[@Ink Blood][hider=Merine and The Guardians][b]Name:[/b] Pisces
[b]Lifespan:[/b] Several, several, several thousands of years like dinosaurs
[b]Physical Description:[/b] The Pisces resemble a cross between a giant shark and a dragon. They have no limbs only razor sharp fins that resemble ship sails that they use to slice through other predators and long antennae that actually pick up electromagnetic frequencies (ie. ships). Their wide mouths can swallow ships and crush meteors. They have four sets of triangular teeth made for rapidly dicing up their food. The hide of a Pisces is so sturdy that it cannot only withstand the pressures of the deepest ocean trench, but the vacuum of space, making their hides extremely valuable. If one were to actually kill a Pisces, then their hides could be used to reinforce the hulls of ships and other armors. However, no ship has ever been able to catch one neither alive nor dead. The Pisces, despite their size, are capable of moving swiftly through water and are capable of breaching the atmosphere of their planet to chase their prey. The Pisces’s gills expel an alcohol that ignites from the friction of the molecules being forced through the vents. The combustion then gives the Pisces a jet propulsion capability that will carry the creature literally into space. The Pisces will not swim too far from their planet, and so after a few kilometers, they will lose interest and return to their home. Between their spade-like scales are what appear to be millions of white worms. The worms are actually cilia that allow the Pisces to sense irregular shifts in their surroundings. A ship breaching the surface of the planet can be detected by a Pisces 2 km away. A ship drawing close enough to be sensed by the Pisces antennae, ie. The Graveyard; can be detected by a Pisces unless the ship were to cut off all power generators and drift. The Pisces have a total of twelve eyes. Four are at the Pisces’s mouth. Two on the upper jaw and two on the lower. Three trail away from the Pisces’s jaw in the direct of its tail. The last two eyes are at the bend of its tail. One eye is on top, and the second is bellow on its abdomen. The eyes are not prominent. They are black spheres meant to blend in and be missed among the waving grass-like cilia. [Reference: [url=http://digitalart.io/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Godlike-Monster-Art-Sea-Shark.jpg][Image][/url]]

[b]Genders:[/b] The female Pisces are the largest and most aggressive. It is a tossup on whether they are the primary destroyer of ships or not for even male Pisces have destroyed ships. At maturity, the female Pisces begin producing eggs. It is because of the eggs that the female Pisces grow to gargantuan sizes. They are literally full of eggs, and if they cannot find males to pass the eggs onto, then they become extremely [i]bitchy[/i] as Jim would call it. The eggs function similar to a virus. The females will chase down a male, wound the male until it can no longer run, and coil around the male similar to a beta fish in copulation. The male is then injected with a tubular genitalia that passes the egg from the female’s egg stores into the male. Males can carry at maximum 1,000 eggs. A female Pisces will often not be satisfied until she has copulated with at least 10 males to get rid of her eggs. Once a female Pisces has gotten rid of her eggs, then she becomes prey to be devoured by pregnant males trying to feed their young. The eggs, within a male duplicate the male’s genome, and whether or not the fry become male or female is random. The egg will develop inside the male until the fry stage before they will eat their way out of the male. Young Pisces are protected by larger Pisces because they are the future of the species. When they mature, then they become predator or prey just like the adults.

Legend tells of the largest Pisces, a goddess, called “The Empress” by astrobiologists. The Empress is the largest Pisces. She is immortal as far as aging and forever produces eggs. Unlike the usual female Pisces, The Empress is docile and nonaggressive. When she’s nearby, she releases a sonar-like song called “The Siren’s Song,” which calls all males to her. Male Pisces find The Empress irresistible and will willingly swim up to her to be impregnated by her. The Empress, however, does not coil like the females due to her size. She doesn’t have to for the males impale themselves on her birthing tube. Males cater to The Empress feeding her other creatures when she’s hungry or even willingly sacrificing their own bodies to feed her (the non-pregnant ones at least). The males answer her every beckon, thus why the astrobiologists consider this behavior to be similar to royalty. The Empress, unlike other Pisces, carries a unique bioluminescence of greens, blues, and purples that she will flaunt about her scales. A female becoming an Empress is extremely rare. There is about one every million years, and when a rival Empress is born, the females will battle to the death. When a Pisces dies, their carcass is often devoured by other Pisces. When an Empress dies, her death triggers a feeding frenzy among the Pisces. An Empress’s blood is so potent that Pisces from around the planet will detect it in the water and will rush to the carcass. It is essential that Pisces devour the Empress for her unique genome adds to the evolution and preservation of the species.

