Sablekyne

"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.
• 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.

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 - Minor Factions