Making Star Army More Alien/Diverse

Sigma,

Perhaps you should read this page:

Nepleslian

It repeatedly says Nepleslians are human.

t is believed that Nepleslians are the descendants of the original humans that colonized the planet,

Nepleslians, while mostly human, also tend to be mostly male.

I don't have much in the way of fancy words to add to this topic. I can, however, declare that most of the ethnicity-related concerns raised go mostly above my head. I don't care. I'm fairly happy the way SARP is, I don't see the need to bend backwards to fix what's not broken and rather just keep the door open for that variety.

Basically, be able to say "Yes". Being able to be exclusive. But that doesn't mean surrendering themes to be so. This is our sandbox, and there's simply no way to make everyone happy over real world perceptions like this. Odds are that if something really didn't appeal, participants would not have joined in the first place, or would've moved on to something that suited them better.

I think our attempt at diversity, this being a sci-fi setting should rest at our focus in fleshing out aliens, really.

In regard to Yamatai? I'll say what I think, which ties to how my character think she fits in her world:

• Kotori is a nekovalkyrja. But she's also considers herself Yamataian in nationality. She identifies to the people of the Yamato phenotype, which is the similar to the mongoloid people living on the island of Japan.
  
  Yamatai also have the 'Norfolk', those caucasian people from the nordic racial subset (Sigma's Viking strikes fairly close). Norfolk people exist on Yamatai, but they're kind of the equivalent of how the average American seems to see Canadians: they're nice backward neighbors that are kind of there, but hardly dominant or influent.
  
  So you'd get the Yamato coming out as the most prevalent, with the Norfolk coming second place, and the rest complemented by a variety of minority subgroups (nepleslians, elysians, trolls, elves).

I'm talking about adding alien concultures. I have a plan for making the setting more species-diverse but not one for making its humans more racially diverse. I also want to remind everyone that when we talk about making the setting more diverse, we're generally talking about the NPCs, not player characters. And I have no problem with adding aliens that are religious.

Can I get your help?

• I need someone to give me a count of the species of Star Army, broken down into playable and non-playable background ones, and a list of species that look basically human so we can get a percentage and see where we're at.
• Start a brainstorming topic where people can submit their ideas for unique background alien species.
• Recommend some good alien species artists that take commissions.

I'm thinking we can try to add two new strange aliens per year, based on GM needs and one filling in gaps in the setting. It'll be a slow but ongoing process.

Human like races

Playable

Yamataian(All variants, Neko, Minken, Geshrin etc)

Nepleslian

ID-SOL

Abwehran

Iromakuane

Elysian

Lorath

Helashio

Shukaren (Duar)

I did not see any non playable human like races, I could be wrong. There are skinny articles up. I simply opted to ignore them and stick to the most popular and less obscure species

Non-human

Azorean

Shukaren (Liabe)

Gartagen

My’leke

Phodians

Kohanians

(Non-playable)

Chelti

Non-neko NMX things

Hidden Sun Clan races(Not sure if human races were added.)

Khodians(Not sure if playable or not)

I'd like to put emphasis on the Phodians and Kodians. Both are races already part of the Empire. While they might not appeal as PCs to many, it doesn't mean that they aren't worthy of being depicted.

I mean, I could see ways in which a Phodian caretaker could be part of a Star Army ship. They're great cooks, and on their homeworld they kind of have this 1960s Mafia vibe going on with gunslingers and such. There's a way to make these look cool if anyone tries to. Plus, so many ways to do "when pigs fly" jokes with them, seeing that they are feathered humanoid pigs.

As for Kodians... has anyone seen the Golden Compass? The warbears in there, they're pretty badass, right? Well, the Kodians are an entire race of those, except they're all gritty cybernetic high-tech alongside that too with a 'no pain no gain' mentallity. There's some serious badassery to be drawn from those too.

Also, the Miharu plot hinted at two races near its end. I'm still making those two races happen in time. That's a matter I already raised behind closed doors in the staff forum, so, I'll not elaborate further.

Well there is another issue to be addressed on the subject, but I do not really want to rock the boat.

I was working on this race, but I have hit a wall. https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=species:kelunda

I listened to the SARPTalk just now and I have an idea for a new race. Just to throw it out there Im kinda basing it off of the Protoss from Starcraft style wise and feel wise, but it will be different enough to be able to stand on its own right. But to give an idea, it is a race biased upon a tribal cultural structure, with a more Celtic feel to it. They are also highly religious with an emphasis on reverence to nature and life itself. The physiology is that of slender muscular bodies that use a form of telepathy for communication and have a basic control of telekenisis. This contributes and is drawn from their religion as they believe it was a gift from the energy of nature that they have these powers. This is only an idea I'm rolling around in my head right now but does it sounds original or intriguing enough to go forward with?

