I've removed the ambiguous mention of their astrological situation. The planet is tidally locked, rather than tilted. Meaning that one side is always facing the sun, rather than the planet going through seasonal extremes.
May add more emphasis on "mild seasonal variance" in the future as well, not to be confused with mild seasons. On that note, I'll start moving the chelti homeworld and its system into the main wiki area and add the links to the opening post if requested.
I'm afraid I don't have the right words to really explain their empathy precisely in one word. However, rather than read minds, imagine that chelti broadcast their feelings to other chelti. This basically fills the role of something between tone of voice and body language, as chelti have very little facial muscles compared to humans.
This ability has also evolved defenses from creatures on their own planet that use psychic abilities to aid hunting. Mostly relating to "white noise" and other such distractions.It also has unique social implications that will be expanded on later, imagine being able to make everyone else in the room depressed simply by standing in it.
On the topic of genetic diversity, these are mostly sub-species that evolved largely in isolation of each other. However, when among their actual tribes or packs and such, they would have a similar effect as a herd of zebra's.
While the zebra's are able to recognize each other and communicate, to outside predators they appear as one group of the same animal and it becomes more difficult to pick out a target from this mass of very similar individuals.
So, unlike you and me, who may have different hair colour, face shape, eye colour as we have evolved to recognize others through these traits. Chelti biology originally evolved from this principle that to be picked out of the crowd by sight was death.
Reading that back I realize it's a little confused and garbled, but it's probably the best explanation I can tell you right at this moment.
Oh, yes. Before I end this, some people in the IRC have asked me some questions that I should probably also answer here.
Q: Will the chelti be an NPC race, or PC?
A:
I will not be supporting any racial RP plots for the chelti (at least, not within the foreseeable future), as I don't have the GM skill or confidence yet to manage such. I will, however, not bar any one interested in creating one for their own amusement. Also, chelti are open to be used as Independent characters or similar, and these options will be expanded on as time and OOC agreements with other FM's allow.
Q: Are they baddies?
A:
There's no straight answer to this, as they are deeply politically divided and chaotic by nature. Essentially plot GM's are more than welcome to use chelti as potential bad guys, even to an institutional level. The longer answer is that chelti are likely more attracted to the more illicit side of human societies.
Q: But don't they eat kittens or something? Are you sure they're not really Baddies?
A:
Chelti society places a lot on reputation and ego, especially in the case of the highly competitive males. Many chelti play up to their species bad rap, but only a minority will reach it.
Many chelti are, in fact, pacifists to other sapient life. It's usually the warrior class or rogues who give rest a bad rep.
Q: It says they own a lot of territory, isn't this too much to start with?
A:
Hmm, the wide reach is mostly for story reasons. Although in actual fact a vast majority of the systems you could define as their territory are completely uninhabited, and many others simply have small mining bases and other industrial infrastructure. Very few have actually had settlements established.
Think of it less of a consolidated block, and more like a patch work of small colonies, mining bases, and the occasional hub with multiple holes in where where either no one has been interested, or they just haven't exploited it yet.
Q: Some of these pictures and ideas you constantly ramble on about seem very high tech for what's meant to be a Standard tech-level species.
A:
Many projects that have been linked in IRC are actually long term projects worked on expressly for personal recreation. Many of them won't see the light of RP for at least one OOC year, likely more.
Chelti technology will largely evolve in generational phases as they learn and adapt to the abilities and actions of other species.
Q: Why is there so many references to dirty bombs when chelti come up?
A:
This stems from a terra-forming tool I formulated that, while harmless to creatures native to the chelti home planet, could be potentially devastating to other ecosystems if deployed on a habitable planet. This device, as well as my saying of never barring other players or plots from using chelti gear for their own uses, has basically created a running joke about chelti being as good at keeping their nuclear weapons to heart as immediate post-Soviet Russia.
Q: Did you just say NO weapons were barred from the hands of other players and GMs?
A:
Yes, that's right. Although there are limits. If you want a character to somehow acquire a chelti nuclear warhead there had better be some darn good reasoning and backstory for it, other than that most other items are available if characters know the right people and have deep pockets.
This stance mostly lead from my own frustrations in similar issues, so while perhaps somewhat petty, I've decided to make chelti have extremely loose policies with their weapons stores. Have fun!
Q: Why do you never shut up about how "badass" they are?
A:
Sorry, I just get excited and ramble. The "badass" theme stems from several inspirations for them, and so much work was made into making both chelti and their equipment intimidating without being over powered. Overall, it was designed to improve their worth as quality enemies in either action or dramatic roles.