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Oh yeah, never got around to posting the description for these guys, sorry >.<
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Overview: Rakshasa are the only known sentient GELF (Genetically-Engineered LifeForm) ever created by Terrans that survived and became a self-sustaining population. Highly-illegal creations of advanced mid-23rd century genetic engineering, the Rakshasa are a testament to what happens when GELF creation goes right. Created through a blend of Human and K’thari DNA introduced into the gene sequences of Bengal and Siberian tigers, the end result is a race of powerful bipedal tiger-like creatures that- ironically- hold to a very Human way of life.
Physiology: Rakshasa are large, fur-bearing, bipedal Humanoids that closely resemble a bipedal tiger. They walk on the balls of their feet, which are substantially longer than normal, creating a second reversed knee-like joint similar to a quadruped feline or canine, but much lower down the leg. Thus, while they usually walk upright, they hunch forward while running and are capable of impressive speed and jumps. They have retractable climbing claws in their fingers and toes, the last inch of which cannot be fully retracted and are instrumental in Rakshasa fine tool use and manipulation. The creator of the Rakshasa- Dr. Aryana Singh- used tigers as the base for his experimental creations. Rather than use a large quantity of chimeric DNA, he instead utilized specific genome sequences from Humans and K’Thari to provide the Rakshasa with sentience, upright modality, speech capacity (after a fashion), opposable thumbs and more Human-like digits, and other necessities for effective tool-using sentience. Since the vast majority (98%) of the DNA is still tiger, the Rakshasa are less like a new race and more akin to an upright version of their parent species. This fact was instrumental in the arguments of those who lobbied to defend the Rakshasa’s status as a viable, protected sentient race as opposed to an abomination to be destroyed.
Society: The Rakshasa were created in a laboratory Dr. Singh and a few hundred of his followers had built in a recently-abandoned city on Seban, a colony that had been evacuated during the Capellan War. Dangerously close to the Quarantine Zone in the Tarsus Corridor, no one had reclaimed the world, nor even looted it as the war was barely over at the time. Thus, Dr. Singh had a ready-made settlement for his creations to flourish. He created the Rakshasa with the intent for them to take over the abandoned world and make it their own, and his view of bringing a new lifeform into the universe being a benign act of divine inspiration would be validated.
When the Rakshasa were discovered in 2309 by a survey team, Dr. Singh had been dead for decades, and his creations had built an entire civilization with their human teachers. Rakshasa reproduction and maturity rates were so high that their population exploded exponentially, and thus a few thousand in the first generation blossomed into millions in less than half a century. They had been secretly studying the goings-on of the Alliance through their access to the Omninet, and their Human partners kept the colony supplied with updated equipment, educational and entertainment material, and weapons for defense. The Rakshasa welcomed the wildcatter team with open arms over the vociferous protests of the Human colonists, celebrating the first visitors they had ever hosted. It soon became apparent to their former teachers that this world and its society firmly belonged to the Rakshasa, and that they were no longer needed to parent and guide them as Dr. Singh had ordered them to. Knowing the penalties they would face for their part in the creation of the GELFs, the Human colonists stepped back from the affairs and maintained a low profile on Seban.
Needless to say, the discovery of an entire civilization of armed, independent, self-governing GELFs created in blatant violation of numerous laws and treaties threw a massive monkey wrench into Terran Alliance politics. The European Union and North American Union- two of the most powerful proponents of those laws and treaties- immediately condemned the Rakshasa as incapable of self-governance, an abomination of science that should never have been created. The Ahruga and Free Systems Alliance, needless to say, raced each other to be the first to recognize the Rakshasa as a sovereign race and Seban as a sovereign independent Freespace system. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, as the Australio-Pacifica Coalition and Vairaja Empire both stepped in on the side of the Ahruga and Freemen, arguing that the GELF race had been self-reliant for over fifty years, and the world they inhabited had been an Aussie colony to begin with, and therefore not the concerns of others. The Rakshasa are still a subject of heated debates, but have found acceptance in many of the cultures and nations of the Alliance. Over the past decade, they have rapidly spread out into the galaxy to see more of the world, often working as crew aboard privateers and Freetraders. As they learn about the world at large, the world learns about them, as well, and they have proven to be quite fascinating.
