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It has tusks! Courtesy of [member="Kira Vaal"]
Name: Resu
Designation: Sentient (Though highly communal among broods until adulthood)
Homeworld: The Realm of Resu, specifically Shikyu
Language: Resune, a language comprised solely by electrical signals shared between Resu with minor 'thermal' ques combined with their body language.
Average Lifespan: 40 Standard Years (Adulthood starting at 12, when militant service for one's family is expected to begin; at 25, the "Veteran" age, a Resu is considered venerable)
Estimated Population: Only found within the Realm of Resu. Depending on whether or not they are facing a population crisis such as they were when the Underground first contacted the species, the population of Original Resu could range anywhere from several thousand (found on the moon Ysraka, and a few terrestrial colonies) to many hundreds of millions (as when they were first introduced to the galaxy).
Average height of adults: 0.5-1 meters tall
Average length of adults: 4-6 meters long
Skin color: Silver, Gray, Slate, other grayish metallic tones etc.
Hair color: N/a
Distinctions:
Breathes: Hydrogen Distilled Water
Biological Strengths and Weaknesses:
(+) Psychologically Hardened to Violence - From the very moment they are born, all Resu are immediately exposed to senseless and terrible violence and death, and as such through the rest of their dreadful and short lifespan the fear of death is essentially nonexistent.
(+) High Electrical Resistance - Their resistance, inherent in their constant use of their electrical organs, ranges from as little as 1000 volts to a record high of 1200 volts. A Resu can produce electrical charges between 800 volts and 1000 volts.
(+) Immunity to Carbon Diseases - Given their silicon biology, they are completely immune to such diseases as the Gulag Plague for example, among many others. (Notable Exception, see: Resuspawn Toxin).
(+) Temperature Adaptability - Thriving in the near boiling temperatures surrounding thermal vents, with the capability of combating arctic temperatures, the Resu are able to adapt to almost any heat environment (if given the proper time to brace for the cold).
(+) Pressure Adaptability - Although there are limits to their abilities, the Resu are capable of swimming to any part of their global ocean, from the seafloor to the icy "searoof". They are typically the deep sea fish you'd expect, though the Resu are almost unique to their ecosystem through their exploration of the surface, likely evolved over many centuries of intelligent curiosity.
(+) Optional Parthenogenesis - In times of a population crisis (or perhaps in the rarer case of two female lovers not in a crisis situation), Resu females are capable of copulating with another female to stimulate the production of genetically cloned children without the presence of contributed male genes. These children share an even closer mental resemblance to their birthing mother than in all other cases, and are still capable of falling into either gender as necessitated to fix any imbalance between the two sexes in a population.
(+) Rationed Gender Development - As mentioned, children are at first born without sex or gender. It takes time for them to sense the hormonal levels present in the waters of a population of Resu to determine which sex is desired to achieve a balance.
(+) Litter Reduction Strategy - Despite a Resu mother's capability of birthing a brood of twenty six small offspring (typically of an r-strategist species that wishes to flood an ecosystem with as many offspring as possible to ensure at least a few can survive), the Resu eventually settle on a few larger offspring to nurture and to grow with assistance from the family community unit (more typical of a k-strategist species that "place their bets" on only a few very strong and intelligent offspring which are likely to survive independently in the future), through a complicated vetting process which prematurely eliminates weak candidates in a brood.
(+/-) Force Blind - There is no mention of any kind of suspected Force Sensitivity among the Resu or any acknowledgement of its existence until the "Abominations" were created by the Moross Crusade during the Morossian Contact Event.
(-) Short Lifespan - As mentioned, the Resu have a miserably short lifespan when compared to many of the exceptionally long lived species of the galaxy. Not to mention the fatality rate of infants and adolescence, or the casualties of a culture surrounding indefinite eternal famillicidal warfare.
(-) Huge Language Barrier - Sound-based language is literally incomprehensible to a Resu, to them, its like seeing something out of your peripheral vision and saying the distortions in that vision is a language meant to be understood. The same can be said for any aliens wishing to understand the Resu "tongue", which consists of multiple electrical field interactions, shock frequencies, and more subtle infrared social cues. Without a translator, neither speaker or 'listener' is going to get very far understanding the other.
(-) Life Support Suit Required on Land - Given their entirely aquatic nature, it only comes as common sense that to venture out beyond their oceanic home they would need a life support suit capable of replicating the pressures, salinity, and temperatures of their aquatic home, in addition to allowing maneuverability, sensing their environment, and maintaining their ability to manipulate objects. It will also need some manner of distilling the life-supporting waters with hydrogen, the gas which the Resu require to breathe. This is costly however, even more so than it would be for any species that wasn't entirely acquatic. Primitive life support suits utilized a number of limbs, but today's most advanced life support suits simulate a humanoid posture, especially of the particularly advanced "CybeResu", who have literally become part of their life support suits in a cybernetic fusion.
(-) Poor Unprepared Cold Resistance - If not given the time to prepare for the cold by stocking up on heat chemicals, exposing them to freezing temperatures can kill them rather quickly (in a manner of a couple dozen minutes)
(-) Gravitationally Weak [Lunar Race Specific] - Given that their ancestral home has about 1/3rd the "Standard Gravity", they are much weaker compared to other galactic species used to their higher gravity worlds. The exception being those colonies on Terrestrial worlds with similar gravity to the Standard, in which case they are perfectly safe to explore other worlds without worry of health complications. All other Resu, will require special equipment in their life support suits to help brace their frailer bodies against the increased gravity, or in any other way reduce their exposure to the intense gravity. Those frequently exposed to these intense gravities, can eventually adapt to it, though prolonged exposure will always have risks, especially for those newly initiated to the sensation.
(-) Exposed Underbelly - For the purpose of hatching their eggs, females and males, posses no exoskeletal armor plating along their bellies, making a particularly vulnerable area to target.
(-) No Olfactory Sense - They are incapable of perceiving any sense of smell or taste, furthering their already lacking ability to relate to other alien species. Their skin is capable however, of distinguishing salinity content, at least in water.
Races:
Diet: Carnivorous, allergic and/or intolerant of oxygen, as well as any oxygen breathing meats. Bio-carbons are also often inedible, or subject to allergic reactions. Even if they can tolerate the presence of carbon products and oxygen, it does not mean either holds any nutritional value.
Communication: A combination of electrical frequency discharges and field interactions, with more subtle infrared signally acting as social cues. Hypothesized that the 'electrical tongue' began as electrical singing to court others prior to mating, or short electrical burst to signify excitement between lovers (almost like a social embrace), thus in some sense Resune is a language of love.
As far as translation is concerned, technologies dedicated to interpreting the electrical signals of Resune as a kind of morse code have been created, though they are somewhat crude. It does, however slightly, bridge the once significant language barrier between the Resu and the rest of the galaxy, should they be lucky enough to possess one (or afford one). Still, there are imperfections in the design, as described by a certain xenobiologist, their speech patterns often dictate subjects and verbs almost separately, without any discernible articles, a fewer prepositions. Often times complex words meant to convey certain ideas are used in place of smaller/simpler words or phrases, as the ideas within Resune exist, but the pleasantries of an audio language are not present.
Due to this, names are an extremely difficult matter, since Resune names are almost entirely unrelated to the prospect of interpretative ideas, a whole other system from ordinary Resune speech. It is thus far mysterious how they got their name, or the names of the many moons and worlds. If it was an explorer, no one has heard of them since, though records show the Resu have always been called such by the galactic community.
On the subject of names, Resu who come in contact with galactic residents all possess an identity which are intrinsically linked with their personal translators (should they have one). These identifying names in basic, are often a metallic or material substance, followed by some noun. Examples of these names are, Silver Sentinel, Iron Giant, Stone Hermes, Bronze Tusk, Mercury Tongue, etc. Examples of their speech could be as follows:
He regurgitates individual carcasses, but it is intentionally less than enough for the 11 survivors. This ritual usually calls for 5 carcasses, in which the 11 fight over. The five who best their siblings will survive to live on, hopefully into adulthood. The remaining six if they are not already dead will be ignored by both parents. If by some miracle one of these abandoned children survive and return to their parents in their teens, they will be welcomed as the most favored child, and undergo a strange bonding unfamiliar to the rest of the Galactic community. If such a child were to arise, a ritual that can only be described as a marriage takes place between the parents and the survivor. This is in no way sexual, but it binds the child and parents together permanently, and when the parents die all titles, allies, and territory then belonged to them is now to that child. This is unusual from their common culture due to the fact that inheritance is viewed as taboo, making for weak children unable to survive without their parents. In the case of two miracles, the siblings are the ones to decide who shall inherit their parent's domain as their own. This usually ends up with one of them dead, but there have been instances where the siblings share in mutual protection, and others where the domain is split between them. In the combat ritual of inheritance the dead member is ceremoniously burned in sacred thermal vents, the Resu equivalent of paying respects to the deceased.
Lastly, only a few of the five survive afterwards, succumbing to extreme punishment from their familial peers when an important rite-of-passage hunt is failed. The margins for failure however are less strained, a hunt can fail and the juvenile can go about living respectfully, as long as it is clear that the quarry is exceptionally difficult, and was unable to be caught before it reaches a safe area where the hunter can not reach. Another such situation, is when a certain prey is particularly dangerous, and draws the hunters blood before escaping. The true and utter failures are left to rot, with no hope of restoring their honor.
Initially when the offspring are born, they are without gender, but they are not hermaphrodite's, they simply grow into their gender upon entering adulthood. They 'choose' their gender depending on the male to female ration in the population, to fill certain needs. If for some reason though the populations are unbalanced, a biological change occurs in which two females can participate in Parthenogenesis and repopulate the area, allowing for 22 children to survive feeding, and then after they inherit the male part of parenting and bring them the carcasses. Only 10 to 12 offspring survive to repopulate in unbalanced populations per each female to female pairing. Also to be noted, inbreeding never occurs due to the communal (nearly hive) sentience offspring share with their siblings that allows for the impersonal fight for survival, fully aware of their siblings impending deaths. It never occurs because the siblings would never think of it, having the mentality that it would be like breeding with oneself, and all offspring giving family members are monogamous. All members of the race are monogamous except in times of population, or genetic crisis. However, it is to be noted that Queens and Empresses do sometimes practice polygamy. Lastly, an unrecorded event is slavery; it appears this race found no use of slaves, seeming as the entire race is one large militant force, perhaps slavery was impossible, and thus never discovered. This may be the reason for their genocidal responses to aggression, expecting the same response from other races that they are provoked by and invade.
