Hoku (vulgar neutral, nonfaction specific)
Atu-Hoku (Person, vulgar ethonym?)
Gebazaat'ru (Bright Ones, engineered collecitve)
Kahi'koopafi (Angel, derogatory ethonym???)
Azapaxako Hoku (The Hoku Expanse, their polity)
Last updated: July 4th 2026
COLLECTIVE SUMMARY
The Hoku Expanse flag, the lotus and their seven member worlds
Most Hoku align themselves with and work for the Hoku Expanse, an outworld governmental entity responsible for resource administration and development of the hoku interstellar diaspora. It was assembled after the Somoga Event sometime between 190 and 140 BdF.
Despite posessing offices of administrative districtal authority within certain territories in the Dominion's Arrene Core, these do not constitute one contiguous-state outside the Expanse's sphere of influence.
First contact with the Dominion in 2548 AdF.
Joined the Dominion in 2553 AdF, as an aligned neutral power.
Origin
The binary star system Paza (86, 36, 75), ~120ly from Argost.
The Hoku homeworld is an oceanic tropical superterran with one small moon, with a circumbinary orbit around the system's suns. Outsiders and foreign Hoku alike call the planet 'Hokushoku', but the natives call it Auot'zae. The geography and atmosphere are similar to that of Earth's, with a hyperoxic atmosphere due higher atmospheric pressure - its most striking feature however, is the autumnal-colored vegetation - often golden, due an alternative pigment to green chlorophyl.
The Hoku naturally have a strong preference for Earth-like oceanic worlds with a warm climate, but their forced early diaspora has pushed them towards many worlds on the edge of their species adaptability threshold.
Description
Although the Hoku identify and classify as one single species, it must be noted that they can be (and will be) subdivided into two main types of hoku, which themselves can be subdivided into various subtypes, or races. Questions of lineage, ancestry, and "race" occupy a far more prominent place within Hoku society than they do among most Dominion civilizations, due to millennia of deliberate artificial selection and comparatively permissive attitudes toward eugenics.
These main types, in broad terms, are the Atu-Hoku, and the Geba or Gebazaat'ru Hoku. But they share pretty much the same baseline build.
Bipeds with marsupial-avian-reptile traces, standing 5'0" to 7'6" tall, weighing 60-120kg, with a lean, athletic, and top-heavy build, for running and agility. They have sturdy short-shinned digitigrade legs, which end in zygotactyl feet plus one spur-like toe in the inner part of the foot. Their arms are long, ending in hands with five fingers in a 2-3 arrangement, meaning they have two thumb-like fingers on the same side of the hand - giving them unmatched grip strength and manipulation. Individuals are often ambidextrous with remarkable precision.
Their head is long and conical, giving them a "beaked" profile, though they have small mouths with small teeth located near the lower "base" of their long face, not much unlike sperm-whales. They have two pairs of eyes, both of which sport rectangular-ish vertical pupils. A smaller pair positioned towards the front, and a larger pair positioned further back on the sides of the head, allowing for incredible depth perception and a wide field of view. Their ear-like appendages are three pairs of long, fleshy and furred (?) structures on the back quarter of their head, giving them a near supernatural sense of tridimentional hearing - also used for emotional communication though color, movement, and orientation to convey mood and intent.
The tough skin of a hoku covers only a thin layer of fatty tissue, their thermal insulation is mostly done through a coat of fur-like plumage. That plumage comes in a variety of earthly tones plus black, white, and at times, bright oranges and reds - and it plays heavily on their sexual dimorphism, where males display redder exposed skin, bright neck plumage, and gold, scarlet or vivid feather displays. Females generally posess lighter skin, with muted browns and gray blues, with accents in orange, blue, or green in patterns such as around the eyes.
Their diet naturally consists of insects, small animals, fruits and vegetables. Industrialized large-scale food products are consumed on dietary, economic and social constraints.
The Hoku are known to be viviparous, with a gestation period of 48-52 days, their young are bean-like Joeys. Their early development phase is energy-intensive, growing into adults at a similar rate to that of Chelok young. A quirk that often results into individuals of these two species into being likeminded at similar ages, fomenting rivalry and friendships alike.
COMMON HOKU - Avipoda sapiens cer, or Ur-Hoku / Atu-Hoku (vulgar)
The Atu-Hoku are the decendants of the naturally occurring species in their homeplanet, though not fully natural due social and artificial selection. They can be dividided into hundreds upon hundreds of micro-groups delineated by culture, language, and overall physical traits, often divided on a race or clan basis.
