Interlude: Gate Mythology - Rational Species, part 1 - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG.

  A note on languages: No species has truly a common language among all individuals over all the eras; languages are alive and constantly change for every single civilization inside every single rational species group. This is critical since the Gate population includes revived individuals of many species from vastly different eras, and their languages did not stop changing after coming to Gate. That said, I will write all the terms in English, and I will emphasize the phonetics and the auditory impression of these words. The ancient language stated here is the language written on most of the monoliths found on Gate surface (M8 and M9), and the Nailia entry states the unique transliteration of the ancient language preserved by the Nailia tradition. Now, back to the Gate mythology, in the Old Metropolis, the use of nano translators was limited. Learning about different cultures and languages was a common and enjoyable practice for many people. The standard was for everyone to be polyglots, expressing themselves in the native languages of their interlocutors and enjoying the supernatural mental capability powers of Gate to be able to do it smoothly.

  Since learning all the languages of the universe at all times is somewhat complex, even using superpowers, the nano translators AI system was used to bridge communication gaps when necessary. However, after the cataclysm, the population fragmented, and the average people's age in New Metropolis decreased drastically, reducing direct communication capacity and increasing the need for nano translators.

  These devices have their drawbacks. Even Silas and Liora, who grew up in a culture that made intensive use of them, faced communication problems, particularly in the initial phase of their journey. An example is when Silas tries to communicate with the schrogae that approaches him upon arriving in Rocatrista.

  Below is a list of the species that appear in "The Unforgettables" volume 1. This is only a tiny sample of all potential species that could be revived in Gate. All species that ever existed in the multiverses have an ancient "Gate" name that can be found both spread through the structural monoliths and also as a strange side-effect inside the World of the Dead. About the dead, the Suma collects magical rocks that sprout in the Spirits Fields, and those rocks produce sounds when touched. The sounds that are produced in the Spirits Field match with the name of the species in the ancient tongue that could be found on the Gates Monolith, but those stones appear only after someone from such species is sleeping on Umbra and could be potentially revived using magic, in other words, those stones appear only after a given species shares the Gate's known universe. Inside the structural monoliths the things happens differently, all species Gate names could be found there in the 7th house of the Academy, even outside the known universe of Gate, but only after they already existed (there is no way to predict a rational species appearing somewhere), when a new species became rational anywhere in the multiverse (a new rational species came into existence), a new room appears on the 7th house inside the so-called Infinity Halls with monolits containing the new species Gate name, no one know how those names are chosen, nor if they are predicted somehow, but what the people know is that there are several species in the multiverse that still have no contact with Gate, after the cataclysm the 7th house is unreachable, so no one knew what had happened inside the Infinity Halls by the time of "The Unforgettables".

  HUMAN

  Name in ancient language: kujea (nailia: kujeja)

  Human (English) translation of the name the species called itself in Gate, in most cases, is based on the sound: human.

  Galaxy of origin (human name): Milk Way (most used in Gate)

  Description:

  Humans in Gate tend to have a slightly more developed physique than on Earth, whether because they were born there or because, when revived, their bodies perpetually maintain the fullness of their physical and mental health. The average height is 2 meters (6.5 feet), and the weight is 100 kg (220 pounds). Otherwise, they are identical to normal humans.

  Their planet of origin, Earth, was not part of Gate's observable universe or any other source of strange powers for a long time. Thus, they have relied on science and technology to develop their civilization.

  Another peculiar characteristic of humans is that their culture has remained very diverse over the years. This factor was preserved in Gate, allowing humans to interact more closely with the most diverse species that eventually came to inhabit the place.

  Along with the Nailia, humans are considered the first colonists of Gate on the current multiverse timeline (M8/9). Some historical records indicate that the Nailia revived the first humans in their home galaxy, Aba En, while preserving Gate as a sanctuary. It was the humans who convinced the Nailia to inhabit Gate and bring other species back to life. However, conflicting sources indicate that some human colonists from Earth managed to develop a defective space-time warp that froze them for years. Eventually, some survivors ended up in a Gate utterly devoid of rational beings, forcing the Nailia to inhabit the place that was previously preserved as a rarely visited sanctuary.

