Ael Yael

Starport	B	Good: Spacecraft Construction, Overhaul, Refined fuel
Size	5	Medium (8,000 km, 0.40g - 0.57g)
Atmosphere	8	Dense
Hydrographics	4	Wet World 40%
Population	6	Moderate (7 million)
Government	5	Feudal Technocracy
Law	5	Moderate Law (no concealable weapons)
Tech Level	6	Pre-Stellar (nuclear)

Primary Star

K6 V

Atmosphere

Dense

Off-world presence

No

Zoetic individuals

Yes

Source

Reference

Alien Races 4 5-13.

Canon

Yes

Also see

The Ael Yael of Jaeyelya (Gushemege 0437) are a Minor Non-Human Race with a semi-humanoid appearance and technologically sophisticated sophonts.

Physical Sophontology

The Ael Yael are an intelligent Minor race native to the world of Jaeyela/Vipach (Gushemege 0437), descended from flying arboreal hexapods (2 wings, 2 arms and 2 legs). The Ael are descended from six-limbed, bilaterally symmetrical, carnivorous avians, occupying an ecological niche similar to the Terran lion.

The upper limbs are membranous wings averaging 14 feet from wingtip to wingtip. The midlimbs are set at the bottom of the torso, near the hind limbs. They are strong and flexible, ending in hands with two long fingers and opposable thumbs. The hind limbs act as legs, are also quite strong for a low-gravity creature, and bear sharp talons. The combination of low gravity and dense atmosphere on their homeworld permits them to fly.

Morphology

Adults stand about 1.5 meters tall, and mass approximately 50 kilograms. Their forelimbs have evolved from gliding surfaces to quite serviceable wings, spanning about 4 meters. Their pair of midlimbs are used for manipulating objects.

Ael Yael eyesight is significantly better than that of a human. Ael eyes are protected by a layer of polarized pigmentation which rapidly darkens with exposure to light. This light-sensitive lens pigmentation keeps them from being dazzled by harsh sunlight, or brilliantly reflective surfaces. This response is often triggered under lighting conditions most Humans find tolerable, since Jaeyelya’s K6 star is relatively dim to Humans.

Visual sensitivity extends into the infrared, giving the Ael the ability to see in any lighting conditions short of total darkness. Their visual range extends into the infra-red, giving them good night vision; while a Depth perception is also superior.

Ael wings are fully functional, and Ael are capable of flight under the low gravity and dense atmosphere of their homeworld. On worlds with higher gravity, or lower air densities, Ael either refrain from flying or use contragravity lift harnesses to aid their flight.

Interestingly, though the Ael can only fly on low-G worlds, their tolerance for variations in gravity is better than Human. An Ael will be completely comfortable and healthy in any gravity from 0.1 G to 1.1 G.

Because Ael body structure is radically different from Human, Ael often have difficulties in Human-designed environments.

The midlimbs of most Ael are below the height of most Humans’ hips. This difference means Ael have to reach up to manipulate objects or controls placed at convenient locations for Humans. From a Human perspective, desks, controls, and other objects designed for Ael are set uncomfortably low. This affects the ability of each race to use equipment designed for the other.

Ael are also physically incapable of firing ranged weapons from cover as Humans do. Though capable of leaning out from behind a building or tree to fire, they cannot rise up from behind a wall or trench without fully exposing their body. In these situations, Ael actually prefer to leap from behind an obstacle and use their wings to hover in the air above their targets while firing.

Body Plan

Semi-humanoid

Bilateral symmetry (2-ial)
Hexapod (6-ped)
- 2 limbs used for locomotion "wings"
- 2 limbs used for manipulation "arms"
- 2 limbs used for locomotion (biped) "legs"
- 1 tail
Body consists of three segments
- Head with sensors and multiple-use orifice (consumption, communication, and respiration)
- Torso with manipulatory and locomotor limbs "arms & wings"
- Abdomen with locomotor limbs "legs" and tail

Biochemistry

This species has a conventional carbon-water based biochemistry.