Though common stereotypes would have you deem the Atu-Hoku the "emotional" counterpart to the Geba Hoku, this image is deeply exaggerated through the lens of foreign contact and unfamiliarity of hoku customs. Though it could be said they are relatively more 'traditional' culturally speaking than the Geba Hoku, in relative terms.
In general, any hoku individual is both emotionally and rationally as intelligent as any Chelok individual, with a very strong personality.
GEBA HOKU - Avipoda sapiens sidus, Gebazaat'ru (proper), Kahikoopafi (derogatory?)
For starters, Geba Hoku is an umbrella term utilized by members of this group to designate any decendants of former artificially created slave-caste to the Atu-Hoku during their civilization's early-spacefaring days - it encompasses a dozen or so races with distinguinshing features and cultural traits that share this common history and present-day social problems and stigmas of that era. Originally designed to be very proficient at specific tasks and problem solving, they are fundamentally wired differently from your baseline hoku.
Physically, they are also deliberately made to stand out in crowds from looks alone. They usually landing on the taller or the shorter side of the spectrum depending on their specific ancestry. Though their most striking feature in comparison to common hoku is that they come in very "unnatural" colors - the sclera on hoku eyes are often reddish, brown or amber-like, Geba eyes can show in white, golden, blue, green, and hazel colors - their feather patterns are also very particular about their designs, often sporting bur not limited to white/black/orange streaks, sometimes plain white or pale golden. Anatomically, they generally enhanced in lung capacity, strength, of either a leaner or stout build depending if they were made for high or low gravity environments. An important and perhaps curious ability certain groups of Geba learn, is the ability to read microexpressions amongst each other, a technique developed in ancient times by their monks and scholars, called 'nonspeak', that to the untrained eye, looks like plain 'telepathy' between the parts.
Psychologically, Geba Hoku are, on very broad terms, neurodivergent savants. Often noted for their cooled, calculating demeanor and occasional apathetic and psychopatic tendencies - which makes them excellent and dedicated workers when on site, but socially awkward, emotionally detached, and often depressive or hyper-expressive about their life and interests, depending on their cultural upbringing and health quirks. Nowadays, Geba Hoku are both the most competent and most volatile individuals amongst the hoku species, often resorting to substance abuse, tradition, religion, and dedicating their lives to a specific line or work to cope with the fact that their lives, brain and body are definetly mismatched.
In general, Geba Hoku societies at any scale are a coin-flip between being isolationist or marginally operating within the boundaries of both the Expanse and the Dominion. From gangs and clans, to art and hobbyist circles, to large scale contractor groups of any kind. It largely depends on who they're dealing with and their specific views on existence.
Nevertheless, mixed lineages are far from uncommon, demonstrating that social conventions have never fully prevented relationships between the two populations.
Cybernetic augmentation is common place but deemed largely optional and cultural.
Hoku languages like Hukat, Sidessian and Entselari are common for Pankal chelok to adopt as a second language due their vicinity and long trade history.
Spacetravel
Hoku technology across space can be found at various states of development despite efforts to modernize its fleet and arsenal all across known space.
Interstellar vessels range from lightsails, ionic and proton rockets, up to the latest proprietary Pionic A-M/AM drivers. The hoku are one of the oldest client species to Chelok tech since around 1130 AdF (2400 years!). Typical travel speed between γ~1.025 and γ~6.5 depending on available proprietary transports.
Relations
Officially neutral to foreign powers. Non-territorial (?), politico-social clan-based society, curious. Fragmented, individuals exhibit a variable degree of risk averse/affinity, amicability/volatility, and xenophobia.
Fleet size numbering the hundreds of thousands.
Population currently estimated at least 50 to 60 billion across the Dominion, could be a lot closer to ~80bi as of 3350 AdF due census imprecision.
No other civilizational goals than reorganizing, power for hire.
Faction-dependent loyalties, historically unanimously friendly towards Chelok and negative towards the Arrene.
OTHER LINKS
The Hoku Expanse (domain)
The Paza System (homesystem)
Hokushoku (homeworld)
Hukat Mythos (worldbuilding)
The Starpilot (worldbuilding)
The Fall of Hokushoku (short story)
History Overview (worldbuilding)
No comments:
Post a Comment