Approved Species Qineam

[Fabula Caromed]

(c) Dave Barrack​

Name: Qineam (s: Qinae)
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Rhadamanthus
Language: Qin
Average height of adults: 1.8 meters, females slightly shorter
Skin color: Dull skin colors, normally purple to black, often with green markings for camouflage
Hair color: Ranges between black, blue, and green
Breathes: Standard oxygen

Strengths:
+ Multiple arms. Qineam evolved from a hexapedal species. When they developed bipedal movement, their remaining four limbs evolved into fully functional hands. The manual dexterity required to use four limbs effectively means that as a whole, Qineam are very coordinated. They're functionally stronger than standard creatures, but mostly because four arms can apply greater force than two.

+ Acute senses. Rhadamanthus is often very, very dark, and most species of the planet are nocturnal. Canopy overgrowth can make some areas entirely lightless, and predators abound. Qineam have extremely acute hearing, a distinguishing sense of smell, and ultravision (light magnification, not infravision) adapted to survive in this extremely hazardous environment.

+ Accelerated healing. Qineam have an advanced form of cellular regeneration that allows them to heal quickly from injuries. This won't seal over a claw wound or a blaster shot in the middle of combat, but when given a chance to rest they naturally heal at roughly twice the normal human rate. This gives them some resistance to diseases and poisons (very useful on a world where everything is diseased and poisonous) and slows aging by a fair margin.

The actual maximum age of a Qinae can only be guessed at. Precious few Qineam have ever died of old age.

Weaknesses:
- Hooves. Vestigial garbage DNA from their equine roots, Qineam have hooves instead of feet. While these protect from the often dangerous ground plants of Rhadamanthus, they make quick movement very awkward, and stealth even moreso.

- Force blind. As a species, Qineam are extremely rarely Force-sensitive. Attunement to the Force is so rare and Force-sensitive individuals so weak by galactic standards that Qineam aren't actually aware that the Force exists. They have no word for it, and no manner of identifying Force-sensitive individuals.

- Schizo tech. Qineam technology is entirely incompatible with any other technology in the galaxy. While the effect is the same, the underlying principles are completely different, requiring a unique power source not found anywhere else in the universe and using certain mathematically-improbable principles.

Distinctions: Four arms, horns, hooves, tails
Average lifespan: Indeterminate and inconsistant. The oldest recorded Qinae was 500 years old, but she did not die of old age. Fewer than a dozen Qineam have died of natural causes, and none of them reached more than 250.
Races:
Ryhdn - Northern Qineam. Features as listed above. Descendant from feudal monarchies, developed imperialistic tendancies shortly before the discovery of space travel. Almost three times as common as other races.

Modyn - From the southern hemisphere of the planet. Bright green coloration, due to limited canopy coverage. Measurably larger and stronger. Reputation for being overly aggressive. Almost ubiquious with warrior caste.

Iemd - Cave-dwellers from the mountain ranges so common to Rhadamanthus' eastern micro-continents. Somewhat shorter and less imposing than Ryhdn Qineam, but with sharper ultravision. Stereotyped as thinkers, not doers. Common in upper echelons of government.

Diet: Omnivorous. Commonly eats slain animals and "slain" plants, though few are poisonous to outsiders. Some aquatic plants and animals from homeworld host microscopic parasites that cause extreme sickness in natives and would doubtlessly kill most offworlders.

Communication: Standard vocal/audio. Though Qineam have a keen sense of smell, evolving pheremone-based communication would jeopardize their survival as a species, since most native predators can also hunt by scent.

Culture: Hunting has been pivotal to the survival of the Qineam species from the dawn of their sentience. Every creature is seen as either a predator or prey, a concept central to much of their art. A Qinae will always attempt to link its bloodline back to a great hunter of some sort.

Qineam have six names. The fist name in the string is their given name, followed by the given names of their immediate five ancestors of the same sex. A single Qinae is a walking record of heredity, but some confusion happens with the inevitable duplication of names. Extensive bloodline records are kept to prevent confusion.

Under the Primarch of a city, every single other Qineam is divided into two castes: warrior, and scholar. Both of these are very broad terms, with warriors applying themselves to the myriad uses of violence on Rhadamanthus, while scholars are the keepers of knowledge and craftsmen of the species. There are no gender taboos and no shame associated with either caste, though there are noticably more warriors than scholars due to the dangers of Rhadamanthus and other planets in the system.

