Glossary of terms and concepts.

Evolution in GravWeb.

                      Original Cells similar to modern Archaebacteria with introns and complex DNA structures.

     ___________________________|--------------------------|
    |                           |                          |
Eubacteria (Monera)          Archaebacteria           Eukaryotes
  Reduced genome               as above               complex unicellular
20 minute                    longer generation        life, multicellular
generation time              time, esoteric habitats  life. membrane bound
                                                      organelles
 

Eukaryotes
|
|
|--------------Kingdom Monera, Eubacteria as above
|
|---------------Kingdom Protista, Many forms of Algae,  complex unicellular
|          and colonial unicellular organisms like paramecium, Amoeba,
|                           Some Plasmodials, etc.
|--------------Kingdom Fungi, Molds, Smuts, Mildews, some Plasmodials.
|
|--------------Kingdom Plantae, Evolved from a particular line of algal
|              protist, Other alternate lines of plants could have evolved
|              from other Algal protist lines.
|
|--------------Kingdom Animalia, more complex than colonial protists,
               usually some sort of motility even if attached to the
               substrate,  Usually some sort of neural net to control
               responses to and information from the environment.
 

New Evolutionary classifications for GravWeb.

Colour coding:  Extinct Invented  Modern
Superkingdom Neoplantae:  Encompasses all organized multicellular Phyla
    that evolved from algal protists.

    Kingdom Chloroplantae - green plants, the ones we know today.

    Kingdom Rhodoplantae - Plants that evolved from red algae.

    Kingdom Chrysoplantae - Plants that evolved from golden yellow algae.

    Kingdom Xanthoplantae - Plants that evolved from yellow green algae.

    Kingdom Phaeoplantae - Plants that evolved from (Kelp) brown algae.

    Kingdom Bacillarioplantae - Plants that evolved from diatoms.
                                (cell walls made of silica)

New classes of vertibrates

Class Pisces

    Subclass Ostracodermi - these strange looking fish evolved very early on.  They have one nostril and two compuound eyes with a third penial eye.
Their skulls are a major part of the skeleton and appear to be the main structural support.  The rest of the skeleton seems to be cartilage.
    Subclass Bignatha - evolved from jawless ostracoderms.  It retains the large shell like skull.  It has developed pincer like jaws from a weakening of the first set of gill rakers. Its jaws are lateral blade like projections.
    Subclass Placodermi - These early jawed fishes had armoured skin.  They also had large sharp chisel like teeth.  Some grew to a length of 20 feet.  They truly were the terrors of the early sea.

Class Reptilia
    Subclass Therapsida - Mammal like reptiles. Some of the later ones may have had hair, in the same way that Archeopteryx had feathers.  Did they have milk pores like the (monotreme) platypus does?
    Subclass Ichthyosaura - possibly not a true subclass since the dolphin is a mammal that lives like a fish.  or perhaps cetaceans should be considered a subclass of mammals, who knows?
    Subclass Pterosaura - These guys are really weird, they had a different ankle joint from the branch of dinosaurs that became birds, and they had hair.  Not a bird not a mammal truly a subclass of its own.
    Subclass Saurischia - lizard hipped dinosaurs.
    Subclass Ornithsichia - bird hipped dinosaurs.

New Invented Classes of Subphylum Vertibrata
    Class Photothelia - a class of amphibianlike vertibrates with a more complete dermoskeleton than bignatha and band like compound eyes.
    Class Megocularis - a class of warm blooded dermoskeletal vertibrates with large flat compound eyes.  evolved from photothelia.
    Class Visualis - A class of warm blooded dermoskeletal vertibrates with eyes in the shape of bands which give a wide field of view usually paired one eye above the other.  evolved from photothelia
    Class Hexamphibia - hexapedal amphibians.
    Class Hexreptilia - hexapedal reptiles.
    Class Hexaplacenta - Warmblooded hexapeds, with a 5 chambered heart that give live birth their offspring like mammals but do not give milk.
    Class Hexapteropia - Warmblodded egglaying Hexapeds with two 3 chambered hearts. Their second pair of limbs are wings.
    Class Triocularis - a class of amphibians with a combined endo/dermoskeleton and a penial eye. evolved from bignatha.
    Class Cyclopia - a class of warmblooded vertibrates with a single combination penial/true eye.
    Class triorbis - a class of coldblooded vertibrates with two true eyes and one combination true/penial eye.
    Class trifocalis - a class of warmblooded vertibrates with two true eyes and one combination true/penial eye.
    Class Octodigitalamphibia - a seperate line of amphibians with eight digits.
    Class Octodigitalreptilia - a separate line of reptiles with 8 digits.
    Class Alacaria - a class of warmblooded vertibrates with 8 digits.
Phylum porifera
    Class Plateoderma - an amorphous organism with a dermoskeleton made of linked hexagonal plates. Some of these plates are eyecups which act as compound eyes.  The skeleton is silicon based.  It is suspected that they evolved from Phylum porifera.

RACES

Elder Sentients

Polypolyps (phylum Colenterata)

     Polypolyps are the eldest of the sentients in the GravWeb.  They can live quite a long time and keep growing adding new polyps to the body as they go.  They are fast friends of the amiable Zalar and share their love of a civilized contemplitive environment.  They have symbiotic algae in their integumentary systems.

