YEAH.
Post any comments. All are welcome.
Post any comments. All are welcome.
Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos
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Images: Please provide a line of credit (Ex. Image By So & So) and link to the original artist if you are using an image to illustrate your Submission. If you cannot find the original artist, then please provide a link to where you discovered the image. If necessary, use an image search service such as TinEye to find the image's original location.
Name: Punji
Designation: Non-Sentient
Homeworld: Zanjiani
Language: None
Average height of adults: .5-.6 Meters
Skin color: Black
Hair color:
- Pale Yellow with black spotted pattern and white underbelly
- White with black spotted pattern
Strengths:
- Great Swimmer
- Can sense hot springs
- Can see underwater
- Withstand high water temperatures
- Fast and agile on land
- Large, powerful jaw with sharp teeth
- Suffers from ingrown teeth
- Suffers from cataracts
- Allergic to Burra Fish
- Scarred venom causes skin boils
- Wide, rounded mouth
- Pair of long, sharp incisors
- Sharp, long canines {Made of ivory}
Races:
Estimated Population:
- Only found in the mountain and snow areas of Zanjiani and rarely in the icey mountains of Mandalore
Unless in captivity
Diet: Omnivorous Scavenger
- Fruit
- Fish
- Algae
- Carrion
Culture: [Describe general culture]
Technology level: N/A
General behavior:
The Pumji generally stay within 1600 meters of a hotspring at any given time due to the necesity of the sulfur infused algae that grows around hotsprings to continue
- Stay near/around hot springs
- Eats mostly carrion
- Eats the algae that grows near hot springs
- In small prides
Notable Player-Characters: [List player-characters]
Intent: [Describe the plan for this species. NOTE: This section alone can have your species dismissed. Species created on a whim or for purposes to undermine the integrity of Star Wars will not be approved.]
Images: Please provide a line of credit (Ex. Image By So & So) and link to the original artist if you are using an image to illustrate your Submission. If you cannot find the original artist, then please provide a link to where you discovered the image. If necessary, use an image search service such as TinEye to find the image's original location.
Name: Cocha, the Zanji Panther
Designation: Non-Sentient
Homeworld: Zanjiani
Language: N/A
Average height of adults: 1.5 Meters at the shoulder {5ft}
Skin color: Black
Hair color: Black
Breathes: Type I
Strengths:
- Giant Strength
- Quick
- Agile
- Poisoned Claws
- Sharp Teeth
- Night Vision
- Cat senses
- Big enough to ride
- Impossible to tame without the Force, will always return to the wild
- Conventional weapons can kill it
- Slow swimmer
- Allergic to Burra Fish
- Poison of the Scarred causes boils
- Huge body
- Yellow, green, or blue eyes
- Long tail
- Large paws
- Black fur
- Strong, broad back and shoulders
Races: N/A
Estimated Population:
Uncommon - Only found on Zanjiani
Diet:
- Carnivore
- Allergic to Burra Fish
- Roars
- Hisses
- Purrs
- Growls
In short the Cocha is a figure used to inspire and is often painted on buildings and homes of hunters and tattooed as a symbol of bravery and strength.
Technology level: N/A
General behavior: The Cocha, often wrongly translated as Chuka and known as the Zanji Panther, is a solitary hunter. Living on its own for most of its life, the Cocha will live in small familial groups only during mating season and until the cubs reach maturity at which time the familial group will split up. Because it is so large most things do not frighten it. When they aren't hunting or woken up from their slumbers they generally aren't hostile towards other life except the Rancor, its eternal rival for food.
In the wild it will hunt Verne, people, smaller Kaymen, bear, deer and Rancor. It shares the place of Apex predator with the Rancor in that both hunt and eat the other with no real way to tell which is the stronger hunter. The Coacha spends most of its time asleep in the trees or under the large roots of the trees of the jungle and Bayou. The little time it is awake it uses for hunting.
History: Throughout the millennium the Cocha has stayed relatively the same and is the closest living relative to the species that would give birth to both the Leo, the Zanji, and the Ariav. In Zanji history the Cocha did not have a place in its lore until the last few thousand years with the introduction of the minor gods into the religion and beliefs of the Zanji as one of the gods of the Hunt.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To increase the biodiversity of Zanjiani and the Chaos Galaxy as a whole
Images: Please provide a line of credit (Ex. Image By So & So) and link to the original artist if you are using an image to illustrate your Submission. If you cannot find the original artist, then please provide a link to where you discovered the image. If necessary, use an image search service such as TinEye to find the image's original location.
Name: Lagus
Designation: Non-Sentient
Homeworld: Zanjiani
Language: N/A
Average height of adults: .7 Meters tall at the Shoulder
Skin color: Light
Hair color: Varies By Race
- Orange Coat with black stripes and white underbelly
- White with black stripes
Strengths:
- Large Size
- Agility
- Cat Senses
- Night Vision
- Fast {Will be able to catch a human or species of similar speed easily}
- Sharp Teeth
- Sharp Claws
- Body is not blaster proof
- Allergic to Burra Fish
Average Lifespan: [In standard years]
Races: [Not subspecies, distinct cultural or physical races (aka, just like human races).]
