Compact Space Races:

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 8, 2014 - 6:28pm
Oxygen-breathers
Hani:
Homeworld: Anuurn

Hani are a feline-like species, maned, bearded, usually of red or tawny fur. Females are smaller than humans, males much larger (for much the same reason as Earth lions). They were discovered by the mahendo'sat and helped into space; most of their technology is therefore derived from mahen.

They live in autonomous clans, each consisting of related females, children, and a single male, the clan lord. A male takes over a clan by defeating the previous lord in personal combat. Most males are not that lucky. Male offspring are thrown out of their clan when they become strong enough to pose a threat to the lord. They live in exile among others like themselves, honing their fighting skills and waiting for the opportunity to challenge for a clan. For this reason and because males are stereotyped as being emotionally unstable, only females go into space (until Pyanfar Chanur changes the rules). Females do all the work on clan lands and in space ventures, although Cherryh does describe some able and intelligent males who become involved in the world around them.

Clans are united into amphictionies for control of scarce resources; the biggest one is their homeworld itself, governed by a mahen-inspired council of clans called the han. Hani politics are tradition-bound, based on such concepts as allegiance, honor, blood feud and parole.

One of the hani languages became the basis for the Compact's pidgin, because it was grammatically and phonetically easy for other species (but not as easy for humans).

Mahendo'sat:
Homeworld: Iji

Mahendo'sat (singular mahe) are black or brown primate-like creatures, human-size or larger. They are very curious, innovative and politically oriented. The Mahendo'sat political system is based on the concept of Personage, a charismatic figure with a lot of social credit; a Personage's power is determined by the number of its followers, but a supporter can either weaken or strengthen its Personage, depending on whether its actions in its Personage's name prove to be beneficial or not. To an outsider, this can (and frequently does) look like a Personage's mahen agents are promoting mutually contradictory policies at the same time. Mahendo'sat are idiosyncratically bad at learning other species' languages—many of them can not even master the pidgin used by Compact spacers—although they are quite eloquent in their own numerous languages. Mahendo'sat are the "glue" of the Compact, always trying to maintain the balance of power so peace can be kept and no species dominates. They are in constant search of new powers, recently including humans.

Stsho

Homeworld: Llyene

Stsho are slight, slender, fragile, crested bird-like white beings (even their eyes are pearly white), xenophobic and non-aggressive. Stsho rely on wealth, trade, and alliances to keep their independence; they have devised the trade and legal procedures of the Compact. Although they are tame, stsho are great plotters and can cheat any other species. They hire other species for protection and order keeping in their stations, usually the mahendo'sat. They prefer delicate pleasures and pastel colors, their speech is exceedingly ceremonial and politically correct; they do not physically fight among themselves and their personalities are prone to change ("Phase") under stress, which has many legal implications. They have three genders, gtstgtste and gtsto, which can change with Phasing. Only the gtst(indeterminate sex) deal with other species; the gtste and gtsto (equivalent of male and female) do not normally present themselves to foreigners. There is a fourth state of being, gtsta, which is also known as Holiness. This is a sexless state usually achieved by an aged, honorable Stsho. A Stsho who is in the process of Phasing from one state to another is gtstisi. They permit no other oxygen-breathing species in their territory.

Kif
Homeworld: Akkht.

Kif are bare-skinned, wrinkled, ash-grey, long-snouted rat-like bipedal hunters. They are the tallest species in the Compact, slender, fast and deadly. They are strictly predators, requiring live prey; they have twin sets of teeth (outer for biting and inner for pulping—their throats are unfit for swallowing solid food) and retractable claws.

Their social and political [dis]organization revolves about a quality called sfik, which combines face, authority, and ferociousness. Sfik is gained through victory in combat, or possession of something of value, or just the respect of others: followers with strong sfik give more sfik to their leader. A kif that loses sfik is likely to have its followers either defect or kill it. As a result, the kif are prone to change sides at the first sign of weakness. They seem to have no other moral values; they are pirates and cannibals, and are generally deemed troublesome by the other species.

