Bzzit Khaht: Difference between revisions

Bzzit Khaht beliefs in antiquity were originally based upon periodic volcanic activity, and consisted of several polytheistic traditions. The original deities in most of these traditions were in some way based upon the twin parents of the species, Sea and Sky.

 

Modern bzzit khaht are about 80% religious, and most follow one of four different disciplines based upon muddied versions of the original beliefs, all four of which have expanded to include the rest of the universe - a universal protecting Sky and a universal life-giving Sea, although the original, Yalena-bound terms are no longer used.  

 

Bzzit Khaht are not warrior-poets, and not really either separately, either. Creation of lasting tangibles underwater was always difficult and they do not have much lasting art. Clothing was a detriment to underwater travel, though they did fashion temporary, algae-based attire to protect their skin from the sun for land-based living.

 

The custom of the clerical apprenticeship is the largest, and one that about 90% of the population practices: during the apprenticeship, the Bzzit Khaht individual will spend time in learning and meditation with nymphs its own age; it is a kind of school, though it is much more practical and based in histories than the analogy might predict. It is done entirely underwater, before the Bzzit Khaht nymph gains the ability to live on land, for the last three years of the nymph cycle. After the apprenticeship is complete, many Bzzit Khaht continue to be clerics; many groups are devoted to roaming the stars, not as missionaries but as peacekeepers and mediators. Most Bzzit Khaht do not leave Yalena, as they are uncomfortable out of water for too long.  

 

Bzzit Khaht technology is a mix of oddities. Their weapons technology progressed quickly, although it was and is based solely upon tangible projectiles. Medicine and the biological sciences interested the bzzit khaht far more than the intricacies of particle or quantum physics, and their interest in those and other more esoteric sciences lagged, even after Federation membership.

Minimal on-world, negligible off-world. Bartering between groups and corals is still the norm, and tangible currency never achieved a foothold because of the difficultly of keeping and collecting it in an underwater environment. Groups work together to achieve large goals, such as building complex starships, although the debts some incur are often severe and require years or decades of reparation in the form of service or foodstuff exchange.