Smiler

Smilers are a collective name for a species of limited polymorphs (i.e. limited morphing ability) who are one of the two dominant species in Gliese Space, the other being Humans. Smilers are named such by the way their mouths close (which resembles a faint smirk), and also by association humans have with round emoticons which resemble them in some way.

Smilers refer to themselves as Otha ("circular").

Progenitor
While smiler academia is divided over their true origins, throughout the various cultures the primary myth of the Progenitor exists. The Progenitor is the prototype race for all smilers, who colonised the various planets of the Otha Sector in time immemorial. This provides the best explanation for the various races sharing extreme similarity despite the lack of contact until the space age. From the various planets the races of the species known as smilers developed: Antanies, Atis-Akis, Hitarix, Isata, Litaku, Sa-Ayen, Slini and Zean-Fargis.

Contact with humanity
Contact with humanity came at -445 IA, when a freak warp drive incident led a research team in the Perseus Arm to encounter Sa-Ayeni smilers on the Sagittarius Arm. Subsequent cooperation between the two sides helped map out the outer boundaries of the Mefitas Sector and discover the systems of the Outer Boundary Corridor.

Physiology
Smilers are on average 18-inch spheres - this forms their torso - as well as 6-to-8-inch "hand buds", external spheres that are linked to that Smiler and form part of its body. Even rarer "foot-buds" can appear on some smilers, but since polymorphic extension requires a great deal of physical and mental skill, smilers generally refrain from growing them. Smilers can manipulate their local gravity field, allowing them to hover up to three feet above the ground.

Some smiler races, such as the Antaniez, have additional appendages such as antennae; these are the direct result of different races of smilers existing in different environments.

Smilers absorb air through their bodies, and are sensitive to slight scent changes. Additionally, though they are physically resistant, they can be sensitive to radiation, as even light radiation can play havoc on a smiler's body shape.

Smilers also have a semi-dependence on a hive mind. Most Smilers can communicate using their mouth openings, but as they have difficulty with some letters of human speech (see Language below), they can transmit communications via text-to-speech programs, a neural interface, or by touch-transmission.

Coloration
All smilers are thought to have descended from one Progenitor and then adapted for each of the planets colonised. While most smilers from a particular race have a single base coloration, shades and tints of such can vary. In addition, genes can mutate over the space of a generation, resulting in budlings with non-standard coloration - to avoid any societal rejection, medication may be prescribed to that smiler to adjust its pigmentation to the "correct" colour.

Reproduction
Smilers have male and female genders, and mate by means of clasping hand-buds and melding. Melding involves blending genetic information to ensure variety in the next generation.

Budding
After a period of three to four months, a small bud starts to grow on the mother's body. In about 6 months, it detaches from its mother and starts growing - from this point on it is referred to as an individual in its own right and is dependent on its mother for sustenance until ready to find food on its own.

Growth
A released bud (a "budling") is a miniature version of its parents, and it grows in size until it reaches adulthood (about 25 years in Gliese Time). During this time it is initiated in the ways of its particular culture, and brought into general society.

Language
Because of the way smilers' mouths are built, their vocabulary misses almost all letters in human language that require teeth to create - despite the hurdles, Memethari is a language lush with meaning and reference, properly reflecting the diversity found in all smiler races.

Society
Smiler society varies wildly among the various races, but among them there is a clear focus on a community unit. In general, smilers are both individualistic and heavily group-minded, and there seems to be no conflict regarding one or the other.

Smilers always curtsy instead of shaking hands. Making hand contact - regarded as an intimate act in all smiler cultures - is generally frowned upon.

Although smilers do not have hair, smiler females in particular have taken to wearing wigs, to properly distinguish them from their male counterparts. This is commonly said to be brought on due to their interaction with humans.

Behaviour towards humans
Smilers, especially those never exposed to humanity before, find humans a curiousity. While most any smiler will tolerate humans, they find some of their stranger traits - tendencies to do extreme things for popularity and brag about it, for example - quite wearying, and will lean more towards intellectuals, thinkers, or those with a sharp martial mind.

Smilers can relate to infighting within the human fold, as they have experienced many wars based on racial prejudice. Nevertheless, as a whole they see themselves as the primary starfaring race in Gliese Space (having developed technology equalling or slightly surpassing those of human design), and do not take kindly to assertions that they are not.

Spacecraft
With the advent of interstellar space travel, smilers - savvy explorers that they are - developed the technology that allowed modular hulls to be built for small and medium spacecraft. While these smaller ships are the mainstay of the merchant and military fleets, the pride of smiler spacecraft engineering are the incomprehensibly large Midatha-class mobile superfortresses.

Technology
Smiler technology includes such things as non-surgical neural interfaces, on-ship thought-to-speech communicators, reverse-engineered the technology that allowed jump gates to be possible, and introduced new commodities into the market, such as Insas and Ninin Tonics.