Name: baghan(s) [bah-gahn(z)]
Homeworld: Jubagh
Height/Length/Weight: Baghan women are shorter than baghan men, though they both share a very long, slim build. Height ranges from 6' (an average woman) to 7' (an average man), with variations of three or so inches either way. Baghan women usually weigh around 160 lbs, and men average at 210 lbs.
Physical Description: Baghans are tall, lean, furred bipeds. They stand digitigrade and have cloven hooves, as well as a long tufted tail that aids in balance. Their fingers are tipped in heavy, blunt hooves. Their faces are mostly humanoid, but their noses are somewhat feline - the bridge of the nose is thin but muzzle-like and their nostrils are cattish. They do have manes, males and females both, which can be straight, wavy, or curly; the texture is fur-like but coarse and heavy. Their ears are pointed at the tops and lobes, and are somewhat mobile, able to be angled to better hear. Their limbs and torsos are long, graceful, and slender. They have humanoid genitalia.
Senses/Capabilities: Baghans have decent senses - their eyesight is similar to human sight, their sense of smell is capable of distinguishing tribes and herbs apart, and their hearing is very good (considerably better than human). Baghans are extremely fast runners - easily reaching 30 mph in a sprint - and while they are not terribly enduring, their lightning-quick reflexes and movements compensate for their lack of long-lasting energy. (Spirit warriors are an exception to this; they are very enduring.) Baghans are also surprisingly strong, despite their thin builds, and extremely agile. All baghans, even the women, are physically fit.
Coloration/Clothing: Baghans have a wide range of possible colorations, including white, black, greys, browns, golds, and reds. General coloration is determined by the mother's genes and defines a tribe. Few baghans are solidly-colored; most have markings of some sort, which can be spots, stripes, mottles/dapples, patches, or rosettes. The coloration of a tribe often provides a clue to their elemental affinity (see Magic). Their eyes can be a wide range of colors: blues, greens, browns, silver/grey, gold/amber/bronze, and occasionally a mix (like hazel). Eye color and precise markings are not determined by the mother's genes, but a spotted mother will not have a striped son, for example. As for clothing: holy men wear ankle-length kilts, spirit warriors wear as little as possible (a top and a loincloth), tribesmen wear ankle-length leggings, and tribeswomen wear tops and ankle-length leggings. Clothing is made of hide, and only the holy men wear dyed outfits. Baghans enjoy natural jewelry (feathers, clay beads, dyed strings, strips of pretty fur, shiny rocks) and often wear fetishes; spirit warriors always wear talismans around their necks, made by their holy men. Holy men often wear bones and other body parts.
Language: Baghans speak a very smooth, graceful, slow language. Despite the extensive vocabulary, humans can easily speak it, since the same range of sounds are feasible for human and baghan mouths. The language is largely caste-oriented and has several ways of addressing the same person, depending on the speaker's status. Courtesy is a prime concern - as are magical words for spells and curses.
Technology: Baghans do not use technology. Only a very few tribes engage in smithing; the rest built their huts of sticks and hides, and make their weapons of wood and stone. Spears and staves are the primary weapons, but stone-tipped knives are also common, and some iron-workers make axes. (Due to the poor worksmanship, these axes are rarely used in real battle; rather, they are symbols of strength and prosperity.)
Magic: The holy men of Jubagh are the only ones who use magic. There is usually only one holy man per baghan tribe, and each tribe has an elemental affinity or two. Holy men zealously guard their positions of power and prestige; they are exclusively male. Women who seem to have a knack for magic are chosen as spirit warriors and fed magical energy by the holy men via talismans; these spirit warriors convert the magic to qki and are skilled, formidable warriors. (In the human magic system, holy men would be witch doctors, and spirit warriors would be closest to simple warriors.)
Social Groups/Society: Baghans live in tribes, led by holy men who are protected by spirit warriors. (There are usually three or four spirit warriors per holy man.) Holy men fight each other, spirit warriors fight each other and occasionally enemy holy men, and tribesmen fight whomever they must. Women who are not spirit warriors do not engage in battle unless as a last resort, but they do hunt and fish along with the tribesmen. Tribes are very caste-based and hierarchal: holy men are supreme, followed by spirit warriors, then tribesmen, then tribeswomen. In general, men are regarded as superior to women; however, this gender inequality has little bearing on which tasks are assigned to men and women. Men and women both hunt, fish, skin, leatherwork, make weapons, and raise children.
Habitat/Settlements: Baghans center their tribe in a small village at the center of their lands/territory. Each family has a hut, and the spirit warriors have a hut, and the holy man lives in the very center of the village. Any building that does not function as living quarters is normally a storehouse or a smithy.
Religion/Beliefs: Baghans are animistic; they hold as truth that every living thing - including animals, trees, and even rocks/soil/water - has a spirit. Holy men interact with these spirits; other baghans merely acknowledge them and attempt not to anger them. There are no gods on Jubagh; baghans don't worship the spirits around them, but try to live in harmony with them.
Interaction w/ Other Species: Baghans are isolated on Jubagh. Though they are aware that other people exist on other worlds, it has no bearing on their daily lives. On the rare occasion that outsiders do appear, most baghans are standoffish and wary; some are downright hostile and territorial. Holy men are not bound by rules of courtesy towards outsiders, but if a holy man is not present to instruct his tribe, any others are required to be courteous to the outsiders until the holy man tells them what to do.