The ESP will be something you'll have to fight pretty hard to keep. Any kind of psychic abilities are all but complete no-nos at this point, aside from the limited kinds of telepathy (that's not really telepathy) Yamataians use, or the very limited empathetic abilities of the Iroma. Telekinesis would probably be completely out, though.

I knew the idea was a stretch to consider for this universe but I was thinking of limiting the scope of it to make it more of flavor text for the race than an actual ability. Limiting it to moving small objects over a small distance via the manipulation of energy fields. I just figured that I haven't read of any race that goes in this direction, focusing on the energies of this universe and useing it biologically as opposed to use technology to harness its power.

I can write up a more detailed description today and tomorrow to flesh it out, but I really think this could add quite a bit more diversity and maybe even a few new techs for the universe to use.

Just something to note, but Delsaurians are still pretty prominent in and around the Delsauria system of Nepleslia. I've made a couple past NPCs Delsaurian, but currently they have little representation and aren't really expanded upon. From what I've gathered, however, they are your standard lizards with vaguely humanoid forms.

The Kelunda look pretty cool so far.

What are their motivations and who are their leaders?

As for Delsaurians, I would like to get art for them sometime when I have some money saved up. Also I may try to make some of their starships. I remember making them out of paper in 6th grade. They were triangular and flat with a large engine bank on the back and a windshield on the front. They had large cargo bay doors and a hatch. They had beam array strips and forward-facing disruptor cannons in green. I wish I could find them, but I don't know if I have any of the ships I made anymore.

Speaking of starships, I think programs for creating that sort of thing should be listed on the "Create a faction" page so people know what resources they need to buy.

So from a completely neutral stance that I have on this entire topic being how relatively new I still am to this community, this is what I've gathered.

There is a desire to see more interaction between different xenologies to create a more dynamic universe that would create entirely new depths to probe and explore as writers.

I don't think it's a case that we don't have enough species to do that with but as a rookie I know little of the other species mainly because I haven't had to interact with them with my character so there hasnt been a need to really look them up aside from just burning time as I sat in a hot desert.

With the fact that the war with the NMX is winding down (least that's what I thought I heard) this would be an excellent time role play wise to really expand the working knowledge of the other species and add a few more that people come up with. A few ships bent on exploring new worlds or building up existing relations with species already known, that kind of stuff.

To cite an example, if you played mass effect they had their little codex that as you went through the game and explored just about everything you got more and more entries to read to add depth to your gaming experience. That combined with the small tidbits like an elcore adaptation of hamlet played over the elevator radio is what will make the other races come to life. Ultimately the more information we pour into our crations the more realistic they become and the more enticing it will be to play them. The race I have rolling around in my head I intend on doing just that.

TL;DR instead of trying to fill our universe with quantity of species let's focus a little more on the quality of the ones we have to make it easier to relate and identify with them,... And of course add a few more to really round out the genis base. Lol. At the very least these are just some musings I've thought of these past few days.

Also did we ever get a guide for creating new races? Cause I could seriously use a template right now. Also, is there a place in the wiki where I can begin writing my race idea? Like a non cannon zone that is visible to everyone for input

That sounds right to me.

I would just put your species stuff in the species:speciesname: folder and mark it with an unapproved tag. I saw you put a "test race" page in the user folder but it doesn't belong there because it's not a user.

Gotcha. I'm just fumbling through that process right now... May take me a bit...lol.

:edit ok I think I figured it out... Ill keep the info on the list of unapproved concepts and have it filed under species.

*phew* learning how to work wiki takes a church out of my mind...lol

(If it makes you feel better, it took Jim two years to submit the chelti)

It's a working project.

Chelti are sort of meant to be a self-contradicting foil to the hyper-tech of many other races, so trying to explain them to potential players in one article is difficult. That's one among other reasons why I've put chelti in the (seemingly rather exclusive, looking at Ira's post) NPC race category, I do however trust a few fundamental players in the forums to create chelti characters with minimal oversight from me (they know who they are).

I'm working on some behind the scenes stuff to start introducing chelti in little nooks and crannies of setting in general, I'm also always open to help from others with chelti articles. Just ask if you want a link to the central hub of the chelti sandbox to see what might be in store.

Overall I think part of the problem is that many of SARPs races are rather isolated from each other, many sticking to their own areas bar some directed attempts by certain GM's to build up a wide repertoire for their plots. Some would like to see multi-national stations and such, but I would love to create sort-of ethnic ghettos or quarters within existing cities.

Stuff I've done lately for the alien cause:

- I've been introducing many new freaky aliens (some of which may be "keepers") in the new Eucharis plot, "Strangers."
- I commissioned the first chibi Phod and hope to do a Kodian, and other alien chibis to add multi-species flavor to starship crews, even if they're just NPCs.
- Edited the Nekovalkyrja creation guide so it asks people to please consider unusual skin colors like blue and red.