In the endless expanse of the universe, civilizations rise and fall, wage war and make peace, and gather under Galactic Federations. Hundreds of billions of sapient species come together with their space-faring neighbors to form political spheres galaxies wide. Even so, with countless Federations, a good 90% of the universe is still wild and free. Some star systems refuse to join Federations, some species are too war-like, but most are simply unknown. Only a small portion of the cosmos has been mapped, and even with all the Federation-sanctioned exploratory ships, the unknown grows every day. As is the nature of the infinite universe.
However, our story begins in the Andromeda Federation. The Andromeda Federation is unstable, with pirates becoming bolder, the Xkkrt’llnt Federation edging in on vulnerable border planets, and a credit recession, tensions are running high. Some turn their backs on the law, others join up with the Federal Military, some keep their heads down and hope life returns to normal, but some throw off their old lives and become adventurers. Adventurers are a unique bunch, sometimes outside the law and sometimes within. Each starship seems their own Federation. The allure of adventure, credits, and freedom has called many.
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Welcome to the Andromeda Federation! The Andromeda Federation is a high-concept space opera built on exploration and adventure. The plot is ultimately player-driven, like a game of Starfinder or D&D. Science Fiction is a very broad genre that has many subgenres. Character choice can change the plot drastically, from battling an empire to becoming pirates, from exploring the cosmos to finding the last of a mystic order. It is up to the players to create the story while I operate the background for their epic space saga.
Spoiler: /~Rules~\1.) Power-playing is a big no-no. State-of-the-art weapons and armor are reserved for the ultra-wealthy. Adventurers tend to be richer than the general populace, and will have better weapons and armor than most folks, but keep it within reason.
2.) Alien races must also be within reason. Things that would considered superpowers by humans can exist, but there is a limit to certain ones. There is a limit of 1 telekinetic, 1 telepath, or 1 full-body shapeshifter. Most other powers are fair game. Additionally, alien races must be, y’know, alien. They can’t simply be humanoid Earth animal.
3.) Biological augmentation is also available but limited. Prosthetics are fine, even ones with small tools or weapons in them. However, there is a limit of 1 blaster-resistant skin mesh, 1 quick-healer, 1 full droid, or 1 major body enhancement (gills/extra arms/cybernetic skeleton/increased mental capacity on a human).
Other than that, I don’t have many rules. Normal RPA rules apply, I’m the GM, fear me, and all that.
Spoiler: /~Common Species~\The Andromeda Federation is made up of three galaxies, the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy. Within these galaxies, there a few thousand sapient species, 210 of which are space-faring, but only 8 of which are advanced enough to have common inter-planetary travel and relations. These 8 are the Humans, the Binekid, the Nautono, the Jkkl’kkt, the F’tagn, the Yopano, the Xtheno, and the Trellonites.
Spoiler: HumansName: Humans
Planet of Origin: Earth, an incredibly diverse planet in terms of biomes and ecosystems
Colonized Planets: 337
Physical Description: Standing anywhere between 5 and 7 feet, and weighing an average of 130 to 180 pounds, humans have an astounding variety of skin, hair, and eye colors. Sexual dimorphism is high in humans. Humans have two arms and legs, with four fingers and one opposable thumb per hand.
Powers/Attributes: Persistence hunters, minor Empath species
Expertise: Biological augmentation, robotics
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: United under the Intergalactic Human Alliance, Humans are all subject to the same laws no matter where they travel, unless they have withdrawn from the IHA. The IHA has a set of laws every human must follow, but it is a very basic set of laws about how to conduct yourself more than anything. They are also expected to follow the local laws as well.
History: Humans were once considered to be too war-like for their own good and were expected to die a horrible, self-inflicted death, but have calmed down considerably in the millennia since they discovered they were not alone in the universe. However, war has followed them into space. Humans have rendered one species entirely extinct through warfare and critically endangered two more. They were also one of the first species into space.
Allies: The entirety of the Andromeda Federation and the Olarii, the Glangtuk, and the Jerbenea
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar and the Bluanki
Other: Humans are truly explorers of the cosmos and have made great leaps and bounds in mapping the known universe. If a being can exist there, humans have been there, taken samples, and planted a flag.
Spoiler: BinekidName: Binekid
Planet of Origin: Entinaa, a boreal planet similar to Canada in climate
Colonized Planets: 266
Physical Description: Standing between 7 and 8 feet tall and weighing an average of 530 to 600 pounds, Binekid have deep green skin that can have blue or yellow undertones depending on sex. Binekid have no hair and lavender eyes. They have a total of four eyes, two on the sides of their head and two on the front of their head. They have horizontal pupils. Sexual dimorphism is less noticeable in Binekid than humans. Female Binekid are larger on average and have blue undertones. Males are smaller and have yellow undertones. Binekid have a shape reminiscent of an elk with a human torso growing from the neck. They have four hooves and two hands. Their hands have five fingers and two thumbs. They have faces similar to humans, except they have no nose. Their nostrils are a row of six holes on either side of the neck.
Powers/Attributes: Semi-photosynthetic; As long as they remain motionless in direct sunlight, they can obtain the same amount of energy as a full day of meals, top running speed is 35 mph
Expertise: Art, philosophy, spirituality
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: Binekid society places an emphasis on creativity and non-violence. Work is automated by robots, so all citizens are completely free to do as they wish, as long as they do not harm another living being. They are sometimes called “the Buddhists of space”.
History: Binekid did not punch their way into space in the same way that humans did. They perfected solar sails and sleek designs before they even left their atmosphere. Their understanding of physics set them on the course to faster-than-light travel at a quicker rate than most others. They were to first to make contact with Humans. The meeting went less than ideal, but they were patient and helped humanity settle down.
Allies: The entire Andromeda Federation, and the Olarii
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar and the Bluanki
Other: N/A
Spoiler: NautonoName: Nautono
Planet of Origin: Jehenn, a thick rainforest planet
Colonized Planets: 211
Physical Description: Standing between 6 and 8 feet tall and weighing an average of 210 to 270 pounds, Nautono have black skin with teal stripes and yellow necks. Nautono have no hair, but a bundle of thick rubbery “dreadlocks” called lon. They have three forward-facing brown eyes with circular pupils. Sexual dimorphism is as noticeable as in humans, with females having mammaries and males lacking them. Nautono stand upright like humans on 2 legs, but have 4 arms, with four fingers and two opposable thumbs on each hand. Nautono have a face similar to a river dolphin with a long thin snout full of needle-like teeth.
Powers/Attributes: Sonar, powerful acrobats
Expertise: Combat of all kinds, martial arts
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: Nautono society is built on martial arts. They train, they exercise, status is determined by level of expertise. Sparring is used for entertainment. Friends will often fight for the fun of it. There are rules to non-combat fights, namely no maiming or killing. People who break the rules are shunned and considered bad fighters, and such, low on the figurative totem pole.
History: The Nautono barely made it off-world before their planet was taken. The Vhkahl enslaved the entire planet for 20 generations. But the Nautono would not be conquered so easily. They created a version of martial arts that was particularly effective against the Vhkahl. In the span of 10 years, they wiped out every Vhkahl on the planet. With the leftover tech from the Vhkahl, they perfected space travel and faster-than-light ships.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation
Enemies: The Vhlkahl, which have fled to a nearby Federation
Other: N/A
Spoiler: Jkkl’kktName: Jkkl’kkt
Planet of Origin: K’nkkt, a temperate planet similar to Earth in biome diversity
Colonized Planets: 410
Physical Description: Standing between 3 and 5 feet tall and weighing an average of 70 to 100 pounds, Jkkl’kkt have iridescent chitin. Jkkl’kkt have two large compound eyes that can see in nearly any direction. Sexual dimorphism is incredibly low as males and females look similar, the difference being in pheromones rather than physical size or color. Jkkl’kkt have a body similar to a large praying mantis, with hands instead of claws. Each hand has 3 fingers and 1 thumb. Jkkl’kkt faces resemble those of praying mantises.
Powers/Attributes: Incredible intelligence, improved climbing ability
Expertise: Mathematics, physics, statistics
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: Jkkl’kkt society is based on a pursuit of the “hard” sciences: math, physics, engineering, etc. Individuals are considered children until they have completed higher education. A major discovery is enough to set a Jkkl’kkt for life. Status is determined by how educated you are on any govern subject.
History: The Jkkl’kkt were the second to make contact with Humans. Realizing they couldn’t understand each other, the Jkkl’kkt set out to create the first Universal Translator. It was a rousing success in the beginning, but as the universe grew bigger, they had to keep adding languages. Now the Universal Translator can understand more than 4,568,332,512 languages, with more added every day.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar
Other: N/A
Spoiler: F’tagnName: F’tagn
Planet of Origin: Rl’tuah, a tropical jungle planet with very few large oceans, most bodies of water are rivers and lakes
Colonized Planets: 309
Physical Description: Between 5 and 7 feet tall, weighing an average of 130 to 180 pounds, F’tagn have a similar stature to humans. Beyond that, however, their resemblance ends. F’tagn are able to change their skin color at will. Mostly this is used to show emotion, but does have some capabilities as adaptive camouflage. They have two yellow, forward facing eyes with W-shaped pupils. They have 8 tentacles on their face which cover their mouths, and 5 on their head where hair would be on a human. These head tentacles have a row of 9 holes which function as both gills and nostrils. Sexual dimorphism is medium in F’tagn, with females have wider hips to lay their clutches of eggs. F’tagn have two 2 arms and legs. Each hand has four fingers and two opposable thumbs each. Their facial tentacles can act as rudimentary hands for the purposes of holding or manipulating small objects.
Powers/Attributes: Semi-telepathy; F’tagn have the ability to send and receive messages, images, and sensations telepathically, but cannot read minds that have not opened themselves to them. This is especially useful as they have no vocal cords; Adaptive Camouflage
Expertise: Interplanetary historians, entertainers, travel agents, spies
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: F’tagn society encourages curiosity, wandering, and hospitality. F’tagn rarely stay in one place for long. When they do settle, they make their place home instantly. They are welcoming, generous, and kind, because they know one day they’ll be the wanderer looking for kindness. They often keep souvenirs or mementos, but if they can’t carry much, will have tattoos of their travels. F’tagn clothing is made in specific styles and colors that other F’tagn can read just as easily as a book to see where they’ve been and what they’ve done. There’s a myth that all F’tagn know each other, when in reality, they treat all like family and can see a stranger’s history in their clothes.
History: Although the Binekid made the first official contact with humans, the F’tagn have been to Earth on multiple occasions, accidentally inspiring a few writers with their ships and appearance. This has happened on countless planets, and some species revere the F’tagn as gods, when really they just accidentally inspired a few myths.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar
Other: The F’tagn are known throughout the Federation as “those” aliens, because they have the unfortunate habit of trying to explore planets inhibited by intelligent, pre-spacefaring species.
Spoiler: YopanoName: Yopano
Planet of Origin: Toturr, a cold, mainly ocean planet very similar to Scandinavia
Colonized Planets: 198
Physical Description: Standing between 6 and 8 feet tall, weighing an average of 90 to 130 pounds, Yopano are tall and lithe. They have reptilian scales that come in a variety of colors, from red to teal to daffodil yellow and royal purple. They have an aerodynamic face and body shape. They have four yellow, forward facing eyes with triangular pupils. They have a fox-like snout with two sensory “whiskers” on the end. They have a colorful frill that runs down their neck and back. They have two legs, two arms, four wings, and a tail. Their hands have six fingers and one thumb each. Their wings have a wingspan of 22 to 26 feet. Their tail has two broad fins on the end, used for steering in the air. Sexual dimorphism is high in Yopano, as females are larger, have larger hips, and have more muted colors.
