Species: Kuagu

== ''This page pertains to the collaborative "Thrive Universe" project and is not necessarily part of Thrive's official development. More information here and here.'' == The Kuagu(kway-goo)  are a cave-dwelling, uni-planetary sapient species from the planet Kuekua(kweh-koo-ah).

Etymology
Due to the gap between the possible vocalizations of humans and that of Kuagu, most Kuagu are often not referred to in earth writings how they are actually named. Most Kuagu are thus instead named as either “big (human name) Kuagu” or “little (human name) Kuagu” depending on if they are a royal(large in size) or commoner(small in size). This naming system arose from the very first encounter between Kuagu and human on the planet Earth. This is when the world-famous general and explorer, “Little Johnny Kuagu”, accompanied by his space fleet navy, made a decades-long voyage to investigate what the Royal Cosmology Department of Big Augy Kueku CXX's kingdom had theorized to be a possible sapient planet in the same galactic arm as Kuekua after receiving and studying radio waves originating in the system. After multiple meticulous studies by the RCD to determine the likely planet of the senders and possible landing areas to safely land if trouble ensued, a crew of cosmologists, geographers, space photographers, engineers, computer scientists, and high-rank soldiers were assembled and trained for the long journey to reach an orbit around the peculiar planet. Once the voyage had reached its destination, Johnny and his fleet were woken up from their cryogenic freezers and immediately began further speculative studies toward evidence for life on Earth. In the midst of their studies contact was attempted by a nearby spaceship requesting to dock bridges to enter the Kuagu ship. After a long period of precautions and troubleshooting the logistics of a safe docking, a group of humans entered the ship escorted by a wall of Kuagu soldiers. Communication between the sapients was muddled. However, enough was understood to invite Johnny and his fleet to spend the next few years on planet Earth to discuss diplomacy between the two planets. The monumental encounter inspired the humans to moniker the brave general-explorer “Little Johnny Kuagu”, after the great earth explorer and connector of worlds John Cabot. Since then many other influential Kuagu figures, discovered from communication between the two sapients, have been assigned this same system of naming.

The name Kuagu also did not arise from a demonym of the entire species. Instead, it arose specifically from a rough pronunciation of the name of Little Johnny Kuagu's home kingdom. Human linguists believe that there does not exist a single demonym for all of Kuagu-kind due to their isolationist nature toward other kingdoms.

Anatomy
The typical Kuagu is no more than 1 1/10th meter tall at adulthood. Though royal Kuagu may grow upwards of 1 1/2 meter tall at adulthood. Kuagu are entirely bipedal and have toeless feet that are grooved and arched on the bottom for balance.

The Kuagu have three webbed fingers and one aposable thumb on each of their two hands.

their pseudo-eyes are, for the most part, blind. Though when exposed to stressful stimuli may be able to distinguish rough shapes around them by way of a lightness/darkness gradient that allows the basic visualization of movement.

The main sensory organ of the Kuagu are their two bobbles directly above their pseudo-eyes. These appendages serve two purposes. Firstly, they allow Kuagu to perceive the intensity of wind around them and make it very keen to changes in weather that could be a very dangerous stimuli to their light weight. Secondly, they work as mock-fingers when in close contact to something or someone that threatens, attracts, or interests them.

The entire skin of Kuagu, especially in their hands, has an incredibly precise sense of touch. This allows hunting Kuagu incredible awareness to their immediate surroundings. For larger spaces, Kuagu use short screeches of echolocation to map out their wider surroundings. The combination of echolocation screeches and precise sense of touch gives Kuagu a fine perception of the world around them.

Kuagu mouths have two parts; the exterior mouth of skin and the interior beak of keratin. Together, these two parts allow Kuagu to break up food for passage down their alimentary canal and to share broken down food with other, like children, family, and close companions.

Kuagu have two orifices used for breathing. The primary orifice of these two is through the same throat they use to swallow food. However, food and is prevented from entering their lungs by a protective epiglottis at the entrance of the pharynx. The second orifice used for breathing is a nostril located behind the first mouth but through the beak. Much like a human nose, the nostril extends into a sinus of the forehead and into the pharynx, allowing Kuagu to breathe while eating food. The sinus ensures Kuagu heads maintain the same pressure as their surroundings.

Society
The Kuagu live in semi-communalist communities ruled over by kingdoms that often have governing authority over several cave systems at once.

As Kuagu tend to have quite hectic lives, one major cultural aspect of almost all of the Kuagu modern world is what is known as Euclidean Humor( or Kuagu Humor). This form of humor is developed from Kuagu's very blunt manner of speaking to form jokes that, instead of moving from buildup to punchline, are simply single phrases with the buildup and punchline combined followed often by some dance or jerking motion to provide emotion or context.

For example:

Johnny: "the meat is red!"( jumps back and forward while saying line)

Timmy: ( laughs hysterically)

Though it is polite to tell the king a joke if one is ever summoned in front of him, in a majority of Kuagu cultures, it is extremely disrespectful to ever tell a joke where one must jump backward despite any well-meaning context behind the move.

Almost all Kuagu kingdoms worship some form of wind, storm, or sky god. The doctrine of most of these religions often surrounds the literal and metaphoric idea that Kuagu are fairly helpless to being swept away by the wind. It is taught in most of these doctrines that one must achieve a "heavy soul" by following dogma and ceremonies and acting with humility toward their god. However, dogma and ceremony differ immensely between doctrines.