HOME | DD

Description

The K'Imtiq are a species of peaceful sophonts inhabiting a small, humid planet. It can be tough for outsiders to tell members of this species apart as they have no real distinctive features apart from the size, arrangement and number of spikes along their back as well as minute differences in their coloration. Apart from that, they are virtually identical: long necks ending in a sensory node. Their six limbs as well as the webbed feet are a bright pinkish-red to blend in with the vegetation when hunting for aquatic animals. Their vocalization consists of a number of clicking and crackling noises as well as plosives (the K in their name symbolizing a click in the back of the throat, the Q a voiceless uvular stop) with only a select few vowels and consonants in between, making communicating with them extremely difficult for many other species without a translator.

Inhabiting a small, humid planet orbiting an unstable star, the K'Imtiq have evolved to sense and cope with the frequent solar flares. A disk-shaped sensory organ sensitive to ultraviolet light acts as an early warning system, alerting them of dangerous solar flares. In such cases (when outside), they flatten out the thick, scaly skin covering their central body segment. Retracting/folding the rest of their body and their appendages underneath this protective umbrella, they get close to the ground to wait out the flare. In addition to this, they also tend to cover themselves in mud as an additional layer of protection. Their eyes can be covered in a dark nictitating membrane to shield them from harmful uv radiation. While they are mostly adapted to a wading through the shallow waters and thick mud of their homeworld, foraging for food with their curved, beak-like jaws as well as their dexterous fingers, they are also excellent swimmers able to spend months on open waters.

They exhibit the unusual quirk of having no concept of personal possession. In their culture, everything belongs to everyone — in all aspects of life. The hermaphroditic K'Imtiq don’t form any monogamous bonds, the idea of parents as anything other than the biological meaning is absurd to them as their children are raised and educated in nurseries/schools. They don’t know who their parents or their children are. Living in giant communal houses, they can freely use any of the available sleeping mounds, food is distributed in cafeteria-like eating halls.
This mindset without personal possession lead to quite a few problems after first contact. Not only were the K'Imtiq perceived as naive and slightly annoying, they were also taken advantage of as they let anyone freely harvest chiligrass. Due to the high demand, this spicy plant that makes up a majority of the K'Imtiq diet, was harvested en masse and transported off-world to be sold for abhorrent prices on the intergalactic market, which lead to the decline in the populations of both the chiligrass as well as the K'Imtiq themselves.

Since then, the Unity has placed the K'Imtiq homeworld under their protection by establishing multiple outposts and establishing trade routes with the natives. This not only protects the fairly oblivious K'Imtiq, it also gives Unity a monopoly on the chiligrass.

© by me

This was a fairly quick digital piece because I wanted to speed up my digital art process so it might be a bit rough around the edges... I really wanted to get back into this project as well as just uploading more frequently again so I hope you like it anyways.

Background: image.freepik.com/free-photo/s…

Description

The K'Imtiq are a species of peaceful sophonts inhabiting a small, humid planet. It can be tough for outsiders to tell members of this species apart as they have no real distinctive features apart from the size, arrangement and number of spikes along their back as well as minute differences in their coloration. Apart from that, they are virtually identical: long necks ending in a sensory node. Their six limbs as well as the webbed feet are a bright pinkish-red to blend in with the vegetation when hunting for aquatic animals. Their vocalization consists of a number of clicking and crackling noises as well as plosives (the K in their name symbolizing a click in the back of the throat, the Q a voiceless uvular stop) with only a select few vowels and consonants in between, making communicating with them extremely difficult for many other species without a translator.

Inhabiting a small, humid planet orbiting an unstable star, the K'Imtiq have evolved to sense and cope with the frequent solar flares. A disk-shaped sensory organ sensitive to ultraviolet light acts as an early warning system, alerting them of dangerous solar flares. In such cases (when outside), they flatten out the thick, scaly skin covering their central body segment. Retracting/folding the rest of their body and their appendages underneath this protective umbrella, they get close to the ground to wait out the flare. In addition to this, they also tend to cover themselves in mud as an additional layer of protection. Their eyes can be covered in a dark nictitating membrane to shield them from harmful uv radiation. While they are mostly adapted to a wading through the shallow waters and thick mud of their homeworld, foraging for food with their curved, beak-like jaws as well as their dexterous fingers, they are also excellent swimmers able to spend months on open waters.

They exhibit the unusual quirk of having no concept of personal possession. In their culture, everything belongs to everyone — in all aspects of life. The hermaphroditic K'Imtiq don’t form any monogamous bonds, the idea of parents as anything other than the biological meaning is absurd to them as their children are raised and educated in nurseries/schools. They don’t know who their parents or their children are. Living in giant communal houses, they can freely use any of the available sleeping mounds, food is distributed in cafeteria-like eating halls.
This mindset without personal possession lead to quite a few problems after first contact. Not only were the K'Imtiq perceived as naive and slightly annoying, they were also taken advantage of as they let anyone freely harvest chiligrass. Due to the high demand, this spicy plant that makes up a majority of the K'Imtiq diet, was harvested en masse and transported off-world to be sold for abhorrent prices on the intergalactic market, which lead to the decline in the populations of both the chiligrass as well as the K'Imtiq themselves.

Since then, the Unity has placed the K'Imtiq homeworld under their protection by establishing multiple outposts and establishing trade routes with the natives. This not only protects the fairly oblivious K'Imtiq, it also gives Unity a monopoly on the chiligrass.

© by me

This was a fairly quick digital piece because I wanted to speed up my digital art process so it might be a bit rough around the edges... I really wanted to get back into this project as well as just uploading more frequently again so I hope you like it anyways.

Background: image.freepik.com/free-photo/s…