Creating a Race

So, you've read our lore and decided you want to add your own snowflake unique flare to it. Here is a guide to better allow for your own personal desires to fit in with the larger picture.

Alien or Abhuman?

If you're only looking to have your character with their own backstory, consider using an abhuman, which has the supporting lore of the Sol Federation behind them. If you want to create an entire minor faction to go with your character, read on below.

Appearance

The first key thing to creating a unique species is to give them an appearance which is, in some way, alien to what the average player would see. Convergent evolution means that Earth animals are not unique to Earth, but you must have something unique that sets you apart. Describe your eyes, any fur patterns, the texture of said fur, and the form of your snout and tail. Your species should have enough visual qualities that you wouldn't encounter someone else on the Colony from another species that looks exactly the same.

Common ways to making yourself distinct

• Altered biology such as different joints, skin, fur, eyes, teeth, claws, blood, or bone structure.
• Different speech patterns that set them apart from regular speaks of English common.
• Different mentality or approach to specific situations, such as viewing certain topics uniquely based on a biological or cultural response.
• Having a unique racial name.

What not to do

• Have bright or visually jarring colors such as pink, neon green, and other 'sparkly' color patterns. Although fur dye and genemoding exist, this falls under the same regulations that prevent excessive tattooing. Try and stay professional!
• Claim to have abilities or biology that cannot be reasonably represented with in game mechanics. This includes saying you have wings that allow you to fly, acid blood, or strength to rip metal walls apart. Every abhuman and minor faction has the same abilities.
• Have only one or two minor changes so inconsequential you are identical to a standard abhuman of a similar form.
• Make them anything other than bipedal. Your alien should be definitively 'humanoid' in shape and should follow a bipedal format to avoid any issues like "why does a quadruped walk and run on two legs?". Again, this is a limitation of our codebase, engine and our sprites, we're not able to handle quadrupeds well.
• Do not use a race or name of a race from some existing fiction, including other servers. We do not have Unathi, Tajaran, Skrell, or other staple SS13 races. For similar equivalents, see Core Species.

Things to Keep in Mind

• The average door frame in Nadezhda is seven feet tall. Mind your head (and your character's height)
• It's unlikely that anyone will have heard of your minor species, so expect that.
• Getting an erection should not result in your character passing out. You know what I'm talking about. Fucking hyper fetishes.

Once you've got an idea of what you visually want for your race that makes them unique you then need to create an idea of there culture and society. Restrictions in this area are far more defined and much more easily adhered to.

Following the Lore

Our lore is by design open ended enough to allow players to create interesting and unique concepts, but we are not a free for all. We have clearly defined rules for the creation of new races and alien factions, as a general rule the rules are thus:

• The Sol Federation is the numerically largest and strongest faction in the known galaxy. They have the most militaristic, economic, and technological might due to being made of the combined abilities and strengths of thousands of human, abhuman, and alien empires united under a single banner. Whatever faction you create, be it a free colony or alien empire, would be destroyed in a matter of hours by the Sol Federation and has not been due to being so small or distant that the cost is not worth doing so. Your empire is not special, it is an ant that the giant is too lazy to crush.
• Your empire cannot be galaxy spanning or in possession of some powerful or special technology capable of doing things the Sol Federation cannot, if it had that, the federation would come and take it by force. Your empire should be small to the point of insignificant and while it can have its own technology, even unique technology, it should not be particularly powerful.
• Your empire is not a big player in the lore and will not play a large part the on going colony and server lore. This means that your empire won't send soldiers or resources to Nadezhda for whatever reason due to either lacking the resources or a method to transport anything meaningful. Remember, these are minor empires.
• Your empire should have some form of culture and government that is unique enough to stand out under scrutiny, while there isn't a rule against being generic we want people to create lore that logically makes sense and fits within the scope of our established lore.

If it wasn't clear, we merely want proposed ideas to be conforming enough not to conflict with what has already been established and to reasonably fit within a suspension of disbelief. This creation and lore is more personal to you, expressed in character to other players, by keeping the scope simple and small you can easily explain why few have actually heard of your homeworld and its people, be they abhuman or alien. If your race and lore conforms to this list as a general rule its alright to play, but if you're still unsure about some of the unique aspects you can show it to the lore team or contact the Creative Director for inspection.

Canon Species in the Sojourn Universe
Core Species Akula - Kriosans - Humans - Mar'qua - Sablekyne - Naramad - Abhuman
Non-Core Species Opifex - Cht’mant - Cindarite - Mycus - Folken - Aulvae - Minor Factions