Longer-form description follows. I guess have at it with criticism.
Summary -
Hostile, factious, asteroid-mining dwarfs.
Homeworld -
Like all humans, Sectarian Separatists were originally comfortable on terran worlds. As multigenerational asteroid colonists their bodies are weakened and they can no longer live on full-sized worlds. Today they hide in minor planet populations wherever ship traffic is low.
Physical description -
Sectarians may be the "purest" remaining humans due to having the galaxy's strictest religious prohibitions against genetic engineering. Having been separated from civilized humans (and often, from other Sectarians) for centuries with no means of interbreeding and since the separation has only grown over time, they were reclassified as a distinct subspecies.
Sectarians are instantly recognizable. Having lived their entire lives in and around asteroids, they have brittle bones and puny muscles. Combined with a typically low body fat and nearly translucent skin, they look severely emaciated, even ghostly. Their minimal clothing accentuates this. Low gravity and a lifetime indoors both affect their eyesight and all wear spectacles from childhood. Adult males are 145cm tall on average and around 30kg in mass, with some variation between populations. Albinism is universal.
Even the strongest Sectarians are so frail that their tools and weapons differ from those of mainstream humans. In combat they make extensive use of booby traps and wield low-recoil pistols and powered melee weapons underground. Shoulder-mounted or underarm recoilless rifles are most commonly encountered outside or in larger tunnels. Recoil from standard electromagnetic rifles can shatter bone.
Social Structure -
The Sectarians are a category of asteroid-dwelling human separatists willing to fight to the death over their religions' rejection of human society. Due to their hostility most of what is known about them comes from indirect evidence or from studying their remains.
Sectarians do not belong to one religion with one set of doctrines, rather it is this absolute and violent rejection of mainstream governments and empires--especially but not exclusively human--which distinguishes all Sectarian Separatist religion. The ethnicity is intrinsically linked to their Sectarianism--they wouldn't be Sectarians if they weren't born into it and they wouldn't be a separate subspecies if they hadn't rejected humanity.
While not definitive there are common doctrines which almost all Sectarians hold. For example: that other humans have apostasized to the service of devils, or have been "marked", and are irredeemably evil, genetic engineering being a damning mark, that those aliens which look "animalistic" (quadrupeds, arthropods, plants...) are clearly soulless animals, that any sufficiently human-looking aliens (often bipeds) are clearly the "marked", that any sufficiently formless aliens (gaseous, etc.) are clearly demons, that artificial intelligence is clearly incarnating demons, that shooting any or all of the preceding is no sin, that because central governments are working for devils their propaganda and mainstream religious ideas are aimed at the capture and destruction of the Sectarians themselves.
Despite their reputation as backwards savages the Sectarians are industrious and inventive. No other human will work as willingly. They will keep hacking at an invention with meticulous attention to every detail when everyone else would have long given it up as impossible. They have little to show for their effort because they need all their wits to survive their harsh environment.
Most Sectarian asteroids have a high priest(ess) leading rituals primarily aimed at appeasing the genius of that asteroid. Strictly bigamous fertility cults are common. Polygamous societies typically cull their excess male population in ritualistic duels as a rite of passage before marriage. Other examples maintain large servile eunuch populations.
The monarch of most asteroids is traditionally known as "Captain" and the high priest might veto succession rights by invoking omens or the Spirit of the Rock. An estimated 10-20% are governed by some form of senate or a council of elders. A minority of asteroids belong to miniature multi-asteroidal empires which are usually short-lived due to the difficulty in controlling territories which drift far apart over their respective orbits.
Relations between neighboring asteroids are on average more hostile than between other humans. Ritual sacrifice and/or cannibalism of defeated rivals have been recorded but are believed to be rare. Bio-compatible "animal" aliens, on the other hand, should avoid capture at all costs. If not eaten on the spot they will invariably be subjected to farming experiments.
Sectarians intentionally dig their tunnels just wide enough for an average man to move around without a space suit. Sudden decompression is just another weapon to them. Once fully dug in, dislodging them is expensive in ordinance and/or personnel.
History -
Sectarian Separatism began primarily as a result of a labor revolt in early asteroid mining experiments. The uprising was suppressed by military force and only a few survivors managed to hide among the ruined mines with access to still functional life support. They cobbled together a meager existence from whatever they could scavenge and rebuild.
Their descendants scattered across the expanse of the galaxy are short, pale, weak, impoverished, and clever.
