Syknan People

The **Syknan People** was the organization formed of the surviving Syknan species following their conflict with the Osseen.

## Homeworld

Ssyssana is the name given to the moon by the Syknans, on which the Syknan race was born. Ssyssana orbits the planet Exis. Exis orbits a class M star, known as Syaxa, which provides little in the way of sunlight or radiation energy for neither the planet nor the moon.

Ssyssana is a cold moon. Between the small, weak star and the fact that it is in Exis’s shadow quite often, the moon has a very low average temperature. Frost forms as the star disappears from the sky and disappears as it returns. Things get especially cold while Exis is between Ssyssana and Syaxa while it should be sunny. Fortunately, Ssyssana is between the star and Exis a majority of the time.

The usually cool-colored crystals known as Sssah are one of the few traits Ssyssana shares with Exis. Sssah is found scattered all over both the planet and the moon, and in much greater abundance beneath the surface. Whatever the origin of these crystals are, Syknans do not know, although they do know everything else about them thanks to centuries of research. Sssah gives off energy in the forms of electromagnetic waves, ranging from infrared to ultraviolet frequencies. The frequency is more frequently toward the higher end, giving the crystals a more blue or violet color usually. The crystals also exhibit other properties that interest Syknans, such as a high conductivity and potential as a capacitor.

Ssyssana’s geography can be mostly described with three words: Rocks, caves, and lakes. Ssyssana lacks the tectonic plates to create full-blown mountain ranges, so the largest formations present are large rocks scattered all over Ssyssana’s surface. Caves are another common occurrence on Ssyssana, and these caves are where a large amount of life tends to live on the moon. The caves are often lined with Sssah, which helps autotrophic life grow underground. The other places autotrophic life thrives are the bottoms of lakes, where the temperature is consistent and the Sssah is plentiful.

## Government

“Shyrssna”, a council of sorts founded at the time of the ‘rebirth’ of the Sykna people. The Shyrssna phases out members and indoctrinates new members at no particular intervals, and as such the exact number of members fluctuates randomly.

There are no set rules for amount of time a member can hold their position. Each member has a specific task, such as being in charge of scientific advancement, infrastructure, military, etc.

Due to the natural Syknan love for technology and science, a majority of the Shyrssna seats are held by leaders directly involved with technological growth and scientific advancement. Syknans are told to vote on Shyrssna members based on when they feel widespread change needs to be made, or if a candidate becomes particularly well-known and appears worthy to them.

## History

Syknans were originally biological beings that evolved and lived on the planet Exis’s harsh, frozen moon, Ssyssana. They became intelligent and sentient at approximately the same time as the Osseen species on Exis, although they were always technologically behind the Osseen. The Osseen, scared of what the Syknans might do once they invented space travel, preemptively launched an aggressive attack on the Syknans. The Syknans had developed generally better military tech due to being a much more fractured race than the Osseens, so they managed to stop the Osseen assault.

The war took an unfortunate turn when the Osseens unleashed their dreadful superweapon, an orbital station that ionized all biological matter on Ssyssana’s surface. All Syknan clans were suddenly forced to retreat underground, and all but one eventually died out for various reasons. The final remaining Syknan clan managed to survive with few members (in the tens at the end) long enough to come up with a final solution to the problem of the superweapon.

They created mechanical copies of themselves and transferred their minds into the mechanical bodies. With the new non-organic bodies capable of remaining unharmed by the superweapon, they brought the fight to the Osseens. They pieced together an Osseen starship, and managed to use it to hijack the superweapon. The Osseens never expected this as they had thought the Syknans all died out many cycles previous. The few remaining Syknans turned the superweapon upon Exis, catastrophically ending almost all Osseen life near-instantly. Tragically, the Osseen people never were able to leave the star system, although they were so, so close.

Thousands of cycles after The War From Above, Syknans are finally prosperous on Ssyssana once again.