The Tallis race is extremely similar to dragons. Their physiology, genetics, and body structure are reminiscent of the larger beings. Tallis, however, are simply off-shoots of dragons, draconic beings who come from another world and journey around to discover and study other races.
Physiology
Outward Appearance and Characteristics
The Tallis are draconic mammals. This evidenced mostly by the female half of their race. They tend to be slender more than muscular. They usually all have similarities within family groups, such as color of scales, hair, and eyes. Tallis have 'sticky' DNA, with the capability to mate and have a child with just about any other race. Their own DNA tends to break away, and the child will take on the characteristics of the other race - though the rare half-breed is born. These half-breeds are called Avalons.
They are usually between five and a half to six foot tall, the males tending more towards the taller. Due to their slender body shape, they do not weigh much at all, typically between 100 and 150 pounds for a female and 130 to 180 pounds for a male. Their average lifespan is about seventy-five years.
Hair and Scale Colour
Tallis have hair, proof they aren't reptilian. It is typically of a black to a brown color, and sometimes grey. Females usually wear their hair long, either clipped in back or let hang free, while males typically wear their hair short, spiked upwards or slicked back. Their scales are soft, more like skin, with only the slightest bit of space in between. Tallis scales are clear, with an irridescent glaze to them. This allows the skin underneath to show through, the color anywhere from black to an aqua blue, though it usually is a shade of green. Sometimes, their skin has splotches, or spots. These spots are usually brighter, reds, yellows, or oranges.
Tallis find themselves comfortable at any temperature, but they enjoy cooler temperatures to the humid ones that most reptiles enjoy. They are highly adaptive, though, so they can adjust quickly to the temperature of their surroundings.
Body Description
Tallis bodies are usually slender and thin. They are light framed because of their necessity to be flexible. They are very agile, their entire race naturally acrobatic. Males tend to be less flexible and fast as females in return for being stronger. Their arms are developed similar to humans, but instead of four fingers and a thumb, they have three fingers and a longer thumb claw.
Tallis ears, at first glance, appear to be wing-like protrusions from the sides of their head above their eyes... however, these are merely flaps. They're usually about ten inches in length, with three spines and a thin membrane between each flap. The membrane on the 'wings' vibrate when sound hits them and they focus the sound down to the earhole behind the wings, right at the base. Similarly, if a tallis is displeased with a noise, they can shut the flaps, closing the membrane inside the spines and slam the flaps to their heads, cutting out all sounds they hear. They have a frequency range similar to humans.
Tallis eyes are also like humans, unable to see in low light or anything special. The eyes are typically colors from reds to yellows, and very rarely, tallis can be born with blue eyes. A tallis with blue eyes is considered a sign of good times, as it is usually clean air, clean water, and clean food that gives a tallis child blue eyes.
Tallis maws are shaped kind of box-like, with a curve at the front. They've got a beak-like mouth filled with small teeth. These are tearing and cutting teeth mostly, but they can also chew and digest vegetables, if necessary. Their nose is very small, two round openings at the end of their upper maw. It cannot detect smells very well, in fact, it is even weaker than a human's nose for detecting scents, which is why tallis enjoy good aromas so much.
Tallis females have a small, thin crest on back of their neck. It is a thin ridge of iridescent membrane between thin spines. It usually lays back against the neck, but when a female wants to impress a potential mate, she can lift the spines up and flash the membrane. This also happens when the female becomes aroused.
Female tallis have breasts. They're not very big, usually. They only serve three purposes: producing milk, telling when a female tallis has hit maturity, and for sexual pleasure. When a tallis gets pregnant, she begins to produce milk in her breasts. This is highly nutritious and also has a lot of antibodies in it, similar to human milk. The babies typically nurse for 6 months before beginning to grow in their teeth, when the female tallis will definitely want to start weaning her child. When a young female tallis hits maturity, the first thing to change is their breasts. When young, they are small and undefined. They will grow larger, and usually around 16, they'll be full sized. Tallis breasts are highly sensitive, much more so than human breasts. Color changes on their breasts are more sensitive than other places. If a female tallis has a color spot on a breast, she'll enjoy that place being touched very much during sex.
Tallis walk digitgrade, on the front of their feet. They have three forward pointing claws and a backwards pointing one for stability. They can carry heavy loads on their legs, and also, due to their running speed and agility, their leg muscles are often more developed than any other muscle on their body, save their tail.
Tallis tails can operate as a third arm. They are highly flexible, able to wrap themselves to a very small spring shape at the end. Their tails are usually about the same length of their bodies and can pick up objects both delicately and forcefully. A tallis in a trouble situation will often use their tails as a whip, since they are able to move quickly.