Zalar (class hexaplacenta)

     The Zalar are unusually small for a sentient species.  Their height is similar to that of a small pituitary dwarf ~2 feet tall.  They evolved on a hot dry world from burrowing hexapedal reptiles.  They still prefer to live underground.  They prefer to coordinate the induction events when a species is ready to take its place on the council of greater sentient species.

Trichordates (phylum echinoderma)

    These echinoderms have unusually well developed nervous systems.  They are evolved from arboreal hunters.  They have symbiotic algae in their integumentary systems.

Calons (class hexaplacenta)

    This species has six limbs.  The front limbs are arms, the hind limbs are legs and the middle limbs are intermediate, and can be used for knucklewalking.

Ancient Sentients

Octopoids (Phylum Mollusca)

       This species is the most well developed mollusc.  They as all molluscs are as deaf as posts.  Their ability to camoflage themselves is also used for communication purposes.  They have the ability to make pictures of actual objects on their skin.

Therods (SubClass Saurischia)

    This species evolved from an arboreal theropod.  They can hold on to things with their feet, or hang upside-down by them.  This species is meritocratic. You earn your position in society Through hard work and ability.

Morgons (Class - ????????? | Homeworld unknown - Found by the Zalar on a cluster of asteroids. )

        This species is a vaguely humanoid species with scales made of metalicized chitin.

Pachekki (Class - OctodigitalAmphibia?)

     This species evolved in an oceanic Jungle environment.  The Jungle plants float in rafts on the ocean extending up into the air and down into the sea.  They are apparently a mutant from of Octodigitalamphibia. They have Two hearts and are much more metabolically active than any other amphibian of any lineage.

Established Sentients

Hexones (Phylum - Porifera Class - Plateoderma)

    This species evolved from Sponges, obviously a species with silicous spicules.

Circones (Class - Visualis)

     This species has a single band of compound eye around its head.

Soskuth (Phylum - Coelenterata)

    The Soskuth are large Colenterates with Gas bags. They live in the atmospheres of
those gas giants that contain a good deal of water.  They live in reducing atmospheres in a chemosynthetic based habitat.

Gruons ( Class - Hexapterpia)

    The Gruons are somewhat like gargoyles in that they are grey and have wings.  The similarity
stops there however since they are not particularly violent nor do they perch on cathedrals very often.

Juzzurrik ( Class - Insecta)

   The Juzzurrik are a sentient race only due to the fact that when a queen passes an egg laying age she develops excessive neural tissue where her ovaries used to be.  Four generations of queen live together in harmony.  when the eldest dies a new queen is hatched.  When this new queen starts laying eggs the last brood queen metamorphoses into a sentient queen.  This ensures that at all times there are three sentient queens in the hive.

Junior Sentients

Skalar (Class - Alacaria)

    Skalar evolved from septidigital reptiles.  They are a thoughtful race and generally live academic contemplative lives.
Carpacia (Class - Trifocalis)

    It has a suction cupped posterior end and four arms. much of its skeleton is dermoskeletal.
 

Kruutruu (Class - Aves)

    These sentient birds are adapted for arctic climates. They are of course flightless.

T'clatk'tik (Class - Crustacea)

   These Crabs are active individuals who spend much of their time quantifying the worlds around them.

Yuulior (Class - Annelida)

    This species exists as well on land as it does in the water.  It needs a constant source of water when it is on the land, especially in dry climates.

Humans (Class - Mammalia)

   This species has become a Junior sentient just recently as they developed their highest technology on Earth which is the home world and source of life on the GravWeb.  Humans come from the only genus to reach sentience on the home world and are the only surviving species of their genus.
 

Varieties :

    There many outsider races and minor sentient races, not to mention protosentient races like apes and dolphins.  Contact me for the particulars.

Hyperspace:

    Space is defined as having 3 dimensions; length, depth and breadth.  Hyperspace has more than 3 spatial dimensions.  If one can create a bubble of "realspace" eg a 3d reality bubble, one can jump into hyperspace and cut across a bend or fold in a 3 dimensional continuum saving time and distance.

Quantum dimensionality:

    Einstein once said "God does not play dice with the universe."  If he is correct, then in the light of multiple unpredictable quantum outcomes for every quantum (subatomic) event then obviously there must be a separate reality for every possible quantum outcome.  E. Gary Gygax of TSR fame in his GDW game Dangerous Journeys, called this Panprobability.  As an example;  There can be an uncountable number of realities just like ours in which the only difference is the subatomic structure of a peanut sized asteroid, all else being equal. From this it then follows that every time there is a possibility for more than one quantum outcome that every quantum reality must split so that there is a reality for each outcome. This of course means that No One can mess up the timestream because their meddling only creates a new universe with a new timeline rather than changing the old one. Perhaps the Reality Police should be renamed the Probability Police.

Mana Siphon:

    Similar to recover strength.  It is cast on an object ahead of time to allow that object to provide spell energy.  It takes as long as the recover strength spell to cast.  Attaching a complex ritual to access the mana will prevent other spell casters from using the mana siphon before you can. For every pound of weight an object has it can hold 2 points of fatigue for spell casting. Wizards often cast the spell on their houses or towers. True power is obviously not portable. This is the reason Court mages of kings are so powerful, they store mana in the castle walls.
 

Distant Siphon:

    This spell requires Magery 3 and allows one to use the Mana Siphon to draw mana from a prepared object at a distance.  Square the distance penalty.