OOrang

Created by: Garry Stahl
Appearance: Starbase 600 game
Number of Members: 400,000,000 
Nature of Members: Primatoids that resemble blue Orangutans. The color is more of a slate blue not a true blue. They lack the wide faces of the adult Orangutan but share the long shaggy body hair. They are not obligate bipeds, but are brachiating occasional bipeds. Their arms are longer than their legs and very strong. They can hobble along or stand on two legs, and do so. However to move quickly they knuckle walk, or move through the trees. Everyone has some form of over the shoulder bag used to carry your stuff. Cities are built in the middle of great forests. They are built on a 3D plan. OOrangs are mammals with the typical two genders. Children are born lucid and with the ability to cling to their mothers. With technology to make carry bags this is less important than it once was, but they have not evolved out of the ability.
OOrangs are largely herbivores with a small taste for meat. They could not long survive on an all meat diet. They do have a sweet tooth to rival humans. Candy goes over big here. Likewise they have a taste for alcohol that does not always serve them well
While clothing has not evolved among the OOrangs they do ornament themselves with anything they can think of. Flowers in their early development, metal jewelry in their metal ages. OOrangs, or anyone else on the ring do not possess gems. The only gems to be found on the ring are those brought to the ring when it was made.
Organization: Local and national government is an extension of tribal government. They don't vote so much as acclaim a leader. You are a leader when others will be led by you. The Council of Elders is a collection of men and women that have been acclaimed for good decisions and leadership. They discuss matters and run their solutions up the flagpole. If enough people think that will work, or are willing to trust their judgment, usually the case, the solution or suggestion is carried forward. Too many failures and people stop listening to you, you lose elder status.
r itself. Anyone that refuses to do so is considered a child. Only children have another speak for them. They also recognize that a full town meeting of 400,000,000 people is not practical, and in these cases those that have proven wise and better abled than their neighbors should make some decisions. However, these are subject to popular veto. Too many of these and people stop listening to you. How many blunders you get depends on how many good calls you have made. It isn't a fixed number and then they kick you out. More good calls after a blunder will buy you more grace.
Under this system the idea of a dissident doesn't really exist. It is your responsibility to speak you mind. If you disagree with the majority strongly enough you can sit on your hands and do nothing to aid them. You are respected for this. If the leaders have blundered and you are right, the worth of you opinion increases.
No OOrang would consider the idea of tailoring the message to the group spoken to. You speak your true mind, it is what adults do.
Game Role: Possible friends. 
World Role: Another species trying to make it.
Relative Influence: In their area of the Ring major.
Public or Secret?: Public 
Publicly Stated Goal: Get into interstellar space.
Relative Wealth: Good for the ring. They are however dirt sucking poor by galactic standards.
Group advantages: Good brains and an openness to new ideas.
Special Abilities: Brachiation: OOrangs can move hand over hand through trees and limbs as quickly as a man can run if the tree cover is thick enough. Any average rain forest is thick enough to allow this degree of movement.
Group disadvantages: They can disagree to the point of violence among each other. This is considered counter productive, but does happen.
Special disadvantages: Ringworlders. The nature of the ring itself is a limiting factor. It has no ores, no natural resources, no fossil fuels. Any technology you gain must be salvage from a previous technology. The OOrangs realize that each succeeding culture on the ring will be less capable of technological advance than the previous one. Their generation of cultures could well be the last that has any chance of getting off the ring and into space. The special orbital physics* of the ring and the lack of resources are crippling to this effort.
Relations: 
*Firstrubarians: An industrial ring power. They are on a touch and go basis with this group. They interrupted a World War Two style war between the Firstrubarians and the Sealites over a crashed Gallowaian trade ship. Thus far the Firstrubarians have held the OOrangs at a careful distance.
*Sealites: An industrial ring power. The Sealites have not reacted well to either the OOrangs or the Firstrubarians. Whether they suffer from a narrow people button or they are simply hostile is unknown. However they have not been amenable to any discussion, and are kept at bay only by military power.
*UFP: The OOrangs have had minimal contact with this interstellar power and are friendly with it. They are still defining this relationship.
*Kurr Association The Kurr have just arrived on the ring in the company of the UFP. The Kurr are assembling a permanent base to study the ring. They are looking for friendly relations with the OOrangs and if they approach with the UFP they will get it.
*Chugaii: Again their has been minimal contact. The Chugaii are prickly and territorial. The USS Discovery kicked their asses over the ring, and they are if nothing else beings of their word. While they have set down here and there they have not tried to claim any of it.
*Gallowaians: The Gallowaian Trade Federation has not attempted another contact with the ring at this time. They were not attempting a contact the last time either. The ring is considered a curiosity and possible future market.
*Senet: The Senet have ignored the ring, good.
Area of Operation: 12.2/-26.7 The Ring World located 40 light years spinward of the Senet, in the direction of the Kurr Association.
Headquarters Location Big Tree City located at Degree Zero (You have to put it somewhere) League 6457
Public Face: Opinionated explorers. 
Notable Members:> None at this time
History of the Organization: OOrangs are the evolved descendants of one of the races that built the ring. Other than the head and four limbs they little resemble the people they started from. Their species as been as it is for 100,000 years. Recently they made the difficult breakthrough into an industrial power on the ring. With a cache of first generation artifacts to work from and study they have built "scrith ships" that can repel the material the ring is made of and fly.
They are exploring the area around them, and have contact with two species in their area and the UFP. They have identified seven genetic lines of plants and animals on the ring. The three sentient species they know of are each descended from a different line. This includes themselves.
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The special orbital physics are due to the speed at which the ring spins to produce the 1 g gravity on the surface. A ship in a free orbit 1000 miles inside the ring will have the surface whipping past them. To land they have to increase their orbital speed and maintain their position while slowly moving outward. A tricky maneuver at best.
To get a ship off the ring you have to loft it up and over the edge, or get it to the edge and let go. It quickly assume a free orbit around the star much further away. Getting it back it has to both slow down, and maintain its speed so it doesn't smear itself across the ring. A problem if all you have is rockets.
Any rocket must get at least 1000 miles high, and be able top move to the edge of the ring, or it has to loft and slow down so it can maintain a free orbit over the ring. The only way to get a satellite into "orbit" would be to keep your altitude while burning in the anti-spinward direction until you slow to a free orbit speed. In retrospect rocket science on Earth is easy.
Category:Epiphany TrekCategory:Races