Kal
Whispers
- Intent: Creepy Grey Aliens for Greystone & Co.
- Image Credit: The GREYS by Adam Milicevic, edited by
Ingrid L'lerim
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: N/A
- Links: Force Alchemy, Bioengineering, and the Weavers | Columi, Draethos, and Umbaran
- Name: The Grey Ones
- Designation: Sentient
- Origins: Greystone Mercantile
- Average Lifespan: 30 Standard Years
- Estimated Population: Scattered
- Description: Lanky humanoid telepaths largely deprived of personal desire and indeed individuality as a whole, the Grey Ones are rarely seen except in service to some greater entity, whether Greystone itself, its customers, or a more independent Collective. Excepting Force Users and any recipients of specialised vocal cybernetics, Grey Ones are unable to communicate mentally/verbally with most other species; they are quite sentient, however, at least by most definitions - that said, it can be disputed whether the average Blank is truly self-aware.
- Breathes: Type I Atmospheres
- Average Height of Adults: 1.7-1.9 metres
- Average Length of Adults: N/A
- Skin Colour: Greyish tones of green, blue, purple, and tan.
- Hair Colour: N/A; naturally hairless.
- Distinctions: Grey Ones are slightly taller and somewhat slenderer than humans on average; regardless of skin colour they have greyish flesh and bleed a viscous black substance that coagulates more readily than human blood; this adaptation means they almost never bleed out and by extension may let them push through injury, at the risk of excessive coagulation reducing long-term survivability through blood clots.
- Senses: Grey Ones have a broader visual spectrum than humans, need less light to see, and are better suited for noticing small details and peripheral movement alike, their sense of smell is much less impressive, however, and they completely lack tastebuds. They do not hear as well as most organics do (at least without invasive cybernetics) but do notice changes in air pressure/humidity and shockwaves.
- Sexes: Grey Ones are asexual in both senses of the word; humanoids often like to view them as "vaguely masculine" or "organic droids".
- Age: Grey Ones are born as Blanks, expendables lacking in individuality but with full control of their bodily functions. What they lack in skill they make up for in a willingness to learn or, if necessary, die for the greater good. Grey Ones practice senicide, but not for FUs and especially valuable NFUs; when possible, their lives should be expended in a manner that aids the whole and/or their biomass recycled.
- Races: Grey Ones come in several forms, though the Slender are generally considered optimal; as such, they form the bulk of most groupings.
- The Slender: By far the most common form of Grey One, the Slender are taller and leaner than humans on average; they can be found in every stratum of Grey One society, from the lowliest untrained Battle-Cadres designated as cannon fodder to what passes for leaders.
- The Stunted: Also known as the Squats, the Stunted are significantly shorter than the Slender; they are rarer but require less biomass to nurture forth, leading to them sometimes serving as cannon fodder. They are often used to perform maintenance in small places.
- The Chosen: While still clearly related to more conventional Grey Ones, the Chosen have been altered in some way during their birth, whether by a Weaver, Fleshshapers, or even an Alchemist; as such, few generalities can be made about their purpose and properties.
- Force Sensitivity: High; unlike, say, humans, naturally-occurring Grey One FUs are very rare, with most among them having been purposefully cultivated for Force Sensitivity. Despite being more plentiful, these artificial Force Users are weaker than is the norm in most other species and so they tend to band together into "Choirs" to focus their abilities on specialised tasks, as expanded upon below. Given the sheer complexity of synthesising Force Sensitivity, they are still a clear minority in all known Grey One populations.
- Telechoirs: Most common of all the Choirs, Telechoirs are composed of Grey Ones whose abilities are limited solely to Telepathy with very few exceptions; even more interconnected than other Choirs, they tend to develop into literal hive minds over time. They tend to be subdivided into Farspeakers and Mindshapers, who deal in communications and interrogation/mind control/etc. respectively.
