Salocin

CREDIT TO ENIGMA FOR THE NAME.

Hello, my name is Dr. Proxius.

...No connection to Jake Keaton (ProXy), I swear.

I have been doing research on a number of wayward species known as the Alphanumeric Species, named for power dependency based on a mystic alphabetical or numeric progression, similar to that of, say, birthstones or signs of the Zodiac, one for each month. Alphanumeric Species do include Calendar Species, species whose power is based on a calendar of some sort. There are at least 18 known Calendar Species and 47 Alphanumeric Species that are not Calendar, but there may be thousands of other types, and millions or more total species. And these are only the Alphanumeric Species residing in the Seinnera Galaxy (ring a bell?); I have not studied the species that may reside elsewhere. Which means the millions of species I have estimated could be part of a gigantic unknown larger figure. The current leading estimate is somewhere around 10^24 total in the small cluster of four galaxies consisting of the Seinnera Galaxy and three galaxies that seem to enclose it. They exist in perhaps larger numbers in the rest of the universe, but they are not as dominant as they are in this mini-cluster, termed the Seinnera Sub-cluster. What this means is that they are usually oppressed by much more dominant species in their areas and are thus much more difficult to study. According to GigaNational Records, Alphanumeric Species have been ranked 9.1 on the Insignian power scale, ranking them the 135th most powerful species in the universe at full form (which, thankfully, is rarely reached by any member of that species; the average ranking is actually about 600,000).

The most studied of all these species is the Salocin, which in their language seems to mean "masters of energy" (note: this language is archaic, for they speak English). They begin manipulating energy at a young age and can do something that most species can't; seamlessly control more than one energy type without training as they get older.

The average life span of a Salocin depends on the kind of Salocin it is (explaining why most of them are children). There are many different sub-species of Salocin, sometimes having almost no connection to the original species except for main biological diversion, which still needs extensive research. The most common sub-species are Salocin Periodi, named because of the changes in the periodic time between gaining a new energy type, scaled against how slowly they age.

They age at whole number rates in comparison to Earth years. The main Salocin species ages as old as dogs, apparently; seven Earth years equates to one Salocin year. The most common Salocin Periodi sub-species age slower than this, usually; nine to thirteen Earth years per Salocin year, and it's usually an odd number. The next common sub-species age at, in order from most to least common, five, eight, twelve, and fifteen Earth years per Salocin year. Generally, the slower they age, the longer they live, and so the more powerful they are. Studies by Division Seven biologists tell us that Salocin can age at theoretically any rate; some fairly unknown species age at thousands of Earth years per Salocin year (usually a prime number), and some age at fractions of an Earth year per Salocin year. Some even age BACKWARDS... they are generated from energy in the core of the planet that's a few thousand years old and then their age runs backward to 0. These are usually unstably strong due to their known life span from birth, and a few of them, known as "elders", preserve themselves as negative energy after "death" so they can continue to age. From then on, they resemble Dij as floating balls of negative perpetual energy. Many of the ones living now are thousands of years negatively old. Even with negative perpetual energy, it can take centuries, sometimes millennia (either in Earth or Salocin years depending on the type of negative energy) to regenerate a human form... some have done it already, but most have not.

The general notation for identifying Salocin Periodi is Salocin X-Y, where X represents the number of Earth years in a Salocin Periodi year and Y represents how many Earth years it takes before a member of that Salocin Periodi species gets another energy type to control. Sometimes, X-Y can be X-Y+Z, where Z is the "offset" of rate Y; it is the length of time, in Earth years, that must pass before the rate designated by Y can begin. The main Salocin species is therefore 7-21+7, which means when a Salocin turns one, it gets its first power, and then doesn't get another power until it is 4, and then 7, and so on.

The other interesting thing about Salocin is their names. All main Salocin (from here on out termed Salocin Prima) are not named until they are one year old, when they get their first power. Their names, at this point, must legally have only one syllable. Therefore, for a short time, the number of syllables in a Salocin name determines how many powers they have. They can choose to stop adding syllables to their names at any point during this process, but usually stop at an average of four or five syllables.

For instance, the naming process can go like this:

Di, Dia, Diana, Dianali, Dianalia, Dianaliara, and so on. "Di" is a common one-syllable name because "Diana" is a common three-syllable name, with Salocin Prima.

The one named Dianaliara would be somewhere between 16 and 18 years of age (112 to 126 Earth years) and would have six energies in her control. She'd be very powerful indeed.

The language used in naming revolves around simple, non-irregular, phonetic distinctions and names of the letters of the alphabet. What this means is that silent letters are omitted from this language as long as adding them in adds a new syllable to the word. For instance, "Weigh", a common English word, could be a common one-syllable Salocin name, because if the "gh" wasn't silent, the pronunciation of "weigh" as "way" becomes "wayg", and thus does not add another syllable. This spelling, in Salocin, is highly unorthodox, but hypothetically it is a valid name. On the other hand, "Ate" could not be a common one-syllable Salocin name even though it is one syllable in English because, phonetically, the "e" cannot be assumed to be silent, and if it isn't, it adds another syllable, which means it is an invalid one syllable name. The one-syllable name would actually be "At" or even "A", which brings me to my next point:

Single letters of the alphabet are all valid one-syllable names, since their names are all one syllable (except for W, but an exception is made here - W is still a valid one-syllable name amongst Salocin). Single letter names are very rare, but they do pop up frequently. Sadly, they do not have a very good reputation. Most orphans, belonging in tyrant rebel groups, are given one letter names if they are in the age range of 1-3 when found.

One last major thing needs to be discussed on the subject of Salocin: the Supersalocin. A rare event occurs when a baby at a year old has control of two or more energies, the most common of which being dual-powered infants. These are called Bisalocin, for they manipulate two energies at one year old. They are usually much more powerful than most, especially at young ages, and can be unstably violent in certain cases. For a long time, there was oppression against Supersalocin, and even though most of it has died down since then, there is still a lightly strung tension, and a few select Supersalocin, some of them very young, looking for revenge.

The most common Supersalocin are Bisalocin Prima, which have the exact same Periodi ID that Salocin Prima have (7-21+7), only they control two powers at birth. Bisalocin Prima are given two-syllable names at a year old, and for the rest of their lives the two energies they control are the most powerful of the ones in their arsenal. Bisalocin Prima often live longer than Salocin Prima, making them somewhat threatening in the case of a large-scale Bisalocin Prima attack.