Races of Star Ocean

Version 1.1
Last modified August 10th, 2000
GM Radien <radiens@geocities.com>

	Preface:

	The Star Ocean is a vast universe full of thousands of intelligent races; among which hundreds of races have achieved interstellar communication and travel.  Expel, merely one speck in the nighttime sky, has several intelligent races of its own.

	This doc lists the races that have already been introduced as parts of the Star Ocean universe.  However, before you read on, I have to make a note on the style of Star Ocean… In Star Ocean, almost all intelligent races are humanoid and very closely resemble humans, considering the vast array of other forms a creature could take in a sci-fi story.  You’ll notice that Expellians look almost exactly like humans, Nedians look like humans with long, pointy ears, and Tetragenes look like rather tall humans with a third eye.

There really isn’t any explanation behind it; it’s simply done for style, and it works!  The reason behind this is that it’s so much easier to compare an alien civilization to our own when it represents a certain aspect of human personality.  Star trek figured this out long ago, and oddly enough it became largely a show about human nature, even though it used alien races to bring out those traits.  So, try to go along with the style when choosing your race or making up your own.  Use your own judgment as to what fits… Now go to it.

Expellian

	The most populated race on Expel is, naturally, the Expellians.  Expellians are a race quite like humans in appearance and many mannerisms, though there are different in some ways.  Physically, they are more or less identical to humans for all intents and purposes.  They are, however, at a different stage of advancement than humans are now, and Expel’s towns, cities, and villages on average tend to have settled somewhere in the medieval age.  For unknown reasons, though, certain pockets of Expel’s civilization have advanced far beyond other parts.  There seem to be extenuating factors involved in this – perhaps they have been influenced by their counterpart intelligent race on Expel, or it may be something else.

	Expellians lead the way in the field of Heraldry, an archaic art which involves tattooing crests on one’s body with which to channel energy used for casting spells.  They seem to be developing in a manner that is different from humans at their medieval stage of civilization, even though they have numerous similarities.

	Requirements:

	An Expellian character may be of the class of Fighter or Mage, and possibly Healer if he/she has the right background specifications.  Expellians groups usually act as medieval societies, but there are exceptions.  Expellian scientists, inventors, and other thinkers are likely to have lived in or visited Linga at some time.  Native Cross continent scientists, etc. are rare.  Even the most advanced bits of Expellian technology, however, are still considerably behind the rest of the galaxy’s, and Expellian inventors will still have a lot to learn about offworld technology even if they have a lot of latent ability.

Fellpool

	The planet of Expel has another intelligent race on it, one that coevolved alongside the Expellians: the Fellpool.  The Fellpool evolved from a feline species and acquired many humanoid qualities.  Physically, the Fellpool race is distinguished by their large, catlike ears towards the top of their head, and depending on the locality, some have large, furry, paw-like hands.  The loss of this attribute has occasionally been attributed to mixing between Fellpools and Expellians, but no real research has been done on the subject.

	Psychologically, the Fellpool are a very intelligent and clever race on the whole.  The feats Fellpool scientists have accomplished have been astounding; one such Fellpool – Leon S. Geeste – had a noticeable impact on technological advancement in Lacour.  However, these instances are rare, since Fellpool on their own don’t tend to have nearly as much of an urge to create things as do Expellians, Humans, and other races of Star Ocean.  Leon was an exception, as his own Fellpool parents were lost and he was willed to two Expellian foster parents.

	The most common mode of thought among the Fellpool race involves a very close dependency on their version of Darwinian theory.  As a whole, they believe that advancement of a society is defined by their ability to overcome the challenges nature gives them, by facing them head-on.  There are many interpretations of this among Fellpool individuals.

	The Fellpool on Expel are seemingly small in numbers, and few decide to live in the midst of Expellian civilization, not that they hold anything against it.  Fellpool females are capable of having dozens of children without difficulty, but they do not use this fact to become overpopulated.  Instead, Fellpool societies tend to single out only the strongest and most intelligent couples amongst them and encourage them to have children.  Respected traditions of competition are observed annually, and according to tradition only one couple will produce a litter every year.

The contests range from tournaments to tests of scientific knowledge; the latter being the more popular modern equivalent.  Considering their unique behavior, the Fellpool might have died out during the Sorcery Globe incident, but they avoided their fate at the cost bypassing their yearly traditions for awhile.  

	Requirements:

	A Fellpool character may be of the class of Fighter or Mage, and possibly Healer if he/she has the right background specifications.  Fellpool technological advancement is somewhat of a mish-mash, as some Fellpool individuals are extremely intelligent while others are particularly feral.  They are more likely to be scientists than Expellians but less likely to be fighters, although medieval occupations are quite familiar to them.  The traditional Fellpool method of using Heraldry involves embedding crests into writing, rather than tattooing them on oneself as they learn in Expellian villages and towns such as Mars.

Nedian

	Certain individuals from Expel had a great part in the prevention of the collapse of the universe, but it’s biggest casualty was the planetoid Energy Nede, which housed the last of the Nedians.  The Nedians decided that their own destruction was imminent if the galaxy was to be saved from tyrannical rule, and that their existence was useless in the face of stopped evolution.

	However, three Nedians were allowed to survive; the three who contributed most to the defeat of the Ten Wise Men:  Chisato Madison, Noel Chandler, and Rena Lanford.  These three were allowed to live on as long as they wouldn’t vex evolution again; namely by reproducing with one another instead of other beings of other races.

	Consequently, the Nedian race may be dead in one way, but in another sense they live on, contributing to evolution in the galaxy by mingling with other races.  But that’s in the long-run… the present is a different story entirely.  It’s only been six years since the destruction of Nede, and certainly no part-Nedian has even had the chance to reach adolescence yet.  Seeing a new Nedian under these circumstances would be virtually impossible.

