shady side of the moon

SLYPHIDS

History: The sylphids claim they were aboard the very last miracle ship to leave the blue planet, which may or may not be true. Certainly they left the planet very late, after the fossil fuels were exhausted and much of the land mass was submerged. Their ship landed on Aurora, a small, hot planet orbiting a dangerously radioactive star. Despite the miracle pod’s attempts to make them resistant, the radiation made normal reproduction risky and the whole species nearly died off during the first century or so. The survivors were those who retreated into deep caves to avoid the radiation. In those caves they found rich seams of rare elements and metals and, by drawing power from the deadly sunlight on the surface, made rapid technological progress. They learned to integrate their electronics into their own bodies, and eventually completely changed their reproductive process so they could return at last to the surface.

Biology: Sylphids look more like base-stock humans than most races, but on a more fundimental level they’re actually some of the most significantly Changed. They have, for example, two extra chromosome pairs dedicated to genetic repair and tumour control -- only severely ill or immunocompromised sylphids suffer from cancers (members of other races should wear lead-lined protective clothing while visiting aurora, especially if they ever hope to have children.) Physically their tall and thin-boned body types reflect the relatively low gravity of Aurora.

Sylphids are also probably the race which has changed the most since the original Change. Modern sylphids, for example, do not really have sex chromosomes. The ‘Y’ chromosome proved to confer an unavoidable vulnerability to genetic damage that had a significant effect on average lifespan, so when they switched over to full artificial reproduction the sylphids simply discarded it.

Sylphids are grown in vats, sometimes from carefully designed seed cells and sometimes from genuine pseudosexual fusion of parent’s ‘eggs’. The juvenile sylphids live in lead-lined nurseries until the age of about 4, at which point their gametes (which mature very quickly in this race) are harvested for storage away from the sun, and they receive the cybernetic augmentations that characterize adults of the race. This system ensures that genetic material is never damaged by the harsh radiation.

Sylphid augmentations are primarily meant to make them better tool-users. Most sylphid tech has no interface that can be accessed without augmentations. Sylphids are also able to use a system originally designed to aid with fine manipulation to levitate themselves, and most use this as transportation instead of walking. When walking they project faintly glowing ‘wings’ near their shoulders; these projections are semi-solid and essential to the levitation process; if the ‘wings’ are disrupted the sylphid will stumble and possibly fall.

Culture: Sylphids do not use normal sexual reproduction and have no sex-linked traits. The sylphid concept of gender is related to the type of augmentation an individual has, with three broad categories and three associated pronoun sets. The actually difference between the different kinds of augmentations is, however, almost impossible to explain to races that don’t use them. A typical attempted explanation looks like “male augs are better at [becoming knowing] but slower, female augs are much faster at [illumination] but miss [shiny words] sometimes, EE augs are stronger but cause more [condensation] when [listening].” The third pronoun set is ee, eeir, ees.

Socially, ivory-tower intellectual jobs are typically thought of as male-gendered while engineering and design are female. The third gender is significantly rarer (about 10% of the population) and is typically associated with administrative, clerical and political positions. Gender changes occur occasionally as sylphids often tinker with their own augmentations. It is also relatively common for a sylphid to make modifications that technically shift their augmentation gender without bothering to change social gender.

Sylphids have no sexual orientations per se but do have sex, and use their augmentations during the process. Augmentations are in fact considered erotic and showing them is considerably more risque than showing genetalia; male sylphids wear robes with long hoods to hide the raised ridge of their back implants that would otherwise show through their clothing, females grow their hair out for the same reason. Third genders have smoother back implants that are not usually visible through clothing, they usually wear either shoulder-length hair or a turban-like head covering that covers the implants on the back of their necks.

Oddly, sylphids only have one word for food and no cultural tradition of eating for pleasure. Sylphid ‘food’ is rather unpalatable nutrient slop that is eaten purely for sustinence. There are a few animals and plants on Aurora that can potentially be converted into higher quality food, but the sylphids exclusively eat the calorie-dense, nutritionally complete secretion of a particular kind of green algae. Sylphids exposed to other race’s food for the first time have been known to gorge themselves dangerously.

In the early days of the occupation several of the Sylphid nurseries had the idea to engineer a resistance. They chose the most aggressive gene-lines and gave them unique wings designed for single combat. Called them Avengers. Ordinary Sylphids can project walls of hardened air with their wings and fend off enemies with sonic impacts; these Avengers could stop bullets and negate laser attacks, and slice enemies with blades of air. The project was, of course, a complete failure. The Avengers were never properly taught how to fight and most of them never showed any interest in the resistance; some of them defected to serve the Lop occupation as enforcers.

The Lops, with much crueler imaginations, soon realized that a species grown in vats can be recreated elsewhere without the inconvenient presence of other members of the species. With the help of a few Sylphid defectors they jury rigged a Sylphid nursery far away from Aurora and began to produce their own line of winged warriors.

Sylphid wings and implants draw energy from the charged air of Aurora; any Sylphid who spends too long outside the range of an energy broadcaster is reduced to a power-starved half-life. The Lops could not afford to run energy broadcasters everywhere they wanted their warriors to go. The program stalled for a few years, until one particularly unsavory researcher realized that the floating cyborgs were both highly resistant to radiation and able to project radio-shielding. It proved possible to graft micro-sized nuclear reactors onto the subject’s backs. The reactors could be made light enough by cutting back dramatically on shielding and demanding that its carrier project a neutralizing barrier around it at all times. The Sylphid itself would be within the barrier and would be cooked by the radiation, but very slowly.

Unlike the Avengers, these beings, dubbed Banshees by their engineers, were raised by the warlike Lops and learned to use their abilities to deadly effect. They knew nothing of Aurora or the other Sylphids and, in theory, existed only to advance the aims of the Lop military. In practice they proved dangerous and difficult to control and were phased out after the first prototype Revenants proved to be much more reliable super-soldiers.

A significant number of Banshees remain alive, either independently or as part of the Lop military. Some of them are trying to contact their true homeworld of Aurora, others seek to gain control of the nursery that produced them to continue the line to their own specifications. Some work as freelance bounty hunters or bodyguards, and a few have simply gone into hiding in hopes of being left alone.