Yeosa'Unathi
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Work-In-Progress
Additional Information: "Lorewriting and structuring in progress" |
NAME: Yeosa’Unathi
HOMEWORLD: Moghes (Great Sea)
LANGUAGE: Yeosa’Azaziba
SYSTEM: Uuoea-Esa
HEIGHT: Normal: 6’0”-7’0”, Warden: 7’7”-9’0”
WEIGHT: Normal: 170lbs - 250lbs, Warden: 260lbs-360lbs
LIFESPAN: 200 years
NAMING SCHEME: Yeosa’Unathi use three names. Their first name is their family name, used by strangers and those they are not particularly close to. Their second name is their personal name, used by family members and close relationships. Their final name is almost a label - it may change throughout a Yeosa’s life, reflecting their goals or their job, mainly used in professional relationships and contexts.
Yeosa names involve heavy consonant usage often broken up by the vowels A, E, O, or U. They typically feature K, L, G, and R, though S and Z are not unheard of.
An example of Yeosa naming would be Oelugu Gekol Alakar. Gekol, from clan Oelugu, who strives to become a skilled cook (with “Alakar” being a word for a chef).
GAME MECHANICS: Yeosa’Unathi are extremely temperature sensitive! They hate the cold and have some heat resistance, but prefer to keep it balanced. They are also particularly sensitive to electrical shocks due to their ampullory receptors. However, they are excellent at holding their breath, and have some resistance to suffocation damage. Yeosa’Unathi are also capable of leaping, just like their Sinta cousins.
PHYSIOLOGY: Yeosa'Unathi are bipedal reptiles around 5-6 feet tall and 130-180lbs heavy. The Yeosa’Unathi have even more limited regenerative ability than the Sinta’Unathi, with many having a condition called lo’gklem, which prevents the full regeneration of limbs through natural means.
The cold-bloodedness of Yeosa’Unathi prevents them from surviving in the coldest of climates, generating and maintaining less heat than their land-based cousins.
Yeosa bodies handle food identically to their Sinta brethren, though their immune systems allow them to better resist the toxins found in some species of fish due to the heavy presence of it in their diet.
Most Yeosa’Unathi spend almost all of their lives in the water, only stepping onto the land for the sake of sunbathing. As a result, they may come off as lazy or lethargic to outsiders. Yeosa in space will often find themselves hoarding the heaters. They may very well be the most excited to visit the beach on any given crew.
Most Yeosa’Unathi are plantigrade, though with the rise of genemodding, many Yeosa spacers have opted to become digitigrade in hopes of increasing their mobility and giving them a needed advantage on land. Many Yeosa who undergo these modifications will find themselves living more land-based lifestyles than normal.
Unathi faces may resemble a number of reptiles, from lizards to gators to dragons. That said, they will always have one row of sharp teeth and a forked tongue with tips that are capable of picking up scents in the air around them.
Yeosa’Unathi also have a weakened sixth sense, only notable when underwater. Thanks to ampullary receptors located on their face and hands, they are capable of picking up bioelectric signals produced by living organisms underwater. Losing scales that cover these sensors can potentially leave these senses to become stronger and potentially painful for the individual, eventually leading to the numbing or even loss of use for said sensors over an extended period of time.
Yeosa’Unathi and Sinta’Unathi are closely related enough to produce offspring. These hybrids, often called Sinosa'Unathi, are effectively just shorter, lighter weight, and sterile Sinta'Unathi with forward-facing teeth. Sinosa'unathi are extremely rare, with only about 25% ever hatching, and their average lifespan cut significantly shorter by their numerous health issues. Their sterility and odd number of chromosomes cause Sinosa'unathi to not be considered an actual species.
ENVIRONMENT: YeosaUnathi hail from a fairly specific part of Moghes, the depths of the planet’s sole ocean or the islands that peak through its surface. They are almost nonexistent away from the ocean or the swamps of Moghes, though Yeosa-Sinta hybrids aren’t unheard of in swamp clans.
