[SydneyFreedberg]

My previous thread on Really Alien Aliens got some great feedback on five races: the Trinoics, who invented FTL & conquered the galaxy in a fit of panic, and the Quartet, four cooperative species that rose to dominate the galaxy after the Trinoc Empire fell.

Now I'm starting this new thread for three new races, who together make up the "evil empire" of the setting -- thought they can be easily adapted for other space opera campaigns well: the warlike Fomori, merchantile Teceti, and disgusting Spitslugs. Once again, I'm eager for comments, suggestions, & critique.

I'll break this into three posts for length and keep the content in spoiler tags to avoid Wall of Text.

Fomori
Sadistic, skeletal conquerors with a twisted sense of honor

Description

Spoiler:  

Evolved as apex predators on their home planet, the Fomori have conquered a quarter of the galaxy since they first turned on their would-be masters, the Teceti Republic.

The Teceti had recruited the primitive Fomori as slave soldiers because of their impressive martial abilities. Individually, the average Fomorian is as formidable a fighter as many species’ special operations troops; collectively, their instinctive submission to strong leaders allows a Fomori warlord to rapidly unite vast forces, including former rivals — although their loyalty may last only as long as his successes.

From a human perspective, a Fomorian even looks frightening: a rail-thin, bone-white combination of praying mantis and animated skeleton. A Fomorian stands upright with two arms, two legs, and a head, like a human, but they are much thinner and covered entirely in bond-whole exoskeleton. (Animal life on the Fomori homeworld never evolved endoskeletons or lungs, and their breathing mechanism cannot bring oxygen very far into the interior of the body). Each arm is dramatically elongated, reaching almost to the ground, and ends in a swordlike talon. The head resembles the skull of a deer or elk, with long, elaborately branching “antlers” that are actually eyes able to see in all directions. A typical Fomorian stands 7’ tall at the crest of the skull but 9’ to the tips of the eye-antlers.

Fomorians evolved from ambush predators, stalking their prey in small packs. They are egg-laying hermaphrodites, with the dominant member of the pack acting as a male and the lesser members as his harem of females. As a result, Fomori have always engaged in constant dominance struggles with other Fomorians — both within each pack over mating rights and between packs over territory — and, since the Fomori’s natural weapons are so deadly, they have evolved strong instinctive limits to keep from wiping themselves out. What’s more, these instincts are over-generalized: They affect Fomori behavior towards any creature they recognize as sapient. The resulting behavior patterns are often described as the Fomorian “code of honor” but is in fact largely instinctual, not cultural, with remarkably few variations across the species.

Unless suffering some severe mental illness, a Fomorian is psychologically incapable of continuing to attack a sapient creature that is clearly trying to surrender. Instead, it will treat the surrendering creature as if it were another Fomorian that had submitted in a dominance battle: The loser becomes the slave of the winner and must obey in all things; the winner, in turn, is obligated to keep the loser alive and ensure it has at least food and water. Thus, a Fomorian who surrenders will treat its captor as its absolute master, including fighting loyally on their command, even against its former allies — and Fomori are repulsed by prisoners who try to escape or refuse to obey.

However, Fomori will never kill a prisoner, even indirectly by working them to death. Instead, Fomori reinforce master-slave relationships — and all Fomori relationships are master and slave, even between parents and children — through pain: They have an instinctive affinity for torture and can quickly learn, for any given species of victim, how to inflict agony without lasting physical harm. Fomori masters inflict arm-locks and chokes on their slaves as a routine greeting, and they impose more extensive tortures every few days. (For a Fomori victim, a “choke” involves inserting a digit between plates of the exoskeleton, preventing the expansion and contraction they use to breathe). Torture effectively serves the same psychological bonding function among Fomori that sex and other forms of physical affection serve among humans. If a Fomorian is not regularly tortured by its master, its instinctive loyalty will begin to fade, making it at least possible to contemplate defection or rebellion. However, a master who remains overwhelmingly superior to his vassals can usually retain their allegiance.

