#the great misc tag empire the lion of the galaxy

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Up until relatively recently in its natural history, Centauri Prime was the homeworld of not one but two sapient species, close cousins who diverged around 550,000 earth years ago. This other species was referred to by Centauri ancestors as the Xon, a word whose meaning is lost to apocrypha. This is the origin of the Centauri species' original name for itself, "Ahnxon" or "Not Xon" as the ancients viewed themselves as weaker creatures living in a frightening world where their predatory cousins held dominion over their lives.

The average Xon male stood around 7 feet in height, a considerable advantage over the average male Centauri height of 5'7". Obligate carnivores, they possessed notable meat sheering dentition and the ability to unhinge their jaws, something still observed recessively in their modern Centauri descendants. Their skull structure was more readily compared to their crocodilian like ancestors, giving them the appearance of a slight reptile "snout."

Like most members of their family, males possessed the usual six prehensile reproductive organs. Unlike the Centauri, these were more highly developed, with an extra digit evolving on each. It is believed that Xon may have used their pachiri for manipulation and grasping far more often, which aided them as predators and in navigating their more heavily forested habitats. They are believed to have been used as a threat display on occasion. Xon crests were long and laid flat on their backs, with three or four sets of quilled hair in sections, giving them a tiered appearance.

Female Xon are mysterious, as nearly all written examples describe lone wandering males who occasionally joined together to execute pack hunts.

The only clue to their existence is the occasional discovery of incredibly small Xonoid remains found deep in the impenetrable forests of the western mainland. These individuals would have stood only three feet in height fully grown and are often attributed to Centauri mythology around Whisper Folk, strange tiny women who built Creche-cities in the forest and shied away from interaction with the outside world.

It is well known that male Xon frequently interacted with Centauri Claves and Creches, with Claves favored for pack hunting and hybrid instances existing in both. The modern Centauri population contains an average Xon admixture significantly greater than that seen in humans with Neanderthal ancestors, with the highest admixture existing in the Zapata culture and mainland Centauri coming in second.

The rapid acceleration of Centauri society and its ability to defend itself began to show damage to the Xon population as early as 1500 years ago, with the last full-blooded individuals living just prior to the foundation of the Republic 200 years ago. During this time, they were often treated as second class citizens when they did manage to interact with Centauri, believed to be less intelligent and naturally violent. Individuals were often held captive for research aimed at pushing them further towards the edge of extinction.

The last major Xon population center was wiped out in a single cataclysmic event; the launching of the first suborbital Mass Driver, which was aimed at their then-home in the western continent of Eachnke. This devastating attack tore the continent itself apart, and the newly founded Republic declared the Xon race to have been obliterated in the process. High content hybrids continued to live on the mainland for some time but were mostly eventually driven out or killed, the survivors settling on the ruptured Eachnke to form the Zapata culture.

The violence between the two species has left a permanent mar on the epigenetic health of modern Centauri and is thought by many to be the catalyst for their developing xenophobia and warlike attitudes. They retain many traits associated with prey animals, such as heightened fear responses; they have a tendency to sleep in groups and an intense instinctive fear of having the stomach exposed that can induce panic attacks for many.

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This is me in multiple areas, including Centauri > Bird and Wolfdog > Fox!

Satellotype

(sah-TELL-OH-type)

“Middle French, from Latin satellit-, satelles attendant” x

“ a celestial body orbiting another of larger size;  a manufactured object or vehicle intended to orbit the earth, the moon, or another celestial body” x

potentially “satelle” (sah-TELL) for short.

Satellotype: A term to describe a nonhuman identity that revolves around, enhances, describes, acts as an accessory to, is only expressed through, or otherwise is secondary to a primary 'type, 'link, and/or alterhuman or nonhuman identity or identities.

A kintype for your kintype, a sense of nonhumanity that impacts how one may experience or describe a specific 'type. A way to articulate an underlying sense of understanding towards a nonhuman identity.

A satellotype may not be literal. A wolf therian may have a cryptid satellotype attached to their wolf identity, but that does not make the wolf itself a cryptid. They may feel that their understanding of their 'type, their expression of their 'type, or their experience with this 'type is reminiscent of a cryptid.

This may be used those who wish to describe the way multiple 'types or 'kins interact with each other. Sattelotypes may come and go, be permanent, or there may be multiple types active at once, but they always act secondary to a "primary" 'type.

A satellotype, despite being secondary, is no less important or impactful than the 'type it revolves around.

Examples and usage:

"I am a wolf therian with a cryptid satellotype. My experience as a wolf has made me feel as if I am some sort of cryptid to those around me."

"I'm a angelkin, but i've got this dragon satellotype that makes me more reptilian that some of the other angels."

"My ghost 'type has become a satellotype to my werewolf type recently, so I've become this weird spectral wolf man."

"I've got an alien 'type deep down in me, but I feel like I'm only ever able to express it by engaging with my gillman 'type" (this one is specific for me ;] lol)

Permissions:

The satellotype label is for alterhuman/nonhuman use only, and is not connected to radqueer identities. This label is inherently harmless and was made to better articulate a pre-existing phenomena within a specific community.

