Arboriprolos sapiens

This is the intelligent species in my Priapus Prime project (click). As you can see they are radially symmetrical, and have a body plan very different from our own. Like most land animals on the planet, the Arboriprolos sapiens are a member of the class fluidoderma, characterized by moist, fluid-filled skin rich with capillaries to extract oxygen from the air (increased in efficiency by the planet's atmospheric pressure, which is nearly twice that of Earth, as well as a significantly higher atmospheric oxygen content).

Priapans, as they are called, have characteristics unique to their species, just as humans are vastly different from other animals. First and foremost, they are of the genus Arboriprolos, basically the Priapan analog of simians. Secondly, they have complex audiovisual languages with written languages called calligriforme (with modern shorthand versions for simplicity and common written languages). They have a a deep knowledge of mathematics, though theirs is in base 5 rather than 10. Their brain is ring shaped and more complex than the human brain; the Brainstars have a higher capacity for logical thinking than humans do and can more easily perform mathematical operations than any human. This complex brain is composed of ten lobes and ten ganglia. Only five lobes are active at any one time; the other five are in a sort of "maintenance mode," similar to our brain during sleep (Priapans do not sleep). Five major ganglia are found at the beginning of the limbs, allowing them to move independently (octopodes and squid are the same way). Five minor ganglia are used to collect and direct information from the eyes, which recieve much more complex information than human eyes (their visual spectrum stretches from visual well into ultraviolet, they also process it at a much faster speed and "frame rate").

Their cultures are influenced by many factors, and until recently in their history there has been little to no intermixing of cultures or ethnic groups. They lack organized religion in a human sense, but they have a complex set of traditions and beliefs based on the reverence of ancestors and social hierarchy. Their philosophies are in many respects similar to those of human cultures throughout Asia on Earth. They often visit mausoleums and monuments to the dead, in some places daily.

Priapan societies were democratic almost from the beginning. Rather than be divided into individual family or tribal units, priapans had an instinctual sense of community with deeper bonds than human relationships. Children are raised collectively by the community, as priapans have no emotional analogs to love and mate merely to procreate. When they do this depends on a breeding season, which is different with each ethnicity depending on the environment their ancestors lived in. During breeding season, females produce hormones that cause their stomach to become converted into a reproductive organ, so most breeding season festivals involve many days of feasting and celebrating. The female lays the soft egg through her mouth, and the male fertilizes it (not from his mouth, from a pouch by his mouth). Baby priapans have an aquatic larval stage that rapidly develops into an adult like a tadpole to a frog. They are kept in nursery ponds attended by all the adults of the community (there are no parental bonds, only communal ones). In one sense it can be said that priapans have no childhood.

Most modern priapans live in large urban centers dominated by a central tower of immense proportions. Originally built as mausoleums in the earliest civilizations, the towers quickly became the center of culture and commerce for the cities they were constructed in. Tower-states were the main form of government existing on Priapus Prime for many centuries, with blood feuds, clan wars, and deep rivalries and hatreds rooted into each particular region's history and collective mindset. Because it was nearly impossible to successfully destroy another tower-state's tower (it was a tremendous cost in lives and money, being so well defended), most tower-states fought over villages and towns in the surrounding countryside to secure the resources they specialized in.

Following the development of powerful explosives and lighter-than-air flight, tower-states began to use aerial bombardments to destroy enemy defenses and use artillery to raze cities to the ground, including towers. When a tower was destroyed, the entire cultural history and heritage of the people who built it was as well (for the most part), and millions of refugees poured into the cities of their conquerors and allies, causing a boom in the size of major cities. These refugees usually become segregated into their own section of the city (a bit like Little Italy and Chinatown, but with aliens) due to language barriers and different customs. Often these minorities live in poverty or as second-class citizens, though in modern times the idea of egalitarianism has really picked up in priapan society.

As technology developed though the industrial era, great imperial republics and democratic federations became the dominant form of government, uniting cities and tower-states that shared common languages, interests, history and cultures. Spaceflight is a relatively recent phenomenon in their society, as the conditions on the planet cause the peculiar predicament of no stars ever being visible. Because of this astronomy is a new science, with radio astronomy being the beginnings of priapan space exploration. Due to the high oxygen content of the atmosphere, rocketry can be very tricky and far more dangerous than on Earth. For this reason more advanced cannons replaced rockets in priapan history, and the first satellites and people were launched into space using massive cannons (the massive g-forces of such a launch method are less dangerous for priapans due to their physiology).

EDIT: Also, an interesting thing I forgot to mention. The "tree" in the background is a relative of the giant plants that compose the enormous jungles of Priapus Prime. This particular species has been selectively bred to produce its prehensile branches on one side and is used as a living fence.

EDIT EDIT: Too many edits, but I've removed the genus Pentapoda[ and added the priapans to the genus Arboriprolos, which translates to "Children of the Trees."