Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Sto Astrocracy

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Sto Astrocracy

And now we have another weird species. The plant-like sto worship the stars that give them light and life, look for their uplifters, and sometimes exterminate all non-plant sentient life. Their racial template is quite expensive and exotic and I do not see many players wanting to use it.

Sto Astrocracy

Capital World: Storare Prime.

Major Species: Sto.

Languages: Sto.

Culture Groups: Sto.

TL: 10.

Storare Prime is a large garden world orbiting a yellow main sequence star. The world is a cradle of an unusual sentient species – the sto. These serpentine plants used to dwell in the trees and glide from tree to tree using leaf-like wings. It is believed that this species was uplifted by an extinct advanced alien race, because sto mythology frequently features “messengers of the sun” – large floating creatures that look nothing like flora or fauna of Storare Prime.

It is unclear if the “messengers of the sun” have guided the sto civilization or have implanted some racial knowledge in the genome, but nonetheless the sto managed to advance their technology with relative ease and settle on other planets.

The sto are known for worshipping the stars, with their home star Storare at the head of their pantheon. Each other star is believed to be a separate dead or living deity. Living deities have garden worlds orbiting them, dead deities do not. The sto grow continuously during their entire lifetimes, and the older and larger sto are considered to be sacred for absorbing more sunlight. Each world is ruled by a council of 33 oldest and largest sto sun priests who are said to absorb the wisdom of the stars via photosynthesis.

Spread among the stars, the sto are constantly searching for the “messengers of the sun”. They had no success finding them, but have contacted many other alien species instead. Most of the contacts were peaceful, but when a military officer named Sslin Oora devised the Doctrine of Light that denounced all sentient non-photosynthetic life as heretics who are hated by the stars, he purged a whole civilization of winged mammalias from Omnus, and a whole group of sto worlds joined his cause. This aggressive sect is called Storatuman (“sun purifiers” from the sto language), and their movement was named storatumanism.

Only omnusians have fallen to Storatuman so far, as the next target for the purge is a tough nut to crack – the macerids. The war between the macerids and the fanatic sect of the sto has lasted for decades with no clear winner, and the arrival of the belari made things even more complicated.

STO [65] Attribute Modifiers: ST+1 [10]; DX-1 [-20]; HT+1 [10]. Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: Basic Move -1 [-5]. Advantages: Constriction Attack [15]; Doesn’t Breathe (Oxygen Combustion, -50%) [10]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink (Food Only, -50%) [5]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Double-Jointed [15]; Extended Lifespan 2 [4]; Flight (Gliding, -50%; Small Wings, -10%) [16]; Immunity to Poison [15]; Injury Tolerance (Homogenous, No Blood, No Neck) [50]. Disadvantages: Deafness [-20]; Dependency (Sunlight; Weekly) [-10]; Invertebrate [-20]; Mute [-25]; No Legs (Slithers) [0]; Unusual Biochemistry [-5]. Natural Comfort Zone: 1°C - 32°C (35°F - 90°F), 1 atm., 0.9g, oxygen atmosphere. A typical adult sto appears as a 3-yard long thick vine of green color. The “head” has two visor leaves that are very sensitive to light, allowing the creature to see. The sto are deaf and mute – they communicate gesturing with their leafed vine-arms or writing. They wear no clothing and use bands of wood, metal, of plastic to show status or just to increase attractiveness. When a sto blooms, it is considered very attractive. The sto grow continuously, and a very old sto may even reach SM+4. Sample Names: Llasa Uun, Ssara Stoo, Slaan Toor.