Estimated Population: [Is it common throughout the galaxy? Only found on a single world? Only being of its kind?]
Diet: [List common foods, what is poisonous]
Communication: [List common communication medium]
Culture: [Describe general culture]
Technology level: [Describe societal technology level]
General behavior: [Describe general behaviors]
History: [Describe an abridged history. If your species is genetically engineered or Sithspawn, this is where to add links to the thread(s) where your new species was developed. A development thread, whether of creation or discovery, is required for all genetically engineered/alchemically created life forms being submitted to the Factory.]
Notable Player-Characters: [List player-characters]
Intent: [Describe the plan for this species. NOTE: This section alone can have your species dismissed. Species created on a whim or for purposes to undermine the integrity of Star Wars will not be approved.]
Images:
Name: Numera
Designation: Non-Sentient
Homeworld:
Language: N/A
Average height of adults:
- Largest recorded body height (from the belly to the top of the head) was 2 Meters
- Longest ever recorded was 8 Meters long
Hair color: Brown
Breathes: Type 1
Strengths:
- Quick reflexes allow this large, slow beast to snap unexpectedly fast at its prey, giving them little time to react
- Bladed tail is sharp enough to cut through wood
- Sharp teeth
- Excellent night vision
- Excellent sense of "smell" via forked tongue and keen nose
- Slow traveler
- Can be killed with conventional weaponry
- Can't see during the day and relies on its mediocre hearing and sense of smell
- Has sub-par hearing
- Inability to swim
- Dense muscle and thick fur makes it sink
Average Lifespan: 15 Years
Races: N/A
Estimated Population:
- Only found on Zanjiani
Rare
Diet: Strictly Carnivorous
Communication:
- Body language
- Hisses
Technology level: N/A
General behavior: Completely solitary creatures, the only time they come together is to mate. Once mating has been completed the mother will leave the eggs buried in cavernous burrows for them to hatch on their own. From birth the numera go out into the world with their only purpose being to eat and grow larger.
Numera will eat anything that moves, including humanoids. Despite their inability to swim they often live near water as that is where their prey congregates. They live both in the savanna and the jungle, with some sightings even up in the frozen mountains. They will also never resort to cannibalism. The only time fighting has been observed is fighting against the giant serpents of the Zanjiani jungle or if it is actively being attacked by something else.
History: Believed to be a myth by all but the locals the numera was recently declared a real creature, though local claims of numera over 14 meters are still considered without proof. There is evidence in the temple ruins scattered throughout the planet that the numera once held greater cultural significance to the Zanji, but it is unclear. It is clear though that the marginalized peoples of the Sumara race have held on to a part of that significance as their swords and knives are formed in the image of the numera's barbed tail.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To add biodiversity to the planet of Zanjiani
Images:
Name: Sumara
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Zanjiani
Language:
- Raga Basic
- Raga Pacean
- Togorian/Mando'a Dialect
Skin color:
Hair color:
- Yellows {With White Chest and Belly}
- Black
- Reddish-Brown {With White Chest and Belly}
Covered in large, random patterns of black rosettes
Breathes: Type I
Strengths:
- Nimble and Agile
- Retractable Claws
- Incredible Strength {About on par with a Wookie's strength}
- Powerful Feline senses
- Accelerated Healing
- Burra fish and Burra fish oil will kill them
- Scarred poison causes boils when contact is made with the skin
Will also kill them
[*]No natural defense against weapons
[*]
Distinctions:
- Tall
- Feline and spotted
- Long prehensile tail
- Padded Paws
Races: None
Estimated Population: ~800,000 +/- 400,000
Diet: Omnivorous
Communication: Speaking
Culture: The Sumara have more or less been absorbed into the Zanji culture, loosly following the same moral laws and believing in the same gods with some variation. Because of this however, they are often misjudged as Halflings by the Zanji and even treated as less than equal in the more rural towns and villages due to their legacy of being slaves to the Zanji.
In their tree dwellings which are connected via an intricate system of bridges and ziplines their technology level could be considered more advanced than most of rural Zanjiani as many of the settlements make use of ancient Mandalorian and Togorian technology. This allows for small advantages like running water so high up in the trees and even limited repulsorlift technology. Their mix of wood and steel alongside the magesty of their floating gardens and farms make their cities and settlements places of legend and mystery to the rural Zanji.
Unlike their Togorian ancestors they are not a migratory species and will stay sometimes their entire lives in the treetop settlements without even touching the ground. Those that do are often found to be Force Sensetive and leave on long journies to find themselves, somtiems even leaving the planet.
Technology level: Sub-Galactic Standard
General behavior: Generally reclusive, the Sumara tend to stay up in their tree canopies. Unlike their ancestors, they are not nomadic and often don't even set foot on solid ground for their entire lives. They retained their warrior ways and have adapted well over the many thousands of years to their life above the ground.
Despite being reclusive, they are also incredibly competitive and prideful and can sometimes be seen racing through the trees. They are renowned for their sword fighting skills on the moon. Dubbed The Fight of the Numera and Serpent it is styled after Mandalorian Beskad swordplay combined with the acrobatics that can be expected from a tree living species.
