Old Dead Cats Wore Cool Clothes!
I should get going before Ban-Ban misses me too much. Have fun, you two!~
Alright, see ya later! Thanks for the lift!
Right, so ... you wanted me to contribute to a documentary, yes? What would you like me to talk about?
Well, me and my squid already showed the hyoomens those ruins you've been studying, but they haven't really seen or heard much about actual kiteras yet!
...the aliens, right. In space.
Yeah! And actually, *I* have a question I wanna ask about kiteras first. I've always wondered, how come some kiteras walk on all fours like you, but others walk upright on two legs? The feet are like completely different sometimes, is it random?
Ah, well that's a more basic question than I was expecting.
The answer to that is simple: it's a pattern of sexual dimorphism seen with most kiteras. Males like myself are typically quadrupedal. Our forelimbs have have solid mineral plating on them, and our back legs are better suited for walking on all fours, so that we can lean our weight onto our crystalline hands.
Meanwhile female kiteras often have the mineral plating on their hindfeet, so they stand upright instead. They have a different leg structure to match this distribution of weight, which is also what lets them throw devastating kicks that can shatter the earth.
Woah I didn't even notice it was like a gender thing! It's hard for me to really tell what's up with gender sometimes.
My species is all just blobs with no distinction, so we didn't even have gender on my planet. I think I'm a "he", but I didn't even learn how to be a boy until i went into space!
So, if I wanna look like a cool guy in front of some cute cats, I should try standing on four legs, huh?
Ah? Uh... yes, I suppose in a sense you could maybe say that...
Gender is a complicated subject, especially when factoring in differences between species and cultures. I wasn't certain about what your gender was, myself, until you told me just now.
For much of our own history, our kingdoms were largely matriarchal in structure. Those pyramids you saw that we're investigating are the resting place of a pair of ancient queens.
Subjects identified as Queen Seralda VI, and Queen Ihrmneb. As was tradition, a pair of queens ruled over the ancient Kiteras of this time, believed to be the living incarnations of the sun goddesses.
That's correct. Queens usually occupied an elevated position even among royals. Their Highnesses were both central figures of society, and were revered as deities. It was also believed that one day, the Third Sun would be found in the center of Rhiotara, and from it would emerge a Third Pharaoh, who would unite with her fellow queens and bring us all into the True Surface, above even the sky.
Digging further and further underground was seen by some as holy work, part of an ongoing journey to uncover the Third Sun.