The Jissarai
A Jisserai Ossof Village
A diminutive race of humanoid who live on Helraad, often clashing with Drun for the limited resources of that world. They live equally upon the surface and deep underground.
The Jissarai are Jissiman who have, over thousands of years of mutation under The Shade as well as strange symbiotic relationships with the virulent fungi of Helraad have transformed into an entirely separate species. These transformations still happen even today as Jissiman who are unable to stay ahead of The Shade during the continuous migration of the Clans will undergo the transformation after years spent in The Shade. There are some Jissiman who choose this path in life as they get older, settling into Jessarai settlements and embracing the change under the guidance and care of their diminutive cousins.
Jissiman respect Jissarai as creatures more in touch with the world than they are, they try not to see the transformation as one of fear or pity but instead just a potential path in life. Jissiman will also allow Jissarai to travel with the clans if they so wish, often giving them their own methods of travel to keep up.
The Ossof Stalks
The Ossof are enormous mushrooms that sprout and grow to their full size during The Bloom, releasing their spores to wait out The Shade and grow again during the next Bloom. The Ossof form some of the only vertical terrain that the planet offers as they can undergo a transformation in The Shade that ossifies their stalks while the cap withers away. The stalks become resilient and provide protection from The Shade with their soft, stone like flesh. Jissarai live in many places on the world but their most noteworthy and permanent settlements are built on and around these stone like structures. They often serve as landmarks for the Jissiman clans as they wonder and they will make a point of visiting Ossofs and other settlements on a semi-regular route where they might have family and friends. Some clans plan their travel around being able to spend several weeks at a time at settlements that are important to them.The Moot
A huge gathering of the Mulnwahr Ragha that is arranged as far out as ten years in advance. They meet at a unique nexus of several major tunnel networks that form around an enormous crater which, during moots, serves as the only major spaceport on the planet and is often an excuse for huge trade convoys to make the journey for the rare chance to trade directly with the Mulnwahr for their sturdy technology and to offer them items the Mulnwahr do not often have access to. The Moot will usually last for a whole year that the crater stands on The Bloom, Ragha leaving and entering in a complex dance that just as often leads to skirmishes and arguments as schedules stretch and time in the Moot becomes more of a premium. There are several dozen Clans of Jissarai that live in and around the Crater year round and they have long standing agreements with the Ragha, often storing years and years worth of cultivated food and trading it to passing Ragha and at the Moot for high technology and metallurgy that they would not normally have access to.Basic Information
Anatomy
The Jissarai are a far cry from their tall, robust kin the Jissiman. Hunched shoulders and terminally bad posture give these creatures a bent posture supported by spindly legs. Their skin ranges from Dark Green to a Pale Yellow and all colors in between and is often spotted with warts, growths, tumors and sometimes lesions. Aside from this however they do not often showcase the amount of mutation as their Drun neighbors.
Their faces are often thin and sickly looking with long noses and even longer, though often thin, ears. They do not grow any body hair except for the hair on their head. The most common mutation among them has their children born with, instead of the thin face with a large nose, a blunt and softer face reminiscent of a feline, roughly 30% of Jissarai are born like this and often have a barely discernable coat of fine hair to match.
The Jissarai generally stand no more than 2 feet tall and are bipedal, moving quickly when they need to but capable of staying still for extremely long periods of time.
The average lifespan of a Jissarai is 100 years and they do not suffer as high an infant mortality rate as the Drun but their tendency to live through Helraads rotation into The Shade, they have a very high mortality rate as a species.
It has been hypothesized that Jissarai have an extreme symbiotic relationship with several strains of fungus from Helraad, an autopsy and long term studies have confirmed at least that these strains are present within the creatures and that their children will often be stillborn whenever their mother has not been around these strains while gestating.
Genetics and Reproduction
Jissarai have a low birth rate but a high infant survival rate. They breed often but rarely do children come from these unions.
Growth Rate & Stages
Jissarai mature fast, a youngling can walk within three days of their birth and are often capable of solid food within 6 months. They reach adulthood at the age of 10 though they are no particularly rushed by the community to transition into adulthood and the responsibilities implied at that stage. They are considered middle aged at 80 and old at 150.
Ecology and Habitats
The Jissarai have evolved to the incredibly harsh environment of Helraad and unlike most of the other species on the planet, have learned to thrive in the year long span of time that half of the moon spend inside of the toxic atmosphere of Gilnares.
These creatures are able to and often do thrive anywhere in Old Union Space around Gilnares, however it has been found that if they do not have a fungul innoculation from their homeworld, their birthrate will begin to plummet and their infants will often be born stillborn. This has lead to groups of Jissarai leaving home with a veritable colony of shrooms growing either in specialized containers or on them...sometimes in them.
The lack of this Fungal presence does not effect adults, it only seems to be integral for children.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Jissarai can eat almost anything, they tend to be vegetarian and eat a large amount of fungus as part of their everyday diet.
They create enormous fungal farms deep within the ossified stalks of the Jissi Mushrooms that they often form settlements within. They also farm large insects for food and other byproducts.
Behaviour
The Jissarai are a calm, neutral people who look at life and the world around them as a series of cycles, flowing between absurd extremes. They often try to remove themselves from any conflicts and have a close relationship with the Jissiman tribes that often visit their strongholds in The Bloom.
