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The Jhi'Rae
Cultural Age: 9 (race has had FTL tech for 1000 - 5000 years)
T1: Lizard Race - Omnivore --- RDC - 60 points ---
EVT000 - Normal Environment (-10 pts) --- GCr - 600 GCr ---
Conversion 60 RDC -> 3000 GCrs --- Physical Description --- On a small blue-green planet somewhere on the fringe of the galaxy evolved a race of warm-blooded reptilians who called themselves "The Rae". The average Rae stands between 5 and 7 feet tall with a tail approximately equal in length to 1.5 times their torso length. Their skin is covered with soft, leathery scales that, while not providing much in the way of armor, are polychromatic, giving the Rae chameleon-like abilities. They have a mane of hair similar in texture to bird down extending from the brow to the base of the neck. This hair is without pigment, but rather, conducts the color of the pigment of the follicle, which is also polychromatic, allowing them to change their hair color with the rest of their body for camoflaging, or to some outlandish color when they want to be noticed in social situations. The Jhi'Rae, with their ascetic training becoming a part of everyday life, have significantly lengthened their lifespan from a few hundred years to nearly two millennia or more. Some of the more devout monks of the Jhi have lived well over 5000 years. --- Cultural Notes --- The history section of both the Jhi'Rae and the Jhi'Naam is confusing unless you know that the terms Rae and Naam both refer to those of their respective races that do not have training in the Jhi techniques. As contact with the Jhi progresses, the percentage of the respective populations trained in the Jhi grows as well. --- History --- The Rae *were* a clannish people who had a very defined sense of honor. Initially, the majority of the culture was agnostic, atheist, or non-religious, though various cults did sprout up and have waxing and waning popularity. The Rae developed high technology on their own and soon developed interstellar travel. Soon after, they began exploring the areas around their home system. With this exploration came the great desire for more, and great leaps and bounds were made in the field of warp propulsion. The Rae soon came into contact with an alien race calling themselves the Naam. The Naam were a ferocious stalker/hunter race. Though initial contact was good, and the races were on good terms diplomatically, it wasn't long before independent Naam Hunters found amusement and challenge in the chameleonic abilites of the Rae and started sending hunting parties to Rae outposts and colonies in order to hunt them for sport. Needless to say, the Rae did not like this. When ambassadors were sent to confront the Naam about getting the hunting parties to stop, the Naam replied with an unequivocal "NO!" A brief meeting was called among the Rae clan leaders, and they organized an alliance and began to secretly research integrating their own chameleonic abilites into their starship technology and soon had a working cloaking device. They used this technological breakthrough to their advantage and began systematically taking out the Naam hunting parties on a large scale. The Naam had communication technology that was superior to that of the Rae, and the hunting parties relayed the situation back to the Naam homeworld. The Naam took the actions of the Rae as a challenge and began hunting them on a large scale...using starships instead of handguns. Entire Rae outposts were destroyed in Naam raids and the hunting parties grew closer to the Rae homeworld. Rising tensions over the raids eventually burst into a formally declared state of war. With the all-clear given by the Naam government, the Naam began a full-scale assault on the Rae. Although the Rae had faster ships and cloaking devices, the Naam were a race of experienced hunters who had become ruthlessly organized with their superior combat capabilities. The Rae saw that despite their efforts, they were on the losing side of this conflict. It happened by chance that a Rae scout noticed a power signature coming from a colony that was thought to have been destroyed. Upon investigation, the scout found that the colony was now inhabited by a cult calling themselves the "Monks of the Order of the Jhi", who practiced a strict regimen of psychic and physical activities to heighten their awareness. In doing so, the monks tapped into what they called the "Jhi" which was a great web of connected consciousness. Indeed, there had been a Naam raid, and the colony's communications center had been destroyed. Despite the loss, the Jhi monks, with their collective consciousness were able to outmatch the Naam tech-based