Planet Zikazi

This page is an overview of the nature and people of the planet called Zikazi, and is a reference for unusual terms found on pages about Zikazi natives, as well as a place for information that can help understand the mindsets and lifestyles of people from this world.

Zikazi natives on Earth

There are currently three people from Zikazi on Earth. They are Takomo Yocmer, Raoul Kasima, and Rehnac Naturai. More information about those people can be found on their pages. All of the available information about planet Zikazi has been provided by Raoul Kasima and Takomo Yocmer, as Rehnac Naturai is too much of a jerk to tell anyone anything useful.

Zikazi Environment

Measuring Time

Zikazi completes one rotation on its axis in almost exactly the same amount of time that Earth does, meaning that for all intents and purposes, an Earth day and a Zikazi day are the same amount of time. However, Zikazi orbits around its sun nearly twice as fast as Earth does, so while both the Zikazi and Gregorian calendars are based around a full orbit of the sun, a Zikazi year is slightly more than half an Earth year.

Terrain

Zikazi features a single, massive continent, where most of the population lives. There are also a large number of islands, which vary greatly in size. Some islands are hundreds of miles from any other, while others are so close that a fit and healthy kaisa can leap from one to the other without getting his shoes wet. Due to its high global temperature, Zikazi has no ice caps or glaciers. The continent is almost completely rimmed by huge mountains, with only a few areas where ships of any size may be docked. Travel between the continent and islands is therefore inconvenient, as most of the islands simply aren't large enough to have an airfield. The interior of the continent features a few large mountains, but mostly consists of hills and flatlands, both of which are divided between plains, rain forests, and jungles.

Climate

Zikazi is much closer to its sun than Earth is to Sol, and because of this, and the similarities between the two stars, Zikazi's climate is much hotter. Zikazi has two seasons; dry and wet. The dry season is one of extreme heat, droughts are common and the ambient tempurature alone is dangerous. The wet season is much cooler, but still warmer than many areas on Earth, humidity is very high and it is not uncommon for rainstorms to last days on end. While there are no droughts during wet season, there are floods, especially on the flat plains.

The people of Zikazi went from inventing language to inventing umbrellas and air conditioning much faster than humans did, but their only means of creating artificial heat are involved in cooking and generating electricity, and they just don't understand blankets.

Plant and Animal Life

Plantlife on Zikazi tends towards ferns and other tropical plants, especially tall, fruit-bearing trees. Despite the size of its ocean, Zikazi has nothing resembling Earth's whales in size, though it has an abundance of shark-like creatures.

Zikazi's land-dwelling animals are perhaps its most interesting. Whatever the catastrophic event that eradicated Earth's dinosaurs was, Zikazi had no such thing occur. As such, the planet's surface is inhabited with huge populations of reptiloid creatures, many of which are hundreds of feet tall and weigh thousands of tons. These creatures are so much like Earth's dinosaurs that both Takomo Yocmer and Raoul Kasima have mistaken horror films about cloned dinosaurs for retellings of actual events, and wondered why the human victims didn't have any proper weapons on them, or why none of the people running through the restaurant kitchen thought to grab a meat cleaver and improvise. It is these creatures that are hunted for sport by the kaisa, Zikazi's indigenous sapient people.

The Kaisa

The kaisa are humanoid, sentient people native to Zikazi. All of the people who have come from Zikazi to Earth are kaisa, and all other life forms on Zikazi are sub-sentient, possessing pack-hunter instincts at best.

Appearance and Biology

Kaisa are very much like humans. Some say too much like humans to be coincidence. They are mammals, bipedal, with the same number and configuration of organs as humans, with some exceptions. Kaisa ears are not at all like human ears, but are found near the top of the head, triangular in shape, rather larger, and covered in a short fur. These ears are similar, in look and location, to a cat's, although no kaisa likes hearing this pointed out, for reasons explained below. Kaisa also typically have long, rope-like tails, which are, again, like a cat's, though most kaisa wrap their tails around one leg or the other and wear long pants or skirts, so the tails are rarely seen. Kaisa tend to be thinner and lighter than humans on average, a fact which may be related to their ability to leap several hundred feet in distance, and over one hundred feet in height. Kaisa genetics are far less prone to mutation than human genes, and there are only two recorded instances of mutation-related super-powers, as compared to the hundreds or even thousands of humans with mutantion-based powers. Kaisa physiology is very human-like, they can eat human food with no problem, need the same mix of gasses in their air as humans, and require almost the same amount of water and nutrients. It has been posited that, just as kaisa are well-suited to living on Earth, humans would have little trouble acclimating to life on Zikazi.

Technology

The current "big thing" in kaisa technology is faster-than-light (FTL) space travel. Kaisa are able to build space ships capable of crossing incredible distances very rapidly. This development followed their breakthrough which let the kaisa send data through space at speeds and distances well above what the laws of physics should allow, and gave the kaisa the ability to make contact with sentient people on other worlds. Unfortunately, they chose to exile the worst of their criminals to space, making the kaisa a very unpopular people with a reputation for pushing their problems onto others, so contact with other civilizations is limited.

