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Bodus is a planet in the solar system Wanos (Wanos being a main sequence sun), the fifth planet from the sun. Bodus is 2.0251 AU from its Wanos sun (with a solar mass of 1.5). It has five moons, Osum (icy, which completes a cycle every 21.909 days), Yodo (rocky, every 36.744 days), Ashur (rocky, every 51.225 days), Mayos (volcanic and red, every 53.918 days) and Katel (volcanic and yellow, every 68.757 days). A year on Bodus lasts as long as 3.6504892 years on Earth (1,333.313801631 Earth days). Bodus' equatorial radius is 6,312.47 kilometers. The density of Bodus is 5.725 grams per cubic centimeter. Its mass is 36138.89075, and its surface gravity is 9.069 meters per square second. Bodus' axial inclination is 20.3945938°. Bodus' orbital eccentricity is 0.0143. Its atmosphere consists of 76.01% nitrogen, 20.88% oxygen, 0.04% carbon dioxide, 1.51% argon, 0.74% helium, 0.22% neon, 0.18% krypton, 0.16% xenon, 0.09% methane, 0.07% nitrous oxide, 0.05% hydrogen, and 0.05% nitrogen dioxide.
The sapients are Domeheads, and have large dome-shaped heads that are larger on the males than on the females. They belong to a phylum of animals called the tubans (Bodus' analogue of vertebrates), with skeletons made of a reddish-brown substance called taban. They belong to a warm-blooded class of tubans called the sagars, with four-chambered hearts. They have skin with stripes running across the back and to the sides of the front of their legs, arms, abdomen and head. The main part of their skin can come in silvery-white, silver, light blue or pink, while the stripes come in yellow, hot pink or blue. Their eyes are deep and round, and come in blue (35%), purple (23%), pink (17%), green (11%), indigo (6%), yellow (5%) or magenta (3%). Bodusians have no external ears. Their lips are yellow. They have five fingers on each hand and four toes on each foot, with nails. A Domehead's taban teeth grow with her or him all her or his life, so Domeheads only get one dentition. 73% of Bodusians are left-handed, 21% are right-handed, 5% are ambidextrous, and 1% are cross-handed. Bodusians are an average of 6'2" (male) and 6'0" (female) in height, with the gender difference accounted for by the size of the head. They weigh an average of 138 pounds (male) and 130 pounds (female). The blood of Bodusians is yellow and smells like almonds when they bleed; the active ingredient is a protein called hemamygdalin, rather than hemoglobin or hemocyanin. The average lifespan, without using Domehead life extension, is 84 Bodus-years.
Bodus has six continents: Gada, Eta, Misham, Linu, Porom, and Susha.
The capital of Bodus is Woda (on Porom). Other major cities include Yatalan (on Susha), Kamos (on Eta), Anel (on Eta), Potur Sheri (on Eta), Ladom (on Gada), Dosin (on Misham) and Shashar (on Porom).
Bodusians are often able to commune with the beyond. Some appear to be able to speak with spirits of those who passed on, others are good mediums for the spiritual Center, and some exhibit telepathy. The aura of a Domehead is visible to some who have focused intensely on being able to see auras. The Bodusians explain that people become psychic because their brains become one with the spiritual Center and universe, and to be part of the universe is to know every part of the universe -- psychics know all parts of their all-inclusive selves.
The Domehead mind and soul have evolved beyond a human level, after millions of years. Bodusians are unable to do wrong. Murder, rape, lying, stealing, exploitation and drunk driving are unknown to them. They have no money, and live in a system in which everybody contributes and takes for free. The richest 61.1% set aside part of their food commodities every winter for those who are without enough food.
Bodus is part of the Interplanetary Council. Its total population is 1.5 billion Domeheads and 100 million sapients of other species, all immigrants or descendants thereof (Domeheads are the only sapient species to have evolved on Bodus). In addition to the permanent population, about 550 million people from other planets visit every year because they are so intrigued by it.
