Physical Description

While the "land" form of the eolin-i-mere is described below, it is essential to know that while this form is the one most iconic, the water and space eolin-i-mere is far more numerous.

Art by Atomic

A young eolin-i-mere with a sprouting mouth. The nubs seen on its back will bloom into new hands in the coming months.

The eolin-i-mere is a species that develops in different ways depending on their hatching location. Eolins who end up on land will hatch as an awkward boneless arm with two, three-toed legs. While fast at a young age, they are prone to tripping over their own arm. This first appendage has a mouth in the palm, as their torso mouth, which is found in the center of their arm cluster, takes a year to form. While this original mouth is functional even in adulthood, eating with one's mouth hand is considered childish, and this hand is not used except with close friends.

The eolin molts once a year until it reaches adulthood on the 13th year. With each molt comes a new hand. While molts happen after adulthood, they are far more few and far between, usually occurring when an arm has been damaged.

The torso of an adult eolin is sturdy like the legs. All the arms erupt from the upper half of the torso, with any growing below considered a malformation or the sign of an old eolin. The arms are flexible, able to twist multiple times over. When not in use, eolins will form signs with two or more of their hands as per tradition. The most common of these is grasping the two main hands together into a handshake frozen in time.

While their arms are the most striking feature of the species, the eolins are rather proud of their blueish white sensory organs that function for both sight and smell. These organs slightly glow and can be blinked on and off. Eolins use this to speak to each other as they lack vocal cords in their mouths.

Eolins also communicate via smell, and can change their stench rapidly, to the disgust of any species not accustom to this. Many are surprised to learn that this species actually did not use hand signals to communicate until they reached the modern space age. Some have speculated that this means that hands are a recent evolution in comparison to their specialized sensory organ.

Personality

Known as one of the friendliest species in the universe, the eolins are natural-born peacemakers. The happiness of an individual depends on the society that surrounds it. Eolins, if asked what their life goals are, will mention things such as "world peace," "more parks in the city," or goals that are impersonal to them. The species is happy being homeless and without any possessions as long as the area around them is at peace.

As odd as it sounds to an outsider, it makes perfect sense to the eolins, their only goal in life is to make sure their Mother is happy, and Mother is pleased as long as her children live in safety. They are master negotiators, willing to study each side and suggest compromises to relive tensions until both can discuss a more permanent solution.

Many planets welcome the children of Mother with open arms as they immediately locate spots that need improvement and begin inhabiting the area. They take positions that other residents refuse to take as long as they believe it will stabilize an area. Some do not even wish to be paid, happy enough to obtain food, and bask for sunlight in the mornings.

When picking a planet to inhabit, eolins avoid planets with stable populations and instead aim at those that need to be rebuilt, such as those recently hit by war. The species as a whole find it easier to improve damaged civilizations to a peaceful state than it is to corral a powerful one into submission.

Initially assumed to be a hivemind, the eolins are confirmed to be simply unified in their opinions and extremely dedicated to Mother's commands. Some eolins have broken away from this group thinking, becoming a disappointment to their species and Mother.

In a shocking display, unlike the typical friendly perception of eolins, when in contact with these rebels, they are quick to anger. Arguments break out, and even the two passing each other will lead to small shoving sessions that start and end without warning. Every eolin apart of Mother's group will state the same reasoning for their aggression.

"They're selfish creatures. Mother worked to give birth to them; we fought to provide them a place of safety and joy to be raised. To then grow up and decide to be tainted by others into not realizing it is your turn to pay your dues is shameful. Other's commit what they do because their childhood was imperfect, and their Mother* dead. Instead of using their hands to make peace with others, they are slapping away all other hands that meet them halfway. They are greedy, and thus the biggest evil in the universe."

*Mother in this sense means the god who gave birth to their species. The eolins believe that each species has one god who gave birth to them, and any other god is the Mother of another species. Eolins hold a particular distaste for the limbo gods, who they believe abandoned their children to pursue destruction and killed many other species' Mothers.

Art by Atomic

The arms of the eolin-i-mere is highly flexible and feels like a soft leather. It is surprisingly resistant to damage.

Eolins put so much emphases on birth and childhood that they wholeheartedly believe none of their kind that had an ideal of both should be able to find a reason to rebel in adulthood. They are so certain of this that the only outsider eolins that aren't threatened with disdain are those who the eolin court has deemed an "FR" or "Failed Raise." This is a term for those who can prove that their childhood was affected by a major traumatic event, such as a war. FRs comprise 70% of rebels, with the last 30% those who the eolins show disdain for.