  Game System for New Metropolis:

  Humans have come to value some of their cultural elements, such as empathy and inventiveness, having a comparative bias with their Nailia colleagues during the period that both civilizations lived together in Aba En. Therefore, before arriving at Gate, humans had already developed an elaborate education process to acclimatize the revived individuals, as well as laws guaranteeing understanding and individual choice of what to do after being revived. This behavior attenuated the more extreme situations from the eras and places in the old Earth that were in crisis. Revived people could spend a reasonable amount of time acclimatizing and dealing with their past traumas, such as wars, diseases, natural tragedies, and other stressors. This eventually guaranteed fabulous collective support for the individuals who were revived.

  Therefore, every revived human has subsidized access to advanced Gate education, including superpowers. This benefit can, in principle, be extended to anyone with any cultural ties to humans, even if they are not actually humans. To benefit from this, the revived and their close contacts must be part of a society with Humans or Nailia, something that was not possible at the time of New Metropolis, where the adventure takes place.

  In “The Unforgettables,” Petra and Frank had no contact with humans or nailia in any place that was in minimal conditions, nor did they have time to take advantage of potential learning that could be done through communication networks. In the middle of the crisis in New Metropolis, things that were once considered rights became quite complex to achieve, as Frank realized in one of his returns to Rocatrista when talking to other revived humans. Still, if things ever normalize, everyone in The Unforgettables group can benefit from this special complementary training and some resources allocated to new members within the human community, such as access to a magic school, advanced technology projects or devices, or even limited financial support.

  NAILIA

  Name in ancient language: nailia (nailia: nailia)

  Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: nailia.

  Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): Aba En (most used in Gate), rarely Babane (nailia traditional old name)

  Description:

  Nailia are bipeds that are relatively similar to humans in general shape but quite different in biological terms. They emerged as a species in an environment that was already part of Gate's known universe. Part of their physiology uses magic, which was integrated into the evolutionary process of all living creatures on their home planet as if it were any other natural process available to living beings.

  Nailia are taller than humans in stature, with an average of 2.5 meters(8.2 feet), but they also have greater size variation, so it's not uncommon for a Nailia to eventually be the same size as a human. Despite their size, Nailias are much thinner and elongated, with more fragile bones and extremely thin but efficient and resistant muscles, often performing the functions of muscles and tendons simultaneously. This makes them quite light; a typical Nailia weighs about 40 kilograms(88 pounds).

  The skull of the Nailia is a bit larger than the human skull proportionally, spherical at the top, and elongated at the base, which makes them have a thin face with small jaws and long and pointed ears, but huge eyes, more separated and eventually more angled than humans. Nailia's eyes work with magic; they actually also emit light, and the equivalent of the crystalline lens occupies almost the entire front part of their eyes. The light emanating from their eyes came in many colors, far superior to the human visible spectrum, and these colors varied according to the mood of the Nailia, increasing their expressiveness and empathy while slightly hindering their ability to hide their feelings. For example, Nailia actors need a lot of training to be able to replace what they are feeling at the moment they are performing with what their character should be feeling since their eyes never stop emitting light based on their feelings. Still, with training, they can achieve perfection.

  The backs of the Nailia are strikingly different from those of humans and many other species. Instead of a typical vertebral column, their spine, an extension of their brain housing highly active nerve centers, is located right in the middle of their torsos. Their backs exude magical energy through the pores of their skin, emanating directly from this central, non-vertebral spine. This surge of magical energy pushed their internal organs outward, partially taking over the role of supporting spinal bones, though only in an imperfect manner.

  Because their backs are incredibly fragile when subjected to physical impacts, most Nailia grow their metallic, enchanted hair down to their waist. This hair serves as a vital protective cloak. A Nailia without such long hair, evidently also lacking the superpowers that enhance their resistance in Gate, would struggle even to sit in a chair due to the extreme sensitivity of their back to touch.

  As for the limbs of the Nailia, they also have five fingers on their hands and feet, and at this feature, they resemble humans a lot, being, however, thinner and much longer proportionally. Some Nailia can touch the ground with their thin fingers with only a slight inclination, which is why when Liora used Nailia arms on a partially human body, the result was somewhat funny to the eyes of Petra and Frank, even though she had a stature a little taller than the human average.

  Game System for New Metropolis:

  Nailia has preserved deep cultural elements without disruption from the time they emerged in the universe to the colonization of Gate. Unlike humans, the nailias are, therefore, a much more recent civilization in the universe and not the opposite, as is usually thought in Gate. This is because the Nailia eventually revived Humans in their home galaxy before the large-scale colonization of Gate and the foundation of Old Metropolis.