Bodusians live together in households of three men and three women plus their children. Any man in the household can bear a child by any woman in the household. Once born, the child is raised by all six adults in the household. Any of the other five adults living in your household is called an adult's temol. A male other than your biological father who was one of the adults in your household raising you is called your apam, while a female other than your biological mother who was one of the adults in your household raising you is called your sawal. The word domi can refer to an apam or sawal. The son of two of your temols is called your egas, while the daughter of one of your temols is called your nashin. The word makor can refer to an egas or nashin. The parent of one of your domis is a yelam (the domi's father is his/her okus, while the domi's mother is his/her gayus). Someone from your generation who grew up in the same household as you did is your sapan (a male sapan is called an urum and a female sapan is called a kisol). One of your sapan's children is your shefis (a male shefis is a gadan and a female shefis is a sayem). The Bodusians have a first name and second name (both selected from a unisex pool of given names), and then comes their household name (chosen when the household is formed). The biyas, an herbivorous and frugivorous quadruped from the sagar class, is a popular pet around the house. Others prefer the witash (a sagar with spikes on its back) or the amol (a nocturnal, long-tailed creature from the fuzzy class of tubans known as the mipels) as pets. Pets have their own souls, and are treated like members of the family, receiving names from the same name pool as Domeheads. For a list of Bodusian given names, see this page.
Material possessions are divided into two categories: linam (utilitarian) and okos (numinous). Items that are linam exist only for their immediate physical uses: a car that helps you get somewhere; a bottle of soap that cleans; a key that opens the door. These items are not valued by the Bodusians. Items that are okos have become special for some reason or another: a book that contains the family history in it, owned for many generations; a radio someone got you for Sashikon; a yenus (club-like stick) that has been with you and helped you recover from a disease before with its spiritual energy. Okos objects are believed to have acquired their own life and spirit, just like a Domehead or an animal. They have a force of life emanating from them, and although they cannot move on their own, they are treated with the jelly of the pupal plant to make them invincible to burning up in fires. Edible possessions are gosil (evanescent) and are considered to be neither linam nor okos.
Houses on Bodus cannot be owned; there is no concept of geographic property. A house is thought of as the hub of a family of six plus their children, like a meeting place for a club. Strangers and the homeless and always welcomed into other people's houses and never asked to leave.
Bodusians begin puberty at age 3. As a coming of age experience, the children of the couples will leave the home sometime after their fourth birthday. They go out and participate in "the Seeking". In the Seeking, they look for other Bodusians their own age to form households with. Ages 4 through 6 are a time of finding oneself, somewhat similar to the years 16-24 in Western civilization. When a group of six has formed, they acquire a new house or find an abandoned one and begin living together. Occasionally a person will become a dewal (from diwal, "alone"), and will never join a household of six.
One household forms the Prime Council. This household reaches important decisions for the planet about where the planet is going to go. After three of its members have died off in old age, the Prime Council, reduced to three, appoints another household with a full six to become the new Prime Council. The Prime Council is looked to for its guidance and wisdom. A government is not needed to police the sins that plague other planets, due to the nature of the Domeheads.
Children are educated at home, and are not lifesped. They are given lessons, which may include things like being taken out to the beach and having water run over their hands and feeling sand. During the Seeking, Bodusians do not attend any sort of school. Then as adults with their families, they attend universities to learn such topics as mathematics, astronomy, physics, foreign languages, ancient history and the psychic sciences. These universities are run by monks and nuns in their abbeys (not divided by gender).
Bodusians devote much of their life to spiritual growth. At the end of every year, they hold meetings and talk about how they have changed for the better or worse, and whether they are meeting their life goals. They seek the support of other Bodusians for much of what they do. Sometimes they even find that a journey to another planet is what they are looking for, and as a result there are Bodusian households on many planets throughout Lehola. Bodusian spirituality has become popular throughout the galaxy (and in many other galaxies too).
Bodusians believe in the Four Divine Relationships:
Bodusians meditate on the spiritual Center. Since they believe that the thoughts are racing to the spiritual Center as they think, they are actually meditating and praying at the same time. Bodusians contemplate the qualities of the Center: omniscient, life-giving, serene, unshakeable, reliable, mysterious, deep, etc. Although they meditate with their eyes closed, there is no one position always used by all Bodusians for meditation. Spiritually ambitious Bodusians will meditate like this at least three times a day, for about 12 galils a sitting; truly devout followers of spirituality will often spend 4 asoms a day in meditation.
