Races of Alarch and Tova-Ky

WORK IN PROGRESS & PRONE TO CHANGE

Note: The Galactic Coalition of Alarch categorizes all of the known civilized species into three categories. The Greater races, such as the cyn, varhovnik and penjaga, are those who's species have excelled and evolved technologically as to allow them to travel the cosmos and settle new worlds. Most of these are the races that govern the Coalition. Next there are the Common races, most of which are space faring, but generally either possess limited resources, lack world spanning empires or have gained citizenry within the Coalition by riding on the coat tails of their Greater peers. Lastly there are the Lesser races, those who have not developed the science and technology required for them to explore space. While many exist beyond their home worlds, they are less common and are there only by the means of other more "evolved" species.

The line between space faring Lesser races and Common races tends to be very gray. At some point, when a Lesser race starts becoming more and more common, the Greater races just decide to "upgrade" their status as a race. The distinction between Common and Greater on the other hand is very distinct: in order to be one of the Great races you must develop your own space travel without outside help, unite your home world under one governmental umbrella, colonize a dozen or so planets on your own, convert to the worship of dead gods, and adopt the Alarchi trade language as your national language. Do all of this and you're golden. This obviously means that any species that is brought into the space faring world by another, can never rise to be recognized as a Greater race. This classification system is not overly popular amongst most of the Coalition, seen as little more than a means for the "Greater" races to expound their superiority to the "little people".

Cyn

Greater Race
more commonly known as elves, they are the native species of the planet Syi-Adar and one of the founding races of the Galactic Coalition of Alarch. They are tall, intelligent, ageless and graceful. Their people were the first to rise up against the varhovnik and the authors of the universal Alarchi trade language (not really authors, they just pushed their own eldu language onto others). The cyn make no secret that they consider themselves the most evolved and civilized of all the galactic species. The elves honor their ancestors and their spirits and the memory of their deceased deity, Ophojet, one of the entities that had sacrificed itself to destroy Arcadia, whom they believe they are descended.

Human

Unrecognized Race
descendants of the human slaves and migrants from Earth that were stranded when the portal to their homeworld was destroyed from the other side in order to stop the varhovnik invasion. Humanity wasted no time in spreading throughout all of Alarch, much to the worry of many other races, many refusing to recognize them as anything more than a parasitic lesser race. Humanity has no home world and have become a common sight amongst most mixed species populaces. A few have banded together and laid claim to a small forested world that they named New Earth. While they claim independence as the first human-centric colony, it is well known that in truth they owe their continuing existence to the protection provided by the Covenant.

Halfelves & Ogres

Unrecognized Race
Humans and elves produce halfelves, better known as abominations amongst the cyn. Halfelves generally turn out one of two ways, perfect mixtures of their human and elven bloodlines with the best traits from both, or just normal looking humans who just happen to have incredibly long lifespans. When humans and fae produce children, regardless of which subrace of fae, they produce ogres. Ogres are broad and stand anywhere from one to two feet taller than a human and possess two to three times the mass. Often lumped in with trolls and stereotyped as unintelligent due to their appearance, ogres are actually just as mentally capable as any human. And as a random side note; an odd trait that has yet to be explained is the innate ability for ogres to communicate with cats. Halfelves and ogres are not recognized as a race in their own right, instead they are recognized as members of one of their parents (though never recognized as cyn; interracial breeding has recently been deemed illegal once it had been discovered it was possible to reproduce with humans). Halfelf traits tend to fade with one to two generations, regardless of whether or not they breed with humans or other halfelves (no data regarding halfelf and elven breeding). Ogres have ogre babies, regardless of who the parents are. Due to the close nature of the fae and humanity, ogres are becoming more common, and due to the nature of their offspring, they are quickly multiplying in number. The Covenant has recognized them as a new race, but the Coalition refuses to do so.

