The Jissiman
The Nomads of Hell
A Jissiman Female in Everyday Wear in front of her Families Tents.
Tall, powerfully built nomads who wind their way across the brutal, broken landscape of the death world Helraad trying to stay ahead of The Shade and its dangerous effects. A Jissiman clan is always on the move, rarely resting for longer than a week at a time.
They have a respectful relationship with their smaller Jissarai cousins, often tracking their routes across the fungal moon to visit as many of these settlements as possible.
They are noted for their colorful garb of bright reds, blues and yellows as well as their ability to form fast friendships as easily as creating bitter enemies with their vibrant and highly emotional way of life.
Basic Information
Anatomy
The Jissiman are tall, robust humanoids that can range from slender and muscular to broad and muscular. Even in their old age they tend to retain their musculature and robustness and rarely die as invalids.
Their skin runs from a deep black-red to dark purplish blue, the interior of their ears are bright red and they tend to have yellow, green, black or red eyes. They have broad, flattish noses and wide forehead with high cheekbones.
Jissiman tend to be tall with a 5 foot individual being considered quite short by their standards and the average being over 6 feet tall.
Their average lifespan is 60 years old.
Genetics and Reproduction
A highly fertile species, they have large extended families with a low infant mortality rate.
Growth Rate & Stages
Jissiman mature relatively fast, considered adults at 15 and often finding a mate by the time they are 20. They are considered middle-aged at 40.
Ecology and Habitats
The Jissiman evolved on the harsh surface of Helraad in nomadic groups travelling ahead of the toxic Shade of the planets rotation into Gilnares atmosphere. They have an evolutionary wanderlust that helps keeping them moving and this aids them in being able to wander and live anywhere in Old Union Space.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Absolute Omnivores, Jissiman can and do eat nearly anything biological that they can find and have the capacity to find food almost anywhere. They do not have any real preference and their traditional meals are more dictated by a clans historic migratory routes than any unifying cultural aspects.
Behaviour
Bright, Emotional, Angry. Jissiman live life with their inner world writ large upon their face and carry no shame to it. They often act on impulse and whims though they can, when they find a focus, become intense experts in a field.
Additional Information
Social Structure
For the Jissiman, family and clan are integral parts of their lives. Regardless of where they move and travel in their lives, a Jissiman will always know their clan line for at least 10 generations, assuming no breaks due to clan destruction of being an orphan and the like.
There are thousands of clans across Old Union Space and they can be made up of anywhere from one large family group to over a hundred, most of them are located on Helraad but they are a common enough across the system.
The center of the Jissiman clans are the Matriarchs, females who have had at least one grandchild. Children are venerated and desired and a clan is always very protective of them.
While the Matriarchs form the social center of the clans, each family is instead lead by the eldest male who generally has wide latitude in arranging the families needs and resources.
Aside from these roles, there are few defined social hierarchies outside of family. Where individuals want to go and what they want to do is largely up to the individual.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
The Jissiman have the ability to see in the dark much like the Jissarai.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
A Jissiman name can be incredibly long, often incorporating several family and clan names if they can trace their heritage to them.
The initial name that a newborn Jissiman is given is based on the moons in the sky and the weather patterns during their birth. There are superstitions and cultural touchstones when it comes to the locations of these celestial bodies, Jissiman Astrology is very complex and include regular constructed bodies like the World-Ragha and visible stations and comets.
The Moons
The Weather
Gender Ideals
The Jissiman venerate Motherhood and Fatherhood in different ways, where a mother who has grandchildren is seen as the epitome of the female ideal while a Father who has been a steadfast guide to a family over many years is considered the male ideal.
When it comes to the roles that males and females fill in a Jissiman clan, there is little difference between the sexes. A Matriarch can just as easily be a venerated warrior as she is a wise scholar and a Male can spend his days on the outskirts of the clan, hunting and providing as easily as he could be a crafter of goods.
Courtship Ideals
Courtship is generally pretty simple among the Jissiman, an interested party of either sex would present a gift or make a show of skill where the other could see and things will progress or not from there.
Fathers and Matriarchs tend to stay relatively hands off of these things, only stepping in if strife between the potential couple would cause stress between families within the same clan.
Relationship Ideals
Jissiman tend to mate for life, though as with all Sentient species, this is not always the case. There are not any laws in the clans against separating but it is heavily frowned upon culturally and will often lead to one or the other leaving the clan for another, if only to remove themselves from the stigma.
