ESCAPE FROM JUNKWORLD: NATURAL RESOURCES WALKABOUT INFO

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Escape from Junkworld: Natural Resources
An outer space exploradora
September 19th–October 29th

It’s been two years since the Junkworld refugees finally reached the isolated smugglers’ moon known only by its alphanumerical designation of S16P3J4W11V18. These last two years, the mixed settlement of smugglers and Junkworlders have been taking advantage of the abundant nearby natural resources--and made a tidy profit at Portabellow Station--and now they’re finally ready to push out further and see what other resources this forest moon has to offer. And when a group of Travelers arrive just as the exploration expedition is about to set out, it’s assumed that they’re newcomers to the smugglers’ moon and welcomed to come along...

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SPECIES INFO

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Humans - In interstellar space less than a generation, humans are looked at as overly enthusiastic, reckless, fast-paced bruisers. Some see them as a second coming of the Diabolin, self-centered and expansionist, with their nuclear-powered rockets and unstable warp drives. Still, their ingenuity and quick reaction time make them valued as the new kid in class, the willing lab rat testing the frontier, and they are far more numerous than the other species, who even at their interstellar height had only populations of the tens or hundreds of millions, not the eleven billion on Earth, Mars, & the Jovian moons.

Gorgons - Gorgons have brightly tinted skin, prehensile tentacles for hair which have sensitive eyespots & other sensorium, & the ability to slowly calcify what they touch or breathe on. An individualistic people who prefer to dwell underground, Gorgons are very practical, often cranky and withdrawn & with poor long-range vision & light sensitivity meaning they prefer to stay inside or underground. Gorgons are accomplished biochemists, architects, and engineers, making organic ceramics and mineral compounds. Gorgons have only been in space for a few of their (two century) generations, but are enthusiastic terraformers, although each world tends to be home to its own religious, cultural, and political movements, completely independent of (and often hostile to) their homeworld of Khthon. Colonies include Sublune & Hypocaia.

Hecatites - Long-lived elective humanoids who can grow crystalline structures from within their bodies. Hectatites have a great deal of scientific advancement, but they tend not to use tools except what they grow, instead focusing on the disciplined acquisition of knowledge & yogi-like control of themselves . Hecatites tire easily and are vulnerable to loud noises and bludgeoning, but have much keener intellects than other species. Hecatites have traveled across space for generations, but generally not settled outside their home system’s urban world except for isolated industrial and scientific colonies. Highly organized with a central government of their most educated and accomplished elder scientists, there are a great many crimes that would lead to a deviant Hecatite being banished, from political dissidence to gross negligence to espionage, theft from the government, impersonation of a higher class, or scientific malfeasance. Violence among the Hecatites is very rare except when used by the government, but violent offenders would also be cast out.

Diabolins - Horned, grey and black-skinned psionic species who do not sleep or dream, but process their mental energies in an unstable mood and perception cycle while awake. Considered volatile, untrustworthy, and dangerous. The oldest and most scattered civilization, the Diabolin once ruled an interstellar empire with many colonies, and were the first species to visit Earth, Faerie, & Khthon in their respective dark ages, starting legends of demons and goblins. A few Diabolin still keep genetically altered Elven slaves. But the golden age of the Diabolin is passed, and they now suffer from many congenital psychic diseases and instabilities. With their homeworld long lost and forgotten, Diabolin live on many colony worlds or on massive ships, and have little organized central authority. Much of their ancient technology is now beyond their power to use. As a volatile people for whom one generation’s murderers and terrorists might be the next generation’s revolutionaries and war heroes, they tend to put criminals in cryofreeze somewhere out of the way, so they can retrieve them later if they want.

Synthetics - Artificial intelligences taking on humanoid form to experience the world, most synthetics achieve consciousness by the melding of two or more intelligent programs uploaded onto a utilitarian platform that bears at least a passing resemblance to a sentient species. Common among humans and Hecatites, less respected and with shorter lifespans among the Diabolin, and entirely illegal (but not unheard of) by the Gorgons, synthetics are universally second-class citizens, as they can download their consciousness into other bodies and are often considered a disposable labor caste. Only among humans is there a recognized, organized robotic rights movement. Still, on the fringe of space, little of that matters. Some synthetics have platforms which are indistinguishable on initial examination from their species of choice, except by the psionic senses of the Diabolin.

Other Species - Players are more than welcome to devise their own alien species, and nonhuman Travelers who wish to appear as themselves may encounter curiosity, but no real surprise or suspicion - it’s a big universe, and out on the fringe of it you encounter all sorts of other beings. The above species are simply the most common in this part of space, the ones whose territories overlap in this region of space.