My personal reasons for coining this term:

This may already exist, but I'm really yet to see anyone talk about it and I haven't come across anything similar before. So I did something about it.

I am a gillman otherkin, but I have an alien kintype that is much less potent. I do not get any shifts from it at all, it's simply a very bone-deep feeling.

The only way that I feel I can express my alien 'type is through the lens of or in association with my gillman type. I am not a gillman who is also an alien, but a gillman who feels like an alien. I've considered calling it a hearttype, but it's not! It's very much an otherkin type that is attached to being a gillman.

I made this term for me, specifically, but others who feel similarly to me are of course free to use it. You also don't have to fit perfectly within the standards to use the term, there is for sure some wiggle room.

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I want to stress that when I mention that we had fat-favorable body standards, I'm not just talking about men- canon has that thing often done with sci-fi aliens where male Centauri can look like anything but women have to fit strictly into the standards of what human men find attractive. This obviously isn't realistic. Women had the same biological tendency to retain weight as men, and it was normalized and seen as desirable for them, too. In general Centauri women had much more varied body types then we see in the show.

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A list of known Centauri nonbinary cultural identities in the pre-Republic era. Of course, there are infinite ways for a person to express being outside a gender binary, and I could not possibly list them all here.

This is, however, a list of some of our more prominent and culturally established ones. As with all gender concerns, these are not rigid categories and it wouldn't have been unheard of for an individual to mix and match traits from two or more of them.

**Trailwatchers**

A Trailwatcher, sometimes Trailmaid, is a short-crested Centauri that lives within a Creche and who is seen as a woman. They were often trusted with the task of greeting incoming Claves and establishing friendly communication with them.

Humans might recognize elements of butch identity in Trailwatchers, who were often ascribed outspoken and boisterous personalities and served as protectors for the other women of their Creche.

Additionally, this identity is strongly associated with lesbianism. Trailwatchers typically dressed very feminine and despite their crests associated far more with other women than with men.

In the Republic era, Trailwatchers were often infantilized and characterized as mentally fragile, being pushed to shave their crests and grow manes, and otherwise blend in with a typical Abbey woman. While male-aligned genderqueerness was typically punished harshly, women's divergent identities were treated as correctable and something to be pitied. Cognitive behavior therapies were often employed to coerce them into a binary presentation.

**Go-Betweens**

Widely varied in presentation and identity, a Go-Between is a term used to describe Centauri who easily fraternize with both men and women and often maintain both Clave and Creche bonds. These people can be male, female, or androgynous presenting. They would live a nomadic lifestyle, periodically staying in a Creche-City and then being picked up by a passing Clave until they arrived in the next city.

Go-Betweens are seen as friendly, energetic, and mercurial. Though very diverse, a well-known Go-Between look was a short trimmed mane styled in a crest like poof or topknot and a masculine or androgynous style of dress.

They were often pansexual or asexual, even non-partnering. They were perhaps the most well traveled of all Centauri, even more so than binary men, and often became guides and wise folk in old age when they became too frail to continue their journeys.

In the Republic Era, Go-Between became a common catchall for genderqueerness, with other distinct identities often being mistakenly or perhaps maliciously folded into it. In the process, the identity itself largely disappeared, and only recently has a liberated younger generation begun to reclaim aspects of it. It is probably the identity most commonly blended with that of other Centauri third genders.

**Over-Seasoners**

An Over-Seasoner is a crested or maned Centauri who often lives long term in a Clave and may identify as a man or simply live the lifestyle of one while feeling themself to be female or androgynous.

They get their name from their flamboyance and their tendency to spend the long winter seasons with a Creche containing their relatives telling stories they picked up on trips with their Clave. The double meaning of "over-season" is intentional and translates directly from Centauri Common into English; referring both to their "spiciness" and their living habits.

Over-Seasoners are artists and storytellers, often musicians. Their ability to convey cultural information between Claves and Creches helped maintain the bonds between family lines over long distances. They are usually seen as the originators of drag in Centauri culture, as they often wore women's clothes during performances in particular.

Like Go-Betweens, there is little evidence to suggest this gender contributed to reproductive labor in particular, and many Over-Seasoners saw themselves as gay men.

Individuals identified as Over-Seasoners suffered very openly in the Republic era, simultaneously being oppressed and fetishized. The propaganda campaigns against this identity framed it as a form of male weakness, often put side by side with other forms of Aberrancy.

Still, many found a way to live as themselves through sex work, a mixed bag that allowed for self-expression at the cost of being objectified by those who lusted after them. Men who were not Over-Seasoners could often be accused of such if they were perceived by their peers as too effeminate or sympathetic to women.

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You'd been meeting in that abandoned and desiccated fishing lodge on the north part of the island, where the ĺights from the city started to fade into the distance. Everything inside had long been stripped bare, but moonlight poured in from the damaged ceiling, and if you looked up, you could see the stars. The magnificent, endless stars.