Average Technological Level
Prior to First Contact with the Union of Gilnares, the Jissiman were at a more primitive late medieval level of technology with some access to advanced technology whenever they made contact with Mulnwahr and their Ragha, if those were peaceful that is.
After first contact, they had a boom of advanced technology that made their lives much easier as well as access to weapons that made the subsequent Jiss Wars all that much more deadly.
These days, the Jissiman roughly match the technology level of the other species around them but do not make many technological advancements of their own.
Culture and Cultural Heritage
The center of a Jissiman Clan is the Council of Matriarchs, elder females who have at least one grandchild. They generally dictate the routes the clan takes, its disposition when it comes to diplomacy, war and economy. These Matriarchs are informed by the elder men of their families as to the needs of the families and the resources that they can contribute to the clan.
There are no larger traditions among the Jissiman that link the clans together and each clan operates as its own cultural island with sometimes significantly different traditions, aside from the above and significant markings used to dictate different roles.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
Jissiman get along very well with other species, often forming friendships that last their whole lives with other travelers and adventurers.
Jissiman Traits
Jissiman are roughly analogous to Hobgoblins in D&D 5E Ability Score Increase Your Constitution score increases by 2 and your intelligence score increases by 1 Age They are considered adults by the age of 15 and typically live to be 60 Alignment Jissiman are generally chaotic creatures but trend towards good. Size A typical Jissiman is medium and stands between 5 and 7 feet tall. 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. Clan Defender You are proficient with two martial weapons of your choice and with light armor. Hellish Nomad Your peoples long, continuous travels have hardened them for generations while also giving them an affinity for animals that few can match. You are proficient in Survival and Animal Handling skills Languages You can speak, read, and write Jis, Raglin as well as U-LangJissiman off Helraad
As wanderers, adventurers and nomads the Jissiman take to off world life with a wild abandon. Creatures of intense emotion and unshakeable loyalty they form fast friendships with people all over Old Union Space. They will often leave worlds in bands, sometimes groups of them pooling resources to take to the stars in ships that become their become their new "Village" that they wander in the same way they wander on Helraad. These ship-borne clans can sometimes take on raiding, living life a little too on the edge. They rarely kill for sport however and often will partake in light piracy before letting their prey go. They integrate relatively well in other cultures but also tend not to stay in one place for long. As such they have spread across Old Union Space and there are even nomadic clans of them wandering entirely different worlds, albeit at a much more relaxed pace than those on Helraad.Jissiman on the World-Ragha
On the enormous space stations above Helraad, Jissiman find the confines ill fitting for their temperament. Those that do live there often fall into an enforcement role for the Ragha as well as making up a sizable portion of the defenses for the stations. They will often live with and help their smaller cousins, the Jisseraiand will learn their ways if they intend to stay and help complete the World-Ragha.Jissiman in the Union of Gilnares
The Jiss Clans have a contentious history with the Union of Gilnares. Whenever it was found out that the Union was experimenting on the Jissaraithe clans were thrown into a rage. Each Clan had its own way of protesting these acts and some were far more violent than the others. Loosely called the Jiss Wars, it was more a time of prolonged unrest and insurrection from Jiss clans, wherever they were found, that lasted nearly 25 years before reparations were even considered acceptable. Some Jissiman Pirate Flotillas owe their situations to this very conflict as they took to the stars to make the Union pay and never stopped. The Jissiman, after the Jiss Wars, would go on to become dependable if chaotic members of the Union. They made for great scouts and shock troops in the Union Military and made up a significant part of the Union Military Forces and are still heavily represented today in what remains of the Union.
Genetic Descendants
Scientific Name
Nobilus Goblihominus
Body Tint, Colouring and Marking
They will often mark their bodies with red, yellow or green dyes and sometimes even tattoo the markings on their body.
The markings significance is mostly up to the wearer as there are few specific markings that all Jissiman recognize, they are most often just decorative.
The Distinct Markings
Honored Hunter
A hunter that has been considered to have saved their clan wears thick red bar, oriented from scalp to brow ridge on their forehead. This is often marked upon them after times of great strife, famine, etc by the clan elders and they will often tattoo this honor.Sorcerer
Often marked with lightning bolts or flames on the backs of their hands. These are tattood on a magic user as soon as their abilities manifest.Druid
Often marked with designs reminiscent of fungal lace or mushrooms, they are important members of a clan and are integral to their survival on Helraad.
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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