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- Raetfolc -
A raetfolc male and female.
Name -
A raetfolc male and female.
Raetfolc (Rat People).
Biology -Raetfolc are a rodentoid species which evolved to sentience in the Coruscant underlevels. Popularly believed to be the descendants of common rats, or of their myriad abyss-spawned offshoots, raetfolc are small, standing about 1.5 meters on average. They are covered in fur, ranging from sooty gray to white, with albinism being a common condition. They lack fur on their feet, hands, nose and tail. Their muzzle has long, sensitive whiskers, which are primarily used for sensing the walls of darkened tunnels; if a raetfolc can fit their whiskers into a hole, the rest of them can usually follow.
Raetfolc are usually slender and wiry in physique. They possess excellent balance and dexterity, able to parkour their way through tight passages and around obstacles at great speed; their spacial awareness is excellent, as is their sense of direction, and they are very hard to catch. If caught by it, the top layer of skin on their tail can slough off, allowing them to escape.
Raetfolc have a robust digestive system; they can eat almost any organic material, and are resistant to many poisons, the legacy of uncounted efforts to exterminate Coruscant's rat population over the millennia.
Raetfolc have excellent night vision, inherited from their rat ancestors, a useful trait in the often gloomy underworlds they inhabit.
Finally, raetfolc teeth are extremely hard, and never stop growing, forcing them to chew regularly to keep them worn to the proper length. When sufficiently motivated, raetfolc can chew through permacrete and durasteel, much like their non-sentient cousins, though such activity is painful and slow.
Breeding - Raetfolc are usually slender and wiry in physique. They possess excellent balance and dexterity, able to parkour their way through tight passages and around obstacles at great speed; their spacial awareness is excellent, as is their sense of direction, and they are very hard to catch. If caught by it, the top layer of skin on their tail can slough off, allowing them to escape.
Raetfolc have a robust digestive system; they can eat almost any organic material, and are resistant to many poisons, the legacy of uncounted efforts to exterminate Coruscant's rat population over the millennia.
Raetfolc have excellent night vision, inherited from their rat ancestors, a useful trait in the often gloomy underworlds they inhabit.
Finally, raetfolc teeth are extremely hard, and never stop growing, forcing them to chew regularly to keep them worn to the proper length. When sufficiently motivated, raetfolc can chew through permacrete and durasteel, much like their non-sentient cousins, though such activity is painful and slow.
Raetfolc have a mammalian reproductive cycle, with females bearing live young after a gestation period of about 5 months. Raetfolc pups are born naked and blind, though their fur quickly grows in over a few days and their eyes open after less than a week. They are typically mobile after three weeks. Raetfolc grow quickly, and are sexually mature at ten standard years old.
Raetfolc can mate with other species to produce viable offspring, and seem to achieve the most success with other rodentoids, such as Tintinna, Mhingxin, Jenets and Ranats.
Strengths -Raetfolc can mate with other species to produce viable offspring, and seem to achieve the most success with other rodentoids, such as Tintinna, Mhingxin, Jenets and Ranats.
- Agile - raetfolc are extremely fast and nimble, able to scramble through tight spaces and navigate maze-like corridors at speed. They are very hard to catch. Their reaction time is shorter than many other species.
- Not Picky - raetfolc can digest almost any organic material, and are resistant to many toxins. They can survive by eating anything with nutritional value, however unappetizing it may be, and are very difficult to successfully poison.
- Strong Dentistry - raetfolc teeth are notoriously hard, and grow constantly. Raetfolc must thus contrive to keep them worn down, not always an easy task when you consider that the species can - when sufficiently motivated - chew their way through reinforced duracrete. Though they may damage their teeth in the process, they will grow back. It goes without saying that a raetfolc bite is a very unpleasant experience.
- Vermin - due in no small part to their ancestry, and despite their sentience, raetfolc are considered little more than vermin by many. They are seldom welcome anywhere but in the lowest parts of the city, and are often thought to be carriers of disease. Contrary to popular belief, however, they are fastidiously clean.
- Small - raetfolc are not as large as most other sentient species, nor as physically powerful. Despite their speed and agility, raetfolc are weak compared to the average human. The species relies on numbers or weapons for any kind of physical advantage.
