Zargonia
Zargonia is actually the collective name for three inhabitable planets in the Dayriv galaxy. Zelek, Zarn and Zelk are the proper names of these three planets, but for all intents and purposes they are simply Zargonian One, Two and Three (respectively); initially the Zargonians themselves were the ones to start calling their three homes by a numeral rather than a number and eventually the rest of the universe caught up. Each planet has a similar ecosystem, relatively swampy. Zargonia Three is closest to the three planet’s sun and as such it is the driest and warmest of the two (something Zargonians have come to appreciate) and as such the third planet has become the political seat of the planets. It should be noted that the first planet is now completely uninhabitable due to extensive use of fossil fuels and nuclear accidents. --Physical Appearance--
Zargonians posses no bones, but are supported by an amniotic fluid that suspends their organs and other important body parts comfortably, as well as protecting them from harm. Since Zargonians are physically weak and incapable of protecting themselves their bodies posses the unique ability of regeneration, nothing short of a fatal injury will heal itself in a matter of hours. The small boneless people come in a variety of colors, usually greens and purples, with some darker oranges thrown in. But it’s been found that when a Zargonian baby’s sac is exposed to various forms of ultraviolet light the color can change drastically, resulting in everything from rainbows and opaque. Usually a Zargonian’s location of birth can be determined by their color, as different planets cause a variety of different colors to be present. Of course Zargonians themselves are color blind, so they rarely care for the uniqueness of their skin tones. Zargonians see shades of grey and red only, which is why they frequently decorate their ships in reddish grey colors...because they just don’t care otherwise. A further trait that makes the Zargonian species unique is their brain...they have none. Zargonians posses no discernable brain, instead their entire bodies function as a conductor of higher brain functions, essentially the species is a giant brain with eyes and a mouth. To protect their intelligence the Zargonian body shifts portions of their neurons to other sides of their bodies when injured, this ability has been cultivated by the species and have found a way to do this consciously. The ability to purposely choose how much of their bodies are used for which function has allowed the species to decide just what they’re capable of. The upmost care has to be taken though, if a Zargonian takes up too much of their thinking processes can accidently shut down their unconscious activities, such as digestion and breathing. Zargonians also are capable of producing limbs on demand. They have no hands or arms to speak of, but with practice they are capable of extending their outer skin into shapes similar to hands and arms, complete with very dexterous fingers. Few Zargonians are capable of growing more than two or three appendages at a time; only the strongest of the race can produce more than four. --Early History and Early Culture Zargonian history is riddled with inaccuracies and debates; this is due to the fact that every Zargonian has an opinion of events and every Zargonian insists that they are correct...and they all have very convincing evidence that says they are. Generally anything before the last three hundred years is a shakey, consisting of several different industrial revolutions, several different nuclear revolutions and almost a thousand different versions of these various changes in Zargonian culture. Predating the unification and eventual creation of ‘Zargonian foundation of mutual history’ the Zargonian people were all divided into several different factions. The factions varied depending on birthplace, beliefs and even thought processes, but interestingly enough Zargonian never saw any open warfare after the first one or two industrial revolutions (depending on which Zargonian you ask). The reason? Simple. Zargonians are miserable fighters; even with guns they still can’t seem to kill each other. Zargonian wars were instead ‘cold’ wars, with each faction developing bigger and better technology and threatening the other factions with utter annihilation…but never actually doing it because it would mean another faction would attack the attackers. Generally Zargonians say that there were three major cold-wars on their planet, but again, there are those that insist that there was only one cold-war...just a really, really long one. Soon however it became apparent to the Zargonians that their beloved home planet had become a shell of its former self. With countless nuclear tests and extensive mining for the sake of building up their stockpile the species had not only bled the planet dry but had managed to render most of the air and water unusable. Faced with extinction the Zargonian people turned their eyes away from the planet and to the sky, in 1760 the Zargonians finally achieved short ranged space flight...almost one hundred years after the rest of the universe. Zargonians had been so obsessed with trying to keep themselves from killing the other groups they completely forgot about anything extraterrestrial. Before leaving their planet the Zargonians decided it was about time to stop all the stockpiling of weapons and called their cold war a tie (it was the only way to stop the arguing). United under a new banner the Zargonians struck out to the other two planets in their galaxy and began to inhabit them. --The War-- With the outbreak of war Zargonians found themselves returning back to their original love of designing weaponry. Initially the Kayooshen attempted to get the industrious little iron mongers on his side, but quickly found that the chances of swaying the species away from the organization it not only founded by was able to control a great deal of was impossible, reluctantly the KC left the Zargonians to GASP. Zargonians quickly began inventing everything from the paralytic liquid the ZPF uses in their GOOP guns to missiles capable of being shot from deep orbit with such precision that they could eliminate a four foot area with no collateral damage. Despite the fact that GASP and the Zargonians are constantly developing newer and more ferocious weapons the designs and finished product are being leaked almost as quickly to the Kayooshen Corps. The reason for this ongoing issue is simply due to the fact that there are a great deal of Zargonians that work for The Corps; either for the money or for the fact that The Kayooshen puts almost no ethical restrictions on his workforce. Due to this it is a constant struggle for GASP to keep one step ahead of the Kayooshen, in fact in recent years there has been several treaties between the two superpowers to restrict the use and development of WMD weaponry. --Current Events-- The people of Zargonia achieved deep space flight in 1800, at almost the exact same time as the rest of the universe, despite being so far behind actually getting off their own planet. The reason for this is due to the fact that Zargonians, now faced with peace, had nothing better to do than throw themselves into developing space travel and find clean burning sources of fuel (since fossil fuel was now regulated so heavily it wasn’t a viable source of power). The first Zargonian ship that the Airosians found was initially mistaken for a pile of space debris; the ship was cobbled together in a few years and was originally never meant to go more than a few light-years away from the planet. But the captain of the ship had made several improvements to the vessel in midflight and had decided to really open her up to see what it could do. The ship was never actually named, but it was called ‘ship’ by the crew, the reason it wasn’t named was due to the fact that the Zargonians had already moved onto the next ship project and hadn’t bothered to think about a proper name. To this day ‘Ship’ is in a museum on Zargonia under the name ‘The Spaceship ‘Ship’’...the Zargonians don’t get the humor. Zargonians are actually ruled by a monarchy, with each successive ruler descended from the previous. Some have argued that this is hypocritical since the Zargonians were one of the biggest proponents of a democratically elected president when GASP was being formed, but the Zargonians disagree. No one knows why they disagree, but they do. As such Zargonians are usually left alone to govern their own planets since trying to argue with a convicted Zargonian is like beating your head into a wall. A wall that can focus their entire surface into brain matter dedicated to destroying your argument and making you look like an idiot. Zargonians are not only in charge of the finances of GASP but are also responsible for designating space flight routes. The reason for the responsibility of setting flight routes is because in 1974 Zargonians achieved what they called ‘Molecular jump drive capabilities’ which shortened the amount of time it took to travel the universe by more than half. Though the project was made up of dozens of different species and funded through GASP the credit for the ship usually goes to the particle physicist HebOgonis (Grandfather to Zog and Mog) and as such Zargonians wanted the chance to designate routes. GASP decided it was best to hand over that honor rather than argue with the species, again, it’s nearly impossible to convince a Zargonian to see logic other than its own. And if it’s not that important, just let it go. |