Respiration

This species use a conventional respiration cycle consisting of:

Oxygen-nitrogen inhalant
Carbon dioxide exhalant

Climate and environment preferences

This species holds the following environmental preferences:

Terrestrial type of planet
Cold climate
Mountainous arboreal ecotope
Low gravity
Dense atmosphere

Diet and trophics

This species survives using the following methods of consumption:

Carnivore/pouncer
This species favors high-protein animal foodstuffs.

Life Cycle and reproduction

This species has the following reproductive characteristics:

Two genders (male & female)
- Mild sexual morphism
(sexual reproduction)
- conjugal intercourse
- Various mating systems (primarily serial monogamy)
Viviparous birth
- (Iteroparous): Uses K-selection and have few offspring that require considerable amounts of time to raise to maturity.

Ael have two sexes and bear live young.

These Ael yeyehi (literally translated as “updraft riders”) are even smaller and more helpless than Human children when first born. Young Ael grow quickly, however, and can usually fly after about two (Imperial standard) years.

Ael become sexually mature after about 10 years, and are fully mature at 15. They begin to age at age 40, and often live to be 70 years old.

Archaeological sophontology

Ael Yael are a species known for being cruelly exploited by an unethical corporation.

Evolution

This species originated on Jaeyelya and developed intelligence response to increasing competition in their primary environment and climactic changes.

Major historical events timeline

Vilani Period on Jaeyelya

Vilani explorers first landed on Jaeyelya, the Ael planet, somewhere around -6,500. Initial surveys also found few readily exploitable mineral deposits. The Vilani Bureaux decided that the most economical thing to do with the Ael was to ignore them, cut them off, leave them to stagnate. They interdicted the world.

Vilani interdiction was successful. Later administrators were reluctant to change the status quo, so the Ael remained largely ignorant of galactic culture until the Rule of Man.

The new Terran rulers lifted the ban, and Solomani traders occasionally visited Jaeyelya during this period, but no permanent Human presence was maintained. When the Long Night fell, even this limited contact ended.

Third Imperium on Jaeyelya

This pattern of limited contact with the wider galaxy changed dramatically with the dawn of the Third Imperium. Surveys of Jaeyelya found huge, high-grade deposits of manganese and copper beneath Hi-yayahu lae, the Glittering Floor, a dry seabed straddling Jaeyelya’s equator.

Slavery Under McAteer

In 366, an Imperial mining company, McAteer Mining, acquired mining rights from several Ael clans, and began tunneling operations on the Floor. Over the next 40 years, McAteer built a huge mining operation using tens of thousands of Ael as slave labor. Thousands perished in the squalid mining camps.

The ever-increasing oppression led to organized unrest, and a revolt in 415. It was brutally put down, but resistance to the Human presence on Jaeyelya continued. Steady escalation in “protective reprisals” against the “savages” caused millions of deaths, amounting to well over 95% of the Ael population, over the next 22 years.

Imperial Protectorate & Ael Yael Manumission

The slaughter was stopped in 437 with the termination of McAteer’s corporate charter, intervention by Imperial Marines, and prosecution of the subsector duke for complicity in the genocide. Official historians claim the emperor’s preoccupation with the Ilelish Revolt (418 to 435) precluded an earlier response to this crisis.

For a time, the very survival of the race was in doubt; the remaining Ael were dispirited, scattered, and unwilling to cooperate with any Humans, and several of their most important prey species had been wiped out, or nearly so, by McAteer’s scorched-earth warfare. Gradually, though, the Ael recovered, though their numbers on Jaeyelya built up slowly because so many emigrated.

An Imperial Protectorate administered by the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service has ruled Jaeyelya since the military intervention.

The Jaeyela Planetary Development Fund

As a part of the plan to compensate the Ael Yael, the Imperial government established the Jaeyela Planetary Development Fund. Financed by the planet's considerable mineral wealth and contributions by Ael Yael employed offworld, the Fund provides 11 wide variety of services. These include health care, education, housing, and ecological management. As a result, the Fund wields enormous power on Jaeyela and over Ael Yael life on other colonies as well.

Cultural Sophontology

The independent nature of the Ael, combined with their history of subjugation, has introduced further complications into their colonization program.