History: Hundreds of thousands of years ago, believed to be around the time of the Mandalorian Wars, a ship full of Togorians on a military campaign crash landed on the previously undiscovered moon of Zanjiani. Without any way to contact their Mandalorian or Togorian allies they were forced to rely on the military prowess to survive. Eventually the survivors of the crash developed a thriving colony, taking what they needed from the crashed ship to survive and thrive. After coming into contact with the Zanji they subjugated the natives and forced them into slave labor, cultivating the land and making paths from their main settlement to others. However, as the population began to dwindle after several generations, the enslaved Zanji rose up, taking what they had learned from their harsh rulers and destroyed the plantations and settlements of the Togorian people.
Thrust from their homes, they took what little technology they could with them into the jungle and made smaller colonies high up in the trees. Over time the smaller population became the enslaved, though the Zanji were much kinder to them, allowing them to stay in their homes or even given decent housing in the mines and plantations they worked on. They were given a new name, Sumara and over many more hundreds of thousands of years the Sumara evolved into their own separate species. In the current iteration of the Zanji they share an almost equal social standing, though many still prefer to live in their colonies in the trees. Thus, it is rare to see them outside of the jungle.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To provide an interesting sentient species to Zanjiani that enhances the history and culture of the Zanji
Images: Please provide a line of credit (Ex. Image By So & So) and link to the original artist if you are using an image to illustrate your Submission. If you cannot find the original artist, then please provide a link to where you discovered the image. If necessary, use an image search service such as TinEye to find the image's original location.
Name: [Name of the species]
Designation: [Sentient, semi, or non-sentient]
Homeworld: [Name of homeworld, and link to the thread for the homeworld if custom]
Language: [List common languages of this species]
Average height of adults: [In meters]
Skin color: [List commons skin colors]
Hair color: [List common hair colors, if any]
Breathes: [Type of atmosphere or medium it breathes]
Strengths: [2 minimum]
Weaknesses: [2 minimum]
Distinctions: [Unique physical traits that define what they are]
Average Lifespan: [In standard years]
Races: [Not subspecies, distinct cultural or physical races (aka, just like human races).]
Estimated Population: [Is it common throughout the galaxy? Only found on a single world? Only being of its kind?]
Diet: [List common foods, what is poisonous]
Communication: [List common communication medium]
Culture: [Describe general culture]
Technology level: [Describe societal technology level]
General behavior: [Describe general behaviors]
History: [Describe an abridged history. If your species is genetically engineered or Sithspawn, this is where to add links to the thread(s) where your new species was developed. A development thread, whether of creation or discovery, is required for all genetically engineered/alchemically created life forms being submitted to the Factory.]
Notable Player-Characters: [List player-characters]
Intent: [Describe the plan for this species. NOTE: This section alone can have your species dismissed. Species created on a whim or for purposes to undermine the integrity of Star Wars will not be approved.]
- Intent: To update and re-work an unused species
- Image Credit: In order of appearance
"Bob Marley from the Lion's mouth", by Lee Bermejo
[*]Nickelodian's Legend of Korra Gif, Unknown Creator: LINK to Gif
[*]"Lanyra" by Sam Hogg
[*]Unknown, Image found on DnD Homebrew; LINK
[*]Unknown, Image found at "40 Mind Blowing Fantasy Creatyres"
[*]"jeehyung" by, JeeHyung lee
[*]"Gift Art - Specter Panther" by Harseik
[*]"Linoruti Clan", by CindyWorks
[*]"Beyond the Seas", by Chevelin Pierre
[*]
"Sketch XXIII" by Charlie-Bowater
[*]
"Creative Concept Art" by Jérémie Fleury
[*]
Gifs From "Raga Bomb", by Skrillex
[*][background=transparent]Canon: No[/background]
[*]Links: Original Sub
GENERAL INFORMATION
[*]Great Night Vision
[*]Fast Metabolism
[*]One-handed sword fighting style Artashir is trained from a young age to varying degrees
[*]Tech-Minded/Gear Heads
[*]Weaknesses:
CULTURE
[*]Technology level: Slightly above Galactic Average
[*]Religion/Beliefs: There are four major gods within the Zanji religion, known as the Old Gods: Ragga; the all-knowing god of knowledge, Zettaj; the god of fertility and prosperity, Saresh; the trickster and deceiver, and finally Artaxias; the warrior god King. It is taught that these gods did not all come at the same time and they all have their place, even the evil god, Saresh. It is told that the Zanji did not always have the power to to change into the Lavi. It is told that Ragga, the newest god, is the god that pushed them into the people they are today. Young but still the wisest of the gods, he came on black wings with the his followers, the Starsisters. It is they that gave the Zanji the gift to touch the realm of the gods, Gehdi, which is their name for the Force. He and his Starsisters taught the young chiefs how to touch the realm of the gods and taught the gods how to manifest themselves in the physical realm. He also gave the Zanji language. But some chiefs thought it a good idea to take this knowledge and use it for their own gain. They gathered power and attacked the other tribes, leading the Zanji into the bloodiest war it had ever seen. It was here on the Summer Solstice that Artaxias descended upon the physical realm, bringing with him his Pride and granting the Zanji people to touch his power, granting them the power to change into the Lavi. Artaxias and his pride set the forests of the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters ablaze, allowing the newly empowered Lavi to destroy the the Coven of Nightbrothers and Nightsisters. In the end the Coven surrendered to the judgement of the gods.
