Vherark
Hailing from the dark, twisted forests of Ikarum II, the Vherark are well known for their secretive and secluded society, often choosing to keep themselves to themselves in their heavily female dominated culture, many living their entire lives without leaving their planet. However the Vherark and the system they inhabit are well known for the heavily sought after natural resources that exist in large numbers within their system, a resource the Vherark have been sure to use to put them on the galactic map.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Vherark are physically very similar to humans in appearance, having two arms, two legs and a single head. They differ slightly as they are slightly taller and tend to universally have a purple or pink iris as well as their hair naturally coming with a variety of extra shades compared to a normal human, all the way from bright white to dark purples and greens.
They also have pale white skin that is slightly sensitive to bright sunlight, However this photosensitivity can be overcome with gradual exposure to the sun.
Vherarkan Lightning
Vherark also seem inexplicably immune to the effects of Vherakan Lightning contained within the Kalak crystals found abundantly in the Ikarum star system. The energy exhibits similar effects to electricity in other races, but passes harmlessly through the Vherark.Genetics and Reproduction
Vherark are a people dominated by female members, as a result reproduction can be more difficult. When there are males around, natural reproduction is preferred, however inventive individuals have come up with alternatives.
Males have a naturally low birth rate in Vherark society, so low that they could be considered rare. As a result, Males are kept under close guard so they can be used for breeding purposes, many being confined within towns and villages for the most fertile years of their lives.
However, not every village has male individuals, meaning some Vherark have thought up alternative means. A Herb that grows readily on their planet, known at Varnwort, has adverse properties on the body when consumed in large quantities. It contains a cocktail of chemicals that cause the body to produce exceedingly high amounts of testosterone as well as slowly, over the period of just over a year, will cause an alteration of the chromosomes, causing the inbitherer to effectively 'turn male'. Their appearance after this will be somewhat androgynous, and while not as physically strong as a natural born male, these individuals fulfil the roles of males in Vherark society.
Growth Rate & Stages
Vherark grow up at a similar rate to Humans, however their evolution on Ikarum, lack of light and environmental factors have caused the Vherark metabolism to slow down to such a pace their lives are slightly extended to an average of 200 to 270 years, reaching maturity in their teens.
Additional Information
Facial characteristics
Vherark have pale skin with sunken eyes and hallow cheek bones, their hair often coming in shades of blonde, dark brown, black or even dark purples and greens. Their eyes are usually always some shade of purple in colouration.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Vherark names tend to have an ornate theme, even the lowliest of individuals having names that would paint them as a lord or lady. In galactic common they are said to sound similar to old elizabethan names of Earth's history.
Male Names:
Vorgan
Kalhan
Jeral
Yorhic
Bethos
Female Names:
Valetha
Thiera
Lithia
Saldayn
Julana
Vothrinda
Common Dress Code
Vherark typically wear dresses and robes dyed varying shades of purple. They take great value in aesthetic appearance, their fabrics being expertly crafted to the smallest detail. they typically wear dark makeup beneath their eyes, both males and females do this, this trend being something left over from their tribal heritage. Over all, Vherark are considered to have a very gothic dress sense.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
The Teaching of Thiera.
At the height of Vorgan's empire, a woman named Thiera began teaching her tribal-centric beliefs to others. She was far away from the capital and there for was seldom interrupted in her affairs. Thiera believed that the Vherark had lost touch with the world they lived on and as a result would eventually be rejected from it in one form or another. She began teaching people her reverence of the changing of the seasons, believing each of Ikarum's three distinct seasons could be personified in the form of a pantheon of gods. When the seasons changed from Ikarum's coldest to warmest season, gas that had accumulated beneath the mud would expand and rise from the depths. on contact with the air it would turn into a foul smelling yet beautiful wispy purple vapour. This event is revered by the Vherark as being the start of their summer and many festivities are held around this time for those on and off world. As a result of this reverence, Purple is a very important colour in Vherark society, this also being the colour of the Kalak crystals instrumental to their society. Perhaps Thiera's most prominent teaching is the belief that male Vherark are lesser than their female counterparts, with Vorgan's Empire being very male dominated and Thiera seeing it as the single biggest threat to Vherark tribalism. The herb the Vherark called Varnwort had body altering properties when consumed by female Vherark, being that over time and with enough prolonged consumption it would alter their chromosomes to effectively turn them male. Part of Thieraism involved a weekly ritual of consuming Varnwort in group sessions, though this practise would not be for everyone, as once the herb had taken effect the changes were permanent.History
The Vherark are assumed to be one of lost human colonies that were enslaved millions of years ago by an alien race that long since died out, what the Vherark know of this past is only told the form of fossils and cave paintings of their ancient ancestors.
