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• Name: Edemmians.
• Biology: The Edemmians are a humanoid species, and for the most part resemble humans, with a few notable exceptions. Their most obvious differences is the they have a pair of tall and pointy furry ears, not dissimilar from those of a loth-cat located at the top of their head, sticking out from their otherwise human-like face and human-like hair. Another obvious difference is that their arms, from the elbow and down to their clawed fingertips, are covered in a layer of short, but thick, and rich fur that matches their hair colour. Their legs are similarly clad in fur from the knees down, but instead of humanoid feet, Edemmians sport large paws that gives excellent traction on loose sand.
The last, and perhaps most obvious, visual difference between an Edemmian and a baseline human, is that the adult Edemmian sports between three to six long and fluffy tails, again, not dissimilar from those of a loth-cat but in far greater numbers. An Edemmian is born with only one tail, with the rest growing in as they grow up. The growth of the second tail is a sign that the Edemmian in question has entered puberty, and is no longer considered a child. The arrival of their third tail is a sign that the Edemmian has reached adulthood, with all the duties and responsibilities that might entail.
Outwardly, Edemmians display the same level of sexual dimorphism as humans, but their differences go beyond that of humans. Edemmian males are by their very nature more shortsighted, hotheaded, and aggressive compared to your baseline human, whereas the females possesses a mentality that is more akin to your average humans. The females possesses one ability that sets them apart from their male counterparts. Within their many tails, a female Edemmian possesses glands that produce pheromones which acts as a mild relaxant to their cantankerous males, soothing their hot tempers. These pheromones also acts as a mild aphrodisiac to their males, but has an even more potent effect upon non-Edemmians of both sexes, not unlike certain species known for their pheromones, such as the Zeltron and the Falleen.
• Subspecies: No.
• Sentience: Yes.
• Breeding: Edemmians breed like most species, through sexual intercourse between a male and a female. Like all mammals, the female Edemmians produces milk in their breasts, which sustains their offspring for the first year or so of it’s life. Edemmians give birth to a litter of cubs, with the average being around four. Anything less than three cubs in a single birthing is usually seen as a bad birth and a bad omen. Unlike most species however, Edemmians are by their very nature polygamous and bisexuality is also the norm rather than the exception, meaning that your average Edemmian family usually contains several breeding adults and their cubs, with each adult sharing the responsibility of raising the many children. Due to the strain of feeding so many cubs, a pregnant Edemmian's pheromones changes to trigger lactation in any Edemmian female that inhales said pheromones over a period of two weeks, allowing every female of an Edemmian household to help feed the newborn cubs.
• Strengths: Desert adaptation, females produce mind-influencing pheromones. Edemmians of both sexes have superior hearing and olfactory senses than humans, somewhat sharper teeth than humans that can in an emergency situation be used as weapons, claw-like nails that can be used as weapons, but hardly more dangerous than those of a moderately sized house cat.
• Weaknesses: Males are aggressive and short of temper, slightly poorer night vision, smaller on average to humans, otherwise the same weaknesses as humans.
• Diet: Edemmians are omnivores, and are willing and able to consume both flora and fauna as food sources, but they have a preference towards meat. Edemmians also grow a plant which produces both a spice that is common in their cuisine and a nectar that is brewed into a potent intoxicating beverage.
• Behavior/Temperament: Female Edemmians possesses the same range of behaviors and temperament as most humans and near-human species, but their males tend to be rather more aggressive and short-tempered than most humanoid species when not around the calming presence of a female Edemmian. Despite this aggression and a lack of patience, male Edemmians are no less intelligent than their females or any other species. They are simply more prone to aggressive and violent outbursts.
• Communication: Edemmians vocalize like most creatures, by moving air through vocal chords and producing noise from their mouths. They speak a language of their own known as Edemese, but they are quite capable of learning how to speak Basic and read and write Aurebesh and several other galactic languages, such as Huttese. Written Edemese uses it's own particular alphabet, which is comprised of various pictograms and glyphs.
• Culture: The Edemmians have an ancient culture that they have clung to in a stubborn fashion for countless years. In fact, at first glance, one would think their culture hadn't advanced beyond an early feudal stage with simple metallurgy, but this is due to how they cling to their ancient tradition and culture. Every single aspect of new technology is quickly disguised and made to merge as seamlessly as possible with the aesthetics of their culture.
