Saraven

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Short Story Introduction

A Saraven matriarch's mind is like water, in its depths lies hidden a great power, and with that power great potential for good or ill. On the surface we must remain calm, a facade of confidence and happiness but this only hides the swirling emotional currents beneath which pull in every direction.

Saraven female by James Goudie

Saraven female by James Goudie

We are all the emotions of our people, we are happiness, we are hope, we are desire, but we are also fear, grief and power.

Above all of this though, we are longing. But, what is longing?

Is it seeing a beautiful dress you want to buy? Is it being away from a lover? Is it a desire for happiness? Is it hope?

Or perhaps, is it a mother who has had to bury a child? Is it a simple yearning to return home? Is it a wish to find that which has been lost?

Hadjara is all of these things. It is all that is beautiful and desired. It is all the lovers in each others arms. It is a mother eternally kept from her children. It is home. It is that which has been lost.

It is the sadness of the Saraven.

- The Matriarchs Lament

Racial Overview

Saraven Citizen (by Lloyd Smith)

The Saraven are roughly bi-pedal humanoid creatures that have both arms and wings. They stand 2 meters high, have massive wingspan and are covered in deep bluish almost black feathers. Their heads look similar to owls, with eyes that have vertical slits and range from green, to brilliant red. They are able to take flight and stay aloft for many hours before needing to land and rest. They are not exceedingly physically strong due to a hollow bone structure that makes them also extremely lightweight. They are very reserved to outsiders, and have a rich complex culture that defines family ties only through matriarchal lines, and the decision makers and society power are also the females.

There are physical differences between the males and females, with the male being far larger and bulkier capable of great feats of endurance flight. The female however is smaller, almost delicate in comparison, yet it is the psychological which is the primary difference. Males possess virtually no psionic ability, while the females are among the greatest practitioners in the Concordium, and who possess some of the most invasive abilities ranging from direct psionic control to projecting nightmarish illusions.

The defining moment in Saraven history was the loss of the homeworld, Hadjara with the death of their star. When their sun became a red giant and expanded, the energies involved fried the atmosphere and killed most life. Thankfully the planet was rare in that it had no axial rotation, so the Saraven withdrew to the dark-side of their home until evacuated by benevolent Concordium forces. Hadjara can still be seen through telescopes, but it is just a molten wasteland of the paradise it once was, and its continuing existence taunts the Saraven. Since the event, the Saraven have developed an almost pathological fear of the light, and cling to darkness for fear that the lightmare will occur again.

The Saraven are a proudly independent race, and I can imagine no greater pain than the loss of their homeworld. Despite the migration occurring many generations ago, they seem to have developed a genetic longing for "the hatchery".

- Conleth, Historian to the Concordium.

Racial Characteristics

Statistics

Saraven Racial Statistics

Racial Special Abilities

- Rudimentary Telepathy (Psionic)

- Skilled Mental Control (Psionic)

- Deflective Feathers (Defensive)

- Small Fangs (Offensive)

- Flight (Flight)

- Stealth (Stealth)

The ancient Saraven must have dreamt of flying between the stars as they did between the clouds. I can only imagine how they must feel now given such freedom to soar." The Saraven truely are gifted with a large number of talents. We can only imagine what they would be capable of had they not been robbed of their true homes.

- Eloise

When Darshana leave home, she never imagine to meet sentient, psionic birds. Truely, the Saraven are a gifted race.

- Darshana

Appearance

General Features

• Feathers
  • Soft feather-like down that is grey to almost black with facial feathers occasionally edged in red, yellow or white.
• Physiology
  • Slight build, humanoid with massive wings that can be folded into their bodies.
• Body Art
  • None.

Male Features

• Physique
  • Bulkier and more muscular but with hollow bone structure. Capable of endurance flight.
• Feathers
  • Multicoloured on face.

Female Features

• Physique
  • Small and delicate, with hollow bone structure.
• Feathers
  • Deep blue to indigo.

Accoutrements

• Clothes
  • Bracelets that designate social status.
• Armour
  • Light armour.
• Weapons
  • None.

Religion

The loss of their home world seriously affected the race spiritually, and any affection they had for any gods was lost with the catastrophe. Most of the population came to embrace that which saved them for generations, the darkness, while others saw the explosion of their sun as a testament to the inherent chaos in the universe. A small proportion viewed this calamity as divine vengeance for some earlier, unknown transgression.