Internal Body Structure
Their stomachs are highly developed. Tallis are able to ingest just about anything and easily digest it. They have an almost infinite tolerance to alcohol, and continually seek to raise that tolerance.
Tallis lungs have been developed to survive where they live. They breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, as usual. However, they have a sort of filtering system in their trachea, able to filter out harmful chemicals and stronger gasses.
Tallis hearts are exactly the same design as human hearts. In fact, if a human ever needed a transplant, a tallis would be an acceptable donor. Tallis are warm blooded, which yet increases the fact they are mammals. The heart is slightly more secure than a human's. They less rarely die of heart attacks than of brain failure.
Besides these, tallis bodies are almost exactly the same as human bodies, save their reproductive systems. They have highly developed brains, capable of formulate complex calculations with little effort. They could defeat the greatest human minds easily, but they aren't the most intelligent race in the universe.
Sexuality
The tallis female reproductive system is somewhat similar to a human female's. They have a protective area of scales in front of the labia. Tallis females do not have a clitoris. Their vaginal area is very similar to a human's, save the walls have a narrow band in the back which is incredibly sensitive to the touch.
A female tallis goes through what is commonly referred to as cycle. As a year goes by, once every month, for about a week, female tallis go through a period of time where they become increasingly more receptive. It is much like heat in animals. They become more willing to have sex, and during sex, become increadibly responsive. The cycle increases in strength up until every third month, where it becomes so bad, females are often bed-ridden.
The male reproductive system is hidden internally. At first glance, a male crotch and female crotch are identical, save the hard to see upward V shape of scales that hide the male's shaft. The male shaft is shaped similar to a human's. The testes are internal. Also, there is a little nub at the tip of the shaft which fits perfectly in the band of the female, enhancing both their sensitivities and ensuring pregnancy.
Tallis pregnancies last for nine months. They are typically sound, very rarely are children born stillborn or are miscarried. The mother will go through all kinds of psychological and physical changes and cycles. They develop mood swings, usually very strong. They crave odd foods, they have morning sickness, and they get all the signs of pregnancy that humans do. They carry internally, not laying eggs like their reptile type might suggest. A pregnant tallis is a sight to behold, as they are usually almost glowing with the pregnancy.
Tallis can breed with just about every kind of creature. Typically, the tallis genes will shy away from the creature, and mostly give the child less tallis and more of the other kind. Tallis and their planetary neighbors, the charydians, are the most common form of mixed breed. The mixed breeds are called avalons.
Aging
The age of 26 is when tallis fully mature. It is at this point that they stop growing. They remain sexually active until the age of about 50, when the females go into menopause. A menopausal female will stop producing eggs. Males continue producing sperm well into their eighties... though they usually die beforehand and the sperm is not fertile, as before. Elderly tallis begin to show the signs of age at 60. Tallis's changes are not as numerous as humans, but their hair turns white, their joints start to go out, and their organs don't work as well as when they were younger. The rare tallis dies of heart failure. The major organ that fails is the brain. When they go above 70, their brain stops firing correctly. Tallis commonly will go blind in one, or both eyes. This is due to their eyes no longer working correctly, and the synapses misfiring in their brains. If a tallis were ever to live beyond 80, they would most likely be babbling, helpless creatures, with all their synapses misfiring at all times.
Sociology
General
Tallis are best addressed by their job; a tallis engineer would like to be called Engineer such and such, a tallis mayor would be Mayor such and such, usw. If the job is not known, it is polite to refer to them as Miss or Mister.
Tallis love titles. They love long names and they love having long titles. They add titles for everything they do and everything they've done. For example; the tallis woman Lieta, who is a royal warrior would call herself Drasska Lieta if she was speaking her name. However, in writing, she would add her family names. Drasska Lieta would become Drasska Lieta Teinconos Ranseur. Tallis add both mother and father to their names for surnames. In last names, the mother's name is given before the father's. They are a combination of two things, name and region of birth. Teinconos, for example, is the name Tein and the region Conos. Ranseur, Ran and Seur. On ocassion, tallis add their own birth region to their first name, even further lengthening the name.
Dress
Tallis tend to dress comfortably. Females usually wear some kind of outfit that shows off some of their figure - without being overly revealing - usually a halter top and a skirt of some kind. Males wear shirts and shorts, comfort in their hot environment.
Tallis will often get small tattoos on their wrists or ankles, but never anywhere else. When they get mated, tallis tend to get markings on their necks and shoulders that show their status. Their mates have the exact same markings in the same place.