communications and defend themselves. The scout piled as many of these monks into his scout craft as he could and rushed them back to the homeworld. The Rae immediately began training their soldiers in the ways of the Jhi. Then advanced reports indicated that the Naam were gathering almost all of their combat class spacecraft and hunter drop-ships into an armada for a huge assault on the Rae homeworld. Hearing this, the Rae clan leaders made Jhi training mandatory for every Rae soldier, or civilian alike, from the elderly to the youngest of school children. No one was to be unprepared for the Naam invasion. The fast cloaked ships kept tabs on the Naam armada's progress while the homeworld devised a massive ambush to greet them. Almost all other activities were put on hiatus while these preparations and the Jhi training took place. Then the armada arrived. The training in the ways of the Jhi paid off in a seriously big way. The Rae reacted like an ant colony. No standard communications were necessary as everyone knew where they needed to be and what needed to be done by tapping into the Jhi. While there were some casualties, the Naam armada was completely destroyed, though not before sending back several transmissions detailing the course of the battle. Naam intelligence studied the data from the battle and started an investigation of the "monks" that had apparently come into the Raean spotlight. A small strike force was assembled and prepared to capture one of these monks alive. Three Naam gunboats were sent to escort the strike team and prevent pursuit. With an engagement time of only four minutes, the Naam snuck into the Rae system, landed, kidnapped one of the Jhi monks and left orbit with the three gunboats waiting for pursuers. The monk was interrogated about the powers that it had helped teach to the Rae and was given an untimatum:
The Naam interrogator said: "You will teach us the Jhi, or you will die." The monk proceeded to teach the Naam the ways of the Jhi. With their own connection to the Rae collective consciousness, the Naam were able to sense the tactics and schemes of the Rae. Unfortunately, this connection went both ways, and the Rae were able to obtain the same information from the Naam, as well as feel the great animosity the Naam felt for the Rae. The Rae devised an assault of their own and set off for the Naam homeworld. The siege that ensued was long and slow, but with some of the Naam now part of the Jhi, things went much like playing a game of poker with all of the cards dealt face-up on the table. However, the Rae had a significant advantage in numbers of ships, and eventually used this to gain the upper hand. Systematic extermination of the Naam began, though those Naam who had Jhi training were able to avoid the extermination squads better than the untrained Naam. But eventually, one of the Naam of the Jhi was cornered and executed by one of the Jhi'Rae. The resulting psionic backlash resulting from one of the Jhi killing another rippled through every Rae and Naam of the Jhi and filled them with a considerably stronger empathy than before. Suddenly, after years of warfare and occupation, the Rae stopped, picked up their things, and left the Naam homeworld in a matter of hours. There were fewer than 100,000 Naam left alive, scattered across their battle-worn planet, roughly a twentieth of which were trained in the Jhi. Those Naam that were part of the Jhi realized what had happened and were quick to rally the survivors, knowing that they would only survive if they were part of the Jhi. The remaining Naam became the Jhi'Naam and left their homeworld, the hunter's instinct remaining within. The Jhi'Naam knew that they could continue their hunting, but they could no longer hunt the Rae. The Jhi'Naam have made considerable progress since the war with the Rae, to the point of rebuilding their homeworld and civilization. However, although they still hunt, they avoid Jhi'Rae space. The current relationship between the Jhi'Naam and the Jhi'Rae is an odd one. There are a considerable amount of bad feelings over the conflict, but because of "the accident", outright war is avoided because no one is willing to kill another member of the Jhi, be they Rae or Naam. --- Game Notes --- The Jhi'Rae will NEVER attack a Jhi'Naam for any reason. This will be appended to the SWRM as a diplomatic limitation on the race and it will be enforced on whatever cards are specifically of the Jhi'Rae. --- Game Cards ---
JHI'RAE Monk
If combat is initiated at a
Card Class: 2 ------------------------------
JHI'RAE Artist
Adds +1 to all entertainment
Card Class: 1 ---
Submitted by Raleigh Love
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