There are now more than 800,000 Ael on Jaeyelya, and several times that number scattered throughout the Imperium. Some Ael Yael colonies still exist in the vanishing forests of the planet, but most inhabit the caves and fractured cliff-top rocks that overlook Hi-yayahu lae (the Glittering Floor).

Despite their star-spanning presence, most Ael have maintained a fierce loyalty to their homeworld and its culture.

Ael colonies are extremely jealous of their independence. Most Ael communes insist on dealing directly with the Imperium, bypassing any existing planetary government. Few existing planetary governments have been willing to concede these rights, but several colonies have been placed on previously uninhabited worlds on the frontier.

Ael Yael on Other Worlds

In the late 800s, the Ael began to found colonies on other worlds. Each of these colonies is located on a world physically similar to Jaeyelya, with low gravity, a dense, untainted atmosphere, and a warm or tropical climate. Few worlds meet these criteria, and fewer than two dozen colonies have been founded thus far.

None exceed Jaeyela (Gushemege 0437) in population.

Cultural Hierarchies

This species ranks its members in the following manners:

Band society
(elder veneration)

Linguistic sophontology

Intelligence and language developed among the Ael due to a number of factors. Chief among these was a dramatic climatic change, which forced the Ael out of Jaeyelya's forests and into the mountains and cliffs overlooking the Glittering Floor, a dry seabed covered with prismatic mineral deposits. Ael groups better able to communicate and cooperate were better able to survive in these harsh environments.

The Ael Yael culture has a rich heritage of recited verse, poetry, and mnemonic literature. Allusions, metaphors, and similes are often expressed in terms of hunting or flight (‘I grasp your meaning,’ ‘I need to look down on that idea,’ ‘My soul feels wing-clipped’).

Communication

This species uses the following types of language to communicate:

Body language
Spoken language
No written language

Societal Sophontology

An Imperial Protectorate administered by the Imperial Interstellar Scout Service has ruled Jaeyelya since the military intervention.

Government & Politics

Human presence is limited a Protectorate administration, a Scout base, and a few other authorized activities. Exploitation of Jaeyelya’s mineral wealth is a Protectorate monopoly, with all revenues going to support the Ael.

Please see polity entry at Ael Yael Protectorate for more information.

Military and intelligence

All Ael Yael worlds maintain a local constabulary which keeps law and order, but peace and security are mostly enforced by garrisoned Imperial military units under the command of the Imperial Protectorate administered by the IISS.

Please see polity entry at Ael Yael Protectorate for more information.

Research and technology

Imperial xenologists believe the Ael Yael first started creating tools around -40,000. Records are unclear, but Vilani explorers first landed on Jaeyelya, the Ael planet, somewhere around -6,500. At this point, the Ael were still using stone-age technology.

For many races, the arrival of the Vilani meant subjugation and domination by the First Imperium. In the case of the Ael, the Vilani took a different path. They determined the Ael would be unable to assimilate into their society, but were also unlikely to develop high technology on their own.

Currently, the Ael Yael maintain a technology level of TL–8 to TL–11 although the Ael have poor mastery of higher technology items and often need to hire out for repair and maintenance work, when allowed to by the Imperial Protectorate.

Astrography

This species can primarily be found within Charted Space in the following locations:
Charted Space:

World Listing

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

5 of 5 World articles in Ael Yael

Divkar • Gakhamesh • Jaeyelya • Lishuggi • Ukhluk •

startbacknext(5 listed)

References & Contributors (Sources)

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.

Loren Wiseman. "Contact: Ael Yael." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society 15 (1983): 13-20.
Gary L. Thomas. Grand Census (Digest Group Publications, 1987), 28.
Steve Jackson, Loren Wiseman. Alien Races 4 (Steve Jackson Games, 2001), 5-13.
Colin Dunn. Library Data (Mongoose Publishing, 2011), .
Jae Campbell. Encyclopaedia Dagudashaag (Signal-GK, 2017), 12.
Matthew Sprange. "The Ael Yael." Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society volume 3 (2019): 47-51.