Cog is a Terran metallurgist and owner of The Veratrian Forge, a small smithy located in Titan Garden's south Dockyards. A quiet and very attentive person, Cog enjoys the company of trusted companions- though he's not the sort to direct social traffic and he's not in a hurry to participate in a conversation, Cog loves to be among an energetic crowd and hear what everyone has to say. He's the type where his quietness could be misinterpreted as disinterest if you haven't gotten to know him yet, and getting to know him is a real treat. You'll be at dinner talking and Cog is just vibing and the couple times he speaks up he just drops a killer joke in the conversation and goes right back to listening. He's that kind of guy. He can be a bit reserved if he doesn't immediately know you yet, but he's pretty quick to warm up to you, especially if people he already trusts know you. He's very curious about the world around him; there's so much he doesn't know, but sometimes he can be hesitant to impose upon a stranger with a question. He's gotten better about it lately, though. He's trying his best.
Cog belongs to a subgroup of Terrans called the Ranidae. Ranidae are an amphibious species who like to build their homes in the heat and humidity of equatorial Terra, often along an oceanic coast. Ranidae are able to produce a potent toxin from their skin, similar to a Venusian's venomous saliva, and they're able to use this toxin in self-defense. Unlike a Venusian, who need a clean bite to deliver their venom, Ranidae have special suits that allow them to direct their toxin into wrist-mounted aerosol spray nozzles. They can control the potency of their toxin by using a control knob to dilute it with an included water supply, and are able to deliver their toxin as either a wide-reaching cloud or a narrow, piercing shot. Ranidian bodysuits are a helpful way to keep one's hands clean of toxin so it doesn't end up where you don't want it to be when you're hanging out in mixed company, and most Ranidae will wear one when they're outside of their home spaces. A proper Ranidian suit is accented with handsome and colorful bows included as a mark of quality; if the suit doesn't have proper bows, it probably can't be trusted to fully contain Ranidian toxins. Shop discerningly!
The Ranidae have developed their biological defenses to ward off predators, but over millennia they have found constructive uses for their deadly toxins. Ranidian craftsfrogs have learned to alloy their unique toxin with copper and tin, creating a unique purple-hued metal called Veratrium. Having similar properties to Terran bronze, Veratrium benefits from the infusion of Ranidian toxins allowing the metal to retain its durability while being much lighter weight than it would be without it. Veratrium trades a weighty heft for a lighter profile, finding use in precision tools, protective paneling and wearable environmental protection. It resists rust very well, and the Ranidae have built thriving underwater colonies along the continental shelflines of their home regions. It's a constructive use for a deadly toxin, and it's one that has caused the Ranidae a fair bit of trouble with their neighbors.
Terrans have enjoyed access to the stars for a few centuries, but in the early years of that development the scramble to build sturdier, reusable and more reliable starships brought the Ranidae to the attention of their human-like peers. Ranidae had developed the craft of working Veratrium across generations, they lived at peace with their environment, but when an engineer brought their knowledge of the unique metal into the designspace of a Delta Astronautics office, the aerospace corporation believed it was the key to conquering the stars and did everything they could to acquire as big of a stake in it as possible, seeking out and initiating contact with its sole producer, the Ranidae. The Ranidae had initially traded in good faith with Delta representatives, offering samples that would be brought back to Delta labs for study and attempted replication, which ultimately was not successful. They believed they needed Veratrium to perfect their starships and they needed it at a scale that was unsustainable for the Ranidae to provide, and so Delta became more aggressive in their dealings, escalating their efforts in seizing the source of the alloy by force. The Ranidae, themselves being this source, resisted Delta's growing hostilities and, after a breakdown in civil relations, retreated from their coastal villages and secluded themselves deeper in their underwater communities, hidden away where land-locked Terrans could not easily reach them.
Delta Astronautics ultimately went on to develop modern starship technologies without the use of Veratrium, but the time where they felt it was the key to the stars and the desperation with which they attempted to squeeze it from the Ranidae ended up fostering a deep rift of mistrust between the amphibious species and the astronautics industry that ended up excluding them from the dawn of the space age. The Ranidae had every reason not to trust a Terran starship, and so they kept to themselves, growing distant from a community they were every bit a part of, generations coming and going, carrying stories of the rocket men who wanted Veratrium for themselves, to forge keys to a gate in the sky. The Sol system stitched its many worlds together, but the Ranidae remained firmly within their little piece of Terra, disconnected from the growing inter-world community forming around them. They lived a peaceful but tense life for the past three hundred years, never once setting foot aboard the rocket men's baleful space craft. And then, one day, along came Cog.
Cog had heard stories about the landwalkers, about their star-bound craft fueled by Ranidian sweat and blood. He'd been told cautionary tales about dealing with the rocket people, he'd been told to "give them venom if they come asking for it", but the stories about worlds beyond his own were a Siren song to the young Ranidian. What could be out there? Cog wanted to see the stars for himself, to see what was so important that the landwalkers would try to bleed the Ranidae dry to forge the keys to unlocking it. And so, against the caution and protest of his friends and family, Cog committed to venture out and ride one of these rockets, to see what secrets were hidden beneath the old stories. He'd prepared his best suit, he collected his metalworking tools into a compact, folding unit on his back; he left his underwater colony to find his way towards the region's biggest starport and punched his ticket to the stars.
He boarded his ship, found his way to his private cabin and sat by the window as the ship rumbled to life around him, accelerating quickly and streaking up towards the heavens above. It would be the first time Ranidian eyes had watched the clouds thin, to watch the blue sky darken as the commercial starship broke atmosphere, new layers of stars twinkling in through the dimming haze of Terran space. The ship would rumble as it pushed its way through the sky, until, all at once, everything became smooth and quiet. Cog pressed his hands to his porthole window- the cosmos painted across the pane of glass like a shimmering tapestry of light. As the ship arced along its course Cog could see his home, etched into the outline of a continent, tucked away on this radiant blue marble. The sight of it, it was unlike anything he'd ever imagined.
These days Cog lives on Titan and works out of a small forge, sharing his Veratrium metallurgy with people from all corners, great and small. He often works with Lamp, Titan's own Neptunian shipwright, forging lightweight and durable parts where a ready solution was not available. He's learned to design bespoke components for Androids looking to fix or upgrade their chassis, or corrosion-resistant paneling for Europan starfarers, a people with whom he feels a strong kinship. Cog loves to get lunch at the Big Spill Kitchen, he loves the surprise of the Soup of the Day and he often bringing a large order of it back to his workshop to share with his team. Cog had found a broad and vibrant community among the stars, a community whose gates did not belong to the rocket men of Delta Astronautics. He found a welcoming place and set up a forge of his own, and when he'd built trust with his new neighbors he would venture back home to Terra, back home to his people, to invite other Ranidae to join him on Titan. Generations of broken trust had robbed the Ranidae of an early foothold into the stars, and that would take time and care to mend, but there was always a seat at the table waiting for them. Cog extended his hand to his people, he gave them his word and shared the trust he built with them that there was a future for them among the stars. His fellow Ranidians were hesitant at first, but over time more and more of them would find their way to Titan Garden, where The Veratrian Forge would provide them a safe harbor until they could put down their own roots, or offer work helping Cog himself in the smithy, learning the Veratrian trade. It would take time, but Cog would help mend what Delta had fractured. Space was the right of every lifeform, and at last that quiltwork tapestry of people included a small patch of the Ranidae.