Basilicus
Worldbuilding
on a galactic scale
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Statistics
Common Attribution: Kessen
Categorical Attribution: Kessen
Evolutionary Star System: Unknown
Star Systems of Prominence:
Population Data: 120,000
Civilization class: Type C: Interterrestrial Society
Overview
 | The Kessen are a bipedal race with both mammalian and reptilian traits, living currently on Fraenir, the second moon of Loese in the Kelos System. They do not call themselves after the moon or the planet, which suggests that it is not their original home, but they have been there since before living memory and due to poor recordkeeping, their true origin point is unknown. It is widely known that they were a genetically engineered race, and while their appearance and proximity to Crystaldeep has sparked many rumors of a Kelosian origin, the Kessen have made no attempt to confirm or disprove this for themselves. The guilty party, for their part, have not claimed credit. |
They are a deeply intelligent and adaptable people that have made many intellectual advancements in their short period of settled life, including an abstracted but comprehensive form of mathematics and a precise and exacting language. Despite this, they have a strong moral dictum against scientific curiosity, tampering and meddling with the natural order of things, and so on. This is due to their origin as a people created by science; They have suffered much because of the experimental impulse and see it as a perversion and a freakish mental condition not to be encouraged.
Culturally they are at a point before any sort of industrial revolution; they buy and use and understand technology from other worlds but do not produce any of their own, due to their aversion to the sciences. They are on good terms with Kelos and while they have not under their own power moved beyond their own world/moon, they are aware of local interstellar politics and societies and many will leave their world individually by bargaining rides on trade ships.
Evolutionary Analysis
There is no data available on the evolution of the Kessen, other than to state that they did not evolve but were instead synthesized by an intelligent species, either from their own genetic stock or from the stock of another species whose genetic material they had access to. It appears to have been a selection based on intellect as Kessen are on average highly clever, but the process also had some negative genetic impacts.
Biological Analysis
Kessen are bipedal reptile/mammals that are primarily hairless, except in small quantities and in concentrated locations. They have two arms and two legs with anatomical symmetry throughout their body frame. They have five clawed digits on each limb and their mammalian-type skin is covered in a varying density of hard, irregular scales, pigmented similarly to their hair. They have thin, whiplike tails, elongated and irregularly shaped ears, and slightly pushed out faces, with a straight-line profile from the end of the nose to the mouth. They are of fairly slight build, averaging 1.05 MDU tall and weighing 29 SMU. There is gender dimorphism but it is less pronounced than with purely mammalian species.
As a result of their origin, Kessen have several genetic abnormalities that are consistant through the species. All Kessen are nearsighted, requiring corrective lenses or a trip offworld to have their vision surgically corrected(a very rarely made choice, but a possible one). Additionally, they are all in a constant state of genetic breakdown and must dose themselves with an injectable genetic stabalizer regularly, lest their DNA eat itself. Standard dosing is once per day, with symptoms of genetic destabalization becoming evident after three to four days without a dose.
Kessen are omnivorous, endoskeletal, and quasi-cold-blooded - they possess some degree of temperature regulation that tries to keep them at roughly -0.115 STE, but it fails in the face of temperature extremes. They previously reproduced through sexual reproduction, but over time they have become increasingly prone to sterility and are now facing eventual extinction. They have a three-chambered heart, similar to a reptile's, and require a good deal less oxygen than their world's artificial atmosphere provides, causing them to only breathe once per minute in normal 'habitable' atmospheres. They live roughly 300 Kelosian years(their own home, being a moon, has no concept of 'years') and physically age at approximately 1/3 the speed of Kelosians. Emotionally/mentally they mature slightly faster than Kelosians.
Ecological Analysis
Because Fraenir is an artificial environment within a dome, there is little ecological pressure on them in the way of climate and so on. A Kessen freshly offworld and traveling to a natural environment such as Crystaldeep will often have difficulty dealing with the concept of seasons, extreme temperatures, and inclement weather.
On Fraenir, their population is small and reproduction has always been difficult for them, so with no overpopulation issues they have made very little impact on the moon itself. There are more than adequate resources for the entire society.
Sociological Analysis
The Kessen have a strangely backwards society; culturally they are in a pre-industrial-revolution state, both their behavior and manner of dress rather formal and victorian. Their government exists for the sake of making sure that there is food and resources for everyone, to ensure the adequate production of their genetic stability drugs, and to provide for those unable to work due to age or disability. They otherwise lack a sense of central law or authority.
Their emphasis on formal education is strangely at odds with their taboo on scientific thought and curiosity; It is vital within their society for an adult to be extensively learned, rote, in many subjects, but the impetus to learn that which is not book-sanctioned is strongly discouraged. Their educational system is very formal and full of pomp and ritual, and the various classes of professions each have colors associated with them which are often worn ritualistically long past retirement. (The rough assignments are: medicine = red, food/goods production = orange, management = yellow, services = blue, education = white, engineering = violet, and science = green. The individual shade varies depending on specific area of study/expertise.)
The strange taboo on scientific thought is only excepted in cases of those found from a young age to be irrepressably and uncorrectably curious, who are then put on a fast-track scientific education and singled out for that profession. They are needed to analyze the constantly degrading collective genome of the Kessen and keep the necessary drugs effective, but they are not respected or lauded; theirs is a profession looked on as might be undertakers or bomb-builders, necessary but distasteful, and not spoken of in polite company.
| The Kessen language is systematic and precise when spoken, musical though exacting. The written form bears little resemblance to the spoken form, and is mathematical and geometric, using precise forms and their proximity to one another to build concept and meaning, rather than simply tokenizing the spoken version. For this reason it is entirely common for offworlders to have learned to speak Kessen but not read or write in it. The Kessen themselves are statistically 100% literate and most are taught Kelosian during their education as well. |  |
The Kessen are on good terms with the Kelosian government - this and their location within the Kelos system are the main reason they've escaped the Rannellans' attentions - but they have no particular moral stance on violence or conquest; they have been too busy trying to keep their species alive to be bothered with interstellar politics. In recent times this has become more dire as the population has hit nearly 100% sterility and the impending extinction has driven many of the younger Kessen - the last young their world will see - off of Fraenir and out into the galaxy to try to leave whatever small mark they can.
Game Mechanics
- BRPG