Chi'suut are the short, furry species that calls
Chi'Kciponn their home. Due to the harsh conditions of their home world, what they lack in scientific innovation is offset by their immense strength and survival skills, as well as their odd knack for quickly picking up anything space-related. Chi'suut are most known for their high-gravity strength, easy-to-get-along-with natures, and close bonds with humans.
Biology
Anatomy
Chi'suut are short, bipedal, furred creatures with a bushy tail and short snout. Their hands and feet are clawed and are both used in running, though they will generally walk on their legs if not in a hurry or carrying something. Chi'suut are omnivorous, and have a variety of teeth to suit their diet. Humans will often compare their teeth to that of both a rat and a dog: with their wide, rodent-like front teeth flanked by sharp fangs. One notable facet of their diet is the craving for high salt-content.
Chi'suut are great at thermoregulation. The nights on their home planet are frigid, and their days scorching, so their anatomy has adapted to contain different systems that can activate to quickly heat or cool them back to their right temperature. These systems are so effective that when they become faulty or injured, the affected individual may be unable to stop the effect in either direction.
Chi'suut have a male and female sex. These are barely differentiable, but there is some minor dimorphism. Females tend to be slightly larger than their male counterparts, and have longer, sharper bony protrusions on their ears. Females also posses a pouch on their back for carrying young, but this is unnoticeable when not in use.
Due to the high gravity on their home planet, Chi'suut that go off-world are considered to be incredibly strong in comparison to other species of similar size. The power of a Chi'suut that spends time training their strength exceeds that of even a fully-grown Krakki mother.
Appearance
Their fur can be any from a range of colors in the black, white, grey, and brown ranges, and is often piebald: showcasing multiple patches of different colors. Their fur is generally short with the exception of their back and neck, which is typically longer and grows similarly to a mane. Fur length and pattern is typically indicative of what region the Chi'suut is from on Chi'Kciponn. Their hands, feet, ears, and the bottom of their tails are hairless.
Chi'suut do not feel the need to wear clothing for decency's sake due to a lack of visible reproductive organs, so anything that a Chi'suut wears is for the purpose of utility or adornment. Belts and bracelets are some of the most common elements worn.
Culture
Names
In the Chi'suut language, all nouns come with a prefix that identifies the type of noun. For names, the prefix is Too' (Pronounced 'Toe'), so all Chi'suut names start with Too'. When speaking languages not their own, a Chi'suut may choose whether to keep the Too' or drop it. Most Chi'suut are named words from their own language, but space-faring Chi'suut might use adjectives and verbs from other languages with or without the Too'. Chi'suut do not have surnames, but may use the name of their clique as one if asked. (The Prefix for a clique is Pruu').
Chi'suut language is a bit consonant-heavy with a staccato feel to it. Consecutive vowels are given short pauses between, indicated by a -. Unique sounds used in their language are "Kc", which sounds like a K and an S together, "nn", which is an extended N sound, and "Rr", which is between a rolled R and a growl. "CHL", "LKT", and "TL " are also used as distinct phonemes. When two identical vowels are written together in english, the vowel sound is the long sound.
Example names:
(Traditional): Too'Grrak, Too'Tista, Too'Iifuurii, Too'Nok, Too'Chla-oo, Too'Fra, Too'Posha, Too'O-ranna
(Non-Traditional): Naasoo, A-ii-a-uu, Tlii-fa, Too'Quickly, Too'Soaring, Too'Fluffy
Courting and Cliques
In Chi'suut society the primary social grouping is the 'Clique'. A clique consists of at minimum 3 individuals (typically unrelated by blood) that live and work as a unit. Cliques have names, and can last for far longer than any one individual's lifespan as new members join the ranks and old ones pass on. While the primary function of a clique is that of a working group with a job, the clique is also the Chi'suut equivalent of a family. When young Chi'suut are old enough to speak (which doesn't take too long, as Chi'suut are born with innate knowledge of their language), they separate from their mothers and seek out a clique to belong to for the rest of their life. It is in poor taste for a child to join the clique of their parent, so they necessarily must spend some amount of time on their own while they seek belonging elsewhere. This is the most vulnerable point in a Chi'suut's life, so even those children without a group are generally watched over by whoever is around them at any given time.
The clique a youth joins also becomes their source of education. There are no formal schools among Chi'suut settlements, so almost all learning is done on an apprenticeship basis. The knowledge a clique passes down from old to new members is considered precious, and is often written down into manuals for preservation. Whether or not a clique is open to sharing their knowledge with other cliques in similar careers can vary wildly, and can even change from generation to generation. Since the Chi'suut clique is not based on family or reproduction, they readily accept members of other species into their ranks as long as they share a common job or goal.
