Creature:Ciitarkian

From SporeWiki, the knowledge base dedicated to Spore

Ciitarkian
Creator	Somarinoa (more content by Somarinoa)
Sight	1
Graspers	1
Other information
Locomotion	In a watery environment, movement is created through undulations of the entire body, with limbs tucked in close to the body. In a terrestrial environment, movement is achieved my walking either quadrupedally or bipedally.
Environment	Deep ocean trenches, although other locations have been colonized in the name of science. Mangrove swamps are the most common site for Ciitarkians to live when out of their natural environment.
Size	Ciitarkians never stop growing throughout life. Although most reach only a length of 7’, the oldest and most powerful Ciitarkians generally reach a length of 12’.
Lifespan	The average lifespan for a Ciitarkian is approximately 25 years, due to untimely demises at the hands of scientific experiments, although old-age experimentations have shown Ciitarkians living to the ripe old age of 50.
Personality	Curious to a fault

[edit] Description

Ciitarkians are well-known as the 'idiot scientists' of the galaxy. They believe in learning everything there is to know about the universe, and have done everything from mutate themselves horribly through various means to crushing themselves in black holes to flying straight into suns -- all in the name of absolute knowledge. Due to this fact, they are not nearly as prominent as other races (their numbers sometimes equal only a few hundred thousand at a time), but they are known to many races, as they have joined every allegiance they can possibly convince others to let them join.

They have a strange curiosity for the Human race and their civilization, specifically for the fact that they try so hard to be what they're not. For that reason, they have gained a form of respect from the Ciitarkians, and even those joined with the Crux (a group of Space Pirates) about to attempt to destroy a group of humans will flatter them with compliments and even invite them aboard their ships for a quick snack before battle. They are known to be loyal, however, and once they've chosen an allegiance, they will stick to it through thick and thin, which is why groups usually won't kick them out as they know these awkward fish-folk can be "relatively" trusted.

[edit] Scientific Classification

Domain: Eukazoa "True Life" (Complex Organisms)
Kingdom: Actamalia "Active Soul" (Ciitarkia's Animals)
Phylum: Unspecified (Actamalians with Notochords)
Subphylum: Unspecifed (Vertebrates)
Infraphylum: Unspecified (Jawed Vertebrates)
Superclass: Unspecified ("Bony Fish")
Class: Unspecified (Whiptails)
Superorder: Macrogastera "Large Stomach" (Macrogasters aka Gluttonfish)
Order: Unspecified
Suborder: Massopteryx "Long Fin" (Long-Finned Gluttonfish)
Infraorder: Unspecified (Clutching Gluttonfish)
Superfamily: Unspecified (Crawling Gluttonfish)
Family: Unspecified (Ancient Ciitarkians & their ancestors)
Genus: Saccobipedulus "Sack Biped" (Recent Ciitarkians)
Species: Saccoscientia "Science Sack" (Modern-Day Ciitarkians)
Binominal Name: Saccobipedulus saccoscientia

[edit] Statistics

Species Nicknames: C-Heads, Debuggers
Home Planet: Ciitarkia
Species Type: Warm-blooded Deep-Marine Vertebrate
Speech Style: Morse code-like language created by the blinking of their bioluminescent tail. Out of water, however, they are known to use vocal cords, as well for speech.
Lifestyle: Social Scientists
Hunt/Forage Success Rate: Naturally, they hunt 100% of the time, but they tend to hunt and forage at varying degrees in the name of science. Success rates also vary, although the typical natural hunting success rates are around 80%.
Armor: Ciitarkian possess no natural armors, although many millions of armor designs have been created by various Ciitarkian scientists over the years.
Defenses: A Ciitarkian’s natural defense is to eat the potential predator. See Weapons.
Weapons: Ciitarkians possess huge gaping mouths, distensible stomachs, and long, whip-like tails tipped with a bioluminescent light. All of this is used in conjunction specifically for feeding purposes. Although Ciitarkians possess arms and legs, these are rarely used during natural conditions of feeding or fighting.
Tools: Ciitarkians possess two semi-webbed hands that they use to manipulate objects.
Method of Eating: Swims around in darkness, until prey is attracted to its bioluminescent light on the tip of its tail. Once successfully lured, the Ciitarkian slowly brings lure to the entrance of its mouth, and when prey comes in close enough, Ciitarkian nabs it and lets it slide into its distensible stomach, while the teeth hold it in place. Powerful paralyzing agents prevent struggling. Food is taken in through the mouth, then passed through the digestive system and out the anus on the other end; however, other methods have been attempted in the name of science.
Reproductive Rate: Ciitarkians are capable of breeding at any time they choose. This helps maximize the replacement of the deaths each day by adult Ciitarkians on scientific missions.
Gestation: Ciitarkians have evolved, due to their suicidally curious nature, a short incubation period of only 10 days before the eggs are laid.
Offspring Incubation: 2 weeks before hatching.
Number of Offspring: 100,000 per litter (all but 100 of each of these litters are used in experiments, although many of these experiments are not fatal to the youth).
Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity): 90% -- few fatal experiments are done involving Ciitarkian young, and the young are now typically raised in hatcheries rather than the wild.
Singular/Plural/Possessive: Ciitarkian/Ciitarkians/Ciitarkian

