- Name: The Savages of Jotun, often shortened to just "Savages".
- Species: Nisi and gleep.
- Nisi are a humanoid, feline species with digitigrade legs. They're covered entirely in short fur, most often in two colors, then three colors, then one color, with nisi having four or more colors being extremely rare;note fur patterns for those with more than one color come in an extremely wide variety. Nisi also tend to have longer "hair" on the top of their head, which is usually a different color from the short fur on their head. On their face they have two eyes above a nose above a mouth; though not as flat faced as humans, nisi do not have a muzzle. Their ears sit on either side of the top of their head and come in various triangular shapes, which form the basis of their social demographics, rather than fur pigmentation. Their hands have three fingers and a thumb, and their feet have four wide toes; both have claws. They have a thin, flexible tail. Nisi women have two mammaries on the chest exactly where you'd expect them to be. Compared to most other sapient species, nisi tend to be far faster in both agility and reflexes, and have good dexterity, but are physically weaker, less endurant, and less intelligent than average. Unlike most sapient species, their bodies are better suited for short bursts of extreme activity, and not well suited for long tests of endurance. They are a predatory species, and are exclusively carnivorous. Nisi tend to act on instinct over rational thought more so than most other sapient species.
Nisi have an exaggerated gender dimorphism, with women making up two thirds of their population. Women stand about five feet tall on average, hit puberty at about 10 years of age, reach physical maturity around 14, and live 90 years on average. Men stand about six feet tall on average, hit puberty at about 8 years of age, reach physical maturity around 13, and live 80 years on average. Women are notably faster and have better reflexes, while men are notably stronger and more endurant. Women are also notably smarter, and the men have stronger instincts, making the latter at times almost comparable to wild, non-sapient animals in their behavior.
- Gleep are a six legged reptilian species very similar in appearance to a Terran iguana. They are covered in scales that come in every color of the visible spectrum plus a few in the ultraviolet, usually a bright color; starting on the top of their head and going down their spine to their tail, they have short, feather-like growths which are always a darker shade of the color their scales are. They are a timid, herbivorous species, and mostly eat fruit plus the occasional nut.
With their prone posture they do not stand high off the ground, usually only a foot and a half, but their bodies tend to measure seven feet from the tip of their nose to the tip of their tail, with the tail itself being about three of those seven feet. The front and middle pairs of legs both face forward, with paws suited for tunneling and digging, while the rear pair of legs go back and provide the majority of strength for their forward momentum. Though they are fully sapient and have average intelligence equivalent to humans, gleep do not have voice boxes, making them incapable of vocal communication beyond animal-like calls, and do not have true opposable thumbs either. Gleep do not have much gender dimorphism, their Males and Females looking identical from outward appearance. Gleep hit puberty at about 7 years of age, reach physical maturity around 13, and live 60 years on average.
- History: Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands years ago, the nisi entered their stone age and lived in tribal society. Conflicts between tribes were common, but tended to be short in length, sometimes resolved with only a quick duel between the two tribal leaders. During this time period, the nisi were not aware of the gleeps' likewise sapience, and treated them as just another prey animal to hunt and eat.
The nisi were still in their tribal stone age until 152 years ago, when the Nomads found their planet and uplifted the species to the space age to join the League. Though not without hiccups, mainly due to their lower average intelligence, this process went by fairly smoothly; the idea of globally uniting under the rule of the Nomads came surprisingly easy to them, which eased the process since there was no major internal conflict among them. During this period, the nomads discovered the sapience of the gleep, and immediately banned nisi from hunting or eating them, and forced the nisi to integrate gleep into their own society by appealing to their sense of honor. Though this did not go as smoothly or as quickly as their technological ascension, it nevertheless progressed all the same.
Once the nisi started to interact with other species on an interstellar level, they most easily bonded with the sirians, as their two species shared a remarkable number of things in common. However, when the sirians switched over to the Pact and the large war ensued between the League and the Pact, the nisi took it very personally, seeing the sirians' act as one of utmost betrayal and dishonor. The nisi subsequently antagonized the sirians exclusively during the war, but found themselves outmatched and lost ground until sirian forces had assaulted their home planet into submission near the end of the war. Though the sirian forces were forced to withdraw by nomad reinforcements, the Pact's overwhelming victory over the nomads, and subsequent collapse of the League, soon followed, leaving the nisi and gleep on their own to rebuild. The nisi established a new, independent government under the title of Savages, supposedly based on the most common insult used by sirians to describe nisi during the war.
