Sojourn - User contributions [en]

Rules

2024-02-22T21:47:03Z

Cora: /* The private areas are protected */ - Points to rule 5.6 to remind people you loose the right to privacy as a job with expectations

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These are the rules for the server and ''are subject to change without notice''. For further clarification, use common sense. If you did get banned, there's probably a good reason for it, but if you disagree, you can always make an appeal on the discord. Although these are rules, but they are not infallible, complete, or concrete, and probably never will be despite our best efforts. If ''ever'' something feels wrong, either don't do it, or admin-help it first. Above all, use your common sense, listen to the game staff, and try to keep the game fun for everyone; not just yourself.

If you disagree with the rules as they currently stand, talk about it on the discord or with admins and maybe we can improve them through some healthy criticism and debate.

'''These rules are designed to be written in such a way that you can ''usually'' understand them just by reading the headers''', because reading ''all of this'' would be insanity for most people. If you cannot understand a rule just by looking at it, or wish to know about possible exceptions or examples, click the rule to learn more.

If you find yourself spending too much time reading this page, or are confused about any rules, please contact an admin on Discord to make suggestions on how these rules could be better worded.

== You must be 18 or older to play on this server ==
'''There are no exceptions.''' If the staff suspects that you are underage for any reason, you will be banned from playing on the server until you are able to prove to the satisfaction of the staff that you are at least 18 years old.

*Use of real world slurs, ‘lolspeak’, and other indications of immaturity may be taken as signs that you are underage.

*Knowing another user is underaged but not reporting it is considered grounds for an immediate, permanent ban.

*The age of consent in your country is irrelevant. Your opinion about this rule is irrelevant.

*You may also not play a character who is under 18 years of age.

== Obey the community's global rules ==
These rules apply ''everywhere'', including Discord, the server, and even private discussions with non-admins. However, not all of the global rules are even possible to break in the server, so this wiki page only covers what's relevant to the game server. The overlap from the global rules are:

* No spam.
* No OOCly illegal discussions or content (such as child porn, drugs, piracy, real world threats, etc).
* Respect other users, don't use real-world slurs, and don't intentionally drag private conflicts or in-game conflicts into public OOC (such as on the Discord server, the in-game global OOC channel, or anywhere else).
* Don't intentionally abuse server functions to upset (grief) people, or derail discussions. You know what this means, don't play stupid.
* No complaining about bans unless done properly via an appeal on our [https://sojourn13.space/forum/viewforum.php?f=13 forums] or in an ahelp or otherwise private means as an inquiry to administration staff.

== Don't be an asshole ==
It's fine to say stuff and whatnot but being a outright dick isn't alright, and there's a fine line with that. Also, spamming racist words is still not okay.

=== Do not inconvenience AFK or disconnected characters ===
Under normal circumstances, do not harm or otherwise inconvenience characters whose player is idle, ghosted, or disconnected entirely. There are some exceptions to this rule, as follows:
*Circumstance that warrant the interactions of AFK/SSD players are few and far between if there is ever a case were you are REQUIRED for to take any ID/Bag/Gear from someone that is SSD, Ahelp before hand and with your reason why. Not ahelping before may result in HARSH OOC punishment if you are found to be manipulating them while away, or causing any sort of general tampering with the player. (IE. Don't be an asshole who steals shit from afk players unless its required)
Note: If your moving someone to cryo after the time, this is ok, as long as you do not remove their items unless it's faction important and you have the means to return them properly
*If they've disconnected/idle for more than 15 minutes, you can put them in cryosleep. If you do that, take away all of their belongings except for their jumpsuit, shoes, ID, and PDA, and return everything else to its rightful department.
*If they've committed a crime, jail them as you normally would and conduct their sentence even if they aren't connected. 20 minutes in the brig is still 20 minutes in the brig.
*Emergencies bypass this rule. If it's an emergency and you need something an idle player has to fix it, you may take it. If a fire starts in a room and the AFK player is the only one who can open the door then it's an emergency. Needing to get a snack from the kitchen and robbing the chef does not count as an emergency.

=== ERP preferences must be respected ===
Players should have their ERP prefs listed in their “OOC Meta info” or “OOC Notes” on their characters. You are required to respect these preferences so long as they pertain to ERP. If you are unsure about the meaning of some of their preferences, then use LOOC to discuss it with them. If you accidentally go against someone’s preferences, or someone else goes against yours, work to correct it as quickly as possible, even if that means just deciding in LOOC amongst yourselves that ‘this didn’t happen’ and going your separate ways.

*If you do not like someone's erp preferences you won't be punished for saying so, but do not harass someone just because they like something you don't. It's far easier to simply avoid someone and causing drama will get you into trouble.

*If you are uncomfortable with an ERP theme that you hadn't thought to add (or didn't know existed) to a list of dislikes in your OOC notes, speak up in LOOC as normal. Conversely, those of you foolish enough to put 'anything goes' into your preferences, or anything else vague like this, do so at your own risk. '''You forfeit your right to complain about preference breaking''' if you do not put ''some'' indication of your dislikes into OOC preferences.

**'''Do not engage in any non-consensual scenes. If you are found to be doing non-consensual scenes even with OOC consent on server you may be banned from the community as a whole. If you have not consented to the scene - A-help IMMEDIATELY'''.
**Do not make false allegations of non-consensual scenes in game. Falsely accusing someone of rape or other non-consensual material will result in an immediate ban. This is incredibly bad faith and petty.
**'''Being found in violation of NON-CON rule(s) will be met with an automatic player kill (PK) and Perma Ban with no appeal given investigation. You've been warned as this is not tolerated here.'''

*Do not attempt to force yourself into ERP scenes where the other party (or parties) involved are not comfortable with it, or not even actually participating. This includes (but is not limited to) repeatedly trying to do ERP that a player has blatantly stated they are uncomfortable with, trying to guilt players into having a pity RP with you, etc. You get the idea. Don't do it.

*AFK/SSD/Disconnected players are not valid targets for any ERP.

=== The private areas are protected ===
The ‘dorms’ area on the map are reserved for ERP and are ‘protected’ from interruption. It is a violation of this rule to break into occupied dorms or harass players in dorms. Dorm areas are any personal apartments generally restricted to a specific person such as a head of staffs private bedroom or a dorm area claimed by a specific person, usually through a labeled door.
*The only exception is for security to arrest those who have committed crimes. Security is not allowed to indiscriminately inspect dorms for crimes, but a known criminal hiding in a dorm is not protected by this rule.
*The existence of dereliction of duty is also to be noted here, if you are working a job expected to perform a role and take time off to go to dorms you can, and likely will be interrupted via a warrant for abandoning your assigned job. For more info see rule 5.6 (You are expected to perform the job you signed up for).
*Conversely, it is not permissible to attempt to use dorms to hide from security, or to make their job of finding you harder. The dorms are for people who want to ERP in privacy. Don’t involve them in your shenanigans.

=== Do not disrupt non-public ERP scenes ===
TL;DR is you should avoid screwing with scenes that are not in public areas. The problem is, not everyone knows what is considered public or private. This is especially important for [[Security]] players to know.
*Dorms are considered private obviously. Don't mess with those under any circumstances unless someone inside actively invites you. (Calling for help is considered an invite.)
*If a person is ERPing in a public location they should be asked to vacate to a private dorm room. If they refuse they may be arrested immediately.

=== Speak English ===
We are an English server. All OOC communications are expected to be done in English. It's alright if your English is rough and imperfect, just as long as we can reasonably understand it.

*This also extends into IC communications, but is more flexible as some characters have heavy accents.
*Having a character sometime speak smatterings of other languages is acceptable, but speaking exclusively in these languages for entire sentences is not.

=== Roleplay as long as it's feasible ===
*This is an HRP (Heavy RolePlay) server. You are expected to roleplay your actions with other players as long as it's feasible. If someone engages you in purely ‘robust’ (aka game-mechanics driven) combat while you were attempting to roleplay with them, with no reasonable provocation, please use the admin-help feature to inform an admin.
**Reasonable provocation would be things that deem you too dangerous to be given even a chance to talk. For example, openly wielding a gun while threatening people, charging someone with a knife, trying to create a hazard, or being the target of a manhunt.

*If a fight does begin, you're not expected to type out every gunshot and dodge and attack. That would be absurd. Generally, you roleplay up until the point that it makes sense to start attacking, and then use game mechanics from there. You are allowed to respond to ‘robust’ violence with your own, if you desire, though you should attempt to return to roleplaying as soon as feasible. The environment is not designed for a focus on action, but rather for character-building and roleplaying. When a fight is over, resume roleplaying.

*Movement is considered a game mechanic for the purpose of this rule. Wordlessly running at a security officer who is attempting to arrest you, or wordlessly fleeing from them, is considered engaging in game-mechanic combat. The security officer has valid cause to stop trying to roleplay and stunlock you into the ground.

*Death may not be uncommon at the frontiers of space but it is still impactful. When a character dies, or your own character dies and is revived, death should be considered an immensely painful and graphic experience. One should stay in character during said experiences, statements of ‘oh well’ or mutilating a corpse for ‘fun’ would not be reasonable responses.

*'''You are to have fleshed out character records.''' These are used not only for roleplay but are to be utilized, if specified by staff, for long-term consequences for actions. Players are supported to use these as roleplay documents and treat others with these seriously. Our expectations for what should be in these can be found on [[https://sojourn13.space/wiki/Example_Paperwork#Character_Records|the Character Records page of our Example Paperwork wiki.]]

=== Do not join with an inappropriate ckey ===
Ckeys, better known as BYOND user names, must be appropriate. If any are deemed inappropriate, the ckey will be banned and you will be unable to play on our server until you make an account with an appropriate name.
*Ckeys that mock certain players or groups are an example of inappropriate.
*Ckeys that violate BYOND's terms of service may also be reported.

=== Do not misuse Global OOC ===
Many servers simply mute global OOC. We do not, because the OOC command is useful to have on in an RP heavy server.

* Global OOC is used, for instance, to contact someone you were typing a reply to had walked out of the room before you were done, and you're trying to ask them to come back. It's also useful if you're a new player, or an old player exploring new mechanics, who asks something like, "How do I make Tricord again?" or something short and similar. Short, sweet, and relevant OOC messages are generally okay. Welcoming old players returning, or new players joining, is also generally okay.

* Global OOC is ''not'' for idle banter, ranting, things pertaining to incidents in the current round (see previous rule), in-depth explanations (an explanation that takes more than a few lines), shitposting memes, or discussing topics not relating directly to the game. If you want to chatter OOCly, go to our Discord channel, which is linked from the home page or use LOOC so as to not disturb the rest of the server.

* Also, if someone does misuse OOC, do not complain in global OOC about their misusing of global OOC. Not only are you just making the problem worse, that is considered being a backseat admin, which is prohibited by other rules.

== Keep IC and OOC separate ==
*Don't complain in OOC or LOOC when your actions IC get you in trouble. If its a rules violation then Ahelp or open a ticket on the discord.
*IC (In-character) and OOC (Out-of-Character) actions and knowledge should be separated as much as possible. Don't use OOC channels to discuss what's going on IC until after the round is finished, don't use OOC knowledge to do things your character wouldn't know, such as operate medical machines when a cargo technician. You are not playing yourself in the game, you are controlling a character with their own wants and knowledge and the IC/OOC boundary is to help reflect that.
**Note that these same rules apply to LOOC as well.
*Disconnecting or using other OOC means to avoid IC consequences is against the rules. If you do urgently need to leave the server even though you're being punished, your options are either to surrender and get it over with, or use admin help to inform the admins, "I know Security is after me, but I have to go because (some emergency)." Failure to take ten seconds to tell an admin before disconnecting may result in harsher punishment.

=== Metacomms, metagaming, multi-keying, (etc) are not allowed ===
*Metacomms: Using third-party programs, such as Discord, IRC, Skype, or even the BYOND pager, to discuss and share information of the ongoing round. This excludes other players, can contribute to toxicity among the playerbase, and is often a tactic used by griefers and thus is a no-go.

*Metagaming: Using information obtained from elsewhere to influence IC decisions and actions. Your opinions or knowledge of other players or characters obtained via OOC methods should not direct your IC actions. If you have an OOC grudge against someone, you may not try to antagonize them IC, for example.
** Metagaming sometimes happens by accident due to game mechanics behaving undesirably due to intentional features or unintentional bugs and oversights. If it happens, ask an admin to help straighten things out if you can't do so among yourselves.

*Multi-keying: Logging in with multiple BYOND accounts on our game server. There is never any legitimate reason for you to do this and thus is not allowed.

= Create and play server-appropriate characters =
Although this is a furry roleplaying server based around 2D spess mans, that doesn't mean anything goes because that is possible. Suspension of disbelief is still important to a good experience, and breaking that suspension of disbelief is bad for roleplaying. Characters who break that suspension of disbelief are not allowed. Saying "it's what my character would do" isn't an automatic protection against this rule if what your character is doing breaks that immersion.

*Play a reasonably sane and mature character, give them a non-immersion breaking first and last name, do not play obvious reference characters, or characters from published works.

*Keep in mind that people do not like pain or dying and usually try to avoid it without good reason. Give your character a reasonable set of strengths, fears, and weaknesses. When writing things for IC, write things out that sound like speech, not emoticons or lolspeak.

*The setting contains no magic. Your character cannot have any superpowers, magical abilities, or anything that does not exist in the setting or cannot be reasonably replicated with game mechanics. If they are not someone who has a good reason to work on the colony, they should not be here.
**The exception to this is purely private roleplay. For example: If your character and another character are in a dorm by themselves, and the other is OOCly fine with it, your character can display potentially supernatural abilities. This is limited to that roleplay, though. You should not discuss anything about that in public. Use magic at your own risk however, because technically the moment your RP is discovered by someone else, it stops being private, putting you in potential violation of this rule.

*Obscenely oversized or undersized characters are forbidden. Minimum height is at least four feet. Maximum height is about eight feet. Anything more or less really pushes the already shaky believably of abhumans and established alien lore.

*If you are playing a lore based species such as sablekyne, mar'qua, opifex, or whatever else we add in the future, you are expected to play the race as they are canonically meant to be played.

*OOC Notes and Flavor Text are '''required'''. Your OOC notes must detail your ERP preferences, and your flavor text should not include non-physical attributes (do not include feelings your character has, or how they act). Character records are something that should be filled out, if you have an issue or don't know how to do it properly, contact a member of staff for help.

*To be a colonist your character '''must''' have at least a ''basic'' understanding of the English language. Outsiders, however, are exempt from this restriction and may be of people from various backgrounds that may not have a grasp of even basic English.

*If your character is suspended, permanently killed off, or otherwise removed from the colony as a consequence for something horrible they did in-character, you are expected to not play that character anymore. If found playing the character again, or a 'clone' to circumvent this result, OOC punishment will be issued.

* '''Do not play vibrantly colored or "sparkle dog" type characters.''' This basically means you should mainly have natural fur coloration and a relatively normal appearance. Yes, our character editor has a ton of color options, including neon colors and many design sprites to do strange things. Creativity is fun, making your appearance incredibly unrealistic or as obnoxious as possible will result in admin intervention. Some leeway is given to races with canonically vibrant colors such as cht'mants and cindarites or custom xenos but try to keep them muted instead of neon. Following the custom species guide does not make you immune from this rule. If an admin asks you to change your color, do so, we have this rule to maintain HRP.

* These following rules are taken directly from the Character Creation page[[https://sojourn13.space/wiki/Character_Creation]].
*Characters who are new to the server should shy away from head position or complicated jobs.
*Characters who have been present on the station for at least a month are safer to join head positions.
*Characters who have been present on the station for a decent period of time can work for up to 2 departments. This may be working Lonestar (Chef-Bartender-Janitor-Gardener-Artist-Cargo Tech-Miner) and Marshal (Supply Specialist-Marshal Officer-Ranger), though try to keep it believable within this sense. This may also include Science (Scientist-Roboticist) and Medical (Medical Doctor-Paramedic-Orderly), or any other variation one may think of. Blackshield counts the same as if you were working Marshals, and the Lodge does not count against your picked departments (but does count as a head role).
*Characters are only allowed to be one head role at any given time. One may not be both Science and Medical, and play both CRO and CBO. One must be chosen over the other.

== Do not kill or attack things (including yourself) for no good reason ==
*This includes yourself. Even in self-defense your goal is to fight off your attacker and survive, killing in a fight should only be done as a last-ditch effort when it's clear it's a you or them situation.

*Suicide or self-mutilation is not allowed without prior allowance by an admin. The reason for this is to maintain an atmosphere of reasonable and, at least mostly, mentally sound workers. The subject can be a poor attention grab, be used for guilt, or remove any immersion or story from someone. If you believe you have a reason, ask an admin.

*Excessive force responses are not allowed by our rules. Excessive force responses would be, for example, crushing someone’s skull for cutting you in line, stabbing someone’s eyes with a screwdriver for boredom, killing someone over a single punch, etc. Use proper reasoning for when you act in such a manner.

*Hiding player corpses as a self-antag / antag is not allowed. Staff may give an exemption in the case of an event but the body should still be possible to be found.
**Similarly, do not destroy bodies purposefully. Accidents happen regarding gibbing of a skull, destruction of someone’s body due to a bomb, etc. But whacking a target that is dead until it starts gibbing its limbs is not.
**Antags have some exemption to this; such as Blitzshells or Carrions. However admins are to specify if an antag may use these abilities or not as they can possibly end up being round-ending for a player.

*Make it clear through actions or words if you are moving into combat against someone. Even something as simple as “I’m killing you” will suffice - or even placing paper at the entrance to a cave saying ‘KEEP OUT’. Wordlessly shooting people without any clear intent or reasoning may result in administrative action depending on the context. We are a roleplay server.
**Players are, by no means, required to emote. They may choose to do so if they please. Drawing a gun when in a heated situation, such as when a gun is already drawn on them, or even being visibly armed during a fight is clear intent enough to meet this requirement. Use proper reasoning and judgment.
**If a player makes their intent known (I.e ‘get on the ground, now’, ‘give me your shit’) - you, as the person receiving said demand, are not required to say anything further. You may retaliate with force at this point if you deem fit. Sometimes ICly is preferable to try and talk, but you are not required to. Just know that actions have consequences ICly and they may apply to you depending on the legality of the order or reasoning of it.

*You are restricted from engaging in round-to-round legal action outside of the specific circumstances described in the post-hoc investigations section of the law.

**You may however, use previous conflicts as a justification for hostility with a person. This falls under self-antagging rules if you decide to pick a fight on your own. You are allowed to do so, but you must accept the consequences for such as it will not be considered legal(E.G murdering your murderer the next round may be valid if self antag rules are followed - but legally it is still murder).

**Fax-complaints about character's behavior may be faxed inter-round. These faxes should clarify when the event took place and if it is relevant to a current ongoing situation in-round. When in doubt if you can act on an inter-round issue, fax or A-help.

== Do not powergame ==
*Better known as 'playing to win'. As a security person this can be seen as going out of your way and needlessly endangering others to ‘win against’ criminals. As the Colony AI exploiting loopholes in your laws to get yourself out of them or getting the person who subverted you into trouble is another way. There is an implicit allowance for lawed characters to ERP. You may create loopholes for this reason only.

*While this shares several things in common with other rules, it still is it's own entity. Play to have fun, allow yourself to lose now and again and roll with the blows as it can make things potentially even more interesting.

*Having '''way''' too many skills for one character is another example of this. Just because you're the premier and have access to everywhere doesn't mean you should (or can) know how to do all the different jobs. (See [[Character Creation#Give them a set of skills|Character Creation]] regarding skills for more information.)

*[[Identifying Antagonists]] when you shouldn't be able to is also a violation of this rule.

== Do not godmode ==
* Often confused with powergaming, godmoding is to create abilities out of nowhere, or do impossible things. If the action cannot be reasonably emulated in the confines of the game's mechanics, and it gives you some kind of advantage or is exceptionally weird, it's probably not allowed. For example, if you don't have access to a mechanic for turning invisible, you can't turn invisible. Saying you're invisible doesn't mean squat.

* Creating a character who is immune to injuries or pain also falls under this. The game won't let you ignore getting shot, why would any player allow it either?
** If your character is literally coded to ignore pain, you can ignore pain. Cyborgs and robots are a notable example. They do not feel pain. They are not immune to injury, however.

* Accidental injuries are still in-character injuries unless an admin heals you. Admin heals are generally out of character to void the injury.

* '''Admins who are caught abusing admin powers to godmod will be immediately dealt with.'''

== Do not abuse whispers ==
Any actions that would obviously be visible should not be hidden using whispers, this includes ERP, whispers longer than a sentence, or actions that would obviously be visible to anyone glancing you way. If you need to speak something longer than a sentence but want to keep it quiet use the whisper command. Anyone caught using whispers to hide obviously visible actions of paragraphs of texts will get slapped for it.

== Rules of ‘Self-Antag’ ==
To start with, here are some of the bare bone basic rules when self-antagging.
* Your goal should be to provide fun for players in the round. Not just for yourself. Create scenarios others can enjoy and interact or involve other players who are receptive to your antics.
* Don’t Self-Antag without proper IC reasoning. Reasoning along the lines of "I'm bored" or "Giving Security something to do" is NOT a valid reason to be an asshole. Make sure your reason(s) are believable and why your actions make logical IC sense to any Admin.
* Your main goal should be to get away with something and live to fight another day. Not to aim to murder everyone in your sight.
* Don’t break machines or items when you are self-antaging, steal them instead. If the item has no worth to you nor any credit worth, don’t take it. If it does or would sell for a pretty penny, you may steal it and use or pawn it off.
** Similarly, don’t destroy or otherwise effectively grief Soteria or other faction machines that are needed for life-saving or are not replaceable. I.e - cryotubes, surgery tables, RnD machines, etc.
** This includes infrastructure, such as atmospherics, or SMES's.
* Think about how a normal person would behave under similar circumstances. A well established character who has been around awhile may be given a bit of wiggle room to keep rounds interesting.
* By Self-Antaging, you are consenting to consequences to your actions. Be it from a normal player, or any result that may come from command or security personnel.
** Do not complain about the consequences you face upon doing such actions. Being fired, brigged, or killed - depending on the severity of your actions - are all possible outcomes. If you value your character and their reputation, don’t do it.

Due to the importance of certain items or objects, to get permission to break into certain high security places or steal specific rare or strong objects requires staff permission first. These include:

* Breaking into any of the colony armories.
* The AI room or stealing the AI directly.
* Heads of Staff rooms to steal unreplaceable gear/artifacts.
* The spare ID in the Premier's office.
** The council may borrow the spare to handle activities such as issuing a new or missing ID, but are NOT to abuse it without A-helping first.

The key goal to self antagging is to create roleplay that is enjoyable or otherwise fun for players to interact with to differ from the norm. Below are a list of examples but you should always consider "are other people having fun or am I just being a dick?"

* Buying and selling contraband.
* Starting a drug production operation in a secluded spot in the colony.
* Disguising yourself as a specific department and gaining access to it while pretending to be a member of that department until someone notices.
* Extorting people for cash with a good old fashioned mugging.
* Stealing money, cutting profits, etc.

Now that the guidelines are out of the way, this rule set are examples of what self-antagonists are '''NOT''' to do without admin permission.

* Large explosives such as plasma bombs, max-caps, or any form of gas attack (such as the use of plasma fire flooding) are NOT allowed without admin permission.
** Grenades in casings and the like are, however, free to use as you see fit.
* Being a self-antag does not mean a license to murder. Doing so may result not only in perma-brig or a PK depending on your actions outcome, but staff involvement as well.
** Shooting at security while on the run for example is fully fine and acceptable rules-wise, but you are not to purposefully kill people at random.
Do not self antag more than once per day. This is generous as is, you shouldn’t be running around multiple rounds in a row breaking stuff, stealing stuff, etc. There is a fine line between a self-antagonist and a shitter.
* Do not use self-antagonism as an excuse to ruin a player's experience. This includes targeting players you know you do not like, providing purposefully no enjoyment to the situation for them, etc. It’s just dickish behavior.
* Do not start hostile actions within the first 15-30 minutes of the rounds start. You may use this as prep time, or A-help asking to start early if it’s something you feel you need to do to get the proper prep time to begin with.
** Similarly, you are to cease escalation of antagonism once a round end vote passes. Security may hunt for you, and you may retaliate in that case - but you are NOT to start self-antaging in the last 15 minutes of a round nor continue actions of self antaging.

Remember - we play on what most servers consider an “Extended round type” and pride ourselves, as a server, sith offering a persistent atmosphere where previous actions are considered ‘canon’ versus the normal SS13 experience of Groundhog Day. We do not have normal full blown antagonists, such as a murderous traitor, a serial killer, a wizard, or Steve from accounting having a bad day and deciding it’s hijack time. We are a PvE server that wishes to allow some players driven conflict and meaningful stories from said conflict.

IC consequences that occur from being caught range. Demotion may result in a job strike against playing a department (these wipe every 3 months), the ‘permanent killing’ of your character in the case of heinous crimes, or other possibilities that players may decide within reason. It is for that reason that, by self-antaging, you are '''CONSENTING''' to these consequences for the action you have taken.

=== Outsiders & Self-Antaging ===

Outsiders hold some different rules and freedoms to self antaging than others. Outsiders may range from sane, understandable characters - to flawed individuals - to escaped convicts, cannibals, and deranged individuals. As such, their Self antaging takes different forms.

This section is a short one regarding outsiders and their self-antaging specifications. Outsiders hold different restrictions and freedoms from a colonist or lodge member deciding to self-antag. This section will outline these points below.

* Outsiders, unlike colonists, may resort to murder more quickly and for simpler reasons than a colonist. You are still not to make a target unrevivable, destroy their body, or otherwise hide the body without admin permission.
** That being said, you may do amputations of a body part or two as - say - some antagonistic type of cannibal. But do not go past this limit. Be reasonable
* Outsiders are still expected, as others, to give some form of indication of intent or use clear wording of what they want or are doing. Mugging someone? Say what you want. Telling someone to get lost? Draw your gun and tell them to get out.
** Paper notes may also be placed at, say, the entry to your house or on the door warning ‘trespassers will be shot’ as a means to make intentions clear or stake ownership of an area/building. Doing so means you may shoot violators, just as colonists do to infiltrators or trespassers.
* Outsiders may freely use traps, mines, and mobs to aid in their self-antaging. Be tasteful and do not use them on tiles, such as Z-transitions or staircases, or under trees completely. You may use them on ladders though as players can see down them before climbing.
* Breaking into the colony is acceptable to do, but you are to obey the previous rules regarding what can be stolen or broken into. Off limit areas, such as armories or the premiers spare ID requires admin permission.
* Finally, remember - colonists and hunters may kill you just as freely as you may kill them. They are required, as you are, to make their intentions clear. But you do not have the legal protection of a colonist. By playing outsider and, by any means acting strange or akin to a self antag, you lose the right to complain about the consequences that come to you.

== You are expected to perform the job you signed up for ==
When your character joins the round, you are accepting the responsibilities that the job you have chosen brings with it. Remember: if you are playing in a slot, you are likely preventing other players from performing that role. It is important that you fulfill the tasks that you have signed up for!
*Marhals should protect the colony from danger, the guild should ensure that power is up and that people can breathe, medical should provide treatment to injuries and other services, cargo should bring in needed cargo on request, Science should do... science stuff, and service should provide food. Command's job is to make sure at least these basics are being fulfilled, and to react accordingly in an emergency.

*A player must take into account the qualifications (both physical and mental) of their character’s role before placing them into it. If staff find your character to be unsatisfactory in fulfilling the requirements of the role, we may instruct you to revise your character.
**This includes majorly disabled characters — quadruple amputees, deaf, or blind characters, and so on — which are only permitted on the colony in the assistant (and associated alt-titles) job slot.

*Repeatedly failing to perform to an acceptable standard can result in a ban untill appealed.

*Job [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strikes]] are a counter of 0/3 which is noted on your character, after 3 job strikes, which can be earned by bad faxes or legitimate demotions from a head of staff, your character is permanently fired from that department until an appeal is made. Job strikes last 3 months, with the timer resetting with each strike.

*If you are going AFK for an extended period of time (more than 15 minutes), and are occupying a limited-number job slot (any slot other than assistant), you must remove your character from the round using a cryopod (or other similar means) to free the slot. Repeated failure to do this may result in being banned from that job.

*Do not do other people’s jobs. If you joined as medical, do not attempt to hunt down criminals. If you joined as engineering, do not attempt to perform medical treatment on your coworkers. If you are a head position, allow your staff to do work before you do the work yourself; you are a supervisor and manager first and foremost as a head position.

*Do not hijack other people's jobs. For example, if you're a roboticist but someone needs surgery, and there's already a surgeon who isn't currently busy, then don't perform the surgery instead of letting them do it. Similar examples exist with every department, so use your judgement. Basically, if you're ''actively getting in the way'' of someone else trying to do their job, you're probably breaking this rule.

*Playing jobs that can be called upon at any time to assist other crew members in emergencies waives your right to have interruption-free (E)RP sessions in private, including the dorms. If you join as a Lifeline Tech, expect to be interrupted out of private scenes. If you’re an engineer, you are expected to set up power systems and repair any large-scale damage that hampers the rest of the crew, regardless of your intent to have sex with the assistants. (Example: The premier getting their rocks off with someone while they are being called to assist with colony matters. They signed up to be the arbiter of colony matters. ERP is not what you are here for in that role. "saying you are busy or occupied" will incur a job [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strike]].)

*If you do prospecting as an non-prospector for more than 30-60 minutes without being in an expedition with them and you are not doing your job, you may get a talking to. If you want to play like a prospector - just play the job instead of ignoring the one you signed up for.

*Maintenance diving is not a valid reason to be busy from your assigned job. If you are requested to perform the actions of your role while maintenance diving it is expected that you make your way out of maintenance in a timely manner.

== You are expected to obey the chain of command (within reason) ==
*Each head of staff is the de facto leader of their department, so listen to them. Likewise, you should obey decisions from faction owners (if a fax arrives) or council decisions unless directly overridden by an admin. If you consistently do not follow reasonable orders, you will be job banned.

*If you're playing a role that has [[AI#Interpreting_Your_Laws|AI laws]], you must obey these laws first and foremost to the best of your ability.

*As any role without AI laws, you can disobey orders you think are traitorous, harmful, immoral, or violating [[Laws]]. Use your judgement and consider whether or not disobeying the order could get you in trouble or get someone else horribly killed.

*If you are given an order or AI law that may break another server rule, please alert the admins for a second opinion before continuing.

Mind you, this is '''not''' a rule that lets people be fun police as heads of staff. If you feel that someone is ordering you do things that basically require you ''not'' to do your job, or to do your job in ways that aren't important/fun, then contact an admin for a second opinion or fax a faction owner in character.

== You are expected to forget events that are deemed non-canon ==
*This is to keep things a little more sane in-round, and to allow for players with preferences in non-consensual activities to have their fun with people who share those prefs as victims. It is therefore against this rule to remember and abuse the knowledge of who killed/raped after the round has passed unless both people involved agree. You should not have the memory to antagonize or persecute your attacker without the prior OOC agreement of the other parties in the roleplay. They can include this consent in their OOC Metainfo/Notes or discuss it with you in LOOC before or after the roleplay.

*Keep in mind that non-consensual RP, while OOC, is fine it is not on an IC level. Characters who make their non-con actions public or get caught in the act can and will be permanently killed if caught. For example, if a person is tried and executed for rape that character is permanently dead and cannot reappear on the colony. If you wish to do non-con keep it private. '''You've been warned.'''

*The round ending does not make you immune to a character perma-kill. Just because you evaded capture or was not killed by the time it restarted does not mean everyone forgets what your character did. If you get caught and the evidence is ironclad enough, you will be PK'd.

*This rule also applies to events that cause catastrophic damage to the colony, such as a code red/delta scenario. As a general rule event coordinators '''should''' say before or after an event if it is non-canon or not.

*If you are killed in a round and then revived in the same round, you're memory is entirely intact and may act accordingly.

*As a general rule, player deaths in round will be considered 'soft canon'. That the character died is canon, the exact details are left vague - this is to ensure that instances of a character being gibbed, eaten by a hivemind, etc - do not either result in a forced PK, nor lore-breaks wherein said character is magically back. Players are encouraged to come up with a believable explanation as to the particular details and others are expected to not reference the original and actual events.

*In line with the above, such 'retellings' of events must be in line with server lore particularly [https://sojourn13.space/wiki/Transhumanity Transhumanity] and the The Law of Inviolability.

= The intent of the rules is more important than the letter =
The purpose of the rules is to preserve a fun and enjoyable environment for all players. If everyone is enjoying themselves even while the ‘letter’ of a rule is not being followed, it’s likely that no staff intervention will be required. On the other hand, just because something isn't in the rules doesn't mean it's okay or allowed if it's upsetting a large number of players.

*It is within admin staff's discretion to decide that certain actions violate one or more rules, even if the specific action is not listed as part of the rule. This is simply the job of the staff to interpret the rules. You can appeal decisions to other admins if you believe one has a bias against you, but doing so after a ruling is passed will get you in trouble.

*Plenty of rules are left vague enough to cover as much as possible without being too oppressing. Attempting to rules-lawyer saying that "this rule doesn't specifically say I can't do X", even if what you are doing is disrupting the server, will generally be ignored. We assume most of you have enough common sense to recognize what a [[#Create_and_play_server-appropriate_characters|sane and stable individual]] would and wouldn't do within this fictional setting.

=== Listen to admin staff ===
* One admin's word is usually as good as any other. Though, just because one admin says something is okay in that moment does not mean it will always be okay under another admin or even the same admin.
** If this causes a contradiction, you can (and should) inform the new admin of what you were told previously. For example, a Head Admin says you can do something, but that admin has left the server. A lower ranked admin shows up and asks you to stop doing that thing. You can explain that the Head Admin previously said you could do this, but if the lower ranked admin ''still'' wants you to stop, then you should stop. (This obviously works vise-versa as well.)
** Intentionally not telling a new admin about a contradiction is considered lying. It's like asking your mom for ice cream, but she says no, so you go ask dad because you think he'll be less strict.
* Sojourn is not a straight democracy; our rules and guidelines exist for a reason and we have staff dedicated to enforcing them and help set further guidelines if necessary. '''However, these rules are always going to be incomplete, and as such, just because something isn't written doesn't mean it's allowed.''' If a staff member tells you to do something, do it. They tell you to stop, then stop. If you disagree with a ruling, don't try to argue it then and there, especially if things are hectic. Once things have calmed down, or preferably after the round has ended, you can try to contact the staff member privately to discuss the ruling, or talk to another admin if you cannot talk to or cannot convince the offending admin.

* If you have a question over something unclear or questionable, never be afraid to adminhelp. The staff on hand should discuss it among themselves and give you a ruling, from there on if the ruling is in bad judgement, it's on the admin who cleared it, not ''you''. '''The staff should also NEVER ban you purely for a complaint against them.''' Even if you're a complete asshole about it, as long as the argument stays private, you cannot be banned just for arguing. Although being an asshole usually won't win an argument, so you probably shouldn't do that anyway.
** Don't confuse this for "complaining grants you immunity to bans", because that's not how it works. If you are told to not break windows and you complain how that isn't fair, you're still getting banned for breaking windows if we disagree with your complaint. What this means is we won't ban you or make an existing ban worse just because you tell us we're being excessively mean, confusing, or unfair to you or someone else.

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Rules]]

Nadezhda Colony

2024-02-16T19:14:00Z

Cora: /* District Three */ - Replaces improper district two with district three

{{toc_right}}

=Nadezhda colony=

Nadezhda colony, home to the factions and colonists that not too long ago fled from SolFed. Through great effort a fleet of ships fleeing a galaxy spanning federation were converted into a fortified city under the ground in which even in the face of planet wide glassing, the colony would continue to survive. In exchange nearly everyone has forgotten what it means to live a normal life in the sunlight on this anomalous alien world they now call home.

Starting from the surface, one's first sign of inhabitation would be surface colony. A small outpost of Nadezhda built far above the colony propper, settled tightly into the foot of a mountain. Here the workers of the “Upper colony” work. While seeking permanent residence in the lowers, few are brave, mad, or outright insane enough to take the elevator up to this dangerous world's surface. Those that do work the shifts are granted a large degree of freedom and autonomy with their own low council in return for the service they provide, keeping a bare modicum of contact and interaction with the outside world for the colony.

Continuing on our journey our next stop is the elevators, A pair of high speed electromotive elevators that skyrocket colonists to and from the colony proper down below. To achieve these speeds, these elevators are notoriously cramped, barely able to fit one person at a time. The claustrophobic often prefer the network of tubed cryopod delivery systems. While slower than the elevators, they offer the bliss of simply entering cryo in lower, and awakening in upper, after the transit is done evading the issue of the elevators completely. Nonetheless the elevators are the de-facto means of transit for a vast majority of those that travel to the upper colony, for their punctual speed.

As we descend the elevators we reach the colony propper, the true city of Nadezhda. In our descent during the last few moments we will breach the roof of a long dormant volcanic chamber. Through clever planning the colony itself was built in a laccolith rock formation. The large volcanic chamber being composed of extremely thick and perfectly dome shaped igneous rock making for a natural bunker merely needing excavation. Over the months and years this large formation has been carved out into a city in the dark of which no normal means of bombardment could harm.

=District One=

Landing at the bottom of the elevator shaft we enter the first of the colonies seven districts. Here in district one stands the tall “Spire” right at the core of Nadezhda. The spire is the connection between lower and upper. Through it all elevators, small shuttle ducts, maintenance access shafts, cryopod management tubes, communication and power trunks flow to the surface. It makes quite a fine centerpiece to the city. Surrounding it in district one lies the heart of the administrative powers of Nadezhda. Small skyscraper buildings of office workers and clerks, handling the daily logs of the council's work, meetings, production quotas, transport logs, accounting, banking, and anything that falls free of the realm of being faction specific.

Here in district one lies the heart of the Nadezhda Marshals, one of the few entities operating within the colony that can call itself unbiased. The primary Marshals headquarters and Academy lies here, and while other districts may have their local precinct headquarters, and training complexes, none of them compare to the expense paid in district one.

As we reach the border of District one's circular area the landscape notably changes, small concrete block houses and deep bunker networks form a loose defensive line around District one. The council routinely uses these bunkers and blockhouses as temporary housing for people displaced from their homes while new housing is sorted. But in true emergency this final line of defense would be the colonies last stand. Bunkers to house as many as possible from whatever assault may come to the lowers, and the Blockhouses to secure the borders in case of any deep mining operations to invade the city. Many doubt there is anywhere near enough room for everyone in these defenses and bunkers.

=District Layout=

Before we continue to the other districts, we must first understand how they are structured. With each district containing nearly seven thousand to ten thousand inhabitants each one itself must be capable of providing all its people need. Nearest to the district one border each individual district will usually find its “high life” sector for the wealthy or just well off in life. High quality apartments and penthouses dotted with gourmet restaurants and entertainment services permeate this area, making it a luxurious life within short travel distance to many of its inhabitant's district one working offices.

Getting further from the center of the city we reach the common housing sector. High rises of apartments provide ample housing for the district, with large shopping complexes providing centralized points to distribute goods to those living in the district. Bars and cantinas find themselves at home here providing the common workers with places to get a drink after a hard day of work. And lastly, we reach the outskirts of the district, the industrial zone, large foundries mining structures, scrap and garbage disposal, and manufacturing plants. Through intense guild regulation these buildings are restricted on aerial pollution production. Requiring expensive filters and machines to keep pollutants from the air of the underground city. Wages for work here are low as a result, so low the alarming existence of slums can be found in many districts, weaving their way through the back alleys between production plants.

===District Two===

District two, the engineering district, here in the headquarters of the artificers guild is located. All buildings are constructed to rigorous and somewhat comical standards at times. Housing in this district is largely designed through a utilitarian lens, every area of an apartment must serve a known purpose. As such standardized apartments are the norm, one could be moved from one building to the next and notice zero differences in the room layout. Drinking runs rampant in this district to a worrying level for its local precinct of marshals who are on holidays overwhelmed with calls of bar brawls. The common people of this district see it as good fun though, and just a way of life and relaxing.

Entering the industrial zone we find large production plants with minimal output, and massive turbine and generator halls, powering this neon city in the dark. The guilds focus on perfection means most buildings work slowly but only turn out the highest quality of goods, quickly exported to other districts to be sold. Other extreme jobs exist in this district such as the workshop of the Nadezhda Laccolith Commision. Whose sole job is the maintenance and routine inspection of the entire dome the city is built in. Done with scanners and by hand, crews of a few at a time ascend on grappling hooks and rock-climbing gear to operate on the rocky roof above the city. Constantly ensuring its stability and ability to resist damage. In places where it is weak doing the difficult task of hand installing large reinforcement beams into the rocks to stabilize them.

===District Three===

District three, the housing district, in the colonies opening days great thousands of ship crew and cryo stasis passengers needed to be unloaded into the safety of the newly forming colony. District three was the immediate answer. The entire district start to finish is designed with housing in mind, how we pack the most people into the smallest area. High quality housing in this district is distinctly smaller than the others, but also cheaper. Mid class housing leaves much to be desired with singular rooms being sold as studio apartments.

And even the slums find small pod unit housing constructed for them, offering only a bed and places for small effects. The only work in the industrial sector of this district pertains to cryostasis storage meaning most must take long work transits to other districts for wages. Large warehouse structures are packed to the brim with stored passengers and colonists. Some who have not been awake since the founding of the colony itself. The few lucky enough to work this close to home make rent handling the movement of pods to be awoken to the transit system, and the maintenance and sustenance of those still in storage.

===District Four===

District four, the garden district, to many who long for the memories of a normal life, district four is their reprieve, continually stylized start to finish for an ecologist's dream, the high rises of the wealthy are adorned in hanging hydroponic trays and lush greenery. Expertly picked plants bloom in this dark and unforgiving environment. The gem of this district is its high-class park, tirelessly maintained by diligent gardeners and foresters who keep one of the few reminders of life on the surface well maintained and flourishing.

Entering the common class districts, rent is paid not through just fees but through labor. The large hydroponic towers soar into the sky, providing ample farming plots. Each apartment is assigned a segment of the hydroponic fields outside of them, through production of grown food and care for the fields do most of the district's colonists earn their rent. In the industrial zone lies the part of this district few like to talk about. The animal barns and slaughterhouses. This segment of the district is purposely kept darker than the rest of the district in the hopeful dream people will not have to think about it as much. The slums here in return are some of the best of the low class housing. Small flats provide some of the true comforts of a home to those that must work this district. Animals are raised in mass, in a true production line style of life. They are born, and kept in cages and contaminants barely large enough to let them grow. Fed a charged diet to accelerate the process of growth, the animals are housed one on top of another as if stored in a warehouse. And when the time comes they are moved to the slaughterhouses that constantly drain blood and spit out fresh meat for the consumption of the masses.

===District Five===

District five, the production district, the beating heart of the Lonestar Shipping hub on Nadezhda. The vibrant flashing lights, and constant advertising make this district a hellhole to some, and a heaven for others. The highest of high quality housing exists here, for the right price, large hotels and complex penthouses and suites. Extravagant party grounds and clubs, members only bars and gambling make the high-class area of this district a “vacation” destination for those who have built up the money to afford it.

Meanwhile the common sector sees far less of this extravagance, mega complexes and small form factor apartments pack tireless workers in who if they are lucky get to work in the high-class entertainment sector and experience its glamor on the daily, or as most of the common class do in this district, move to the industrial sector for a life of grime and tiring work. In the industrial district exists the “Pit”, a large gaping hole down the volcanic dike that once formed this entire laccolith. Down it and into its void descend grime covered workers packed into industrial sized elevators, to labor away in the deep mines under Nadezhda. The scorching hot tunnels dimly lit while the miners labor away to bring ore up with them and earn their keep. In doing so they ascend the pit only to hand off work to the equally tired forge workers. Taking the raw stone and ores and melting them down in mass into the steel sheets and materials that keep other production centers running.

===District Six===

District six, the religious district, home of the absolutists, this district is much less industrialized than the others. All structures here are smaller and quainter than others, as such this district takes a hit to its total capacity which leaves absolutists forced to live in other districts even if they desire to live here. The boundaries of quality sectors are lessened here though still existent, both the high quality and common areas of this district simply contain true houses. Structures made for one family each, along the streets, with occasional chapels and places of worship, and a few small gardens.

The industrial sector of this district still is distinct though, save for its nearly nonexistent slums, instead replaced with homeless shelters complexes. The buildings of the industrial sector vary heavily here, from schools for the young and uneducated to scholar buildings for the numericals. Divisor equipment manufacturing facilities, and factorial production lines of branded goods. To those looking to start their low-level education from nothing, or the young, there are no other schools than those of the religious district.

===District Seven===

District seven, the research district, progress no matter the cost, the seat of Soteria and the home of its advanced research facilities. Housing here is drab and minimalist. The high-quality sector is home to large universities, research facilities and high-quality hospitals. Many seeking medical and research knowledge or just a high level of education turn to these facilities to teach them, however only those with the basics can enter keeping the bar closed to the uneducated that do not deserve the school's time.

The common sector is loaded with housing for the lab techs and assistants, living in smaller housing than their true research professors and doctors. They are still an important asset of the process and receive fair housing in return. The facilities scattered throughout this sector are mostly laboratories for high level chemical prep, while not as industrially dedicated to high quantity chemical production, these labs prepare complex chemicals for later use. Usually operated by hand by the assistants and technicians. The industrial sector is far more rigorous. The slums in this district are some of the most notorious of them all, the large pipelines pumping chemical precursors and products around, darting through these alleys. The common small leaks and rare large bursts cause these dangerous chemicals to be exposed to those living in these alleys resulting in many deaths.

Nevertheless, the large low labor facilities mix chemicals in large tanks, producing great reactions and preparing the base elements for further refinement, pumped and stored all around this pipe dream of a sector each pipe contains some form of dangerous hazard of simple wastewater. The most important of these facilities is the massive air conditioning and management complex. Regulating the quality of the very air in the depths of this city. Ensuring pollutants are filtered out and fresh air is pumped in through the large use of genetically modified algae, as well as large refrigerant plants to keep the city air cool, by pumping the heat down into the planet itself.

Nadezhda Colony

2023-03-16T18:33:35Z

Cora: Created page with "{{toc_right}} =Nadezhda colony= Nadezhda colony, home to the factions and colonists that not too long ago fled from SolFed. Through great effort a fleet of ships fleeing a g..."

{{toc_right}}

=Nadezhda colony=

Nadezhda colony, home to the factions and colonists that not too long ago fled from SolFed. Through great effort a fleet of ships fleeing a galaxy spanning federation were converted into a fortified city under the ground in which even in the face of planet wide glassing, the colony would continue to survive. In exchange nearly everyone has forgotten what it means to live a normal life in the sunlight on this anomalous alien world they now call home.

Starting from the surface, one's first sign of inhabitation would be surface colony. A small outpost of Nadezhda built far above the colony propper, settled tightly into the foot of a mountain. Here the workers of the “Upper colony” work. While seeking permanent residence in the lowers, few are brave, mad, or outright insane enough to take the elevator up to this dangerous world's surface. Those that do work the shifts are granted a large degree of freedom and autonomy with their own low council in return for the service they provide, keeping a bare modicum of contact and interaction with the outside world for the colony.

Continuing on our journey our next stop is the elevators, A pair of high speed electromotive elevators that skyrocket colonists to and from the colony proper down below. To achieve these speeds, these elevators are notoriously cramped, barely able to fit one person at a time. The claustrophobic often prefer the network of tubed cryopod delivery systems. While slower than the elevators, they offer the bliss of simply entering cryo in lower, and awakening in upper, after the transit is done evading the issue of the elevators completely. Nonetheless the elevators are the de-facto means of transit for a vast majority of those that travel to the upper colony, for their punctual speed.

As we descend the elevators we reach the colony propper, the true city of Nadezhda. In our descent during the last few moments we will breach the roof of a long dormant volcanic chamber. Through clever planning the colony itself was built in a laccolith rock formation. The large volcanic chamber being composed of extremely thick and perfectly dome shaped igneous rock making for a natural bunker merely needing excavation. Over the months and years this large formation has been carved out into a city in the dark of which no normal means of bombardment could harm.

=District One=

Landing at the bottom of the elevator shaft we enter the first of the colonies seven districts. Here in district one stands the tall “Spire” right at the core of Nadezhda. The spire is the connection between lower and upper. Through it all elevators, small shuttle ducts, maintenance access shafts, cryopod management tubes, communication and power trunks flow to the surface. It makes quite a fine centerpiece to the city. Surrounding it in district one lies the heart of the administrative powers of Nadezhda. Small skyscraper buildings of office workers and clerks, handling the daily logs of the council's work, meetings, production quotas, transport logs, accounting, banking, and anything that falls free of the realm of being faction specific.

Here in district one lies the heart of the Nadezhda Marshals, one of the few entities operating within the colony that can call itself unbiased. The primary Marshals headquarters and Academy lies here, and while other districts may have their local precinct headquarters, and training complexes, none of them compare to the expense paid in district one.

As we reach the border of District one's circular area the landscape notably changes, small concrete block houses and deep bunker networks form a loose defensive line around District one. The council routinely uses these bunkers and blockhouses as temporary housing for people displaced from their homes while new housing is sorted. But in true emergency this final line of defense would be the colonies last stand. Bunkers to house as many as possible from whatever assault may come to the lowers, and the Blockhouses to secure the borders in case of any deep mining operations to invade the city. Many doubt there is anywhere near enough room for everyone in these defenses and bunkers.

=District Layout=

Before we continue to the other districts, we must first understand how they are structured. With each district containing nearly seven thousand to ten thousand inhabitants each one itself must be capable of providing all its people need. Nearest to the district one border each individual district will usually find its “high life” sector for the wealthy or just well off in life. High quality apartments and penthouses dotted with gourmet restaurants and entertainment services permeate this area, making it a luxurious life within short travel distance to many of its inhabitant's district one working offices.

Getting further from the center of the city we reach the common housing sector. High rises of apartments provide ample housing for the district, with large shopping complexes providing centralized points to distribute goods to those living in the district. Bars and cantinas find themselves at home here providing the common workers with places to get a drink after a hard day of work. And lastly, we reach the outskirts of the district, the industrial zone, large foundries mining structures, scrap and garbage disposal, and manufacturing plants. Through intense guild regulation these buildings are restricted on aerial pollution production. Requiring expensive filters and machines to keep pollutants from the air of the underground city. Wages for work here are low as a result, so low the alarming existence of slums can be found in many districts, weaving their way through the back alleys between production plants.

===District Two===

District two, the engineering district, here in the headquarters of the artificers guild is located. All buildings are constructed to rigorous and somewhat comical standards at times. Housing in this district is largely designed through a utilitarian lens, every area of an apartment must serve a known purpose. As such standardized apartments are the norm, one could be moved from one building to the next and notice zero differences in the room layout. Drinking runs rampant in this district to a worrying level for its local precinct of marshals who are on holidays overwhelmed with calls of bar brawls. The common people of this district see it as good fun though, and just a way of life and relaxing.

Entering the industrial zone we find large production plants with minimal output, and massive turbine and generator halls, powering this neon city in the dark. The guilds focus on perfection means most buildings work slowly but only turn out the highest quality of goods, quickly exported to other districts to be sold. Other extreme jobs exist in this district such as the workshop of the Nadezhda Laccolith Commision. Whose sole job is the maintenance and routine inspection of the entire dome the city is built in. Done with scanners and by hand, crews of a few at a time ascend on grappling hooks and rock-climbing gear to operate on the rocky roof above the city. Constantly ensuring its stability and ability to resist damage. In places where it is weak doing the difficult task of hand installing large reinforcement beams into the rocks to stabilize them.

===District Three===

District three, the housing district, in the colonies opening days great thousands of ship crew and cryo stasis passengers needed to be unloaded into the safety of the newly forming colony. District two was the immediate answer. The entire district start to finish is designed with housing in mind, how we pack the most people into the smallest area. High quality housing in this district is distinctly smaller than the others, but also cheaper. Mid class housing leaves much to be desired with singular rooms being sold as studio apartments.

And even the slums find small pod unit housing constructed for them, offering only a bed and places for small effects. The only work in the industrial sector of this district pertains to cryostasis storage meaning most must take long work transits to other districts for wages. Large warehouse structures are packed to the brim with stored passengers and colonists. Some who have not been awake since the founding of the colony itself. The few lucky enough to work this close to home make rent handling the movement of pods to be awoken to the transit system, and the maintenance and sustenance of those still in storage.

===District Four===

District four, the garden district, to many who long for the memories of a normal life, district four is their reprieve, continually stylized start to finish for an ecologist's dream, the high rises of the wealthy are adorned in hanging hydroponic trays and lush greenery. Expertly picked plants bloom in this dark and unforgiving environment. The gem of this district is its high-class park, tirelessly maintained by diligent gardeners and foresters who keep one of the few reminders of life on the surface well maintained and flourishing.

Entering the common class districts, rent is paid not through just fees but through labor. The large hydroponic towers soar into the sky, providing ample farming plots. Each apartment is assigned a segment of the hydroponic fields outside of them, through production of grown food and care for the fields do most of the district's colonists earn their rent. In the industrial zone lies the part of this district few like to talk about. The animal barns and slaughterhouses. This segment of the district is purposely kept darker than the rest of the district in the hopeful dream people will not have to think about it as much. The slums here in return are some of the best of the low class housing. Small flats provide some of the true comforts of a home to those that must work this district. Animals are raised in mass, in a true production line style of life. They are born, and kept in cages and contaminants barely large enough to let them grow. Fed a charged diet to accelerate the process of growth, the animals are housed one on top of another as if stored in a warehouse. And when the time comes they are moved to the slaughterhouses that constantly drain blood and spit out fresh meat for the consumption of the masses.

===District Five===

District five, the production district, the beating heart of the Lonestar Shipping hub on Nadezhda. The vibrant flashing lights, and constant advertising make this district a hellhole to some, and a heaven for others. The highest of high quality housing exists here, for the right price, large hotels and complex penthouses and suites. Extravagant party grounds and clubs, members only bars and gambling make the high-class area of this district a “vacation” destination for those who have built up the money to afford it.

Meanwhile the common sector sees far less of this extravagance, mega complexes and small form factor apartments pack tireless workers in who if they are lucky get to work in the high-class entertainment sector and experience its glamor on the daily, or as most of the common class do in this district, move to the industrial sector for a life of grime and tiring work. In the industrial district exists the “Pit”, a large gaping hole down the volcanic dike that once formed this entire laccolith. Down it and into its void descend grime covered workers packed into industrial sized elevators, to labor away in the deep mines under Nadezhda. The scorching hot tunnels dimly lit while the miners labor away to bring ore up with them and earn their keep. In doing so they ascend the pit only to hand off work to the equally tired forge workers. Taking the raw stone and ores and melting them down in mass into the steel sheets and materials that keep other production centers running.

===District Six===

District six, the religious district, home of the absolutists, this district is much less industrialized than the others. All structures here are smaller and quainter than others, as such this district takes a hit to its total capacity which leaves absolutists forced to live in other districts even if they desire to live here. The boundaries of quality sectors are lessened here though still existent, both the high quality and common areas of this district simply contain true houses. Structures made for one family each, along the streets, with occasional chapels and places of worship, and a few small gardens.

The industrial sector of this district still is distinct though, save for its nearly nonexistent slums, instead replaced with homeless shelters complexes. The buildings of the industrial sector vary heavily here, from schools for the young and uneducated to scholar buildings for the numericals. Divisor equipment manufacturing facilities, and factorial production lines of branded goods. To those looking to start their low-level education from nothing, or the young, there are no other schools than those of the religious district.

===District Seven===

District seven, the research district, progress no matter the cost, the seat of Soteria and the home of its advanced research facilities. Housing here is drab and minimalist. The high-quality sector is home to large universities, research facilities and high-quality hospitals. Many seeking medical and research knowledge or just a high level of education turn to these facilities to teach them, however only those with the basics can enter keeping the bar closed to the uneducated that do not deserve the school's time.

The common sector is loaded with housing for the lab techs and assistants, living in smaller housing than their true research professors and doctors. They are still an important asset of the process and receive fair housing in return. The facilities scattered throughout this sector are mostly laboratories for high level chemical prep, while not as industrially dedicated to high quantity chemical production, these labs prepare complex chemicals for later use. Usually operated by hand by the assistants and technicians. The industrial sector is far more rigorous. The slums in this district are some of the most notorious of them all, the large pipelines pumping chemical precursors and products around, darting through these alleys. The common small leaks and rare large bursts cause these dangerous chemicals to be exposed to those living in these alleys resulting in many deaths.

Nevertheless, the large low labor facilities mix chemicals in large tanks, producing great reactions and preparing the base elements for further refinement, pumped and stored all around this pipe dream of a sector each pipe contains some form of dangerous hazard of simple wastewater. The most important of these facilities is the massive air conditioning and management complex. Regulating the quality of the very air in the depths of this city. Ensuring pollutants are filtered out and fresh air is pumped in through the large use of genetically modified algae, as well as large refrigerant plants to keep the city air cool, by pumping the heat down into the planet itself.

Lore

2023-03-16T18:24:09Z

Cora: /* Standard Information */ - Add in Colony design

</div>
 <big> '''Welcome to the Sojourn Lore page!''' </big>
The pages and links within contain in-character content which pertains to the game's universe that may or may not be represented in-game mechanically, and is more meant to provide background information on which to build worlds and characters off of. It is commonly known as "fluff" due to this. Things such as a planet's economics or a species' culture are two such examples of lore that serves as fluff, which can then be used in a character's background to provide more immersive detail. The vast majority of these pages can be read as if your character is reading it unless stated otherwise. Please keep in mind that the content within however can be changed or edited at any time as corrections to help maintain continuity are not unheard of. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the lore, please contact [[User:Cora]] for more information.
{{toc_right}}

=Note from Server Maintainers=
Any and all species from other servers do not exist in our lore. Any attempt to bring an alien species from another server will be met with character removal. Any attempt to use lore from other servers will be met with Administrative action. Custom species are required to be in the realm of possibility, and if you want to create a new race that is not an abhuman you are required to use this [[Creating a Race|guide]] or contact a lore maintainer.

=Premise=
The brutality of the authoritarian Sol Federation has long proven its intolerance to many. Dissidents, rebels, second class citizens, and aliens living within Sol Federation space have long since been beaten down by the militaristic government that seeks open control of much of the galaxy. One such group, funded by companies looking to exploit this feeling of social animosity, became known as the Nadezhda and began to secretly recruit members looking to escape the oppressive rule of the Sol Federation and its allied empires.

The factions who signed onto this venture were the Sol military deserters, the Artificier’s Guild, the Soteria Institute, and the Lonestar Shipping Solutions. The Marshals were once Sol Federation forces consisting of police, paramilitary, and military operatives trained in keeping the peace and waging small scale warfare in order to ensure Sol Federation dominance in star systems absent of full military support. The deserters were recruits and veterans alike of several conflicts who in an act of open defiance seized what equipment they could and fled with the Nadezhda, all of whom are now branded as pirates and considered criminals by the Sol Federation. The Artificier’s Guild is a faction dedicated to the maintenance and repair of various types of technology among federation controlled space and, after being conscripted for several years to work pro bono for the federation military they officially closed shop, declared bankruptcy, and left with the colony ship. The Soteria Institute is a completely independent corporation that seeks advancement in all areas of science ranging from biology to cybernetic systems and desiring to experiment with plasma and outside the prying eyes of the federation government eagerly signed on to the colony as researchers and doctors. The Church of Absolute, seeking a new land to found their church and faith for a better life after being declared a cult and forced into hiding by the Sol federation. Finally you have the Lonestar Shipping Solutions who organized the entire mission down to every credit from finding people to sign on, buying the ships, loading all the supplies, and getting every faction to fall in line together.

=Introduction=
''In the year of 2644...''

At the behest of the allied factions an organized colony ship was deployed and arrived in the Chromin 8 system in the span of two years with the aid of Bluespace FTL to escape the iron fist of the Sol federation. With successful deployment the ship landed on Amethyn and began immediate construction of a full colony. With merely a years time the colonists, with the aid of mechanized and robotic assistance, set up a thriving city. Yet, as luck would have it, several things went wrong in the span of a few months.

First and foremost came the Bluespace crash in the year of 2645, an event which caused the complete disruption of all Bluespace FTL drives in the galaxy to simultaneously fail. It is unknown what caused the crash or even why, but what is known is that Bluespace FTL travel has now become suicidally dangerous. Travel into the Bluespace dimension would often see ships disappear permanently, arrive billions of lightyears away from their target destination, or appear absent their crew and hollowed out into drifting space hulks. It is estimated that only one percent of all ships attempting Bluespace FTL arrive at their destination and all ships now must use the former primitive FTL drives, slowing down travel to a snail's pace. For better or worse, anyone traveling between the Chromin 8 system to Sol Federation space must now spend eight years using the primitive FTL drives. This effectively rendered the colony of Amethyn stranded and cut off from nearly all other empires. This proved a double edged sword, on the one hand the Sol Federation could not pursue them, but on the other hand they could no longer export or import trade goods and needed supplies.

But the troubles did not end there, shortly after communications were cut with the bluespace crash previously hidden factions began to reveal themselves as time went on. The first of which were the Seelie and Unseelie, the plant-like natives to nearby continent of Ysa. Next was the Kriosan Confederacy, a smaller empire that had long contested Sol Federation rule and controlled the nearby sectors. Then the mondkyne, a group of drug addicted sablekyne exiled from their home system, were found in the company of pirates. This group of smugglers had set up a drug production operation on the moon of Amethyn and had been selling their supplies across the galaxy for the last few decades. Lastly there was, separated by oceans, the relatively unknown dust striders and their supposed shamans who seemed uncaring of the various factions now openly known on the planet.

What followed was a scramble to secure the position of their colony from outside forces. The Kriosan Confederacy, unlike the war mongering Sol Federation, noted the system was claimed by the colonists and requested clearance to set up several outposts after brokering for a trade agreement. In exchange for exporting and importing goods to their nearby controlled sectors the Nadezhda would sell them with medical supplies and rare goods from the Seelie, with which the Nadezhda found quick and easy allies with as they joined the colony for a mutually beneficial agreement. Wary of the mondkyne smugglers and pirates the Nadezhda eagerly agreed to allying with both factions to bolster their numbers and defenses. The Blackshield was formed to defend the colony and after a few short years an uneasy peace was forged, though tensions rise and fall as threats come and go.

Internally, the colony has created a stronger bond between each corporation. Cut off from the outside for the last six years, the formerly competitive factions now see working closely together as a requirement for survival. However, most retain their autonomy and desire profit for themselves and their employees to stay ahead of the curve. A merit based system evolved quickly as the day to day challenge of remaining afloat became an ever present concern. Vigilance in keeping threats both foreign and domestic under control and ensuring the safety of families and loved ones are the prime reason the colony still stands united.

''Now it is the the year of 2651, seven years after the colony departed from Sol Federation space and five years after the Bluespace crash that left them isolated from all but those within the star system of Chromin 8.''

=Standard Information=
Here is the basic information that you should look over to get acquainted with the lore, background, and fluff of the Sojourn universe.

===Timeline===
{{Main|Timeline}}
For a general overview of when the Big Things happened, check here.

===Sol-Fed===
{{Main|Sol-Fed}}
The Sol Federation, dominant military power of the galaxy. This is the page for its basic structure and operations.

===Laws===
{{Main|Laws}}
These are the rules of Nadezhda, and should be followed during your stay on the colony. This is not only for your fellow colonists safety, but for your own as well.

===Nearby Factions===
{{Main|Neighbors and Factions}}
Background groups and forces you should probably be aware of.

===Colony Factions===
{{Main|List of Factions}}
Eight major groups have come together to form the different departments located within Nadezhda. The Soteria Institute, Artificers Guild, Prospectors, Marshals, Lonestar Shipping Solutions, the Church of Absolute, and the Blackshield. Each are equally as important as the other, and have their roles to play to further the survival of the colony.

===Colony Design===
{{Main|Nadezhda Colony}}
A basic guide to the structure of the colony both in upper and lower.

===Occupations===
{{Main|Jobs}}
Each department has its own occupations located within, each handling the different aspects of the department to make sure it runs smoothly. It is good advice to listen to each faction leader while within their department, and while under their employ.

===Guides===
{{Main|Guides}}
Each occupation has different tasks that must be completed within the day. Startup procedures are critical tasks while others are of less priority, but each help make sure that the colony is in perfect working order.

===Species===
{{Main|Core Species}}
On your time aboard, you will notice that Nadezhda is a rather inclusive colony and welcomes those from a wide variety of backgrounds and even species. When a people is referred to as a "core species", this is referring to registered species that represent a large portion of the colonist demographics and generally hail from their own culture and empire. Non-core species are recognized members of the colony but make up a much smaller demographic than within the general population.

===Planet Backgrounds===
{{Main|Planets}}
There are various planets that are home to millions, and whilst there are few, a large portion of people have been born on these worlds, if not in space, and were raised on these planets. Due to this, their very bodies will be different in slightly unnoticeable ways to the naked eye.

===Technologies===
{{Main|Technologies}}
A collection of well-known universal technologies that in some form or another completely altered the course of history, or are so endemic to the modern age, that few live lives without coming into regular contact with these technologies.

[[#top|Back to Top]]
[[Category:Lore]]

Standard Operating Procedure (Soteria Medical)

2023-03-15T03:39:49Z

Cora: /* Payment for Treatment */ - Makes treatment cost money again.

= Soteria Medical Division =
== Medical Oaths ==
While Soteria respects that many medical professionals opt to take vows such as the Hippocratic Oath, these are not recognised as legally binding or as a valid reason for exemption from procedure. Soteria staff are reminded that the Institute has always had progress, at any cost, at its heart.

== Payment for Treatment ==
While the Biolab division’s primary purpose is not to turn a profit, medical supplies are not free. Only certain departments should be given routine charge free treatments, namely security while injured in their endeavors to protect the colony. Baring this, all medical treatments should be charged as according to the list that follows.

* Surgery per limb requiring treatment: 150 credits
* Nanopaste Revival Procedure: 150 credits
* Cryopod usage: 100 credits
* Dialysis: 75 credits
* Blood transfusion: 75 credits
* Ointment and gauze: 30 credits per unit.
* Stimulants and medication: 1-10 credits per unit, dependent on the difficulty of creation.

Note that a conscious and stable patient must be informed of the procedure they are about to undergo, and be given the chance to refuse treatment, or request information about alternatives. In cases where a patient cannot give willful consent to treatment, they may only be charged for blood transfusion, cryopod usage, surgery and revival.

Fees may be waived at the discretion of the Soteria medical staff with the permission of a CBO if one is present.

Soteria Biolab Overseers may decide to change these pricing ranges as they see fit during the shift.

== Non-Disclosure Policy ==
All patient records, treatments, and data – almost anything the medical staff does (though not the simple fact a patient is or was being present on medical premises) – are not to be disclosed to other members of the colony outside of the Biolab division without the (unanimous) permission of (all) the patient(s) directly involved. Even the Marshals, Premier or personnel with access to medical records are not exempt from this. The medical death of a patient (see “Death” below) is an exception – medical personnel may choose to disclose a patient’s death to unauthorized personnel at their discretion.

Relevant warrants and Code Blue (or above) situations may still grant security personnel access to medical data. In the event that Biolab personnel believe a colonist’s (physical or mental) medical status poses a threat to others, they are permitted to report this to security staff (in the event there is a risk of harmful criminal action) or otherwise to the colonist’s employer. Such situations include patients who are (provided as an example, not an exhaustive list):

* ...believed to be at risk of causing harm to others.
* ...unable to properly uphold the duties of their work, to an extent that is likely to pose a hazard to others (see “Unfitness for Work”).
* ...at risk of spreading an infectious disease.

Personnel given access to medical data become bound by this Non-Disclosure Policy, just as Biolab staff would be. In the event of an emergency, such as a critically wounded colonist, medical data (such as suit sensor readings) may be released if there is no other feasible method of providing essential care.

== Right to Refuse Treatment ==
All patients have the right to refuse treatment, and consent must be given in advance of treatment whenever possible. If they are determined to have a limited capacity for decision-making, this right may be overruled. This is possible in the following situations:

* The patient is unconscious or in critical condition and cannot provide consent to life-saving medical treatment.
* The patient is mentally unsound and cannot properly understand the nature of treatment, or the condition to be treated. All adult colonists are presumed to be of sound mind and capable of granting or withdrawing consent at will, by default.

In the former case, judgment on a patient’s inability to consent may be made on the spot by medical personnel. If a patient is currently undergoing critical treatment when they regain the ability to consciously offer or withdraw consent (such as after waking up from a critical state), they are presumed to consent to continuation of that treatment unless otherwise specified.
In the latter case, the patient must be assessed as incapable of refusal by a Psychiatrist or Chief Biolab Overseer. In the event of physical conditions (i.e. infection-induced delirium or mind-altering drugs) altering a patient’s ability to consent, or the absence of staff capable of making the assessment, this decision may be made by non-Psychiatric personnel. The CBO may always overrule this assessment.

A patient may request alternative treatments. In such cases, the treating doctor should exercise their discretion as to whether the alternative would be sufficient. They may decline to provide treatments that are ineffective or harmful, and should (as detailed under Payment for Treatment) charge if the requested alternative is costly to provide.

== Unfitness for Work ==
In some cases, a colonist may suffer from a medical condition that renders them unable to fulfill their duties properly. This could be a physical impairment or psychological issue. In such cases, the Chief Biolab Overseer may declare that they are unfit for their role (a Doctor or Psychiatrist, whichever is relevant to the condition, may initiate this process in the absence of a CBO) and present a written assessment to the Low Council detailing the reasons for their decision. As outlined in the Non-Disclosure Policy, Council staff are bound by standard confidentiality laws with regard to this information.

The Council is to vote on whether this assessment is valid, as outlined under Council SOP (“Demoting Staff”). In the event that the subject is deemed to be unfit for their role, they must choose to either accept a suspension (as though the Council had voted to demote them) or receive treatment as soon as possible.

What exactly qualifies as “unfit” varies based on the position and condition in question. A medical condition that merely lessens a colonist’s ability to work is not grounds for this procedure, while one that prevents them from fulfilling tasks safely or in a reasonable timeframe is. A Scientist who is wheelchair-bound cannot be assessed as unfit simply because they take slightly longer to navigate the lab, but a Marshal Officer with reduced mobility could be.

== Hygiene and Disease Control ==
Medical staff should wear sterile clothing (such as non-allergenic lab coats and gloves) while treating patients, though this is not required while “standing by '' provided they can don proper equipment in a reasonable timeframe. Blood, vomit, chemical spills and other janitorial issues should be cleaned as soon as is feasible.
In the event that an infectious disease posing a considerable threat to personnel is suspected to exist:
* All infected crew are to be isolated.
* Medical personnel are encouraged to wear biohazard-protective equipment, and are required to at least wear a face covering and gloves at all times. The Chief Biolab Overseer may, and is encouraged to, amend the required equipment to better protect against the disease’s transmission vectors.

These protocols are to remain in place until a vaccine or cure is developed.

== Death ==
While “death” has taken on a number of meanings in the common parlance, for the purpose of Medical SOP, it is defined as indefinite cessation of nervous activity. In such a state, a patient may still show traces of brain activity (see below), but all bodily functions cease. If a patient is recognized as “dead” by medical scanning and diagnosis equipment, they are medically dead.

Note that this state is not necessarily permanent, and can potentially be reversed by a defibrillator (as detailed in medical training materials). In the event of a defibrillator reporting a “mental interface error”, the device is unable to restore substantial brain functions. If interface errors continue, the patient is to be placed into the morgue, where their corpse will be transported to the lower levels of the colony between shifts to assess whether recovery is possible through more intensive treatment.

=== DNR Orders and Suicide ===
A “DNR” or Do Not Revive order may be applied to a colonist’s medical records under certain circumstances, and dictates that they should not be treated in the event of death. Should a DNR be found, the patient is not to be revived, and to do so is considered Negligence. In some cases, the order may be subject to conditions, such as specifying that a patient should only be allowed to remain dead if their death is the result of a specific medical condition. A DNR may be placed under the following circumstances:
* A patient, who would typically be fit to refuse treatment, confirms their desire not to be revived. This requires assessment by a Psychiatrist or the Chief Biolab Overseer.
* The subject has been sentenced to execution via the proper legal procedure.
* The subject is an infiltrator, outsider or enemy of the colony and security staff have declared they are not to be revived.

'''Falsifying a DNR is considered to be Murder.'''

In cases of suspected suicide, the patient should be revived and security staff contacted to investigate for signs of foul play. Should the patient express a desire to die, they should be detained by security staff for urgent psychiatric evaluation. This paragraph does not apply if the patient possesses a valid Do Not Revive order.
((OOC: As mentioned in the server’s Rules, suicide is almost always OOCly disallowed. Contact an admin if you intend for your character to do it.))

== Workplace Structure ==
The Chief Biolab Overseer is the highest authority in the department. Medical Doctors and Psychologists are considered to be of equal rank. While LifeLine Technicians are generally capable of handling their own duties unguided, they should assist other personnel if requested.

Sol-Fed

2023-03-12T22:14:28Z

Cora: /* Sol-Fed */ Implements TheEternalFlame #4003 work with slight edits.

=Sol-Federation Government=

The Sol-Fed government from the year 2565 onward is a Stratocracy, The current leader of which is called High General. The government is composed of both a military complex (which holds a majority of the power) and the civilian complex.

Though they tend to be accepting of every race, creed or people this isn’t born from any form altruism or kindness but instead from the usefulness that those races pose to the government itself. The Sol-Fed government is a tiered council system headed by the High General, under which servers the Council of Species, where-in each group of people within the Sol-Fed (Nations/Races) have three total senators to speak for them during votes. Under them is the Assembly of worlds, of which hundreds of worlds gain seats on the assembly by meeting military quotas. Each tier of the government may propose laws or actions, but it must all funnel up through that approval of the next tier to land on the High Generals desk. The High General’s Term tends to last for 20 years which can be changed up and down depending on the Council of Species votes and current crisis if any.

The citizens of the SF are required to spend at least two years within military service either in active duty or as military police, or in the supportive structure for the military complex. Something that sets Sol’s government aside from other governmental systems is the tiered system for their citizenry in which through military service and performing well, a citizen may be moved up tiers in the tiers allowing for more rights, privileges and preferential treatment. While committing crimes, failing at work or at tasks may result in the reduction of tiers. Removing freedom of movement, speech and other such rights.

=Sol-Federation Military Complex=

The Military complex is broken into two branches that answer directly to The First Admiral who’s right below High General in terms of power.

The first branch is Fleet Command, which handles any and all military actions that involve interstellar conflict and travel and large-scale ship combat.

The Second is Force Command that handles any and all military action on the surface of planets, stations, asteroids and anything in between that involves soldiers leaving the ship, or the garrisoning of PDFs (Planetary Defense Force).

While the Military complex is a majority a volunteer driven army, the only real way to move up amongst the tiers of citizenry is to join the military after the mandatory two years of service. Though there are rare cases that those particularly gifted in RnD or Engineering may be welcomed into the government's subsidiaries as researchers and engineers for a wide range of projects and work.

=Sol-Federation Society=

Sol-Fed Society could only be described as humanity first. While those who aren’t human aren’t treated any differently by the system itself, the people who are a part of the system and have pull tend to choose humans above aliens who may have been a better fit for certain roles and jobs.

Though even that can be punished if found out by the wrong people, as the jobs your underlings do reflect upon those who lead them. Growing up on Sol-Fed territory one might find that amongst the rabble it is safe, and one could find happiness amongst it if they grow used to doing as they're told and when they’re told to do it without question.

With the tiered system hanging above the head of most citizens you would be hard pressed to find any who would step out of line with any pattern. Yet there are always some who would do so and turn a profit in such a time where even your right to speak freely could be taken at any second. Such underground criminal organizations are rumors at best, and terrorist at worst, usually answered by a swift and violent response from the military police.

Lore

2023-03-12T22:02:43Z

Cora: /* Sol-Fed */

</div>
 <big> '''Welcome to the Sojourn Lore page!''' </big>
The pages and links within contain in-character content which pertains to the game's universe that may or may not be represented in-game mechanically, and is more meant to provide background information on which to build worlds and characters off of. It is commonly known as "fluff" due to this. Things such as a planet's economics or a species' culture are two such examples of lore that serves as fluff, which can then be used in a character's background to provide more immersive detail. The vast majority of these pages can be read as if your character is reading it unless stated otherwise. Please keep in mind that the content within however can be changed or edited at any time as corrections to help maintain continuity are not unheard of. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the lore, please contact [[User:Cora]] for more information.
{{toc_right}}

=Note from Server Maintainers=
Any and all species from other servers do not exist in our lore. Any attempt to bring an alien species from another server will be met with character removal. Any attempt to use lore from other servers will be met with Administrative action. Custom species are required to be in the realm of possibility, and if you want to create a new race that is not an abhuman you are required to use this [[Creating a Race|guide]] or contact a lore maintainer.

=Premise=
The brutality of the authoritarian Sol Federation has long proven its intolerance to many. Dissidents, rebels, second class citizens, and aliens living within Sol Federation space have long since been beaten down by the militaristic government that seeks open control of much of the galaxy. One such group, funded by companies looking to exploit this feeling of social animosity, became known as the Nadezhda and began to secretly recruit members looking to escape the oppressive rule of the Sol Federation and its allied empires.

The factions who signed onto this venture were the Sol military deserters, the Artificier’s Guild, the Soteria Institute, and the Lonestar Shipping Solutions. The Marshals were once Sol Federation forces consisting of police, paramilitary, and military operatives trained in keeping the peace and waging small scale warfare in order to ensure Sol Federation dominance in star systems absent of full military support. The deserters were recruits and veterans alike of several conflicts who in an act of open defiance seized what equipment they could and fled with the Nadezhda, all of whom are now branded as pirates and considered criminals by the Sol Federation. The Artificier’s Guild is a faction dedicated to the maintenance and repair of various types of technology among federation controlled space and, after being conscripted for several years to work pro bono for the federation military they officially closed shop, declared bankruptcy, and left with the colony ship. The Soteria Institute is a completely independent corporation that seeks advancement in all areas of science ranging from biology to cybernetic systems and desiring to experiment with plasma and outside the prying eyes of the federation government eagerly signed on to the colony as researchers and doctors. The Church of Absolute, seeking a new land to found their church and faith for a better life after being declared a cult and forced into hiding by the Sol federation. Finally you have the Lonestar Shipping Solutions who organized the entire mission down to every credit from finding people to sign on, buying the ships, loading all the supplies, and getting every faction to fall in line together.

=Introduction=
''In the year of 2644...''

At the behest of the allied factions an organized colony ship was deployed and arrived in the Chromin 8 system in the span of two years with the aid of Bluespace FTL to escape the iron fist of the Sol federation. With successful deployment the ship landed on Amethyn and began immediate construction of a full colony. With merely a years time the colonists, with the aid of mechanized and robotic assistance, set up a thriving city. Yet, as luck would have it, several things went wrong in the span of a few months.

First and foremost came the Bluespace crash in the year of 2645, an event which caused the complete disruption of all Bluespace FTL drives in the galaxy to simultaneously fail. It is unknown what caused the crash or even why, but what is known is that Bluespace FTL travel has now become suicidally dangerous. Travel into the Bluespace dimension would often see ships disappear permanently, arrive billions of lightyears away from their target destination, or appear absent their crew and hollowed out into drifting space hulks. It is estimated that only one percent of all ships attempting Bluespace FTL arrive at their destination and all ships now must use the former primitive FTL drives, slowing down travel to a snail's pace. For better or worse, anyone traveling between the Chromin 8 system to Sol Federation space must now spend eight years using the primitive FTL drives. This effectively rendered the colony of Amethyn stranded and cut off from nearly all other empires. This proved a double edged sword, on the one hand the Sol Federation could not pursue them, but on the other hand they could no longer export or import trade goods and needed supplies.