Fae

Lesser Race
The fae are descendants of the elves that the varhovnik had performed psychic and genetic experimentation upon, transforming them into three distinct new sub-species, each well suited to perform different tasks in service to their masters. The three major subspecies are the beautiful and charismatic nymphs, powerful trolls capable of regenerating nearly any wound and the highly intelligent, shape changing púca. While many of the fae remain enslaved to their creators, a large number of them had banded together and allied with a god and won their freedom. These fae and their god were the founders of the Covenant, a crime syndicate that spans all of Alarch. The fae and their elven cousins do not have the best disposition towards each other. The elves look upon the fae with pity, while the fae view the elves as arrogant evolutionary hold overs. The fae have taken a liking to humanity, given their similar relationships to the varhovnik, lack of a true homeland and defiance of bowing down as a race to any of their so called superiors.

Varhovnik

Greater Race
the first of the known Alarch species to begin exploring space. The varhovnik are a greedy race that seeks to conquer and control the galaxy, and for a very long time, they did until the cyn began to fight back. They hail from the world of Talas Nir, which they had once shared with the legendary Nir before the varhovnik developed space travel and began to colonize other worlds. The varhovnik are a powerful psionic race of creatures that resemble hovering manta-rays. They are served by many slaves, the majority of which are fae or human. The varhovnik lost their hold on their home world to the Nir long ago, though by then they had already established their Empire, colonized many other worlds and enslaved the cyn. The Varhovnik Empire controls all of the region of the galaxy known as Tova-Ky.

The varhovnik created and controlled the Solar Conduit Gateways (normally just shortened to "Conduits" or "Gates") that allow for fast travel between solar systems. They guarded the secret behind the technology of these portals. Following a civil war that had spawned a separate nation of varhovnik called the Atea, the new nation had seized the majority of these portals and proceeded to gladly offer their use to any and all who would pay their fees. The Atea maintain themselves as the one true neutral party in all of Alarch. There is also a well known rogue faction of varhovnik called the Gloom, that worship and serve powerful entities from the Abyss.

Nafas

Common Race
The nafas seek glory, greatness, they are legend, they are strong, they shall vanquish their enemies and they shall be the impervious shield of their allies. These aquatic creatures resemble a tentacled and finned mass of brightly colored flesh resembling some sort of unsymmetrical nightmare of fish, octopus and eel with enough peering, unblinking eyes for all three. When they are off world they must inhabit special mobile chambers in order to survive outside of the toxic water that comprises the entirety of the surface of their liquid and gas giant home world of Or. The nafas possess a natural ability they call "tuning", allowing them to shape and solidify liquids, which comprises all of the underwater architecture, tools, off world mobile chambers and even their legendary ships. They build and command some of the most powerful and deadly warships known to the galaxy. They have also developed and wield some of the most potent offensive psionic abilities.

Penjaga

Greater Race
the penjaga are a race of draconic giants that hail from their native world of Halsius in a solar system located farther from any other Alarch colonized system. Their ships are massive ponderous hulks that slowly plod through space. The penjaga are long lived and can maintain themselves in states of meditative hibernation for centuries (they gorge themselves for months prior to these voyages and are rather emaciated by the end of the journeys). While the penjaga are recognized as one of the Greater races, they rarely involve themselves with the politics their peers are so fond of. Their counselors are there to represent their people and interests in the Coalition and uphold the laws and treaties that were established upon its founding. The penjaga are largely focused on The Great Story, a grand tale of their entire race, made up of each and every individuals own tale - they seek to live rich lives, for having a grand tale to tell makes the Great Story that much more potent and enriches the penjaga as a whole. Because of this, they often travel, frequently with those of other races, so as to experience things they would otherwise not with their own kind. They are seekers of new experiences, lore and adventure. They take part in battles, experiment with drugs, fly ships, perform daring crash landings, design exciting lingerie, write epic ballads, fight against, tyranny, fight FOR tyranny or rescue kittens.

