There are places in this universe that are very different from the planet you and I inhabit. Take, for example, the planet Beesay in NGC 5194 (the Whirlpool Galaxy). Beesay has the largest military of any planet in the Whirlpool Galaxy. It is also, paradoxically, the only planet that has never been in a war. For the Beesks (don't ask; it's a linguistic anomaly even in their language), war is all about the pomp. They love putting on uniforms and marching around. They love developing and testing weapons. They love posturing and trying to intimidate each other. They love building monuments to their military dead (even though none of them have died in battle). But they're terrified of actually fighting. So they've never done it. The closest they get are war games. The Beesks would make the best warriors in the galaxy if they could bring themselves to fight. They are the undisputed champions of the galaxy-wide capture-the-flag competition. (Surprisingly, the way they play is almost identical to the Earth version.) The rest of the galaxy recognizes their superiority and wisely does not push the Beesks to become belligerent.
These illustrations were drawn using Stable Diffusion 2.1.