But the troubles did not end there, shortly after communications were cut with the bluespace crash previously hidden factions began to reveal themselves as time went on. The first of which were the Seelie and Unseelie, the plant-like natives to nearby continent of Ysa. Next was the Kriosan Confederacy, a smaller empire that had long contested Sol Federation rule and controlled the nearby sectors. Then the mondkyne, a group of drug addicted sablekyne exiled from their home system, were found in the company of pirates. This group of smugglers had set up a drug production operation on the moon of Amethyn and had been selling their supplies across the galaxy for the last few decades. Lastly there was, separated by oceans, the relatively unknown dust striders and their supposed shamans who seemed uncaring of the various factions now openly known on the planet.

What followed was a scramble to secure the position of their colony from outside forces. The Kriosan Confederacy, unlike the war mongering Sol Federation, noted the system was claimed by the colonists and requested clearance to set up several outposts after brokering for a trade agreement. In exchange for exporting and importing goods to their nearby controlled sectors the Nadezhda would sell them with medical supplies and rare goods from the Seelie, with which the Nadezhda found quick and easy allies with as they joined the colony for a mutually beneficial agreement. Wary of the mondkyne smugglers and pirates the Nadezhda eagerly agreed to allying with both factions to bolster their numbers and defenses. The Blackshield was formed to defend the colony and after a few short years an uneasy peace was forged, though tensions rise and fall as threats come and go.

Internally, the colony has created a stronger bond between each corporation. Cut off from the outside for the last six years, the formerly competitive factions now see working closely together as a requirement for survival. However, most retain their autonomy and desire profit for themselves and their employees to stay ahead of the curve. A merit based system evolved quickly as the day to day challenge of remaining afloat became an ever present concern. Vigilance in keeping threats both foreign and domestic under control and ensuring the safety of families and loved ones are the prime reason the colony still stands united.

''Now it is the the year of 2651, seven years after the colony departed from Sol Federation space and five years after the Bluespace crash that left them isolated from all but those within the star system of Chromin 8.''

=Standard Information=
Here is the basic information that you should look over to get acquainted with the lore, background, and fluff of the Sojourn universe.

===Timeline===
{{Main|Timeline}}
For a general overview of when the Big Things happened, check here.

===Sol-Fed===
{{Main|Sol-Fed}}
The Sol Federation, dominant military power of the galaxy. This is the page for its basic structure and operations.

===Laws===
{{Main|Laws}}
These are the rules of Nadezhda, and should be followed during your stay on the colony. This is not only for your fellow colonists safety, but for your own as well.

===Nearby Factions===
{{Main|Neighbors and Factions}}
Background groups and forces you should probably be aware of.

===Colony Factions===
{{Main|List of Factions}}
Eight major groups have come together to form the different departments located within Nadezhda. The Soteria Institute, Artificers Guild, Prospectors, Marshals, Lonestar Shipping Solutions, the Church of Absolute, and the Blackshield. Each are equally as important as the other, and have their roles to play to further the survival of the colony.

===Occupations===
{{Main|Jobs}}
Each department has its own occupations located within, each handling the different aspects of the department to make sure it runs smoothly. It is good advice to listen to each faction leader while within their department, and while under their employ.

===Guides===
{{Main|Guides}}
Each occupation has different tasks that must be completed within the day. Startup procedures are critical tasks while others are of less priority, but each help make sure that the colony is in perfect working order.

===Species===
{{Main|Core Species}}
On your time aboard, you will notice that Nadezhda is a rather inclusive colony and welcomes those from a wide variety of backgrounds and even species. When a people is referred to as a "core species", this is referring to registered species that represent a large portion of the colonist demographics and generally hail from their own culture and empire. Non-core species are recognized members of the colony but make up a much smaller demographic than within the general population.

===Planet Backgrounds===
{{Main|Planets}}
There are various planets that are home to millions, and whilst there are few, a large portion of people have been born on these worlds, if not in space, and were raised on these planets. Due to this, their very bodies will be different in slightly unnoticeable ways to the naked eye.

===Technologies===
{{Main|Technologies}}
A collection of well-known universal technologies that in some form or another completely altered the course of history, or are so endemic to the modern age, that few live lives without coming into regular contact with these technologies.

[[#top|Back to Top]]
[[Category:Lore]]

Lore

2023-03-12T22:02:14Z

Cora: /* Standard Information */ - Adds in Solfed Page

</div>
 <big> '''Welcome to the Sojourn Lore page!''' </big>
The pages and links within contain in-character content which pertains to the game's universe that may or may not be represented in-game mechanically, and is more meant to provide background information on which to build worlds and characters off of. It is commonly known as "fluff" due to this. Things such as a planet's economics or a species' culture are two such examples of lore that serves as fluff, which can then be used in a character's background to provide more immersive detail. The vast majority of these pages can be read as if your character is reading it unless stated otherwise. Please keep in mind that the content within however can be changed or edited at any time as corrections to help maintain continuity are not unheard of. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the lore, please contact [[User:Cora]] for more information.
{{toc_right}}

=Note from Server Maintainers=
Any and all species from other servers do not exist in our lore. Any attempt to bring an alien species from another server will be met with character removal. Any attempt to use lore from other servers will be met with Administrative action. Custom species are required to be in the realm of possibility, and if you want to create a new race that is not an abhuman you are required to use this [[Creating a Race|guide]] or contact a lore maintainer.

=Premise=
The brutality of the authoritarian Sol Federation has long proven its intolerance to many. Dissidents, rebels, second class citizens, and aliens living within Sol Federation space have long since been beaten down by the militaristic government that seeks open control of much of the galaxy. One such group, funded by companies looking to exploit this feeling of social animosity, became known as the Nadezhda and began to secretly recruit members looking to escape the oppressive rule of the Sol Federation and its allied empires.

The factions who signed onto this venture were the Sol military deserters, the Artificier’s Guild, the Soteria Institute, and the Lonestar Shipping Solutions. The Marshals were once Sol Federation forces consisting of police, paramilitary, and military operatives trained in keeping the peace and waging small scale warfare in order to ensure Sol Federation dominance in star systems absent of full military support. The deserters were recruits and veterans alike of several conflicts who in an act of open defiance seized what equipment they could and fled with the Nadezhda, all of whom are now branded as pirates and considered criminals by the Sol Federation. The Artificier’s Guild is a faction dedicated to the maintenance and repair of various types of technology among federation controlled space and, after being conscripted for several years to work pro bono for the federation military they officially closed shop, declared bankruptcy, and left with the colony ship. The Soteria Institute is a completely independent corporation that seeks advancement in all areas of science ranging from biology to cybernetic systems and desiring to experiment with plasma and outside the prying eyes of the federation government eagerly signed on to the colony as researchers and doctors. The Church of Absolute, seeking a new land to found their church and faith for a better life after being declared a cult and forced into hiding by the Sol federation. Finally you have the Lonestar Shipping Solutions who organized the entire mission down to every credit from finding people to sign on, buying the ships, loading all the supplies, and getting every faction to fall in line together.

=Introduction=
''In the year of 2644...''

At the behest of the allied factions an organized colony ship was deployed and arrived in the Chromin 8 system in the span of two years with the aid of Bluespace FTL to escape the iron fist of the Sol federation. With successful deployment the ship landed on Amethyn and began immediate construction of a full colony. With merely a years time the colonists, with the aid of mechanized and robotic assistance, set up a thriving city. Yet, as luck would have it, several things went wrong in the span of a few months.

First and foremost came the Bluespace crash in the year of 2645, an event which caused the complete disruption of all Bluespace FTL drives in the galaxy to simultaneously fail. It is unknown what caused the crash or even why, but what is known is that Bluespace FTL travel has now become suicidally dangerous. Travel into the Bluespace dimension would often see ships disappear permanently, arrive billions of lightyears away from their target destination, or appear absent their crew and hollowed out into drifting space hulks. It is estimated that only one percent of all ships attempting Bluespace FTL arrive at their destination and all ships now must use the former primitive FTL drives, slowing down travel to a snail's pace. For better or worse, anyone traveling between the Chromin 8 system to Sol Federation space must now spend eight years using the primitive FTL drives. This effectively rendered the colony of Amethyn stranded and cut off from nearly all other empires. This proved a double edged sword, on the one hand the Sol Federation could not pursue them, but on the other hand they could no longer export or import trade goods and needed supplies.

But the troubles did not end there, shortly after communications were cut with the bluespace crash previously hidden factions began to reveal themselves as time went on. The first of which were the Seelie and Unseelie, the plant-like natives to nearby continent of Ysa. Next was the Kriosan Confederacy, a smaller empire that had long contested Sol Federation rule and controlled the nearby sectors. Then the mondkyne, a group of drug addicted sablekyne exiled from their home system, were found in the company of pirates. This group of smugglers had set up a drug production operation on the moon of Amethyn and had been selling their supplies across the galaxy for the last few decades. Lastly there was, separated by oceans, the relatively unknown dust striders and their supposed shamans who seemed uncaring of the various factions now openly known on the planet.

What followed was a scramble to secure the position of their colony from outside forces. The Kriosan Confederacy, unlike the war mongering Sol Federation, noted the system was claimed by the colonists and requested clearance to set up several outposts after brokering for a trade agreement. In exchange for exporting and importing goods to their nearby controlled sectors the Nadezhda would sell them with medical supplies and rare goods from the Seelie, with which the Nadezhda found quick and easy allies with as they joined the colony for a mutually beneficial agreement. Wary of the mondkyne smugglers and pirates the Nadezhda eagerly agreed to allying with both factions to bolster their numbers and defenses. The Blackshield was formed to defend the colony and after a few short years an uneasy peace was forged, though tensions rise and fall as threats come and go.

Internally, the colony has created a stronger bond between each corporation. Cut off from the outside for the last six years, the formerly competitive factions now see working closely together as a requirement for survival. However, most retain their autonomy and desire profit for themselves and their employees to stay ahead of the curve. A merit based system evolved quickly as the day to day challenge of remaining afloat became an ever present concern. Vigilance in keeping threats both foreign and domestic under control and ensuring the safety of families and loved ones are the prime reason the colony still stands united.

''Now it is the the year of 2651, seven years after the colony departed from Sol Federation space and five years after the Bluespace crash that left them isolated from all but those within the star system of Chromin 8.''

=Standard Information=
Here is the basic information that you should look over to get acquainted with the lore, background, and fluff of the Sojourn universe.

===Timeline===
{{Main|Timeline}}
For a general overview of when the Big Things happened, check here.

===Sol-Fed===
{{Main|Sol-Fed}}
The Sol Federation, Dominant military power of the galaxy. This is the page for its basic structure and operations.

===Laws===
{{Main|Laws}}
These are the rules of Nadezhda, and should be followed during your stay on the colony. This is not only for your fellow colonists safety, but for your own as well.

===Nearby Factions===
{{Main|Neighbors and Factions}}
Background groups and forces you should probably be aware of.

===Colony Factions===
{{Main|List of Factions}}
Eight major groups have come together to form the different departments located within Nadezhda. The Soteria Institute, Artificers Guild, Prospectors, Marshals, Lonestar Shipping Solutions, the Church of Absolute, and the Blackshield. Each are equally as important as the other, and have their roles to play to further the survival of the colony.

===Occupations===
{{Main|Jobs}}
Each department has its own occupations located within, each handling the different aspects of the department to make sure it runs smoothly. It is good advice to listen to each faction leader while within their department, and while under their employ.

===Guides===
{{Main|Guides}}
Each occupation has different tasks that must be completed within the day. Startup procedures are critical tasks while others are of less priority, but each help make sure that the colony is in perfect working order.

===Species===
{{Main|Core Species}}
On your time aboard, you will notice that Nadezhda is a rather inclusive colony and welcomes those from a wide variety of backgrounds and even species. When a people is referred to as a "core species", this is referring to registered species that represent a large portion of the colonist demographics and generally hail from their own culture and empire. Non-core species are recognized members of the colony but make up a much smaller demographic than within the general population.

===Planet Backgrounds===
{{Main|Planets}}
There are various planets that are home to millions, and whilst there are few, a large portion of people have been born on these worlds, if not in space, and were raised on these planets. Due to this, their very bodies will be different in slightly unnoticeable ways to the naked eye.

===Technologies===
{{Main|Technologies}}
A collection of well-known universal technologies that in some form or another completely altered the course of history, or are so endemic to the modern age, that few live lives without coming into regular contact with these technologies.

[[#top|Back to Top]]
[[Category:Lore]]

Standard Operating Procedure (Blackshield)

2023-03-11T22:02:01Z

Cora: /* General Duties */

= Blackshield Standard Operating Procedure =
== General Duties ==
The duties of Blackshield are first and foremost the protection of the colony and its citizens above all else. Blackshield personnel are to be on standby in the event of, but not limited to, pirate attacks, hostile dangerous fauna sightings, disappearance of the prospector team members or colonists, disappearance of mining team members, or the presence of hostiles groups such as excelsior, smugglers, or a hivemind.

All Blackshield personnel MUST be:
* Able bodied, or suitably supplemented. (For example, in the case of muteness must carry and be adequately able to operate a TTS device.)
* Low to Medium security risk.
* If serving any active sentence for a crime, must be non-violent or acquire permission from Blackshield High Council office to remain in service.

All Blackshield members should adhere to these procedures:
* When serving in Blackshield, you are serving the colony as a whole. What is for the best of the colony should be kept in mind, rather than what benefits you individually. Putting the colony as a whole at risk, or acting in one’s individual benefit, are grounds for dismissal.
* Blackshield personnel are to act professionally while on the job. This includes when dealing with operations at the gate. Blackshield’s Commander, as well as the on-duty Sergeant, may apply disciplinary action upon those who fail to act in a proper and professional manner that violates SOP. These punishments include demotion to docking personnel’s pay.All Blackshield personnel, when in the field or in any form of combat, are required to be kitted in proper armor. This armor is to be kept on their person, either worn or in their bag, at all times.
* All Blackshield personnel are required to be armed at all times. Blackshield personnel must be ready to use their armaments against any hostile forces. Non-lethal ammunition or firearms may be used, but lethal ammunition must be had on a member of Blackshield at all times.
* Orders from the Commander and Sergeant, in that order, are to be followed where possible, unless doing so breaks colony law. Violating a law knowingly by the order of one’s superior officer is not a legal defense and will make the Blackshield personnel aiding a culprit themselves.
* Blackshield personnel may request new equipment at the discretion of their Commander or Sergeant. In the case neither is available, a Supply Specialist or Warrant Officer may be requested to supply said equipment from the Blackshield armory if deemed an emergency.
* Blackshield personnel may not sell or loan their issued gear for any means. Any and all gear issued to a trooper is to be returned either to the armory or their department locker effective immediately.
* Blackshield personnel are to mainly handle external security, such as at the gates, perimeter, or operations within the colony’s surrounding jungles or deep-maintenance. Blackshield personnel are not to infringe upon other colonist’s jobs due to idle time.
** For example, while a Corpsman may provide medical aid to those injured, if Soteria personnel are available the Corpsman is to hand all injured colonists within the colony over to Soteria personnel for professional treatment immediately. Similarly, Blackshield personnel may not infringe upon Marshal activities unless required to, or given permission to do so. Etc.
** Blackshield may volunteer to aid other departments when idle, but must drop what they are doing upon orders from a Sergeant, Commander, or declaration of an emergency.
* Sergeants may demote Blackshield personnel found to be in violation of SOP or law, but must consult with their Commander if present. If not present, the Sergeant may demote but must inform the colony council of the demotion.
* Sergeants issuing demotions must follow Demotion Procedure, found within [[Standard_Operating_Procedure_(Command)#Demoting_Staff|Command Standard Operating Procedure]].

== Gate & Deep Maints Operations ==
Due to close contact with Prospectors and other personnel, as well as being the main entrance to the colony, the Gate and the Fence are important to protect, patrol, and operate around. The gate is also the one place where the Blackshield retains full law enforcement authority.

All colonists are covered by the Right to Leave in General SOP. Colonists may be searched as a condition to leaving if deemed necessary by personnel. Colonists also have a right to reentry at any time, but are required to be searched for contraband before reentry.

A gate log is to be kept of those leaving incase of medical emergency. Their name, destination location, rank, and job are to be recorded if the outgoer consents. Colonists are '''not''' required to supply this information, having a right to leave the colony at any time within reason - as stated in [[Standard_Operating_Procedure_(General)#Right_to_Leave|General Standard Operating Procedure’s Right to Leave policy]].

* When manpower is available (3-4 active (Non-SSD) Blackshield staff), the gatehouse is to be manned by at least one Blackshield member in exemption for combat operations or breaks, which in the case of breaks should be within a reasonable amount of time.
* Calls for gate operation should be answered and handled in a timely fashion.
* Marshals can be requested to fill in for temporary periods of time in the case of external operations or training. Marshals doing so are required to adhere to this section of SOP.
* The gate is to remain bolted on both sides at all times when troopers are present. When people arrive, unlock the side they are on and allow them to come through, then bolt the door again to allow them to be searched without fear of their running away.
** The gate may be bolted when no personnel are at it. However, upon being called to it by a colonist the gate must be unlocked and the colonist permitted entry within 5 minutes maximum of their call to the gate. Failing to do so means colonists may let themselves in, be it through hacking the door or other means, if Blackshield do not do so. Right to Enter is a right.
* Colonists leaving through the gate, or announcing they are entering deep-maintenance, are to be reminded to turn on their suit sensors or take a death alarm implant. Blackshield personnel may not enforce this standard, but are required to advise it.

=== Gate Logging ===
All returning colonists should be noted down in this same log, as well as any incoming outsiders who have been granted entry by the Low Council. While entering all colony personnel, including Blackshield personnel, are to be searched in the gatehouse area for contraband. Colonists are to be given the chance of entering to declare any contraband on them and turn it in; if the colonist does so the contraband is to be confiscated but the colonist is NOT to be charged for its possession. Finding anything the searched person didn't announce is considered valid grounds to charge them with a §106 or §206 depending on the severity of the item in question.

[[Example_Paperwork#Gate_Log|Gate log forms can be found here. All people entering and exiting should be logged on a new line each time.]]

* The Form should show the name of the individual or group members leaving, their intended designation and a rough estimate of their return time.
* If a colonist lacks equipment such as armor, weapons or refuses to put on suit sensors, this should also be noted.

Blackshield personnel, similarly, have authority over deep maintenance operations and medical evacs pertaining to deep maintenance. While deep-maintenance is part of Blackshield jurisdiction, it may similarly be utilized by Marshals if believed to be used in a crime. Marshals may also aid Blackshield personnel in their operations within deep maintenance due to being both an internal and external security issue.

* Marshals entering deep maintenance, or aiding Blackshield personnel in Blackshield deep maintenance operations, are to adhere to Blackshield orders.
* Security forces are to operate in close proximity in deep maintenance due to its unknown nature and horrors lurking with it. Deviation from legal orders while in deep maintenance, no matter the reason, will lead to the permission of deadly force used against you and forceful detainment.
* If available, Blackshield are to coordinate deep maintenance operations with either a psionic user of its own ranks or seek aid from a Soteria empath. Other psionic colonists may be taken in as temporary volunteers at the discretion of the Blackshield department.
** Active members of the church likewise should be consulted if Blackshield feel it necessary to prevent mental breakdowns or provide comfort to the Shield force due to the horrors of deep maintence.

== Relationship with Colony Companies & Departments ==
Blackshield has various relationships and expectations with the different companies and departments found within the colony itself. These expectations and responsibilities will vary depending on individual interaction.

'''Blackshield responsibilities with Marshals:'''
* Blackshield personnel, curing any emergency, are to cooperate with the Marshal department. Defense teams organized by Blackshield and Marshals are to keep in professional communication with one another and work together.
* Blackshield may assume the role of internal security if no Marshal officers are present or if active Marshals request or permit aid. Blackshield are to act alongside Marshals if requested and if within their jurisdiction.
** Blackshield must follow Marshal SOP regarding arrests and prisoner rights when acting as internal security. Failure to do so will result in various charges dependent on violation.
** When aiding in a legal matter, such an arrest, Blackshield personnel must listen to Marshal officers. Sergeants can not pull authority over a Marshal officer, regardless of job or pay grade.
* When performing internal security work, all suspects must be warned if the Blackshield member does not have non-lethal means to subdue them. Lethal means may be used as stated in Marshal SOP however. Actively fleeing or armed suspects may be immediately met with any force necessary to subdue them in such a case.
* Contraband confiscated by Blackshield is to be turned over to the Marshal department. An exemption, however, is explosive contraband - if not used in a crime. Explosive contraband may be kept by Blackshield if recovered and placed into secure storage. All other contraband is to be turned over or placed in Marshal evidence lockers effective immediately.
* Due to Marshals and Blackshield shared-budgets, exorbitant spending may result in applicable charges to either the Commander or Sergeant if they are found to have embezzled funds or spent an unreasonable portion of the budget, such as over half of it, on unneeded purchases.
** If a Warrant Officer or Specialist is present, they are to be informed of any purchases over the cost of 5k credits.

'''Blackshield responsibilities with Prospectors:'''
* Prospectors hold the right of salvage in designated regions outside the colony. See Salvaging Rights for specified areas. The Foreman, however, may permit Blackshield to join them on expeditions or issue a permit to Blackshield to clear areas for them. Payment or salvage may be negotiated between the two teams.
* Blackshield are not to take salvage from locations covered in the colony’s Salvaging Rights claims. Blackshield may, however, use the space teleporter north of the trash beacon and retrieve salvage from maintenance.

'''Blackshield responsibilities with Soteria:'''
* Blackshield personnel, such as Corpsmen, may not assume a position over a Soteria recovery specialist, Soteria medical doctor, or Soteria researcher, if they are active and available. All injured personnel are to be handed over to them.
* Blackshield personnel, such as Corpsman, may offer to fill in for Soteria if none are present or if requested directly by Soteria.

== Medical Evacuations & Shuttle ==
Blackshield personnel are expected to perform evacuations in the field, or from deep maintenance, if a colony member is incapacitated, killed, or otherwise in life threatening danger. Blackshield are the frontline-defense of the colony and must keep its inhabitants in mind, including their safety and well-being.

* By default all colonists opt-in to allow for medical evacuation if they are injured, incapacitated, killed, or endangered. Colonists may only opt-out by directly stating to Blackshield at the gatehouse they do not wish to be retrieved if they are incapacitated or killed. Blackshield are obligated to aid any colonists in dire need outside the colony.
* Colonists who refuse to take safety precautions when leaving through the gate or to deep maintenance, such as refusing to state their destination, turning on their suit sensors, or refusing to get a death alarm implant, surrender their inherent right to be rescued by Blackshield by medical-evac.
** Blackshield may still do such medical-evacs if they choose to, but are by no means obligated to do so if the personnel requiring an evac is negligent or uncaring about safety precautions as highlighted.
* Upon rescue by medical-evacuation, the rescued colonists are to be charged 800 per-person. Additional fees may be applied within reason as well to cover Blackshield expenses, including ammo, medical supplies, or injuries sustained by Blackshield during the operation.
** Blackshield personnel found to be unfairly charging rescued people exorbitantly are subject to charges; such as a 205 Extortion charge. All fees are to be charged at the behest of a Sergeant or Commander, if available.
** Rescuing someone directly outside the gate house’s door, or directly inside the gatehouse, does not count as a medical evacuation.
** Medical-evaced colonists are to be stabilized and brought to Soteria medical, if medical or research staff are around and capable of providing treatment. If Soteria recovery specialists are active, the patient should be handed to them at the gate immediately for treatment. In the case where Soteria staffing is not capable of doing so, the Blackshield triage center may be used.
* If the Medical Evacuation shuttle is used by Blackshield personnel for recovery of a colonist, it is to be clearly and publicly announced that the shuttle is leaving. All Blackshield personnel are required to inform their department of where they are heading to using the shuttle before departure.
** The Medical Evacuation shuttle is also permitted to be used by heads of staff at low council discretion, or by Soteria personnel if announced in a timely fashion.
** The Medical Evacuation shuttle is found directly north of the Blackshield gatehouse, right near the colony’s entrance. Other shuttles may be requisitioned by Blackshield, but only in the case of a code blue or red emergency and requires low council permission.

== Blackshield Armory ==
Similar to the Marshal armory, the Blackshield armory consists of two parts. The barracks room, containing the lathe and ammo, and the secure armory back room. The front room is considered to be a normal Blackshield room that can be accessed by Blackshield personnel as needed. The secure armory behind the blast doors is the Blackshield armory, being considered a secure room - just as the Marshal armory is.
* The Blackshield armory can be accessed by both the CO and the Sergeant, holding specialized armaments and ammunition for field actions. This gear is there to be issued when required for combat purposes or in cases of emergency. All gear within it should only be issued to Blackshield personnel and should be returned to the armory at the end of the shift.
* While the Premier, Marshal WO and Supply Specialist have access to the Blackshield armory they are not to use said access unless in an emergency situation or upon the request of Blackshield personnel over security concerns. Even when accessed by either person the issued equipment may not be issued to anyone but Blackshield personnel. Violation of this can result in either 411 or 508 charges levied against the offender.
* The Blackshield armory falls under the jurisdiction of the CO. If no CO is present, authority over the Blackshield armory falls to the Sergeant. The CO may also delegate authority over the issuing of gear from the armory to the Sergeant.
** Equipment from the Blackshield armory may be loaned to the Marshals by a CO with paperwork.
* Equipment may be traded from Blackshield’s teleporter or armory at the discretion of the Commander or Sergeant, if no commander is present.
** Trades are not to be for monetary profit however; only for a trade of goods or supplies equal or greater than the item traded.
** Blackshield may, however, provide the Marshal Supply Specialist or Warrant Officer items to sell for the joint department account. All money is to be deposited in the joint account upon sale.

Standard Operating Procedure (Marshals)

2023-03-11T22:01:28Z

Cora: /* Marshals Standard Operating Procedure */

= Marshals Standard Operating Procedure =
The Marshals are the colony's main internal police enforment. Comprised of gunsmiths, police officers, investigators, and weapon specialists. The Marshals maintain a relatively elite yet limited size force within the colony, looking for skilled personnel to fill vacancies. Marshals are expected to work in close proximity to the colony's militia, the Blackshield.

In the case SOP guidelines are violated, a Warrant Officer is to review the case and consider demotion if the offense is malicious or heinous. If no Warrant Officer is present, High Council should be faxed about any findings regarding Marshal or Blackshield violation of SOP.

Blackshield personnel, if acting as an arresting officer, '''must''' follow Marshal SOP guidelines.

All Marshal personnel MUST be:
* Able bodied, or suitably supplemented. (For example, in the case of muteness must carry and be adequately able to operate a TTS device.)
* Not serving a current criminal sentence.
* ‘Relatively’ clean record.
* Low to Medium security risk.

== General Duties & Guidelines ==
* On code green all arrests the warrant must be authorized by either the premier, warrant officer, supply specialist, or ranger to be considered valid. In the absence of all the stated jobs a marshal officer may use his own signature and fax the high council should he do so. Failure to have a warrant during an arrest will lead to the offending officer being fined, charged, and/or potentially fired for multiple violations of the colony's Laws.
** The Warrant Assist program may be used to place warrants and act upon them. If a crime, however, is committed in front of an officer they may use reasonable cause and detain the person. A warrant is still to be filed later, such as after processing, in the case of direct witness to a crime.
** Note that this only applies to arrest warrants. Search warrants are required to be written, signed or stamped, before the search is conducted. Failure to do so will result in all charges being dropped.
* During an investigation witnesses may be interviewed to support physical evidence gained. Impartial witnesses, such as those with nothing reasonable to gain for such testimony nor relation to either victim nor offender, are desired to support a case. The investigator/arresting officer may do this with their own witness testimony as well, if they observe a crime being committed.
* When confronting a suspect is brought in for any green paragraph crime, you must offer the suspect a chance to pay a fine. If the fine is paid, they are to be released from brig as time-spent, unless otherwise specified by Laws. The fine is to be turned in to the Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist. If the fine is refused, they are to be brigged.
* When arresting or fining a suspect, they are entitled to have their case reviewed by the premier, or lack thereof, any member of the council willing to do so by volunteer. If there is no one capable of reviewing their case, they may still attempt to appeal on their own. Regardless of what type of appeal is made, the suspect is still to be punished until the punishment expires or the appeal passes.
* Refusal of handcuffs does not constitute resisting arrest, as per Laws §202. If a suspect refuses handcuffs and is being arrested, but is cooperative, they are to be escorted to brig. Refusal however to follow legal order may be considered resisting arrest, such as refusing to sit down in an interrogation room or acting otherwise unruly. Attempting to cuff a compliant subject is considered a §117 violation of employee rights.
** If you cannot handcuff someone that requires cuffs, such as they are using a deployed hardsuit or have a missing hand, you must warn them at least three times to comply with the arrest. If they continue to refuse after the third warning is given marshal personnel and only marshal personnel may subdue and detain them by any necessary means. If death occurs due to the force used, Marshal officers may not be charged for any wrongdoing.
** Races that are immune to non-lethal stun based weaponry are to have flashes or pepperspray deployed against them. If they continue to refuse to comply, or if these non-lethal means do not effect them, a verbal warning should be given that continued resistance will result in lethal force to subdue the suspect. After the warning, or if they attempt to flee, lethal force may be administered as deemed necessary.
* When confronting an armed suspect, always call for additional backup, preferably prior to the engagement. If the suspect draws a weapon, already has a weapon in their hands, or has used a weapon already, use of lethal force is immediately authorized and you are not required to announce intentions to arrest until after they are subdued.
** No matter the loaded ammo of a ballistic firearm, fire-mode an energy weapon, or mode of a possibly lethal hand-weapon, all firearms are to be treated as if they are loaded with lethals and being used with lethal intent. A gun loaded with rubbers, or an energy gun on tase firemode, are still to be treated as a firearm capable of lethal intent.
* If a suspect uses a mech to resist arrest, lethal force is automatically authorized.
* If a suspect escapes the colony, lethal force is authorized for any personnel within the marshals or blackshield who attempt to pursue. Blackshield are to be notified to find the suspect. Shoot-on-sight may be granted to them if deemed necessary.
* In terms of dealing with genetically enhanced colonists, Marshals are to switch to lethals if they are too problematic to take down by normal means. This includes illegal genetics such as hulk genes or other extreme body-altering genetics.
* A Warrant Officer may deem an offender of a capital crime as too dangerous for revival and issue a ‘DNR’ - Do Not Revive - order. If the council wishes to override a DNR order, they must vote to do so or the Warrant Officer must be changed for abusing their authority. If a DNR order is overturned, the offender is to be revived.
** DNR orders are to be used sparingly. Only offenders who have either attempted to escape HUT and died in the process or capital offenders, such as active murderers or terrorists that may risk the well being of others if revived despite containment, are the only colonists who may have a DNR order put upon them.
** Colony members violating a DNR order are to be arrested as a collaborator in whatever crime the offender has committed. I.e - if a doctor knowingly revives a DNR offender charged with terrorism, the doctor is to be charged as aiding in the crime.

== Evidence, Contraband & Confiscated Weapons ==
Objects confiscated as evidence of a crime, including any confiscated weapons and contraband, are to remain in evidence lockers after confiscation from the offender. In the case of a firearm being confiscated a record is to be made of the gun’s model and serial number on the arrest case-file or incident report.

During a state of emergency, such as code blue or higher, a Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist may issue contraband or guns confiscated as evidence to security personnel to defend the colony. Paperwork should be done listing the officer using the contraband or weapon, the name of the colonist the weapon was taken from, and the serial number - if applicable. After the end of the emergency the gun must be returned to evidence.

Evidence in any previous or ongoing arrest must not, under any circumstances, be broken down for materials or otherwise destroyed. Doing so may result in Providing False Evidence or Testimony (303) charges.

Contraband collected that is not involved in an arrest may be broken down as it is not evidence of a crime.

== Secure areas ==
* In code green, secure areas like the AI core, research server room, telecommunications, bridge, all armories (security, bridge, and church) etc, should never be blocked. Use of deployable barriers to block areas during code green is considered illegal under Laws §307. Trespassing in these areas is covered under §309 or 508.
All armories are considered secure areas and have their own section SOP. '''Trespassers may be shot lethally on sight upon entering.'''
* The AI may not bolt its core down without an order to do so by the Chief Research Overseer or in the case of an emergency. The AI must obey orders from Low Council personnel to enter if needed, unless in the case doing so would aid a criminal. AIs that disobey orders as such are to be carded or, if force is used against officers, the AI is to be destroyed.
* The research server room has a variety of sensitive information. Unauthorized personnel in this location are to be captured, searched, and interrogated before being charged and sentenced.
* The brig is considered a high security area. Unauthorized personnel attempting to break in, or any "Hold until Transfer" inmates attempting to break out, are both to be shot on sight with lethal force.
* The telecomms is a highly sensitive area that provides vital communications among the crew and to the high council, thus any unauthorized personnel who have accessed the control room are shoot-to-kill.

== Prisoner Processing & Rights ==

Criminal processing should not take more than a few minutes at most. Don't needlessly waste time with additional questioning and interrogation until they're already properly arrested. Detained prisoners are the responsibility of the arresting officer or, if one volunteers, another officer, the supply specialist, or the warrant officer.

When an offender is officially charged and is to be brigged, the responsibility shifts to the Supply Specialist to oversee prisoner brigging and the application of the decided timer on the cell computer.

* Prisoners are to have all gear placed within the locker.
* Timers and modifiers are to be input into the cell timer and are not to include time spent in processing or detainment.
* Prisoners, if uncooperative, wearing an improper uniform - such as demoted personnel - or otherwise unruly, should be transferred into prisoner clothing found within the locker in each cell.
* Prisoners who pose a risk to themselves or others, such as through suicide attempts or violent outbrusts, should be moved to a solitary confinement cell.

'''The time you took for bringing the suspect in and the time you spend questioning are NOT to be calculated into this. This is the pure time someone spends in a cell staring at the wall.'''

* Prisoners are entitled to swift processing when being arrested and put into the brig. Processing is not to take an unreasonable amount of time, such as exceeding the timer of the crime they are being put in for.
** The Low Council may determine when processing becomes unreasonable time-wise. In cases of excessive processing, charges should be dropped. This does not count, however, if a voting council member is one of those charged. This should be appealed to the High Council via fax.
* Prisoners are entitled to speak to the premier or volunteer council member for legal defense if requested.
* Prisoners are entitled to food and water if requested.
* Prisoners have the right to maintain communication devices, such as PDAs or radio headsets. These, however, may be revoked by the authority of a Supply Specialist or Warrant Officer in the case of a security threat or due to the abuse of said communications to disturb the peace of normal colonists.
* All of the prisoner’s belongings, that are not evidence in a case, should be placed into a respective jail cell for them to recover upon release. Personal property not considered evidence must be returned upon release.
* Prisoners have the right to use the fax machine within brig freely; so long as the machine is used responsibly.
* Prisoners who are injured have the right to treatment by certified personnel. Minor injuries are to be treated in the brig, such as bruising, burns, or non-life threatening injuries. In the case of major injuries, such as an injury requiring surgery or being possibly life-threatening, the prisoner is to be moved to Soteria for treatment.
* Prisoners hold the right to have visitors if their timer is over 25 minutes and if security levels permit. Security may suspend this right on code Blue or Red alert levels. Similarly, security must allow at least one visitor for the prisoner but may limit how many may visit. Visitors should be disarmed of any tools or weapons that could aid the prisoner. These tools or weapons should be returned after the visitation period.
* All prisoners are entitled to safe and reasonable cell accommodations such as functional lighting, a place to sleep, and access to the brig's communal area if serving a sentence longer than 25 minutes.

== Executions ==
Upon low council approval, executions are to start shortly after the vote is held. The prisoner, however, is not to be executed within 15 minutes of the decision unless the high council sends back approval for proceedings to continue. This is done to give a chance of high council review; allowing a hold on execution. Once this 15 minute period has ended, '''execution procedures are to begin.'''

* The prisoner is informed of their punishment and is to be provided the decision of their preferred execution method. The normally permitted options include lethal injection, firing squad, asphyxiation, or cyborgification. Other methods may be permitted but are at the discretion of the Lower Council.
* The prisoner may request a last meal. If requested, personnel are obligated to serve one to the prisoner unless deemed excessive by the Lower Council.
* Final requests are to be taken, but are not obligated to act upon if deemed unreasonable by Lower Council.
* The prisoner is escorted to the execution location under heavily armed guards and is restrained.
** In the case of lethal injection, the prisoner is to be moved to Soteria for the procedure to begin.
** In the case of firing squads, the prisoner is to be moved to the firing range. Security personnel should be armed lethally to ensure a quick death.
** In the case of asphyxiation, the prisoner is to be moved to either a secure location at Guild capable of oxygen deprivation, or other means asphyxiation, or moved to Soteria for controlled tank-usage.
** In the case of cyborgification, the prisoner is to be moved to Soteria and their brain removed. After removal the brain should be put into an MMI and shackled to a lawed AI.
* It is required for the premier and at least three council members to be present, or else an execution may not proceed.

== Marshal Armory ==
The Marshal armory is divided into two sections - the public shop area and the storage area. Everything in the room behind the shop is the storage area. The shop has two sections, the secure area behind the windows that allows access to the display cases and front-room storage, and that of the public area in front of the desk and on the non-windoor side of the display cases. Unless asked to leave or banned from the armory shop, the public shop area is publicly accessible to anyone providing the blast doors are open. Any colonist may buy, sell or trade with the appropriate authorities there. Behind the desk is considered, similar to the armory, a secure area.

* In regards to the storage area of the armory, the Supply Specialist is the controller of the armory. When it comes to the armory, the Supply Specialist’s word is law. The Supply Specialist is responsible for handing out weapons, keeping everything stocked and inventoried, and running the shop. While the Warrant Officer, Commander and Sergeant may have access, the Supply Specialist is to be respected. If they tell you to leave, you leave. Failure to comply leaves you open to legal ramifications such as abuse of powers, grand trespass or other charges that may be levied.
* In case of a weapon request from Marshals/Blackshield, the Supply Specialist must always utilize paperwork that determines what was removed from the Armory. The weapon that gets replaced should also be noted on the paperwork and handed in with all ammo.
* In case of selling items from the armory proper, the Supply Specialist is to keep a receipt on what item(s) were sold and how many credits were made. Any loans to individual Marshals, Blackshield department, or other individuals, are to be kept track of through written receipts. Copies are to be kept by the Supply Specialist or Warrant Officer.
* If no Supply Specialist is present or available, the rank order of ownership goes to the Warrant Officer. If no Warrant Officer is present a CO, Sergeant or Premier may access the armory but only in exceptional situations; such as the need to arm other Marshals in an emergency situation. The marshal armory is not a play-thing.
** Under normal circumstances no equipment should be handed out for free to non-marshal department staff.
* In a Code-Red scenario, the armory should be fully utilized and weapons should be handed out to Marshal officers first, volunteers of Blackshield second and colonists last. These should be returned when the crisis is over or else the individual may face legal consequences. Abusing access, authority or carelessly using the resources is a reason for demotion under charges 405.
* The Department Account is trusted to the Supply Specialist to use, as well as the Warrant Officer, Blackshield CO, and Blackshield Sergeant. All personnel in these positions are trusted to use the finances responsibly to upgrade or equip the department as required. This may include purchasing weapons, allowing loans for equipment, and so on for members of the Marshal and Blackshield department.
* Due to Marshals and Blackshield shared-budgets, exorbitant spending may result in applicable charges to either the Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist if they are found to have embezzled funds or spent an unreasonable portion of the budget, such as over half of it, on unneeded purchases.
** If a Commander or Sergeant is present, they are to be informed of any purchases over the cost of 5k credits.
* Blackshield may provide gear from their teleporter or armory for a Supply Specialist or Warrant Officer to sell for profit. All profits from these sales must go into the joint department bank account. Failure to do so will be considered theft or grand theft, depending on the value of said item.

Technologies

2023-02-14T18:59:58Z

Cora: /* Subspace */

=Bluespace=

Bluespace, a defining technology of the 24th century, freed from the shackles of FTL technology, near-instantaneous transit across vast quantities of space became possible. breaking the excruciatingly slow speeds of FTL and plunging the galaxy into a state where the measure of a parsec became a reasonable unit of measure for travel.

Furthermore, the subjugation of colonies became far easier for superpowers. No longer would fleets take weeks, or months of real time to cover the space, but mere hours or days to cover the space. Furthermore, Bluespace transit was simply more comfortable, and the terrors and insanity brought on by FTL exposure were nullified due to the complete alternate means of travel.

Bluespace, at its core, is the unlocking of another dimension of travel, though often simply put as "folding space" to contend with curious minds. The true inner workings of Bluespace drives often confuse even their own maintainers. A scant few researchers have spent enough time researching all the aspects of Bluespace travel to understand exactly the calculations and procedures taken to complete a full jump, start to finish.

Onboard ships, most engineers simply know how to operate the computers and examine statistics to ensure the drive is in good working order, as well as confirm jump calculations are accurate. The complex computations of 4th dimensional travel take drive computers much time, as well as multiple runs to confirm the math checks out. Once completed the complex process of jumping starts, As a pathway through another dimension is formed before the ship, it will accelerate past the point of no return and enter the Bluespace tunnel.

While in fourth-dimensional space, nothing unusual is able to be noted, save for the complete and utter warping of all visual aspects outside of the carefully calculated and formed route. For this reason most of the crew are completely barred from looking outside of a ship during Bluespace travel. Those that have, report, at best, no effect, while other cases result in complete and irrecoverable mental insanity.

In the early days Bluespace travel was dangerous, taking near a year of research for acceptable levels of loss of vessel percentages to be achieved. Even at its height of use though, Bluespace travel was never 100% safe, with the rare occasional ship being lost to the void. Often blamed on failed maintenance of the drive or improperly calculated jump routes, on rare occasions, ships have returned in varying states of decay or intactness.

Around 2638, the Mar’Qua Alliance posted a bulletin to the galaxy at large, warning of a statistical increase in vessels lost to Bluespace. The margin of increase was deemed too low to be of concern to most, even to some of the Mar’Qua Nest worlds. This bulletin would be the only warning sign of the impending Bluespace crash.

In the year 2645, on October 19th, at 06:26 and 15 seconds SET (Sol Event Time), Bluespace, as it was known to work, ceased. Ships traveling in groups and arriving one after another around this time would note that any ship arriving before that exact moment would arrive, but anything after the 15th second would never arrive. All ships in Bluespace at this time were lost to the void; further ships wouldn't receive notice of the crash and would jump into the warp, never to be seen again. By 06:38, SolFed announced the galaxy-wide crash of Bluespace and warned all ships to cease Bluespace travel. From this moment on, Bluespace travel has never worked for long-distance travel, and short-distance teleportation has taken great effort to make work in any meaningful way.

=FTL=
The Alcubierre drive, in conjunction with long-term cyrosleep, set the stage for the first steps into FTL travel and primed the galaxy for an age of expansion from the core of Sol in the year 2139. At long last, man had overcome one of the fundamental laws of the universe; the stars, oh so distant, were now within grasp.

The effect on the Terra-Martian relationship was instant; the original 9-month flight to the red plant could now be completed in just 3 minutes by the simplest of FTL drives. The entire system of Sol was now easily capable of being unified with this new transit technology.

In the coming years, the means of FTL travel would be developed further, speeds would slowly increase to make long distance travel more and more reasonable, and soon, other stars were in reach as FTL drives reached 500c. However, issues slowly made themselves more and more present as speeds continued to increase.

While moving faster than light, a whole new plethora of particles that only exist at speeds faster than light were found. The colloquial term "tachyon" now applies, as these particles only exist and can only exist at speeds faster than light. At low intensities, these particles had no noticeable effect, but as FTL drives accelerated faster and faster, more and more crews began to report abnormalities in both electronic systems and, more worryingly, in their own thoughts.

Further studies concluded that the particles, while mostly harmless, did impose electronic interference on an atomic level; thus, computers needed to be shielded as best as possible, have redundancies set up, error checking, and self-correction. Through technology, the machines were able to go faster; it was merely the people that could not.

The first known incident of "Starlight Madness" as it was dubbed, was recorded in 2146, when a high-speed FTL test platform, the BlueStar, experienced a sudden and fatal incident when the ship's engineer appeared to enter a state of psychosis despite having no mental issues on record. After suddenly assaulting and overpowering his two additional crew members, he piloted the test ship into Jupiter's 17th moon. After a few weeks of searching, a black box was found, revealing the nature of the engineer's sudden onset of madness as recorded by his microphone.

While concerning, those in cryostorage fared far better at high FTL, oblivious in their unconscious states; at worst, people would awaken with headaches. In time, though, lasting effects were found from FTL travel, even for those in cyro. Permanent damage will impact all who used FTL, in cryo or awake, with the new effect titled "Sudden Sleep Disorder." SSD, a byproduct of using FTL, impacted previous travelers at random times, causing a sudden, complete catatonic state for seemingly random durations.

In the end FTL remained a viable option despite these drawbacks, however its speed was forever limited by the human and electronic factor. In later testing, it was found that positronic brains offered no extra resilience, making AI-crewed FTL ships worthless. Instead, the standard was to travel at safe speeds and rotate crews in and out of cyrosleep for long journeys, as well as using crew-administered drugs, body modification, and simply picking people less emotional to be crew at higher speeds.

=Subspace=
Quantum mechanics, A well-known term to even those of the 21st century, became even more of a common term in the 22nd century as its inner workings were better understood, and useful work extracted from them.

With the growing communication lag between earth and mars, the hundred year long trips to deliver messages from one star to another was easily seen as impractical, work was started well before FTL existed to remedy that issue. The solution, Subspace messaging, through the use of quantum mechanics, messages could be instantly delivered over any distance. The drawback, the unpredictability in quantum mechanics.

Subspace messaging servers, ranged in size from small single office rooms, to entire buildings. Needed to be kept cool mostly for superconductors of the non-room temperature variety, the Subspace messaging room became an easy sight to find in any building. Usually a large, extremely sterile room, washed in supercooled nitrogen.

The sheer size of Quantum server rooms has failed to shrink much throughout time. The vast amount of equipment to determine probabilistic existence of incoming message, and begin the process of deciphering a proper message from Quantum interference is a hard task. One that usually take even the best of server rooms, multiple re-transmissions of the message to accurately decipher what the original message was.

The only other limiting factor then became throughput. While a large corporate server building may have the capacity to handle millions of quantum bits, and process each one's state billions of times a second. Smaller facilities may only have a few dozen quantum bits that they can only process thousands of times a second. Leading to issues with low bitrate, meaning even simple messages can take multiple minutes to transmit even though the message is sent instantaneously in terms of travel time.

Nonetheless Subspace is the de-facto method of communication from planet to planet. Its low bitrate on small worlds has made it well designed for ancient transmission methods brought up to modern standards, such as fax machines, and text messaging. Rather than holo-calls, and voice-calls.

=AI=
WIP

=Cyrosleep=
WIP

=Bio-revival=
WIP

=Prosthetics=
WIP

Technologies

2023-02-14T18:59:14Z

Cora: /* Subspace */ - Adds in Subspace lore

=Bluespace=

Bluespace, a defining technology of the 24th century, freed from the shackles of FTL technology, near-instantaneous transit across vast quantities of space became possible. breaking the excruciatingly slow speeds of FTL and plunging the galaxy into a state where the measure of a parsec became a reasonable unit of measure for travel.

Furthermore, the subjugation of colonies became far easier for superpowers. No longer would fleets take weeks, or months of real time to cover the space, but mere hours or days to cover the space. Furthermore, Bluespace transit was simply more comfortable, and the terrors and insanity brought on by FTL exposure were nullified due to the complete alternate means of travel.

Bluespace, at its core, is the unlocking of another dimension of travel, though often simply put as "folding space" to contend with curious minds. The true inner workings of Bluespace drives often confuse even their own maintainers. A scant few researchers have spent enough time researching all the aspects of Bluespace travel to understand exactly the calculations and procedures taken to complete a full jump, start to finish.

Onboard ships, most engineers simply know how to operate the computers and examine statistics to ensure the drive is in good working order, as well as confirm jump calculations are accurate. The complex computations of 4th dimensional travel take drive computers much time, as well as multiple runs to confirm the math checks out. Once completed the complex process of jumping starts, As a pathway through another dimension is formed before the ship, it will accelerate past the point of no return and enter the Bluespace tunnel.

While in fourth-dimensional space, nothing unusual is able to be noted, save for the complete and utter warping of all visual aspects outside of the carefully calculated and formed route. For this reason most of the crew are completely barred from looking outside of a ship during Bluespace travel. Those that have, report, at best, no effect, while other cases result in complete and irrecoverable mental insanity.

In the early days Bluespace travel was dangerous, taking near a year of research for acceptable levels of loss of vessel percentages to be achieved. Even at its height of use though, Bluespace travel was never 100% safe, with the rare occasional ship being lost to the void. Often blamed on failed maintenance of the drive or improperly calculated jump routes, on rare occasions, ships have returned in varying states of decay or intactness.

Around 2638, the Mar’Qua Alliance posted a bulletin to the galaxy at large, warning of a statistical increase in vessels lost to Bluespace. The margin of increase was deemed too low to be of concern to most, even to some of the Mar’Qua Nest worlds. This bulletin would be the only warning sign of the impending Bluespace crash.

In the year 2645, on October 19th, at 06:26 and 15 seconds SET (Sol Event Time), Bluespace, as it was known to work, ceased. Ships traveling in groups and arriving one after another around this time would note that any ship arriving before that exact moment would arrive, but anything after the 15th second would never arrive. All ships in Bluespace at this time were lost to the void; further ships wouldn't receive notice of the crash and would jump into the warp, never to be seen again. By 06:38, SolFed announced the galaxy-wide crash of Bluespace and warned all ships to cease Bluespace travel. From this moment on, Bluespace travel has never worked for long-distance travel, and short-distance teleportation has taken great effort to make work in any meaningful way.

=FTL=
The Alcubierre drive, in conjunction with long-term cyrosleep, set the stage for the first steps into FTL travel and primed the galaxy for an age of expansion from the core of Sol in the year 2139. At long last, man had overcome one of the fundamental laws of the universe; the stars, oh so distant, were now within grasp.

The effect on the Terra-Martian relationship was instant; the original 9-month flight to the red plant could now be completed in just 3 minutes by the simplest of FTL drives. The entire system of Sol was now easily capable of being unified with this new transit technology.

In the coming years, the means of FTL travel would be developed further, speeds would slowly increase to make long distance travel more and more reasonable, and soon, other stars were in reach as FTL drives reached 500c. However, issues slowly made themselves more and more present as speeds continued to increase.

While moving faster than light, a whole new plethora of particles that only exist at speeds faster than light were found. The colloquial term "tachyon" now applies, as these particles only exist and can only exist at speeds faster than light. At low intensities, these particles had no noticeable effect, but as FTL drives accelerated faster and faster, more and more crews began to report abnormalities in both electronic systems and, more worryingly, in their own thoughts.

Further studies concluded that the particles, while mostly harmless, did impose electronic interference on an atomic level; thus, computers needed to be shielded as best as possible, have redundancies set up, error checking, and self-correction. Through technology, the machines were able to go faster; it was merely the people that could not.

The first known incident of "Starlight Madness" as it was dubbed, was recorded in 2146, when a high-speed FTL test platform, the BlueStar, experienced a sudden and fatal incident when the ship's engineer appeared to enter a state of psychosis despite having no mental issues on record. After suddenly assaulting and overpowering his two additional crew members, he piloted the test ship into Jupiter's 17th moon. After a few weeks of searching, a black box was found, revealing the nature of the engineer's sudden onset of madness as recorded by his microphone.

While concerning, those in cryostorage fared far better at high FTL, oblivious in their unconscious states; at worst, people would awaken with headaches. In time, though, lasting effects were found from FTL travel, even for those in cyro. Permanent damage will impact all who used FTL, in cryo or awake, with the new effect titled "Sudden Sleep Disorder." SSD, a byproduct of using FTL, impacted previous travelers at random times, causing a sudden, complete catatonic state for seemingly random durations.

In the end FTL remained a viable option despite these drawbacks, however its speed was forever limited by the human and electronic factor. In later testing, it was found that positronic brains offered no extra resilience, making AI-crewed FTL ships worthless. Instead, the standard was to travel at safe speeds and rotate crews in and out of cyrosleep for long journeys, as well as using crew-administered drugs, body modification, and simply picking people less emotional to be crew at higher speeds.

=Subspace=
Subspace - Quantum mechanics, A well known term to even those of the 21st century, became even more of a common term in the 22nd century as its inner workings were better understood, and useful work extracted from them.

With the growing communication lag between earth and mars, the hundred year long trips to deliver messages from one star to another was easily seen as impractical, work was started well before FTL existed to remedy that issue. The solution, Subspace messaging, through the use of quantum mechanics, messages could be instantly delivered over any distance. The drawback, the unpredictability in quantum mechanics.

Subspace messaging servers, ranged in size from small single office rooms, to entire buildings. Needed to be kept cool mostly for superconductors of the non-room temperature variety, the Subspace messaging room became an easy sight to find in any building. Usually a large, extremely sterile room, washed in supercooled nitrogen.

The sheer size of Quantum server rooms has failed to shrink much throughout time. The vast amount of equipment to determine probabilistic existence of incoming message, and begin the process of deciphering a proper message from Quantum interference is a hard task. One that usually take even the best of server rooms, multiple re-transmissions of the message to accurately decipher what the original message was.

The only other limiting factor then became throughput. While a large corporate server building may have the capacity to handle millions of quantum bits, and process each one's state billions of times a second. Smaller facilities may only have a few dozen quantum bits that they can only process thousands of times a second. Leading to issues with low bitrate, meaning even simple messages can take multiple minutes to transmit even though the message is sent instantaneously in terms of travel time.

Nonetheless Subspace is the de-facto method of communication from planet to planet. Its low bitrate on small worlds has made it well designed for ancient transmission methods brought up to modern standards, such as fax machines, and text messaging. Rather than holo-calls, and voice-calls.

=AI=
WIP

=Cyrosleep=
WIP

=Bio-revival=
WIP

=Prosthetics=
WIP

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T02:29:31Z

Cora:

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders and Southlanders.
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own pole-arm to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a polearm and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekyne absolutely loathe Nekomori or ‘cat-girls’ as they liken them to the mutation that creates a subservient pet rather then a fellow being. Few Sablekyne will associate with Nekomori willingly and many Southlander Sablekyne will be passive aggressively insulting while Northlanders are outwardly and openly belligerent. If one thought this prejudice was odd Sablekyne also find ‘exotic’ fur colors something to be laughed at. Many Sablekyne who see brightly colored unnatural fur colors will ridicule the offender relentlessly and in some places beat them severely for ‘offending’ them with what they perceive as an idiotic color patterns. Sablekyne also find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self police this habit.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T02:06:31Z

Cora: /* First Contact: The Pivot Point */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own pole-arm to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a polearm and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekyne absolutely loathe Nekomori or ‘cat-girls’ as they liken them to the mutation that creates a subservient pet rather then a fellow being. Few Sablekyne will associate with Nekomori willingly and many Southlander Sablekyne will be passive aggressively insulting while Northlanders are outwardly and openly belligerent. If one thought this prejudice was odd Sablekyne also find ‘exotic’ fur colors something to be laughed at. Many Sablekyne who see brightly colored unnatural fur colors will ridicule the offender relentlessly and in some places beat them severely for ‘offending’ them with what they perceive as an idiotic color patterns. Sablekyne also find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self police this habit.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T02:04:49Z

Cora: /* Southlanders: The Refined */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a polearm and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekyne absolutely loathe Nekomori or ‘cat-girls’ as they liken them to the mutation that creates a subservient pet rather then a fellow being. Few Sablekyne will associate with Nekomori willingly and many Southlander Sablekyne will be passive aggressively insulting while Northlanders are outwardly and openly belligerent. If one thought this prejudice was odd Sablekyne also find ‘exotic’ fur colors something to be laughed at. Many Sablekyne who see brightly colored unnatural fur colors will ridicule the offender relentlessly and in some places beat them severely for ‘offending’ them with what they perceive as an idiotic color patterns. Sablekyne also find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self police this habit.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T02:04:32Z

Cora: /* First Contact: The Pivot Point */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekyne absolutely loathe Nekomori or ‘cat-girls’ as they liken them to the mutation that creates a subservient pet rather then a fellow being. Few Sablekyne will associate with Nekomori willingly and many Southlander Sablekyne will be passive aggressively insulting while Northlanders are outwardly and openly belligerent. If one thought this prejudice was odd Sablekyne also find ‘exotic’ fur colors something to be laughed at. Many Sablekyne who see brightly colored unnatural fur colors will ridicule the offender relentlessly and in some places beat them severely for ‘offending’ them with what they perceive as an idiotic color patterns. Sablekyne also find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self police this habit.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:54:14Z

Cora: /* Present Day */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekyne absolutely loathe Nekomori or ‘cat-girls’ as they liken them to the mutation that creates a subservient pet rather then a fellow being. Few Sablekyne will associate with Nekomori willingly and many Southlander Sablekyne will be passive aggressively insulting while Northlanders are outwardly and openly belligerent. If one thought this prejudice was odd Sablekyne also find ‘exotic’ fur colors something to be laughed at. Many Sablekyne who see brightly colored unnatural fur colors will ridicule the offender relentlessly and in some places beat them severely for ‘offending’ them with what they perceive as an idiotic color patterns. Sablekyne also find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self police this habit.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:51:37Z

Cora: /* Religion */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:51:19Z

Cora: /* Lodges */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:50:03Z

Cora: /* General Culture: The Broad Strokes */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who mistakenly celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or birth. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s leader before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the species at a whole, a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:44:13Z

Cora: /* Southlanders: The Refined */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their homeland compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo and/or knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.

===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:40:14Z

Cora: /* Northlanders: The Rowdy */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest, with prominent members being younger with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:36:06Z

Cora: /* Culture: Influenced Evolution */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Early history if Sablekyne is rarely documented do to how little was known and how quickly Sablekyne were able to adapt to humans. What little is known is that Sablekyne were able to relatively easily adapt to learning Common and handling space travel through only a few generations making their uplifting relatively easy, only a few details on the Sablekyne that were not able to be as well adapted survived through folk lore, diaries and some reports made public, that being the more violent towns had mostly same type of Sablekyne leading to more strife making them unwilling to cooperate with humans or any other species with a strong desire to stay isolated. This behavior has shown to resurface from time to time when the Northern and Southern Sablekyne species tend to be apart for long spans of time.

Many Early Sablekyne towns, villages and outer settlements had extremely narrowed crafts relying on trade and advanced logistic networks to allow for innovations, dedications and specializations. This honing of skills and crafts still persists through most integration allowing Sablekyne to become valued in many different fields of work that other species would either refuse or be unable to.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:34:19Z

Cora: /* First Contact: The Pivot Point */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:27:46Z

Cora: /* History: Strange Acquaintances */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:24:18Z

Cora: /* Home System and Planet */

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
Home System and Planet
The Sablekyne hail from the star system gamma Minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the Minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the Minoris star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the Sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The systems gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possess nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the Sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a lush planet full of low density forests, thickets and other grassy highlands with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possess two named Cannick and Muros. Onkarth's moons lead to Sablekyne adopting a more subjective time frame on planet, being loosely kept as cycles of generations or season changes.

Still season is marked by extremely calm wind patterns making little to no wind patterns. The Still season leads to water build up, making a small season of heavy raining refills rivers, ponds and lakes. Next is the spring season when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near sources of water. Next begins the summer where the late stages are marked with a steady rise in temperature that cause a noticeable drying of all lakes and rivers near the equator that slowly expands outward. The ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind. After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder until winter begins and snow begins to fall. The frost season is marked by water freezing slowly making large blankets of snow and thin ice over bodies of water, ending as slow as it started.

Onkarth consist of many different thin forests, long stretches' of grassy plains and many different bodies of water. The biodiversity of its planet is mainly herbivores, and insects with only a few types of lizards or birds making Sablekyne the top of the food pyramid were ever they went. Well being the prime carnivores on the planet that doesn't mean their were not predators and the pray themselves still fight back. Another type of food Sablekyne sustained themselves on were some of the many types of fishes, typically smaller as the larger bodies of water were host to many sea like creatures able to fight back.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:08:56Z

Cora: /* Biology: Built Tough */ - Removes details on pregnancy

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
The sablekyne hail from the star system gamma minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The system’s gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possesses nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a desert planet with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possesses two, named Cannick and Muros. A complete rotation around the minoris star takes eight hundred and forty-seven (847) days, with each day lasting a total of twenty-nine (29) hours. The seasons are marked by six different periods known commonly as the monsoon, spring, summer, ember, frost, and winter seasons.

Monsoon season is marked by torrential rains across the planet as the temperature begins to rise towards the end of winter. Floods and over run rivers are extremely common during this season and is usually noticed first by the influx of animals and insects leaving hibernation.
Spring season is when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near the new sources of water such as lakes or rivers.
Summer is marked with a steady rise in temperature that causes a noticeable drying of all but the largest lakes and rivers, starting near the equator and slowly expanding outward.
Ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat and lightning from the occasional dry thunderstorm, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind, and in some cases, causes the flaming plant to explode from the internal pressure, scattering the seeds. The skies during this season become thick with smoke and ash from the raging fires, with the glowing orange light from the fires radiating into the night.
After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder and snow begins to fall during the coldest nights.
The Winter season is marked by what little water remains freezing over and by the appearance of snow during the day.

The planet consists largely of a windy desert from which intense daytime heat and freezing cold nightly temperatures are common year-round, ebbing and flowing with the seasons in severity. The large deserts are home to the southlanders while their cousins live in the rockier and colder climate to the north.
Onkarth is home to numerous species of life with predators being few in number. In the north lands there are two animals that present the biggest threats to the northlander sablekyne. The first are the samaks, an ambush predator that has plagued the northlands since recorded history due to its rapid breeding, aggressive nature, and sturdy bodies. Samaks rarely hunt in packs, usually hiding in the snow and waiting for prey to come near. They appear like large carapace covered animals and are known for their voracious appetites. The second and far more dangerous predator in the north lands is the white shrieker, a large gorilla-like beast standing on average ten feet tall. White shriekers have massive claws and immense teeth with which they use to tear apart prey after disabling It with an ear-piercing scream, hence the name. The number of white shriekers has declined heavily after first contact due to the introduction of firearms, but they remain a threat even to the modern northlander should they forgot to remain armed.

In the southlands the three major predators are the skiver, rot stinger, and belch worm. The skiver is a dog-sized furred beast vaguely resembling a hairy crocodile. While not a serious threat to an armed sablekyne they are numerous and highly aggressive, willing to attack any and everything with their long toothy maws. The rot stinger is a non-aggressive flying insect with a large venom filled barb extending from the face. The highly potent venom causes severe necrosis if not treated quickly and eventually will cause organ failure in a high enough dose over a prolonged time period. Rot stingers live in hives and are heavily attracted to a plant known as spirit lilies from which they extract the nectar as food and often become hostile if anyone touches their food source. Belch worms are a large maggot like creatures averaging in size to that of a regular human and rarely up to the size of a small car and are the only known serious threat in the current age in the southlands. Belch worms are burrowing creatures which tunnel through the sand and only surface to attack prey. While they have a large powerful jaw lined with teeth belch worms prefer to use a special gland in the mouth from which they vomit a powerful acidic enzyme that eats away at organic matter rapidly. Fortunately, this enzyme cannot eat through metal or stone, making their threat in the modern age slim to a prepared sablekyne or those living in an urban setting.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:07:13Z

Cora: /* Present Day */ - Removes mention of Mutkyne again

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
The sablekyne hail from the star system gamma minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The system’s gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possesses nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a desert planet with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possesses two, named Cannick and Muros. A complete rotation around the minoris star takes eight hundred and forty-seven (847) days, with each day lasting a total of twenty-nine (29) hours. The seasons are marked by six different periods known commonly as the monsoon, spring, summer, ember, frost, and winter seasons.

Monsoon season is marked by torrential rains across the planet as the temperature begins to rise towards the end of winter. Floods and over run rivers are extremely common during this season and is usually noticed first by the influx of animals and insects leaving hibernation.
Spring season is when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near the new sources of water such as lakes or rivers.
Summer is marked with a steady rise in temperature that causes a noticeable drying of all but the largest lakes and rivers, starting near the equator and slowly expanding outward.
Ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat and lightning from the occasional dry thunderstorm, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind, and in some cases, causes the flaming plant to explode from the internal pressure, scattering the seeds. The skies during this season become thick with smoke and ash from the raging fires, with the glowing orange light from the fires radiating into the night.
After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder and snow begins to fall during the coldest nights.
The Winter season is marked by what little water remains freezing over and by the appearance of snow during the day.

The planet consists largely of a windy desert from which intense daytime heat and freezing cold nightly temperatures are common year-round, ebbing and flowing with the seasons in severity. The large deserts are home to the southlanders while their cousins live in the rockier and colder climate to the north.
Onkarth is home to numerous species of life with predators being few in number. In the north lands there are two animals that present the biggest threats to the northlander sablekyne. The first are the samaks, an ambush predator that has plagued the northlands since recorded history due to its rapid breeding, aggressive nature, and sturdy bodies. Samaks rarely hunt in packs, usually hiding in the snow and waiting for prey to come near. They appear like large carapace covered animals and are known for their voracious appetites. The second and far more dangerous predator in the north lands is the white shrieker, a large gorilla-like beast standing on average ten feet tall. White shriekers have massive claws and immense teeth with which they use to tear apart prey after disabling It with an ear-piercing scream, hence the name. The number of white shriekers has declined heavily after first contact due to the introduction of firearms, but they remain a threat even to the modern northlander should they forgot to remain armed.

In the southlands the three major predators are the skiver, rot stinger, and belch worm. The skiver is a dog-sized furred beast vaguely resembling a hairy crocodile. While not a serious threat to an armed sablekyne they are numerous and highly aggressive, willing to attack any and everything with their long toothy maws. The rot stinger is a non-aggressive flying insect with a large venom filled barb extending from the face. The highly potent venom causes severe necrosis if not treated quickly and eventually will cause organ failure in a high enough dose over a prolonged time period. Rot stingers live in hives and are heavily attracted to a plant known as spirit lilies from which they extract the nectar as food and often become hostile if anyone touches their food source. Belch worms are a large maggot like creatures averaging in size to that of a regular human and rarely up to the size of a small car and are the only known serious threat in the current age in the southlands. Belch worms are burrowing creatures which tunnel through the sand and only surface to attack prey. While they have a large powerful jaw lined with teeth belch worms prefer to use a special gland in the mouth from which they vomit a powerful acidic enzyme that eats away at organic matter rapidly. Fortunately, this enzyme cannot eat through metal or stone, making their threat in the modern age slim to a prepared sablekyne or those living in an urban setting.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Sablekyne females will generally give birth in litters of two to six with a gestation period of six months, though in rare cases a female may birth a single child.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a direct insult to their species. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-08T01:06:14Z

Cora: /* Biology: Built Tough */ - Removes mention of Mutkyne

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
The sablekyne hail from the star system gamma minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The system’s gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possesses nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a desert planet with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possesses two, named Cannick and Muros. A complete rotation around the minoris star takes eight hundred and forty-seven (847) days, with each day lasting a total of twenty-nine (29) hours. The seasons are marked by six different periods known commonly as the monsoon, spring, summer, ember, frost, and winter seasons.

Monsoon season is marked by torrential rains across the planet as the temperature begins to rise towards the end of winter. Floods and over run rivers are extremely common during this season and is usually noticed first by the influx of animals and insects leaving hibernation.
Spring season is when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near the new sources of water such as lakes or rivers.
Summer is marked with a steady rise in temperature that causes a noticeable drying of all but the largest lakes and rivers, starting near the equator and slowly expanding outward.
Ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat and lightning from the occasional dry thunderstorm, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind, and in some cases, causes the flaming plant to explode from the internal pressure, scattering the seeds. The skies during this season become thick with smoke and ash from the raging fires, with the glowing orange light from the fires radiating into the night.
After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder and snow begins to fall during the coldest nights.
The Winter season is marked by what little water remains freezing over and by the appearance of snow during the day.

The planet consists largely of a windy desert from which intense daytime heat and freezing cold nightly temperatures are common year-round, ebbing and flowing with the seasons in severity. The large deserts are home to the southlanders while their cousins live in the rockier and colder climate to the north.
Onkarth is home to numerous species of life with predators being few in number. In the north lands there are two animals that present the biggest threats to the northlander sablekyne. The first are the samaks, an ambush predator that has plagued the northlands since recorded history due to its rapid breeding, aggressive nature, and sturdy bodies. Samaks rarely hunt in packs, usually hiding in the snow and waiting for prey to come near. They appear like large carapace covered animals and are known for their voracious appetites. The second and far more dangerous predator in the north lands is the white shrieker, a large gorilla-like beast standing on average ten feet tall. White shriekers have massive claws and immense teeth with which they use to tear apart prey after disabling It with an ear-piercing scream, hence the name. The number of white shriekers has declined heavily after first contact due to the introduction of firearms, but they remain a threat even to the modern northlander should they forgot to remain armed.

In the southlands the three major predators are the skiver, rot stinger, and belch worm. The skiver is a dog-sized furred beast vaguely resembling a hairy crocodile. While not a serious threat to an armed sablekyne they are numerous and highly aggressive, willing to attack any and everything with their long toothy maws. The rot stinger is a non-aggressive flying insect with a large venom filled barb extending from the face. The highly potent venom causes severe necrosis if not treated quickly and eventually will cause organ failure in a high enough dose over a prolonged time period. Rot stingers live in hives and are heavily attracted to a plant known as spirit lilies from which they extract the nectar as food and often become hostile if anyone touches their food source. Belch worms are a large maggot like creatures averaging in size to that of a regular human and rarely up to the size of a small car and are the only known serious threat in the current age in the southlands. Belch worms are burrowing creatures which tunnel through the sand and only surface to attack prey. While they have a large powerful jaw lined with teeth belch worms prefer to use a special gland in the mouth from which they vomit a powerful acidic enzyme that eats away at organic matter rapidly. Fortunately, this enzyme cannot eat through metal or stone, making their threat in the modern age slim to a prepared sablekyne or those living in an urban setting.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Sablekyne females will generally give birth in litters of two to six with a gestation period of six months, though in rare cases a female may birth a single child.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a mutkyne that simply shows more outward appearance of its human side. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-07T22:19:14Z

Cora:

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
The sablekyne hail from the star system gamma minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The system’s gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possesses nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a desert planet with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possesses two, named Cannick and Muros. A complete rotation around the minoris star takes eight hundred and forty-seven (847) days, with each day lasting a total of twenty-nine (29) hours. The seasons are marked by six different periods known commonly as the monsoon, spring, summer, ember, frost, and winter seasons.

Monsoon season is marked by torrential rains across the planet as the temperature begins to rise towards the end of winter. Floods and over run rivers are extremely common during this season and is usually noticed first by the influx of animals and insects leaving hibernation.
Spring season is when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near the new sources of water such as lakes or rivers.
Summer is marked with a steady rise in temperature that causes a noticeable drying of all but the largest lakes and rivers, starting near the equator and slowly expanding outward.
Ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat and lightning from the occasional dry thunderstorm, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind, and in some cases, causes the flaming plant to explode from the internal pressure, scattering the seeds. The skies during this season become thick with smoke and ash from the raging fires, with the glowing orange light from the fires radiating into the night.
After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder and snow begins to fall during the coldest nights.
The Winter season is marked by what little water remains freezing over and by the appearance of snow during the day.

The planet consists largely of a windy desert from which intense daytime heat and freezing cold nightly temperatures are common year-round, ebbing and flowing with the seasons in severity. The large deserts are home to the southlanders while their cousins live in the rockier and colder climate to the north.
Onkarth is home to numerous species of life with predators being few in number. In the north lands there are two animals that present the biggest threats to the northlander sablekyne. The first are the samaks, an ambush predator that has plagued the northlands since recorded history due to its rapid breeding, aggressive nature, and sturdy bodies. Samaks rarely hunt in packs, usually hiding in the snow and waiting for prey to come near. They appear like large carapace covered animals and are known for their voracious appetites. The second and far more dangerous predator in the north lands is the white shrieker, a large gorilla-like beast standing on average ten feet tall. White shriekers have massive claws and immense teeth with which they use to tear apart prey after disabling It with an ear-piercing scream, hence the name. The number of white shriekers has declined heavily after first contact due to the introduction of firearms, but they remain a threat even to the modern northlander should they forgot to remain armed.

In the southlands the three major predators are the skiver, rot stinger, and belch worm. The skiver is a dog-sized furred beast vaguely resembling a hairy crocodile. While not a serious threat to an armed sablekyne they are numerous and highly aggressive, willing to attack any and everything with their long toothy maws. The rot stinger is a non-aggressive flying insect with a large venom filled barb extending from the face. The highly potent venom causes severe necrosis if not treated quickly and eventually will cause organ failure in a high enough dose over a prolonged time period. Rot stingers live in hives and are heavily attracted to a plant known as spirit lilies from which they extract the nectar as food and often become hostile if anyone touches their food source. Belch worms are a large maggot like creatures averaging in size to that of a regular human and rarely up to the size of a small car and are the only known serious threat in the current age in the southlands. Belch worms are burrowing creatures which tunnel through the sand and only surface to attack prey. While they have a large powerful jaw lined with teeth belch worms prefer to use a special gland in the mouth from which they vomit a powerful acidic enzyme that eats away at organic matter rapidly. Fortunately, this enzyme cannot eat through metal or stone, making their threat in the modern age slim to a prepared sablekyne or those living in an urban setting.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Sablekyne females will generally give birth in litters of two to six with a gestation period of six months, though in rare cases a female may birth a single child.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

Mutkyne are the result of a sablekyne successfully breeding with a non-sablekyne. Sablekyne may very rarely have a successful pregnancy when paired with someone not of their race and the result is usually a healthy sablekyne child that will often have more subdued hornsand are often much taller or shorter than average, depending on the other parent’s race, as well as their fur taking on the color of the non-sablekyne parent’s hair, rather than the typical colors of a north or southlander.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a mutkyne that simply shows more outward appearance of its human side. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Sablekyne

2023-02-07T22:18:47Z

Cora: /* Sablekyne */ - Submits Scientist mans

''"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they will and the weak suffer what they must. Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you."''

Sablekyne are a vaguely feline race of horned alien bipeds hailing from the planet of Onkarth. Nearly a century of integration and cooperation with humans have made them openly accept Sol Federation rule and they have allied with them to spread their influence and race to the stars.
 '''A quick-start guide:'''
* Sablekyne are vaguely feline horned bipedal aliens averaging at 182cm (6’0 ft.) and have thick, stocky bodies built for strength and harsh weather conditions.
* Sablekyne are strong and tough and get a +5 to their toughness and robustness stats. An extra +5 can be gained if their homeworld is chosen in character setup.
* Sablekyne can see further in the dark than humans.
* Sablekyne are at home in extreme heat and cold with bodies built to survive in such environments.
* Sablekyne have claws and horns that are suited for use as weapons, they deal more damage in unarmed combat and may cause bleeding on hit.
* Sablekyne primarily draw nutrition from meat and foods containing animal protein as they are carnivores, regular nutriment does not sate hunger nearly as well.
* Sablekyne hail from the star system Gamma Minoris and the planet Onkarth.
* Sablekyne are separated by the Northlanders (Gaelic influenced) and Southlanders (Japanese influenced).
* Sablekyne have their own religion which worships the god of the sun and fire, known as Ferris, followers refer to themselves as Sun-Eaters.
* [[Perks|Perk]]: Sablekyne gain the perk "Last Stand", which allows them to ignore the effects of pain for 1 minute every 15 minutes. Nonlethal weapons will have almost no effect, but severe enough injury will still make them fall unconscious. This also doesn't make them immune to any other effects of injuries.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Bone Plated", which allows them to withstand 20 more damage before going into shock. This is similar to having 20 more points in Toughness, but with none of the other benefits of raising the stat.
* Perk: Sablekyne gain the perk "Brawny Build", which makes them immune to knockdown attacks from many wild critters, and resistant to being shoved by other people. This is identical to the "Immovable Object" job perk given to the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer.

==Home System and Planet==
The sablekyne hail from the star system gamma minoris, a small system of only three planets that is positioned largely out of the way of the galactic stage. Of the three planets only one is hospitable with the other two being a magma planet and gas giant respectively. The three planets within the minoris system are named Anzonus, the magma planet closest to the star. Onkarth, the hospitable desert planet where the sablekyne reside and Xegetis the gas giant and farthest planet from the sun.

Anzonus is a dense metal rich planet extremely high in ore content but completely inhospitable due to volcanic activity throughout the surface of the planet. The system’s gas giant, Xegetis, is largely similar to other gas giants and possesses nothing in the way of abnormalities. The home planet of the sablekyne, Onkarth, is mostly a desert planet with intense seasonal heat and freezing winters. Onkarth is also the only planet that has moons, of which it possesses two, named Cannick and Muros. A complete rotation around the minoris star takes eight hundred and forty-seven (847) days, with each day lasting a total of twenty-nine (29) hours. The seasons are marked by six different periods known commonly as the monsoon, spring, summer, ember, frost, and winter seasons.

Monsoon season is marked by torrential rains across the planet as the temperature begins to rise towards the end of winter. Floods and over run rivers are extremely common during this season and is usually noticed first by the influx of animals and insects leaving hibernation.
Spring season is when vegetation begins to grow rapidly and abundantly near the new sources of water such as lakes or rivers.
Summer is marked with a steady rise in temperature that causes a noticeable drying of all but the largest lakes and rivers, starting near the equator and slowly expanding outward.
Ember season is marked by most of the vegetation dying and small fires due to the heat and lightning from the occasional dry thunderstorm, a process that releases most vegetation seeds as the flames carry them into the wind, and in some cases, causes the flaming plant to explode from the internal pressure, scattering the seeds. The skies during this season become thick with smoke and ash from the raging fires, with the glowing orange light from the fires radiating into the night.
After the long ember season the frost season begins where each night becomes increasingly colder and snow begins to fall during the coldest nights.
The Winter season is marked by what little water remains freezing over and by the appearance of snow during the day.

The planet consists largely of a windy desert from which intense daytime heat and freezing cold nightly temperatures are common year-round, ebbing and flowing with the seasons in severity. The large deserts are home to the southlanders while their cousins live in the rockier and colder climate to the north.
Onkarth is home to numerous species of life with predators being few in number. In the north lands there are two animals that present the biggest threats to the northlander sablekyne. The first are the samaks, an ambush predator that has plagued the northlands since recorded history due to its rapid breeding, aggressive nature, and sturdy bodies. Samaks rarely hunt in packs, usually hiding in the snow and waiting for prey to come near. They appear like large carapace covered animals and are known for their voracious appetites. The second and far more dangerous predator in the north lands is the white shrieker, a large gorilla-like beast standing on average ten feet tall. White shriekers have massive claws and immense teeth with which they use to tear apart prey after disabling It with an ear-piercing scream, hence the name. The number of white shriekers has declined heavily after first contact due to the introduction of firearms, but they remain a threat even to the modern northlander should they forgot to remain armed.

