Wugonglong: the many legged triradial serpentfolk By Imperator-Zor Watch

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When the PLASF exploration ship Gan Ying explored the planet of Longguo in 2289, it discovered that it was home to a sapient race at a roughly 19th century level of technological development. It was populated by a billion creatures that could not form human words and so were given the name Wugonglong.



The Wugonglong are long serpent-like beings based around triradial symmetry. They are about 4 to 5.5 meters long on average and weigh between 150 to 200 kg. Their bodies follow a fairly simple form of segmentation. They have a head which has twelve eyes, a three part beak and six mouthpieces with extendable tongues each with a flexible cartilage spine in the center and a flexible clawed fingers. These are the primary manipulator appendages. For locomotion and as secondary manipulation (usually the inprecise handling of heavy objects) an adult Wugonglong has between 24 to 45 legs each capable of flexing back and forth. They are fully capable of using any of their three sides as a bell, using two thirds of them to pull them along while a third set makes of a pseudo dorsal ridge. Reproductive organs and waste disposal organs are located in a cloaca on the tip of the tail. Wugonglong are hermaphroditic, laying leathery seed shaped eggs which hatch into animalistic aquatic young that develop intelligence between 2 to 3 years and grow into full adults over the next 12-14 years.



The Wugonglong made the transition from sea to land fairly recently, about 21 million years ago after a significant mass extinction wiped out most of the previously dominant landgoing clades. Even then the transition was not full and the creatures are still semi aquatic at home in the water as much as they are on land. Their cities often have canals rather than roads. On land they are fairly cumbersome, they can quickly dash at speeds of up to 15 km/h for a couple dozen meters but mostly they crawl along at less than 1 to 2km/h with little endurance. For this reason they have made heavy use of wheeled vehicles drawn by domesticated animals and sails and the development of railways and roadsteamers was a major driving force,allowing the economic utilization of many regions. Their society is organized around Patronarchies. Young Wugonglong are let to fend for themselves for their first few years, but when they begin to develop the ability to talk they are collected by an adult who supports them with food, shelter and training them in return for work, tribute and allegiance as a client. Adults usually take care of one to three young at a time. Once they are fully grown up they continue to support their patron who aides them in raising up their own youngsters. An elderly Wugonlong patron may have 81 adult clients providing small shares of their earnings. Actual parentage is considered to be an irrelevant point of only academic interest.



In recent years there have been some trade with the Wugonglong and humanity through a set of stations run by the People's Republic in accordance to the Minimal Intervention Accords. Trade is limited to native artwork and handicrafts in exchange for some high tech items beyond their capacity to manufacture. In particular solar panels and high density power cells have done a considerable amount to reduce pollution while allowing the Wugonglong to continue to develop their economy. There are considerable hopes that such devices can allow the Wugonglong to continue to develop their industrial economy while sparing the biosphere of Longuo the damage that was wrought by global warming.

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