User:Rune Jolara/Sandbox

Al-Leyan Species Development

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Al-Leyan Phrases

• Branching out - Thinking beyond your allotted branch or about “the bigger picture”. Brainstorming
• By the branch! - Equivalent of oh my god when used as an exclamation. Can be used as a statement - to do something By the Branch is to do it properly/within regs/to a high standard.
• Branch - What class you are in/what skill-set you have.
• He must have fallen out the tree and hit every branch on the way down. - Can be used as a general insult of someone. Or disdainfully about someone who moves branch or talks of doing things outwith their branch.
• Don’t count your seedlings before they have sprouted.
• Unless the winds change dramatically - To say - Yes, unless something important gets in the way.
• That was hardly by the branch - To speak of something that’s failed.
• You can only bend a branch so far - A statement about being close to the limits.

Special Note: I have much more development but sorting through, rewording and sourcing it offline.

Society

The Al-Leyans are a somewhat conservative race, and have deliberately slowed the rate of technical progression on their world to ensure maximum safety. In the approach to their current technology level, they did not go through a stage of burning fossil fuels, as studies showed the level of damage that it would do to their ecology to be unacceptable. Instead they worked on developing hydroelectric, tidal and solar power plants, which they fine-tuned to peak efficiency. This meant that they were able to depend solely on these forms of eco-friendly, emission-free energies to power their planet for centuries. However, the demands of modern technology have necessitated further development of power-sources, and a slight pollution of the planet's atmosphere was unavoidable. Scientists continually research ways to maximise power-production efficiency, and this has become a major branch of Al-Leyan science.

One of the reasons for this cautious approach could be explained by the fact that for many generations, areas of the Al-Leyan landmasses were uninhabitable as a result of toxic, gaseous emissions from volcanic strata beneath the surface. While plant-life and some insects were able to evolve in these locations, some of which are exotic in appearance, it was not possible for humanoids to colonize the areas concerned until the gases naturally dissipated.

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Al-Leyans have a class based society but it is based on skill-set rather than social or economic fortune. Each class is called a branch. People from one class will talk to, interact with and even mate with others of another class. All classes are considered to have equal merit.

Each person is assigned a class at around the age of 10. Up until that point teaching is geared towards determining which class each individual will flourish in most. Once a class has been assigned the individual receives further education more tailored to the class they are in.

Once a person has been placed in a class, they are expected to stay there. They must live by their branch, in other words be dedicated to it for their whole life. There is room for movement within a branch so it’s not quite as restrictive as it first appears. For example someone of the science branch can choose any number of specializations and science related careers. They may be a biologist, geologist, mathematician, chemical analyst. Each branch has a huge and varied set of options to suit almost every interest. Someone of the science branch could not be a builder, pilot, or professional artist, though they would be permitted to pursue art as a form of expression. This would allow them to pursue artistic activities and offer paintings, sculptures of the like to close family or friends but they could not have it displayed in a gallery or sold for profit. There is a specific branch for people whose primary talent is in the arts and they may make their living through it.

People who talk about, or try to move into a different branch are looked upon as wayward souls and frowned upon. Efforts would be made by friends, family and advisors or mentors to make such a person see reason. If they refuse to mend their way of thinking then they would have to have attitude readjustment therapy (or reconditioning) to correct the problem.

Raising Children

When an Al-Leyan is born, the mother does not look after her child until the child is 10 years of age. The children are taken into care by an organization named Haemachuo, which looks after the people's children for 10 years, bringing them up in a secure, peaceful environment.

Haemachuo was founded in 1728 when the Yul'shan party came into power in one of Leya-I's more prominent provinces. The institution was set up to mould the future of all Al-Leyans, beginning by moulding infants into model members of society. The public agreed and voted for the idea, due to the Haemachuo manifesto, which offered “a better and brighter future” and equality for all infants, whether rich or poor. In 1973 Haemachuo was adopted by both ruling Al-Leyan demi-global governments and took its place planet wide.

Workers of the institution are trained to notice any certain developmental difficulties a child may have, and act upon it, before it can reach a stage where it may cause problems in adult life. At the present time, there is customarily one Haemachuo carer to 4 children.

Haemachuo have certain requisites that workers have to meet. One such requirement is that they may not have children of their own. The pay at the institution is one of the highest salaries available on the planet, and is generally popular among young female Al-Leyans that are studying at university. A Haemachuo carer is trained for a full Al-Leyan year before they are ready to care for a group of children.

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Children naturally form stronger bonds with the carers and their Haemmachuo siblings than with their parents and blood siblings. At 10 a child is still young and will, over time, develop a bond of some sort with their biological family but they wouldn’t be as close as family groups of other species. A child is raised to show the appropriate level of respect towards their family and to maintain a civilized level of contact with blood family as they continue their education.

The point of having this method of education is to allow every child the same opportunities to flourish and to mould the children into what they consider model citizens. Every child is raised the same way and they all subscribe to the same ideals, it’s a very controlled environment. They all have the same philosophical and cultural beliefs, they all adhere to the same behavioral codes. To some outsiders it may even be seen as conditioning.

They grow up knowing how they are expected to live and that if they stray from this - or fall from the branch - that efforts will be made to help them understand where they have gone wrong. Should the individual fail to change their way of thinking, they will have to be treated professionally at an attitude readjustment center. They accept this and are taught not to fear it, that it is good, that it could happen to anyone. Due to the careful way in which this is handle it is not unusual for Al-Leyans struggling with certain cultural or philosophical norms to come forward and request attitude readjustment therapy to help them achieve the correct way of thinking on the subject and end their turmoil.

However the upbringing is in many ways highly tailored to the individual because at every stage they make great efforts to identify each child’s strengths, weaknesses and talents. To this end they would keep detailed information about each child and use it to determine which branch each child goes into. The thinking behind this that it benefits society to bring out the best in every child. People feel good when they are successful, which is what happens when you do something you’re good at. So by digging into each person’s personality and putting them where they will shine the most they will have a happy and productive workforce.

After they finish high-school level education they typically take a fall year. They can move straight onto a career or further education if they choose but most take the fall year. It is a time where they take a break from studying, grow in self-sufficiency and decide where in their branch they wish to go. Many will take on a job to gain some work experience and it is a time to settle into the real world. Their options are limited in many ways but they do have enough autonomy and choice to live happy lives. It’s one of the things that allows this way of living and being to work for them.

(sorting through sims to find sources for this added information.... ugh so much I should have added as I went but felt wary of making such additions.)