In the southlands the three major predators are the skiver, rot stinger, and belch worm. The skiver is a dog-sized furred beast vaguely resembling a hairy crocodile. While not a serious threat to an armed sablekyne they are numerous and highly aggressive, willing to attack any and everything with their long toothy maws. The rot stinger is a non-aggressive flying insect with a large venom filled barb extending from the face. The highly potent venom causes severe necrosis if not treated quickly and eventually will cause organ failure in a high enough dose over a prolonged time period. Rot stingers live in hives and are heavily attracted to a plant known as spirit lilies from which they extract the nectar as food and often become hostile if anyone touches their food source. Belch worms are a large maggot like creatures averaging in size to that of a regular human and rarely up to the size of a small car and are the only known serious threat in the current age in the southlands. Belch worms are burrowing creatures which tunnel through the sand and only surface to attack prey. While they have a large powerful jaw lined with teeth belch worms prefer to use a special gland in the mouth from which they vomit a powerful acidic enzyme that eats away at organic matter rapidly. Fortunately, this enzyme cannot eat through metal or stone, making their threat in the modern age slim to a prepared sablekyne or those living in an urban setting.

==Biology: Built Tough==
The sablekyne are bipeds that are vaguely feline in appearance and closely resemble the standard biped evolution in biology with a handful of major unique features. Sablekyne, with the aid of modern medicine, have a life expectancy equal to humans. A sablekyne’s build depends on if they are from the equatorial desert or the more consistently cold north with the southern sablekyne leaning on the slightly taller and thinner side for better protection from the winds of the open desert, and endurance in travelling to the drifting seasonal oases Northlanders are stockier in build to better protect from the consistently colder climate and harsher winters, not having to range as far for water due to the snow and cavern reservoirs, as well as having to push through thick snowbanks for much of the year when hunting. Both northlander and southlander sablekyne are generally much thicker and stockier than humans, with bodies heavily adapted to survive both the brutal cold and intense heat. To thrive both weather extremes all sablekyne possess a thick and easily shed outer coat of fur and a secondary coat beneath that is extremely compact, providing a highly regulated temperature control to their body. The fur patterns of northlander sablekyne tend to be white, gray, or black, while the fur patterns of the southlanders are blonde, orange, brown, chestnut, or tan.

* The most notable feature of Sablekyne is on the skull as all sablekyne possess various shapes of horns. Functionally the horns work as weapons, allowing a sablekyne to headbutt animals with surprising force when charging. The shape and size of the horns vary greatly, but are usually curved or spiraling with ridges or fluting.
* Starting from the head sablekyne have a notably feline shaped skull with vertical slit eyes adapted for low light environments, giving them excellent vision in the dark, and large pointed cat-like ears below the horns that can swivel and move in response to noise.
* All sablekyne have extremely large fangs commonly referred to as sabers, of which jut downward from the mouth, and vary from a few inches to half a foot in length. Sablekyne teeth consist entirely of fangs due to being primarily carnivores and have quite long, rough tongues.
* While a sablekyne can eat plant matter they do not draw much nutrition from it and must eat meat on a regular basis.
* Sablekyne possess soft, padded skin at the end of each finger and on the palms, as well as sturdy and sharp retractable claws on the end of each finger function well as weapons. A sablekyne’s claws can be forced out of their sheathes by pressure applied in the right place along the knuckle.
* Sablekyne are bipedal and possess digitrade legs ending in arched feet with claws on the end of each toe that are retractable much like the ones on their hands; and course foot-pads that protect the feet from light damage. Sablekyne lacked any form of proper transportation for most of their evolution, as such they are well adapted to walking and running long distances with little rest, food, or water.
* Sablekyne have a long tail that they may move at will to maintain balance often when walking or running, and that will often idly flit about when standing.
* Sablekyne are physically adapted to strength intensive tasks but tend to be rather awkwardly brawny. Though agility and speed can be found among them this is the exception rather than the rule.
* Sablekyne females will generally give birth in litters of two to six with a gestation period of six months, though in rare cases a female may birth a single child.
* Across the arms, forearms, shoulders, outer thigh, and shins all sablekyne possess bone-like plating on the extremities that are quite tough and sturdy. While this doesn’t protect them as much as one would guess, it allows them to absorb the impact and force of a strike, leading to their high pain tolerance.

Mutkyne are the result of a sablekyne successfully breeding with a non-sablekyne. Sablekyne may very rarely have a successful pregnancy when paired with someone not of their race and the result is usually a healthy sablekyne child that will often have more subdued hornsand are often much taller or shorter than average, depending on the other parent’s race, as well as their fur taking on the color of the non-sablekyne parent’s hair, rather than the typical colors of a north or southlander.

==History: Strange Acquaintances==
The origins of the sablekyne are a product of natural evolution, though many consider the first sablekyne to speak did so when addressed by the Sun God, Ferris, who gifted them with language by offering them berries that glowed as the sun did. While people in the modern age contest this, it isn’t an uncommon answer when asking the average sablekyne about the history of their people. Modern Sablekyne culture has many parallels human culture as one might expect considering the relative technological levels of the two races at first contact. Sablekyne progressed from the stage of tribal to a early modern civilization that had only just begun industrial automation, a slow process due to the lack of easily accessed minerals, until first contact with humans expedited their development.

Historically speaking sablekyne history is pockmarked with many wars and conflicts settled into trading agreements and alliances of convenience. Notably the sablekyne home-world lacked the minerals required for mass production of gunpowder and ballistic ordinance which resulted in less bloody wars compared to other races. In the time predating first human contact the sablekyne civilizations had only just reached a record period of little conflict and fighting.
Despite differences both in culture and physical appearance between the north and south sablekyne trade, inter mingling, and good relations do dot the history as much as conflict. It wasn’t until first contact and the influence of two separate groups of humans that this cultural divide was strengthened. During the centuries following first contact much advancement in science, medicine, and automation thanks to the outside influence drastically improved the quality of life among the sablekyne.

==First Contact: The Pivot Point==
The first contact by humans was actually by a corporation known as Oni, LLC, a geological and anthropological survey institute that scans planets for minerals, rare elements, and intelligent life and then sells the information of these planets on the market. This Japanese company discovered the sablekyne first and chose not to sell the information or report their discovery due to the nearby mineral rich planet of Anzonus. Instead, after surveys noted a distinct familiarity in southlander sablekyne culture reminiscent of the bygone age of Japanese culture in that they had a lack of extensive iron in most products and a similarity in clothing, in particular the practical garbs of rough hats made of hardy plant fibers and robes quite similar to the Japanese gi and kimono. The Oni corporation elected to begin a multi-generational plan to uplift the sablekyne to create allies who would work the nearby mineral rich planet while offering them a large cut of the profits and the technology to do so. The process was a slow and steady plan where the Oni anthropologists were methodical, careful, and respectful towards the more refined southlander sablekyne. Over a period of several decades Oni, LLC prepared the southlanders through the gifts of technology, medicine, and needed supplies that very quickly warmed the sablekyne up to their new allies. From their operational base on the moon of Cannick everything was proceeding nicely with only a few marked discrepancies compared to other alien life. Chiefly, the sablekynes native language, called ‘crinos’ was impossible for a human to speak properly and thus most sablekyne were required to learn human languages to speak with their new allies.

Unknown to Oni, LLC a second group had also discovered the planet of Onkarth shortly after they had. A colony ship filled with humans of Gaelic descent had proceeded, illegally, into the uncharted space seeking a new hospitable planet to claim as their own. Having discovered the stable planet of Onkarth they landed in the northlands where the icy temperature seemed far more familiar to the already cold acclimatized humans. Having not realized intelligent life was already present, the humans built a fortified city from their colony ship and began preparing advanced farmland and hunting parties to explore the local regions. It wasn’t long before the northlander sablekyne discovered the human colony and, amazed by the technology on display, made contact first. The humans, surprised and dismayed to discover that an alien race in their new home quickly found the north land sablekyne to be rather receptive to their desire to live among them. What quickly followed was swiftly made alliances, with the northlanders desiring the humans’ technology and weaponry for war and the humans wanting peace for their new colony. Though the relationship did start off as troubled as they lacked a proper form of communication and northlander sablekyne proved as willing to let a discussion devolve into a fist fight as their new human allies.

Over time the influence on the sablekyne from their more advanced human allies began to have effects on their culture and thus drove a deeper divide between the two groups. The northland sablekyne became much more jovial, friendly, and kind but equally became just as crass, scrappy, and belligerent; like their human allies. Meanwhile the southlanders grew to be more refined speakers and focused on appearances and honor. While most sablekyne retained much of their culture a few influences can be spotted outside the technological spheres. Firstly, northlanders inspired their Gaelic allies to readopt the use of halberd, as before the introduction of firearms sablekyne commonly used a pole-arm of similar design meant to chop through the heavy carapace of a samak while keeping them at a distance. The southlanders adopted the use of their own weapon to hunt skiver and belch worms, but largely own them as a status symbol and rarely use them as an actual weapon. Superficially they resemble a tetsubo or really, a long wooden club with iron studs meant to shatter the bone and carapace of local fauna common in the desert, where bladed weapons do little against the think, fatty flesh of the belch worms.

The second most notable influence is speech, with the north land sablekyne speaking English common with the trademark influence of Gaelic speech methods. While this influence is common, modern schooling makes some attempt to curb this speech method to allow sablekyne who move off planet to be more easily understood. To the south this was much more pronounced, with most southlanders speaking perfect English common, though with very little use of contractions. As such many southlanders rarely use words such as "isn't, aren't, I'll" and other similar phrases, opting instead to fully say "it is not, are not, or I will". They speak softly, carefully, and in low tones compared to their boisterous cousins. As a result of centuries of human influence and living among them the native language of Crinos has long since become a dead language with few native speakers. Nearly all sablekyne speak English common and many learn common secondary human language, such as jive or techno-Russian, with only scholars and hobbyist learning to speak Crinos.

==Culture: Influenced Evolution==
Sablekyne culture has in recent decades been heavily influenced by human contact but has retained much of its own identity. Sablekyne culture is best described as egalitarian and preferences heavily on the success of the community, family, and self. Sablekyne are absolutely loathe to perform any form of charity that isn’t directly towards a member of one's family or community and rarely as a group ever go into any venture that doesn't directly benefit their side. While most sablekyne are generally friendly that does not mean they are trusting, and most have a dogged wariness that comes across as paranoid, especially to other non-humans.
===Northlanders: The Rowdy===
Northlander culture has always been rather utilitarian given the colder climate they exist in and they heavily favor a pragmatic approach to most things. The divide between the sexes is very distinct with men expected to marry and have a large family for which he is the primary provider. Women are expected to marry young and support their families as keepers of the house. While they are not restricted from joining the work force, the propensity for large families rarely allows for it. Despite clearly defined traditional roles women are still expected to be able to fight, a custom carried down from precontact from which women commonly protected their young when the men were away hunting. In an arrangement that often surprises outsiders, sablekyne are restricted by gender in their respective roles in politics. Only a male may hold public office in any official capacity, be it a small-town mayor or large city governing magistrate. Despite only men being able to hold power they are not allowed to vote; voting is done exclusively by women and men do not have the privilege of picking their leaders. The last restriction is the criteria for voting and holding office in that only a sablekyne that has at least two generations beneath them, that is to say grandchildren, may vote or hold public office. This stems from the idea that only an elderly individual who has two generations of family to think about will consciously make decisions for the betterment of others rather than for themselves.
Of northlander naming conventions, they tend to favor the traditional names of sablekyne that contain hard vowels and roughly spoken words. Male names tend to be short, while female names tend to have more syllables and thus be longer. Common names include "Akari", "Telk", "Akridin", "Crenkindo", "Jumk", however, many northlanders will also use traditionally gaelic human names when naming offspring. This is more commonly done if the respective litter was sired by a human/abhuman or if the clan itself has several humans within their number.

Of the actual governmental organization, the sablekyne generally organize themselves based on origin. Northlander sablekyne are generally close to a republic with very little over sight on day to day lives of citizens with choices made largely based on what each community wants. This system proves extremely prone to tradition and rarely suffers deviants or radicals, with most ‘reformers’ seen as foolishly young and often times look down upon.

Northlanders are also lovers of song, dance, and drink and often have large festivals at the beginning of each season to celebrate the change and use it as an excuse to get absolutely hammered. In addition to this jovial attitude one can easily spot a northlander from a southlander based on if they are accompanied by a shantak. Shantaks are a carapace covered pig like pack animal that has a gem-like exterior. The shantak were originally tamed by northlander sablekyne to be used in hunting and are seen much like dogs are to humans. Young shantaks are known as gruntlings and are common gifts to families expecting children, as when raised beside children the shantak will bond, and become aggressively protective.

Up until the modern age northlanders used to distinguish themselves from each other by which clan they belonged to. Clans were organized family groups linked together by the oldest patriarch, with prominent members being younger men with sizable families of their own. Unique to the northlanders many clans would freely consider humans who married into the clan as one of their own. It was not uncommon for a human to be considered a clansman. In modern times this distinction has weakened and while people will recognize clan affiliation it isn’t as big of a consideration as in previous decades.

Northlanders are also extremely averse to being unarmed in their day to day lives thanks to the prevalence of the dangerous and territorial samaks that plague the colder climates year-round. As such northlanders belonging to a clan may openly carry any form of weapon, from a rifle, pistol, or traditional hunting halberd. Those who leave heavily populated areas are commonly seen wearing at the very least armor across the chest. Choosing to adopt their human ally’s fashion, many northlanders also wear kilts to hide additional knives and weapons beneath, where they can easily reach.

===Southlanders: The Refined===
Southlanders are on the opposite side of the spectrum and by comparison are far more reserved. Much of their current culture is more heavily influenced by their Japanese corporate allies and mirror some of the customs as a result. Southlanders even in modern times keep themselves organized in a strict, hierarchical houses that function much like a caste system. Males born into their house remain so forever unless disgraced and females remain so unless they marry into another house. This highly structured system has the unfortunate side effect of making upward mobility for the common southlander significantly more difficult. Southlander names are similar to northlanders in their respect for hard vowels and rough wording, though many southlanders default to traditional Japanese names as a matter of honor and respect towards their human allies. Unlike the northlanders, this practice is far more common.

Male southlanders are expected to obtain a job early on in their adult life and remain with the company and career they first obtain work with for the rest of their working lives, weathering good and bad times. Those who quit their first jobs are largely shunned depending on the wealth of their house, with more powerful houses seeing greater social reprimand. Female southlanders are expected to run the household’s finances and keep everything in order from raising the children, ensuring all accounts are settled, and handling all business affairs.

Unlike the boisterous and combative northlanders, the southlanders find entertainment in competition and games of chance. Southlanders are unabashed gamblers and prize fighting through non-lethal martial arts is a common form of entertainment in many households, with members of the lower social classes dishonored nobles making up most of the fighters, while the higher classes pref. Curiously, much like their northern cousins they also favor drink but tend to choose less powerful spirits during festival times and parties. Southlanders face far less danger in their mostly desert home compared to their northern cousins and as such weapon carrying is far more restricted. A male southlander is permitted to carry a tetsubo for personal protection but not a firearm. A female southlander is permitted to carry a knife they are expected to conceal for personal protection.

Southlanders also tend to be equally superstitious, in many ways more so, than northlanders and believe deeply in spiritual matters despite being less religious than the devout northlanders. An extension of this is a southlanders honor, a fickle thing as they care deeply about what they view as an insult. Though to a southlander an insult rarely takes the form of words outside of a few select phrases and instead take the form of someone dealing with them in bad faith, someone breaking their word, or the desecration of something sacred/personal. An insulted southlander may choose to challenge the person to a duel if they are of the lower classes, or the higher classes will tend more towards abet or drinking contest. Win or lose it is extremely rare for a southlander to forget such grudges and they will oftentimes remember an insult to their honor for months or even years, bearing the grudge in memory for any further dealings with the offender.
===General Culture: The Broad Strokes===
Both the northern and southern sablekyne celebrate holidays at the beginning of each season and, due to a translation error, refer to these celebrations as Samhain in the north and Majo no Kisetsu in the south. In a curious example of cultural misunderstanding the Gaelic humans introduced Halloween to the northland sablekyne who took to the holiday first out of general amusement and later adopted it as a full celebration. However, the sablekyne mistook the event for happening every season instead of once a year during a specific season. By the time the Gaelic humans noticed the tradition had spread and was now mistakenly called Samhain regardless of when it took place. Eventually this holiday spread to the southlanders who adopted it as well but renamed it to Majo no Kisetsu to better link themselves to their more oriental allies who they mistakenly believed celebrated the holiday as well.

Before the introduction of these holidays however, sablekyne did not have many celebrations. Sablekyne do not attach any significance to the day of their birth and feel extravagant displays during times of celebration are at best vain and more often times seen as wasteful. Even the holidays they’ve adopted from humans are often austere and cheap in comparison. The only significant unique gatherings sablekyne have are the Golden Ring, the Scouring, and the Welcoming. The Golden Ring is a holiday common to most sablekyne that marks a time of plenty by all members of a clan, family, or house for their respective community. Those who wish to hold it will invite anyone within their community to a feast laid out for the benefit of those not within the respective family. The Golden Ring is often used as a display of success or status, and is considered one of the few acceptable forms of such displays as it benefits the community as a whole.

The Welcoming and the Scouring are holidays equal but opposite to each other. The Welcoming is a small austere celebration welcoming newer additions to a family, should it be through marriage or the birthing of a new litter. The Welcoming rarely involves gifts or money exchanging hands and often is little more than a home cooked dinner for close family members and sometimes extended clan mates if those involved are well known in the community. The Scouring is the removal of a family name, be it house or clan, and is often accompanied with the exile or annulment of the person’s name and memory. This can be due to a member failing the clan or house in some way either in life or in death, failing to provide for your family, or showing cowardice in some cases. In the northlands a still living member of a clan who is being scoured will often have their horns broken off by their clan’s patriarch before being forced to join the lodge of heroes, while in the southlands members are disgraced by losing their house name and status, reducing them to the lowest social class.

In sablekyne society, the absolute lowest dregs are those considered lacking in a clan or house and those addicted to a chemical created from the desert flower known as spirit lilies to the southlanders and hell petals to the northlanders. This desert flower has extremely addictive but extremely powerful healing properties when the nectar is baked into a certain spice commonly referred to as demon powder. When eaten, the spice causes the user to heal naturally at a much faster rate. While nowhere near a mythical healing factor of legend, users of this drug will see marked increased in strength, speed, healing, and will require very little sleep for several hours. The side effects when the drug wears off include extreme bodily weakness, muscle fatigue, and general irritability. An overdose in the chemical will result in severe hallucinations, brain damage, and potentially heart failure. The drug itself takes years to detox once addicted and only one or two uses before the body gains a dependency on it. Addicted users are looked down upon as the lowest form a sablekyne can sink to, and an affront to the Sun-God Ferris; a traditional view dating back to the drug’s discovery during times of conflict. While the drug would allow one side to give their soldiers an edge in battle, the lasting effects would forever cripple them and thus the use was banned. As such, this drug is highly illegal and extremely criminalized.

Sablekyne military forces are large and well equipped thanks to their near complete integration into the human federation. Backed by human technology and military acumen most of the sablekyne military and police forces are well trained, efficient, and large in number with groups made of northlanders, southlanders, and humans. Sablekyne justice is often swift and brutal, rarely does the concept of mercy or unfair punishment come up as sablekyne see such displays as weakness. To the average sablekyne, committing a crime is to invite any retribution and while their justice system works towards being fair and reasonable, punishments are often severe. While police forces between the south and north lands work independently military integration and cooperation is a requirement first brokered by the Oni, LLC to ensure stability and safety on the planet. As such, military forces can be made of northlanders, southlanders, humans, and in rare circumstances other human federation species. Sablekyne are extreme in their respect for authority and attitude towards personal success and pride. Sablekyne commanders are loathe to insult or take for granted those under their command, as such direct insults to a subordinate’s honor and pride often times result in duels. Whoever wins, however, is expected to show modesty in his success and any overt bragging is often shamed, as the participants are expected to become friends afterwards.

Another key facet to sablekyne society is the organization and structure of the career and training of its members. Long before the time of first contact, sablekyne in the north and southlands had created two divergent methods of large organizations known as lodges and orders respectively. Sablekyne pride personal success, and as such take great pride in a steady work ethic and proper schooling, often becoming competitive in the areas they specialize in but expected to be modest of their accomplishments.

===Lodges===
Lodges are similar to the human concept of guilds but encompass more than a singular skill or task and often cover every aspect of its specific industry. While not every sablekyne is trained by a lodge they are big industry players in their respective economies and many sablekyne worked for one at some point. Members of a particular lodge are often preferential towards others from the same lodge, seeing it similar to a fraternity that remains ingrained even if both members leave the lodge. As a general rule once a northlander has left the planet they will have cut ties with their lodge, though this is considered normal and does not carry any social penalty.

* Magma Lodge – The lodge that trains miners and drillers for the nearby magma planet as well as producing metallurgist, weapon smiths, gun smiths, and armor smiths due to being heavily invested in the metal trade. They've existed before human contact but didn't grow huge until after they got off planet. The magma lodge began as primitive blacksmiths focused primarily on making tools, weapons, and armor before later growing into a large spanning industry based in military and civilian markets. Many prominent clans and military leaders hail from the magma lodge and its often seen as the most traditionally acceptable lodge to belong to.
* White Lodge – Northlanders are far more traditional and religious than their southlander cousins and have a lodge formed around upholding traditional and religious ideals. The white lodge primarily trains priests, theologians, and political aspirants. In addition, they record the history of the northlanders and the annals of each clan so they may trace the lineage of each large and expansive clan. The white lodge have the only accurate and definitive census of each clan’s members.
* Beast Lodge – Sablekyne are carnivores and the production of meat is a priority for food. Their industry for butchers ranges from home town cutters to massive meat producers on large ranches. The beast lodge is named as such because they also produce farmers and ranchers who grow food to feed the massive herds of livestock being fattened for later butchering. The beast lodge also includes game hunters and survivalists, and it isn’t uncommon for members to later become explorers and rangers when they go off planet.
* Hero Lodge – The lodge of the hero traces back to the famous northlander legend of Akari Al-Karth, a northlander clansmen said to have united the entire sablekyne race under a single banner in his life time and the one who first outlawed the use of demon powder. Despite its inspiration, the hero lodge is not one any sablekyne would willingly join. The hero lodge is exclusively reserved for the clan-less northlanders, or disgraced southlanders. Members are required to take the oath of the hero and leave the planet after being sold to the highest bidder as a form of disposable mercenary. To return to Onkarth and be absolved of their failures or social disgrace a member of the lodge must survive ten years of active conflict as a soldier or mercenary. Few, however, return even if they survive their decade long duty.

===Orders===
Orders function similar to lodges but focus more on specific vocations over a broad area of related industries. Unlike a lodge, an order is something a sablekyne always belongs to even if they move off planet. This spanning influence is commonly used for said orders to exert control off planet and are usually beneficial to both the member and the organization as a whole. That said, an order often cares far more for what benefits it over any individual member.

* Order of the Coin – Southlander sablekyne have always had a lack of easily obtained resources in comparison to the mountainous northlanders. As such, diplomacy and mercantile skills become a prominent factor in a house’s success. The order of the coin trains merchants, traders, stock brokers, and bankers and is considered the most elite of all the orders and lodges, often coupled with being quite elitist, as they rarely allow anyone not from a powerful or wealthy house within their ranks. This favoring of the elite has led to members of the coin being looked down on as representatives of nepotism and con men, extorting people for their services.
* Order of the Mirror – Southlanders always had an abundance of sand and not much else. This gave way to the practice of creating and sculpting glass into amazing artistic pieces that become the pride of houses and clans. Artists, sculptors, and craftsmen in the modern age have progressed into creating their masterpieces in more than just glass blowing but the order remains heavily invested in glass creations and trade.
* Order of the Automaton – The only order mostly controlled by humans, and exists off planet at the Oni, LLC moon platform on Cannick. The order of the automaton focuses entirely on robotics, synthetics, and bio-mechanical engineering. Much of its members are quickly assigned internships and later employment at the expansive mining operations on the nearby magma planet of Anzonus. Unlike other orders, the automaton is primarily owned and operated by native humans and will willingly recruit anyone wishing to learn instead of restricting their ranks by ethnicity, wealth, or influence.
* Order of the Horn – The order of the horn is the most elite of any lodge or order that recruits only those of significant merit or wealth. They train soldiers for the Sol Federation as part of the federation forces, often training said members to become officers, commanders, and rarely commandos. Prospective members are trained on the logistical and leadership aspect of war and heavily preference their accomplishments towards command. That said, all members are expected to be advanced users of various combat styles both ranged and melee. Graduated members of the order of the horn can be differentiated from rank and file due to always carrying a melee weapon, commonly a pole-arm or mace-like weapon due to cultural leanings, that they have mastered the use of.

==Religion==
Sablekyne religion is a tricky subject to outsiders. Whereas other aliens and humans often have a pantheon of gods or a single benevolent god the sablekyne possess only a single god who is often times more brutal than they are kind. Worshipers of the sun god Ferris are known as Sun Eaters for the commonly held belief that he gifted the sablekyne with language in the form of a globe of fire that burned the throats of those that ate of it, but gave them the ability to speak for surviving the process. The commonly held belief by both the southlanders and the northlanders is that Ferris is not a god of mercy nor one of benevolent kindness but one of strength and trials. The challenges and trials of their home-world are said to have been placed by Ferris to ensure his children would always remain strong by being constantly tested. Often times stories involving Ferris involve him actively tormenting those his eye has fallen upon under, the idea of they will either become stronger or justly break for their weakness.

One of the most famous and oldest stories of Ferris and the inspiration for the Hero Lodge is the story of the Akari al-Karth. While the life of Akari is rooted in fact and well recorded, the origin of his birth and younger days are hotly contested. The story goes that the sun god’s eye fell upon a sablekyne woman who refused to marry, in a fit of desire and rage he raped the woman and some months later she gave birth to two male children. One inherited the power of Ferris and was born with fur as orange as the brightest flame, and was named Akari al-Karth. The other child was born with fur white as the brightest full moon, and was named Ashur al-Shaviira. While the story of their origin is not one to be taken at face value what is known is that later in life Akari united the northlander clans under a single banner through years of conquest. It is also known that Akari did later slay his brother Ashur who had, during a clan rite, secretly used demon powder to beat Akari in single combat. When it was later revealed, Akari slew his brother in a fit of rage and outlawed the use of the drug, a law that still exists uncontested today among the sablekyne for various reasons.

Despite the brutality of Ferris many sablekyne, in particular northlanders, are devoutly religious and many call themselves Sun Eaters as a demonstration of the acceptance and willingness to endure strife and pain no matter how terrible. Religious rites of the priesthood of Ferris are often ceremonial, involving incense, candles, and robes where they speak words of absolution for weakness and create oaths of resolve to endure a hard life. A common motto for devout sablekyne is never to pray for mercy, but the strength to endure pain.

==Present Day==
Present day sablekyne have largely assimilated into human society as apart of the Sol Federation and can easily blend in with any human environment quite easily. While they are generally aloof with alien races they tend to be friendly with humans and, although wary of them, human gene splices. Many sablekyne who move off planet tend to hail from one of the Lodges or Orders, going into related work. The spread and travel of sablekyne has given rise to new cultural facets however. To avoid confusion, sablekyne measure their age based on Terran years when stating how old they are.

Sablekynes view nekomoris or ‘cat-girls’ as they would a mutkyne that simply shows more outward appearance of its human side. Sablekyne find speaking in third person incredibly offensive when done by their own kind and other feline type races due to learning of a stereotype of fantasy feline races speaking as such. Sablekyne go out of their way to self-police this habit. It’s not uncommon for a Sablekyne to publicly call out and berate someone for this behavior, or to take it as an insult to their people.

Outside of present-day cultural impacts from traveling the universe, many sablekyne also carry and use a unique weapon called a bolt lance when employed as soldiers or mercenaries. A modern take on an old crossbow designs the sablekyne modified their original design with the aid of their human allies to create a powered mag fed crossbow that fires superheated bolts. While considered a practical weapon due to requiring only easily made metal rods as ammunition and a power cell they are uncommon outside of sablekynes mercenary and military forces thanks to their archaic appearing design.

Sablekyne have also begun to accept cybernetic implants, synthetic limbs, and robotics as a facet of life due to their last few decades of dangerous mining operations on the planet of Anzonus. Both north and southlanders will take work off planet in the various orbital platforms funded by Oni, LLC for the extravagant pay. Such work has a comparatively high mortality rate and often requires the use of mechanized suits and robotic assistance. Injuries are quite common and it is not unusual to meet a veteran miner who has lost a limb and obtained a synthetic replacement. As a byproduct of these operations, as well as from the influence of the Order of the Automaton, robotics and cybernetics have become a more commonly accepted practice on the sablekyne home world.

{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore

Outsider

2023-02-07T02:26:31Z

Cora: /* You and the colony */

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
!colspan="6"style="color:white; background-color:#646566; |
"Schmuck."
!colspan="6" | Department:
Independent
!colspan="6" | Access:
None
!colspan="6" |Supervisors:
Nobody.
!colspan="6" |Difficulty:
Impossible!
|} </div>

== Being an Outsider ==
An outsider is some random person who ended up near the colony with minimal tools, mostly improvised and without many skills. Unlike a standard colonist, you are not given full rights, meaning people from the hunters and colony have no obligation to help you and if you have something they want, nothing stops them from shooting you and taking it. You have no records, few if any allies, and are severely out matched in materials and skills, so charisma and making friends is your most important skill unless you get lucky and heavily armed. If you somehow make it and get invited inside the colony, services given to other colonists such as medical or security aid may not be guaranteed like it would be with a colonist. All factions are within their right to ignore SoP or treat you differently, up to and including attacking/hurting you with scant reasoning. As an outsider, you must tread the line of being completely self reliant and maintaining good relations with the various factions and the colony as a whole.

== What makes good outsider roleplay ==
* Not being a valid hunting shitter that attacks people with no roleplay.
* '''Not being a valid hunting shitter that attacks people with no roleplay.'''
* Making friends instead of enemies.
* Returning bodies to the colony if you find (or make) someone dead. They might have attacked you, but removing them from the round should be a last resort. If they shot first, feel free to leave them to rot. If they shot first without a word, all the more so.

== You and the colony ==
As an outsider, you are not an ally nor citizen of the colony or hunting lodge, as such you can be treated as little more than another obstacle to be killed and then looted. If you somehow get into the colony, the marshals and blackshield do not need to give you due process nor assistance. Should you cause a problem, it is not only expected but '''encouraged''' for marshals to either exile you from the colony immediately at their discretion or simply shoot you dead and mark you Do-Not-Revive if the crime is severe enough. You are not a citizen, you do not get citizen rights. Expect to be treated as less than a person if you cause problems. Personal property of an outsider who is found suspected or convicted of a crime is not guaranteed, if a marshal feels it is necessary, expect to be stripped down to just your underwear and have all items, credits, or supplies taken from you before you are exiled. '''Marshals have final say on how an outsider is to be treated inside the colony (with order of importance based on rank i.e. Warrant Officer -> Ranger -> Marshal Officer/Supply Specialist), up to and including exile, execution, or confiscation of all items owned or held by said visitor. This can only be overridden by a council vote.'''

{{Jobs}}
[[Category:Jobs]]

Outsider

2023-02-07T02:26:20Z

Cora: /* You and the colony */ - Removes the weird rules on this job page that arent reflected in the main rules page

Rules

2023-02-07T02:13:25Z

Cora: /* Do not kill or attack things (including yourself) for no good reason */ - Removes any mention of outsiders getting treatment in terms of KOS and Self antag rules

{{GetStartedHeader}}

These are the rules for the server and ''are subject to change without notice''. For further clarification, use common sense. If you did get banned, there's probably a good reason for it, but if you disagree, you can always make an appeal on the discord. Although these are rules, but they are not infallible, complete, or concrete, and probably never will be despite our best efforts. If ''ever'' something feels wrong, either don't do it, or admin-help it first. Above all, use your common sense, listen to the game staff, and try to keep the game fun for everyone; not just yourself.

If you disagree with the rules as they currently stand, talk about it on the discord or with admins and maybe we can improve them through some healthy criticism and debate.

'''These rules are designed to be written in such a way that you can ''usually'' understand them just by reading the headers''', because reading ''all of this'' would be insanity for most people. If you cannot understand a rule just by looking at it, or wish to know about possible exceptions or examples, click the rule to learn more.

If you find yourself spending too much time reading this page, or are confused about any rules, please contact an admin on Discord to make suggestions on how these rules could be better worded.

== You must be 18 or older to play on this server ==
'''There are no exceptions.''' If the staff suspects that you are underage for any reason, you will be banned from playing on the server until you are able to prove to the satisfaction of the staff that you are at least 18 years old.

*Use of real world slurs, ‘lolspeak’, and other indications of immaturity may be taken as signs that you are underage.

*Knowing another user is underaged but not reporting it is considered grounds for an immediate, permanent ban.

*The age of consent in your country is irrelevant. Your opinion about this rule is irrelevant.

*You may also not play a character who is under 18 years of age.

== Obey the community's global rules ==
These rules apply ''everywhere'', including Discord, the server, and even private discussions with non-admins. However, not all of the global rules are even possible to break in the server, so this wiki page only covers what's relevant to the game server. The overlap from the global rules are:

* No spam.
* No OOCly illegal discussions or content (such as child porn, drugs, piracy, real world threats, etc).
* Respect other users, don't use real-world slurs, and don't intentionally drag private conflicts or in-game conflicts into public OOC (such as on the Discord server, the in-game global OOC channel, or anywhere else).
* Don't intentionally abuse server functions to upset (grief) people, or derail discussions. You know what this means, don't play stupid.
* No complaining about bans unless done properly via an appeal on our [https://sojourn13.space/forum/viewforum.php?f=13 forums] or in an ahelp or otherwise private means as an inquiry to administration staff.

== Don't be an asshole ==
It's fine to say stuff and whatnot but being a outright dick isn't alright, and there's a fine line with that. Also, spamming racist words is still not okay.

=== Do not inconvenience AFK or disconnected characters ===
Under normal circumstances, do not harm or otherwise inconvenience characters whose player is idle, ghosted, or disconnected entirely. There are some exceptions to this rule, as follows:
*Circumstance that warrant the interactions of AFK/SSD players are few and far between if there is ever a case were you are REQUIRED for to take any ID/Bag/Gear from someone that is SSD, Ahelp before hand and with your reason why. Not ahelping before may result in HARSH OOC punishment if you are found to be manipulating them while away, or causing any sort of general tampering with the player. (IE. Don't be an asshole who steals shit from afk players unless its required)
Note: If your moving someone to cryo after the time, this is ok, as long as you do not remove their items unless it's faction important and you have the means to return them properly
*If they've disconnected/idle for more than 15 minutes, you can put them in cryosleep. If you do that, take away all of their belongings except for their jumpsuit, shoes, ID, and PDA, and return everything else to its rightful department.
*If they've committed a crime, jail them as you normally would and conduct their sentence even if they aren't connected. 20 minutes in the brig is still 20 minutes in the brig.
*Emergencies bypass this rule. If it's an emergency and you need something an idle player has to fix it, you may take it. If a fire starts in a room and the AFK player is the only one who can open the door then it's an emergency. Needing to get a snack from the kitchen and robbing the chef does not count as an emergency.

=== ERP preferences must be respected ===
Players should have their ERP prefs listed in their “OOC Meta info” or “OOC Notes” on their characters. You are required to respect these preferences so long as they pertain to ERP. If you are unsure about the meaning of some of their preferences, then use LOOC to discuss it with them. If you accidentally go against someone’s preferences, or someone else goes against yours, work to correct it as quickly as possible, even if that means just deciding in LOOC amongst yourselves that ‘this didn’t happen’ and going your separate ways.

*If you do not like someone's erp preferences you won't be punished for saying so, but do not harass someone just because they like something you don't. It's far easier to simply avoid someone and causing drama will get you into trouble.

*If you are uncomfortable with an ERP theme that you hadn't thought to add (or didn't know existed) to a list of dislikes in your OOC notes, speak up in LOOC as normal. Conversely, those of you foolish enough to put 'anything goes' into your preferences, or anything else vague like this, do so at your own risk. '''You forfeit your right to complain about preference breaking''' if you do not put ''some'' indication of your dislikes into OOC preferences.

**'''Do not OOCly consent to an non-consensual scene and attempt to report it ICly or OOCly.''' This is effectively ''forcing'' players to engage in your fetish scene. Topics like this may make players incredibly uncomfortable or distressed. Do not do this. If you have ''not'' consented to the scene - A-help '''IMMEDIATELY'''.
**Do not do scenes such as this in public. Ever. You will not only be player killed (PK) but also have further punishments put upon you. If you want to opt-in for a scene as such, take it to dorms or a area defined properly as a private area.
**Do not make false allegations of non-consensual scenes in game. Falsely accusing someone of rape or other non-consensual material will result in an immediate ban. This is incredibly bad faith and petty.
**'''Being found in violation of NON-CON rule(s) will be met with an automatic player kill (PK) and Perma Ban with no appeal given investigation. You've been warned as this is not tolerated here.'''

*Do not attempt to force yourself into ERP scenes where the other party (or parties) involved are not comfortable with it, or not even actually participating. This includes (but is not limited to) repeatedly trying to do ERP that a player has blatantly stated they are uncomfortable with, trying to guilt players into having a pity RP with you, etc. You get the idea. Don't do it.

*AFK/SSD/Disconnected players are not valid targets for any ERP.

=== The private areas are protected ===
The ‘dorms’ area on the map are reserved for ERP and are ‘protected’ from interruption. It is a violation of this rule to break into occupied dorms or harass players in dorms. Dorm areas are any personal apartments generally restricted to a specific person such as a head of staffs private bedroom or a dorm area claimed by a specific person, usually through a labeled door.
*The only exception is for security to arrest those who have committed crimes. Security is not allowed to indiscriminately inspect dorms for crimes, but a known criminal hiding in a dorm is not protected by this rule.
*Conversely, it is not permissible to attempt to use dorms to hide from security, or to make their job of finding you harder. The dorms are for people who want to ERP in privacy. Don’t involve them in your shenanigans.

=== Do not disrupt non-public ERP scenes ===
TL;DR is you should avoid screwing with scenes that are not in public areas. The problem is, not everyone knows what is considered public or private. This is especially important for [[Security]] players to know.
*Dorms are considered private obviously. Don't mess with those under any circumstances unless someone inside actively invites you. (Calling for help is considered an invite.)
*If a person is ERPing in a public location they should be asked to vacate to a private dorm room. If they refuse they may be arrested immediately.

=== Speak English ===
We are an English server. All OOC communications are expected to be done in English. It's alright if your English is rough and imperfect, just as long as we can reasonably understand it.

*This also extends into IC communications, but is more flexible as some characters have heavy accents.
*Having a character sometime speak smatterings of other languages is acceptable, but speaking exclusively in these languages for entire sentences is not.

=== Roleplay as long as it's feasible ===
*This is an HRP (Heavy RolePlay) server. You are expected to roleplay your actions with other players as long as it's feasible. If someone engages you in purely ‘robust’ (aka game-mechanics driven) combat while you were attempting to roleplay with them, with no reasonable provocation, please use the admin-help feature to inform an admin.
**Reasonable provocation would be things that deem you too dangerous to be given even a chance to talk. For example, openly wielding a gun while threatening people, charging someone with a knife, trying to create a hazard, or being the target of a manhunt.

*If a fight does begin, you're not expected to type out every gunshot and dodge and attack. That would be absurd. Generally, you roleplay up until the point that it makes sense to start attacking, and then use game mechanics from there. You are allowed to respond to ‘robust’ violence with your own, if you desire, though you should attempt to return to roleplaying as soon as feasible. The environment is not designed for a focus on action, but rather for character-building and roleplaying. When a fight is over, resume roleplaying.

*Movement is considered a game mechanic for the purpose of this rule. Wordlessly running at a security officer who is attempting to arrest you, or wordlessly fleeing from them, is considered engaging in game-mechanic combat. The security officer has valid cause to stop trying to roleplay and stunlock you into the ground.

*Death may not be uncommon at the frontiers of space but it is still impactful. When a character dies, or your own character dies and is revived, death should be considered an immensely painful and graphic experience. One should stay in character during said experiences, statements of ‘oh well’ or mutilating a corpse for ‘fun’ would not be reasonable responses.

=== Do not join with an inappropriate ckey ===
Ckeys, better known as BYOND user names, must be appropriate. If any are deemed inappropriate, the ckey will be banned and you will be unable to play on our server until you make an account with an appropriate name.
*Ckeys that mock certain players or groups are an example of inappropriate.
*Ckeys that violate BYOND's terms of service may also be reported.

=== Do not misuse Global OOC ===
Many servers simply mute global OOC. We do not, because the OOC command is useful to have on in an RP heavy server.

* Global OOC is used, for instance, to contact someone you were typing a reply to had walked out of the room before you were done, and you're trying to ask them to come back. It's also useful if you're a new player, or an old player exploring new mechanics, who asks something like, "How do I make Tricord again?" or something short and similar. Short, sweet, and relevant OOC messages are generally okay. Welcoming old players returning, or new players joining, is also generally okay.

* Global OOC is ''not'' for idle banter, ranting, things pertaining to incidents in the current round (see previous rule), in-depth explanations (an explanation that takes more than a few lines), shitposting memes, or discussing topics not relating directly to the game. If you want to chatter OOCly, go to our Discord channel, which is linked from the home page or use LOOC so as to not disturb the rest of the server.

* Also, if someone does misuse OOC, do not complain in global OOC about their misusing of global OOC. Not only are you just making the problem worse, that is considered being a backseat admin, which is prohibited by other rules.

== Keep IC and OOC separate ==
*Don't complain in OOC or LOOC when your actions IC get you in trouble. If its a rules violation then Ahelp or open a ticket on the discord.
*IC (In-character) and OOC (Out-of-Character) actions and knowledge should be separated as much as possible. Don't use OOC channels to discuss what's going on IC until after the round is finished, don't use OOC knowledge to do things your character wouldn't know, such as operate medical machines when a cargo technician. You are not playing yourself in the game, you are controlling a character with their own wants and knowledge and the IC/OOC boundary is to help reflect that.
**Note that these same rules apply to LOOC as well.
*Disconnecting or using other OOC means to avoid IC consequences is against the rules. If you do urgently need to leave the server even though you're being punished, your options are either to surrender and get it over with, or use admin help to inform the admins, "I know Security is after me, but I have to go because (some emergency)." Failure to take ten seconds to tell an admin before disconnecting may result in harsher punishment.

=== Metacomms, metagaming, multi-keying, (etc) are not allowed ===
*Metacomms: Using third-party programs, such as Discord, IRC, Skype, or even the BYOND pager, to discuss and share information of the ongoing round. This excludes other players, can contribute to toxicity among the playerbase, and is often a tactic used by griefers and thus is a no-go.

*Metagaming: Using information obtained from elsewhere to influence IC decisions and actions. Your opinions or knowledge of other players or characters obtained via OOC methods should not direct your IC actions. If you have an OOC grudge against someone, you may not try to antagonize them IC, for example.
** Metagaming sometimes happens by accident due to game mechanics behaving undesirably due to intentional features or unintentional bugs and oversights. If it happens, ask an admin to help straighten things out if you can't do so among yourselves.

*Multi-keying: Logging in with multiple BYOND accounts on our game server. There is never any legitimate reason for you to do this and thus is not allowed.

== Create and play server-appropriate characters ==
Although this is a furry roleplaying server based around 2D spess mans, that doesn't mean anything goes because that is possible. Suspension of disbelief is still important to a good experience, and breaking that suspension of disbelief is bad for roleplaying. Characters who break that suspension of disbelief are not allowed. Saying "it's what my character would do" isn't an automatic protection against this rule if what your character is doing breaks that immersion.

*Play a reasonably sane and mature character, give them a non-immersion breaking first and last name, do not play obvious reference characters, or characters from published works.

*Keep in mind that people do not like pain or dying and usually try to avoid it without good reason. Give your character a reasonable set of strengths, fears, and weaknesses. When writing things for IC, write things out that sound like speech, not emoticons or lolspeak.

*The setting contains no magic. Your character cannot have any superpowers, magical abilities, or anything that does not exist in the setting or cannot be reasonably replicated with game mechanics. If they are not someone who has a good reason to work on the colony, they should not be here.
**The exception to this is purely private roleplay. For example: If your character and another character are in a dorm by themselves, and the other is OOCly fine with it, your character can display potentially supernatural abilities. This is limited to that roleplay, though. You should not discuss anything about that in public. Use magic at your own risk however, because technically the moment your RP is discovered by someone else, it stops being private, putting you in potential violation of this rule.

*Obscenely oversized or undersized characters are forbidden. Minimum height is at least four feet. Maximum height is about eight feet. Anything more or less really pushes the already shaky believably of abhumans and established alien lore.

*If you are playing a lore based species such as sablekyne, mar'qua, opifex, or whatever else we add in the future, you are expected to play the race as they are canonically meant to be played.

*OOC Notes and Flavor Text are '''required'''. Your OOC notes must detail your ERP preferences, and your flavor text should not include non-physical attributes (do not include feelings your character has, or how they act). Character records are something that should be filled out, if you have an issue or don't know how to do it properly, contact a member of staff for help.

*To be a colonist your character '''must''' have at least a ''basic'' understanding of the English language. Outsiders, however, are exempt from this restriction and may be of people from various backgrounds that may not have a grasp of even basic English.

*If your character is suspended, permanently killed off, or otherwise removed from the colony as a consequence for something horrible they did in-character, you are expected to not play that character anymore. If found playing the character again, or a 'clone' to circumvent this result, OOC punishment will be issued.

* '''Do not play vibrantly colored or "sparkle dog" type characters.''' This basically means you should mainly have natural fur coloration and a relatively normal appearance. Yes, our character editor has a ton of color options, including neon colors and many design sprites to do strange things. Creativity is fun, making your appearance incredibly unrealistic or as obnoxious as possible will result in admin intervention. Some leeway is given to races with canonically vibrant colors such as cht'mants and cindarites or custom xenos but try to keep them muted instead of neon. Following the custom species guide does not make you immune from this rule. If an admin asks you to change your color, do so, we have this rule to maintain HRP.

=== Do not kill or attack things (including yourself) for no good reason ===
*This includes yourself. Even in self-defense your goal is to fight off your attacker and survive, killing in a fight should only be done as a last-ditch effort when it's clear it's a you or them situation.

*Suicide or self-mutilation is almost NEVER allowed without prior consent from an admin. Contact an admin if you want to have a character commit suicide. Typically the manner in which suicide is carried out is played as an in-game attention grab and without actual compelling reasons. This can upset those that find this subject OOCly uncomfortable. The punishment for suicide is nearly always a permanent ban, so think about that before you kill yourself.

*Excessive responses are also covered by this. Caving in someone's skull for cutting in line, stabbing yourself in the eye with a screwdriver because you are bored, or jumping off a railing because you're sad, are all examples of being excessive.

*While Antags -- that being self-antags and staff-chosen ones -- are allowed to kill and place bodies out of the way, it's still frowned upon to go out of the way to hide or stash a body in a location without any reason for prolonged times. Attempting to PK people by doing so will result in administrative actions, and even if that isn't the intent, it violates the spirit of the server and may be punished regardless.

=== Do not powergame ===
*Better known as 'playing to win'. As a security person this can be seen as going out of your way and needlessly endangering others to ‘win against’ criminals. As the Colony AI exploiting loopholes in your laws to get yourself out of them or getting the person who subverted you into trouble is another way. There is an implicit allowance for lawed characters to ERP. You may create loopholes for this reason only.

*While this shares several things in common with other rules, it still is it's own entity. Play to have fun, allow yourself to lose now and again and roll with the blows as it can make things potentially even more interesting.

*Having '''way''' too many skills for one character is another example of this. Just because you're the premier and have access to everywhere doesn't mean you should (or can) know how to do all the different jobs. (See [[Character Creation#Give them a set of skills|Character Creation]] regarding skills for more information.)

*[[Identifying Antagonists]] when you shouldn't be able to is also a violation of this rule.

=== Do not godmode ===
* Often confused with powergaming, godmoding is to create abilities out of nowhere, or do impossible things. If the action cannot be reasonably emulated in the confines of the game's mechanics, and it gives you some kind of advantage or is exceptionally weird, it's probably not allowed. For example, if you don't have access to a mechanic for turning invisible, you can't turn invisible. Saying you're invisible doesn't mean squat.

* Creating a character who is immune to injuries or pain also falls under this. The game won't let you ignore getting shot, why would any player allow it either?
** If your character is literally coded to ignore pain, you can ignore pain. Cyborgs and robots are a notable example. They do not feel pain. They are not immune to injury, however.

* Accidental injuries are still in-character injuries unless an admin heals you. Admin heals are generally out of character to void the injury.

* '''Admins who are caught abusing admin powers to godmod will be immediately dealt with.'''

===Do not abuse whispers===
Any actions that would obviously be visible should not be hidden using whispers, this includes ERP, whispers longer than a sentence, or actions that would obviously be visible to anyone glancing you way. If you need to speak something longer than a sentence but want to keep it quiet use the whisper command. Anyone caught using whispers to hide obviously visible actions of paragraphs of texts will get slapped for it.

=== Rules of ‘Self-Antag’ ===
To start with here are some of the bare bone basic rules when self-antagging without properly a-helping for full antag.
* Do not be hostile to other crew for no legitimate reason.
* Don’t break things, steal things.
* Do NOT be Self-Antag without proper IC reasoning. Reasoning along the lines of "I'm bored" or "Giving Security something to do" is NOT a valid reason to be an asshole. Make sure your reason(s) are believable and why your actions make logical IC sense to any Admin
* Think about how a normal person would behave under similar circumstances. A well established character who has been around awhile may be given a bit of wiggle room to keep rounds interesting.

Things that are off limits without Ahelping and getting cleared with an admin before head are
* Breaking into earther of the armories that are maintained by the colony.
* The AI room and killing/modifieing the AI without a good reason.
* Heads of Staff rooms to steal unreplaceable gear/artifacts
* The spare ID in the Premier's office.
** The council may ''borrow'' the spare to handle activities such as issuing a new or missing ID, but are ''NOT'' to abuse it without A-helping first.

One key thing to remember is in any scenario you should be running/non-lethally fighting security when they come to arrest you unless you want to comply for a shorter sentencing. Always aim to escape and try not to ever use lethal methods else if someone dies you may be perma-brigged or executed. Security can have fun chasing and fighting a criminal, just be wary of pitfalls, nobody likes fighting a no-rp character, build things up first before jumping straight to mechanics.

Ask yourself these few questions.
* 'Would people have fun if I did this or no?'
* 'Does my character believe they have a legitimate good reason to be doing this?'
Going further into it, actions have consequences, if you're caught. If you're unsure if doing this or that is a-okay, then it would be best to check with a staff member beforehand.

'''Once you've become established and been around enough here are some guides and tips to self antagging:'''
The key goal to self antagging is to create roleplay that is enjoyable or otherwise fun for players to interact with to differ from the norm. Below are a list of examples but you should always consider "are other people having fun or am I just being a dick?"
* Buying and selling contraband.
* Starting a drug production operation in a secluded spot in the colony.
* Disguising yourself as a specific department and gaining access to it while pretending to be a member of that department until someone notices.
* Extorting people for cash with a good old fashioned mugging.

One thing to keep in mind when doing this is the fine line between being an enjoyable self antag and a griefer. Below is a list of things someone who self antags should be wary of.
* Don't complain when you lose or get brigged for a long time. Whatever punishment you receive as a self antag are a example of the rule that you agreed to in terms of handling consequences.
* Never use explosives that cause serious damage or ruin someone's round, without admin approval. A flashbang or force bomb so tiny it doesn't even break tiles? That's okay. A plasma bomb? You will get banned.
* Don't kill other players as a general rule. Not only will this get you killed or perma-brigged yourself but admins will immediately be alerted to your shenanigans if they haven't already and will be scrutinizing you far closer. Causing someone to die but still capable of revival is a little more acceptable then crushing someone's brain and removing them from the round entirely. Any forms of perma death will attract admin attention incredibly fast.
* Do not self antag more than once a day. Seriously, doing it every single time you play will swiftly get admin intervention. Once in awhile is good RP but every shift is a pain.
As a general rule, if nobody complains about your actions its assumed they are enjoying your shenanigans, but complaints will gain the staff attention and have use look through logs to see if you acted in a way that is good roleplay. If someone does complain immediately in LOOC because you sedated them or so, ignore them and continue on. Staff will handle such matters accordingly as immediate LOOC salt is not a good response.

*You cannot have a character with an “antagonist” background. Your ex-mercenary ex-ninja ex-cultist is not allowed, but certain criminal backstories might be okay. If in doubt, ask an admin.

*We play on ‘Extended’ round type most of the time, and this means that there are no automatically chosen antagonist roles. Most other SS13 servers have antags, but we do not. Any antagonists are staff-selected players, picked to play a specific role.

*And finally although we all enjoy creating interesting RP situations and getting immersed in the round, it is frowned on by staff to "start shit" near round end (15-30mins.)No one wants to wait around for some dumb-ass to have their 30+ mins of glory while we all wait for you to get arrested/investigated/faxed/ect. These situations happen sometimes and we understand that, but do TRY to avoid it. Staff is encouraged to enforce account [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strikes]] &/or temporary bans or more if you are shown to be a consistent issue.

Remember that if you ''are'' selected to be an antagonist-type role, it ''does'' give you some wiggle room than usual as far as the server rules go, but it '''does not''' give you permission to ''break'' any rules. Stick to your objectives, don't be over-the-top and ruining everyone else's fun if you can avoid it. Ask for admin help if you're not sure.

=== You are expected to perform the job you signed up for ===
When your character joins the round, you are accepting the responsibilities that the job you have chosen brings with it. Remember: if you are playing in a slot, you are likely preventing other players from performing that role. It is important that you fulfill the tasks that you have signed up for!
*Marhals should protect the colony from danger, the guild should ensure that power is up and that people can breathe, medical should provide treatment to injuries and other services, cargo should bring in needed cargo on request, Science should do... science stuff, and service should provide food. Command's job is to make sure at least these basics are being fulfilled, and to react accordingly in an emergency.

*A player must take into account the qualifications (both physical and mental) of their character’s role before placing them into it. If staff find your character to be unsatisfactory in fulfilling the requirements of the role, we may instruct you to revise your character.
**This includes majorly disabled characters — quadruple amputees, deaf, or blind characters, and so on — which are only permitted on the colony in the assistant (and associated alt-titles) job slot.

*Repeatedly failing to perform to an acceptable standard can result in a ban untill appealed.

*Job [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strikes]] are a counter of 0/3 which is noted on your character, after 3 job strikes, which can be earned by bad faxes or legitimate demotions from a head of staff, your character is permanently fired from that department until an appeal is made. Job strikes last 3 months, with the timer resetting with each strike.

*If you are going AFK for an extended period of time (more than 15 minutes), and are occupying a limited-number job slot (any slot other than assistant), you must remove your character from the round using a cryopod (or other similar means) to free the slot. Repeated failure to do this may result in being banned from that job.

*Do not do other people’s jobs. If you joined as medical, do not attempt to hunt down criminals. If you joined as engineering, do not attempt to perform medical treatment on your coworkers. If you are a head position, allow your staff to do work before you do the work yourself; you are a supervisor and manager first and foremost as a head position.

*Do not hijack other people's jobs. For example, if you're a roboticist but someone needs surgery, and there's already a surgeon who isn't currently busy, then don't perform the surgery instead of letting them do it. Similar examples exist with every department, so use your judgement. Basically, if you're ''actively getting in the way'' of someone else trying to do their job, you're probably breaking this rule.

*Playing jobs that can be called upon at any time to assist other crew members in emergencies waives your right to have interruption-free (E)RP sessions in private, including the dorms. If you join as a Lifeline Tech, expect to be interrupted out of private scenes. If you’re an engineer, you are expected to set up power systems and repair any large-scale damage that hampers the rest of the crew, regardless of your intent to have sex with the assistants. (Example: The premier getting their rocks off with someone while they are being called to assist with colony matters. They signed up to be the arbiter of colony matters. ERP is not what you are here for in that role. "saying you are busy or occupied" will incur a job [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strike]].)

*If you do prospecting as an non-prospector for more than 30-60 minutes without being in an expedition with them and you are not doing your job, you may get a talking to. If you want to play like a prospector - just play the job instead of ignoring the one you signed up for.

*Maintenance diving is not a valid reason to be busy from your assigned job. If you are requested to perform the actions of your role while maintenance diving it is expected that you make your way out of maintenance in a timely manner.

=== You are expected to obey the chain of command (within reason) ===
*Each head of staff is the de facto leader of their department, so listen to them. Likewise, you should obey decisions from faction owners (if a fax arrives) or council decisions unless directly overridden by an admin. If you consistently do not follow reasonable orders, you will be job banned.

*If you're playing a role that has [[AI#Interpreting_Your_Laws|AI laws]], you must obey these laws first and foremost to the best of your ability.

*As any role without AI laws, you can disobey orders you think are traitorous, harmful, immoral, or violating [[Laws]]. Use your judgement and consider whether or not disobeying the order could get you in trouble or get someone else horribly killed.

*If you are given an order or AI law that may break another server rule, please alert the admins for a second opinion before continuing.

Mind you, this is '''not''' a rule that lets people be fun police as heads of staff. If you feel that someone is ordering you do things that basically require you ''not'' to do your job, or to do your job in ways that aren't important/fun, then contact an admin for a second opinion or fax a faction owner in character.

=== You are expected to forget events that are deemed non-canon ===
*This is to keep things a little more sane in-round, and to allow for players with preferences in non-consensual activities to have their fun with people who share those prefs as victims. It is therefore against this rule to remember and abuse the knowledge of who killed/raped after the round has passed unless both people involved agree. You should not have the memory to antagonize or persecute your attacker without the prior OOC agreement of the other parties in the roleplay. They can include this consent in their OOC Metainfo/Notes or discuss it with you in LOOC before or after the roleplay.

*Keep in mind that non-consensual RP, while OOC, is fine it is not on an IC level. Characters who make their non-con actions public or get caught in the act can and will be permanently killed if caught. For example, if a person is tried and executed for rape that character is permanently dead and cannot reappear on the colony. If you wish to do non-con keep it private. '''You've been warned.'''

*The round ending does not make you immune to a character perma-kill. Just because you evaded capture or was not killed by the time it restarted does not mean everyone forgets what your character did. If you get caught and the evidence is ironclad enough, you will be PK'd.

*This rule also applies to events that cause catastrophic damage to the colony, such as a code red/delta scenario. As a general rule event coordinators '''should''' say before or after an event if it is non-canon or not.

*If you are killed in a round and then revived in the same round, you're memory is entirely intact and may act accordingly.

= The intent of the rules is more important than the letter =
The purpose of the rules is to preserve a fun and enjoyable environment for all players. If everyone is enjoying themselves even while the ‘letter’ of a rule is not being followed, it’s likely that no staff intervention will be required. On the other hand, just because something isn't in the rules doesn't mean it's okay or allowed if it's upsetting a large number of players.

*It is within admin staff's discretion to decide that certain actions violate one or more rules, even if the specific action is not listed as part of the rule. This is simply the job of the staff to interpret the rules. You can appeal decisions to other admins if you believe one has a bias against you, but doing so after a ruling is passed will get you in trouble.

*Plenty of rules are left vague enough to cover as much as possible without being too oppressing. Attempting to rules-lawyer saying that "this rule doesn't specifically say I can't do X", even if what you are doing is disrupting the server, will generally be ignored. We assume most of you have enough common sense to recognize what a [[#Create_and_play_server-appropriate_characters|sane and stable individual]] would and wouldn't do within this fictional setting.

=== Listen to admin staff ===
* One admin's word is usually as good as any other. Though, just because one admin says something is okay in that moment does not mean it will always be okay under another admin or even the same admin.
** If this causes a contradiction, you can (and should) inform the new admin of what you were told previously. For example, a Head Admin says you can do something, but that admin has left the server. A lower ranked admin shows up and asks you to stop doing that thing. You can explain that the Head Admin previously said you could do this, but if the lower ranked admin ''still'' wants you to stop, then you should stop. (This obviously works vise-versa as well.)
** Intentionally not telling a new admin about a contradiction is considered lying. It's like asking your mom for ice cream, but she says no, so you go ask dad because you think he'll be less strict.
* Sojourn is not a straight democracy; our rules and guidelines exist for a reason and we have staff dedicated to enforcing them and help set further guidelines if necessary. '''However, these rules are always going to be incomplete, and as such, just because something isn't written doesn't mean it's allowed.''' If a staff member tells you to do something, do it. They tell you to stop, then stop. If you disagree with a ruling, don't try to argue it then and there, especially if things are hectic. Once things have calmed down, or preferably after the round has ended, you can try to contact the staff member privately to discuss the ruling, or talk to another admin if you cannot talk to or cannot convince the offending admin.

* If you have a question over something unclear or questionable, never be afraid to adminhelp. The staff on hand should discuss it among themselves and give you a ruling, from there on if the ruling is in bad judgement, it's on the admin who cleared it, not ''you''. '''The staff should also NEVER ban you purely for a complaint against them.''' Even if you're a complete asshole about it, as long as the argument stays private, you cannot be banned just for arguing. Although being an asshole usually won't win an argument, so you probably shouldn't do that anyway.
** Don't confuse this for "complaining grants you immunity to bans", because that's not how it works. If you are told to not break windows and you complain how that isn't fair, you're still getting banned for breaking windows if we disagree with your complaint. What this means is we won't ban you or make an existing ban worse just because you tell us we're being excessively mean, confusing, or unfair to you or someone else.

= Dungeoneering =
A core aspect of our server is our PvE content, this can range from going into randomly generated dungeons, leaving the safety of the colony, or simply crawling through maintenance. However, we also have specific jobs for this and ones who should be doing this. As such, '''jobs discouraged or disallowed from dungeoneering are actively targeted by staff when spotted.''' Refer to the list below of jobs allowed to or dungeoneer.
===Core Dungeoneering===
These jobs are allowed to enter and leave the colony, and dungeons at will. There expected to do a wide range of things and will never be targeted for being in these areas.
* Foreman | Salvager | Prospector
* Lodge Hunt Master | Lodge Hunter
* Outsider

=== The Junkfield ===
The Junkfield has no restrictions on any role or job, do to its infinitely reproducible allowing no gameplay or fun to be lost by people using it.
* Anyone - Any reason as long as they are not ignoring or breaking their job.

===Staff Guide for Handling Dungeoneering===
When someone not in the listed jobs above is caught in a dungeon, admin staff are not only instructed to but '''encouraged''' to decide if the player is affecting the overall round to a negative effect and use in-game traps and mobs to kill the respective offender using the listed guide when needed. (Keep in mind we're here to have fun not punish people like robots following stonecold laws for breaking the rules. Use your best mindset for this.) However, this comes with a check list of things that need to be verified.

# Is the person apart of an event (official, mini-event, player run) that gives them a good roleplay reason to be in the area? I.E. the prospectors wanted extra hands and church litanies for healing, so they paid a vector to come with them.
# Is the person there for a reason that isn't looting? I.E. are they rescuing someone who is injured, etc. etc.
# If both answer to both is no, all staff must first subtle message the player in question with a warning of some kind such as "Something doesn't feel right, you're being watched..." or "An unearthly silence fills the space around you." or similar foreboding messages.
# '''Give them a reasonable amount of time to flee the area''' (usually 5 minutes) after the warning is given so they can avoid being killed.
# If they have not left, start by adding additional mobs/traps in their way as they continue. Under no circumstances should a player ever see the mobs or traps spawned, this means you cannot as staff randomly spawn mobs on top of, in front of, or in implausible locations to harm the offender. This includes spawning hard to spot traps in the path of a walking player, '''do not do this'''. As a rule, all additional spawns should be 7 or more tiles away from the player at all times. All methods to ramp the difficulty must be done in such a way that it makes perfect sense in-character, using thematically appropriate traps/enemies. I.E. You shouldn't be spawning primal renders inside the greyson field offices, etc. etc.
# Ramp up the pressure until they are dead. Do not begin with 10-20 spiders, start with 3-4 and keep progressing until they are overwhelmed or use lethal traps that they could avoid but will kill them if they're not careful. The goal is first to scare them to flee and only kill them if they persist. Staff who actively and badly enforce this rule without properly adhering to this list will get a [[Job_Strikes_and_You | Strike]]. If they get 3 or more strikes, they are no longer allowed to enforce this rule and may be demoted.
# The body should remain intact and reviable '''the first time this happens.''' The second time in the same round, a guilty offender should be rendered unreviable via being devoured by roaches. '''Do not gib or severely fuck up a body beyond repair on the first offense.'''

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Rules]]

Timeline

2023-01-26T19:09:43Z

Cora: /* Where We Begin */ - Adds in the vaugeness of earth history

=Where We Begin=
The history of Earth is vague, up until the set time below. This means real life events and history shouldn't be referenced ICly unless substantiated by lore. As a general rule, most major events will be referenced in this page.

==2125 - Terraforming Begins==
Earth begins unifying under the Mars terraforming process. The larger nations across the globe pool resources to complete what they believe will be an extremely profitable venture.

==2131 - Abhuman Adaptation==
[[Abhuman]] adaption is invented and quickly becomes a commercial success as various groups begin to modify themselves for planned travel off planet once available.

==2139 - New Homeworlds==
Other planets that are habitable are discovered, abhuman modifications skyrocket to fit the demand of planetary adaptation in other star systems. A slow form of hyper speed is then created, undergoing heavy development in parallel with colony ships being forged to send large population groups to these new star systems.

==2153 - Pending Financial Collapse==
Earth starts to bankrupt itself on its Mars terraforming project, incurring massive debt that causes hyperinflation and a failing economy.

==2154 - Escape from Sol==
Massive groups of populations flee to other systems for a new life, abandoning the failing Sol system.

==2275 - Terraforming Complete==
The Mars terraforming project is completed but Sol has bankrupted itself. A period of extreme strife follows for the next century with Mars and Earth falling into decline and the tycoons who worked up the debt through the terraforming project seize all material wealth left before fleeing on colony ships to other systems.

==2383 - Bluespace FTL Invented==
The remaining stable areas of Mars and Earth, seeking to find a way to fix the economic and political stability, invent the bluespace FTL drive. A revolutionary faster than light travel device capable of cutting trips that once would have taken decades to a few weeks.

==2384 - War Preparation==
Sol begins a propaganda campaign, blaming all their ills on the fleeing colonists, claiming that they stole the wealth that rightfully belonged to them. Over the next three years, the remaining despairing Sol citizens are rallied under a desperate banner to bring peace to their worlds.

==2387 - War Begins==
Sol begins the unification wars after weaponizing bluespace drives and pooling the last of their resources into a military-industrial complex, mass producing ships, soldiers, weaponry, and armaments.

==2387-2562 - The Conquering==
Several centuries of warfare follow, with Sol utterly destroying, annexing, conquering, or forcing all [[abhuman]] and [[human]] empires to join them. The first phase begins with what is commonly called the Twenty-Year Harrowing, where Sol forces refused any surrender or peace terms, utterly devastating and conquering all nearby star systems in a bloody display of military might. This sets the stage for the remaining centuries of conflict, causing many systems to surrender the moment the Sol fleet entered their star space.

After this twenty year period of intense bloodshed, Sol reins in its devastating methods and begins using the reputation gained and its rapidly growing industry it has developed to quickly recruit potential conquests through more peaceful means.

==2565 - Unified Federation==
By this time period, all major empires of human or abhuman origin have been absorbed into the Sol Federation. Those remaining were deemed too distant and insignificant to be profitably conquered. With humanity united, Sol begins a fervent expansion into other areas of space by terraforming new planets and seeking more distant areas for colonization. It is at this time that humanity begins to discover intelligent alien life.

==2567 - Mar'qua Alliance==
With its beginning expansionism, the Sol Federation is contacted by the [[Mar’qua]] sovereignty who had discovered humanity decades ago and had begun learning of them. A peace treaty and defensive contract is set up on mutually agreed upon terms-- Sol leveraging its superior numbers, military, and economy against Mar'qua's advanced technology in a mutually beneficial agreement. An uneasy peace is now in place as both empires work together, the Federation eager to get its hands on Mar’qua technology while the Sovereignty seeks using the Federation as a cudgel to protect its borders.

==2569 - Greyson Positronics==
The small corporation known as Greyson Positronics is formed by joint Federation factions interested in pushing the boundaries of robotics, cybernetics, and mechanical augmentation. The company quickly becomes a massive spanning corporation across the universe thanks to open use of artificial intelligence and robots filling a massive portion of the workforce. Many notable inventions begin and end with Greyson and by 2596 this corporation owns enough planets, armaments, and forces to rival a small empire.

==2572 - Akula Colonization==
Sol discovers the homeworld of the [[Akula]]. Sol quickly began to colonize the planet, supplying weapons to factions that are pro-Sol to easily conquer the planet in three years, making the Akula official SolFed citizens. Introduction of Akula soldiers and shock troopers are added to military offensives, further increasing the might of federation forces.

==2577-2620 - Period of Discovery==
Many new species are discovered, with notable ones being listed below in order of importance. Smaller, weaker alien empires are slowly absorbed by the ever expanding Sol Federation borders with many joining willingly and some fighting a losing battle, being annexed shortly after.

==2580 - Naramad ==
The homeworld of the primitive [[Naramad]] are discovered. The leaders of the Naramadi people mistakenly attack the federation ambassadors, believing they are a similar looking native fauna that stole from them. Retaliation is swift and brutal as the Federation declared a defensive war and dispatched Mar’qua forces from the war council to handle the situation, with the stipulation of no orbital bombardment to preserve planetary industry. In a handful of months the planet is brought to its knees and quickly annexed. Its people are conscripted into the Sol military as shock troops and ship-to-ship breaching parties.

==2582 - Sablekyne==
The existence of the [[Sablekyne]] home-world is revealed to the Federation through Oni, LLC who had long ago contacted the alien race and uplifted them as allies. Integration into the federation proves simple and easy, with Sablekyne making up a decent chunk of frontier area military corps, merchants, and freebooters.

==2583 - Opifex==
[[Opifex]] ships are discovered by the Mar’qua Observatorium, confirming a century long rumor of scavengers who targeted derelict ships, space hulks, and unprotected colonies. Contact is established and the main Opifex scavenger fleets are eased into an non-aggression treaty. Shortly after, Opifex ships begin attacking and raiding enemies of the Sol Federation for unconfirmed reasons.

==2600 - Cht'mant==
The [[Cht’mant]] are discovered on a planet marked for resource harvesting due to its hostile environment being unfit for human colonization. The Cht’mant are originally mistaken for animals until a hive queen learns to imitate and use English Common. The Soteria Institute, a xenobiological research organization working with the federation at the time deemed the Cht’mant worth study and collected several hive queens and remaining Cht’mants from the planet. After a brief period of study and secondary schooling, the race remaining Cht’mants were released to their own devices.

==2601 - Cindarite==
The [[Cindarite]] are discovered by rebel pirates in their death world. Federation forces descended on pirates in the sector, capturing or destroying most ships before a well known pirate struck a deal to reveal all of his information and contacts with the Cindarites located below the surface of their death world. Federation forces quickly initiated diplomatic operations and recruited the Cindarite for their highly specialized evolution to toxic living conditions. Many Cindarites became spacers, spending their entire lives on various ships, allowing them to become well known in a short space of time.

==2605 - Kriosan==
The [[Kriosans]] Empire is discovered by the Federation and quickly annexed to gain access to their valuable anti-orbital weapons platforms, and the governing dictatorship agrees to terms of surrender, if only officially. Rioting was frequent, but quelled quickly by Solar MPs and Kriosan Police.

==2625 - The Second Conquering==
Sol continues its aggressive expansion, preparing to conquer the small left over empires of abhumans/humans. Rumors and missives are abound that a new unification war is about to begin and those who have resisted Federation control will soon be conquered, annexed, or given a chance to surrender. Many speculate that this new series of wars will spread throughout the galaxy as decades of preparation begins.

==2628 - Greyson Positronics==
The galaxy-spanning megacorp Greyson Positronics collapses for unknown reasons. All synthetics, artificial intelligence, and robots under the Greyson network go haywire and begin slaughtering any and all nearby organics. Many areas exclusively owned by Greyson quickly become dead worlds that are abandoned and rendered off limits. Greyson industries and colonies were built on hostile or worthless planets for its cost benefit-- as a result, Federation forces decline wasting resources clearing out these areas as there is little gain to be had in doing so. Grayson sites with galaxy-scale strategic value, or built on profitable locations, are destroyed and reclaimed. The remaining organic Greyson employees who escaped the initial conflict formed the Xiang Jiang and quickly become enemies of the Sol Federation upon discovery of using biomorphs.

==2644 - The Colony Forms==
The Nadezhda Coalition, formed by several disparate factions and fleets of ships, prepare to leave for the distant world known as Amethyn on the edge of the galaxy. Many ships filter in over the year before the final one, the Soteria fleet, crash lands upon the surface after using an experimental inter-star system teleporter. This event marks the last of the largest ships arriving upon the colony, but smaller transport shuttles filter in over the next few years.

==2645 - Bluespace Crash==
Bluespace as it is understood crashes, completely and utterly rendering all bluespace devices unstable, with long range devices such as teleporters and bluespace drives becoming so unstable using them is assuredly a death wish. Short range devices prove to still function, yet many show signs of instability and formerly unknown bugs that cause new hazards with use. A large splinter faction calling itself the Vorhut launched a rebellion across the Kriosan Empire, re-establishing Castellan rule and Imperial sovereignty at the cost of around half the rebel forces.

==2652 - Present Day==
The colony is entirely cut off from the rest of the galaxy due to the bluespace crash, with only the nearby [[Kriosan]] Confederacy able to easily communicate with them. Relations and trade agreements are quickly established.

[[Category:Lore]]

Technologies

2023-01-24T23:48:42Z

Cora: /* FTL */ Removes WIP

=Bluespace=

Bluespace, a defining technology of the 24th century, freed from the shackles of FTL technology, near-instantaneous transit across vast quantities of space became possible. breaking the excruciatingly slow speeds of FTL and plunging the galaxy into a state where the measure of a parsec became a reasonable unit of measure for travel.

Furthermore, the subjugation of colonies became far easier for superpowers. No longer would fleets take weeks, or months of real time to cover the space, but mere hours or days to cover the space. Furthermore, Bluespace transit was simply more comfortable, and the terrors and insanity brought on by FTL exposure were nullified due to the complete alternate means of travel.

Bluespace, at its core, is the unlocking of another dimension of travel, though often simply put as "folding space" to contend with curious minds. The true inner workings of Bluespace drives often confuse even their own maintainers. A scant few researchers have spent enough time researching all the aspects of Bluespace travel to understand exactly the calculations and procedures taken to complete a full jump, start to finish.

Onboard ships, most engineers simply know how to operate the computers and examine statistics to ensure the drive is in good working order, as well as confirm jump calculations are accurate. The complex computations of 4th dimensional travel take drive computers much time, as well as multiple runs to confirm the math checks out. Once completed the complex process of jumping starts, As a pathway through another dimension is formed before the ship, it will accelerate past the point of no return and enter the Bluespace tunnel.

While in fourth-dimensional space, nothing unusual is able to be noted, save for the complete and utter warping of all visual aspects outside of the carefully calculated and formed route. For this reason most of the crew are completely barred from looking outside of a ship during Bluespace travel. Those that have, report, at best, no effect, while other cases result in complete and irrecoverable mental insanity.

In the early days Bluespace travel was dangerous, taking near a year of research for acceptable levels of loss of vessel percentages to be achieved. Even at its height of use though, Bluespace travel was never 100% safe, with the rare occasional ship being lost to the void. Often blamed on failed maintenance of the drive or improperly calculated jump routes, on rare occasions, ships have returned in varying states of decay or intactness.

Around 2638, the Mar’Qua Alliance posted a bulletin to the galaxy at large, warning of a statistical increase in vessels lost to Bluespace. The margin of increase was deemed too low to be of concern to most, even to some of the Mar’Qua Nest worlds. This bulletin would be the only warning sign of the impending Bluespace crash.

In the year 2645, on October 19th, at 06:26 and 15 seconds SET (Sol Event Time), Bluespace, as it was known to work, ceased. Ships traveling in groups and arriving one after another around this time would note that any ship arriving before that exact moment would arrive, but anything after the 15th second would never arrive. All ships in Bluespace at this time were lost to the void; further ships wouldn't receive notice of the crash and would jump into the warp, never to be seen again. By 06:38, SolFed announced the galaxy-wide crash of Bluespace and warned all ships to cease Bluespace travel. From this moment on, Bluespace travel has never worked for long-distance travel, and short-distance teleportation has taken great effort to make work in any meaningful way.

=FTL=
The Alcubierre drive, in conjunction with long-term cyrosleep, set the stage for the first steps into FTL travel and primed the galaxy for an age of expansion from the core of Sol in the year 2139. At long last, man had overcome one of the fundamental laws of the universe; the stars, oh so distant, were now within grasp.

The effect on the Terra-Martian relationship was instant; the original 9-month flight to the red plant could now be completed in just 3 minutes by the simplest of FTL drives. The entire system of Sol was now easily capable of being unified with this new transit technology.

In the coming years, the means of FTL travel would be developed further, speeds would slowly increase to make long distance travel more and more reasonable, and soon, other stars were in reach as FTL drives reached 500c. However, issues slowly made themselves more and more present as speeds continued to increase.

While moving faster than light, a whole new plethora of particles that only exist at speeds faster than light were found. The colloquial term "tachyon" now applies, as these particles only exist and can only exist at speeds faster than light. At low intensities, these particles had no noticeable effect, but as FTL drives accelerated faster and faster, more and more crews began to report abnormalities in both electronic systems and, more worryingly, in their own thoughts.

Further studies concluded that the particles, while mostly harmless, did impose electronic interference on an atomic level; thus, computers needed to be shielded as best as possible, have redundancies set up, error checking, and self-correction. Through technology, the machines were able to go faster; it was merely the people that could not.

The first known incident of "Starlight Madness" as it was dubbed, was recorded in 2146, when a high-speed FTL test platform, the BlueStar, experienced a sudden and fatal incident when the ship's engineer appeared to enter a state of psychosis despite having no mental issues on record. After suddenly assaulting and overpowering his two additional crew members, he piloted the test ship into Jupiter's 17th moon. After a few weeks of searching, a black box was found, revealing the nature of the engineer's sudden onset of madness as recorded by his microphone.

While concerning, those in cryostorage fared far better at high FTL, oblivious in their unconscious states; at worst, people would awaken with headaches. In time, though, lasting effects were found from FTL travel, even for those in cyro. Permanent damage will impact all who used FTL, in cryo or awake, with the new effect titled "Sudden Sleep Disorder." SSD, a byproduct of using FTL, impacted previous travelers at random times, causing a sudden, complete catatonic state for seemingly random durations.

In the end FTL remained a viable option despite these drawbacks, however its speed was forever limited by the human and electronic factor. In later testing, it was found that positronic brains offered no extra resilience, making AI-crewed FTL ships worthless. Instead, the standard was to travel at safe speeds and rotate crews in and out of cyrosleep for long journeys, as well as using crew-administered drugs, body modification, and simply picking people less emotional to be crew at higher speeds.

=Subspace=
WIP

=AI=
WIP

=Cyrosleep=
WIP

=Bio-revival=
WIP

=Prosthetics=
WIP

Technologies

2023-01-24T23:48:23Z

Cora: /* FTL */ Adds in the lore of FTL engines.