- Seer-Choirs: Rarest of all are the Seer-Choirs and those Grey Ones who display an aptitude for Precognition, Force Visions, and such are almost universally assigned to these mysterious groupings; it is said that their coldly unfeeling minds make them well-suited to interpret the fluctuating currents of the Force, though they cannot claim to be as infallible as the Voss Mystics.
- Battle-Choirs: Where other Force Users are cherished and protected, those Grey Ones determined to have an aptitude for the Force's more militant applications are instead pushes through an incredibly rigorous training program meant to hone minds and bodies alike for lethal precision. They commonly make use of Telekinesis, Force Lightning, and offensive Telepathy, focusing their wills as one.
- Shaper-Choirs: Those Grey Ones with an aptitude for Alchemy and the like are assigned to Shaper-Choirs, which in turn tend to be split into Fleshshapers and Steelshapers who deal with organic and inorganic creatures/substances respectively. Steelshapers are usually seen creating "mass-produced" (as opposed to unique) alchemical materials or artefacts such as Living Clay or Karza'Arana War Plate while Fleshshapers tend to occupy themselves with the creation of strange creatures or the cultivation of more Grey One Force Users.
- The Wild Choirs: Though natural Force Users are typically paired with their artificial cousins to lend them their strength, in a few cases unorthodox entities known informally as Wild Choirs are formed entirely of natural Force Users, usually no more than five. As these can be as strong as any Sith or Jedi with sufficient training, the power they can bring to bear as a whole is both terrifying and unpredictable.
- United We Stand: By far the greatest strength of the Grey Ones are their telepathy. The average specimen can communicate with others of its kind within a five-hundred-metre radius; smaller groups known as Cadres (Choirs for FUs) form tighter bonds still, gaining the ability to share their skills and experiences while in range of each other, something often used to rapidly advance Blanks to acceptable professional standards.
- Inborn Dexterity: Grey Ones are faster and more agile than humans, possess excellent fine motor skills, and are gifted with precise minds.
- Expendability: Uncaring of their own lives and easily produced in appropriate facilities, the Grey Ones are the definition of expendable.
- Self-Control: Grey Ones experience little fear or pain and their bodily control is such that self-induced cardiac arrest is possible.
- Divided We Fall: Inhumanly sociable beings, Grey Ones are completely incapable of dealing with separation; even momentary separation from the whole is painful, with most ceasing to function properly after hours and resorting to suicide after mere days. Insanity is common.
- Physically Mediocre: Grey Ones lack the ability to digest most solid foods and possess less muscle mass and endurance than humans.
- Centralised Reproduction: Grey Ones are incapable of reproducing on their own, relying instead on, e.g, centralised Spawning Pools.
- Uncreative Drones: While Blanks are decent with instruction, most Grey Ones remain painfully predictable unless trained otherwise.
- Diet: Most lack the ability to digest solids, as such nutrient paste forms the bulk of their diet; even should they consume "tastier" food, their lack of tastebuds ensures an unimpressed reaction. They have a strong allergic reaction to salt, which burns their skin in sufficient quantities.
- Communication: All* Grey Ones are innately telepathic, though only the Force Users among them are able to communicate with beings not of their own species without specialised training. They lack vocal cords but may receive cybernetic vocalizers to allow semi-normal speech.
- *Some Grey Ones may be "born" incapable of telepathy. They are usually euthanised on the spot and their genetic source purged.
- Technology Level: Generally equivalent to Galactic Standard; many serve as engineers or mechanics, but comparatively few innovate.
- Spawning Pools: While more conventional systems such as Exowombs may be used, large-scale "spawning pools" are more common by far. Experienced biotechnicians make use of both conventional bioengineering and Fleshshaper assistance to nurture forth the next generation. Grey Ones grow in large egg-like sacs floating in pools of nutrients, breaking free themself when mature. Those who have yet to free themselves by their sixth month are generally defective and euthanised at the discretion of the presiding technician(s).