They have since evolved to thrive in the darkness of Ikarum 2, a large planet that rotates slowly and due to its axis has a very long night cycle with a comparatively short daytime. As a result of this their skin turned pale and their eyes adjusted to be able to see incredibly well in the dark. They were exploited as lumber workers by the alien race known as the Gratax (long before their defeat at the hands of the High Tekno ) , however one day the species simply upped and left their world, leaving the Vherark to their own devices. Why exactly this happened still remains unclear, but they left all of their slaves behind.
Vherark were named this way out of being a twisted pronunciation of the Gratax word for 'worker', however as the Vherark language developed on its own, this was kept as the name of their species throughout the generations.
Following the exodus of the Gratax, Vherark society adapted very quickly into independence. Mostly living in tribal groups in small villages numbering only several dozen. Some of these tribes grew in number as multiple tribes would form into larger towns and villages but they never came together in large numbers.
The Vherark Unification
One particularly large tribe of Vherark had been going through its own form of industrial revolution, having discovered an abundant deposit of Kalak Crystals. These crystals had never been given a second guess by the Gratax of the Vherark, on their own they are merely inert, purple lumps of rock. However when finely polished and shaped, they become powerful focusing prisms for Vherarkan Lightning. Ikarum's atmosphere is charged with an electrostatic energy that emanates from these Kalak crystals that lay abundantly underneath the surface and in some places tower into the sky. Having lived there for so long, the Vherark seem to be charged with such energy as well. One man figured out how to manipulate the energy stored within these crystals and harness it into the powerful Vherarkan lightning it is known as today. By creating a special device to draw out the power within, the man known as Kalhan discovered how to produce Vherarkan Lightning at the cost of blasting his own arm off. Instead of being discouraged by this, Kalhan persisted with the advancement of this technology until eventually he had it in a stable enough state that it could be used to power machinery, light homes and even manipulate other items in Ikarum such as inanimate rocks and trees. Kalhan offered this technology to other tribes and soon his tribe had become a bustling town, with people traveling from all over in hopes for a better life. Kalhan was revered among his people and was even considered a cultural leader. However this status did not stop others from seeking to exploit his technology. Another man, known as Vorgan, sought to use Kalhan's technology as a weapon. It was hypothesized that it could be harnessed as a weapon, but Vorgan took this to a whole new level, ordering the building of Vherarkan constructs that was dedicated to war. Vorgan also began training soldiers to use Vherarkan lightning as a weapon, developing a gauntlet that would allow them to shoot the deadly lightning from their fingertips. Before anyone could stop him, Vorgan had the most powerful army the Vherark had ever seen and used it to overthrow the leadership of the network of tribes that had become a small city at this point. The leadership comprised of the former tribal leaders who were no match for Vorgan's coup. Vorgan began a planetwide crusade. He spent his entire life taking his army across the world of Ikarum and taking over every tribe they came across until his death, where he appointed a successor, who appointed a successor after that. The whole line of leaders being male.The Cultural Shift
While the majority of the Vherark people across Ikarum now lived under the legacy of Vorgan and had the tools of a higher quality of life as a result, not all were allowed access to these tools as freely as others. Vorgan's empire was highly authoritarian and even long before he died Vorgan had fears that someone else could learn to harness the Kalak Crystals in an even more powerful way, so he kept the best forms of the technology very close. This meant certain villages and towns far away from the capital were often forgotten about and were left to fend for themselves for the most part. The apathy bread contention among these outlying populations, as eventually the seeds of a new leadership began to take root. A woman by the name of Thiera was a keen practitioner of the old tribal ways of the Vherark, the reverence of the wildlife and nature as well as the change of the seasons. She taught these practises to her followers which only grew as they lost their connection with the capital. Feeling abandoned they aimed to find some meaning which came in the form of Thiera's teachings. Thiera was no fool, she knew what she could do with a large following. She began filling the minds of her followers with dreams of independence from the capital, as well as a hatred for their male dominated society. She began encouraging the consummation of Varnwort herbs, which increased the physical strength of female Vherark who took it. However it also caused drastic changes in their dna if consumed over a long period of time, turning them into pseudo-males. Thiera however promised that these individuals would be the next step in the Vherark race and were to be embraced. Of course not all bodies could deal with such a transformation and would reject the alteration of their dna, some by simply exhibiting no effect and others with a violent allergic, and