RELIGIONS: Yeosa’Unathi religion often manifests itself in ancestor worship and praising nature spirits who had forged the world. While Sinta’Unathi faiths have spread into Yeosa regions, their focus on the land has made them struggle to connect to the people.
Many Yeosa’Unathi clans, instead, engage in ancestor worship alongside worshiping massive beasts from the oceans depths who they had failed to kill. Such creatures are often seen as the avatars of nature spirits themselves, with all but the most aggressive being off-limits to whatever hunters could even pierce their thick flesh.
GOVERNMENT: Yeosa’Unathi clans may frequently work together to protect themselves from the fauna and their land-based neighbors, but their cities are still very much divided, ruled by their respective leading clans.
Typically, one to three families hold government positions, running their hold as either a monarchy or a form of parliament. Membership to a ruling family is often required, though an increasing number of clans are beginning to open up these positions to those in power.
Clans will typically punish their worst criminals by sending them to the deepest depths of the ocean as tribute to the beasts they worship, though the practice of honor cutting is not unheard of as well.
CULTURAL NORMS: YeosaUnathi place high regard to honor and pride, respecting those who bring glory to their families and fight with honor.
The Yeosa’Unathi have 4 gender roles in their society.
Warriors are seen as exclusively male by traditional standards, and are expected to live and die to protect their clan. Warriors are often tasked with handling security and obtaining resources whether through warfare or hunting. Farming is also not frowned upon for those who have been assigned warriorhood by their clans, as it protects their clan from starvation, as well as medical professions - to protect from the spread of disease.
Guides are expected to bear and raise the young. Many yeosa guides become scholars and teachers, while others take on more civil duties such as cooking or cleaning - however, they are largely relied on to help maintain Yeosa society. The guide is often a female role, but not always.
Artisans are expected to create for their clan. They are expected to become engineers, scientists, artists, historians, repairmen, and so on. Their job is to help maintain Yeosa society, and are to be protected alongside the guides. While artisans are typically male, it is not unheard of for there to be female artisans in a thriving clan.
Wardens are a role entirely unheard of on land - every few clutches may hold one member who hatches - and continues to grow - abnormally large. These Yeosa, deemed wardens, are believed to be chosen by the spirits to lead and protect their people. Wardens will often end up as priests, militia leaders, and even clan elders - regardless of physical sex. Despite their prestigious roles in Yeosa society, Wardens are expected to fulfill their assigned duties and transitioning to other roles is often frowned upon by the more traditional.
There are few universal Unathi holidays - they generally only celebrate birthdays and new years, with both of these being grand celebrations which individuals may take time off of work to celebrate with friends and family. Beyond that, however, holidays vary widely between city to city, clan to clan.
On birthdays, it is traditional to give gifts to the guest of honor, singing praises and discussing their previous victories. A birthday is a celebration of one's continued survival for an additional year, and a celebration of their accomplishments. Gifts, as a result, are to be related to the individual's successes in the past year. It is not frowned upon to not give a gift to somebody one has not known for a year, and while it may be considered polite by some, it is otherwise recognized as a meaningless gesture from one who doesn't know what they are even celebrating.
New Years is similar in spirit to the "christmas" tradition in many human cultures. Gifts are frequently exchanged on New Years Eve before a feast, largely consisting of largely egg-based dishes. During New Years, it is considered rude to have leftovers on one's plate or to not have at least one full glass of the served drink. Furthermore, conversation is expected over the meal, with a silent meal being considered a bad omen. After the meal, it is common for families to play games together before retiring for the night. It is not uncommon for the adults to be up extremely late, seeing their children both go to bed and wake up in the morning before retiring. New Years is a vibrant, loud, and joyous celebration of life, and being invited to a family's New Years party is considered quite the compliment.
