Aeonites

Children of the most contentious and volatile progenitor, the Aeonites are a race of red-skinned, semi-permeable craftspeople with the shrewdest of temperaments. The Aeonites are famous across the sector for their violent tempers, shrewd business acumen, and possessing the highest quality craftsmanship in nearly every industry on nearly every planet in the sector.

Whatever a merchant is selling in the Hellecian Sector, an Aeonite has a better product at a better price. Because to an Aeonite, everything has a price.

Physiology:

Being their CHONPS Spectral Elements being made up of Nitrogen, Aeonites possess semi-permeable red skin and a skeletal structure made of metallic liquid bones.

This allows them to phase-shift their limbs between a liquid or solid (depending on the levels of Cosmic Aurora) like their progenitor Aeonia.

Given their craftspeople background and their unique physiology, many Aeonites stick carved objects of varying materials (horns, beaks, claws, hooves, etc.) in the tradition of Greek mythological creatures. Many also implant primitive bullets into their skin ignite them with their combustible blood for self-defense.

Aeonites tend to live in disorganized bands of merchants and craftspeople rather than maintaining centralized authority over an entire planet. Males tend to be larger and more outwardly aggressive, compared to the conservative nature of female Aeonites.

After their injection date, they used their Ichor to become the best in industries ranging from but not limited to the following: weapons smiths, ship building, hunting, weaving, metal work, stone work (especially with Lanaxdrians), music, escort services, etc.

Before/After Karoj-Menos:

Before the Invasion of Karoj-Menos, the original Aeonites were children of Aeonia: the forge assistant of her father Hephaestus and the attendant of her adopted mother Aphrodite.

However, she had anything but a happy childhood. Aeonia was one of the casualties in the Cold War between her parents, used like ammunition to hurt the other in their petty squabbles (her only solace being time spent with her uncle Apollo).

One day, after a hard day building Karoj-Menos, Hephaestus takes out his frustrations by forcing himself on Aeonia. Reaching her breaking point, she overpowered Hephaestus and maims with his intense savagery. And finishing him off by pour molten lead down her father's throat. From the runoff, sprang the first generation of Aeonite males.

Witnessing this act, Hellestine aka Aeonia's real mother acted fast and transfused the Ichor from Hephaestus into Aeonia and her sons. She then fashioned out of the molten remains a puppet for Aeonia to fill, in order to keep the appearance Hephaestus was still alive.

It works for a while, even fooling Aphrodite and having her falling in love with the new Hephaestus (secretly Aeonia in disguise). However, after inviting Hephaestus into her bed, Aphrodite reveals she knew all along her husband was dead.

Aphrodite blackmails Aeonia to make her a golden throne, in order to rig the opening festival of Karoj-Menos so that she will be crowned the fairest goddess of the cosmos with a golden apple.

Aeonia makes the throne and after learning the art of seduction from afar, tricks her mother into sitting on it. Stuck on the throne and unable to stand, Aeonia forces her mother to eat the golden apple as the machine steals her beauty. After which, she wretches out the very first Aeonite women from the slices of apple in her stomach.

During their imprisonment and subsequent escape, the Aeonites lead the progenitors and Hellestine through the secret passages of the Karoj-Menos and through the locked doors in order to get to the hangar.

Maimed by Apollo by lighting her combustible blood on fire, Aeonia escaped and (with the help of her children) recovered on Kothrinos, plotting their revenge against the gods and their golden city.

What really gained the Aeonites renown as craftspeople was inventing the method in how the Lanaxdrians could reproduce as well as making armor couplings to protect the cracks in the marble statuette figure. 

During the invasion of Karoj-Menos, the Aenoites served as the engineers, weapon smiths & bomb makers in the invasion force. Their weaponry and intimate knowledge of the facility allowed seal off the Pantheon's exits and trap them in their own throne room.

Rumor has it that Aeonia was the one that broke her promise to her dying mother Hellestine and was the one responsible for slaughtering the entire Pantheon before the four Patrokonoi-Hellecia could figure how to replace them; thus kick starting the Age of Anarchy.

During this chaos (many of whom were the brigands instigating the anarchy), the Aeonites spread across the sector creating monopolies as band of merchants, weapon smiths, artisans mercenaries & smugglers on several advantageous planets along the DST Accelerator Lanes.

The Aeonites never fully unified under a single ruler until the Lanaxdrians accepted them as Sarkxa-Konoi (of one people) and made one half of the diarchy within the Lanaxdrian Warrior States as gratitude for saving their patrokonoi from extinction without the need for the gods.

Anything for a Price:

Because of this relationship with Warrior States, the Aeonites were given near limitless freedom to do as they pleased within Lanaxdrian-held planets; founding The Professional Guilds of Aeonite Craftspeople.

Seeing as the Lanaxdrians didn't take part in producing their own goods and focused on their martial power, this arrangement became a problem. Many opportunistic bands of Aeonites would use the Lanaxdrian laws to inflate their prices, hold entire monopolies in planet-wide economies, and use shady business tactics with no repercussions from the Lanaxdrians.

This included price fixing commercial goods, selling on the black market to the Delothian Collective - the Lanaxdrian's hated enemies & even selling slaves.

The only rule the Aeonite merchants were required to adhere were the laws regarding combat. While they're allowed to sell weaponry to whomever they liked, they were not allowed to fight in conflicts or even defend themselves without consent from the diarchy.

If they wanted protection from the Warrior States, the Lanaxdrians had to be the ones to do the fighting for them; including self-defense. This forced Aeonite merchants to stay in Lanaxdrian settlements or hire Lanaxdrians as bodyguards to sell in backwater colonies.

The penalty for violating these laws would be severe fines levied on their business and in cases of murder being blacklisted from any Lanaxdrian settlement for over a year.

However, this law didn't stop several Aeonites from forming weapons, hiring independent "price fixers" or "concerned citizens" for protection, and developing martial arts that manipulated the wording of the law. The most famous example of this were the Fulcrum Blade-Masters of Thessalis-Prime.

Relationship w/ siblings:

While they had a very close relationship with the Lanaxdrians who protected them. And hated the Delothian Collective for the strict rules that hampered their business (even though many Aeonites would still do business with the Collective). The Aeonites had a intimidating relationship with the Ionites.

Seeing as their colonists would fly the ships that carried their merchandise and held an ethos of meek servitude, the Aeonites walked all over them. They would paid them well (even more so if it broke Lanaxdrian laws). But also reminded them of what happens to skimmers and their severed digits.

The other three patrokonoi (aside from the Lanaxdrians) dealt with the Aeonites at arms length, seeing them as promise-breakers and untrustworthy people, especially since the others blamed Aeonia as the cause for the Age of Anarchy.

Especially since the Aeonites operated as a patriarchy before the Age of Anarchy. Following it, the women began holding seats of power more often than males. Especially after becoming the dynastic half of the diarchy for the Lanaxdrian Warrior States.

Thus believing female Aeonites are more violent and bloodthirsty than males. They're just better at hiding it.

This fear lead to the Aeonite phrases: "Keep your enemies close and your wife closer", "An angry man beats his chest while an angry wife pours a grinning cup" & "A wife of virtue is bright as a sunrise while a man of virtue rises after sunset."

Home Cluster: The Kothrian Gateway

Progenitor: Aeonia

Member Patrokonoi: Professional Guilds of Aeonite Craftspeople

Greek Comparison: Aeolians

Injection Date: 1 AFH (After Final Hegemony)

Primary CHONPS Spectral Element: Nitrogen

Side Effects of Ichor: Phase Shifting of Exoskeleton (semi-permeable to solid) & combustible drops of blood