When it comes to love and courting, mates can only be chosen from an allied family until both families are effectively the same (thus necessitating the need for a new allied family). To the individuals in courtship, the females are the ultimate deciders in a relationship. The males with the largest tusks, largest fins with the best song, the spiniest back, and the greatest heat get the mate that they swim around to court. Males posses the privilege of choosing who they court though, meaning a given female only gets to select a mate from suitors that are attracted to her; males look for females with the largest size, the most blubber on their underbelly's, warmest eggs, and largest claws tend to be the ones courted. Also, exceptionally fast females who create the most alluring mosaic of thermal heat trails to linger in the water, are regarded with incredible enthusiasm from the males, a trait more seducing than physical attraction. Females often race each other in the mating preseason, and show off for the males. Similarly, the males engage in duels, and sometimes larger brawls in which they ram each other with their tusks, and "scream" at one another electrically, sending females in a frenzy, although not quite as powerfully as the males sympathy for female races. Once they have mated however, their life is bond to each other, and it is rare that they produce offspring twice, even more rare is polygamy; only practiced during times of population crisis, and if a Resu is particularly important. However these important female Resu maintain a soul mate, whom she does not mate with after their first brood. This male counterpart would often be the "leader" of her domain however, leading her Nation under her specification, entitling him to a false sense of power.
During parthenogenetic female pairings, females search for females of a similar caliber to themselves as far as physical attraction, and will likely not pair again if the population crisis necessitating their pair is averted. Though a similar relationship closer to the standard idea of a single brood monogamous relationship can exist between two females. Though such a relationship does not seem to exist similarly for males with male partners, as the social interaction either does not exist, or is a taboo largely stomped out by extermination or exile.
In adulthood, all members of society are natural warriors requiring no training in warfare, as they grow up, and train through their natural process of life. Their true careers enter two specific fields, astrophysics which was discovered for their expansive purposes and curiosity of what lay 'beyond the ice' of their lunar home, or they go into advanced biology, being able to easily identify, and often cure disease that are found in nearly fallen warriors. Before adulthood, they learn a general overview of all the science's that they know, under the tutelage of Veterans, when they are not on a battlefront. They possess excellent underwater (obviously) surgeons, and doctors, along with incredible life saving medics on the battle front (cultural alternative route than compulsory military service).
Scientist/engineers don't often mingle with the warrior 'caste' due to their being older, more mature, than the younger more aggressive counterparts; they are referred to as Veterans, having already gone through the aggressive warfare of their youth to pursue intellectual studies. Warfare is for the young and the great, those in between or unsuccessful with mating become successful in a life of science. Despite their lack of modern weaponry, they have a vast arsenal of poisons, antidotes, and cures to various disease that they provide on a constant basis. In warfare, it is not taboo to fight a Veteran as they are experienced warriors, however, explicitly targeting Veterans is consider the greatest offense to civilization, and those who do are shunned by all surrounding families and/or nationalities, branding them as barbarians. At this they are then quickly overwhelmed by an invasion front from all directions. Veterans of barbarian families/nations are given the choice of assimilating into the conquering family/nationality or to be honorably killed in combat (this includes female scientist, as females were also bound by the Veteran rule and military service unanimously compulsory without statement). After the Veteran rule, becoming a scientist is not the only option anymore. With the colonization of new celestial bodies, astronauts, explorers, and now with the galactic community, early ambassadors were common careers.
That though was before the Morossian Contact Event, which virtually destroyed the entire culture of the Resu, wish an Infertility Plague threatened them with extinction, while the Morossian Resu held them hostage on Ysraka as a "breeding" population (converting Veterans into Morossian Resu after producing offspring, or they became to old to do so). Luckily, with the advent of the CybeResu, their cybernetic heroes with the assistance of the Underground in the Kathol Outback, they are attempting to flee the system and cure their disease to ensure the survival of the Resu race. The age of ambassadors is over, and only those who survive and endure will be able to decide how the Resu culture will move on from these tragic events.
Cultural Strengths and Weaknesses:
(+) Warriors and Natural Hunters - It is obvious for the species-wide continuous warfare between Families, Great Families, and Empires, on top of their natural predator physique and instincts, that combat (and especially melee combat, tusk to tusk) is a natural part of life which shapes their infinitely courageous and daring hearts without cowardice or fear of death.
(+) Multidirectional Warfare - Given the species is waterborne, they are already well adapted to warfare strategies conducted in three dimensions, making an easier transition into more modern warfare involving interplanetary (or interstellar) bodies.
(+) Strong Community Education - In Resu culture, offspring do not belong solely to their genetic progenitors, but both families available to them which are merged together in a community that observes, guards, teaches, and guides all offspring prior to, and after they are accepted into adulthood at age 12. "Public Schooling" does not exist as an institutional organization, but both families are more than enough to give equal and superior tutelage to other foundations found in early galactic civilizations of a similar technological era.
(+) Strong Scientific Community - At age 25, all Resu become known as Veterans, and are thereafter no longer required to fight in the family wars, but may instead further their understanding of medicines and chemicals, engineering of newer stronger weapons or buildings, or study the astrophysical objects of the universe and all that is contained within them (such as alien species, their technologies, and languages). A hunter's curiosity in the Resu, seems to transition well into an intellectual curiosity of everything once their hyper-aggressive youthfulness as slow down to a more elderly age. This obviously creates a scientific community almost as strong and prevalent as the constant warfare that the Resu struggle through for centuries or millennia. It is largely because of this system, and the lower gravity of Shikyu, which allowed the Resu to so quickly colonize the entire lunar system of their gas giant, and begin efforts to colonize alien terrestrial worlds in their solar system. All of that, even in spite of their more primitive weaponry and infrastructural technologies.
(+) Curious Explorers - As was early described, the Resu a very curious hunters, and especially when their hyper-aggressive tendencies cool off with age, their intellect begins to shine through. This is especially true of the desire to explore unique and unknown environments.
(+) Crisis Aversion Allowances - Ordinarily, the Resu do not practice polygamy with only a few exceptions to the rule. However, should a crisis necessitate it, culturally males are permitted to practice polygamy to increase the population count. This is rare though, even in times of crisis, due to the natural safeguard role females play when it comes to re-balancing a population without male interaction. The allowance however, continues to exist.
(-) Easy Provocation - There are few species as quickly angered as the Resu, largely due to the hyper-aggressive nature of their culture, and their rage is of legendary proportions as described below.
(-) Disproportionate Retribution - Every Resu has the innate cultural reflex to take every insult or offense, and punish it 100 fold. Every time. What was that, you sneezed on them while passing by? Guess what, he wants you, your spouse, your child, your mother, father, grandparent, uncle, aunt, and cousin, DEAD. Essentially, don't piss them off, and they won't attempt to commit genocide, because that's essentially their go-to response to anything which they find threatening.
(-) Indefinite Generational Grudges - If somehow they are unable to fully execute their disproportional retribution against an offending party before the end of their life time, don't worry because it runs in the family. Offspring will carrying on the grudges of their progenitors and their families, until either they succeed in their retribution, or are forced to pass on the grudge to their offspring... or die attempting to execute their retribution in the familial wars.
(-) Population Limiting Factors - Due to the fact that the infantile death rate is so high, largely due to the progenitors eating or facilitating the starvation and death of a large fraction of their offspring on top of lethal rites of passage of the community the offspring are born in compounded by the compulsory familial warfare in adulthood, the maximum possible population of the Resu is drastically and severely reduced. This makes population crisis's more likely to occur, though thankfully for their their biology possess handy safeguards against running themselves into extinction. Usually.
Technology level: In many areas, the species does not quite fit terms by outsiders that might deem them as 'primitive' or advanced. Due to their unique and wholly separate development path from most other known sentient species, they have a blend of technologies which ranged from simple melee weapons, to crude interplanetary spacecraft. They do not have such technologies, like projectile launchers or advanced artificial intelligence. To break down their 'level of technology', here is a list of things one would typically see within the civilization:
History:
At the time, these cellular organisms found energy in what to most other places would be considered exotic... but in the ocean of the ice moon, many of those energy sources were the only energy sources available. Taking nutrients directly from the crust of Shikyu's ocean floor, digesting bizarre chemical compounds spewed out of thermal vents, or absorbing thermal energy closest to the vents themselves; these name only a few of the manners that life took early in the history of Shikyu. At some point however, a very special kind of life mutated, and learned a new trick: the biological generation of molecular hydrogen though the breakdown of other components used for energy generation. Up till that point, molecular hydrogen did not exist in their oceans (which is to be expected given that it is a very light element which escape most atmospheres with the exception of gas giants or protostars), but from then on the microscopic organism seemed to thrive and absolutely dominate the ecology of Shikyu. Carbon life at that point, had a hard time competing against the suddenly super successful silicon life, and eventually tapered away with the increase of competition, until finally carbon-based life was all but non-existent. Though some carbon based bacteria do remain, they are a rare find.
As evolution continued, other milestones would be reached, complicated life would form which began to use the now plentiful hydrogen present in their waters, thanks to the nearly over abundant plant life nearest to the thermal vents. Thus begins the tale of how the primitive Resu began.
The professions of that time fulfilled the same curiosities they posses today, from the curious Scouts and Explorers, to the intellectual biology interests undertaken by Healers, and researchers looking for remedies to disease. Magma was a useful tool to the Resu, especially when they learned of the particular properties of metals and how they were formed, giving rise to increasingly useful tools, allowing the conquest of Great Families to extend with even greater reach, until the first fledgling monarchies and Empires were formed. After many centuries of primitive warfare, with both moderate and extreme technological innovations which pervaded the biological, architectural, and electrical sciences, eventually the entirety of Shikyu was inevitably under the control of a militant hegemony, under the control of one singular Empire: the fledgling roots of the Imperial Confederacy.
