Edo

			Intelligent Lifeform Index

Edo
Four Letter Code	EDO
Federation Status	Member
Planet of Origin	Rubicun III
Encountered	By the USS Enterprise-D on Stardate 41255.6. (TNG: Justice)
T/E Rating	T0/E0
Current Tech Level	N-
List of Named Edo
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"Health and happiness!"

— An Edo greeting

The Edo are a humanoid species from the planet Rubicun III. They are very human-looking, the only notable difference in appearance being the lack of heterogeneity among them. After a chaotic past, they have turned their society to what is often described as “a paradise” characterized by concepts of peace and free love. However, they also uphold strict laws that required death penalty for all crimes. Their planet is protected by a transdimensional entity they worship as God.

Home System

• Quadrant: Alpha
• Location: A star cluster claimed by the Edo God. The closest major travel hub is on Beta Renner.
• Proper Name: Rubicun system
• Star:
• Distance from Star:
• Companions: At least two other planets
• Moons:

Home World

• Proper Name: Rubicun III
• Diameter:
• Gravity:
• Axial Tilt:
• Orbital Period:
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• Classification: M
• Surface Water:
• Atmosphere:
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• Terrain:
• Population:

History

The origin of the Edo is unknown. Some speculation suggests that the Edo do not originate from their current homeworld of Rubicun III. Instead, they may have been planted there by a trans-dimensional entity the Edo worship as a God. As with their origin, much of the Edo history is poorly known due to their lack of historical records.

The Edo refer to their distant past as the “Chaotic times”. During this time period, the Edo would fight wars among themselves. At the end of the last war during the Chaotic times, portions of the planet were likely left barren wasteland. The current Edo legal code was adopted at the end of the Chaotic times. This legal system consists of randomly selected punishment zones, where laws are enforced by a group of “mediators”, who would issue immediate execution to the criminals they met. The adoption of the current law has seen criminality being eliminated practically completely among the Edo. Other societal and cultural changes were also implemented at the end of the Chaotic times, including giving up eating meat.

The Edo made first contact with Starfleet in 2364, when the Edo welcomed a group of officers from USS Enterprise to the planet for shore leave. Despite the promising beginning, the first contact ended with an incident involving a violation of the Edo law and refusal of an execution. The Edo God met any attempts to take any Edo out of Rubicun III with force and asserted their control over the star cluster in which Rubicun III is located.

After the first contact, the Edo and the Edo God began to be more directly involved with each other. The immediate reaction to the first contact were restrictions on the Edo from leaving Rubicun III or the star cluster. However, the first contact also led to fast societal changes and lessening of several restrictions and penalties. These changes were accompanied by social turmoil. Eventually, the Edo started founding colonies on other planets in the star cluster claimed by the Edo God. At some point in or by the 2380s, the Edo wishing to leave for worlds out of their area could apply for a permit to do so. Some individuals joined Starfleet at that time. The need for a permission was dropped somewhere in the 2390s. The number of Edo emigrants has remained low, as very few has chosen to leave. By the early 2390s, the Edo had joined the United Federation of Planets.

Government

They abide by randomly mobile punishment zones to keep would-be offenders alert under penalty of a swift execution. Since the "punishment zones" are randomly chosen and rapidly changing, the system is a powerful incentive to obey all laws. The Edo welcome visitors openly as long as they conform to their system of justice. The Edo system of justice acknowledged only one punishment among them for any crime: execution with a poisoned syringe. Randomly mobile punishment zones kept would-be offenders alert, and the Mediators dispensed punishment for any violations in the punishment zones.

Since an incident with a Starfleet crew, penalties for certain crimes has lessened somewhat - the Edo considered this to be a tumultuous period, but otherwise productive.

The Edo society is marked by minimal hierarchies and a minor difference in political power between the leaders and the population.

Description

All Edo look seemingly identical to Humans - however, the Edo seem to only have blonde hair, and generally dress in less than Humans due to both their self-confidence and complete sexual freedom.

Physiology

The Edo are very homogenous species, with little racial or ethnic diversity among them. Diseases are also rare among the Edo, which is why medical professionals are only in low demand on Rubicun III.

The Edo have slightly higher preferred temperature compared to humans, for example. This might cause some Edo to feel slightly chilly in standard Starfleet room temperature, although the difference is not as prominent as it is to species like Vulcans or Cardassians.

They can easily fulfil their nutritional requirements by eating plants, while eating meat can have negative health effects, especially if done regularly.

Psychology

The Edo practice a strange mixture of hedonistic sexuality and have a puritanical respect for a draconian legal code. Because of this, all Edo are incredibly law-abiding. Their entire society is peaceful, with what they consider to be criminal behaviour wiped out hundreds of years ago.