Powers/Attributes: Flight; they have a top flight speed of 70 mph, with high maneuverability, high endurance, and the ability to sustain a hover; Cold resistance
Expertise: Terraforming
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: The Yopano are a civilization of honor, courage, and warriors. They have perfected aerial combat and are more than capable on the ground as well. Each child is trained in the ways of combat as part of their curriculum. They believe that if they cannot protect what they have made, they will lose it. However, they don’t wage war for just anything. They have a strict code of honor they follow. However, this honor only extends to combat. Outside of war, they are free to do as they please. For some, this is hard, for others, incredibly easy.
History: The Yopano have a long and bloody history. Their planet is rich in Rooseveltium, a bright teal metal that is incredibly useful in shield generators for spacecraft. They had an entire host of outside forces waiting for them to discover faster-than-light travel so that they could formally declare war or set up trade routes. New to intergalactic politics but not to war, they firmly refused both trade offers and threats of war. That’s when the fighting began. They had scarcely made it into space before a few hundred different fleets arrived, all squabbling for the chance to destroy them. The Yopano held each off, one after another, for centuries, until their new allies, the Humans, could assist them. With their combined forces, Toturr finally knew peace. A night went by without the flashing lights of a space battle. Even now, enemies are rallying to rush Toturr and claim the Rooseveltium for themselves.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation
Enemies: Too many to count
Other: N/A
Spoiler: XthenoName: Xtheno
Planet of Origin: Zunth, a desert planet with hidden bioluminescent fungal caverns
Colonized Planets: 147
Physical Description: Standing between 6 and 9 feet tall, weighing an average of 330 to 450 pounds, the Xtheno are big and bulky. With perpetually moist, deep red skin, orange neck, chest, palms, and stomach, bright teal eyes, and a deep blue tongue, the Xtheno are remarkably colorful. They also have a broad, flat tail. Broad and flat is really the best description for them. They have two legs, four arms, and six eyes. They have five fingers and a thumb on each hand, which has cling-pads similar to a frog or gecko. They are equally comfortable upright and on all six. Sexual dimorphism is low in Xtheno.
Powers/Attributes: Excellent climbers, able to climb up walls and upside down on ceilings; Amphibious, capable of breathing underwater and out of it, excellent swimmers, can die if they get too dried out
Expertise: Life Support and Genetic Manipulation
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: Xtheno live in a hedonistic society where desires are always fulfilled and leisure takes priority over work. They are slow to react to change, but never stubborn. It would be too much energy to be stubborn. Even outside of this lazy way of life, Xtheno have a slow and methodical way of doing things, even speaking. However, their knowledge of medicine and genetic manipulation prove them worthwhile allies to have, even if they would rather spend a couple decades working on their paperwork.
History: The Xtheno did not evolve in the barren desert of Zunth, but the eerie fungal caverns below the surface. The hallucinogenic fungal spores boosted their intelligence beyond simple salamanders, all the while keeping them in a haze. They progressed very slowly compared to Humans, but eventually got to faster-than-light travel. By that time, they had thrown off their need for the fungal spores, but some still cultivate the fungus to sell the spores in the intergalactic black market. Now they operate massive bases nearly identical to their fungal home in the vacuum of space, maintaining the wet, swampy caverns within ships the size of moons.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation and the Olarii
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar and the Bluanki
Other: The fungal spores they cultivate have extreme hallucinogenic properties that affect almost anything carbon-based. Depending on the species, a dose can last from a minute to a year. Humans can trip for a few hours with it, and it is highly addictive.
Spoiler: TrellonitesName: Trellonites
Planet of Origin: Dranas, a barren, irradiated wasteland that was once a lush paradise similar to the Mediterranean
Colonized Planets: 112, all taken
Physical Description: Trellonites look remarkably similar to horseshoe crabs from Earth, except larger. About 1 foot tall and 4 feet long, Trellonites are a nightmare for those afraid of creepy crawlies. Their hard carapace is deep brown in color, as are their 9 compound eyes.
Powers/Attributes: Telepathy, Trellonites have the ability to read minds, send messages, images, and sensations, and modify recent memories; Telekinesis, Trellonites have the ability to move objects up to a certain size and weight with nothing but their mind. Several Trellonites working together can move and manipulate objects much larger and heavier.
Expertise: Robotics
Kardashev Type: 0
Basic Societal Overview: Trellonites have no overarching society, as most groups are unable to reach others and are more worried about survival than finding others. Most are quick, morally ambiguous, and turn on each other at the drop of a pin. However, deep in the Bunja system, multiple groups have put aside their differences and come together to create a functioning, if primitive society.
History: Trellonite society was once a mighty and glorious Empire, built on mutually beneficial trade agreements and democracy. Each Trellonite had the freedom to do whatever they wished. There was no poverty as each citizen was paid enough to thrive on. Art, music, the theater, and general well-being flourished. But then the Tek-Haxxar came. They rained down on Dranas and every other Trellonite-inhabited world with planet-killer warheads. Each world was turned into cinders. Their population dropped from 6 trillion to just over 500,000. They were without a home, adrift in the cosmic wind. They became nomads, pirates, thieves and murderers just to survive. The rest of the Federation welcomed them with open arms and brought down the rage of 1,000 suns on the Tek-Haxxar, but the damage was done. The Trellonites were without a home. So they disappeared into the shadows, laying in wait, reforming their empire to truly punish the Tek-Haxxar.
Allies: The Andromeda Federation
Enemies: The Tek-Haxxar
Other:
Spoiler: Less Common SpeciesSpoiler: DracosiansName: Dracosian (People of the Marsh)
Planet of Origin: Dracos (lost)
Physical Description: Reptilian biped, scaly skin typically patterned in brown and greens, average height 52" to 96". Eyes are large and slitted, with heat sensitive pits on their faces. They have clawed hands, with three fingers and an opposing thumb, and a short tail that nestles between their hindquarters. They possess three sexes, female, androgene, and male.
Powers/Attributes:
Cold weather can put them into hybernation, where they can last for several months.
Females can spit toxins and manipulate their males using pheromones, as can androgene males.
Queens can produce a wide variety of toxic enzymes, which can be used as a defense, various medicines, as well as elevating males and females members of their species. By deploying a stress pheromone, they can summon males to create a living ball of flesh to protect their queen.
Expertise: Biotech and medical implants. Bioplastic is programmable and can be made into programmable simple shapes or protective suits.
Kardashev Type: I
Basic Societal Overview: Three tier matriarchical structure, ruled by a nesting queen.
Androgene Soldiers and female Candidates make up the middle tier. Soldiers are charged with defending the nest and the queen, as well as attacking neighboring nests. A soldier can be further elevated to a drone by the queen as her mates.
Candidates oversee the operations of the labs, farms, and nest, reporting directly to the queen. They can direct as well as create androgene soldiers, but only a queen can turn a candidate into another queen.
The bottom rank is the labor force, males tending the farms, mines and exterior of the nest, while the females are the nest attendents, creating interior partitions, tending to the queen, the eggs, the drones, candidates and soldiers.
If a nest is destroyed by a neighboring nest or by natural disaster, the badly wounded and those who escape the conquoring queen's soldiers are left behind. While some die, it's not unheard of for small nests composed of one female and two males to be created.
History:
Two aliens visited Dracos and were captured by androgene soldiers of Queen Solana. Typically, males who cannot be enthralled are killed, but their alieness intriqued the Queen and using a translator, she questioned them at length. They possessed knowledge that she had never known existed - and made her question how things might change in her world.
She directed candidates to examine the alien's ship, to see how it was constructed and to plunder their knowledge.
Meanwhile, she began to alter her own nest, creating new queens chambers in rings around her own. Suitable candidates were then selected to become queens themselves- but instead of allowing them to split the hive, she installed them in one of the ringing chambers and sent her own drones to mate with them, while suppling them with a new enzyme that kept them doctile. In a few short years, she was Emperess Solana, with control of half the world and an emense army of males and androgene soldiers.
By then, candidates and workers had reproduced viable copies of the alien ships that had pacified queens installed and began interplanetary slave raids, bringing back more workers, knowledge and technology. There were, of course, revolts, but the different slave races often fought one another and would betray them. However, one of them, the Zayans, worked out how to reproduce the stress chemical, and planted pheromone bombs within the Empress' court in the various queen chambers. They expoded, and the smell triggered the Empress and the queens to pump out even more of the stress pheromones, the intensity drawing in the rest of the massive capital to swarm over the Empress' court.
But the Zayans were not done. Using the combined stolen tech from the various worlds, they had worked out how to fold Dracos into another dimension, isolating it for all time. Returning slaver ships found themselves without a planet.
As the labs that produced the pacfication formula were under the Empress control, when the ships ran out, the queens began to assert their dominance over the crew. While considered by many to be piratical, they do trade in useful compounds, biotech and medical implants.
Allies: There has been trade with various human colonies.
Enemies:
Other:
Spoiler: Qua’dotiName: Qua'doti
Planet of Origin: Quodis, a planet that is only 50% ocean, with the rest being a mix of plains, forest, and jungle with lesser portions of tundra and desert.
Colonized Planets: 5
Physical Description: anywhere between 5' to 6' 10" with canine legs, ears, and tail. The only hair they have is on the top of their heads, and faces for males, ears, legs, and tails. Their hair and fur color match with natural colors being blacks, browns, reds, and whites with the rare blonds. Their eyes are normally black with light grey pupils and almost any color of eyeris with the rare amber/brown with black pupils and red eyerises. Features are normal region dependent with white hair, thicker fur, and lighter skin tones for those who live in colder climates.
There is speculation over their relationship with the indigenous canine species on Quodis, but there seems to be no relation besides the common features of the ears and tail.
Powers/Attributes: stronger sense of hearing and smell than your average humanoid, resistance to certain toxins, superior endurance. Uncommon cases of mute Qua'doti exhibiting the ability to send words and images with their mind (weaker) with rare cases of some even being able to read other minds (stronger). claws. Rare cases of venom sacks and fangs in the desert and jungle subtypes.
Subtypes: Tundra ver.: more hair follicles, thicker fur, white hair, lighter skin tones, and a slow metabolism helped them survive in the frozen wilds.
Desert ver.: thin, rough, light brown fur with darker skin tones are normal marks of the desert hunters, with some of them having hair and fur so tough they’re almost like quills.
Plains ver.: normal well muscled with mottled greys and browns for hair and fur, they dent to have a more pronounced nose protruding into a muzzle giving them a heightened sense of smell above the rest.
forest/jungle ver.: normally brown or black, with rare green speckles, they evolved to be great stolkers.
Ocean ver.: A very rare sight, but they do exist. They live in underwater caves and have developed air sacs to help them stay underwater for long periods of time, and they possess thick, oily fur. Few ever come to the surface. These are a united subtype that have remained autonomous from the rest of the world and are mostly isolationists.
Expertise: Their superior senses make them great trackers, but their tenacity and endurance also make them good fighters.