=Bluespace=

Bluespace, a defining technology of the 24th century, freed from the shackles of FTL technology, near-instantaneous transit across vast quantities of space became possible. breaking the excruciatingly slow speeds of FTL and plunging the galaxy into a state where the measure of a parsec became a reasonable unit of measure for travel.

Furthermore, the subjugation of colonies became far easier for superpowers. No longer would fleets take weeks, or months of real time to cover the space, but mere hours or days to cover the space. Furthermore, Bluespace transit was simply more comfortable, and the terrors and insanity brought on by FTL exposure were nullified due to the complete alternate means of travel.

Bluespace, at its core, is the unlocking of another dimension of travel, though often simply put as "folding space" to contend with curious minds. The true inner workings of Bluespace drives often confuse even their own maintainers. A scant few researchers have spent enough time researching all the aspects of Bluespace travel to understand exactly the calculations and procedures taken to complete a full jump, start to finish.

Onboard ships, most engineers simply know how to operate the computers and examine statistics to ensure the drive is in good working order, as well as confirm jump calculations are accurate. The complex computations of 4th dimensional travel take drive computers much time, as well as multiple runs to confirm the math checks out. Once completed the complex process of jumping starts, As a pathway through another dimension is formed before the ship, it will accelerate past the point of no return and enter the Bluespace tunnel.

While in fourth-dimensional space, nothing unusual is able to be noted, save for the complete and utter warping of all visual aspects outside of the carefully calculated and formed route. For this reason most of the crew are completely barred from looking outside of a ship during Bluespace travel. Those that have, report, at best, no effect, while other cases result in complete and irrecoverable mental insanity.

In the early days Bluespace travel was dangerous, taking near a year of research for acceptable levels of loss of vessel percentages to be achieved. Even at its height of use though, Bluespace travel was never 100% safe, with the rare occasional ship being lost to the void. Often blamed on failed maintenance of the drive or improperly calculated jump routes, on rare occasions, ships have returned in varying states of decay or intactness.

Around 2638, the Mar’Qua Alliance posted a bulletin to the galaxy at large, warning of a statistical increase in vessels lost to Bluespace. The margin of increase was deemed too low to be of concern to most, even to some of the Mar’Qua Nest worlds. This bulletin would be the only warning sign of the impending Bluespace crash.

In the year 2645, on October 19th, at 06:26 and 15 seconds SET (Sol Event Time), Bluespace, as it was known to work, ceased. Ships traveling in groups and arriving one after another around this time would note that any ship arriving before that exact moment would arrive, but anything after the 15th second would never arrive. All ships in Bluespace at this time were lost to the void; further ships wouldn't receive notice of the crash and would jump into the warp, never to be seen again. By 06:38, SolFed announced the galaxy-wide crash of Bluespace and warned all ships to cease Bluespace travel. From this moment on, Bluespace travel has never worked for long-distance travel, and short-distance teleportation has taken great effort to make work in any meaningful way.

=FTL=
WIPFTL - The Alcubierre drive, in conjunction with long-term cyrosleep, set the stage for the first steps into FTL travel and primed the galaxy for an age of expansion from the core of Sol in the year 2139. At long last, man had overcome one of the fundamental laws of the universe; the stars, oh so distant, were now within grasp.

The effect on the Terra-Martian relationship was instant; the original 9-month flight to the red plant could now be completed in just 3 minutes by the simplest of FTL drives. The entire system of Sol was now easily capable of being unified with this new transit technology.

In the coming years, the means of FTL travel would be developed further, speeds would slowly increase to make long distance travel more and more reasonable, and soon, other stars were in reach as FTL drives reached 500c. However, issues slowly made themselves more and more present as speeds continued to increase.

While moving faster than light, a whole new plethora of particles that only exist at speeds faster than light were found. The colloquial term "tachyon" now applies, as these particles only exist and can only exist at speeds faster than light. At low intensities, these particles had no noticeable effect, but as FTL drives accelerated faster and faster, more and more crews began to report abnormalities in both electronic systems and, more worryingly, in their own thoughts.

Further studies concluded that the particles, while mostly harmless, did impose electronic interference on an atomic level; thus, computers needed to be shielded as best as possible, have redundancies set up, error checking, and self-correction. Through technology, the machines were able to go faster; it was merely the people that could not.

The first known incident of "Starlight Madness" as it was dubbed, was recorded in 2146, when a high-speed FTL test platform, the BlueStar, experienced a sudden and fatal incident when the ship's engineer appeared to enter a state of psychosis despite having no mental issues on record. After suddenly assaulting and overpowering his two additional crew members, he piloted the test ship into Jupiter's 17th moon. After a few weeks of searching, a black box was found, revealing the nature of the engineer's sudden onset of madness as recorded by his microphone.

While concerning, those in cryostorage fared far better at high FTL, oblivious in their unconscious states; at worst, people would awaken with headaches. In time, though, lasting effects were found from FTL travel, even for those in cyro. Permanent damage will impact all who used FTL, in cryo or awake, with the new effect titled "Sudden Sleep Disorder." SSD, a byproduct of using FTL, impacted previous travelers at random times, causing a sudden, complete catatonic state for seemingly random durations.

In the end FTL remained a viable option despite these drawbacks, however its speed was forever limited by the human and electronic factor. In later testing, it was found that positronic brains offered no extra resilience, making AI-crewed FTL ships worthless. Instead, the standard was to travel at safe speeds and rotate crews in and out of cyrosleep for long journeys, as well as using crew-administered drugs, body modification, and simply picking people less emotional to be crew at higher speeds.

=Subspace=
WIP

=AI=
WIP

=Cyrosleep=
WIP

=Bio-revival=
WIP

=Prosthetics=
WIP

Technologies

2023-01-24T00:26:49Z

Cora: /* Bluespace */ Adds in the "timezone" for the crash time

Technologies

2023-01-24T00:23:43Z

Cora:

Technologies

2023-01-24T00:21:34Z

Cora: /* Technologies */ - Creates the Technologies page, and puts Bluespace Information into it

Lore

2023-01-24T00:18:57Z

Cora: /* Standard Information */ - Adds in new WIP Technologies section

</div>
 <big> '''Welcome to the Sojourn Lore page!''' </big>
The pages and links within contain in-character content which pertains to the game's universe that may or may not be represented in-game mechanically, and is more meant to provide background information on which to build worlds and characters off of. It is commonly known as "fluff" due to this. Things such as a planet's economics or a species' culture are two such examples of lore that serves as fluff, which can then be used in a character's background to provide more immersive detail. The vast majority of these pages can be read as if your character is reading it unless stated otherwise. Please keep in mind that the content within however can be changed or edited at any time as corrections to help maintain continuity are not unheard of. If you have any questions, comments or concerns about the lore, please contact [[User:Cora]] for more information.
{{toc_right}}

=Note from Server Maintainers=
Any and all species from other servers do not exist in our lore. Any attempt to bring an alien species from another server will be met with character removal. Any attempt to use lore from other servers will be met with Administrative action. Custom species are required to be in the realm of possibility, and if you want to create a new race that is not an abhuman you are required to use this [[Creating a Race|guide]] or contact a lore maintainer.

=Premise=
The brutality of the authoritarian Sol Federation has long proven its intolerance to many. Dissidents, rebels, second class citizens, and aliens living within Sol Federation space have long since been beaten down by the militaristic government that seeks open control of much of the galaxy. One such group, funded by companies looking to exploit this feeling of social animosity, became known as the Nadezhda and began to secretly recruit members looking to escape the oppressive rule of the Sol Federation and its allied empires.

The factions who signed onto this venture were the Sol military deserters, the Artificier’s Guild, the Soteria Institute, and the Lonestar Shipping Solutions. The Marshals were once Sol Federation forces consisting of police, paramilitary, and military operatives trained in keeping the peace and waging small scale warfare in order to ensure Sol Federation dominance in star systems absent of full military support. The deserters were recruits and veterans alike of several conflicts who in an act of open defiance seized what equipment they could and fled with the Nadezhda, all of whom are now branded as pirates and considered criminals by the Sol Federation. The Artificier’s Guild is a faction dedicated to the maintenance and repair of various types of technology among federation controlled space and, after being conscripted for several years to work pro bono for the federation military they officially closed shop, declared bankruptcy, and left with the colony ship. The Soteria Institute is a completely independent corporation that seeks advancement in all areas of science ranging from biology to cybernetic systems and desiring to experiment with plasma and outside the prying eyes of the federation government eagerly signed on to the colony as researchers and doctors. The Church of Absolute, seeking a new land to found their church and faith for a better life after being declared a cult and forced into hiding by the Sol federation. Finally you have the Lonestar Shipping Solutions who organized the entire mission down to every credit from finding people to sign on, buying the ships, loading all the supplies, and getting every faction to fall in line together.

=Introduction=
''In the year of 2644...''

At the behest of the allied factions an organized colony ship was deployed and arrived in the Chromin 8 system in the span of two years with the aid of Bluespace FTL to escape the iron fist of the Sol federation. With successful deployment the ship landed on Amethyn and began immediate construction of a full colony. With merely a years time the colonists, with the aid of mechanized and robotic assistance, set up a thriving city. Yet, as luck would have it, several things went wrong in the span of a few months.

First and foremost came the Bluespace crash in the year of 2645, an event which caused the complete disruption of all Bluespace FTL drives in the galaxy to simultaneously fail. It is unknown what caused the crash or even why, but what is known is that Bluespace FTL travel has now become suicidally dangerous. Travel into the Bluespace dimension would often see ships disappear permanently, arrive billions of lightyears away from their target destination, or appear absent their crew and hollowed out into drifting space hulks. It is estimated that only one percent of all ships attempting Bluespace FTL arrive at their destination and all ships now must use the former primitive FTL drives, slowing down travel to a snail's pace. For better or worse, anyone traveling between the Chromin 8 system to Sol Federation space must now spend eight years using the primitive FTL drives. This effectively rendered the colony of Amethyn stranded and cut off from nearly all other empires. This proved a double edged sword, on the one hand the Sol Federation could not pursue them, but on the other hand they could no longer export or import trade goods and needed supplies.

But the troubles did not end there, shortly after communications were cut with the bluespace crash previously hidden factions began to reveal themselves as time went on. The first of which were the Seelie and Unseelie, the plant-like natives to nearby continent of Ysa. Next was the Kriosan Confederacy, a smaller empire that had long contested Sol Federation rule and controlled the nearby sectors. Then the mondkyne, a group of drug addicted sablekyne exiled from their home system, were found in the company of pirates. This group of smugglers had set up a drug production operation on the moon of Amethyn and had been selling their supplies across the galaxy for the last few decades. Lastly there was, separated by oceans, the relatively unknown dust striders and their supposed shamans who seemed uncaring of the various factions now openly known on the planet.

What followed was a scramble to secure the position of their colony from outside forces. The Kriosan Confederacy, unlike the war mongering Sol Federation, noted the system was claimed by the colonists and requested clearance to set up several outposts after brokering for a trade agreement. In exchange for exporting and importing goods to their nearby controlled sectors the Nadezhda would sell them with medical supplies and rare goods from the Seelie, with which the Nadezhda found quick and easy allies with as they joined the colony for a mutually beneficial agreement. Wary of the mondkyne smugglers and pirates the Nadezhda eagerly agreed to allying with both factions to bolster their numbers and defenses. The Blackshield was formed to defend the colony and after a few short years an uneasy peace was forged, though tensions rise and fall as threats come and go.

Internally, the colony has created a stronger bond between each corporation. Cut off from the outside for the last six years, the formerly competitive factions now see working closely together as a requirement for survival. However, most retain their autonomy and desire profit for themselves and their employees to stay ahead of the curve. A merit based system evolved quickly as the day to day challenge of remaining afloat became an ever present concern. Vigilance in keeping threats both foreign and domestic under control and ensuring the safety of families and loved ones are the prime reason the colony still stands united.

''Now it is the the year of 2651, seven years after the colony departed from Sol Federation space and five years after the Bluespace crash that left them isolated from all but those within the star system of Chromin 8.''

=Standard Information=
Here is the basic information that you should look over to get acquainted with the lore, background, and fluff of the Sojourn universe.

===Timeline===
{{Main|Timeline}}
For a general overview of when the Big Things happened, check here.

===Laws===
{{Main|Laws}}
These are the rules of Nadezhda, and should be followed during your stay on the colony. This is not only for your fellow colonists safety, but for your own as well.

===Nearby Factions===
{{Main|Neighbors and Factions}}
Background groups and forces you should probably be aware of.

===Colony Factions===
{{Main|List of Factions}}
Eight major groups have come together to form the different departments located within Nadezhda. The Soteria Institute, Artificers Guild, Prospectors, Marshals, Lonestar Shipping Solutions, the Church of Absolute, and the Blackshield. Each are equally as important as the other, and have their roles to play to further the survival of the colony.

===Occupations===
{{Main|Jobs}}
Each department has its own occupations located within, each handling the different aspects of the department to make sure it runs smoothly. It is good advice to listen to each faction leader while within their department, and while under their employ.

===Guides===
{{Main|Guides}}
Each occupation has different tasks that must be completed within the day. Startup procedures are critical tasks while others are of less priority, but each help make sure that the colony is in perfect working order.

===Species===
{{Main|Core Species}}
On your time aboard, you will notice that Nadezhda is a rather inclusive colony and welcomes those from a wide variety of backgrounds and even species. When a people is referred to as a "core species", this is referring to registered species that represent a large portion of the colonist demographics and generally hail from their own culture and empire. Non-core species are recognized members of the colony but make up a much smaller demographic than within the general population.

===Planet Backgrounds===
{{Main|Planets}}
There are various planets that are home to millions, and whilst there are few, a large portion of people have been born on these worlds, if not in space, and were raised on these planets. Due to this, their very bodies will be different in slightly unnoticeable ways to the naked eye.

===Technologies===
{{Main|Technologies}}
A collection of well-known universal technologies that in some form or another completely altered the course of history, or are so endemic to the modern age, that few live lives without coming into regular contact with these technologies.

[[#top|Back to Top]]
[[Category:Lore]]

Standard Operating Procedure

2023-01-18T23:17:08Z

Cora: /* The Council - MOP */ - Adjusts age limits to match new In-Game requirments

The information contained in the article below is written here instead of the individual [[Jobs|manuals]] for each profession because this is all information the entire crew should know, so they may know what to expect, what their rights are, and what other staff should be doing to best service the crew. For those looking for information on the Hunting Lodge, click [[The Hunters Codex|this]].

(( Players reading this page should keep in mind '''THESE ARE NOT OOC RULES!''' These are just how the colony, in-character, would have something handled. Whether or not you are following these policies is irrelevant if you break [[Rules|the actual rules]]. Breaking SOP is usually IC, and usually only results in IC punishment like being fired. ))

== SOP Clarification ==
Whilst SOP is generally considered a suggestion, unless explicitly stated otherwise, this is only applicable for a department's SOP. To ignore SOP outside of your specific department is a punishable offense enforced by the law. It should be adhered to at all times.

For the time being until it can be fully handled, parts of SOP may be labeled 'ROP' and 'MOP.' These stand for 'Recommended Operating Procedure,' and 'Mandatory Operating Procedure.' This states that ROP may be deviated from as a guideline, whereas MOP is required under all circumstances to be followed by High Council decree.

== Colony Labor Rights - MOP ==
As per the conditions of the Nadezhda Declaration of Sentient Rights, all employees are granted specific legally afforded rights as colonists in the city of Nadezhda.

* Everyone has the right to work, free choice of employment, just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.
** What it means: Barring an emergency in which you are qualified and able to help safely resolve, you cannot be conscripted or otherwise forced into an occupation that you have no desire or ability to meet the responsibilities of. For example, a Cargo Technician cannot be fired for not following orders to go mining, because that's a completely different job.
* Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
** What it means: You cannot be denied work or pay because of your appearance, race, gender, species, or religious affiliation within reason. For example, a naramad cannot be removed from command just for being a naramad.
* Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of a sentient being's dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
** What it means: You are paid a living wage in the form of credits via electronic deposit in such a way that you may access and spend those funds freely. You are also granted, if you so desire, certain benefits from the colony such as safe and affordable housing in protected colony zones. For example, paying you with commodities such as meat is not permitted (even if you would be okay with being paid in meat).
* Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests.
** What it means: You can be part of a union. This is self explanatory. Heads of staff may fire any employee at any time for forming a union.
* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
** What it means: All employees are entitled to break time, vacations, and holidays as outlined in your employee handbook. (( What this actually means OOCly: Nobody can come along and fire you or punish you for not doing your job 24/7 on the server. As long as the needs of your current job are met within reason, and there's no current emergencies, you can bugger off to do lewds or RP. Nobody likes a kill joy. ))
* Each faction has the right to fire an employee for a valid reason, repeated termination may result in a temporary or indefinite suspension. Basic workers in a department who have been fired three times on valid grounds within the span of 1 month will receive an indefinite suspension until an appeal is made. Heads of staff fired by their respective faction leaders are suspended from the department indefinitely until an appeal is made.
** OOC: What is considered valid for a strike is determined by an admin, usually with consensus from other admins, on a case by case basis. Generally committing crimes, refusing to follow valid orders, refusing to do your job, or causing notable strife among other people in your department is considered valid grounds for termination from your job.

Violation of employee labor rights is punishable under [[Laws]] §103.

== Nadezhda Privacy Policy - MOP ==
Under normal colony operation, the invasion of private areas such as locked dorms, bathrooms, personal offices, personal belongings, personal lockers, or other personal space is highly illegal without consent of the owner or a search warrant. Furthermore, the use of thermal imaging goggles or other artificial means of observing crew in private areas such as tracking devices is also strictly forbidden without explicit consent or warrant, and the tools used to conduct such crimes are considered contraband. If your right to privacy is violated by the marshals or other members of the crew, contact the premier or warrant officer to submit an official complaint. If this violation of privacy results in the conviction of a crime, you may be eligible to have the incident voided by order of a Nadezhda council and be compensated for wrongful arrest.

The Privacy Laws extends to every individual colonist and ally of the colony, especially in the Medical and Security Sector. The essence of it is help and report crimes whenever you can, but to not hurt a persons reputation immediately by doing so. Sometimes you will witness things out of context. You can always say "I just witnessed someone break into the premiers office!" instead of calling out their name immediately. You can always report the crime to a marshal or blackshield member later.

The location of suit sensors may never be reported under any circumstances unless the individual in question calls for help, the person is wanted for a dangerous crime/considered to be a threat to other colonists or there is good reason to fear a medical emergency. This is extended below in the appropriate sections, so do not just use the previous sentence as the final say. All employees are recommended to let their head of staff know about their whereabouts or if they decide to take a break and for how long. An employee going or on a break never has to reveal their location, unless they decide to leave the colony. Every Head of Staff has the right to see the Gatelog in the Guardhouse if requested.

'''Medical Privacy Laws''' 
An unconscious person that called for help previously or is showing a medical emergency on suit sensors (including death) always and automatically consents to their location being made public information. This can never change. It is recommended to keep the person identity private to avoid any charges.

Transporting injured personnel should be ideally be done by at least stretchers, but is recommended to use a stasis bag instead to protect the privacy of the person. A dead person should be transported via a body bag.

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to notify another colonist of the injured colonists medical status. Soteria Medical Personnel and Corpsman are excluded from this providing it is done in a private location or on the medical channel. This may be extended to other colonists capable of treating a person in the medical facilities, however the location and radio channel previously mentioned still apply. The only person that should be contacted is the relevant Head of Staff in case of serious injury or death. If a Head of Staff is seriously injured or dead other Command Members may be informed. Medical Records may reveal a next-of-kin or emergency contacts and if they are on duty are allowed to be contacted.
In the event of an unrevivable death of a colonist only the relevant Head of Staff must be informed. Otherwise post-mortem instructions are to be followed and the death should not be revealed to other colonists. A fax should be sent to the High Council with an autopsy report attached.

Medical issues such as addictions and mental problems are never to be discussed with anyone, unless consent is provided.

Informing the Medical Team of an emergency coming in is appropriate as well as the extent of their wounds, however it is recommended that the persons identity should not be revealed to avoid any potential charges.

If a treated individual discusses their wounds and status on a public channel - namely common radio -, they waive any right to medical privacy for the issue they have mentioned.

'''Security Privacy Laws''' 

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to discuss the crimes or alleged crimes with any other colonists. This does not apply to marshals, but should be done in private or over security radios. While members of the Blackshield have access to this channel, they should not interfere in such a conversation unless they can contribute information regarding the crime. A green paragraph crime is not be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A yellow paragraph crime or higher must be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A red paragraph crime has to be reported to the Faction Owner of the person who committed the crime via fax. This may be handled by the Marshals or another Command Member, preferring the relevant Head of Staff. Records may never be shared without consent.

Any colonist has the right to accuse another colonist of a crime and an investigation should be launched. The accuser's name should be kept hidden and private to prevent repercussions and revenge. Any marshal or someone who has been granted the appropriate authority to deal with internal security issues (most likely a blackshield member) who fails to launch an investigation can be charged with Negligence. If the accuser charges someone in bad faith, revenge or to waste their time, they should be charged with Obstruction of Duty. Failing to find evidence for a crime is not an accusation done in bad faith. The accuser has the right to be informed of the outcome of the investigation. They do not have the right to make this public knowledge.

You are always allowed to report a crime you witnessed even if it does not involve you, just do so privately with a Marshal. It is recommended to call a marshal over to you or move to the Marshal Area. If you are being robbed it may be better if you stay quiet for your own safety and then report the crime. If you are being attacked self defense laws apply. It is recommended you disable/hide in an area and then immediately call for help - details are not important in such a moment and you can give a full report after the situation is safer.

During interrogation a second colonist should be present as a witness to the statements of the accuser or accused. Who the witness is may change depending on circumstances, but a ranking order is given here as a reference: Warrant Officer, Ranger, Marshal Officer, Supply Specialist, Premier, Blackshield Commander, Sergeant, Any Head of Staff, Corpsman/Trooper. This is subject to change depending on duties and personnel involved in the incident.

While Suit Sensors may be used to look for someone who has committed a crime, they may not be called out over public communication. This rule is only dismissed if the subject is found to be a danger to themselves or others. A danger to themselves falls under the medical emergency category and is classified as a person that is at risk of committing suicide or someone that is dying of wounds. A danger to others only applies if the subject is actively trying to hurt someone, violently breaking into staffed areas or breaking vital colony equipment. Examples: A person that uses drugs and/or distributes them is not a danger to others. A person that subdues others and forces drugs on them is dangerous to others.

Any colonist charged with a crime or accused of a crime loses their right to privacy regarding the crime they talk about if they mention/discuss it in a public forum -mainly common radio channel-.

This privacy policy may at times be suspended for the greater security of the station crew. If heightened security alertness is abused by the command staff, such as failing to lower the alert level after an incident, or raising the alert level when there is no incident, please contact your premier as soon as possible.

Violation of employee privacy is punishable under [[Laws]] §103. Other crime charges may apply.

A colonist that chooses forced labor as a punishment loses some of his rights to privacy laws - namely their location needs to be transmitted via suit sensors at all times and any crimes/medical emergencies involving the colonist in debt during this period can be publicly communicated regardless of circumstances. Records and previous location/medical issues/crimes may not be discussed.

== Nadezhda Dress Code - MOP ==
Certain positions within Nadezhda are expected to maintain a specific dress code. The strictness of these codes are ''Enforced'', ''Recommended'', and ''Suggested''. They are defined as follows:

* Marshal and blackshield staff are enforced to wear department specific clothing, or any clothing with dominant colors of green, black, blue, or gray depending on their respective job assignment. Individuals may not conduct activities naked while representing the blackshield or marshals. At a minimum, pants and an undershirt or tank top are mandatory.
* Medical staff are enforced to wear sterile lab clothing while working in Medical's facilities.
* Engineering staff are recommended but not enforced to wear bright and easily recognizable clothing, such as yellows or oranges, to be easily spotted in case of an emergency.
* Service staff are recommended but not enforced to wear aprons while preparing or harvesting food. Bartenders and waiter staff have no specific dress code, but it is suggested that they agree on similar clothing to wear for the day.
* Science staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms of purple and white. If a VIP is visiting the station, please dress appropriately for your department.
* Cargo/Mining staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms made of highly durable cloth so as to avoid damage caused by physical labor.
* The premier and steward are required to wear their clothing while on duty, it is suggested though not enforced they wear their official uniforms. '''Failure to remain clothed in public will result in immediate termination.'''

Failure or refusal to adhere to suggested dress codes are valid grounds for punishment up to and including termination and will likely result in a lack of respect from co-workers. Other staff and visitors are not bound by any dress code and may dress within reason so long as it does not violate [[Laws]].

==Alert Levels - MOP==
=== Code Green - All Clear ===
Default operating level. No immediate or clear threat to the colony. All departments may carry out work as normal. This alert level can be set at the Communications Console with a head of staff level ID. Privacy laws are in effect.

===Code Blue - Potential Threat===
Code blue scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* An active manhunt for a criminal within the colony.
* Station wide power failure.
* Station lock down or quarantine.
* Notable threats outside the colony that pose a potential threat. This can include a large pack of animals, dangerous but singular animals like renders, or wildlife acting in strange and unusual ways. Code blue should only be called if the threat is on going and not something a single person with a rifle could solve easily.

Code blue scenarios rarely require active action by non-relevant staff and should be adhered to depending on the scenario. An active manhunt may have the warrant officer or blackshield commander order staff to remain in their departments. A quarantine may have the biolab overseer or research overseer order infected personnel to medical to be cured. Orders from the relevant heads of staff are considered valid and must be followed to the letter even if normal procedure states otherwise. During a code blue scenario or higher, acting security staff (Marshals, or lacking Marshals, Blackshield) are authorized to utilize restricted items for the duration of the emergency. This may include explosives, combat mechs and other mechs rigged for combat, and other forms of Minor and Major Contraband as required to handle whatever emergency or situation has occurred.

===Code Red - Serious Threat===
Code red scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* Serious external or internal threats to the colony such as massive roach groupings, numerous xenomorph attacks, void wolf attacks, or large groupings of synthetic life forms.
* The appearance of a blob somewhere on the colony.
* Any sign of a hive-mind, be it radio signals or visual confirmation.
* Malfunctioning or rogue AI.
* Terran Federation activity.

Code red scenarios almost always involve the entirety of the colony and under such circumstances priority of orders is often given to the blackshield commander, warrant officer, or premier (in order of importance). In code red scenarios colonists are considered able to volunteer for assisting the blackshield be it with combat, mechanical, or medical skills. All orders from a blackshield member to a volunteering colony member is considered valid and must be adhered to. During a code red scenario all colonists should activate their suit sensors as an emergency precaution. During code red, all contraband policies towards weapons, including mechs, are lifted unless otherwise stated by the commanding head of staff.

===Code Delta - Abandon All Hope===
Code delta scenarios are only called when the colony faces total destruction and the only scenario in which the blackshield commander or equivalent can perform field executions for disobeying an order. Code delta is called only by the high council. All orders from heads of staff are considered a necessity and refusal may result in immediate and swift termination.

''Restrictions on searches also applies to the use of privacy-defeating equipment or enhancements such as thermals, x-ray, and so on.''

== Permits - MOP ==

=== Emergency Situation Permits ===
In a situation which may warrant the immediate use of a contraband item, any permit distributed for utilization may be issued verbally over the radio by the warrant officer, the blackshield commander, a council vote (with a minimum of three voters), or the premier in absence of any of the previous. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and stamped, and faxed to the Provost Marshal should they be issued in this way after the situation has resolved. Should equipment that is issued be used improperly, both the issuer and whoever was issued the permit are to be charged with §106 Minor Contraband, or §206 Major Contraband, in addition to any other charges accrued -- depending on what the item in use was. The Contraband item is to be confiscated.

These permits are to be issued in cases such as Blue Alert, authorizing Colonists to temporarily use Thermal Imaging equipment or Combat Mecha in the event of small scale disturbances that are not major large scale colony threats. All Emergency Situation Permits expire immediately upon the situation being resolved, with no exceptions. These permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by the relevant authorities who may issue them, and are immediately considered null and void should the person who is issued them commits a crime.

=== Contraband Permits ===
Any permit distributed by a member of the marshals, a warrant officer (or blackshield commander if there is no Warrant Officer) or a council vote may cover the use of minor contraband. Only the supply specialist, or the warrant officer may issue permits for thermal imaging equipment. The warrant officer and the supply specialist are authorized to issue permits for items considered major contraband. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and, if a major contraband permit, stamped by the authorizing party. Any of these permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by any of the relevant authorities who may issue the respective permit, and are immediately considered null and void if the person who was issued the permit commits a crime of any kind.

== Longarm Laws and Stipulations - MOP ==

While the colony remains at the frontiers of humanity and harbors many dangers within its vicinity it also maintains limitations of public display of firearms. While holsters and firearm ownership are not discouraged and, on the contrary, firearm ownership is directly encouraged, these limitations are in place to provide safety to those living within the walls. Colonists hold the right to self defense and to use weapons as reasonably needed in dangerous situations, however the following regulations apply to the display of public firearms.

=== Long Arms ===
* Long arms, going by many distinctions, are commonly defined as any weapon too big to fit in a holster.
* Guns defined as long arms are '''not legal''' to display on one's person for public safety concerns.
* Long arms '''may''' be transported in a bag or in a secure gun case, but are to remain '''out of public view'''.
** If a long arm is too large to fit in a bag, it is still required to be concealed unless in storage or within one’s department grounds. Gun cases should be used for transport of firearms of this class.
* Personnel opting to carry long arms in their bag must declare their concealed weapons upon any search of their person or during processing for an arrest. Failure to do so may net suspicious conduct charges at the discretion of the arresting officer.

=== Handguns & Sidearms ===
* Handguns are commonly defined as any weapon that can be fit into a holster, or standard bag and is designed for use as a compact weapon of self defense.
** Weapons that are '''contraband''' or '''contain contraband''', are '''not legal''' to conceal without proper permit from relevant personnel able to give such access.
** Unlike long arms, handguns may be visible via holsters, stowed in bags, stowed in belts, pocketed or otherwise out of view.
*** '''Bluespace''' based storage bags or pouches, '''do not''' count as a standard bag.
** Implanted firearms, such as arm SMGs, fall under the classification of handguns, but are required to be noted in detail in both medical and security records.

=== Members of Security, the Steward, and Lifeline Techs ===

* Personnel of the Blackshield, Marshals, Soteria Lifeline Techs, or the colony’s Steward '''are expected to follow the same procedure as colonists regarding the display of long arms'''. This is to convey positive imagery to the public and allow for less-hostile policing and/or aid in the defusal of possible tense situations. However, these departments have some exemptions to the law.
** The aforementioned employees '''may''' sport visible firearms on colony grounds in the case of an emergency, such as the threat of a code blue or higher being present.
** In cases of armed individuals, reasonable risks of escalating violence on a scene or ongoing incidents logged of high-crimes (I.e murder, manslaughter, sabotage, etc) Security authorities may sport visible weapons. Incident reports should be filed after such cases.
*Blackshield may bring long arms visibly on their person when en-route to the gatehouse or when patrolling the colony walls. Blackshield are required to stow said weapons when elsewhere in the colony if not on a phase of alert or acting in coordination with Marshal officers.

Violation of longarm restrictions may result in charges such as Failure to Obey Safety Protocol (102) or, in the case of an arrest, Excessive Force (210) if applicable. These charges may be pressed at the discretion of the offender’s council member.

= The Council - MOP =
The council is made up of each faction head of staff and the premier (who is usually a volunteer head of staff who chose to take a shift as the premier). A decision from the council has absolute authority and precedence over all other decisions, regulations, and rules except during a code red or code delta scenario (the brigadier/blackshield commander supersedes the council in these scenarios). Members of the council are given only a small set of rules that apply during any council vote or decision.

* All Colonists must respect a decision made by the council and follow said decision. Issues with a vote can be taken to provost marshal Boris via faxes as he presides over much of the legality on the colony, but must still be followed even when contested.
* All heads of staff are required to vote yay or nay during a decision. Any head of staff that refuses to make a decision or abstains is to be demoted on the spot. '''This is not negotiable, you are a leader and expected to make choices, especially hard choices.''' Those who are demoted from a head position for abstaining from a vote will be permanently barred from any head of staff position unless an appeal is made.
* The Soteria overseers may only have a collective vote of one and only if both agree on the decision. This means that when the votes are tallied both overseers count as a singular vote and only if they both arrived at the same vote. If the CRO and CBO cannot come to an agreement on where they vote, they instead lose their vote entirely. The inability for them to agree is '''not''' a valid grounds for demotion of either overseers. If there is only one overseer active, they have a single vote.
* The steward does not have a vote. They are a secretary and bodyguard and while they are considered command staff, it is the job of the premier to sway or veto votes.
* Only the Warrant Officer, Premier, and Steward are required to remain on the colony at all times except when aiding in the colonies defense or colonists safety. Other heads of staff may come and go at their discretion but should '''always''' inform the council and their staff team should they leave outside radio range. A head of staff may elect a member of their staff team to make decisions in their absence up to and including council votes, in all other cases, they should be contacted and retrieved before council votes are made.
* All council members and by extensions heads of staff must be the requisite age in Terran years for their departments hiring standards. Premier, Soteria heads, Warrant officer and Blackshield Commander must meet or exceed the age of 30 Terran years. CEO, Prime, and Guild master must meet or exceed the age of 25 Terran years. The Foreman may be of any age above minimum hiring age due to the risks involved in their line of work, I.E., 18 Terran years of age or older. Council members found to be failing to meet their departmental age requirements are to be faxed about and demoted on the spot.
* All heads of staff can use the medivac shuttle in times of crisis if there are no Blackshield nor Marshals. When using the shuttle, bring at least two other individuals with you, one to be left behind at least to guard the shuttle. If found to be using the medivac shuttle for personal reasons or reasons that do not qualify the usage of the shuttle, i.e. prospectors using it to get to locations that they scavenge from, then this can and will be charged by a §406, exceeding official powers.

===Voting Procedures===
(This section is considered a little WIP, it may change.)
* For a vote to be considered valid, at least three members of the council must be present. The Premier is included in this requirement, so any two councilors plus the Premier may call a vote as well.
** The Steward does not count to this requirement.
** In the event of only two councilors being present, if there is no premier to break a tie or preside over the vote, a vote will automatically fail to prevent a two-person set of councilors from changing colony operations at whim.
* A vote may be called for a large number of reasons, but some things may not be changed by council vote. For example, you may not change laws or demanded-to-follow Standard Operating Procedure by way of a vote, as these are set in place by the High Council and must be followed.
* A councilor, if only one is present, may send a requesting fax to the High Council for permission to conduct a vote on their own. In this case, the councilor should state what the vote is, why they want this vote, what this vote would change, and their own vote (in most cases this would be a yes, because why are you voting no on a vote for something you just made?).
** This vote must be approved by the High Council. This means it must be sent to the High Council offices.
** An example of a situation that this style of vote may be used for is the allowance of a Foreigner (Outsider) into the colony. This vote '''MUST''' be done before allowing the Foreigner entry. In this case, they may be allowed inside without waiting for a reply of approval, so long as this is sent first. This is only applicable if there is one member of the council.
*** In the event of the Foreigner causing issues before a return fax is gotten, the councilor should be charged with any crimes the Foreigner committed, in addition to 301, 'Negligence.' If a reply is received to deny this Foreigner entry into the colony, they should be expelled without consequence to the councilor unless the Foreigner caused problems.

===The Premier===
* The Premier may '''VETO''' any vote the council makes, for any reason. This includes votes that they call to be made, which is within their power to do so.
* The Premier's veto considers the vote to automatically result in a 'no' vote. This may not be overturned unless a council of at least 3 councilors vote a unanimous decision to overturn the veto.
* The Premier may call a vote on any issue at any time, just as any other member of the Council may. This extends only to the Premier, and not the Steward. Failure to vote on a vote the Premier calls carries the same immediate removal penalties as failing to vote otherwise.
* The Premier may, reasonably, call votes about decisions designed by the High Council. This includes things that the Council normally may not vote on. Such as, but not limited to; what charges may be applied to situations for Marshals, temporary modification to mandatory procedure (but not making it recommended, or changing it to the point the procedure is nullified), or even making recommended procedure mandatory. This does not include Mandatory Procedure for the council, such as voting procedure or outsider procedure. Abuse of this power will lead to the immediate, permanent removal of the Premier without the ability to appeal.
** A Premier found to be in abuse of any of the above listed statements is subject to an immediate removal pending appeal (unless otherwise stipulated). A Premier removed in this way must wait at standard minimum of one month before an appeal will be considered by the High Council.

===Demoting Staff===
In the event of a head of staff desires the demotion of a staff member in their faction they must meet one of the following criteria.
# Dereliction of Duty, the subject in question failed to perform there job duty at the bare minimum satisfaction.
# Negligence, the subject in question performed a grossly incompetent action while on duty that result in injury, loss of life, damages, or loss of property.
# Criminal activity, the subject in question performed a orange or red paragraph crime in which they were successfully convicted of.
# Failure to execute an order, the subject willfully and knowingly defied a valid order from their respective head of staff. Note that this only covers valid orders pertaining to their department, a head of staff could enforce a no smoking policy on his staff inside medical but not outside of medical.
# When the counsel is calling a vote their must be at lest three heads of staff to be accounted, CBO and CRO count as two heads of staff for this even with their singular vote.

All valid demotions from a head of staff are recorded and noted in an employee file. Employees who have been demoted three times from their respective faction will be permanently demoted and unable to take work in any positions within that department. Not all demotions are considered valid and they should be recorded [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|with the proper paperwork using a dismissal form]] before being faxed to their respective faction owner for review.

Heads of staff may be demoted by a council vote and approval from the respective faction owner using a [[Example_Paperwork#Demotion_form|demotion form]] and proper signature from a premier or, if one is not present, the steward. Lacking both, the signature may remain blank.

===How to order an execution===
In the rare and unfortunate event that a crew member has committed a crime in which execution is considered a certain criteria must be met in order for the execution to be valid.
# Assuming the person in question is successfully convicted and placed within the brig a premier must be present to arbitrate the crime to first ensure that the conviction is entirely valid with appropriate evidence and witnesses.
# A premier and at minimum three heads of staff must be present for a execution vote to be made. An execution vote may be called by any head of staff except for the premier. Once called all members must meet and discuss the case, all evidence, and what should be done.
# For an execution to be considered valid upon finishing discussion of the case all heads of staff must vote unanimously for execution and then sign and stamp a document that will be faxed to whichever faction owner presides over the prisoner. A reply will then be made back approving said execution.
# The prisoner is then executed in accordance to Marshal policy once approved by the relevant faction owner.

===Faxes===
As a head of staff and Council member, you are the most responsible person within your department and as such are expected to handle most situations without having to fax the High Council. Only when it is absolutely necessary or outside of your hands, experience, or capabilities, should you fax the High Council.
The High Council may not always respond to a fax sent to them, especially when the fax sent does not warrant a response from the High Council. Only when it's absolutely needed, the High Council will send a response. (OOCly speaking, heads of staff are expected and trusted to handle most things and should not need the oversight of head/admins).

=== Shield Generator ===
* The Shield Generator on the colony surface is a new defense mechanism for the colony's safety. Whilst Council have access to it, it is not advised to enter the shield generator room unless there is a valid reason. It is currently classified under the same high risk condition that Telecommunications is listed under.

* Apart from the Council, the Blackshield, Marshals, and Guild have access to the room. As maintainers of the Shield room, Guild are allowed to enter and exit the place as they will. Blackshield and Marshals should only enter and utilize the shield generator when there is a security matter. Untrained personnel, that are not the Guild, setting up the generator run the risk of being charged with Negligence if a issue or incident occurs.

* Given that the shield generator room serves a important role in colony safety, and should not be tampered nor trespassed, whether by those with access or not. These following charges can and will be applied upon investigation of any incidents or situations: Grand trespass, negligence, sabotage, terrorism, and possibly more.

* It is heavily suggested to set the generator's radius at 85, as that covers the entirety of the colony's defenses. There are various settings on the shield generator, some of these settings should only be turned on depending on the code level.
** On code green, the shield generator can be operated, although not generally advised due to power draw, with these settings active: Unknown Lifeforms (Blocks unknown life forms.), Hyperkinetic Projectiles, and Photonic Dispersion.
** On code blue, the shield generator can be operated more freely with these settings: Humanoid Lifeforms (Blocks humans, abhumans, Cht'mant, sentient life), Silicon Lifeforms (Blocks cyborgs and other robots), Atmospheric Containment, Diffuser Bypass (Individuals with certain technology can bypass the shield generator, this setting negates that but draws a lot of power), Adaptive Field Harmonics.
** On code red, the shield generator is heavily advised to be put into use, along with weaponizing it with: Field Overcharge.

* The only individuals with direct authority to operate the shield generator on '''any''' code level are the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer, so long as they have valid cause (Hostile or suspicious outsiders, criminals on the run, etc). The two can cancel each other's orders out in regards of the Shield Generator, but there should also be a valid reason behind it, else the BC/WO runs the risk of being charged or demoted on the spot. The Council can also vote to choose that the cause was not valid and must fax the High Council if such is decided, including the cause that was overruled by the Council. If the High Council believes otherwise, or does not receive sufficient information, the vote is overturned and the Council may suffer consequences for time wasting decisions and faxes.

= Foreigner Treatment - MOP =
The authority of the Colony ends currently at the electrified fence. Laws still apply to all colonists even outside the fenced area, however they do not apply to foreigners as long as long as they remain outside the colony. Circumstances may change this.

'''Allies''' 

Allies of the Colony are granted the same rights as a normal colonists. They may enter and leave and are subject to searches at the Gatehouse, Laws and Departmental SOP (if applicable). Allies of the colony are permitted to not have an ID on them, however it is encouraged to grant them a Guest Pass. Any ally of the colony may move freely inside the colonies public areas including the bar and kitchen (customer area), which should always be accessible to them unless they commit a crime there at which point it may be applied to them. Yellow paragraph crimes do not have to be reported to the High Council. If a debt of an allied member cannot be paid a fax should be sent to the Void Wolf Alliance or High Council for other factions. Any orange or higher paragraph crime must be reported to Boris Kilmaede immediately and additional measures may be taken against the person. All allied members are entitled to unlimited free life-saving treatment and unlimited free treatment regarding serious injury. Other injuries should be charged accordingly. If an allied member misbehaves, causes issues or plans to act against the Colony the High Council should be informed immediately. Due to possible diplomatic issues, strong evidence must be gathered BEFORE a fax is send. If an allied member turns hostile they should be ideally captured alive or revived and kept under watch while the High Council is informed. Making an allied member unrevivable even after they committed a hostile crime is considered a terroristic act as it may immensely cripple diplomatic relations. This is ignored if the unrevivable injury is sustained through combat.

Any contraband (other than excelsior equipment) may be temporarily confiscated at the gatehouse and must be returned when the individual/group of allies is leaving.

'''Neutral/Unknown Factions''' 

These factions may have been hostile in the past or their allegiances are unknown. While it is best to find out their allegiance, they may keep this secret or their faction is unknown to the colony. Some neutral factions are indifferent or outright will ignore the colony. Hostile attempts may be stopped lethally or non-lethally. Neutral Factions that are not invited inside the colony do not have any rights or protection from the law, however a colonist going out of their way to potentially harm relationship with a neutral faction may face a terrorism charge. Any HOSTILE encounter with a neutral faction should be reported to the high council immediately. If a HOSTILE neutral person is taking alive they should be treated as a Hold until Transfer Prisoner until a decision is made by the High Council. Depending on severety this decision may be delegated to the council (head of departments).

If a peaceful or non-hostile neutral faction or person wishes to enter the colony, the council should be informed and are expected to make a decision within 15 minutes of the arrival. It is recommended the person is to be searched and asked for their business inside the colony. If the council cannot come to a unanimous decision a vote may be held with the premier as a tie-breaker vote only to let the individual in or not. If let in they are allowed to move at least freely in between the fenced area and the entrance of the colony (colony entrance/church to wall/gatehouse). All other public access should be discussed first, however every department head is allowed to give them access to their own department for any reason at anytime (only applicable if they were let in at the first place). It is recommended, however not enforced, that a neutral person is given some free medical treatment and food or access to the kitchen customer area. Bartering and Trading is encouraged. Due to the fact that a neutral person may not be aware of the colony laws and contraband policies, they may not be charged with bringing in any illegal equipment. Depending on circumstances these may be either confiscated or held at the Gate until the neutral party wishes to leave. This rule is suspended in case of excelsior equipment at which point they are to be treated as a hostile faction. If a neutral faction willingly commits any crime inside the colony or towards a colonist outside the colony they should be seen as Hold until Transfer and the High Council should be informed. If such a person becomes violent and cannot be detained peacefully, lethals are authorized. Unless another order is given a neutral member that turns hostile is not to be revived.

In case two neutral factions fight each other, the colony may decide to join and help either or neither. This should be decided by the council, but other colonists have a right to have their say in the matter too.

'''Known Hostile Factions''' 

Unless a member of a hostile faction wishes to engage in peaceful negotation or is surrendering, they are considered to be Shoot on Sight. This applies to unarmed non-surrendering hostiles. If their presence is known to any colonist, it should be repored to the Blackshield which in turn should alert all colonists. Increasing the alert status to blue is appropriate. A killed hostile faction member should never be revived unless there is a good reason such as thinking they have important intel or are a valuable target. A critically wounded enemy may be captured alive at the order of the highest ranking combat member or if the council decides to do so. Enemy bodies are not to be dismembered or abused - going against this order is a crime of disrespect for the dead. They may be looted freely by any colonist. Hostile bodies should be left where they were killed unless inside the colony. If they were killed inside the colony they should be transported a decent distance outside the colony. These rule do not apply to enemies that can regenerate from death. Any captured hostile enemy should be treated as "Hold until Transfer" and the High Council should be informed of the situation.

Anyone abusing prisoners, regardless of their faction, should be charged with battery/assault/attempted murder/murder. Depending on the reason for such a retaliation the amount of time spend in prison may be reduced or completely waived, however a temporary ban of carrying weapons should be applied. This is at the discretion of the council and especially warrant officer. If there is a disagreement Boris Kilmaede should be informed.

Any excelsior agent that is captured alive should have their implant removed. If removal is successful they are to be treated as a neutral faction. The council should deliberate how to treat the individual in question. It is recommended, but not necessary, to run a psychological evaluation.

== The Lodge - MOP ==
Given that the Lodge is a faction that is expected to have more regular and closer interactions than others, these details have been provided to help colonists.

1: There are currently no trade agreements in place between the colony’s factions and the Lodge. As such, with individual hunters and colonists, they are to negotiate their own prices in regards of deals.

2: The location in which the Lodge resides is its sovereign territory, and the plains that connect to the Lodge is considered its territory. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Nadezhda’s territory lies in the very place it occupies, the meadows south of it and the adjacent forest area. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Hunters can move through these territories to reach the colony and vice versa for colonists. The swamp is considered neutral territory for the time being.

3: Any hunters found breaching the fifth rule of the Hunters Codex are to be reported to a hunt master or the Matriarch of the Lodge to be handled. The fifth rule within the Codex strictly forbids Hunters from scavenging and looting like prospectors.

4: The skinning knives and the Matriarch's shotgun that the Hunting Lodge has are to be treated in a similar fashion to the Absolute’s tech and equipment. If they are stolen or taken, grand theft may and can be applied.

= Duels - MOP =
The only acceptable way of fighting another colonist that CANNOT result in a charge of crime as long as all rules are followed.
=== How to initiate a duel ===
Anyone colonist may at anytime challenge another colonist to a duel (including CQC training). If accepted, you must follow the following steps:
1. Set a time and place to proceed with the duel. (Do it somewhere, where you are not going to stand in the way of others)(OOC: The basketball court is a popular spot since its an arena people can watch easily.)
2. The place must be set in a publicly accessible area.
3. Agree on at least 1 neutral observer to oversee the duel. While a premier or command member is preferred, anyone can do this. If you cannot agree on a neutral observer, both attendees need to be bring an observer who may be a friend, department member or other. If no one volunteers or is available, you cannot duel.
4. Let the Marshals and Blackshield know you are carrying this out to avoid misunderstandings.
5. When the time has come, get into position, let the neutral observer countdown the fight. In case of no neutral observer, one of the attendees may count down. The rules should be recited by the neutral observer or attendee that does not count down the fight.
=== Rules of the Duel ===
# You cannot leave permanent damage on your opponent (ooc: read PULL YOUR PUNCHES. IC Tab -> Pull Punches) 
# Once your opponent goes down to the ground or gets knocked out, stop immediately. 
# No leaving the designated area unless you wish to surrender. If an opponent surrenders, respect it. 
# No one from the outside is allowed to intervene in the fight. If they do, you may press charges of Violation of Employee Rights as well as other charges if applicable. 
# If either dueler breaks the rules, this is to be considered a charge of at battery, assault, attempted murder or murder - depending on circumstances. 


= Leaving the Colony - MOP =
*Every Colonist has the right (but not the access) to leave the colony. As a note, Blackshield has the right and power to deny a colonist leave of the colony if they have reason. Heads of staff are exempt from this unless explicitly said otherwise by either the Blackshield Commander or Warrant Officer.
** This includes the right to return, if you leave as a Colonist you may not be denied entry simply because you left.
*Breaking the Gatehouse or perimeter fence without very good reason is a crime of Infiltration and Sabotage. Other such illegal forms of entering the colony is a crime of infiltration and sabotage, and possibly more depending on circumstances.
*Blackshield may search you on your way out. Blackshield must search you on your way in.
*It is recommmended you comply with Blackshields recommendations before heading out (have some armor/weapon/supplies/suit sensors)
*It is recommended you do not leave alone.
*If Blackshield has to rescue you from any area outside the colony, Blackshield MUST charge you a recovery fee of 800 credits for every person recovered. Remember medical charges may apply as well.

= Lonestar Service =
The service department includes the jobs of Gardener, Cook, Bartender, Janitor and Actor. The service department is a largely independent (except for Janitor) necessity sponsored by Lonestar.
=== Janitor - ROP ===
Your job is very simple, however crucially needed - clean the colony. You are in the second highest income bracket of all colonist - you are expected to do your job.
*Gear up in your Janitor Preparation Room
*Move around the Colony and clean the tiles
*Make sure to put down a wet floor sign BEFORE cleaning the tiles. Try to keep at least one path open at all times for colonists to use without the fear of slipping. Make sure to point at it when someone slips.
*Do not clean crucial areas in use such as the way from the elevator to med bay IF a medical emergency is announced (for example). If you cause issues by doing this you will be charged with Negligence and may be demoted.
*For large messes use a cleaning grenade instead.
*Make an effort to ask for entry into departments to clean them.
*Carry a handgun on you at all times, you move around the most and are likely to spot roaches/spiders during your duty.
*When you have cleaned all areas, you are allowed to go into maintenance and clean up there. As long as you are not needed you may alternatively do whatever you want. If you plan to leave the colony try to be back within the next 30 minutes. If you leave for longer you may be demoted at the discretion of the CEO or other staff, if reported.

=== Kitchen Staff - ROP ===
Your job is to provide various services to the crew. In case of foreign guests, diplomats or emissaries arriving you are also encouraged to cater to their needs and provide whatever services they require. Work together with the CEO and Lonestar Shipping in this regard.
*The Gardener, Cook and Bartender may all work in each others departments as long as no one else works there or they have permission to do so. The CEO may also work in these areas if required, but should try to delegate the work instead.
*For food, it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
*Water is free, and for other drinks it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
* Use the following paperwork format for all recipes: [[Example_Paperwork#Lonestar_Service_Receipt]]
*You are encouraged to ask for tips.
*Act professional, always smile!
*Lonestar may provide you with additional resources from the Cargo Department, provided your job is done well. Otherwise you will have to pay with your own credits. This should be decided by the CEO.

=== Artist - ROP ===
* You are a colonist with your own office essentially. Try to entertain people.
* Using your office to commit or hide crimes is a reason to for demotion.

= Lonestar Shipping =
With the Lonestar radio fully repaired, it is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. It cannot be brought out of the department, it cannot be in the Lonestar service areas, such as the bar, janitor's room, or the artist's room. It is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. Whilst colonists that are not members of Lonestar are near, the radio is to remain off if they are in hearing distance of it. Violations of this will result in immediate confiscation and application of law 103 and 106. Commenting on sensitive matters, on public comms or to other departments, can also be a applicable charge of 103 and 106.

Lonestar provides a collection of [[Example Paperwork#Cargo|Example Paperwork for Cargo]] that can be used during a shift. Keep several copies available at all times.

It is recommended you use this at least this format for Orders from the Cargo Console: [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Shipping Reciept v2]] and at least this format for selling your mined materials: [[Example Paperwork#Confirmation Form v2]] as receipts to justify your personal profits and keep an ordered paper trail.

=== Ordering Cargo - ROP ===
Cargo orders are a matter of buying and selling. Cargo will always charge more for a crate than the listed price as a way to make a profit on it. Cargo can sell anything to anyone with the reasonable restriction of needing a paper trail of all orders, receipts, and requests. If someone purchases something that is then used for a crime cargo is not liable if the proper record keeping has been done.

The following steps are needed for a proper order:

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If it has been declined, stamp the request form with the "Denied" stamp, and put it in the file cabinet next to the cargo computer. Inform the customer that their request has been declined, and the reason why. Give the denied customer a copy of the form below, and keep a copy for your own records and paperclip it to the request form that was denied.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:99%">
Cargo Request Denial Record
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><pre>
[center][b]Lonestar Shipping Solutions, LLC.
[logo]
[large][u]Cargo Request Denial[/u][/large][/b][/center][hr][small][i]To be filled out by cargo personnel handling the request. All sections are required to be filled out.[/small]
[small]A copy of this form should be archived upon denial of any request. The requesting employee whose request was denied is also to be given a copy of this form.[/i][/small]
[b]Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Faction of Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Requested Cargo:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Request:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Denial:[/b] [field]
[hr][b]Cargo Employee's Signature:[/b]
</pre></div></div>

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If the order is declined, this is the final step. Open the cargo computer and decline the order if it exists.
# The order has been accepted. Accept the agreed upon payment and open the cargo computer to accept the order, or place the order and accept it if the order does not exist.
# Do not immediately call the cargo shuttle. Confirm with the customer, "Will that be all?" If so, or if they just wander off without confirming this, you may now call the cargo shuttle.
# Wait for the cargo shuttle to arrive. Ask the customer how they would like the cargo delivered. There are three methods of delivery: Pickup, mail, or courier. By default, cargo is pickup. '''Dangerous cargo is ''pickup only''.''' is to be returned to if the order cannot be picked up within 30 minutes of arrival.
# Upon arrival of the cargo, bring all cargo to the center of the cargo bay. You may be dealing with multiple orders from multiple people, so ensure you have sorted the cargo to its correct owner before delivering anything. Leave notes if necessary. '''Do not''' open any crates for any reason unless instructed to do so by the customer.
# Once the cargo is sorted, deliver the cargo using the specified method to the specified location. By default, it is to be sent to the customer's department. Pickup orders are to be kept in the cargo bay (not the lobby) until the customer arrives to pick it up. Mailed orders are to be wrapped and tagged in the mail room and sent through the pipe network to their destination. Courier delivered orders must have a cargo technician bring the order(s) directly to the destination.
# Upon delivery of any order, ensure you are given back the manifest of the order. All cargo technicians are responsible for stamping manifests and returning them to the cargo warehouse.
# If possible, collect the empty crates of any completed orders for return to the cargo warehouse. If you have any stamped manifests, put them in one of these crates.
# Return the shuttle to cargo warehouse.
# You're done! Relax and wait for the next cargo request.

=== Mining - ROP ===
Mining is the section of Lonestar that goes down to the deep tunnels to harvest minerals either through the use of a hand drill or bulk mining drill. Miners are generally equipped with a weapon of their choice and go below ground to run their day to day operations. In addition miners are given an oxygen-supplied voidsuit should they ever become lost underground, the suit even comes with armor for dealing with any dangerous creatures found in the depths.

Miners should always perform these tasks:
* ''Get equipped:'' Miners should at the minimum take a mining satchel, ore scanner, shovel or drill, armored voidsuit, a toolbelt (with at minimum a screwdriver, crowbar, duct tape, and wrench), a weapon, a shortwave hand radio, and basic medical supplies.
* ''Upgrade your tools:'' Miners should consider getting an tool upgrades for their shovel or drill. Miners who use the drill should consider getting an advanced motor, expanded fuel tank, and ergonomic grip. Shovel users should consider an ergonomic grip and whetstone for a sharpened edge and, if possible, a diamond edge.
* ''Bigger, better batteries:'' Miners should see about getting larger and more powerful batteries from either the Prospectors or Soteria if they plan to use the bulk mining drills. The standard batteries within leave much to be desired. Additional batteries are also very useful for optical meson scanners.
* ''Regular maintenance:'' Miners should always bring an ore crate with which they can empty the bulk mining drills to prevent them from grinding to a halt due to being full. Hand tool miners should always use duct tape regularly to maintain and fix their tools so they don't break mid-outing. Be advised, a broken tool cannot be recovered, nor its tool augments.
* ''Stay alive:'' You're no use to the colony or your fellow miners if you bleed out or pass out from injury. A regular medkit, a few tramadol pills, and a single syringe of Dylovene can keep you alive long enough to get back topside for proper treatment.
* ''Communication:'' Always keep in contact with your fellow miners in case you get in trouble and need help. A shortwave radio is a great back up if regular communications go down.

''Miners should never bring their non-pistol weaponry into public colony areas and should leave all contraband weapons in the mining prep area or personnel lockers.''

Upon returning, miners are expected to fill out a [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Mining Report v2|mineral inventory form]] with an accurate count of all minerals collected. A copy of this form should be provided to the [[Chief Executive Officer]] and filed in the main cargo desk area for easy bookkeeping. This form must be filled out for every shipment of minerals taken up from the deep tunnels separately.

=== Profit Distribution - MOP ===
Lonestar's goal is to make as many credits as possible, although a deal that continues after one transaction is considered more profitable than a one-time deal. Anyone working for Lonestar is generously supplied with a wage for their basic living needs. While promotions are not always possible, every Lonestar employee should have the potential to earn money for both themselves and Lonestar.
* All transactions done by Lonestar offer a 20% commission from the profit margin to any Lonestar employee facilitating the transaction. Example, a cargo tech sells a crate that cost 500 credits, but was able to negotiate the buyer into paying 1000 credits. The profit is 500 credits, 20% of that (100 credits) is then directly claimable by the employee who managed the transaction.
* All service members (bartender, chef, and gardener) may charge whatever prices they see fit for their respective services. Employees are '''recommended''' to charge above 10 credits but no more than 100 credits per drink or food item depending on the difficulty/challenge of fulfilling said order. Service members do not collect a commission for the sale of drinks and food (this is handled with their hourly wages) but are entitled to the full amount of any tips offered and may pocket it at their discretion.
* Trade beacons may be used freely by all lonestar employees using their personal accounts for purchasing or selling goods. Lonestar automatically collects a 20% market fee that is directly removed and then added to the Lonestar account whenever an item is sold through the trade beacon. Lonestar has no service charge, nor tax on goods bought through the trade beacon, only goods sold. Cargo technicians and CEOs with access to Lonestars main account are expected to only use the trade beacon to gain a profit for Lonestar if they are using Lonestars main account.
* Miners receive a 20% commission on all profits generated by the materials they dig up. Since dug up and refined minerals are generally pure profitability, lonestar miners may simply total the complete cost of the materials '''cargo sale value''' and request that commission from any CEO or cargo technician (with the proper paperwork). Alternatively, miners may try to sell the materials to fellow colonist themselves at whatever price they negotiate. As with normal commissions, they may take a 20% cut of all profits generated, but are required to keep paperwork detailing who bought what and for how much (if tools and goods are traded in the place of credits, list the tools innate numerical value).

=== Preserving Lonestar Public Relations And Trade Opportunities - MoP ===

In order to preserve commerce with the trading partners of Lonestar, and prevent possible long-term consequences of company relations on the actions of a bad actor, the CEO and other Lonestar Shipping staff must exercise vigilance in prevention of authorizing fraudulent transactions of credits or goods. And Lonestar Shipping staff, as a whole, must be courteous in regards to existing and potential trade partners in pursuit of the company's interests.

This includes, but is not limited to:
* Exploiting improperly calibrated databases or equipment to profit off of any clearly deceitful business practices to Stations or Ships that trading is conducted with, either by shuttle or trading beacons. This includes permitting or paying third parties to do this in place of Lonestar staff, in which case, the authorizing members of Lonestar Shipping are to be held responsible.
* Should the uncommon occurrence of direct communication be established with existing out of colony trading partners, or a possibly beneficial group of potential Lonestar Shipping's interest, conduct of Lonestar staff should be held to an appropriate standard.

Should an employee of Lonestar be discovered to be acting against Lonestar's interests in either of these cases, they should be charged with §301, negligence. Depending on the context, a short fax to Lonestar regarding the incident may be warranted for potential further actions or punishment at the discretion of the High Council.

== Lonestar and Prospector Relationship - ROP ==
The partnership between Lonestar and the Prospectors is entirely based around the idea of profits. While some access is shared, there is no shared authority between the CEO and Foreman. They are encouraged to work together at all times to maximize profits for both lonestar and the individuals of the prospectors. Lonestar and Prospectors must respect each others areas and equipment at all times. Taking anything from the other department without permission is considered theft. Causing trouble for the other department may be used as a reason for demotion. A CEO can never command the Prospectors or demand anything of them. A Foreman can never command the Lonestar department or demand anything from them.

The following are suggestions for a better working relationship:
* If miners are available, prospectors should never do any mining, however to avoid medical bills and injuries it is highly suggested to bring a prospector along to guard the miner. A prospector is entitled to 10% of the profits just as a miner. This money should be taken from the total made.
* If miners are lacking, other Lonestar-Cargo personnel should be utilized first if avaliable and volunteering for the job. Otherwise a prospector can be used for mining, however they are still only entitled to 10% of the profits.
* CEO and Foreman are encouraged to negotiate prices and how much share each expedition member gets beforehand
* Lacking a head of staff, both faction members are encouraged to temporarily step up as the leader of the faction, take control in these matters. For Lonestar, this only applies to Lonestar-Cargo.
* You are expected to deal with issues among yourselves before faxing Hogg or Ryan. Only fax them if its absolutely necessary.

= Prospector SOP =
===General - MOP===
Overboss Hogg has generously, with the help of Lonestar, sponsored your equipment and place to work to become a self-made man. You are supposed to make profits, while not dying.
* Prospector are encouraged to go in groups to a single destination.
* It is generally advisable to keep track of each others locations in case a colleague requires assistance.
* Salvagers should stock up on medical or engineering supplies, Prospectors should stock up on combat supplies.
* All loot should be divided as seen fit by the members of the group.
* Dying alone outside the colony means you have to pay a recovery fee of 800 credits to Blackshield and may result in your demotion as you are seen unfit for this job - you are supposed to make a profit. Dying is acceptable, dying alone and relying on the boys in black isn't.
* If you are in a group and a member needs to be brought back to the colony due to medical reasons, do so as soon as possible.
* Do not hoard. Sell it. The who or why doesn't matter, just net a profit.
* Comply with the law. Just because you found fancy guns and armor doesn't mean you can suddenly fight the Blackshield or Marshals, they can and will bring the proverbial hammer down on not just you but your entire department.
* Expect to be demoted if you lose a lot of money or get yourself put in hold until transfer.
* Treating or handling medical scenarios in the colony whilst Soteria medical is around is not advised, and more frowned upon.

====Pre-Mission Setup - ROP====
* All weapon-trained crew should be offered the opportunity to arm themselves from prospector supplies or they may bring whatever weapon of choice they decide.
* Non-prospector participants, if given weapons, should be energy based only, such as lasers. (The reason for this is inexperienced personnel often have very poor weapon discipline, so friendly fire is an unfortunate but common occurrence. Laser burns are easier to treat than ballistic trauma while in the field.)
* For safety, the participants should be in sealed pressure suits unless the destination is already known, and confirmed to have a habitable atmosphere.
* The foreman calls the shots, he may or may not order someone to be his second in command, if he does you follow that persons orders as well as his.
* As each team member's loadout is complete, they should wait at prospector prep.

====Mid-Mission Operations - ROP====
* If separated from the group, or in an airless environment, establish communication immediately with other members of the group. If you are unable to re-establish communications, wait where you are for rescue. If you are in danger of running out of oxygen or supplies, move back towards the start of the mission, following any markers that were laid down.
* If the group is scattered for whatever reason, communications and regrouping should be the number one priority.
* Anything valuable should be looted, if its nailed down remove said nails and then steal said nails for good measure. Unusual life forms should be noted, as should the best way to kill them. Bringing the body back may prove worthwhile for Soteria.
* If an expedition participant is injured and needs surgery, they should be evacuated to the colony immediately if field surgery is not possible. The expedition should not proceed unless their role is satisfied by someone else, or they return to continue.

====Post-Mission Debriefing - ROP====
* The returning crew are not to leave the prep room or shuttle hangar until allowed to do so by the foreman, or if the foreman is absent, then by the team leader, or next in command. During this time, participants should be screened for contraband, health, and mental well-being before returning to the rest of the colony.
* If any staff are at risk of health complications such as parasitic life forms, viral infections, insanity, etc, they are to be immediately evacuated to the medical department for treatment. All loot they may or may not have should be left in the hanger or at the gate house.
* Excluding items that the research department wants to study, marshals are to confiscate any contraband discovered during the mission. This does not include weapons or armor, both experimental and mechanized combat units, unless they are capable of causing an explosion or are a threat to the colony itself such as having a heavy radioactive aura. [[Example_Paperwork#Evidence_Log|All items confiscated should be moved to evidence storage and recorded in a evidence log, with a copy of the file given to the foreman.]]
* All weapons taken for the trip that are not considered melee or pistol quality should be returned to the prospectors respective prep area or personal locker.
* Other excess supplies are to be returned to their rightful department.
* A [[Example_Paperwork#Mission_Report|post-mission report]] should be given to the council detailing any unusual discoveries or events. This report is only required under the discovery of unusual artifacts or items, general expeditions within regular perimeters do not require a report but it is recommended.

= Artificers Guild =

=== Setting up Power - MOP ===
The main duty of the Guild is to keep power running to all stations. A Guild Master may choose their preferred method of power generation and a Guild Adept needs to follow those orders. Lacking a Guild Master, a Guild Adept may choose their own way of generating power.
* Solars can be found on the mountain top and outside the colony near the scrap beacon. Usually the Scrap beacon solars are used and set up by the Church, however a Guild Adept may offer to assist or just do it in case they have a Cruciform installed. The mountain solars can be accessed by the elevator in the "engine room"
* The second method is using materials to power the generators in the engine room. This may require some more oversight, but usually generates more power than the Solars.
=== Construction / Repairs - ROP ===
The method of construction and repair changes depending on the goals and orders of the guild master, however, the general rules below should be considered the default operation.

* The area should have all non-guild personnel removed or standing at a safe distance, in particular when working with exposed electrical wire or potentially hazardous equipment.
* In the event the area requires use of a oxygen supplied void suit all exits and entrances should be taped off with engineering tape and covered by inflatable doors or walls. All entry ways used by guild personnel should have two inflatable doors to prevent accidental atmospheric issues, in particular when dealing with fires or gas leaks.
* Each task for construction or repair should be assigned by the guild master to separate each task for timely completion of each project. Example, a fire broke out that burned down several walls, one adept is assigned to fixing the atmos, another is given the task of restoring the walls, and the guild master chooses to weld the damaged floors and remaining walls.

The method and choices of how the guild proceeds is ultimately up to the guild master but the general principles above should be followed. Failure to do so may result in negligence charges.

=== Fire and Environmental Hazards - ROP ===
* Immediate evacuation of all untrained personnel.
* Fire alarms to be used to control hazard.
* The guild master and guild adepts are to remove all materials that could further spread or worsen these hazards before dispatching them.

=== Meteor Storm - ROP ===
* All crew to move to lower levels of the colony.
* Damage is to be repaired by the guild master and guild adepts after the threat has passed.

=== Shield Generator - ROP ===
* The Colony's Shield Generator room is a new addition to the colony's defense systems. It has been established that it will be officially maintained by the Artificer's Guild. Due to this, the Guild has access to this room. All Artificer Engineers are to keep in mind that the shield generator room is considered a high security area, any and all abnormalities or issues regarding it are to be reported to the colony's security forces.
* The generator is to be maintained, on top of the other regular duties that Adepts have. The Guild can choose to ignore doing this, if there's really only one Adept and they have a lot more other pressing matters to handle.
* The shield generator is to be wrenched after shift start, as it starts unwrenched. If not wrenched and anchored, it will not acquire power over the course of the shift. Furthermore, the SMES units inside of the room start empty, and will need their coils changed.
* Be careful with powering the generator, as it can drain the entirety of the network if unmonitored. If one seeks to acquire more power for the generator, requesting the Church to use their biogenerator or utilizing the Guild's generators and equipment to produce more can be done, and is suggested.

= Soteria Biolab Division =
=== The Way Of Soteria ===
Progress is inherent to the goal of the Soteria, the question should never be one of morals or reasoning, but of possibility and potential. Researchers in medical and science are expected to push both the boundaries and limits of what they are capable of. Those who are constrained by the ethics and morality of an experiment will quickly find that the leadership of Soteria does not wish to consider such primitive and foolish concepts.

'''"Progress at any cost."'''

That is the mantra of the Soteria.

===Payment for Treatment - MOP===
Medical does not have unlimited medical supplies and while they are required to treat critical patients there is a limit to the amount resources being given to one person freely. All critical forms of healing such as defibbing, surgery, and use of chemicals '''are free the first time they are given to a single colonist per shift'''. If the treatment is not critical, the colonist may decide to pay instead of receiving free treatment. All situations after that a doctor may charge a patient for treatment should they find themselves getting repeatedly injured. This charge is solely up to the CBO or treating doctors discretion, they may elect not to charge an individual should they believe the person did not put themselves recklessly in danger (accidents do happen), should a patient be unable to pay their medical bills, contact security. Soteria-Science division is subject to this rule as well if no doctors are around.

Corpsman or other medically trained professionals not affiliated with Soteria should utilize their own departmental or personal supplies first, before using Soteria Supplies. If no doctors are present, the supplies may be utilized but should be replaced as soon as possible, this includes using your own personal funds. Otherwise, this constitutes as theft and you may be forced to pay for the replacement.

Prices for Treatment
* Reconstructive surgery and defibbing: 500 credits
* Use of bruise packs, advanced ointment, burn cream, and bandages: 75 credits. This can add up if charges are used or the supplies are entirely used up.
* Use of chemicals made by the chemistry lab: At minimum of 2 credits or maximum 10 credits per unit at discretion of medical staff.
* Use of a sleeper: 150 credits

In the event someone cannot pay prior to treatment, you may refuse treatment, but ''only'' if this is the second time treating them that shift and the doctor in question wishes to charge them. If the person is incapable of declaring intention to pay (they are dead or unconscious) payment is assumed and a debt incurred. Inability to pay the bill after revival by either refusal or lack of funds requires intervention from security (defaulting on medical bills is a crime).

=== Non-Disclosure Policy - MOP ===
All patient records, treatments, therapies, prescriptions, etc, almost anything the medical crew does, is '''not''' to be disclosed to other members of the station outside of Medbay without the (unanimous) permission of (all) the patient(s) directly involved, or the Chief Biolab Overseer. Even marshals, the premier, and council are not allowed to share details of any past or ongoing treatments, and you are not required to inform them should they inquire unless you have the direct consent of the patient.

Warrants and Code Blue (and above) may still grant security access to review autopsies and medical records, but you are not to divulge information directly when questioned about any patients unless overridden by the CBO.

Repeated failure to obey the non-disclosure policy is grounds for termination from the medical department. See [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|dismissal forms]].

=== Right to Refuse Treatment - MOP ===
As a patient, to consent to or refuse treatment, you must have the capacity to make that decision. Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision.

Under colony procedure, all adults are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there is significant evidence to suggest otherwise.

For consent to treatment or refusal of treatment to be valid, the decision must be voluntary and you must be appropriately informed:
* Voluntary: you must make your decision to consent to or refuse treatment alone, and your decision must not be due to pressure by healthcare professionals, friends, or family.
* Appropriately informed: You must be given full information about what the treatment involves, including the benefits and risks, whether there are reasonable alternative treatments, and what will happen if treatment doesn’t go ahead.

Doctors are authorized to refuse treatment if they believe alternative procedures would be even more detrimental to the well being of the patient (such as refusing anesthetics before a major surgery, which could cause the patient bleed out or go into shock or be harmed by moving during aforementioned surgery). If you have capacity and make a voluntary and appropriately informed decision to refuse a treatment, your decision must be respected. This applies even if your decision would result in your death.

=== Viral Outbreak - ROP ===
* All infected crew to be isolated in Virology or Medbay.
* Sterile masks/Internals and gloves are mandatory for medical personnel and recommended for crew.
* Quarantine must be maintained until outbreak can be contained and disease can be treated.

=== Autopsy - ROP ===
In the event that a deceased individual is discovered, or an individual perishes while under your care, an autopsy should be performed if one has not been done already.
* Security should be informed any time a corpse is discovered, regardless of whether the cause of death is known or not.
* An autopsy should be performed and recorded in an effort to resolve any questions that may arise later on, or if evidence is needed by Security.
* If you have valid reason to believe the death was a suicide, see [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Suicide_or_other_voluntary_death|Suicide or other voluntary death]] below for how to proceed.

=== What is considered 'dead' - MOP ===
Due to how corroded the colonists' opinions have become about death in the upper levels, we'll make it clear on what is considered death.
** When a patient or colonist seizes up then becomes limp, with their eyes both lifeless and dead, then they are considered dead.
** When the health analyzer shows that their overall status is 'Dead', then they are dead, along with corresponding damage to show that they are dead. For example, over two hundred points of kinetic brute damage on their body.
** If they require a defibrillator, then that means they're '''dead'''.
** In regards of FBPs and other alien life, a firm understanding of the alien's biology will help you classify if they are dead or not, specifically in regards of Mycus and Folken. For FBPs, it is situational but if their battery is taken out or if they require specific equipment, then they are considered 'dead' for the time being.
* Zombie powder can mess with these statistics at times, so do consider it from time to time.

=== Suicide or other voluntary death - MOP ===
In '''all''' cases of potential suicides, Security should be contacted to investigate, just in case it's actually murder.

* If they are missing one of the two records, consult their medical records for any indications that they are do not resuscitate.
* If at any time you believe a DNR order has been falsified, or unjustly ordered, you should bring it to the attention of council immediately. Falsifying a DNR order is punishable and is viewed as attempted murder by [[Laws]].
* A valid DNR is usually:
# A confirmed desire to not be revived. See also [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Right to Refuse Treatment|Right to Refuse Treatment]]. An employee may also specify a standing DNR in their medical and/or employment records. These are witnessed by the soteria biolab office's and are legally binding.
# Reasonable order from a station's chief biolab overseer or council to withhold resuscitation for known suicidal* individuals. Note there must be hard evidence of a suicide for this to be valid, such as announcing the suicide on the radio, or a note left behind, multiple eye witnesses, etc.
# Legal execution by order of the high council and/or tribunal of the acting council as listed under legal code.
# Reviving a proven or unproven suicide (in the case of unproven, suspected suicides should have an autopsy and full investigation before revival), enemies of the colony (unless Council or higher decide otherwise), or a person marked for execution is grounds for a job strike/demotion from medical duties, this includes ranks such as corpsman, salvager, or soteria researchers aiding medical. Reviving someone to ask them if they committed suicide is an automatic and permanent removal from all medical positions indefinitely. Medical records cannot be accessed by Corpsmen or Salvagers, communication is key in informing them of such instances, else they cannot be demoted due to them not having the access to know such information. Reviving a person with a DNR in their medical record can be situational in terms of demoting/job striking medical staff.
# Unless their postmortem says that they're not to be revived in some manner, it is to be assumed to attempt revival before burying, cremating, or putting them in the morgue.

===Medical Structure - MOP ===
The Chief Biological Overseer is the boss of the department. After that, each respective job has its own authority in different matters but doctors and psychiatrists do not have authority over orderlies or paramedics, and vice versa. They are expected to work together and handle their duties to the best of their capabilities.

===Medical Paperwork - ROP ===
* [[Example_Paperwork#Prescription_Form|Prescription Forms]]
* [[Example_Paperwork#Autopsy_Report|Autopsy Reports]]

= Soteria Research Division =
=== Marshals and Blackshield - MOP ===
With the truth of Soteria being responsible for the Hivemind's creation now fully revealed, the Marshals and Blackshield have been given absolute authority to fully stop any experiments that can be considered 'dangerous' or 'unusual'. While the terms are broad, this does not mean they can shut down any and all experiments, only the ones that pose more danger and consequences for those other than the researchers conducting them. For example, they can shut down experiments with bluespace due to how dangerous they can become due to the incredible instability of bluespace. Researchers attempting to conduct experiments barred by the Marshals or Blackshield can be charged with a crime.
=== Cyborg Handling - MOP ===
* In cases where [[Identifying_Antagonists#AI_Malfunction|Cyborgs are confirmed to be malfunctioning]], the cyborg shell may be detonated if attempts to contain and lock down the malfunctioning unit are unsuccessful or deemed too dangerous by acting Soteria Institute Overseers.
* Cyborgs that are illegally modified should be remotely locked down. If unable to locked down, its sensors should be overloaded with a flash or controlled EMP and its actuator or cell should be removed before resorting to detonation.
* In cases where destruction of the Cyborg is necessary, the acting CRO must fax a report to the High Council.
* Unwarranted or illegal destruction of a Cyborg or AI count as [[Laws#Exceptional_Offenses|Sabotage]].
* Cyborgs are Soteria Institue property, and are expected to be maintained and upgraded by the institute where applicable.

=== Changing Silicon Laws - ROP ===
* In code blue or higher situations no head of staff (barring the CRO) is to enter the AI Upload or AI Core unless accompanied by at least one other head of staff, or at least one officer if no other heads of staff are available. The AI Upload and AI Core are explicitly off-limits to all other personnel.
* In all other situations, two Heads of Staff are recommended, but not necessary. The Chief Research Overseer and Chief Biolab Overseer are exempt from these rules and may enter at will on all code levels. If both the CRO and CBO agree to modify AI laws, they may do so on any code level.

=== Waiver Clause - MOP ===
* Any sapient crew members who volunteer for experimentation '''must''' [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|sign a waiver]] absolving the scientist of all responsibility for any injuries, deaths, or associated damage to the individual, regardless of the purpose of that experiment. Failure to obtain a waiver will result in a 'negligence' charge for the test subject and for any involved Soteria personnel.

=== Toxin Laboratory Procedure - ROP ===
* Internals are required at all time while inside labs.
* During the mixing process, an explosive ordnance disposal suit is to be worn at all times.
* When the mixing process is complete, the mixing chamber is to be vented using the pipe disposal system.
* All detonations are to be announced over public comms with a countdown, and must be detonated at a designated location.

=== Genetics Research - ROP ===
With the new genetics technology and lab in place, the genetics field has changed drastically for Nadezhda. The following procedures are to be followed at all times. Failure may result in legal action.