Bodusians believe that at the end of their life on Bodus, they will be at one with the spiritual Center if they have achieved enough spiritual growth and learned what they wanted to know. They will be together with their ancestors and departed friends, and with many animals and sapient people from all around the universe. They will have eternal bliss and have everything they still want at that point (overcoming greed is an important part of spiritual growth). Because they believe that many different peoples will eventually reach the spiritual Center, they are tolerant of other races and religions. If they have not attained that state of enlightened happiness, they will be born again with a different name. Bodusians believe their spirit has an eternal name that only the Center and people close to it know. Bodusians believe in an umbilical-cord-like structure called a weson that connects the spirit to the body. They float around in high orbit with this cord when they are dreaming or astrally projecting. At the end of their life, the weson breaks and they are either able to find the spiritual center or are reborn with the weson being repaired. Bodusian spirituality includes belief in karma, and holds sacred the Golden Rule, known to Bodusians as "What I do to you is what you should do to me". If their karma is good, Bodusians believe, they will be happy enough to settle down for an afterlife rather than for reincarnation.
Bodusians hold a club-like stick called a yenus to harness spiritual energy, which they will need through life. The most devotedly spiritual Bodusians carry the yenus with them at all times. It is often held next to their body in a strap called a tiban. The energy flows like electricity from the hilt of the yenus into their hand and is then converted by the body into positive waves (loyas wine) that keep their mind operating at an ethical level that is at peace with itself, and into energy called kunon to keep the body healthy, with all the organs doing their job, replenishing the immune system.
Bodusians believe in freedom of speech. They are incapable of lying. Bodusians are quite brave, with a Steve-Irwin-like fearlessness of nature and friendliness for the wilderness. Nor do they fear things like change, or having to tell someone the truth. A Bodusian takes pride in his or her personal appearance and can be seen looking his or her best in his or her own special way. Bodusians stand very rigidly upright when they walk, and their hands do not move at their sides. Bodusians value friendliness, and may be friendly to a fault to strangers. They do not need any personal space and may even sleep right next to each other three in a bed! They will touch each other when speaking, and are not surprised at hugs by strangers. They have a relaxed attitude about time, seeming to think they have all the time in the world, and their spacecraft may experience delays, but they do not get angry when the spacecraft do. They look up especially to the Prime Council, but do not consider any household or level of wealth to be better than any other level, and do not teach their children that it is their duty to respect authority figures. The Bodusian sense of humor is rather dull.
The Bodusians value philosophy and intellectual thought foremost. They also think positively of art, their painters, sculptors, poets and authors. They do not have military or government figures to look up to, but do admire the wisdom of their Prime Council. Mathematics is a greatly respected endeavour, and Bodusians respect science and technology as long as the technology is used for good, not for purposes like war. Athletic achievement is not so highly valued; the Bodusians do not take part much in sports, although extreme sports and hiking in the mountains are greatly enjoyed by them. Bodusians also enjoy making music; their music is of the new-age variety. Some of it sounds like Gregorian or Vedic chant, while other Bodusian music sounds like Enya. Then there is gowesh, a different genre altogether, similar to the English term "art-rock". Etish is minimalist or experimental music, similar to John Cage.
The Bodusians view men and women equally and do not believe either gender is superior. The two genders have equal representation in all fields of endeavour, and Bodusians do not understand why males dominate or females dominate on some other planets. Other sapient species are treated with good will, as long as the individual is good. They show tolerance to all sexual orientations, and many households have two men or two women who are in love with each other; it does not bother anyone in these households that the two will not produce children, and they are not pressured into producing children. Transgender and intersex people are recognized as the gender they identify with, rather than the one assigned at birth, so some Bodusians may form a household with three cismen, two ciswomen, and a transwoman. Bodusians are loving and helpful towards people with disabilities, which is all for the better, as 1 in 54 Bodusians is blind. They are not circumspect around people with communicable diseases.