Kardashev Type: 1
Basic Societal Overview: the majority of control going to 5 separate groups, not unlike political parties or even government powers, that work together for the seeming benefit of the people. The 5 major leaders are all elected by delegates picked by the people. There is peace with the Tordois, though interbreeding frowned upon by the majority with the offspring of such often subject to discrimination. less than half the populous suffers from hereditary addictions that resulted from the last war between the two races.
Unknown to everyone, government formed entities have been conducting research and experiments.
History: In the beginning, the Qua'doti were nomadic tribes that hunted and gathered around certain regions, then came the time of change, where the tribes moved from their ancestral grounds and fought with one another. 5 major tribes were formed as the battles waged on for generations until they stopped with the age of metal, and new alliances were made and the wars of glory began with 3 sides which lasted for 10 more generations. 2 powers became neutral and started The Ways of Wisdom, based on the teachings of one Jersidius Wulish, which taught ways of learning, progress, and peace. From these came many great teachers, inventors, and philosophers that eventually helped bring about the ages of discovery and age of machines that led to the war of Feverus, which was started by 2 of the major powers, the turning point of which was at the great city of Feverus, after which the world was a little more unified.
As technology and ideas continued to progress, the age of exploration began as a race to the world's moon between the two major Ways of Wisdom factions in which all the others supported. And once the moon was reached, a faction declared control over the new vast (vast=space) program, which sparked riots from those loyal to the other factions. In outrage, a new war of control began, yet was quickly ended with a ceasefire and an agreement to share control in all matters.
From here, the vast program only grew.
Allies: Tordois
Enemies: N/A?
Other: Most know 2 of the most common Qua'doti dialects with others being optional for learning and Tordois being required in most places of higher education
Spoiler: TordoisName: Torodois (pronounced: Toro-do-is)
Planet of Origin: Tordino, a planet that is close to uninhabitable on the surface. Now covered by massive structures made to keep back the harmful atmosphere while the vast majority of life is underground.
Colonized Planets: 7
Physical Description: 4' 6" to 6' 6" tall, normally either very pale or very dark skin going into the grey or whites or the browns and blacks, there is no in-between with tough, leathery skin. Pointed ears a little farther up on their heads than humans. The eyeris is always black with white pupils, but the rest of the eye is almost any color. Hair color has a very large range when compared to the Qua'doti, since their body produces a different pigment, though other normally natural colors like brown are almost a rarity. Their tongues are either green or blue. An extra digit on each hand. Most are slim and lithe, but all are not seen as either feminine or masculine.
Powers/Attributes: hermaphrodites (both genders, most being described as androgynous), extremely rare cases of people being only one sex or another (this is seen as a birth defect). resistant to a few forms of radiation. regeneration (small wounds are normally healed by the end of the day, bullet wounds heal in 5 days, and other serious injuries heal days to weeks faster than a would be for a human.) darkvision developed from living underground for a long time. Tough digestive systems to handle strange foods that couldn’t be cooked. Highly resistant lungs. Double jointed. And rare cases of some being able to meld with the natural materials around them.
Expertise: Doctors, physicians, and therapists
Kardashev Type: 1 (but a tad more progress than the Qua'doti)
Basic Societal Overview: 3 chairs of state hold most of the power, checking and balancing each other out as they are mainly focusing on different things with 12 more chairs of the senate help keep them in check and help the 3 chairs of state with most of their tasks as they are delegated. The 3 are elected by the 12, which are elected by 60 which represent 30 different regions. This number has grown a little since the beginning of the age of travel.
Though frowned upon, about half the population has more than 1 spouse. Also frowned upon, some decide to interbreed with the Qua'doti.
Duals to the death for a choice spouse is a crime, but it still happens.
History: For a race that is both genders at once, there is a long history of fights over choice spouses dating all the way back to the tribes.
The strongest in any way always made it to the top of the food chain, be it physical strength, greater intellect, or cunning.
The tribal leader got first pick for a spouse and often had 2 or 3, and then their second in command and or close friends and in continued down this chain of command.
When they had found, fought, and defeated another tribe, the stronger normally took the weaker for spouses and killed the rest that would oppose them.
This continued for a long time before the age of learning came about, when the first few inventions came about, though some of these were weapons of war. The age of learning never really stopped, but continued through other ages, like the age of Torus, aptly named after the man who made the first metal tools.
Progress was made, and duels continued to happen over the perfect spouse, though no longer in the same chain of command.
Then came the age of powder, and the war of conquest started, when the great Alphibis went on a 30 year campaign to conquer the known world.
Then the age of mechanics came about and new wars started and fell away.
Then came the age of flight, in which most wanted to fly, and which the most daring duels over lovers were fought in the air. This was quite a style for the time that died away.
Soon, they figured that all these duels were stemming the populous so bad, they outlawed these duels in most countries.
Then came the age of the beyond (beyond=space), when two of the greater powers started a race over who could get to the closest moon first, and bets for spouses flew left and right over who would get to one of the moons first.
A victor was picked by fate, as one side reached the largest moon first, and they started the Beyonder program with the other side not far behind. Outrage overtook them and there came another war that destroyed most of the major cities before coming under a unified government years later.
Allies: Qua'doti
Enemies: N/A
Other: Only 1 dialect for Tordoris and most know at least a common Qua'doti dialect.
Spoiler: ZalmadeName: Zalmade
Planet of Origin: Xeivis
Colonized Planets: A neighboring planet, Sarturo and two of her moons: Zendel & Iscara.
Physical Description:
Zalmade are amphibious creatures that come in many different shapes and sizes. Men tend to be more msucular and broader of build. Females tend to be slimmer and smaller. The coloring of a Zalmade's skin is unique to where they grew up on the tropical planet. Zalmade stand on two legs and take upon the looks of the ancestral amphibian they evolved from, usually frogs, salamanders, or newts. Most Zalmade have smooth skin and stand on two legs that bend at a weird angle at the knee. This is part of their genetic make up to help them jump and leap great distances. Zalmade rarely have hair, most have tendrils or tentacles that sprout from their head. The longer they are the older the Zalmade is. The tendrils or tentacles can also be used like an apednage and are useful in combat and other functional purposes. Zalmade are cold blooded and thrive within their tropical planet's high humid atmosphere. When removed from this tropical paradise, the Zalmade must wear a specialized suit that keeps their skin moist and has a heat source.
Powers/Attributes:
Poisonous- Zalmade's skin is always moist and when threatened can secrete a poison that can paralyze or even kill an enemy, depending upon the size of the predator.
Camoflauge- Zalmade have the ability to change the color of their skin to match their surrounding.
Jumping- Zalmade's legs are sturdy and strong. It allows this species to make a quick get away by jumping or leaping high distances through the air.
Water breathing- Zalmade breathe through their skin and are also able to breathe underwater
Nightvision- Zalmades' eyes are usually large and bulbous with a thin slit that allows night vision through a layer of tissue called tapetum lucidum.
Expertise: Botany, irrigation, farming. Techwise: Creating sustainable terrapods for their species and others who are similiar. These pods have also helped to create a market for specialized extractions from planets that are starting to be studied. Zalmade are good at creating a sustainable environment for most living plants.
Kardashev Type: I
Basic Societal Overview:
Zalmade have the elite and the workers. The elite live above ground in lavished buildings and are very privileged. These Zalmade are allowed to study what they wish and live their life how they want. The workers are forced to live underwater in sea caverns and mud hovels. The workers are allowed on land for bried periods to do their designated manual labor job. This is usually related to farming, servitude, and any other jobs the elite wish not to perform. The planet is ruled the The Collective,a council board that chips all Zalmade at birth. No one really knows how this council came to be, except that it has been in power since the earliest Zalmade slithered from the ocean to walk on two legs. This makes sure the elite and the working class only have access to certain parts of the planet and can be easily identified. If a worker Zalmade gets out of line, well the chipping system makes them easier to track and put them in their place. There is tension between the two classes and a civil war might just be right around the corner...
History:
Xeivis is a wonderful tropical planet with high humidity and even higher temperatures. The planet's daily average temperature is 35C. There is a multitude of colorful plants and the soil is very rich. Zalmade are known for exotic and delicious fruits and vegetables, their main export that brings wealth to the planet. That along with their terrapods.
The first Zalmade slithered from the vast ocean a millenia ago. Ever since then more various types of amphibious creatures began to evolve and become intelligence life forms. From there The Collective was born. There are 6 members, one each to represent the various amphibious species of the planet. The Collective founded the order of society, the elite and the workers. This was to help keep resources in place and prevent overpopulation. The system seems to have worked for now. The elite thrive and advance the scientific part of society. While the workers continual the manual labor and allow for sustaining the crop export.
The workers and elite are not meant to mingle. That was why chips were implemented. If either are caught fraternizing, well let's just say it does not end well for either party involved.
Allies: Zalmade are friendly with any and all species. They make sure to keep relations open to futher the elite's wealth and establish trade and political power among other cvilized nations.
Enemies: Their bias makes them enemy to themselves
Other:
Spoiler: ZykdrikName:
Zykdrik
Planet of Origin:
Sineva, a temperate and diverse world. For reference, it is about 12% larger and 15% warmer than Earth, leading to comparatively greater amounts of surface water and a generally wetter climates.
Colonized Planets:
41
Physical Description:
Gangly limbs extend from a pot-bellied torso whose spine is eternally bent forwards. A thin layer of body hair coats those of them who don't shave. Each long hand possesses a spindly set of three fingers and two opposable thumbs which end in vestigial claw-nails. Their knuckles are thick, built to support the bodies weight and the grounds scraping. Their legs and feet are essentially another set of arms and hands. From between their shoulders grows a flexible neck of mid-length. From their face extends a muzzle that tapers to a rounded point, with a long slit-like nostril on each side of it. Their mouth contains the incisors, canines and molars needed to process the diet of an omnivore, as well as a long tongue. Their eyes rest in forwards angled craters on each side of their face, and long ears twitch atop their heads.
Standing upright, they can be a good 8-10 feet in length, but Zykdrik typically amble on all fours with a severe hunch at a height of about 5-7 feet. Their weight is about 170-220 pounds.
Powers/Attributes:
Pheromone Communication: Zykdrik possess simple vocal cords good for nothing other than growling and intimidation, for their true form of communication between other Zykdrik is through silent pheromone release. It's just as nuanced as any spoken language, and can even linger in places and objects as a means to leave messages – this can be used for practical purposes such as marking locations, or more creative endeavours such as encoding songs and phrases onto objects. To others, however, the pheromones are odourless and tasteless, and other means or aids are required for communication with non-Zykdrik's.
Expertise:
Cybernetics and history for the majority, and many more depending on the group encountered.
Kardashev Type:
II
Basic Societal Overview & History:
The Zykdrik have never had an grand over-arching governing bodies, even as they achieved practical inter-planetary travel and colonisation. The closest thing was the United Nations of Sineva, and that was formed so what should be a prosperous new age of space exploration and exploitation didn't end in petty resource wars and other such squabbling. Nations and groups are allowed to govern themselves as they see fit, as long as it doesn't disrupt the peace; and if a government wants nothing to do with the UNS, they won't stop them leaving or refusing to enter in the first place, just remind them that they'll no longer be under their protection.