It is unknown how many Sectarians there are; they spread out earlier than human civilization and seem to be found wherever one searches hard enough. They are believed to have colonized comets and Oort clouds early on. Most estimates state that if combined, all the lonely habitats may outnumber civilized peoples any where from 10:1 to 100:1.
Authorities normally treat them like perennial weeds. It is when their population in an asteroid belt becomes large that they represent a military threat.
Race Attributes -
Type: Native species
Organic metabolism, Xenophobic, Artistic
Prefer asteroids
Environments: Uninhabitable*
Asteroid: Good
Gas giant: Uninhabitable
* If desired for gameplay reasons, it would not break the story too much to make Terran or Barren habitable at tiny size with population penalty, and small-huge uninhabitable.
Can produce ships
Can colonize planets
Good defensive troops
Bad offensive troops
Bad research
Bad industry
No influence
Ultimate instability (bad enough to make it a questionable acquisition)
Good planetary stealth
Narrow planet tolerance
Native fortifications
Optional: Bad population, good population growth
Optional: Inhabited asteroids spawn pirate ships (space monsters) regardless of ownership.
Optional: Pirate ships can occasionally spawn from any system with uninhabited asteroids and no armed ships present.
Default focus: Defence
Likes:
Defence, Research, Industry,
Isolation, Marine Recruitment, Necessity, Racial Purity,
Asteroid Processor, Concentration Camps, Concentration Camp Remnants,
Fortress
Dislikes:
Human, Banforo, Kilandow, Trith, Nightsiders, Acirema, Beige Goo, Kobuntura, Nymnmn, Setinon, Sly, Thenian, Ugmors, Cray, Exobot, Happybirthday, Replicon, Silexian, Trenchers,
Divine Authority, Indoctrination, Augmentation, Centralization, Conformance, Diversity, Propaganda Broadcasts, Technocracy,
Imperial Palace, Imperial Regional Administration, Bioterror Projection Base, Nanorobotic Processing Unit,
Panopticon Complex
Species that like:
Nightsiders
Species that dislike:
Human, Eaxaw, Fifty-Seven, Furthest, Gysache, Hhhoh, Mu Ursh, Ourbools, Phinnert, Raaagh, Scylior, Sleepers, Tae Ghirus, Cynos, Khakturian, Laenfa
Summary -
Hostile, factious, asteroid-mining dwarfs.
Homeworld -
Like all humans, Sectarian Separatists were originally comfortable on terran worlds. As multigenerational asteroid colonists their bodies are weakened and they can no longer live on full-sized worlds. Today they hide in minor planet populations wherever ship traffic is low.
Physical description -
Sectarians may be the "purest" remaining humans due to having the galaxy's strictest religious prohibitions against genetic engineering. Having been separated from civilized humans (and often, from other Sectarians) for centuries with no means of interbreeding and since the separation has only grown over time, they were reclassified as a distinct subspecies.
Sectarians are instantly recognizable. Having lived their entire lives in and around asteroids, they have brittle bones and puny muscles. Combined with a typically low body fat and nearly translucent skin, they look severely emaciated, even ghostly. Their minimal clothing accentuates this. Low gravity and a lifetime indoors both affect their eyesight and all wear spectacles from childhood. Adult males are 145cm tall on average and around 30kg in mass, with some variation between populations. Albinism is universal.
Even the strongest Sectarians are so frail that their tools and weapons differ from those of mainstream humans. In combat they make extensive use of booby traps and wield low-recoil pistols and powered melee weapons underground. Shoulder-mounted or underarm recoilless rifles are most commonly encountered outside or in larger tunnels. Recoil from standard electromagnetic rifles can shatter bone.
Social Structure -
The Sectarians are a category of asteroid-dwelling human separatists willing to fight to the death over their religions' rejection of human society. Due to their hostility most of what is known about them comes from indirect evidence or from studying their remains.
Sectarians do not belong to one religion with one set of doctrines, rather it is this absolute and violent rejection of mainstream governments and empires--especially but not exclusively human--which distinguishes all Sectarian Separatist religion. The ethnicity is intrinsically linked to their Sectarianism--they wouldn't be Sectarians if they weren't born into it and they wouldn't be a separate subspecies if they hadn't rejected humanity.