The Rakshasa were created as an experiment in cultural engineering as much as genetic, and thus Dr. Singh and his followers raised the Rakshasa within an idealized Terran society. As a result, Rakshasa culture is similar to the Indo-Euro-Australian culture seen in much of the Colonial Territories influenced by the Australio-Pacifica Coalition and Vairaja Empire. They speak English as their first language, and Hindi as their second, wearing clothing and having architecture and design principles that are based largely off of Australian ones, with some Indian influences, especially in clothing styles.
Unlike their tiger progenitors, however, the Rakshasa are an extremely communal people. Though Dr. Singh originally wanted to organize them in a more urban-oriented society, the Rakshasa took more to the clannar structure of the stories they read about the recently-encountered Ahruga and ancient Amerindian tribes. Not wanting to see them regress into a disparate tribalism that could lead to conflict in the future, Dr. Singh compromised, establishing clans for the Rakshasa while simultaneously establishing a national identity as a unified people. Thus, Rakshasa identify as Rakshasa first, and then their specific clan second. Rakshasa families are huge, with the idea of a nuclear family being alien to them for the most part. This is largely from the Indian influence, and extended families are seen as the close family, while the entire clan is seen as the equivalent of a conventional extended family.
Brothers, sisters, cousins, older nieces and nephews, etc. are all seen in the same light as siblings, and raised together as such. Marriage is always outside of the clan as a result, and bloodlines are monitored closely by family matriarchs to ensure no inbreeding is risked. The caution is not necessary, however, as the Rakshasa- due to their genetically-enhanced DNA and their feline ancestry- are extremely resistant to birth defects caused by a narrower genetic pool, and can marry first cousins with no ill effects. Thus, this monitoring is more for societal reasons than fears of genetic collapse.
These clannar identities and the pseudo-ethnic identities of Siberian or Bengali bloodlines are the only dividing factors within Rakshasa society. They are a generally spiritual people, but do not advocate one religion over another, preferring instead to keep religious beliefs personal (a fact that drove Dr. Singh- a devout Hindu who encouraged his creations to embrace his faith- nuts, and surprised him quite a bit). Generally, though, Rakshasa tend towards the more esoteric or spiritualism-heavy religions rather than the more organized and fundamentalist ones. As a people, Rakshasa are far more laid-back than one would expect considering their fierce appearance and ancestral reputation. However, when in combat or enraged, the Rakshasa can go nearly feral in their fury, rivaling the Ahruga for their animalistic frenzies when in battle.
Socially, the Rakshasa tend to be fairly blunt, honest, and not a small bit gullible. They have a rather sheltered and innocent view of the world around them, and street-smarts are not their strong suit. While they are just as strong-willed and stubborn as most races, they are somewhat naïve as a people- even with extensive exposure to the outside world- which makes them trusted companions as guile and deception are not instinctual parts of their nature.
Appearance: Rakshasa are huge bipedal tigers with humanoid arms and large hands ending in talons. They are powerfully-built, with strong muscles rippling just under the skin, and broad, feline heads atop short necks. Their fur patterns are all tiger-striped, coming in either the yellow-and-black hues of the Bengali Rakshasa, or the white-and-black patterns of the Siberians. All Bengali Rakshasa have amber eyes that seem to glow with an inner light (largely due to exceptional reflectivity), and Siberians have piercing ice-blue eyes. While the color patternings of the Siberians are merely a genetic fluke and not part of a separate sub-species in tigers, the genetic manipulation harnessed the genome of this rare expression into the basis for a separate sub-species dubbed Siberian by Dr. Singh, largely due to their excellent adaptation to snowy climates. Interbreeding between the two produces one or the other, but there has been an increasing frequency of Siberian eye colour in Bengali-patterned offspring of such cross-matings. Oddly, the opposite does not seem to hold true, indicating the blue eye colour to be an extremely strong dominant gene trait due to the chimeric DNA used in their creation.