sometimes fatal reaction. Thiera believed that it was the folly of masculinity that lead to Vorgan's power hungry endeavours and that a female leader would not have made such mistakes and left so many societies to rot. Though generations had passed since Vorgan's death, his legacy still laid fresh in the minds of many Vherark through teachings. The ideas of Thiera caught on quickly, and while there were those that saw through her propaganda, there were too many in favour of independence from the capital who demanded tribute while providing nothing. Even male members of the Vherark were onboard. Settlements began to break off from the capital and Vorgan's empire, many returning to the old, more tribal ways of the Vherark. Thiera however had gotten exactly what she wanted in the form of her culture and teachings had carried on to the splinter tribes, and while they were no longer united, they still bore her ideas. There were battles and skirmishes with capital forces, but the vast network of settlements were simply too much for them to deal with, and eventually they gave up and tightened their reach to deeper within their borders. Due to the mass consumption of Varnwort herbs, male birth rates in the outlying tribes had become increasingly rare, forcing these groups to come up with alternative ways to multiply. In the beginning they resorted to the long journey to the capital where they would raid settlements and steal young male children who they could indoctrinate into their tribes growing up and use them when they came of age. This practise was considerably unpopular and tribes that did this were often looked at with disgust by their neighbours. Later down the line however it was discovered that those who had taken excessive amounts of Varnwort and become pseudo-males could reproduce with regular females through artificial insemination, which solved the population problems.The Fall of Vorgan
The Empire of Vorgan had seen many leaders over its reign, however the first one that sought the stars was Harga. Harga had great dreams of what lay beyond Ikarum's inky black sky after finding a downed space probe from a far off alien civilization. The probe contained very little, but the concept of it fascinated Harga. Little did the emperor know that this was actually a distress beacon sent from an alien civilization who had been eradiated by the High Tekno very recently. The probe flashed in a particular rhythm for weeks until its power source eventually failed. Harga became fascinated with it, believing it was an attempt at communication from something beyond the stars, which he was not entirely wrong. Harga made it part of imperial culture to host last scale light shows that mirrored this pattern of communication, beaming them up into the sky every week for months on end. Little of Harga knew this had been an attempt to warn his planet of the coming of the High Tekno, who were on their way to Ikarum as part of their crusade. They would have liked passed the planet by due to the lack of space age infrastructure below, the High Tekno scout teams passing the imperial capital by entirely. However the lights drew them in to investigate. The initial meeting was positive, Harga believed the High Tekno were the key to helping him unite the entire planet and take them to the next step in their evolution. The High Tekno let him believe this, but their own plan was already in motion. They deemed the Vherark to be 'questionably' pure in their humanity, as they looked like humans and had similar physiology, but they believed themselves to be their own people. To test this, the High Tekno unleashed a devastating biological weapon upon the capital; a virus that could be programmed to attack and kill only those with a certain gene structure. In theory it would spare all those with human in their dna and kill all those who were too bred into the alien aspect. This plan resulted in the deaths of every single Vherark in the capital and surrounding imperial lands over the short period of a few weeks. The High Tekno promptly left to continue their grim crusade, showing little regard for the atrocity they had just committed.The Aftermath
Following the utter destruction of Vorgan's Empire, the Vherark people were scattered once again. The dominant culture were the teachings of Thiera now, and with the male population mostly wiped out, it truly meant the only way forward was Thieraism, which by now had also encompassed distrust to off-worlders. Vherark populations did recover, however the former ruin of the capital is still considered a no-go zone by a any Vherark out of fear that the virus that killed their people still lurks within. The area is grimly referred to as the 'Valley of Disease.' The Vherark have since made more peaceful contact with the outer galaxy and have somewhat integrated into galactic society as a whole, offering the trade of the unique materials found only within their star system. They still remain as a fairly low-tech society by galactic standards and still trust outsiders little, though that has not stopped certain individuals from seeking their fortune far from the confines of Ikarum.Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
The Vherark generally distrust off-worlders due to their fairly recent history with the High Tekno. While many have left Ikarum, those who leave the planet are not often welcomed back by its populace. Due to their similarity with humans however it has been shown that the two species are capable of interbreeding.
Lifespan
200 - 270
Average Height
1.8 m
Average Weight
70kg
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