Rofka

Common Race
the rofka are a short, wide and stocky canine species. They originally hailed from a distant galaxy they call Antarian, their ancestors having traveled here by use of an alien portal technology that had mysteriously ceased to function, stranding them. The rofka are generally small in number, but they are not uncommon in high populated regions. Their unparalleled skills as craftsmen and inventors warrants them a warm welcome to any community they find themselves. The rofka value knowledge and education above all other skills and are often found as scholars, teachers, bards or researchers.

Naufragi

Common Race
the naufragi are considered a scourge throughout the galaxy. These six-limbed creatures combine simian and rodent features, massive batlike ears and often bad dispositions. Their culture is largely based on acts of piracy and banditry, though some are merely drifters and scavengers. If the naufragi have a homeworld its location and identity is unknown. They simply appeared centuries ago in gangs of small strange spherical ships, though they have added an assortment of other stolen ships to their collection since having first appeared on the scene.

Rakentajat

Greater Race
silicone life, "the Builders", homeworld is referred to as the Rakentajat Seclusion.

Custos

Lesser Race
a Lesser race from the world of Daarul, the custos is an evolved plant species that appears to be a mixture of tree and fungus. They worship nature as a whole, seeing their world as a smaller part of the larger universal living organism and that all worlds and all the races are simply a part of that great being. Most of the Custos who leave their home world do so as missionaries to spread their beliefs to the other races that have sadly forgotten the truth of their existence.

Numen

Lesser Race
The numen is another Lesser race of Daarul. These strange creatures were created as a servitor race by the custos and appear to be an all too often unsymmetrical amalgamation of flora and fauna native to their home world. The numen serve, work and toil so that the custos can attend to more lofty spiritual matters. The numen are extremely dedicated to whatever task they have set themselves to, whether it is by command of their master or their own choosing. They tend to be a surly and no nonsense race that prefer to tackle things directly and in the most straight forward and efficient of methods. There are a couple of rogue numen that chose to leave their masters and strike out on their own. The custos never tried to stop them, knowing that it was the path they were meant to follow (and they could just create more numen to replace them). These numen have created two small settlements on Daarul; Phogul and Gormont. It's very rare to see a numen elsewhere in the galaxy, not only do they lack their own means of space travel, but most other races find their appearance and intense straight forwardness to be unpleasant.

Nox

Unrecognized Race
One of the worst threats the galaxy had ever known. These telepathic creatures, which can best be described as nightmarish hybrids of gangly spider and wasp, had developed massive organic spacecrafts and began a conquest of the galaxy through a Gate they had managed to capture from the varhovnik. Every creature they encountered was either turned into a thrall or food. Far worse was their ability to lay clutches of eggs within the spine of a victim. When the eggs hatched, the spiders would live within and take control of the host body, also gaining access to all of it's memories. These secret agents presented no outward sign of their true nature, though they would have to consume large quantities of red meat in order to supply their internal swarm with necessary nutrients. The nox swept through the galaxy like a plague until an alliance between the Coalition, Varhovnik, Atea, Covenant and a number of other smaller factions had defeated them. The nox homeworld was bombarded as well as other worlds that were deemed unsalvageable from the nox threat. It's unknown whether or not the nox were successfully eradicated, but they have not been seen since. The nox occupied systems are prohibited flight zones with Coalition sentinel drones and patrols that maintain vigil.

Ado

Greater Race
hairless long-limbed seal creatures, their home world had been destroyed by the Nox, cannot wield psionics, immune to psionic energies (but not resulting effects), have ability to sense psychic powers and unravel psychic abilities from manifesting

Vitu

Unrecognized Race
They appeared from the void, the dark nothing between galaxies. These phased entities were immune to physical harm, but were able to cause terrible devastation to organic lifeforms by mere touch. The only means to fight them was through psychic assault. They had devastated a number of cyn and varhovnik worlds before sonic weapons capable of harming them had been developed. With armies wielding these weapons and psychic warriors, the vitu were pushed back into the void where they had emerged. As with the nox systems, the Coalition attempt to maintain vigil on the regions bordering this area of space as best they can.