Eventually, the scouts and explorers of this massive imperial commemorate of Families both Great and Lesser, as well as monarchies, would find that there is nothing left to explore, all the universe had been traversed... except for what lay above them. Of course, for many centuries of warfare, the territories of the Resu and their families increased ever more to the heavens, their deep fish physiology soon giving way to an adaptability of pressure. Inevitably, they discovered that the endless ocean... had a very distinct limit. After discovering the ice roof which encased their entire world, the insatiable curiosity of the Resu lead them to continuously mine their surface, digging ever deeper into the kilometers thick ice shell. Finally, the Resu had broken the confines of their watery world, and stepped into the cold unforgiving vacuum of space. Or they would have, if they had legs to step with, though the first ones to reach the surface undoubtedly died.
After decades of research, and constant maintenance of the dig sight (suffering from the tectonic shifts of the ice plates, adjustments were always needed to create a continuous path, in addition to the tendency for the ice to refreeze quickly), the Resu began to design metallic suits which housed a miniature environment for an individual. Luckily, their designs were adequate, and they survived the harshness of space... to be exposed to the dwarfing beauty of the infrared radiation of the Realm in which the Resu lived, as well as the star which they orbited, and the innumerable swirls of light dotting the entire sky. It was as if, the sky was its own ocean, truly without definable limit. They had entered a new era.
Lunar Empires
The Resu in their insatiably curiosity attempted to discover as much as they could of the alien vessel, eventually indirectly discovering some of the controls around the ship through trial and error. Many mistakes were made, but luckily their situation never worsened too gravely given their innate sense of electricity, giving them clues which allowed them to reverse engineer their mistake, and correct it before it grew too large a problem. It would be quite some time and incredible amount of research until they finally learned of how to pilot the ship, which influenced how they created their life suits. Inspired (though perplexed) by the seeming ease by which the "Other" had glided across the ice with only the use of two limbs touching the surface, drove them to discover how to walk mechanically. Soon then electrically commanded legs were found to be standard among many life suits, though usually regarded as a "Pilot-Suit" for many generations until the most recent era, given that one wearing a legged life support suit was likely one who operated the mysterious machinery of the alien vessel.
They modified much of the original design, and reverse engineered as much of the ship that was no longer rendered inoperable but their incessant curiosity of its inner workings. Some of these design changes seemed to be more aesthetic than truly useful, such as seating arrangements that more suited the Resu in place of those dedicated to the smaller humanoids, who possessed no tails to be concerned about. Though gradually, some changes were functional, such as the introduction of the Resu-Specific Life Support System, which filled the water proofed deck with hydrogenated water. In addition, the original cargo bay the ship was re-outfitted into a micro-ecosystem to support their food supply on longer voyages, considering that the ship's sub-light systems were far faster than any Resu technology. In addition, the advanced technology seemed to open up the Resu's "eyes", as it were, to other advanced technologies and resources. Most notably, it brought them means necessary to create special refineries capable of extracting resources directly out of their gas giant... until they discovered the metallic liquid hydrogen hidden beneath the raging storms of their massive gas giant.
There was one apparatus on the Other's vessel however, that they could find no use for, and did not understand: the Hyperdrive. Opting to remove it entirely (likely for further study elsewhere, where it wasn't weighing down on the ships energy supply (upgraded through the use of Resu Super-conductive electronics). Unfortunately, fate had other plans, and the Resu on-board the ship would accidentally activate the Hyperdrive, sending it on a pre-programmed course all the way to Corellia for reasons no one has been able to determine.
This is how the Resu were discovered, in a dismembered and mutilated freighter ship whose original design could not be identified due to the Resu "modifications", along with it being completely filled with water, and any exterior holes in the hull were covered with ice. The ship it seemed, had blasted off into hyperspace before exhausting the rest of its energy and dying in Corellia. This then forced the Corellian government to meticulously study the mysterious ghost vessel and its contents until they had a vague understanding of what was inside of it, given it did not respond to signalling, did not project a distress signal, and made no other motions upon entering the system. It would take several years after discovering an unidentified life force was on board, to determine how best to contact them... though by the time they had come up with a plan, many of the original Resu who had "piloted" the freighter had already died off and produced children, possessing no hope of returning home. The same rituals that had been preformed on Shikyu were similarly preformed on the ship, and they taught the survivors everything they knew, possessing no community for their children to learn from, effectively stunting their mental growth. Anything they weren't able to pass on to their offspring, was all but lost to them, except for the few meager book records they had brought along. The humans had implanted many devices all over the craft in order to discover their communication, once it was clear that audio transmission seemed to have no effect, and direct contact was impossible given their reduced gravity making impossible for them to tow the ship planet-side, and many of the hatches to enter the ship were ice up and pressurized with water. In addition, they were worried the ship was a remnant of the Four Hundred Year Darkness, likely possessing the Gulag Plague, thus their caution was understandable.
The first decade they tried tireless to discern any kind of language being communicated behind the silent walls. It would take years within that decade to discover they instead communicated through electricity, and electromagnetic frequencies, which took almost half a decade in which to interpret in the most basic manner. Eventually, the Corellians found a way to make first contact, allowing an almost literal flood of information to pass between the two. Eventually the ship was escorted back to the last recorded coordinates of the vessel, where they were finally brought back home after nearly two decades of being away. Although the pilots of the cursed ship died away, their children were left behind to continue their lost legacy... though they would forever be unable to leave their "home" seeing the universe was too large for them to handle. So the ship was left alone to be ignored, and left to its own devices. It is said that the ship remains in the system still, confined to a secluded area of space Resu would dare venture, for fear of something "Else".
As for the Corellians, who discovered the language of the aliens (vaguely), they were able to communicate and provide refined hyperdrives for the Resu to use. Soon the Imperial Confederacy had a Corellian ally, importing hyperdrive and custom order ships along with translators, and exporting their pressurize liquid metallic hydrogen, an excellent super conductor that is being experimented with today in order to make a faster processing computer for ships and droids alike across the galaxy. The sight of an ambassador Resu had been excitement to many in the know across the galaxy, a new race with an interestingly exotic charm, with strange technologies.
That though, was the past...
The Morossian Contact Event
A civilization that has stood for centuries is driven into apocalypse at the coming of an alien threat- The Moross Crusade. It all started with a wandering Morossian ship harboring within it the founding "God" of Moross, Aesir Neth ([member="Soliael Devin Talith"]). He from that distance had felt the disturbance of roiling life within the system that contained the Resu, and intrigued by their presence entered, he the system, but no sooner had he enter, had the excitable and aggressive Resu began to signal the foreign ship.
For the past several years after the Resu made contact with Corellia, they began to redouble their research into sensors, pointing them at the sky in the hopes of determining what civilizations were out there. They discovered the interplanetary chatter between the Republic worlds hundreds of lightyears away, still in the infancy of their new civilization in the wake of the 400 Year Darkness. Even farther, they discovered the horrified distress of the worlds under the conquest of the early Sith Empire newly arisen to terrorize a galaxy fresh from their bleak memories of the Darkness. So many other communities all so far away from the Resu... until the looked closer to the stars surrounding them. They were surrounded by a community themselves, and that frightened the Resu... threatened them. Relying on their instincts, their aggression grew to a point any ship that happened to fall into their system, was spotted, questioned, and usually boarded. What happened to those poor unfortunate souls after that should be obvious, given the capital nature of the typical Resu punishment.
A heated discussion between the Grand Emperor and several of his aids with their apprentices, could not decide how to respond to a creature that seemed to promise some divinity towards them. It appalled the Grand Emperor the prospect of alien religion, determining for certain it was a work of vile deceit, an art Resu are shamed for in disdain of the dishonorable deeds it implies. The response to this claim of divinity was ultimately decided by the wisdom of a young cripple, known as Stone Hermes. A hero and early Veteran of war due to his grievous debilitating injuries. He reasoned that the aliens trusted their eyes more than their blood, and because the Resu were born in the absence of light, then their darkness would show the aliens the enemies they would be making out of the Resu if they meant ill. History was made, as an ambassador convoy was dispatch to meet with the dignitary of the alien vessel.
The Resu represented their race, with several in life support suits, but notably two within specialized tanks of water allowing the aliens to witness the naked form of the Resu. When Neth asked permission to demonstrate the faith of Moross to them, it was the unlikely Stone Hermes to whom a decision that would change an entire civilization over night, would fall. Stuck between two dreadful choices, exile for his lack of cooperation with the alien dignitary out of fear of death, or render his life forfeit to the mercy of the supposed "god", that would undoubtedly lead his civilization either to preservation... or utter destruction.
As many of his kind would have chosen, Stone Hermes forwent the choice of becoming an exile, a fate to him worse than sealing the fate of his race to extinction. Thus, the cripple stepped forward submitting to whatever power Neth possessed, manipulated by the Aesir control of the techno-virus, physically changing the body in the shell it was contained in until he became unrecognizable to even himself. The Resu was reborn into the First Convert, a creature of the deep and now a creature of steel. The life support suit he had relied on to even meet with the Morossian living deity, shrunk around his body and pierced through it as it infected his bowels along with very nearly all his living tissue. The Blade of Moross grew from the very flesh of his new metallic hands, a sensation to even have hands foreign, until now. The head that had contained his gills from the poisonous atmosphere ripped itself apart and formed a new jagged maw which would serve as the beasts mouth, and his tusks grew and protruded from the jaw as curved pointed metal poles. His entire body arced with electricity as the spines on his back erupted from his new metallic form. Silicon flesh merged with his new steel carapace, and the tanks of hydrogen keeping him alive merged with his gills, holding metals vessels of water to hydrate the inner skin of this new abominable hybrid of flesh and metal. Skin and bone as strong as durasteel, an electrical voice that could kill, and a blade that would be bloodied in the name of Moross and its infectious virus.
Quickly the mind of Stone Hermes became deranged with the need to swing the blade of Moross upon the flesh of his own kind, and so quickly the others of the assembly had become in the image Neth and the Force had chosen for them. Neth was proclaimed the One True God (before they learned of others, and even after such a revelation he was claimed the Truest One), and a new war was fought between the kin of Resu: The New Blades of Moross, and The Old Tusks of Resu. The waters of Resu were turned silver, the color of Resu blood, should that have mattered to them. But few Resu truly died, as the blades of Moross did not often slice through the water to kill his kin, but to graze him, wound him so that the bloods taste of the alchemical metal would boil it to change, forcing a metamorphosis into the image of the blade and its wielder. The more the Resu fought, the more they converted to what they had been fighting against. Not all Resu reacted to the virus uniformly however, and there were some Infected Resu who maintained their sympathy for the old ways. The fight continued on, but the civilization of Resu that had been was no more, the confederacy they had created in the alliance empires had been eradicated. The small community that remains now has been left to be preserved, as the Morossian soon realized, mating had become difficult for them in this mechanical form, as well as they had formed a sympathy for their ancestors. They felt guilt towards the destruction of their own, they realized they had forgotten who they were beneath their metal skin. The last uninfected Resu swam in confinement upon the "sister homeworld" Ysraka, to remain there forever, and to breed more Resu for the Moross Crusade.
