Vodrant
The Vodranti are not truly a separate species, but rather a descendent of humanity, so distant and isolated that by all accounts they are alien to human morphology, changed by adaptation, modification, or mutation. They were, in some past long-forgotten, designed as miners and harvesters of ore and material along the asteroid belt. Now? An imperial force, with the largest navy of any faction within the Sol System.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Humanoid in the frame and form, bearing two arms and two legs. Often has a light to dark red skin color, with streaks of black along their backs.
Blood is violet-pink when oxygenated, as it consists of Hemerythrin, which boosts immunity and healing in the head, also keeps the body from being severely impaired in low or high-pressure environments.
Genetics and Reproduction
Vodrants are mammalian and are similar to their Human ancestors in terms of reproduction. However, Vodrant mothers only carry the child for a period of about 5 months. While this prevents the mother from being hampered by the pregnancy, this means the child is fairly underdeveloped, making Vodrant children incredibly vulnerable. An entire caste of caretakers is often necessary on a Vodrant station or colony.
Growth Rate & Stages
Most children cannot walk for 24-30 months, and most can understand and speak basic phrases and words by 16 months. Children are relatively weak and vulnerable compared to baseline human infants.
Vodrant are often incapable of reproduction until they are about 19-21 Terran years old and only deemed fit to sexually reproduce by 25-28.
Additional Information
Facial characteristics
Their nose is fairly broad, somewhat akin to a dog's, and their eyebrows are fairly large. Their ears are also long and sharp, elvish in shape.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Due to their position in the Outer System, and their emphasis on mental and physical training, most Vodrant are very skilled in detecting the presence of magic in many forms. Ley lines run through their territory often, so this produces magic-users of a wide variety of fields, although most steer towards psychic powers acquired via Mars.
Their eyes possess a 'second eyelid,' a nictating membrane, that provides protection from incredibly bright lights and restrains loss of moisture. This second eyelid is a thin, transparent film just below the one of flesh. It can be raised and lowered, but it is difficult to raise it, akin to the difficulty humans experience when trying to wink when untrained. Raising the second lid is akin to showing surprise or shock in Vodranti culture, as if you believe what you are seeing is the result of the film tricking you.
Their hearing and sense of balance is fairly astute, possessing more elaborate ear canals (particularly the lateral, which may be why they have such long ears) and nerve endings to allow for accurate vestibular input to the brain. This prevents dizzyness and nausea when in a zero-gravity environment, but also causes greater sensitivity to louder and quieter noises. This makes them vulnerable to incredibly loud sounds, such as the shot of a gun (which can be mitigated with age, training, and earbuds) while also making consistant sounds more 'pleasing'. The constant thump of an engine is strangely hypnotic to the Vodranti, and some, especially engine warlocks, go so far as to meditate near the engines of their ships to be 'attuned'. Most Vodranti music varies between incredibly loud to incredibly quiet throughout, although rapid, sudden shifts between the volumes can cause a feeling of nausea in most Vodranti. Recently, music produced by younger Vodranti intentionally cause this effect for reasons unknown, much to the displeasure of their parents.
Civilization and Culture
Major Language Groups and Dialects
Their primary tongue, X̼X̼ayu, is based for the most part on the Latin alphabet, although they do utilize several characters and sounds not used in several modern languages, and/or not possible with standard human anatomy.
Several unique characters are used, such as ʀ̥ for the voiceless uvular trill, ʦ for the voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate, and y for what is in English 'th'. The voiced palatal approximant, as in, the English sound for y, is instead j. X̼X̼ is essentially trilling the x, which is impossible for a normal human and is instead replaced with a 'z' for non-Vodrant. Vodrant are capable of it because they possess a more intrinsic hyoglossus, which allows them to push their tongue further upward, and their styloglossus is a stronger muscle, allowing for further movement forward and backward.
Because of this, they use ɦ for 'h' in most words, emphasizing outward breaths when pronouncing it, a voiced glottal fricative.
With Areit̠̗, they have an additonal character t̠̗, which emphasizes the 'ah' after ʦ.
Interspecies Relations and Assumptions
While the Vodranti still view themselves as 'human', with Vodranti being more of an ethnicity if anything else, most other factions regard them as too far 'detached' from the baseline human genome to still be considered 'human'.
A standard human and a Vodranti can still produce a child, however, the child tends to resemble one or the other, maybe bearing certain characteristics of the differing parent.
Scientific Name
Homo sapiens silex
Origin/Ancestry
Asian, African
Lifespan
100-180 years, depending on cultural belief and availability of medical care.
Average Height
1.8 to 2.2 meters, although certain Txxal have been recorded as 2.5 meters tall.
Average Weight
85 - 135 kg.
Geographic Distribution
Related Organizations
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