Chi'suut do not engage romantic bonds. When it comes time for reproduction, the whole affair appears more like a test or challenge than anything intimate to an outside observer. Male Chi'suut, who tend to be smaller and quicker, will flee from the female that seeks to court them. Any male that is caught too easily will be rejected by the female for being weak, but any female that cannot catch up to the one they chase will be similarly abandoned. The female will take care of the infant on her own until it is able to speak properly and walk on its own, where she will then leave it to it's fate. It's unclear what spurs Chi'suut to engage in this practice, as while there is often a 'season' for this behavior, it seems to be one of social origin, not biological. Some regions make a festival of the occasion in order to ensure the entire city doesn't forget that having kids is an option. The Chi'suut's lack of reproductive or romantic drive is an enigma to some that wonder how they've managed to survive for so long this way.
Accepting Death
Life on Chi'kciponn is hard. The natural environment seems to be difficult even for creatures that have adapted to it, and the chi'suut are not among those best adapted. Living under either the harsh conditions of home or the harsh conditions of space have resulted in the chi'suut being far more casual about death than many other species (aside from perhaps the krakki). In Chi'suut culture, death to a predator is the most proper way to go, as it means you have contributed yourself back to the ecosystem. Space-faring chi'suut commonly request to be returned back to their home planet on the event of their death.
This is not to imply that the dead are not mourned, but rather that deaths are rarely considered unfair. While not inherently reckless, Chi'suut are known to face down risks and low odds with confidence and composure. There are many Chi'suut sports and dances that carry a higher risk of death than most species would readily accept.
Hyperdemocracy
Chi'suut love to settle disagreements by voting. When issues arrive within a clique, a vote is held to decide on how to handle it (because of this it's traditional for cliques to consist of an odd number of members). When larger matters need direction, cliques vote as a unit and all involved put things to vote. This pattern scales endlessly from cliques to towns to regions to the entire population. Chi'suut do not have a formal leader by the standards of other species, but do elect a figurehead to the role of "vote counter". This individual cannot vote, but is tasked with announcing the result of any vote that goes above the jurisdiction of a small town issue. Chi'suut cities each will elect their own vote counter who will convene with the other counters to discern the results.
Chi'suut seem to have a natural aversion to any leadership that extends beyond their clique. They will rarely seek to gain influence over those of other species, and as such they are not generally seen in leading roles on multi-species stations and ships. Humans, who are most familiar with them among the galactic civilizations, will often get around this tendency by assigning leading positions to an entire clique, as opposed to one individual.
Natural Spacers
When the chi'suut met humanity and joined the galactic stage, they had no spacecraft of their own and seemed content to stay on their planet. Oddly, though, when they began to join humanity in space they took to it like a fish to water. Zero-gravity did not bother them and those who joined ship crews did so with confidence and skill. Due to this, they have quickly learned to build and fly their own craft with resources gathered from space. While not all individuals are eager to fly among the stars, there are few crews more reliable than those of the Chi'suut.
History
Pre-Contact
The Chi'suut's written history is not easy to study. Most of their history is kept in parts by the cliques that work on preserving specific aspects of it; due to this it has been only very recently that efforts have begun to compile it all in one place.
According to the collected texts, the Chi'suut have lived the way that they do on Chi'kciponn for untold generations. It is a widely held religious belief that the planet was 'gifted' to them by powerful beings called 'the overseers'. In Chi'suut lore, the overseers watched over them as they went from simple animals to a proper society: guiding, protecting, and teaching them. When the Chi'suut became strong and learned to stand together, the overseers turned their planet into a harsh desert to test them, then left. For Chi'suut that believe in this, there is a sect among them that believe that the overseers will one day return when the Chi'suut have proven themselves ready, and take them to wherever it is that they left to in the first place. As the years progress, belief in the overseers among offworld individuals continues to dwindle.
Another interesting facet of Chi'suut history is that the chi'suut have no records from eras of primitive or ancient levels of technology. It is now understood that the Chi'suut have maintained the same level of advanced technology for so many generations that records of ancient Chi'suut are nonexistent or destroyed. Things like electricity farms, rapid transit, heavy machinery, and light bulbs have been a staple of their lifestyle for longer than humans have had access to gunpowder. Despite this, Chi'suut cities often appear to be less 'advanced' than those of humans or trallyr since they more readily rely on natural mineral resources like stone, clay, and glass to build. Technology for them is something to use when needed, not to stick just anywhere. It's not currently understood by outsiders why their technological progression has plateaued in this way.
Meeting the Humans
Chi'suut were contacted first by humanity, and each was the first extraterrestrial the other had met. The two species met with great enthusiasm and curiosity: quickly reveling in no longer being alone among the stars. Perhaps it is because the Chi'suut had not spent time building ships or weapons of mass destruction that humanity accepted them so readily. Perhaps it also helped that the Chi'suut easily adopted the human's space-tech: making cooperation in spaceflight relatively straightforward.
With humanity's advanced spacecraft and the Chi'suut's enthusiasm for space travel, the two became tightly intertwined as they ventured bravely into slidespace together.
Joining the Alliance
The Chi'suut became part of the Jainonn Interplanetary alliance alongside the humans after they made it into the choir sector. Membership was easy for the naturally-cooperative Chi'suut, and it was due to them vouching for humanity that the both of them were accepted so easily. They had a far easier time accepting the things about their new galactic neighbors that their human counterparts recoiled from.