Primary : Darkness: 70% : The darkness saved them from the light. While Hadjara burned, the Saraven fled to the dark side of the planet and survived until they were rescued by the Concordium. The period of exile created connections with the dark that cannot be fully explained, but needless to say the Saraven take great comfort in it and have granted it a near divine power.

Secondary : Nihilism: 20% : The sun is equivalent to order, always in the sky, unmoving. When that very rock of existence does something unexpected however, how can there be any rules that regulate life? Life is chaos, chaos is life, ultimately there is no order, there cannot be.

Secondary : Karma: 10% : Everything happens for a reason, even this. Several Saraven sects have sprung up accepting this fact, and are now engaged in trying to work out the why.

Starting Ships: Scout and Light Carrier

Designs by James Lillie

Saraven Scout

Saraven Light Carrier

Racial History

To be added.

The Eternal Dynasty

Aurok and Dr. Corvan (Feather Fallacy, image by Lloyd Smith)

Despite its name, the Eternal Dynasty is actually a relatively recent innovation among the Saraven people, casting its origins back to the original destruction of Hadjara. As the Saraven fled before the glowing intensity of their destructive sun, they began to explore ways of conserving the memory and lore of their people before it was lost forever.

Saraven scientists discovered that radiation from their expanding sun was capable of tremendously enhancing the psionic ability of gifted people. At the time, Saraven society was patriarchal, with the males possessing the greatest innate psionic power. A small group volunteered to undergo this treatment, and ventured out to the light side of the planet. All made it back, but most died within days of their return, their heads virtually exploding with the uncontrollable energy they now possessed.

Increasingly desperate, the elders turned to a group of exceptionally gifted females to undergo the same task, and they agreed. The nature of their psionic gifts was less powerful, but also more controlled so it was hoped that their emergent power could be leashed through training. Following years of preparation, the matriarchs were ready to venture out on to the planet's surface.

Initially the results were good, and the matriarchs were able to use their enhanced powers to embed psionic memories into their brains, and then project them at will as an illusionary vision. However, within a couple of months, it was noticeable that all the matriarchs had aged by several years. While they were not yet in danger, it was clear that the radiation treatment had dramatically increased their metabolism.

It was therefore decided to induce the volunteers into a coma, and keep only one awake to advise the elders and provide the gathered wisdom of the ages. They would be woken on a rotation, with each being awake for a decade before returning to a coma state, and being given medical treatment to restore their wasted bodies. With this system in place, the rotation could be kept up indefinitely and the sleeping matriarchs came to be called "Eternals".

This strategy worked for a time, but the memories available to them was limited, and work was begun on linking the sleeping matriarchs with the woken one. While all the vessels slept, a physical crystal link was created between them, through which it was hoped that psionic energy could be passed.

With some trepidation they woke the sleeper, but the effects were entirely unexpected. She woke immediately, and instantly emitted a psionic scream, the nature of which was like an atomic blast. The chamber in which she had been was entirely ruined, and most of the scientific staff vaporized where they had stood. Strangely the volunteers had not been affected by the blast, and remained in blissful sleep.

This psionic scream however had other effects, the formally powerful males entirely lost their psionic ability, and went silent. The true cause of this was never discovered, but it is believed that the overwhelming strength of the united might of the scream put their power into hibernation to save the users, and as yet this latent potential has not successfully be woken despite repeated attempts to do so.

The woken Eternal was able to access the minds of her sisters and project their own memories as intended, however it soon became clear that their minds melded into her own, and she strained on the bounds of schizophrenic madness. As planned, the woken was put to rest every ten years, and the next woken, each emitting a burst of psionic energy, however wise now to its power, the Saraven tending to the Eternals entered protected bunkers when the ceremony is conducted and kept safe from its effect.

It was later revealed that Gervian psionics felt the power of these bursts, and curious they sent scouts to investigate its source. They discovered the exploding sun, and put it down to the bursts of growth the red giant experienced, but when they continued to occur with such regularity they investigated further and discovered the Saravan hiding on what remained of Hadjara.

With the Great Migration, the Saraven were rescued from their doomed planet, taking the Eternals with them and embedding them in their new home. The waking ceremony continues to this day, and the knowledge and wisdom imparted by this cadre of immortals has given rise to the name "The Eternal Dynasty". People continue to go on pilgrimage to seek the counsel of these ancient creatures, and they are as close as the Saraven come to a central government, and though they wield no political power, their influence is undeniable.

Traveller's Log Entries

Sana standing in the Chamber of the Eternals just before the first psionic scream (The Eternal Experiment, image by James Goudie)

The Eternal Experiment

(by Kelsy Mascorro)

Lead Researcher Sana sat perched behind her large wooden desk, folders and reports scattered before her. Her talons scratched lightly, absentmindedly, over the cover of the folder in her hand, her eyes darting back and forth over the words.

