- Joined
- Oct 16, 2014
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Male Spineral
Female Spineral
- Name: Spineral
- Biology: The Spineral are a bipedal race of amphibians, with tall, elongated bodies well-suited for their high metabolism, and skeletons composed of more cartilage than those of other races such as humans. Spineral heads are long and thin, and have a pair of horns protruding from the top of their skulls. Skin varies in colour, from bright reds and greens to the more common shades of blue or grey. Their blood is a greenish colour. Spineral eyes are large and oval and have thin membranes in place of eyelids. The pupils are a wide slit, oriented horizontally, and the irises can be dark green, purple, red, blue, or brown. Salarians blink upwards, rather than downwards as humans do.
Spineral are noted for their high-speed metabolism, which allows them to function on just one hour of sleep a day. Their minds and bodies work faster than most sapient races, making them seem restless or hyperactive. The drawback of this active metabolism is a short lifespan of around 40 human years.
Spineral have photographic memories and rarely forget a fact. They also possess a form of psychological "imprinting", tending to defer to those they knew in their youth. Salarian hatching is a solemn ritual in which the clan Dalatrass (matriarch) isolates herself with the eggs. The young spinerals psychologically imprint on her and tend to defer to her wishes. During the hatching of daughters, the Dalatrasses of the mother and father’s clans are present at the imprinting. This ensures the offspring have equal loyalty to both, ensuring the desired dynastic and political unity.
Spineral's sex drive and reproduction differ from that of humans, with that it is not hormone-based. Reproduction is more of a necessity and spinerals do not seem to desire sex for pleasure.
- Subspecies: No
- Breeding: The spinerals are amphibian haplo-diploid egg-layers; unfertilized eggs produce males and fertilized eggs produce females. Once a year, a salarian female will lay a clutch of dozens of eggs. Social rules prevent all but a fraction from being fertilized. As a result, 90% of the species is male.
- Strengths: What particular strengths does your species posses?
- Weaknesses: What weaknesses do they have?
- Diet: How does you species sustain itself? Any specific organisms or plants?
- Behaviour/Temperament: Does your species have any typical behaviours or personality traits common among them?
- Communication: How does your species communicate with each other or other species? Is it verbal? If so what language do they speak?
- Culture: Spinerals excel at invention, preferring to use cutting-edge technology rather than settle for anything less. For example, their defences put emphasis on high performance over reliability even though a malfunction could cost lives.
The spineral see information gathering and even spying as a matter of course when dealing with other races, but this is not underhanded: they simply embrace the dictum of "knowledge is power".
Normally, the rare spineral females are cloistered on their worlds out of tradition and respect. Powerful female Dalatrasses are dynasts and political kingpins. They determine the political course of their respective regions through shrewd negotiation. Though male spinerals rise to positions of great authority in business, academia, or the military, they rarely have any input on politics.
Due to their method of reproduction, spinerals have no concept of romantic love, sexual attraction, or the biological impulses and social rituals that complicate other species' lives. Male-female relationships are rare (due to the scarcity of females) and more akin to human friendship. Sexuality is strictly for the purpose of reproduction. Ancient social codes determine who gets to fertilize eggs, which produces more daughters to continue the bloodline. Fertilization generally only occurs after months of negotiation between the parents' clans, and is done for purposes of political and dynastic alliance. No spineral would imagine defying this code.
Spineral names are quite complex. A full name includes – in order – the name of a spineral's homeworld, nation, city, district, clan name and given name. For example, a spineral named Gorot II Heranon Mal Dinest Got Inoste Ledra would be called either by his clan name, Inoste, or his given name, Ledra.
Salarians celebrate "Betau," the first day of their New Year. Traditionally, it marks the end of winter in the southern hemisphere on the spineral homeworld, Sur'Kwesh. During this occasion, they repay debts, and petition favours from one another.
When it comes to keeping secrets, spinerals have two types of social cues. The first type is personal or guilt-based, and invites suspicion and exploration. The second type is for secrets deemed dangerous if discovered, and signals discourage curiosity for protection of the relevant parties. Reflexive body language conveys the type of secret and cannot be faked convincingly; an analogue is that of a human faking a yawn.
Economy
The spineral economy is quite small. It is based on "bleeding-edge" technologies; spineral industries are leaders in most fields. They make up for a lack of military quantity by holding a decisive superiority in quality.
Religion
Spinerals are not notably religious, but as free-willed sentience there are exceptions. One of the less favoured spineral religions (which the Council deems a "cult") worships a goddess, and claims that a certain pattern of overlapping craters in the southern hemisphere of Plannovai resembles her.
- History: Spinerals were already thriving on Sur'Kwesh 50,000 years before, albeit in a thoroughly primitive state. According to old history books, the spinerals of his time were classified as "lizard people". They used to eat flies, licked their eyes, and their body parts were considered delicacies In addition to livers, spineral's kidneys were apparently best served at room temperature, preferably with the spineral still alive, as its fear adds "spice".
Eventually, they progressed technologically to the point of colonizing planets beyond their own.
On their first three interstellar colonies, the spinerals planted settlements named Aegohr (a colony on an Asteroid), Plannovai (An colony made on a water based planet), and Jaëto (A space station colony that has been airborne since they became space-worthy) . These settlements "remain at the heart of spineral territory to this day".
- Military
In principle, the spineral military is a small volunteer army that focuses on manoeuvre warfare. What differentiates the spinerals is not their equipment or doctrine, but their intelligence services and rules of engagement. The spinerals believe that a war should be won before it begins.
The unquestioned superiority of their intelligence services allows them to use their small military to maximum effectiveness. Well before fighting breaks out, they possess complete knowledge of their enemy's positions, intentions, and timetable. Their powerful intelligence network is spearheaded in the field called Special Reconnaissance Group (SRG), which is responsible for monitoring developing situations and taking necessary action, usually without the shackles of traditional laws and procedures. This may be as simple as scouting and information gathering, or as complex as ensuring a conveniently unstable political situation stays that way.
In every war the spinerals have fought, they struck first and without warning. For the spinerals, to know an enemy plans to attack and let it happen is folly; to announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of "do not fire until fired upon" and "declare a war before prosecuting it" incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating pre-emptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offence, they have never issued an official declaration of war before attacking.
Force Sensitive Spinerals are virtually unknown in the spineral military. Those with such abilities are considered too valuable to be used as cannon fodder and are assigned to the intelligence services.
While capable of defending themselves against most threats, the spinerals know that they are small fish in a universe filled with sharks. As a point of survival, they have cultivated strong alliances with larger power.
The spineral navy has sixteen dreadnoughts, which is considerably less than the maximum they are allowed to build under the Treaty of Sur'Kwesh. This slowdown in dreadnought production was a consequence of the increasing complexity of the salarians' designs. After covertly obtaining and researching stealth technology used in their ships, the spinerals were able to produce dreadnoughts with stealth capabilities, a previously unthinkable feat. Spinerals dedication to adopting bleeding-edge technology is also demonstrated by their ships' costly armament. Warships are equipped with the latest defence systems and utilize ultraviolet anti-ship lasers, which are more expensive and energy demanding than standard inferred lasers, but more effective. Even spineral scouting flotillas are armed with hull-mounted cannons.
- Planet: Sur'Kwesh
- Notable PCs: None Yet
- Intent: Planning on making a variety of PCs and NPCs for this species.
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