Their architecture tends to be cyclopean in style, with colossal pyramid-shaped structures rearing up to, and often piercing, the skies above. And even these monolithic structures, though they might have been built only last week and bristle with the most advanced technology available, are styled and clad to appear as if they were raised thousands of years ago, using only the most basic of primitive tools. Even something as simple as modern day street lighting is made to appear as torch-lit pillars of red sandstone. The only exceptions to this merging of aesthetics and functional technology are military equipment and vehicles, where their functionality supersedes any concerns for aesthetics.
The root of this adherence to culture comes partially from the Edemmians deep and rich spiritual life, with several deities and lesser spirits, including a belief of worshiping one’s ancestors. Their chief deity, Elassah of the nine tails, is also held to be the mother of the entire Edemmian species. Edem’s singular moon, Rallac, and it’s equally singular sun, Ellgoran, are still held to be gods to this day, despite their deep scientific understanding of the cosmos. The Edemmians’ spiritual views have changed slightly as their scientific understanding expanded. Instead of rigidly clinging to their old beliefs, they now view Elgarron as the God OF Suns, the embodiment of suns, and the same with Ralloc, and Elassah the Mother Goddess (because of evolution) as the incarnation of life itself, it's amazing ability to exist everywhere, even in the depths of space.
The chief origin myth of the Edemmian faith is that Elassah, their Mother Goddess, grew tired of seeing Edem as a barren lifeless rock caught in the eternal battle between Ellgoran and Rallac, and so summoned the two brothers to her palace. There, she drew the bright and golden Ellgoran and the dark and mysterious Rallac to her bedchambers, and bedded them both for three nights and three days. When Rallac and Ellgoran discovered that Elassah was with child, the twins threw themselves at one another, each wanting to prove that they were the father. But as the brothers waged war in the heavens, Elassah went down to Edem and spread life wherever she went, and eventually gave birth to the first Edemmians. When she returned to her palace in the heavens, the brothers noticed that she had given birth, and that Edem was now full of life. As neither brother could know whom had sired the Edemmians, Elassah commanded that only one of them could visit her children at the time, giving Ellgoran the right to visit during the day, and Rallac during the night.
The lakes of Edem, around which the Edemmians built their cities, are considered sacred places, beyond simply being practical and the only places where they could live. They believe that each lake is where Elassah dug a pit in which to sleep when she walked across Edem and spread life across the world, and that these pits filled with water as a gift from their Mother to Her children.
The Edemmians view Rallac and Ellgoran as harsh fathers, as both seek to test the Edemmians to prove that surely they must belong to one of them, as only a child of Ellgoran could withstand the blistering heat of his glory, or that only a child of Rallac could navigate his darkness or withstand the bitter cold of Ellgoran’s absence, with Elassah making sure that neither go too far. When a natural disaster strikes Edem, it is viewed as Rallac or Ellgoran slipping by Elassah’s vigil, to throw a particularly nasty challenge at their children.
The Edemmians believe the Force to be a gift from Elassah, as she is the Mother Goddess and the incarnation of life itself. For the energy of the Force surrounds all things, and binds together all living beings as one. And those Gifted by Elassah can truly see that living creatures are luminous beings, rather than crude matter.
Those Edemmian Force Sensitives that fall to the Dark Side are said to have been swayed by Jasocch, the Deceiver, the Lord of Thirst. He is the main villainous figure within the Edemmian pantheon. He came from the Outside, and was jealous of the Edemmians. He saw how they lived, and wanted to hurt them. So he and his ilk began to trick Edemmians as they crossed the desert, making them see things that weren't there, leading them astray into the depths of the dunes, and away from the safety of Elassah's sacred lakes, leading them in circles until they succumbed to thirst. So it is with those that have fallen to the Dark Side, they have sold their souls to Jasocch for power, for dark and tainted knowledge, and he deceive them, granting them power and dark and profane knowledge, in exchange for their immortal souls, so he might one day challenge Elassah directly.
As one can expect due to the nature of the Edemmian males and their relationship with their females and their origin myth, the Edemmians are a matriarchy. While any Edemmian male can rise to great heights and power within any aspect of their civilization and culture, be it social, political, scientific, military, or religious, they can never stand on top, and they can never stand alone. Even the greatest and most respected male must have a female by his side, so his mind can be kept calm by the female's pheromones. The leader of the Edemmian Government bears the title of First, signifying she is the first among the children of Elassah, while the religious leader of the Edemmians is called the Ascended.
