User:BaconShelf/Yonhet

The Yonhet are an advanced species originating from the planet of Yonhe, a predominant "Super Earth"-type world in orbit of a black hole named by the Covenant "Eryadom's Eye". As with several other species, the Yonhet form a part of the Covenant fringe, though a minor one rarely seen outside of their own homeworld.

The Yonhet are tetrapodal organisms, commonly described as akin to a mix of a starfish, a squid and an octopus. The species has a central "core" body, with four appendages extending off at sixty degree angles. These appendages serve as manipulators for tools and propellors for movement through the oceans of Yonhe. Indeed, the Yonhet appear to have very little observable "top" or "bottom"; rather merely a four-way body plan with versatility. The appendages are covered in a series of microscopic feelers, used for sensoary detection of the environment around them, detecting subtle changes in the temperature, current, pressure or light level of the water around them. These feelers are capable of rapid movement to cause vibrations in the water, allowing for a rough equivalent of verbal communication between members of the Yonhet species. This is combined with use of the appendages themselves to "draw" complex patterns in the water, or create specific currents with different meanings. In some cases, multiple Yonhet may wrap their appendages around one another for direct communication, using a combination of specific movements within the muscles and feelers to transmit complex language and dialogue in an incredibly rapid manner.

The Yonhet themselves typically live in the deep oceans of Yonhe, protected from the intense radiation of their parent black hole by the immense waters above them; due to this immensely pressurised environment, Yonhe are largely incapable of ascending to the surface without the use of a pressure suit or extensive training. As such, most of the species' society is shaped largely with a lack of information or understanding of space or life above water. The Yonhet are an intelligent species, but due to their circumstances lack the ability to know much about the larger universe in which they inhabit. Nonetheless, they have managed to create a technological society within the depths of Yonhe, built around several of the massive thermal vents which litter the planet's ocean floors. Due to the extreme tidal stresses put on the planet by the black hole, Yonhe enjoys a fairly geologically active surface, resulting in warm (by ocean standards) temperatures even in the darkest depths of the ocean, with many available vents to build structures and energy-harvesting traps around. As such, the Yonhet have constructed a number of reasonably large city-states around these thermal vents using local coral-equivalents as raw building materials, and the vents to power vast turbines capable of powering some limited industry. These same heating issues combined with the higher-than-average background radiation level allow for more extreme examples of flora and fauna to persist on the ocean floor, where similar depths on other worlds may find themselves barren.

The Yonhet have had some, albeit limited, contact with the Covenant empire. Gathered texts suggest the Yonhet have persisted in their tribalistic city-states in an early industrial era for upwards of a millennia upon first contact in 1354, with large technological stagnancy partially imposed by the limits of an underwater civilisation. Another key issue facing the Yonhet species is their incredibly short lives, with individuals reaching maturity in five years and living for another ten before death. This rapid mortality combined with Yonhe's exaggerated relativistic effects a Covenant observer in orbit of the planet is likely to witness multiple generations of Yonhet live and die in only a few months, making technological progress or accurate record-keeping hard to ascertain. Devastating wars between cities have been started and ended in weeks, with the war's survivors being a generation or more removed from those who started it.

These effects combined make communication and dealing with the Yonhet extremely difficult, and for the most part the Covenant simply have been content to leave the Yonhet be. Some scholars have noted signficant similarities with the Xar-Shaa, though these similarities are most likely the result of convergent evolution and similar solutions to similar problems; very little in the Yonhet's biology suggests any relation to the Xar-Shaa. What few excursions to the depths of Yonhe have been conducted have curiously been handled by Jiralhanae, largely due to their preference for the higher gravity of Yonhe.

To add or consider?

 * Debris falling from space (pulled in by the black hole) is a constant source of enrichment for the planet; new minerals and stuff falling from space (possibly a part of the culture?)
 * Planet in a stable orbit around a black hole is curious - maybe there's some Forerunner intervention keeping it in place rather than having it fully ripped up? could be that the planet is slowly being torn to pieces and in a few millennia may completely break up?
 * Yonhet population general interaction with the Covenant - likely a few interactions with Xar-Shaa. If they live in a regular environment they need to be in a pressure suit with water - probably some form of mech to walk around.
 * Yonhe tidally locked? if so, most yonhet may live on the terminator or away side of the planet under the permanent ice sheets (or if not tidally locked, just in the polar ice sheets). Caverns dug into the ice allow for some tunnel cities and pockets of trapped gas allow for fuelling industry. Interesting parallel with the humans who live on moons like Europa - these guys would tunnel in from below and pump water in? could be interesting!