Wegonians

Please pardon any inadequacies. (You know ... more than the normal ones.) This is my first act of "art" on my new computer. Different screen size, different color settings, not to mention having to attempt to recover and recreate all of the old Photoshop and tablet settings. Everything was reset along the way. The biggest stumbling block is the screen size, though. It's more than twice as big as what I'm used to in Photoshop. That's more significant than it seems, and disorienting as hell.

This is the first of a few experimental pieces.

February's Alien of the Month: Wegonians

They've been here once before:
(Far left). For obvious reasons, they deserved a revisit. What a difference a year and a half makes! The female didn't change much, but the male really did. I was never happy with that design anyway.

Design notes:
It's been very important to me to try to make a race's culture show in these pictures. Particularly in their clothes. Dythinains are more Tibetan and Mongolian, the Slee-Sha have some Japanese and middle-eastern undertones, and the Isepians tend to favor ancient Chinese. In keeping with the tradition of keeping this system of critters in the same inspired region (sort of). I decided to mix Africa and Southeastern Asia as an inspiration. Their attire is a little bit of both with a good chunk of neither.

Species Information

Homeworld: Wegon
Wegon is the largest of the TETH-SIM system. It's roughly similar to earth, but tends to be a little warmer and is about as big as a life supporting planet can be. The oceans are smaller, but the rivers are larger and there are a *lot* more of them. Landmasses are broken up into many smaller parts the Wegonians call "Masses". The weather is a bit nastier with wet and dry seasons and more frequent storms.

Size: 6'5" to 7'8" (2M to 2.4M)

Intelligence: Roughly human equivalent
It's easy to dismiss Wegonains as less intelligent. They speak a little slower, haven't developed advanced weapons or starships like most other advanced races. They learn by doing and have a hard time reading the directions for a complicated task and then being able to complete that task. But if they are shown by someone or are talked through the task while doing it, they will never forget how it's done. They also tend to be farmers and most live in rural areas where traditional schooling as we know it isn't valued as much as learning through apprenticeship and practical knowledge skills. When another race hears that there is no such thing as a college or that 99% of Wegonains have no higher learning degrees, they think "uneducated simpletons". I suppose if education is seen only through the eyes of traditional human institutions that may be true. But the average Wegonian farmer can match wits with an agricultural professor any day. Their advancements in all agricultural fields has made the scientists of the empire look twice.

Language: Hassan
The common language of the TETH-SIM system. The larger tribes and families tend to have complicated slang or "family language" in addition to the common speech.

Lifespan: 300-400 years

Temperament:
A character trait across the entire species is empathy. They are especially sensitive to the needs and emotions of others. This makes them exceptionally talented in taking care of other people. They'll know you had a bad day when you get to the door and won't be happy themselves until you are. That's because they don't just sense it, they feel it for themselves. The effect goes the other way as well. If they are happy and you're not, chances are, you 'll feel better just because they're there. This makes Wegonians almost impossible to dislike. They are a an easy-going people; quick with a smile, very patient, attentive, unafraid to approach anyone or be approached by others. The only time this is an issue is when they forget they are dealing with a foreign leader or person of importance and just begin treating this person like a friend. This is, of course, easily forgivable, because it's hard to stay angry with someone who is so excited about being your friend. They are generally a non-violent people, but can be pushed if their loved ones or land is threatened.

Physiology:
Wegonains are exceptionally strong, even more than one would expect given their shape and size. Their body holds a stable temperature in more extreme environments and their endurance is much higher. They have an appropriate speed for their size. Their hearing, sight, and sense of smell are above the human average, while their senses of touch and taste are not as developed. Sense of touch suffers because of their tough skin, which developed to protect them from the common environmental hazards of their home world. A dulled sense of taste has led to a love of spicy food. Most traditional Wegonian dishes would be painful if a human were to try to eat them without changing the recipe (something they will do to suit the tastes needs of their guests). The spots on their skin, once natural camouflage, tends to change with exposure to sunlight. Their ears move to express their emotions and they have tails that *do* actually wiggle when they're happy.

Other:

* Wegonians are almost always born as twins. Never identical, and always male and female. It remains a very important bond through their whole lives. They seldom live very far apart and often die within days of each other. The pair pictured here are Han and Lin.

* Their social structure tends to be clannish and often tends toward large family groups. The family line is always traced through the mother and they take great pride in their matrilineal heritage.

* At one point in time, an occupational people took over their planet and kept the Wegonians as "indentured servants", what Wegonians referred to as a "fancy term for slaves". They rebelled and fought for their own freedom. It was the only act of aggression in their history, but was more than enough to make the other races begin to take them seriously. Today the other races are very protective of them. To mess with the Wegonians is to invite trouble from all the other races.

Characters, species, story, and art (C) *NuisanceBearEull
Brush (C) ~NadinePau-stock [link]