- Fearful - raetfolc have fight-or-flight reflexes tuned appropriately for a small prey animal. They are curious, but can easily be frightened, and tend to run away if given the chance.
Raetfolc are true omnivores, able to eat practically anything organic. Living in the undercity, however, a major part of their diet is duracrete fungus and related foodstuffs; a delicacy for the species is hawkbat eggs.
Raetfolc have a reputation among other species for eating dead sentients, as well as cannibalism; this has very little basis in reality, however.
Behavior/Temperament -Raetfolc have a reputation among other species for eating dead sentients, as well as cannibalism; this has very little basis in reality, however.
Raetfolc are skittish beings, for the most part, though extremely curious and - if approached correctly - quite friendly. They are extremely social, most living in large colonies which offer a measure of protection against the hardships and dangers of Coruscant's underlevels.
Notably, raetfolc have an interesting relationship with fear. Unlike many other sentients, which can trace their lineage back to social apex predators, raetfolc have always been a prey species, situated at a low point on Coruscant's food chain. These instincts and drives are deeply ingrained in their culture and behavior, and thus they tend to approach new situations and problems from that perspective. Raetfolc often treat unfamiliar beings and other unknowns as potential predators; unless conditioned against such action by culture and/or familiarity, a raetfolc confronted with a stranger will run and hide. To be persuaded to come out and interact, a raetfolc must be persuaded that an unfamiliar being is not a threat, which usually involves acclimatizing themselves to a newcomer from a distance, over a considerable period of time. Raetfolc who grow used to outsiders can be very friendly, even affectionate. If exposed to strangers on a regular basis, their tolerance and acceptance of them will grow accordingly.
Social grooming is a custom among raetfolc, and is often extended to friendly beings who will tolerate it.
Nevertheless, it is unwise to threaten a raetfolc. Wired as prey, they are generally meek and cowardly, and will almost always take the opportunity to flee, if it is presented to them. However, a truly cornered raetfolc is disproportionately vicious, and will try anything - no matter how desperate - to escape, up to and including going through their opponent. They will fight to the death if they have to, and will take their attackers with them if they can.
Communication -Notably, raetfolc have an interesting relationship with fear. Unlike many other sentients, which can trace their lineage back to social apex predators, raetfolc have always been a prey species, situated at a low point on Coruscant's food chain. These instincts and drives are deeply ingrained in their culture and behavior, and thus they tend to approach new situations and problems from that perspective. Raetfolc often treat unfamiliar beings and other unknowns as potential predators; unless conditioned against such action by culture and/or familiarity, a raetfolc confronted with a stranger will run and hide. To be persuaded to come out and interact, a raetfolc must be persuaded that an unfamiliar being is not a threat, which usually involves acclimatizing themselves to a newcomer from a distance, over a considerable period of time. Raetfolc who grow used to outsiders can be very friendly, even affectionate. If exposed to strangers on a regular basis, their tolerance and acceptance of them will grow accordingly.
Social grooming is a custom among raetfolc, and is often extended to friendly beings who will tolerate it.
Nevertheless, it is unwise to threaten a raetfolc. Wired as prey, they are generally meek and cowardly, and will almost always take the opportunity to flee, if it is presented to them. However, a truly cornered raetfolc is disproportionately vicious, and will try anything - no matter how desperate - to escape, up to and including going through their opponent. They will fight to the death if they have to, and will take their attackers with them if they can.
Raetfolc, having evolved in a dense urban environment, do not have their own language, but have adopted the common tongues of other sentients quite readily. The average raetfolc is multilingual, and most at least speak basic, or an underlevels pidgin thereof.
Culture -Raetfolc have little culture that they could lay exclusive claim to, inheriting most of their society from other sentient species that occupy the city-world. They tend to appropriate anything that would be useful to them, or which they take a fancy to.
Notably, raetfolc tend to live in large colonies comprised of several hundred individuals, usually occupying the foundations and seldom-visited "ground floors" of Coruscant's famous cloudcutters. Some raetfolc - when they can find acceptance - will move into other underlevel communities, living, working and even running businesses in the city-world's various alien quarters and underlevel neighborhoods.
History -Notably, raetfolc tend to live in large colonies comprised of several hundred individuals, usually occupying the foundations and seldom-visited "ground floors" of Coruscant's famous cloudcutters. Some raetfolc - when they can find acceptance - will move into other underlevel communities, living, working and even running businesses in the city-world's various alien quarters and underlevel neighborhoods.
The tale of Coruscant's "Rat People," as they are popularly called, is a long and strange one.
The raetfolc probably first began to evolve shortly after the planet first began to develop its kilometers-thick urban crust. Like any world with a significant number of cities, Coruscant had its city-adapted vermin. As the cities grew out and up, these vermin began to exploit their new and challenging environment, gradually developing into forms supremely optimized for the duracrete canyons and rubbish pits of the urban jungle.
One of the first - and most successful - of these non-sentient colonists was the common rat, a pest known the Galaxy over for its affinity for urban living. It is unknown where rats originally came from, but while the origin of humans on Coruscant remains in question, there is little doubt that the descendants of rats were among the planet's earliest natives.
The genetic history of the raetfolc has its origins rooted firmly in the environment for which their earliest ancestors began to adapt themselves. Though the standard form of the common rat is supremely versatile, the urban depths of Coruscant selected for intelligence, tenacity and durability, and began to breed a subspecies perfectly suited to it.
And this subspecies evolved very quickly.
Due to the nature of Coruscant's environment, a fossil history of raetfolc evolution does not exist, nor would it have time to form. Modern raetfolc appeared very quickly on the evolutionary scale. Numerous theories have been put forth as to why this was so; many suspect that mutations caused by city's industrial pollutants and competition with alien predators and rival vermin provided a kind of super-catalyst. Raetfolc appeared over a period of a few thousand years, developing physical adaptations to help them negotiate an environment which had primarily been designed with humanoids in mind, and an intelligence to match.
Whereas humans and other species changed their environment to suit their needs, the raetfolc changed to suit their environment.
Despite their newfound biological parity with the humans and aliens of the world above, the raetfolc found little acceptance from them. Coruscant, like many ecumenopoleis, was engaged in an eternal war against vermin and pestilence; raetfolc were often caught in the sweeps, regarded as little better than common rats, merely bigger and cleverer. Numerous attempts were made by the Coruscanti to wipe out the species "once and for all," though these attempts invariably missed a colony or two however thorough they tried to be, and the species' prolific rate of reproduction soon meant that the population was back up to its previous levels.
These efforts ranged from mere civic formalities to wars unto themselves. On numerous occasions, the desperate raetfolc even fielded armies to repel the surface dwellers, defending their homes and families in the cellars of the world above.
One of the more famous of these "grand exterminations" was executed by Supreme Chancellor Constipex the Eighth, who organized the Crusade of the Depths. Carried out by the primarily human faithful of the Pius Dea theocracy which had seized control of the Republic, the Crusade sought in part to "cleanse" Coruscant's numerous alien ghettos, but primarily was organized as a "great hunt" to clear the lower levels of the city of its "sub-sentient" populations, including such races as the raetfolc and the coruscani ogre. Though the Crusade was unsuccessful in its goals, it was among the few recorded times in history that a theoretically united planet declared war against itself, and was famous for a number of battles, including the Battle of District Z80-8088-68000, during which raetfolc and alien sappers brought down an entire Coruscanti administrative campus with demolition charges.
These campaigns of genocide galvanized a generations-long mistrust of outsiders on the part of the raetfolc, and of humans in particular. The rodentoids retreated to their colonies deep in the bowels of the city, and generally kept to themselves. Despite efforts to naturalize themselves into Coruscant society, these old prejudices endure.
As fellow residents of Coruscant, however, the raetfolc could not keep their culture fully apart from that of the world above, no matter how hard they tried. Changes in regulations regarding the rights and treatment of sentient species after the Pius Dea era meant that the great cullings of centuries past no longer occurred, and though some still judged them on the basis of their vermin heritage, they had some protection under the law. Slowly, the raetfolc began to emerge from their abyssal realms, becoming a more visible part of life in the city.
Today, while the raetfolc aren't exactly equals to most of the planet's human and alien population, they are slowly integrating into society. A few members of the species have even left Coruscant, establishing colonies on other city-worlds such as Taris, Denon and Nar Shaddaa.
Planet -The raetfolc probably first began to evolve shortly after the planet first began to develop its kilometers-thick urban crust. Like any world with a significant number of cities, Coruscant had its city-adapted vermin. As the cities grew out and up, these vermin began to exploit their new and challenging environment, gradually developing into forms supremely optimized for the duracrete canyons and rubbish pits of the urban jungle.
