the ways of the world, it can fall prey to numerous predators that would not think to trouble an adult Xiang ( which is the largest predator on the planet).  Trouble can also arise if the young dirt-mother does not survive, which can occur for a number of reasons.  Parasites, poor site selection, and unfavorable environmental conditions can all result in the death of the dirt-mother, which subsequently occurs in the death of the young Xiang.  Without the sap that the dirt-mother produces, the Xiang will not mature into an adult ( once the young Xiang has achieved its full height, the sap triggers the metamorphosis processes for the adult transformation).  Deprived of the sap, the Xiang will go through symptoms which strongly resemble human drug withdrawal symptoms.  Death usually results soon after.  With all these factors, it is rare for more than one Xiang out of a single egg batch to survive to adulthood.

During the next six years after hatching, the young Xiang grows slowly, attaining the full adult height of about one meter in a second growth spurt during its eighth year.  Once it has grown to its adult height, it metamorphosizes into the fertile, egg laying female-stage, with the maturing process happening the ninth and tenth years.  Somehow, biochemically, this metamorphosis eliminates the need in the Xiang for the dirt-mother sap to which it has been addicted since hatching.  The now female-phase Xiang then chooses an older, male-phase Xiang to join with and fertilize the eggs which are subsequently laid in the dirt-mother.

Once the eggs hatch, the Xiang spends the next two years teaching and caring for its offspring until they are ready to go off on their own.  After the young are independent, the Xiang undergoes another metamorphosis.  In this metamorphosis, the ovipositer structure is changed into a fertilizing structure, with a new set of glands coming into maturation while the old set withers and becomes nonfunctional.  With the splitting of the dirt-mother into buds and the subsequent death of the diminished, remaining organism, the Xiang is then free to wander where it will, doing what it wishes ( within the norms of Xiang society).

The adult male-phase Xiang is capable of fertilizing three to four clutches of eggs before it becomes sterile.  Normally, a male-phase Xiang will fertilize only one clutch of eggs in its lifetime ( very rarely will it fertilize two or three).  Usually, the older, male-phase Xiang will live out the remainder of his life engaged in various pursuits, often of a creative ( artistic) or exploratory nature.  Death, when it comes, usually occurs of natural causes in the 25th to 30th years.

Locomotion: Out of ten legs, the foremost two, which are used for object manipulation, are the only ones not used for locomotion.  With the leg-joint structure as it is, Xiang generally have a stilted, stiff-leggedness to their walk.  The structure of the Xiang foot offers stable purchase on a variety of terrain, allowing them to walk with relative ease over rough, rocky terrain when necessary.  This foot structure also allows them to climb numerous species of trees on their homeworld, provided that the tree surface covering is coarsely grooved enough.

Although their pace can be fairly rapid while walking, Xiang often resort to hopping if a situation requires fast movement by them over a sizeable distance.  With a relatively low body mass coupled with a leg structure capable of significant "spring," an adult Xiang, if necessary, can propel itself an average of six meters in one hop ( if they are in their native gravity).  This Xiang hopping ability also aids in Xiang food hunting since most Xiang seem to have a taste for eating some of the aerial species on their homeworld.

Nutrition: The Xiang are generally a carnivorous species once they have reached adulthood, although immature Xiang tend to be omnivorous and to eat whatever nonpoisonous food they can find.  Adult Xiang have shown a definitive preference for eating a particular species of flyer native to their homeworld.  Remarkably, these flyers, although smaller than the adult Xiang, bear a strong resemblance to the Sung ( a resemblance which tends to make the Sung very uneasy when they see the Xiang devouring these flyers with gusto).  Although these flyers ( sungus inferus verettus) look a lot like miniature ( about half a meter in height) Sung, they are much less intelligent than the Sung, and as a result even though they can fly, they tend to be very easy prey (as well as being considered very tasty to a Xiang).

