Vernha

A race of Nitrogen-based lifeforms, originating from the Galactic Core, who hold a strong presence, being one of the oldest and thriving alien species discovered.

Appearance and biology

The Vernha look somewhat like seashells, with two insect-like wings, a spikey ridge on top between the wings and six thin legs. They possess one large eye and a thin retractable proboscis, mainly for consuming liquids as well as tool manipulation.

Average Vernha mainly grow to be 3 or 4ft tall although those on low gravity worlds can be taller reaching up to 6ft etc. Liquid methane is the Vernha's main source of sustenance which is why they colonise titan-like worlds with methane seas.

They reproduce asexually by laying small spherical eggs and can lay from up to 1 or 3 eggs, or even 4 in rare instances.

Technology

The Vernha's technology is quite interesting, for starters their ships are oddly shaped, almost looking organic.

When colonising other planets, the Vernha utilise controlled nanobot swarms (dubbed "nano-constructors" by Xenobiologists) that clump together into structured colonies, from small communities to entire cities. If necessary these nano-constructors will harvest any resources around them to help with constructing a colony.

Interstellar jumps appear to be made by materialising an extremal charged black hole, where the rotational energy creates a region within the event horizon (dubbed the inner/cauchy horizon) where space slows down from the speed of light due to counteraction from the negative pressure of the singularity's electric field, at which point a Vernhan craft can enter and slingshot through a wormhole and exit through a white hole (all connected in the temporally four dimensional structure of a black hole) and appear anywhere in the Universe. Such a mode of transportation is mathematically possible, although it's unknown how the Vernhans prevent the immense gravitational field from tearing their ships apart, pulling nearby planets from their orbits or preventing mass inflation in the inner horizon of the black hole.

Culture and behaviour

There's not much to say about the Vernha's culture and society due to their alien nature to us. However from observations, they appear to be very social, as they have been seen in the streets of their colonies interacting with one another. They have also been observed flying in small groups (presumably family units), traversing between communities.

They can use their body to float in large bodies of liquid methane and move about using their legs, in a similar manner to some species of birds on Earth. Vernha colonies also contain "methane baths" which looks to be a mode of relaxation for them, usually floating around in gatherings within them.

Interestingly, they do appear to follow some sort of belief, best described as a "will" to migrate and spread across the cosmos. Its not known whether this is a religion of some kind or merely a natural instinct of theirs.

There is a particular bias towards Nitrogen based life, likely due to inhabiting similar environments, this making diplomacy easier, whereas with Carbon based life they usually ignore them outside of a friendly first contact and information exchange.

Contact with Humanity

They were discovered in the early 23rd Century around Saturn's moon, Titan, apparently taking an interest in the moon for its methane seas and atmosphere. It would appear any plans to colonise Titan were put off after contacting us since the Vernha don't colonise systems with younger species (I.e Humans) to them.

After some communication, it was found out that they had plans to colonise Titan until contact with Humans, as the Vernha prefer to leave younger species alone. Although challenging, more communication has continued overtime, and we have learned a great deal about them, likewise they've learned a lot about us.

Because of how "new" we are to the interstellar scene, the Vernha mainly ignore us, although both our civilisations are on good terms. Coupled with the fact that their nearest colony is around 90 lightyears away too, with their most major, Ver'chaa, located 140 lightyears from us.

History

The history of the Vernha is virtually shrouded in mystery as it is unclear when they first achieved spaceflight or how long they've been spacefaring for. Nevertheless it is clear that the Vernha been around for thousands, if not millions of years. Either way they've been spacefaring for so long that they've even forgotten about their original homeworld though very few of them are actually concerned about their origin.

What is known, is that they originated from somewhere in the Galactic Core. Another race, known as the Tzir travel along with them who also originate from the core.

Homeworld

The true homeworld of the Vernha remains a mystery as they have completely forgotten about it over their long spacefaring period. Of course, based on the environments they thrive in, it can be assumed it is a cold, low-gravity, titan-like world with a rich nitrogen atmosphere and methane content.