Sheol

Sheol
Base Information
Classification	Carnivore
Status	Minor Race
Locomotion	Floater
Terrain	Gas Giant
Body Form
Confluence	Non-humanoid
Bio-Identenoid	Jovionoid
Size	1.4 miles in diameter
Weight	Many thousands of tons
Culture
Languages	Native Language
Social Structure	Anarchy
Technological Epoch	TL:4-6
Psionic potential	Standard
Origin World
Homeworld location	Querion (Spinward Marches 0614)
UWP	Starport Error in Starport Decode Size Error in Size Decode Atmosphere Error in Atmosphere Decode Hydrographics Error in Hydrographics Decode Population Error in Population Decode Government Error in Government Decode Law Error in Law Decode Tech Level Error in Tech Decode
Primary Star	G6 V
Atmosphere	Exotic
Off-world presence	No
Zoetic individuals	Yes
Source
Reference	Alien Races 1 122-133.
Canon	Yes
Also see	Jovionoid

The Sheol of Querion (Spinward Marches 0614) are a technologically sophisticated Minor Non-Human Race with a Non-humanoid appearance.

• The Squid Mothers and the messengers are two distinct jovionoid races who exist in a symbiotic relationship; they are known collectively as Sheol.

Description (Specifications)

The Sheol exist in a symbiotic relationship. They inhabit a large gas giant rather than a terrestrial planet.

Squid Mothers

A Squid Mother is a spherical creature, 1.4 miles in diameter. Twenty feeding tentacles dangle from beneath this vast body, each one half a mile long and 30 yards wide. A Squid Mother has a coarse, ropy hide, covered in pock-marks, mouths, and gas vents. Beneath its skin is a complex series of intestinal passages, stomachs, valves and bladders. Much of the Squid Mother's interior is hollow, filled with heated gas. Living balloons, the Squid Mothers float serenely through the ammonia clouds, tentacles questing in search of living prey.

Adult squid mothers live for an estimated 600 years.

Messengers

Messengers are a fully sentient race living in partnership with the giant squid mothers. Although in some ways subservient to the squid mothers, the messengers are intelligent beings in their own right. Because the messengers are much closer to Humans in size and outlook, it is they who are commonly entrusted with the responsibility of dealing directly with other races.

Xenologists consider it likely that the squid mothers deliberately bred the present species of messengers from less intelligent ancestors, perhaps beginning with a simple process of domestication in prehistoric times, and continuing until the present form of the species was developed. It is also apparent that this process continues: although the so-called adaptives are the most often encountered race, several other sub-species of messenger have been observed, some showing signs of deliberate biological engineering.

Communication

Direct conversation with either Sheol race is slow and difficult -- the symbols and structure of their language appear to be constantly shifting, and share few or no basic concepts with any known Human or other alien dialects. Any dialogue with Sheol requires access to a computer with a sophisticated Sheol Interpreter program, plus a communicator modified to use Sheol radio or sonar frequencies.

One hour of give and take is required to convey or understand even the most simple concepts; failures could result in bizarre misinterpretations. To ease these problems, the squid mothers used their experience with the “facilitator” subrace of messengers to create the “interpreters”, a hybrid form produced from Human DNA and Sheol biotechnology. Humans can speak directly to the interpreter, either in person or through a communicator. To speak to a messenger rather than a squid mother, a Human would address the interpreter -- who tells the squid mother, who instructs a facilitator. Since the facilitator and the interpreter are both linked by a direct nerve interface through the squid mother, the process is faster than it might sound.

Interpreters haven’t totally eliminated conceptual problems when dealing with the Sheol, but they have greatly sped up communications. Although some people find the existence of the interpreters offensive, their creation opened the way for trade and diplomatic negotiations with the Sheol.

Human conflicts baffle the Sheol -- an interpreter once rendered “war” as “potential necessity to suppress/eat potentially harmful pests”.

History & Background (Dossier)

No information yet available.

Astrography

This race is primarily located in the following areas:
Charted Space:

• Spinward Marches Sector
  • Querion Subsector

Homeworld

The homeworld of this race is:

• Sheol, a gas giant in the Querion system (Spinward Marches 0614)

World Listing

Significant communities of this race are known to exist within the following systems and worlds:

1 of 1 World articles in Sheol

Querion  •  

startbacknext(1 listed)

References & Contributors (Sources)

This article is missing content for one or more detailed sections. Additional details are required to complete the article. You can help the Traveller Wiki by expanding it.

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• David L. Pulver. Alien Races 1 (Steve Jackson Games, 1998), 122-133.
• Traveller Wiki Editorial Team
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science