Nearly all clans have their own codes of honor, especially for their militias. Many clans’ codes are similar, and may generally look like this: Justice is to make one's own actions right. To leave others wronged not only makes you look bad, but also stains the reputations of your family and potentially even your clan. Courage is to stand up for what one believes in and take the right action, regardless of consequences. Mercy is to accept surrender, and protect the innocent. The world has no use for barbarians and savages, and those shown mercy often return with kindness of their own. Honesty is unconditional - the truth will always show its face, and it is an insult to others to conceal it from them. Information is not to be concealed from the clan. Loyalty is to live and die by your family first, your clan second, and yourself last. The world stands against your clan, and if they fall, so will you.
Those who have sufficiently shamed their clan are often exiled into the wastes, their family name stripped and replaced with Guwan. The Guwanji may only have their honor restored by dying in an honorable duel - to throw a fight is believed to damn one to wander the sands even in the afterlife.
One who has sufficiently dishonored their clan or rejected exile may be forced to engage in a ritual form of suicide called godr-slk, translated to Galactic Common as “Honor Cutting.” During this ritual, one kneels before a crowd while an announcer states the reasons for the ritual to the audience. The one to die proceeds to confess to each charge, without defense, before slicing their stomach open with a blade. The announcer proceeds to lead the crowd in prayer over the dying individual while they bleed out.
POPULAR ENTERTAINMENT: Sports are particularly popular among Yeosa’Unathi, the most popular - Spineball - involving using one’s tail to strike a ball into a goal. Human spectators have compared it to a combination of soccer and hockey. Originally a Sinta sport, the Yeosa have grown particularly fond of it. Yeosan Spineball comes with an additional catch - a lightweight ball that will float upwards being struck into goals on the bottom of the arena.
This catch comes from another traditional Yeosan sport, Bubbleball, which is played in a similar manner - however, it heavily utilizes using one’s hands and feet to control the ball. To use one’s tail in Bubbleball is, in fact, considered cheating.
Besides Bubbleball and Spineball, other popular Yeosa’Unathi sports include Aqualthon and Spearfishing.
Moghes films have a sort of mythological feeling to their stories, often featuring heroes and gods conquering various challenges and battles. Human mythology would fit in well among the vast collection of Yeosa’Unathi films. Gods from clans outside of the ones that produce the film are presented in a similar light to mortals, and it is not unusual to find a film being highly sacreligious in one clan also being highly beloved by another because of the same reasons.
BRIEF HISTORY: The Sinta’Unathi, Yeosa’Unathi, and Rksh’Unathi originally hailed from the desert planet of Moghes, and their coexistence has largely shaped their history. The Yeosa’Unathi made first contact with the Rksh’Unathi in 1431 CE, though the language barrier and mostly aquatic nature of the Yeosa’Unathi resulted in little diplomatic progress coming from this - instead, Rksh’Unathi fishing and boats would result in them becoming swift enemies of the Yeosa. After a war that lasted roughly 43 years, the Rksh retreated from Yeosan territories, ultimately unable to deal significant damage to their aquatic neighbors due to the depths at which they had settled. From this point onward, while they had the occasional skirmish, little contact was otherwise made with the Yeosa and the Rksh’Unathi ultimately, and misguidedly, wrote their colder-blooded brethren off as a less intelligent species. These tensions would remain largely static until 2032, when the Rksh discovered FTL travel and sent out their first crew. All contact with the crew was lost, and whether or not they had survived at all was left a total mystery. Afraid of the potential of Rksh making first contact and using alien support to dominate the planet, the Yeosa and the Sinta temporarily joined forces to eradicate the other species. The war lasted until 2157, almost destroying their planet. The ozone layer of the planet took major damage, leaving the furthest northern and southern regions to start turning tropical while the equator itself became uninhabitable. Much of civilization was left in shambles, and the survivors were left having to rebuild from the irradiated scraps with the help of their highly distrusting aquatic neighbors. Since then, the Yeosa’Unathi clans have been struggling to exist at all - those who survived the war, protected by the water, were forced to leave their former homes by the changing climate and move to already inhabited territory. With their population density on the rise, they have little hope unless they look to the stars.