For a young, immature Xiang, the flyers that the adults find so tasty are dangerous predators who have a definite fondness for young Xiang ( who are only about thirty centimeters tall at this stage).  Consequently, the young Xiang tend to hunt small, ground-dwelling organisms that live in the underbrush, which affords protection from the flyers while the young Xiang hunts.  During periods when the hunting is not good, young Xiang will eat various kinds of vegetation as well as scavenging kills made by other predators who have had their fill and left behind sizeable carcasses.

Both young and adult Xiang also are required to obtain nutrients for their dirt-mothers.  Although the dirt-mothers do obtain some of their nutrient requirements from the soil they are based on, they must rely on the Xiang they are bonded with to provide the rest of their sustenance.  This occurs in two ways.  In the first, the Xiang scavenges dead organic matter ( either animal or, preferably, plant) and "feeds" the dirt-mother by placing this material in one of the eight food orifices located around the bottom side of it.  This material then decomposes within these orifices ( with the aid of some secretions produced by the cells lining the inside of the orifices), and the nutrients are absorbed into the dirt-mother.

The second way a Xiang feeds its dirt-mother is through a secretion that it produces and deposits within the food orifices.  This secretion, produced by glandlike structures on the underside of the Xiang's tail, seems to be composed of nutrient substances that are indigestible to the Xiang, along with other waste products of the Xiang body.  What is useless to the Xiang body appears to have strong nutritive qualities for the dirt-mothers, which thrive when they are fed sufficient quantities of this secretion.  Dirt-mothers that are not fed regularly with this fluid show definite signs of ill health.

In addition to their spoken language, Xiang also use two other forms of communication: a form of touch communication using the mouth-arms, and a chirping sort of communication similar to crickets also utilizing the mouth-arms.  Since humans cannot engage in either of these two communication forms, it has been difficult to gain any understanding of them.  The cricket-like chirping, which uses the rubbing together of Xiang mouth-arms to produce sounds of varying pitch and rhythm, seems to be a form of "singing" among the Xiang, and it appears to be used exclusively for relating oral histories of sorts or for other forms of artistic expression.  It is unclear exactly what sort of communication is accomplished through the touching of mouth-arms, but it has been speculated that it is some sort of intimate emotional communication ( the Xiang are vague on explaining what goes an during such exchanges).

Technology: The Xiang have virtually no technology to speak of, and they appear to have no need or desire for it.  Living at a technological level comparable to the human Stone Age cultures, the Xiang fabricate very little in the way of useful, labor-saving devices.  Most of the articles manufactured by the Xiang workers are of decorative or artistic nature, rather than being functional or useful.  Consequently, most of the Xiang fabrication technology is centered around methods for making such works of art.  Xiang are curious about both human and Sung technology, but they are interested in it from an aesthetic point of view rather than in the terms of functionality.  Metals and metalworking fascinate them, but only because interesting forms can be made from metals which are radically different from anything Xiang artisans have made before.

Art and Architecture: Art is an important aspect of Xiang culture and much of the art produced by them has an "organic" feel to it.  Much use is made of woods and other plant material, with Xiang artisans carving, bending, or otherwise shaping these materials into shapes they find aesthetically pleasing.  Dyes and paints made from various organic sources are frequently used to color works of art in patterns that often carry much meaning to a Xiang.  Often, Xiang artisans coat their works with scented compounds which they select, blend, and use to convey a particular feeling or meaning to other Xiang.

Xiang art tends to fall into two categories: transient and permanent.  Transient art is not designed to last, and in fact, it is often destroyed by the creator once it has been seen by everyone that the Xiang artist feels should see it.  If not destroyed outright by the creator once its purpose is fulfilled, transient Xiang art is usually left to be reclaimed by nature.  Such artworks are not maintained or repaired or even protected from the elements, but are instead left to gradually decay or fall apart, eventually becoming part of the land once again.

Permanent Xiang art is often composed of stone or very hard woods found on the Xiang homeworld.  A permanent artwork is usually considered the possession of a specific Xiang clan and will be passed on from one generation to the next.  Each generation will change or embellish such permanent artwork to suit their own designs, often repainting or carving new designs, scenes or patterns in place of, or as part of the old scheme.  Some of these permanent artworks are very old, usually in the form of slabs, pillars or small hut-like structures which are covered with extensive, intricate designwork.