Artaxias was furious though. Forced to destroy the land he and his wife had worked so hard to build and angered that these Zanji had taken a gift so graciously given and perverted its power he ordered them to death. Artaxias' brother, Saresh however was a jealous brother. He made a deal to free the Coven if they promised to help him overthrow his brother and steal his wife for himself. However, when Saresh was to kill his brother, Layla, the wife of Artaxias sacrificed herself to save her beloved. Devestated that his brother would betray him and kill is lover, Artaxias ripped the wings from his brother's back and swiped him across the jaw, breaking his teeth and cast him into the swamps along with the Coven forever banishing them from the life of the Zanji. On her deathbed, Layla begged her lover to allow Saresh back into their realm. To grant her final wish, Artaxias granted his brother entry, chaining him to the stars so that he would be forced to watch the gods and the Zanji live prosperously. Saresh's bitterness turned to venom and dripped from his broken jaw. These drops created new life on the planet, the Scared. To combat these creatures, Artaxias sent his youngest children back to the physical realm to protect the Zanji from the foul beasts, forced to forever protect and to eternally test the Zanji warriors' mettle as the Ariav.
This is the creation myth of the Zanji as understood by modern tales. Scholars have yet to decipher all of its meaning, but they believe that the Zanji are distantly tied to the Dathomiri people as their language is similar to that of the Dathomiri indigenous peoples. They believe that this story is the ancient meeting between the Dathomiri and Zanji people as even their use of the Force is similar to the Witches of Dathomir. Many of their customs such as a predominantly female dominated rule and opposing uses of this witchcraft, called Voodoo by the Zanji practitioners are too similar to be ignored. The ancient Ragga temple complex within Jamel, which is believed to be the only place the gods can enter the physical realm, is also incredibly similar to ancient constructs found scattered across Dathomir. Interestingly, their god Ragga is described in a similar to the Giant Cycle Owl that is told of in legends in both Dathomiri and Mandalorian cultures. Curiously though, the Cycle Owl is absent from the ecosystem of Zanj.
[*]
Minor Gods
[*]General behavior
: The Zanji live in tribes both small and large throughout Zanj. Developing alongside lightsabers, the warrior people developed a unique, one-handed Form called Artashir which is taught alongside dance from a young age. While not every family would have such a weapon, learning swordsmanship was important, especially for females as they were expected to lead their home. As a warrior people many wars have been fought over their history, with leading tribes staying in power over large areas for generations. These tribes once large enough split into other families and eventually became small villages. Everyone in the village is treated as family, though who is part of the leading tribe is obvious in their social structure. Because of the harshness of the environment and the amount of predators that fill their world they are very tight knit and cautious of their surroundings. They are amazing engineers with a mind for tech, boasting some of the most advanced shield and droid technologies in the Outer Rim Territories.
The Zanji of the jungle, mountain, savanna and Bayou regions live mostly as agrarian-based societies with established farming practices that differ dependent entirely on their location. However, they also function as hunter-gatherers creating a hybrid state of living and an almost caste-based system, though caste doesn't determine one's place in society. Relationships between Zanji are simple and contain little superfluous courting. This is because of the fast passed life many Zanji live as explorers, hunters and fishermen etc. Sexual orientation is a non-issue with them as well.
In the Bayou, the most dangerous place on Zanj, the Zanji are placed into two categories: normal and aberrant. Normal Zanji operate similarly to all other Zanji outside of the fact that they are more cautious and superstitious than any other group. Because the Bayou is the known home of several Witchdoctors and the cannibal, aberrant Zanji, they have steeled themselves into some of the planet's fiercest warriors.
The Aberrant Zanji, often simply called Cannibals by the Zanji are worshipers of Saresh and Witchdoctors. They kidnap Zanji in night raids and bring them back to their camps to eat and conduct heinous rituals with their captured designed to gain the favor of Saresh and bring him closer to freedom so that the dark god can kill his brother and destroy all who oppose them. They also work closely with Witchdoctors and are the most common Zanji to succumb to Sun's Call. Many halflings and White Lavi live among them. They also utilize the Scarred as their tenuous companions and harvest celeber crystals for the Witchdoctors to make strange concoctions for them.
The Zanji of the Badlands are of two groups, raiders or nomads. The raiders are Zanji warriors of fortune. They gladly kill other Zanji and travelers stupid enough to travel alone and utilize several of the big cat species and heavily modified droids for combat and raids. The Raider Kings also fight among themselves in small wars that devastate the Ragga ruins even further. They sell their spoils to black market vendors who then flip the spoils beyond the walls of the city-temple of Jamel.
