Alliance Status: Founding Member, Solar Alliance
Homeworld: The Homeworld (Aldebaran b), a temperate world within the Aldebaran system.
Physiology: Short-statured, humanoid, largely hairless with long, wispy filaments. Large eyes, flat nasal bridge.
Temperament: Excitable, passionately curious, verbose, non-binary, aromantic.
Cultural Foci: Archival of information, pop culture analysis, technological tinkering, and social non-conflict.
Physiology & Homeworld
The Verbenubi are a short-statured species, averaging just over one meter in height, originating from the second planet in the Aldebaran system, which they refer to as “The Homeworld”. Their physiology is humanoid, a classification they enthusiastically embrace, though most other species object to the term.
Key physiological traits include:
- Stature and Build: Their small size and slight build are complemented by surprising dexterity and endurance, well-suited to the maintenance of complex systems aboard starships and stations.
- Dermal and Filament Structure: Their skin is notably wrinkled, even in youth, and they are largely hairless, with the exception of long, fine wisps of filament that grow from seemingly random follicles across their bodies. The purpose of these filaments is not fully understood but is believed to be a vestigial sensory organ.
- Senses: They possess large, light-sensitive eyes adapted to the dimmer star of their home system, granting them excellent low-light vision. Their vocal range is often high-pitched and can become squeaky when excited.
Culture & Psychology
Verbenubi culture is fundamentally built upon a passionate, obsessive curiosity and a deep-seated drive to acquire, catalog, and understand information. This defining trait stems from their First Contact with humanity, which was not a meeting of ships, but of data.
Roughly 500 years ago, an experimental Terran FTL vessel was lost near the Aldebaran system. Years later, a Verbenubi research vessel discovered the derelict. Though the crew was lost, the ship’s computer and its vast cultural database—a trove of 21st and 22nd-century media—remained intact.
The Verbenubi spent decades deciphering human languages through these records. This exposure to ancient Earth pop culture—particularly science fiction franchises like Star Trek—became a planetary obsession. They colloquially, and proudly, refer to themselves as “Nerds.”
This has shaped their psychology profoundly:
- Communication: They are incredibly verbose and excitable, capable of speaking for hours on any new discovery, no matter how mundane. Their speech is littered with technobabble—meaningless scientific-sounding jargon adapted from old “sci-fi shows”. Astonishingly, they understand each other’s babble perfectly, using it as a functional shorthand.
- Social Structure: Their society is non-hierarchical and based on shared interests. They are largely aromantic and non-binary; romance is a foreign concept they understand academically from media but do not practice. Reproduction is a technological process involving DNA submission and artificial gestation, undertaken out of a desire to raise children, not romantic impulse.
- History & Time: They live for approximately 160 Standard Years and are considered minors until their mid-30s. Ironically, despite their love for cataloging human history, they never formally archived their own. Since joining the Alliance, teams of human and Verbenubi historians have begun collaboratively reconstructing the Verbenubi’s past from primary sources.
History with Humanity & The Solar Alliance
The Verbenubi were the first alien species to make official contact with humanity. Having learned about humanity entirely through its fictional media, their first transmissions were composed entirely of quotes and references from Star Trek and other shows. They were reportedly “sorely disappointed” that the human diplomats involved in First Contact failed to understand their jokes.
This shared cultural touchstone, however one-sided, created an immediate and powerful bond. The Verbenubi were eager to join the nascent Solar Federation, a name they approved of immensely, and quickly integrated into its scientific and engineering corps.
Inter-Species Relations
- With Humanity: The relationship is one of deep affection and mutual curiosity. Humans are the object of their long-standing fascination, and they are thrilled to finally interact with the source of their beloved media. They are incredibly respectful of individual human preferences, though concepts like pronouns can sometimes confuse them despite their best efforts.
- With the Randross: Relations are tense but peaceful. When the Randross initially sought to conquer them, the Verbenubi responded with a policy of total non-violent and passive resistance. Randross aggression was met with bafflingly effective, non-harmful countermeasures that often left invaders confused, disoriented, and occasionally clean-shaven. The Randross, unable to provoke a fight, eventually withdrew. The Verbenubi view the Randross with cautious bemusement.
Language & Naming Conventions
The Verbenubi speak a flawless, if oddly archaic, form of English learned from centuries-old media databases.
Naming conventions are a core part of their identity. Each Verbenubi has a Given Name, but upon reaching adulthood, they select a Chosen Name. These names are almost exclusively drawn from ancient human pop culture, leading to engineers named Ka-Ell, scientists named Spock, and archivists named Xena.
SEE ALSO: Randross, Solar Alliance