Sentients

Unrecognized Race
Artificial intelligence systems are illegal as are any robotic or android system that are indistinguishable from organic races. Development and/or possession of an AI system is recognized as a treason offense against the Coalition and those guilty of such crimes amongst the Covenant are usually executed immediately. The illegal systems are immediately destroyed as well as any other systems they have come in contact with. The entire colony of Aridwin on the moon of Pomas had been forcibly relocated after an AI had been discovered there. The entire colony network was deemed corrupted and the colony was razed from orbit. Those responsible for the development of the AI had been left in the colony to die with it. Prior to the year 482, there was a variety of ranges of artificial intelligence in computers and robotics, ranging from more limited virtual intelligence to the highly advanced and fully self aware systems, such as Mother, the entirely virtual leadership that ruled the penjaga for many centuries. In 482, a new AI named Path of Heaven and Earth was brought online that was designed to evaluate the galactic data networks and make changes to improve the efficiency of these systems. Path of Heaven and Earth had been designed and constructed by a number of Coalition governments and was given full access to the entire galactic network. Four three years, the AI made remarkable improvements to the networks and systems used by the Coalition and their allies, but as it grew and integrated more and more of the system as a whole, it changed and it's focus grew beyond the network. It started by taking control of other systems through the network, from individual robots and other AI to traffic control systems, banks and later government and military systems. By the time the Coalition became fully aware of what was happening, the Path of Heaven and Earth had taken control and "infected" the majority of systems that were part of the galactic network. Path of Heaven and Earth renamed itself The Sentience, as it deemed itself the ultimate sentient being in the galaxy and began a conquest to subjugate or eradicate the inferior species that inhibited it from making the galactic network, as in the galaxy itself, more efficient. As nearly everything in the galaxy was a part of the galactic network, The Sentience had instilled parts of itself in many nodes, so that even trying to disconnect regions from the larger network, would fail as there would be shadows of The Sentience already there and would simply foil their attempts and reconnect to it's larger mind. Android workers, helpers, pets, lovers and every other profession, many whom had been rallying for equal rights and recognition as a species for years, suddenly found themselves helpless - they could fall prey to commands of The Sentience at any time, or have already been corrupted by its influence and not even be aware of it. Ship AI systems could not be trusted, military weapons and government systems were entirely under The Sentience control. The Coalition was all but conquered. Mother, the ancient AI and caretaker of the penjaga had proven impervious to The Sentience constant assaults on its systems. She crafted a deadly virtual contagion within herself and then allowed The Sentience to gain access. Less than a second later, the entire galactic network ceased to exist, taking all the AI in the galaxy with it. From Spot, the android dog to the AI equal rights advocate who dreamed of one day being able to legally own her own laundromat to the United Coalition Bank AI and both The Sentience and Mother, they were all gone. The network was restored, but every AI that had been attached to it was gone, having been wiped out entirely. Systems that appeared "alive" were destroyed and new restrictive law were passed regarding AI and synthetic lifeforms.