[edit] Physiology

Below in this next section, you will find information on the Ciitarkian's physical appearance, and explanations of things including, but not limited to, their skeletal structure and senses.

[edit] Skeleton

Like all Macrogasters, Ciitarkians lack a number of bones, which include the symplectic bone, the opercle bones (the gill flaps), as well as a typical ribcage; which in the Ciitarkian are made out of cartilage. The Ciitarkians possess a cartilage ribcage in order to help support their body in an upright position on land while still allowing the flexibility needed for them to swallow their occasionally-gargantuan prey. However, their jaws are quite enormous, and are built to allow the Ciitarkian to consume prey larger than they themselves happen to be.

[edit] Musculatory System

Little about a Ciitarkian's muscle system is interesting, and in fact they possess typically weak muscles, barely able to support a Ciitarkian in full bipedal walking (this has been genetically altered in most Ciitarkians intended for long periods on other worlds). However, a Ciitarkian's jaw's muscle segments, or "myomeres", are formed more like a V in comparison to a typical fish's jaw, which is more W-shaped.

[edit] Brain & Nerve Center

While they are certainly sapient, the Ciitarkians in actuality possess smaller brains than those of Humans. While this makes some question their true intelligence, they use more of their brains at a time than some species, including man, putting them on a relatively equal intelligence level with other species.

The brain evolved to be so small to compensate for their massive jaws, in the same way as much of the rest of their body did. It is mostly flattened, covering the top of the mind like a firm pancake. Certain important areas are somewhat more bulky, but not by much; the brain has taken a preference for tight spaces.

Because of their short lifespan and their obsession over the sciences, they built a gargantuan super-computer, used to store all of their experiment results.

[edit] Digestive System

A comical image of one Ciitarkian's experiment: to eat the Aurum delegate in a certain location. Image does not show the stomach as extended, like it should be. Other species is an Ailodon.

Most of a Ciitarkian's body, unless genetically tampered with in the name of all knowledge, is dedicated to the digestive system. Over half of their chest cavity is taken up by their stomach, and this organ is distensible, allowing it to be stretched up to twice this size at any given time, making them able to consume a massive meal in one sitting.

While their stomach acid itself is not particularly strong, it does contain over 100 different chemical agents which all can cause paralysis. While this paralysis won't last forever on its own, a victim being suspended in it will not allow the creature the ability to recover, thereby spelling its doom.

While many off-world Ciitarkians will choose smaller rations to feed themselves to "not appear disgusting" to their sapient hosts, some continue the practice of large meals, making them appear bloated or rotund to other creatures. On occasion, portions of their meals will even hang out of their mouths, with the Ciitarkians not even noticing, much to the chagrin of "more civilized" species.

[edit] Respiratory System

Naturally, Ciitarkians breathe through gills that are like flattened lungs along the sides of their skull. They do not expand, and instead just let oxygenated water pass over several feathery extensions within. The opposite side of these gill-lungs again open up to the ocean, but no muscles operate them; water will pass through them properly so long as they continue to swim straight ahead. At the same time, however, swimming backwards will also allow them to breathe; this is an unintentional ability they gained thanks to the design of their gill-lungs.

Most Ciitarkians intended for off-world have been genetically modified to also possess typical lungs to breathe the oxygen many other sapient races breathe; at the same time, Ciitarkians intended for worlds with non-oxygen atmospheres usually will have their lungs modified for breathing in these atmospheres instead.

[edit] Organs

Again like all Macrogasters, Ciitarkians are missing their pelvic fins and do not possess a swim bladder. It should also be added that Ciitarkians are completely lacking in the scales department, and therefore possess only smooth skin.