- Government: The Savages ultimately still consider themselves loyal to the League, but in light of recent events they have established their own independent government since the nomads are incapable of properly leading them. This government is led by a Warlord who by law can pass any law she pleases with no checks. In practice, the Warlord is socially expected to adhere to certain traditions, and current law states that the Warlord will rule until another nisi can defeat her in a duel, at which point she will become Warlord. The current Warlord is one Talia Wyrdripper.
Beneath the Warlord are four departments of government that handle the Warlord's orders. Each department is headed by a chief who, like the Warlord, is appointed indefinitely until someone defeats her in a duel. (Technically almost all of their upper government positions are appointed in much the same way.) First is the Department of War, which handles all forms of foreign relations be they peace or war. Second is the Department of Defense, which handles managing the nation's internal security from large scale crime busts to street level cops, and their prison system. Third is the Department of Technology, the only department to have more gleep than nisi, which handles the nation's R&D as well as their treasury. Last is the Red Claws, founded by and named after a notable nisi tribe with roots going back to the days before the nomads' arrival; they recruit only the most dangerous and deadly nisi to act as their operatives, and handle all espionage and counter-espionage, working in tandem with the other departments as necessary.
Though the Savages have no current plans for war with any other nation, they are not friendly with former members of the Pact, less friendly with those who willingly tore away from the League, and downright hate those who defected from the League to the Pact.
- Territory and Population: The Savages of course have their home system with their jungle planet of Jotun in it. They also have a second system with a forest world called Pumyk that has a compatible atmosphere that they have colonized heavily. And they have a third system with no compatible planets, that they have starbases in. Their total population of sapients currently stands at approx. 19 billion nisi, and 8 billion gleep, with a negligibly small population of immigrants from other sapient species.
- Military: Aside from ordinance, there is no such thing as standard issue in the Savages military. Equipment is almost universally modified upon during slow periods of deployments, either by the user or by their local nisi engineer, whom go by the title of tinkerer; sometimes equipment is even homemade from scratch by tinkerers. As a result, there is a wild variance in levels of overall quality and effectiveness, in everything from personal sidearms and work tools to starships. They will also pilfer and use any available equipment, either salvaged from fallen allies or stolen from defeated enemies; anything not compatible with their own ordinance will usually be dismantled and have the parts used by tinkerers to upgrade their own equipment or make entirely new equipment. As of late, the Department of Technology has been attempting to make small arms ammunition capable of piercing power armor that can also be mass produced, with mixed levels of success.
Savages military in general however has a significant focus on fighter craft, with almost all of them capable of fighting in atmo and space, and capable of going from one to the other with ease. All their starships came equipped with or were modified to have a great many fighter bays, though as a result they have less in the way of capital class weaponry than most of their peers. Their fighter craft tend to focus on maneuverability and dodging of enemy attacks to avoid destruction rather than armor or shields. When fighting planet side, their strategy relies on taking aerial superiority and using that to force the enemy into submission, usually with lots of bombing and strafing runs. They do not often use ground based or nautical vehicles, seeing either choice as an arbitrary restriction of movement opposed to an aerial vehicle; as a result their infantry forces are almost all air drop squads, usually equipped with sniping weaponry and not expected to be facing an enemy force in a head to head battle.
About 8% of the nisi population serve in military combat positions, though a significant amount of both nisi and gleep are employed by the Department of War or Department of Defense in non-combat roles. 16 ships serve in their space forces, less than half of which were originally built by the Savages; most notably is their flagship, a nomad with a particular fondness for the nisi that decided to stay with them after the war, named Death Pageant. There are also 4 notable pirate ships with nisi crews, who although they do not follow the Savages command, nevertheless are non-hostile with the Savages, and it is known that many of the things they steal end up ultimately sold to the Savages through black market dealings; they mostly prey on vulnerable ships of the former Pact members.
- Infrastructure: Most of their own technology is relatively primitive for an intergalactic stage, especially their schooling and science systems which they've had to build from the ground up now that they don't have the constant supervision and teaching of the nomads. In their thick jungle home, large road systems are basically nonexistent, even in their largest cities, though a large amount of aerial vehicles with a surprisingly sophisticated traffic system takes care of most of their major transportation needs. Most of the major cities also have public transportation in the form of tram lines, trains, or subways available.