Powered armor is another staple of kaisa technology, developed to make hunting safer. In addition, they have had great success in developing railguns and other next-generation weapons. The few warships in the kaisa space fleet are equipped with massive railguns, and much smaller, portable versions are gaining popularity as hunting weapons. Most electricity is generated by fusion power plants.

Language and Culture

Biology isn't the only thing kaisa and humans have in common. The primary language spoken on Zikazi's continent is astoundingly similar to Americanized English, though with several differences and omissions. The language has no word for "snow", as it never happens on Zikazi, and in fact the idea of water -or anything, really- freezing naturally is entirely alien to the kaisa. They didn't discover that freezing was possible until they invented artificial means of making things cool, which came out of a desire to simulate the wet season's tempuratures during the dry season. While other languages are spoken on the islands, they also bear similarities to human languages, primarily Russian, Swahili and Latin.

Kaisa strongly dislike being compared to non-sentient animals, and as such, pointing out the similarities between their ears or tails and those of felines is reacted to negatively. For this reason, they also deeply dislike the idea that kaisa evolved from non-sentient creatures, far preferring a theory similar to creationism.

Religion

There are no religions, as we understand the concept, among the kaisa. There are only vague beliefs and ideas about a higher power or spiritual entities. The idea of people with similar beliefs organizing together to worship or pay respect to such beings is one that confuses and fascinates the kaisa on Earth.

Government

The kaisa are governed by an organized, self-selecting buraeucracy based on the main continent, which takes little interest in trying to enforce its occasionally-esoteric laws on the islands. This government is a complicated organization which is not designed or intended to react to the will of the people, and some of its decisions have sparked strongly negative reactions. With the advent of faster-than-light space travel, it was decided that all kaisa who commit very severe crimes should be exiled, despite the protests of the general population, as well as the populations of other nearby planets. The decision to exile all kaisa with unusual genetic mutations was even more disquieting.

While there is a world-wide police force, there is no military on kaisa, as the single nation and culture means there is little reason for any kind of warfare. It is theorized that this could be the downfall of the kaisa government should the general population become much more fed up than they currently are.

Hunting

The hunt is the most significant aspect of kaisa culture. It is their primary sport, an exercise in family bonding, a world-wide holiday, the source of all the meat in almost every kaisa's diet, and a way of life. Most of the wet season is occupied with the hunt, and much of kaisa culture is focused on, or derived from, the hunt and traditions surrounding it. The hunt takes place virtually everywhere on the planet, and more than half of the kaisa population participates. Hunters gather in large groups, arming themselves with bladed melee weapons, firearms, railguns, and even powered armor suits before questing into the jungles and rainforests in search of the largest, most vicious carnivore they think they can kill. The groups attack en masse, shooting at the creature or leaping onto it to attack up close. Successful parties celebrate extravagently, carving off large chunks of the fallen beast to cook over bonfires and eat triumphantly before heading out a few days later to do it all again. The sheer size of many of their reptiloid targets means that only a small percentage of the meat from killed animals is eaten at these celebrations; the rest is preserved for later, and most of it ends up sold to other kaisa.

Despite the fact that they're attacking creatures frighteningly similar to the Utahraptor, Allosaurus, and similar large, vicious dinosaurs, casualties are smaller than one might think. Still, there are kaisa who die during the hunt, and the funerals honoring them are typically large and extravagent. The hunt is the source of meat for all kaisa, and is therefore a vital part of their way of life, and in fact, their continued survival. As such, those who die hunting are honored as having sacrificed their lives for the good of the people.

Families

The kaisa form families in much the way humans do, though with some differences. Rather than marriages in the sense that most humans think of one, kaisa tradition involves what are known as "lifemates". Becoming a lifemate with someone is almost exactly like marrying them, but there is little formality to it. No wedding, religious service, or reception. A kaisa lives with their lifemate, they support each other, raise their children together, and so forth. Neither male nor female kaisa take the other's name when they become lifemates, and the process of becoming lifemates is no more complicated than the pair simply agreeing to do so. Despite the apparently casual nature of the tradition, becoming a lifemate is, as the name suggests, a life-changing decision, and it is entirely permanent. There is no equivalent to divorce, and both Raoul Kasima and Takomo Yocmer have expressed utter confusion, and more than a little disgust, at the concept of lifemates deciding not to be lifemates any more. As such, the decision is always carefully considered before being undertaken, and the lifemating of Raoul and Takomo would be looked at as extremely rash and premature, even though they were romantically involved for several years prior to doing so.

For their part, Raoul and Takomo figure that if Raoul was willing to cross the better part of the galaxy to make their relationship work, there's very little that could stop it from working.