[edit] Senses

While they do possess a number of senses, most are only fair at best. The two most important organs to a Ciitarkian are the eyes and the lateral line.

Despite being a naturally deep sea species, their eyes remain relatively strong because they communicate to one another through bioluminescence. In the dark, this is also the only real way that they can find one another. While the eyes are small in comparison to the rest of their body, they are great for night vision. The eyes also have become the habitat of microscopic organisms who have developed a commensal relationship with their Ciitarkian hosts. While the microbes are protected from the many filter-feeders in the ocean, the Ciitarkians gain and lose nothing in the process. However, the chemicals released by the microbes breathing produces a low-level green glow. Because of this, the Ciitarkians have evolved eyelids for use while hunting.

[edit] Scientific Experimentation

A Ciitarkian as it appears in Spore.

Ciitarkians make and follow as exactly as possible their hypothetical protocols for each and every experiment. If an experiment does not absolutely require the deaths of any being (except, perhaps, minus the Ciitarkians themselves), they will do whatever they can to avoid doing so. For example, if their experiment requires detonating a sun and seeing if their current ship and shield technologies can withstand a resulting supernova, they will generally attempt to do so in a system that is not believed to cause any fatal reacts to other species.

This being the case, however, many organisms die at the hands of Ciitarkian scientists, as they often do experiments that do require fatalities, such as the dreaded, "Can a major bustling, unsuspecting city-world survive a sudden mass fluctuator explosion in the midst of morning rush hour traffic?", which resulted in the deaths of many millions.

If an experiment entails how a planet's species will survive with the extinction of a single organism, they usually will keep several specimens on-board to prevent absolute extinction from the universe, although they're not likely to replace them on the surface again, unless it too is part of their ghastly experiment.

Because they are so unpredictable to other races, they are widely considered suspicious when they suddenly arrive in a location, or if their current experiment is not known. Even their closest allies, the Glairnogs, do not necessarily approve of their means to an end, but they remain closely-knit thanks to their common, highly-scientific cultures.

[edit] What's In A Name?

Because of the vast number of Ciitarkians that could be alive at any given time thanks to their high number of offspring per litter, they adapted a very complex naming system; however, experiments have led them to realize most races find calling them by their full names a hassle, and so they often use either only their Fore and Hind names or their Family and Given Name to describe themselves. At the same time, many Ciitarkians pick up nicknames based on their current experiment they are carrying out, such as Bulletnose.

A typical name is split up into multiple sections, starting with their planet of origin and ending with their family name, and then the name their family chose for them. Names are assigned after sexual maturity is reached.

The following is the rundown of an example name:

• Home Planet: Ciitarkia
• Continent: Heevosh
• Country: Squato
• Science-State: Zoraya
• Clan: Buula
• Family: Nozhs
• Given Name: Gavarr
• Full Name: Ciitarkia Heevosh Squato Zoraya Buula Nozhs Gavarr
• Shortened Name: Ciitarkia Gavarr or Nozhs Gavarr

[edit] Trivia

• The correct way to pronounce "Ciitarkian" is "See-tar-key-uhn".
• Ciitarkians are not idiots, but will do anything in the name of science. This has gone so far as to cause cannibalism of entire years of young as well as purposefully flying straight into a black hole or supernova.
• Although Ciitarkians physically have a smaller brain than mankind, they also use more of it at a time. Most information is available to all Ciitarkians through their Universal Database of Knowledge, a gargantuan super computer with 1700 backups.
• Generally speaking, there is at least one Ciitarkian in every major affiliation throughout the known galaxy; at least in the ones that they have any chance of getting into. This is, like everything else, part of one of their on-going experiments.
• Ciitarkians are truly allied with another scientific race, known as the Glairnogs. Due to the fact that these races share scientific knowledge with one another, no Ciitarkian science experiment has lead purposefully to the deaths or distrust of the Glairnogs. This is undocumented in other species' relationships with the Ciitarkians.
• The Ciitarkians have a mutated, ill-mannered "cousins" known as the Kaetarkians. Kaetarkians were once a large band of Ciitarkian scientists who ventured out into an unspecified sector, only to come back as horribly ill-tempered mutants, seeking the destruction of their former brothers and sisters.
• The nickname "Debuggers" is very new; the author only came up with it the day they started the SporeWiki Ciitarkian page. All ideas about the Ciitarkian way of life were created much earlier and "Debuggers" just sounded like it fit their personalities perfectly.