Besides from the UNS, the closest thing the Zykdrik have to widespread ideology is the divide between the 'materialists' and the 'spiritualists' which spawned after full body robotic drone replacements became affordable and popularised. The 'materialists' value the bodies they have, and see replacing them as a step towards completely stripping away what makes them Zykdrik, what makes them people – other worries include the technology being an avenue into companies literally owning peoples bodies and/or a needless expense of resources when the organic body is good enough. On the other hand the 'spiritualists' have fully embraced the advances in full body replacement, seeing it as a way to attain a body that truly reflects the person and their mind unlike the natural form they are arbitrarily given; it is also a way to better achieve enlightenment by ridding themselves of the desires and concerns of flesh, and some simply think that people should be able to do what they want with their bodies, as it's the mind that matters and not the meat.
These are generalisations, and specific beliefs vary immensely, but the rise of full drone body replacement has certainly been followed by a good measure of controversy. It's one of the few topics that pop up in near every Zykdrik nation or group. The only other is history, though history is met with widespread admiration due to its use even before a proper language was formed thanks to being able to mark territory with long lasting messages for other Zykdrik.
Despite the pre-mentioned division between 'materialists' and 'spiritualists,' no major inter-planetary conflicts have arisen out of it, more due to practicality than want. Space travel and colonisation between planets is possible, but for the Zykdrik, the technology has yet to reach the point of commonality. Only mass cargo or passenger ships travel with some frequency between planets, and nothing is really capable of exiting or entering atmosphere more than once. Most ships stay in orbit, and when possible are built in space using material mined from low-to-no atmosphere solar bodies (such as asteroids). Cargo and passengers are delivered to planet surfaces through space elevators built upon colonised planets, each Zykdrik colonised planet typically featuring two such elevators. Without their presence, the best recourse is to launch 'drop pods' containing whatever needs to be on the surface and hope the damage to their cargo is limited. Safe to say, major inter-planetary conflict between majorly Zykdrik planets are infrequent, with most hostile actions towards other planets contained to terrorist attacks or espionage.
Allies:
Group dependent.
Enemies:
Group dependent.
Other:
Design is inspired by a mix of the skeksis and mystics from The Dark Crystal. Because those designs be pretty alright.
Spoiler: Non-Federation SpeciesMost species are not part of the Andromeda Federation, or even within their jurisdiction. These species will be added here once individuals have been interacted with.
Spoiler: Tek-HaxxarName: Tek-Haxxar
Planet of Origin: Kzizz, a planet covered in thick, deadly jungle. The gravity is reduced while oxygen levels are increased. Most things on Kzizz will want to kill you, especially the sapient species.
Colonized Planets: 979, though they have raided and destroyed hundreds.
Physical Description: Between 7 and 9 feet tall, Tek-Haxxar weigh between 170 to 320 pounds on average. They tend to have stick-like limbs attached to a thicker torso. Two long, barbed, grasshopper-like legs support the body and end in four curved claws. Two claws in the front and two in the back allow them powerful grips with their feet. Four arms sprout from their shoulders with a similar insectine appearance. Each finger, of which they have six on each hand, have four joints. On the forearm, a foot-long poisonous stinger sits ready to extend at any moment. They have three distinct body segments, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The abdomen extends behind the legs like a stumpy tail. Their faces have two large compound eyes and complex mouthparts. Twiggy antennae sprout from the forehead. Dragonfly-like wings are attached to their backs and extend over 12 feet on both sides. Their skin is covered in a tough exoskeleton that can be brown, black, yellow, or green, or any combination of colors in striped patterns.
Powers/Attributes: The Tek-Haxxar possess flight, incredible speed and strength, increased jumping and leaping ability, poisonous stingers, and a pheromonal method of communication.
Expertise: War and destructive machines and weapons
Kardashev Type: II
Basic Societal Overview: The Tek-Haxxar are ruled by a single Queen and operate in a manner similar to wasps or hornets. The highest-ranking officials in any given area can exert a modicum of control over lower-caste Tek-Haxxar through pheromones. The Queen can completely control each and every Tek-Haxxar that can detect her pheromones, invading their minds and seeing through their senses. An official can move up in the castes by receiving a special pheromone that makes their own stronger. The Queen herself produces these pheromones. Recreating them in a lab is treason and will get any put to a long and painful death. Their culture is severely lacking in all aspects non-war related. All media is made to increase morale, loyalty to the Queen, and aggression towards the other species. Their society is a well-oiled machine, fueled by sapient blood and driving on the charred dead worlds.
History: The Tek-Haxxar have been at war for as long as any can remember, themselves included. Queen after Queen, planet after planet, they advanced on a blood-path towards any who opposed them. Allies were betrayed, enemies crushed into dust. However, they soon saw that they could not stand against entire Federations. So they began their own, reeling in other bloody and gruesome species to assist. The Trellonite Holocaust was the combined effort of 19 species, quadrillions of credits, and dozens of decades. And when the radioactive dust settled, the Tek-Haxxar were the victors. Taking each burned world and terraforming them, they became replicas of Kzizz. This process is beginning again, and their compound eyes are facing toward the Humans this time around.
Allies: No true allies, simply business associates
Enemies: A stranger is just an enemy you haven’t sworn a blood-oath against yet. All non-Tek-Haxxar could be enemies.
Other: N/A
Spoiler: /~Common Tech~\Technology has made leaps and bounds in the ventures since Humans discovered the rest of the universe. From ships to armor to entertainment systems and construction equipment, nearly everything has changed.
Spoiler: ToolsSpoiler: BioSampler WandTech Name: BioSampler Wand
Manufacturer: Seares Industries - Medical Division
Rarity: Common
Appearance: Six inch long cylinder one inch in diameter with a push button and a translucent top section that lights up in different colors.
Intent: A dedicated biochemical analyzer that checks if a food or drink is safe to consume, a favorite among travelers.
Strength: Top section turns Green = Safe, Red = Unsafe/Poison, Orange = Unsafe/biological contaminant. An app is available to for an Omni to receive a more detailed report.
Weaknesses: 6 inch range, usually good for one month on a single charge. Scanner is hard to conceal when being used. Has to be set up for the species, default is human.
Spoiler: Bioplastic MultitoolTech Name: Bioplastic Multitool
Manufacturer: Dracosian Travelers
Rarity: Common
Appearance: plastic rod four inches long, half-inch diameter.
Intent: Programable tool
Strength: By pushing the marked bottom of the rod, it can assume up to eight programed simple shapes - typically tools (like screwdrivers, pry bars, etc), eating utencils, or personal grooming items. When used as a nut-driver, one simply presses the end against the top of the nut or bolt and press the button, the head deforms to surround the nut or bolt head before becoming solid again.
Weaknesses: 14-21 days typical operation between charges.
Spoiler: MedscannerTech Name: MedScanner
Manufacturer: Seares Industries - Medical Division
Rarity: Common
Appearance: 6 inch by 4 inch tablet that is one inch thick, may come with a holster case or shoulder strap.
Intent: Portable medical diagnostic tool
Strength: Dedicated medical computer can evaluate known lifeforms to provide a detailed diagnosis; unknown life forms, it can only provide basic medical stats.
Weaknesses: One yard range. Full charge provides two weeks operation; replacable power cell.
Spoiler: Laser CutterTech Name: Laser Cutter
Manufacturer: Drago Industries
Rarity: Common
Appearance: A six inch by one inch diameter metal cylinder with a curved pipe similar to a blowtorch. The handle has a trigger and an on-switch. Pressing the trigger ignites a small laser useful for cutting most objects.
Intent: Precise cutting of wires, glass, metal, etc. etc.
Strengths: Capable of cutting most things
Weaknesses: Maximum of three inch thickness on surfaces it can cut through, eats charge incredibly quickly and rapidly heats up if running on full power
Spoiler: Universal TranslatorTech Name: Universal Translator
Manufacturer: Anybody with a computer and a mic can make one if they know how, Drago Industries mass-manufactures most on the market
Rarity: Common
Appearance: A small earbud-like device that comes in a variety of colors
Intent: Ease of communication
Strengths: Capable of translating all known languages
Weaknesses: Languages unknown to any Federation cannot be translated until they have had access to a large amount of information in that language
Spoiler: BreatherTech Name: Breather
Manufacturer: Drago Industries
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: A mask that fits over breathing orifices
Intent: Converting foreign atmospheres/water or water equivalents into breathable air
Strengths: Capable of turning most atmospheres and water or water equivalents into breathable air
Weaknesses: Made for humans, other species must custom-make their own
Spoiler: ABMaSTech Name: ABMaS (Artificial Body Maintenance Station)
Manufacturer: Various Zykdrik companies and groups. A set design has yet to be adopted.
Rarity: Typically ordered by commission. Costs about the same as a middle of the round car.
Appearance: An array of motorised, tool ended arms that surround a central fixed point, with two other nearby external devices typically tower-like in appearance; one of the external devices processes foods, liquids and gasses into canisters, and the other produces, stores and filters the suspension fluid in a life sustainer block. Specifics vary between manufacturers and the whims of the commissioner
Intent: Provides full maintenance to those possessing artificial drone bodies, capable of disassembling said bodies for repair and part replacement, slotting the 'pilot' in and out of their chosen bodies, and keeping all the things needed for the remaining flesh to live in supply.
Strength: It does what it do.
Weaknesses: Has to be fixed in place to function properly. Relies on external power supply, with only enough backup power to remove a life sustainer block from an artificial drone body and attach the emergency drone parts in case of emergency.
Spoiler: Spacer StretcherTech Name: Spacers Stretcher, sometimes referred to as 'spacers body bags' for their appearance and ultimately dual use.
Manufacturer: Various - most species have created some form of the device in one way or another.
Rarity: Ubiquitious
Appearance: A large, thick body bag sized to fit most members of the species who manufactured it. Ones produced for interspecies use are sized to fit beings 10 feet or more in height and width to ensure it's always big enough. The exterior is coloured however the manufacturer desires, and typically features a hook, winche or some other form of tethering point.
Intent: The tool is to be used in search and rescue operations in no atmosphere situations. The bag is intended to be used to provide void protection to survivors who don't have it so they can be safely brought aboard rescue ships - and for those who haven't survived, it lets any bodies be preserved. The bag itself is the same material that composes the protective layers of a space suit, featuring a sealable hatch to make the bag airtight once a survivor has been placed within it, or in some cases is left as a sheet where the edges have to be welded or fused together to form the bag. The former is easier to use, whereas the latter design is more versatile and better capable of handling a wide variety of shapes and sizes different species might come in. Internal gas canisters either left to float freely inside the bag or attached to the inner sides of the bag provide an appriopriate atmosphere inside the bag for the encased survivor once the bag is sealed. Typically features a tethering point so the bag can be towed, which is more eloquaint and safer than just pushing or handling the bag by hand.
Strength: Simple, cheap, practical and as a result also easily adjustable in size and inner atmosphere.
Weaknesses: Can't encompass absolutely all shapes and sizes, provides no mobility to the person inside the bag, and the designs made to be welded are good for only one use - once cut open to let the survivor out, welding it shut again in another use risks either an inadequate seal or weakening of the void protective properties of the bag.
Spoiler: Weapons
Spoiler: Melee WeaponsSpoiler: Photon BladesTech Name: Photon Blades
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: A metal handle four inches long with a collection of buttons that control on/off, length, and power. When activated, a blade of plasma anywhere from five to ten inches long springs out. Most come in white.