The nomads are forced to move in small groups, scavenging and hunting for anything they can in hopes that they can either store enough food to make it through the Bayou to a friendly tribe or gather enough salvage to sell for passage into Jamel. Caught between the small wars between raider kings and the Cannibals their plight is one that spurs debate throughout Jamel.
The Zanji who live in the city of Jamel live incredibly privileged lives compared to other Zanji, though most Zanji are fine the way they are living (outside of the Nomads of course). They benefit from clean water, extra-planetary trade, and advanced infrastructure. Most Zanji within the walls speak and write in both Basic and Zengī fluently, albeit with varying accents. Here, they also have a standardized military force. The military works as both general peace keepers and a defense force against the raider kings of the Badlands. Trained to use blasters as well as traditional Zanji weapons they produce a heavy military tradition within the city which opposes the culture of academia that has been growing over the last three decades. As the Zanji become more aware of conditions outside of their own planet a call to bring the other tribes into the prosperity that is post-hyperspace living is strong in the youth and educated elite of the city. This kind of thought extends especially to the nomads of the Badlands.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Thousands of years of discovery, exploitation, desertion and rediscovery has left the planet of Zanj in an interesting position. Mostly overgrown with scattered ruins of various civilizations, the planet is seen as an archaeological gold mine by scholars all over the galaxy. The most recent civilization to take root on the planet's surface was the Dathomiri witches. Archaeologists pinpoint the time period of the Witches' first arrival to the planet at around 3,000 years ago, leaving arguably the biggest impact on the Zanji and its culture to date. This is not to say the previous cultures' effects are not felt. Because of outside influence, the biodiversity of the planet is incredibly high with species from various planets around the Galaxy.
Despite this, the Zanji religion revolves around a creation myth includes the first documented interaction with the Witches of Dathomir and a mysterious mention of the legendary Giant Cycle Owl, also mentioned in Mandalorian lore. While the Zanji have their own story which some see as allegory and many believe to be literal, archaeologists have discovered that the Witches of Dathomir crash landed on the planet. Stranded, the Witches of Dathomir raided the land with their advanced, albeit stolen, technology and their control over the Force. Along with their rancors and battle mounts they instilled puppet empires throughout the planet, constructing one of the largest Dathomiri structures to date. Believed to be a temple dedicated to the Giant Cycle Owl and other powerful beasts of the planet, the temple was constructed in the ruins of an ancient Zanji city. Ironically the ruins held greater technology than the primitive Zanji or the Dathomiri witches. During this time they bred with the Zanji and taught them their language and their ways which. This would eventually lead to a coup attempt by a sect of the witches who had gone dark and converted a few Zanji to their cause.
The war would drag on for almost a century until a sect of Allyan witches used powerful and ancient shapeshifting magic on powerful force using warriors of the allied Zanji tribes giving them the ability to change at will into an a great beast. Pulling at the genes left over from when the Zanji were a feline species, the witches brought forth their prehistoric form. With this the witches rode the sentient beasts into battle and destroyed the Nightsisters and their Witchdoctors. Over generations the irreversible spell that allowed this transformation would spread throughout the gene pool of the Zanji, making it commonplace and eventually a defining trait of the Zanji. After the war, the witches would use technology found in the ruined city to repair their warships and would leave, fearing further conflict and corruption.
The Zanji since then have used this war as their creation myth. For centuries afterwards tribe after tribe would take the title Warlord and sit upon the throne of the Dathomiri temple. The wars were fought over who had the closest bloodline to the gods who granted them their power. These long periods of war thrust the Zanji's technological prowess to its limits, producing powerful shielding and droid technologies that left many in the Outer Rim green with envy. Forced to unite or be conquered, technologies such as speeders, starships, and other advanced tech proliferated from Jamel and into the various villages throughout the planet.
[*]Links: Original Sub
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Name:[background=#1e1e1e] Zanji[/background]
- Designation:[background=#1e1e1e] Sentient[/background]
- Homeworld: Zanj
- Language:[background=#1e1e1e] [/background]
- Average Lifespan:[background=#1e1e1e] 100-200 Years[/background]
- Estimated Population: [background=#1e1e1e] [/background]
- [background=#1e1e1e]Planetary [/background]
- Description: [Provide a short paragraph that describes this species at a glance. More in-depth descriptions can be added in distinctions below.]
