Iuto

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The Iuto are a race from Empyrean. They are interuniversal (Class XI) sapients, and members of the Urrun League.

Physiology

The Iuto are almost completely flat. They are circles of 2 cm-thick flesh with a diameter of around four metres, and a number of tentacular appendages extending from the centre and the edges. Rings of scutes cover their skin, but they are not connected and so the Iuto's body can move flexibly underneath.

Their digestive system is based on sealable pores, which secrete digestive enzymes onto food to break it down for ingestion. Their nervous system permeates their body, parallel to the closed circulatory system, which is pumped by four small hearts around the body.

They have a simple eye on each scute, and a well-developed one on a stalk in the centre. This eye's optic nerve connects directly to the creature's brain, which is very flattened and occupies the centre of the organism, above the excretory pores.

They have many spiracles around the body, and tiny lungs which ventilate millions of alveoli, exchanging enough oxygen to supply the Iuto. Each spiracle has a moveable 'lip', and so the Iuto can make sounds. Their voices sound like several dozen people speaking at once.

Diet

The Iuto can eat any digestible organic matter. This tends to be meat, vegetables and fungi.

Reproduction

Iuto are all hermaphroditic, though three individuals must be together to exchange sperm and eggs. Sperm are transferred to one other individual, and eggs to the other.

Gestation occurs in a sac which grows from the ovireceptive tendril. Several dozen offspring remain there for five months before the sac bursts and they can move freely. For the first four years of their life, they remain on the scutes of their 'mother', being fed by little milky secretions produce by the ovireceptive tendril.

Intelligence

Iuto are sapient, and very intelligent. They are very analytical, and known for their mathematical abilities. However, their ethical code is different from that of the majority of sapients, and they have no feelings of grief or sadness.

Society

The Iuto are a race which occupy themselves mainly with research and management. They are semi-communal in their sapience, sharing tasks between mentally specialised individuals. Iuto cannot generalise well, instead slowly becoming very expert in a single activity or field.

Culture

There is little culture within modern Iuto. However, artifacts suggesting an artistic side have been discovered on their homeworld.

Government

Iuto government is a complex bureaucracy. Laws, functions and institutions are created and managed by the High Service, which is composed of around ten million Iuto. They direct funding and staffing from the population, with a sophisticated and almost incomprehensible system of checks and balances making sure that all decisions go towards the greater good of the Iuto.

After joining the Urrun League, they handed over the control of their military to the League.

Technology

Iuto technology reflects their body shape. Most of their day-to-day items are designed to fit around their manipulatory tentacles, such as weapons and utensils.

Their buildings are known for having very low roofs and many support pillars throughout. Hard and unyielding construction materials are used, mainly structural steel and rocks such as granite.

Iuto ships resemble two intersecting discs. They can travel using Ultradrive, and use repulsor nets to tow billions of tonnes of material. Ships tend to be lightly armed, only bearing a few rapid-fire mass driver turrets and some torpedoes.

History

The Iuto evolved on a ringworld placed around a G-type star by an unknown race. This structure had increased its rotation slowly since its creation so that by the time the Iuto developed, the surface gravity was over 6Gs. In response to this, the lifeforms of the structure had mainly become flattened and tough.

Iuto were at first eusocial animals, like ants, but workers evolved to be unresponsive to the chemical signals emitted by queen/drones (already being hermaphroditic) that prevented them from developing past the worker form. This originally caused a population crash which resulted in only the Iuto with the best ability to ward off predators taking advantage of the poorly defended nests surviving, which were inevitably the most intelligent, setting traps and building barricades.

They discovered fire shortly afterwards, and began to build cities. Unfortunately, however, the ringworld on which they were developing began to destabilise. Large cracks formed along it, and the artificial magnetosphere failed, allowing large quantities of deadly radiation to reach the surface. Forced under the ground, the Iuto rushed to build their first spacecraft, incorporating repulsion and Hyperdrive technology from the structure falling apart around them in its design. Only around five percent of the Iuto civilisation survived the ringworld's final shattering and descent into its star.

The surviving Iuto fled from planet to planet, but were unable to find any with sufficient gravity to suit their needs. They eventually settled on building floating habitats in the atmospheres of Jovian worlds, spreading throughout their home galaxy and coming into contact with many other races. They eventually became an intrauniversal species, and met the Sarai and Acata.

Relations with other races

The Iuto are generally friendly to other races.


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