Ician

Icians are tall sexless humanoid ice-creatures from the frozen world of Ina.

Homeworld and Natural Habitat
Ina is the 4th planet (6 planets total) in the Vaia system (#3391), of the IRN cluster. It's at the very edge of the systems habitable zone (About 1.3 AU) and are about 0.8 standard planet masses. The planet in it's youth were an ocean planet but over time the ice froze, it's unknown if life evolved before or after the freezing. The atmosphere contains on average ~80% oxygen (less oxygen ratio closer to the equator.) and 20% water, but this is variable - at the equator it's closer to 30% oxygen and 70% water while the poles have a pure oxygen atmosphere. At the equator the temperature can go slightly above freezing for short periods but mostly stay slightly under 5 degrees. The poles are usually -100 to -200 degrees and sometimes Cold storms blow in from the poles to the equator, freezing everything in its wake. The lack of a strong magnetic field is partly compensated by an extremely thick ozone layer.

Icians live at and slightly north and south of the equator, living of the streams that form at the equator and their own water supply, created via ice optics.

Appearance and Anatomy
They are humanoid in shape and are usually between 2-2.5 meters tall (Although extremes at both ends exist.) and about 80-130kg in weight. They're made out of a ice-like material and are therefore slightly transparent and white-blue coloured. On the heads are "ice-spikes" that functions like hair as it is usually cut and decorated, the original function was to regulate temperature. The face holds two eyes, a nose and mouth, but they have no ears. The head ends in a slightly-pointed jaw. In the chest they have a soft form of ice that can expand outwards, even to some extent outside the body, to allow for long term water storage. Water is used as an energy source and to build their bodies, along with minerals found in the water or by other means. Their stomachs are slim and contains the "cooling-sack" a organ that uses water and then vaporizes it to lower the temperature of the ician. The vapour is then led out the mouth and nose, giving the illusion of breathing.

Ician can usually survive 4-7 Inan days without any new water, if they were full before the drought.

In order to get the vital water into their bodies they can either drink it directly from a source or eat it from another ice-creature. Water from another creature is processed in the chest and are then transported to the rest of the stored water in the chest. Liquid water is stored directly, without processing.

Life cycle and Reproduction
To reproduce an ician digs a hole in ice and then rips off a part of their bodies (left hands are common amongst the tribes.) and puts it in the hole, then filling this hole with liquid water. After ~2-4 weeks a ician youngling crawls out from the hole.

An ician can theoretically live indefinitely, but "wear and tear" usually kills them - particularly reproducing shortens the expected lifespan, therefore their lifespans is highly variable and hard to predict. Icians grow depending on the temperature, the optimal being -10 degrees. At optimal temperature icians are fully grown after ~20 standard years. They stop growing after 0 degrees and -90 degrees since all energy is used to regulate temperature.

Life-style
All icians are nomadic, or semi-nomadic. But in ages past when there were more water on the surface some cities emerged close to the equator - some these (Mostly the extremely northern or southern ones) are still standing, as they were abandoned quickly in The Great Freeze (See History), and are used by some confederations (See below) as gathering spots for their yearly gathering.

Icians are constantly on the move, looking for any unfrozen water (They can create their own water, using advanced optics to melt ice, but only small amounts and if the ever present blizzards lets up.) or other creatures to hunt. Some tribes close to the equator have taken up livestock and semi-permanent settlements which they migrate between following the seasons.

Confederations
While most tribes on Ina have their own cultures, traditions and religions which in large they share with the confederation (A collection of tribes, primary purpose is splitting the limited resources without violence.). The confederation is led by an elected tribe, the etna, which gets 15 votes in all matters (Including their own re-election), instead of the usual 1 vote per tribe, this usually ensures they can stay in power for a long time. Common voting matters are; which of the tribes get the best hunting grounds and streams. Hunting grounds are usually favoured by more aggressive groups since most larger creatures are drinkers (Meaning they can only take up water through drinking, not eating dead ice-creatures. Opposite is eater, meaning they can only eat other ice-creatures.) where they can afford to be more reckless. Usually the leading tribe gets amongst the best picks due to their large vote, although that's not always the case. The tribes usually gathers in the warmest period of the summer.

The leading tribe, while powerful, is still under extreme pressure from the other tribes since just one wrong vote could throw them out of power.

There are 76 confederations, with 2117 tribes outside the confederations, making for a total of 5771 known tribes. (Total population ~100.000)

These confederations are known to go to full-blown wars against each other over the sparse water resources.

Other Confederation Titles
Except for the etna, there are 6 other titles (Personal and tribal, although these can be fluid - while etna is a pure tribal title a single person can hold it, if they're prestigious enough, see below.) that are shared across the confederations (Most confederations have many unique titles.), these usually doesn't hold any extra voting power like the etna but increases the prestige (See below). Titles are either distributed by the etna or by common vote. Some, like the etna, can only be held by a single tribe or person while others can be held by several.