Genetic cloning:
* Armed and preferably combat trained personnel are to be present when cloning dangerous creatures.
* Always ensure that the containment pens are in perfect condition and, if cloning extremely dangerous creatures, reinforced if possible.
* Soteria researchers are able to genetically clone any and all creatures save for the Hivemind and the Leviathan class entities: Xenomorph Queen, the Kaiser roach, and the Reaper spider. The Croaker lord, while a Leviathan class entity, is excluded and can be freely cloned. The Marshals and Blackshield have the power to shut down cloning experiments on specific creatures if they are believed to be too dangerous.
** When it comes to genetically cloning the Leviathan class entities, permission must be sought from the CRO or CBO, who will inform the rest of the Council or necessary security forces that it will be occurring. If neither are on duty, permission can be acquired from the Council.
* If cloning subjects escape pens and enter public colony areas, the scientist responsible for their creation is liable for all damages (property, colonists, etc) caused. The Soteria department can choose to pay for their employees' fines, but that is at the discretion of the CBO or CRO.

Genetic Experimentation:
* All colonists subject to testing must have a [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|written and signed waiver]] with a stamp from the Chief Research Overseer, Chief Biolab Overseer, or Premier (in order of preference). Failing the presence of any of those, a signature from the researcher and patient will suffice.
* Soteria can reach out for volunteers from anyone within the colony, even outsiders. Those that volunteer and sign the waiver are to understand that what happens to them genetically may not be temporary, and negative traits acquired from genetic splicing can occur.
* Individuals coming to Soteria for specific genetic splices are to both sign a waiver and pay Soteria for services. If an individual supplies their own creatures containing their desired trait, a discount of up to 50% depending on the creatures and their lethality may be applied.
** Prices for genetic splicing vary depending on what trait is desired but can go from 500 credits to 1,500, depending on the gene's rarity and availability. It can also be 'free' if the patient is willing to be experimented on in regards to that trait.
* All individuals that are released while genetically enhanced are to be documented by Soteria, with copies sent to the Marshals in the event that said individual commits a crime.
* Most genetic genes are legal to have and do not require one to go through additional steps to acquire. However, there are some genetic traits that are deemed illegal by the colony's standards.
** The following genes are considered illegal and require additional steps to be followed in order to acquire permission to use: All forms of cloaking, EMP blast, and X-RAY. Failure to secure permission from the Marshals before splicing these traits will result in the automatic shut down of the genetics lab for the rest of the shift, and the arrest of scientists that took part. Other illegal traits may be added in the future.
** The HULK gene is absolutely forbidden unless code Delta has been engaged.
** The Warrant Officer can clear the use of these genetic traits, so long as they're given a proper reason and the appropriate paperwork is filled out, and both Blackshield and Marshals are informed of it by the WO themselves. The Blackshield Commander can situationally authorize their use for colony defense and operations only, so long as those genetically enhanced by their authority have the genetic traits wiped by Soteria at the end of the operation. The WO can overrule this if they have sufficient reason to. The Provost Marshal or Brigadier can be faxed in regards of this to give a final ruling but if it proves to be time wasting, then a charge may be applied.
* In the instance that a genetically enhanced colonist is arrested by Marshals, Soteria is to provide the Marshals with a purger to fully wipe out their genetic enhancements. Soteria is not responsible for what colonists do after they legally go through the process of getting themselves genetically modified. Marshals and Blackshield may bar a colonist from receiving further genetics work, depending on their attitude, behavior, or past criminal activities while genetically modified. For example, they can tell Soteria to not give John Doe further genetic splicing as he used those acquired traits to break into Lonestar to break and steal Lonestar merchandise and property.

=== Medical Treatment - MOP ===
* If there are no Soteria medical staff available the Science Division may help out in the treatment center. Corpsmen should not be the first to respond before Science, nor should they be utilizing the Soteria medbay when there is science on shift.
* Roboticists, who are expected to be trained in surgery, are preferred over Scientists
* All Medical SOP applies to the Science Division when they are acting in the capacity of medical.

= Marshals =
=== Relevant Terminology ===
* '''The Brig''': The part of the station used to detain those who violate the colony's [[Laws]].
* '''Robust''': As an adjective; able to withstand or overcome adverse conditions. As a verb; slang for viciously assaulting someone. Often used as a compliment in both cases.
* '''Shitcurity''': Slang for describing a marshal officer who unnecessarily or illegally exercises their authority in order to inflate their ego, or a marshal officer who simply doesn't follow standard operating procedure.
* '''Lethals''': Weapons designed for or able to switch to configurations intended for lethal force.
* '''Non-lethals''': Weapons that are not designed to be used lethally, and instead are meant to incapacitate suspects with little or no injury.
* '''Use of Force''': Either lethal or non-lethal, this is the use of weapons to incapacitate a suspect. You may be told at times to use lethal force, or non-lethal force, depending on circumstance. By default, non-lethal force is preferred.
* '''Shoot-to-Stun''': Using non-lethals, incapacitate the target in order to handcuff or otherwise subdue them without injury. Although the term is ''shoot''-to-stun, stun batons, pepper spray, and flashers all fall under this category when talking about engagements with suspects.
* '''Shoot-to-Disable''': Incapacitate a target by injuring them too badly to continue fighting. In the case of mechs, damaging the mech until the pilot bails out or the vehicle is unusable/destroyed.
* '''Shoot-to-Kill''': Using lethal weapons, engaging a target until the target is neutralized. This doesn't actually mean you ''have'' to kill the target (contrary to the term), but the weapons employed may very well kill the target whether you want to or not. Even in Shoot-to-Kill scenarios, you should still attempt to provide immediate medical attention and revive them once they are otherwise safely subdued and the combat is over.
* '''Armed''': Possessing weapons or anything being used as a weapon even if that is not its intended purpose (such as a crowbar). This includes non-lethals, and even basic tools if being used to assault someone.
* '''Contraband''': Anything that is stolen or illegal to possess by anyone aboard the crew. For example, insulated gloves and multitools are not considered contraband on their own, but if they were stolen from the Engineering department, they qualify as contraband.

=== Confiscated Weapons & Evidence - MOP ===
* Confiscated weapons seized as evidence of a crime or seized from those who commit Suspicious Conduct (108) are to remain in evidence lockers after confiscation from the offender. A record is to be made of the gun’s model and serial number on the arrest case-file or incident report.
* During a state of emergency, such as code blue or higher, a Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist may issue guns confiscated as evidence to security personnel to defend the colony. Paperwork should be done listing the officer using the weapon, the name of the colonist the weapon was taken from, and the serial number. After the end of the emergency the gun must be returned to evidence.
* Evidence in any previous or ongoing arrest '''must not''', under any circumstances, be broken down for materials or otherwise destroyed. Doing so may result in Providing False Evidence or Testimony (303) charges.
** Contraband collected that is not involved in an arrest may be broken down however as it is not evidence of a crime.

=== Rules of Engagement - MOP ===
* On code green all arrests the warrant must be authorized by either the premier, warrant officer, supply specialist, or ranger to be considered valid. In the absence of all the stated jobs a marshal officer may use his own signature and fax the high council should he do so. A physical arrest warrant should be signed and filled out before the arrest is made but is not required to. It is, however, required to be filled out within a reasonable and fashionable amount of time. Failure to have a warrant physically on file within a determined reasonable time, typically described as either by the time the prisoner leaves the brig or at least towards the end of their time, the officer may be fined, charged and/or potentially fired for multiple violations of the colony's Laws. It is recommended that should an officer wait to fill out an arrest warrant they should fill it out after the suspect is either let go due to not being charged or sitting in a cell serving their time.
** Note that this only applies to arrest warrants. Search warrants are required to be written, signed or stamped, before the search is conducted. Failure to do so will result in all charges being dropped.
** The Warrant Assist program may be used to place warrants and act upon them; but paperwork should always be done within the aforementioned 'reasonable time'. This may vary case to case; such as on lower crimes or fines as either a low timer or no timer at all may be issued. But word of thumb is that an officer should have paperwork for an arrest finished by the time the suspect is leaving the brig after the average duration of a major/exceptional offense timer.
* During an investigation, two or more witnesses are preferred, but in situations where only one is present an investigator may rule that the sole witness is an impartial one. Under this scenario, if the investigator believes a sole witness/arresting officer has no bias and is completely impartial, they may treat their sole testimony as valid evidence. The investigator/arresting officer may do this with their own witness testimony as well, if they observe a crime being committed. Under all circumstances, the person being arrested may request the impartial witness be reviewed, either by the investigators superiors (in the event of officers to rangers to warrant officers) or someone meant to be impartial like a head of staff, premier, or steward.
* When confronting a suspect for any green paragraph crime, you must offer the suspect a chance to pay a fine. If the fine is paid, they are not to be arrested, detained, or searched unless otherwise specified by [[Laws]]. The fine is to be turned in to the warrant officer or supply specialist. If the fine is refused, they are to be arrested.
* Calling for backup over a level 1 crime is usually considered a waste of resources. Two officers should be enough.
* When arresting or fining a suspect, they are to be informed of their right to pay a fine (if applicable) and their right to have their case reviewed by the premier, or lack there of, any member of the council willing to do so by volunteer. If there is no one capable of reviewing their case, they may still attempt to appeal on their own. Regardless of what type of appeal is made, the suspect is still to be punished until the punishment expires or the appeal passes. (See [[Standard Operating Procedure#Appeals|Appeals]] for details.)
* Refusal of handcuffs does not constitute resisting arrest, as per [[Laws]] §202. If a suspect refuses handcuffs and is being arrested, but is cooperative, they are to be escorted by, preferably, no less than two armed security personnel to the brig. Attempting to cuff a compliant subject is considered a §117 volition of employee rights, the subject may resist the initial cuffing but should not flee else they will be charged with §202 resisting arrest. Any security personnel who use violence as a means to restrain and cuff an otherwise compliant colonist for resisting the initial cuffing is to be charged with §112 excessive force of detainment.
** If you cannot handcuff someone that requires cuffs, such as they are using a deployed hardsuit or have a missing hand, you must warn them at least three times to comply with the arrest. If they continue to refuse after the third warning is given marshal personnel and only marshal personnel may break their legs. '''In the event the suspect dies from this the officer is not liable and cannot be charged with any crime provided he gave three verbal warnings and has at least one witness to attest to this. As always, marshal officers should use the absolute minimum amount of force to get the subject to comply and should a higher ranking officer deem excessive force was used, you can and will be charged.'''
** If, in the event you are dealing with an unruly subject who is immune to most forms of non-lethal stuns (such as a cht'mant) the use of eye-based stuns are recommended. If the cht'mant (or other individual) refuses to comply and is wearing eye covering the use of other disabling methods are allowed (such as flashbangs or table slams). In the event said individual is refusing to comply and armed, shoot to kill is authorized, but caution must be taken to ensure they may be cuffed and revived in medical. Rendering the body unrevivable is considered murder.
* A suspect attempting to flee, or assault another crew member, is authorized shoot-to-stun.
* When confronting an armed suspect, always call for additional backup, preferably prior to the engagement. If the suspect draws a weapon, already has a weapon in their hands, or has used a weapon already, use of force is immediately authorized and you are not required to announce intentions to arrest until after they are subdued.
* If a suspect uses a mech to resist arrest, shoot-to-kill is authorized. Deployment of barricades and use of flipped tables for cover is also advised to create choke points where security can fire upon the target.
* If a suspect is green, screaming, and able to punch down walls, they're probably affected by the hulk gene from genetic manipulation, and if they exist without an ongoing emergency where such muscle is needed or the CBO did not directly inform Security in advance, a 'hulk' outside of medbay or research is shoot-to-kill. Unlike most shoot-to-kill scenarios where the actual killing part is a matter of option and circumstance, there is no way to safely contain a hulk in prison, so if you are forced to confront one, continue engagement until the target is deceased.
* If a suspect escapes the colony, shoot-to-kill is authorized for any personnel within the marshals or blackshield who go out to pursue. Scoped rifles and GPS devices are recommended for the pursuit, as are mechs. Additionally, the blackshield should be informed so they may watch station access points and various outposts to guard them. The marshals may request fire support from the blackshield to aid in hunting down and killing the suspect.
* During Code Delta, any noncompliance from staff is to be met with lethal force.
* For secure areas, see below for specific rules of engagement.
* In terms of dealing with genetically enhanced colonists, Blackshield or Marshals can switch to lethals if they are too problematic to take down by normal means (EMP blast takes out tasers, they are incapable of feeling pain due to a specific strain, capable of cloaking and avoiding them, etc).

=== Secure areas - MOP ===
* In code green, secure areas like the AI core, research server room, telecommunications, bridge, all armories (security, bridge, and church) etc, should never be blocked. Use of deployable barriers to block areas during code green is considered illegal under [[Laws]] §307. Trespassing in these areas is covered under §309 or 508.
* All armories are considered secure areas and have their own section SOP.
* The AI sometimes likes to bolt itself in even during code green. It is not supposed to do this. If the AI bolts its self in, request the AI to unbolt the doors, citing Standard Operating Procedure. If the AI does not comply, ask the research overseer or premier to try reasoning with it. If it still does not comply, it is up to the staff in charge of overseeing the AI how to proceed, usually by changing laws. Unauthorized personnel discovered attempting to breach the AI core are shoot to kill.
* The research server room has a variety of sensitive information. Unauthorized personnel in this location are to be captured, searched, and interrogated before being charged and sentenced.
* The brig is considered a high security area. Unauthorized personnel attempting to break in, or any "Hold until Transfer" inmates attempting to break out, are both shoot to kill.
* The telecomms is a highly sensitive area that provides vital communications among the crew and to the high council, thus any unauthorized personnel who have accessed the control room are shoot-to-kill.

=== Criminal Processing - ROP ===
See [[Laws]] for rules that carry fines or brig time. Breaking standard operating procedure is not punishable by law, but if an accident or fatality occurs for violating it, see [[Laws]] §206.

Criminal processing should not take more than a few minutes at most. Don't needlessly waste time with additional questioning and interrogation until they're already properly arrested. Detained prisoners are the responsibility of the arresting officer or, if one volunteers, another officer, the supply specialist, or the warrant officer.

'''''The time you took for bringing the suspect in and the time you spend questioning are NOT to be calculated into this. This is the pure time someone spends in a cell staring at the wall.'''''

Upon arrest of a criminal, follow the following steps.

# State the main reason for their arrest, even if you have already. This is not required, but it's good practice.
# Bring the suspect to Security Processing. If paying a fine will replace jail time, offer them the chance to pay the fine before proceeding. This is assuming they have not paid the fine already and had to be handcuffed in the first place. If the fine is paid, skip to the final step. Otherwise, continue.
# Search the individual for contraband and question them as necessary. Empty pockets, remove accessories such as webbing off their uniform, check their PDA for stolen/illegal cartridges, check their headset for illegal/stolen encryption cards, check their shoes for knives, check anything and everything that could contain items. If contraband or stolen property is found, charge them accordingly. See [[Laws]] for details. Anything else ''not'' considered contraband but still may compromise the security of the cell (such as a chef's kitchen knife, or an engineer's tools) should also be temporarily confiscated and returned after the sentence is served.
# The warrant officer, or if one is not present, a ranger should determine the validity of any charges based upon evidence gathered or witnesses present. Example, a marshal officer says he saw a prospector break a window and the prospector says it was broken when he found it. The window is indeed broken, but the one witness is not enough and the prospector may be telling the truth. Best judgement is advised.
# Calculate sentencing based on the total charges. '''Multiple instances of the same offense counts in this case.''' For example, if a suspect stole three items, you cannot charge them theft three times. If they have already been arrested for the same crime during that shift, follow [[Laws#Modifiers_.26_Special_Situations|the laws on special circumstances]].
# Update the prisoner's security records accordingly. Set their status to "Imprisoned".
# Return the prisoner's PDA and headset to their person. If you cannot provide them with their original headset and PDA for suspected security reasons, you must provide at least a basic headset and a temporary PDA. All prisoners are entitled to some kind of communication device unless the privilege is abused, or the device is evidence for a crime (such as a PDA with incriminating logs).
# Follow security privacy laws, and inform those that need to be informed, depending on the severity of the crime. You have no authority to demote anyone.
# Escort the prisoner to their cell, preferably with another officer to aid you. Bring any of their belongings that you did not confiscate.
# Find a vacant cell and buckle the prisoner to the bed. If the sentence is longer than 10 minutes, they are required to wear an orange jumpsuit and shoes, so change their clothes if needed.
# Put all of their belongings (besides communication) that are not evidence for a crime into the cell's locker, which will lock automatically when you start the timer.
# Set and start the timer. The door will close and the locker will be locked.
# Enter the cell with a flash at the ready and remove the prisoner's handcuffs. If possible, have a second officer present to help. It is unlawful to leave a prisoner restrained in a cell unless in solitary confinement.
# Ensure someone is monitoring the prison area for the duration of the prisoner's sentence, or at least be there when it ends.
# Wait for the sentence to expire. Proceed to final step once it has expired.
# Return all temporarily confiscated goods.
# Allow the prisoner to leave Security. Set the prisoner's status to "released" or "patrolled" depending on their conviction or there lack-of.

=== Prisoner Expectations ===
As a prisoner, you are expected to abide by certain standards. Failure to obey will result in further punishment such as solitary confinement or more brig time.
* If you are incarcerated, do not attempt escape.
* Irritating officers for amusement is a generally poor idea. Refrain from repeatedly banging upon windows.
* Attempts at suicide will be met with solitary confinement. (( Also probably a server ban. ))
* If you feel you have been unjustly incarcerated, contact the supply specialist, the warrant officer, premier, or a willing council member (in that order of first to last) to appeal your case.

=== Prisoner Rights - MOP ===
As a prisoner, you are entitled to certain rights under any circumstance, regardless of the nature of your crimes.
* All prisoners are entitled to a swift processing when being arrested and put into the brig. Longer than 1/2 of their sentence is considered a violation of this right so long as the prisoner is cooperating.
* All prisoners are entitled to medical examination and aid if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to speak to the premier or volunteer council member for legal defense if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to food and water if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to be provided with clothing--preferably the standard orange prisoner jumpsuit and orange shoes.
* All prisoners are entitled to safe and reasonable cell accommodations such as functional lighting, a place to sleep, and access to the brig's communal area if serving a sentence longer than 20 minutes.

=== Executions - MOP ===
* The prisoner is informed of their punishment, and allowed to decide how they die (within reason). Suggested options include lethal injection, firing squad, plasma gassing, or, in rare cases, melee fights to the death.
* The prisoner is to be granted a final request (within reason, because obviously "let me go" or "kill this dude for me" isn't reasonable).
* The prisoner is given their last meal.
* The prisoner is escorted to the execution location under heavily armed guards, bound in a straight jacket and leg cuffs. Escorting officers are armed to kill. Lethal injections are done in medbay surgery room under supervision of a doctor, firing squad is done on the shooting range, gassing is done in toxins or a room is built by engineering, etc.
* It is required for the premier and at least three council members to be present, or an execution may not proceed.

= Armory =
There are four armories on the colony. The first is the general armory, owned by the Marshals, north of the Security Lobby. The second is the Church's Armory found in the Prime's private department. The third is the command armory, behind the private rooms of the Steward and Premier. The fourth is the Blackshield armory to the west of the Blackshield's triage room. Unless you have access, are invited, or otherwise specified, anyone in the armory is Shoot-to-Kill excluding the Premier/Steward who may have a reason to break SOP. If this is found to be untrue, proceed with an arrest and legal ramifications.
The Church Armory is only accessible by the Prime. This is only to be accessed during serious threats to the colony or church and can only be handed out to members of the church. Not following this SOP for good reason is grounds for demotion and church-related consequences.
The Command Armory is only accessible by the Premier and Steward. Stewards should arm up with their preferred guns at this location, premiers may do so. Weapons should generally not be handed out, unless the other armories are not avaliable or guns are missing. Guns from this armory should be handed out primarily to other heads of staff first.

=== Marshal Armory - MOP ===
The Marshal armory is divided into two sections - the public shop area and the storage area. Everything in the room behind the shop is the storage area. The shop has two sections, the secure area behind the windows that allows access to the display cases and front-room storage, and that of the public area in front of the desk and on the non-windoor side of the display cases. Unless asked to leave or banned from the armory shop, the public shop area is publicly accessible to anyone providing the blast doors are open. Any colonist may buy, sell or trade with the appropriate authorities there. Behind the desk is considered, similar to the armory, a secure area.
* In regards to the storage area of the armory, the Supply Specialist is the controller of the armory. They are a Marshal. When it comes to the armory, their word is law. They are responsible for handing out weapons, keeping everything stocked and inventoried, and running the shop. While the Warrant Officer, Commander and Sergeant may have access, the Supply Specialist is to be respected. If they tell you to leave, you leave. Failure to comply leaves you open to legal ramifications such as abuse of powers, grand trespass or other charges that may be levied.
* In case of a weapon request from Marshals/Blackshield, the Supply Specialist must always utilize paperwork that determines what was removed from the Armory. The weapon that gets replaced should also be noted on the paperwork and handed in with all ammo.
* In case of selling items from the armory, the Supply Specialist should keep a receipt on what item(s) were sold and how many credits were made. Any loans to the individual Marshals or the Blackshield department should likewise be recorded on a receipt for record-keeping purposes.
* If no Supply Specialist is present or available, the rank order of ownership goes to the Warrant Officer. If no Warrant Officer is present a CO, Sergeant or Premier may access the armory but only in exceptional situations; such as the need to arm other Marshals in an emergency situation. The marshal armory is not a play-thing.
* Under normal circumstances no equipment should be handed out for free to non-marshal department staff.
* In a Code-Red scenario, the armory should be fully utilized and weapons should be handed out to Marshal officers first, volunteers of Blackshield second and colonists last. These should be returned when the crisis is over or else the individual may face legal consequences. Abusing access, authority or carelessly using the resources is a reason for demotion under charges 411 or 508; depending on circumstances.
* The Department Account is trusted to the Supply Specialist to use, as well as the Warrant Officer and Blackshield CO. All personnel in these positions are trusted to use the finances responsibly to upgrade or equip the department as required. This may include purchasing weapons, allowing loans for equipment, and so on for members of the Marshal and Blackshield department.

=== Blackshield Armory - MOP ===
Similar to the Marshal armory, the Blackshield armory consists of two parts. The barracks room, containing the lathe and ammo, and the secure armory back room. The front room is considered to be a normal Blackshield room that can be accessed by Blackshield personnel as needed. The secure armory behind the blast doors is the Blackshield armory, being considered a secure room - just as the Marshal armory is.
* The Blackshield armory can be accessed by both the CO and the Sergeant, holding specialized armaments and ammunition for field actions. This gear is there to be issued when required for combat purposes or in cases of emergency. All gear within it should only be issued to Blackshield personnel and should be returned to the armory at the end of the shift.
* While the Premier, Marshal WO and Supply Specialist have access to the Blackshield armory they are not to use said access unless in an emergency situation or upon the request of Blackshield personnel over security concerns. Even when accessed by either person the issued equipment may not be issued to anyone but Blackshield personnel. Violation of this can result in either 411 or 508 charges levied against the offender.
* The Blackshield armory falls under the jurisdiction of the CO. If no CO is present, authority over the Blackshield armory falls to the Sergeant. The CO may also delegate authority over the issuing of gear from the armory to the Sergeant.
* Equipment from the Blackshield armory may be loaned to the Marshals by a CO with paperwork. All equipment must be returned unless traded for gear of equal value and usage or greater. Otherwise no sales or loans of Blackshield armory gear should occur.

= Blackshield =
=== General Duties - MOP ===
The duties of the Blackshield are first and foremost the protection of the colony and its citizens above all else. The Blackshield is on standby in the event of, but not limited to, pirate attacks, hostile dangerous fauna sightings, disappearance of the prospector team members or colonists, disappearance of mining team members, or the presence of hostiles groups such as excelsior, smugglers, or a hivemind.

The Blackshield is '''heavily recommended''' to guard the surface level of the colonies main gate at all times and should inspect all incoming and out going traffic. All exiting people should be recorded in a gate log with the time, name, and rank of the person noted down. A photograph is optional but not required. All returning colonists should be noted down in the same log in a new entry before being allowed to declare any contraband items they may have found outside the colony walls. After all contraband is declared and forfeited that are to be searched for any remaining contraband. Finding anything the searched person didn't announce is considered valid grounds to charge them with a §106 or §206 depending on the severity of the item in question.

[[Example_Paperwork#Gate_Log|Gate log forms can be found here. All people entering and exiting should be logged on a new line each time.]]
* The Form should show the name of the individual or group members leaving, their intended designation and a rough estimate of their return time.
* If a colonist lacks equipment such as armor, weapons or refuses to put on suit sensors, this should also be noted.

All Blackshield members should adhere to these procedures.
* All Blackshield staff must be armed with a minimum one long-arm (rifles,shotgun,ect) or short-arm (smg,saw-off,ect) type weapon, one pistol type weapon, and one deadly melee weapon. Blackshield members are required to have at least two magazines worth of lethal quality ammunition for any weapons they carry and may choose to carry non-lethal.
* All Blackshield staff may request a different weapon from the armory. They have to respect the authority of the Supply Specialist if one is available. If not, the Warrant Officer is the highest authority of the Armory followed by the Commander and then Sergeant. An armory request form has to be filled out and if a Commander or Sergeant is available, approved by them first via signature or stamp. A request may be refused at anytime for any reason.
* All Blackshield staff are required to carry, either on their person or within their bag, one suit of body armor and one helmet.
* Blackshield staff under no circumstance during code green should loan their equipment, munitions, or weapons out to any colonist, including the marshals unless during a code blue or higher scenario.
* Blackshield staff are authorized and encouraged to act as members of security if no marshals are present on site. If marshals are present however, they should provide support only when asked. They may make arrests, investigate crimes, or detain criminals even during code green as required. When Blackshield staff members act as a member of the marshals, all orders, even from a standard officer, must be obeyed and take priority even over the Blackshield commander.

===General Guidelines - MOP===
* Calling non-Blackshield ‘Civilian’ or ‘Citizen’ is derisive and is to be avoided. Blackshield is a militia, and in no way is above another colonist outside of their assigned role, '''this is not a military'''.
* You are serving in the Blackshield to serve the colony. In most circumstances, this goes hand in hand with your own goals, however there is nothing stopping you from playing like any other colonist.
* Remaining calm in challenging circumstances will reinforce a professional appearance, however there is room for leeway in regards to how you handle these situations. So long as a situation is handled with minimal casualties, the situation is handled.
* The past of members of Blackshield is irrelevant. Whether criminal, prior military, pirate, machine, or ghost, all members of the militia are given equal opportunity for advancement and acceptance so long as they prove competent during training, and during their assigned daily tasks. Volunteers additionally are given equal opportunity to be accepted.
* Orders from the Commander and Sergeant, in that order, are to be followed where possible, unless doing so breaks the law. If either the Commander or the sergeant gives you an order you cannot follow without breaking the law, telling them clearly that you can not follow that order is better than making a scene.
* The Premier and the Steward hold no authority over any department, and as such their orders hold no weight. However, if they give you a suggestion that is in good faith and advisory, it may be wise to listen to them. However, they may be requested to vacate any area within the Blackshield sector, or the Gatehouse, at the attending Marshal's or Blackshield's preference. They may also, at the behest of a Corpsman, Sergeant, or Commander, be asked to remain off the Blackshield Channel.
* Other command staff may be designated as someone acceptable to take orders from below the Sergeant within specific circumstances. For example, the Chief Research Overseer may be designated as a temporary superior if providing security at a dig site.
* Members of the Blackshield may use and customize their firearms or weaponry as they desire, using whatever energy, projectile, and melee weapon they desire. In the case of better or more fitting non-standard equipment existing within the armory, Blackshield personnel may request better armaments from the Supply Specialist and/or Blackshield Commander within reason. (Such as exchanging out standard-issue 7.5 boltgun for a .257 Kalash, .35 Bullpup, or any other weapon that is considered carbine-sized or above).
* Blackshield equipment cannot be sold without facing legal ramifications. If you want new equipment, either through purchase or requisition, return your prior equipment to your locker, or to the Armory if requesting equipment from there.
* '''Important:''' Blackshield are not allowed to mine within the Gulag or utilize its equipment or machinery for any reason, as it is a location for convicted prisoners or debt defaulters to work. This '''cannot''' be overruled by the Blackshield Commander under any circumstances. Marshals will charge the Blackshield that misuse the Gulag with 301, Negligence. Demotions might be issued out if it is a continued issue, either by the Commander or the Brigadier.
* Most importantly, the purpose and jobs of Blackshield are to mainly handle external (At only the gates, perimeter, and beyond those) matters, not internal. Choosing to do Marshal work when there are '''active''' Marshals working on said matters is already covered and can result in charges/fines. For Corpsmen and medical, the duties of the Corpsmen are strictly for Blackshield and external situations. Under most circumstances, a Corpsman should not be actively providing medical aid inside of the colony whilst there are medical staff on duty. Appropriate charges/fines can and will be placed, however, if there are no active Marshals to carry that out, then Medical will null the entirety of Blackshield's right to free treatments, and proceed to thusly charge '''all''' of Blackshield.

===Gate Operations - MOP===
Due to close contact with Prospectors and other personnel, as well as being the main entrance to the colony, the Gate and the Fence are important to protect, patrol, and operate around. The gate is also the one place where the Blackshield retains full law enforcement authority.

When manpower is available (3-4 active (Non-SSD) Blackshield staff), the gatehouse is to be manned by at least one Blackshield member in exemption for combat operations or breaks, which in the case of breaks should be within a reasonable amount of time.

Calls for gate operation should be answered and handled in a timely fashion.

Marshals can be requested to fill in for temporary periods of time in the case of external operations or training.

The gate is to remain bolted on both sides at all times when troopers are present. When people arrive, unlock the side they are on and allow them to come through, then bolt the door again to allow them to be searched without fear of their running away.

All command staff, '''barring the Warrant Officer, Steward, and Premier''', are authorized to depart the colony of their own volition and have access to the doors as a result.
Non-command staff, barring Prospectors and Marshals, have no access to the gates. They should be allowed through if they wish to leave.
When individuals are leaving the gate, bound for the forest, they are not necessary to search and it’s advisable to not search them unless there’s reasonable suspicion of contraband. Notify them that they will be searched on return, however.

For proper logging, a trooper, corpsman, or sergeant is to ask that the individual show their ID, state their destination, and for medevac purposes, are to turn on their suit sensors to maximum if they are not already on. Colonists leaving the colony '''alone''' are to be informed that if Blackshield is to perform a medevac to rescue the colonist, that a 800 credit fee will be incurred immediately and paid to a Blackshield member. The cost of used medical supplies and ammunition is not included in the 800 credit medevac fee, and additional charges may be accrued for their use. A colonist cannot be charged a medevac bill if they were retrieved right from the middle of the gates by Blackshield, nor right in front of them.
If a colonist, prospector, etc, fails to properly follow these three simple requests, Blackshield can deny them their right to leave the colony on these grounds (Hunters are exempt from this). The only ones that cannot be denied are command staff. Only orders by Marshals, the Sergeant, and the Blackshield Commander can keep command staff from leaving, so long as there is a reason behind them.

On returning, all individuals must be searched. '''This includes the Commander, Warrant Officer, other Blackshield, and other Marshals.''' A full search is authorized from the start, including the bag, pockets, wallets, boxes, and other storage items. If they refuse to comply, cuffing them for the search is authorized.
If contraband is found in the bag, detainment is authorized and the individual must be requested, first, to voluntarily allow cuffing. If they refuse, forced cuffing is authorized.
After detainment and a full search, alert the Marshals to the detainment, move the individual to the gate cell, and await arrival of the Marshals to allow them to take custody of the individual.
If the individual in question with contraband is a member of Blackshield or the Marshals, and they didn’t report that they were bringing contraband for destruction or holding, the relevant command should be notified and previous procedure followed.
Failure to do a proper search, or even a search at all, can be grounds for dismissal. If a situation occurs because a trooper did not search the individual at the gates and collect contraband items that were used by the individual, they can be charged with §301, Negligence. Officer discretion is heavily advised in this matter.

Patrols must be carried out along the fence every so often to ensure that the fence itself is intact and there are no hostile creatures at the perimeter that the turrets did not handle.
In the event of a hole in the fence, call for the Guild to mend it, then stand guard. Ensure that all on the Blackshield or Marshal channel are notified of the damage. Take note of the hole in the fence. If it was a clean cut, someone likely cut in or out. If the broken grille is visible, it may have been a creature but was also likely someone breaking in or out.
Movement to blue alert may be necessary.

===Relationship with the Marshals and the Colony===
The relationship with the Marshals is one of cooperation. The Blackshield provides the external security, and the Marshals the internal. They are two parts of the colony’s defense, and should work together when it comes to said defense. The Commander and the Warrant Officer, both command staff, are expected to work together, share resources as needed, share comms, and be willing to reach out to the other if needed.

'''It should be noted, however, that if there is no Marshals, Blackshield may step in as colony Law Enforcement.''' Militia intervention in civil legal matters is likely to result in injuries if left unchecked, however, and for the most part the use of weapons unless strictly required is barred. In the event that weaponry is required, nonlethals, followed by less-than-lethals (rubbers/beanbags), followed by lethals is the order that must be followed.

If the Warrant Officer, or other Marshal personnel, requests Blackshield assistance to augment their manpower, or to deal with high risk suspects, the Commander or Sergeant can and should authorize Troopers to aid the Marshals, but is not required to do so. In such circumstances, the Marshals they accompany are their temporary superiors.
The Warrant Officer is not to command Blackshield to act in lieu of a Commander or Sergeant, but Troopers can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

In the event that there is a severe external threat to the colony (ex. Xenomorph swarms), the Commander is able to request Marshal assistance to supplement their manpower. As with the opposite, the Warrant Officer can and should authorize Marshal assistance, but is not required to do so. Any Marshals that assist are placed under temporary Blackshield orders. Likewise, the Commander is not to command the Marshals in lieu of a Warrant Officer. Marshals can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

Other command staff may request Blackshield assistance where applicable. For example, a Chief Research Overseer requesting troopers to help protect a high-risk dig site may be authorized at the discretion of the Commander or Sergeant. If neither exist, Troopers can willingly assist, but are recommended not to unless prudent.

===Relationship with the Prospectors - ROP===
The Relationship with the Marshals aside, Prospectors share a large amount of interaction with Blackshield. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for escort to dangerous away sites, searches upon return due to their primary role of being outside the colony, medical evacuations, and so on. This does not mean that the Prospectors are well liked by Blackshield, however, or vice versa.

Blackshield may, '''upon approval by a Foreman or with approval of the Blackshield Commander''' (Both is preferable, if available), give an escort to Prospectors should they be heading into dangerous areas that they believe they are not equipped for, as per their goal of defending the colony and its colonists. The Foreman or requesting prospector/salvager (if accepted by the commander) should draft out a form that is signed and, if applicable, stamped, to pay for Blackshield's assistance. This form should include the following:

* The time you wish to leave, as well as where you are heading.
* The estimated danger that comes where you are going. This includes whether there will be turrets, abandoned defense systems, Greyson Security Units, a large amount of Spiders, so on, and so forth.
* The items specifically offered to Blackshield as payment for their services. This includes weaponry, tools, equipment, design disks, and materials. If items are not specified, a percentage should be specified, which is a minimum of 30% to Blackshield for the assistance.
* If the last point is not filled out in forms of equipment, a financial option is available. Prospectors may pay for Blackshield assistance in the form of credits, with a fee of 400 per Blackshield Trooper or Sergeant assigned, 600 if a Corpsman is assigned to assist, as well as additional fees for Ammunition and Medical Supplies required for use by Blackshield personnel during the escort.
* A signature of the approving Foreman and/or approving Blackshield Commander, and the requesting Prospector and/or requesting Salvager.
* A Stamp of the Blackshield Commander and/or Foreman who authorized the escort.

[[Example_Paperwork#Blackshield_Escort_Request|Or, an example paper can be found here.]]

Failure to abide by the proper procedure means that criminal charges may be pressed in the event of an escort. For example, if no items that are listed on a manifest are given, Prospectors or Salvagers may be charged for failure to pay for an escort. Defaulting on a Debt is the proper charge to use in this case, until the Credits for the escort, as explained above, are given to Blackshield by the department.

Should Blackshield take items that are not listed on the manifest, or take items at all should the financial option have been taken, they may be charged with Theft, as due to salvage claims that is property of the Prospectors, Salvagers, and Foreman respectively.

===Medevac shuttle - MOP===
The medevac shuttle near the gatehouse is to be operated for the sole purpose of medivacs that are conducted by Blackshield. This shuttle can go to several locations on the planet of Amethyn. In the instance a medevac has to be done, follow normal Blackshield protocol in forming a group before boarding the shuttle. However, bring at least three members if using the shuttle. The shuttle is the safest and also fastest form of travel currently.
* When operating the shuttle, always make sure occupants are buckled down, no one is standing behind the engines, and that the shuttle's door is closed and bolted.
* The usage of the medivac shuttle does not make the Blackshield medevac bill increase from 800.
* Remain buckled during travel to destinations. When the shuttle has landed, armed personnel are to exit out of the shuttle first and ensure the surrounding area is clear before proceeding to rescue colonists.
* As a precaution to prevent hijacking or sabotage of the shuttle, a armed guard of at least one is to remain with the shuttle.
* Upon returning to the shuttle with the wounded, use the body scanner and sleeper during the trip back to stabilize them before taking them to Soteria medical.
* The Marshals also have the authority to use the medevac shuttle for the rare occasion of collecting a colonist from the Lodge if there have been issues with them, or to capture/intercept a criminal out in the wilderness. Blackshield can be requested to come along and are recommended to accept such requests unless there is only one, then it is to be immediately denied so that the colony is not left unguarded in a official capacity.
All Blackshield, Marshals, and heads of staff can access the shuttle. For marshals, they are to follow the above if leaving the colony in the medevac shuttle. For heads of staff, refer to the Council SOP. The Blackshield Commander may choose to use the medevac shuttle in other situations but cannot order the use of the shuttle if there are no immediate medevacs to be done, or situations. The Commander however is authorized to train personnel on use of the shuttle from time to time.

===Deep Maintenance - MOP===
This area is a extremely dangerous and hostile location, even the most veteran and well equipped colonist, Federation soldier, or anyone else, stand a high chance of dying.

As has been debated many times weather or not its inside or below the colony, one thing for sure is that it is an anomalous location has no actual physical location as such it is therefore considered a external area, which Blackshield holds authority over. Due to how dangerous, anomalous, and hellish the tunnels are however, Blackshield and Marshals are heavily encouraged to work together in handling these tunnels for whatever reasons.

Blackshield holds direct authority when in regards of handling any and all external matters, however, in the case of deep maints, Blackshield should allow the Marshals or any other department to reinforce or back them up.

If a colonist requires a medevac from deep maints itself, the medevac fine may tripled due to just how dangerous deep maints itself is, and the chances of running into genetic abominations that can multiply and dissolve bodies in order to do so.

[[Category:Guides for New Players]]
[[Category:Lore]]
{{Gameplay guides}}

Timeline

2023-01-17T19:38:57Z

Cora: /* 2653 - Present Day */ - edits to 2652 because im stupid

=Where We Begin=
The history of Earth follows lore follows, up until the set time below. As a general rule, most major events will be referenced in this page.

==2125 - Terraforming Begins==
Earth begins unifying under the Mars terraforming process. The larger nations across the globe pool resources to complete what they believe will be an extremely profitable venture.

==2131 - Abhuman Adaptation==
[[Abhuman]] adaption is invented and quickly becomes a commercial success as various groups begin to modify themselves for planned travel off planet once available.

==2139 - New Homeworlds==
Other planets that are habitable are discovered, abhuman modifications skyrocket to fit the demand of planetary adaptation in other star systems. A slow form of hyper speed is then created, undergoing heavy development in parallel with colony ships being forged to send large population groups to these new star systems.

==2153 - Pending Financial Collapse==
Earth starts to bankrupt itself on its Mars terraforming project, incurring massive debt that causes hyperinflation and a failing economy.

==2154 - Escape from Sol==
Massive groups of populations flee to other systems for a new life, abandoning the failing Sol system.

==2275 - Terraforming Complete==
The Mars terraforming project is completed but Sol has bankrupted itself. A period of extreme strife follows for the next century with Mars and Earth falling into decline and the tycoons who worked up the debt through the terraforming project seize all material wealth left before fleeing on colony ships to other systems.

==2383 - Bluespace FTL Invented==
The remaining stable areas of Mars and Earth, seeking to find a way to fix the economic and political stability, invent the bluespace FTL drive. A revolutionary faster than light travel device capable of cutting trips that once would have taken decades to a few weeks.

==2384 - War Preparation==
Sol begins a propaganda campaign, blaming all their ills on the fleeing colonists, claiming that they stole the wealth that rightfully belonged to them. Over the next three years, the remaining despairing Sol citizens are rallied under a desperate banner to bring peace to their worlds.

==2387 - War Begins==
Sol begins the unification wars after weaponizing bluespace drives and pooling the last of their resources into a military-industrial complex, mass producing ships, soldiers, weaponry, and armaments.

==2387-2562 - The Conquering==
Several centuries of warfare follow, with Sol utterly destroying, annexing, conquering, or forcing all [[abhuman]] and [[human]] empires to join them. The first phase begins with what is commonly called the Twenty-Year Harrowing, where Sol forces refused any surrender or peace terms, utterly devastating and conquering all nearby star systems in a bloody display of military might. This sets the stage for the remaining centuries of conflict, causing many systems to surrender the moment the Sol fleet entered their star space.

After this twenty year period of intense bloodshed, Sol reins in its devastating methods and begins using the reputation gained and its rapidly growing industry it has developed to quickly recruit potential conquests through more peaceful means.

==2565 - Unified Federation==
By this time period, all major empires of human or abhuman origin have been absorbed into the Sol Federation. Those remaining were deemed too distant and insignificant to be profitably conquered. With humanity united, Sol begins a fervent expansion into other areas of space by terraforming new planets and seeking more distant areas for colonization. It is at this time that humanity begins to discover intelligent alien life.

==2567 - Mar'qua Alliance==
With its beginning expansionism, the Sol Federation is contacted by the [[Mar’qua]] sovereignty who had discovered humanity decades ago and had begun learning of them. A peace treaty and defensive contract is set up on mutually agreed upon terms-- Sol leveraging its superior numbers, military, and economy against Mar'qua's advanced technology in a mutually beneficial agreement. An uneasy peace is now in place as both empires work together, the Federation eager to get its hands on Mar’qua technology while the Sovereignty seeks using the Federation as a cudgel to protect its borders.

==2569 - Greyson Positronics==
The small corporation known as Greyson Positronics is formed by joint Federation factions interested in pushing the boundaries of robotics, cybernetics, and mechanical augmentation. The company quickly becomes a massive spanning corporation across the universe thanks to open use of artificial intelligence and robots filling a massive portion of the workforce. Many notable inventions begin and end with Greyson and by 2596 this corporation owns enough planets, armaments, and forces to rival a small empire.

==2572 - Akula Colonization==
Sol discovers the homeworld of the [[Akula]]. Sol quickly began to colonize the planet, supplying weapons to factions that are pro-Sol to easily conquer the planet in three years, making the Akula official SolFed citizens. Introduction of Akula soldiers and shock troopers are added to military offensives, further increasing the might of federation forces.

==2577-2620 - Period of Discovery==
Many new species are discovered, with notable ones being listed below in order of importance. Smaller, weaker alien empires are slowly absorbed by the ever expanding Sol Federation borders with many joining willingly and some fighting a losing battle, being annexed shortly after.

==2580 - Naramad ==
The homeworld of the primitive [[Naramad]] are discovered. The leaders of the Naramadi people mistakenly attack the federation ambassadors, believing they are a similar looking native fauna that stole from them. Retaliation is swift and brutal as the Federation declared a defensive war and dispatched Mar’qua forces from the war council to handle the situation, with the stipulation of no orbital bombardment to preserve planetary industry. In a handful of months the planet is brought to its knees and quickly annexed. Its people are conscripted into the Sol military as shock troops and ship-to-ship breaching parties.

==2582 - Sablekyne==
The existence of the [[Sablekyne]] home-world is revealed to the Federation through Oni, LLC who had long ago contacted the alien race and uplifted them as allies. Integration into the federation proves simple and easy, with Sablekyne making up a decent chunk of frontier area military corps, merchants, and freebooters.

==2583 - Opifex==
[[Opifex]] ships are discovered by the Mar’qua Observatorium, confirming a century long rumor of scavengers who targeted derelict ships, space hulks, and unprotected colonies. Contact is established and the main Opifex scavenger fleets are eased into an non-aggression treaty. Shortly after, Opifex ships begin attacking and raiding enemies of the Sol Federation for unconfirmed reasons.

==2600 - Cht'mant==
The [[Cht’mant]] are discovered on a planet marked for resource harvesting due to its hostile environment being unfit for human colonization. The Cht’mant are originally mistaken for animals until a hive queen learns to imitate and use English Common. The Soteria Institute, a xenobiological research organization working with the federation at the time deemed the Cht’mant worth study and collected several hive queens and remaining Cht’mants from the planet. After a brief period of study and secondary schooling, the race remaining Cht’mants were released to their own devices.

==2601 - Cindarite==
The [[Cindarite]] are discovered by rebel pirates in their death world. Federation forces descended on pirates in the sector, capturing or destroying most ships before a well known pirate struck a deal to reveal all of his information and contacts with the Cindarites located below the surface of their death world. Federation forces quickly initiated diplomatic operations and recruited the Cindarite for their highly specialized evolution to toxic living conditions. Many Cindarites became spacers, spending their entire lives on various ships, allowing them to become well known in a short space of time.

==2605 - Kriosan==
The [[Kriosans]] Empire is discovered by the Federation and quickly annexed to gain access to their valuable anti-orbital weapons platforms, and the governing dictatorship agrees to terms of surrender, if only officially. Rioting was frequent, but quelled quickly by Solar MPs and Kriosan Police.

==2625 - The Second Conquering==
Sol continues its aggressive expansion, preparing to conquer the small left over empires of abhumans/humans. Rumors and missives are abound that a new unification war is about to begin and those who have resisted Federation control will soon be conquered, annexed, or given a chance to surrender. Many speculate that this new series of wars will spread throughout the galaxy as decades of preparation begins.

==2628 - Greyson Positronics==
The galaxy-spanning megacorp Greyson Positronics collapses for unknown reasons. All synthetics, artificial intelligence, and robots under the Greyson network go haywire and begin slaughtering any and all nearby organics. Many areas exclusively owned by Greyson quickly become dead worlds that are abandoned and rendered off limits. Greyson industries and colonies were built on hostile or worthless planets for its cost benefit-- as a result, Federation forces decline wasting resources clearing out these areas as there is little gain to be had in doing so. Grayson sites with galaxy-scale strategic value, or built on profitable locations, are destroyed and reclaimed. The remaining organic Greyson employees who escaped the initial conflict formed the Xiang Jiang and quickly become enemies of the Sol Federation upon discovery of using biomorphs.

==2644 - The Colony Forms==
The Nadezhda Coalition, formed by several disparate factions and fleets of ships, prepare to leave for the distant world known as Amethyn on the edge of the galaxy. Many ships filter in over the year before the final one, the Soteria fleet, crash lands upon the surface after using an experimental inter-star system teleporter. This event marks the last of the largest ships arriving upon the colony, but smaller transport shuttles filter in over the next few years.

==2645 - Bluespace Crash==
Bluespace as it is understood crashes, completely and utterly rendering all bluespace devices unstable, with long range devices such as teleporters and bluespace drives becoming so unstable using them is assuredly a death wish. Short range devices prove to still function, yet many show signs of instability and formerly unknown bugs that cause new hazards with use. A large splinter faction calling itself the Vorhut launched a rebellion across the Kriosan Empire, re-establishing Castellan rule and Imperial sovereignty at the cost of around half the rebel forces.

==2652 - Present Day==
The colony is entirely cut off from the rest of the galaxy due to the bluespace crash, with only the nearby [[Kriosan]] Confederacy able to easily communicate with them. Relations and trade agreements are quickly established.

[[Category:Lore]]

Timeline

2023-01-17T19:37:09Z

Cora: /* 2651 - Present Day */ - Updates the year to 2653

=Where We Begin=
The history of Earth follows lore follows, up until the set time below. As a general rule, most major events will be referenced in this page.

==2125 - Terraforming Begins==
Earth begins unifying under the Mars terraforming process. The larger nations across the globe pool resources to complete what they believe will be an extremely profitable venture.

==2131 - Abhuman Adaptation==
[[Abhuman]] adaption is invented and quickly becomes a commercial success as various groups begin to modify themselves for planned travel off planet once available.

==2139 - New Homeworlds==
Other planets that are habitable are discovered, abhuman modifications skyrocket to fit the demand of planetary adaptation in other star systems. A slow form of hyper speed is then created, undergoing heavy development in parallel with colony ships being forged to send large population groups to these new star systems.

==2153 - Pending Financial Collapse==
Earth starts to bankrupt itself on its Mars terraforming project, incurring massive debt that causes hyperinflation and a failing economy.

==2154 - Escape from Sol==
Massive groups of populations flee to other systems for a new life, abandoning the failing Sol system.

==2275 - Terraforming Complete==
The Mars terraforming project is completed but Sol has bankrupted itself. A period of extreme strife follows for the next century with Mars and Earth falling into decline and the tycoons who worked up the debt through the terraforming project seize all material wealth left before fleeing on colony ships to other systems.

==2383 - Bluespace FTL Invented==
The remaining stable areas of Mars and Earth, seeking to find a way to fix the economic and political stability, invent the bluespace FTL drive. A revolutionary faster than light travel device capable of cutting trips that once would have taken decades to a few weeks.

==2384 - War Preparation==
Sol begins a propaganda campaign, blaming all their ills on the fleeing colonists, claiming that they stole the wealth that rightfully belonged to them. Over the next three years, the remaining despairing Sol citizens are rallied under a desperate banner to bring peace to their worlds.

==2387 - War Begins==
Sol begins the unification wars after weaponizing bluespace drives and pooling the last of their resources into a military-industrial complex, mass producing ships, soldiers, weaponry, and armaments.

==2387-2562 - The Conquering==
Several centuries of warfare follow, with Sol utterly destroying, annexing, conquering, or forcing all [[abhuman]] and [[human]] empires to join them. The first phase begins with what is commonly called the Twenty-Year Harrowing, where Sol forces refused any surrender or peace terms, utterly devastating and conquering all nearby star systems in a bloody display of military might. This sets the stage for the remaining centuries of conflict, causing many systems to surrender the moment the Sol fleet entered their star space.

After this twenty year period of intense bloodshed, Sol reins in its devastating methods and begins using the reputation gained and its rapidly growing industry it has developed to quickly recruit potential conquests through more peaceful means.

==2565 - Unified Federation==
By this time period, all major empires of human or abhuman origin have been absorbed into the Sol Federation. Those remaining were deemed too distant and insignificant to be profitably conquered. With humanity united, Sol begins a fervent expansion into other areas of space by terraforming new planets and seeking more distant areas for colonization. It is at this time that humanity begins to discover intelligent alien life.

==2567 - Mar'qua Alliance==
With its beginning expansionism, the Sol Federation is contacted by the [[Mar’qua]] sovereignty who had discovered humanity decades ago and had begun learning of them. A peace treaty and defensive contract is set up on mutually agreed upon terms-- Sol leveraging its superior numbers, military, and economy against Mar'qua's advanced technology in a mutually beneficial agreement. An uneasy peace is now in place as both empires work together, the Federation eager to get its hands on Mar’qua technology while the Sovereignty seeks using the Federation as a cudgel to protect its borders.

==2569 - Greyson Positronics==
The small corporation known as Greyson Positronics is formed by joint Federation factions interested in pushing the boundaries of robotics, cybernetics, and mechanical augmentation. The company quickly becomes a massive spanning corporation across the universe thanks to open use of artificial intelligence and robots filling a massive portion of the workforce. Many notable inventions begin and end with Greyson and by 2596 this corporation owns enough planets, armaments, and forces to rival a small empire.

==2572 - Akula Colonization==
Sol discovers the homeworld of the [[Akula]]. Sol quickly began to colonize the planet, supplying weapons to factions that are pro-Sol to easily conquer the planet in three years, making the Akula official SolFed citizens. Introduction of Akula soldiers and shock troopers are added to military offensives, further increasing the might of federation forces.

==2577-2620 - Period of Discovery==
Many new species are discovered, with notable ones being listed below in order of importance. Smaller, weaker alien empires are slowly absorbed by the ever expanding Sol Federation borders with many joining willingly and some fighting a losing battle, being annexed shortly after.

==2580 - Naramad ==
The homeworld of the primitive [[Naramad]] are discovered. The leaders of the Naramadi people mistakenly attack the federation ambassadors, believing they are a similar looking native fauna that stole from them. Retaliation is swift and brutal as the Federation declared a defensive war and dispatched Mar’qua forces from the war council to handle the situation, with the stipulation of no orbital bombardment to preserve planetary industry. In a handful of months the planet is brought to its knees and quickly annexed. Its people are conscripted into the Sol military as shock troops and ship-to-ship breaching parties.

==2582 - Sablekyne==
The existence of the [[Sablekyne]] home-world is revealed to the Federation through Oni, LLC who had long ago contacted the alien race and uplifted them as allies. Integration into the federation proves simple and easy, with Sablekyne making up a decent chunk of frontier area military corps, merchants, and freebooters.

==2583 - Opifex==
[[Opifex]] ships are discovered by the Mar’qua Observatorium, confirming a century long rumor of scavengers who targeted derelict ships, space hulks, and unprotected colonies. Contact is established and the main Opifex scavenger fleets are eased into an non-aggression treaty. Shortly after, Opifex ships begin attacking and raiding enemies of the Sol Federation for unconfirmed reasons.

==2600 - Cht'mant==
The [[Cht’mant]] are discovered on a planet marked for resource harvesting due to its hostile environment being unfit for human colonization. The Cht’mant are originally mistaken for animals until a hive queen learns to imitate and use English Common. The Soteria Institute, a xenobiological research organization working with the federation at the time deemed the Cht’mant worth study and collected several hive queens and remaining Cht’mants from the planet. After a brief period of study and secondary schooling, the race remaining Cht’mants were released to their own devices.

==2601 - Cindarite==
The [[Cindarite]] are discovered by rebel pirates in their death world. Federation forces descended on pirates in the sector, capturing or destroying most ships before a well known pirate struck a deal to reveal all of his information and contacts with the Cindarites located below the surface of their death world. Federation forces quickly initiated diplomatic operations and recruited the Cindarite for their highly specialized evolution to toxic living conditions. Many Cindarites became spacers, spending their entire lives on various ships, allowing them to become well known in a short space of time.

==2605 - Kriosan==
The [[Kriosans]] Empire is discovered by the Federation and quickly annexed to gain access to their valuable anti-orbital weapons platforms, and the governing dictatorship agrees to terms of surrender, if only officially. Rioting was frequent, but quelled quickly by Solar MPs and Kriosan Police.

==2625 - The Second Conquering==
Sol continues its aggressive expansion, preparing to conquer the small left over empires of abhumans/humans. Rumors and missives are abound that a new unification war is about to begin and those who have resisted Federation control will soon be conquered, annexed, or given a chance to surrender. Many speculate that this new series of wars will spread throughout the galaxy as decades of preparation begins.

==2628 - Greyson Positronics==
The galaxy-spanning megacorp Greyson Positronics collapses for unknown reasons. All synthetics, artificial intelligence, and robots under the Greyson network go haywire and begin slaughtering any and all nearby organics. Many areas exclusively owned by Greyson quickly become dead worlds that are abandoned and rendered off limits. Greyson industries and colonies were built on hostile or worthless planets for its cost benefit-- as a result, Federation forces decline wasting resources clearing out these areas as there is little gain to be had in doing so. Grayson sites with galaxy-scale strategic value, or built on profitable locations, are destroyed and reclaimed. The remaining organic Greyson employees who escaped the initial conflict formed the Xiang Jiang and quickly become enemies of the Sol Federation upon discovery of using biomorphs.

==2644 - The Colony Forms==
The Nadezhda Coalition, formed by several disparate factions and fleets of ships, prepare to leave for the distant world known as Amethyn on the edge of the galaxy. Many ships filter in over the year before the final one, the Soteria fleet, crash lands upon the surface after using an experimental inter-star system teleporter. This event marks the last of the largest ships arriving upon the colony, but smaller transport shuttles filter in over the next few years.

==2645 - Bluespace Crash==
Bluespace as it is understood crashes, completely and utterly rendering all bluespace devices unstable, with long range devices such as teleporters and bluespace drives becoming so unstable using them is assuredly a death wish. Short range devices prove to still function, yet many show signs of instability and formerly unknown bugs that cause new hazards with use. A large splinter faction calling itself the Vorhut launched a rebellion across the Kriosan Empire, re-establishing Castellan rule and Imperial sovereignty at the cost of around half the rebel forces.

==2653 - Present Day==
The colony is entirely cut off from the rest of the galaxy due to the bluespace crash, with only the nearby [[Kriosan]] Confederacy able to easily communicate with them. Relations and trade agreements are quickly established.

[[Category:Lore]]

Abhuman

2022-12-16T18:34:49Z

Cora: /* Bio-Morphs */ - Removed a line that made no sense

Abhumans or 'splicers' are humans who have either gone under genetic alteration or have been born from parents/ancestors who have done so. Nearly all abhumans are citizens of the Sol federation and were originally united, either by choice or conquest, by the Sol military during the unification wars (sometimes called the conquering). Abhumans may have their lineage traced back to empires who had their own long and storied past but in present day all abhuman races, unless noted separately under an official core race, belong to the Sol federation as citizens though whether that be by conquest or alliance is up to individual players.

===Quick-Start Guide===
Abhumans still have human ancestry and thus retain the baseline attributes of humans.
* Abumans are similar to humans and such benefit from similar abilities such as their well known toughness and broad set of skills. All abumans gain +5 to every stat.
* Perk: Abhumans gain the perk "Tenacity" which allows them to stabilize and heal a very small amount (equal to 5u of tricordizine) every 15 minutes.
* Perk: Abhumans gain the perk "Guts and Glory" which allows them to halt all progressing damage and heal a small amount of internal bleeding and organ damage every 30 minutes. The strain of this effect however will make the user exhausted and may cause them to pass out as a result.

==Summary==
All creatures who are derived from earth animals or from a common fantasy staple are considered abhumans and were originally spliced from human stock. This includes traditionally furry races such as felines, canines, foxes, lizards, and avians. In addition, abhumans can come in the form of races from human fantasy and may include but are not limited to dragons, orcs, minotaurs, centaurs, elves, angels, and demons.

The term abhuman is synonymous with gene-splice, gene-modder, splicer, and in some rare wordings inhuman. Each word can be used entirely interchangeably and are they themselves not limited to an exact definition outside of being defined as someone who has modified there genetics through the use of technology. Abhumans come from all walks of life and are not limited to any singular origin outside of once having ancestry that was once human. Splicers may also come in more forms other than merely genetic adaptions and can be classified into sub-categories, such categories are as follows.

===Standard===
These represent the standard splicer or abhuman who is often spliced with one type of animal in varying degrees from exhibiting minor traits to being a fully anthropomorphized form of some animal. A standard gene-splice can also include a modification that is not inherently animistic, as such splicers who mimic creatures such as minotaurs, elves, orcs, and common fantasy tropes also fall into this category. In some circumstances an abhuman may be spliced from alien DNA, such as sudaks, despite this they are still considered gene-modders and have their humanity intact. Standard abhumans can also exhibit inhuman traits that distinguish them from regular humans or other abhumans such as sturdier bodies, slightly longer life spans, or different physical reactions to stimuli such as pain.

===Exalt===
Exalt humans are the end result of extensive genetic tampering in order to create more powerful humans. While successful, the process of creating an Exalt is quite expensive, and thus few are able to undergo the procedure. Exalt humans require more extensive and specialized care but boast enhanced organs, stronger and more capable bodies and minds, and generally outshine baseline humans in most ways. This does come with some drawbacks, however. As extensive genetic tampering leaves exalts with unstable genomes compared to baseline humans and thus a much higher cost of living, must set aside a portion of their hourly wages to handle the expense. The process has also made exalts stand apart from humans, with some saying they are less tenacious than their lower born kin. Like humans, exalts come in a large number of abhuman variations in addition to the genetic baseline.

Instead of the normal human modifiers, Exalt humans have the following effects:
* Long lives and genetic splicing make for a wider skillset, giving all exalt humans +5 to all stats instead of the usual +2.
* All components of all of an exalt human's body parts operate at 150% efficiency. This includes, among other things, the liver naturally healing toxins much faster, the leg and arm muscles providing enhanced speed and strength, and, less helpfully, the nerves providing increased pain. This only applies to their original limbs; robotic replacements will function the same as they do for anyone else.
* Exalt humans can see further in darkness than most species.
* Exalt humans get hungry negligibly faster than most species, by about 10%.
* Perk: Exalt humans gain the 'perk' "Debtor", which halves their hourly wages.
* Perk: Exalt humans gain the 'perk' "Splicer", which gives them 20 baseline genetic instability. This lowers the amount of genetic modification their bodies can take from Soteria, but has no effects otherwise.

===Chimeric===
This category represents gene-mods who are spliced from several different sources and often have stranger or more bizarre appearances. Chimeras are often the result of two differentiating abhumans mating and producing a child with both parents traits, however, nothing besides monetary cost restricts a person from becoming a chimeric splicer. Chimerics can often be mistaken for aliens at first glance due to not being easily recognizable and can exhibit the same slight alterations that a standard gene-splice may have but still retain a generally internally human body.

===Synth-Morphs===
This category represents individuals who choose to be synthetically augmented instead of choosing genetic modifications. Splicers in this category have machines grafted onto there body in such as way that it has become a core function for survival and life. Abhumans in this category are still majorly organic in nature but may have alterations such as, but not limited to:
* Synthetic limbs.
* Synthetic organs.
* Synthetic implants that enhance or modify bodily functions like cerebral enhancements or pacemakers.
* Synthetic covers or skin, such as machine plating or synth-flesh skin.
This label largely applies to anyone with many and noticeable synthetic augmentation, one or two internal implants rarely makes someone considered a synth-morph. In general, such classification is reserved to someone physically made primarily of metal.

===Bio-Morphs===
Biomorphs are an opposite form of synth morphs. Instead of organics augmented with synthetic technology biomorphs are machines given organic parts and classified as abhuman as a result. Biomorphs are extremely uncommon and largely exclusive to small factions such as the Xinjiang. Biomorphs often have there organic parts scavenged from bodies, usually against the former persons wishes. Due to the unsavory method of creation biomorphs are extremely rare and largely used by less scrupulous factions as a form of servant due to inherent EMP shielding and absolute loyalty. Biomorphs are extremely illegal in the Sol federation and owning one is a serious crime, discovered biomorphs are often destroyed.

===Vat Grown===
Vat grown abhumans are humanoids grown in a lab from the basic components of life (spermatozoa and an egg) that are used for a variety of purposes. Vat grown individuals are still considered people and are often used to shore up numbers in new colonies or to add to an existing workforce. Despite being considered equal citizens with rights most vat growns are still treated extremely poorly and often under paid and commonly treated as second class citizens fit only for menial labor. Vat growns tend to be a more common sight on hostile or border worlds due to being considered 'expendable' by the various corporations and groups that use them.

Additional information on brains and how they're used, especially in Vatgrowns, can be found [[Transhumanity|Here]]

===FBP (Full-Body Prosthetic)===
A FBP is a fully robotic body given control through the brain of a intelligent 'humanoid' creature, it is a complete replacement of one's normal and organic body. How one became such depends on the circumstances of their life, whether their original body became so damaged and had to turn to a FBP body or one paid to transform themselves completely and utterly to such a body. Within these new bodies are advantages that they have but also different kinds of weaknesses. Soteria is known to make FBPs, especially durable ones for a multitude of purposes.

=OOC Note=
''All species'' derived from human fantasy staples are always abhumans, though they may have their own histories and sizeable empires. Species derived from an animal may either be an abhuman (human genemod) or [[Creating a Race|a unique minor faction.]]. All categories of splicers are required to be former sol citizens or from an empire conquered/annexed by the Sol Federation. Those wishing to play a race not affiliated with the Sol Federation or humanity should see the Minor Faction entry. Creating a minor faction is a larger investment in personal lore for a HRP server than being an abhuman.

Said lore does not need to be submitted as a full wiki entry, nor does it need to be more than a page. All that is required is a thought out and reasonable explanation as to what makes them unique compared to other groups. If you're unsure if your personal lore conflicts with established lore check with PinkestKitten#8019(Dasfox) on the server discord, we are more than happy to take a look and make suggestions if needed. Alternatively, we've created [[Creating a Race|this guide]] as a framework for how to go about conforming to our lore. '''The rules stated here in this paragraph are considered hard rules as we want to have a consistent and quality lore instead of the free for all some other servers allow, as such we will enforce lore standards as required.''' We are generally pretty open to new ideas, but do be aware if you making something obviously conflicting with the lore you will be asked to change it.

You are not required to use the name abhuman or its synonyms in your species name even if they are one. You can simply put "Wolf" or "Hyena" and other such titles by themselves. You're not required to put "Abhuman Wolf" and such.

 
 
{{Species}}
[[Category:Lore]]

Lifeline Technician

2022-11-14T05:30:17Z

Cora:

As a '''Lifeline Technician''', you are not a man of science or medical. You take orders primarily from the [[Chief Biolab Overseer]] or the CRO provided those orders do not conflict. Your primary role is that of a trained and armed thug for medical. You make sure that medical remains safe by ensuring people don't trespass or steal items and remove those who shouldn't be there, by force if necessary and any outbreaks within medical or science are contained. Your secondary responsibility is that of an Soteria enforcer. Actions that require in house enforcement such as aiding doctors and security with violent patients in medical, securing the virology lab during an outbreak, and aiding in the destruction of escape slimes or kudzu from science. Your third duty is to aid medical doctors fixing patients, this can include retrieving chemicals, doing basic triage, and collecting people or escorting doctors to safely get to injured patients.

You are also fully licensed to sell any and all chemicals to all colonists. If someone isn't an employee of the Soteria Institute, charge them for their chemicals (except for their prescriptions). You are also licensed to enforce triage and keep patients where they can be treated. Refer to the below check list for procedure and allowances of what you are capable of as a Lifeline Technician.

<big>You are, however, '''NOT''' qualified to perform Surgery '''under any circumstances'''. Refer to [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Medical_Treatment_-_MOP|Standard Operating Procedure]] for the list of jobs that are qualified to perform surgery.</big>

(That is: Doctor/CBO > Roboticist > Corpsman)

* When treating or claiming a patient, you must grab them or buckle them to a roller bed. Once you have laid your hand on a patient, they are '''your''' patient and cannot be taken from you except by a Soteria Doctor or the Chief Biolab Overseer.
* Claimed patients should be immediately treated then and there while being stabilized, if their injuries are too severe, transport them to medical immediately. If the patient is hostile, non-colony or not an ally, or they are a wanted criminal, handcuff them before transporting them.
* Once you've claimed a patient and begin treatment, anyone who is not a Soteria Doctor or above attempting to take said patient from you may be met with immediate force. If someone attempts to pull away a patient or stop you from treating them, you are within your legal right to immediately shoot them with any "Soteria Surface Tension" weaponry until they are pacified. Other tools such as grapples, flashes, rubber bullets, or chemicals may also be used, within reason, provided they are meant to non-lethally disable someone. However, while some '''Doctors''', '''Roboticists''' and '''Corpsmen''' might be rowdy, '''they are more qualified than you are at performing emergency surgery''', and if the patient requires it, they should be handed to them to perform it without causing any conflict whatsoever. In these cases, your duty is to stabilize the patient enough for the doctors to do their job without having them keel over in the middle of surgery.
* '''Follow the rules of engagement in regards to force response. While trying to take your patient means you can disable someone, that does not mean you can kill them unless they start shooting back. Read the [[Laws]] section to ensure you don't run afoul of the marshals.'''
* If at any time the patient objects to treatment or wishes to leave your care, they are to be let go without incident, this also includes situations where the individual wishes to be released to Marshals or if lack of treatment would result in death. If they are awake and capable of declining, you are not responsible for them refusing treatment.

It's worth noting that you function heavily as a nurse when not acting as muscle and treatment of patients should be priority, in particular when assisting doctors. Lifeline techs are not expected to know everything in medical. They are not expected to know all of '''surgery''', cryogenic operation, virology, nor chemistry.
== Overview ==
You maintain order in medical and by extension science by being a mix between nurse and guard. While your primary purpose is as an enforcer for the Chief Biolab Overseer, you should focus on protecting and aiding anyone in Soteria to the best of your ability, ensuring safe operations.

=== Full Duties and Powers ===
* Your first priority is ensuring medical is protected and remains functioning.
** You are given a set of less-than-lethal weapons to deal with thieves and trespassers, starting your shift with a selection of both lethal and less-than-lethal options, along with various detainment methods.
** These methods of detainment include handcuffs and a straight jacket with which you can legally use to restrain people in Soteria areas who warrant it. This includes people who are non-violent but refuse to leave for whatever reason.
* You are within your legal right to detain and remove '''anyone''' in medical or science who refuses to leave after being asked at least three times. This includes the legal right to stun and handcuff them. In the event the individual attempts to fight back, lethally or non-lethally, [[Officer|security]] should be notified and the offending person charged (this includes members of security themselves and heads of staff who fight Lifeline techs).
* While you are given the power to legally stun and cuffs others this does not make you '''THE LAW''' and the same rules that apply to security apply to you, excessive force, unwarranted stunning/cuffing, and general reckless behavior can and will get you charged. A [[corpsman]], [[roboticist]], or [[Vector]] aiding medical doctors and being useful can generally be left alone, but rubber neckers, looters, and people not being useful should be respectfully but firmly asked to leave.
* Your right to stun and detain others only applies in Soteria areas or those attempting to take a patient from you, you may not legally do this outside said areas unless you have a valid reason. In other words, outside your respective work zones you are just like any other colonist unless you have a patient in hand.
* After handcuffing and detaining someone you are required to take them out of medical or science '''immediately''' and uncuff them. The only time this changes is if the person committed a crime in medical, at which point you can hold the person until security comes to take them to processing. If they are still incredibly hostile even whilst handcuffed or have a large chance of breaking out of their handcuffs, you can inject them with soporifics and then transport them out into the medical lobby into a chair once they are unconscious.

=== Secondary Duty: Being a Nurse ===
Your secondary duty is working with Soteria employees to ensure continued operation. '''Your primary concern should be Medical''', aiding Doctors as an assistant and nurse in the form of treating critical and non-critical patients, fetching chemicals, and performing reasonable orders they request. Additionally, if Medical is secure and quiet, you may aid Blackshield or Prospectors within the colony. This can take the form of providing extra muscle to deal with whatever they might currently be dealing with, or simply being an extra set of hands to carry the wounded back to Medbay if it happens. While this is perfectly fine, keep in mind you do function as a guard for Medbay and should check in periodically if you leave or someone requests your assistance. Always verify with your CBO if one is present.

You are also not limited to just Medical, as Lifeline Technician you can aid Soteria research as an assistant by providing protection and aid where you can. This can include protecting a [[Scientist|xenobiologist]] from slimes during xeno-research, following and defending an anomalist who is digging in the deep tunnels, and being an extra set of hands for any [[roboticist]] or researcher in the event they need it. In other words, you can be useful to any part of Soteria but you ultimately '''are Medical personnel and answer to the [[Chief Biolab Overseer|CBO]]'''. Keep that in mind if a scientist asks you to leave the research division '''or the [[Chief Research Overseer|Research Overseer]] attempts to boss you around'''.

{{Jobs}}
[[Category:Jobs]]

Template:Jobs

2022-11-14T05:23:32Z

Cora:

{|width=100% border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"
|-
| rowspan = 13 align = "center" | '''[[Jobs]] on Sojourn''' 
[[File:IconJobs64.png|link=Jobs]]
|-
| style="background: #334E6D; color: white; text-align: center;" id="command" |'''Command'''
| '''[[Premier]]''', '''[[Steward]]''', '''[[Blackshield Commander]]''', '''[[Warrant Officer]]''', '''[[Guild Master]]''', '''[[Chief Research Overseer]]''', '''[[Chief Biolab Overseer]]''', '''[[Prime]]''', '''[[Chief Executive Officer]]''', '''[[Expedition Foreman]]'''
|-
| textcolor="white" style="background: #AF6365; text-align: center;" id="security" |'''[[List of Factions#The Marshals|The Marshals]]'''
| '''[[Warrant Officer]]''', [[Officer]], [[Supply Specialist]], [[Ranger]]
|-
| textcolor="white" style="background: #808080; text-align: center;" id="security" |'''[[List of Factions#The Blackshield Militia|Blackshield]]'''
| '''[[Blackshield Commander]]''', [[Sergeant]], [[Corpsman]], [[Trooper]]
|-
| style="background: #ba9b67; text-align: center;" id="engineering" |'''[[List of Factions#The Artificers Guild|The Guild]]'''
| '''[[Guild Master]]''', [[Guild Adept]]
|-
| style="background: #8cbcd6; text-align: center;" id="medical" |'''[[List of Factions#Soteria Institute|Soteria Medical]]'''
| '''[[Chief Biolab Overseer]]''', [[Medical Doctor]], [[Psychologist]], [[Lifeline Technician]]
|-
| style="background: #a885a2; text-align: center;" id="science" |'''[[List of Factions#Soteria Institute|Soteria Science]]'''
| '''[[Chief Research Overseer]]''', [[Scientist]], [[Roboticist]]
|-
| style="background: #D2691E; text-align: center;" id="explorer" |'''[[List of Factions#The Prospectors|Prospectors]]'''
| '''[[Expedition Foreman]]''', [[Prospector]], [[Salvager]]
|-
| style="background: #f1ff17; text-align: center;" id="church" | '''[[List of Factions#The Church of Absolute|The Church]]'''
| '''[[Prime]]''', [[Vector]]
|-
| style="background: #92b26d; text-align: center;" id="service" | '''[[List of Factions#Lonestar Shipping Solutions, LLC.|Lonestar]] & Civilian'''
| '''[[Chief Executive Officer]]''', [[Bartender]], [[Botanist]], [[Chef]], [[Janitor]], [[Cargo Technician]], [[Lonestar Miner]], [[Colonist]]
|-
| style="background: #b1dff9; text-align: center;" id="nonHuman" | '''Colony-Bound'''
| [[AI]], [[Cyborg]], [[Maintenance Drone]], [[Personal AI]], [[Ghost]], [[Mouse]]
|-
| style="background: #9d866e; text-align: center;" id="independant" | '''The Lodge'''
| '''[[Huntmaster]]''', [[Hunter]]
|}
<includeonly>[[Category:Jobs]]</includeonly>
<noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude>

Rules

2022-11-14T04:41:00Z

Cora: /* You are expected to perform the job you signed up for */

{{GetStartedHeader}}

These are the rules for the server and ''are subject to change without notice''. For further clarification, use common sense. If you did get banned, there's probably a good reason for it, but if you disagree, you can always make an appeal on the discord. Although these are rules, but they are not infallible, complete, or concrete, and probably never will be despite our best efforts. If ''ever'' something feels wrong, either don't do it, or admin-help it first. Above all, use your common sense, listen to the game staff, and try to keep the game fun for everyone; not just yourself.

If you disagree with the rules as they currently stand, talk about it on the discord or with admins and maybe we can improve them through some healthy criticism and debate.

'''These rules are designed to be written in such a way that you can ''usually'' understand them just by reading the headers''', because reading ''all of this'' would be insanity for most people. If you cannot understand a rule just by looking at it, or wish to know about possible exceptions or examples, click the rule to learn more.

If you find yourself spending too much time reading this page, or are confused about any rules, please contact an admin on Discord to make suggestions on how these rules could be better worded.

== You must be 18 or older to play on this server ==
'''There are no exceptions.''' If the staff suspects that you are underage for any reason, you will be banned from playing on the server until you are able to prove to the satisfaction of the staff that you are at least 18 years old.

*Use of real world slurs, ‘lolspeak’, and other indications of immaturity may be taken as signs that you are underage.

*Knowing another user is underaged but not reporting it is considered grounds for an immediate, permanent ban.

*The age of consent in your country is irrelevant. Your opinion about this rule is irrelevant.

*You may also not play a character who is under 18 years of age.

== Obey the community's global rules ==
These rules apply ''everywhere'', including Discord, the server, and even private discussions with non-admins. However, not all of the global rules are even possible to break in the server, so this wiki page only covers what's relevant to the game server. The overlap from the global rules are:

* No spam.
* No OOCly illegal discussions or content (such as child porn, drugs, piracy, real world threats, etc).
* Respect other users, don't use real-world slurs, and don't intentionally drag private conflicts or in-game conflicts into public OOC (such as on the Discord server, the in-game global OOC channel, or anywhere else).
* Don't intentionally abuse server functions to upset (grief) people, or derail discussions. You know what this means, don't play stupid.
* No complaining about bans unless it's in an appeal or to an admin.

== Don't be an asshole ==
It's fine to say stuff and whatnot but being a outright dick isn't alright, and there's a fine line with that. Also, spamming racist words is still not okay.

=== Do not inconvenience AFK or disconnected characters ===
Under normal circumstances, do not harm or otherwise inconvenience characters whose player is idle, ghosted, or disconnected entirely. There are some exceptions to this rule, as follows:
*Circumstance that warrant the interactions of AFK/SSD players are few and far between if there is ever a case were you are REQUIRED for to take any ID/Bag/Gear from someone that is SSD, Ahelp before hand and with your reason why. Not ahelping before may result in HARSH OOC punishment if you are found to be manipulating them while away, or causing any sort of general tampering with the player. (IE. Don't be an asshole who steals shit from afk players unless its required)
Note: If your moving someone to cryo after the time, this is ok, as long as you do not remove their items unless it's faction important and you have the means to return them properly
*If they've disconnected/idle for more than 15 minutes, you can put them in cryosleep. If you do that, take away all of their belongings except for their jumpsuit, shoes, ID, and PDA, and return everything else to its rightful department.
*If they've committed a crime, jail them as you normally would and conduct their sentence even if they aren't connected. 20 minutes in the brig is still 20 minutes in the brig.
*Emergencies bypass this rule. If it's an emergency and you need something an idle player has to fix it, you may take it. If a fire starts in a room and the AFK player is the only one who can open the door then it's an emergency. Needing to get a snack from the kitchen and robbing the chef does not count as an emergency.

=== ERP preferences must be respected ===
Players should have their ERP prefs listed in their “OOC Meta info” or “OOC Notes” on their characters. You are required to respect these preferences so long as they pertain to ERP. If you are unsure about the meaning of some of their preferences, then use LOOC to discuss it with them. If you accidentally go against someone’s preferences, or someone else goes against yours, work to correct it as quickly as possible, even if that means just deciding in LOOC amongst yourselves that ‘this didn’t happen’ and going your separate ways.

*If you are uncomfortable with an ERP theme that you hadn't thought to add (or didn't know existed) to a list of dislikes in your OOC notes, speak up in LOOC as normal, but remember to add it immediately afterward so it doesn't happen again. Conversely, those of you foolish enough to put 'anything goes' into your preferences, or anything else vague like this, do so at your own risk. '''You forfeit your right to complain about preference breaking''' if you do not put ''some'' indication of your dislikes into OOC preferences. Admins will only warn you about this once.
**Since non-consensual scenes are a thing, you should at least state your stance on this, and whether or not you'd call for help if given the chance. Example for a person's OOC text might be, "Unwilling preferred, will try calling for help if attacked."
**Non con scenes are allowed in the server if both players are consenting OOC-ly. They should be kept private as being caught can/will result in PK for the offender. Additionally, false accusations of rape/similar are treated the same, unless agreed upon by both players this can result in a PK for the accuser and possible permanent server ban. (Saying "X" raped my character is a BIG deal, and should not be taken as a one off joke. This shit can ruin the lives of a player. Think before you decide to spread these claims. In all cases an event like this should be brought to staff post haste if legitimate violation occurs.)
**'''Being found in violation of NON-CON rule(s) will be met with an automatic Player kill (PK) and Perma Ban with no appeal given investigation. You've been warned. Respect others or get the fuck off our server.'''