She knew the history of her people, how the sun had expanded and radiation burned all life on the light side of the planet. She remembered, if only vaguely, flying through the lush plant life and beautiful red skies of Hadjara as a child, her mother and father beside her, ensuring she wouldn’t fall. But they were gone now… casualties of the exodus. Most of the aged among the survivors who were unaffected by the radiation became senile or crazed by the sudden shift from perpetual light to unending darkness. The young, in turn, had to adapt quickly or perish to the dark and cold.

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Seated Lavana with egg child S’karra (The Last Harvest, image by James Goudie)

The Last Harvest

(by Kelsy Mascorro)

A once proud broodmother, Lavana now lived with her eggchild, S’karra, and her hatchbrood. While she didn’t mind the company of the little ones, she wished she had the energy she once did to teach them to fly and train them in the ways of her people, as her broodmother had taught her. Some days it was difficult for her to accept that all this fretting over her was necessary, cared for by the ones she once tended. She could care for herself, as she used to, if they would simply let her try.

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Feather Fallacy I

(by Zachary Mathiot)

ATTENTION: Dr. Corvan Anelius of The Charian Science and Preservation Committee

This is a distress call from Chancellor Aurok of Saraven Colony Delta 876JL. I am writing this to ask for your help in a dire situation. In recent months infants in the colony are being born with few to no feathers. Normally members of our race will lose their feathers through molting and gain new ones once entering adulthood. These afflicted children are not even being born with their first set of feathers. There are also reports of certain numbers of them dying since this strange illness causes the young to become very sickly, and most are unable to recover...

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Feather Fallacy II

(by Zachary Mathiot)

ATTENTION: Chancellor Aurok of Saraven Colony 876JL

I am sending this message to inform you that I am capable of assisting with your current situation. I do apologize for the delay between my reading of your distress signal and the subsequent response. At that time I was busy on another planet investigating an outbreak with possible viral implications. What instantly held my attention while reading about your dilemma was its striking similarity to the problem my organization and I were recently attempting to diagnose and counteract...

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Feather Fallacy III

(by Zachary Mathiot)

I closed my data terminal with a rapidly increasing sense of relief, and let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding. Dr. Corvan had sent a message saying he would be on the planet within a day. My mind began to race ahead, imagining the people being cured of the blight, their feathers shining and healthy on their wings as they soared the skies once more...

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Feather Fallacy IV

(by Zachary Mathiot)

The engines roared to life as the research vessel Synapse left the star port. Dr. Anelius Corvan immediately awoke from his light slumber as he regained his senses. His reflection in his datapad showed that his neon blue and yellow implants had faded in his many years as a geneticist. "Ahh yes, now where was I?" he said to himself as he began to remember the last thing he had been doing. In front of him was a bright blue holographic display of all the data Chancellor Aurok had given him on the virus affecting her people. "Hmm, very interesting," he mused...

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Feather Fallacy V

(by Zachary Mathiot)

“I’ve come to a decision about the avian specimens, everybody, meet me in the conference room at once please.” He announced over the ship’s intercom. Everyone filed in and sat down to hear the announcement.

“We have all been hard at work trying to determine the precise cause behind this disease and have come up with nothing. We have gathered much in the way of environmental and situational data but I’m at a loss. I am unable to offer an acceptable conclusion as to why these young are thus affected by this affliction, and without being able to establish the causality, a cure is impossible and death is therefore inevitable."

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Feather Fallacy VI

(by Zachary Mathiot)

Chancellor Aurok stood with immense anticipation as Synapse made its way to the landing pad adjacent to her primary office. She almost shook with excitement over finally being able to meet Dr. Corvan and his research team so they could begin finding a cure. This could be our salvation, Alestra! Hadjara, bless us.

“Greetings. I am Dr. Anelius Corvan of the Charian Preservation Committee. You are Chancellor Aurok, correct?”

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Feather Fallacy VII

(by Zachary Mathiot)

“Ahh….urgh…Chancellor Aurok! It would seem I made a most heinous choice as far as my own health is concerned." Corvan gasped, waking me from my reverie. His blue and yellow implants glowed faintly. I gave him a tired smile, pleased that he had emerged from the coma. Still he gave me hope that he would survive the grievous wounds he had taken.

"Are you well?” he said, looking over at me concern in his bloodshot eyes.

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