Intent: A small, concealable weapon that can be used to greater effect than metal blades
Strengths: Capable of cutting through average armor/chitin/scales/skin, injuries are instantly cauterized and do not heal well, if you survive
Weaknesses: Not large enough for an actual fight, more like a dagger than a sword
Spoiler: Photon SaberTech Name: Photon Saber
Rarity: Rare
Appearance: A metal handle six to eleven inches long with a collection of buttons that control on/off, length, and power. When activated, a blade of plasma 35 to 45 inches long springs out. These come in a variety of colors, such as green, blue, purple, red, white, yellow, and there are rumors of a black one.
Intent: A standard melee weapon that can be used to greater effect than metal or Photon Blades
Strengths: Capable of cutting through average armor, most materials, chitin, scales, and skin. Injuries are instantly cauterized and do not heal well, if you even survive
Weaknesses: Requires precise training for effective use, you’re liable to injure or kill yourself or others if you aren’t trained
Spoiler: Storm BracersTech Name: Storm Bracers
Rarity: Rare
Appearance: A set of light metal bracers and brass knuckles that wrap around your forearms. On the back of the hand, a bright teal circle indicates how much battery life remains
Intent: Hand-to-hand weapons that harness minute amounts of bio-electricity and static electricity from the atmosphere to deliver a shocking blow
Strengths: Electrical blasts stun or kill most species, charge through the atmosphere and small amounts of your own bio-electricity, particularly useful against metal armor
Weaknesses: Prolonged use can fatigue wearers, useless against non-conductive armor
Spoiler: Ranged Weapons/BlastersSpoiler: AC-1030 Blaster PistolTech Name: AC-1030 Blaster Pistol
Rarity: Common
Appearance: A sleek, futuristic pistol that fires bright blue bolts of plasma
Intent: A common self-defense blaster
Strengths: Can fire 13 times before needing to cool down (cooldown time 30 seconds), bolts can stun or kill most species depending on where you hit them
Weaknesses: Weak against average armor, useless against state-of-the-art stuff, firing before total cooldown can cause a misfire or even minor explosion, after 50 yards accuracy begins to suffer
Spoiler: AC-1090 Blaster PistolTech Name: AC-1090 Blaster Pistol
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: Similar to the 1030, except the barrel is longer and the entire pistol is larger proportionally
Intent: A more recent blaster for law enforcement or people who can afford it
Strengths: Can fire 18 times before needing to cool down (cooldown time is 45 seconds), bolts can stun or kill most species, pierces average and above-average armor, bolts move faster than the 1030
Weaknesses: Firing before total cooldown is likely to result in a minor explosion, after 75 yards accuracy begins to suffer
Spoiler: Buford’s Bad NewsTech Name: Buford’s Bad News
Rarity: Rare
Appearance: A long-barreled futuristic rifle with a shotgun-like stock that fires powerful bolts of green plasma
Intent: A powerful rifle that delivers a single, devastating shot
Strengths: Kills most species regardless of where you hit them, goes right through most armor
Weaknesses: After one devastating shot, requires a cooldown time of 2 minutes. After 100 yards accuracy begins to suffer. Firing before total cooldown results in a minor explosion that will take off your hands. And your face. Your toes too probably
Spoiler: Witherton Carbine BlasterTech Name: The Witherton Carbine Blaster
Rarity: Common
Appearance: A sleek, futuristic rifle with a shorter barrel that fires blasts of red plasma
Intent: A common self-defense rifle
Strengths: Can fire six times before needing to cool down (cooldown time is 30 seconds), has an attachable scope
Weaknesses: After 225 yards accuracy begins to suffer. Firing before total cooldown results in a misfire or minor explosion
Spoiler: DeVauhn’s Sniping BlasterTech Name: DeVauhn’s Sniping Blaster
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: A sleek futuristic long-barreled rifle with thermal scope
Intent: A blaster for long-range targets
Strengths: Can fire accurately at up to 2,500 yards
Weaknesses: Can fire only once before requiring a 45-second cooldown. Firing before total cooldown will result in a minor explosion
Spoiler: DroidsSpoiler: DN-L12Tech Name: DN-L12, though most humans will give it a personal name
Manufacturer: Seares Industries - Robotics Division
Rarity: Common
Appearance: Exactly 6 feet tall, sleek black, and humanoid, the DN-L12 is the quintessential droid. With a faceplate that can show up to 70 different emotes, an AI advanced enough to understand complicated orders, and a battery life that lasts 1,000 years, this droid can fulfill any need you may have!
Intent: Basic servant/butler droid
Strengths: Advanced AI, high dexterity, long battery life, liquid cooling system
Weaknesses: Gets stuck under couches way too easily, more liable to malfunction in humid weather, human instincts to anthropomorphize make replacing them difficult
Spoiler: CLARCTech Name: CLARC
Manufacturer: Seares Industries - Robotics Division
Rarity: Common
Appearance: A cute, recognizable avatar resembling a human male, or if you want to be technical, a bunch of code
Intent: An AI helper than can be downloaded onto most devices and used like an advanced Siri or Amazon Alexa
Strengths: Highly advanced AI, fun personality, likeable
Weaknesses: Not actually physical, can only be downloaded to the most recent devices, constantly getting updates
Spoiler: RR-N40Tech Name: RR-N40
Manufacturer: Drago Industries - Robotics Division
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: 8 feet tall, with tank treads for feet and massive blaster barrels on their shoulders. Heavily armored, a single glowing “eye”.
Intent: War machine
Strengths: Two large blasters, nearly unstoppable except by other droids, high strength and speed, all terrain, waterproof
Weaknesses: Heavy, loud, bad for stealth attacks
Spoiler: ShipsSpoiler: Brunhilde Y-WingsTech Name: Brunhilde Y-Wings
Manufacturer: Drago Industries
Rarity: Common
Appearance: Small, triangular ships with a wing, blaster, and turbine on each edge. Two-person fighters with enough room for a pilot and a gunner
Intent: Fast-flying fighters for chasing down other ships
Strengths: Fast, agile, hard to hit, and armed to the teeth
Weaknesses: Takeoff and landing requires the ship to turn 90 degrees in the air.
Spoiler: Kodiak Cargo CrawlersvTech Name: Kodiak Cargo Crawlers
Manufacturer: Seares Industries
Rarity: Common
Appearance: Massive, rectangular ships that can hold a couple thousand tons of cargo. One massive engine. Does not actually land, they hang in a planet’s orbit while smaller transports bring down the cargo. They are assembled in space.
Intent: Moving large amounts of cargo long distances
Strengths: Capable of holding a few thousands tons of cargo, powerful shields, hydrogen fission engine that generates large amounts of power
Weaknesses: Slow as all hell when not using the FTL drive, cannot enter a planet’s atmosphere in fear of not being able to escape the planet’s gravity and crashing, which would spell disaster for all involved
Spoiler: Razorback SloopsTech Name: Razorback Sloops
Manufacturer: Seares Industries
Rarity: Uncommon
Appearance: Like a large, headless albatross, with a cockpit where the neck would start. They come in a variety of colors. Each wing has a turbine and there is a 360-degree rotating gunner pit connected to all the ship’s weapons
Intent: The most common non-military or non-Federal ship
Strengths: Speedy, flashy, a good leisure ship
Weaknesses: Not very dangerous, low shield generator, costly
Spoiler: /~Character Sheet~\Name:
Age:
Species:
Description:
Occupation:
Skills:
Abilities:
Inventory:
Personality:
Backstory:
Other:
Spoiler: /~Species Submission Form~\Name:
Planet of Origin:
Colonized Planets:
Physical Description:
Powers/Attributes:
Expertise:
Kardashev Type:
Basic Societal Overview:
History:
Allies:
Enemies:
Other:
Spoiler: /~Crew~\Spoiler: Pilot - Pedro Askilon - Azazeal849Name: Pedro Askilon
Age: 36. As one of the older members of the crew, he doesn’t mind acting as a big (little) brother on occasion
Species: Human
Description: Pedro stands 4’4, with the shortened limbs typical of achondroplasia. He has warm brown eyes beneath a broad forehead and thick eyebrows, and a mouth much given to smiles through a dark shadow of beard. He has olive skin and curly black hair, inherited from one of the temperate regions on his home planet of Pelion. He is generally laid back and unhurried in his movements, though he can put on a surprising turn of speed if the situation calls for it. He has a receptor implant at his right temple - a simple silver disc that allows him to interface with the ship upon attachment of the correct transmitter puck.
Occupation: Pilot
Skills: Qualified to fly freighters, surface-to-orbit shuttles and EVA rigs. Some on-the-job experience of systems engineering and computer de-bugging (the ship’s control systems were built to last, but they’re getting finicky in their old age). He could potentially have a crack at other automated systems as long as they used a similar haptic interface and / or programming language. He speaks fluent Trade, passable Bikenid and Zalmade, and offensively bad Dracosian.
Inventory: Piloting interface implant; snazzy watch with haptic holo-projector; universal translator earpiece (he doesn’t like using it); something Tink cobbled together that she calls an “omni puck” (a transmitter puck with masking and slicer functions - in theory it allows interface with not just the ship but any system...including ones he has no business being in. He worries exactly what she had in mind when she designed it, but he uses it since his original interface puck for the ship died a few months back).
Personality: Pedro is an extroverted introvert, happy to spend time with the other crew but also relieved when he’s able to shut himself up in the bridge and watch the stars go by get on with the very important job of piloting their ship safely through the void.
Being obviously physically different lends itself to developing a thick skin, and while it used to bother him he tends to be unfazed by curious looks. He will occasionally make a joke out of it, trying to convince aliens who haven’t met humans before that all human men look like this. His sense of humour extends to occasionally pranking his crewmates, such as waking them up early by streaming Skylar’s latest recording over the intercom.
Since he’s got one eye on captaining his own ship in the next few years, he can be a bit more conservative than his crewmates and apt to be the “voice of reason” trying to rein in their zany schemes if there is no obvious benefit (monetary or otherwise) to their mission. He can also be a bit old fashioned in some odd and arbitrary ways - for example, he considers it polite to try and learn an alien language rather than rely on translators, as long as his human vocal cords are physically up to the task.
Backstory: Pelion is a developing world, but still a mining frontier at its core. Pedro’s parents both made good money in the uranium strip-mining industry, but it was the ore haulers blasting off into the sky that always captured the young Pedro’s imagination.
He studied part time at an orbital training college and eventually obtained his pilot’s licence at 22. Another two years as a co-pilot on orbital shuttle runs and he was able to secure his first hauler placement.
On paper, answering the job application to Zya's ship looked like a good way to pad out his CV, being more varied than simple intra-system cargo runs, and less dangerous than the years long flights into uncharted space to seed new jump-point beacons. It took a little while to get used to captain Zya’s random demands to stop and catalogue every interesting new stellar phenomenon along their routes, but nowadays he actually enjoys the variety. Plain cargo runs will be a bit dull after this.
Ultimately he wants to be able to buy and captain his own ship - only a couple of years away now with a few more decent finder’s bonuses.
Other: He is used to captain Zya’s eccentricities, and rather enjoys their frequent detours and ramblings, although sometimes he has to rein them in when their latest fancy will take the ship too far behind schedule. Sirc keeps to herself much of the time, so he tries to respect her privacy. Sometimes he lets her sit in the bridge and quietly attend to whatever work she’s doing. Ayo is a likeable oddball whose gardening projects are rapidly taking over the ship, though he has yet to figure out why she always seems to be armed. He’s used to it by now, but it still makes him nervous. Tink is usually either helping him fix problems with the ship or causing whole new ones, but at least she’s good for a laugh. Skylar is exhausting to him over any length of time, but hey, he pays well - and how many crews can say they had a pop idol hitch-hike on their ship? 019, of course, he hasn’t met yet - intergalactic protocols demand that spacers in distress have to be rescued, but after that…?