- PHYSICAL INFORMATION
Breathes:[background=#1e1e1e] Type I[/background] - Average height of adults:[background=#1e1e1e] 2 Meters; 1.3 Meters at the shoulder as a Lavi[/background]
- Average length of adults:[background=#1e1e1e] N/A Normal human[/background]
- Skin color:[background=#1e1e1e] Ranges from a light mocha to midnight black with occasional white stripes or splotches.[/background]
- Hair color: [background=#1e1e1e]Blacks and browns. Rarely, white.[/background]
- Distinctions:[background=#1e1e1e] Tall, dark and tightly muscled with kinky hair, the Zanji are a race of near-human shapeshifters from the Dathomir system. Strong jawed with prominent canines, the Zanji are blessed with the ability to shift into large, four legged felines. Called a Lavi, the form is thought to harbor a Zanji's truest self. Similar to their human form, the color of the course fur of this form ranges from golden tans to midnight black. Zanji that have succumbed to Sun's Call, a rare disease unique to the Zanji, they are trapped in their Lavi and their fur turns white as snow. While this is reversible, a Zanji is forever marked by their blue eyes and white hair along with the inability to ever change into a Lavi again. As a Lavi form there is no difference between male and female, both massive felines are made to look even more impressive by their majestic manes. In their base form however, they are easy to tell apart as they look no different than a dark skinned human of Coruscant. Children are born with tails that retreat during puberty and completely vanish after a Zanji's first transformation. [/background]
- Races:[background=#1e1e1e] None[/background]
- Strengths:
Lavi Transformation
Animal Senses - Strength and Speed of a big cat
- Sharp Claws and Teeth
- Turns into a Quadropedal, manned feline measuring at 1.3 Meters tall
[*]Great Night Vision
[*]Fast Metabolism
[*]One-handed sword fighting style Artashir is trained from a young age to varying degrees
[*]Tech-Minded/Gear Heads
[*]Weaknesses:
- Easily Poisoned: Because of their fast metabolism, poisons and toxins spread through their bodies faster than humans
- Scarred: Scarred poison causes boils on the skin and is excruciatingly painful. Deadly if left untreated
- No natural defense against traditional weapons
- Pride: Pride and honor is everything to a Zanji. They will fight to the death to protect their Pride
- Sun's call Disease: Caused by using the Lavi transformation at night too many times
Rabies-like symptoms - Causes violence and madness
- Causes brain tumor that triggers the transformation without the control or consent of the afflicted
- If not tended to, causes permanent transformation into White Lavi for life, erasing their sentience and cutting their lifespan by approximately 80%
- Transforming at night under a full moon expedites the process and has been known to case symptoms immediately
- The "Cure" can only be administered once the random transformations have begun, and only by a Witchdoctor. The transformations stop and the life is saved, however the afflicted will no longer be able to shift into a Lavi and they will be forever marked by their white hair and blue eyes, or they will be caught somewhere in between. Either way, they are forced to live with the same of becoming a "Halfling"
CULTURE
- Diet: Omnivore
- Communication:
Written Zengī - Zengī
- Music
- Dance
[*]Technology level: Slightly above Galactic Average
[*]Religion/Beliefs: There are four major gods within the Zanji religion, known as the Old Gods: Ragga; the all-knowing god of knowledge, Zettaj; the god of fertility and prosperity, Saresh; the trickster and deceiver, and finally Artaxias; the warrior god King. It is taught that these gods did not all come at the same time and they all have their place, even the evil god, Saresh. It is told that the Zanji did not always have the power to to change into the Lavi. It is told that Ragga, the newest god, is the god that pushed them into the people they are today. Young but still the wisest of the gods, he came on black wings with the his followers, the Starsisters. It is they that gave the Zanji the gift to touch the realm of the gods, Gehdi, which is their name for the Force. He and his Starsisters taught the young chiefs how to touch the realm of the gods and taught the gods how to manifest themselves in the physical realm. He also gave the Zanji language. But some chiefs thought it a good idea to take this knowledge and use it for their own gain. They gathered power and attacked the other tribes, leading the Zanji into the bloodiest war it had ever seen. It was here on the Summer Solstice that Artaxias descended upon the physical realm, bringing with him his Pride and granting the Zanji people to touch his power, granting them the power to change into the Lavi. Artaxias and his pride set the forests of the Nightbrothers and Nightsisters ablaze, allowing the newly empowered Lavi to destroy the the Coven of Nightbrothers and Nightsisters. In the end the Coven surrendered to the judgement of the gods.
Artaxias was furious though. Forced to destroy the land he and his wife had worked so hard to build and angered that these Zanji had taken a gift so graciously given and perverted its power he ordered them to death. Artaxias' brother, Saresh however was a jealous brother. He made a deal to free the Coven if they promised to help him overthrow his brother and steal his wife for himself. However, when Saresh was to kill his brother, Layla, the wife of Artaxias sacrificed herself to save her beloved. Devestated that his brother would betray him and kill is lover, Artaxias ripped the wings from his brother's back and swiped him across the jaw, breaking his teeth and cast him into the swamps along with the Coven forever banishing them from the life of the Zanji. On her deathbed, Layla begged her lover to allow Saresh back into their realm. To grant her final wish, Artaxias granted his brother entry, chaining him to the stars so that he would be forced to watch the gods and the Zanji live prosperously. Saresh's bitterness turned to venom and dripped from his broken jaw. These drops created new life on the planet, the Scared. To combat these creatures, Artaxias sent his youngest children back to the physical realm to protect the Zanji from the foul beasts, forced to forever protect and to eternally test the Zanji warriors' mettle as the Ariav.