Mother's orders are as powerful as the words of a god to a devoted. A group known as Mother's speakers are chosen eolins who gather info to show to Mother and spread Mother's decisions. There are 1000 speakers of Mother. They all live inside of Mother herself, along with over half a million other eolins. Considered an organic spaceship, Mother flies with her children planet to planet to investigate all of Mother's choices.

When a planet is deemed "fixed" by Mother, she will hover above the planet, send down many of her tendrils, and lay millions of eggs. Most will become sea-dwelling eolins, but around 10% will be collected to become land dwellers. Once her task is done, Mother leaves, only coming back once every 20 years to judge the planet once more.

If a planet is deemed too hard to "make safe," Mother will tell all her children to leave. Over the course of just a few days, all the eolins will pack up and take to the stars, moving to a planet Mother feels is better to mold. A planet already struggling to keep afloat will be tossed into the deep end by this action.

While the extreme parental love between Mother and children is strange to most species, many are willing to overlook it as a quirk of their culture. Eolins firmly believe that most strife in the universe is caused by species lacking their Mother (that being of, a god who birthed their species type) and being raised in poor conditions by their caretakers (that being their actual physical parents).

They are quick to soothe those who they believe are lashing out due to their poor parental care, and are known to adopt full-grown adults, along with children. Eolins recognize they can never replace the Mothers the universe lost, but they try their best to return some semblance of stability to the lives of these "orphans."

History

As far as recorded history has been around, the eolin Mother has ruled. There were more than the singular Mother back then, and they formed a sisterhood of gods. The eolins only improved to assist their Mothers. When Mothers were hurt by strong storms, eolins learned to build. When Mothers were unable to produce more eggs due to not enough food, eolins learned to farm. The Mothers would ask for assistance, and the eolins would go above and beyond to fulfill these requests.

Art by Atomic

Mother is so huge that even one of the biggest ships in the universe, a Zeus, is utterly dwarfed by her size.

But one day, the Mothers began to die slowly over the years, one by one. The most massive Mother said they needed to return to the stars, implying that at one point the eolins had come from up above. All eolins worked towards the goal of getting Mothers up into space, but by the time they were finished, only one adult Mother remained. All others had died or were young, stunted Mothers unable to bear offspring.

The final Mother was sent up to the skies above, and for many years, the eolins waited for any news from Mother. They feared that Mother had died until they were able to view spacebound eolins moving in the night skies, a sign that Mother was still alive and well. They truly had come from the stars.

Once Mother's tendrils grew long enough, she was able to deposit eggs onto the planet once more. The population of water and land eolins was saved.

Mother expanded to a great size that dwarfed every Mother the eolins had seen before. Around 13,000 years later, travelers found the system. After seeing a great ring of hands going around the circumference of one of the planets and a large mass of arms floating aimlessly in the system, they flagged it as an anomaly and escaped. As task forces were sent out to research the beings, the eolins were happy to welcome them and showed no fear.

Art by Atomic

Considering the massive length of spacebound eolin-i-mere, it is of no surprise that they were flagged as an anomaly. So many of these littered the solar system they were located in that they had chained arms together to create a ring around their primary planet.

They were cleared of being an anomaly event, and let go. Species would come and go on the planet, and over time the eolins and their Mother were taught starspeak and allowed to join the universe.

Thought to be useless due to their love of their Mother, the species showed its worth as they quickly spread across the universe. Mother asked for new safe planets to lay new brood, and the eolins were happy to scout out planets to do this. The first looked for uninhabited planets, but quickly moved into multispecies areas and improved them until Mother gave it her seal of approval.

Never too pushy, and always willing to step in to assist with tough governmental issues, they became adored as middlemen by many nations in the universe. There was never any danger of betrayal from the eolins, as their only motive was to make their Mother happy. Attempts to bribe or tangle them up in underhanded plans always fail, as Mother has told them she would be upset if her children were to commit an evil action to such a scale.

When the federation of the universe voted for a new portal control keeper, the eolins got the job. Now there is no danger of portals being closed for angering the wrong species. Other than the rare events where Mother demands that a "border" be brought up around the eolins planets when a dangerous war is raging through the universe, the job is done up to code.

Today the eolins are one of the most respected species in the universe. While the concept of their Mother controlling such a dominant species is often brought up in debates, many millenniums have passed with little issue.

Home Planet

To no one's surprise, the eolin's home world is known as Mother's Land, and the star it orbits, Mother's Son. The planet has extreme seasons, with extreme growth in spring, blistering heat in summer, constant rainfall in fall, and harsh winters. The weather doesn't bother the eolins, who have adapted naturally to this.