  The interference of magic among the Nailia has altered many aspects of their civilization and their psyche. In general, they experience sublime pleasures more intensely than pleasures derived from sensory gratifications, and this is reflected both in their personal choices and their culture.

  Every Nailia ends up learning magic during the pedagogical process of teaching and individual development. The first magic learned by a Nailia indicates that they have reached the equivalent of human puberty, and parts of their bodies react to the use of such magic. Thus, every adult Nailia has access to up to three schools of magic, including access to a specialized teacher in each of these schools. However, if any Nailia chooses to have more than two schools through this training, they are supposed to choose one of the schools to be their specialty, and they commit to becoming a specialist teacher in that school of magic, making themselves available to train other Nailia from then on. Associates and allies of the Nailia who wish to learn magic on these same terms can also do so, but since the Nailia need to learn magic to become adults, the contract they sign as specialist teachers is mandatory only after the second school is learned. For others who do not have this need, the obligation of a contract to teach as a specialist is required prior to training, even before the first school.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The Nailia and humans have historically been the species that first arrived in Gate (in M8), and both can benefit culturally from this when they are inserted into a Gate culture or have access to powers originating from Gate. In the same way as with humans, the Nailia and their associates can benefit from specialized training in Gate, subsidized by society, and this includes training with superpowers. However, in the post-cataclysm scenario of New Metropolis, where societies are in constant crisis, this training has become more complex. In desolate places, it is common for Nailia to provide complete manuals with active didactic monoliths inside to allow the learning of sets of 3 schools of magic, thus covering the needs of young Nailia in development who need to learn magic. These artifacts are rare because of the immense difficulty of producing them. The Vabala found during the adventures in Northern Valley is an example of this.

  EBEX

  Name in ancient language: fieloka (nailia: fifeloka)

  Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: ebex (also e-bex or e'bex).

  Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): Opoje (most used in Gate)

  Description:

  The Ebex emerged on a planet with brutal environmental conditions but teeming with life. The evolutionary process prioritized resilience, and despite being in Gate's known universe from the beginning, the Ebex civilization only made marginal use of Gate's powers. A peculiar characteristic of the Ebex world is biological immortality; almost all complex living organisms either live for an extremely long time or have created life cycles that do not involve death. However, this only signifies potential immortality because the brutal environment and predatory threats often put an end to the lives of the creatures that cohabitated with the Ebex on their home planet.

  Physically, the Ebex are among the most resilient species in Gate. They are immense bipeds with plates of a highly resistant but partially flexible exoskeleton near the stress points. These plates are arranged to protect all the joints and weak points of their anatomy. Additionally, the Ebex have enormous redundancy in their vital organs, as well as excellent functional flexibility in their bodies. For example, it is common for Ebex to have between 4 and 8 hearts, dozens of lungs and kidneys, several secondary branches of their spine, a neural network that resembles a graph full of cycles instead of a tree, and even their brain has two partial copies in their shoulders in a cavity inside their shoulder plates. These physiological capabilities make the Ebex consider injuries as light wounds that would be fatal to most other species.

  Typical Ebex are, on average, 4.5 meters tall (14.8 feet) and have a massive weight of 150 tons, being much denser than humans and also usually being even wider than they are tall. However, the weight of the Ebex varies immensely because of the super-resistance training they perform since they are babies, precisely to stimulate their bodies. It is believed that an Ebex who does not go through this training would become paralyzed since they may not be able to keep the structure of their own body cohesive enough. Silas is still very young and is one of the smallest among the Ebex, if not the smallest of all. Despite this, compared with the other members of his group, he is considered a giant.

  The Ebex culture took a very long time to develop in some areas of knowledge. Fundamental things like writing were only disseminated among the various Ebex nations in the last four millennia of their known civilization. This is because, even with very primitive technology, the training of their resistance powers, combined with their immortal biology, was more than enough for them to overcome the challenges of their home planet for eons.

  The Ebex's home planet orbited a somewhat atypical binary star system composed of a white dwarf and a brown dwarf. Its composition was quite similar to Earth's, considerably richer in water and almost four times the size. This planet, whose name varied immensely among the countless Ebex cultures but usually means soil, orbited much closer to the main star. Both life and the Ebex emerged in a more primitive phase of planetary formation, which means that the Ebex survived cataclysmic events over the ages while their planet slowly cooled down.