This is the creation myth of the Zanji as understood by modern tales. Scholars have yet to decipher all of its meaning, but they believe that the Zanji are distantly tied to the Dathomiri people as their language is similar to that of the Dathomiri indigenous peoples. They believe that this story is the ancient meeting between the Dathomiri and Zanji people as even their use of the Force is similar to the Witches of Dathomir. Many of their customs such as a predominantly female dominated rule and opposing uses of this witchcraft, called Voodoo by the Zanji practitioners are too similar to be ignored. The ancient Ragga temple complex within Jamel, which is believed to be the only place the gods can enter the physical realm, is also incredibly similar to ancient constructs found scattered across Dathomir. Interestingly, their god Ragga is described in a similar to the Giant Cycle Owl that is told of in legends in both Dathomiri and Mandalorian cultures. Curiously though, the Cycle Owl is absent from the ecosystem of Zanj.
[*]
Minor Gods
God and Goddes of the Hunt, Zaiha and Zariah: Husband and wife the pair were a Starsister and her chosen groom who arrived alongside Ragga and thus both of Zanji form. Zaiha however was tricked by Saresh, forever trapping him in the body of a Cocha. Together the lovers hunt for the Greater Gods. The Zanji sacrifice small game and hold totems like claws from the world's many big cats to gain favor and safety while on the hunt. Zaiha is a Starsister brought by Ragga and acts as his adviser.
Tuka, Artaxias' most trusted adviser: Appearing to mortals as an armored Lagus, he is a fierce warrior and minor god of wisdom. Chieftains often keep Lagus in their company as they are fiercely loyal and believed to grant mystical powers of precognition.
God of Death, Shinn: Shinn is a minor god who takes the spectral form of Zanj's many big cats. It is generally believed that while he is considered a minor god he is the most powerful and oldest of all and thus both respected and feared by man and god alike. It is also debated weather or not he is the sire of Delakia and the Old Gods. He comes to the mortal world to reap the souls of the dead and guide them into the afterlife, unless of course one has committed evil deeds in their lifetime in which case he will drag them into Hecret's hunting grounds where they are hunted, eaten and killed for an eternity.
Hecret: Hecret is a minor god of the afterlife. He is a Halfing who along with Saresh betrayed Artaxias and the other gods. As a thank you for his betrayal Saresh granted Hecret the power of a demigod. His and his followers' punishment was to be cast into oblivion where he began to make his home. From then on evil doers and Witchdoctors were cast into that realm for Hecret and his followers to kill and punish as atonement for their betrayal.
Lasirenn, Ezili, and Danto: Three beings of fluid gender, Minor gods are the queens of the different bodies of water. Lasirenn dominates all lakes and ponds, Ezili, the oceans, and Danto the streams and rivers. Together they rule over a mystical kingdom deep beneath the waves. Half fish and half Zanji the three sirens lure men and women to their watery grave with sensual songs, sometimes even coming to the shore to seduce their next victim. It is believed that they decide when the great floods of the rainy season will occur and offerings are made to them and their kingdom of half fish people to keep fishermen safe from drowning and to keep the floods from destroying their homes and families.
Shaunteal, god mother: Considered to be the mother of the Old Gods and mother of Zanj, Shaunteal is a god of second chances and benevolence. She gave up her power over all when she gave birth to the Old Gods, the four main gods of Zanji tradition. It is debated weather or not the Old Gods and Delakia were of virgin birth or Shinn, the god of death was her lover. Because of this, children born of affairs or out of wedlock are often attributed to the blessing of Shaunteal.
Seyja: Seyja is the free spirited god of luck and mischief, though his pranks are nowhere near as wicked as Saresh. Often depicted as a man living within the body of a Lavi, he emerges from the maw of the Lavi to speak and trick women and men into laying with him and trick honest Zanji out of their money. Every god has a story of him seducing them at one time or another, even producing bastard children among the Old Gods. He is also blamed for affairs that result in pregnancies and it is believed that children born of his seduction possess a small amount of god-like power.
Nganga: While not actually a god, she is believed to be the first Witchdoctor and an illusive demigod. She gained immeasurable favor and power from Saresh during his coup attempt. Mistress to the Dark God Saresh, she constantly harasses the Minor and Old gods in a guerrilla-style war. She uses spells to control minor gods with her most famous attack being when she kidnapped Zariah and used her spells to control Zaiha, raiding and destroying the gods' storehouses and Zanji villages. Witchdoctors and Cannibals look to her for guidance when they fear Saresh cannot hear them. She is also considered one of the three Dark Gods.
[*]General behavior
The Zanji of the jungle, mountain, savanna and Bayou regions live mostly as agrarian-based societies with established farming practices that differ dependent entirely on their location. However, they also function as hunter-gatherers creating a hybrid state of living and an almost caste-based system, though caste doesn't determine one's place in society. Relationships between Zanji are simple and contain little superfluous courting. This is because of the fast passed life many Zanji live as explorers, hunters and fishermen etc. Sexual orientation is a non-issue with them as well.
In the Bayou, the most dangerous place on Zanj, the Zanji are placed into two categories: normal and aberrant. Normal Zanji operate similarly to all other Zanji outside of the fact that they are more cautious and superstitious than any other group. Because the Bayou is the known home of several Witchdoctors and the cannibal, aberrant Zanji, they have steeled themselves into some of the planet's fiercest warriors.