Occasionally, a strong leader gains enough sfik to hold a base and/or command a whole fleet of ships; such a one is called a hakkikt (prince). These high status individuals are major annoyances to the mahendo'sat, who view hakkiktun as serious destabilizing factors. Very rarely, an ambitious and powerful hakkikt will aspire to become the mekt-hakkikt (supreme prince), the leader of all the kif, a status no kif has ever attained. However, by the time the Chanur cycle takes place, hakkiktun have been adding more and more power each time, each summing his predecessors' allies to his own. This has worried other species greatly, especially their eternal enemies, the mahendo'sat.

Kif are very linguistically adept and adaptable. They are also color blind and the color of their clothes and habitats are generally shades of black and grey. They use dot codes instead of color codes for their hardware.

Methane-Breathers

Tc'a and Chi
Tc'a are large methane-breathing yellow five-eyed snakelike beings, and the chi are yellow arthropod-like creatures. The two species are related in a way none of the oxygen breathers understand, but are (presumably) symbiotic. They are very technologically advanced and powerful, although understanding them is tricky at best, since their brains are multi-part and their speech decodes as complex matrices of intertwined meanings. They run the methane side of most space stations.

Knnn

Knnn, the third methane breathing species, multi-legged tangles of wiry black hair, are the most technologically advanced in the Compact. Unlike other known species, they can maneuver in hyperspace and carry other ships with them. Only tc'a can communicate with them (or claim they can); the knnn are incomprehensible and therefore deemed dangerous by the other species, not to be provoked. They trade by snatching whatever they want and leaving whatever they deem sufficient as payment behind; it is an improvement over their prior habit of just taking trader ships apart.

Racial summaries taken from wikipedia.

I suggest we start with the Hani. 
 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."
Comments:

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 9, 2014 - 10:27am
The Hani

Feline based races are popular in sci-fi: So I dug through my RPG stuff and found 2 examples in the Gurps system to draw from, I probably have some other races in D&D stuff too. I found my Chanur books too...

By page 2 of the first book we have some racial differences besides obvious lionlike look... between Hani & Humans

The Human male is taller than the female Hani.
The Hani have claws and what would hold & not harm a Hani on a human's hairless skin is easily torn and left bleeding. So the fur of the Hani offers some defense.
Hani reproduction anatomy is similar enough that both species can tell a male. Female hani appear to have 2 breasts that are not very developed from the art.
Hani are carnivorous with appropriate feline teeth.

The vocal cords are different as humans have trouble with Hani languages & Compact.

I do not know if the Hani are bipedal like humans or upright & digitigrade like the Aslan in Gurps?
But based on cover art I would go with bipedal like humans see art here: http://www.shinyfiction.com/cherryh-fan/chanur/books-chanur.html 
It also appears they are tailess?

The Hani have Cat-Eyes it appears from the art. They have more domestic cat like ears and 5 fingered hands. Think Lion with a dash of domestic cat for general look of head.

So I would think they might have vision & hearing similar to earth felines. So good night vision, heightened hearing & smell.

I have to do more rereading to know if the claws are retractable. 



System info for Hani (got this off a fan site) http://www.shinyfiction.com/cherryh-fan/chanur/hani/index.html

Ahr — Homestar of the hani, a yellow star similar to Sol, the human sun. It has six major planets, three stations, a null-g shipyard, and assorted moons, rings, and planetoids.
  1. Gohin — First planet orbiting Ahr, in the hani home star system.
  2. Anuurn — Homeworld of the hani, second in orbit about Ahr. Gaohn Station orbits Anuurn.
    1. Gaohn Station — Station in orbit about Anuurn, the hani homeworld.
  3. Harn Station, Harn Shipyards — Station and null-g shipyards in the hani home system. Which planet it orbits is unspecified. They get a look at the mahen hunter-ship Aja Jin when it goes in for repairs. The mahe are ready for their allies to see the new hunter-ships, though.
  4. Tyo — Third major planet of Ahr, in the hani system. Supports a hani colony and is orbited by Kilan Station.
    1. Kilan Station — Station orbiting Tyo, third planet in the hani home system. Supports the colony on Tyo.
  5. Tyar — Fourth major planet orbiting Ahr, in the hani home star system.
  6. Tyri — Fifth major planet of Ahr, the hani homestar.
  7. Anfas — Sixth major planet about Ahr, in the hani home star system.
ttp://strengthofthehills.tripod.com/hanilanguageandculturepage/