Spoiler: Mechanic - Divinia “Tink” Cole - Alura|Name| Divinia "Tink" Cole
|Age| 23
|Species| Human
|Occupation| Junkrat. Aspiring Mechanic & Inventor.
|Planet of Origin| Canis Petram (aka "Dog Rock", "The Crucible")
|Description| Small and wiry, with big ears and big dark eyes, Vini is all lean muscle and boyish frame. She might clean up well, if she ever lighted somewhere long enough to be cleaned up, but she's always diving into one junk pile or another looking for her next salvage. She is often mistaken for a teenage boy. Pale and fidgety, she can be a little unpredictable. While she can handle tedious and detailed mechanical or experimental projects, and the hazards of breaking down abandoned and condemned vessels in a spacedock designed for such a purpose; she has also been known to pop out of places whilst unexpectedly wielding plasma torches and other volatile tools to solve iffy problems without warning. She knows what she's doing, ish, so never fear!
|Skills|
|Identify| Keeping eyes open as a career junkrat or salvager can help you identify nearly anything - or at least find detail and information that others might miss.
|Salvage| Can sometimes find a use for unexpected items by identifying them as useful in specific capacities based off of design and/or materials, location found, etc. Skilled at removal of such items and stripping them, preparing them for further deconstruction or transport.
|Seedy Bedfellows| Need a favour from a friend of a friend? An in with the local trade lord? That rare exotic pet for your cousin's celebration? Information on movements/whereabouts of lost friendlies or hostiles? Reputation is everything, and this character has a personal and/or familial one that lets them hop through back doors and alleyways to retrieve such - all the better that they know what sorts of booze or bribery grease each cog and wheel. One wee drawback might be that after unfortunate circumstances like, say, for an entirely made-up example, one enterprising would-be inventor caved in their lovely mine shaft with an explosive mod meant to improve an exhaust system: in such an entirely pretend example, a connection might need time to cool off before they are willing to deal with said mechanical wunderkind again. Hypothetically.
|Abilities|
|Frack It| When push comes to shove, any tool's a weapon and any weapon's a tool. Enemies struggle to plan for this level of chaos. Upside is the world's your oyster. Downside is, sometimes it goes bad. Real bad.
|Tinker, Taser, Solder, Spry| Small and fast, capable of fitting into narrow places, difficult to catch, and light enough to monkey up/down/all around with minimal handholds and footholds. She's strong and agile, but pocket-sized for convenience! As a very minor side effect, she may also stick her little sticky hands into places that look like they might have shiny things of use to her in them. Downside is, the owners of those pockets aren't always thrilled with this brand of "repurposing".
|Roach Resilience| Used to living in difficult environs, particularly hard to harm or starve. Not only tends to survive rough living situations, but is difficult to kill either by external intent or her own ill-advised schemes. Might luck out of death in dire friendly fire situations. Let's not test that last bit, please!
|Inventory|
Simple shirt and trousers w/mechanic's standard cap, gloves, heavy work boots, ventilator, and coveralls.
Mechanic's bag with the usual kit you'd find and odd bits of things tossed in as they are found.
Dog-eared book on space ship design with sketches of upgrades and energy systems stuffed between the pages
Crumpled blank pages and scraps of paper scrounged from odd places where they were left unattended
Soot pencils
|Personality|
Cheerful
Eccentric
Open-minded
Opportunistic
|Backstory| Born into the Cole family of non-Holders and raised in a sort of union known amongst the mining families for geological survey and "divining" where to dig and drill, Divinia Cole was expected to take up the family mantle like her parents and grandparents before them. Like her cousins and brothers and everyone else she knew. Her small size made her a poor fit for mining work, though she was quick and spry. Optimistic and not to be out-done, she began redesigning popular equipment to make it easier for someone of her size to do as much - or more! - more efficiently. It started with hydraulics and moved on to more complex concepts, the occasional explosion a minor consequence for the returns she garnered for her family. Her designs quickly gained traction with other families who negotiated for their use, or to have her loaned out to tweak their own equipment. She went from a liability to an asset that her family dislikes sharing when it can be avoided. It makes them faster diggers and more productive on the whole.
Still, overly energetic and flighty, she tends to fiddle with anything that can be tinkered with when left alone with it for too long - even if others might prefer that she didn't. As a result, sometimes a seemingly normal tool or weapon can crop up with an unexpected "improvement". Often that's positive, but sometimes the addition can be a poor fit for a given application, or simply useless and distracting. Occasionally it can go off the rails and explode or create some other unforeseen chaos. There is a fine line between helping, improving, mending - and meddling. That is a line that Divinia has yet to recognise and often crosses.
After a recent explosion in a major Holder mineral vein, which Divinia was incredibly eager to investigate and work to prevent in future, her parents shuffled her off to a junker ship where she has been working in space dock disassembling derelicts and making salvage runs by turn. She typically serves as something of a mechanic. Ish.
Spoiler: Doctor - Brz'tek' Sirc - EnigmaName: Brz'tek' Sirc
Age: 23
Species: Dracosian
Description: Repiloid biped, 183 cm in height, gold-flaked green eyes. Scarring (blackened skin) along left side of head, neck, arm and torso. Tends to cradle its left arm,which is noticibly smaller than its right.
Occupation: Doctor (Technically, veterinarian)
Skills: Medicine, chemistry, prosthetics and medical implants
Abilities: Hands and feet each have four claws, she can still spit out a neurotoxic poison approximately four times a day with a range of approximately 1-1/2 meters. As it takes four hours for it to refill its venom sack, the first posion spitball is usally more lethal than its last.
Inventory:
Pending approval
Personality: Shattered and subdued - her position, her ship, her queen - gone. Abandoned on an alien world. Scentless, classless - even the lowest males of her kind dismiss her! Prone to manic-depressive cycles.
Backstory: Sirc was born in space, in the nursery abouard the Queen Brz'tek's ship, where she was examined and found to be without flaw or defect - the first test of life. It was here she learned of their history, of a perfect planet that inexplicably disappeared. How the queens shook off the Emperess' stupor and clensed the ships of the traitors and started afresh. And each was given training in all areas of the ship, carefully watched and evaluated until the Selection, the second test of life.
Sirc was assigned to the farms that took the fodder from hydroponics fed the animals they feasted on. She, along with the others, were taught by the Veterinarian, who watched and evaluated them. Sirc was the one she selected as a candidate, and Queen Brz'tek agreed, filling her with the subtle blend that would allow her to grow from her humble form into a Candidate herself, this passing the third test of life. As she grew, the Veterinarian taught her everything she knew, even let her work on aliens, learning their bodies, repairing their wounds and ills.
Then the day came where the Veterinarian stepped down from her post, ready to surrender her own life, but Queen Brz'tek spared her, making her an advisor to her court, and by decree made Sirc the new Veterinarian. Thus, student and teacher passed the fourth and fifth test of life.
The attack by Queen P'vat, however, caught them completely by surprise. An alien world was nearby, Queen Brz'tek took a gamble and brought her ship into atmosphere - a gamble they lost. A missile punched through the hull and exploded. While she survived the shockwave and the subsequent crash, the flames were not kind to her. She was barely aware of the invading queen's soldiers and candidates who finished off her dying queen before kicking her away to the far corner as they stripped away anything useful, while she succumbed to the cold of sleep.
The warmth of spring woke her from her hibernation and she dragged herself in the darkness until she came on a thawing corpse, and her hunger was such that she tore into the tasteless flesh, eating her fill. Eventually, she found a tear in the hull where light and fresh warm air flowed in, and managed to lift herself upright. To her relief, there were other members of her crew there. She could see them staring at her, sniffing the air - and turned away. Sric was scent-less, a nameless and scarred nobody, and none of their concern.
Other: Burns along her snout and torso has destroyed her ability to smell or emit pheromones.
Spoiler: Intelligence Officer/Historian - Zyausk-jecant - Kaptain PantyName:
Zyausk-jecant 'Hard Brain'
Age:
32
Species:
Zykdrik
Description:
Zyausk-jecant is no longer of a fleshy constitution. Their mind has been shorn away from their organic body; all that remains is a set of vital organs suspended in an armoured life sustaining unit block. Their will now possesses a frame of metal and plastic whose composition is exchangeable as any machines. Zyausk-jecant typically utilize and keep hold of two body types; an industrial model for working, and a organic simulacrum that lets them regain the ability to experience the pleasures of flesh when the urge hits them. In both bodies, the armoured life sustainer is slotted into the torso. They also have an emergency drone body that comes standard with a ABMaS (Artificial Body Maintenance Station), which needs little descriptions as it's essentially a set of rudimentary arms, legs and sensory array that bolt onto the sides and top of the life sustainer block.
The industrial model has the same general shape as a member of the Zykdrik people, though one crudely hewn out of a factory and provided with some additional physical features. Skin has been replaced with configurable metal plating, coloured a dark purple, that hides the wire and piston innards. Their torso is composed of three sections of decreasing size – a chest, an abdomen, and finally hips, connected by joints able to retract so the plates overlap. Six limbs extend from said torso, a pair attached at the hips, and two opposite facing pairs attached at the shoulders. Typically, the hip limbs and one pair of shoulder limbs reach for the ground, whilst the other shoulder limbs rest folded. Each limb and their connected hand are composed of thick rectangles of metal. Cushioning rubber is on each limbs knuckle. Their head is actually three smaller heads clipped together, each a block which houses two camera lenses attached to the end of a motorized arm, the heads capable of separating and moving independently; they extend from beneath an armoured hood, containing a thick glass visor that can slide down to protect the frames heads when hiding beneath the hood. Each joint is hidden and protected by a plastic weave sheath.
It stands on four limbs at about 8 feet in height. No ornamentation, finery or clothing can be found decorating the frame. The smell of cleaning chemicals, protective coatings yet to dry and atoms of tome dust are all that occasionally follow the sound of machinery in clunky animation. Though a Zykdrik, or those able with some means to interpret their pheromones, would find a unremarkable 10 or so centimetre plate attached to their chest reciting the words "may the chains that bind you break."
On the other hand is the organic simulacrum, where the natural designs are cast in artificial material. Manufactured nerves hide under skin coloured an unnatural shade of white which covers toned fibre muscles padded by insulating and shock absorbent foam. Plastic bones push out from the face, giving it a gaunt appearance. The eyes with orange irises, indistinguishable from those naturally unless one was to examine closely and notice their rigidity, nearly fill the entirety of their shallow sockets. Large triangular ears loom over a bald head. Beyond the thins lips is a set of teeth and a tongue with functioning taste buds, and beyond that is a replica of the digestive system. Beneath the first set of shoulders is another set of shoulders, which itself has another set of arms, spaced so that they don't overlap when resting at the bodies sides. No hair is present on the body.
With all six knuckles supporting the frames weight, the organic simulacrum reaches a height of about 7 feet. Typically whilst controlling the simulacrum, Zyaust-jecant will wear an armless purple robe and dark red shorts whose ends reach the middle of the bodies thighs. Each limb is adorned by a total of 6 brass coloured bangles split into two sets of 3, each set of bangles even spaced between each other on the upper and lower sections of each limb. Each hand wears cloth walking-gloves made from purple dyed thread with thick grey rubber knuckle-soles secured to them. On their head rests a crimson diamond shaped hat with one point extended more than the others so it can cover their extended muzzle when worn in the correct position.