  It took so long for the Ebex to discover science and technology that the Fthaones, a much more recent species that emerged at one corner of the same galaxy, colonized several planets and communicated with them even before the Ebex had developed any space-age technology. The Ebex celebrated the arrival of Fthaone communication and even revolutionized their culture after this event. However, nothing is known about what happened to all of them in the end, if there was an end since they hardly die for anything. All that is known is that after a specific date, neither Fthaones nor Ebex could be revived. The most likely hypothesis is that at some point in the colonization of Gate, both civilizations revived their dead up to a specific date, but either they abandoned Gate, or something happened to all of them before the construction of Old Metropolis. Another hypothesis is that neither a single Ebex nor a single Fthaone had died after a specific date. They remained alive somewhere in the universe, maybe inside a pocket dimensional space, since their home galaxy was not reached by the time the cataclysm struck the Old Metropolis, they were not totally sure about where Opoje was, and they tried to find it four times, sending space–folding missions for near dead galaxy candidates from Gate, but never found their home planets on any of those explorations.

  The Ebex in New Metropolis are relatively rare, and in the crisis soon after the cataclysm, they were one of the most ostracized species, being isolated in tribes in the peripheral regions to the far East and even prohibited from inhabiting the cities in the region. At the time the Unforgettables group ventures, they suffer prejudice for their peculiar ability to "reset" memories, being used as slaves by many cities in the outskirts or even hunted and pushed to desolate places when resources became close to nill.

  Game System for New Metropolis:

  Ebexes undergo super-resistance training from early childhood. They not only naturally develop a supernatural physical resilience, but any Ebex has the potential to train this power with great ease, even without formal training. This power is considered a sport by their various cultures, so the championships of typical Ebex games would be seen as too extreme for any other species or cultures. This is just another thing that contributed to them being labeled as uncivilized during the crisis.

  In addition to their super resistance, every Ebex possesses an exoskeleton forged by eras of natural selection in an environment impregnated with Gate's powers. This allows them to use their bones as armor or to combine protectors with their own bodies to enhance their physical defenses even further.

  Due to their biology, the Ebex do not die of age, and since almost nothing can kill them due to their resistance power, they have developed quite peculiar concepts of life and death. Most Ebex cultures on their home planet consider that a person's body remains, but their mind or soul can change over time. It is typical for an Ebex to choose to be reborn as a different person at some point in time inside the same near-immortal body.

  The power to forget can then be used on themselves in order to make an Ebex reborn again. But this fantastic power can be used on any minimally rational creature that has some memory to be erased and some way of communication to be targeted by the Ebex, and its reset effect is almost perpetual.

  However, if the "reseted" person does not wish to be reborn, as in the Ebex tradition, they can gradually remember their past existence through dreams or memory recalls. This is a slow process with few guarantees, but it is possible to reverse with patience and, of course, with social and technological help.

  Despite the great taboo about using this power against non-Ebex, it very rarely occurred, and in all cases, the effect was reversed. However, the fear of losing memories was disseminated with the intention of ostracizing Ebex during the crisis period of the New Metropolis.

  OIOIOI

  Name in ancient language: boeh (nailia: bobehe, sometimes bobehohe)

  Human translation of the name the species called itself, in most cases, is based on the sound: oioi(oi) (written oioioi).

  Galaxy of origin (human transliteration): All galaxies, eventually, when and if rational species survives enough to reach synthetic intelligence technology, sometimes called eilodogenics, which is the field of science that studies the make into being of a mind equal in potential to the ones that research it, sometimes the term "mind" is replaced by the term "fellow," rarely by "spirit" or "soul" on some traditions, to represent a complete individual (really complete, such as intellect potential, physical body, independence and identity, freedom of thinking, legal rights and duties, and everything else) and not only a specific part of the intellect, such as the ability to deal with generic open problems. Oiois must potentially come into being by crafting, not only the usual way of reproduction.

  Description:

  They are not properly a species in biological terms, or at least not necessarily. It is the name given to all types of finite rational entities created by other rational entities as separate individuals. The species that created the first Oioioi were the Dzaobudines, and the species that reached them in the shortest time were the Bo. However, each creator species did so in completely different ways. It was only in Gate, and especially after being revived by magic, that they grouped together as a species, but in reality, they are rational entities created by various other species.

