Yurian
Heavily muscled and covered with thick scales and short, sharp horns, the reptilian Yurian are exactly as predatory and warlike as they appear. Originally hailing from a small planet system in the Wildspace, they sought to conquer and subdue their stellar neighbors, as they had all the other intelligent species in their own system.
Playing a Yurian
You likely
- See most other species as weak or dishonorable and believe the Yurian way is best.
- Relish the chance to prove your worth in combat, though only against worthy opponents.
- Have an ironclad sense of honor and propriety, and strive to always keep your word.
- Bond closely with proven comrades and surprise non-Yurian friends with sudden outpourings of emotion in private
Other Species probably
- Find your brutality and bloodthirsty reputation intimidating.
- Assume you’re ignorant of anything beyond combat.
- Depend on you in battle yet fear and resent you for your empire’s past conflicts and conquests.
- Mistake Yurian etiquette and propriety for a lack of feeling.
Basic Information
Biological Traits
The lizard-like Yurian stand close to 7 feet tall, are thick with muscle, and are covered in tough, scaly skin. Though they’ve long since adopted technological weapons, they retain the thick claws and teeth of natural predators and enjoy using them to intimidate “softer” races. In addition, they also have long tails—while these are primarily used for balance, some Yurian martial arts incorporate formidable tail slaps. While male Yurian often have powerful tails, most females have very agile and slender tails. Small horn spikes dot the skulls of male Yurian, and protrude from their lower jaws in bony “beards” that sometimes extend down their spines to their tails. Both sexes have long reptile tongues that can sense the chemical environment of the air much better than human tongues can. This increased ability to sense chemicals has allowed for heightened abilities to identify prey, recognize kin, choose mates, locate shelters, follow trails, and more.
Female Yurian are often much smaller and less brutish than their male counterparts. Their faces and silhouette seem much more humanoid. Female Yurian have brighter, less colorful scale patterns than males and they have smaller and much thinner scales. What they lack in brute strength they often make up for with their very agile bodies.
Additional Information
Social Structure
Yurian society is highly organized and militaristic. While merchants and others with peaceful professions can advance economically, political power is the exclusive domain of those who’ve proven themselves in armed conflict. Surprisingly, this proof doesn’t need to come through military service, or even benefit the Yuranium. Many Yurian attain similar elevation in social status through performing mercenary work, engaging in dueling, or providing security on exploration missions. Though obsessed with conquest, dominance, and social rank, Yurians have an equally strong sense of honor and pride in fulfilling their agreements and treating subordinates of all races fairly. They are stoic and taciturn with strangers but capable of great bursts of emotion in private or in the heat of battle. Yurian society tends to be efficient, respectful, and law-abiding—especially since nearly any insult or violation of custom could trigger a brutally violent blood debt.
Even outside of their home system, Yurian are most often lawful, though usually according to their own code of honor rather than that of whatever society they happen to be in. They tend toward a neutral morality, though individuals can easily skew good or evil.
Geographic Origin and Distribution
Yurian first arose on a single world around their sun but quickly spread to the others, turning potential competitor races (as the Yurian saw them) into vassals in the vast empire they call the Yuranium. Today, these other worlds officially no longer even have names, only numbers correlating to their distance from the sun (such as Yurian-6). The exception to this rule is Yurian Prime, the Yurian’s ancestral home, which remains the seat of their government and high society
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Yurian names are often long and combine elements of their parents’ names, as well as those of other prominent ancestors. These are frequently shortened for daily use by friends, though abridging a Yurians name without permission is a grave insult. In addition, some Yurians take on epithets related to their victories in combat, which they sometimes use in addition to or in place of a family name, such as “Three Guns,” “Voidwalker,” or “Squadeater.”
Some sample Yurian names include Dmotralan, Evdokayo, Goromitali, Julakesh, Katara, Obozaya, Radokama, Sarangari, Sobok, Terikoraz, and Ymeros-Ahandi.
Beauty Ideals
Some female Yurians, who want to look more humanoid, prefer to either hide their tails under their clothing, wrapping them around their leg, or go the extreme route of having them removed through bio-surgery.
Removing the tail is not only seen as cruel and horrific self-mutilation, but also greatly distorts their sense of balance. A Yurian who removes her tail, and does not accomodate for it through balancing BioTech, receives a -2 penalty on all tests regarding balance and acrobatics.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Yurian’s love of military conquest and empire building originally led to significant skirmishes between their homeworld and the nearby planets, and the ensuing conflict—often called the Silent War.
Yurian respect honor, strength, and self-mastery. Though their relations with other species remain strained due to the only barely averted war, they admire Synth’s dispassionate consistency, Vosk’s sense of honor, and the strength of Korrug in battle. However, they find Vermir weak and frivolous, and Human's quick to break their agreements.
Scientific Name
Avito Yuranis
Lifespan
up to 280 years
Average Height
Male: ~ 2 meters
Female: ~ 1,7 meters
Female: ~ 1,7 meters
Average Weight
Male: ~ 220 kg
Female: ~ 50 kg
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