Despite being able to replicate the appearance and sensation of natural flesh, it cannot replicate its odours, and any must be applied. The most common are vaguely floral, the result of soap after a warm shower or detergent being infused into laundry recently taken out of the washer. Whenever the organic simulacrum comes out, it typically comes with a spray of perfume, the scent slithering through their surroundings and into their infrequently used nose. No matter how many times they clean their clothes, the memory of smoke and incense lingers upon them.
Occupation:
Begrudging Inter-Planetary Historian.
Skills:
Functional Adult: A ragtag collection of non-indepth knowledge, mostly retained from their flesh years, which cover things like cooking, cleaning, clothing and simple device maintenance, driving, all those things needed to be self-sufficient in the modern day.
About a Year of Part-Time Combat Training: They aren't keen on the idea of warfare or violence in general, but best to know how to use a gun and not use one than be faced by belligerents and not be able to do much about them. And you can't rely on peace keepers if you're going through a section of space they're struggling to keep peace in.
Bureaucracy: Wura-jecant's last job was managing a textile company's financial records, but it of course extended to managing the companies documents and forms in general – the same old tale of not hiring enough for the work that's needed, so it gets piled onto adjacent working sectors. Having documents they weren't hired to sort out but had to has given them quite the familiarity with paperwork and how it should probably be organised.
Drone Body Maintenance and a University degree in Engineering: Can't live if you don't know how to maintain your own body. Exact same thing goes for if your form is near entirely artificial. Wura-jecant has enough knowledge concerning how their drone bodies work and function to maintain them, as well as how to keep the tools required for said maintenance maintained themselves. This is about the most complex thing their engineering knowledge can really achieve on its own, however. They'd really need a manual for anything else, and someone with actual work experience would be a better pick for any professionial engineering work.
Abilities:
Beyond the Concerns of Flesh: Regardless of which body is used, things such as needing to eat or drink or breath are no longer a persistent problem, and metal and plastic cannot become infected. All of the nutrients, gas's and liquids needed to survive are contained within canisters who release their contents into a blood substitute the remaining flesh is suspended in. These canisters, of course, have limited supply and must be replaced, but Zyaust-jecant doesn't have to worry about sudden suffocation. Both bodies also contain oxygen filters which can supplement the canisters supply as neccessary. The only way for infection to get in would be through the canisters, and those undergo a sterilization procedure before insertion into the life sustainer block. Even if it should penetrate such defences, the flesh was never rid of its immune system, which is regularly tested with minor ailments to keep it active in case of emergency.
Modifiable: Metal and plastic is easy to manipulate and replace. The limit to modifactions are imagination, the capabilities of science, and the quantity of funding avalible.
Industrial Labour Body: This thing is pretty heavy duty. Originally it was designed for ceaseless work of a domestic nature, but with their plans of space travel, it has been significantly bulked up and upgraded to deal with the dangers that lay between the stars.
Hazardous Environment Treatment: The plating is thick, and treated to deal with corrosion, heat and radiation for stomping about on inhabitable and hostile worlds. It can't just stand in lava and have no problems, but it can be dropped down on all but the most extreme worlds without need for modification. Vacuum's still a problem though. Mainly the cold. Needs to have a specially built space suit put on to deal with that.
Mechanical Strength: Needs a lot of power just to move the thing at a decent speed with all the plating on it, and it has been provided with more than a little extra might in case the frame ever has to navigate through high gravity environments. Metal and plastic can also has higher stress limits than flesh and can be pushed harder.
No Nerve Endings: No feelings out touch are permitted in this form. No pain can be felt, but at the same time the lack of sensation leads to operating the body being significantly more awkward; the only way they know the location of their limbs is through object awareness and physically looking at where they are. Computers provide helpful indicators, and can alert Zyaust-jecant if a limb isn't moving or has suffered significant damage and such, and their heads-up display shows where their limbs should be pointing. But all this is still not as perceptive and response as organic or even artificial nerves. And metal plating is something very difficult to put nerves into. Not that Zyaust-jecant wants that anyway.
Three heads, Six Limbs, Limited concentration: Three heads allow for an excellent field of vision when positioned properly, and an extra set of arms allows for more things to be done at once with them. But there is still the issue of divided attention. They can focus on only so many things. The extra heads and limbs really just allow them to change their focus to a different direction without having to turn their entire body towards said direction, and to hold more things at once of course.
Organic Simulacrum Body: A body that replicates an organic one, and though it doesn't completely replicate all the sensations, most of said sensations are the more inconvenient and unpleasant ones. Even so, the experience of this artificial body still differs from an organic one despite the efforts at replication. Others, there's nothing particularly special about it compared to a fleshy body.
Four Arms: It has an extra set of arms. Pretty cool, right? That's basically the extent of Zyaust-jecant's reasoning when they decided to modify the organic simulacrum in such a way.
Actual Touch, Smell and Taste: Senses returned artificially, with no significant differences from the naturally facilitated kind, though a internal measuring equipment brings to light the chemical composition of the gas's inhaled and foods ingested.
Digestive System: For the authentic eating things experience, and even provides nutrients still. Functions like an organic one would for all intents and purposes.
Inventory:
Organic Simulacram Drone Body
Industrial Labour Drone Body
ABMaS (Artificial Body Maintenance Station) with Emergency Drone Body Backup
3d printer sized and optimised for producing replacement parts for their drone bodies
Personality:
Their mind and body are in perpetual motion unless something stops them. They had a thousand things they could do when they were housed in flesh that grew weary, and now they have a million things they could do now their body is tireless. There is no end to things to do and consider, and Wura-jecant only wishes they could do more. Not that they feel they're in a rush. They just prefer always having something to do. Such endless work has allowed them to develop a good measure of curiosity, as any interruptions are ultimately of miniscule effect on the grand scale of things. It doesn't matter much if work that will never be finished is slightly delayed. Still, their tolerance has limits.
Backstory:
'The day will come when He will set us free. And We will have these Chains removed.' Words that Zyausk-jecant can remember being sung in hymns and etched on walls. Their existence began in an artificial womb, the child of ten monks who had cast off the burdens of flesh, on a humid and swampy world named Ire-galt. Their monk parents followed the footsteps of Poukeg – according to myth, Poukeg was a ex-soldier who witnessed the fleeting and temporal nature of the physical. Through contemplation and casting their mind to ever greater reaches, the ex-soldier achieved the means to reach enlightenment and ascended beyond the material.
Zyaust-jecant was raised in a home of contemplation, placed in a remote spot in the countryside, the young Zykdrik still made of flesh whilst their parents existed in bodies of metal and plastic. It was a gentle home which clashed with the world outside; a place of severe heat, uncomfortable wetness, and semi-toxic air that required filter masks to prevent damage from long term exposure to it. And Zyaust-jecant had to walk through it every time they went to the city, and the city was where their school was – the monks were hermits who could do all the work needed to gain the funds to sustain them from home, and the supplies needed to maintain their bodies and housing were ordered in. They had no vehicle to travel in. So Zyaust-jecant walked, first alongside or upon one of the monks, and then on their own as they grew older.
The world beyond the monks was an unpleasant place to experience, especially physically, but lessons Zyaust-jecant considers valuable were learnt from it – the one that stuck with them the most being lofty ideals were little good with no action. For as spiritually whole and as pleasant as the monks were, their ideology, quite intentionally, aimed for them to disconnect themselves from reality. They didn't really aid others or do anything. The monks talked, certainly, but little else. Should and when the end of them and that which surrounds them comes, they will do nothing, and stay locked in contemplation before the dust claims them.
And so Zyaust-jecant went on to study for a university degree in engineering, as that seemed like a good set of skills for problem solving. After graduating from that with middling grades and reaching full maturity, they decided it was time to have a full body drone replacement and move into the realm of true adulthood. What Zyaust-jecant currently refers to as the labour body was designed and funded with the help of their parents, though the more heavy duty servos, thicker plating and space-walk proof treatment were additions that came later on. Though Zyaust-jecant didn't want to completely close themselves off the experiences of flesh, and also commissioned an organic simulacrum body through the help of some of the monks contacts.
With that achieved, they had to find a job. And a friend they had made in university told them about an accounting job that needed doing in their eldest brothers textile company in the big city. Zyaust-jecant, confident in their knowledge of numbers, seeing as there weren't any other promising opportunities at the time, took it. They planned for it to only be a temporary thing, and to look for jobs in fields that better interested them and that they had actually studied for. They wouldn't have found a place to live in the city just for the job, the new home in the city was for future endeavours. They had high hopes to be a good influence on the world and make some real change. Unfortunately, bureaucracy doesn't allow that kind of thing to go through.
Any engineering jobs worth applying were too few in number for the number of applicants there were available. With such a vast amount of prospects, companies could pick and choose who they want; and they either looked for the most skilled to entry level jobs way below their skill level, or people who could tolerate abuse as long as they kept their job. Poor university grades didn't help get Zyaust-jecant a job in this environment. Neither did being raised by free thinking monks. As time went on, they even had less and less time to even search for other jobs; they were supposed to only deal with financial records, but all kinds of paperwork landed on their desk, and if they wanted to keep their job they had to do it. And dealing with more kinds of paperwork meant they had to deal with more obnoxious ways a document had to be set out, written, signed and categorised. And their growing competence at their job only meant more work was sent to them in hopes of filling quota.
After a few years of going through all that, they were thoroughly fed up with it all and wanted to do something meaningful. Something where they actually got to do something rather than sit in an office dealing with whatever mandate the management had issued that day. They began to consider going off-world, which brought to their attention the Foreign Histories Research Program headed by the UNS. The program paid for the delivery of non-Zykdrik historical records to the UNS archives, which they leased on paid loan to nations, groups and companies within or a part of UNS influence. It made the UNS some money, it gave the organisation a good impression on the Zykdrik people, and it provided information that could one day help in diplomatic matters with foreign powers. And to Zyaust-jecant, it sounded like an easy way to make money whilst travelling about the stars. Well, 'easy.' They knew that it'd still have all the annoyances that come with sorting and categorising documents, but they were at least good at dealing with it. Not that they knew of any other jobs on a starship they could apply for and even have a glimmer of hope of being accepted. And they weren't doing accounting again if they could avoid it.
Spoiler: Intelligence Officer/Botanist - Ayo - Moonlight_FaeName: Ayomide Nescara
Nickname: Ayo
Age: 31
Species: Zalmade
Description: Ayo stand at 5'4" with a thin build uptop but very muscular legs that stand at a weird angle due to her genetic make-up. Her skin flows between darkpurple to light-blue and is always slick from moist secretions. Her face is heart shaped and she has large bulbous red eyes with tiny slit, resembling that of a frog. She does not appear to have a nose. Five purple tendrils that come from her scalp to rest just upon her shoulders. These tendrils are known to move about on their own and she can use them to grab things and usually has her scientific tools curled up in them. Ayo normally wears a suit specific to her genetic needs. It sprays mist upon her skin to keep her from drying out and is always at a temperature of 35C.
Occupation: Botanist
Skills: Critical thinking, science, botany, scavenging, surviving
Abilities: Poisonous- Zalmade's skin is always moist and when threatened can secrete a poison that can paralyze or even kill an enemy, depending upon the size of the predator.
