Jalgar

The Jalgar are an offshoot of the human species: the descendants of the colony ship 'Jaguar' that used an experimental gene-altering drug to give themselves adaptations to the planet they landed on in the far Rapid Sector. Most Jalgar refuse to leave their home planet, but those that do are most known for their striking black eyes, adaptability, and loathing of being compared to humans. They've forged a strong diplomatic bond with the Trallyr. The Jalgar call Manifest their home.

Biology

Appearance

The jalgar bear a heavy resemblance to their human ancestors, but would never be mistaken for them at a glance. Unlike humans, jalgar posses a very short and thin layer of hair/fur over the typically "hairless" sections of their body. The longer, ornamental hair humans posses extends down the sides of the face and further down the brow ridge on jalgar individuals, as well as down the sides of their neck and torso and the top of their arms. The hue of their skin and well as the undertone of their hair is an unmistakable blue, with the range of light and dark tones as varied as those in classic humans. Hair texture is as equally varied.
Jalgar noses are ridged, and their ears have a longer, more pointed shape than humans. Their most distinctive feature, however, are their eyes. Jalgar eyes have a pitch-black sclera and bright yellow-to-orange irises. Beyond these traits, the rest of their morphology is similar to that of humans in stature, diet, and senses (aside from a slightly different perception of color).

SPECIAL NOTE: HYBRIDS
Despite the differences in their biology, the shared ancestry between the humans and the jalgar allows for the creation of hybrid children. They go by many names despite their rarity such as "Half-Human", "Half-Jalgar", or "Split-kin". Often the species of the speaker is the determining factor for the name they use. Such children are rare due to the cultural wariness of many jalgar towards humans. Hybrid children are commonly unable to have children with one or both of their parent species, meaning any children of a hybrid are multitudes rarer than their parent was. The appearance of a hybrid can vary wildly between the traits of their parents, but tend to have a dull grey sclera.

---

Culture

Names

Jalgar names sound like human names that are a few steps removed from their origins. The initial settlers came from highly multicultural countries, so names from many cultures are used.
Example Names:
Oshley, Johnaban, Vargaret, Juam, Andonio, Losuke, Hammah, Elex, Leom

A Fresh Start

The colonists that would become the Jalgar had left earth for many reasons, but one of these reasons was to try and start a new life away from the damage humans had done to earth. When taking this and their physical changes into account, the jalgar are loathe to be grouped alongside their human ancestors. Not only is it considered rude to refer to a jalgar as a "human", but the jalgar are staunch in their refusal to allow humans to land on or enter orbit around their home planet. It took many years of diplomacy for the jalgar to even meet the human diplomats face to face.
While the Jalgar do still share many basic cultural aspects with humans, they have spent their many generations constantly questioning and challenging the preconcieved notions they arrived on manifest with. Because of this, many of their cultural practices are rather new and constantly evolving. Some may feel like their sense of cultural identity is weak and unclear because of this, but others champion the benefits of keeping an open mind to different ways of life. This cultural flexibility also means that space-faring jalgar often find it the easiest to integrate culturally with other species.
Some of the most common jalgar cultural beliefs are:

• Highly valuing the education and protection of the youth
• It it better to adapt one's self than to change the world around you
• Fleeing from hardship is cowardly

For The Children

Jalgar are even more protective and focused around their youth than their human ancestors. The tragedy of all the children lost too soon to the whims of their genetic mutations weighed heavily on the early jalgar, so those that made it to adulthood where cherished and celebrated by all. It is considered the responsibility and duty of all jalgar to help parent and support the young people in their communities, so communal raising is quite common among even non-blood relatives.
The mistreatment or negligence of children is considered one of the greatest crimes among their people, and is punished more harshly than many other similar cultures.

---

History

Voyage of the Jaguar

The story of the Jalgar begins in humanity's early space faring days before they came to understand the nature of slidespace. In one of the earliest attempts of interstellar colonization, a colony seed-ship dubbed "SS Jaguar" was built according to the dreams of an eccentric billionaire who had dreams of going down in history. The destination of this ship was a semi-distant system within the same galactic arm as Earth, but it would never reach it's destination. From the perspective of earth, the ship suddenly vanished when crossing through an unexplored portion of the galaxy and was presumed a catastrophic tragedy. Unknown to them at the time, this was humanity's first encounter with Slidespace. Also unknown to them was the fate of the SS Jaguar.
The ship was not equipped to enter slidespace, and the few crew members not in hibernation had no way to understand the anomaly they had fallen into. It is only now that it is understood that the likelihood of the Jaguar ever escaping slidespace with their capabilities were slim to none. That's to say nothing of their luck in finding the life-bearing planet manifest. The crew of the Jaguar found themselves in a completely unrecognizable sector of the galaxy, but at least they had survived.
Upon landing, the crew was forced to rely on an experimental gene-altering drug and several key scientific finds on the planet to adapt to their new ecosystem. This compounded the struggle of establishing a new home by adding in the illness and death the drug wrought in all who could not take to it. Children struggled to grow, immune systems struggled against the alien pathogens, and each generation found themselves looking less and less like those that came before them. Despite this though, they pressed on in establishing their settlements.
After their 5th generation and aid from the biologically savvy trallyr, the population stablized with the traits it has today, and became known as the "Jalgar".

Joining the Alliance

The Jalgar were met by the Trallyr Slidescouts in their 4th generation, long before the main branch of humanity would find themselves in the sector. It was partially due to aid from their biotechnology that the Jalgar were able to stabilize the mutations among their population and integrate more fully with their new native ecosystem. The jalgar joined the newly formed alliance and became the 4th species to become a part of it.
When humanity arrived to the alliance decades later and the two subspecies met, their incredulous excitement was met with wary distance by the Jalgar. Relations between humanity and the jalgar are not as poor as they once where, but tensions still remain as many jalgar still dislike the idea of reintegrating with them and thus keep their distance.

---

---

PRONOUNCIATION

J-all-gar

---

DENONYM

Jalgrean

---

LANGUAGE

Jalgrean (Dialect derived from Earth Language)

---

ORIGIN PLANET

Manifest

---

EXPANSION

None (1 Planet)

---

LIFESPAN

80 years (Average)

---

HEIGHT

5-6 Ft. Average

---

DIET

Omnivorous

---

SEXES

~2

---

OPTIMAL TEMPERATURE

Temperate

---

OPTIMAL GRAVITY

Medium

---