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Overview: Rakshasa are the only known sentient GELF (Genetically-Engineered LifeForm) ever created by Terrans that survived and became a self-sustaining population. Highly-illegal creations of advanced mid-23rd century genetic engineering, the Rakshasa are a testament to what happens when GELF creation goes right. Created through a blend of Human and K’thari DNA introduced into the gene sequences of Bengal and Siberian tigers, the end result is a race of powerful bipedal tiger-like creatures that- ironically- hold to a very Human way of life.
Physiology: Rakshasa are large, fur-bearing, bipedal Humanoids that closely resemble a bipedal tiger. They walk on the balls of their feet, which are substantially longer than normal, creating a second reversed knee-like joint similar to a quadruped feline or canine, but much lower down the leg. Thus, while they usually walk upright, they hunch forward while running and are capable of impressive speed and jumps. They have retractable climbing claws in their fingers and toes, the last inch of which cannot be fully retracted and are instrumental in Rakshasa fine tool use and manipulation. The creator of the Rakshasa- Dr. Aryana Singh- used tigers as the base for his experimental creations. Rather than use a large quantity of chimeric DNA, he instead utilized specific genome sequences from Humans and K’Thari to provide the Rakshasa with sentience, upright modality, speech capacity (after a fashion), opposable thumbs and more Human-like digits, and other necessities for effective tool-using sentience. Since the vast majority (98%) of the DNA is still tiger, the Rakshasa are less like a new race and more akin to an upright version of their parent species. This fact was instrumental in the arguments of those who lobbied to defend the Rakshasa’s status as a viable, protected sentient race as opposed to an abomination to be destroyed.
Society: The Rakshasa were created in a laboratory Dr. Singh and a few hundred of his followers had built in a recently-abandoned city on Seban, a colony that had been evacuated during the Capellan War. Dangerously close to the Quarantine Zone in the Tarsus Corridor, no one had reclaimed the world, nor even looted it as the war was barely over at the time. Thus, Dr. Singh had a ready-made settlement for his creations to flourish. He created the Rakshasa with the intent for them to take over the abandoned world and make it their own, and his view of bringing a new lifeform into the universe being a benign act of divine inspiration would be validated.
When the Rakshasa were discovered in 2309 by a survey team, Dr. Singh had been dead for decades, and his creations had built an entire civilization with their human teachers. Rakshasa reproduction and maturity rates were so high that their population exploded exponentially, and thus a few thousand in the first generation blossomed into millions in less than half a century. They had been secretly studying the goings-on of the Alliance through their access to the Omninet, and their Human partners kept the colony supplied with updated equipment, educational and entertainment material, and weapons for defense. The Rakshasa welcomed the wildcatter team with open arms over the vociferous protests of the Human colonists, celebrating the first visitors they had ever hosted. It soon became apparent to their former teachers that this world and its society firmly belonged to the Rakshasa, and that they were no longer needed to parent and guide them as Dr. Singh had ordered them to. Knowing the penalties they would face for their part in the creation of the GELFs, the Human colonists stepped back from the affairs and maintained a low profile on Seban.
Needless to say, the discovery of an entire civilization of armed, independent, self-governing GELFs created in blatant violation of numerous laws and treaties threw a massive monkey wrench into Terran Alliance politics. The European Union and North American Union- two of the most powerful proponents of those laws and treaties- immediately condemned the Rakshasa as incapable of self-governance, an abomination of science that should never have been created. The Ahruga and Free Systems Alliance, needless to say, raced each other to be the first to recognize the Rakshasa as a sovereign race and Seban as a sovereign independent Freespace system. Cooler heads eventually prevailed, as the Australio-Pacifica Coalition and Vairaja Empire both stepped in on the side of the Ahruga and Freemen, arguing that the GELF race had been self-reliant for over fifty years, and the world they inhabited had been an Aussie colony to begin with, and therefore not the concerns of others. The Rakshasa are still a subject of heated debates, but have found acceptance in many of the cultures and nations of the Alliance. Over the past decade, they have rapidly spread out into the galaxy to see more of the world, often working as crew aboard privateers and Freetraders. As they learn about the world at large, the world learns about them, as well, and they have proven to be quite fascinating.
