Submitted for potential translation and transmission for the new visitors to our world.
Several worlds are known to experience seasons. These can occur through differences in orbital distance and relative axial tilt throughout the course of a year. In the case of Hmmaia, the home moon of my species, seasons are caused by the eccentric orbit of the gas-giant, Arrunn which we orbit; 'summer' is when Arrunn is closest to the sun, and 'winter' is when Arrunn is at the furthest part of its orbit. Our whole world experiences the seasons together, with no difference between north and south hemispheres; like many moons of large planets, we have basically nil axial tilt or orbital inclination, not that it would make any difference in our case.
[Incidentally, the various names for Arrunn in various old tongues almost always stem from 'giant' or 'big', and even in modern standard parlance, simply saying 'the big' will often suffice, although a distinct band of languages technically refer to Arrunn as the 'clouds beyond clouds'. But I digress]
The orbit is eccentric enough that summer is fast and fleeting, and winter is slow and prolonged. But the heat absorbed during summer takes some time to dissipate, and gives us a warm autumn season; indeed, Hmmaia would be a scorched desert if it remained orbiting so close to the sun. Winter is at its coldest as we already begin to pass inwards again from median orbit. This leads to some rapid heating.
The first shock of summer triggers an initial batch of heavy storms around the equator, which can travel all around our moon, signalling that summer is here. By various compensating processes in our atmosphere, there is a relatively quiet period during mid-summer, during which many species perform their reproductive activities, before a tipping point occurs in late summer / early autumn. This tipping point does not trigger every single year. But when it does, it brings the 'true' storms, which are powerful enough to reshape the landscape at random; shrublands are scoured clean of vegetation, lakes are sucked up and poured onto deserts, mountainsides are eroded away, and entire valleys are filled up with mud and debris. Indeed, were it not for the high degree of tectonic activity on our moon - driven by tidal heating of the interior - our world would be weathered completely flat within a few thousand years.
The 'true' storms are hazardous to complex life. As such, life has come up with two contrasting solutions; either breed en-mass and then die off, leaving only hardy eggs, larvae and spores behind; or be strong and resilient enough to outlast the storms, as well as the cold winter season that follows.
My species, the Hurrunn, is one of the latter. Nature has designed us with thick skin, sturdy ground-hugging bodies, limbs and sensory organs that can be partially retracted, and relatively efficient water and nutrient cycling. The drawback of all this is relatively slow metabolisms, growth rates, and reproductive rates - all of which lends itself to longevity, and longevity to intelligence and complex social interactions. The evolution of tool use allowed us to access many more food sources than otherwise, and the evolution of language allowed small groups of individuals meeting infrequently to share complex information that may have been accumulated over centuries. Thus, a mature individual has gained a complete toolkit for survival in a range of climates and conditions that they may find themselves in throughout their lives; any patch of ground on Hmmaia may be a desert one year, a marsh the next, and shrubland the year after. It is also for these reasons that civilization developed slowly and sporadically, and was built largely in the shelter of caves and tunnels beneath the surface.
I apologise for such rambling, for I merely meant to set the stage for who we are, in relation to our present encounter with aliens to our world, who arrive in late summer, to find our surface littered with dying plants and animals, many falling dead from the skies, along with drifting spores and seeds and larvae, in a steady rain of free protein, for those who are so inclined to gather and feed upon it; indeed, you may see large vehicles emerge from our sheltered cities to harvest them.
With respect, I shall pause this dissemination at this point.
(handprint here)
Murrummue Shurrann Ummae, Vice-Arbiter of Natural History Studies for Hunnurrae Old Undercity.
EDIT EDIT: no I'm right, hexaped would mean 6 legs - is that how you imagined the Kowlint?
I fear it's likely there will be some factions missing players, so let me know if you'd be interested in playing.