- Religion/Beliefs: The overwhelming majority of Grey Ones are wholly dedicated to the collective; the Individual is Nothing, the Collective is All. Unlike proper hive minds, they may develop individual quirks or beliefs, though this is rarer than with more free-willed species. Given the origin of their species, it should come as no surprise that many are indoctrinated into unquestioning loyalty towards their "owners".
- The Forsaken: Whether through genetic defect or surviving lengthy separation, some select few Grey Ones become Forsaken, cut off from the collective forevermore. They tend towards eccentricity or outright insanity, may develop strange telepathic abilities, and suffer the misfortune of being forever marked as defective - Grey One Battle-Cadres have been known to "forcibly euthanise" them.
- General Behaviour: Fundamentally collectivistic, Grey Ones rarely act except in furtherance of the collective's goals - or rather, the goals of the individual or organisation to which said collective has pledged its undying loyalty. Most, especially the youngest, tend towards boringly predictable behavioural patterns, something likely compounded by constant telepathic communication with others of their kind; that is not to say that they do not have any capacity for innovation or creativity, but it is generally cultivated only in specialists, not the expendable masses.
- Cadres and Collectives: Grey Ones are divided into Cadres (or Choirs, for FUs) that fulfil the same role (e.g., Battle-Cadres are soldiers, Tech-Cadres are technicians or engineers, Labour-Cadres do manual labour, Agri-Cadres grow and process foodstuffs) and Collectives, which organise larger groups. There may be several "layers" of Collectives, such as a colony versus a planet. Most Cadres have between five and twenty members, though exceptions certainly exist; Choirs are normally three to seven strong. Collectives may number in the hundreds but usually measure in the thousands, a requirement if they wish to have sufficiently developed reproductive infrastructure.
- Grey Ones "born" at around the same time are considered a Clutch - because of their telepathic nature, it is not uncommon for the birth of one mature specimen to spur others into action, leading to many breaking out of their sacs at the same time. While some Collectives attribute some significance to Clutches, most quickly sort Blanks into appropriate Cadres.
- Nature of the Force: Grey Ones have a far more simplistic view of the Force than most older traditions; their Choirs tend to regard it as an "interconnected weave" to be tapped into as necessary. They do not seem to recognise the divide between Dark and Light and have only in extreme circumstances been observed to "fall to the Dark", perhaps due to a lack of individual fears and desires.
- Cadres and Collectives: Grey Ones are divided into Cadres (or Choirs, for FUs) that fulfil the same role (e.g., Battle-Cadres are soldiers, Tech-Cadres are technicians or engineers, Labour-Cadres do manual labour, Agri-Cadres grow and process foodstuffs) and Collectives, which organise larger groups. There may be several "layers" of Collectives, such as a colony versus a planet. Most Cadres have between five and twenty members, though exceptions certainly exist; Choirs are normally three to seven strong. Collectives may number in the hundreds but usually measure in the thousands, a requirement if they wish to have sufficiently developed reproductive infrastructure.
Having long harboured some level of distrust for droids and mercenaries alike, it was perhaps only natural that Greystone would instruct its Weavers and contracted Bioengineers to develop an alternative; crafted from genetic materials procured from the InterGalactic Gene Bank and modified with Paradigm Aurek Genetic Matrices, the base template that would become the Grey Ones was then altered through the alchemies of the Weavers.
While primarily based on a wide range of samples from Columni, Draethos, and Umbarans, their unique genetic cocktail allegedly contained stranger things yet, including Killiks, whose behavioural patterns in some ways resemble those of the Grey Ones. The first of these beings were born in sterile lab environments, though this proved unsuited for large-scale production - for this purpose, the concept of the "Spawning Pool" came to be.
Capable of extremely rapid reproduction under ideal circumstances though they may be, they are nonetheless burdened by various flaws, notably an unusually short lifespan, a lacking ability for individual course correction, and a total reliance on biotechnology for the perpetuation of their species.
Grey One colonies usually resemble either the organically inspired Geonosian/Killik hives or sterile industrial-looking sites.
