Alien Races 1
- Location
- Humanity's Capital - New York
Someone asked me to describe the races of the potential XOs in some more detail for those of you not familiar with the universe.
Chelonian: Three meters tall and dense for their size, chelonians are descended from a species of cooperative large herders on their high-gravity homeworld. Their size and natural protection meant they had few natural predators and cooperative instincts and tool use developed as a response to climatic shifts on their homeworld meant that even prior to the development of technology they were long lived, but also generally conservative and careful. The Protectorate actually was extant during towards the tail end of the Open Palm Federation, the chelonians very young probationary members at the time. The OPF's long wars against the Swords of Cutting Truth missed what was by any real measure a backwater and, with the fall of the OPF the Protectorate returned to minding their own business and carefully developing their worlds. After a few thousand years, they ran into a surviving colony of TKK who'd also survived the OPF's fall. Unfortunately the normally amiable bioengineering experts didn't take things nearly as calmly as the unflappable turtles, and this touched off the Long War-an alternating series of hot and cold running conflicts that gradually saw the Protectorate ground down to a handful of systems at the time of First Contact with humanity. Human military intervention brought the Protectorate a respite, coupled with the Christmas Miracle-the intervention of one of the more-than-slightly-mad Zani-Zigulu-that brought the chance of a more lasting peace. Since contact with humanity, some chelonians have taken the opportunity to get as far away from the TKK Imperium as possible, while the Protectorate has also rebuilt and begun to engage in the dance of politics with the mostly human polities of the Grid.
Caiveh: The Germanic tribes to the Imperium's Rome, the original caiveh homeworld was overrun by the Clicks long ago, at some point during the Long War. The surviving non-conquered caiveh survive on the fringes of the Imperium, sometimes allying with the Protectorate and othertimes raiding both it and the Imperium. Contact with humanity opened up new fields of opportunity for the caiveh, from opportunities for mercenary contracts to targets for raiding for, in some cases, a chance to break the cycle. Some tribes have accepted offers from human states like the Commonwealth and settled down on worlds suited for their preferences on the Grid, looking to rebuild the shattered cultural legacy of their people.
The caiveh body plan screams apex predator...but a small one. Upright a caiveh averages 1.5 meters tall and masses between 40 and 60 kilograms. Keen ears matched with good binocular vision give the caiveh senses better than a human, and dark fur and a strong leap enable them to be great ambush hunters. Caiveh endurance is nothing like a human's however, a key difference noted by the more educated among the Clans. Pack hunters by nature, ecological pressures forced pre-technology caiveh to adopt to ranching in order to preserve food stores. This led to all of the eventual follow on technologies, and prior to their conquest by the Imperium, the caiveh had a fairly functional multisystem government not all that different from any average Grid state. Thousands of years of being refugees and fighting on the edges of the civilization have made the caiveh what they are, not any kind of biological or cultural impulse.
Sondrak: In contrast to the caiveh, the sondrak do have a natural impulse to hierarchy that is responsible for their political behavior. Large predators from the dry, hot world of Cyrx, the sondrak are blessed with a natural regenerative ability that have trivialized physical combat and injury between them. This resulted in a very aggressive, hegemonic culture in which the ruling Imperial family eventually tried to direct against fueglan, daedalian, and Bond colonies on the Hypergrid, building a decent sized empire prior to the intervention of the American Majestic Expedition on the eve of the Collapse. The Majestic discovery of a cache of functioning OPF warships enabled the Expedition to intervene in the defense of a major fueglan core world and trigger an internal revolt as the Ruling family had been deemed unworthy. The action wasn't undertaken out of some kind of altruism-Majestic had news from home, knew humanity was blowing itself to pieces, and knew the lizards would roll over the Grid in that condition.
The civil war burned itself out in a couple of decades, with several independent pocket empires setting themselves outside of Imperial authority. The Americans of Majestic engaged in their favorite recreational activity, occupation and nation building, and after recontact with the Grid were joined by the Commonwealth, Isabella, Japan, and other members of the Crossroads Alliance Treaty Organization. After a century of social engineering, most sondrak are beginning to admit the fucking thinskins might be onto something.
Apectids: The apectids were among the first species contacted by the Grid, and prior to Contact had attained a level of technology roughly equivalent to 1960s Earth, with nuclear weapons (only used once in anger, like on Earth at the time), basic orbital rockets, and the beginning of a global telecommunications network. Best described physically as six-limbed omnivores hyena-snakes, the apectids are most notable for having functional psyker abilities that give them, if not a hive mind, a strong cultural impulse towards conformity and social consensus. Indeed, the single use of nuclear weapons in their history was against a polity that had been infected with the equivalent of mad-cow, which drove their decision making to destructive and horrible ends. Thirty years of contact with the Marian Hegemony and the Commonwealth have given them a functional understanding of modern technology and after the Galacteon War they drifted into CATO political orbit. This lead to a closer and closer relationship with the GolCom until a few years ago when the Coordinate decided to join as full members, shifting the Commonwealth from a human majority to a human plurality and spurring on some of the very social pressures you're addressing by making a non-human the XO of such a prominent and well known ship.