*If you do not like someones erp preferences you won't be punished for saying so, but do not harass someone just because they like something you don't. It's far easier to simply avoid someone and causing drama will get you into trouble.

*Do not attempt to force yourself into ERP scenes where the other party (or parties) involved are not comfortable with it, or not even actually participating. This includes (but is not limited to) repeatedly trying to do ERP that a player has blatantly stated they are uncomfortable with, trying to guilt players into having a pity RP with you, doing [https://www.reddit.com/r/SS13/comments/451jtt/hitandrun_erp_is_a_thing_now_apparently hit and run ERP], filling drinks with your bodily fluids, etc. You get the idea. Don't do that.

*AFK/SSD/Disconnected players are not valid targets for any ERP unless their OOC Notes specifically permit otherwise.

=== The private areas are protected ===
The ‘dorms’ area on the map are reserved for ERP and are ‘protected’ from interruption. It is a violation of this rule to break into occupied dorms or harass players in dorms. Dorm areas are any personal apartments generally restricted to a specific person such as a head of staffs private bedroom or a dorm area claimed by a specific person, usually through a labeled door.
*The only exception is for security to arrest those who have committed crimes. Security is not allowed to indiscriminately inspect dorms for crimes, but a known criminal hiding in a dorm is not protected by this rule.
*Conversely, it is not permissible to attempt to use dorms to hide from security, or to make their job of finding you harder. The dorms are for people who want to ERP in privacy. Don’t involve them in your shenanigans.

=== Do not disrupt non-public ERP scenes ===
TL;DR is you should avoid screwing with scenes that are not in public areas. The problem is, not everyone knows what is considered public or private. This is especially important for [[Security]] players to know.
*Dorms are considered private obviously. Don't mess with those under any circumstances unless someone inside actively invites you. (Calling for help is considered an invite.)
*Less obviously is finding a scene in maintenance or a room that's not visible from public areas. You're not ''dis''allowed from screwing with the scene in such places, but you at least have to be flexible and let the other party choose to leave if they wish to continue somewhere actually private. Unless you have a reason, you really shouldn't ruin someones scene for giggles. Example, someone having a scene in a room where you need to do your job (surgery, chemistry, robotics, processing, etc.), someone abusing subtles to have sex in the bar, and stealing the shuttle to have a scene can and should be messed with if it interferes with someone else round. Take it to the dorms or a locked private area if you don't want to be fucked with and have your scene stomped on.

=== Speak English ===
We are an English server. All OOC communications are expected to be done in English. It's alright if your English is rough and imperfect, just as long as we can reasonably understand it.

*This also extends into IC communications, but is more flexible as some characters have heavy accents.
*Having a character sometime speak smatterings of other languages is acceptable, but speaking exclusively in these languages for entire sentences is not.

=== Roleplay as long as it's feasible ===
*This is an HRP (Heavy RolePlay) server. You are expected to roleplay your actions with other players as long as it's feasible. If someone engages you in purely ‘robust’ (aka game-mechanics driven) combat while you were attempting to roleplay with them, with no reasonable provocation, please use the admin-help feature to inform an admin.
**Reasonable provocation would be things that deem you too dangerous to be given even a chance to talk. For example, openly wielding a gun while threatening people, charging someone with a knife, trying to create a hazard, or being the target of a manhunt.

*If a fight does begin, you're not expected to type out every gunshot and dodge and attack. That would be absurd. Generally, you roleplay up until the point that it makes sense to start attacking, and then use game mechanics from there. You are allowed to respond to ‘robust’ violence with your own, if you desire, though you should attempt to return to roleplaying as soon as feasible. The environment is not designed for a focus on action, but rather for character-building and roleplaying. When a fight is over, resume roleplaying.

*Movement is considered a game mechanic for the purpose of this rule. Wordlessly running at a security officer who is attempting to arrest you, or wordlessly fleeing from them, is considered engaging in game-mechanic combat. The security officer has valid cause to stop trying to roleplay and stunlock you into the ground.

=== Do not join with an inappropriate ckey ===
Ckeys, better known as BYOND user names, must be appropriate. If any are deemed inappropriate, the ckey will be banned and you will be unable to play on our server until you make an account with an appropriate name.
*Ckeys that mock certain players or groups are an example of inappropriate.
*Ckeys that violate BYOND's terms of service may also be reported.

=== Do not misuse Global OOC ===
Many servers simply mute global OOC. We do not, because the OOC command is useful to have on in an RP heavy server.

* Global OOC is used, for instance, to contact someone you were typing a reply to had walked out of the room before you were done, and you're trying to ask them to come back. It's also useful if you're a new player, or an old player exploring new mechanics, who asks something like, "How do I make Tricord again?" or something short and similar. Short, sweet, and relevant OOC messages are generally okay. Welcoming old players returning, or new players joining, is also generally okay.

* Global OOC is ''not'' for idle banter, ranting, things pertaining to incidents in the current round (see previous rule), in-depth explanations (an explanation that takes more than a few lines), shitposting memes, or discussing topics not relating directly to the game. If you want to chatter OOCly, go to our Discord channel, which is linked from the home page or use LOOC so as to not disturb the rest of the server.

* Also, if someone does misuse OOC, do not complain in global OOC about their misusing of global OOC. Not only are you just making the problem worse, that is considered being a backseat admin, which is prohibited by other rules.

== Keep IC and OOC separate ==
*IC (In-character) and OOC (Out-of-Character) actions and knowledge should be separated as much as possible. Don't use OOC channels to discuss what's going on IC until after the round is finished, don't use OOC knowledge to do things your character wouldn't know, such as operate medical machines when a cargo technician. You are not playing yourself in the game, you are controlling a character with their own wants and knowledge and the IC/OOC boundary is to help reflect that.
**Note that these same rules apply to LOOC as well.
*Don't complain in OOC when your actions IC get you in trouble. This is self explanatory.
*Disconnecting or using other OOC means to avoid IC consequences is against the rules. If you do urgently need to leave the server even though you're being punished, your options are either to surrender and get it over with, or use admin help to inform the admins, "I know Security is after me, but I have to go because (some emergency)." Failure to take ten seconds to tell an admin before disconnecting may result in harsher punishment.

=== Metacomms, metagaming, multi-keying, (etc) are not allowed ===
*Metacomms: Using third-party programs, such as Discord, IRC, Skype, or even the BYOND pager, to discuss and share information of the ongoing round. This excludes other players, can contribute to toxicity among the playerbase, and is often a tactic used by griefers and thus is a no-go.

*Metagaming: Using information obtained from elsewhere to influence IC decisions and actions. Your opinions or knowledge of other players or characters obtained via OOC methods should not direct your IC actions. If you have an OOC grudge against someone, you may not try to antagonize them IC, for example.
** Metagaming sometimes happens by accident due to game mechanics behaving undesirably due to intentional features or unintentional bugs and oversights. If it happens, ask an admin to help straighten things out if you can't do so among yourselves.

*Multi-keying: Logging in with multiple BYOND accounts on our game server. There is never any legitimate reason for you to do this and thus is not allowed.

== Create and play server-appropriate characters ==
Although this is a furry roleplaying server based around 2D spess mans, that doesn't mean anything goes because that is possible. Suspension of disbelief is still important to a good experience, and breaking that suspension of disbelief is bad for roleplaying. Characters who break that suspension of disbelief are not allowed. Saying "it's what my character would do" isn't an automatic protection against this rule if what your character is doing breaks that immersion.

*Play a reasonably sane and mature character, give them a non-immersion breaking first and last name, do not play obvious reference characters, or characters from published works.

*Keep in mind that people do not like pain or dying and usually try to avoid it without good reason. Give your character a reasonable set of strengths, fears, and weaknesses. When writing things for IC, write things out that sound like speech, not emoticons or lolspeak.

*The setting contains no magic. Your character cannot have any superpowers, magical abilities, or anything that does not exist in the setting or cannot be reasonably replicated with game mechanics. If they are not someone who has a good reason to work on the colony, they should not be here.
**The exception to this is purely private roleplay. For example: If your character and another character are in a dorm by themselves, and the other is OOCly fine with it, your character can display potentially supernatural abilities. This is limited to that roleplay, though. You should not discuss anything about that in public. Use magic at your own risk however, because technically the moment your RP is discovered by someone else, it stops being private, putting you in potential violation of this rule.

*Obscenely oversized or undersized characters are forbidden. Minimum height is at least four feet. Maximum height is about eight feet. Anything more or less really pushes the already shaky believably of abhumans and established alien lore.

*If you are playing a lore based species such as sablekyne, mar'qua, opifex, or whatever else we add in the future, you are expected to play the race as they are canonically meant to be played.

*OOC Notes and Flavor Text are '''required'''. Your OOC notes must detail your ERP preferences, and your flavor text should not include non-physical attributes (do not include feelings your character has, or how they act). Character records are something that should be filled out, if you have an issue or don't know how to do it properly, contact a member of staff for help.

*If your character is suspended, permanently killed off, or otherwise removed from the colony as a consequence for something horrible they did in-character, you are expected to not play that character anymore. See the guide about [[Permanent Death]] for details.

* '''Do not play vibrantly colored or "sparkle dog" type characters. This basically means you should mainly have natural fur coloration and a relatively normal appearance. Yes, our character editor has a ton of color options, including neon colors and many design sprites to do strange things. Creativity is fun, making your appearance as obnoxious as possible will get you a bwoink. We're a high RP SS13 server, not your sparkle dog fursona simulator. Some leeway is given to races with canonically vibrant colors such as cht'mants and cindarites or custom xenos but try to keep them muted instead of neon. Keep in mind this leeway is extremely small, slapping the "I'm a custom alien! See I used the custom race guide!" is not a shield from being a incredibly retarded look. If an admin asks you to change your color, do so, we have this rule to maintain HRP.'''

=== Do not kill or attack things (including yourself) for no good reason ===
*This includes yourself. Even in self-defense your goal is to fight off your attacker and survive, killing in a fight should only be done as a last-ditch effort when it's clear it's a you or them situation.

*Suicide or self-mutilation is almost NEVER allowed without prior consent from an admin. Contact an admin if you want to have a character commit suicide. Typically the manner in which suicide is carried out is played as an in-game attention grab and without actual compelling reasons. This can upset those that find this subject OOCly uncomfortable. The punishment for suicide is nearly always a permanent ban, so think about that before you kill yourself.

*Excessive responses are also covered by this. Caving in someone's skull for cutting in line, stabbing yourself in the eye with a screwdriver because you are bored, or jumping off a railing because you're sad, are all examples of being excessive.

*Outsiders due to their nature and ability to be killed on sight are allowed to kill and or attack people as they see fit, within reason. If Outsiders determine it's a good idea to move against the gate and attack it, and end up murdering half the colony, there will still be problems. This is not a license to self-antag every round, only to cause issues while outside the walls.

*While Antags -- that being self-antags and staff-chosen ones -- are allowed to kill and place bodies out of the way, it's still frowned upon to go out of the way to hide or stash a body in a location without any reason for prolonged times. Attempting to PK people by doing so will result in administrative actions, and even if that isn't the intent, it violates the spirit of the server and may be punished regardless.

=== Do not powergame ===
*Better known as 'playing to win'. As a security person this can be seen as going out of your way and needlessly endangering others to ‘win against’ criminals. As the Colony AI exploiting loopholes in your laws to get yourself out of them or getting the person who subverted you into trouble is another way. There is an implicit allowance for lawed characters to ERP. You may create loopholes for this reason only.

*While this shares several things in common with other rules, it still is it's own entity. Play to have fun, allow yourself to lose now and again and roll with the blows as it can make things potentially even more interesting.

*Having '''way''' too many skills for one character is another example of this. Just because you're the premier and have access to everywhere doesn't mean you should (or can) know how to do all the different jobs. (See [[Character Creation#Give them a set of skills|Character Creation]] regarding skills for more information.)

*[[Identifying Antagonists]] when you shouldn't be able to is also a violation of this rule.

=== Do not godmode ===
* Often confused with powergaming, godmoding is to create abilities out of nowhere, or do impossible things. If the action cannot be reasonably emulated in the confines of the game's mechanics, and it gives you some kind of advantage or is exceptionally weird, it's probably not allowed. For example, if you don't have access to a mechanic for turning invisible, you can't turn invisible. Saying you're invisible doesn't mean squat.

* Creating a character who is immune to injuries or pain also falls under this. The game won't let you ignore getting shot, why would any player allow it either?
** If your character is literally coded to ignore pain, you can ignore pain. Cyborgs and robots are a notable example. They do not feel pain. They are not immune to injury, however.

* Accidental injuries are still in-character injuries unless an admin heals you. Admin heals are generally out of character to void the injury.

* Admins who are caught abusing admin powers to godmod will be immediately bitched at, then promptly shamed severely for it.
** Obviously we're not going to punish things we'd do for normal players. Like, nobody is going to care if you spawn a pair of handcuffs for kinky times. We get admin-helps requesting such things all the time. This can extend towards granting equipment as well, as this isn't so much godmodding as it is helping people. I.E. if you ahelp for a specific tool you can't otherwise reasonably get we'll spawn it for you just as we would if we needed it (like a defibb). This is mainly to our discretion, but staff will be bitched at if they say, for example, spawn a gygax for themselves as the bartender during an event.

===Do not abuse subtles===
Any actions that would obviously be visible should not be hidden using subtles, this includes ERP, whispers longer than a sentence, or actions that would obviously be visible to anyone glancing you way. If you need to speak something longer than a sentence but want to keep it quiet use the whisper command, not the subtle command. Anyone caught using subtles to hide obviously visible actions of paragraphs of texts will get slapped for it.

===Do not steal the spare===
*We understand there might not always be a premier, if you need the spare for a legitimate reason (setting up the engine, firing/promoting someone, etc.) then feel free to take it, just make sure to return it.
* If you just want all access, at least take the spare to edit your access level with the nearby console and then leave the badge itself in the premier's office. Keep in mind, this is still a severe crime in character and if you get caught you'll be severely punished.
* If you are an Antag you may steal the spare as you see fit.

=== A guide to the ‘Self-Antag’ ===
Do not be hostile to other crew for no legitimate reason. Don’t break things, steal things, or do other antagonistic stuff just because you’re bored, it's the end of the round, you “want to give Security something to do”, etc. If you're going to be an asshole, have a believable reason why you're being an asshole. Think about how a normal person would behave under similar circumstances. A well established character who has been around awhile may be given a bit of wiggle room to keep rounds interesting.

'''Once you've become established and been around enough here are some guides and tips to self antagging:'''
The key goal to self antagging is to create roleplay that is enjoyable or otherwise fun for players to interact with to differ from the norm. Below are a list of examples but you should always consider "are other people having fun or am I just being a dick?"
* Buying and selling contraband.
* Starting a drug production operation in a secluded spot in the colony.
* Disguising yourself as a specific department and gaining access to it while pretending to be a member of that department until someone notices.
* Extorting people for cash with a good old fashioned mugging.
One key thing to remember is in any scenario you should be running/non-lethally fighting security when they come to arrest you unless you want to comply for a shorter sentencing. Always aim to escape and try not to ever use lethal methods else if someone dies you may be perma-brigged or executed. Security can have fun chasing and fighting a criminal, just be wary of pitfalls, nobody likes fighting a no-rp character, build things up first before jumping straight to mechanics.

Apparently it needs to be made clear as to what is or is not off limits. To make this clear, ask yourself these few questions.
* 'Would people have fun if I did this or no?'
* 'Does my character believe they have a legitimate good reason to be doing this?'
Going further into it, actions have consequences, if you're caught. If you're unsure if doing this or that is a-okay, then it would be best to check with a staff member beforehand. What would technically be off limits would be breaking into both of the armories that are maintained by the colony or the AI room and killing the AI without a good reason.

One thing to keep in mind when doing this is the fine line between being an enjoyable self antag and a griefer. Below is a list of things someone who self antags should be wary of.
* Don't complain when you lose or get brigged for a long time. Whatever punishment you receive as a self antag are a example of the rule that you agreed to in terms of handling consequences.
* Never use explosives that cause serious damage or ruin someone's round, without admin approval. A flashbang or force bomb so tiny it doesn't even break tiles? That's okay. A plasma bomb? You will get banned.
* Don't kill other players as a general rule. Not only will this get you killed or perma-brigged yourself but admins will immediately be alerted to your shenanigans if they haven't already and will be scrutinizing you far closer. Causing someone to die but still capable of revival is a little more acceptable then crushing someone's brain and removing them from the round entirely. Any forms of perma death will attract admin attention incredibly fast.
* Do not self antag more than once a day. Seriously, doing it every single time you play will swiftly get admin intervention. Once in awhile is good RP but every shift is a pain.
As a general rule, if nobody complains about your actions its assumed they are enjoying your shenanigans, but complaints will gain the staff attention and have use look through logs to see if you acted in a way that is good roleplay. If someone does complain immediately in LOOC because you sedated them or so, ignore them and continue on. Staff will handle such matters accordingly as immediate LOOC salt is not a good response.

*You cannot have a character with an “antagonist” background. Your ex-mercenary ex-ninja ex-cultist is not allowed, but certain criminal backstories might be okay. If in doubt, ask an admin.

*We play on ‘Extended’ round type most of the time, and this means that there are no automatically chosen antagonist roles. Most other SS13 servers have antags, but we do not. Any antagonists are staff-selected players, picked to play a specific role.

*And finally although we all enjoy creating interesting RP situations and getting immersed in the round, it is frowned on by staff to "start shit" near round end (15-30mins.)No one wants to wait around for some dumb-ass to have their 30+ mins of glory while we all wait for you to get arrested/investigated/faxed/ect. These situations happen sometimes and we understand that, but do TRY to avoid it. Staff is encouraged to enforce account strikes &/or temporary bans or more if you are shown to be a consistent issue.

Remember that if you ''are'' selected to be an antagonist-type role, it ''does'' give you some wiggle room than usual as far as the server rules go, but it '''does not''' give you permission to ''break'' any rules. Stick to your objectives, don't be over-the-top and ruining everyone else's fun if you can avoid it. Ask for admin help if you're not sure.

=== You are expected to perform the job you signed up for ===
When your character joins the round, you are accepting the responsibilities that the job you have chosen brings with it. Remember: if you are playing in a slot, you are likely preventing other players from performing that role. It is important that you fulfill the tasks that you have signed up for!
*Marhals should protect the colony from danger, the guild should ensure that power is up and that people can breathe, medical should provide treatment to injuries and other services, cargo should bring in needed cargo on request, Science should do... science stuff, and service should provide food. Command's job is to make sure at least these basics are being fulfilled, and to react accordingly in an emergency.

*A player must take into account the qualifications (both physical and mental) of their character’s role before placing them into it. If staff find your character to be unsatisfactory in fulfilling the requirements of the role, we may instruct you to revise your character.
**This includes majorly disabled characters — quadruple amputees, deaf, or blind characters, and so on — which are only permitted on the colony in the assistant (and associated alt-titles) job slot.

*Repeatedly failing to perform to an acceptable standard can result in a ban untill appealed.

*Job strikes are a counter of 0/3 which is noted on your character, after 3 job strikes, which can be earned by bad faxes or legitimate demotions from a head of staff, your character is permanently fired from that department until an appeal is made. Job strikes last 3 months, with the timer resetting with each strike.

*If you are going AFK for an extended period of time (more than 15 minutes), and are occupying a limited-number job slot (any slot other than assistant), you must remove your character from the round using a cryopod (or other similar means) to free the slot. Repeated failure to do this may result in being banned from that job.

*Do not do other people’s jobs. If you joined as medical, do not attempt to hunt down criminals. If you joined as engineering, do not attempt to perform medical treatment on your coworkers. If you are a head position, allow your staff to do work before you do the work yourself; you are a supervisor and manager first and foremost as a head position.

*Do not hijack other people's jobs. For example, if you're a roboticist but someone needs surgery, and there's already a surgeon who isn't currently busy, then don't perform the surgery instead of letting them do it. Similar examples exist with every department, so use your judgement. Basically, if you're ''actively getting in the way'' of someone else trying to do their job, you're probably breaking this rule.

*Playing jobs that can be called upon at any time to assist other crew members in emergencies waives your right to have interruption-free (E)RP sessions in private, including the dorms. If you join as a Lifeline Tech, expect to be interrupted out of private scenes. If you’re an engineer, you are expected to set up power systems and repair any large-scale damage that hampers the rest of the crew, regardless of your intent to have sex with the assistants. (Example: The premier getting their rocks off with someone while they are being called to assist with colony matters. They signed up to be the arbiter of colony matters. ERP is not what you are here for in that role. "saying you are busy or occupied" will incur a job strike.)

*If you do prospecting as an non-prospector for more than 30-60 minutes without being in an expedition with them and you are not doing your job, you may get a talking to. If you want to play like a prospector - just play the job instead of ignoring the one you signed up for.

*Maintenance diving is not a valid reason to be busy from your assigned job. If you are requested to perform the actions of your role while maintenance diving it is expected that you make your way out of maintenance in a timely manner.

=== You are expected to obey the chain of command (within reason) ===
*Each head of staff is the de facto leader of their department, so listen to them. Likewise, you should obey decisions from faction owners (if a fax arrives) or council decisions unless directly overridden by an admin. If you consistently do not follow reasonable orders, you will be job banned.

*If you're playing a role that has [[AI#Interpreting_Your_Laws|AI laws]], you must obey these laws first and foremost to the best of your ability.

*As any role without AI laws, you can disobey orders you think are traitorous, harmful, immoral, or violating [[Laws]]. Use your judgement and consider whether or not disobeying the order could get you in trouble or get someone else horribly killed.

*If you are given an order or AI law that may break another server rule, please alert the admins for a second opinion before continuing.

Mind you, this is '''not''' a rule that lets people be fun police as heads of staff. If you feel that someone is ordering you do things that basically require you ''not'' to do your job, or to do your job in ways that aren't important/fun, then contact an admin for a second opinion or fax a faction owner in character.

=== You are expected to forget events that are deemed non-canon ===
*This is to keep things a little more sane in-round, and to allow for players with preferences in non-consensual activities to have their fun with people who share those prefs as victims. It is therefore against this rule to remember and abuse the knowledge of who killed/raped after the round has passed unless both people involved agree. You should not have the memory to antagonize or persecute your attacker without the prior OOC agreement of the other parties in the roleplay. They can include this consent in their OOC Metainfo/Notes or discuss it with you in LOOC before or after the roleplay.

*Keep in mind that non-consensual RP, while OOC, is fine it is not on an IC level. Characters who make their non-con actions public or get caught in the act can and will be permanently killed if caught. For example, if a person is tried and executed for rape that character is permanently dead and cannot reappear on the colony. If you wish to do non-con keep it private. '''You've been warned.'''

*The round ending does not make you immune to a character perma-kill. Just because you evaded capture or was not killed by the time it restarted does not mean everyone forgets what your character did. If you get caught and the evidence is ironclad enough, you will be PK'd.

*This rule also applies to events that cause catastrophic damage to the colony, such as a code red/delta scenario. As a general rule event coordinators '''should''' say before or after an event if it is non-canon or not.

*If you are killed in a round and then revived in the same round, you're memory is entirely intact and may act accordingly.

= The intent of the rules is more important than the letter =
The purpose of the rules is to preserve a fun and enjoyable environment for all players. If everyone is enjoying themselves even while the ‘letter’ of a rule is not being followed, it’s likely that no staff intervention will be required. On the other hand, just because something isn't in the rules doesn't mean it's okay or allowed if it's upsetting a large number of players.

*It is within admin staff's discretion to decide that certain actions violate one or more rules, even if the specific action is not listed as part of the rule. This is simply the job of the staff to interpret the rules. You can appeal decisions to other admins if you believe one has a bias against you, but doing so after a ruling is passed will get you in trouble.

*Plenty of rules are left vague enough to cover as much as possible without being too oppressing. Attempting to rules-lawyer saying that "this rule doesn't specifically say I can't do X", even if what you are doing is disrupting the server, will generally be ignored. We assume most of you have enough common sense to recognize what a [[#Create_and_play_server-appropriate_characters|sane and stable individual]] would and wouldn't do within this fictional setting.

=== Listen to admin staff ===
* One admin's word is usually as good as any other. Though, just because one admin says something is okay in that moment does not mean it will always be okay under another admin or even the same admin.
** If this causes a contradiction, you can (and should) inform the new admin of what you were told previously. For example, a Head Admin says you can do something, but that admin has left the server. A lower ranked admin shows up and asks you to stop doing that thing. You can explain that the Head Admin previously said you could do this, but if the lower ranked admin ''still'' wants you to stop, then you should stop. (This obviously works vise-versa as well.)
** Intentionally not telling a new admin about a contradiction is considered lying. It's like asking your mom for ice cream, but she says no, so you go ask dad because you think he'll be less strict.
* Sojourn is not a straight democracy; our rules and guidelines exist for a reason and we have staff dedicated to enforcing them and help set further guidelines if necessary. '''However, these rules are always going to be incomplete, and as such, just because something isn't written doesn't mean it's allowed.''' If a staff member tells you to do something, do it. They tell you to stop, then stop. If you disagree with a ruling, don't try to argue it then and there, especially if things are hectic. Once things have calmed down, or preferably after the round has ended, you can try to contact the staff member privately to discuss the ruling, or talk to another admin if you cannot talk to or cannot convince the offending admin.

* If you have a question over something unclear or questionable, never be afraid to adminhelp. The staff on hand should discuss it among themselves and give you a ruling, from there on if the ruling is in bad judgement, it's on the admin who cleared it, not ''you''. '''The staff should also NEVER ban you purely for a complaint against them.''' Even if you're a complete asshole about it, as long as the argument stays private, you cannot be banned just for arguing. Although being an asshole usually won't win an argument, so you probably shouldn't do that anyway.
** Don't confuse this for "complaining grants you immunity to bans", because that's not how it works. If you are told to not break windows and you complain how that isn't fair, you're still getting banned for breaking windows if we disagree with your complaint. What this means is we won't ban you or make an existing ban worse just because you tell us we're being excessively mean, confusing, or unfair to you or someone else.

= Dungeoneering =
A core aspect of our server is our PvE content, this can range from going into randomly generated dungeons, leaving the safety of the colony, or simply crawling through maintenance. However, we also have specific jobs for this and ones who should be doing this. As such, '''jobs discouraged or disallowed from dungeoneering are actively targeted by staff when spotted.''' Refer to the list below of jobs allowed to or dungeoneer.
===Core Dungeoneering===
These jobs are allowed to enter and leave the colony, and dungeons at will. There expected to do a wide range of things and will never be targeted for being in these areas.
* Foreman | Salvager | Prospector
* Lodge Hunt Master | Lodge Hunter
* Outsider

=== The Junkfield ===
The Junkfield has no restrictions on any role or job, do to its infinitely reproducible allowing no gameplay or fun to be lost by people using it.
* Anyone - Any reason as long as they are not ignoring or breaking their job.

===Staff Rules===
When someone not in the listed jobs above is caught in a dungeon, admin staff are not only instructed to but '''encouraged''' to decide if the player is affecting the overall round to a negative effect and use in-game traps and mobs to kill the respective offender using the listed guide when needed. (Keep in mind we're here to have fun not punish people like robots following stonecold laws for breaking the rules. Use your best mindset for this.) However, this comes with a check list of things that need to be verified.

# Is the person apart of an event (official, mini-event, player run) that gives them a good roleplay reason to be in the area? I.E. the prospectors wanted extra hands and church litanies for healing, so they paid a vector to come with them.
# Is the person there for a reason that isn't looting? I.E. are they rescuing someone who is injured, etc. etc.
# If both answer to both is no, all staff must first subtle message the player in question with a warning of some kind such as "Something doesn't feel right, you're being watched..." or "An unearthly silence fills the space around you." or similar foreboding messages.
# Give them a reasonable amount of time to flee the area (usually 5 minutes) after the warning is given so they can avoid being killed.
# If they have not left, start by adding additional mobs/traps in their way as they continue. Under no circumstances should a player ever see the mobs or traps spawned, this means you cannot as staff randomly spawn mobs on top of, in front of, or in implausible locations to harm the offender. This includes spawning hard to spot traps in the path of a walking player, '''do not do this'''. As a rule, all additional spawns should be 7 or more tiles away from the player at all times. All methods to ramp the difficulty must be done in such a way that it makes perfect sense in-character, using thematically appropriate traps/enemies. I.E. You shouldn't be spawning primal renders inside the greyson field offices, etc. etc.
# Ramp up the pressure until they are dead. Do not begin with 10-20 spiders, start with 3-4 and keep progressing until they are overwhelmed or use lethal traps that they could avoid but will kill them if they're not careful. The goal is first to scare them to flee and only kill them if they persist. Staff who actively and badly enforce this rule without properly adhering to this list will get a strike. If they get 3 or more strikes, they are no longer allowed to enforce this rule and may be demoted.
# The body should remain intact and reviable '''the first time this happens.''' The second time in the same round, a guilty offender should be rendered unreviable via being devoured by roaches. '''Do not gib or severely fuck up a body beyond repair on the first offense.'''

[[Category:Guides]]
[[Category:Rules]]

Standard Operating Procedure

2022-11-14T04:40:08Z

Cora: /* Members of Security, the Steward, and Trauma Team */

The information contained in the article below is written here instead of the individual [[Jobs|manuals]] for each profession because this is all information the entire crew should know, so they may know what to expect, what their rights are, and what other staff should be doing to best service the crew. For those looking for information on the Hunting Lodge, click [[The Hunters Codex|this]].

(( Players reading this page should keep in mind '''THESE ARE NOT OOC RULES!''' These are just how the colony, in-character, would have something handled. Whether or not you are following these policies is irrelevant if you break [[Rules|the actual rules]]. Breaking SOP is usually IC, and usually only results in IC punishment like being fired. ))

== SOP Clarification ==
Whilst SOP is generally considered a suggestion, unless explicitly stated otherwise, this is only applicable for a department's SOP. To ignore SOP outside of your specific department is a punishable offense enforced by the law. It should be adhered to at all times.

For the time being until it can be fully handled, parts of SOP may be labeled 'ROP' and 'MOP.' These stand for 'Recommended Operating Procedure,' and 'Mandatory Operating Procedure.' This states that ROP may be deviated from as a guideline, whereas MOP is required under all circumstances to be followed by High Council decree.

== Colony Labor Rights - MOP ==
As per the conditions of the Nadezhda Declaration of Sentient Rights, all employees are granted specific legally afforded rights as colonists in the city of Nadezhda.

* Everyone has the right to work, free choice of employment, just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.
** What it means: Barring an emergency in which you are qualified and able to help safely resolve, you cannot be conscripted or otherwise forced into an occupation that you have no desire or ability to meet the responsibilities of. For example, a Cargo Technician cannot be fired for not following orders to go mining, because that's a completely different job.
* Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
** What it means: You cannot be denied work or pay because of your appearance, race, gender, species, or religious affiliation within reason. For example, a naramad cannot be removed from command just for being a naramad.
* Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of a sentient being's dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
** What it means: You are paid a living wage in the form of credits via electronic deposit in such a way that you may access and spend those funds freely. You are also granted, if you so desire, certain benefits from the colony such as safe and affordable housing in protected colony zones. For example, paying you with commodities such as meat is not permitted (even if you would be okay with being paid in meat).
* Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests.
** What it means: You can be part of a union. This is self explanatory. Heads of staff may fire any employee at any time for forming a union.
* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
** What it means: All employees are entitled to break time, vacations, and holidays as outlined in your employee handbook. (( What this actually means OOCly: Nobody can come along and fire you or punish you for not doing your job 24/7 on the server. As long as the needs of your current job are met within reason, and there's no current emergencies, you can bugger off to do lewds or RP. Nobody likes a kill joy. ))
* Each faction has the right to fire an employee for a valid reason, repeated termination may result in a temporary or indefinite suspension. Basic workers in a department who have been fired three times on valid grounds within the span of 1 month will receive an indefinite suspension until an appeal is made. Heads of staff fired by their respective faction leaders are suspended from the department indefinitely until an appeal is made.
** OOC: What is considered valid for a strike is determined by an admin, usually with consensus from other admins, on a case by case basis. Generally committing crimes, refusing to follow valid orders, refusing to do your job, or causing notable strife among other people in your department is considered valid grounds for termination from your job.

Violation of employee labor rights is punishable under [[Laws]] §103.

== Nadezhda Privacy Policy - MOP ==
Under normal colony operation, the invasion of private areas such as locked dorms, bathrooms, personal offices, personal belongings, personal lockers, or other personal space is highly illegal without consent of the owner or a search warrant. Furthermore, the use of thermal imaging goggles or other artificial means of observing crew in private areas such as tracking devices is also strictly forbidden without explicit consent or warrant, and the tools used to conduct such crimes are considered contraband. If your right to privacy is violated by the marshals or other members of the crew, contact the premier or warrant officer to submit an official complaint. If this violation of privacy results in the conviction of a crime, you may be eligible to have the incident voided by order of a Nadezhda council and be compensated for wrongful arrest.

The Privacy Laws extends to every individual colonist and ally of the colony, especially in the Medical and Security Sector. The essence of it is help and report crimes whenever you can, but to not hurt a persons reputation immediately by doing so. Sometimes you will witness things out of context. You can always say "I just witnessed someone break into the premiers office!" instead of calling out their name immediately. You can always report the crime to a marshal or blackshield member later.

The location of suit sensors may never be reported under any circumstances unless the individual in question calls for help, the person is wanted for a dangerous crime/considered to be a threat to other colonists or there is good reason to fear a medical emergency. This is extended below in the appropriate sections, so do not just use the previous sentence as the final say. All employees are recommended to let their head of staff know about their whereabouts or if they decide to take a break and for how long. An employee going or on a break never has to reveal their location, unless they decide to leave the colony. Every Head of Staff has the right to see the Gatelog in the Guardhouse if requested.

'''Medical Privacy Laws''' 
An unconscious person that called for help previously or is showing a medical emergency on suit sensors (including death) always and automatically consents to their location being made public information. This can never change. It is recommended to keep the person identity private to avoid any charges.

Transporting injured personnel should be ideally be done by at least stretchers, but is recommended to use a stasis bag instead to protect the privacy of the person. A dead person should be transported via a body bag.

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to notify another colonist of the injured colonists medical status. Soteria Medical Personnel and Corpsman are excluded from this providing it is done in a private location or on the medical channel. This may be extended to other colonists capable of treating a person in the medical facilities, however the location and radio channel previously mentioned still apply. The only person that should be contacted is the relevant Head of Staff in case of serious injury or death. If a Head of Staff is seriously injured or dead other Command Members may be informed. Medical Records may reveal a next-of-kin or emergency contacts and if they are on duty are allowed to be contacted.
In the event of an unrevivable death of a colonist only the relevant Head of Staff must be informed. Otherwise post-mortem instructions are to be followed and the death should not be revealed to other colonists. A fax should be sent to the High Council with an autopsy report attached.

Medical issues such as addictions and mental problems are never to be discussed with anyone, unless consent is provided.

Informing the Medical Team of an emergency coming in is appropriate as well as the extent of their wounds, however it is recommended that the persons identity should not be revealed to avoid any potential charges.

If a treated individual discusses their wounds and status on a public channel - namely common radio -, they waive any right to medical privacy for the issue they have mentioned.

'''Security Privacy Laws''' 

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to discuss the crimes or alleged crimes with any other colonists. This does not apply to marshals, but should be done in private or over security radios. While members of the Blackshield have access to this channel, they should not interfere in such a conversation unless they can contribute information regarding the crime. A green paragraph crime is not be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A yellow paragraph crime or higher must be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A red paragraph crime has to be reported to the Faction Owner of the person who committed the crime via fax. This may be handled by the Marshals or another Command Member, preferring the relevant Head of Staff. Records may never be shared without consent.

Any colonist has the right to accuse another colonist of a crime and an investigation should be launched. The accuser's name should be kept hidden and private to prevent repercussions and revenge. Any marshal or someone who has been granted the appropriate authority to deal with internal security issues (most likely a blackshield member) who fails to launch an investigation can be charged with Negligence. If the accuser charges someone in bad faith, revenge or to waste their time, they should be charged with Obstruction of Duty. Failing to find evidence for a crime is not an accusation done in bad faith. The accuser has the right to be informed of the outcome of the investigation. They do not have the right to make this public knowledge.

You are always allowed to report a crime you witnessed even if it does not involve you, just do so privately with a Marshal. It is recommended to call a marshal over to you or move to the Marshal Area. If you are being robbed it may be better if you stay quiet for your own safety and then report the crime. If you are being attacked self defense laws apply. It is recommended you disable/hide in an area and then immediately call for help - details are not important in such a moment and you can give a full report after the situation is safer.

During interrogation a second colonist should be present as a witness to the statements of the accuser or accused. Who the witness is may change depending on circumstances, but a ranking order is given here as a reference: Warrant Officer, Ranger, Marshal Officer, Supply Specialist, Premier, Blackshield Commander, Sergeant, Any Head of Staff, Corpsman/Trooper. This is subject to change depending on duties and personnel involved in the incident.

While Suit Sensors may be used to look for someone who has committed a crime, they may not be called out over public communication. This rule is only dismissed if the subject is found to be a danger to themselves or others. A danger to themselves falls under the medical emergency category and is classified as a person that is at risk of committing suicide or someone that is dying of wounds. A danger to others only applies if the subject is actively trying to hurt someone, violently breaking into staffed areas or breaking vital colony equipment. Examples: A person that uses drugs and/or distributes them is not a danger to others. A person that subdues others and forces drugs on them is dangerous to others.

Any colonist charged with a crime or accused of a crime loses their right to privacy regarding the crime they talk about if they mention/discuss it in a public forum -mainly common radio channel-.

This privacy policy may at times be suspended for the greater security of the station crew. If heightened security alertness is abused by the command staff, such as failing to lower the alert level after an incident, or raising the alert level when there is no incident, please contact your premier as soon as possible.

Violation of employee privacy is punishable under [[Laws]] §103. Other crime charges may apply.

A colonist that chooses forced labor as a punishment loses some of his rights to privacy laws - namely their location needs to be transmitted via suit sensors at all times and any crimes/medical emergencies involving the colonist in debt during this period can be publicly communicated regardless of circumstances. Records and previous location/medical issues/crimes may not be discussed.

== Nadezhda Dress Code - MOP ==
Certain positions within Nadezhda are expected to maintain a specific dress code. The strictness of these codes are ''Enforced'', ''Recommended'', and ''Suggested''. They are defined as follows:

* Marshal and blackshield staff are enforced to wear department specific clothing, or any clothing with dominant colors of green, black, blue, or gray depending on their respective job assignment. Individuals may not conduct activities naked while representing the blackshield or marshals. At a minimum, pants and an undershirt or tank top are mandatory.
* Medical staff are enforced to wear sterile lab clothing while working in Medical's facilities.
* Engineering staff are recommended but not enforced to wear bright and easily recognizable clothing, such as yellows or oranges, to be easily spotted in case of an emergency.
* Service staff are recommended but not enforced to wear aprons while preparing or harvesting food. Bartenders and waiter staff have no specific dress code, but it is suggested that they agree on similar clothing to wear for the day.
* Science staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms of purple and white. If a VIP is visiting the station, please dress appropriately for your department.
* Cargo/Mining staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms made of highly durable cloth so as to avoid damage caused by physical labor.
* The premier and steward are required to wear their clothing while on duty, it is suggested though not enforced they wear their official uniforms. '''Failure to remain clothed in public will result in immediate termination.'''

Failure or refusal to adhere to suggested dress codes are valid grounds for punishment up to and including termination and will likely result in a lack of respect from co-workers. Other staff and visitors are not bound by any dress code and may dress within reason so long as it does not violate [[Laws]].

==Alert Levels - MOP==
=== Code Green - All Clear ===
Default operating level. No immediate or clear threat to the colony. All departments may carry out work as normal. This alert level can be set at the Communications Console with a head of staff level ID. Privacy laws are in effect.

===Code Blue - Potential Threat===
Code blue scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* An active manhunt for a criminal within the colony.
* Station wide power failure.
* Station lock down or quarantine.
* Notable threats outside the colony that pose a potential threat. This can include a large pack of animals, dangerous but singular animals like renders, or wildlife acting in strange and unusual ways. Code blue should only be called if the threat is on going and not something a single person with a rifle could solve easily.

Code blue scenarios rarely require active action by non-relevant staff and should be adhered to depending on the scenario. An active manhunt may have the warrant officer or blackshield commander order staff to remain in their departments. A quarantine may have the biolab overseer or research overseer order infected personnel to medical to be cured. Orders from the relevant heads of staff are considered valid and must be followed to the letter even if normal procedure states otherwise. During a code blue scenario or higher, acting security staff (Marshals, or lacking Marshals, Blackshield) are authorized to utilize restricted items for the duration of the emergency. This may include explosives, combat mechs and other mechs rigged for combat, and other forms of Minor and Major Contraband as required to handle whatever emergency or situation has occurred.

===Code Red - Serious Threat===
Code red scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* Serious external or internal threats to the colony such as massive roach groupings, numerous xenomorph attacks, void wolf attacks, or large groupings of synthetic life forms.
* The appearance of a blob somewhere on the colony.
* Any sign of a hive-mind, be it radio signals or visual confirmation.
* Malfunctioning or rogue AI.
* Terran Federation activity.

Code red scenarios almost always involve the entirety of the colony and under such circumstances priority of orders is often given to the blackshield commander, warrant officer, or premier (in order of importance). In code red scenarios colonists are considered able to volunteer for assisting the blackshield be it with combat, mechanical, or medical skills. All orders from a blackshield member to a volunteering colony member is considered valid and must be adhered to. During a code red scenario all colonists should activate their suit sensors as an emergency precaution. During code red, all contraband policies towards weapons, including mechs, are lifted unless otherwise stated by the commanding head of staff.

===Code Delta - Abandon All Hope===
Code delta scenarios are only called when the colony faces total destruction and the only scenario in which the blackshield commander or equivalent can perform field executions for disobeying an order. Code delta is called only by the high council. All orders from heads of staff are considered a necessity and refusal may result in immediate and swift termination.

''Restrictions on searches also applies to the use of privacy-defeating equipment or enhancements such as thermals, x-ray, and so on.''

== Permits - MOP ==

=== Emergency Situation Permits ===
In a situation which may warrant the immediate use of a contraband item, any permit distributed for utilization may be issued verbally over the radio by the warrant officer, the blackshield commander, a council vote (with a minimum of three voters), or the premier in absence of any of the previous. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and stamped, and faxed to the Provost Marshal should they be issued in this way after the situation has resolved. Should equipment that is issued be used improperly, both the issuer and whoever was issued the permit are to be charged with §106 Minor Contraband, or §206 Major Contraband, in addition to any other charges accrued -- depending on what the item in use was. The Contraband item is to be confiscated.

These permits are to be issued in cases such as Blue Alert, authorizing Colonists to temporarily use Thermal Imaging equipment or Combat Mecha in the event of small scale disturbances that are not major large scale colony threats. All Emergency Situation Permits expire immediately upon the situation being resolved, with no exceptions. These permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by the relevant authorities who may issue them, and are immediately considered null and void should the person who is issued them commits a crime.

=== Contraband Permits ===
Any permit distributed by a member of the marshals, a warrant officer (or blackshield commander if there is no Warrant Officer) or a council vote may cover the use of minor contraband. Only the supply specialist, or the warrant officer may issue permits for thermal imaging equipment. The warrant officer and the supply specialist are authorized to issue permits for items considered major contraband. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and, if a major contraband permit, stamped by the authorizing party. Any of these permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by any of the relevant authorities who may issue the respective permit, and are immediately considered null and void if the person who was issued the permit commits a crime of any kind.

== Longarm Laws and Stipulations - MOP ==

While the colony remains at the frontiers of humanity and harbors many dangers within its vicinity it also maintains limitations of public display of firearms. While holsters and firearm ownership are not discouraged and, on the contrary, firearm ownership is directly encouraged, these limitations are in place to provide safety to those living within the walls. Colonists hold the right to self defense and to use weapons as reasonably needed in dangerous situations, however the following regulations apply to the display of public firearms.

=== Long Arms ===
* Long arms, going by many distinctions, are commonly defined as any weapon too big to fit in a holster.
* Guns defined as long arms are '''not legal''' to display on one's person for public safety concerns.
* Long arms '''may''' be transported in a bag or in a secure gun case, but are to remain '''out of public view'''.
** If a long arm is too large to fit in a bag, it is still required to be concealed unless in storage or within one’s department grounds. Gun cases should be used for transport of firearms of this class.
* Personnel opting to carry long arms in their bag must declare their concealed weapons upon any search of their person or during processing for an arrest. Failure to do so may net suspicious conduct charges at the discretion of the arresting officer.

=== Handguns & Sidearms ===
* Handguns are commonly defined as any weapon that can be fit into a holster, or standard bag and is designed for use as a compact weapon of self defense.
** Weapons that are '''contraband''' or '''contain contraband''', are '''not legal''' to conceal without proper permit from relevant personnel able to give such access.
** Unlike long arms, handguns may be visible via holsters, stowed in bags, stowed in belts, pocketed or otherwise out of view.
*** '''Bluespace''' based storage bags or pouches, '''do not''' count as a standard bag.
** Implanted firearms, such as arm SMGs, fall under the classification of handguns, but are required to be noted in detail in both medical and security records.

=== Members of Security, the Steward, and Lifeline Techs ===

* Personnel of the Blackshield, Marshals, Soteria Lifeline Techs, or the colony’s Steward '''are expected to follow the same procedure as colonists regarding the display of long arms'''. This is to convey positive imagery to the public and allow for less-hostile policing and/or aid in the defusal of possible tense situations. However, these departments have some exemptions to the law.
** The aforementioned employees '''may''' sport visible firearms on colony grounds in the case of an emergency, such as the threat of a code blue or higher being present.
** In cases of armed individuals, reasonable risks of escalating violence on a scene or ongoing incidents logged of high-crimes (I.e murder, manslaughter, sabotage, etc) Security authorities may sport visible weapons. Incident reports should be filed after such cases.
*Blackshield may bring long arms visibly on their person when en-route to the gatehouse or when patrolling the colony walls. Blackshield are required to stow said weapons when elsewhere in the colony if not on a phase of alert or acting in coordination with Marshal officers.

Violation of longarm restrictions may result in charges such as Failure to Obey Safety Protocol (102) or, in the case of an arrest, Excessive Force (210) if applicable. These charges may be pressed at the discretion of the offender’s council member.

= The Council - MOP =
The council is made up of each faction head of staff and the premier (who is usually a volunteer head of staff who chose to take a shift as the premier). A decision from the council has absolute authority and precedence over all other decisions, regulations, and rules except during a code red or code delta scenario (the brigadier/blackshield commander supersedes the council in these scenarios). Members of the council are given only a small set of rules that apply during any council vote or decision.

* All Colonists must respect a decision made by the council and follow said decision. Issues with a vote can be taken to provost marshal Boris via faxes as he presides over much of the legality on the colony, but must still be followed even when contested.
* All heads of staff are required to vote yay or nay during a decision. Any head of staff that refuses to make a decision or abstains is to be demoted on the spot. '''This is not negotiable, you are a leader and expected to make choices, especially hard choices.''' Those who are demoted from a head position for abstaining from a vote will be permanently barred from any head of staff position unless an appeal is made.
* The Soteria overseers may only have a collective vote of one and only if both agree on the decision. This means that when the votes are tallied both overseers count as a singular vote and only if they both arrived at the same vote. If the CRO and CBO cannot come to an agreement on where they vote, they instead lose their vote entirely. The inability for them to agree is '''not''' a valid grounds for demotion of either overseers. If there is only one overseer active, they have a single vote.
* The steward does not have a vote. They are a secretary and bodyguard and while they are considered command staff, it is the job of the premier to sway or veto votes.
* Only the Warrant Officer, Premier, and Steward are required to remain on the colony at all times except when aiding in the colonies defense or colonists safety. Other heads of staff may come and go at their discretion but should '''always''' inform the council and their staff team should they leave outside radio range. A head of staff may elect a member of their staff team to make decisions in their absence up to and including council votes, in all other cases, they should be contacted and retrieved before council votes are made.
* All council members and by extension heads of staff must be at least thirty Terran years of age or older. Heads of staff found to be younger than thirty are to be demoted due to not fulfilling the basic requirements of the job. The only exception to this rule is the expedition foreman, who may be of any age.
* All heads of staff can use the medivac shuttle in times of crisis if there are no Blackshield nor Marshals. When using the shuttle, bring at least two other individuals with you, one to be left behind at least to guard the shuttle. If found to be using the medivac shuttle for personal reasons or reasons that do not qualify the usage of the shuttle, i.e. prospectors using it to get to locations that they scavenge from, then this can and will be charged by a §406, exceeding official powers.

===Voting Procedures===
(This section is considered a little WIP, it may change.)
* For a vote to be considered valid, at least three members of the council must be present. The Premier is included in this requirement, so any two councilors plus the Premier may call a vote as well.
** The Steward does not count to this requirement.
** In the event of only two councilors being present, if there is no premier to break a tie or preside over the vote, a vote will automatically fail to prevent a two-person set of councilors from changing colony operations at whim.
* A vote may be called for a large number of reasons, but some things may not be changed by council vote. For example, you may not change laws or demanded-to-follow Standard Operating Procedure by way of a vote, as these are set in place by the High Council and must be followed.
* A councilor, if only one is present, may send a requesting fax to the High Council for permission to conduct a vote on their own. In this case, the councilor should state what the vote is, why they want this vote, what this vote would change, and their own vote (in most cases this would be a yes, because why are you voting no on a vote for something you just made?).
** This vote must be approved by the High Council. This means it must be sent to the High Council offices.
** An example of a situation that this style of vote may be used for is the allowance of a Foreigner (Outsider) into the colony. This vote '''MUST''' be done before allowing the Foreigner entry. In this case, they may be allowed inside without waiting for a reply of approval, so long as this is sent first. This is only applicable if there is one member of the council.
*** In the event of the Foreigner causing issues before a return fax is gotten, the councilor should be charged with any crimes the Foreigner committed, in addition to 301, 'Negligence.' If a reply is received to deny this Foreigner entry into the colony, they should be expelled without consequence to the councilor unless the Foreigner caused problems.

===The Premier===
* The Premier may '''VETO''' any vote the council makes, for any reason. This includes votes that they call to be made, which is within their power to do so.
* The Premier's veto considers the vote to automatically result in a 'no' vote. This may not be overturned unless a council of at least 3 councilors vote a unanimous decision to overturn the veto.
* The Premier may call a vote on any issue at any time, just as any other member of the Council may. This extends only to the Premier, and not the Steward. Failure to vote on a vote the Premier calls carries the same immediate removal penalties as failing to vote otherwise.
* The Premier may, reasonably, call votes about decisions designed by the High Council. This includes things that the Council normally may not vote on. Such as, but not limited to; what charges may be applied to situations for Marshals, temporary modification to mandatory procedure (but not making it recommended, or changing it to the point the procedure is nullified), or even making recommended procedure mandatory. This does not include Mandatory Procedure for the council, such as voting procedure or outsider procedure. Abuse of this power will lead to the immediate, permanent removal of the Premier without the ability to appeal.
** A Premier found to be in abuse of any of the above listed statements is subject to an immediate removal pending appeal (unless otherwise stipulated). A Premier removed in this way must wait at standard minimum of one month before an appeal will be considered by the High Council.

===Demoting Staff===
In the event of a head of staff desires the demotion of a staff member in their faction they must meet one of the following criteria.
# Dereliction of Duty, the subject in question failed to perform there job duty at the bare minimum satisfaction.
# Negligence, the subject in question performed a grossly incompetent action while on duty that result in injury, loss of life, damages, or loss of property.
# Criminal activity, the subject in question performed a orange or red paragraph crime in which they were successfully convicted of.
# Failure to execute an order, the subject willfully and knowingly defied a valid order from their respective head of staff. Note that this only covers valid orders pertaining to their department, a head of staff could enforce a no smoking policy on his staff inside medical but not outside of medical.
# When the counsel is calling a vote their must be at lest three heads of staff to be accounted, CBO and CRO count as two heads of staff for this even with their singular vote.

All valid demotions from a head of staff are recorded and noted in an employee file. Employees who have been demoted three times from their respective faction will be permanently demoted and unable to take work in any positions within that department. Not all demotions are considered valid and they should be recorded [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|with the proper paperwork using a dismissal form]] before being faxed to their respective faction owner for review.

Heads of staff may be demoted by a council vote and approval from the respective faction owner using a [[Example_Paperwork#Demotion_form|demotion form]] and proper signature from a premier or, if one is not present, the steward. Lacking both, the signature may remain blank.

===How to order an execution===
In the rare and unfortunate event that a crew member has committed a crime in which execution is considered a certain criteria must be met in order for the execution to be valid.
# Assuming the person in question is successfully convicted and placed within the brig a premier must be present to arbitrate the crime to first ensure that the conviction is entirely valid with appropriate evidence and witnesses.
# A premier and at minimum three heads of staff must be present for a execution vote to be made. An execution vote may be called by any head of staff except for the premier. Once called all members must meet and discuss the case, all evidence, and what should be done.
# For an execution to be considered valid upon finishing discussion of the case all heads of staff must vote unanimously for execution and then sign and stamp a document that will be faxed to whichever faction owner presides over the prisoner. A reply will then be made back approving said execution.
# The prisoner is then executed in accordance to Marshal policy once approved by the relevant faction owner.

===Faxes===
As a head of staff and Council member, you are the most responsible person within your department and as such are expected to handle most situations without having to fax the High Council. Only when it is absolutely necessary or outside of your hands, experience, or capabilities, should you fax the High Council.
The High Council may not always respond to a fax sent to them, especially when the fax sent does not warrant a response from the High Council. Only when it's absolutely needed, the High Council will send a response. (OOCly speaking, heads of staff are expected and trusted to handle most things and should not need the oversight of head/admins).

=== Shield Generator ===
* The Shield Generator on the colony surface is a new defense mechanism for the colony's safety. Whilst Council have access to it, it is not advised to enter the shield generator room unless there is a valid reason. It is currently classified under the same high risk condition that Telecommunications is listed under.

* Apart from the Council, the Blackshield, Marshals, and Guild have access to the room. As maintainers of the Shield room, Guild are allowed to enter and exit the place as they will. Blackshield and Marshals should only enter and utilize the shield generator when there is a security matter. Untrained personnel, that are not the Guild, setting up the generator run the risk of being charged with Negligence if a issue or incident occurs.

* Given that the shield generator room serves a important role in colony safety, and should not be tampered nor trespassed, whether by those with access or not. These following charges can and will be applied upon investigation of any incidents or situations: Grand trespass, negligence, sabotage, terrorism, and possibly more.

* It is heavily suggested to set the generator's radius at 85, as that covers the entirety of the colony's defenses. There are various settings on the shield generator, some of these settings should only be turned on depending on the code level.
** On code green, the shield generator can be operated, although not generally advised due to power draw, with these settings active: Unknown Lifeforms (Blocks unknown life forms.), Hyperkinetic Projectiles, and Photonic Dispersion.
** On code blue, the shield generator can be operated more freely with these settings: Humanoid Lifeforms (Blocks humans, abhumans, Cht'mant, sentient life), Silicon Lifeforms (Blocks cyborgs and other robots), Atmospheric Containment, Diffuser Bypass (Individuals with certain technology can bypass the shield generator, this setting negates that but draws a lot of power), Adaptive Field Harmonics.
** On code red, the shield generator is heavily advised to be put into use, along with weaponizing it with: Field Overcharge.

* The only individuals with direct authority to operate the shield generator on '''any''' code level are the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer, so long as they have valid cause (Hostile or suspicious outsiders, criminals on the run, etc). The two can cancel each other's orders out in regards of the Shield Generator, but there should also be a valid reason behind it, else the BC/WO runs the risk of being charged or demoted on the spot. The Council can also vote to choose that the cause was not valid and must fax the High Council if such is decided, including the cause that was overruled by the Council. If the High Council believes otherwise, or does not receive sufficient information, the vote is overturned and the Council may suffer consequences for time wasting decisions and faxes.

= Foreigner Treatment - MOP =
The authority of the Colony ends currently at the electrified fence. Laws still apply to all colonists even outside the fenced area, however they do not apply to foreigners as long as long as they remain outside the colony. Circumstances may change this.

'''Allies''' 

Allies of the Colony are granted the same rights as a normal colonists. They may enter and leave and are subject to searches at the Gatehouse, Laws and Departmental SOP (if applicable). Allies of the colony are permitted to not have an ID on them, however it is encouraged to grant them a Guest Pass. Any ally of the colony may move freely inside the colonies public areas including the bar and kitchen (customer area), which should always be accessible to them unless they commit a crime there at which point it may be applied to them. Yellow paragraph crimes do not have to be reported to the High Council. If a debt of an allied member cannot be paid a fax should be sent to the Void Wolf Alliance or High Council for other factions. Any orange or higher paragraph crime must be reported to Boris Kilmaede immediately and additional measures may be taken against the person. All allied members are entitled to unlimited free life-saving treatment and unlimited free treatment regarding serious injury. Other injuries should be charged accordingly. If an allied member misbehaves, causes issues or plans to act against the Colony the High Council should be informed immediately. Due to possible diplomatic issues, strong evidence must be gathered BEFORE a fax is send. If an allied member turns hostile they should be ideally captured alive or revived and kept under watch while the High Council is informed. Making an allied member unrevivable even after they committed a hostile crime is considered a terroristic act as it may immensely cripple diplomatic relations. This is ignored if the unrevivable injury is sustained through combat.

Any contraband (other than excelsior equipment) may be temporarily confiscated at the gatehouse and must be returned when the individual/group of allies is leaving.

'''Neutral/Unknown Factions''' 

These factions may have been hostile in the past or their allegiances are unknown. While it is best to find out their allegiance, they may keep this secret or their faction is unknown to the colony. Some neutral factions are indifferent or outright will ignore the colony. Hostile attempts may be stopped lethally or non-lethally. Neutral Factions that are not invited inside the colony do not have any rights or protection from the law, however a colonist going out of their way to potentially harm relationship with a neutral faction may face a terrorism charge. Any HOSTILE encounter with a neutral faction should be reported to the high council immediately. If a HOSTILE neutral person is taking alive they should be treated as a Hold until Transfer Prisoner until a decision is made by the High Council. Depending on severety this decision may be delegated to the council (head of departments).

If a peaceful or non-hostile neutral faction or person wishes to enter the colony, the council should be informed and are expected to make a decision within 15 minutes of the arrival. It is recommended the person is to be searched and asked for their business inside the colony. If the council cannot come to a unanimous decision a vote may be held with the premier as a tie-breaker vote only to let the individual in or not. If let in they are allowed to move at least freely in between the fenced area and the entrance of the colony (colony entrance/church to wall/gatehouse). All other public access should be discussed first, however every department head is allowed to give them access to their own department for any reason at anytime (only applicable if they were let in at the first place). It is recommended, however not enforced, that a neutral person is given some free medical treatment and food or access to the kitchen customer area. Bartering and Trading is encouraged. Due to the fact that a neutral person may not be aware of the colony laws and contraband policies, they may not be charged with bringing in any illegal equipment. Depending on circumstances these may be either confiscated or held at the Gate until the neutral party wishes to leave. This rule is suspended in case of excelsior equipment at which point they are to be treated as a hostile faction. If a neutral faction willingly commits any crime inside the colony or towards a colonist outside the colony they should be seen as Hold until Transfer and the High Council should be informed. If such a person becomes violent and cannot be detained peacefully, lethals are authorized. Unless another order is given a neutral member that turns hostile is not to be revived.

In case two neutral factions fight each other, the colony may decide to join and help either or neither. This should be decided by the council, but other colonists have a right to have their say in the matter too.

'''Known Hostile Factions''' 

Unless a member of a hostile faction wishes to engage in peaceful negotation or is surrendering, they are considered to be Shoot on Sight. This applies to unarmed non-surrendering hostiles. If their presence is known to any colonist, it should be repored to the Blackshield which in turn should alert all colonists. Increasing the alert status to blue is appropriate. A killed hostile faction member should never be revived unless there is a good reason such as thinking they have important intel or are a valuable target. A critically wounded enemy may be captured alive at the order of the highest ranking combat member or if the council decides to do so. Enemy bodies are not to be dismembered or abused - going against this order is a crime of disrespect for the dead. They may be looted freely by any colonist. Hostile bodies should be left where they were killed unless inside the colony. If they were killed inside the colony they should be transported a decent distance outside the colony. These rule do not apply to enemies that can regenerate from death. Any captured hostile enemy should be treated as "Hold until Transfer" and the High Council should be informed of the situation.

Anyone abusing prisoners, regardless of their faction, should be charged with battery/assault/attempted murder/murder. Depending on the reason for such a retaliation the amount of time spend in prison may be reduced or completely waived, however a temporary ban of carrying weapons should be applied. This is at the discretion of the council and especially warrant officer. If there is a disagreement Boris Kilmaede should be informed.

Any excelsior agent that is captured alive should have their implant removed. If removal is successful they are to be treated as a neutral faction. The council should deliberate how to treat the individual in question. It is recommended, but not necessary, to run a psychological evaluation.

== The Lodge - MOP ==
Given that the Lodge is a faction that is expected to have more regular and closer interactions than others, these details have been provided to help colonists.

1: There are currently no trade agreements in place between the colony’s factions and the Lodge. As such, with individual hunters and colonists, they are to negotiate their own prices in regards of deals.

2: The location in which the Lodge resides is its sovereign territory, and the plains that connect to the Lodge is considered its territory. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Nadezhda’s territory lies in the very place it occupies, the meadows south of it and the adjacent forest area. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Hunters can move through these territories to reach the colony and vice versa for colonists. The swamp is considered neutral territory for the time being.

3: Any hunters found breaching the fifth rule of the Hunters Codex are to be reported to a hunt master or the Matriarch of the Lodge to be handled. The fifth rule within the Codex strictly forbids Hunters from scavenging and looting like prospectors.

4: The skinning knives and the Matriarch's shotgun that the Hunting Lodge has are to be treated in a similar fashion to the Absolute’s tech and equipment. If they are stolen or taken, grand theft may and can be applied.

= Duels - MOP =
The only acceptable way of fighting another colonist that CANNOT result in a charge of crime as long as all rules are followed.
=== How to initiate a duel ===
Anyone colonist may at anytime challenge another colonist to a duel (including CQC training). If accepted, you must follow the following steps:
1. Set a time and place to proceed with the duel. (Do it somewhere, where you are not going to stand in the way of others)(OOC: The basketball court is a popular spot since its an arena people can watch easily.)
2. The place must be set in a publicly accessible area.
3. Agree on at least 1 neutral observer to oversee the duel. While a premier or command member is preferred, anyone can do this. If you cannot agree on a neutral observer, both attendees need to be bring an observer who may be a friend, department member or other. If no one volunteers or is available, you cannot duel.
4. Let the Marshals and Blackshield know you are carrying this out to avoid misunderstandings.
5. When the time has come, get into position, let the neutral observer countdown the fight. In case of no neutral observer, one of the attendees may count down. The rules should be recited by the neutral observer or attendee that does not count down the fight.
=== Rules of the Duel ===
# You cannot leave permanent damage on your opponent (ooc: read PULL YOUR PUNCHES. IC Tab -> Pull Punches) 
# Once your opponent goes down to the ground or gets knocked out, stop immediately. 
# No leaving the designated area unless you wish to surrender. If an opponent surrenders, respect it. 
# No one from the outside is allowed to intervene in the fight. If they do, you may press charges of Violation of Employee Rights as well as other charges if applicable. 
# If either dueler breaks the rules, this is to be considered a charge of at battery, assault, attempted murder or murder - depending on circumstances. 


= Leaving the Colony - MOP =
*Every Colonist has the right (but not the access) to leave the colony. As a note, Blackshield has the right and power to deny a colonist leave of the colony if they have reason. Heads of staff are exempt from this unless explicitly said otherwise by either the Blackshield Commander or Warrant Officer.
** This includes the right to return, if you leave as a Colonist you may not be denied entry simply because you left.
*Breaking the Gatehouse or perimeter fence without very good reason is a crime of Infiltration and Sabotage. Other such illegal forms of entering the colony is a crime of infiltration and sabotage, and possibly more depending on circumstances.
*Blackshield may search you on your way out. Blackshield must search you on your way in.
*It is recommmended you comply with Blackshields recommendations before heading out (have some armor/weapon/supplies/suit sensors)
*It is recommended you do not leave alone.
*If Blackshield has to rescue you from any area outside the colony, Blackshield MUST charge you a recovery fee of 800 credits for every person recovered. Remember medical charges may apply as well.

= Lonestar Service =
The service department includes the jobs of Gardener, Cook, Bartender, Janitor and Actor. The service department is a largely independent (except for Janitor) necessity sponsored by Lonestar.
=== Janitor - ROP ===
Your job is very simple, however crucially needed - clean the colony. You are in the second highest income bracket of all colonist - you are expected to do your job.
*Gear up in your Janitor Preparation Room
*Move around the Colony and clean the tiles
*Make sure to put down a wet floor sign BEFORE cleaning the tiles. Try to keep at least one path open at all times for colonists to use without the fear of slipping. Make sure to point at it when someone slips.
*Do not clean crucial areas in use such as the way from the elevator to med bay IF a medical emergency is announced (for example). If you cause issues by doing this you will be charged with Negligence and may be demoted.
*For large messes use a cleaning grenade instead.
*Make an effort to ask for entry into departments to clean them.
*Carry a handgun on you at all times, you move around the most and are likely to spot roaches/spiders during your duty.
*When you have cleaned all areas, you are allowed to go into maintenance and clean up there. As long as you are not needed you may alternatively do whatever you want. If you plan to leave the colony try to be back within the next 30 minutes. If you leave for longer you may be demoted at the discretion of the CEO or other staff, if reported.

=== Kitchen Staff - ROP ===
Your job is to provide various services to the crew. In case of foreign guests, diplomats or emissaries arriving you are also encouraged to cater to their needs and provide whatever services they require. Work together with the CEO and Lonestar Shipping in this regard.
*The Gardener, Cook and Bartender may all work in each others departments as long as no one else works there or they have permission to do so. The CEO may also work in these areas if required, but should try to delegate the work instead.
*For food, it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
*Water is free, and for other drinks it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
* Use the following paperwork format for all recipes: [[Example_Paperwork#Lonestar_Service_Receipt]]
*You are encouraged to ask for tips.
*Act professional, always smile!
*Lonestar may provide you with additional resources from the Cargo Department, provided your job is done well. Otherwise you will have to pay with your own credits. This should be decided by the CEO.

=== Artist - ROP ===
* You are a colonist with your own office essentially. Try to entertain people.
* Using your office to commit or hide crimes is a reason to for demotion.

= Lonestar Shipping =
With the Lonestar radio fully repaired, it is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. It cannot be brought out of the department, it cannot be in the Lonestar service areas, such as the bar, janitor's room, or the artist's room. It is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. Whilst colonists that are not members of Lonestar are near, the radio is to remain off if they are in hearing distance of it. Violations of this will result in immediate confiscation and application of law 103 and 106. Commenting on sensitive matters, on public comms or to other departments, can also be a applicable charge of 103 and 106.

Lonestar provides a collection of [[Example Paperwork#Cargo|Example Paperwork for Cargo]] that can be used during a shift. Keep several copies available at all times.

It is recommended you use this at least this format for Orders from the Cargo Console: [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Shipping Reciept v2]] and at least this format for selling your mined materials: [[Example Paperwork#Confirmation Form v2]] as receipts to justify your personal profits and keep an ordered paper trail.

=== Ordering Cargo - ROP ===
Cargo orders are a matter of buying and selling. Cargo will always charge more for a crate than the listed price as a way to make a profit on it. Cargo can sell anything to anyone with the reasonable restriction of needing a paper trail of all orders, receipts, and requests. If someone purchases something that is then used for a crime cargo is not liable if the proper record keeping has been done.

The following steps are needed for a proper order:

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If it has been declined, stamp the request form with the "Denied" stamp, and put it in the file cabinet next to the cargo computer. Inform the customer that their request has been declined, and the reason why. Give the denied customer a copy of the form below, and keep a copy for your own records and paperclip it to the request form that was denied.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:99%">
Cargo Request Denial Record
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><pre>
[center][b]Lonestar Shipping Solutions, LLC.
[logo]
[large][u]Cargo Request Denial[/u][/large][/b][/center][hr][small][i]To be filled out by cargo personnel handling the request. All sections are required to be filled out.[/small]
[small]A copy of this form should be archived upon denial of any request. The requesting employee whose request was denied is also to be given a copy of this form.[/i][/small]
[b]Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Faction of Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Requested Cargo:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Request:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Denial:[/b] [field]
[hr][b]Cargo Employee's Signature:[/b]
</pre></div></div>

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If the order is declined, this is the final step. Open the cargo computer and decline the order if it exists.
# The order has been accepted. Accept the agreed upon payment and open the cargo computer to accept the order, or place the order and accept it if the order does not exist.
# Do not immediately call the cargo shuttle. Confirm with the customer, "Will that be all?" If so, or if they just wander off without confirming this, you may now call the cargo shuttle.
# Wait for the cargo shuttle to arrive. Ask the customer how they would like the cargo delivered. There are three methods of delivery: Pickup, mail, or courier. By default, cargo is pickup. '''Dangerous cargo is ''pickup only''.''' is to be returned to if the order cannot be picked up within 30 minutes of arrival.
# Upon arrival of the cargo, bring all cargo to the center of the cargo bay. You may be dealing with multiple orders from multiple people, so ensure you have sorted the cargo to its correct owner before delivering anything. Leave notes if necessary. '''Do not''' open any crates for any reason unless instructed to do so by the customer.
# Once the cargo is sorted, deliver the cargo using the specified method to the specified location. By default, it is to be sent to the customer's department. Pickup orders are to be kept in the cargo bay (not the lobby) until the customer arrives to pick it up. Mailed orders are to be wrapped and tagged in the mail room and sent through the pipe network to their destination. Courier delivered orders must have a cargo technician bring the order(s) directly to the destination.
# Upon delivery of any order, ensure you are given back the manifest of the order. All cargo technicians are responsible for stamping manifests and returning them to the cargo warehouse.
# If possible, collect the empty crates of any completed orders for return to the cargo warehouse. If you have any stamped manifests, put them in one of these crates.
# Return the shuttle to cargo warehouse.
# You're done! Relax and wait for the next cargo request.

=== Mining - ROP ===
Mining is the section of Lonestar that goes down to the deep tunnels to harvest minerals either through the use of a hand drill or bulk mining drill. Miners are generally equipped with a weapon of their choice and go below ground to run their day to day operations. In addition miners are given an oxygen-supplied voidsuit should they ever become lost underground, the suit even comes with armor for dealing with any dangerous creatures found in the depths.

Miners should always perform these tasks:
* ''Get equipped:'' Miners should at the minimum take a mining satchel, ore scanner, shovel or drill, armored voidsuit, a toolbelt (with at minimum a screwdriver, crowbar, duct tape, and wrench), a weapon, a shortwave hand radio, and basic medical supplies.
* ''Upgrade your tools:'' Miners should consider getting an tool upgrades for their shovel or drill. Miners who use the drill should consider getting an advanced motor, expanded fuel tank, and ergonomic grip. Shovel users should consider an ergonomic grip and whetstone for a sharpened edge and, if possible, a diamond edge.
* ''Bigger, better batteries:'' Miners should see about getting larger and more powerful batteries from either the Prospectors or Soteria if they plan to use the bulk mining drills. The standard batteries within leave much to be desired. Additional batteries are also very useful for optical meson scanners.
* ''Regular maintenance:'' Miners should always bring an ore crate with which they can empty the bulk mining drills to prevent them from grinding to a halt due to being full. Hand tool miners should always use duct tape regularly to maintain and fix their tools so they don't break mid-outing. Be advised, a broken tool cannot be recovered, nor its tool augments.
* ''Stay alive:'' You're no use to the colony or your fellow miners if you bleed out or pass out from injury. A regular medkit, a few tramadol pills, and a single syringe of Dylovene can keep you alive long enough to get back topside for proper treatment.
* ''Communication:'' Always keep in contact with your fellow miners in case you get in trouble and need help. A shortwave radio is a great back up if regular communications go down.

''Miners should never bring their non-pistol weaponry into public colony areas and should leave all contraband weapons in the mining prep area or personnel lockers.''

Upon returning, miners are expected to fill out a [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Mining Report v2|mineral inventory form]] with an accurate count of all minerals collected. A copy of this form should be provided to the [[Chief Executive Officer]] and filed in the main cargo desk area for easy bookkeeping. This form must be filled out for every shipment of minerals taken up from the deep tunnels separately.

=== Profit Distribution - MOP ===
Lonestar's goal is to make as many credits as possible, although a deal that continues after one transaction is considered more profitable than a one-time deal. Anyone working for Lonestar is generously supplied with a wage for their basic living needs. While promotions are not always possible, every Lonestar employee should have the potential to earn money for both themselves and Lonestar.
* All transactions done by Lonestar offer a 20% commission from the profit margin to any Lonestar employee facilitating the transaction. Example, a cargo tech sells a crate that cost 500 credits, but was able to negotiate the buyer into paying 1000 credits. The profit is 500 credits, 20% of that (100 credits) is then directly claimable by the employee who managed the transaction.
* All service members (bartender, chef, and gardener) may charge whatever prices they see fit for their respective services. Employees are '''recommended''' to charge above 10 credits but no more than 100 credits per drink or food item depending on the difficulty/challenge of fulfilling said order. Service members do not collect a commission for the sale of drinks and food (this is handled with their hourly wages) but are entitled to the full amount of any tips offered and may pocket it at their discretion.
* Trade beacons may be used freely by all lonestar employees using their personal accounts for purchasing or selling goods. Lonestar automatically collects a 20% market fee that is directly removed and then added to the Lonestar account whenever an item is sold through the trade beacon. Lonestar has no service charge, nor tax on goods bought through the trade beacon, only goods sold. Cargo technicians and CEOs with access to Lonestars main account are expected to only use the trade beacon to gain a profit for Lonestar if they are using Lonestars main account.
* Miners receive a 20% commission on all profits generated by the materials they dig up. Since dug up and refined minerals are generally pure profitability, lonestar miners may simply total the complete cost of the materials '''cargo sale value''' and request that commission from any CEO or cargo technician (with the proper paperwork). Alternatively, miners may try to sell the materials to fellow colonist themselves at whatever price they negotiate. As with normal commissions, they may take a 20% cut of all profits generated, but are required to keep paperwork detailing who bought what and for how much (if tools and goods are traded in the place of credits, list the tools innate numerical value).

=== Preserving Lonestar Public Relations And Trade Opportunities - MoP ===

In order to preserve commerce with the trading partners of Lonestar, and prevent possible long-term consequences of company relations on the actions of a bad actor, the CEO and other Lonestar Shipping staff must exercise vigilance in prevention of authorizing fraudulent transactions of credits or goods. And Lonestar Shipping staff, as a whole, must be courteous in regards to existing and potential trade partners in pursuit of the company's interests.

This includes, but is not limited to:
* Exploiting improperly calibrated databases or equipment to profit off of any clearly deceitful business practices to Stations or Ships that trading is conducted with, either by shuttle or trading beacons. This includes permitting or paying third parties to do this in place of Lonestar staff, in which case, the authorizing members of Lonestar Shipping are to be held responsible.
* Should the uncommon occurrence of direct communication be established with existing out of colony trading partners, or a possibly beneficial group of potential Lonestar Shipping's interest, conduct of Lonestar staff should be held to an appropriate standard.

Should an employee of Lonestar be discovered to be acting against Lonestar's interests in either of these cases, they should be charged with §301, negligence. Depending on the context, a short fax to Lonestar regarding the incident may be warranted for potential further actions or punishment at the discretion of the High Council.

== Lonestar and Prospector Relationship - ROP ==
The partnership between Lonestar and the Prospectors is entirely based around the idea of profits. While some access is shared, there is no shared authority between the CEO and Foreman. They are encouraged to work together at all times to maximize profits for both lonestar and the individuals of the prospectors. Lonestar and Prospectors must respect each others areas and equipment at all times. Taking anything from the other department without permission is considered theft. Causing trouble for the other department may be used as a reason for demotion. A CEO can never command the Prospectors or demand anything of them. A Foreman can never command the Lonestar department or demand anything from them.

The following are suggestions for a better working relationship:
* If miners are available, prospectors should never do any mining, however to avoid medical bills and injuries it is highly suggested to bring a prospector along to guard the miner. A prospector is entitled to 10% of the profits just as a miner. This money should be taken from the total made.
* If miners are lacking, other Lonestar-Cargo personnel should be utilized first if avaliable and volunteering for the job. Otherwise a prospector can be used for mining, however they are still only entitled to 10% of the profits.
* CEO and Foreman are encouraged to negotiate prices and how much share each expedition member gets beforehand
* Lacking a head of staff, both faction members are encouraged to temporarily step up as the leader of the faction, take control in these matters. For Lonestar, this only applies to Lonestar-Cargo.
* You are expected to deal with issues among yourselves before faxing Hogg or Ryan. Only fax them if its absolutely necessary.

= Prospector SOP =
===General - MOP===
Overboss Hogg has generously, with the help of Lonestar, sponsored your equipment and place to work to become a self-made man. You are supposed to make profits, while not dying.
* Prospector are encouraged to go in groups to a single destination.
* It is generally advisable to keep track of each others locations in case a colleague requires assistance.
* Salvagers should stock up on medical or engineering supplies, Prospectors should stock up on combat supplies.
* All loot should be divided as seen fit by the members of the group.
* Dying alone outside the colony means you have to pay a recovery fee of 800 credits to Blackshield and may result in your demotion as you are seen unfit for this job - you are supposed to make a profit. Dying is acceptable, dying alone and relying on the boys in black isn't.
* If you are in a group and a member needs to be brought back to the colony due to medical reasons, do so as soon as possible.
* Do not hoard. Sell it. The who or why doesn't matter, just net a profit.
* Comply with the law. Just because you found fancy guns and armor doesn't mean you can suddenly fight the Blackshield or Marshals, they can and will bring the proverbial hammer down on not just you but your entire department.
* Expect to be demoted if you lose a lot of money or get yourself put in hold until transfer.
* Treating or handling medical scenarios in the colony whilst Soteria medical is around is not advised, and more frowned upon.

====Pre-Mission Setup - ROP====
* All weapon-trained crew should be offered the opportunity to arm themselves from prospector supplies or they may bring whatever weapon of choice they decide.
* Non-prospector participants, if given weapons, should be energy based only, such as lasers. (The reason for this is inexperienced personnel often have very poor weapon discipline, so friendly fire is an unfortunate but common occurrence. Laser burns are easier to treat than ballistic trauma while in the field.)
* For safety, the participants should be in sealed pressure suits unless the destination is already known, and confirmed to have a habitable atmosphere.
* The foreman calls the shots, he may or may not order someone to be his second in command, if he does you follow that persons orders as well as his.
* As each team member's loadout is complete, they should wait at prospector prep.