There are 1,124.7332019 days in a year. There are 30 months in the Bodusian year:
Ogosh has an intercalary thirty-eighth day almost every year not divisible by 4, whereas there are only 37 days in Ogosh every year divisible by 4. In every year divisible by 45, however, there are only 37 days in Ogosh. In the northern hemisphere, winter begins on Misas 1, spring on Yamen 18, summer on Kuyi 1, and autumn on Tokon 17. In the southern hemisphere, summer begins on Misas 1, autumn on Yamen 18, winter on Kuyi 1, and spring on Tokon 17. Years since then are identified as "Shom tar n; Shom tar, or ST, means "from Shom". Years before then are identified as "Shom egim n; Shom egim, or SE, means "until/before Shom". "Shom" refers to Shom Tupos Korin, the prime councilmember who developed the calendar many millennia ago. The calendar began on Atilar 1, ST 1, at 10:32:15 a.m. on July 1, 202,537 B.C. on Earth.
Each day is divided into 36 asoms, and each of these in turn is divided into 72 galils. Each galil consists of 72 gusils. 0:00:00 midnight to 17:71:71 (right before noon) is muya (a.m.), while 0:00:00 noon to 17:71:71 (right before midnight) is woma (p.m.).
There are 8 days in a Bodusian week, or emer. They are Sumon, Epon, Deson, Likon, Amon, Numon, Wemon, and Bokon; Wemon and Bokon are considered the weekend. Atilar 1, ST 1 fell on a Sumon.
In the summer solstice (Kuyi 1 in the northern hemisphere and Misas 1 in the southern hemisphere), Bodusians celebrate Gawaren. They go out to the beach and hold parties, doing ritualized dances with their hips, arms and shoulders (the shege). They take drugs that allow their minds to reach new heights, and have many adventurous visions and novel thoughts. In the winter solstice (Misas 1 in the northern hemisphere and Kuyi 1 in the southern hemisphere), they celebrate Sashikon. They retreat to the mountains and meditate on the new year, aligning their bodies' spiritual energy with the new course their planet will take around the sun. They do a special favor for one another, such as giving someone else valuable spiritual lessons or bringing someone a book that will teach them something important, or providing treatment for a chronic disease, or perhaps bringing fruit and vegetable seeds to a poor person who is without food.
The Bodusians are vegetarians, who will not even swat a fly in their house and do not use insecticide. They eat a wide variety of fruit. Bodusians enjoy such fruits as the bodan, whose peel looks like a tetrahymena; the rapus, a papaya-shaped fruit with indentations running vertically down it; the tukin, a fruit with a spiked brown peel and a squash-like stem; and the usam, with a lemon-drop shape and a pit inside. In addition, they enjoy spinach, bokreth, cabbage, cilantro, radicchio, lemongrass, peppers, nuts, beans, grains and honey. They also eat nidu, a plant that produces a pink curd that looks like Styrofoam, and provides protein. The national dish of Bodus is kash, a grainy pasta mixed in with carrots and herbs. Other Bodusian dishes include bakis (pasta shaped like ginkgo leaves), risu (dried nidu "nuts"), depuses (arch-shaped pockets of bread with a filling of vegetables and sauce), welus (a cuboidal rye cake covered with powdered sugar), ganins (chocolate-covered gingerbread balls) and olums (beam-shaped bars baked from millet flour, covered with a frosting glaze and filled with frosting on the inside). Many love chocolate and sweets made out of dates and other fruits. They will drink juice, nectar or simply water if they are thirsty. Some are also aficionados of alcohol (beer, wine, strawberry wine, raspberry wine, laina, brandy, mango wine) and mind-expanding drugs (marijuana, psilocybin, popana, bituwas, phamein, oezha). The Prime Council does not condemn drug use. Such drugs as cocaine/crack, PCP and heroin are nonexistent on Bodus.
Bodusians do not use animals for experimentation or labor. Their work is done by machines, which run on electricity or on undicity. Undic appliances have little conductor-tubes called waguls inside them that conduct the brain waves of a Domehead. As long as the Domehead is awake and conscious, the brain waves will power the undic device for as long as the switch is turned on, just as an electric current would power an electric device for as long as it was turned on.
Bodusians of both genders wear shorts and sandals. They go topless, but will put on a coat if it is cold or a raincoat and kashon (hat adapted to the shape of a Domehead's head) if it is raining. Sometimes they will wear boots if they are exploring in the mountains.
Bodus is an exporter of metals.
On this planet the people speak Bodusian, which they call Gunisha Pados (Our Language). It is an SOV language.
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