Where most Resu would confine themselves to death, or take their own life... Iron Giant had proven since the moment she was born, she would be different. She survived, stowing away on a foreign ship which landed her in the hands of the South Systems Syndicate who, not to her knowledge, took advantage of her. They put her into a metal suit of armor, which was more of a vehicle or droid than a true life support suit (because it had been intended to be a droid), and she became the first Resu Mercenary: The Iron Giant. Eventually the SSS collapsed, and Iron Giant was left alone, until discovering the Vagrant Fleet. It was a fleet of ships all carrying the misfits, outcasts, and exiles of the galaxy, all finding a place among themselves. At one point, the exiled Resu met with [member="Jorus Merrill"], who adeptly understood her enough to work with her. For him, she assisted in the creation of a new weapon suiting to his character, and for her, he compiled the components necessary for her to posses an interpreter, instructor, and friend in the little droid known as C.O.M.O.. Feeling indebted to him, for many years she served on his ship and beside it as one of his crew, even after the Vagrant Fleet finally disbanded. Eventually, she would hear the rumors surrounding her home, rumors of the Moross Crusade and their new batch of elite alien warriors... from the Realm of Resu.
She left Jorus, though not because she did not wish to stay... rather it was to her continuing loyalty to the Resu, even though they had shunned her in exile. She needed to find out for herself what had happened, and as she was confronted by fleeing Veterans... she learned the incomprehensible, horrifying truth. The Resu had been effectively destroyed, leaving in its wake only the abominations of the Moross Crusade and their "gods'. This was also when she learned the treachery of the South Systems Syndicate. The 'suit' they had put her in, had been the beginning of a droid they were attempting to developed, which required an advanced artificial intelligence to become threat worthy, to allow them to contended the forces more orderly governments would use to stop their criminal influence... though lacking the resources for such an endeavor, settled for live bait which had flopped into their greedy hands. Disturbed by this revelation, she used her resources and intimate knowledge of her own people, to cybernetically enhance those refugees who had found her. She would not allow them to face the fate she had know, and would not allow the to face the fate they had fled from. The CybeResu had been created, and the beginning of their operation to free her people from the tyranny of disease began.
Eventually, after the fall of the Moross Crusade, and the long silence in the system that follow... Iron Giant had reached out to her former contact - Jorus Merrill. Requesting his help, it eventually resulted in the Underground present in the Kathol Outback to organize a new mission to contact the Resu. The threat since the fall of the Moross Crusade, had grown since the CybeResu had formed. New experiments were taking place, and the Resu had never been more at war... more at threat with extinction. The Original Resu were endangered and plagued with an infertility they could not find the origin of or cure, while the Moross Crusade tyrannically fought its own against an insurgency among their own kind over the solution to their own cybernetic infertility, while the highest echelons of their leadership experimented with forbidden technology to create a new abomination unmatched by anything else in the galaxy. It was all the CybeResu could do to rescue small numbers of the Original Resu from the reservation the Morossian's had created on Ysraka.
It was not until [member="Neelig Waawat"], [member="Bryce Bantam"], and their entourage of Kathol Tech students to establish "First Contact", and uncover an insidious plot surrounding the plagues of the Resu. Attempting to find a cure, the two forces now work to assist the CybeResu and their Original people exodus out of the Realm of Resu to a form of safety, while abominable creatures raged within the bloody oceans of Shikyu.
Notable Player-Characters: Silver Sentinel [Dead], Iron Giant, Stone Hermes [Infected with the Morossian Technovirus], potentially others to come.
Intent: The intent of this species is for role playing a truly alien character, which is wholly different from the "Star Trek" alien humanoids we all known and collectively hold apathy for in the genre of science fiction. What better way to accomplish this goal than to create a being of a wholly other biology, and senses almost entirely incompatible with our own?
It has tusks! Courtesy of [member="Kira Vaal"]
Name: Resu
Designation: Sentient (Though highly communal among broods until adulthood)
Homeworld: The Realm of Resu, specifically Shikyu
Language: Resune, a language comprised solely by electrical signals shared between Resu with minor 'thermal' ques combined with their body language.
Average Lifespan: 40 Standard Years (Adulthood starting at 12, when militant service for one's family is expected to begin; at 25, the "Veteran" age, a Resu is considered venerable)
Estimated Population: Only found within the Realm of Resu. Depending on whether or not they are facing a population crisis such as they were when the Underground first contacted the species, the population of Original Resu could range anywhere from several thousand (found on the moon Ysraka, and a few terrestrial colonies) to many hundreds of millions (as when they were first introduced to the galaxy).
Average height of adults: 0.5-1 meters tall
Average length of adults: 4-6 meters long
Skin color: Silver, Gray, Slate, other grayish metallic tones etc.
Hair color: N/a
Distinctions:
- Silicon/Hydrogen Base biology - These "Silane" based lifeforms breathe hydrogen organically distilled into their enclosed ice-capped lunar sub-surface ocean, as necessitated by their silicon base pair DNA equivalent. Although they appear most similar to carbon-based life forms than most of the other galactic silicon-based species, they do possess some of the characteristic crystalline structures, especially in their internal bones and vestigial (or "left over") exoskeleton; they benefit from the increased strength and durability these crystalline structures provide much better than the calcium counterpart found in carbon-based creatures. Also to note, they do not exhale, as their respiratory system must dispel solid waste material, which is ejected into the digestive system; their breathes do pause however, to necessitate this bio-process. Sometimes this material is ejected through sneezing, which is often used as a social cue with many meanings.
- "Gill Eyed" - In the place where most would expect to see eyes, the Resu instead have their gills. This may be because surrounding the gills are highly developed and large electrical organs which both receive and send out a variety of passive and active electromagnetic frequencies used for electrolocation, electrocommunication, and other electroception activities used for stunning or killing prey or rivals. Due to the placement of these organs on the head, it may have then made it preferable to possess an open conduit into open water on top of gaining the immediate effects of respiration in the electrical organ itself, by having gills evolve as close to the organs as possible. The Resu do have actual 'eyes' however, as sub-dermal organs on their nose which are so highly developed and 'tuned' to infrared radiation even at long ranges underwater, they are considered an evolutionary marvel that come close to breaking a simple understanding of the physics behind water absorption of infrared radiation.
- Manipulator Fins - As with virtually all sentient species, the Resu have limbs almost entirely dedicated to the task of manipulating objects. These limbs are their fore-fins which all have opposable claws allowing the ability to grasp among other manipulating actions. These fins (usually around 2 meters long) are also capable of spreading out in such a manner to make a Resu appear much larger, thanks to a number of thermal organs dotting the fin spines which make up the limb. These fins can also send out a weak electrical frequency that disorientate other fish or rivals, though does not stun or kill.
- Sexual Dimorphism - There are wide ranging differences between males and females among the Resu, with females being notably divergent from the smaller males. Where males only have one set of fins, females posses two sets, one for manipulation, and the other set for supporting their much larger size while swimming. Additionally, along their underbellies females posses twenty six temporary eggs; when these fleshy sacks of liquid are ready to hatch, the mother spasmodically compresses her under-muscles to crack the eggs, spilling out newborns that swim about to avoid their mother's suddenly hungry jaws. On the other spectrum, males tend to have larger heads with more impressive tusks, a spiny back, and larger fins for the sake of fanfare to attract mates with their electrical 'singing' and and displaying their 'hot emotions' through infrared organs.
- Non-standard Sensory System - Coupled with their highly advanced electroception, and nigh-godly perception of Infrared Radiation even under the absorption rate of water, these odd fish are totally and utterly devoid of any olfactory organs. They can neither smell, nor taste anything at all. They do have the specifically fish sensory system known as the 'lateral line', an advanced tactile awareness which allows the perception of salt content, water flow, and water temperature, as well as granting their ability to balance upright in water. In addition, the Resu and other similar species have further evolved to include the perception of vibrations, in such a way that they can almost "hear", though in actuality when in water these vibrations are merely a directional signal of something outside the sensory range of their electrical fields.
- Temperature Resistance - Given that all of Resu Civilization is centered around geothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, it quickly became critical for virtually all life on Shikyu (the Lunar Homeworld of the Resu) to be highly adaptable to temperature shifts. Though in addition to an admirable resistance to extreme heat, they also are capable of withstanding deeply chilling waters found between major vents. They do this by storing specific chemicals in their organs which generate a lot of specific heat (as opposed to undirected and highly wasteful heat), allowing them to traverse the icy waters of their lunar home comfortably for many leagues at a time.
Breathes: Hydrogen Distilled Water
Biological Strengths and Weaknesses:
(+) Psychologically Hardened to Violence - From the very moment they are born, all Resu are immediately exposed to senseless and terrible violence and death, and as such through the rest of their dreadful and short lifespan the fear of death is essentially nonexistent.
(+) High Electrical Resistance - Their resistance, inherent in their constant use of their electrical organs, ranges from as little as 1000 volts to a record high of 1200 volts. A Resu can produce electrical charges between 800 volts and 1000 volts.
(+) Immunity to Carbon Diseases - Given their silicon biology, they are completely immune to such diseases as the Gulag Plague for example, among many others. (Notable Exception, see: Resuspawn Toxin).
(+) Temperature Adaptability - Thriving in the near boiling temperatures surrounding thermal vents, with the capability of combating arctic temperatures, the Resu are able to adapt to almost any heat environment (if given the proper time to brace for the cold).
(+) Pressure Adaptability - Although there are limits to their abilities, the Resu are capable of swimming to any part of their global ocean, from the seafloor to the icy "searoof". They are typically the deep sea fish you'd expect, though the Resu are almost unique to their ecosystem through their exploration of the surface, likely evolved over many centuries of intelligent curiosity.
