Infernal Aliens
Species with inherent infernal, imperial, or industrial powers from other worlds that do not fit into other categories.
Delothian
Pink-skinned aliens attuned to confusion and chaos.
- Lifespan : 1,000 years
- Diet: Omnivore
- Habitat: Red desert
- Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers
Delothians are pink-skinned aliens from the planet Avagen (a few planets over from Shem). They stand about 7' tall, have long fingers, and domed heads. Their eyes are disproportionately small for their heads.
Delothians have the ability to fashion pink crystals from the red sands of Avagen (made of iron oxide); on Shem, they must find it elsewhere, though it is not uncommon. It can even be extracted from the blood of many species.
These crystals can control light to form illusions that baffle and confuse those who see them. This is used by the delothians to create mazes and strange landscapes to live in, but on Shem, they use them mostly within their homes for decoration.
Their home culture is extremely alien to people on Shem; they replicate it on Shem by keeping their buzzing "music", their illusory foods, and their xenophobic refusal to talk to non-delothians without being paid first. In the colonies, they are privileged elites, but they are still viewed as oddities.
Players who choose to be a delothian must be one who has lost their ruling class status and become a criminal.
PRO 8 ATH 8 STR 7 AWA 11 WIL 11 PRS 9 STH 8
Lutipariant
Alien puffballs who create pollution.
- Lifespan: 40 years
- Diet: Nature
- Habitat: Industrial areas
- Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class
They appear to be a puffball mushroom, though they are not at all related to fungi of any kind. Their coloration matches the environment they are in as a form of camouflage.
If their puffball is popped, toxic spores will be released that poison everything they touch, living or not.
Their poisonous spores befouls anything it touches. If what it touches is organic - alive or not - that material can potential develop into a new lutipariant. If it is not organic, it is still befouled, and the energy of industrial magic will infuse it. The consequences of this varies by material - hard steel, concrete, treated wood, or other produced materials will simply be toxic to the touch for others; natural materials like raw iron ore, unquarried stone, or living trees will be poisoned, weakened, and reduced to sludge.
Lutipariants dwell within industrial zones where they amplify the effects of the pollution there. As they wandered the universe, lutipariants sought worlds with enough polluted ground, air, and water for them to survive, but not enough that they would have nothing new to corrupt and eat.
Lutipariants generate new lutipariants, which they then use in order to generate more foulness, allowing themselves to eat. A new lutipariant has instant consciousness and awareness, but is weaker than an older lutipariant. The younger lutipariant either withers and dies as it is used to create food for its parent or it manages to steal enough of that food for itself and survives to break free and become an independent lutipariant.
In Lyfane on Shem, they have a symbiotic relationship with the ruling classes there, helping them generate industrial magic and sludge that is used to increase the output of their massive factories, create weaponry, and protect the properties of the tycoons. Their entire role is simply to feed off the destruction of Mother Shem and escalate it. Those who are on the moons have been brought there from Shem.
Though they thrive off corrupting and befouling nature, they are perfectly capable of surviving without it, living off detritus like an actual fungus, but they gain more power from industrialized wastes and fouling. They engage in this practice for power, not sustenance.
PRO 6 ATH 9 STR 11 AWA 11 WIL 11 PRS 1 STH 14
Talithan
The people of the second empire.
- Lifespan: 150 years
- Diet: Omnivorous
- Habitat: Arid worlds
- Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class
Talithans appear to be human, but their skin is shimmering gold. They have a penchant for mechanical augmentations of their bodies.
A talithan has the ability to see and control the dreams of others, which they use to control the oppressed peoples of their worlds. They are especially skilled at sending nightmares. Powerful talithans can turn nightmare images into reality.
Talithans live on arid worlds, mostly deserts, mountains, dry savannas, and xeric shrublands. They have a powerful empire, which they refer to as "the second empire" (the first being the one on their original homeworld) that spans many planets across many systems. Their culture is one of complex political games, cruel enslavement, and a deep belief system in dreams, fate, and predestination. There are many who are also among the oppressed classes, however, who remember when they were simply followers of dreams who wanted nothing more than to see wonders.