The oceans of the planet are filled to the brim with waterbound eolins. The sheer amount that exists below the waves is a shock to first-timers. As these eolins have displaced most seagrass, sealife now darts in and out of the fingers of the eolins for shelter.

On land, there is an uneasy stillness. As the planet is at utter peace, the eolins stand together in long expanses of land completely still, arms raises in the air, and the only hint of life being the flickering of their sensory organs at night. A few times every year some eolins "wake up" and do maintenance in their cities, before returning to their frozen state.

The only flurry of activity comes when the population gets too low for Mother's liking. In this once in 200-year event Mother releases eggs onto the land and sea, for 13 years the eolins adopt and take care of the children. Cities become active in an instant as if it had never become suspended in time. Once the children have reached adulthood, every eolin takes their place, and the planet becomes still once again.

Subspecies

Waterbound: The most common of the eolin-i-mere types, the waterbound is created when an eolin egg lands in water but does not drift onto land. The egg will eventually grow less buoyant and reaches the waterbed, at which point it will take root. The eolin that hatches will be a single "hand" with many long and thin fingers. As they grow they build a semi-transparent shell, with a hole for each hand they grow. They are often noticed as resembling a colony of feathery tube worms.

Art by Atomic

As the eolin-i-meres move in, the sea floor becomes a carpet of arms and hands. It‘s an often overlooked effect of the eolin-i-mere‘s arrival. While they do not harm animals, plant life struggles to survive in the rapidly changing ecosystem, one where hands replace all of their functions.

Despite their simple appearance and their endlessly rooted state, they are intelligent beings, blinking their glowing eyes to communicate with others. Those who come across a field of waterbound eolins consider their flickering lights a fantastic show, not knowing that the eolins are attempting communication with the visitors.

Spacebound: More common than landbound eolin-i-mere, but far less common than waterbounds, the spacebound eolin reaches around 20 miles long at adulthood. Most of its length is composed of its "fingers," and while this type can grow more hands, it takes nearly 20 years to do so. Spacebounds survive only on energy they deprive from the nearest star and cosmic radiation. They do not actively attempt movement unless in danger, and even then their progress is slow. An odd quirk of the spacebound is when they come in contact with another of their kind, they will hold each other and never let go forming chains that can go on for hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

Art by Atomic

Eolin-i-mere ”eggs” are more akin to an ”egg-shaped flesh blob.” Over time the egg will develop and gain more defined features until it peels apart, revealing the legs tucked inside.

While considered cosmic debris by the untrained, a long-time ship navigator knows to flicker their ship lights to speak to a spacebound eolin and to translate the flickers they get back. Spacebounds are extremely chatty and will be happy to inform travelers of oncoming dangers should they humor it.

Mother / Soilbound: The Mother is the rarest of all eolin-i-mere types, only formed when an eolin egg ends up buried into soil before it can hatch/take root. A Mother is long, thick, wormlike, and covered in large but thin arms, especially in the "face" area where it forms a fan structure.

It is the only breeding form of the eolin species, though it is currently unknown what conditions are needed to cause it to become reproductive. All Mothers except Mother herself are infertile. Mother says this is not because they are infertile, but because they have not undergone their maturing rite. Mother seems unwilling to accept another mature Mother at the moment, and refuses to explain what the maturing rite is. Attempts have been made to create another mature Mother, but all have failed.

Special

None.

Trivia

• Eolin-i-mere means "Child of Mother" in the historical language of the species. All traditional eolin names keep the "i-mere" part. For example, a common eolin name is "Sol-i-mere" or, light of Mother.

• Handshakes between two eolins can take up to five minutes to complete due to complexity. The more complex the handshake the deeper the friendship between the two is.

• Eolins who supplement their diet with sunlight are nocturnal, while those who don't are diurnal. Those who have no work to do sleep until there is movement around them or they detect flashing lights, signaling communication from another eolin.

• Most members of the species find disgust in the action of birth from a "non-Mother," but understand it's a natural process for most. This feeling is so strong they go out of their way to avoid interacting with those carrying children. Eolins are far more comfortable with machines that create babies, with it being "a civilized way to replace one's Mother."

• As eolins came from space, it is believed there are other Mothers out there, drifting in hopes of finding a planet to set roots in. No other Mothers or signs of one have been found yet, hinting that the eolins must be a truly ancient species to have drifted so far away from their origin point.

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