====Mid-Mission Operations - ROP====
* If separated from the group, or in an airless environment, establish communication immediately with other members of the group. If you are unable to re-establish communications, wait where you are for rescue. If you are in danger of running out of oxygen or supplies, move back towards the start of the mission, following any markers that were laid down.
* If the group is scattered for whatever reason, communications and regrouping should be the number one priority.
* Anything valuable should be looted, if its nailed down remove said nails and then steal said nails for good measure. Unusual life forms should be noted, as should the best way to kill them. Bringing the body back may prove worthwhile for Soteria.
* If an expedition participant is injured and needs surgery, they should be evacuated to the colony immediately if field surgery is not possible. The expedition should not proceed unless their role is satisfied by someone else, or they return to continue.

====Post-Mission Debriefing - ROP====
* The returning crew are not to leave the prep room or shuttle hangar until allowed to do so by the foreman, or if the foreman is absent, then by the team leader, or next in command. During this time, participants should be screened for contraband, health, and mental well-being before returning to the rest of the colony.
* If any staff are at risk of health complications such as parasitic life forms, viral infections, insanity, etc, they are to be immediately evacuated to the medical department for treatment. All loot they may or may not have should be left in the hanger or at the gate house.
* Excluding items that the research department wants to study, marshals are to confiscate any contraband discovered during the mission. This does not include weapons or armor, both experimental and mechanized combat units, unless they are capable of causing an explosion or are a threat to the colony itself such as having a heavy radioactive aura. [[Example_Paperwork#Evidence_Log|All items confiscated should be moved to evidence storage and recorded in a evidence log, with a copy of the file given to the foreman.]]
* All weapons taken for the trip that are not considered melee or pistol quality should be returned to the prospectors respective prep area or personal locker.
* Other excess supplies are to be returned to their rightful department.
* A [[Example_Paperwork#Mission_Report|post-mission report]] should be given to the council detailing any unusual discoveries or events. This report is only required under the discovery of unusual artifacts or items, general expeditions within regular perimeters do not require a report but it is recommended.

= Artificers Guild =

=== Setting up Power - MOP ===
The main duty of the Guild is to keep power running to all stations. A Guild Master may choose their preferred method of power generation and a Guild Adept needs to follow those orders. Lacking a Guild Master, a Guild Adept may choose their own way of generating power.
* Solars can be found on the mountain top and outside the colony near the scrap beacon. Usually the Scrap beacon solars are used and set up by the Church, however a Guild Adept may offer to assist or just do it in case they have a Cruciform installed. The mountain solars can be accessed by the elevator in the "engine room"
* The second method is using materials to power the generators in the engine room. This may require some more oversight, but usually generates more power than the Solars.
=== Construction / Repairs - ROP ===
The method of construction and repair changes depending on the goals and orders of the guild master, however, the general rules below should be considered the default operation.

* The area should have all non-guild personnel removed or standing at a safe distance, in particular when working with exposed electrical wire or potentially hazardous equipment.
* In the event the area requires use of a oxygen supplied void suit all exits and entrances should be taped off with engineering tape and covered by inflatable doors or walls. All entry ways used by guild personnel should have two inflatable doors to prevent accidental atmospheric issues, in particular when dealing with fires or gas leaks.
* Each task for construction or repair should be assigned by the guild master to separate each task for timely completion of each project. Example, a fire broke out that burned down several walls, one adept is assigned to fixing the atmos, another is given the task of restoring the walls, and the guild master chooses to weld the damaged floors and remaining walls.

The method and choices of how the guild proceeds is ultimately up to the guild master but the general principles above should be followed. Failure to do so may result in negligence charges.

=== Fire and Environmental Hazards - ROP ===
* Immediate evacuation of all untrained personnel.
* Fire alarms to be used to control hazard.
* The guild master and guild adepts are to remove all materials that could further spread or worsen these hazards before dispatching them.

=== Meteor Storm - ROP ===
* All crew to move to lower levels of the colony.
* Damage is to be repaired by the guild master and guild adepts after the threat has passed.

=== Shield Generator - ROP ===
* The Colony's Shield Generator room is a new addition to the colony's defense systems. It has been established that it will be officially maintained by the Artificer's Guild. Due to this, the Guild has access to this room. All Artificer Engineers are to keep in mind that the shield generator room is considered a high security area, any and all abnormalities or issues regarding it are to be reported to the colony's security forces.
* The generator is to be maintained, on top of the other regular duties that Adepts have. The Guild can choose to ignore doing this, if there's really only one Adept and they have a lot more other pressing matters to handle.
* The shield generator is to be wrenched after shift start, as it starts unwrenched. If not wrenched and anchored, it will not acquire power over the course of the shift. Furthermore, the SMES units inside of the room start empty, and will need their coils changed.
* Be careful with powering the generator, as it can drain the entirety of the network if unmonitored. If one seeks to acquire more power for the generator, requesting the Church to use their biogenerator or utilizing the Guild's generators and equipment to produce more can be done, and is suggested.

= Soteria Biolab Division =
=== The Way Of Soteria ===
Progress is inherent to the goal of the Soteria, the question should never be one of morals or reasoning, but of possibility and potential. Researchers in medical and science are expected to push both the boundaries and limits of what they are capable of. Those who are constrained by the ethics and morality of an experiment will quickly find that the leadership of Soteria does not wish to consider such primitive and foolish concepts.

'''"Progress at any cost."'''

That is the mantra of the Soteria.

===Payment for Treatment - MOP===
Medical does not have unlimited medical supplies and while they are required to treat critical patients there is a limit to the amount resources being given to one person freely. All critical forms of healing such as defibbing, surgery, and use of chemicals '''are free the first time they are given to a single colonist per shift'''. If the treatment is not critical, the colonist may decide to pay instead of receiving free treatment. All situations after that a doctor may charge a patient for treatment should they find themselves getting repeatedly injured. This charge is solely up to the CBO or treating doctors discretion, they may elect not to charge an individual should they believe the person did not put themselves recklessly in danger (accidents do happen), should a patient be unable to pay their medical bills, contact security. Soteria-Science division is subject to this rule as well if no doctors are around.

Corpsman or other medically trained professionals not affiliated with Soteria should utilize their own departmental or personal supplies first, before using Soteria Supplies. If no doctors are present, the supplies may be utilized but should be replaced as soon as possible, this includes using your own personal funds. Otherwise, this constitutes as theft and you may be forced to pay for the replacement.

Prices for Treatment
* Reconstructive surgery and defibbing: 500 credits
* Use of bruise packs, advanced ointment, burn cream, and bandages: 75 credits. This can add up if charges are used or the supplies are entirely used up.
* Use of chemicals made by the chemistry lab: At minimum of 2 credits or maximum 10 credits per unit at discretion of medical staff.
* Use of a sleeper: 150 credits

In the event someone cannot pay prior to treatment, you may refuse treatment, but ''only'' if this is the second time treating them that shift and the doctor in question wishes to charge them. If the person is incapable of declaring intention to pay (they are dead or unconscious) payment is assumed and a debt incurred. Inability to pay the bill after revival by either refusal or lack of funds requires intervention from security (defaulting on medical bills is a crime).

=== Non-Disclosure Policy - MOP ===
All patient records, treatments, therapies, prescriptions, etc, almost anything the medical crew does, is '''not''' to be disclosed to other members of the station outside of Medbay without the (unanimous) permission of (all) the patient(s) directly involved, or the Chief Biolab Overseer. Even marshals, the premier, and council are not allowed to share details of any past or ongoing treatments, and you are not required to inform them should they inquire unless you have the direct consent of the patient.

Warrants and Code Blue (and above) may still grant security access to review autopsies and medical records, but you are not to divulge information directly when questioned about any patients unless overridden by the CBO.

Repeated failure to obey the non-disclosure policy is grounds for termination from the medical department. See [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|dismissal forms]].

=== Right to Refuse Treatment - MOP ===
As a patient, to consent to or refuse treatment, you must have the capacity to make that decision. Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision.

Under colony procedure, all adults are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there is significant evidence to suggest otherwise.

For consent to treatment or refusal of treatment to be valid, the decision must be voluntary and you must be appropriately informed:
* Voluntary: you must make your decision to consent to or refuse treatment alone, and your decision must not be due to pressure by healthcare professionals, friends, or family.
* Appropriately informed: You must be given full information about what the treatment involves, including the benefits and risks, whether there are reasonable alternative treatments, and what will happen if treatment doesn’t go ahead.

Doctors are authorized to refuse treatment if they believe alternative procedures would be even more detrimental to the well being of the patient (such as refusing anesthetics before a major surgery, which could cause the patient bleed out or go into shock or be harmed by moving during aforementioned surgery). If you have capacity and make a voluntary and appropriately informed decision to refuse a treatment, your decision must be respected. This applies even if your decision would result in your death.

=== Viral Outbreak - ROP ===
* All infected crew to be isolated in Virology or Medbay.
* Sterile masks/Internals and gloves are mandatory for medical personnel and recommended for crew.
* Quarantine must be maintained until outbreak can be contained and disease can be treated.

=== Autopsy - ROP ===
In the event that a deceased individual is discovered, or an individual perishes while under your care, an autopsy should be performed if one has not been done already.
* Security should be informed any time a corpse is discovered, regardless of whether the cause of death is known or not.
* An autopsy should be performed and recorded in an effort to resolve any questions that may arise later on, or if evidence is needed by Security.
* If you have valid reason to believe the death was a suicide, see [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Suicide_or_other_voluntary_death|Suicide or other voluntary death]] below for how to proceed.

=== What is considered 'dead' - MOP ===
Due to how corroded the colonists' opinions have become about death in the upper levels, we'll make it clear on what is considered death.
** When a patient or colonist seizes up then becomes limp, with their eyes both lifeless and dead, then they are considered dead.
** When the health analyzer shows that their overall status is 'Dead', then they are dead, along with corresponding damage to show that they are dead. For example, over two hundred points of kinetic brute damage on their body.
** If they require a defibrillator, then that means they're '''dead'''.
** In regards of FBPs and other alien life, a firm understanding of the alien's biology will help you classify if they are dead or not, specifically in regards of Mycus and Folken. For FBPs, it is situational but if their battery is taken out or if they require specific equipment, then they are considered 'dead' for the time being.
* Zombie powder can mess with these statistics at times, so do consider it from time to time.

=== Suicide or other voluntary death - MOP ===
In '''all''' cases of potential suicides, Security should be contacted to investigate, just in case it's actually murder.

* If they are missing one of the two records, consult their medical records for any indications that they are do not resuscitate.
* If at any time you believe a DNR order has been falsified, or unjustly ordered, you should bring it to the attention of council immediately. Falsifying a DNR order is punishable and is viewed as attempted murder by [[Laws]].
* A valid DNR is usually:
# A confirmed desire to not be revived. See also [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Right to Refuse Treatment|Right to Refuse Treatment]]. An employee may also specify a standing DNR in their medical and/or employment records. These are witnessed by the soteria biolab office's and are legally binding.
# Reasonable order from a station's chief biolab overseer or council to withhold resuscitation for known suicidal* individuals. Note there must be hard evidence of a suicide for this to be valid, such as announcing the suicide on the radio, or a note left behind, multiple eye witnesses, etc.
# Legal execution by order of the high council and/or tribunal of the acting council as listed under legal code.
# Reviving a proven or unproven suicide (in the case of unproven, suspected suicides should have an autopsy and full investigation before revival), enemies of the colony (unless Council or higher decide otherwise), or a person marked for execution is grounds for a job strike/demotion from medical duties, this includes ranks such as corpsman, salvager, or soteria researchers aiding medical. Reviving someone to ask them if they committed suicide is an automatic and permanent removal from all medical positions indefinitely. Medical records cannot be accessed by Corpsmen or Salvagers, communication is key in informing them of such instances, else they cannot be demoted due to them not having the access to know such information. Reviving a person with a DNR in their medical record can be situational in terms of demoting/job striking medical staff.
# Unless their postmortem says that they're not to be revived in some manner, it is to be assumed to attempt revival before burying, cremating, or putting them in the morgue.

===Medical Structure - MOP ===
The Chief Biological Overseer is the boss of the department. After that, each respective job has its own authority in different matters but doctors and psychiatrists do not have authority over orderlies or paramedics, and vice versa. They are expected to work together and handle their duties to the best of their capabilities.

===Medical Paperwork - ROP ===
* [[Example_Paperwork#Prescription_Form|Prescription Forms]]
* [[Example_Paperwork#Autopsy_Report|Autopsy Reports]]

= Soteria Research Division =
=== Marshals and Blackshield - MOP ===
With the truth of Soteria being responsible for the Hivemind's creation now fully revealed, the Marshals and Blackshield have been given absolute authority to fully stop any experiments that can be considered 'dangerous' or 'unusual'. While the terms are broad, this does not mean they can shut down any and all experiments, only the ones that pose more danger and consequences for those other than the researchers conducting them. For example, they can shut down experiments with bluespace due to how dangerous they can become due to the incredible instability of bluespace. Researchers attempting to conduct experiments barred by the Marshals or Blackshield can be charged with a crime.
=== Cyborg Handling - MOP ===
* In cases where [[Identifying_Antagonists#AI_Malfunction|Cyborgs are confirmed to be malfunctioning]], the cyborg shell may be detonated if attempts to contain and lock down the malfunctioning unit are unsuccessful or deemed too dangerous by acting Soteria Institute Overseers.
* Cyborgs that are illegally modified should be remotely locked down. If unable to locked down, its sensors should be overloaded with a flash or controlled EMP and its actuator or cell should be removed before resorting to detonation.
* In cases where destruction of the Cyborg is necessary, the acting CRO must fax a report to the High Council.
* Unwarranted or illegal destruction of a Cyborg or AI count as [[Laws#Exceptional_Offenses|Sabotage]].
* Cyborgs are Soteria Institue property, and are expected to be maintained and upgraded by the institute where applicable.

=== Changing Silicon Laws - ROP ===
* In code blue or higher situations no head of staff (barring the CRO) is to enter the AI Upload or AI Core unless accompanied by at least one other head of staff, or at least one officer if no other heads of staff are available. The AI Upload and AI Core are explicitly off-limits to all other personnel.
* In all other situations, two Heads of Staff are recommended, but not necessary. The Chief Research Overseer and Chief Biolab Overseer are exempt from these rules and may enter at will on all code levels. If both the CRO and CBO agree to modify AI laws, they may do so on any code level.

=== Waiver Clause - MOP ===
* Any sapient crew members who volunteer for experimentation '''must''' [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|sign a waiver]] absolving the scientist of all responsibility for any injuries, deaths, or associated damage to the individual, regardless of the purpose of that experiment. Failure to obtain a waiver will result in a 'negligence' charge for the test subject and for any involved Soteria personnel.

=== Toxin Laboratory Procedure - ROP ===
* Internals are required at all time while inside labs.
* During the mixing process, an explosive ordnance disposal suit is to be worn at all times.
* When the mixing process is complete, the mixing chamber is to be vented using the pipe disposal system.
* All detonations are to be announced over public comms with a countdown, and must be detonated at a designated location.

=== Genetics Research - ROP ===
With the new genetics technology and lab in place, the genetics field has changed drastically for Nadezhda. The following procedures are to be followed at all times. Failure may result in legal action.

Genetic cloning:
* Armed and preferably combat trained personnel are to be present when cloning dangerous creatures.
* Always ensure that the containment pens are in perfect condition and, if cloning extremely dangerous creatures, reinforced if possible.
* Soteria researchers are able to genetically clone any and all creatures save for the Hivemind and the Leviathan class entities: Xenomorph Queen, the Kaiser roach, and the Reaper spider. The Croaker lord, while a Leviathan class entity, is excluded and can be freely cloned. The Marshals and Blackshield have the power to shut down cloning experiments on specific creatures if they are believed to be too dangerous.
** When it comes to genetically cloning the Leviathan class entities, permission must be sought from the CRO or CBO, who will inform the rest of the Council or necessary security forces that it will be occurring. If neither are on duty, permission can be acquired from the Council.
* If cloning subjects escape pens and enter public colony areas, the scientist responsible for their creation is liable for all damages (property, colonists, etc) caused. The Soteria department can choose to pay for their employees' fines, but that is at the discretion of the CBO or CRO.

Genetic Experimentation:
* All colonists subject to testing must have a [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|written and signed waiver]] with a stamp from the Chief Research Overseer, Chief Biolab Overseer, or Premier (in order of preference). Failing the presence of any of those, a signature from the researcher and patient will suffice.
* Soteria can reach out for volunteers from anyone within the colony, even outsiders. Those that volunteer and sign the waiver are to understand that what happens to them genetically may not be temporary, and negative traits acquired from genetic splicing can occur.
* Individuals coming to Soteria for specific genetic splices are to both sign a waiver and pay Soteria for services. If an individual supplies their own creatures containing their desired trait, a discount of up to 50% depending on the creatures and their lethality may be applied.
** Prices for genetic splicing vary depending on what trait is desired but can go from 500 credits to 1,500, depending on the gene's rarity and availability. It can also be 'free' if the patient is willing to be experimented on in regards to that trait.
* All individuals that are released while genetically enhanced are to be documented by Soteria, with copies sent to the Marshals in the event that said individual commits a crime.
* Most genetic genes are legal to have and do not require one to go through additional steps to acquire. However, there are some genetic traits that are deemed illegal by the colony's standards.
** The following genes are considered illegal and require additional steps to be followed in order to acquire permission to use: All forms of cloaking, EMP blast, and X-RAY. Failure to secure permission from the Marshals before splicing these traits will result in the automatic shut down of the genetics lab for the rest of the shift, and the arrest of scientists that took part. Other illegal traits may be added in the future.
** The HULK gene is absolutely forbidden unless code Delta has been engaged.
** The Warrant Officer can clear the use of these genetic traits, so long as they're given a proper reason and the appropriate paperwork is filled out, and both Blackshield and Marshals are informed of it by the WO themselves. The Blackshield Commander can situationally authorize their use for colony defense and operations only, so long as those genetically enhanced by their authority have the genetic traits wiped by Soteria at the end of the operation. The WO can overrule this if they have sufficient reason to. The Provost Marshal or Brigadier can be faxed in regards of this to give a final ruling but if it proves to be time wasting, then a charge may be applied.
* In the instance that a genetically enhanced colonist is arrested by Marshals, Soteria is to provide the Marshals with a purger to fully wipe out their genetic enhancements. Soteria is not responsible for what colonists do after they legally go through the process of getting themselves genetically modified. Marshals and Blackshield may bar a colonist from receiving further genetics work, depending on their attitude, behavior, or past criminal activities while genetically modified. For example, they can tell Soteria to not give John Doe further genetic splicing as he used those acquired traits to break into Lonestar to break and steal Lonestar merchandise and property.

=== Medical Treatment - MOP ===
* If there are no Soteria medical staff available the Science Division may help out in the treatment center. Corpsmen should not be the first to respond before Science, nor should they be utilizing the Soteria medbay when there is science on shift.
* Roboticists, who are expected to be trained in surgery, are preferred over Scientists
* All Medical SOP applies to the Science Division when they are acting in the capacity of medical.

= Marshals =
=== Relevant Terminology ===
* '''The Brig''': The part of the station used to detain those who violate the colony's [[Laws]].
* '''Robust''': As an adjective; able to withstand or overcome adverse conditions. As a verb; slang for viciously assaulting someone. Often used as a compliment in both cases.
* '''Shitcurity''': Slang for describing a marshal officer who unnecessarily or illegally exercises their authority in order to inflate their ego, or a marshal officer who simply doesn't follow standard operating procedure.
* '''Lethals''': Weapons designed for or able to switch to configurations intended for lethal force.
* '''Non-lethals''': Weapons that are not designed to be used lethally, and instead are meant to incapacitate suspects with little or no injury.
* '''Use of Force''': Either lethal or non-lethal, this is the use of weapons to incapacitate a suspect. You may be told at times to use lethal force, or non-lethal force, depending on circumstance. By default, non-lethal force is preferred.
* '''Shoot-to-Stun''': Using non-lethals, incapacitate the target in order to handcuff or otherwise subdue them without injury. Although the term is ''shoot''-to-stun, stun batons, pepper spray, and flashers all fall under this category when talking about engagements with suspects.
* '''Shoot-to-Disable''': Incapacitate a target by injuring them too badly to continue fighting. In the case of mechs, damaging the mech until the pilot bails out or the vehicle is unusable/destroyed.
* '''Shoot-to-Kill''': Using lethal weapons, engaging a target until the target is neutralized. This doesn't actually mean you ''have'' to kill the target (contrary to the term), but the weapons employed may very well kill the target whether you want to or not. Even in Shoot-to-Kill scenarios, you should still attempt to provide immediate medical attention and revive them once they are otherwise safely subdued and the combat is over.
* '''Armed''': Possessing weapons or anything being used as a weapon even if that is not its intended purpose (such as a crowbar). This includes non-lethals, and even basic tools if being used to assault someone.
* '''Contraband''': Anything that is stolen or illegal to possess by anyone aboard the crew. For example, insulated gloves and multitools are not considered contraband on their own, but if they were stolen from the Engineering department, they qualify as contraband.

=== Confiscated Weapons & Evidence - MOP ===
* Confiscated weapons seized as evidence of a crime or seized from those who commit Suspicious Conduct (108) are to remain in evidence lockers after confiscation from the offender. A record is to be made of the gun’s model and serial number on the arrest case-file or incident report.
* During a state of emergency, such as code blue or higher, a Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist may issue guns confiscated as evidence to security personnel to defend the colony. Paperwork should be done listing the officer using the weapon, the name of the colonist the weapon was taken from, and the serial number. After the end of the emergency the gun must be returned to evidence.
* Evidence in any previous or ongoing arrest '''must not''', under any circumstances, be broken down for materials or otherwise destroyed. Doing so may result in Providing False Evidence or Testimony (303) charges.
** Contraband collected that is not involved in an arrest may be broken down however as it is not evidence of a crime.

=== Rules of Engagement - MOP ===
* On code green all arrests the warrant must be authorized by either the premier, warrant officer, supply specialist, or ranger to be considered valid. In the absence of all the stated jobs a marshal officer may use his own signature and fax the high council should he do so. A physical arrest warrant should be signed and filled out before the arrest is made but is not required to. It is, however, required to be filled out within a reasonable and fashionable amount of time. Failure to have a warrant physically on file within a determined reasonable time, typically described as either by the time the prisoner leaves the brig or at least towards the end of their time, the officer may be fined, charged and/or potentially fired for multiple violations of the colony's Laws. It is recommended that should an officer wait to fill out an arrest warrant they should fill it out after the suspect is either let go due to not being charged or sitting in a cell serving their time.
** Note that this only applies to arrest warrants. Search warrants are required to be written, signed or stamped, before the search is conducted. Failure to do so will result in all charges being dropped.
** The Warrant Assist program may be used to place warrants and act upon them; but paperwork should always be done within the aforementioned 'reasonable time'. This may vary case to case; such as on lower crimes or fines as either a low timer or no timer at all may be issued. But word of thumb is that an officer should have paperwork for an arrest finished by the time the suspect is leaving the brig after the average duration of a major/exceptional offense timer.
* During an investigation, two or more witnesses are preferred, but in situations where only one is present an investigator may rule that the sole witness is an impartial one. Under this scenario, if the investigator believes a sole witness/arresting officer has no bias and is completely impartial, they may treat their sole testimony as valid evidence. The investigator/arresting officer may do this with their own witness testimony as well, if they observe a crime being committed. Under all circumstances, the person being arrested may request the impartial witness be reviewed, either by the investigators superiors (in the event of officers to rangers to warrant officers) or someone meant to be impartial like a head of staff, premier, or steward.
* When confronting a suspect for any green paragraph crime, you must offer the suspect a chance to pay a fine. If the fine is paid, they are not to be arrested, detained, or searched unless otherwise specified by [[Laws]]. The fine is to be turned in to the warrant officer or supply specialist. If the fine is refused, they are to be arrested.
* Calling for backup over a level 1 crime is usually considered a waste of resources. Two officers should be enough.
* When arresting or fining a suspect, they are to be informed of their right to pay a fine (if applicable) and their right to have their case reviewed by the premier, or lack there of, any member of the council willing to do so by volunteer. If there is no one capable of reviewing their case, they may still attempt to appeal on their own. Regardless of what type of appeal is made, the suspect is still to be punished until the punishment expires or the appeal passes. (See [[Standard Operating Procedure#Appeals|Appeals]] for details.)
* Refusal of handcuffs does not constitute resisting arrest, as per [[Laws]] §202. If a suspect refuses handcuffs and is being arrested, but is cooperative, they are to be escorted by, preferably, no less than two armed security personnel to the brig. Attempting to cuff a compliant subject is considered a §117 volition of employee rights, the subject may resist the initial cuffing but should not flee else they will be charged with §202 resisting arrest. Any security personnel who use violence as a means to restrain and cuff an otherwise compliant colonist for resisting the initial cuffing is to be charged with §112 excessive force of detainment.
** If you cannot handcuff someone that requires cuffs, such as they are using a deployed hardsuit or have a missing hand, you must warn them at least three times to comply with the arrest. If they continue to refuse after the third warning is given marshal personnel and only marshal personnel may break their legs. '''In the event the suspect dies from this the officer is not liable and cannot be charged with any crime provided he gave three verbal warnings and has at least one witness to attest to this. As always, marshal officers should use the absolute minimum amount of force to get the subject to comply and should a higher ranking officer deem excessive force was used, you can and will be charged.'''
** If, in the event you are dealing with an unruly subject who is immune to most forms of non-lethal stuns (such as a cht'mant) the use of eye-based stuns are recommended. If the cht'mant (or other individual) refuses to comply and is wearing eye covering the use of other disabling methods are allowed (such as flashbangs or table slams). In the event said individual is refusing to comply and armed, shoot to kill is authorized, but caution must be taken to ensure they may be cuffed and revived in medical. Rendering the body unrevivable is considered murder.
* A suspect attempting to flee, or assault another crew member, is authorized shoot-to-stun.
* When confronting an armed suspect, always call for additional backup, preferably prior to the engagement. If the suspect draws a weapon, already has a weapon in their hands, or has used a weapon already, use of force is immediately authorized and you are not required to announce intentions to arrest until after they are subdued.
* If a suspect uses a mech to resist arrest, shoot-to-kill is authorized. Deployment of barricades and use of flipped tables for cover is also advised to create choke points where security can fire upon the target.
* If a suspect is green, screaming, and able to punch down walls, they're probably affected by the hulk gene from genetic manipulation, and if they exist without an ongoing emergency where such muscle is needed or the CBO did not directly inform Security in advance, a 'hulk' outside of medbay or research is shoot-to-kill. Unlike most shoot-to-kill scenarios where the actual killing part is a matter of option and circumstance, there is no way to safely contain a hulk in prison, so if you are forced to confront one, continue engagement until the target is deceased.
* If a suspect escapes the colony, shoot-to-kill is authorized for any personnel within the marshals or blackshield who go out to pursue. Scoped rifles and GPS devices are recommended for the pursuit, as are mechs. Additionally, the blackshield should be informed so they may watch station access points and various outposts to guard them. The marshals may request fire support from the blackshield to aid in hunting down and killing the suspect.
* During Code Delta, any noncompliance from staff is to be met with lethal force.
* For secure areas, see below for specific rules of engagement.
* In terms of dealing with genetically enhanced colonists, Blackshield or Marshals can switch to lethals if they are too problematic to take down by normal means (EMP blast takes out tasers, they are incapable of feeling pain due to a specific strain, capable of cloaking and avoiding them, etc).

=== Secure areas - MOP ===
* In code green, secure areas like the AI core, research server room, telecommunications, bridge, all armories (security, bridge, and church) etc, should never be blocked. Use of deployable barriers to block areas during code green is considered illegal under [[Laws]] §307. Trespassing in these areas is covered under §309 or 508.
* All armories are considered secure areas and have their own section SOP.
* The AI sometimes likes to bolt itself in even during code green. It is not supposed to do this. If the AI bolts its self in, request the AI to unbolt the doors, citing Standard Operating Procedure. If the AI does not comply, ask the research overseer or premier to try reasoning with it. If it still does not comply, it is up to the staff in charge of overseeing the AI how to proceed, usually by changing laws. Unauthorized personnel discovered attempting to breach the AI core are shoot to kill.
* The research server room has a variety of sensitive information. Unauthorized personnel in this location are to be captured, searched, and interrogated before being charged and sentenced.
* The brig is considered a high security area. Unauthorized personnel attempting to break in, or any "Hold until Transfer" inmates attempting to break out, are both shoot to kill.
* The telecomms is a highly sensitive area that provides vital communications among the crew and to the high council, thus any unauthorized personnel who have accessed the control room are shoot-to-kill.

=== Criminal Processing - ROP ===
See [[Laws]] for rules that carry fines or brig time. Breaking standard operating procedure is not punishable by law, but if an accident or fatality occurs for violating it, see [[Laws]] §206.

Criminal processing should not take more than a few minutes at most. Don't needlessly waste time with additional questioning and interrogation until they're already properly arrested. Detained prisoners are the responsibility of the arresting officer or, if one volunteers, another officer, the supply specialist, or the warrant officer.

'''''The time you took for bringing the suspect in and the time you spend questioning are NOT to be calculated into this. This is the pure time someone spends in a cell staring at the wall.'''''

Upon arrest of a criminal, follow the following steps.

# State the main reason for their arrest, even if you have already. This is not required, but it's good practice.
# Bring the suspect to Security Processing. If paying a fine will replace jail time, offer them the chance to pay the fine before proceeding. This is assuming they have not paid the fine already and had to be handcuffed in the first place. If the fine is paid, skip to the final step. Otherwise, continue.
# Search the individual for contraband and question them as necessary. Empty pockets, remove accessories such as webbing off their uniform, check their PDA for stolen/illegal cartridges, check their headset for illegal/stolen encryption cards, check their shoes for knives, check anything and everything that could contain items. If contraband or stolen property is found, charge them accordingly. See [[Laws]] for details. Anything else ''not'' considered contraband but still may compromise the security of the cell (such as a chef's kitchen knife, or an engineer's tools) should also be temporarily confiscated and returned after the sentence is served.
# The warrant officer, or if one is not present, a ranger should determine the validity of any charges based upon evidence gathered or witnesses present. Example, a marshal officer says he saw a prospector break a window and the prospector says it was broken when he found it. The window is indeed broken, but the one witness is not enough and the prospector may be telling the truth. Best judgement is advised.
# Calculate sentencing based on the total charges. '''Multiple instances of the same offense counts in this case.''' For example, if a suspect stole three items, you cannot charge them theft three times. If they have already been arrested for the same crime during that shift, follow [[Laws#Modifiers_.26_Special_Situations|the laws on special circumstances]].
# Update the prisoner's security records accordingly. Set their status to "Imprisoned".
# Return the prisoner's PDA and headset to their person. If you cannot provide them with their original headset and PDA for suspected security reasons, you must provide at least a basic headset and a temporary PDA. All prisoners are entitled to some kind of communication device unless the privilege is abused, or the device is evidence for a crime (such as a PDA with incriminating logs).
# Follow security privacy laws, and inform those that need to be informed, depending on the severity of the crime. You have no authority to demote anyone.
# Escort the prisoner to their cell, preferably with another officer to aid you. Bring any of their belongings that you did not confiscate.
# Find a vacant cell and buckle the prisoner to the bed. If the sentence is longer than 10 minutes, they are required to wear an orange jumpsuit and shoes, so change their clothes if needed.
# Put all of their belongings (besides communication) that are not evidence for a crime into the cell's locker, which will lock automatically when you start the timer.
# Set and start the timer. The door will close and the locker will be locked.
# Enter the cell with a flash at the ready and remove the prisoner's handcuffs. If possible, have a second officer present to help. It is unlawful to leave a prisoner restrained in a cell unless in solitary confinement.
# Ensure someone is monitoring the prison area for the duration of the prisoner's sentence, or at least be there when it ends.
# Wait for the sentence to expire. Proceed to final step once it has expired.
# Return all temporarily confiscated goods.
# Allow the prisoner to leave Security. Set the prisoner's status to "released" or "patrolled" depending on their conviction or there lack-of.

=== Prisoner Expectations ===
As a prisoner, you are expected to abide by certain standards. Failure to obey will result in further punishment such as solitary confinement or more brig time.
* If you are incarcerated, do not attempt escape.
* Irritating officers for amusement is a generally poor idea. Refrain from repeatedly banging upon windows.
* Attempts at suicide will be met with solitary confinement. (( Also probably a server ban. ))
* If you feel you have been unjustly incarcerated, contact the supply specialist, the warrant officer, premier, or a willing council member (in that order of first to last) to appeal your case.

=== Prisoner Rights - MOP ===
As a prisoner, you are entitled to certain rights under any circumstance, regardless of the nature of your crimes.
* All prisoners are entitled to a swift processing when being arrested and put into the brig. Longer than 1/2 of their sentence is considered a violation of this right so long as the prisoner is cooperating.
* All prisoners are entitled to medical examination and aid if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to speak to the premier or volunteer council member for legal defense if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to food and water if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to be provided with clothing--preferably the standard orange prisoner jumpsuit and orange shoes.
* All prisoners are entitled to safe and reasonable cell accommodations such as functional lighting, a place to sleep, and access to the brig's communal area if serving a sentence longer than 20 minutes.

=== Executions - MOP ===
* The prisoner is informed of their punishment, and allowed to decide how they die (within reason). Suggested options include lethal injection, firing squad, plasma gassing, or, in rare cases, melee fights to the death.
* The prisoner is to be granted a final request (within reason, because obviously "let me go" or "kill this dude for me" isn't reasonable).
* The prisoner is given their last meal.
* The prisoner is escorted to the execution location under heavily armed guards, bound in a straight jacket and leg cuffs. Escorting officers are armed to kill. Lethal injections are done in medbay surgery room under supervision of a doctor, firing squad is done on the shooting range, gassing is done in toxins or a room is built by engineering, etc.
* It is required for the premier and at least three council members to be present, or an execution may not proceed.

= Armory =
There are four armories on the colony. The first is the general armory, owned by the Marshals, north of the Security Lobby. The second is the Church's Armory found in the Prime's private department. The third is the command armory, behind the private rooms of the Steward and Premier. The fourth is the Blackshield armory to the west of the Blackshield's triage room. Unless you have access, are invited, or otherwise specified, anyone in the armory is Shoot-to-Kill excluding the Premier/Steward who may have a reason to break SOP. If this is found to be untrue, proceed with an arrest and legal ramifications.
The Church Armory is only accessible by the Prime. This is only to be accessed during serious threats to the colony or church and can only be handed out to members of the church. Not following this SOP for good reason is grounds for demotion and church-related consequences.
The Command Armory is only accessible by the Premier and Steward. Stewards should arm up with their preferred guns at this location, premiers may do so. Weapons should generally not be handed out, unless the other armories are not avaliable or guns are missing. Guns from this armory should be handed out primarily to other heads of staff first.

=== Marshal Armory - MOP ===
The Marshal armory is divided into two sections - the public shop area and the storage area. Everything in the room behind the shop is the storage area. The shop has two sections, the secure area behind the windows that allows access to the display cases and front-room storage, and that of the public area in front of the desk and on the non-windoor side of the display cases. Unless asked to leave or banned from the armory shop, the public shop area is publicly accessible to anyone providing the blast doors are open. Any colonist may buy, sell or trade with the appropriate authorities there. Behind the desk is considered, similar to the armory, a secure area.
* In regards to the storage area of the armory, the Supply Specialist is the controller of the armory. They are a Marshal. When it comes to the armory, their word is law. They are responsible for handing out weapons, keeping everything stocked and inventoried, and running the shop. While the Warrant Officer, Commander and Sergeant may have access, the Supply Specialist is to be respected. If they tell you to leave, you leave. Failure to comply leaves you open to legal ramifications such as abuse of powers, grand trespass or other charges that may be levied.
* In case of a weapon request from Marshals/Blackshield, the Supply Specialist must always utilize paperwork that determines what was removed from the Armory. The weapon that gets replaced should also be noted on the paperwork and handed in with all ammo.
* In case of selling items from the armory, the Supply Specialist should keep a receipt on what item(s) were sold and how many credits were made. Any loans to the individual Marshals or the Blackshield department should likewise be recorded on a receipt for record-keeping purposes.
* If no Supply Specialist is present or available, the rank order of ownership goes to the Warrant Officer. If no Warrant Officer is present a CO, Sergeant or Premier may access the armory but only in exceptional situations; such as the need to arm other Marshals in an emergency situation. The marshal armory is not a play-thing.
* Under normal circumstances no equipment should be handed out for free to non-marshal department staff.
* In a Code-Red scenario, the armory should be fully utilized and weapons should be handed out to Marshal officers first, volunteers of Blackshield second and colonists last. These should be returned when the crisis is over or else the individual may face legal consequences. Abusing access, authority or carelessly using the resources is a reason for demotion under charges 411 or 508; depending on circumstances.
* The Department Account is trusted to the Supply Specialist to use, as well as the Warrant Officer and Blackshield CO. All personnel in these positions are trusted to use the finances responsibly to upgrade or equip the department as required. This may include purchasing weapons, allowing loans for equipment, and so on for members of the Marshal and Blackshield department.

=== Blackshield Armory - MOP ===
Similar to the Marshal armory, the Blackshield armory consists of two parts. The barracks room, containing the lathe and ammo, and the secure armory back room. The front room is considered to be a normal Blackshield room that can be accessed by Blackshield personnel as needed. The secure armory behind the blast doors is the Blackshield armory, being considered a secure room - just as the Marshal armory is.
* The Blackshield armory can be accessed by both the CO and the Sergeant, holding specialized armaments and ammunition for field actions. This gear is there to be issued when required for combat purposes or in cases of emergency. All gear within it should only be issued to Blackshield personnel and should be returned to the armory at the end of the shift.
* While the Premier, Marshal WO and Supply Specialist have access to the Blackshield armory they are not to use said access unless in an emergency situation or upon the request of Blackshield personnel over security concerns. Even when accessed by either person the issued equipment may not be issued to anyone but Blackshield personnel. Violation of this can result in either 411 or 508 charges levied against the offender.
* The Blackshield armory falls under the jurisdiction of the CO. If no CO is present, authority over the Blackshield armory falls to the Sergeant. The CO may also delegate authority over the issuing of gear from the armory to the Sergeant.
* Equipment from the Blackshield armory may be loaned to the Marshals by a CO with paperwork. All equipment must be returned unless traded for gear of equal value and usage or greater. Otherwise no sales or loans of Blackshield armory gear should occur.

= Blackshield =
=== General Duties - MOP ===
The duties of the Blackshield are first and foremost the protection of the colony and its citizens above all else. The Blackshield is on standby in the event of, but not limited to, pirate attacks, hostile dangerous fauna sightings, disappearance of the prospector team members or colonists, disappearance of mining team members, or the presence of hostiles groups such as excelsior, smugglers, or a hivemind.

The Blackshield is '''heavily recommended''' to guard the surface level of the colonies main gate at all times and should inspect all incoming and out going traffic. All exiting people should be recorded in a gate log with the time, name, and rank of the person noted down. A photograph is optional but not required. All returning colonists should be noted down in the same log in a new entry before being allowed to declare any contraband items they may have found outside the colony walls. After all contraband is declared and forfeited that are to be searched for any remaining contraband. Finding anything the searched person didn't announce is considered valid grounds to charge them with a §106 or §206 depending on the severity of the item in question.

[[Example_Paperwork#Gate_Log|Gate log forms can be found here. All people entering and exiting should be logged on a new line each time.]]
* The Form should show the name of the individual or group members leaving, their intended designation and a rough estimate of their return time.
* If a colonist lacks equipment such as armor, weapons or refuses to put on suit sensors, this should also be noted.

All Blackshield members should adhere to these procedures.
* All Blackshield staff must be armed with a minimum one long-arm (rifles,shotgun,ect) or short-arm (smg,saw-off,ect) type weapon, one pistol type weapon, and one deadly melee weapon. Blackshield members are required to have at least two magazines worth of lethal quality ammunition for any weapons they carry and may choose to carry non-lethal.
* All Blackshield staff may request a different weapon from the armory. They have to respect the authority of the Supply Specialist if one is available. If not, the Warrant Officer is the highest authority of the Armory followed by the Commander and then Sergeant. An armory request form has to be filled out and if a Commander or Sergeant is available, approved by them first via signature or stamp. A request may be refused at anytime for any reason.
* All Blackshield staff are required to carry, either on their person or within their bag, one suit of body armor and one helmet.
* Blackshield staff under no circumstance during code green should loan their equipment, munitions, or weapons out to any colonist, including the marshals unless during a code blue or higher scenario.
* Blackshield staff are authorized and encouraged to act as members of security if no marshals are present on site. If marshals are present however, they should provide support only when asked. They may make arrests, investigate crimes, or detain criminals even during code green as required. When Blackshield staff members act as a member of the marshals, all orders, even from a standard officer, must be obeyed and take priority even over the Blackshield commander.

===General Guidelines - MOP===
* Calling non-Blackshield ‘Civilian’ or ‘Citizen’ is derisive and is to be avoided. Blackshield is a militia, and in no way is above another colonist outside of their assigned role, '''this is not a military'''.
* You are serving in the Blackshield to serve the colony. In most circumstances, this goes hand in hand with your own goals, however there is nothing stopping you from playing like any other colonist.
* Remaining calm in challenging circumstances will reinforce a professional appearance, however there is room for leeway in regards to how you handle these situations. So long as a situation is handled with minimal casualties, the situation is handled.
* The past of members of Blackshield is irrelevant. Whether criminal, prior military, pirate, machine, or ghost, all members of the militia are given equal opportunity for advancement and acceptance so long as they prove competent during training, and during their assigned daily tasks. Volunteers additionally are given equal opportunity to be accepted.
* Orders from the Commander and Sergeant, in that order, are to be followed where possible, unless doing so breaks the law. If either the Commander or the sergeant gives you an order you cannot follow without breaking the law, telling them clearly that you can not follow that order is better than making a scene.
* The Premier and the Steward hold no authority over any department, and as such their orders hold no weight. However, if they give you a suggestion that is in good faith and advisory, it may be wise to listen to them. However, they may be requested to vacate any area within the Blackshield sector, or the Gatehouse, at the attending Marshal's or Blackshield's preference. They may also, at the behest of a Corpsman, Sergeant, or Commander, be asked to remain off the Blackshield Channel.
* Other command staff may be designated as someone acceptable to take orders from below the Sergeant within specific circumstances. For example, the Chief Research Overseer may be designated as a temporary superior if providing security at a dig site.
* Members of the Blackshield may use and customize their firearms or weaponry as they desire, using whatever energy, projectile, and melee weapon they desire. In the case of better or more fitting non-standard equipment existing within the armory, Blackshield personnel may request better armaments from the Supply Specialist and/or Blackshield Commander within reason. (Such as exchanging out standard-issue 7.5 boltgun for a .257 Kalash, .35 Bullpup, or any other weapon that is considered carbine-sized or above).
* Blackshield equipment cannot be sold without facing legal ramifications. If you want new equipment, either through purchase or requisition, return your prior equipment to your locker, or to the Armory if requesting equipment from there.
* '''Important:''' Blackshield are not allowed to mine within the Gulag or utilize its equipment or machinery for any reason, as it is a location for convicted prisoners or debt defaulters to work. This '''cannot''' be overruled by the Blackshield Commander under any circumstances. Marshals will charge the Blackshield that misuse the Gulag with 301, Negligence. Demotions might be issued out if it is a continued issue, either by the Commander or the Brigadier.
* Most importantly, the purpose and jobs of Blackshield are to mainly handle external (At only the gates, perimeter, and beyond those) matters, not internal. Choosing to do Marshal work when there are '''active''' Marshals working on said matters is already covered and can result in charges/fines. For Corpsmen and medical, the duties of the Corpsmen are strictly for Blackshield and external situations. Under most circumstances, a Corpsman should not be actively providing medical aid inside of the colony whilst there are medical staff on duty. Appropriate charges/fines can and will be placed, however, if there are no active Marshals to carry that out, then Medical will null the entirety of Blackshield's right to free treatments, and proceed to thusly charge '''all''' of Blackshield.

===Gate Operations - MOP===
Due to close contact with Prospectors and other personnel, as well as being the main entrance to the colony, the Gate and the Fence are important to protect, patrol, and operate around. The gate is also the one place where the Blackshield retains full law enforcement authority.

When manpower is available (3-4 active (Non-SSD) Blackshield staff), the gatehouse is to be manned by at least one Blackshield member in exemption for combat operations or breaks, which in the case of breaks should be within a reasonable amount of time.

Calls for gate operation should be answered and handled in a timely fashion.

Marshals can be requested to fill in for temporary periods of time in the case of external operations or training.

The gate is to remain bolted on both sides at all times when troopers are present. When people arrive, unlock the side they are on and allow them to come through, then bolt the door again to allow them to be searched without fear of their running away.

All command staff, '''barring the Warrant Officer, Steward, and Premier''', are authorized to depart the colony of their own volition and have access to the doors as a result.
Non-command staff, barring Prospectors and Marshals, have no access to the gates. They should be allowed through if they wish to leave.
When individuals are leaving the gate, bound for the forest, they are not necessary to search and it’s advisable to not search them unless there’s reasonable suspicion of contraband. Notify them that they will be searched on return, however.

For proper logging, a trooper, corpsman, or sergeant is to ask that the individual show their ID, state their destination, and for medevac purposes, are to turn on their suit sensors to maximum if they are not already on. Colonists leaving the colony '''alone''' are to be informed that if Blackshield is to perform a medevac to rescue the colonist, that a 800 credit fee will be incurred immediately and paid to a Blackshield member. The cost of used medical supplies and ammunition is not included in the 800 credit medevac fee, and additional charges may be accrued for their use. A colonist cannot be charged a medevac bill if they were retrieved right from the middle of the gates by Blackshield, nor right in front of them.
If a colonist, prospector, etc, fails to properly follow these three simple requests, Blackshield can deny them their right to leave the colony on these grounds (Hunters are exempt from this). The only ones that cannot be denied are command staff. Only orders by Marshals, the Sergeant, and the Blackshield Commander can keep command staff from leaving, so long as there is a reason behind them.

On returning, all individuals must be searched. '''This includes the Commander, Warrant Officer, other Blackshield, and other Marshals.''' A full search is authorized from the start, including the bag, pockets, wallets, boxes, and other storage items. If they refuse to comply, cuffing them for the search is authorized.
If contraband is found in the bag, detainment is authorized and the individual must be requested, first, to voluntarily allow cuffing. If they refuse, forced cuffing is authorized.
After detainment and a full search, alert the Marshals to the detainment, move the individual to the gate cell, and await arrival of the Marshals to allow them to take custody of the individual.
If the individual in question with contraband is a member of Blackshield or the Marshals, and they didn’t report that they were bringing contraband for destruction or holding, the relevant command should be notified and previous procedure followed.
Failure to do a proper search, or even a search at all, can be grounds for dismissal. If a situation occurs because a trooper did not search the individual at the gates and collect contraband items that were used by the individual, they can be charged with §301, Negligence. Officer discretion is heavily advised in this matter.

Patrols must be carried out along the fence every so often to ensure that the fence itself is intact and there are no hostile creatures at the perimeter that the turrets did not handle.
In the event of a hole in the fence, call for the Guild to mend it, then stand guard. Ensure that all on the Blackshield or Marshal channel are notified of the damage. Take note of the hole in the fence. If it was a clean cut, someone likely cut in or out. If the broken grille is visible, it may have been a creature but was also likely someone breaking in or out.
Movement to blue alert may be necessary.

===Relationship with the Marshals and the Colony===
The relationship with the Marshals is one of cooperation. The Blackshield provides the external security, and the Marshals the internal. They are two parts of the colony’s defense, and should work together when it comes to said defense. The Commander and the Warrant Officer, both command staff, are expected to work together, share resources as needed, share comms, and be willing to reach out to the other if needed.

'''It should be noted, however, that if there is no Marshals, Blackshield may step in as colony Law Enforcement.''' Militia intervention in civil legal matters is likely to result in injuries if left unchecked, however, and for the most part the use of weapons unless strictly required is barred. In the event that weaponry is required, nonlethals, followed by less-than-lethals (rubbers/beanbags), followed by lethals is the order that must be followed.

If the Warrant Officer, or other Marshal personnel, requests Blackshield assistance to augment their manpower, or to deal with high risk suspects, the Commander or Sergeant can and should authorize Troopers to aid the Marshals, but is not required to do so. In such circumstances, the Marshals they accompany are their temporary superiors.
The Warrant Officer is not to command Blackshield to act in lieu of a Commander or Sergeant, but Troopers can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

In the event that there is a severe external threat to the colony (ex. Xenomorph swarms), the Commander is able to request Marshal assistance to supplement their manpower. As with the opposite, the Warrant Officer can and should authorize Marshal assistance, but is not required to do so. Any Marshals that assist are placed under temporary Blackshield orders. Likewise, the Commander is not to command the Marshals in lieu of a Warrant Officer. Marshals can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

Other command staff may request Blackshield assistance where applicable. For example, a Chief Research Overseer requesting troopers to help protect a high-risk dig site may be authorized at the discretion of the Commander or Sergeant. If neither exist, Troopers can willingly assist, but are recommended not to unless prudent.

===Relationship with the Prospectors - ROP===
The Relationship with the Marshals aside, Prospectors share a large amount of interaction with Blackshield. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for escort to dangerous away sites, searches upon return due to their primary role of being outside the colony, medical evacuations, and so on. This does not mean that the Prospectors are well liked by Blackshield, however, or vice versa.

Blackshield may, '''upon approval by a Foreman or with approval of the Blackshield Commander''' (Both is preferable, if available), give an escort to Prospectors should they be heading into dangerous areas that they believe they are not equipped for, as per their goal of defending the colony and its colonists. The Foreman or requesting prospector/salvager (if accepted by the commander) should draft out a form that is signed and, if applicable, stamped, to pay for Blackshield's assistance. This form should include the following:

* The time you wish to leave, as well as where you are heading.
* The estimated danger that comes where you are going. This includes whether there will be turrets, abandoned defense systems, Greyson Security Units, a large amount of Spiders, so on, and so forth.
* The items specifically offered to Blackshield as payment for their services. This includes weaponry, tools, equipment, design disks, and materials. If items are not specified, a percentage should be specified, which is a minimum of 30% to Blackshield for the assistance.
* If the last point is not filled out in forms of equipment, a financial option is available. Prospectors may pay for Blackshield assistance in the form of credits, with a fee of 400 per Blackshield Trooper or Sergeant assigned, 600 if a Corpsman is assigned to assist, as well as additional fees for Ammunition and Medical Supplies required for use by Blackshield personnel during the escort.
* A signature of the approving Foreman and/or approving Blackshield Commander, and the requesting Prospector and/or requesting Salvager.
* A Stamp of the Blackshield Commander and/or Foreman who authorized the escort.

[[Example_Paperwork#Blackshield_Escort_Request|Or, an example paper can be found here.]]

Failure to abide by the proper procedure means that criminal charges may be pressed in the event of an escort. For example, if no items that are listed on a manifest are given, Prospectors or Salvagers may be charged for failure to pay for an escort. Defaulting on a Debt is the proper charge to use in this case, until the Credits for the escort, as explained above, are given to Blackshield by the department.

Should Blackshield take items that are not listed on the manifest, or take items at all should the financial option have been taken, they may be charged with Theft, as due to salvage claims that is property of the Prospectors, Salvagers, and Foreman respectively.

===Medevac shuttle - MOP===
The medevac shuttle near the gatehouse is to be operated for the sole purpose of medivacs that are conducted by Blackshield. This shuttle can go to several locations on the planet of Amethyn. In the instance a medevac has to be done, follow normal Blackshield protocol in forming a group before boarding the shuttle. However, bring at least three members if using the shuttle. The shuttle is the safest and also fastest form of travel currently.
* When operating the shuttle, always make sure occupants are buckled down, no one is standing behind the engines, and that the shuttle's door is closed and bolted.
* The usage of the medivac shuttle does not make the Blackshield medevac bill increase from 800.
* Remain buckled during travel to destinations. When the shuttle has landed, armed personnel are to exit out of the shuttle first and ensure the surrounding area is clear before proceeding to rescue colonists.
* As a precaution to prevent hijacking or sabotage of the shuttle, a armed guard of at least one is to remain with the shuttle.
* Upon returning to the shuttle with the wounded, use the body scanner and sleeper during the trip back to stabilize them before taking them to Soteria medical.
* The Marshals also have the authority to use the medevac shuttle for the rare occasion of collecting a colonist from the Lodge if there have been issues with them, or to capture/intercept a criminal out in the wilderness. Blackshield can be requested to come along and are recommended to accept such requests unless there is only one, then it is to be immediately denied so that the colony is not left unguarded in a official capacity.
All Blackshield, Marshals, and heads of staff can access the shuttle. For marshals, they are to follow the above if leaving the colony in the medevac shuttle. For heads of staff, refer to the Council SOP. The Blackshield Commander may choose to use the medevac shuttle in other situations but cannot order the use of the shuttle if there are no immediate medevacs to be done, or situations. The Commander however is authorized to train personnel on use of the shuttle from time to time.

===Deep Maintenance - MOP===
This area is a extremely dangerous and hostile location, even the most veteran and well equipped colonist, Federation soldier, or anyone else, stand a high chance of dying.

As has been debated many times weather or not its inside or below the colony, one thing for sure is that it is an anomalous location has no actual physical location as such it is therefore considered a external area, which Blackshield holds authority over. Due to how dangerous, anomalous, and hellish the tunnels are however, Blackshield and Marshals are heavily encouraged to work together in handling these tunnels for whatever reasons.

Blackshield holds direct authority when in regards of handling any and all external matters, however, in the case of deep maints, Blackshield should allow the Marshals or any other department to reinforce or back them up.

If a colonist requires a medevac from deep maints itself, the medevac fine may tripled due to just how dangerous deep maints itself is, and the chances of running into genetic abominations that can multiply and dissolve bodies in order to do so.

[[Category:Guides for New Players]]
[[Category:Lore]]
{{Gameplay guides}}

Standard Operating Procedure

2022-11-06T06:35:40Z

Cora: /* Medical Treatment - MOP */ - Minor SOP change to medical

The information contained in the article below is written here instead of the individual [[Jobs|manuals]] for each profession because this is all information the entire crew should know, so they may know what to expect, what their rights are, and what other staff should be doing to best service the crew. For those looking for information on the Hunting Lodge, click [[The Hunters Codex|this]].

(( Players reading this page should keep in mind '''THESE ARE NOT OOC RULES!''' These are just how the colony, in-character, would have something handled. Whether or not you are following these policies is irrelevant if you break [[Rules|the actual rules]]. Breaking SOP is usually IC, and usually only results in IC punishment like being fired. ))

== SOP Clarification ==
Whilst SOP is generally considered a suggestion, unless explicitly stated otherwise, this is only applicable for a department's SOP. To ignore SOP outside of your specific department is a punishable offense enforced by the law. It should be adhered to at all times.

For the time being until it can be fully handled, parts of SOP may be labeled 'ROP' and 'MOP.' These stand for 'Recommended Operating Procedure,' and 'Mandatory Operating Procedure.' This states that ROP may be deviated from as a guideline, whereas MOP is required under all circumstances to be followed by High Council decree.

== Colony Labor Rights - MOP ==
As per the conditions of the Nadezhda Declaration of Sentient Rights, all employees are granted specific legally afforded rights as colonists in the city of Nadezhda.

* Everyone has the right to work, free choice of employment, just and favorable conditions of work, and to protection against unemployment.
** What it means: Barring an emergency in which you are qualified and able to help safely resolve, you cannot be conscripted or otherwise forced into an occupation that you have no desire or ability to meet the responsibilities of. For example, a Cargo Technician cannot be fired for not following orders to go mining, because that's a completely different job.
* Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
** What it means: You cannot be denied work or pay because of your appearance, race, gender, species, or religious affiliation within reason. For example, a naramad cannot be removed from command just for being a naramad.
* Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of a sentient being's dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
** What it means: You are paid a living wage in the form of credits via electronic deposit in such a way that you may access and spend those funds freely. You are also granted, if you so desire, certain benefits from the colony such as safe and affordable housing in protected colony zones. For example, paying you with commodities such as meat is not permitted (even if you would be okay with being paid in meat).
* Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his/her interests.
** What it means: You can be part of a union. This is self explanatory. Heads of staff may fire any employee at any time for forming a union.
* Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
** What it means: All employees are entitled to break time, vacations, and holidays as outlined in your employee handbook. (( What this actually means OOCly: Nobody can come along and fire you or punish you for not doing your job 24/7 on the server. As long as the needs of your current job are met within reason, and there's no current emergencies, you can bugger off to do lewds or RP. Nobody likes a kill joy. ))
* Each faction has the right to fire an employee for a valid reason, repeated termination may result in a temporary or indefinite suspension. Basic workers in a department who have been fired three times on valid grounds within the span of 1 month will receive an indefinite suspension until an appeal is made. Heads of staff fired by their respective faction leaders are suspended from the department indefinitely until an appeal is made.
** OOC: What is considered valid for a strike is determined by an admin, usually with consensus from other admins, on a case by case basis. Generally committing crimes, refusing to follow valid orders, refusing to do your job, or causing notable strife among other people in your department is considered valid grounds for termination from your job.

Violation of employee labor rights is punishable under [[Laws]] §103.

== Nadezhda Privacy Policy - MOP ==
Under normal colony operation, the invasion of private areas such as locked dorms, bathrooms, personal offices, personal belongings, personal lockers, or other personal space is highly illegal without consent of the owner or a search warrant. Furthermore, the use of thermal imaging goggles or other artificial means of observing crew in private areas such as tracking devices is also strictly forbidden without explicit consent or warrant, and the tools used to conduct such crimes are considered contraband. If your right to privacy is violated by the marshals or other members of the crew, contact the premier or warrant officer to submit an official complaint. If this violation of privacy results in the conviction of a crime, you may be eligible to have the incident voided by order of a Nadezhda council and be compensated for wrongful arrest.

The Privacy Laws extends to every individual colonist and ally of the colony, especially in the Medical and Security Sector. The essence of it is help and report crimes whenever you can, but to not hurt a persons reputation immediately by doing so. Sometimes you will witness things out of context. You can always say "I just witnessed someone break into the premiers office!" instead of calling out their name immediately. You can always report the crime to a marshal or blackshield member later.

The location of suit sensors may never be reported under any circumstances unless the individual in question calls for help, the person is wanted for a dangerous crime/considered to be a threat to other colonists or there is good reason to fear a medical emergency. This is extended below in the appropriate sections, so do not just use the previous sentence as the final say. All employees are recommended to let their head of staff know about their whereabouts or if they decide to take a break and for how long. An employee going or on a break never has to reveal their location, unless they decide to leave the colony. Every Head of Staff has the right to see the Gatelog in the Guardhouse if requested.

'''Medical Privacy Laws''' 
An unconscious person that called for help previously or is showing a medical emergency on suit sensors (including death) always and automatically consents to their location being made public information. This can never change. It is recommended to keep the person identity private to avoid any charges.

Transporting injured personnel should be ideally be done by at least stretchers, but is recommended to use a stasis bag instead to protect the privacy of the person. A dead person should be transported via a body bag.

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to notify another colonist of the injured colonists medical status. Soteria Medical Personnel and Corpsman are excluded from this providing it is done in a private location or on the medical channel. This may be extended to other colonists capable of treating a person in the medical facilities, however the location and radio channel previously mentioned still apply. The only person that should be contacted is the relevant Head of Staff in case of serious injury or death. If a Head of Staff is seriously injured or dead other Command Members may be informed. Medical Records may reveal a next-of-kin or emergency contacts and if they are on duty are allowed to be contacted.
In the event of an unrevivable death of a colonist only the relevant Head of Staff must be informed. Otherwise post-mortem instructions are to be followed and the death should not be revealed to other colonists. A fax should be sent to the High Council with an autopsy report attached.

Medical issues such as addictions and mental problems are never to be discussed with anyone, unless consent is provided.

Informing the Medical Team of an emergency coming in is appropriate as well as the extent of their wounds, however it is recommended that the persons identity should not be revealed to avoid any potential charges.

If a treated individual discusses their wounds and status on a public channel - namely common radio -, they waive any right to medical privacy for the issue they have mentioned.

'''Security Privacy Laws''' 

Unless a colonist consents to their information being shared, no one is allowed to discuss the crimes or alleged crimes with any other colonists. This does not apply to marshals, but should be done in private or over security radios. While members of the Blackshield have access to this channel, they should not interfere in such a conversation unless they can contribute information regarding the crime. A green paragraph crime is not be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A yellow paragraph crime or higher must be shared with the relevant Head of Staff. A red paragraph crime has to be reported to the Faction Owner of the person who committed the crime via fax. This may be handled by the Marshals or another Command Member, preferring the relevant Head of Staff. Records may never be shared without consent.

Any colonist has the right to accuse another colonist of a crime and an investigation should be launched. The accuser's name should be kept hidden and private to prevent repercussions and revenge. Any marshal or someone who has been granted the appropriate authority to deal with internal security issues (most likely a blackshield member) who fails to launch an investigation can be charged with Negligence. If the accuser charges someone in bad faith, revenge or to waste their time, they should be charged with Obstruction of Duty. Failing to find evidence for a crime is not an accusation done in bad faith. The accuser has the right to be informed of the outcome of the investigation. They do not have the right to make this public knowledge.

You are always allowed to report a crime you witnessed even if it does not involve you, just do so privately with a Marshal. It is recommended to call a marshal over to you or move to the Marshal Area. If you are being robbed it may be better if you stay quiet for your own safety and then report the crime. If you are being attacked self defense laws apply. It is recommended you disable/hide in an area and then immediately call for help - details are not important in such a moment and you can give a full report after the situation is safer.

During interrogation a second colonist should be present as a witness to the statements of the accuser or accused. Who the witness is may change depending on circumstances, but a ranking order is given here as a reference: Warrant Officer, Ranger, Marshal Officer, Supply Specialist, Premier, Blackshield Commander, Sergeant, Any Head of Staff, Corpsman/Trooper. This is subject to change depending on duties and personnel involved in the incident.

While Suit Sensors may be used to look for someone who has committed a crime, they may not be called out over public communication. This rule is only dismissed if the subject is found to be a danger to themselves or others. A danger to themselves falls under the medical emergency category and is classified as a person that is at risk of committing suicide or someone that is dying of wounds. A danger to others only applies if the subject is actively trying to hurt someone, violently breaking into staffed areas or breaking vital colony equipment. Examples: A person that uses drugs and/or distributes them is not a danger to others. A person that subdues others and forces drugs on them is dangerous to others.

Any colonist charged with a crime or accused of a crime loses their right to privacy regarding the crime they talk about if they mention/discuss it in a public forum -mainly common radio channel-.

This privacy policy may at times be suspended for the greater security of the station crew. If heightened security alertness is abused by the command staff, such as failing to lower the alert level after an incident, or raising the alert level when there is no incident, please contact your premier as soon as possible.

Violation of employee privacy is punishable under [[Laws]] §103. Other crime charges may apply.

A colonist that chooses forced labor as a punishment loses some of his rights to privacy laws - namely their location needs to be transmitted via suit sensors at all times and any crimes/medical emergencies involving the colonist in debt during this period can be publicly communicated regardless of circumstances. Records and previous location/medical issues/crimes may not be discussed.

== Nadezhda Dress Code - MOP ==
Certain positions within Nadezhda are expected to maintain a specific dress code. The strictness of these codes are ''Enforced'', ''Recommended'', and ''Suggested''. They are defined as follows:

* Marshal and blackshield staff are enforced to wear department specific clothing, or any clothing with dominant colors of green, black, blue, or gray depending on their respective job assignment. Individuals may not conduct activities naked while representing the blackshield or marshals. At a minimum, pants and an undershirt or tank top are mandatory.
* Medical staff are enforced to wear sterile lab clothing while working in Medical's facilities.
* Engineering staff are recommended but not enforced to wear bright and easily recognizable clothing, such as yellows or oranges, to be easily spotted in case of an emergency.
* Service staff are recommended but not enforced to wear aprons while preparing or harvesting food. Bartenders and waiter staff have no specific dress code, but it is suggested that they agree on similar clothing to wear for the day.
* Science staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms of purple and white. If a VIP is visiting the station, please dress appropriately for your department.
* Cargo/Mining staff are suggested but not enforced to wear uniforms made of highly durable cloth so as to avoid damage caused by physical labor.
* The premier and steward are required to wear their clothing while on duty, it is suggested though not enforced they wear their official uniforms. '''Failure to remain clothed in public will result in immediate termination.'''

Failure or refusal to adhere to suggested dress codes are valid grounds for punishment up to and including termination and will likely result in a lack of respect from co-workers. Other staff and visitors are not bound by any dress code and may dress within reason so long as it does not violate [[Laws]].

==Alert Levels - MOP==
=== Code Green - All Clear ===
Default operating level. No immediate or clear threat to the colony. All departments may carry out work as normal. This alert level can be set at the Communications Console with a head of staff level ID. Privacy laws are in effect.

===Code Blue - Potential Threat===
Code blue scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* An active manhunt for a criminal within the colony.
* Station wide power failure.
* Station lock down or quarantine.
* Notable threats outside the colony that pose a potential threat. This can include a large pack of animals, dangerous but singular animals like renders, or wildlife acting in strange and unusual ways. Code blue should only be called if the threat is on going and not something a single person with a rifle could solve easily.

Code blue scenarios rarely require active action by non-relevant staff and should be adhered to depending on the scenario. An active manhunt may have the warrant officer or blackshield commander order staff to remain in their departments. A quarantine may have the biolab overseer or research overseer order infected personnel to medical to be cured. Orders from the relevant heads of staff are considered valid and must be followed to the letter even if normal procedure states otherwise. During a code blue scenario or higher, acting security staff (Marshals, or lacking Marshals, Blackshield) are authorized to utilize restricted items for the duration of the emergency. This may include explosives, combat mechs and other mechs rigged for combat, and other forms of Minor and Major Contraband as required to handle whatever emergency or situation has occurred.

===Code Red - Serious Threat===
Code red scenarios can include but are not limited to:
* Serious external or internal threats to the colony such as massive roach groupings, numerous xenomorph attacks, void wolf attacks, or large groupings of synthetic life forms.
* The appearance of a blob somewhere on the colony.
* Any sign of a hive-mind, be it radio signals or visual confirmation.
* Malfunctioning or rogue AI.
* Terran Federation activity.

Code red scenarios almost always involve the entirety of the colony and under such circumstances priority of orders is often given to the blackshield commander, warrant officer, or premier (in order of importance). In code red scenarios colonists are considered able to volunteer for assisting the blackshield be it with combat, mechanical, or medical skills. All orders from a blackshield member to a volunteering colony member is considered valid and must be adhered to. During a code red scenario all colonists should activate their suit sensors as an emergency precaution. During code red, all contraband policies towards weapons, including mechs, are lifted unless otherwise stated by the commanding head of staff.

===Code Delta - Abandon All Hope===
Code delta scenarios are only called when the colony faces total destruction and the only scenario in which the blackshield commander or equivalent can perform field executions for disobeying an order. Code delta is called only by the high council. All orders from heads of staff are considered a necessity and refusal may result in immediate and swift termination.

''Restrictions on searches also applies to the use of privacy-defeating equipment or enhancements such as thermals, x-ray, and so on.''

== Permits - MOP ==

=== Emergency Situation Permits ===
In a situation which may warrant the immediate use of a contraband item, any permit distributed for utilization may be issued verbally over the radio by the warrant officer, the blackshield commander, a council vote (with a minimum of three voters), or the premier in absence of any of the previous. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and stamped, and faxed to the Provost Marshal should they be issued in this way after the situation has resolved. Should equipment that is issued be used improperly, both the issuer and whoever was issued the permit are to be charged with §106 Minor Contraband, or §206 Major Contraband, in addition to any other charges accrued -- depending on what the item in use was. The Contraband item is to be confiscated.

These permits are to be issued in cases such as Blue Alert, authorizing Colonists to temporarily use Thermal Imaging equipment or Combat Mecha in the event of small scale disturbances that are not major large scale colony threats. All Emergency Situation Permits expire immediately upon the situation being resolved, with no exceptions. These permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by the relevant authorities who may issue them, and are immediately considered null and void should the person who is issued them commits a crime.

=== Contraband Permits ===
Any permit distributed by a member of the marshals, a warrant officer (or blackshield commander if there is no Warrant Officer) or a council vote may cover the use of minor contraband. Only the supply specialist, or the warrant officer may issue permits for thermal imaging equipment. The warrant officer and the supply specialist are authorized to issue permits for items considered major contraband. Terms for the permit should be clearly, understandably written and shown on the document. A permit must be signed and, if a major contraband permit, stamped by the authorizing party. Any of these permits may be revoked at any point in time for any reason by any of the relevant authorities who may issue the respective permit, and are immediately considered null and void if the person who was issued the permit commits a crime of any kind.

== Longarm Laws and Stipulations - MOP ==

While the colony remains at the frontiers of humanity and harbors many dangers within its vicinity it also maintains limitations of public display of firearms. While holsters and firearm ownership are not discouraged and, on the contrary, firearm ownership is directly encouraged, these limitations are in place to provide safety to those living within the walls. Colonists hold the right to self defense and to use weapons as reasonably needed in dangerous situations, however the following regulations apply to the display of public firearms.

=== Long Arms ===
* Long arms, going by many distinctions, are commonly defined as any weapon too big to fit in a holster.
* Guns defined as long arms are '''not legal''' to display on one's person for public safety concerns.
* Long arms '''may''' be transported in a bag or in a secure gun case, but are to remain '''out of public view'''.
** If a long arm is too large to fit in a bag, it is still required to be concealed unless in storage or within one’s department grounds. Gun cases should be used for transport of firearms of this class.
* Personnel opting to carry long arms in their bag must declare their concealed weapons upon any search of their person or during processing for an arrest. Failure to do so may net suspicious conduct charges at the discretion of the arresting officer.

=== Handguns & Sidearms ===
* Handguns are commonly defined as any weapon that can be fit into a holster, or standard bag and is designed for use as a compact weapon of self defense.
** Weapons that are '''contraband''' or '''contain contraband''', are '''not legal''' to conceal without proper permit from relevant personnel able to give such access.
** Unlike long arms, handguns may be visible via holsters, stowed in bags, stowed in belts, pocketed or otherwise out of view.
*** '''Bluespace''' based storage bags or pouches, '''do not''' count as a standard bag.
** Implanted firearms, such as arm SMGs, fall under the classification of handguns, but are required to be noted in detail in both medical and security records.

=== Members of Security, the Steward, and Trauma Team ===

* Personnel of the Blackshield, Marshals, Soteria Trauma Team, or the colony’s Steward '''are expected to follow the same procedure as colonists regarding the display of long arms'''. This is to convey positive imagery to the public and allow for less-hostile policing and/or aid in the defusal of possible tense situations. However, these departments have some exemptions to the law.
** The aforementioned employees '''may''' sport visible firearms on colony grounds in the case of an emergency, such as the threat of a code blue or higher being present.
** In cases of armed individuals, reasonable risks of escalating violence on a scene or ongoing incidents logged of high-crimes (I.e murder, manslaughter, sabotage, etc) Security authorities may sport visible weapons. Incident reports should be filed after such cases.
*Blackshield may bring long arms visibly on their person when en-route to the gatehouse or when patrolling the colony walls. Blackshield are required to stow said weapons when elsewhere in the colony if not on a phase of alert or acting in coordination with Marshal officers.

Violation of longarm restrictions may result in charges such as Failure to Obey Safety Protocol (102) or, in the case of an arrest, Excessive Force (210) if applicable. These charges may be pressed at the discretion of the offender’s council member.

= The Council - MOP =
The council is made up of each faction head of staff and the premier (who is usually a volunteer head of staff who chose to take a shift as the premier). A decision from the council has absolute authority and precedence over all other decisions, regulations, and rules except during a code red or code delta scenario (the brigadier/blackshield commander supersedes the council in these scenarios). Members of the council are given only a small set of rules that apply during any council vote or decision.

* All Colonists must respect a decision made by the council and follow said decision. Issues with a vote can be taken to provost marshal Boris via faxes as he presides over much of the legality on the colony, but must still be followed even when contested.
* All heads of staff are required to vote yay or nay during a decision. Any head of staff that refuses to make a decision or abstains is to be demoted on the spot. '''This is not negotiable, you are a leader and expected to make choices, especially hard choices.''' Those who are demoted from a head position for abstaining from a vote will be permanently barred from any head of staff position unless an appeal is made.
* The Soteria overseers may only have a collective vote of one and only if both agree on the decision. This means that when the votes are tallied both overseers count as a singular vote and only if they both arrived at the same vote. If the CRO and CBO cannot come to an agreement on where they vote, they instead lose their vote entirely. The inability for them to agree is '''not''' a valid grounds for demotion of either overseers. If there is only one overseer active, they have a single vote.
* The steward does not have a vote. They are a secretary and bodyguard and while they are considered command staff, it is the job of the premier to sway or veto votes.
* Only the Warrant Officer, Premier, and Steward are required to remain on the colony at all times except when aiding in the colonies defense or colonists safety. Other heads of staff may come and go at their discretion but should '''always''' inform the council and their staff team should they leave outside radio range. A head of staff may elect a member of their staff team to make decisions in their absence up to and including council votes, in all other cases, they should be contacted and retrieved before council votes are made.
* All council members and by extension heads of staff must be at least thirty Terran years of age or older. Heads of staff found to be younger than thirty are to be demoted due to not fulfilling the basic requirements of the job. The only exception to this rule is the expedition foreman, who may be of any age.
* All heads of staff can use the medivac shuttle in times of crisis if there are no Blackshield nor Marshals. When using the shuttle, bring at least two other individuals with you, one to be left behind at least to guard the shuttle. If found to be using the medivac shuttle for personal reasons or reasons that do not qualify the usage of the shuttle, i.e. prospectors using it to get to locations that they scavenge from, then this can and will be charged by a §406, exceeding official powers.

===Voting Procedures===
(This section is considered a little WIP, it may change.)
* For a vote to be considered valid, at least three members of the council must be present. The Premier is included in this requirement, so any two councilors plus the Premier may call a vote as well.
** The Steward does not count to this requirement.
** In the event of only two councilors being present, if there is no premier to break a tie or preside over the vote, a vote will automatically fail to prevent a two-person set of councilors from changing colony operations at whim.
* A vote may be called for a large number of reasons, but some things may not be changed by council vote. For example, you may not change laws or demanded-to-follow Standard Operating Procedure by way of a vote, as these are set in place by the High Council and must be followed.
* A councilor, if only one is present, may send a requesting fax to the High Council for permission to conduct a vote on their own. In this case, the councilor should state what the vote is, why they want this vote, what this vote would change, and their own vote (in most cases this would be a yes, because why are you voting no on a vote for something you just made?).
** This vote must be approved by the High Council. This means it must be sent to the High Council offices.
** An example of a situation that this style of vote may be used for is the allowance of a Foreigner (Outsider) into the colony. This vote '''MUST''' be done before allowing the Foreigner entry. In this case, they may be allowed inside without waiting for a reply of approval, so long as this is sent first. This is only applicable if there is one member of the council.
*** In the event of the Foreigner causing issues before a return fax is gotten, the councilor should be charged with any crimes the Foreigner committed, in addition to 301, 'Negligence.' If a reply is received to deny this Foreigner entry into the colony, they should be expelled without consequence to the councilor unless the Foreigner caused problems.

===The Premier===
* The Premier may '''VETO''' any vote the council makes, for any reason. This includes votes that they call to be made, which is within their power to do so.
* The Premier's veto considers the vote to automatically result in a 'no' vote. This may not be overturned unless a council of at least 3 councilors vote a unanimous decision to overturn the veto.
* The Premier may call a vote on any issue at any time, just as any other member of the Council may. This extends only to the Premier, and not the Steward. Failure to vote on a vote the Premier calls carries the same immediate removal penalties as failing to vote otherwise.
* The Premier may, reasonably, call votes about decisions designed by the High Council. This includes things that the Council normally may not vote on. Such as, but not limited to; what charges may be applied to situations for Marshals, temporary modification to mandatory procedure (but not making it recommended, or changing it to the point the procedure is nullified), or even making recommended procedure mandatory. This does not include Mandatory Procedure for the council, such as voting procedure or outsider procedure. Abuse of this power will lead to the immediate, permanent removal of the Premier without the ability to appeal.
** A Premier found to be in abuse of any of the above listed statements is subject to an immediate removal pending appeal (unless otherwise stipulated). A Premier removed in this way must wait at standard minimum of one month before an appeal will be considered by the High Council.

===Demoting Staff===
In the event of a head of staff desires the demotion of a staff member in their faction they must meet one of the following criteria.
# Dereliction of Duty, the subject in question failed to perform there job duty at the bare minimum satisfaction.
# Negligence, the subject in question performed a grossly incompetent action while on duty that result in injury, loss of life, damages, or loss of property.
# Criminal activity, the subject in question performed a orange or red paragraph crime in which they were successfully convicted of.
# Failure to execute an order, the subject willfully and knowingly defied a valid order from their respective head of staff. Note that this only covers valid orders pertaining to their department, a head of staff could enforce a no smoking policy on his staff inside medical but not outside of medical.
# When the counsel is calling a vote their must be at lest three heads of staff to be accounted, CBO and CRO count as two heads of staff for this even with their singular vote.

All valid demotions from a head of staff are recorded and noted in an employee file. Employees who have been demoted three times from their respective faction will be permanently demoted and unable to take work in any positions within that department. Not all demotions are considered valid and they should be recorded [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|with the proper paperwork using a dismissal form]] before being faxed to their respective faction owner for review.

Heads of staff may be demoted by a council vote and approval from the respective faction owner using a [[Example_Paperwork#Demotion_form|demotion form]] and proper signature from a premier or, if one is not present, the steward. Lacking both, the signature may remain blank.

===How to order an execution===
In the rare and unfortunate event that a crew member has committed a crime in which execution is considered a certain criteria must be met in order for the execution to be valid.
# Assuming the person in question is successfully convicted and placed within the brig a premier must be present to arbitrate the crime to first ensure that the conviction is entirely valid with appropriate evidence and witnesses.
# A premier and at minimum three heads of staff must be present for a execution vote to be made. An execution vote may be called by any head of staff except for the premier. Once called all members must meet and discuss the case, all evidence, and what should be done.
# For an execution to be considered valid upon finishing discussion of the case all heads of staff must vote unanimously for execution and then sign and stamp a document that will be faxed to whichever faction owner presides over the prisoner. A reply will then be made back approving said execution.
# The prisoner is then executed in accordance to Marshal policy once approved by the relevant faction owner.

===Faxes===
As a head of staff and Council member, you are the most responsible person within your department and as such are expected to handle most situations without having to fax the High Council. Only when it is absolutely necessary or outside of your hands, experience, or capabilities, should you fax the High Council.
The High Council may not always respond to a fax sent to them, especially when the fax sent does not warrant a response from the High Council. Only when it's absolutely needed, the High Council will send a response. (OOCly speaking, heads of staff are expected and trusted to handle most things and should not need the oversight of head/admins).

=== Shield Generator ===
* The Shield Generator on the colony surface is a new defense mechanism for the colony's safety. Whilst Council have access to it, it is not advised to enter the shield generator room unless there is a valid reason. It is currently classified under the same high risk condition that Telecommunications is listed under.

* Apart from the Council, the Blackshield, Marshals, and Guild have access to the room. As maintainers of the Shield room, Guild are allowed to enter and exit the place as they will. Blackshield and Marshals should only enter and utilize the shield generator when there is a security matter. Untrained personnel, that are not the Guild, setting up the generator run the risk of being charged with Negligence if a issue or incident occurs.