Those who visit Shem usually claim to be there diplomatically or as visitors, tourists, or traders, but many assume them to be scouting for their eventual attempted conquest.
PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 7 AWA 10 WIL 12 PRS 9 STH 8
Validus
Four-armed conqueror aliens.
- Lifespan: 200 years
- Diet: Assimilated
- Habitat: Anywhere
- Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers
Validuses stand about 8' tall on average. They have four eyes set in their heads - the lower pair is glittering black and sees different energies, the upper pair are always blood red and see mundane light. Their skin ranges from dark blue to blue so light it is almost white. Their hair is always straight; "men" in their cultures tend to wear it shoulder length and "women" in their cultures wear it cropped short. Hair color ranges from red so dark it is almost black to orangish gold. They have four arms, which makes many think they are a kind of brannish, though the two species are completely unrelated. Atop their foreheads they have three antennae that have special senses. Their faces have finned flaps on the side, and their legs have silvery spines along the sides. Their backs are ridged and encrusted with bony plates.
On Shem, Amolian validuses often have bull horns, and these are the most common in the region.
All validuses are born with the ability to breathe any gas or liquid, as they have lungs and gills and an immunity to most mundane poisons and acids.
Validuses are beings of conquest. They take on powers and abilities that they steal from the subjugated locals. It does not matter if the individual validus took part in the conquest; if they live there, they benefit. Their powers will be based on the indigenous nations in the area, so it is as much cultural as biological. That is, if a nation of animal folk lived there when the land was conquered, the validuses will gain some animal-based powers, but if that nation culturally practiced arts that used, for example, d'qiarsea, the validuses living there would also gain powers derived from that energy.
Most validuses on Shem live in Furich Amol, the original land of minotaurs, so they have excellent combat abilities, great strength, and sometimes horns. The minotaurs fled south to Wymmera and live in diaspora, but some few remain as a slave race in Furich Amol. A validus who lives in a place that is not conquered by them will revert to their base form and powers, but if they are a citizen of a conquered land living in an unconquered place (or actively conquering a place), they will retain the powers of their homeland unless they separate from their homeland.
Validuses do not have to conquer lands. They do not have any need to gain these powers. In fact, they thrive without doing so, and oftentimes, they find their assimilated powers cause them odd problems - Amolian validuses, for example, get sick because they do not assimilate the minotaur's digestive system, but still find themselves drawn to a minotaur-esque diet of grain-fed meats.
The more power an individual validus has within their own society, the greater their conquered powers will be. Therefore, the Emperor of Furich Amol, Naman Rath, is almost invincible and a warrior of unbelievable skill with massive horns, while a validus enslaved in Furich Amol gains almost nothing.
If a validus is not of or from a culture of conquest, their base form and powers shift such that they can associate with any culture. They can take on cultural and biological powers just by living amongst others as themselves. This is extremely rare and can be broken if they are taken in by other validuses, who will cause them to revert to the culture of that group of validuses almost immediately, whether they like it or not. This is why validuses who escape their base culture are often captured and made slaves, in order to keep this secret.
Validuses have four extrasensory organs: their second pair of eyes and their three antennae. Their second pair of eyes sees esoteric light, depending on where and what they have conquered. Amolian validuses sense aetherial light because they dwell on the surface of Shem where those energies are most prominent, and they sense infernal and celestial light because those energies were once used by beings that dwelled in Furich Amol before they arrived.
Their antennae never change: the right one senses all forms of psionic energy. Their middle one senses mundane electromagnetic radiation and radio waves. Their left one senses danger.
Furich Amol is a major trading partner with the colonies. They are deeply aligned, especially in regards to the slave trade, so validuses are considered a major ruling class species. They are also viewed with fear by most oppressed species because of their history of conquest and their magical powers.
Their culture is one of dominance, conquest, and warfare, and thus, they are brought up to be warriors, bullies, and leaders. They are raised to believe in their own supremacy, in a patriarchal system of power, and in the rightness of enslaving others. They genuinely believe their species should rule the entire world.
PRO 11 ATH 10 STR 11 AWA 9 WIL 10 PRS 7 STH 7