Nevertheless, they are free-spirited and extremely welcoming to visitors. The Edo greet friends with a deep embrace and, often to the surprise of outsiders, offered themselves sexually to anyone who would accept. It was customary among the Edo to run from place to place instead of walking. They are also immensely proud of their homeworld, some to the point of boasting about it.

The Edo are particularly easy to read by telepaths and empaths. It is not known if this is caused by biological or cultural factors.

Religion

God

Though they are space-faring today, the Edo are protected by a trans-dimensional super-entity in orbit around their planet, which they worship as God. The Edo God has an appearance of a space station or similar structure and is normally invisible or transparent even to ship sensors. The Edo God considers the Edo to be their children and has been hostile to potential threats to the Edo.

The exact nature of the Edo God is unknown. Closer contact has revealed there are multiple lifeforms aboard the station-like structure, indicating the Edo God is a group or a species instead of a single being. According to information revealed by the Edo God to Starfleet, they once belonged to the same dimension but have since evolved. They are known to occupy several dimensions and locations simultaneously. An Edo from another universe once claimed the Edo God is the same in all universes, although this claim has not been yet verified.

The Edo would occasionally pray to their God. They might continue to do so outside the vicinity of their homeworld, although they also believe the Edo God might not be able to hear them that far.

Rites

Funerals typically take place in nature near the community home. The exact rite is not standardised, but each community may choose the course of the ritual. The focus is typically not in the burial or religious or spiritual aspects of the ritual, but rather the commemorating the dead individual and their role in the community. However, due to the beliefs held by some Edo concerning the spirits of the dead, some funerals, particularly those of criminals and victims of crimes, might involve addressing the supposed spirit of the deceased. The monuments are typically meant to be only temporary, lasting less than a decade.

Mythology

Some Edo believe in spirits, and the there are several myths concerning the spirits of the dead. Due to the entity which they worship as God being a physical being while the spirits are not, the Edo separate “religion” and “spirituality”. Even though an Edo might be a follower of their God, they might not necessarily believe in spirits.

It is generally believed that the spirit of a dead person will eventually fade into the nature and continue strengthening the community that way. Before fading in, the spirits are believed to inhabit and possibly interact with the material world. Some spirits, most notably those of criminals and the victims of crimes, might become confused or aggressive, possibly causing harm and being unable to continue to fade in. As such, funeral rites for these individuals might involve attempts to calm down the spirits and convince them to carry on.

They are at least aware of the concept of the living dead.

Society

Symbol representing the Edo society.

The Edo have local communities with community leaders. Both the community leaders and the mediators wear a metallic necklace indicating their status. The necklace depicts two swirls, a symbol associated with the Edo as a population.

At least in some regions, communal families are the norm. In this kind of familiar structure, those with whom an individual is close with are considered their family, regardless of their genealogical relations. As a result, an individual would consider everyone in their community their child, sibling, parent or grandparent. When changing communities, an Edo may start to consider the new community as their family as well, even when the new community is non-Edo.

The Edo communities are generally small, and there are no large cities anymore.

Culture

Clothing

The Edo clothing tends to be minimal. Typical clothes worn by the Edo include rompers, and when wearing a Starfleet uniform or similar, they tend to prefer skant variants.

Food

The Edo do not tend to eat meat. Eating meat is not forbidden, but it is also not typical in their culture to do so. The Edo used to eat meat in their past, but it fell out of favour after eating meat regularly was shown to be unhealthy for them. Plant food is sufficient to sustain them.

Language

The Edo speak multiple languages or dialects, collectively referred to as the Rubicun Edo languages or simply Edo languages. These languages share a translingual writing system, which is based on a shared syllabary. Each glyph typically represents a consonant, a vowel, and a possible ending depending on its location in a word and other factors. The syllable glyphs have an order comparable to the alphabetic order in the Latin alphabets. For example, va is the fifth glyph in this syllabic order.

Somian is one of the dialects or languages spoken by the Edo in an area on Rubicun III. It is written using the common Edo writing system. The word order in Somian is OVS, i.e. object-verb-subject, meaning that in a typical sentence, object precedes the verb, and the subject is in the last place.

Customs

Hugs are often shared between family members and friends, as well as strangers. A hug is often used as a typical greeting, but hugs are also given for whatever reason.

During typical handshakes, the contact would linger longer than most other cultures. This would often make people from other cultures uncomfortable due to the intimacy of the gesture. An Edo-style handshake consisted of clasping forearms, rather than hands.

Starfleet Intelligence Files

In 2392, Farquan was assigned to the USS Invicta as a diplomatic envoy, his people having been curious about the area the Invicta was operating within.

References

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