The Aberrant Zanji, often simply called Cannibals by the Zanji are worshipers of Saresh and Witchdoctors. They kidnap Zanji in night raids and bring them back to their camps to eat and conduct heinous rituals with their captured designed to gain the favor of Saresh and bring him closer to freedom so that the dark god can kill his brother and destroy all who oppose them. They also work closely with Witchdoctors and are the most common Zanji to succumb to Sun's Call. Many halflings and White Lavi live among them. They also utilize the Scarred as their tenuous companions and harvest celeber crystals for the Witchdoctors to make strange concoctions for them.
The Zanji of the Badlands are of two groups, raiders or nomads. The raiders are Zanji warriors of fortune. They gladly kill other Zanji and travelers stupid enough to travel alone and utilize several of the big cat species and heavily modified droids for combat and raids. The Raider Kings also fight among themselves in small wars that devastate the Ragga ruins even further. They sell their spoils to black market vendors who then flip the spoils beyond the walls of the city-temple of Jamel.
The nomads are forced to move in small groups, scavenging and hunting for anything they can in hopes that they can either store enough food to make it through the Bayou to a friendly tribe or gather enough salvage to sell for passage into Jamel. Caught between the small wars between raider kings and the Cannibals their plight is one that spurs debate throughout Jamel.
The Zanji who live in the city of Jamel live incredibly privileged lives compared to other Zanji, though most Zanji are fine the way they are living (outside of the Nomads of course). They benefit from clean water, extra-planetary trade, and advanced infrastructure. Most Zanji within the walls speak and write in both Basic and Zengī fluently, albeit with varying accents. Here, they also have a standardized military force. The military works as both general peace keepers and a defense force against the raider kings of the Badlands. Trained to use blasters as well as traditional Zanji weapons they produce a heavy military tradition within the city which opposes the culture of academia that has been growing over the last three decades. As the Zanji become more aware of conditions outside of their own planet a call to bring the other tribes into the prosperity that is post-hyperspace living is strong in the youth and educated elite of the city. This kind of thought extends especially to the nomads of the Badlands.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Thousands of years of discovery, exploitation, desertion and rediscovery has left the planet of Zanj in an interesting position. Mostly overgrown with scattered ruins of various civilizations, the planet is seen as an archaeological gold mine by scholars all over the galaxy. The most recent civilization to take root on the planet's surface was the Dathomiri witches. Archaeologists pinpoint the time period of the Witches' first arrival to the planet at around 3,000 years ago, leaving arguably the biggest impact on the Zanji and its culture to date. This is not to say the previous cultures' effects are not felt. Because of outside influence, the biodiversity of the planet is incredibly high with species from various planets around the Galaxy.
Despite this, the Zanji religion revolves around a creation myth includes the first documented interaction with the Witches of Dathomir and a mysterious mention of the legendary Giant Cycle Owl, also mentioned in Mandalorian lore. While the Zanji have their own story which some see as allegory and many believe to be literal, archaeologists have discovered that the Witches of Dathomir crash landed on the planet. Stranded, the Witches of Dathomir raided the land with their advanced, albeit stolen, technology and their control over the Force. Along with their rancors and battle mounts they instilled puppet empires throughout the planet, constructing one of the largest Dathomiri structures to date. Believed to be a temple dedicated to the Giant Cycle Owl and other powerful beasts of the planet, the temple was constructed in the ruins of an ancient Zanji city. Ironically the ruins held greater technology than the primitive Zanji or the Dathomiri witches. During this time they bred with the Zanji and taught them their language and their ways which. This would eventually lead to a coup attempt by a sect of the witches who had gone dark and converted a few Zanji to their cause.
The war would drag on for almost a century until a sect of Allyan witches used powerful and ancient shapeshifting magic on powerful force using warriors of the allied Zanji tribes giving them the ability to change at will into an a great beast. Pulling at the genes left over from when the Zanji were a feline species, the witches brought forth their prehistoric form. With this the witches rode the sentient beasts into battle and destroyed the Nightsisters and their Witchdoctors. Over generations the irreversible spell that allowed this transformation would spread throughout the gene pool of the Zanji, making it commonplace and eventually a defining trait of the Zanji. After the war, the witches would use technology found in the ruined city to repair their warships and would leave, fearing further conflict and corruption.
The Zanji since then have used this war as their creation myth. For centuries afterwards tribe after tribe would take the title Warlord and sit upon the throne of the Dathomiri temple. The wars were fought over who had the closest bloodline to the gods who granted them their power. These long periods of war thrust the Zanji's technological prowess to its limits, producing powerful shielding and droid technologies that left many in the Outer Rim green with envy. Forced to unite or be conquered, technologies such as speeders, starships, and other advanced tech proliferated from Jamel and into the various villages throughout the planet.
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You'll have to go through and rehost your images. Everything you had on PB is broken.
[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]
You'll have to go through and rehost your images. Everything you had on PB is broken.
[member="Isaiah Dashiell"]