Aliens
Beings from other worlds.
Brannish
Four-armed beings from a lost world.
- Alignment : Unaligned
- Lifespan: 150 years
- Diet: Common mortal fare
- Habitat: Temperate mountain valleys
- Socioeconomic Status: Privileged opppressed
Brannish folk stand about 7' tall on average, though they can be as tall as 9' without suffering consequences to their health. They have four arms. Otherwise, they appear to be human and have the same range of appearance as humans.
Brannish folk have supernatural toughness and higher perception than average. Brannish folk learn skills slightly faster than average, and their skills deteriorate much, much slower, to the point that it is a stereotype that brannishes never forget. For every new skill a brannish learns, they can transfer some of it to another brannish via touch, enough to cover basics and get someone started. This is how they teach children and each other. However, as they transfer, they lose some of their own knowledge. As such, they do this cautiously.
The Brannish are privileged but still oppressed in the colonies. They are seen as inferior versions of the validuses, but they are in fact unrelated. Regardless, they are still valued as workers and slaves due to their magical ability to learn new skills. The culture of their homeland - the lost worlds of Bran or their homeland on Shem - is focused on learning and honing new skills, celebrating learning, and on their schools. In the colonies, they assimilate into the local culture, but they often retain their reverence for certain kinds of learned skills, such as warcraft, juggling, history, engineering, drawing, oratory, organization, sciences, and esoteric skills.
PRO 11 ATH 11 STR 14 AWA 11 WIL 9 PRS 8 STH 9
Delothian
Pink-skinned aliens attuned to confusion and chaos.
- Alignment : Infernal
- 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
Unist
Tentacled, isolated aliens.
- Alignment: Infernal
- Lifespan: 1,000 years
- Diet: Energies
- Habitat: Deep space
- Socioeconomic Status: Ruling class colonizers or Oppressed
A unist appears to be a green-skinned, 5' tall, hairless being with mottled, bumpy skin and tentacles. They have 17 eyes in a random configuration on their bulbous heads. They have between one and 17 tentacles, and their lower bodies end in a stump. They move using their tentacles if they are not in deep space.
Unists are aliens from isolated parts of deep space. They have little to no understanding of community, friendship, or social interactions. While there are many who do take to social interactions and community when they experience it, some resent it and seek to gain power from inflicting isolation, loneliness, and despair on others.
Unists are immune to radiation (which they absorb as food) and cold and do not feel air pressure changes. They have the power to sense emotions, though they cannot sense what the emotions are. Instead, they sense that they exist and in what quantity, over great distances. If they are in the presence of another individual, they have the power to steal their sense of social connection via their tentacles. If they do this, they convert that to energy within themselves and gain new magical powers the more they do this, based on the people they have isolated.
As solitary beings, they have no culture or understanding of history or context. Each believes they are the only one of their kind, and when they meet another, they kill them. The remains of those they kill spawn new unists after a few hundred years of floating in space. Those who come to Shem either assimilate into the oppressed and become communal beings, giving up their tentacle powers, or they join the ruling class and seek to inflict isolation on the masses to help strengthen colonial or capitalist control.
PRO 9 ATH 9 STR 8 AWA 8 WIL 8 PRS 3 STH 7
Validus
Four-armed conqueror aliens.
- Alignment : Infernal
- 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 Endruin.
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.
Players who choose to be a validus must be one who has lost their ruling class status and become a criminal.
PRO 11 ATH 10 STR 11 AWA 9 WIL 10 PRS 7 STH 7
Wathite
Hominid aliens empowered by feats of strength.
Wathites have the same range of appearance as human beings, but they are about 8' tall on average, and many have supernatural physcial forms based on the feats they have done.
Wathites have a commanding, intimidating presence. They have supernatural strength, speed, and prowess.
If a wathite attempts and succeeds at something that is at the highest level of difficulty for them (a feat--a 1 or 2 vs. a 10 or 11, for instance), they gain power and strength from it. A truly profound feat can alter their bodies as well as their powers. Often these are cumulative feats or results of cunning as well as strength. Most wathites achieve about five greater feats in their lives that give them a whole new power and/or alter their bodies, and dozens of lesser feats, which merely make them stronger, faster, more aware, etc.
A wathite can sense when someone they view as an enemy is near to them, even if they can't see them.
Failure at something that should be simple for them can reduce the power of a wathite.
Wathites are originally from a world called Wath, which was destroyed eons ago. They came to Shem and settled into a small country in the east.
Wathites have a complex view of strength and honor. Instead of a simple test of muscle or mind, they take a more holistic approach. A person who has no legs is not considered weak if they have other kinds of strength or skill. A person with developmental disabilities can still have great strength. What others might consider disabilities, wathites just consider different. They do not seek to accommodate those with different kinds of bodies or minds, but they do find ways to support them in adapting. Those who cannot adapt in any way to some important part of wathite life are instead asked to bring something new to the culture. For instance, a legend tells of a wathite known as Glass-cutter who had terrible eyesight and invented spectacles to improve their vision, or of a wathite named Longstep who was missing her left foot. She introduced into the culture a new way of movement that allowed her to compete with others and best them in her own way. This became a popular sport called longstep.
Wathites have a very different concept of honor, which is very important to them culturally. Honor is a major part of combat. Those who are stronger are considered honorable if they rely on their strength to win. Those who are clever are considered honorable even if they use trickery. Those who bully the weak are considered dishonorable, but those who command the weak are considered honorable. The differences can be nuanced and subjective, depending on the community. It is dishonorable to let someone suffer, starve, or go without if you have enough to share while still being able to care for those for whom you are responsible, but it is also dishonorable to insult someone by offering them food, drink, or shelter if they have no need of it. Knowing the right time to offer is a critical part of honor.
A wathite will take their last name from their greatest feat. Before they achieve a feat, they have no last name. As they grow, they gain new names as their feats grow. Some achieve a feat so great it is unlikely to ever be topped, or perhaps they simply find a name they like, and they stick to it. A name-giving feat will be one that alters the wathite physically, so all can see proof of it.
Wathites eat large amounts of normal mortal fare, but they tend to favor the meat of large and dangerous beasts (aurochses, bears, etc.), intense spices (very hot peppers or strong-flavored things like ginger), and potent alcohol (wathite ale is much higher proof than normal ale). To be able to handle one's drink is considered very important. Those who choose not to drink are also considered strong. Those who become addicted are considered sick. But those who drink to excess and misbehave are considered dishonorable, and if they blame the drink and do not take accountability, they are punished by law.
Sports are extremely popular among wathites, especially track and field. Athletic competitions are part of their upbringing, but also a chance to court and socialize.
In the colonies, Wathites can be of any social class or role except native.
GrandGuignol
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