Cetacean

Cetaceans (commonly abbreviated as cetes) are the genetically modified survivors of Earth's whale species. Since the 2040s, all of them have been uplifted to humanlike intelligence, making them viable options for characters in the world of 2199.

In historic order of uplifting, the six species of cetaceans are:

• Bottlenose dolphins
• Orcas
• Pilot whales
• Common dolphins
• Belugas, uplifted during the Blight
• Sperm whales, cloned and uplifted on Poseidon by an unknown party at some point in the late 2190s

Communication

Cetacean language is built on two fundamentally distinct modes of expression: cuing, which mostly maps to words used in human languages, and composition, the description of objects and events by accurate mimicry of their underwater acoustic profiles.

Cetaceans have three distinct languages of their own:

• Cetacean, the pan-cetacean lingua franca
• Interspec, created as an an auxiliary language to communicate with humans
• Beluga, developed by belugas in isolation from other whales, and preserved as their own private language

Other names

• Cetes, the shortform
• Fins, usually refers to the two dolphin speices
• Blackfish, considered offensive by both orcas and pilots
• Orcs, considered just fine by orcas

See also

• Ancient Echoes, the definitive book on cetacean characters, which introduced pilot whales, common dolphins, and belugas

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