Waxy

"I don't know if they're sentient. I know that everyone has a little Waxy in them if they're born on Venus but... Trogs used to just be monkeys. It's not like Uplifting is unheard of, right? Anyway. It's probably better for the nightmares if we just decide they're not human. And for the love of God don't forget your mental exercises, if they get in your head you'll never get them out." ~Team Leader Therenz Farborg, Grand Army of Venus

Survivors

Waxies are the descendants of the survivors of the first colonists of Venus, having been struck by the Gobi Horror. Uplift technologies have had some success on them, but doing so at scale proved to be untenable and injected the Curse of Venus into the general population of the second wave of colonists on Venus before they understood the danger.

Ancient Claims

There have been three times when the land belonged to the ancestors of the Waxies; First, before the plague. Second, when they emerged from their caves after the plague. Third when they drove the second wave away. They blame offworlders and second and third wave colonists for their predicament, as much as they're capable of blaming anything.

The Adversary

Waxies aren't human. They are a different species. They have more in common with Necroids than with the human race. Their genetics have been scrambled so badly that they couldn't even qualify as primates, despite certain morphological similarities. It was with intensive medical scrutiny that the Uplifted Waxies were able to have children with humans; even after the gene therapies, cosmetic surgeries, bioronic interventions, and other manipulations that allowed them into human society, the Uplifted Waxies were no more human than the Trogs and Ook Mooks. Waxies despise humans on a visceral, instinctual level. It isn't just their neverending hunger for human nerve tissue or their bestial, atavistic rage; they hate the way humans think. Waxies are all Psionic, and the way human thoughts 'feel' or 'taste' on their brains disgusts and enrages them unless those humans are terrified, horrified, disgusted, or in agony.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Waxies are humanoid, semi-upright and hairless. Their skin is waxy and smooth, which protects them from the acidic rains and contaminated cthnoic lakes. They have clawed hands, poor eyesight, and pronounced fangs.

Genetics and Reproduction

Waxies are conceived as a group, usually in a pit at the bottom of a cavern, in a way that would be familiar to the most decadent periods of Roman or Babylonian history. Females carry the child to term in about 7 months and then lay a membraneous 'egg' from which the baby claws its way out over the next few days.

Growth Rate & Stages

Waxies are able to walk when they are born, and begin their lives eating scraps left by larger Waxies. They are subject to indeterminate growth, becoming 'adults' in about 8 years when they reach 6 ft. tall (when they briefly stand up) and then becoming 'ogres' at 20 when they reach 8 ft. tall standing height. Their growth slows down every year, sprouting tumors and their arms elongate until they're about 12-16 ft tall, when their bones begin to turn into cartilege and they become amphibious, where they will live the rest of their lives as Elders beneath the water.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Waxies are carnivores. In order to sleep at all, they must consume sleep hormone producing glands.

Behaviour

Waxies are bestial, atavistic and savage. They treat humans as both prey and a hated enemy. They don't perceive time, which means that they can't plan ahead past the immediate situation, and they fade into a stupor of psionic soup within their 'boils' for most of their downtime.