Vinaed

Five years ago, due to its significant and continuing contributions to Sector 9 in the areas of health sciences and agricultural research, this pacifistic species from the frozen reaches of Teneb was invited to join in the Coalition government.  Possessing the lowest population numbers among Coalition participant species and no substantial military, the Tenebians’ request to sit on the council was initially denied and Teneb was taken on as a protectorate.  After years of petitioning and persistent high-profile activity, however, the Tenebians were ultimately allowed to elect council representatives, placing them on equal political footing with the other three Coalition nations.  
 
Various social anxieties have caused some parties to believe that the Tenebians’ inclusion into the government was a grave mistake.  This mentality has spawned a few activist groups that seek to destabilize public opinion and ultimately force the government to rescind; attacks against the Tenebians play on peoples’ fear of the unknown, skewing facts to paint the Tenebians as dangerous spies with nefarious designs.  Fully cognizant of the amount of work they did over the years in an effort to position themselves as a critical resource for the Coalition, the Tenebians view these groups and the sentiments they breed as ignorant, offensive and hurtful.

Tenebians are intelligent, hard working and creative.  Though they tend heavily towards meticulousness, they never lose sight of the overall picture and always ensure that their next step is in line with the desired final outcome.  Confident and proud, Tenebians typically carry themselves with an air of imperiousness; their curt and polite manner is often seen as frosty, landing them a reputation as generally disinterested and unapproachable people.  In reality, this could not be further from the truth.  Those who have the opportunity to form relationships with Tenebians find them to be thoughtful, interesting individuals possessing a strong sense of right and wrong.

Tenebians are bipedal humanoids with six digits, smoky grey hair and chiseled features.  Tenebian skin color bruises over time, progressing from blue-grey at birth to deep purple at old age; some individuals show black or grey flecking – a rare characteristic that is considered particularly attractive.  Tenebians form strong attachments to people, places and things; they are very fond of their home system and have not yet begun spreading themselves out in any signficant way.  As a result, it is currently possible for a Human, Haleian or Ulthun individual to have never set eyes upon a Tenebian outside the realm of media.

The Tenebian aesthetic eye is second to none.  Elegance and symmetry factor evenly into every aspect of Tenebian life, infusing their architecture, clothing, art, and even their overall world views.  Language follows suit, of course; smooth-flowing and capable of supporting both incredible precision and figurative agility, the Tenebian language is a fantastic tool for arts and industry alike.  Tenebian technological solutions apply a standard ‘make due with what you have’ philosophy at the design phase, which imbues their tools and equipment with a certain simple, modest charm. 

Teneb, the Tenebian homeworld, is a frozen wasteland.  The Tenebians live in cities below ground.  Foodstuffs are shipped from Adura, a neighbouring planet and sister colony in the same system.

Possibly the only native species to Sector 10, the Ssujak have been aware of Vinaed (and vice versa) for some time.  Prizing information above all else, the Ssujak listened and observed for a few decades, comfortable in the knowledge that the Coalition seemed uninterested in them as a target for hostilities.  Historically self-sufficient, they ingored all Coalition attempts at direct communication and remained aloof – until their government finally decided that the Oban were not a threat they would be wise to face alone.

The Ssujak are keyed to subtlety, favoring the indirect route when in pursuit of a goal, using non-verbal signals over words in conversation, and choosing ambush over assault in combat.  Specifically remarkable at understanding and interpreting language due to a specialized region of the brain, the Ssujak are excellent at scouting and reconaissance.  The species are consummate believers in knowledge as the ultimate form of power, and that belief strongly permeates all aspects of their culture. 

Ssujak aesthetics are simple and muted; architecture and equipment are recognizeably sleek, seamless and minimalistic.  While the Ssujaks’ personal stealth units have ironically attracted quite a bit of attention on the part of the Coalition military and are presently under observation, it’s the various, extensively-deployed Ssujak-made user interfaces – all powered by advanced heuristic processors – that have caught the fancy of Sector 9 professionals and civilians alike.  It is widely believed that these UIs will see rapid adoption in Sector 9 once the basic specs are released. 

The Ssujak are a bipedal, roughly humanoid species with a vestigial digitigrade stance, clawed hands and feet, and a hissing language.  They are hairless, with elongated skulls, a toothy maw, slitted nose, and dark, narrow, forward-facing eyes.  Like every living thing on their home world, the Ssujak are uniformly black in color.  Males are slightly larger than females.  Their lean and agile frames are protected by a smooth, close-fitting exoskeleton; this layer of chitin is thin and supple at birth, toughening by a good measure and thickening by only a small amount as the individual ages.  All Ssujak have a long, segmented tail ending in a knife-like barb; outside of combat, this prehensile appendage is willfully kept still, as the Ssujak consider it rude when used as part of expression.  Ssujak are naturally adapted to low-light environments; as a result, they suffer a diminished ability to view color in the visible light spectrum.  Individuals typically wear enviromental suits when operating conditions risk being sub-optimal. 

The average Ssujak is shrewd, standoffish and pragmatic.  The Ssujak discourage demonstrativeness; expressive discourse and non-verbal interaction are reserved for family and close friends only, and individuals who casually err in this are viewed as uncouth.  Ssujak place a high value on trustworthiness; it is for this reason that they are loathe to form relationships quickly, opting instead to spend more time gathering information. 

The Ssujak home world and the seat of their species’ government is Ssujak-resk, a lone planet orbiting a dim star.  The Ssujak species has spread far, however, and many of their neat colonies pepper Sector 10.  All Ssujak colonies thrive under a single collectivist government – the Caucus, symbolized by a barbed spiral or briar.

Insectoid species that arrived in Sector 10 approximately three years ago by travelling through a wormhole terminating in the heart of the Lisj nebula, just beside the Ssujak species home world.  Members of three distinct colonies have crossed into Sector 10.

The Oban are a eusocial species that value order, precision and adherence.  Colony leaders (‘Moors’) are broodmothers with unique traits that are passed down through generations of offspring and reinforced through selective breeding.  Individual members of the species are part of a caste system, which determines their role in Oban society and can affect certain of their physical qualities.  The Oban language is spoken through tones.

As combattants, Oban are determined, fearless and strategic.  As people, they tend to be confident and resourceful, though individuals vary.

The Oban believe that they were exiled from Sector 10 – more specifically, the Lisj nebula and its neighbouring systems – in the far reaches of the past and that the wormhole opening and leading them back to Sector 10 is a fated event.  They wish to retake their ancestral worlds and have made it clear to the Ssujak (judged as squatters or imposters) that they have two choices in the matter: leave or stay and die.  The Oban have been unreceptive to Ssujak negotiation requests.