AANN

The 'AAnn' are a fictional species of reptilians in Alan Dean Foster's Humanx Commonwealth series. They are described as lizard-like with flexibility and speed superior to that of most men, although they are generally shorter and somewhat weaker physically. They are covered in small scales and prefer hot, arid worlds with plenty of sand.
Having a static expression similar to that of a lizard, they do not have the capacity to display emotions via facial expressions as humans can, they have developed a rich variety of gestures which are used to convey attitude and emotion. In describing them, these emotions are broken down into descriptions (i.e. anger, approval, respect) and into degrees of the same (i.e. third degree anger, first degree approval, fourth degree respect). ''Nye'' is another term that AAnn use to describe themselves. It is a term that is used to describe a mature, usually adult AAnn. In much the same way that a human would say "man" or "men" in conversation or description, one of the AAnn might use nye to less specifically describe an adult or group of adult AAnn.
As with their other social graces and their form of government (an empire), these gestures appear to have evolved from necessity; the AAnn's more primal instincts are not very conducive to the survival of individuals. Accordingly, and very probably because war or internal conflict threatened to destroy them, the AAnn government developed as a hierarchal empire. Though different from the capitalism seen in many of today's countries, and for the most part the Humanx Commonwealth of their own time, the AAnn hierarchy is also open to personal advancement.
'Personal Advancement'
Although not always the case, personal advancement within the AAnn hierarchy usually entails the demotion and replacement of a higher up. To recycle an old cliché, 'It's an AAnn eat AAnn world' could accurately describe the process. Similar to advancement in our world, any AAnn with aspirations of authority cannot simply kill a rival and take their place. They must circumspectly use the law to their advantage, working closely with loopholes and ensuring that there is no evidence of any criminal activity on their part. Throughout the works of Foster's series, it is intimated that while all AAnn know this happens, it is rarely or never spoken of--as any implication that a Nye was involved in criminal going-ons could result in his or her 'replacement' by an ambitious colleague.
Each AAnn family is identified by a length of subjunctives in the place of their surname. The subjunctives are given as a string and are comprised of capital letters (i.e. VSBBLXK). As an individual rises in rank within the empire, subjunctives are removed to make the string shorter. This provides a rank and family identification mechanism and means an AAnn with two subjunctives would have higher rank and authority than an AAnn with five subjunctives.
'Outcasts'
It should be noted that not all AAnn subscribe to the particulars of the common culture and government. The Tier of Ssaiinn is an organization of AAnn that focuses on art. These artistic AAnn are considered outcasts, but are allowed to exist by the empire mostly as an unspoken truth. They survive on at least one world, Jast, and sell notably spectacular and unique artwork to private AAnn. This suggests that even through their stolid imperialist attitudes and primal instincts, and a reputation as merciless killing machines, they possess expressive traits similar to humans. It is even hinted, in 'Sliding Scales,' that nye within the Tier of Ssaiinn have artistic techniques and expressions that are in many ways superior to those of Humanx-kind of the same period.

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References

References

Information on this page was taken from the various works of Alan Dean Foster pertaining to the AAnn and the Commonwealth. For the most in-depth information on the AAnn and their society, please refer to ''Sliding Scales'', one of the Pip and Flinx novels.
Please see: 'http://www.alandeanfoster.com', for more information on Alan Dean Foster, his universes, and his writing.