One particular area the Savages excel at even without the supervision of the nomads, is pharmaceuticals. Among the largest of their capitalist industries, Savages pharmaceuticals are capable of producing almost any drug, or approximate substitute. Export of these drugs to other nations, whether legal drugs through official channels or illegal drugs sold directly to tourists in Savages space, makes up the major bulk of Savages exports. Chief among imports to the Savages is technology, or non-native animals to be butchered for meat.
- Culture: The nisi half of the savages is purely matriarchal and based on combat and physical prowess above all else. Nisi women spend their whole life with their family, unless the family becomes too large in which case they hold a ceremony to split it. The matriarch of the family is whoever is toughest in a fight, with any member of the family able to challenge the matriarch to a duel for the position. As ingrained social habit, nisi women families also all collectively join the same career, chosen by the matriarch, doing whatever position in said career they are capable of doing. Nisi boys stay with their family until their instincts become active, which happens at some point during puberty, though not the same for every boy. As their first major instinct is to always travel and never stay in the same place for too long, they will subsequently abandon their family and start to live as a homeless wanderer. Their second major instinct is to protect any nisi women in their presence from harm; this, along with their lower intelligence, is why nisi men never hold any position in the government. Since those positions are gained by defeating whoever previously held it in a duel, and nisi men find it almost impossible to bring themselves to duel a nisi woman.
Since the women stay with their family but the men wander, the concept of lasting relationships is entirely alien to nisi. Copulation usually occurs as a means of recreation, and for women additionally as a means to possibly add more girls to their family; or possibly as a means to avoid having to duel. In the Savages, a duel is considered legitimate so long as both combatants are equally armed within reason, and as long as it is purely one on one, to which they count a pregnant woman as no longer being one person. To knowingly take part in a duel which was discovered to be illegitimate because it was not one on one would make a woman be considered to have no honor, and almost always be banished from her family, even if she was the matriarch.
Nisi films and games, even those that are recreations of other species', tend to be cheesy, with p*rnography substituting both romance scenes and the genre as a whole. Nisi music comes in two distinct flavors: Battle hymns, which use deep sounding instruments, primarily drums, and lyrics about fighting and honor; and dance music, which is always upbeat, with fast rhythms and usually cheesy vocals about whatever. Nisi clothing is usually just based on whatever is most practical for their job, with the exception of dresses and tribal masks for women, both of which are seen as formal wear appropriate for either important social gatherings and duels. White dresses in particular have a significant connection to the Red Claws, who wear them while on assignment; as such other nisi women will never wear a purely white dress if they can help it, lest the Red Claws catch wind of an "impersonator". Nisi men will for formal occasions, wear only a tribal mask, and dye patterns into their fur with bright colors.
The gleep half of society tends to be more progressive and experimental, with various social trends coming and going. Unlike nisi, gleep naturally become life partners with their first mate, though they also do not have any institutionalized marriage. However as a whole, the gleep cannot yet agree on what criteria is most important when picking their life partner, with the issue usually coming down to any particular gleep to decide for themselves. As they are physically outclassed by the nisi in a nation where physical prowess decides your place on the social ladder, gleep are a social minority despite their higher intelligence; as such there is a higher rate of emigration among the gleep than the nisi. It is very common for one or a few gleep to live with a nisi women family, usually filling a role that is equal parts house pet and child tutor. It's not all bad for these gleep however, as this arrangement usually comes with no rent to pay, food and shelter provided for free, and the company of the nisi women to act as a safety net against attacks by nisi men. Attacks by nisi men against gleep are almost always a result of hunger making their instincts override rational thought, and though statistically rare, are sadly still a frequent occurrence.
Gleep made media of all types is usually artsy and like to sample styles made by other species. As their body shape makes most clothing impractical, they usually never wear any except for protective gear when necessary. Otherwise, gleep will sometimes wear a hat and possibly a sort of cloak like garment that attaches to their neck and drapes over their body. Formal wear for a gleep tends to depend on the gleep in question, though those attempting to remain respectful to nisi during their formal events will wear a mask equivalent type of hat that fits over the shape of the top of their head; this generally gives off an impression as if they're wearing the upper skull of another creature over their own.
- Trivia:
- Though nisi have made incredibly practical, reliable, and comfortable bras to wear during physical activity, they otherwise do not wear any underwear.
- They use a base-8 mathematics system.
- Due to the way they were uplifted technologically, the nisi and gleep only have one language, called Abbit. When saying a nisi's last name in another language, it is considered appropriate to say the translation of the name in that language, rather than the name in Abbit; this is because they consider the definition and understanding of the name to be more important than the word itself.
edited 3rd Jul '16 4:52:16 AM by FirockFinion
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