(+) Optional Parthenogenesis - In times of a population crisis (or perhaps in the rarer case of two female lovers not in a crisis situation), Resu females are capable of copulating with another female to stimulate the production of genetically cloned children without the presence of contributed male genes. These children share an even closer mental resemblance to their birthing mother than in all other cases, and are still capable of falling into either gender as necessitated to fix any imbalance between the two sexes in a population.
(+) Rationed Gender Development - As mentioned, children are at first born without sex or gender. It takes time for them to sense the hormonal levels present in the waters of a population of Resu to determine which sex is desired to achieve a balance.
(+) Litter Reduction Strategy - Despite a Resu mother's capability of birthing a brood of twenty six small offspring (typically of an r-strategist species that wishes to flood an ecosystem with as many offspring as possible to ensure at least a few can survive), the Resu eventually settle on a few larger offspring to nurture and to grow with assistance from the family community unit (more typical of a k-strategist species that "place their bets" on only a few very strong and intelligent offspring which are likely to survive independently in the future), through a complicated vetting process which prematurely eliminates weak candidates in a brood.
(+/-) Force Blind - There is no mention of any kind of suspected Force Sensitivity among the Resu or any acknowledgement of its existence until the "Abominations" were created by the Moross Crusade during the Morossian Contact Event.
(-) Short Lifespan - As mentioned, the Resu have a miserably short lifespan when compared to many of the exceptionally long lived species of the galaxy. Not to mention the fatality rate of infants and adolescence, or the casualties of a culture surrounding indefinite eternal famillicidal warfare.
(-) Huge Language Barrier - Sound-based language is literally incomprehensible to a Resu, to them, its like seeing something out of your peripheral vision and saying the distortions in that vision is a language meant to be understood. The same can be said for any aliens wishing to understand the Resu "tongue", which consists of multiple electrical field interactions, shock frequencies, and more subtle infrared social cues. Without a translator, neither speaker or 'listener' is going to get very far understanding the other.
(-) Life Support Suit Required on Land - Given their entirely aquatic nature, it only comes as common sense that to venture out beyond their oceanic home they would need a life support suit capable of replicating the pressures, salinity, and temperatures of their aquatic home, in addition to allowing maneuverability, sensing their environment, and maintaining their ability to manipulate objects. It will also need some manner of distilling the life-supporting waters with hydrogen, the gas which the Resu require to breathe. This is costly however, even more so than it would be for any species that wasn't entirely acquatic. Primitive life support suits utilized a number of limbs, but today's most advanced life support suits simulate a humanoid posture, especially of the particularly advanced "CybeResu", who have literally become part of their life support suits in a cybernetic fusion.
(-) Poor Unprepared Cold Resistance - If not given the time to prepare for the cold by stocking up on heat chemicals, exposing them to freezing temperatures can kill them rather quickly (in a manner of a couple dozen minutes)
(-) Gravitationally Weak [Lunar Race Specific] - Given that their ancestral home has about 1/3rd the "Standard Gravity", they are much weaker compared to other galactic species used to their higher gravity worlds. The exception being those colonies on Terrestrial worlds with similar gravity to the Standard, in which case they are perfectly safe to explore other worlds without worry of health complications. All other Resu, will require special equipment in their life support suits to help brace their frailer bodies against the increased gravity, or in any other way reduce their exposure to the intense gravity. Those frequently exposed to these intense gravities, can eventually adapt to it, though prolonged exposure will always have risks, especially for those newly initiated to the sensation.
(-) Exposed Underbelly - For the purpose of hatching their eggs, females and males, posses no exoskeletal armor plating along their bellies, making a particularly vulnerable area to target.
(-) No Olfactory Sense - They are incapable of perceiving any sense of smell or taste, furthering their already lacking ability to relate to other alien species. Their skin is capable however, of distinguishing salinity content, at least in water.
Races:
- Terrestrial Resu - A Resu which has evolved on a Terrestrial world (as opposed to a lunar system), and is thus capable of withstanding near Standard gravities.
- CybeResu - Cybernetically enhanced Resu which fuse a life-support suit to their flesh in such a manner to provide a fluid transition between swimming in their native waters, to standing on land. In addition to maneuverability, they are also lightly armored in such a way that provides a greater resistance to technoviral infections, and effectively quarantines a subject from other diseases.
Diet: Carnivorous, allergic and/or intolerant of oxygen, as well as any oxygen breathing meats. Bio-carbons are also often inedible, or subject to allergic reactions. Even if they can tolerate the presence of carbon products and oxygen, it does not mean either holds any nutritional value.
Communication: A combination of electrical frequency discharges and field interactions, with more subtle infrared signally acting as social cues. Hypothesized that the 'electrical tongue' began as electrical singing to court others prior to mating, or short electrical burst to signify excitement between lovers (almost like a social embrace), thus in some sense Resune is a language of love.
As far as translation is concerned, technologies dedicated to interpreting the electrical signals of Resune as a kind of morse code have been created, though they are somewhat crude. It does, however slightly, bridge the once significant language barrier between the Resu and the rest of the galaxy, should they be lucky enough to possess one (or afford one). Still, there are imperfections in the design, as described by a certain xenobiologist, their speech patterns often dictate subjects and verbs almost separately, without any discernible articles, a fewer prepositions. Often times complex words meant to convey certain ideas are used in place of smaller/simpler words or phrases, as the ideas within Resune exist, but the pleasantries of an audio language are not present.
Due to this, names are an extremely difficult matter, since Resune names are almost entirely unrelated to the prospect of interpretative ideas, a whole other system from ordinary Resune speech. It is thus far mysterious how they got their name, or the names of the many moons and worlds. If it was an explorer, no one has heard of them since, though records show the Resu have always been called such by the galactic community.
On the subject of names, Resu who come in contact with galactic residents all possess an identity which are intrinsically linked with their personal translators (should they have one). These identifying names in basic, are often a metallic or material substance, followed by some noun. Examples of these names are, Silver Sentinel, Iron Giant, Stone Hermes, Bronze Tusk, Mercury Tongue, etc. Examples of their speech could be as follows:
- Silver Sentinel - Identification Silver Sentinel, Imperial Confederation Ambassador, greets Galactic Republic Official. Identification?
- Iron Giant - Ally: Truth, Lie? Ally truth welcomed, Enemies halt. Identity Iron Giant results in enemy destruction.
- Stone Hermes - Identify! Identify! IDENTIFY! Territory deception intolerable, submit! Submit! SUBMIT!
- Bronze Tusk - Veteran Iron Giant, communication [Jorus Merill] received. Intercepted Morossian communications, unknown presence in Realm of Resu. [Vagrant Fleet]?
- Mercury Tongue - Request postponed. Technovirus extermination secondary, request breeding assistance.
He regurgitates individual carcasses, but it is intentionally less than enough for the 11 survivors. This ritual usually calls for 5 carcasses, in which the 11 fight over. The five who best their siblings will survive to live on, hopefully into adulthood. The remaining six if they are not already dead will be ignored by both parents. If by some miracle one of these abandoned children survive and return to their parents in their teens, they will be welcomed as the most favored child, and undergo a strange bonding unfamiliar to the rest of the Galactic community. If such a child were to arise, a ritual that can only be described as a marriage takes place between the parents and the survivor. This is in no way sexual, but it binds the child and parents together permanently, and when the parents die all titles, allies, and territory then belonged to them is now to that child. This is unusual from their common culture due to the fact that inheritance is viewed as taboo, making for weak children unable to survive without their parents. In the case of two miracles, the siblings are the ones to decide who shall inherit their parent's domain as their own. This usually ends up with one of them dead, but there have been instances where the siblings share in mutual protection, and others where the domain is split between them. In the combat ritual of inheritance the dead member is ceremoniously burned in sacred thermal vents, the Resu equivalent of paying respects to the deceased.
Lastly, only a few of the five survive afterwards, succumbing to extreme punishment from their familial peers when an important rite-of-passage hunt is failed. The margins for failure however are less strained, a hunt can fail and the juvenile can go about living respectfully, as long as it is clear that the quarry is exceptionally difficult, and was unable to be caught before it reaches a safe area where the hunter can not reach. Another such situation, is when a certain prey is particularly dangerous, and draws the hunters blood before escaping. The true and utter failures are left to rot, with no hope of restoring their honor.
Initially when the offspring are born, they are without gender, but they are not hermaphrodite's, they simply grow into their gender upon entering adulthood. They 'choose' their gender depending on the male to female ration in the population, to fill certain needs. If for some reason though the populations are unbalanced, a biological change occurs in which two females can participate in Parthenogenesis and repopulate the area, allowing for 22 children to survive feeding, and then after they inherit the male part of parenting and bring them the carcasses. Only 10 to 12 offspring survive to repopulate in unbalanced populations per each female to female pairing. Also to be noted, inbreeding never occurs due to the communal (nearly hive) sentience offspring share with their siblings that allows for the impersonal fight for survival, fully aware of their siblings impending deaths. It never occurs because the siblings would never think of it, having the mentality that it would be like breeding with oneself, and all offspring giving family members are monogamous. All members of the race are monogamous except in times of population, or genetic crisis. However, it is to be noted that Queens and Empresses do sometimes practice polygamy. Lastly, an unrecorded event is slavery; it appears this race found no use of slaves, seeming as the entire race is one large militant force, perhaps slavery was impossible, and thus never discovered. This may be the reason for their genocidal responses to aggression, expecting the same response from other races that they are provoked by and invade.
When it comes to love and courting, mates can only be chosen from an allied family until both families are effectively the same (thus necessitating the need for a new allied family). To the individuals in courtship, the females are the ultimate deciders in a relationship. The males with the largest tusks, largest fins with the best song, the spiniest back, and the greatest heat get the mate that they swim around to court. Males posses the privilege of choosing who they court though, meaning a given female only gets to select a mate from suitors that are attracted to her; males look for females with the largest size, the most blubber on their underbelly's, warmest eggs, and largest claws tend to be the ones courted. Also, exceptionally fast females who create the most alluring mosaic of thermal heat trails to linger in the water, are regarded with incredible enthusiasm from the males, a trait more seducing than physical attraction. Females often race each other in the mating preseason, and show off for the males. Similarly, the males engage in duels, and sometimes larger brawls in which they ram each other with their tusks, and "scream" at one another electrically, sending females in a frenzy, although not quite as powerfully as the males sympathy for female races. Once they have mated however, their life is bond to each other, and it is rare that they produce offspring twice, even more rare is polygamy; only practiced during times of population crisis, and if a Resu is particularly important. However these important female Resu maintain a soul mate, whom she does not mate with after their first brood. This male counterpart would often be the "leader" of her domain however, leading her Nation under her specification, entitling him to a false sense of power.
