| Peoples of the Jewel Cluster
The primary and most commonly found race in the Jewel Cluster is Humanity, which for practical purposes is pretty much identical to plain-old Earth-humanity. This includes different skin colours, cultures and physicalities, with a great variety of peoples scattered throughout the Jewel Cluster. There are, however, a number of transhuman races in the Jewel Cluster which seem to be decended from humanity and are capable of intermixing with humanity. The most commonly encountered of these are the Lupinians, Felin, Lapin, Gotals, and Ursians. Lupinians Lupinians look like giant werewolves, and they come in two forms. The average Lupinian is about 2m tall, broad shouldered and covered with thick dark grey to white fur. They have a pronounced jaw (but their faces are still more human looking than animal) and large ears like those of a wolf. There is, however, a subset of the Lupinian species which is born to normal Lupinians called "Hunters", these hunters are about a half-meter taller than normal Lupinians, musclebound and with a full wolflike head. They are extremely strong, extremely fast and highly aggresive, even a human in a battlesuit will have trouble dealing with a Lupinian Hunter. Lupinian society is highly collectivist and actually very peaceful, they are logical and rationional beings who will try to reach peaceful solutions to any problems. They are very advanced both in arts and sciences, and like to play games a great deal, especially Chess and Go. The peacefulness of Lupinian society is at odds with the nature of the more throwback Hunters, and this has resulted in most of them leaving Lupinian society after they reach adulthood (or sometimes before). A great many of them find service in the Cluster armed forces, but some find private work or fall into less scrupulous trades. Felin Felin are a race of short humanoids with catlike traits such as ears at the tops of their heads, whiskers, split eyes, light fur, and retractable claws. They are much more human than cat, and most could easily pass for human with a little disguise effort, and barring close inspection. They are more agile than humans, and have a much better sense of smell, with a tendancy towards hyperactivity. The Felin are a desert race, coming from a planet with only equatorial temperate zones, and on their world they are mostly traders or businesspeople. They lived in extended clans which travel about their world doing business, and this is a practice they have continued to engage in as they joined the starfaring age. It's not uncommon to meet bands of Felin travelling anywhere in the Cluster, always with a dozen things they are ready to sell an unwary customer. Lapin Lapin look more like the anime idea of Elves, with very long flat faces ending in pointed chins, small noses, big eyes and extremely long pointed ears. They are slenderly built, but tall, and from a human perspective are actually quite beautiful on average. They are very fast and dexterous, but not very smart (highly emotional and impulsive), and lack endurance. However they are gregarious and highly charming, in their own way. Human have a habit of calling them “rabbits”, because of their ears and personalities. Lapin society is based around their religion, Armarism, which believes that in order to achieve happiness in the afterlife living beings must try to acrue "Amar's Favors" by helping others. Each time you help someone, you get a favor, and the more good deeds you do the better your place in the afterlife will be. This is generally a very good philosophy and has led to a extremely peaceful and co-operative society for the Lapin, however other races tend to find them a little hard to deal with sometimes. They consider converting others doing them a favor, so they are extremely evangelical, and will often get in the ways of others trying to help them. Gotals Gotals look very much like dusky skinned humans, with slightly elongated triangular faces, large flat noses and small sharp dark eyes, their other distinguishing feature is two small sharp horns which jut out from the temples on either side of their heads. They are about the same size and build as most humans, and could easily pass for ones without the horns. Gotals are known for their telepathic abilities, with almost half of their race possessing some level of psychic sensitivity and a small percentage of those having full-on telepathic or telekinetic abilities. An even smaller number or their race are said to be able to talk to the dead, and learn the secrets of the future. The Gotal homeworld was destroyed by Cal-Nebulan as an example of it’s power and because it simply lay in the path of the entity as it came for the original Jewel Queens. The Gotals who remained in the orbital colonies which survived were rescued by Ursines and became a wandering hermit race, outcastes wherever they went because of their psychic abilities. What remains of their people are scattered throughout the Jewel Cluster in small enclaves, living among alien peoples and doing their best to preserve their culture and ways of life. They tend to be reclusive, and shun contact with others who are not of their kind, but some do participate in society, and are prized for their abilities as fortune tellers and seers. Ursines Ursines are huge fat furred humanoids originally from a planet with a very low temperature who superficially resemble bears. They are an advanced race, having a strong knack for physics and engineering, and have been travelling the stars for a long time. Their most distinguishing trait is their lack of a spoken language, Ursines communicate via scent and writing with each other. Their written language is highly developed, and extremely complex, and they have a long history of scholarship and learning. Ursines are also intensely curious, and like to learn about new things, which is why they are commonly found wandering known space and living in different places. |