Family Life
Tallis families are very large. They consist of the matriarch and patriarch, their children, and their children. The matriarch is the eldest of the females. She has all the say of what they do in the family outside of lifemating and where government is concerned. When she dies, the patriarch gets the say, followed immediately by the next eldest female, next eldest male. When a female gets mated outside the family, she lives in that group, with a chance of her becoming the next matriarch. The group is very close, sharing responsibility
Tallis are sometimes promiscuous, typically within the teenage years. They will experiment with their sexuality until their early twenties, when they try to find a mate to settle down with for the rest of their lives.
They usually have between one to three children. This is so their race does not die out nor will it grow too large.
Morals and Beliefs
Tallis have a fierce moral code. They belive in honor and pride above everything else in their lives. Without honor, it is said, the tallis would fall. They consider it honorable to care for your family, honorable to care for your kin. It is not honorable to curse your family, curse your birth, or curse your name. Honor is their strongest thought, and pride is their strongest emotion. Sometimes, these two cannot exist together, so pride usually falls first.
The tallis are agnostics. They wonder about their creation, they often find an emptiness, but they cannot believe in something when science doesn't show it to be a fact or fiction. It's a baseless study.
Social stuff
The typical Tallis career is something in the field of science, engineering, geneticism, philosophy is a fun career. They enjoy anything they get their claws on and get them dirty with. They fit well with other races, with the ability to mate with a whole lot of creatures, it makes them attractive sexually to a lot of creatures. They do not disciminate between any type of creature, not favoring fur over feather over scales. They also do not discriminate about thoughts and ideas that other races have. In fact, if they needed to be friendly to another group, most likely they'd push aside their own feelings for the other creature's.
Tallis only have one real difficulty with getting along with other races and that is their necessity for pride and honor. Tallis do not really like giving up their pride. It is a problem if they get in a situation where their honor will be broken... they'll try desperately to keep their pride and honor.
In social situations, tallis have two kinds of relations, the sexual, and the non sexual relationships. There are two kinds of sexual relationships. Lifemates and bedmates.
A lifemate is a great thing to be to a tallis. Lifemates are loved above any other member of a tallis household. The two lifemates, when they decide to become mated, share a night of passion, and in the morning, they tattoo themselves with decorative paint (later to be filled in with ink by a tattoo artist.) Lifemates live together forever, not choosing to ever part. Rarely do lifemates have a separation.
Bedmates are the other sexual relationship. These tallis are females who have a single purpose, to clip the female tallis cycle. A bedmate is often highly paid, and are one of the most well kept tallis workers. Females who are barren or are perhaps lesbians often find this job to be suitable for them.
Tallis have very strong non-sexual relationships. A friend of a tallis is a friend for life, it is said. Tallis make friends very easily, often females will just randomly hug someone and they'll become friendly with each other. Males are more apt to offer a claw and a name. The females are definitely more friendly than the males in tallis circles, and they don't really care. Co-workers are always treated as equals, rank only factors in when orders are given.
Roles in Society
Tallis females and males are equals in society, with the exception of bedmates. Females hold the same jobs as males do, and they hold every right and privilege. Bedmates are seen as higher society, much more important than the others. Due to the more matriarchal society in home life, females are always mentioned before males. This is true no matter the seniority or age of the male in question over the female in question. In family circles, lifemates hold equal task in the house. Females and males share chores, share the work of raising the kids, and share the work of paying bills and bringing in gilder.
Political and Social Structure
Talisia is run by a council of elders from each of the thirty regions of the planet who meet in the headquarters at Aleisis. Each region sends two representatives of the people, one male, one female. They decide the laws in a voting process where they bring it to the people first, then they vote on it themselves if the people pass the law. Two-thirds majority in both cases is needed to pass a law. Each elder is elected by the people and runs as long as she or he is popular. If they are decided to be unpopular, the people hold a vote of no confidence (again, 2/3rds majority) and if passed, the elder is impeached and the people vote in a new candidate. The elders are semi-socilaist, they dictate certain things, but not all. Tallis children are told where to go to school. When a tallis family decides to adopt, the council chooses their child for them. Very little else is decided by the councils.
Tallis only have age limits in two matters, voting and becoming lifemates. Tallis cannot vote until they've reached the age of discernment, which is eighteen. They are required to take a test of voting elegibility, and if they fail, they can try again in sixty days. If they fail again, they can try in sixty days again. A third failure and they are ineligible to vote. A tallis can only get a lifemate if they are above sixteen years of age. It is rare that a tallis will choose a lifemate before that, and rare still for them to choose a lifemate soon after that time.
Tallis love alcohol. It is by far their favorite drink. Children can drink alcohol from five years and up. Their bodies naturally stop the effects of alcohol, so they do not get drunk or sick. Tallis alcohol is extremely strong, humans would pass out from taking a shot of some of the stronger stuff. This makes tallis very popular in bar rooms, when one who's never seen a tallis challenges them to a drinking match.