Edemmians are as a race adrenaline junkies, and love to engage in activities that gets their hearts pumping and the adrenaline flowing. As a result, a surprisingly large number of Edemmians are racers, or at least aficionados of the sport. This can be any form of racing, be it a rally across the dunes of Edem, hoverboards, anti-grav circuits, or in the depths of space itself. However, their adrenaline addiction isn’t limited to simply racing. Anything that gets the adrenaline flowing is appealing to an Edemmian, whether it be martial arts, combat, mountain climbing, or anything else. Now, this could easily lead them to various unsavoury activities, but most try to keep it to some form of sport or another… and to lead many Edemmian starship captains to also dabble in smuggling.
• History: The Edemmians evolved upon Edem from a small and social vulpine creature several thousands of years ago. As they embraced sentience, and began to develop tools and cities, they quickly realized that there was little beyond their lakes. For each lake was seperated by several hundred of miles of desert, making any crossing of the desert exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, before they invented steam engines. And even then, the various Edemmian cities, isolated from one another by hundreds of miles of inhospitable and seemingly endless deserts, had no way of knowing that there was anything out there to find.
That all changed when the first Edemmian flying machines were developed. These avian-shaped vehicles could soar upon the warm winds of Edem for countless miles, and eventually, the Edemmians became aware of one another. When they learned of the existence of yet more Edemmians, living around yet another lake, the Edemmians did not react with fear or violence, but instead embraced their long lost brothers and sisters. As Edemmian technology advanced, keeping in contact with the various cities became easier, and eventually, as they began harnessing the plasmic core of their world, along with the abundant solar and wind power, they began to network their lake-cities through an increasingly advanced and efficient network of railways.
Not long after the establishment of the railway network, the largest city, which of course surrounded the largest lake of Edem, Nesharra, was unanimously voted to become the capitol city of a unified Edem, with Nesharra's Council Head being named the First, and given the right to rule Edem. Shortly after Edem became unified beneath the First, the Edemmians developed their first, crude, hyperdrive and began to explore the space outside the Ellgoran system and their home nebula, bringing them into contact with the greater galaxy, and the Republic.
• Planet: Edem is a ringed desert world of average size, roughly the same as Corellia or Naboo, located within a deep space nebula, which the Edemmians call "The Palace of Elassah". At first glance one could be forgiven for thinking that Edem closely resembles Geonosis, as it is a world covered from pole to pole in rusty red sand and equally red stone, but differs from that world due to of a series of massive freshwater lakes, around which you find the only habitable and green areas. Not surprisingly, it is around these lakes the Edemmians have built their cities, with their cyclopean and colossal pyramids.
Edem, like Naboo, possesses a plasmic molten outer core which surrounded an inner core, believed to be composed primarily of a nickel-iron alloy, with very small amounts of some other elements. The plasmic magma "seethes and bubbles" from the center of the planet carving labyrinths of winding tunnels and caverns similar to lava tubes of traditional magma flows. These abyssal labyrinths were submerged in great underground oceans, which connected to the lakes on Edem's surface. This means that each lake is, although distantly, connected to every other lake on Edem thanks to these abyssal labyrinths, giving them a far richer biodiversity than should be possible for individual lakes isolated by several hundred miles.
The special properties of Edem's plasmic outer core, which it also shares in common with Naboo, also gives the Edemmians an endless supply of clean and renewable energy, along with the solar and wind power it has in abundance.
• Technology: The Edemmians possesses technology equal to that of the rest of the galaxy, though they are experts at merging said technology with old fashioned aesthetics. Much of the Edemmians' planetary technology is powered by tapping their plasmic outer core.
• Notable PCs: Zae Tannarah, Nerrane Valloren, Titannia Raltirran.
• Intent: To create a new species for future characters, and to add to the richness of SWRP, as well as potential plot pieces and twists in the future. @Rom and @Cameron Foster have both expressed an interest in playing Edemmians. The Edemmians will introduce a new and unique view of the Force that is tied into their spiritual beliefs, and possesses a rich and unique culture that I feel will mesh quite well with the Star Wars universe, and add to it's overall value by bringing a species that is only now starting to explore the greater galaxy, and a blend of political savvy and martial prowess.
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