	Requirements:

	If you want to play a Nedian you’d best have a really good explanation… but if you feel confident that your background is going to absolutely blow me away, you may submit one, although it will probably be difficult to convince me to accept it.  Nedians can be Fighters, Mages, or Healers, and they don’t need any special background to be a healer as long as they’ve had the chance to practice their latent abilities.  Nedians are open to more-or-less any occupation, but Nedian scientists and thinkers tend to have less of an affinity for non-Heraldic technology and lean towards magic-empowered creations.

	Human

Star Ocean players are human in real life (usually, anyway), so you most likely don’t need to be told much about their appearance and demeanor.  However, a lot of history has been racked up in the years since they joined the interstellar network linked by space travel.  The most influential of these events was the creation of the Galactic Earth Federation, which you can read about in the Galactic History section of the docs.

Even though they were one of the major pioneering races behind the foundation of the first official interplanetary federation, Humans have had their own share of problems.  The rigors of depending on a factory-based set of production industries means that there often isn’t enough of the pie to go around, and pollution is commonplace.  Fortunately, the current government has found a way to eliminate much of the poverty, but the population got to be very high before it hit a plateau, which causes hardships across the world almost randomly even when the united governments are aware of every incident.

Interstellar travel has been more promising.  With the creation of Heraldic technology – which is basically a way of using psychic brainwaves to power and control devices – new applications for machinery have been put into action.  This technology is largely unreliable, but it’s also powerful… and usable by almost any living being, which means exportation is very profitable as long as it is kept safe.

Humans have proven that they can create both wonderful dreams and horrible nightmares, and put them into motion themselves, reaching an extent unmatched by virtually all races.

Requirements:

A Human character must be a Fighter, unless very special circumstances are present.  The Heraldic Arts are not taught in modern civilization, and the rare planets that do make use of it are considered “undeveloped” and protected by a galactic treaty that keeps advanced races from exploiting them.  This pretty much prevents humans and other advanced races from learning about the Heraldic Arts, even though they have made some advancements in Heraldic technology.

Human characters in this story are likely to have crash-landed or otherwise become stranded on Expel, as voluntary interaction with undeveloped civilizations and revealing technological secrets is prohibited by law, and doing so without good reason would get someone into a lot of trouble.  Humans may still be carrying technology on them, as long as it can operate without an outside power source long enough to be of any use on a foreign planet like Expel.

Tetragene

Contrasting Humans in more ways than one are the Tetragenes.  Physically, they are largely distinguished by a third eye in the middle of the forehead, increasing their visual skills and allowing them to blink without disrupting depth perception.  They are also considerably  tall, standing on average 4 or 5 inches taller than humans.

The Tetragenes have always been a brash, heartfelt, romanticist race.  They tend to decide on their stance rather quickly, and go with it until they meet with success or failure.  That’s not to say, however, that Tetragenes never change their minds.  Most Tetragenes think nothing of changing their position when they have a very good reason to; a paradigm shift which is much easier for them since they are much less apt to “demonize” their rivals – a problem which humans have often faced for millennia past.  Tetragenes are also very curious, which combined with their “gung-ho” common nature has led some Tetragene individuals to come to be among the greatest explorers of all time.

The planet of Tetragenes is highly technologically advanced, and ruled by an aristocracy.  This form of government works for them because respect is highly valued, while privacy is not.  They are a very independent society, which is probably the reason why they have strangely declined to join the Galactic Earth Federation, even though it would provide great mutual benefits.  Overall, Tetragenes is currently a very prosperous planet, and yet holds a very sincere long-range interest in the fate of the galaxy.

Requirements:

Tetragenes must be fighters; Tetragenes who can use Heraldic magic are even more unlikely than humans who can.  This is because, even though the Tetragenes are not part of the Galactic Earth Federation and do not voluntarily follow laws such as the Undeveloped Planets Protection Treaty, the Tetragenes embrace technology and have never had much of an interest in magic.  This means that even Tetragene romanticists rarely know anything about such legends, unless they go out of their way to find out.

	Since they show little concern for Federation laws (even though they can still be prosecuted under them due to the Federation’s clout, if caught), Tetragenes are much more likely to carry heavy advanced technology with them when exploring undeveloped planets – usually scaring the natives and causing general confusion wherever they go.

Other Races

Certainly, countless other races exist.  It is also conceivable that one might even end up on Expel, somehow.  However, if you’d like to create a character of a new race, please read the sections on History and the like very carefully to make sure your introduction is plausible.  Also, please remember that your character can be very biologically different from humans and still be a race with which an everyday person like me or you can identify with.  Also, there won’t be any adjustments to the way your character works, stat-wise, unless you ask me for one.

Requirements:

Beings from advanced races will not initially know magic, meaning most of them must be Fighters.  I’m not saying there aren’t advanced races that use magic out there, but at the time this story takes place the Heraldic Arts have become close to unknown amongst civilizations that have reached the age of interstellar exploration.  It is more or less a “lost art.” 

Robots / Mechanical Creations

Mechanized intelligences may be allowed in SO2rpg, but if you want to play one, please be prepared to do it as a temporary character or NPC.  Robots will almost definitely not be allowed as PCs because the levels/skills system just doesn’t work for them.  If you have an idea for a robot character, please make sure it is something unique and special, not just a random cyborg thrown in for laughs.  Robots aren’t something we’ll likely have to worry about early on in the game, but I noted it here for completeness.

Requirements:

	All robots are Fighters, period.  I’ll give you customized rules for playing one if your robot gets accepted.