On Giving the Garum Flesh

Let’s shy away from bug fixing at the moment and deal with the Garum themselves. Remembering that this is just shooting out basic ideas for the moment—we’re not even in to the rough draft yet—we’ll flesh them out, so to speak. I have decided that they will parallel frogs quite extensively, with gills, however, instead of lungs.

Being aquatic, they do not stand vertically, but swim along horizontally. So there is no need to have anything such as chairs, or even beds.

Two arms, two legs, webbed fingers & toes, but with opposable thumbs not restricted by webbing. Trying to decide if they have minor suckers on the tips of their fingers & toes along the lines of tree frogs. If so, why would they have them? Will ponder this.

Their heads face forward and are incapable of looking down like we can. Why would they need to? Aligned horizontally, there would be no need for it. If they need to see down, they would swim themselves into an up/down alignment.

Omnivorous, of course. I want creatures that crave flesh—no grazing herd beasts my aliens! Their mouths have razor sharp teeth for cutting and ripping flesh, in addition to molars for grinding. Back in the Garum’s equivalent of medieval times, when the mating fight between males was over, the loser was consumed by the victor. This is alluded to in some idioms in their language.

They have large frog-like eyes that see quite well. Remember that we decided the waters in this exomoon are crystal clear down to a fairly good depth, such as in the Caribbean. They do communicate with flashes of color that flicker across their bodies in rapid succession in the same manner that some cephalopods are able to transform their skin colors. In addition, they emit scents to the surrounding water to augment the color-changing “speech.” I believe we’ll use this they way humans use facial expressions to augment our speech. That way a certain smell would be a smile, another a sarcastic grimace, another a frown.

Alas, because of this limited range “speech,” yelling for help is not part of their understanding. Yelling, shouting, bellowing . . . long distance communication is beyond them.

Lifespan is roughly 40-50 years, but can be shorter. They mate once, after which the speed at which they age increases dramatically. (No rationale behind that. It just happens.) They mate the same way frogs do—the female lays thousands of eggs with the male attached to her back, his arms & legs wrapped around her. She lays several thousand eggs as he ejects sperm into the water over the eggs. Dropping apart after, within days they die. So the decision to mate is taken very seriously.

Out of those thousands of eggs, perhaps several hundred actually got fertilized and then hatch. Out of the pollywogs that hatch, only a few dozen make it to adolescence. Out of those, only ten or so make it to adulthood. The ‘wogs don’t live within the community, but swim freely, braving the hardships of predators and natural items such as injury, or anemones on their own.

Naming is done by the individual upon attaining leg status (adulthood). It is based on colors they like. So you will have names along the lines of Red-Orange-Yellow ,or Khaki-Aqua-Taupe-Harlequin. Usually, males select shorter color combinations, while the females select more grandiose collections.

Because the young are free swimming, and mating turns fatal, there is no family unit. The males are larger, more warlike. The females are smaller, more agile, and quicker of thought. While the male’s instant reaction is to smash the obstacle, the female will take time to think it through. Both have quick tempers, but the male will turn to instant violence, while the female will think deeply of a way to prolong her retaliation.

The deep thinkers are mostly females. Although, there is an occasional male prodigy.