Camouflage- Zalmade have the ability to change the color of their skin to match their surrounding.
Jumping- Zalmade's legs are sturdy and strong. It allows this species to make a quick get away by jumping or leaping high distances through the air.
Water breathing- Zalmade breathe through their skin and are also able to breathe underwater
Nightvision- Zalmades' eyes are usually large and bulbous with a thin slit that allows night vision through a layer of tissue called tapetum lucidum.
Inventory: Two blaster pistols, heat searing dagger, grenades, multiple scientific material kept within her bag when she explores a planet and takes samples and runs tests on the soil and plant life, terrapods, journals and sketchbook, drawing materials
Personality: Ayo is not one to always pick up on social cues. She is very honest and always pointing out the obvious. Her mindset is very clinical and she does not always understand the need for companionship. She is driven by her innate curiosty and finding out about alien life as much as possible. Ayo has a need to create hybrid plants that can sustain life in all environments.
Backstory: Ayo was chipped at birth to be one of the elite. She grew up with her nose in a book and never really grew into her social role. Instead of attending the lavished parties of the nobility, she could be found outside in her "lab" within a cave. In there were many specimins she had collected and disected. Ayo even had a small garden where she had made hybrid plants. Her journals were all about the plant life and soil on her planet. That got The Collective to notice her. The members had Ayo taken and sent into a special education school to hone her natural abiltiies. When she was of age she was sent into the Ambassador program and placed upon a ship to continue her research. Ayo was just happy to have a chance to explore new worlds. The Collective on the other hand are using Ayo as a pawn to gather information so they can expand their crop business and try and colonize more worlds.
Other: Ayo is secretly a part of the resistance to topple The Collective. she has her own agenda while out exploring the cosmos.
Spoiler: Experiment 019 - Undefined - Highland SniperName: Experiment 019 (A.K.A [what everyone calls me here])
Age: 17
Species: Genetically tampered Qua'doti/Torodois hybrid.
Description: looking rather feminine at 5' 7" and rather slim with the pale skin of the Torodois and the ears and tail of the Qua'doti. her hair/fur is a snowy white, but her tail feels like it's full of quills rather than fur. Her hair reaches down to the bottom of her shoulder blades. Her soft face holds amber eyes with red eyeris and black pupils. Old scars along her back, belly, and arms from tubes and scalpels are normally hidden by clothes.
Occupation: runner/criminal?
Skills: Combat, stealth, theivery, athletics, acrobatics, antiquated tech.
Abilities: Venom that quickly paralyzes a bitten victim. Claws. Night vision. Quilled tail. Weak telepathic ability (can send words and images with their mind), but is mute. Air sacks that allow her to hold her breath for longer periods of time. Hermaphrodite sex organs (can reproduce with any gender). Greater sense of hearing and smell. Resistant to common toxins. Resistant to some forms of radiation. Increased endurance. The Torodois regeneration.
Inventory: Jumpsuit under civilian clothes local to her home galaxy. A knife. Lockpicks. (The rest pending)
Personality: Normally shy and timid, she tends to keep a low profile. She can get nasty when in danger but seems to go out of her way to avoid a fight as she doesn't enjoy killing. Doesn't like being touched by many people, or being crowded. A little claustrophobic at times. Will do almost anything for freedom. Normally in aw of new tech.
Backstory:
In a lab after the Torodois-Qua'doti war, people gathered to create the perfect being. This group was part of a larger minority that was perfectly at home with the two races interbreeding and were ridiculed for it.
Though not outlawed, there would be an uproar of outrage if they were discovered, so they had to work in secret.
For generations, they collected DNA samples, genomes, and more. Several experiments were done with these samples in order to grow the perfect being. Some grew, but most failed. Then came Experiment 017, the first, real success. They had to continue, and experiments 018 and 019 were born.
Experiment 019 was a mixture of the majority of the Qua'doti subtypes and the Torodois. From fertilization, her genes were manipulated to ensure that certain grow to have specific traits.
She was never truly alone when she was born, as she was poked a prodded every other day and was kept in a small room for the majority of her life. They cut her open to see what was there and where it all was, and some more to see how things grew and shifted. They hooked her up to machines to run tests and did more experiments.
For her, every day was more stress, more anxiety, more poking and prodding, and tests.
She was starting to go crazy by the time she was 16 and had had enough. In a small bit of mania, she broke out on the next check-up and rushed to get out of the facility in which she was kept. She was forced to kill several people on her way out. And she wept when she was finally free, for both joy of light, fresh air, and freed and the sorrow of the bleed she had spilt.
She tried to live normally, but she stuck out like a sore thumb, not knowing much about anything and not looking quite the same as everyone else. But she learned and hid.
Then came the day when she could make it off of the planet on which she was born. Every day was better than being in the small rooms and the laboratories, only because she was free. But she was still being pursued, and it was almost a struggle to live.
She managed to smuggle herself aboard an expedition ship before take off. Oh, how she hated the vents and tubes that she had to stay in while the crew was awake. And she had to steal from the ship's food stores to live.
Then something happened. The small bit of gravity provided by the ship's generators went off and everything began to float, then the light went out. The ship squealed and groaned under some unseen force.
The crew started to rush to one side of the ship and she thought it was a good idea to do the same. But everything was sealed off before she could get to the section everyone else was in.
She quickly went back the other way, no longer worrying about being seen by the crew, to a place she could seal herself in as the hull squealed loudly around her.
She just managed to seal a hatch to a room before the ship finally tore in half, sucking the atmosphere into the vast. It wasn't long till the air started to grow thin, and the room she was stuck in grew colder. Thankfully there were emergency oxygen masks and tanks in each room. So she sucked in air and held her breath till she reached her limit and repeated for who knows how long. Soon she seemed to fall asleep and she had no idea how much time had passed before she was found in unknown space.
She would soon wake to meet her rescuers.
Other: From a portion of unexplored space. Her local tech is antiquated in comperison to every else's.
Spoiler: Skylar Hart - Undefined - CfvanoName: Skylar Hart
Age: 24
Species: Human
Description: Skylar is a young man of effeminate build, but clearly is masculine in his mannerisms and the shape of his shoulders. He has sky-blue eyes that seem to shimmer and peer deep into your soul and cause young women (and men) to swoon. He dresses in bright pastels and has a small top hat on his head with a big ribbon. He has a slender waist with long, shapely legs and someone would say dainty, womanish feet. All in all, he is a very attractive boy.
Occupation: Pop Idol
Skills: Singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, acrobatics, and he is trained in pistol marksmanship and hand to hand combat (for self defense)
Abilities:
Fast Talk - Skylar is keenly adept at using his words to convince people to trust him when he is otherwise attemting to lie, cheat, or otherwise bend the truth
Dazzle - He can also, with effort, confuse and disarm someone with his sheer force of personality, winning smile, and fast talking, making it seem that he is harmless.
Coordinate - being a pop idol, he is adept at getting people to work together better (as stage choreography during a live show can be complex) this skill can be applied to any situation where teamwork is a factor.
Unlimited access - Due to his celebrity status, Skylar can, with some fast-talking, convince others to give him upgrades to certain things such as upgrading a seat at a sports game to a field pass, or an invitation to a private party.
Winning smile - such is his force of personality that, so long as someone is not being actively threatened by him or his allies, he can convince them that they are trusted friends and, while he cannot make them do something that under no circumstances do (such as killing themselves), as long as it is reasonable that they could or would do it, they would do it for him.
Spoiler: Psychic PowersLevel 0 powers
Daze - This power clouds the mind of a person-size or smaller target so that he or she takes no actions. duration - one minute, range 25 feet
Distract - The manifester causes the target's mind to wander, distracting him or her. duration - up to 10 minutes with concentration, range 25 feet
Missive - The manifester sends a telepathic message of up to ten words to any living creature within range. This is strictly a one-way exchange from the manifester to the target. The manifester and the target must share a common language for the communication to be meaningful. duration - instant range 25 feet
Level 1 powers
Attraction - The manifester plants a compelling attraction in the mind of the target. The attraction can be toward a particular person, an object, an action, or an event. The power's target takes reasonable steps to meet, get close to, attend, find, or perform the object of its implanted attraction. For the purposes of this power, reasonable means that while fascinated, the target doesn't suffer from blind obsession. The target will not undertake obviously self-destructive actions. The subject can still recognize danger, but will not flee unless the threat is immediate. If the manifester makes the target feel an attraction to the manifester, the manifester can't command the subject indiscriminately, although he or she will be willing to listen to the manifester (even if the subject disagrees).
duration - 1 hour. range 25 feet
Charm person - This power makes a person sized or smaller person regard the manifester as his or her trusted friend and ally. duration 1 hour. range 25 feet
Lesser Mindlink - The manifester forges a telepathic bond with another person or creature. The bond can be established only with a willing subject, who therefore receives no saving throw and gains no benefit from power resistance. The manifester can communicate telepathically through the bond even if he or she does not share a common language with the subject. No special power or influence is established as a result of the bond. Once the bond is formed, it works over any distance. duration - 10 minutes range - initial casting the other person must be within 30 feet
Level 2 powers
Level 3 powers
Level 4 powers
Level 5 powers
Inventory:
Negative gravity belt - the jacket he wears contains a small negative gravity generator, which allows him, to some extent, ignore the pull of gravity when active. While this does not make him fly, he can perform acrobatic feats that no normal human could ever dream of.
Spring loaded plasma pistol - this is a miniature energy pistol hidden in his sleeve that he uses as a last resort. It does not have that far of a range (about 25 feet before accuracy penalties come in to play), but in a last ditch effort it makes a good holdout weapon. It uses standard energy cells. the weapon itself is just small because unimportant parts were stripped away and important parts were custom made to be smaller.
holo-instrument generator - a small device clamped to his belt that generates, on command, a working holographic projection of any instrument in its database, and also allows for distortion and other effects.
Microvox amplifier - an implant that can magnify his voice as if it was from a speaker attached to a microphone, for those situations where he needs to be heard and no microphone is available
Personality: Skylar is a flirty and bubbly person. He's always ready for a smile and a wink (especially to a pretty man or woman, he doesn't discriminate), he is nonetheless a consummate artist and performer, and takes his career seriously. He does not touch a drop of alcohol or drugs, and other than the odd sweets and soda binge, lives a pretty healthy lifestyle with daily exercise and careful maintenance of his appearance. To maintain his youthful appearance, he, years ago, had laser hair removal surgery of his facial and pubic hair, and frequently has spa days so that no blemish appears on his angelic skin
Backstory: Skylar was born to well-to-do parents on old earth. From a young age, his parents groomed him to be a classic musician like his older sister. ANd while he was very good, having performed in concert halls by the age of 10, it grated on him how overbearing and dull his life was. And then he discovered an old album from an artist known as 'Prince', and that changed his life forever. By the age of 14, he saved up enough money and convinced a lawyer to emancipate him from his parents, and he took his life into his own hands.
After much cosmetic surgery and a legal name change, as well as years of new practice, he emerged to the world as Skylar Heart, and dazzled the pop community with his angelic voice and countenance. People flocked to his concerts to hear this new Idol for them to worship, his first album going platinum within the first year.
For a few years he was constantly touring and recording, until now, he is adventuring across the galaxy, vlogging and livestreaming what he finds. What the future holds for him? None can say.
Other:
His first hit single, cover of an old song, which is what much of his music is Crocodile Rock by Elton John
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