The (Savaged) Yithra
I expanded on the Yithra here a little, taking some liberties where I felt it was necessary. I really hated this race at first but mostly because there was very little about them to like. I changed their appearance slightly but in general I tried to keep what I felt was the heart of this race intact, while adding a little more background to them.
Physical Appearance
One of the earliest species to emerge from the shatterzone, the Yithra have been described as resembling a “failed attempt to build a man out of petrified wood.” Their heads look like a petrified trunk with depressions for the eyes and mouth. Their arms are stone-like branches and their torsos do not appear proportionately substantial, leaving many to wonder how their heads are supported.
In truth, their physiology is even more alien than they even appear. Their head section is the core of the anatomy. Their body is “grown” out of that core like a tree to give it mobility and manipulation capability. To non-Yithra, every Yithra looks the same but in reality everyone is subtly different, like every tree or bush.
This strange physiology give the Yithra unique abilities. While it has control of its limbs like any other species, it does not suffer any ill-effects if those limbs are severed or otherwise disabled. They will just grow back over a long period of time, given proper sunlight and nutrients. Additionally, if needed, the Yithra can grow extra limbs, if needed and enough prep time, sunlight, and nutrients are available. This process usually takes 4 to 6 hours.
Yithra also need very little sleep or little food, but they do need access to 4 or 5 hours of some sort of sunlight or equivalent radiation every 8 to 10 hours. Some yithra have a portable sunlight pod on board their ships where they can revitalize. With access to sufficient sunlight and nutrients, it is theorized by xeno-scientists that a Yithra be extremely long-lived, although the Yithra have yet to confirm that.
In truth, the Yithra are a dying race. Yithra scientists have yet to reveal this to the public, but a few Yithra leaders do know that the Yithra birth-rate has dropped to nearly nothing and more and more are dying because no world/sun combination has been able substitute for their real homeworld – they are biologically linked to their sun and their world.
History
Not long after Humanity discovered the Shatterzone, a colony of Yithra was discovered on a world not far from it. They seemed out of place on this world and not well adapted for it. First contact protocols revealed they were refugees and the term Bolter was first coined when they described their escape from the other side. The first intelligence on the Armagons and their allies from beyond the ‘Zone came from accounts of the Yithra.
The Yithra were peacefully living on their Earth-like world, bothering no one. The natural state of their society is “at one with nature” and relies very little on technology. Intentionally primitive, their technology was “grown” through nature. They claim to have a psychic link with their homeworld that allowed them to psychically formulate what tech they needed – their tech was psychically forged to grow into what they needed. Unfortunately, they have not been able to reproduce that ability on any work they currently colonize.
Everything changed when the Armagons invaded and enslaved their race. The Yithra are light on the details on how they escaped, but several million in sleeper-pods made it through the shatterzone and now populate several worlds in the Inner Frontier.
Society and Customs
Much of the society is shrouded in mystery as they no longer live on their homeworld. The describe it as a paradise and they place where they long to return. Many xeno-psychologist believe that this is the reason they are so ill-tempered – they will never be at peace until they return to their homeworld.
Most Yithra simply live to survive now, waiting for the day when they can return home. Many strive to find a way home, exploring the edges of the Shatterzone for that opening, that route and that star chart that will get them to the only place where they feel complete.
Attitudes
Yithra find it difficult to be around other species, and the feeling is mutual. Whatever their native environment was, it must have been unusual-as their bodies radiate intense cold instead of the heat most other creatures radiate at some level. Yithra who live or work around other species must wear full en vi-suits to prevent those in their company from suffering from the cold (whether they need thee-suits themselves to preserve an internal environment is unknown at present).
As unpleasant to look at as to interact with, it is theorized that even other Yithra do not find each other attractive – though this may just be a cruel xeno-joke. Certainly, they are cold to each other as well as other species. Even the most socially accelerated Yithra are not exactly fun people to be around.
Those Yithra who have found a place for themselves in the Consortium are notorious for their ill tempers. Many can be found working as shatrats or enforcers for crime bosses. When in combat, Yithra have been known to kill their own men to reach an enemy, something which makes other pilots reluctant to fly with them.
Those Yithra in Fleet usually end up in the scout service, assigned to sectors where skill in diplomacy isn’t considered necessary. Yithra are capable of speaking Standard, but rarely make an effort to learn phrases that can be repeated in polite company
Special Abilities
Hindrance: Mean (Minor, -1): Because of their nature, Yithra come across as mean. -1 to Persuasion rolls.
Hindrance: Outsider (Major, -2): Yithra are well-known to be commonly ill-tempered. This creates an alien prejudice from other aliens.
Environmental Weakness: Dry/Heat/Fire (-1): When in a dry environment like a desert, a Yithra’s limbs tend to dry out making it more difficult to do things. While in this environment more than 8 hours, the Yithra has a -4 penalty to physical actions. When attacked by Fire-based attacks, the damage gains a +4 bonus.
Dependency (–2): The Yithra must bask in sunlight (artificial or otherwise) once per day or suffer Fatigue. This can lead to death. Fatigue is recovered at the rate of one level per hour of sunshine.
High Tech Hindrance (–1): Yithra come from very advanced world and find standard tech confusing. They suffer a –2 penalty when using typical technological systems.
(+2 deficit to the positive side, need an additional 2 points of hindrances)
Long-Lived (+1): Super Power – Ageless.
Regeneration (+2): The Yithra can grow back damage parts as long as it’s not their “head.”
Empathic-link to plants (+2): The Yithra, as a residual effect of their link to the natural world of their home, can the Power Empathy with plants. Although the plants do not have “thoughts” per se, the Yithra can sense their “emotional” state and get a sense of recent trauma they perhaps felt recently. This power is usable a number time per day equal to their Spirit die.
Natural Armor (+1): +2 to Toughness due to the Yithra petrified skin.
Extra Limbs(+1): A Yithra natural state is a bipedal two-armed humanoids. However, one can grow a extra limb over 6 to 8 hours for extra attacks. This limb lasts for 20 hours when it wilts off rapidly and can not be regrown for another 40 hours.
Hardy (+2): A second Shaken result in combat does not cause a Wound.