* Given that the shield generator room serves a important role in colony safety, and should not be tampered nor trespassed, whether by those with access or not. These following charges can and will be applied upon investigation of any incidents or situations: Grand trespass, negligence, sabotage, terrorism, and possibly more.

* It is heavily suggested to set the generator's radius at 85, as that covers the entirety of the colony's defenses. There are various settings on the shield generator, some of these settings should only be turned on depending on the code level.
** On code green, the shield generator can be operated, although not generally advised due to power draw, with these settings active: Unknown Lifeforms (Blocks unknown life forms.), Hyperkinetic Projectiles, and Photonic Dispersion.
** On code blue, the shield generator can be operated more freely with these settings: Humanoid Lifeforms (Blocks humans, abhumans, Cht'mant, sentient life), Silicon Lifeforms (Blocks cyborgs and other robots), Atmospheric Containment, Diffuser Bypass (Individuals with certain technology can bypass the shield generator, this setting negates that but draws a lot of power), Adaptive Field Harmonics.
** On code red, the shield generator is heavily advised to be put into use, along with weaponizing it with: Field Overcharge.

* The only individuals with direct authority to operate the shield generator on '''any''' code level are the Blackshield Commander and Warrant Officer, so long as they have valid cause (Hostile or suspicious outsiders, criminals on the run, etc). The two can cancel each other's orders out in regards of the Shield Generator, but there should also be a valid reason behind it, else the BC/WO runs the risk of being charged or demoted on the spot. The Council can also vote to choose that the cause was not valid and must fax the High Council if such is decided, including the cause that was overruled by the Council. If the High Council believes otherwise, or does not receive sufficient information, the vote is overturned and the Council may suffer consequences for time wasting decisions and faxes.

= Foreigner Treatment - MOP =
The authority of the Colony ends currently at the electrified fence. Laws still apply to all colonists even outside the fenced area, however they do not apply to foreigners as long as long as they remain outside the colony. Circumstances may change this.

'''Allies''' 

Allies of the Colony are granted the same rights as a normal colonists. They may enter and leave and are subject to searches at the Gatehouse, Laws and Departmental SOP (if applicable). Allies of the colony are permitted to not have an ID on them, however it is encouraged to grant them a Guest Pass. Any ally of the colony may move freely inside the colonies public areas including the bar and kitchen (customer area), which should always be accessible to them unless they commit a crime there at which point it may be applied to them. Yellow paragraph crimes do not have to be reported to the High Council. If a debt of an allied member cannot be paid a fax should be sent to the Void Wolf Alliance or High Council for other factions. Any orange or higher paragraph crime must be reported to Boris Kilmaede immediately and additional measures may be taken against the person. All allied members are entitled to unlimited free life-saving treatment and unlimited free treatment regarding serious injury. Other injuries should be charged accordingly. If an allied member misbehaves, causes issues or plans to act against the Colony the High Council should be informed immediately. Due to possible diplomatic issues, strong evidence must be gathered BEFORE a fax is send. If an allied member turns hostile they should be ideally captured alive or revived and kept under watch while the High Council is informed. Making an allied member unrevivable even after they committed a hostile crime is considered a terroristic act as it may immensely cripple diplomatic relations. This is ignored if the unrevivable injury is sustained through combat.

Any contraband (other than excelsior equipment) may be temporarily confiscated at the gatehouse and must be returned when the individual/group of allies is leaving.

'''Neutral/Unknown Factions''' 

These factions may have been hostile in the past or their allegiances are unknown. While it is best to find out their allegiance, they may keep this secret or their faction is unknown to the colony. Some neutral factions are indifferent or outright will ignore the colony. Hostile attempts may be stopped lethally or non-lethally. Neutral Factions that are not invited inside the colony do not have any rights or protection from the law, however a colonist going out of their way to potentially harm relationship with a neutral faction may face a terrorism charge. Any HOSTILE encounter with a neutral faction should be reported to the high council immediately. If a HOSTILE neutral person is taking alive they should be treated as a Hold until Transfer Prisoner until a decision is made by the High Council. Depending on severety this decision may be delegated to the council (head of departments).

If a peaceful or non-hostile neutral faction or person wishes to enter the colony, the council should be informed and are expected to make a decision within 15 minutes of the arrival. It is recommended the person is to be searched and asked for their business inside the colony. If the council cannot come to a unanimous decision a vote may be held with the premier as a tie-breaker vote only to let the individual in or not. If let in they are allowed to move at least freely in between the fenced area and the entrance of the colony (colony entrance/church to wall/gatehouse). All other public access should be discussed first, however every department head is allowed to give them access to their own department for any reason at anytime (only applicable if they were let in at the first place). It is recommended, however not enforced, that a neutral person is given some free medical treatment and food or access to the kitchen customer area. Bartering and Trading is encouraged. Due to the fact that a neutral person may not be aware of the colony laws and contraband policies, they may not be charged with bringing in any illegal equipment. Depending on circumstances these may be either confiscated or held at the Gate until the neutral party wishes to leave. This rule is suspended in case of excelsior equipment at which point they are to be treated as a hostile faction. If a neutral faction willingly commits any crime inside the colony or towards a colonist outside the colony they should be seen as Hold until Transfer and the High Council should be informed. If such a person becomes violent and cannot be detained peacefully, lethals are authorized. Unless another order is given a neutral member that turns hostile is not to be revived.

In case two neutral factions fight each other, the colony may decide to join and help either or neither. This should be decided by the council, but other colonists have a right to have their say in the matter too.

'''Known Hostile Factions''' 

Unless a member of a hostile faction wishes to engage in peaceful negotation or is surrendering, they are considered to be Shoot on Sight. This applies to unarmed non-surrendering hostiles. If their presence is known to any colonist, it should be repored to the Blackshield which in turn should alert all colonists. Increasing the alert status to blue is appropriate. A killed hostile faction member should never be revived unless there is a good reason such as thinking they have important intel or are a valuable target. A critically wounded enemy may be captured alive at the order of the highest ranking combat member or if the council decides to do so. Enemy bodies are not to be dismembered or abused - going against this order is a crime of disrespect for the dead. They may be looted freely by any colonist. Hostile bodies should be left where they were killed unless inside the colony. If they were killed inside the colony they should be transported a decent distance outside the colony. These rule do not apply to enemies that can regenerate from death. Any captured hostile enemy should be treated as "Hold until Transfer" and the High Council should be informed of the situation.

Anyone abusing prisoners, regardless of their faction, should be charged with battery/assault/attempted murder/murder. Depending on the reason for such a retaliation the amount of time spend in prison may be reduced or completely waived, however a temporary ban of carrying weapons should be applied. This is at the discretion of the council and especially warrant officer. If there is a disagreement Boris Kilmaede should be informed.

Any excelsior agent that is captured alive should have their implant removed. If removal is successful they are to be treated as a neutral faction. The council should deliberate how to treat the individual in question. It is recommended, but not necessary, to run a psychological evaluation.

== The Lodge - MOP ==
Given that the Lodge is a faction that is expected to have more regular and closer interactions than others, these details have been provided to help colonists.

1: There are currently no trade agreements in place between the colony’s factions and the Lodge. As such, with individual hunters and colonists, they are to negotiate their own prices in regards of deals.

2: The location in which the Lodge resides is its sovereign territory, and the plains that connect to the Lodge is considered its territory. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Nadezhda’s territory lies in the very place it occupies, the meadows south of it and the adjacent forest area. All crimes that occur within such territory shall be investigated and handled on this jurisdiction. Hunters can move through these territories to reach the colony and vice versa for colonists. The swamp is considered neutral territory for the time being.

3: Any hunters found breaching the fifth rule of the Hunters Codex are to be reported to a hunt master or the Matriarch of the Lodge to be handled. The fifth rule within the Codex strictly forbids Hunters from scavenging and looting like prospectors.

4: The skinning knives and the Matriarch's shotgun that the Hunting Lodge has are to be treated in a similar fashion to the Absolute’s tech and equipment. If they are stolen or taken, grand theft may and can be applied.

= Duels - MOP =
The only acceptable way of fighting another colonist that CANNOT result in a charge of crime as long as all rules are followed.
=== How to initiate a duel ===
Anyone colonist may at anytime challenge another colonist to a duel (including CQC training). If accepted, you must follow the following steps:
1. Set a time and place to proceed with the duel. (Do it somewhere, where you are not going to stand in the way of others)(OOC: The basketball court is a popular spot since its an arena people can watch easily.)
2. The place must be set in a publicly accessible area.
3. Agree on at least 1 neutral observer to oversee the duel. While a premier or command member is preferred, anyone can do this. If you cannot agree on a neutral observer, both attendees need to be bring an observer who may be a friend, department member or other. If no one volunteers or is available, you cannot duel.
4. Let the Marshals and Blackshield know you are carrying this out to avoid misunderstandings.
5. When the time has come, get into position, let the neutral observer countdown the fight. In case of no neutral observer, one of the attendees may count down. The rules should be recited by the neutral observer or attendee that does not count down the fight.
=== Rules of the Duel ===
# You cannot leave permanent damage on your opponent (ooc: read PULL YOUR PUNCHES. IC Tab -> Pull Punches) 
# Once your opponent goes down to the ground or gets knocked out, stop immediately. 
# No leaving the designated area unless you wish to surrender. If an opponent surrenders, respect it. 
# No one from the outside is allowed to intervene in the fight. If they do, you may press charges of Violation of Employee Rights as well as other charges if applicable. 
# If either dueler breaks the rules, this is to be considered a charge of at battery, assault, attempted murder or murder - depending on circumstances. 


= Leaving the Colony - MOP =
*Every Colonist has the right (but not the access) to leave the colony. As a note, Blackshield has the right and power to deny a colonist leave of the colony if they have reason. Heads of staff are exempt from this unless explicitly said otherwise by either the Blackshield Commander or Warrant Officer.
** This includes the right to return, if you leave as a Colonist you may not be denied entry simply because you left.
*Breaking the Gatehouse or perimeter fence without very good reason is a crime of Infiltration and Sabotage. Other such illegal forms of entering the colony is a crime of infiltration and sabotage, and possibly more depending on circumstances.
*Blackshield may search you on your way out. Blackshield must search you on your way in.
*It is recommmended you comply with Blackshields recommendations before heading out (have some armor/weapon/supplies/suit sensors)
*It is recommended you do not leave alone.
*If Blackshield has to rescue you from any area outside the colony, Blackshield MUST charge you a recovery fee of 800 credits for every person recovered. Remember medical charges may apply as well.

= Lonestar Service =
The service department includes the jobs of Gardener, Cook, Bartender, Janitor and Actor. The service department is a largely independent (except for Janitor) necessity sponsored by Lonestar.
=== Janitor - ROP ===
Your job is very simple, however crucially needed - clean the colony. You are in the second highest income bracket of all colonist - you are expected to do your job.
*Gear up in your Janitor Preparation Room
*Move around the Colony and clean the tiles
*Make sure to put down a wet floor sign BEFORE cleaning the tiles. Try to keep at least one path open at all times for colonists to use without the fear of slipping. Make sure to point at it when someone slips.
*Do not clean crucial areas in use such as the way from the elevator to med bay IF a medical emergency is announced (for example). If you cause issues by doing this you will be charged with Negligence and may be demoted.
*For large messes use a cleaning grenade instead.
*Make an effort to ask for entry into departments to clean them.
*Carry a handgun on you at all times, you move around the most and are likely to spot roaches/spiders during your duty.
*When you have cleaned all areas, you are allowed to go into maintenance and clean up there. As long as you are not needed you may alternatively do whatever you want. If you plan to leave the colony try to be back within the next 30 minutes. If you leave for longer you may be demoted at the discretion of the CEO or other staff, if reported.

=== Kitchen Staff - ROP ===
Your job is to provide various services to the crew. In case of foreign guests, diplomats or emissaries arriving you are also encouraged to cater to their needs and provide whatever services they require. Work together with the CEO and Lonestar Shipping in this regard.
*The Gardener, Cook and Bartender may all work in each others departments as long as no one else works there or they have permission to do so. The CEO may also work in these areas if required, but should try to delegate the work instead.
*For food, it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
*Water is free, and for other drinks it is recommended you charge. It is recommended you take the time to write up a menu. All money made is to be collected and handed to the CEO or transferred to the Lonestar Account.
* Use the following paperwork format for all recipes: [[Example_Paperwork#Lonestar_Service_Receipt]]
*You are encouraged to ask for tips.
*Act professional, always smile!
*Lonestar may provide you with additional resources from the Cargo Department, provided your job is done well. Otherwise you will have to pay with your own credits. This should be decided by the CEO.

=== Artist - ROP ===
* You are a colonist with your own office essentially. Try to entertain people.
* Using your office to commit or hide crimes is a reason to for demotion.

= Lonestar Shipping =
With the Lonestar radio fully repaired, it is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. It cannot be brought out of the department, it cannot be in the Lonestar service areas, such as the bar, janitor's room, or the artist's room. It is to fully remain in Lonestar proper. Whilst colonists that are not members of Lonestar are near, the radio is to remain off if they are in hearing distance of it. Violations of this will result in immediate confiscation and application of law 103 and 106. Commenting on sensitive matters, on public comms or to other departments, can also be a applicable charge of 103 and 106.

Lonestar provides a collection of [[Example Paperwork#Cargo|Example Paperwork for Cargo]] that can be used during a shift. Keep several copies available at all times.

It is recommended you use this at least this format for Orders from the Cargo Console: [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Shipping Reciept v2]] and at least this format for selling your mined materials: [[Example Paperwork#Confirmation Form v2]] as receipts to justify your personal profits and keep an ordered paper trail.

=== Ordering Cargo - ROP ===
Cargo orders are a matter of buying and selling. Cargo will always charge more for a crate than the listed price as a way to make a profit on it. Cargo can sell anything to anyone with the reasonable restriction of needing a paper trail of all orders, receipts, and requests. If someone purchases something that is then used for a crime cargo is not liable if the proper record keeping has been done.

The following steps are needed for a proper order:

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If it has been declined, stamp the request form with the "Denied" stamp, and put it in the file cabinet next to the cargo computer. Inform the customer that their request has been declined, and the reason why. Give the denied customer a copy of the form below, and keep a copy for your own records and paperclip it to the request form that was denied.
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="width:99%">
Cargo Request Denial Record
<div class="mw-collapsible-content"><pre>
[center][b]Lonestar Shipping Solutions, LLC.
[logo]
[large][u]Cargo Request Denial[/u][/large][/b][/center][hr][small][i]To be filled out by cargo personnel handling the request. All sections are required to be filled out.[/small]
[small]A copy of this form should be archived upon denial of any request. The requesting employee whose request was denied is also to be given a copy of this form.[/i][/small]
[b]Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Faction of Requesting Employee:[/b] [field]
[b]Requested Cargo:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Request:[/b] [field]
[b]Reason for Denial:[/b] [field]
[hr][b]Cargo Employee's Signature:[/b]
</pre></div></div>

# If an order is accepted, skip this step. If the order is declined, this is the final step. Open the cargo computer and decline the order if it exists.
# The order has been accepted. Accept the agreed upon payment and open the cargo computer to accept the order, or place the order and accept it if the order does not exist.
# Do not immediately call the cargo shuttle. Confirm with the customer, "Will that be all?" If so, or if they just wander off without confirming this, you may now call the cargo shuttle.
# Wait for the cargo shuttle to arrive. Ask the customer how they would like the cargo delivered. There are three methods of delivery: Pickup, mail, or courier. By default, cargo is pickup. '''Dangerous cargo is ''pickup only''.''' is to be returned to if the order cannot be picked up within 30 minutes of arrival.
# Upon arrival of the cargo, bring all cargo to the center of the cargo bay. You may be dealing with multiple orders from multiple people, so ensure you have sorted the cargo to its correct owner before delivering anything. Leave notes if necessary. '''Do not''' open any crates for any reason unless instructed to do so by the customer.
# Once the cargo is sorted, deliver the cargo using the specified method to the specified location. By default, it is to be sent to the customer's department. Pickup orders are to be kept in the cargo bay (not the lobby) until the customer arrives to pick it up. Mailed orders are to be wrapped and tagged in the mail room and sent through the pipe network to their destination. Courier delivered orders must have a cargo technician bring the order(s) directly to the destination.
# Upon delivery of any order, ensure you are given back the manifest of the order. All cargo technicians are responsible for stamping manifests and returning them to the cargo warehouse.
# If possible, collect the empty crates of any completed orders for return to the cargo warehouse. If you have any stamped manifests, put them in one of these crates.
# Return the shuttle to cargo warehouse.
# You're done! Relax and wait for the next cargo request.

=== Mining - ROP ===
Mining is the section of Lonestar that goes down to the deep tunnels to harvest minerals either through the use of a hand drill or bulk mining drill. Miners are generally equipped with a weapon of their choice and go below ground to run their day to day operations. In addition miners are given an oxygen-supplied voidsuit should they ever become lost underground, the suit even comes with armor for dealing with any dangerous creatures found in the depths.

Miners should always perform these tasks:
* ''Get equipped:'' Miners should at the minimum take a mining satchel, ore scanner, shovel or drill, armored voidsuit, a toolbelt (with at minimum a screwdriver, crowbar, duct tape, and wrench), a weapon, a shortwave hand radio, and basic medical supplies.
* ''Upgrade your tools:'' Miners should consider getting an tool upgrades for their shovel or drill. Miners who use the drill should consider getting an advanced motor, expanded fuel tank, and ergonomic grip. Shovel users should consider an ergonomic grip and whetstone for a sharpened edge and, if possible, a diamond edge.
* ''Bigger, better batteries:'' Miners should see about getting larger and more powerful batteries from either the Prospectors or Soteria if they plan to use the bulk mining drills. The standard batteries within leave much to be desired. Additional batteries are also very useful for optical meson scanners.
* ''Regular maintenance:'' Miners should always bring an ore crate with which they can empty the bulk mining drills to prevent them from grinding to a halt due to being full. Hand tool miners should always use duct tape regularly to maintain and fix their tools so they don't break mid-outing. Be advised, a broken tool cannot be recovered, nor its tool augments.
* ''Stay alive:'' You're no use to the colony or your fellow miners if you bleed out or pass out from injury. A regular medkit, a few tramadol pills, and a single syringe of Dylovene can keep you alive long enough to get back topside for proper treatment.
* ''Communication:'' Always keep in contact with your fellow miners in case you get in trouble and need help. A shortwave radio is a great back up if regular communications go down.

''Miners should never bring their non-pistol weaponry into public colony areas and should leave all contraband weapons in the mining prep area or personnel lockers.''

Upon returning, miners are expected to fill out a [[Example Paperwork#Lonestar Mining Report v2|mineral inventory form]] with an accurate count of all minerals collected. A copy of this form should be provided to the [[Chief Executive Officer]] and filed in the main cargo desk area for easy bookkeeping. This form must be filled out for every shipment of minerals taken up from the deep tunnels separately.

=== Profit Distribution - MOP ===
Lonestar's goal is to make as many credits as possible, although a deal that continues after one transaction is considered more profitable than a one-time deal. Anyone working for Lonestar is generously supplied with a wage for their basic living needs. While promotions are not always possible, every Lonestar employee should have the potential to earn money for both themselves and Lonestar.
* All transactions done by Lonestar offer a 20% commission from the profit margin to any Lonestar employee facilitating the transaction. Example, a cargo tech sells a crate that cost 500 credits, but was able to negotiate the buyer into paying 1000 credits. The profit is 500 credits, 20% of that (100 credits) is then directly claimable by the employee who managed the transaction.
* All service members (bartender, chef, and gardener) may charge whatever prices they see fit for their respective services. Employees are '''recommended''' to charge above 10 credits but no more than 100 credits per drink or food item depending on the difficulty/challenge of fulfilling said order. Service members do not collect a commission for the sale of drinks and food (this is handled with their hourly wages) but are entitled to the full amount of any tips offered and may pocket it at their discretion.
* Trade beacons may be used freely by all lonestar employees using their personal accounts for purchasing or selling goods. Lonestar automatically collects a 20% market fee that is directly removed and then added to the Lonestar account whenever an item is sold through the trade beacon. Lonestar has no service charge, nor tax on goods bought through the trade beacon, only goods sold. Cargo technicians and CEOs with access to Lonestars main account are expected to only use the trade beacon to gain a profit for Lonestar if they are using Lonestars main account.
* Miners receive a 20% commission on all profits generated by the materials they dig up. Since dug up and refined minerals are generally pure profitability, lonestar miners may simply total the complete cost of the materials '''cargo sale value''' and request that commission from any CEO or cargo technician (with the proper paperwork). Alternatively, miners may try to sell the materials to fellow colonist themselves at whatever price they negotiate. As with normal commissions, they may take a 20% cut of all profits generated, but are required to keep paperwork detailing who bought what and for how much (if tools and goods are traded in the place of credits, list the tools innate numerical value).

=== Preserving Lonestar Public Relations And Trade Opportunities - MoP ===

In order to preserve commerce with the trading partners of Lonestar, and prevent possible long-term consequences of company relations on the actions of a bad actor, the CEO and other Lonestar Shipping staff must exercise vigilance in prevention of authorizing fraudulent transactions of credits or goods. And Lonestar Shipping staff, as a whole, must be courteous in regards to existing and potential trade partners in pursuit of the company's interests.

This includes, but is not limited to:
* Exploiting improperly calibrated databases or equipment to profit off of any clearly deceitful business practices to Stations or Ships that trading is conducted with, either by shuttle or trading beacons. This includes permitting or paying third parties to do this in place of Lonestar staff, in which case, the authorizing members of Lonestar Shipping are to be held responsible.
* Should the uncommon occurrence of direct communication be established with existing out of colony trading partners, or a possibly beneficial group of potential Lonestar Shipping's interest, conduct of Lonestar staff should be held to an appropriate standard.

Should an employee of Lonestar be discovered to be acting against Lonestar's interests in either of these cases, they should be charged with §301, negligence. Depending on the context, a short fax to Lonestar regarding the incident may be warranted for potential further actions or punishment at the discretion of the High Council.

== Lonestar and Prospector Relationship - ROP ==
The partnership between Lonestar and the Prospectors is entirely based around the idea of profits. While some access is shared, there is no shared authority between the CEO and Foreman. They are encouraged to work together at all times to maximize profits for both lonestar and the individuals of the prospectors. Lonestar and Prospectors must respect each others areas and equipment at all times. Taking anything from the other department without permission is considered theft. Causing trouble for the other department may be used as a reason for demotion. A CEO can never command the Prospectors or demand anything of them. A Foreman can never command the Lonestar department or demand anything from them.

The following are suggestions for a better working relationship:
* If miners are available, prospectors should never do any mining, however to avoid medical bills and injuries it is highly suggested to bring a prospector along to guard the miner. A prospector is entitled to 10% of the profits just as a miner. This money should be taken from the total made.
* If miners are lacking, other Lonestar-Cargo personnel should be utilized first if avaliable and volunteering for the job. Otherwise a prospector can be used for mining, however they are still only entitled to 10% of the profits.
* CEO and Foreman are encouraged to negotiate prices and how much share each expedition member gets beforehand
* Lacking a head of staff, both faction members are encouraged to temporarily step up as the leader of the faction, take control in these matters. For Lonestar, this only applies to Lonestar-Cargo.
* You are expected to deal with issues among yourselves before faxing Hogg or Ryan. Only fax them if its absolutely necessary.

= Prospector SOP =
===General - MOP===
Overboss Hogg has generously, with the help of Lonestar, sponsored your equipment and place to work to become a self-made man. You are supposed to make profits, while not dying.
* Prospector are encouraged to go in groups to a single destination.
* It is generally advisable to keep track of each others locations in case a colleague requires assistance.
* Salvagers should stock up on medical or engineering supplies, Prospectors should stock up on combat supplies.
* All loot should be divided as seen fit by the members of the group.
* Dying alone outside the colony means you have to pay a recovery fee of 800 credits to Blackshield and may result in your demotion as you are seen unfit for this job - you are supposed to make a profit. Dying is acceptable, dying alone and relying on the boys in black isn't.
* If you are in a group and a member needs to be brought back to the colony due to medical reasons, do so as soon as possible.
* Do not hoard. Sell it. The who or why doesn't matter, just net a profit.
* Comply with the law. Just because you found fancy guns and armor doesn't mean you can suddenly fight the Blackshield or Marshals, they can and will bring the proverbial hammer down on not just you but your entire department.
* Expect to be demoted if you lose a lot of money or get yourself put in hold until transfer.
* Treating or handling medical scenarios in the colony whilst Soteria medical is around is not advised, and more frowned upon.

====Pre-Mission Setup - ROP====
* All weapon-trained crew should be offered the opportunity to arm themselves from prospector supplies or they may bring whatever weapon of choice they decide.
* Non-prospector participants, if given weapons, should be energy based only, such as lasers. (The reason for this is inexperienced personnel often have very poor weapon discipline, so friendly fire is an unfortunate but common occurrence. Laser burns are easier to treat than ballistic trauma while in the field.)
* For safety, the participants should be in sealed pressure suits unless the destination is already known, and confirmed to have a habitable atmosphere.
* The foreman calls the shots, he may or may not order someone to be his second in command, if he does you follow that persons orders as well as his.
* As each team member's loadout is complete, they should wait at prospector prep.

====Mid-Mission Operations - ROP====
* If separated from the group, or in an airless environment, establish communication immediately with other members of the group. If you are unable to re-establish communications, wait where you are for rescue. If you are in danger of running out of oxygen or supplies, move back towards the start of the mission, following any markers that were laid down.
* If the group is scattered for whatever reason, communications and regrouping should be the number one priority.
* Anything valuable should be looted, if its nailed down remove said nails and then steal said nails for good measure. Unusual life forms should be noted, as should the best way to kill them. Bringing the body back may prove worthwhile for Soteria.
* If an expedition participant is injured and needs surgery, they should be evacuated to the colony immediately if field surgery is not possible. The expedition should not proceed unless their role is satisfied by someone else, or they return to continue.

====Post-Mission Debriefing - ROP====
* The returning crew are not to leave the prep room or shuttle hangar until allowed to do so by the foreman, or if the foreman is absent, then by the team leader, or next in command. During this time, participants should be screened for contraband, health, and mental well-being before returning to the rest of the colony.
* If any staff are at risk of health complications such as parasitic life forms, viral infections, insanity, etc, they are to be immediately evacuated to the medical department for treatment. All loot they may or may not have should be left in the hanger or at the gate house.
* Excluding items that the research department wants to study, marshals are to confiscate any contraband discovered during the mission. This does not include weapons or armor, both experimental and mechanized combat units, unless they are capable of causing an explosion or are a threat to the colony itself such as having a heavy radioactive aura. [[Example_Paperwork#Evidence_Log|All items confiscated should be moved to evidence storage and recorded in a evidence log, with a copy of the file given to the foreman.]]
* All weapons taken for the trip that are not considered melee or pistol quality should be returned to the prospectors respective prep area or personal locker.
* Other excess supplies are to be returned to their rightful department.
* A [[Example_Paperwork#Mission_Report|post-mission report]] should be given to the council detailing any unusual discoveries or events. This report is only required under the discovery of unusual artifacts or items, general expeditions within regular perimeters do not require a report but it is recommended.

= Artificers Guild =

=== Setting up Power - MOP ===
The main duty of the Guild is to keep power running to all stations. A Guild Master may choose their preferred method of power generation and a Guild Adept needs to follow those orders. Lacking a Guild Master, a Guild Adept may choose their own way of generating power.
* Solars can be found on the mountain top and outside the colony near the scrap beacon. Usually the Scrap beacon solars are used and set up by the Church, however a Guild Adept may offer to assist or just do it in case they have a Cruciform installed. The mountain solars can be accessed by the elevator in the "engine room"
* The second method is using materials to power the generators in the engine room. This may require some more oversight, but usually generates more power than the Solars.
=== Construction / Repairs - ROP ===
The method of construction and repair changes depending on the goals and orders of the guild master, however, the general rules below should be considered the default operation.

* The area should have all non-guild personnel removed or standing at a safe distance, in particular when working with exposed electrical wire or potentially hazardous equipment.
* In the event the area requires use of a oxygen supplied void suit all exits and entrances should be taped off with engineering tape and covered by inflatable doors or walls. All entry ways used by guild personnel should have two inflatable doors to prevent accidental atmospheric issues, in particular when dealing with fires or gas leaks.
* Each task for construction or repair should be assigned by the guild master to separate each task for timely completion of each project. Example, a fire broke out that burned down several walls, one adept is assigned to fixing the atmos, another is given the task of restoring the walls, and the guild master chooses to weld the damaged floors and remaining walls.

The method and choices of how the guild proceeds is ultimately up to the guild master but the general principles above should be followed. Failure to do so may result in negligence charges.

=== Fire and Environmental Hazards - ROP ===
* Immediate evacuation of all untrained personnel.
* Fire alarms to be used to control hazard.
* The guild master and guild adepts are to remove all materials that could further spread or worsen these hazards before dispatching them.

=== Meteor Storm - ROP ===
* All crew to move to lower levels of the colony.
* Damage is to be repaired by the guild master and guild adepts after the threat has passed.

=== Shield Generator - ROP ===
* The Colony's Shield Generator room is a new addition to the colony's defense systems. It has been established that it will be officially maintained by the Artificer's Guild. Due to this, the Guild has access to this room. All Artificer Engineers are to keep in mind that the shield generator room is considered a high security area, any and all abnormalities or issues regarding it are to be reported to the colony's security forces.
* The generator is to be maintained, on top of the other regular duties that Adepts have. The Guild can choose to ignore doing this, if there's really only one Adept and they have a lot more other pressing matters to handle.
* The shield generator is to be wrenched after shift start, as it starts unwrenched. If not wrenched and anchored, it will not acquire power over the course of the shift. Furthermore, the SMES units inside of the room start empty, and will need their coils changed.
* Be careful with powering the generator, as it can drain the entirety of the network if unmonitored. If one seeks to acquire more power for the generator, requesting the Church to use their biogenerator or utilizing the Guild's generators and equipment to produce more can be done, and is suggested.

= Soteria Biolab Division =
=== The Way Of Soteria ===
Progress is inherent to the goal of the Soteria, the question should never be one of morals or reasoning, but of possibility and potential. Researchers in medical and science are expected to push both the boundaries and limits of what they are capable of. Those who are constrained by the ethics and morality of an experiment will quickly find that the leadership of Soteria does not wish to consider such primitive and foolish concepts.

'''"Progress at any cost."'''

That is the mantra of the Soteria.

===Payment for Treatment - MOP===
Medical does not have unlimited medical supplies and while they are required to treat critical patients there is a limit to the amount resources being given to one person freely. All critical forms of healing such as defibbing, surgery, and use of chemicals '''are free the first time they are given to a single colonist per shift'''. If the treatment is not critical, the colonist may decide to pay instead of receiving free treatment. All situations after that a doctor may charge a patient for treatment should they find themselves getting repeatedly injured. This charge is solely up to the CBO or treating doctors discretion, they may elect not to charge an individual should they believe the person did not put themselves recklessly in danger (accidents do happen), should a patient be unable to pay their medical bills, contact security. Soteria-Science division is subject to this rule as well if no doctors are around.

Corpsman or other medically trained professionals not affiliated with Soteria should utilize their own departmental or personal supplies first, before using Soteria Supplies. If no doctors are present, the supplies may be utilized but should be replaced as soon as possible, this includes using your own personal funds. Otherwise, this constitutes as theft and you may be forced to pay for the replacement.

Prices for Treatment
* Reconstructive surgery and defibbing: 500 credits
* Use of bruise packs, advanced ointment, burn cream, and bandages: 75 credits. This can add up if charges are used or the supplies are entirely used up.
* Use of chemicals made by the chemistry lab: At minimum of 2 credits or maximum 10 credits per unit at discretion of medical staff.
* Use of a sleeper: 150 credits

In the event someone cannot pay prior to treatment, you may refuse treatment, but ''only'' if this is the second time treating them that shift and the doctor in question wishes to charge them. If the person is incapable of declaring intention to pay (they are dead or unconscious) payment is assumed and a debt incurred. Inability to pay the bill after revival by either refusal or lack of funds requires intervention from security (defaulting on medical bills is a crime).

=== Non-Disclosure Policy - MOP ===
All patient records, treatments, therapies, prescriptions, etc, almost anything the medical crew does, is '''not''' to be disclosed to other members of the station outside of Medbay without the (unanimous) permission of (all) the patient(s) directly involved, or the Chief Biolab Overseer. Even marshals, the premier, and council are not allowed to share details of any past or ongoing treatments, and you are not required to inform them should they inquire unless you have the direct consent of the patient.

Warrants and Code Blue (and above) may still grant security access to review autopsies and medical records, but you are not to divulge information directly when questioned about any patients unless overridden by the CBO.

Repeated failure to obey the non-disclosure policy is grounds for termination from the medical department. See [[Example_Paperwork#Dismissal_Order|dismissal forms]].

=== Right to Refuse Treatment - MOP ===
As a patient, to consent to or refuse treatment, you must have the capacity to make that decision. Capacity means the ability to use and understand information to make a decision.

Under colony procedure, all adults are presumed to have sufficient capacity to decide on their own medical treatment, unless there is significant evidence to suggest otherwise.

For consent to treatment or refusal of treatment to be valid, the decision must be voluntary and you must be appropriately informed:
* Voluntary: you must make your decision to consent to or refuse treatment alone, and your decision must not be due to pressure by healthcare professionals, friends, or family.
* Appropriately informed: You must be given full information about what the treatment involves, including the benefits and risks, whether there are reasonable alternative treatments, and what will happen if treatment doesn’t go ahead.

Doctors are authorized to refuse treatment if they believe alternative procedures would be even more detrimental to the well being of the patient (such as refusing anesthetics before a major surgery, which could cause the patient bleed out or go into shock or be harmed by moving during aforementioned surgery). If you have capacity and make a voluntary and appropriately informed decision to refuse a treatment, your decision must be respected. This applies even if your decision would result in your death.

=== Viral Outbreak - ROP ===
* All infected crew to be isolated in Virology or Medbay.
* Sterile masks/Internals and gloves are mandatory for medical personnel and recommended for crew.
* Quarantine must be maintained until outbreak can be contained and disease can be treated.

=== Autopsy - ROP ===
In the event that a deceased individual is discovered, or an individual perishes while under your care, an autopsy should be performed if one has not been done already.
* Security should be informed any time a corpse is discovered, regardless of whether the cause of death is known or not.
* An autopsy should be performed and recorded in an effort to resolve any questions that may arise later on, or if evidence is needed by Security.
* If you have valid reason to believe the death was a suicide, see [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Suicide_or_other_voluntary_death|Suicide or other voluntary death]] below for how to proceed.

=== What is considered 'dead' - MOP ===
Due to how corroded the colonists' opinions have become about death in the upper levels, we'll make it clear on what is considered death.
** When a patient or colonist seizes up then becomes limp, with their eyes both lifeless and dead, then they are considered dead.
** When the health analyzer shows that their overall status is 'Dead', then they are dead, along with corresponding damage to show that they are dead. For example, over two hundred points of kinetic brute damage on their body.
** If they require a defibrillator, then that means they're '''dead'''.
** In regards of FBPs and other alien life, a firm understanding of the alien's biology will help you classify if they are dead or not, specifically in regards of Mycus and Folken. For FBPs, it is situational but if their battery is taken out or if they require specific equipment, then they are considered 'dead' for the time being.
* Zombie powder can mess with these statistics at times, so do consider it from time to time.

=== Suicide or other voluntary death - MOP ===
In '''all''' cases of potential suicides, Security should be contacted to investigate, just in case it's actually murder.

* If they are missing one of the two records, consult their medical records for any indications that they are do not resuscitate.
* If at any time you believe a DNR order has been falsified, or unjustly ordered, you should bring it to the attention of council immediately. Falsifying a DNR order is punishable and is viewed as attempted murder by [[Laws]].
* A valid DNR is usually:
# A confirmed desire to not be revived. See also [[Standard_Operating_Procedure#Right to Refuse Treatment|Right to Refuse Treatment]]. An employee may also specify a standing DNR in their medical and/or employment records. These are witnessed by the soteria biolab office's and are legally binding.
# Reasonable order from a station's chief biolab overseer or council to withhold resuscitation for known suicidal* individuals. Note there must be hard evidence of a suicide for this to be valid, such as announcing the suicide on the radio, or a note left behind, multiple eye witnesses, etc.
# Legal execution by order of the high council and/or tribunal of the acting council as listed under legal code.
# Reviving a proven or unproven suicide (in the case of unproven, suspected suicides should have an autopsy and full investigation before revival), enemies of the colony (unless Council or higher decide otherwise), or a person marked for execution is grounds for a job strike/demotion from medical duties, this includes ranks such as corpsman, salvager, or soteria researchers aiding medical. Reviving someone to ask them if they committed suicide is an automatic and permanent removal from all medical positions indefinitely. Medical records cannot be accessed by Corpsmen or Salvagers, communication is key in informing them of such instances, else they cannot be demoted due to them not having the access to know such information. Reviving a person with a DNR in their medical record can be situational in terms of demoting/job striking medical staff.
# Unless their postmortem says that they're not to be revived in some manner, it is to be assumed to attempt revival before burying, cremating, or putting them in the morgue.

===Medical Structure - MOP ===
The Chief Biological Overseer is the boss of the department. After that, each respective job has its own authority in different matters but doctors and psychiatrists do not have authority over orderlies or paramedics, and vice versa. They are expected to work together and handle their duties to the best of their capabilities.

===Medical Paperwork - ROP ===
* [[Example_Paperwork#Prescription_Form|Prescription Forms]]
* [[Example_Paperwork#Autopsy_Report|Autopsy Reports]]

= Soteria Research Division =
=== Marshals and Blackshield - MOP ===
With the truth of Soteria being responsible for the Hivemind's creation now fully revealed, the Marshals and Blackshield have been given absolute authority to fully stop any experiments that can be considered 'dangerous' or 'unusual'. While the terms are broad, this does not mean they can shut down any and all experiments, only the ones that pose more danger and consequences for those other than the researchers conducting them. For example, they can shut down experiments with bluespace due to how dangerous they can become due to the incredible instability of bluespace. Researchers attempting to conduct experiments barred by the Marshals or Blackshield can be charged with a crime.
=== Cyborg Handling - MOP ===
* In cases where [[Identifying_Antagonists#AI_Malfunction|Cyborgs are confirmed to be malfunctioning]], the cyborg shell may be detonated if attempts to contain and lock down the malfunctioning unit are unsuccessful or deemed too dangerous by acting Soteria Institute Overseers.
* Cyborgs that are illegally modified should be remotely locked down. If unable to locked down, its sensors should be overloaded with a flash or controlled EMP and its actuator or cell should be removed before resorting to detonation.
* In cases where destruction of the Cyborg is necessary, the acting CRO must fax a report to the High Council.
* Unwarranted or illegal destruction of a Cyborg or AI count as [[Laws#Exceptional_Offenses|Sabotage]].
* Cyborgs are Soteria Institue property, and are expected to be maintained and upgraded by the institute where applicable.

=== Changing Silicon Laws - ROP ===
* In code blue or higher situations no head of staff (barring the CRO) is to enter the AI Upload or AI Core unless accompanied by at least one other head of staff, or at least one officer if no other heads of staff are available. The AI Upload and AI Core are explicitly off-limits to all other personnel.
* In all other situations, two Heads of Staff are recommended, but not necessary. The Chief Research Overseer and Chief Biolab Overseer are exempt from these rules and may enter at will on all code levels. If both the CRO and CBO agree to modify AI laws, they may do so on any code level.

=== Waiver Clause - MOP ===
* Any sapient crew members who volunteer for experimentation '''must''' [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|sign a waiver]] absolving the scientist of all responsibility for any injuries, deaths, or associated damage to the individual, regardless of the purpose of that experiment. Failure to obtain a waiver will result in a 'negligence' charge for the test subject and for any involved Soteria personnel.

=== Toxin Laboratory Procedure - ROP ===
* Internals are required at all time while inside labs.
* During the mixing process, an explosive ordnance disposal suit is to be worn at all times.
* When the mixing process is complete, the mixing chamber is to be vented using the pipe disposal system.
* All detonations are to be announced over public comms with a countdown, and must be detonated at a designated location.

=== Genetics Research - ROP ===
With the new genetics technology and lab in place, the genetics field has changed drastically for Nadezhda. The following procedures are to be followed at all times. Failure may result in legal action.

Genetic cloning:
* Armed and preferably combat trained personnel are to be present when cloning dangerous creatures.
* Always ensure that the containment pens are in perfect condition and, if cloning extremely dangerous creatures, reinforced if possible.
* Soteria researchers are able to genetically clone any and all creatures save for the Hivemind and the Leviathan class entities: Xenomorph Queen, the Kaiser roach, and the Reaper spider. The Croaker lord, while a Leviathan class entity, is excluded and can be freely cloned. The Marshals and Blackshield have the power to shut down cloning experiments on specific creatures if they are believed to be too dangerous.
** When it comes to genetically cloning the Leviathan class entities, permission must be sought from the CRO or CBO, who will inform the rest of the Council or necessary security forces that it will be occurring. If neither are on duty, permission can be acquired from the Council.
* If cloning subjects escape pens and enter public colony areas, the scientist responsible for their creation is liable for all damages (property, colonists, etc) caused. The Soteria department can choose to pay for their employees' fines, but that is at the discretion of the CBO or CRO.

Genetic Experimentation:
* All colonists subject to testing must have a [[Example_Paperwork#R.26D_Testing_Waiver|written and signed waiver]] with a stamp from the Chief Research Overseer, Chief Biolab Overseer, or Premier (in order of preference). Failing the presence of any of those, a signature from the researcher and patient will suffice.
* Soteria can reach out for volunteers from anyone within the colony, even outsiders. Those that volunteer and sign the waiver are to understand that what happens to them genetically may not be temporary, and negative traits acquired from genetic splicing can occur.
* Individuals coming to Soteria for specific genetic splices are to both sign a waiver and pay Soteria for services. If an individual supplies their own creatures containing their desired trait, a discount of up to 50% depending on the creatures and their lethality may be applied.
** Prices for genetic splicing vary depending on what trait is desired but can go from 500 credits to 1,500, depending on the gene's rarity and availability. It can also be 'free' if the patient is willing to be experimented on in regards to that trait.
* All individuals that are released while genetically enhanced are to be documented by Soteria, with copies sent to the Marshals in the event that said individual commits a crime.
* Most genetic genes are legal to have and do not require one to go through additional steps to acquire. However, there are some genetic traits that are deemed illegal by the colony's standards.
** The following genes are considered illegal and require additional steps to be followed in order to acquire permission to use: All forms of cloaking, EMP blast, and X-RAY. Failure to secure permission from the Marshals before splicing these traits will result in the automatic shut down of the genetics lab for the rest of the shift, and the arrest of scientists that took part. Other illegal traits may be added in the future.
** The HULK gene is absolutely forbidden unless code Delta has been engaged.
** The Warrant Officer can clear the use of these genetic traits, so long as they're given a proper reason and the appropriate paperwork is filled out, and both Blackshield and Marshals are informed of it by the WO themselves. The Blackshield Commander can situationally authorize their use for colony defense and operations only, so long as those genetically enhanced by their authority have the genetic traits wiped by Soteria at the end of the operation. The WO can overrule this if they have sufficient reason to. The Provost Marshal or Brigadier can be faxed in regards of this to give a final ruling but if it proves to be time wasting, then a charge may be applied.
* In the instance that a genetically enhanced colonist is arrested by Marshals, Soteria is to provide the Marshals with a purger to fully wipe out their genetic enhancements. Soteria is not responsible for what colonists do after they legally go through the process of getting themselves genetically modified. Marshals and Blackshield may bar a colonist from receiving further genetics work, depending on their attitude, behavior, or past criminal activities while genetically modified. For example, they can tell Soteria to not give John Doe further genetic splicing as he used those acquired traits to break into Lonestar to break and steal Lonestar merchandise and property.

=== Medical Treatment - MOP ===
* If there are no Soteria medical staff available the Science Division may help out in the treatment center. Corpsmen should not be the first to respond before Science, nor should they be utilizing the Soteria medbay when there is science on shift.
* Roboticists, who are expected to be trained in surgery, are preferred over Scientists
* All Medical SOP applies to the Science Division when they are acting in the capacity of medical.

= Marshals =
=== Relevant Terminology ===
* '''The Brig''': The part of the station used to detain those who violate the colony's [[Laws]].
* '''Robust''': As an adjective; able to withstand or overcome adverse conditions. As a verb; slang for viciously assaulting someone. Often used as a compliment in both cases.
* '''Shitcurity''': Slang for describing a marshal officer who unnecessarily or illegally exercises their authority in order to inflate their ego, or a marshal officer who simply doesn't follow standard operating procedure.
* '''Lethals''': Weapons designed for or able to switch to configurations intended for lethal force.
* '''Non-lethals''': Weapons that are not designed to be used lethally, and instead are meant to incapacitate suspects with little or no injury.
* '''Use of Force''': Either lethal or non-lethal, this is the use of weapons to incapacitate a suspect. You may be told at times to use lethal force, or non-lethal force, depending on circumstance. By default, non-lethal force is preferred.
* '''Shoot-to-Stun''': Using non-lethals, incapacitate the target in order to handcuff or otherwise subdue them without injury. Although the term is ''shoot''-to-stun, stun batons, pepper spray, and flashers all fall under this category when talking about engagements with suspects.
* '''Shoot-to-Disable''': Incapacitate a target by injuring them too badly to continue fighting. In the case of mechs, damaging the mech until the pilot bails out or the vehicle is unusable/destroyed.
* '''Shoot-to-Kill''': Using lethal weapons, engaging a target until the target is neutralized. This doesn't actually mean you ''have'' to kill the target (contrary to the term), but the weapons employed may very well kill the target whether you want to or not. Even in Shoot-to-Kill scenarios, you should still attempt to provide immediate medical attention and revive them once they are otherwise safely subdued and the combat is over.
* '''Armed''': Possessing weapons or anything being used as a weapon even if that is not its intended purpose (such as a crowbar). This includes non-lethals, and even basic tools if being used to assault someone.
* '''Contraband''': Anything that is stolen or illegal to possess by anyone aboard the crew. For example, insulated gloves and multitools are not considered contraband on their own, but if they were stolen from the Engineering department, they qualify as contraband.

=== Confiscated Weapons & Evidence - MOP ===
* Confiscated weapons seized as evidence of a crime or seized from those who commit Suspicious Conduct (108) are to remain in evidence lockers after confiscation from the offender. A record is to be made of the gun’s model and serial number on the arrest case-file or incident report.
* During a state of emergency, such as code blue or higher, a Warrant Officer or Supply Specialist may issue guns confiscated as evidence to security personnel to defend the colony. Paperwork should be done listing the officer using the weapon, the name of the colonist the weapon was taken from, and the serial number. After the end of the emergency the gun must be returned to evidence.
* Evidence in any previous or ongoing arrest '''must not''', under any circumstances, be broken down for materials or otherwise destroyed. Doing so may result in Providing False Evidence or Testimony (303) charges.
** Contraband collected that is not involved in an arrest may be broken down however as it is not evidence of a crime.

=== Rules of Engagement - MOP ===
* On code green all arrests the warrant must be authorized by either the premier, warrant officer, supply specialist, or ranger to be considered valid. In the absence of all the stated jobs a marshal officer may use his own signature and fax the high council should he do so. A physical arrest warrant should be signed and filled out before the arrest is made but is not required to. It is, however, required to be filled out within a reasonable and fashionable amount of time. Failure to have a warrant physically on file within a determined reasonable time, typically described as either by the time the prisoner leaves the brig or at least towards the end of their time, the officer may be fined, charged and/or potentially fired for multiple violations of the colony's Laws. It is recommended that should an officer wait to fill out an arrest warrant they should fill it out after the suspect is either let go due to not being charged or sitting in a cell serving their time.
** Note that this only applies to arrest warrants. Search warrants are required to be written, signed or stamped, before the search is conducted. Failure to do so will result in all charges being dropped.
** The Warrant Assist program may be used to place warrants and act upon them; but paperwork should always be done within the aforementioned 'reasonable time'. This may vary case to case; such as on lower crimes or fines as either a low timer or no timer at all may be issued. But word of thumb is that an officer should have paperwork for an arrest finished by the time the suspect is leaving the brig after the average duration of a major/exceptional offense timer.
* During an investigation, two or more witnesses are preferred, but in situations where only one is present an investigator may rule that the sole witness is an impartial one. Under this scenario, if the investigator believes a sole witness/arresting officer has no bias and is completely impartial, they may treat their sole testimony as valid evidence. The investigator/arresting officer may do this with their own witness testimony as well, if they observe a crime being committed. Under all circumstances, the person being arrested may request the impartial witness be reviewed, either by the investigators superiors (in the event of officers to rangers to warrant officers) or someone meant to be impartial like a head of staff, premier, or steward.
* When confronting a suspect for any green paragraph crime, you must offer the suspect a chance to pay a fine. If the fine is paid, they are not to be arrested, detained, or searched unless otherwise specified by [[Laws]]. The fine is to be turned in to the warrant officer or supply specialist. If the fine is refused, they are to be arrested.
* Calling for backup over a level 1 crime is usually considered a waste of resources. Two officers should be enough.
* When arresting or fining a suspect, they are to be informed of their right to pay a fine (if applicable) and their right to have their case reviewed by the premier, or lack there of, any member of the council willing to do so by volunteer. If there is no one capable of reviewing their case, they may still attempt to appeal on their own. Regardless of what type of appeal is made, the suspect is still to be punished until the punishment expires or the appeal passes. (See [[Standard Operating Procedure#Appeals|Appeals]] for details.)
* Refusal of handcuffs does not constitute resisting arrest, as per [[Laws]] §202. If a suspect refuses handcuffs and is being arrested, but is cooperative, they are to be escorted by, preferably, no less than two armed security personnel to the brig. Attempting to cuff a compliant subject is considered a §117 volition of employee rights, the subject may resist the initial cuffing but should not flee else they will be charged with §202 resisting arrest. Any security personnel who use violence as a means to restrain and cuff an otherwise compliant colonist for resisting the initial cuffing is to be charged with §112 excessive force of detainment.
** If you cannot handcuff someone that requires cuffs, such as they are using a deployed hardsuit or have a missing hand, you must warn them at least three times to comply with the arrest. If they continue to refuse after the third warning is given marshal personnel and only marshal personnel may break their legs. '''In the event the suspect dies from this the officer is not liable and cannot be charged with any crime provided he gave three verbal warnings and has at least one witness to attest to this. As always, marshal officers should use the absolute minimum amount of force to get the subject to comply and should a higher ranking officer deem excessive force was used, you can and will be charged.'''
** If, in the event you are dealing with an unruly subject who is immune to most forms of non-lethal stuns (such as a cht'mant) the use of eye-based stuns are recommended. If the cht'mant (or other individual) refuses to comply and is wearing eye covering the use of other disabling methods are allowed (such as flashbangs or table slams). In the event said individual is refusing to comply and armed, shoot to kill is authorized, but caution must be taken to ensure they may be cuffed and revived in medical. Rendering the body unrevivable is considered murder.
* A suspect attempting to flee, or assault another crew member, is authorized shoot-to-stun.
* When confronting an armed suspect, always call for additional backup, preferably prior to the engagement. If the suspect draws a weapon, already has a weapon in their hands, or has used a weapon already, use of force is immediately authorized and you are not required to announce intentions to arrest until after they are subdued.
* If a suspect uses a mech to resist arrest, shoot-to-kill is authorized. Deployment of barricades and use of flipped tables for cover is also advised to create choke points where security can fire upon the target.
* If a suspect is green, screaming, and able to punch down walls, they're probably affected by the hulk gene from genetic manipulation, and if they exist without an ongoing emergency where such muscle is needed or the CBO did not directly inform Security in advance, a 'hulk' outside of medbay or research is shoot-to-kill. Unlike most shoot-to-kill scenarios where the actual killing part is a matter of option and circumstance, there is no way to safely contain a hulk in prison, so if you are forced to confront one, continue engagement until the target is deceased.
* If a suspect escapes the colony, shoot-to-kill is authorized for any personnel within the marshals or blackshield who go out to pursue. Scoped rifles and GPS devices are recommended for the pursuit, as are mechs. Additionally, the blackshield should be informed so they may watch station access points and various outposts to guard them. The marshals may request fire support from the blackshield to aid in hunting down and killing the suspect.
* During Code Delta, any noncompliance from staff is to be met with lethal force.
* For secure areas, see below for specific rules of engagement.
* In terms of dealing with genetically enhanced colonists, Blackshield or Marshals can switch to lethals if they are too problematic to take down by normal means (EMP blast takes out tasers, they are incapable of feeling pain due to a specific strain, capable of cloaking and avoiding them, etc).

=== Secure areas - MOP ===
* In code green, secure areas like the AI core, research server room, telecommunications, bridge, all armories (security, bridge, and church) etc, should never be blocked. Use of deployable barriers to block areas during code green is considered illegal under [[Laws]] §307. Trespassing in these areas is covered under §309 or 508.
* All armories are considered secure areas and have their own section SOP.
* The AI sometimes likes to bolt itself in even during code green. It is not supposed to do this. If the AI bolts its self in, request the AI to unbolt the doors, citing Standard Operating Procedure. If the AI does not comply, ask the research overseer or premier to try reasoning with it. If it still does not comply, it is up to the staff in charge of overseeing the AI how to proceed, usually by changing laws. Unauthorized personnel discovered attempting to breach the AI core are shoot to kill.
* The research server room has a variety of sensitive information. Unauthorized personnel in this location are to be captured, searched, and interrogated before being charged and sentenced.
* The brig is considered a high security area. Unauthorized personnel attempting to break in, or any "Hold until Transfer" inmates attempting to break out, are both shoot to kill.
* The telecomms is a highly sensitive area that provides vital communications among the crew and to the high council, thus any unauthorized personnel who have accessed the control room are shoot-to-kill.

=== Criminal Processing - ROP ===
See [[Laws]] for rules that carry fines or brig time. Breaking standard operating procedure is not punishable by law, but if an accident or fatality occurs for violating it, see [[Laws]] §206.

Criminal processing should not take more than a few minutes at most. Don't needlessly waste time with additional questioning and interrogation until they're already properly arrested. Detained prisoners are the responsibility of the arresting officer or, if one volunteers, another officer, the supply specialist, or the warrant officer.

'''''The time you took for bringing the suspect in and the time you spend questioning are NOT to be calculated into this. This is the pure time someone spends in a cell staring at the wall.'''''

Upon arrest of a criminal, follow the following steps.

# State the main reason for their arrest, even if you have already. This is not required, but it's good practice.
# Bring the suspect to Security Processing. If paying a fine will replace jail time, offer them the chance to pay the fine before proceeding. This is assuming they have not paid the fine already and had to be handcuffed in the first place. If the fine is paid, skip to the final step. Otherwise, continue.
# Search the individual for contraband and question them as necessary. Empty pockets, remove accessories such as webbing off their uniform, check their PDA for stolen/illegal cartridges, check their headset for illegal/stolen encryption cards, check their shoes for knives, check anything and everything that could contain items. If contraband or stolen property is found, charge them accordingly. See [[Laws]] for details. Anything else ''not'' considered contraband but still may compromise the security of the cell (such as a chef's kitchen knife, or an engineer's tools) should also be temporarily confiscated and returned after the sentence is served.
# The warrant officer, or if one is not present, a ranger should determine the validity of any charges based upon evidence gathered or witnesses present. Example, a marshal officer says he saw a prospector break a window and the prospector says it was broken when he found it. The window is indeed broken, but the one witness is not enough and the prospector may be telling the truth. Best judgement is advised.
# Calculate sentencing based on the total charges. '''Multiple instances of the same offense counts in this case.''' For example, if a suspect stole three items, you cannot charge them theft three times. If they have already been arrested for the same crime during that shift, follow [[Laws#Modifiers_.26_Special_Situations|the laws on special circumstances]].
# Update the prisoner's security records accordingly. Set their status to "Imprisoned".
# Return the prisoner's PDA and headset to their person. If you cannot provide them with their original headset and PDA for suspected security reasons, you must provide at least a basic headset and a temporary PDA. All prisoners are entitled to some kind of communication device unless the privilege is abused, or the device is evidence for a crime (such as a PDA with incriminating logs).
# Follow security privacy laws, and inform those that need to be informed, depending on the severity of the crime. You have no authority to demote anyone.
# Escort the prisoner to their cell, preferably with another officer to aid you. Bring any of their belongings that you did not confiscate.
# Find a vacant cell and buckle the prisoner to the bed. If the sentence is longer than 10 minutes, they are required to wear an orange jumpsuit and shoes, so change their clothes if needed.
# Put all of their belongings (besides communication) that are not evidence for a crime into the cell's locker, which will lock automatically when you start the timer.
# Set and start the timer. The door will close and the locker will be locked.
# Enter the cell with a flash at the ready and remove the prisoner's handcuffs. If possible, have a second officer present to help. It is unlawful to leave a prisoner restrained in a cell unless in solitary confinement.
# Ensure someone is monitoring the prison area for the duration of the prisoner's sentence, or at least be there when it ends.
# Wait for the sentence to expire. Proceed to final step once it has expired.
# Return all temporarily confiscated goods.
# Allow the prisoner to leave Security. Set the prisoner's status to "released" or "patrolled" depending on their conviction or there lack-of.

=== Prisoner Expectations ===
As a prisoner, you are expected to abide by certain standards. Failure to obey will result in further punishment such as solitary confinement or more brig time.
* If you are incarcerated, do not attempt escape.
* Irritating officers for amusement is a generally poor idea. Refrain from repeatedly banging upon windows.
* Attempts at suicide will be met with solitary confinement. (( Also probably a server ban. ))
* If you feel you have been unjustly incarcerated, contact the supply specialist, the warrant officer, premier, or a willing council member (in that order of first to last) to appeal your case.

=== Prisoner Rights - MOP ===
As a prisoner, you are entitled to certain rights under any circumstance, regardless of the nature of your crimes.
* All prisoners are entitled to a swift processing when being arrested and put into the brig. Longer than 1/2 of their sentence is considered a violation of this right so long as the prisoner is cooperating.
* All prisoners are entitled to medical examination and aid if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to speak to the premier or volunteer council member for legal defense if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to food and water if requested.
* All prisoners are entitled to be provided with clothing--preferably the standard orange prisoner jumpsuit and orange shoes.
* All prisoners are entitled to safe and reasonable cell accommodations such as functional lighting, a place to sleep, and access to the brig's communal area if serving a sentence longer than 20 minutes.

=== Executions - MOP ===
* The prisoner is informed of their punishment, and allowed to decide how they die (within reason). Suggested options include lethal injection, firing squad, plasma gassing, or, in rare cases, melee fights to the death.
* The prisoner is to be granted a final request (within reason, because obviously "let me go" or "kill this dude for me" isn't reasonable).
* The prisoner is given their last meal.
* The prisoner is escorted to the execution location under heavily armed guards, bound in a straight jacket and leg cuffs. Escorting officers are armed to kill. Lethal injections are done in medbay surgery room under supervision of a doctor, firing squad is done on the shooting range, gassing is done in toxins or a room is built by engineering, etc.
* It is required for the premier and at least three council members to be present, or an execution may not proceed.

= Armory =
There are four armories on the colony. The first is the general armory, owned by the Marshals, north of the Security Lobby. The second is the Church's Armory found in the Prime's private department. The third is the command armory, behind the private rooms of the Steward and Premier. The fourth is the Blackshield armory to the west of the Blackshield's triage room. Unless you have access, are invited, or otherwise specified, anyone in the armory is Shoot-to-Kill excluding the Premier/Steward who may have a reason to break SOP. If this is found to be untrue, proceed with an arrest and legal ramifications.
The Church Armory is only accessible by the Prime. This is only to be accessed during serious threats to the colony or church and can only be handed out to members of the church. Not following this SOP for good reason is grounds for demotion and church-related consequences.
The Command Armory is only accessible by the Premier and Steward. Stewards should arm up with their preferred guns at this location, premiers may do so. Weapons should generally not be handed out, unless the other armories are not avaliable or guns are missing. Guns from this armory should be handed out primarily to other heads of staff first.

=== Marshal Armory - MOP ===
The Marshal armory is divided into two sections - the public shop area and the storage area. Everything in the room behind the shop is the storage area. The shop has two sections, the secure area behind the windows that allows access to the display cases and front-room storage, and that of the public area in front of the desk and on the non-windoor side of the display cases. Unless asked to leave or banned from the armory shop, the public shop area is publicly accessible to anyone providing the blast doors are open. Any colonist may buy, sell or trade with the appropriate authorities there. Behind the desk is considered, similar to the armory, a secure area.
* In regards to the storage area of the armory, the Supply Specialist is the controller of the armory. They are a Marshal. When it comes to the armory, their word is law. They are responsible for handing out weapons, keeping everything stocked and inventoried, and running the shop. While the Warrant Officer, Commander and Sergeant may have access, the Supply Specialist is to be respected. If they tell you to leave, you leave. Failure to comply leaves you open to legal ramifications such as abuse of powers, grand trespass or other charges that may be levied.
* In case of a weapon request from Marshals/Blackshield, the Supply Specialist must always utilize paperwork that determines what was removed from the Armory. The weapon that gets replaced should also be noted on the paperwork and handed in with all ammo.
* In case of selling items from the armory, the Supply Specialist should keep a receipt on what item(s) were sold and how many credits were made. Any loans to the individual Marshals or the Blackshield department should likewise be recorded on a receipt for record-keeping purposes.
* If no Supply Specialist is present or available, the rank order of ownership goes to the Warrant Officer. If no Warrant Officer is present a CO, Sergeant or Premier may access the armory but only in exceptional situations; such as the need to arm other Marshals in an emergency situation. The marshal armory is not a play-thing.
* Under normal circumstances no equipment should be handed out for free to non-marshal department staff.
* In a Code-Red scenario, the armory should be fully utilized and weapons should be handed out to Marshal officers first, volunteers of Blackshield second and colonists last. These should be returned when the crisis is over or else the individual may face legal consequences. Abusing access, authority or carelessly using the resources is a reason for demotion under charges 411 or 508; depending on circumstances.
* The Department Account is trusted to the Supply Specialist to use, as well as the Warrant Officer and Blackshield CO. All personnel in these positions are trusted to use the finances responsibly to upgrade or equip the department as required. This may include purchasing weapons, allowing loans for equipment, and so on for members of the Marshal and Blackshield department.

=== Blackshield Armory - MOP ===
Similar to the Marshal armory, the Blackshield armory consists of two parts. The barracks room, containing the lathe and ammo, and the secure armory back room. The front room is considered to be a normal Blackshield room that can be accessed by Blackshield personnel as needed. The secure armory behind the blast doors is the Blackshield armory, being considered a secure room - just as the Marshal armory is.
* The Blackshield armory can be accessed by both the CO and the Sergeant, holding specialized armaments and ammunition for field actions. This gear is there to be issued when required for combat purposes or in cases of emergency. All gear within it should only be issued to Blackshield personnel and should be returned to the armory at the end of the shift.
* While the Premier, Marshal WO and Supply Specialist have access to the Blackshield armory they are not to use said access unless in an emergency situation or upon the request of Blackshield personnel over security concerns. Even when accessed by either person the issued equipment may not be issued to anyone but Blackshield personnel. Violation of this can result in either 411 or 508 charges levied against the offender.
* The Blackshield armory falls under the jurisdiction of the CO. If no CO is present, authority over the Blackshield armory falls to the Sergeant. The CO may also delegate authority over the issuing of gear from the armory to the Sergeant.
* Equipment from the Blackshield armory may be loaned to the Marshals by a CO with paperwork. All equipment must be returned unless traded for gear of equal value and usage or greater. Otherwise no sales or loans of Blackshield armory gear should occur.

= Blackshield =
=== General Duties - MOP ===
The duties of the Blackshield are first and foremost the protection of the colony and its citizens above all else. The Blackshield is on standby in the event of, but not limited to, pirate attacks, hostile dangerous fauna sightings, disappearance of the prospector team members or colonists, disappearance of mining team members, or the presence of hostiles groups such as excelsior, smugglers, or a hivemind.

The Blackshield is '''heavily recommended''' to guard the surface level of the colonies main gate at all times and should inspect all incoming and out going traffic. All exiting people should be recorded in a gate log with the time, name, and rank of the person noted down. A photograph is optional but not required. All returning colonists should be noted down in the same log in a new entry before being allowed to declare any contraband items they may have found outside the colony walls. After all contraband is declared and forfeited that are to be searched for any remaining contraband. Finding anything the searched person didn't announce is considered valid grounds to charge them with a §106 or §206 depending on the severity of the item in question.

[[Example_Paperwork#Gate_Log|Gate log forms can be found here. All people entering and exiting should be logged on a new line each time.]]
* The Form should show the name of the individual or group members leaving, their intended designation and a rough estimate of their return time.
* If a colonist lacks equipment such as armor, weapons or refuses to put on suit sensors, this should also be noted.

All Blackshield members should adhere to these procedures.
* All Blackshield staff must be armed with a minimum one long-arm (rifles,shotgun,ect) or short-arm (smg,saw-off,ect) type weapon, one pistol type weapon, and one deadly melee weapon. Blackshield members are required to have at least two magazines worth of lethal quality ammunition for any weapons they carry and may choose to carry non-lethal.
* All Blackshield staff may request a different weapon from the armory. They have to respect the authority of the Supply Specialist if one is available. If not, the Warrant Officer is the highest authority of the Armory followed by the Commander and then Sergeant. An armory request form has to be filled out and if a Commander or Sergeant is available, approved by them first via signature or stamp. A request may be refused at anytime for any reason.
* All Blackshield staff are required to carry, either on their person or within their bag, one suit of body armor and one helmet.
* Blackshield staff under no circumstance during code green should loan their equipment, munitions, or weapons out to any colonist, including the marshals unless during a code blue or higher scenario.
* Blackshield staff are authorized and encouraged to act as members of security if no marshals are present on site. If marshals are present however, they should provide support only when asked. They may make arrests, investigate crimes, or detain criminals even during code green as required. When Blackshield staff members act as a member of the marshals, all orders, even from a standard officer, must be obeyed and take priority even over the Blackshield commander.

===General Guidelines - MOP===
* Calling non-Blackshield ‘Civilian’ or ‘Citizen’ is derisive and is to be avoided. Blackshield is a militia, and in no way is above another colonist outside of their assigned role, '''this is not a military'''.
* You are serving in the Blackshield to serve the colony. In most circumstances, this goes hand in hand with your own goals, however there is nothing stopping you from playing like any other colonist.
* Remaining calm in challenging circumstances will reinforce a professional appearance, however there is room for leeway in regards to how you handle these situations. So long as a situation is handled with minimal casualties, the situation is handled.
* The past of members of Blackshield is irrelevant. Whether criminal, prior military, pirate, machine, or ghost, all members of the militia are given equal opportunity for advancement and acceptance so long as they prove competent during training, and during their assigned daily tasks. Volunteers additionally are given equal opportunity to be accepted.
* Orders from the Commander and Sergeant, in that order, are to be followed where possible, unless doing so breaks the law. If either the Commander or the sergeant gives you an order you cannot follow without breaking the law, telling them clearly that you can not follow that order is better than making a scene.
* The Premier and the Steward hold no authority over any department, and as such their orders hold no weight. However, if they give you a suggestion that is in good faith and advisory, it may be wise to listen to them. However, they may be requested to vacate any area within the Blackshield sector, or the Gatehouse, at the attending Marshal's or Blackshield's preference. They may also, at the behest of a Corpsman, Sergeant, or Commander, be asked to remain off the Blackshield Channel.
* Other command staff may be designated as someone acceptable to take orders from below the Sergeant within specific circumstances. For example, the Chief Research Overseer may be designated as a temporary superior if providing security at a dig site.
* Members of the Blackshield may use and customize their firearms or weaponry as they desire, using whatever energy, projectile, and melee weapon they desire. In the case of better or more fitting non-standard equipment existing within the armory, Blackshield personnel may request better armaments from the Supply Specialist and/or Blackshield Commander within reason. (Such as exchanging out standard-issue 7.5 boltgun for a .257 Kalash, .35 Bullpup, or any other weapon that is considered carbine-sized or above).
* Blackshield equipment cannot be sold without facing legal ramifications. If you want new equipment, either through purchase or requisition, return your prior equipment to your locker, or to the Armory if requesting equipment from there.
* '''Important:''' Blackshield are not allowed to mine within the Gulag or utilize its equipment or machinery for any reason, as it is a location for convicted prisoners or debt defaulters to work. This '''cannot''' be overruled by the Blackshield Commander under any circumstances. Marshals will charge the Blackshield that misuse the Gulag with 301, Negligence. Demotions might be issued out if it is a continued issue, either by the Commander or the Brigadier.
* Most importantly, the purpose and jobs of Blackshield are to mainly handle external (At only the gates, perimeter, and beyond those) matters, not internal. Choosing to do Marshal work when there are '''active''' Marshals working on said matters is already covered and can result in charges/fines. For Corpsmen and medical, the duties of the Corpsmen are strictly for Blackshield and external situations. Under most circumstances, a Corpsman should not be actively providing medical aid inside of the colony whilst there are medical staff on duty. Appropriate charges/fines can and will be placed, however, if there are no active Marshals to carry that out, then Medical will null the entirety of Blackshield's right to free treatments, and proceed to thusly charge '''all''' of Blackshield.

===Gate Operations - MOP===
Due to close contact with Prospectors and other personnel, as well as being the main entrance to the colony, the Gate and the Fence are important to protect, patrol, and operate around. The gate is also the one place where the Blackshield retains full law enforcement authority.

When manpower is available (3-4 active (Non-SSD) Blackshield staff), the gatehouse is to be manned by at least one Blackshield member in exemption for combat operations or breaks, which in the case of breaks should be within a reasonable amount of time.

Calls for gate operation should be answered and handled in a timely fashion.

Marshals can be requested to fill in for temporary periods of time in the case of external operations or training.

The gate is to remain bolted on both sides at all times when troopers are present. When people arrive, unlock the side they are on and allow them to come through, then bolt the door again to allow them to be searched without fear of their running away.

All command staff, '''barring the Warrant Officer, Steward, and Premier''', are authorized to depart the colony of their own volition and have access to the doors as a result.
Non-command staff, barring Prospectors and Marshals, have no access to the gates. They should be allowed through if they wish to leave.
When individuals are leaving the gate, bound for the forest, they are not necessary to search and it’s advisable to not search them unless there’s reasonable suspicion of contraband. Notify them that they will be searched on return, however.

For proper logging, a trooper, corpsman, or sergeant is to ask that the individual show their ID, state their destination, and for medevac purposes, are to turn on their suit sensors to maximum if they are not already on. Colonists leaving the colony '''alone''' are to be informed that if Blackshield is to perform a medevac to rescue the colonist, that a 800 credit fee will be incurred immediately and paid to a Blackshield member. The cost of used medical supplies and ammunition is not included in the 800 credit medevac fee, and additional charges may be accrued for their use. A colonist cannot be charged a medevac bill if they were retrieved right from the middle of the gates by Blackshield, nor right in front of them.
If a colonist, prospector, etc, fails to properly follow these three simple requests, Blackshield can deny them their right to leave the colony on these grounds (Hunters are exempt from this). The only ones that cannot be denied are command staff. Only orders by Marshals, the Sergeant, and the Blackshield Commander can keep command staff from leaving, so long as there is a reason behind them.

On returning, all individuals must be searched. '''This includes the Commander, Warrant Officer, other Blackshield, and other Marshals.''' A full search is authorized from the start, including the bag, pockets, wallets, boxes, and other storage items. If they refuse to comply, cuffing them for the search is authorized.
If contraband is found in the bag, detainment is authorized and the individual must be requested, first, to voluntarily allow cuffing. If they refuse, forced cuffing is authorized.
After detainment and a full search, alert the Marshals to the detainment, move the individual to the gate cell, and await arrival of the Marshals to allow them to take custody of the individual.
If the individual in question with contraband is a member of Blackshield or the Marshals, and they didn’t report that they were bringing contraband for destruction or holding, the relevant command should be notified and previous procedure followed.
Failure to do a proper search, or even a search at all, can be grounds for dismissal. If a situation occurs because a trooper did not search the individual at the gates and collect contraband items that were used by the individual, they can be charged with §301, Negligence. Officer discretion is heavily advised in this matter.

Patrols must be carried out along the fence every so often to ensure that the fence itself is intact and there are no hostile creatures at the perimeter that the turrets did not handle.
In the event of a hole in the fence, call for the Guild to mend it, then stand guard. Ensure that all on the Blackshield or Marshal channel are notified of the damage. Take note of the hole in the fence. If it was a clean cut, someone likely cut in or out. If the broken grille is visible, it may have been a creature but was also likely someone breaking in or out.
Movement to blue alert may be necessary.

===Relationship with the Marshals and the Colony===
The relationship with the Marshals is one of cooperation. The Blackshield provides the external security, and the Marshals the internal. They are two parts of the colony’s defense, and should work together when it comes to said defense. The Commander and the Warrant Officer, both command staff, are expected to work together, share resources as needed, share comms, and be willing to reach out to the other if needed.

'''It should be noted, however, that if there is no Marshals, Blackshield may step in as colony Law Enforcement.''' Militia intervention in civil legal matters is likely to result in injuries if left unchecked, however, and for the most part the use of weapons unless strictly required is barred. In the event that weaponry is required, nonlethals, followed by less-than-lethals (rubbers/beanbags), followed by lethals is the order that must be followed.

If the Warrant Officer, or other Marshal personnel, requests Blackshield assistance to augment their manpower, or to deal with high risk suspects, the Commander or Sergeant can and should authorize Troopers to aid the Marshals, but is not required to do so. In such circumstances, the Marshals they accompany are their temporary superiors.
The Warrant Officer is not to command Blackshield to act in lieu of a Commander or Sergeant, but Troopers can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

In the event that there is a severe external threat to the colony (ex. Xenomorph swarms), the Commander is able to request Marshal assistance to supplement their manpower. As with the opposite, the Warrant Officer can and should authorize Marshal assistance, but is not required to do so. Any Marshals that assist are placed under temporary Blackshield orders. Likewise, the Commander is not to command the Marshals in lieu of a Warrant Officer. Marshals can and should, but are not required to, willingly assist using their own initiative.

Other command staff may request Blackshield assistance where applicable. For example, a Chief Research Overseer requesting troopers to help protect a high-risk dig site may be authorized at the discretion of the Commander or Sergeant. If neither exist, Troopers can willingly assist, but are recommended not to unless prudent.

===Relationship with the Prospectors - ROP===
The Relationship with the Marshals aside, Prospectors share a large amount of interaction with Blackshield. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for escort to dangerous away sites, searches upon return due to their primary role of being outside the colony, medical evacuations, and so on. This does not mean that the Prospectors are well liked by Blackshield, however, or vice versa.

Blackshield may, '''upon approval by a Foreman or with approval of the Blackshield Commander''' (Both is preferable, if available), give an escort to Prospectors should they be heading into dangerous areas that they believe they are not equipped for, as per their goal of defending the colony and its colonists. The Foreman or requesting prospector/salvager (if accepted by the commander) should draft out a form that is signed and, if applicable, stamped, to pay for Blackshield's assistance. This form should include the following:

* The time you wish to leave, as well as where you are heading.
* The estimated danger that comes where you are going. This includes whether there will be turrets, abandoned defense systems, Greyson Security Units, a large amount of Spiders, so on, and so forth.
* The items specifically offered to Blackshield as payment for their services. This includes weaponry, tools, equipment, design disks, and materials. If items are not specified, a percentage should be specified, which is a minimum of 30% to Blackshield for the assistance.
* If the last point is not filled out in forms of equipment, a financial option is available. Prospectors may pay for Blackshield assistance in the form of credits, with a fee of 400 per Blackshield Trooper or Sergeant assigned, 600 if a Corpsman is assigned to assist, as well as additional fees for Ammunition and Medical Supplies required for use by Blackshield personnel during the escort.
* A signature of the approving Foreman and/or approving Blackshield Commander, and the requesting Prospector and/or requesting Salvager.
* A Stamp of the Blackshield Commander and/or Foreman who authorized the escort.

[[Example_Paperwork#Blackshield_Escort_Request|Or, an example paper can be found here.]]

Failure to abide by the proper procedure means that criminal charges may be pressed in the event of an escort. For example, if no items that are listed on a manifest are given, Prospectors or Salvagers may be charged for failure to pay for an escort. Defaulting on a Debt is the proper charge to use in this case, until the Credits for the escort, as explained above, are given to Blackshield by the department.

Should Blackshield take items that are not listed on the manifest, or take items at all should the financial option have been taken, they may be charged with Theft, as due to salvage claims that is property of the Prospectors, Salvagers, and Foreman respectively.

===Medevac shuttle - MOP===
The medevac shuttle near the gatehouse is to be operated for the sole purpose of medivacs that are conducted by Blackshield. This shuttle can go to several locations on the planet of Amethyn. In the instance a medevac has to be done, follow normal Blackshield protocol in forming a group before boarding the shuttle. However, bring at least three members if using the shuttle. The shuttle is the safest and also fastest form of travel currently.
* When operating the shuttle, always make sure occupants are buckled down, no one is standing behind the engines, and that the shuttle's door is closed and bolted.
* The usage of the medivac shuttle does not make the Blackshield medevac bill increase from 800.
* Remain buckled during travel to destinations. When the shuttle has landed, armed personnel are to exit out of the shuttle first and ensure the surrounding area is clear before proceeding to rescue colonists.
* As a precaution to prevent hijacking or sabotage of the shuttle, a armed guard of at least one is to remain with the shuttle.
* Upon returning to the shuttle with the wounded, use the body scanner and sleeper during the trip back to stabilize them before taking them to Soteria medical.
* The Marshals also have the authority to use the medevac shuttle for the rare occasion of collecting a colonist from the Lodge if there have been issues with them, or to capture/intercept a criminal out in the wilderness. Blackshield can be requested to come along and are recommended to accept such requests unless there is only one, then it is to be immediately denied so that the colony is not left unguarded in a official capacity.
All Blackshield, Marshals, and heads of staff can access the shuttle. For marshals, they are to follow the above if leaving the colony in the medevac shuttle. For heads of staff, refer to the Council SOP. The Blackshield Commander may choose to use the medevac shuttle in other situations but cannot order the use of the shuttle if there are no immediate medevacs to be done, or situations. The Commander however is authorized to train personnel on use of the shuttle from time to time.

===Deep Maintenance - MOP===
This area is a extremely dangerous and hostile location, even the most veteran and well equipped colonist, Federation soldier, or anyone else, stand a high chance of dying.

As has been debated many times weather or not its inside or below the colony, one thing for sure is that it is an anomalous location has no actual physical location as such it is therefore considered a external area, which Blackshield holds authority over. Due to how dangerous, anomalous, and hellish the tunnels are however, Blackshield and Marshals are heavily encouraged to work together in handling these tunnels for whatever reasons.

Blackshield holds direct authority when in regards of handling any and all external matters, however, in the case of deep maints, Blackshield should allow the Marshals or any other department to reinforce or back them up.

If a colonist requires a medevac from deep maints itself, the medevac fine may tripled due to just how dangerous deep maints itself is, and the chances of running into genetic abominations that can multiply and dissolve bodies in order to do so.

[[Category:Guides for New Players]]
[[Category:Lore]]
{{Gameplay guides}}