How Fomori define superiority is one of the major cultural divides within the species:
-A large majority of Fomori (approximately 70% in the present day) are strategoi: They consider strategic assets and generalship when evaluating whether a master is worthy of continued submission. A strategic Fomorian reveres great conquerors and will remain loyal to one even if not regularly tortured in person; they may even remain loyal after their master has suffered a defeat, although a master who is repeatedly defeated will lose their respect.
-A sizable minority of Fomori (25%) are ronin: They value only individual combat prowess, so they pledge loyalty only to masters who have defeated them personally, without any consideration of whether a potential master has armies of vassals or not. Some ronin go further and value only specific forms of personal combat, typically involving martial arts. Ronin therefore struggle to form any social institution larger than a school of martial arts, and they typically work for strategic Fomori as mercenaries.
-A tiny and persecuted minority of Fomori (5%) are considered heretics because of their atypical understanding of dominance and superiority. Most of these are so-called “simultationists,” who believe superiority can be determined through some kind of simulation— ranging from traditional strategy games to immersive VR — without any actual fighting, which is abhorrent to most Fomori. Even more despised are those few Fomori pacifists and philosophers who seek to opt out of dominance struggles altogether.

Across all these subcultures, Fomori society is thus innately feudal and warlike, with rapid shifts of allegiance whenever one warlord defeats another and forces them to submit, along with all their vassals. Fomori commanders appreciate logistics and even the importance of a robust civilian economy, and they wage war with a minimum of collateral damage to capture resources and populations intact: The measure of success is how many vassals and slaves you command, not how many enemies you have killed. But the species’ instinctive dominance hierarchies favor fighting ability over productive skills, and even the harshest masters struggle to make Fomori slaves into laborers.

So, on their own, the Fomori achieved a bronze-age, pastoral society, with an economy based on hunting, herding, and constantly raiding one another. (The species’ fondness for heroic cattle raids means they consider the most impressive achievement of human culture to be the Irish epic, the Tain, which led them to insist that humans call them by an Irish mythological name for a race of monstrous warriors). The Fomori stagnated at this stage and would have remained in it indefinitely — had they not been contacted by the Teceti.

[EDIT: the template below has been extensively revised — click here for the latest version]

Fomorian (121 points)

Spoiler:  

Attribute Modifiers:
ST +2 [20]
DX +2 [40]

Secondary Characteristic Modifiers:
Basic Speed +0.5 [+10]
Perception +2 [+10]

Advantages:
360 vision (eyes easy to hit, -20%) [+20]
Acute Vision +3 [+6]
Ambidextrous [+5]
Claws: Long Talons (on hands only, not feet) [+11]
Combat Reflexes [+15]
Damage Resistance x3 [+15]
Infravision [+10]
Long Arms (+reach & damage) [+20]
Reputation: fearsome conquerors (+3, almost everyone; -4, lovers of peace & freedom, a large group) [0]

Disadvantages:
Callous [-5]
Code of Honor: Fomori Code* [-15]
Colorblindness [-10]
Ham-Fisted x1 [-5]
Increased Life Support: obligate carnivore (can only eat meat) [-5]
Intolerance: non-warriors [-5]
Sadism (self-control: 12) [-15]
Quirk: cannot float [-1]

Taboo traits: Bloodlust [0], Swimming [0]

* Fomori Code of Honor: Prove your superiority by fighting, hunting, and terrorizing other creatures. Inflict pain on your inferiors and accept pain from your superiors. Always accept surrenders from sapient beings, even dishonorable ones (you need not accept instinctive submission from non-sapient animals, which you may kill and eat). When facing defeat at the hands of an honorable foe who is clearly superior, surrender to them and serve them loyally as long as they remain superior and honorable, which includes torturing you.


Common optional traits:
These traits are NOT part of the racial template but are included as suggestions for individual characters
Ally Group, Patron, and/or Duty [variable]
Perception [+5/level] or Acute Vision [+2/level]
Enhanced Defenses [variable]
Extra Attack [+25/level]
Fearlessness [+2/level]
Gunslinger [+25]
High Pain Threshold [+10]
Trained by a Master [+30]
Weapon Master [variable]
Talent: Fomori Martial Arts (10/level): Camouflage, Intimidation, Judo, Karate, Leadership, Melee Weapon: Broadsword (for talons), Observation, Stealth, Tactics, Torture [new skill], Tracking.
Bully [-10]
Compulsive Behavior: conquer & enslave [-15]
Duty [variable]
Sense of Duty: superior [-2]