[b]Homeworld:[/b] Merine is dominantly water. There is no land or even islands. There are no shallows and so the planet is completely sustained by the various creatures that reside there. Merine has no sky. The atmosphere is water, so basically Marine is a giant water bubble. The sphere is believed to be maintained by the three moons that surround it. The three moons are referred to as Guardians: The Red Guardian, The Blue Guardian, and the Green Guardian. The races on these moons protect Merine, and it is the gravitational forces of the moons that orbit around Merine that allow the planet to keep its spherical shape and not pop. Astrobiologists believe that if Merine were to pop, then several of its species with the capabilities of navigating through space like the Pisces will seek a new biome. This will turn the Merine creatures into invaders, which may not pose well for other civilizations. The three Guardians radically worship Merine to the point that they send their dead to the planet believing they will be reborn as Pisces. They study the creatures and maintain journals about the biome. Whenever a colonist vessel, warship, or any ship drifts too close to the planet, the Guardians do not warn the ship but allow nature to run its course. The ships and its crew are often destroyed by the Pisces and become a part of the ring that surrounds the planet known as The Graveyard. The Graveyard is every pirate’s; thief’s; antiquary’s dream come true. There is all sorts of salvage in The Graveyard that many merchants can make money off of. The smaller the ship, the better it won’t get detected by the Pisces. The day cycle is every six hours. The moons will rotate and blot out the sun, so the sun never rises or sets. For six hours it is day and for six hours it is night, and when a certain moon blots out the sun, it is that moon which will be seen glowing. The Red Moon, the Blue moon, or the Green Moon.

[b]Society:[/b] Merine doesn’t have a society. It is basically one giant aquarium. The Guardians have societies that [i]revolve[/i] around Merine. The Guardians are all predominantly into Marine science, living in coexistence with Merine, and worshipping the Pisces. Travelers to Merine would gain more knowledge by visiting The Guardians, but visitors are often destroyed once they decide to navigate The Graveyard to get to the planet. The Guardians do not make an effort to contact and warn the visitor ship for they believe in letting nature run its course. If visitors approached the moons first before the planet, then they would be welcomed by the peaceful, “fish worshippers” as they are called. They don’t really like that label, so I wouldn’t recommend it. The races on each of the moons correspond to the color of their moon. The Red Guardians are red-skinned and completely humanoid in appearance resembling humans. This is the same for the other two moons: blue and green. The three moons live in harmony with each other, sharing Merine cultures and worship, and are always developing new and innovative ways to preserve the species. The Guardians have never really had to go to war due to the Pisces keeping all ships at bay. They have only ever received visitors from peaceful colonies and governments. Even though The Guardians have never had to go to war, they prepare for the day when they will have to protect the moons and Merine. Believe it or not because of their mutual and harmonious coexistence and because of the spoils of The Graveyard, they were able to share their technology to fund a Merine Defense Force. The Merine Defense Force is under the belief that they serve The Empress. While no one of the current timeline has ever seen The Empress, there are ancient recordings of her existence. Guardians who claimed to have seen her whether physically or in their dreams are often called Prophets. The Guardians live in an equal society where no gender is superior to the other, and they are pretty open about love across all sexualities. This may be the most hippiest civilization one will have ever visited. The Guardians reproduce similar to Human, and it is believed that it was Humans who colonized the moons long ago. The red, blue, and green soil of the moons bled into the Guardians complexion overtime, giving them their distinctions. The Guardians are xenophobic and so never leave their moons. The Guardians utilize a democracy but there is no overall ruler of the three moons. Forums are held on either of the three Moons, and the Prophets act as representatives of their moons. All visitors to the moons are treated as guests until they prove otherwise, and all visitors to Merine are just chow.

Once upon a time, a Human colony that drifted too close to Merine was copulated by a female Pisces, believing the ship to be a male. Her tube penetrated the hull of the ship and pierced one of the colonists impregnating him with one of her eggs before her birthing tube was severed. The female became enraged and the colonists were forced to abandon ship. Escape pods flew to The Guardian planets and the Guardians were able to treat the Human colonists and return them to their space stations. However, one human was not allowed to go back for the Guardians realize he bore the egg of one of their gods. The Guardians treated the Human, John Parson, like a god. They gave him everything he could ever desire, but it was only for the sake of the egg inside of him. The Guardians learned about Humans through John, and learned how greedy they were. John became fat off of The Guardians worship. He breed with some of their females, producing half-Guardians that are called The Children of John to this day. The embryo inside John was able to develop into an adolescent inside him. It was during a banquet that the child was suddenly born bursting through John’s abdomen that Humans would find gory and horrific, but is forever painted about, recorded, and retold in The Guardian’s culture as a holy event. The child was half-Human and half-Pisces and was feral at first. They kept the child in an aquarium and studied him, teaching him their language and culture. When the child became a teenager, he learned that Saint John had been his father and that he had murdered him when he was born. While The Guardians found his birth to be holy and fated to happen by The Empress, the Human side of the child found The Guardians to be full of shit. The boy escaped his aquarium, escaped The Red Guardian Moon, and was never seen again. However, The Guardians know he is out there somewhere and eagerly await his return.

[b]Alignment:[/b] The Guardians are not a part of the IFU for they never leave their planet and only selfishly care about their own and Merine’s existence. All are guests to The Guardians until they prove otherwise. All are food to Merine.[/hider]