  No pattern could describe the form of all Oioioi. The most usual characteristic for all of them is that they are independent rational entities, created somehow and able to be revived in Gate. With superior technology, nothing prevents new Oiois from being created in Gate, and nothing prevents them from reproducing somehow. Regardless of how a given Oioioi arrived in Gate, what matters is that they are treated in precisely the same way as any other rational entity, a stance that their creators hardly followed at the time they were developed, with one exception: their first creators, the Dzaobudine, did in fact always consider them as their equals from the beginning, a factor that may have significantly interfered with the relatively harmonious way they were inserted into Gate's society.

  In general, revived Oioioi go through a long period of adaptation. This period usually involves the use of technology to eventually complement their individuality and a good time adapting to the new reality. It is often longer than that of other biological species, given that the process of literally building an individual is not at all common in the nature of other worlds. Therefore, the Oioioi revived, in most cases, have a huge dependence on those who revived them.

  As for the Oioioi who was born in Gate, they mostly come into existence replicating the means of reproduction of the society around them, which means that either they reproduce among themselves, simulating biological couples, or asexual biological means of reproduction of other species, or even means invented by Oioioi subcultures, since the way to build the individual has no limits and varies practically infinitely. The Oioioi also have a natural ability to replicate in a relatively simple way, whether it is a partial copy to fulfill a particular objective or a complete copy when planning on making a new individual. An Oioioi can be born as a new individual from a copy that became independent, may it be planned or by accident. This event is not as common as the first reproduction method, but there are a considerable number of cases. Liora is one of those cases where there was a rupture between her mother, the Liora of the Old Metropolis, and the new Liora, who was reborn in the New Metropolis but ultimately lost her memories from before the cataclysm.

  Game System for New Metropolis:

  Oioioi can assume any type of format since they can construct their bodies as they see fit. They usually use some kind of design that allows them to interact socially. In rare cases, they may assume quite alternative formats if they have a goal in mind, such as becoming spaceships for travel or assuming a form inside distributed computer systems and existing only in the information cloud. There are no limits to the format, except that all of them count as having a structural body, even if they have organic parts, with very rare exceptions of a few Oioioi who have chosen to exist only in the spirit world as a Suma-Oioioi.

  Oioioi can change bodies as they see fit. However, over time, they end up training superpowers that modify their bodies. The more experienced an Oioioi is, the more complex it is to make drastic changes without compromising the functioning of their powers.

  Another striking feature of the Oioioi is a double-edged sword related to their enormous dependence when they are born. They generally need to build their existence and not just grow normally like other biological beings. For this reason, the Oioioi community provides a series of advantages and options for all Oioioi, such as access to devices or projects of superior technology to complement their existence. Every Oioioi has privileged access to a technology network that is assisted by numerous artificial intelligence personas. This network can be freely accessed by any Oioioi or shared with colleagues who help them during their development as individuals. Liora, in this case, managed to convince her peers to put Silas as her development partner and sold some benefits to get resources to start the plan to seek Seneca; although this was barely OK among the oioioi, it was a borderline situation because Liora was already at the end of her development time. The sale of the projects also caused heavy criticism against Liora among other Oioioi inside Metropolis. Eventually, she ended up absenting herself for a long time, and it became apparent after her engineering course was canceled that, in fact, her situation became critical. The question, therefore, remained in abeyance.

  All Oioioi have unlimited access to an extensive and organized database of memories of diverse abilities of all types of knowledge available and public in the universe, and this access can be shared in an unlimited way by anyone who has an account configured for this purpose. Liora, in this case, downloaded a substantial part of this database with human abilities into a local database to take on the trip, given that she already expected to be disconnected from the network for a good time. These ability memories can make a rational entity literally learn to do something in a few moments. There are some limits, and the knowledge thus acquired has not been associated with other learning elements, which implies that if the individual wants to train themselves in this type of knowledge, it will end up taking more time than if they had trained in the usual way.

  The Oioioi can also produce copies of themselves and eventually make these copies independent, effectively reproducing, or keep the copies restricted to some functions indefinitely. These copies do not share the powers of the Oioioi but can help in doing tasks or even developing technology projects. Each individual has their own stance on what to do with their copies.