Publisher's blurb:
Worldbuilding can be hard, especially when it comes to aliens. All too often, fictional aliens feel like they're really just humans in costumes. Even when they are weird enough to feel truly nonhuman, they're usually still suffering from a serious case of monoculture-itis. Species Shock aims to supply you with truly alien extraterrestrials, covering everything from planet of origin to biology, culture, a few of their thoughts about humans.
This violume features the Agloanikoi, or aglos, a species of many-legged tree-dwelling aliens that are carbon-based and breathe oxygen, like us, but evolved on a world where jaws never developed and the most common form of blood is cobalt-based.
Sexually dimorphism is nothing new, but the aglos carry it to extremes rarely found on Earth: the males are herbivorous and the females are carnivorous. The sexes differ in other behaviors as well, including their spiritual inclinations, social behaviors, and the females' fondness for ritual battles that the xenolinguists translate as "flowery warfare." This phenomenon is one of the chief forces responsible for the shaping of their society, as influential to their history as monarchies and capitalism have been to our own.