A hani year seems longer than a human (earth?) year, but how longer no one seems to know so this vague so I figure what ever we decide will be okay.

 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 10, 2014 - 10:05am
Okay thinking about these guys stats...

Hani society and biology conspires to streamline the females into the jobs & careers while shunting the men off to battle, survival, or stay at home guys... so I think a gender modification is appropriate... how about +5 INT/LOG for females (to represent educational opportunities the males are denied) & +5 STR/STA for males (to represent the culture training the men to fight & the fact the boys are stronger/bigger) 

Also males are known to go into rage as part of there socialization.

I think on the whole the Hani are not weaker or stronger than Humans on general stats... they are smaller except for the males which are more human sized.

I think they might have some heightened senses though that can give them edge seeing, smelling, hearing.

I am trying to write up an easy to understand info on their culture. 

On their looks how do we want them to be bipedal? Like the cover art or more like the Aslan? Tailed or bob-tailed? Do we want 5 digit hands & feet?

 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."

jedion357's picture
jedion357
November 11, 2014 - 7:09am
Tchklinxa wrote:
Okay thinking about these guys stats...

Hani society and biology conspires to streamline the females into the jobs & careers while shunting the men off to battle, survival, or stay at home guys... so I think a gender modification is appropriate... how about +5 INT/LOG for females (to represent educational opportunities the males are denied) & +5 STR/STA for males (to represent the culture training the men to fight & the fact the boys are stronger/bigger) 

Also males are known to go into rage as part of there socialization.

I think on the whole the Hani are not weaker or stronger than Humans on general stats... they are smaller except for the males which are more human sized.

I think they might have some heightened senses though that can give them edge seeing, smelling, hearing.

I am trying to write up an easy to understand info on their culture. 

On their looks how do we want them to be bipedal? Like the cover art or more like the Aslan? Tailed or bob-tailed? Do we want 5 digit hands & feet?



I see no problem with gender based ability mods.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Tchklinxa's picture
Tchklinxa
November 11, 2014 - 11:26am
How about this for the a start of Hani Stats & basic racial abilities:
Hani Stats:
Average Size: 1.4 to 1.6 meters for females, males vary in height from 1.5 to 1.7
Females 50 kilograms, Males 60 kilograms
Average lifespan: ? Suggestions?
Reproduction: heterosexual, viviparous
Body Temperature: 38.6°C
STR/STA +0  DEX/RS +0 INT/LOG +0 PER/LDR +0
Claw/claw/biter foe 2d10/2d10/2d10 damage. Leap 3 meters Base speed 10m, night vision
+5 STR/STA males, +5 INT/LOG females
The Hani is able to see well in low light conditions. With a full moon shining, a Hani character with night vision can see as well as other characters can see during the day. On a night with no moon, he can see as well as if it were a full moon. The character's daytime, or bright light vision, is unaffected.
Battle Rage. Hani males are trained to go berserk in battle. A berserk Hani gets a bonus of +20 to hit in melee. Hani characters start with a Battle Rage score of 5, and a 5% chance to go berserk at the start of a battle. This chance can be increased by spending experience points (see IMPROVING CHARACTERS) to raise the Battle Rage score. Battle Rage lasts as long as the Hani male keeps fighting; it ends when the Hani rests for five minutes.

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 "Never fire a laser at a mirror."