The cultural evolution of the people of Xouli, as they call themselves, shows an immense mutability, with rapid advance-and-follow phenomena credited to their shorter lifespan and physiological mutation during it. Each generation’s molts produce new skins with unpredictable functionality, and diet varies widely as the digestive systems have changed (including several substances scientists do not consider fully material), leading several races to fear that they may be found tasty or nutritionally satisfying next. Thus, to “eat dirt” suggests one is stuck in the past, or old-fashioned.

Their voracious appetites have shaped architecture, civilization, and corporate logos, but since many have left the sky for the stars, the flying Xoulic population numbers a third of the birdherders present on Viridia before the Parallax Urgency, partially due to the migration, and partially due to staggered overdependence on Juvi Juice and other synthetic unsustainable compounds in order to reproduce. Rather than bemoan the problems of the viability of the species during such periods, however, the Xoulics regard them as a curiosity of edge cases, with the belief that statistically, every species must has an end in the future.

—Maie-Knoumane