Additional Information
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Jissarai see well in the dark and are resilient towards the toxic, irradiated environment they often live in.
Symbiotic and Parasitic organisms
They often have small bits of mold and shrooms growing on them and they are cultivated in an artistic manner. These are almost always fungus that are from Helraad however they have been known to cultivate local strains into their own.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Beauty Ideals
These diminutive creatures have their own views of beauty that is directly influenced by the Fungal nature of their lives. They enjoy incorporating unique elements of fungus into their decorations and their body and can even make interesting emulations of other cultures fashion through careful application and growth of different strains.
As a culture they have little care for strength and instead emphasize the beauty intellectual pursuits and cunning action when needed.
Gender Ideals
Even the Jisserai can have a hard time telling what gender another Jisserai is and their society reflects that. There is no ideal that is attached to gender in any real way among them and even the concept of motherhood is an afterthought to them as younglings are raised communally from the time they are weaned.
They often do not even remember their mother as for as fast as Jisserai grow they are moved to the community nursery even faster.
Courtship Ideals
Courtship as a formal aspect of Jisserai life is non-existent.
Relationship Ideals
Relationships between Jisserai are informal at best, they flow between friends and lovers in whatever way seems to benefit all parties best and deal with the conflict that flow might cause as needed.
Average Technological Level
These folk had attained, prior to First Contact, a pre-industrial level of of technology mostly in terms of agriculture.
The Jissarai and the Jissiman both have little means to mine materials from the crust as the Jissiman are nomadic by necessity and the Jissarai have to contend with the lack of such resources on the scoured surface of Helraad. Instead they depended on trade with the Mulnwahr Ragha where they could find them and obtained tools and machines that way.
They are intelligent and can quickly grasp technology when they have access to it. This was proven after First Contact whenever the Union of Gilnares government began to set up government stations and offices in the various Ragha and Ossof's, though they soon found that keeping the Ossof installations manned was near impossible outside of seasonal postings.
It was through this that higher tech began to reach the Jissiman and Jissarai though with the dissolution of the Union, the symbiotic relationship with the Ragha has been taken up once again and they trade food and surface materials for mined minerals and technology.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Jisserai get along well with other species, even those that see them as a pest or an infestation. They keep to themselves and rarely integrate fully with other cultures.
They respect philosophical thought and discerning action and have little care for short-sighted reasoning.
Jisserai Scholar, Resting atop a village Mushroom in the Bloom
Jissarai Traits
The Jissarai are roughly analagous with Goblins in D&D 5E
Ability Score Increase.
Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.
Age.
Jissarai reach Adulthood at age 10 and live up to 150 years.
Alignment.
Jissarai are typically neutral.
Size.
Jissarai are between 3 and 4 feet tall and weigh between 40 and 80 pounds. Your size is Small.
Speed.
Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision.
You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in Darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in Darkness, only Shades of Gray.
Shade Dwellers.
The Jissarai have evolved to live in one of the most toxic environments in the Gilnares system, they are Immune to Necrotic Damage.
Fungal Symbiosis
They have a close, innate relationship with the fungal growth on their homeworld and can use that connection to emit spores in self defense, they are able to cast Poison Sprayusing their Constitution as their spell attack modifier with proficiency.
Languages.
You can speak, read, and write Jis and Raghlin.
Jisserai off Helraad
These creatures find life off Helraad, as most of the species on Helraad, much preferable. There are unique complications for the Jisserai however due to their terminally symbiotic attachment to the various fungi that grow on and within their bodies. The Jisserai tend to keep to small communities of their own people, usually built around a fungal farm that they tend. They get along well with other species though they do tend to keep to themselves or any Jissiman community they are a part of, not integrating very well into other cultures.Jisserai on the World-Ragha
The Jisserai help the giant orbital stations above Helraad by tending the vast hydroponic farms, living on the hydroponic decks. While they started by growing and tending what they knew, the Union of Gilnares forced them to adopt other, more standard, hydroponic crops as well. Because of this the World-Ragha produce far more food than they need in the deft hands of the Jisserai that live there and food is often shipped down to settlements and Ragha on the surface because of this.Jisserai in the Union of Gilnares
They had a strange time after first contact with the Union as scientist were not only fascinated with them but fascinated with the idea of "Fixing" them. The only real flare up of unrest on the planet after integration with the Union government was due to this as the Jissiman Clans began a widespread campaign of protest and outright skirmishes to protect the Jisserai. This also lead to a large number of Jisserai abandoning their settlements, an act that has had widespread reprecussions even to this day as many of their most prominent Ossofs stand abandoned. This complicated relationship led to many Jisserai just avoiding Union of Gilnares interactions and where they are found outside of Helraad space, they are insular and on the outskirts. With a difficult time integrating into other cultures, Jisserai tend to gather in groups on the outskirts of underbellies of other cultures and in some they are considered near pests and second class citizens. They have a great grasp of agriculture however and among spacers, a Jisserai technition or a group of Jisserai settling on a station is considered a huge boon as they seem to be able to make their fungal farms grow anywhere. A steady supply of nutrioutous food that can be fed on general waste is something that any station administrator or ship captain is going to sell something important to get.
Genetic Ancestor(s)
Scientific Name
Troglotus Goblihominus
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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