Three concepts are central to Qineam beliefs: community, honor, and family. The only way a Qineam tribe could survive early in their life was due to numbers and coordination, so cooperation with each other and a sense of community grew extremely strong. Honor, both personal and that of the community, is a driving motivation for every thought process, achieved by glory and lessened by deception. Naturally, these concepts apply to one's personal family, as well.

It should go without say that the inability to continue a family line is among the highest disgraces that a Qinae can be accused of.

Technology level: Qineam technology is roughly comparable to contemporary tech from the galactic core in function, but in operation it is unbelievably alien. Using unique biological stones that give off powerful (and deadly) radiation, Qineam devices are universally incompatible with any other species' technology. However, it can replicate almost every essential function that contemporary electrical tech can come up with, from blasters to computers to climate control to starships.

The Qineam space program is odd, due to their defficient hyperspace abilities. Their removal from the Rakatan hyperspace web makes their hyperspace travel extremely rudimentary and fundamentlaly flawed, not to mention inefficient and dangerous. On the other hand, their sublight capabilities are greatly advanced. Traffic from Rhadamanthus to orbit and several other planets in the system is common, almost constant.

General behavior: Qineam are rightfully obsessed with breeding. The natural predators on their home planets are deadly even to a spacefaring species. It's not at all uncommon for a Qinae to see any interaction with the opposite sex as a courtiship practice, and infertility is almost a pariah trait.

Being relatively long-lived seems to have no effect on Qineam, whose violent lives are lived day-to-day. Their scholar caste is capable of planning, but even then they show a great deal of impulsiveness. Every day could be their last.

A given Qinae tends to think in a predatory sense. There are hunters, and there are prey. This makes them given to ruthlessness and aggression in most situations, though they're capable of patience when necessary.

History: In Qineam prehistory, their species is evidenced to have evolved from a hexapedal equine omnivore. Early Qineam ancestors were pack hunters who used their natural cunning, landspeed, and horns to take down large prey and defend each other. Eventually this cunning began to evolve into legitimate sapience. The Qineam "neanderthal" equivalent greatly resembled a hooved gundark, until the modern Qineam biology fully developed.

In their infancy, sentient Qineam lived in a world of darkness and fear. While their bodies were supremely suited to such a world, larger predators, violent herbivores, and carnivorous plants all made their lives extremely dangerous. Despite their naturally long lives (which no Qinae discovered until they began spacefaring), their population never raised far above a couple billion, simply because of how frequently both individuals and entire cities were consumed by the ravages of an unforgiving and hungry jungle.

When the Qineam developed space travel, all of this changed. Their cities became strong enough to repel the wilds of their planet for years if not decades at a time, and being able to colonize their planet's four moons resulted in an unheard-of population exposion, fully doubling their numbers as a species.

In the early days of their space age, the Qineam were graced with extremely odd visitors to Rhadamanthus: the Yuuzhan Vong, on their crusade to the galactic core, stopped briefly in the Rhadamanthus System. Impressed by the power of the life on the planet and duly confused by Qineam technology and its biological components, the Vong deemed that the Qineam were not worth destroying or assimilating and moved on, intending to revisit them on their return from the galactic core. As a result of this temporary encounter, the Qineam discovered that they were not alone in the galaxy, and that other worlds could be as deadly as their own to produce such incredible warriors. Many Qineam learn to speak the language of the Yuuzhan Vong, seeing them as their first extraterrestrial contact.

Since as a species the Qineam developed outside the reach of the Infinite Empire and the Rakatan hyperspace lanes, Qineam hyperspace capabilities are innately limited. Hyperspace explorations are almost as dangerous as the surface of Rhadamanthus, and the Pitrzohduna (roughly "explorers") are seen more as suicidally foolish than brave and selfless.

Notable Player-Characters: Kiruoum Kirdci Mdehm Hikec Byzih Synmir, "Kiki"
Intent: To create a sufficiently alien species for Kiki without greatly impacting the galaxy.

Spoiler

Inspirations:
Dabbler (Grrl Power): The only real inspiration for Kiki and her species is the really unique and amazingly awesome character "Dabbler." Her schizo, illogical body is just too much fun not to play with, and the character's personality and abilities are amazing.

Similar species:
Gundarks: The only real analogue to Qineam appearance is the gundark. Four arms, digitrade legs, massive ears...it wouldn't be unfeasible for a creature from the core galaxy to confuse the Qineam for an evolution or subspecies of gundark.

Trandoshans/Wookiees: Both of these species hold a lot in common with the Qineam. Wookiee lifespans are extremely long, both species are natural hunters that grew up on dangerous worlds, and both heal extremely rapidly.