Species name: Oko Appearance: In the early days, there was quite a bit of experimentation with the Oko genome and a great amount of variety has mostly died out since stability returned. Though exceptions remain, individual variety is not larger than, as a point of reference, humans, and traits have been selected for utility in space travel. They are slender and small (normally between 100 and 130 centimeters in height and rarely exceeding 40 kilograms in mass) four-limbed sophonts, functionally either bipedal or quadrupedal. A human would compare them to a very strangely-proportioned monkey or variant of marsupial. [I’m going to use convergent evolution here as an excuse for not wanting to deal with a very non-human character having to interact with human ones.] The Oko have rust-red to burnt-orange, feathered (though in somewhat hairy, in that Oko kind of way), slender, and vaguely humanoid builds, atop of which are relatively large heads, set with aural canals on either side, two eyes facing forward, and a large mouth. Their ears are capable of hearing slightly higher than humans (their speech is also higher and has but a few very distinct consonants); their slitted eyes have but one color, which is usually a shade of blue; and their mouths a row of square teeth and sensory receptors for both taste and smell. Perhaps owing to similar initial conditions as those of Earth’s, Oko have many traits that are similar to humans: they respire, they have a skeletal system supported by muscles not too different conceptually from ours, they maintain very precise homeostasis, they have highly advanced and adaptable immune systems (though they have mostly fallen out of practice), they have four four-fingered hands/feet (two of which are more like thumbs), and they have a tough and greyish layer of skin. They really aren’t too interesting for a human xenobiologist, but they do have olfactory receptors elsewhere in their skin, so they can “smell/taste” objects with their arms or hands. They are hermaphroditic. Owing to the enhancements back in the more hectic old days, their skeletons are made from much tougher mineral structures than those of a human. Their bodies are much better at repairing the damage done by radiation, mostly rendering it hardly a problem. They can alter their homeostatic state to decrease their requirements of food and water. They are very good at thinking in three dimensions. They can take twice as much instantaneous acceleration as a human. That being said, they are still small and physically weak, so they are pretty easy to beat in a fistfight. They’re aware of that, though. Powers: They can take a lot of gees Strengths: They are relatively intelligent and optimized for space travel. As a species, they tend to be pragmatic, but this has been known to lessen with age. Weaknesses: Size, strength Age scale: With rudimentary medical techniques, Oko can easily live with their advancements to 200 years, of which youth is considered to be about 30 and old age past 150. In the highly-developed core worlds, individuals have been known to live to 600 years, but past 400 the brain has checked out. Culture: Most of the extreme elements of Oko culture died out a long time ago. bloodthirsty factions tended to die out in the long-run, and the religions that remain have given up on any violence, instead trying for converts by being appealing. For the most part, the Oko begin any interactions with other species in a friendly manner and attempt to keep them that way. Return customers are the best customers, and the combination of a certain understanding that the galaxy is a dangerous place and their desire to have as many allies as possible tends to make them fear ripping others off even when they easily could. That being said, they’re not ones for charity. Though some of the technology they possess may be vastly superior to anything a human has even laid eyes on, they don’t give away those things for free, or even for anything humans could possibly offer them. Their pragmatism and skill in economics leads them to always match product to customer: highly developed civilizations get the expensive offerings while the new species, such as humans, are offered the technology of the Oko’s dark ages. But everybody gets something better out of it, and that’s enough justification for the Oko. They’re a species aware of their mortality, playing to stay around as long as they can. Homeworld: Oka Rarity: Common, about 30 billion, but spread relatively thin over a considerably large volume of space. Government type: This varies somewhat, though the most long-lasting and powerful independent states are democratic. Strength: They are no military superpower. They keep themselves armed enough to deter attackers and no more, preferring instead to buy their way out of conflicts or turn enemies into trading partners. They think they’ve learned from some of the older civilizations around that warmongering is a pretty bad strategy to outlast the competition. Backstory - The Oko have been a space-faring civilization (depending on the definition) for about 1200 years. The first few hundred were rather tumultuous: hasty expansion, wars, and environmental disasters brought the species to fewer than a billion living on a handful of distant worlds. Eventually, a collection of peaceful factions restored stability and put the pieces of their civilization back together. The discovery of other intelligent life forms sped the recovery and spurred the path of their development into a species predominantly dependent on trade. As they have matured and developed as a species, the Oko have developed a set of peaceful and relatively democratic institutions focused mainly on trade. They continue to expand, with timing determined by the best guesses of sophisticated artificial intelligences so as to minimize risk. They have outposts extending in tendrils hundreds (sometimes thousands, along the best trade routes) of light-years from their core dozen-or-so home worlds (which are in a sphere about 50 LY in diameter). The trade networks ferry goods from their sources to the optimal markets, which are generally determined by AI. Anything that will turn a profit and not endanger the Oko themselves — raw materials, hardware, software, technical knowledge, artwork (which they produce a fair share of themselves), passengers, often even weapons, etc. — is fair game for the Oko merchants. For the most part, they have been able to avoid conflict simply by doing their best to provide whatever other species want. Sometimes, of course, their goals are territorial expansion. In that case, there’s not much choice but to fight, and the Oko have proven able though not especially apt. When they succeed, it is not through force but through clever use of whichever advantages (be they better AI, weapons technology, or resources) to subdue the aggressors. When they fail, they normally attempt to trade territory for security, which has been a successful strategy thus far. The core worlds of the Oko are highly developed, relatively egalitarian, crowded, and wealthy; however, these qualities all begin to fluctuate more and more outside of this region, and often are highly dependant on the status of surrounding civilizations: the wealthier they are, the wealthier and better-run the Oko colonies near them tend to be. Some of the colonies along major trade routes may even be wealthier than many core worlds, though others are not so lucky. The tendril of colonies which overlaps with Human space (for all intents and purposes a very young, if potentially promising race), for example, are generally considered to be a backwater of crime, poor automation, perpetual poverty, a relative lack of enhancements, and wretched medical technology. [That’s where I intend my character to start out, as an “in” for this human-based venture.]