Species: F'saik'n

Name: f'saik'n [f-SAY-kn] ([fah-SAY-kehn])

Homeworld: Gisufa

Height/Length/Weight: F'saik'n are not large individuals, but they are somewhat tall. They range from 3-4' high at the withers, with males being both taller and heavier than females. Tailless, they're about 5-6.5' long, and they weigh between 150-250 lbs.

Physical Description: F'saik'n are, essentially, quadrupedal… humans. They've been twisted and adapted to a new form of locomotion, and they are slightly more animalistic in appearance than true humans, but the resemblance is obvious and shocking. Their faces are rugged and somewhat crude, with larger teeth and noses; their longer necks attach to their skulls higher, so that they can move quadrupedally without straining to keep their heads level. Their head-hair is thick, typically long, and tangly but not matted (they do comb through it); their body-hair is coarse but too sparse to afford much protection from the elements, especially for the females, who have even less than the males. Their breasts and genitals are human-like, as well, hanging straight down from their torsos and making rigorous physical activity awkward at best (hence the clothes). They move digitigrade, walking on the balls of their (very callused) hands and feet; their finger- and toe-nails are blunt, thick, and usually splintered. The most noticeable difference between humans and f'saik'n is the length of their arms - f'saik'n arms are just as long as their legs - and f'saik'n are physically much larger than humans. Their chests are also rearranged slightly, deeper and less flat than true human torsos.

Senses/Capabilities: F'saik'n have good sight - long-range, full-color, and fairly motion-sensitive - but they do poorly in the dark. They have an average sense of hearing and a decent sense of smell. Their sense of touch is somewhat dulled, since their hides are generally overexposed to stimulation.

Coloration/Clothing: F'saik'n wear some limited clothing, primarily when being very physically active - females wear a band of hide around their breasts, and males wear a band of hide around their loins, both of which are tight enough to prevent awkward movement. Fur or hide blankets are fashioned into crude cloaks when the weather turns too cold, but mere rain or sun doesn't usually make them flinch. As for coloration, f'saik'n hide ranges from sun-bronzed tawny to darker earth-brown; unlike many species, whose parents' colors mix in offspring, f'saik'n colors actually blend in their children, producing more middling tones. F'saik'n hair ranges from sun-bleached yellow-white to rust-red to varying shades of brown to black; grey-silver hair is only seen in the oldest f'saik'n and is a product of age, not breeding. F'saik'n eyes are either green or brown; blue is very rare, as is yellow.

Races/Breeds: F'saik'n have no noticeable ethnicities or breeds; their skin coloration has no real bearing on their origin.

Language: F'saik'n learn listening comprehension of liran and barzen easily, and most tribes take particular care in teaching their youngest those languages, though they can't speak either tongue. Their own language, saik, is a haphazard series of nouns and verbs, lacking sentence structure or rhythm; it sounds much like voca, the human language, but does not much overlap with the more complex language. Saik is not a true language, but merely a way to augment body language - "go" or "kill" or "bring" are one-word orders, accompanied by gestures and facial expressions, and nouns are only used when meaning is uncertain. It is suspected that some f'saik'n tribes also know voca.

Technology: F'saik'n are primitive metal- and stone-workers, only making sufficient tools to work with wood, which is where their true talent lies. They build and sail waterships, even ones that can go into the ocean and survive to return with fish; they're good at weaving hide and intestines into sturdy ropes and nets, and they create sails and clothing out of skins. They don't wield any sorts of ranged weapons, and the only metal blades they have are skinning and whittling knives; their specialty has and will always lie in woodworking.

Magic: F'saik'n have a very primal, blood-and-bone knowledge of druidic magic. The entire species has a gift with it, and they carefully teach every bit of it to every youth. It seems to be as much a priceless family heirloom as a practical skill to them.

Values: F'saik'n fervishly value the languages they can understand, the druidic magic that they know, and their connections to other f'saik'n. They go to great lengths to preserve those things at all costs.

Social Groups/Society: F'saik'n live in close-knit tribes. There is an unspoken rule about who is fittest to lead, and who is fit enough to assist them in leading; clashes for dominance are rare and often lead to both participants being dismissed as incompetent. They are extremely communal creatures and do not do well alone; a lone f'saik'n will seek out the company of almost any creature, even barzen or zilirai, but never humans.

Habitat/Settlements: F'saik'n live in a territory based around a collection of wood-and-hide huts and whatever bodies of water or grazing areas are nearby. They do poorly in extreme heat or extreme cold, being bare-skinned, and tend to stay near open bodies of water. Some f'saik'n have settled in deep forests or in the plainslands, but most stay near the shores of oceans or lakes. They subsist primarily on fish and what edibles (roots, vegetables, fruits, eggs, carcasses) they can gather.

Religion/Beliefs: F'saik'n have no deistic religion. Their belief system includes a reverence for living things, an acknowledgment of the cycles of the seasons (and of predator-prey), and a hatred of black magic of all kinds. They navigate their ships by sun and stars, being accomplished astronomers, and live their lives within the rhythms of the seasons, being studious ecologists.

Interaction w/ Other Species: F'saik'n are a muddle of contradictions when it comes to other species. They fear and admire the barzen, they hunt and admire the zilirai, and they fear, hate, and envy the humans. Some f'saik'n groups have formed a bond with zilirai flocks and do not hunt them; some f'saik'n groups have befriended individual barzen for protection (and fish). They greet strangers with a mixture of wariness ("will it kill me?"), curiosity ("what is it?"), and greed ("can I use it somehow?").

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License