Tsibit

The tsibit is a long-legged race of Icathiria. Tsibits have somewhat limited manual dexterity compared to other ellogous species, their main manipulating members being their multiple tongues, although they can compensate for this somewhat through cybernetic implants or ajatically controlled drones. Still, they are a resourceful race, and are particularly skilled with judging motion.

Description

The tsibit stands very tall, over two meters in height, but most of that is legs. The tsibit's legs have four joints, counting the ankle joint; the upper knee joint bends forward, and the lower backward. At rest, the tsibit usually keeps the upper knee slightly bent and the lower locked. The legs end in feet with four splayed fingers; the tsibit can manipulate objects with these feet, but rather clumsily.

While the tsibit stands significantly taller than a typical human, the actual body is rather smaller than a human's, only about 70 centimeters long. The body is shaped somewhat like a fat lemon tilted slightly upward at the front. At each side of the body is a vestigial wing, indicating that the tsibit's ancestors may have possessed the power of flight, even if the wings of the modern tsibit are far too small for any such thing. Tsibits are light blue in color, shading to brownish along the legs.

The tsibit's head, at its front surface, is elongated, shaped somewhat like another, smaller and thinner lemon, oriented perpendicularly to the larger lemon, to which it is attached at its center. It has four eyes, two on each side of the head, the upper eyes smaller than the lower. On the downward-pointing end of its head is a long proboscis, out of which it can extrude up to five long, prehensile tongues.

Senses

Although tsibits can see a fairly wide range of colors, from 50 to 600 nanometers, they are very poor at seeing still objects. They can discern even very slight and very rapid movement and changes, however, and are very good at spotting objects in motion. Similar notes apply to its hearing, which it senses through auditory membranes at the back of its head; the tsibit is good at sensing changes in volume and tone, but is almost deaf to sounds that are constant and unchanging.

Tsibits have an extremely good sense of balance—probably a necessity given their seemingly precarious perch on their long legs. They can fairly easily balance on two legs (one front and one back leg on opposite sides), freeing up two feet for manipulation. They generally walk on all fours, though, and are capable of running at speeds of almost 36 meters per second for brief periods. They are able to smell with their tongues, and have a fairly acute olfactory sense, though they can choose to voluntarily shut off the olfactory sensations from one or more of their tongues if they choose, in case for instance they need to use that tongue to manipulate something with an unpleasant aroma.

Anatomy

Like related creatures, the tsibit has a double alimentary canal, splitting at the back of the snout into two parallel gastrointestinal tracts and ending in anal openings at the centers of each of its hind feet. This redundancy means that a blockage in one tract will not prevent food from moving through the other tract in the meanwhile. The tsibit has an efficient circulatory system that transports vital fluids all through its body, but instead of a central heart the fluid is kept in motion by numerous bodies called cardiosomes.

The tsibit reproduces through ducts that end at the end of each forefoot. Tsibits are hermaphrodites, and couple by clasping forefeet; the left forefoot emits the seed that enters the aperture in the right forefoot to be conveyed up the vaginal duct to the being's ovaries. (The tsibit can, however, control when these organs are active, and clasping forefeet does not necessarily indicate that two tsibits are having sex.) About two percent of tsibits are born with situs inversus, a condition in which their anatomies are mirrored. (A similar condition occurs in humans, but much more rarely.) Inverted tsibits can still mate with non-inverted tsibits, but it requires more difficult contortions.

Society

As befits both their graceful nature and the limitations of their vision, motion is a large part of tsibit society. Dance is the tsibit's favorite art form, and even their sculptures tend to be moving rather than static figures. They understand intellectually the concept of paintings and similar unmoving art forms that appeal to other races, but find such art uninteresting or incomprehensible themselves. Tsibits do enjoy music, but their music sounds odd to other races, constantly changing in key and with no sustained notes. A favored musical instrument among the tsibits is the slide string, a Y-shaped stringed instrument that produces notes with sharply ascending or descending pitches.

Tsibits have close family structures, and often live in large extended family units sometimes called clans. These structures only apply to parents and children, however; tsibits in most societies do not form any long-term relationships analogous to marriage. They mate exogamously with tsibits of other clans, and arguments sometimes erupt over which clan gets to keep the child of a particular union. These arguments are usually settled amicably through some kind of contest, often of dance or athleticism.

Inquisitive and adaptable creatures, tsibits readily associate with other races, and seldom seem surprised by anything new.