The Rakshasa were created as an experiment in cultural engineering as much as genetic, and thus Dr. Singh and his followers raised the Rakshasa within an idealized Terran society. As a result, Rakshasa culture is similar to the Indo-Euro-Australian culture seen in much of the Colonial Territories influenced by the Australio-Pacifica Coalition and Vairaja Empire. They speak English as their first language, and Hindi as their second, wearing clothing and having architecture and design principles that are based largely off of Australian ones, with some Indian influences, especially in clothing styles.
Unlike their tiger progenitors, however, the Rakshasa are an extremely communal people. Though Dr. Singh originally wanted to organize them in a more urban-oriented society, the Rakshasa took more to the clannar structure of the stories they read about the recently-encountered Ahruga and ancient Amerindian tribes. Not wanting to see them regress into a disparate tribalism that could lead to conflict in the future, Dr. Singh compromised, establishing clans for the Rakshasa while simultaneously establishing a national identity as a unified people. Thus, Rakshasa identify as Rakshasa first, and then their specific clan second. Rakshasa families are huge, with the idea of a nuclear family being alien to them for the most part. This is largely from the Indian influence, and extended families are seen as the close family, while the entire clan is seen as the equivalent of a conventional extended family.
Brothers, sisters, cousins, older nieces and nephews, etc. are all seen in the same light as siblings, and raised together as such. Marriage is always outside of the clan as a result, and bloodlines are monitored closely by family matriarchs to ensure no inbreeding is risked. The caution is not necessary, however, as the Rakshasa- due to their genetically-enhanced DNA and their feline ancestry- are extremely resistant to birth defects caused by a narrower genetic pool, and can marry first cousins with no ill effects. Thus, this monitoring is more for societal reasons than fears of genetic collapse.
These clannar identities and the pseudo-ethnic identities of Siberian or Bengali bloodlines are the only dividing factors within Rakshasa society. They are a generally spiritual people, but do not advocate one religion over another, preferring instead to keep religious beliefs personal (a fact that drove Dr. Singh- a devout Hindu who encouraged his creations to embrace his faith- nuts, and surprised him quite a bit). Generally, though, Rakshasa tend towards the more esoteric or spiritualism-heavy religions rather than the more organized and fundamentalist ones. As a people, Rakshasa are far more laid-back than one would expect considering their fierce appearance and ancestral reputation. However, when in combat or enraged, the Rakshasa can go nearly feral in their fury, rivaling the Ahruga for their animalistic frenzies when in battle.
Socially, the Rakshasa tend to be fairly blunt, honest, and not a small bit gullible. They have a rather sheltered and innocent view of the world around them, and street-smarts are not their strong suit. While they are just as strong-willed and stubborn as most races, they are somewhat naïve as a people- even with extensive exposure to the outside world- which makes them trusted companions as guile and deception are not instinctual parts of their nature.
Appearance: Rakshasa are huge bipedal tigers with humanoid arms and large hands ending in talons. They are powerfully-built, with strong muscles rippling just under the skin, and broad, feline heads atop short necks. Their fur patterns are all tiger-striped, coming in either the yellow-and-black hues of the Bengali Rakshasa, or the white-and-black patterns of the Siberians. All Bengali Rakshasa have amber eyes that seem to glow with an inner light (largely due to exceptional reflectivity), and Siberians have piercing ice-blue eyes. While the color patternings of the Siberians are merely a genetic fluke and not part of a separate sub-species in tigers, the genetic manipulation harnessed the genome of this rare expression into the basis for a separate sub-species dubbed Siberian by Dr. Singh, largely due to their excellent adaptation to snowy climates. Interbreeding between the two produces one or the other, but there has been an increasing frequency of Siberian eye colour in Bengali-patterned offspring of such cross-matings. Oddly, the opposite does not seem to hold true, indicating the blue eye colour to be an extremely strong dominant gene trait due to the chimeric DNA used in their creation.