Chelonian: Three meters tall and dense for their size, chelonians are descended from a species of cooperative large herders on their high-gravity homeworld. Their size and natural protection meant they had few natural predators and cooperative instincts and tool use developed as a response to climatic shifts on their homeworld meant that even prior to the development of technology they were long lived, but also generally conservative and careful. The Protectorate actually was extant during towards the tail end of the Open Palm Federation, the chelonians very young probationary members at the time. The OPF's long wars against the Swords of Cutting Truth missed what was by any real measure a backwater and, with the fall of the OPF the Protectorate returned to minding their own business and carefully developing their worlds. After a few thousand years, they ran into a surviving colony of TKK who'd also survived the OPF's fall. Unfortunately the normally amiable bioengineering experts didn't take things nearly as calmly as the unflappable turtles, and this touched off the Long War-an alternating series of hot and cold running conflicts that gradually saw the Protectorate ground down to a handful of systems at the time of First Contact with humanity. Human military intervention brought the Protectorate a respite, coupled with the Christmas Miracle-the intervention of one of the more-than-slightly-mad Zani-Zigulu-that brought the chance of a more lasting peace. Since contact with humanity, some chelonians have taken the opportunity to get as far away from the TKK Imperium as possible, while the Protectorate has also rebuilt and begun to engage in the dance of politics with the mostly human polities of the Grid.
Caiveh: The Germanic tribes to the Imperium's Rome, the original caiveh homeworld was overrun by the Clicks long ago, at some point during the Long War. The surviving non-conquered caiveh survive on the fringes of the Imperium, sometimes allying with the Protectorate and othertimes raiding both it and the Imperium. Contact with humanity opened up new fields of opportunity for the caiveh, from opportunities for mercenary contracts to targets for raiding for, in some cases, a chance to break the cycle. Some tribes have accepted offers from human states like the Commonwealth and settled down on worlds suited for their preferences on the Grid, looking to rebuild the shattered cultural legacy of their people.
The caiveh body plan screams apex predator...but a small one. Upright a caiveh averages 1.5 meters tall and masses between 40 and 60 kilograms. Keen ears matched with good binocular vision give the caiveh senses better than a human, and dark fur and a strong leap enable them to be great ambush hunters. Caiveh endurance is nothing like a human's however, a key difference noted by the more educated among the Clans. Pack hunters by nature, ecological pressures forced pre-technology caiveh to adopt to ranching in order to preserve food stores. This led to all of the eventual follow on technologies, and prior to their conquest by the Imperium, the caiveh had a fairly functional multisystem government not all that different from any average Grid state. Thousands of years of being refugees and fighting on the edges of the civilization have made the caiveh what they are, not any kind of biological or cultural impulse.
Sondrak: In contrast to the caiveh, the sondrak do have a natural impulse to hierarchy that is responsible for their political behavior. Large predators from the dry, hot world of Cyrx, the sondrak are blessed with a natural regenerative ability that have trivialized physical combat and injury between them. This resulted in a very aggressive, hegemonic culture in which the ruling Imperial family eventually tried to direct against fueglan, daedalian, and Bond colonies on the Hypergrid, building a decent sized empire prior to the intervention of the American Majestic Expedition on the eve of the Collapse. The Majestic discovery of a cache of functioning OPF warships enabled the Expedition to intervene in the defense of a major fueglan core world and trigger an internal revolt as the Ruling family had been deemed unworthy. The action wasn't undertaken out of some kind of altruism-Majestic had news from home, knew humanity was blowing itself to pieces, and knew the lizards would roll over the Grid in that condition.
The civil war burned itself out in a couple of decades, with several independent pocket empires setting themselves outside of Imperial authority. The Americans of Majestic engaged in their favorite recreational activity, occupation and nation building, and after recontact with the Grid were joined by the Commonwealth, Isabella, Japan, and other members of the Crossroads Alliance Treaty Organization. After a century of social engineering, most sondrak are beginning to admit the fucking thinskins might be onto something.
Apectids: The apectids were among the first species contacted by the Grid, and prior to Contact had attained a level of technology roughly equivalent to 1960s Earth, with nuclear weapons (only used once in anger, like on Earth at the time), basic orbital rockets, and the beginning of a global telecommunications network. Best described physically as six-limbed omnivores hyena-snakes, the apectids are most notable for having functional psyker abilities that give them, if not a hive mind, a strong cultural impulse towards conformity and social consensus. Indeed, the single use of nuclear weapons in their history was against a polity that had been infected with the equivalent of mad-cow, which drove their decision making to destructive and horrible ends. Thirty years of contact with the Marian Hegemony and the Commonwealth have given them a functional understanding of modern technology and after the Galacteon War they drifted into CATO political orbit. This lead to a closer and closer relationship with the GolCom until a few years ago when the Coordinate decided to join as full members, shifting the Commonwealth from a human majority to a human plurality and spurring on some of the very social pressures you're addressing by making a non-human the XO of such a prominent and well known ship.
Last edited:
