The Zero-Template Challenge: The Karkadann, the Withering Satraps of the Arkhaian

 

The Karkadann are among the oldest aliens known among the Arkhaian reaches, and for a time, were considered by archaeologists to be a candidate for the progenitor of the lost "Monolith" civilization that dominated the galactic core millennia before the Alexian crusades, but it has since been proven they were but a client race of that elder race, and one of the heirs to that culture.

The Karakadann evolved on a hellish world, the Eclipse World of Dann deep in the Arkahaian Spiral. A red star rages and roils at the center of their star system, bathing their world in burning, cleansing radiation that would make it impossible for life to take hold were it not for an odd orbital coincidence: their world is close enough to its star to be tidally locked, and a large moon rests between Dann and its star, fixed at a lagrange point. This moon casts a considerable, permanent "shadow" on the world, a narrow one that's completely radiation free, and then a fainter "shadow" from which life is partially shielded from radiation.  Life took hold in those shadows, evolving to survive that harsh radiation and push farther out into the insidious glare of their hateful parent star. Their world is filled with live evolved to survive the intense radiation, such as the white kudzu of Dann.  

The Karkadann resemble humanity, with a body plan unremarkable among humanoids of the galaxy.  They are hairless and have flat faces with slits in place of a nose and holes where their ears would be, though this does not seem to have negatively impacted either sense. They have rugose skin, typically white, grey or deep brown in color, marked with naturally occurring striping or geometric patterns in red, black or white, including a characteristic stripe running over the top of their head present in all members of the race. A secondary lens covers their eyes, obscuring their irises and pupils with a film of milky white or, less common, black or red.

The Karkadann, like all life on Dann, have unique adaptions to the hostile, irradiated environment. Under the constant assualt of radiation, their genomes evolved to rapidly reconstitute themselves, but the sheer bulk of reconstitution results in genetic errors: mutation.  When these mutations are benign or even beneficial, their immune system leaves them, but when they become cancerous, their immune system  isolates and destroys the cells and all nearby cells, just be sure.  Aggressive errors can result in a runaway biological war raging within the Karkadann body that destroys the cancerous body part.  This results in the Withering, where a part of the Karkadann's body goes through intense pain and then suddenly loses all feeling and withers away, like a dead leaf on a branch, and then falls away.  Fortunately, Karkadann physiology is very tolerant of cybernetic implants, allowing them to replace lost body parts this way.  A side-effect of the Withering is that the Karkadann do not age the way other humanoids do: if they can keep replacing their body parts, they can potentially live forever, though in practice after a few hundred years, the Withering takes their brains and they finally die.

The Karkadann genome poses another, societal problem.  Even if they do not experience the Withering, they may experience mutation.  Unfortunate Karkadann exposed to radiation may begin to develop strange features, such as claws or additional limbs, additional eyes, bony spurs, or even psychic powers. These mutations come with personality changes and slow, inevitable devolution.  In some ways, the Withering is kinder, as it lets the Karkadann die, while mutation slowly turns it into a monster. The far reaches of the Arkhaian Spiral is haunted by Karkadann marauders, mutated into gibbering cannibals and running ships with open fission drives to further power their mutations.

Proper, civilized Karkadann rule the Technocracy of Dann, a minor empire found between the Refugee Empire of the Telas Constellation and the Cybernetic Union of the Borean Stars. It has endured since before the Alexian Crusades: during this ancient time it ruled a vast swathe of the Arkhaian, purchased cybernetics from the Traders and the Shinjurai merchant princes, and wielded what Eldothic technology their masters had left them with.  They remained unconquered throughout the Alexian Dynasty and had cordial, if distant, relations with the Galactic Federation.  The Scourge greatly diminished it, though, and scattered entire fleets far from where regular medical intervention could prevent the spread of mutation. Today, a much smaller Technocracy remains ostensibly independent and allows representatives from the Cybernetic Union and the Alliance both in its court, but it sides most often with the Cybernetic Union.  Roving remnant fleets filled with mutated Karkadann haunt the Telas Constellation and the Akrhaian Gap, spreading fear wherever they go.

Karkadann

0 points

Perks: Robust Vision [1]

Quirks: Insensitive [-1]

Features: Hairless [0]; Night Adapted Vision 2 [0]; Optional Rule (Mutations) [0]; Rule Exclusion (Cyber-Psychosis) [0]; Robust 1 [0]; The Withering [0]; 

Karkadann Notes

Robust Vision is meant to represent their strange eyes, and fits the horrifying illumination of the setting.  Night-Adapted Vision seems appropriate for the twilight they constantly inhabit on their native world, and means they'd get nice, moody lighting in their artificial environments, like the Ranathim.  Robust means they're 5% shorter than they would normally be for their ST.

The Withering

This is a variation of Not Subject To Ageing. Machines, rather than losing attributes to age, lose HT from lack of maintenance.  We could apply a similar mechanic here: rather than losing attributes, the GM applies an equivalent amount of point loss in things like One Arm or One Eye or Blind.  Of course, this just gives them an excuse to invest in Cybernetics to replace the lost body parts, which ties into one of their other features.

