»Benzite

Race	Image	Insignia	Description	Type	Planet
Benzites			http://botf2.square7.ch/b2_db/Races.php

Ships

Ship	Image	Tech	Description	Custom1	Custom2
BENZITE_EXPLORER		http://botf2.square7.ch/b2_db/Ships.php
Benzite_COLONY_SHIP		http://botf2.square7.ch/b2_db/Ships.php

Buildings

Building	Image	Tech	Description	Custom1	Custom2
TextDatabase

AlienCultures.pdf

Benzite

System Name: Gamma Xertia

System Type: unknown

Moons: two (Herti and Dwora)

Planet of Origin: Benzar (Pheradon)

Associated Bodies: unknown

Sociological Data

Goverment: unknown

Capital: unknown

Colonization level: low-medium

Culture: Benzites are highly competitive, preferring to work alone in order to claim credit when they achieve an objective. They find failure deeply shameful, and may conceal the results of their work until they are sure they are right. They prefer to act rather than react. Thoroughness is a high virtue. Things that can be measured are good. Tightly defined, exacting processes breed success. Benzites working among other races must work to downplay these traits if they want to fit in effectively. Still, many Benzites respond to any and all contests with fanatic zeal, going all-out to win any available awards.

Benzites tend to do well with sports and games that require the mathematical precision with which they organize their lives and calculate their Andragov scores. They are less interested in physical sports. The Benzite phrase “your accounting is off” means “you have erred, socially or professionally”.

The Benzites practice marriage, like most Humanoids. However, due to the complexity of Benzite biology, marriage and family have nothing to do with reproduction. The people a Benzite reproduces with are not those they spend their lives with, nor are the children in a family unit the biological offspring of the carers. To signify their marriage status, Benzites use pledge-stones, which are worn about the person. The pledge-stone is divided into halves, into which smaller stone shards are slotted. One half filled signifies the bearer has been approached, and should he or she accept they will then fill in the other half. Their partner will subsequently be given

a stone for the first half in return, and will acquire the second themselves. Because marriage has nothing to do with breeding, there have never been any gender-based restrictions on courtship; same-sex relationships were always as acceptable, and common, as heterosexual pairings.

Game Data

Tech: Sophisticated

Resources: Large mineral deposits

Goods: Unknown

History: Benzite mythology-history explains away the low probability of the race evolving naturally by admitting up-front that the evolution was not natural, but the result of outside genetic engineering. The process was begun by the mythical 'Forebears' of Benzar; archaeological evidence strongly supports the theory of the Forebears and would seem to justify their effective 'demiurge' status among the Benzite people.

As the Benzites evolved, learning to use the biotechnology left by the Forebears, they also learned to create their cities, termed 'geostructures', from the crystalline deposits of Benzar. Society evolved in a clan-like fashion, with geostructures serving as extended families as well as city-states.

For much of Benzite history, although geostructures saw one another as competitors, actual warfare was rare. A thousand years before the rise of the Federation, however, the “Golden age” ended and violent wars broke out when it was discovered that a quirk of Benzite biology allowed any individual's organs or limbs to be transplanted into another person with no fear of rejection. In the “Organ Wars”, geostructures attacked one another to capture victims for organ harvest, until scientists altered the birthing chambers so as to prevent transplantation being possible (as mentioned above). A second virulent outbreak of warfare occurred when birthing chamber scientists found ways to "improve" on Benzite anatomy, breeding warriors with armor plates, poison sacs, spiked knuckles, and other martial modifications.

People: Hoya(ensign), Mordock(officer), Mendon(officer), Meldir(diplomat)

Possible Structures: NOTE: BLUE ONES ARE ALREADY IN

Industrial Network (+75% Industry)

System Analysis Union (+25% Ship Experience, +5% Sociology Research)

Benzite Geostructures (+25% Growth Rate (system), +3 Morale(system))

Benzite clan-like city-states

Benzite Biotechnology Institute (+10% Planetary Science Research)

Bio-Tech reseacrch institute

Merria Orbital City (+10% Income on Trade Routes, +35% Ship Building)

Large orbital port and ship consruction and repair facility.