One of you would bring a blanket, the other would bring snacks; cigars and booze on the special occasions you could sneak them by your fathers. You were both far too young to be ruining your bodies already. But the need to cope with the horrors of this life would take you eventually, just as it took everyone.

He especially loved his cigars; your lungs could never hack more than a few puffs, but they were a symbol for him, something that elevated a relatively small and slight man to full masculine glory. Years later, you'd always go back to that image of him; your secret lover, cigar between his lips, cloaked in a cape made from a moonbeam. His snorting laugh and his smile were like the only kind things you'd ever known.

Substances aside, there was nothing elicit about these meetings. In the beginning, he let you take off his shirt and touch him; you'd even gotten as far as being inside him with just one. But something about that frightened you. Your body frightened you. So you'd told him you weren't ready, that you didn't know when you'd be ready, and he was fine with that.

So instead, you'd lay side by side, and when he filled the space between your arms, you felt your heartsrate first quicken with excitement and then fall into rhythm with his. You buried your face in his crest, smelling his afterbath powder scented like the aromatic pine forests of the inner island mixed with lingering cigar smoke.

That moment where love seemed eternal would slip through your hands like every happy moment of your life; you would leave him because your fathers said so and marry the girl they had picked for you. You would break his hearts, like a tyrant, like a monster, and years later, he would be in your arms again, a dying man held by a dying man.

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I have such strong memories of my parents. Their struggles and personhoods and the little nuances of love and toxicity. I can almost picture their faces.

I took after Paja the most, the Ilampbhoran, and because I also grew up there, I was basically indistinguishable from a native despite my other father, Ancori, being from the mainland.

Paja was such a complicated person. I remember him being basically kind to me and my siblings, something I wasn't expecting when I first started to recall my family. But he was also busy, often distant, which wasn't too unusual for men with their children. Still, I feel like he did love us, in some strange way.

In comparison to me he was a gentler, more soft spoken person. I got my tendency to run my mouth tactlessly from Ancori rather then him.

I'm sure that he held beliefs about things like the Narn occupation I probably wouldn't approve of now. He was a general during his military service, and I have no doubt he ordered and committed all sorts of violence. He was a patriot, and I think the fact that patriotism was impressed on me with a soft hand made me easier to indoctrinate.

I'm also sure that on some level he was disappointed in me. I was his oldest son, and I was extremely visibly neurodivergent and struggled in school. I was disobedient and a troublemaker. He pulled out all the stops to get me to mature and behave by the standards of our culture. I know that a lot of those "stops" were ones I pulled on a certain person years later myself.

Idk. I can’t help but love him on some level. Even if I also acknowledge that he was every bit of a mess as most Centauri men.

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the great machismo republic the functioning alcoholics of the galaxy

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Forever torn between the fact that ~it was the 90s~ and realistically everyone was pretending queer men especially didn't exist

and the fact that someone looked at us with our stupid pretty boy bird fans and flamboyant fancy outfits and make gay people worse vibes and the roman empire vibes AND THE OBSCENE NUMBER OF DICKS that starts out ridiculous on its own but only goes up exponentially if you add more men and was like "yeah, these guys are poly af and absolute FREAKS in the sheets but only when it's heterosexual"

It's definitely for women sometimes but also it's for other men too.

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not THE PHANTOM TENTADICKS NOT THE PHANTOM TENTADICKS

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Me a few weeks ago: We have a hard time internalizing a lot of our emotions, but especially our anger, it's almost impossible for us. The mark of adulthood isn't being able to repress your anger but having the maturity to take it out on an object instead of a person.

Me just now watching Vir smash the shit out of that fruit stand and hearing that it made Londo feel like a proud father: THAT'S THE THING THAT'S THE FUCKING THING

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13 and 16 for the otherkin ask?

13)

16) It’s a tie between silk and muslin. Too much fluff and I get overstimulated and overheated. Smooth and light but soft is the best.

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14 17 23 lesgoooo —unorthodoxvoice

14) He vaguely knows what it's used for but hasn't ever had one. He holds it up to his ear and pretends to call someone, probably while making a joke of some kind at human expense. Don't let him play any of your app games, he'll never give it back.

17) SO BITEY have you seen those canines

18) Pretend to be stealthy and inconspicuous while sneaking up despite being the most inconspicuous mfer in the galaxy and then turn tail and run when it turns out to be something he doesn't want anything to do with

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Feeling touch starved today and desperately missing the physical presence of a Clave. It's not like I ever had a proper one in my lifetime anyway, but the feeling is still there. I need to be squished between several of my family members so badly.

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the great sad sack empire the creeping existential dread of the galaxy

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We weren't made for war, we were made for getting stuck with a Tumblr teen as your attache until he becomes your son and you let him change you profoundly, forever, from an unholy monster to someone who can be his father, because someday he's going to be Emperor and goddammit he needs you, both for what you are and what you aren't.

Yeah. That's what we were made for.