During parthenogenetic female pairings, females search for females of a similar caliber to themselves as far as physical attraction, and will likely not pair again if the population crisis necessitating their pair is averted. Though a similar relationship closer to the standard idea of a single brood monogamous relationship can exist between two females. Though such a relationship does not seem to exist similarly for males with male partners, as the social interaction either does not exist, or is a taboo largely stomped out by extermination or exile.
In adulthood, all members of society are natural warriors requiring no training in warfare, as they grow up, and train through their natural process of life. Their true careers enter two specific fields, astrophysics which was discovered for their expansive purposes and curiosity of what lay 'beyond the ice' of their lunar home, or they go into advanced biology, being able to easily identify, and often cure disease that are found in nearly fallen warriors. Before adulthood, they learn a general overview of all the science's that they know, under the tutelage of Veterans, when they are not on a battlefront. They possess excellent underwater (obviously) surgeons, and doctors, along with incredible life saving medics on the battle front (cultural alternative route than compulsory military service).
Scientist/engineers don't often mingle with the warrior 'caste' due to their being older, more mature, than the younger more aggressive counterparts; they are referred to as Veterans, having already gone through the aggressive warfare of their youth to pursue intellectual studies. Warfare is for the young and the great, those in between or unsuccessful with mating become successful in a life of science. Despite their lack of modern weaponry, they have a vast arsenal of poisons, antidotes, and cures to various disease that they provide on a constant basis. In warfare, it is not taboo to fight a Veteran as they are experienced warriors, however, explicitly targeting Veterans is consider the greatest offense to civilization, and those who do are shunned by all surrounding families and/or nationalities, branding them as barbarians. At this they are then quickly overwhelmed by an invasion front from all directions. Veterans of barbarian families/nations are given the choice of assimilating into the conquering family/nationality or to be honorably killed in combat (this includes female scientist, as females were also bound by the Veteran rule and military service unanimously compulsory without statement). After the Veteran rule, becoming a scientist is not the only option anymore. With the colonization of new celestial bodies, astronauts, explorers, and now with the galactic community, early ambassadors were common careers.
That though was before the Morossian Contact Event, which virtually destroyed the entire culture of the Resu, wish an Infertility Plague threatened them with extinction, while the Morossian Resu held them hostage on Ysraka as a "breeding" population (converting Veterans into Morossian Resu after producing offspring, or they became to old to do so). Luckily, with the advent of the CybeResu, their cybernetic heroes with the assistance of the Underground in the Kathol Outback, they are attempting to flee the system and cure their disease to ensure the survival of the Resu race. The age of ambassadors is over, and only those who survive and endure will be able to decide how the Resu culture will move on from these tragic events.
Cultural Strengths and Weaknesses:
(+) Warriors and Natural Hunters - It is obvious for the species-wide continuous warfare between Families, Great Families, and Empires, on top of their natural predator physique and instincts, that combat (and especially melee combat, tusk to tusk) is a natural part of life which shapes their infinitely courageous and daring hearts without cowardice or fear of death.
(+) Multidirectional Warfare - Given the species is waterborne, they are already well adapted to warfare strategies conducted in three dimensions, making an easier transition into more modern warfare involving interplanetary (or interstellar) bodies.
(+) Strong Community Education - In Resu culture, offspring do not belong solely to their genetic progenitors, but both families available to them which are merged together in a community that observes, guards, teaches, and guides all offspring prior to, and after they are accepted into adulthood at age 12. "Public Schooling" does not exist as an institutional organization, but both families are more than enough to give equal and superior tutelage to other foundations found in early galactic civilizations of a similar technological era.
(+) Strong Scientific Community - At age 25, all Resu become known as Veterans, and are thereafter no longer required to fight in the family wars, but may instead further their understanding of medicines and chemicals, engineering of newer stronger weapons or buildings, or study the astrophysical objects of the universe and all that is contained within them (such as alien species, their technologies, and languages). A hunter's curiosity in the Resu, seems to transition well into an intellectual curiosity of everything once their hyper-aggressive youthfulness as slow down to a more elderly age. This obviously creates a scientific community almost as strong and prevalent as the constant warfare that the Resu struggle through for centuries or millennia. It is largely because of this system, and the lower gravity of Shikyu, which allowed the Resu to so quickly colonize the entire lunar system of their gas giant, and begin efforts to colonize alien terrestrial worlds in their solar system. All of that, even in spite of their more primitive weaponry and infrastructural technologies.
(+) Curious Explorers - As was early described, the Resu a very curious hunters, and especially when their hyper-aggressive tendencies cool off with age, their intellect begins to shine through. This is especially true of the desire to explore unique and unknown environments.
(+) Crisis Aversion Allowances - Ordinarily, the Resu do not practice polygamy with only a few exceptions to the rule. However, should a crisis necessitate it, culturally males are permitted to practice polygamy to increase the population count. This is rare though, even in times of crisis, due to the natural safeguard role females play when it comes to re-balancing a population without male interaction. The allowance however, continues to exist.
(-) Easy Provocation - There are few species as quickly angered as the Resu, largely due to the hyper-aggressive nature of their culture, and their rage is of legendary proportions as described below.
(-) Disproportionate Retribution - Every Resu has the innate cultural reflex to take every insult or offense, and punish it 100 fold. Every time. What was that, you sneezed on them while passing by? Guess what, he wants you, your spouse, your child, your mother, father, grandparent, uncle, aunt, and cousin, DEAD. Essentially, don't piss them off, and they won't attempt to commit genocide, because that's essentially their go-to response to anything which they find threatening.
(-) Indefinite Generational Grudges - If somehow they are unable to fully execute their disproportional retribution against an offending party before the end of their life time, don't worry because it runs in the family. Offspring will carrying on the grudges of their progenitors and their families, until either they succeed in their retribution, or are forced to pass on the grudge to their offspring... or die attempting to execute their retribution in the familial wars.
(-) Population Limiting Factors - Due to the fact that the infantile death rate is so high, largely due to the progenitors eating or facilitating the starvation and death of a large fraction of their offspring on top of lethal rites of passage of the community the offspring are born in compounded by the compulsory familial warfare in adulthood, the maximum possible population of the Resu is drastically and severely reduced. This makes population crisis's more likely to occur, though thankfully for their their biology possess handy safeguards against running themselves into extinction. Usually.
Technology level: In many areas, the species does not quite fit terms by outsiders that might deem them as 'primitive' or advanced. Due to their unique and wholly separate development path from most other known sentient species, they have a blend of technologies which ranged from simple melee weapons, to crude interplanetary spacecraft. They do not have such technologies, like projectile launchers or advanced artificial intelligence. To break down their 'level of technology', here is a list of things one would typically see within the civilization:
- "Tusk Swords" - Essentially metallic extensions of the Resu tusks for increased combat capability.
- "Speaking Orbs" - Crystal matrices which generate pre-programmed electrical frequency, that literally voice words to the Resu "reader".
- Electrical Field Disruption Mine - Used to scramble Resu natural communication capabilities, and disorientate Resu in the vicinity of these often anchored and floating mines.
- Thermal Towers - Large obsidian towers built over system of large thermal vents, which act as residential "skyscrapers", utilizing the heat energy of the moons lunar core as a power source.
- Trauma Foam - An organic substrate utilized to seal open wounds, and act as a medicinal accelerator for any desired chemical injected into the foam.
- Fungal Poison - A deadly toxin utilizing fungal compounds to send a Resu into an exhaustive insanity which attacks all everything insight until the body is physically worn to death, at which point spores will sprout of its head with a chance of infecting others. Antidotes do exist, but each family typically has their own strain to prevent curing the weapon.
- Crude Interplanetary Spacecraft - Although they no longer use rockets, their spacecraft are sub-par compared to the rest of the galaxy, especially since they lack any interstellar capabilities.
- Hatcheries - Advanced facilities which accelerate the growth patterns of many species for selective breeding processes being tested by the Resu. These were a recent development prior to the Morossian Contact Event.
- Metallic Liquid Hydrogen Extraction Factories - Blimps on the surface of their gas giant put down gigantic tethers designed for the atmospheric stress of the massive giant, which then extract the exotic degenerate mater for use in cold fusion reactors and high-functioning computers. The material itself was in the process of being commercially exported out of the system in exchange for other technologies, while the reactors and computers were recent developments not yet established across the civilization. After the Morossian Contact Event, these developments have stalled, and have not seen progress since. Though under Underground guidance, this feature could make the system a strategic attraction...
History:
Silicon Genesis
The Resu species began and evolved in the roiling subsurface oceans of the largest moon in the Realm of Resu, known as Shikyu. The moon was of almost planetary size at 7,268 kilometers in diameter with a global ocean frozen over by the harshness of space, seeming as it has little to no atmosphere. Its core is kept warm by tidal heating from the compression of the entire planet when it comes close to its Gas Giant in its oval orbit and its interaction with the many other moons the Resu civilization would some day inhabit. The resulting molten core often spewed out magma to the ocean floor, creating the necessary energy for the unique genesis of life on the moon. In the primordial soup that surrounded these extremely hot thermal vents, silicon and carbon cellular forerunners began to develop... though with the unusual excess of silicon "biomaterial", the ecology took a different turn to their genesis than of most all other life in the galaxy; the early primitive ecosystems were dominated by silicon life from the very beginning.At the time, these cellular organisms found energy in what to most other places would be considered exotic... but in the ocean of the ice moon, many of those energy sources were the only energy sources available. Taking nutrients directly from the crust of Shikyu's ocean floor, digesting bizarre chemical compounds spewed out of thermal vents, or absorbing thermal energy closest to the vents themselves; these name only a few of the manners that life took early in the history of Shikyu. At some point however, a very special kind of life mutated, and learned a new trick: the biological generation of molecular hydrogen though the breakdown of other components used for energy generation. Up till that point, molecular hydrogen did not exist in their oceans (which is to be expected given that it is a very light element which escape most atmospheres with the exception of gas giants or protostars), but from then on the microscopic organism seemed to thrive and absolutely dominate the ecology of Shikyu. Carbon life at that point, had a hard time competing against the suddenly super successful silicon life, and eventually tapered away with the increase of competition, until finally carbon-based life was all but non-existent. Though some carbon based bacteria do remain, they are a rare find.
