Woolies:
Type: (sentient race) large herbivores (1.98 to 2.13 meters)
Number appearing: 1-20
Move: fast
M/RS: 5/45
STA: 50
Attack: by weapon type, or claws 45%
Damage: 1 D10 per claw, or weapon type
Woolies are the native sentient race and culture of Janus. Woolies have a protected status on Janus. Woolies are not to bothered or harassed in any ways. If a Woolie gets hurt by a non-Woolie the planetary police automatically hold the non-Woolie involved on attempted murder charges until the problem can be investigated. Woolies though tall are not very strong and are basically non-aggressive.
These creatures are bipeds covered with shaggy wool like fibers standing about six and a half to seven feet tall. The civilization of these people is described as nomadic and semi-tribal, although some larger tribal units of relative stability have been observed, primarily on the northern continent.
Woolie is a pun on the phrase the Pango tribe used when asked by explorers what they called themselves Woloi means in Pango linguistic group “from this place”. Woolies are covered with a wool like fiber except for their lower forearms and hands, lower legs and hands and face. The “wool” of the Woolie protects their body skin and is a very strong fiber. Woolies come in a variety of colors such as purple, red, blue, pink, white and black, some are bi colored in that there lower arms, lower legs and faces are a different color than their coat. Woolies have a very short face with large nostrils and a flexible overhanging lip. Woolie have two eyes, the eyes are on the side of the head large and bulbous. The eyes themselves are a constantly changing pattern of colors on black, best described as like watching colored oils move on the surface of dark water. The Woolie does have protective eye-lids. Woolies can not be hypnotized. Woolies have extremely good eyesight and are extremely hard to surprise, are excellent marksmen with any ranged weapon.
Woolies shave patterns into their wool and weave feathers and baubles into their “coats”, some tribes wear their coats in long cords. Woolie neck is long and about one third their height. The arms and legs are long flexible muscular limbs similar to elephant trunks. The legs and arms are surprisingly slender ending in a large two-toed foot and an extremely dexterous three-fingered hand. Their limbs are extremely flexible. The Woolies do not have a skeleton but an interconnecting web if strong fibers that help support their slender body. Woolies are not as strong as humans, yazirians, vrusk or dralasites because of their unique biological structure.
Woolies are not mammals (they look like it from a distance) but a unique form of life found on Janus that possess both plant and animal characteristics. Woolies do not nurse their young. Woolies have a light pink blood that does contain a type of plant-animal red blood cell, but have significantly less of these O2 carrying “red blood” cells than say Humans. Woolies must wear an O2 boosting breathing device, or be given O2 boosting drugs to function on planets with lower O2 content than Janus.
Multi-Cap maintains that the intelligence of the Woolies has been tested as low. The long term survival potential of the Woolies without intervention of a more advanced culture has been judged as low as well by Multi-Cap scientists. However their ability to learn indicates rather they have no cultural points of reference for certain concepts the more advanced races take for granite rather than a lack of intelligence.
Woolies worship the Mirror Plant. Woolies feed their dead to the plant as a burial ceremony. The Mirror Plant is central to their mythologies and various tribal beliefs.
Woolies have a symbiotic relationship with the Mirror Plant. The Woolie’s life cycle is tied to the presence of the Mirror Plant, prey and predator is uniquely connected. Woolies who are not around Mirror Plants are sterile and will produce no children till exposed to the vapors of the Mirror Plant. Only after exposure to vapor will the reproduction of an adult Woolie become active and express it’s self as either male or female “flower” that grows from their chest on a tether. Once the pollen of a male flower has fertilized a female flower, a fruit forms connected to a sort of outside umbilical cord from the female flower, which then gradually matures into a child Woolie as it grows towards the ground. Female Woolies often wear slings to help keep the child contained. The baby Woolie clings to its mother scampering around on the end of its nutrient tether. When the tether is long enough that the child can walk beside their parent the umbilical falls off. The male Woolies flower after releasing its pollen dies and falls off within 24 hours. Woolies (male and female) “bloom” about every 4 months with the exception of a female with child, who will not bloom again till her child’s nutrient tether falls off at about 8 months.
