Yaagh

The Yaagh are a race of sapient and psychic aliens that live in the Arctic and Antarctic circles of Sigrid,

## Biology

These large humanoid creatures range from 6 to 7 feet tall, and are completely covered in thick white fur aside from the bottom of their feet, hands and eyes. Both their feet and (3 fingered) hands are slightly larger than is proportional and are the only places where their thick leathery grey hide is visible. Their eyes are slightly smaller than is proportional, solid black, bulge outward slightly and are covered in a thick film of a clear substance with similar properties and strength of bullet and shatter proof glass, almost like natural goggles or lenses that self repair instead of eyelids.

Their innards are very different from humans, with no digestive, auditory, reproductive or respiratory system to speak of. With no nose, ears or mouth, Yaagh breathe through the pores in their skin in a similar way to how humans do, and are able to breathe in, out and hold their breath as well, and the process is so efficient they can hold their breathe for up to 8 hours. Yaagh hear by sensing vibrations in their breathing pores. Reproduction is unique in that they consist of one gender, and reproduce via a number of telepathic bond trances with a mate over the course of two years before a Yaagh pup is born into a seal-able and airtight pouch on their stomach. After a few more years, in which the pup grows to the size of a human baby, grows its fur and feeds directly from the parent in a manor identical to how an adult would feed on other food, the pup emerges and begins its long journey to adulthood. They eat via a psionic trance in which they absorb the nutrients they need directly from their food, in a way that to the uneducated outsider looks like draining the life force out of their food. This does not work on live food however, as even a faint mental presence can disrupt this feeding process. The last major difference of their internals is the fact that they have additional bone growths across their body providing additional support and armor across their body, making them very resistant to tearing, compression and expansion.

All Yaagh are psionic, it is a very fact of their biology, and a great deal of their life is linked to this. Yaagh are all natural telepaths, and speak to each other with their telepathy when in their natural environment, but seem to be restricted to Bio-psionics and Telekinesis beyond this. When trying telepathic communication with humans however, both sides receive only junk or garbage that is untranslatable. Yaagh can be taught how to understand human speech when it is supplemented by reading of surface emotions for context. Yaagh speaking to humans however is impossible without specialist translators which take the telepathic messages of the Yaagh, and read them via psy-active circuits and synthesize a human voice.

Yaagh have a unnaturally long life, often only reaching adulthood around 200 years, and often are reported to live for up to 2000 years by most Yaagh. Some of the most impressive abilities of the Yaagh however betray what many think to be their origins outside of Sigrid. First is the fact that their biology is completely different to everything else on Sigrid, and they seem to share no genetic or physiological relatives across all of Sigrid. Next is their apparent ability to function in the vaccum of space without an exosuit. All the different facts of their biology from their lack of any orifice, bone support structures, sealed eye lenses, thick hide, and ability to hold their breath for up to 8 hours all lead to the idea they were not natives of this planet. When combined with their ability to enter a trance that places their body in a state almost exactly like Stasis, it begins to look an awful lot like they were once interstellar travelers who modified themselves for life in space. When this is combined with how some Yaagh seem to inherit memories from their parents and how they often drop hints about events so far in the past that dinosaurs had not evolved yet, it becomes a valid theory that the Yaagh did not originate on Sigrid. Many historians come to Sigird to try and speak to the Yaagh about this, but none ever succeed.

## Society and Psychology

Yaagh take life as it comes, often calm and vaguely curious when most humans would be freaking out or full of hatred. They live alone most of the time, wandering slowly through the snow and ice looking for food. As they wander aimlessly, they are lucky it is impossible for a Yaagh to be bored, no matter what they are doing. Yaagh technology rarely goes past stone tools, although they do learn how to use, modify and fix other technology with alarming pace, and most believe the Yaagh prefer stone tools and a simple life.

Conflict among Yaagh never happens, as the way their communication works is a full and open look into their own minds, letting both parties see the subject from each others point of view, and will come to an agreement nearly immediately. Yaagh are incredibly empathetic to each other, and despite their loner lives will band together to help those in need. This doesn't happen with humans however, as the Yaagh cannot get a glimpse into the human minds. As such they can seem detached and as cold as their icy home to humans.

Very few Yaagh ever leave their home planet, but a very small percent (mostly those who haven't reached 300 years old yet) travel off world to a few nearby worlds to explore. Of those who explore, another tiny fraction refuse to go home, as they get past the language barrier to empathy and begin to deeply care about the humans they know, following them and being a constant companion and emotional support. When Yaagh interact with humans they seem to mostly treat humans as a very emotionally unstable child, and are often upset at the fact humans rarely live past 100. There are many stories across the space lanes (with varying truthfulness) of a Yaagh befriending each successive generation of his first human friend. Thanks to their telepathic communication Yaagh do not have any concept of names. As such when dealing with humans the humans will often name the Yaagh, usually something silly like Steve or Bob. When the Yaagh finds out about this name, they will usually adopt it and never let anyone change it, as they see it as a sign they are an honorary human if they have a human name.

However, all Yaagh, no matter what, seem to have an inherent hatred and disgust of anything being in their pup-pouch other than a pup. To them it is the most horrific torture one can endure, and it hurt them to their very core to be forced into that.

## Playing a Yaagh

First of all you must be at least level 3. Playing a Yaagh also requires you to meet the stat line requirements of a +1 or better in Con and Str, a -1 or worse in Cha OR Dex. You must select the psychic class, and your primary discipline must be Telepathy, and your secondary disciplines are restricted to Telekinesis or Bios-pionics (with at least one level in each). Once you have mastered (not learned) Metalinguistics (Level 2 Telepathy) you are considered to have gotten passed the language barrier and all mental communication or contact you are considered to speak the same language.

Instead of a background and training package, you instead gain the following skills at the following levels

* Culture Yaagh +1
* Perception
* Survival+1
* Stealth
* Combat Primitive
* Combat Any
* Perception upgraded to +1 OR Stealth upgraded to +1

Your Class Skills are the following:

* Combat Primitive
* Culture Any
* Peception
* Survival
* Stealth
* Combat Any (must be declared what this is on character creation)
* Tech Any (must be declared what this is on character creation)

For being a Yaagh you may act as if you are wearing a vac skin at all times, but require 10 minutes of air (from the environment or directly applied to your skin from a tank) to re-fuel it instead of a battery. You may enter stasis in which all bodily functions are halted if given 12 hours preparation. In this stasis you do not need to breathe or consume anything, you do not age and all active effects are halted and you cannot act in any way. You are considered unconscious while in stasis and cannot react to the outside world, you can choose how long this stasis lasts, but are kicked out of it immediately if you take any HP damage. Lastly, 1000 credits must go towards the purchase of a translator unit for you, and all gear you use must be modified (via money or a tech-roll) to fit you or you take a -2 penalty to all actions with it.