One of the first - and most successful - of these non-sentient colonists was the common rat, a pest known the Galaxy over for its affinity for urban living. It is unknown where rats originally came from, but while the origin of humans on Coruscant remains in question, there is little doubt that the descendants of rats were among the planet's earliest natives.
The genetic history of the raetfolc has its origins rooted firmly in the environment for which their earliest ancestors began to adapt themselves. Though the standard form of the common rat is supremely versatile, the urban depths of Coruscant selected for intelligence, tenacity and durability, and began to breed a subspecies perfectly suited to it.
And this subspecies evolved very quickly.
Due to the nature of Coruscant's environment, a fossil history of raetfolc evolution does not exist, nor would it have time to form. Modern raetfolc appeared very quickly on the evolutionary scale. Numerous theories have been put forth as to why this was so; many suspect that mutations caused by city's industrial pollutants and competition with alien predators and rival vermin provided a kind of super-catalyst. Raetfolc appeared over a period of a few thousand years, developing physical adaptations to help them negotiate an environment which had primarily been designed with humanoids in mind, and an intelligence to match.
Whereas humans and other species changed their environment to suit their needs, the raetfolc changed to suit their environment.
"Such chaos, beneath our very feet! The abominations of the world below must be cleansed, in the name of the Goddess!"
_Supreme Chancellor Constipex VIII.
_Supreme Chancellor Constipex VIII.
Despite their newfound biological parity with the humans and aliens of the world above, the raetfolc found little acceptance from them. Coruscant, like many ecumenopoleis, was engaged in an eternal war against vermin and pestilence; raetfolc were often caught in the sweeps, regarded as little better than common rats, merely bigger and cleverer. Numerous attempts were made by the Coruscanti to wipe out the species "once and for all," though these attempts invariably missed a colony or two however thorough they tried to be, and the species' prolific rate of reproduction soon meant that the population was back up to its previous levels.
These efforts ranged from mere civic formalities to wars unto themselves. On numerous occasions, the desperate raetfolc even fielded armies to repel the surface dwellers, defending their homes and families in the cellars of the world above.
One of the more famous of these "grand exterminations" was executed by Supreme Chancellor Constipex the Eighth, who organized the Crusade of the Depths. Carried out by the primarily human faithful of the Pius Dea theocracy which had seized control of the Republic, the Crusade sought in part to "cleanse" Coruscant's numerous alien ghettos, but primarily was organized as a "great hunt" to clear the lower levels of the city of its "sub-sentient" populations, including such races as the raetfolc and the coruscani ogre. Though the Crusade was unsuccessful in its goals, it was among the few recorded times in history that a theoretically united planet declared war against itself, and was famous for a number of battles, including the Battle of District Z80-8088-68000, during which raetfolc and alien sappers brought down an entire Coruscanti administrative campus with demolition charges.
These campaigns of genocide galvanized a generations-long mistrust of outsiders on the part of the raetfolc, and of humans in particular. The rodentoids retreated to their colonies deep in the bowels of the city, and generally kept to themselves. Despite efforts to naturalize themselves into Coruscant society, these old prejudices endure.
As fellow residents of Coruscant, however, the raetfolc could not keep their culture fully apart from that of the world above, no matter how hard they tried. Changes in regulations regarding the rights and treatment of sentient species after the Pius Dea era meant that the great cullings of centuries past no longer occurred, and though some still judged them on the basis of their vermin heritage, they had some protection under the law. Slowly, the raetfolc began to emerge from their abyssal realms, becoming a more visible part of life in the city.
Today, while the raetfolc aren't exactly equals to most of the planet's human and alien population, they are slowly integrating into society. A few members of the species have even left Coruscant, establishing colonies on other city-worlds such as Taris, Denon and Nar Shaddaa.
Technology -
Raetfolc tend to employ the same level of technology as those they live near. Notably, the species tends to make liberal use of repaired or improvised tech, usually scrounged from junk piles.
Intent - This profile is intended to flesh out the Rat People, an otherwise throwaway species mentioned as living on Coruscant in The Courtship of Princess Leia. If approved, I intend to make a character of this species myself.
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