As evolution continued, other milestones would be reached, complicated life would form which began to use the now plentiful hydrogen present in their waters, thanks to the nearly over abundant plant life nearest to the thermal vents. Thus begins the tale of how the primitive Resu began.
Civilization
Their modern civilization was only several thousand years old, estimated to have risen at about the time during the middle of the Great Hyperspace War. For the Resu though, War as we understand it, was always constant and never ending, even to this day. The only difference between then and now, is back then the Resu were organized and stratified much less. their history is marred by the countless battles conducted between the Great Families, and the many Lesser Families below them. Emperor's, and Lunar Empires were nonexistent, and would not come into fruition until much later in their history.The professions of that time fulfilled the same curiosities they posses today, from the curious Scouts and Explorers, to the intellectual biology interests undertaken by Healers, and researchers looking for remedies to disease. Magma was a useful tool to the Resu, especially when they learned of the particular properties of metals and how they were formed, giving rise to increasingly useful tools, allowing the conquest of Great Families to extend with even greater reach, until the first fledgling monarchies and Empires were formed. After many centuries of primitive warfare, with both moderate and extreme technological innovations which pervaded the biological, architectural, and electrical sciences, eventually the entirety of Shikyu was inevitably under the control of a militant hegemony, under the control of one singular Empire: the fledgling roots of the Imperial Confederacy.
Eventually, the scouts and explorers of this massive imperial commemorate of Families both Great and Lesser, as well as monarchies, would find that there is nothing left to explore, all the universe had been traversed... except for what lay above them. Of course, for many centuries of warfare, the territories of the Resu and their families increased ever more to the heavens, their deep fish physiology soon giving way to an adaptability of pressure. Inevitably, they discovered that the endless ocean... had a very distinct limit. After discovering the ice roof which encased their entire world, the insatiable curiosity of the Resu lead them to continuously mine their surface, digging ever deeper into the kilometers thick ice shell. Finally, the Resu had broken the confines of their watery world, and stepped into the cold unforgiving vacuum of space. Or they would have, if they had legs to step with, though the first ones to reach the surface undoubtedly died.
After decades of research, and constant maintenance of the dig sight (suffering from the tectonic shifts of the ice plates, adjustments were always needed to create a continuous path, in addition to the tendency for the ice to refreeze quickly), the Resu began to design metallic suits which housed a miniature environment for an individual. Luckily, their designs were adequate, and they survived the harshness of space... to be exposed to the dwarfing beauty of the infrared radiation of the Realm in which the Resu lived, as well as the star which they orbited, and the innumerable swirls of light dotting the entire sky. It was as if, the sky was its own ocean, truly without definable limit. They had entered a new era.
Lunar Empires
With the reduced gravity of a lunar body, and and the insatiable curiosity of the Resu, innumerable measurements of their local system were produced before finally a module worthy of achieving escape velocity was constructed. Under the allowance of the Shikyun Emperor (and the Shikyun Empress he belonged to), a number of Great Families were allowed the privilege of pioneering what was considered, "The Deep Dive". Some members of the Great Family obviously fell into the pull of the Realm, and vanished forever beneath its oppressive clouds. Others, never reached their calculated destinations, overshooting to whip around the entire Realm, and launched into corners of the galaxy unseen. Yet a lucky few, managed to survive the ordeal, and land on a new moon...
... so few were prepared for the possibility that these other bodies were lacking in water, and many died to "hypoxia" once their hydrogen distilleries ran dry, or from starvation from a lack sufficient food supply. To put it bluntly, hundreds died needlessly as the Resu tireless perfected their system through trial and error. There was little emotion shed for those lost, the Resu were used to loss and knew with each failure they had done their race an honor. Sacrifice in the name of their race was foremost the most desirable death a Resu might ask for, though only if it produces the progress necessary to push the race forward.
As they learned more about their system with its innumerable moons within the influence of the Realm, eventually the Resu were able to determine what moons had liquid water, or if failing that, a sufficiently sized moon from which they could burrow into and fill with their necessary liquids and distilled gases.
After countless centuries, they had settled the entire realm, and the wars between them never ceased, the colonies all fighting over control of Shikyu as the Grand Emperor, and forming agendas in their Parliament all the while fending off their rivals and adversaries. To chronically that ancient history of the Resu is to step into a madness only they seem capable of comprehending: despite their warrior culture, their politics are more complicated than most would expect.
Then, the "Other" arrived.
The "Other"
The "Other" is best described to other Resu, in the following:
"It seemed to glide across the surface of the ice, like a Tall Tower, but with limbs that behaved as the crustacean do. Only two limbs seemed to support the frail looking body, whose heat was damped by a suit similar to our own used beyond the surface, nonetheless they seemed very cold. Frighteningly, whenever they moved it was almost as if gravity did not act on them, essentially swimming through space not at all dissimilar to the manner which we move through our waters... but with an eerie stillness of the body no Resu could replicate in water. Further frightening... this being, did not recoil from us, until we in our surprise attacked it. It seemed to retreat to a vessel of some sort, though we did not allow it to flee alive. Examining the ship, we could not comprehend how the being had lived on such a vessel. Water was not present, though a minimal amount of pressure was... at least temporarily. The to our bodies horror, all who entered seemed to feel crushed into the floor, and death was feared for those who prolonged the exposure. Nothing indicated the technology belonged to a living being." - An anecdote of a Resu's thoughts concerning a near-human landing on the surface of Shikyu, if said Resu was capable of saying all of that in perfect unabridged basic.
To non-Resu, the anecdote perfectly described THE first contact of the Resu. A humanoid, who is likely the one to have named the various moons of the system to fellow compatriots, as well as the species themselves, before tragically being attacked by the Resu, whose aggression likely caused a failure of his life support suit, killing him nearly instantly in the near-vacuum surrounding Shikyu. All mention of the noble explorers who stumbled upon this Resu Lunar Homeworld, seemed to have gone quite, missing, or dead. Their ship however, despite being laden with Resu tampering, is likely to hold most if not all the information of those tragic explorers. However, after they died, a different sort of tragedy took place which might have changed the Resu forever... as the galaxy so often has.
The Resu in their insatiably curiosity attempted to discover as much as they could of the alien vessel, eventually indirectly discovering some of the controls around the ship through trial and error. Many mistakes were made, but luckily their situation never worsened too gravely given their innate sense of electricity, giving them clues which allowed them to reverse engineer their mistake, and correct it before it grew too large a problem. It would be quite some time and incredible amount of research until they finally learned of how to pilot the ship, which influenced how they created their life suits. Inspired (though perplexed) by the seeming ease by which the "Other" had glided across the ice with only the use of two limbs touching the surface, drove them to discover how to walk mechanically. Soon then electrically commanded legs were found to be standard among many life suits, though usually regarded as a "Pilot-Suit" for many generations until the most recent era, given that one wearing a legged life support suit was likely one who operated the mysterious machinery of the alien vessel.
They modified much of the original design, and reverse engineered as much of the ship that was no longer rendered inoperable but their incessant curiosity of its inner workings. Some of these design changes seemed to be more aesthetic than truly useful, such as seating arrangements that more suited the Resu in place of those dedicated to the smaller humanoids, who possessed no tails to be concerned about. Though gradually, some changes were functional, such as the introduction of the Resu-Specific Life Support System, which filled the water proofed deck with hydrogenated water. In addition, the original cargo bay the ship was re-outfitted into a micro-ecosystem to support their food supply on longer voyages, considering that the ship's sub-light systems were far faster than any Resu technology. In addition, the advanced technology seemed to open up the Resu's "eyes", as it were, to other advanced technologies and resources. Most notably, it brought them means necessary to create special refineries capable of extracting resources directly out of their gas giant... until they discovered the metallic liquid hydrogen hidden beneath the raging storms of their massive gas giant.
There was one apparatus on the Other's vessel however, that they could find no use for, and did not understand: the Hyperdrive. Opting to remove it entirely (likely for further study elsewhere, where it wasn't weighing down on the ships energy supply (upgraded through the use of Resu Super-conductive electronics). Unfortunately, fate had other plans, and the Resu on-board the ship would accidentally activate the Hyperdrive, sending it on a pre-programmed course all the way to Corellia for reasons no one has been able to determine.
This is how the Resu were discovered, in a dismembered and mutilated freighter ship whose original design could not be identified due to the Resu "modifications", along with it being completely filled with water, and any exterior holes in the hull were covered with ice. The ship it seemed, had blasted off into hyperspace before exhausting the rest of its energy and dying in Corellia. This then forced the Corellian government to meticulously study the mysterious ghost vessel and its contents until they had a vague understanding of what was inside of it, given it did not respond to signalling, did not project a distress signal, and made no other motions upon entering the system. It would take several years after discovering an unidentified life force was on board, to determine how best to contact them... though by the time they had come up with a plan, many of the original Resu who had "piloted" the freighter had already died off and produced children, possessing no hope of returning home. The same rituals that had been preformed on Shikyu were similarly preformed on the ship, and they taught the survivors everything they knew, possessing no community for their children to learn from, effectively stunting their mental growth. Anything they weren't able to pass on to their offspring, was all but lost to them, except for the few meager book records they had brought along. The humans had implanted many devices all over the craft in order to discover their communication, once it was clear that audio transmission seemed to have no effect, and direct contact was impossible given their reduced gravity making impossible for them to tow the ship planet-side, and many of the hatches to enter the ship were ice up and pressurized with water. In addition, they were worried the ship was a remnant of the Four Hundred Year Darkness, likely possessing the Gulag Plague, thus their caution was understandable.
