Cephene
Colloquially known as the Squids, the cephenes are usually a land-inhabiting invertebrate species, that most resemble terran cephalopods (octopuses and squids). The name of the species is attributed to pene-Rift human explorers in the absence of any pronounceable cephene name (cephenes have pictorial languages).
Their home world orbits an evolving G-type star, which has driven a rapid desertification over the last 20 million years. The cephenes adapted away from being an aquatic species as a result of that world’s oceans gradually drying up. Although cephenes still live on Cepheneous, it is understood that the planet is a few millennia away from being uninhabitable. There is an underlying sadness around many cephenes as a result.
Despite being rather warlike, the various cephene nations understood their predicament and knew that the survival of the species depended on space travel, and in particular, colonisation of a more stable environment. The very high gravity of Cepheneous was a tough challenge to negotiate and drove a lot of early innovation in powered and dirigible flight.
The other area of innovation has been their genetic and psychological engineering, which are both extremely advanced. In much the same way that Terran technology is dominated by nan-engineering, cephene technology has evolved to the point that their technology and their own biology are hard to distinguish.
A Colonial Lifestyle
Today, the majority of cephenes live as colonies of individuals, much like the jellyfish in terrran oceans. The may live in domiciles or they may actually have part of themselves turned into a vehicle of some kind. Many grow vast tentacles to get around, or have lighter than air bags to float with, but there are some to go to the extremes of being a space faring vehicle or even a striker.
Advanced cephene biotechnology, and their innate telepathy, has brought about the colony, where two, three, ten, hundreds, and even thousands, of cephenes come to inhabit a single body. The body is usually some kind of biomechanical vehicle. The most famous of these are the cephene bio-strikers, but it is much more common that it’s another type of vehicle.
The colony is legally treated as a person, in much the same way as a corporation is treated in the Syndicratium Enterprise, and much more so than a corporation is considered in most other polities. The individuals within a colony are more or less at unison through habit and a sort of social marination in their collective consciousness.
Cephenes have two means of communication:
- through patterns rendered by pigmentation changes in their head scales
- psionically Cephenes are not particularly powerful psions (although occasional individuals are), but they do all share an ability to read minds.
Baseline Cephene
Category: mod-gen (Cephalopoda sapiens cephensis)
Aspects: Biochem-Water (proline), Biology-Cephene, Tech-Cephene
Senses: 20(lightsense), 1(olfactorsense), 1(audiosense)
Traits (resource): medium|4|0(size), 1(hardness), 3(HX), 2(EX), 2(FX), 1.4(height), 120(weight), 2(reach)
Traits (physical): 10(speed), stock(walk,crawl,climb), quarter(swim), ambidexterity, multilimbed, omnifacing, squeezable, immune,prone, vuln(radiation, poison)
Traits (defensive): 1(resist,cold), 1(resist,heat)
Traits (personality): abrupt, grudgeholder, indiscreet, quick humoured, short tempered, spontaneous. Any alignment
Skills (starts):
+0(Health, Energy, Focus),
+0(Society, Telepathy),
-1(Perception, Insight, Investigate, Persuade),
-2(Strength, Stealth, Deceive, Perform, Antiquities, Science, Survival, Cbt-Melee, Cbt-Ranged, Cbt-Tactical, Eng-All)
-3(Resolve, Agility, Psi-All (ex. Telepathy))
Skills (ranks): 1(Telepathy)
Age: 50 years at start, 500 years lifespan
Languages: you do not speak, but can read and write any three of Oos, Esti, Lart, Yardo and Zoor plus one other language.
slap (tentacle,m-act,b-act) chk(C)= +M(Wpn-Fistload) with -6(Str,min), 20(q) eff 1d2 +M(Wpn-Fistload)+M(Str) (hp,frc)
Aquatic Cephene
Category: mod-gen (Cephalopoda sapiens cephensis)
Aspects: Biochem-Water (proline), Biology-Cephene, Tech-Cephene
Senses: 20(lightsense), 1(olfactorsense), 1(audiosense)
Traits (resource): medium|4|0(size), 1(hardness), 4(HX), 2(EX), 2(FX), 1.4(height), 120(weight), 2(reach)
Traits (physical): 8(speed), stock(walk,crawl,swim), quarter(climb), ambidexterity, multilimbed, omnifacing, squeezable, immune,prone, vuln(radiation, poison)
Traits (defensive): 2(resist,cold)
Traits (personality): abrupt, grudgeholder, indiscreet, quick humoured, short tempered, spontaneous. Any alignment
Skills (starts):
+0(Cbt-Liquidbourne),
+0(Health, Energy, Focus),
+0(Society, Telepathy),
-1(Perception, Insight, Investigate, Persuade),
-2(Strength, Stealth, Deceive, Perform, Antiquities, Science, Survival, Cbt-Melee, Cbt-Ranged, Cbt-Tactical),
-3(Resolve, Agility, Eng-All, Psi-All (ex. Telepathy))
Skills (ranks): 1(Telepathy)
Age: 50 years at start, 500 years lifespan
Languages: you do not speak, but can read and write any three of Oos, Esti, Lart, Yardo and Zoor plus one other language.
slap (tentacle,m-act,b-act) chk(C)= +M(Wpn-Fistload) with -6(Str,min), 20(q) eff 1d2 +M(Wpn-Fistload)+M(Str) (hp,frc)
Illithid Cephene
Category: neogen (Cephalopoda sapiens cephensis novensis)
Aspects: Biochem-Water (proline), Biology-Cephene, Tech-Cephene, Tech-Modern
Senses: 20(lightsense), 1(olfactorsense), 1(audiosense)
Traits (resource): medium|4|0(size), 1(hardness), 4(HX), 2(EX), 2(FX), 1.4(height), 120(weight), 2(reach)
Traits (physical): 10(speed), stock(walk,crawl,climb), unnatural(swim), ambidexterity, multilimbed, squeezable, immune,prone, vuln(radiation, poison)
Traits (defensive): 1(resist,cold), 1(resist,heat)
Traits (personality): abrupt, grudgeholder, indiscreet, quick humoured, short tempered, spontaneous. Any alignment
Skills (starts):
+0(Health, Energy, Focus),
+0(Persuade, Society, Telepathy),
-1(Perception, Insight, Investigate),
-2(Stealth, Deceive, Perform, Antiquities, Science, Survival, Cbt-Melee, Cbt-Ranged, Cbt-Tactical, Eng-All)
-3(Strength, Resolve, Agility, Psi-All (ex. Telepathy))
Skills (ranks): 1(Telepathy)
Age: 50 years at start, 500 years lifespan
Languages: you do not speak, but can read and write any three of Oos, Esti, Lart, Yardo and Zoor plus one other language.
slap (tentacle,m-act,b-act) chk(C)= +M(Wpn-Fistload) with -6(Str,min), 20(q) eff 1d2 +M(Wpn-Fistload)+M(Str) (hp,frc)