While not definitive there are common doctrines which almost all Sectarians hold. For example: that other humans have apostasized to the service of devils, or have been "marked", and are irredeemably evil, genetic engineering being a damning mark, that those aliens which look "animalistic" (quadrupeds, arthropods, plants...) are clearly soulless animals, that any sufficiently human-looking aliens (often bipeds) are clearly the "marked", that any sufficiently formless aliens (gaseous, etc.) are clearly demons, that artificial intelligence is clearly incarnating demons, that shooting any or all of the preceding is no sin, that because central governments are working for devils their propaganda and mainstream religious ideas are aimed at the capture and destruction of the Sectarians themselves.
Despite their reputation as backwards savages the Sectarians are industrious and inventive. No other human will work as willingly. They will keep hacking at an invention with meticulous attention to every detail when everyone else would have long given it up as impossible. They have little to show for their effort because they need all their wits to survive their harsh environment.
Most Sectarian asteroids have a high priest(ess) leading rituals primarily aimed at appeasing the genius of that asteroid. Strictly bigamous fertility cults are common. Polygamous societies typically cull their excess male population in ritualistic duels as a rite of passage before marriage. Other examples maintain large servile eunuch populations.
The monarch of most asteroids is traditionally known as "Captain" and the high priest might veto succession rights by invoking omens or the Spirit of the Rock. An estimated 10-20% are governed by some form of senate or a council of elders. A minority of asteroids belong to miniature multi-asteroidal empires which are usually short-lived due to the difficulty in controlling territories which drift far apart over their respective orbits.
Relations between neighboring asteroids are on average more hostile than between other humans. Ritual sacrifice and/or cannibalism of defeated rivals have been recorded but are believed to be rare. Bio-compatible "animal" aliens, on the other hand, should avoid capture at all costs. If not eaten on the spot they will invariably be subjected to farming experiments.
Sectarians intentionally dig their tunnels just wide enough for an average man to move around without a space suit. Sudden decompression is just another weapon to them. Once fully dug in, dislodging them is expensive in ordinance and/or personnel.
History -
Sectarian Separatism began primarily as a result of a labor revolt in early asteroid mining experiments. The uprising was suppressed by military force and only a few survivors managed to hide among the ruined mines with access to still functional life support. They cobbled together a meager existence from whatever they could scavenge and rebuild.
Their descendants scattered across the expanse of the galaxy are short, pale, weak, impoverished, and clever.
It is unknown how many Sectarians there are; they spread out earlier than human civilization and seem to be found wherever one searches hard enough. They are believed to have colonized comets and Oort clouds early on. Most estimates state that if combined, all the lonely habitats may outnumber civilized peoples any where from 10:1 to 100:1.
Authorities normally treat them like perennial weeds. It is when their population in an asteroid belt becomes large that they represent a military threat.
Race Attributes -
Type: Native species
Organic metabolism, Xenophobic, Artistic
Prefer asteroids
Environments: Uninhabitable*
Asteroid: Good
Gas giant: Uninhabitable
* If desired for gameplay reasons, it would not break the story too much to make Terran or Barren habitable at tiny size with population penalty, and small-huge uninhabitable.
Can produce ships
Can colonize planets
Good defensive troops
Bad offensive troops
Bad research
Bad industry
No influence
Ultimate instability (bad enough to make it a questionable acquisition)
Good planetary stealth
Narrow planet tolerance
Native fortifications
Optional: Bad population, good population growth
Optional: Inhabited asteroids spawn pirate ships (space monsters) regardless of ownership.
Optional: Pirate ships can occasionally spawn from any system with uninhabited asteroids and no armed ships present.
Default focus: Defence
Likes:
Defence, Research, Industry,
Isolation, Marine Recruitment, Necessity, Racial Purity,
Asteroid Processor, Concentration Camps, Concentration Camp Remnants,
Fortress
Dislikes:
Human, Banforo, Kilandow, Trith, Nightsiders, Acirema, Beige Goo, Kobuntura, Nymnmn, Setinon, Sly, Thenian, Ugmors, Cray, Exobot, Happybirthday, Replicon, Silexian, Trenchers,
Divine Authority, Indoctrination, Augmentation, Centralization, Conformance, Diversity, Propaganda Broadcasts, Technocracy,
Imperial Palace, Imperial Regional Administration, Bioterror Projection Base, Nanorobotic Processing Unit,
Panopticon Complex
Species that like:
Nightsiders
Species that dislike:
Human, Eaxaw, Fifty-Seven, Furthest, Gysache, Hhhoh, Mu Ursh, Ourbools, Phinnert, Raaagh, Scylior, Sleepers, Tae Ghirus, Cynos, Khakturian, Laenfa
Statistics: Posted by MasterOfRigel — Sun Oct 20, 2024 1:51 pm