The architecture on the Xiang homeworld is generally temporary shelter-type structures designed and built to protect Xiang and dirt-mothers from rare, adverse environmental conditions.  The body structures of the Xiang and dirt-mothers are such that, with the climatic conditions on the Xiang homeworld, shelter-type constructions are usually unnecessary.  Such shelters as are built are usually constructed of plant materials, with animal hides occasionally being used as coverings.

Religion: Little is currently understood about Xiang religious views.  It appears that the Xiang view the dirt-mothers with a religious-like reverence, although no one has yet determined exactly how the Xiang regard their symbiotic partners.  A Xiang is considered to be "bonded" to its dirt-mother and must stay with the dirt-mother and attend it until the dirt-mother dies ( and the Xiang's offspring have gone off and settled down with the dirt-mother's buds).  Xiang never bond with new dirt-mothers if their old ones have died prematurely.  Once the dirt-mother is dead ( assuming it has lived its normal, natural lifespan), the adult Xiang ( now in the male phase of its life), is free to wander where it will until its death.

At the time of a Xiang's death, tradition requires that the body be brought to the dead husk of its dirt-mother and tucked underneath the shell.  Both the dead Xiang and the dirt-mother are covered with a coating of plant debris and soil to speed their return to the earth.  If the dirt-mother is still alive and the Xiang dies prematurely, the Xiang is buried in the soil adjacent to the dirt-mother.  The Xiang is also buried in the ground when the dirt-mother is dead but its husk is either inaccessible or unintact ( destroyed usually by a freak of nature).

Xiang also hold a religious-like reverence for the harmony of life and the environment, and do not approve of actions that disrupt the harmony of the cycles of nature.  The Sung strip mines on the Xiang homeworld have disturbed them greatly, even though the Xiang have agreed to work for the Sung in extracting ores in these mines.  The Sung have assured that once the mines are depleted, the land will be restored to its former state, which has eased the Xiang worries that such drastic manipulations of the land will result in some dire consequences ( what those consequences are believed to be is a mystery to all but the Xiang, who refuse to discuss in depth such disturbing beliefs).  If the Xiang believe in a deity, it would seem to be the homeworld itself ( a Gaea-like concept), with the dirt-mothers being some sort of linking being between the Xiang and their deity.  Due to difficulties in communication on religious topics ( which tend to be abstract in nature and thus difficult to make translations on), it will probably be a lengthy period of time before Xiang religion ( or even whether or not they have one) is clearly understood.

Clans generally stay within their own territorial boundaries, with encroachment on another's territory usually accidental ( due probably to a lack of scent markers in that region).  If a clan finds that its territory can no longer support it and there is no virgin land available to expand into, it regards it as a sign from nature that it has grown larger than nature intended.  To make room for the younger Xiang in the clan, the clan's oldest members who have lived the useful parts of their lives already will then undergo voluntary suicide ( usually performed at the side of its dirt-mother) by ingesting a poisonous drink.  The Xiang who have sacrificed themselves are then given elaborate funeral rites designed to compensate for their prematurely ended lives and to celebrate their reuniting with their dirt-mothers.

The only sort of hierarchy in Xiang society seems to based on age, but this does not appear to be any sort of rigid structure.  Younger Xiang are usually advised and directed by older ones, but there is really no rule saying that younger Xiang must honor and obey their elders, who often end up wandering off and doing things independently.  The younger Xiang are often tied to a dirt-mother and are not free to pursue their own interests as much as the older Xiang.

Sapientological studies on the Xiang are ongoing, with progress being made in deciphering the various forms of communication used by the Xiang.  Once humans are better able to understand the Xiang languages, much greater knowledge about their culture, society, and lives will be able to be gained.  Until that time, our knowledge of the Xiang must grow slowly, and must be based more on observation and deduction than on concrete facts obtained through direct exchange with them.
-Deb Zeigler