The first decade they tried tireless to discern any kind of language being communicated behind the silent walls. It would take years within that decade to discover they instead communicated through electricity, and electromagnetic frequencies, which took almost half a decade in which to interpret in the most basic manner. Eventually, the Corellians found a way to make first contact, allowing an almost literal flood of information to pass between the two. Eventually the ship was escorted back to the last recorded coordinates of the vessel, where they were finally brought back home after nearly two decades of being away. Although the pilots of the cursed ship died away, their children were left behind to continue their lost legacy... though they would forever be unable to leave their "home" seeing the universe was too large for them to handle. So the ship was left alone to be ignored, and left to its own devices. It is said that the ship remains in the system still, confined to a secluded area of space Resu would dare venture, for fear of something "Else".
As for the Corellians, who discovered the language of the aliens (vaguely), they were able to communicate and provide refined hyperdrives for the Resu to use. Soon the Imperial Confederacy had a Corellian ally, importing hyperdrive and custom order ships along with translators, and exporting their pressurize liquid metallic hydrogen, an excellent super conductor that is being experimented with today in order to make a faster processing computer for ships and droids alike across the galaxy. The sight of an ambassador Resu had been excitement to many in the know across the galaxy, a new race with an interestingly exotic charm, with strange technologies.
That though, was the past...
The Morossian Contact Event
A civilization that has stood for centuries is driven into apocalypse at the coming of an alien threat- The Moross Crusade. It all started with a wandering Morossian ship harboring within it the founding "God" of Moross, Aesir Neth ([member="Soliael Devin Talith"]). He from that distance had felt the disturbance of roiling life within the system that contained the Resu, and intrigued by their presence entered, he the system, but no sooner had he enter, had the excitable and aggressive Resu began to signal the foreign ship.
For the past several years after the Resu made contact with Corellia, they began to redouble their research into sensors, pointing them at the sky in the hopes of determining what civilizations were out there. They discovered the interplanetary chatter between the Republic worlds hundreds of lightyears away, still in the infancy of their new civilization in the wake of the 400 Year Darkness. Even farther, they discovered the horrified distress of the worlds under the conquest of the early Sith Empire newly arisen to terrorize a galaxy fresh from their bleak memories of the Darkness. So many other communities all so far away from the Resu... until the looked closer to the stars surrounding them. They were surrounded by a community themselves, and that frightened the Resu... threatened them. Relying on their instincts, their aggression grew to a point any ship that happened to fall into their system, was spotted, questioned, and usually boarded. What happened to those poor unfortunate souls after that should be obvious, given the capital nature of the typical Resu punishment.
A heated discussion between the Grand Emperor and several of his aids with their apprentices, could not decide how to respond to a creature that seemed to promise some divinity towards them. It appalled the Grand Emperor the prospect of alien religion, determining for certain it was a work of vile deceit, an art Resu are shamed for in disdain of the dishonorable deeds it implies. The response to this claim of divinity was ultimately decided by the wisdom of a young cripple, known as Stone Hermes. A hero and early Veteran of war due to his grievous debilitating injuries. He reasoned that the aliens trusted their eyes more than their blood, and because the Resu were born in the absence of light, then their darkness would show the aliens the enemies they would be making out of the Resu if they meant ill. History was made, as an ambassador convoy was dispatch to meet with the dignitary of the alien vessel.
The Resu represented their race, with several in life support suits, but notably two within specialized tanks of water allowing the aliens to witness the naked form of the Resu. When Neth asked permission to demonstrate the faith of Moross to them, it was the unlikely Stone Hermes to whom a decision that would change an entire civilization over night, would fall. Stuck between two dreadful choices, exile for his lack of cooperation with the alien dignitary out of fear of death, or render his life forfeit to the mercy of the supposed "god", that would undoubtedly lead his civilization either to preservation... or utter destruction.
As many of his kind would have chosen, Stone Hermes forwent the choice of becoming an exile, a fate to him worse than sealing the fate of his race to extinction. Thus, the cripple stepped forward submitting to whatever power Neth possessed, manipulated by the Aesir control of the techno-virus, physically changing the body in the shell it was contained in until he became unrecognizable to even himself. The Resu was reborn into the First Convert, a creature of the deep and now a creature of steel. The life support suit he had relied on to even meet with the Morossian living deity, shrunk around his body and pierced through it as it infected his bowels along with very nearly all his living tissue. The Blade of Moross grew from the very flesh of his new metallic hands, a sensation to even have hands foreign, until now. The head that had contained his gills from the poisonous atmosphere ripped itself apart and formed a new jagged maw which would serve as the beasts mouth, and his tusks grew and protruded from the jaw as curved pointed metal poles. His entire body arced with electricity as the spines on his back erupted from his new metallic form. Silicon flesh merged with his new steel carapace, and the tanks of hydrogen keeping him alive merged with his gills, holding metals vessels of water to hydrate the inner skin of this new abominable hybrid of flesh and metal. Skin and bone as strong as durasteel, an electrical voice that could kill, and a blade that would be bloodied in the name of Moross and its infectious virus.
Quickly the mind of Stone Hermes became deranged with the need to swing the blade of Moross upon the flesh of his own kind, and so quickly the others of the assembly had become in the image Neth and the Force had chosen for them. Neth was proclaimed the One True God (before they learned of others, and even after such a revelation he was claimed the Truest One), and a new war was fought between the kin of Resu: The New Blades of Moross, and The Old Tusks of Resu. The waters of Resu were turned silver, the color of Resu blood, should that have mattered to them. But few Resu truly died, as the blades of Moross did not often slice through the water to kill his kin, but to graze him, wound him so that the bloods taste of the alchemical metal would boil it to change, forcing a metamorphosis into the image of the blade and its wielder. The more the Resu fought, the more they converted to what they had been fighting against. Not all Resu reacted to the virus uniformly however, and there were some Infected Resu who maintained their sympathy for the old ways. The fight continued on, but the civilization of Resu that had been was no more, the confederacy they had created in the alliance empires had been eradicated. The small community that remains now has been left to be preserved, as the Morossian soon realized, mating had become difficult for them in this mechanical form, as well as they had formed a sympathy for their ancestors. They felt guilt towards the destruction of their own, they realized they had forgotten who they were beneath their metal skin. The last uninfected Resu swam in confinement upon the "sister homeworld" Ysraka, to remain there forever, and to breed more Resu for the Moross Crusade.
Return of an Exile
Iron Giant was a Resu, crippled since birth, but resilient enough to survive on her own after an early childhood divergence from her brood (effectively becoming an individual which comprehend her situation). That same resilience was a form of intelligence few other Resu had at her age, and while she did fight for a solid year... eventually she was pushed into a support position where her brilliance shined as a weaponsmith. Though like all those who carry a significant enough intelligence, endlessly churning out metal tusks was a repetitive task she began to loath. She refused her duties as a weaponsmith, and for her divergence from the unspoken laws and traditions of the Resu, she was banished. A fate worse than death, she was no longer considered Resu.Where most Resu would confine themselves to death, or take their own life... Iron Giant had proven since the moment she was born, she would be different. She survived, stowing away on a foreign ship which landed her in the hands of the South Systems Syndicate who, not to her knowledge, took advantage of her. They put her into a metal suit of armor, which was more of a vehicle or droid than a true life support suit (because it had been intended to be a droid), and she became the first Resu Mercenary: The Iron Giant. Eventually the SSS collapsed, and Iron Giant was left alone, until discovering the Vagrant Fleet. It was a fleet of ships all carrying the misfits, outcasts, and exiles of the galaxy, all finding a place among themselves. At one point, the exiled Resu met with [member="Jorus Merrill"], who adeptly understood her enough to work with her. For him, she assisted in the creation of a new weapon suiting to his character, and for her, he compiled the components necessary for her to posses an interpreter, instructor, and friend in the little droid known as C.O.M.O.. Feeling indebted to him, for many years she served on his ship and beside it as one of his crew, even after the Vagrant Fleet finally disbanded. Eventually, she would hear the rumors surrounding her home, rumors of the Moross Crusade and their new batch of elite alien warriors... from the Realm of Resu.
She left Jorus, though not because she did not wish to stay... rather it was to her continuing loyalty to the Resu, even though they had shunned her in exile. She needed to find out for herself what had happened, and as she was confronted by fleeing Veterans... she learned the incomprehensible, horrifying truth. The Resu had been effectively destroyed, leaving in its wake only the abominations of the Moross Crusade and their "gods'. This was also when she learned the treachery of the South Systems Syndicate. The 'suit' they had put her in, had been the beginning of a droid they were attempting to developed, which required an advanced artificial intelligence to become threat worthy, to allow them to contended the forces more orderly governments would use to stop their criminal influence... though lacking the resources for such an endeavor, settled for live bait which had flopped into their greedy hands. Disturbed by this revelation, she used her resources and intimate knowledge of her own people, to cybernetically enhance those refugees who had found her. She would not allow them to face the fate she had know, and would not allow the to face the fate they had fled from. The CybeResu had been created, and the beginning of their operation to free her people from the tyranny of disease began.
Eventually, after the fall of the Moross Crusade, and the long silence in the system that follow... Iron Giant had reached out to her former contact - Jorus Merrill. Requesting his help, it eventually resulted in the Underground present in the Kathol Outback to organize a new mission to contact the Resu. The threat since the fall of the Moross Crusade, had grown since the CybeResu had formed. New experiments were taking place, and the Resu had never been more at war... more at threat with extinction. The Original Resu were endangered and plagued with an infertility they could not find the origin of or cure, while the Moross Crusade tyrannically fought its own against an insurgency among their own kind over the solution to their own cybernetic infertility, while the highest echelons of their leadership experimented with forbidden technology to create a new abomination unmatched by anything else in the galaxy. It was all the CybeResu could do to rescue small numbers of the Original Resu from the reservation the Morossian's had created on Ysraka.
It was not until [member="Neelig Waawat"], [member="Bryce Bantam"], and their entourage of Kathol Tech students to establish "First Contact", and uncover an insidious plot surrounding the plagues of the Resu. Attempting to find a cure, the two forces now work to assist the CybeResu and their Original people exodus out of the Realm of Resu to a form of safety, while abominable creatures raged within the bloody oceans of Shikyu.
Notable Player-Characters: Silver Sentinel [Dead], Iron Giant, Stone Hermes [Infected with the Morossian Technovirus], potentially others to come.
Intent: The intent of this species is for role playing a truly alien character, which is wholly different from the "Star Trek" alien humanoids we all known and collectively hold apathy for in the genre of science fiction. What better way to accomplish this goal than to create a being of a wholly other biology, and senses almost entirely incompatible with our own?