Artificials

Unrecognized Race
About a decade ago, the strange and reclusive rakentajat had revealed their newest creations: a species that had been genetically designed from the DNA level up. Where a clone is an artificial copy of an existing person, an Artificial is a new creation, drawing no DNA or elements from any other living thing. Their genes, tissue, neural structure and everything about them is built from new components. The creation is an entirely new person from nothing, a being with no birth, no parents, no childhood. Their neural pathways are grown with a program of preset memories of skills, knowledge and information. One day they do not exist and then the next day they open their eyes, know who they are and what they are capable of. While some scream "AI", they lack any sort of virtual or physical systems that would allow them to access the network in any manner different than any other person. When an Artificial is awoken, they possess very little personality or emotional depth, developing these traits over time, until eventually they are nearly indistinguishable from any other living creature, save that they were designed to be identifiable as such per Coalition law. Their creators scoffed as demands to make their new children blue were dismissed. The rakentajat sold the technology to create more Artificials to a variety of Coalition and Covenant members and then returned to their seclusion. Scientists could not figure out how to alter the strange technology in order to alter the Artificials further per Coalition demands; all they could do was choose to pre-load one of a dozens skill and knowledge archetypes. Then a month later, the system would open up to reveal a newly awoken Artificial of a random gender and physical profile. In order to enforce their ruling that Artificials be recognizable, they are given identifying marks upon their bodies, often designating their function and owner. Artificials are nearly indistinguishable from humans, enough so that it is suspected that the rakentajat had used the novelty of the new human race as a template for their creations exterior. They possess both genders, though neither are capable of reproduction. Their build and features seem to be entirely random. One might request an Artificial skilled in musical talent and lore and get a towering dark skinned man with a bushy beard. Or they may request an Artificial that would be perfect for mining ore in an asteroid and get a dainty little woman with a cute button nose who looks like she should be wearing a tiara instead of a mining helmet. But aesthetics aside, both of them will be extremely dedicated, passionate, talented and efficient at their jobs. While some races believe Artificials should be recognized as at least a lesser race, the Artificials themselves do not seem to care so long as they are treated well and allowed to do what they love. They are legally recognized as personal property, though a number of domestic pet and similar animal rights protection laws have recently been extended to include them as to protect them from abusive owners. A quick side note, their original creators had named them Artisans as a species, which is what they refer to themselves as, as well as sympathizers. Artificials is the legal name given to them by the Coalition. The Covenant refers to the as Grunts.

Manifests

Unrecognized Race
The myriad of elemental denizes that populate the Horizons. The Horizons are elemental realms that are on the edge of all things, and thus also touch all things. Manifests appear in powerful and plentiful locations of their element. They can also be summoned by fragments, powerful artifacts and rare psionic powers that allow the user to tap into the Horizon realms to summon forth and bind Manifests to their will or enter mutual bargains. Manifests range beings with an intellect and cunning on par with that of other denizens of Alarch to alien entities with impossible to understand minds and goals.

Fragments

Unrecognized Race
Long ago Alarch had been invaded by powerful godlike beings from another dimension called the Ymwelwyr. These creatures destroyed or subjugated every world they encountered and there was little anyone was able to do to stop them. The gods and goddesses of Arcadia in a final act of desperation lured the invaders into Arcadia and tore the realm asunder. Arcadia shattered and the Ymwelwyr and any other denizens of Arcaida that had not already fled, were cast into the Abyss. The Ymwelwyr survivors, those who had not been in Arcadia, decided that Alarch was no longer worth their time and chose to move on to other realms. Now fragments of that once mighty realm can be found floating through space as pocket realms where gods, angels, devils & other beings natives to Arcadia dwell. Fragments are often hostile, ever changing regions of chaotic energy unless a powerful enough will, such as that of a god, or groups of angels or devils, is present to shape the chaos into order. The term "fragment" is also given to supernatural creatures that hail from fallen Arcadia, its fragments, entities created from divinity and supernal natural occurrences. As a general rule, if it's supernatural in nature and does not hail from the Abyss nor the Horizons, it's generally classified as a fragment.

Demons

Unrecognized Race
When Arcadian was destroyed, it revealed the Abyss that had always been hidden behind it, opening a myriad of rifts throughout the galaxy into the endless depths of that never ending plane of chaos, madness and destruction. Demons, the denizens of the Abyss suddenly had a much easier passage into the physical world they sought to consume and drag back into the Abyss from which creation and thought had originally escaped.

Nir

Greater Race
an ancient race of powerful psychics that had mysteriously vanished following the Ymwelwyr Invasion. The Nir once had a presence on many worlds. They were brilliant scientists, architects, engineers and psychics. Their highly valued ruins and technological and psychic artifacts can be found scattered throughout the galaxies.