Of course, Psi-Wars doesn't care about aging, so it's even more of an irrelevant trait.  Still, it adds flavor. Realistically, though, if I wrote out the race completely, I would include the Withering as a unique Psi-Wars sickness that afflicts only the Karkadann.

Rule Exclusion (Cyberpsychosis)

So, Psi-Wars has some optional rules regarding corruption and cybernetics.  These rules are meant to offer optional flavor: characters who get a lot of cybernetics quickly, rather than experiencing cybernetic rejection, might develop weird flaws or disadvantages as some of their humanity is lost. This isn't a proper disadvantage so much as an excuse to go into point debt for your cybernetics, or to change your character around after they get a lot of cybernetics.

Given that cyberpsychosis is an optional rule that does not affect any gameplay, it's fair to exclude the Karkadann from using the rule as a feature rather than a perk. This exclusion represents a feature-level version of the Low Rejection Threshold perk.

Optional Rule (Mutations)

I don't deal much with radiation in Psi-Wars, but realistically it should be everywhere. With my new rules on Sicknesses in Psi-Wars, though, I was able to fold radiation in as a simple sickness.  So there's two ways you can handle this:

• If using normal radiation rules, Karkadann do not take Radiation "Damage." Instead, for every point of Radiation they would gain, they instead get Corruption. At 25 Corruption, they gain Freakishness 1 [-1].
• If using the Psi-Wars illness rules, if they would get Radiation Sickness, they instead get Freakishness 1 [-1]; if they would get Severe Radiation Sickness they get Freakishness 5 [-5].

Freakishness is from After the End's section on Mutations.  After a Karkadann has gained Freakishness, they may freely purchase any mutation that has their total Freakishness Level or less; their total mutations should not exceed their Freakishness level. So a character with Freakishness 1 could purchase Toothsome, while a character who had Freakishness 5 might take Red Sight and Thick Hide.  They don't have to buy them right away, but are free to do so at any time.

This is justified as a Feature because a point of Corruption is equivalent to a point of Fatigue (25 points of both fatigue and corruption are the equivalent to one character point), which is worse than a point of rad or toxic damage as far as GURPS seems to price innate attacks, and 25 points of Corruption is the equivalent to one lost point, and Freakishness is -1 point.  The freakishness levels of Radiation Sickness and Severe Radiation Sickness is based on my rules for Corruption and Psychic Diseases.

If we made them a proper, official race, we'd need to work out a list of acceptable mutations.  After the End is a good starting place, but the costs would need to be adjusted for Psi-Wars. Still, it works in a pinch!

Withering Thoughts

I like the Karkadann, and they were one of the first things I thought of when I speculated on a templateless race.  Originally, they were physiologically more unique: digitigrade, a weird form of vision, different standard temperature range, etc, but once I hit on the idea of mutation mechanics, I thought it better to shift them back towards something more human, for several reasons. First, mutation is more obvious when the baseline is thoroughly humanoid ("That mutant glurg has tentacles!" "Don't all glurg have tentacles?" "They have six, this one has seven!").  Second, and this is a general rule you'll see repeated: the more you mess and muddle with the physiology, the more you veer into proper, point-costing traits. So we shifted back towards "mostly human."

I like them, but they risk looking too much like the Tan-Shai. Their imagery reminds me a lot of how I tend to picture the Tan-shai.  But I do often muse on what happened to all the other races during the Eldothic Union.  They didn't all die like the Menhiri or the Archonians, did they? So having one survivor race is a nice touch, but it will always conflict with the niche of the Tan-Shai.  Removing their noses, giving them rugose skin and making them shorter and stockier helps a lot, though. They can be the "chaos dwarves" to the strange, eldritch Tan-Shai "elf."

Mutation and Radiation is a bit of work and might not fit into every campaign, but they fight nicely into the "apocalyptic" themes of the Arkhaian.  It also has a nice interplay with the Blades of Acheron, when I get back into them.

If I made them official, would I keep them as this zero-point template? I dunno.  Their rugose skin cries out for DR 1 at least.  I might upgrade their Insensitive to full Callous, to make their behavior more pronounced for the player. +1 ST might be nice, perhaps with another level or so of Robust, so their more "broad" than "short." I could consider Bulky Frame, but that might be a "common quirk" rather than a racial one. I would consider Nightvision 2 rather than Night-Adapted Vision, because most players prefer the former to the latter, in my experience: the ability to see well in the dark is definitely easier than the GM needing to remember that the Karkadann is at -2 to vision under normal conditions. They definitely wouldn't have higher HT or Radiation Resistance, though! 

All that said, I think this race, more than the others I've created, could work as-written, and I think it's the best example of what Lord Buss is talking about.  They have some traits, yes, but most of what makes them interesting is this interplay with cybernetics and radiation. It makes them a strange race without making the strangeness an unusual combination of expensive traits, but simple rule switches that are thrown for this specific race.