"Etna" | tribal title | voted | 1 max | the leader of the confederation

"Ivla" | tribal title | voted | unlimited | ally of the etna

"Yuta" | tribal title | etna | 3 max | bodyguards to the etna

"Tela" | personal title | etna | 1 | Trusted person of the etna tribe's leader

"Aita" | personal title | etna | 1 max/tribe | strongest/best warrior of the tribe

"Neiya" | personal title | voted | 1 max | general of the combined forces in case of war

"Thalar" | personal title | etna | 1 max/tribe | The scripter of the tribe

These are the common ones but there are several unique ones to most confederations.

Prestige and rank
Prestige represents what rank you have on all levels, in the tribe and the confederation, and are usually gained in different ways according to the confederation - but some are common (And are covered below). It's next to impossible to have a low-prestige person become tribal leader, and similarly it's hard for a low-prestige tribe to become confederation leader.

Holding other titles also increases the prestige of the tribe or person holding it.

Prestige is gained by a multitude of things, but most important is inherited - what kind of water you were born in - the highest born prestige is being born in a place with regular auroras. Occupations that elevate prestige is; tribal leader, ice-sculpter or a masterful hunter. Physical attributes is also important to icians, being tall is seen as prestigious and having a large water reservoir is also prestigious, these are what governs most icians prestige.

The biggest honour a person can receive is to slay one of the epic creatures of Ina, making them legends (And in some religions seen as deities.) and it's not impossible for one of these individual to hold the etna title without even being member of a tribe.

Prestige on the tribal level is gained by "pooling" every members prestige - but being confederation leader adds prestige to every member and increases the total tribal prestige.

Religion
Icians hold 6 main categories of religions, which is spit up in turn into a total of 19 religions - the most widespread being "Betnaism"( Ice-god category.) which is held by 23% of the tribes.

Writing and Numbers
Icians have a unified writing system across all the confederations and most know how to write and read (Which is done on ice tablets using careful usage of special optics to melt out the letters.). They also have a numbering system which is based on the number 5, but they have no number for "0" - they instead write out "nothing".

Calendar
The Icians calendar doesn't contain any months since the seasons are very weak (But they do exist.), but they do keep track of the days (226 days/year) and the year is calculated since the first confederation (the Varantal confederation), written B.V (Before Varantal) and V (after Varantal).

History
While almost all icans are nomads, they were actually settled about 700 years prior to first contact in great cities along the equator, and united under one empire, which explains their relative cultural unity.

The first cities
The first of these ice-cities or towns emerged sometime around 5000B.V at the equator in a particularly warm area with much water, the names of these cities, their cultures and much else is lost are lost to time though, the only surviving evidence of their existence is writings found scattered in the surviving cities, far to the north and south of the equator.

The Great Years
During this time the ice optics that characterize icians were developed which combined with the scale of entire cities made giant optics that could create huge amounts of liquid water, increasing the population and spreading cities farther north and south of the equator. This is also the time when icians started to "mine" the large amounts of asteroids scattered over Ina to increase their intake of minerals (Which created a population boom.). The mining was done by grinding two asteroids against eachother, creating a highly mineral rich dust. Writing and advanced mathematics was invented during this period.

At the end of the Great Years the city of Avanyer managed through force and diplomacy to unite all cities around the globe.

Other notable cities are;

Avanyer, located at the equator - pop ~ 500.000*

Verla, located north of the equator - pop ~350.000

Thur, located at the equator - pop ~ 270.000

Teta, located south of the equator - pop ~ 170.000

Binela, located south of the equator - pop ~ 170.000

Thyne, located at the equator - pop ~ 135.000

Erenthi, most northern known city - pop ~ 115.000**

* Populations are right before The Great Freeze

** One of the few cities which are still intact, home of the Erenthi Confederation 137V-

The Great Freeze
Sometime around 100B.V-50B.V something happened with the climate, and over just an ician lifetime the climate changed and became much cooler, and more days of cloud cover and blizzards per year - especially at the equator. All that is known is that Avanyer had sent an expedition to the north pole and the expedition had returned with a mysterious metallic artefact. (Which couldn't have been made by any icians, since they haven't developed metallurgy) This caused massive water shortages in the cities as they couldn't supply all their citizens and the cities was abandoned. Population quickly dropped after this.

The first Confederations
Shortly after the fall of the cities many of the now scattered tribes joined up in confederations to stop the fighting amongst themselves and share the limited resources. The first known confederation, The Varantal Confederation, no longer exists but is believed to have existed between 1V and 276V and spread it's influence slightly north of the equator.

First Contact
First contact was made on the 77th day of the year 665V between the Valunari tribe of the Yeta Confederation and Snowflakes of Gash.

The 223th day a year later the Una tribe of the Una Confederation met with the Situreyn of Siturey.