Skunk:Anahi

Anahi Lore Pages
Species Lore Pages		Anahi
Governments and Organizations Pages		Roving Sun Fleet

An Anahi female

Orbit around a red dwarf.

Religious upheavel on the Roving Sun fleet

Selia was tidally locked.

Overview

The Anahi are a humanoid species that bears a striking resemblence to humanity. Originally a terrestrial species, they are now a nomadic race based on the thousands of ships of the Roving Sun fleet, on an eternal search for a new homeworld. An insular race, relatively little is known about their history and they are considered an uncommon sight even on civilized worlds.

History

Before the Loss

The Anahi race came to be on the planet they called Selia, a rare example of life forming in a trinary star system with Selia orbiting the red dwarf Mirna, that itself orbited the distant white dwarf suns of Ru and Mia. In a near-constant twilight due to its unique position, tidally locked and illuminated by its dwarf stars from all sides, Selia was covered in vast oceans and deserts and scrubland, with most forests and developed vegetation in the curved band of its terminator. Covered even more with water early in its history, the planet was covered in vast, complex caverns, which the Anahi considered their own origin.

In the early 20th century, Anahi scientists discovered that one of their binary stars would eventually collide with the other and cause a supernova that would wipe their entire system away. While disbelief delayed action for years, it was finally the ironic Anahi belief in their own intellectual superiority that led them to act- how could the calculations be wrong if an Anahi had done them?

While not having left the Selian system yet they were a technologically advanced race, and with over a century of warning had ample time to construct three great fleets to evacuate their planet. Documents and stories of this era are kept from the eyes of outsiders, as many are considered both sacred and a record of a shameful and difficult time for their proud species. While vast, the modern size of the Roving Sun fleet tells that their combined size could have carried only a fraction of their planet's population.

While two of the fleets had already chosen courses and had been accelerating for years by the time of the supernova, the fleet that would become the Roving Sun was chosen to stay behind at the edge of the Selian system to continue the evacuation until the very last moment and to record the end of their homeworld. To be in such close proximity to a supernova and survive shows certain highly-advanced technology that they have since been unwilling or unable to share with other species. In the centuries since, it is considered an important rite for all Anahi to watch the recorded end of their civilization.

While Selia was presumed fully destroyed, Mirna itself was ejected along the galactic plane at a monstrous 3% the speed of light. Setting a course to follow- and eventually overtake- the star, the Roving Sun fleet had earned its name.

Since the Loss

The Roving Sun lost contact with its sister fleets early on, and with their last heading away civilized space, subsequent contact with a known species is unlikely, leaving them alone in the void. While the fleet's leader had originally chosen their heading out of grief, some decades later a religious upheaval occured. A belief arose that Mirna's trajectory would lead them to a new world just as perfect as Selia had been.

Since this, the fleet has left Mirna behind and travels at a significant portion of the speed of light along its path. It has been centuries since the fleet has stopped accelerating, and now they simply coast in search of a new home.

While early beliefs were that they would simply arrive directly at their chosen world, a more modern sense has developed in that it still must be found and even molded if need be. Minor fleets are sent out whenever a new system is approached, to scout its worlds and to regain precious fuel, water, and material for the closed biosphere of the fleet. Considered a great honor, there is also the great risk to stay too long on a world unworthy of the Anahi means being unable to catch back up to the fleet.

Since First Contact

It was the early 28th century when the Anahi first came to the Coalition's attention, showing up at the edge of Coalition space along a path that skirts the White Belt and the Coalition frontier over the next millenium.

While primitive races and advanced ruins meant contact with a spacefaring civilization was eventually a certainty, to meet one with a technology superior in some ways to their own was an affront to the collective pride of the species.

Unwilling to submit to alien rule or the use of alien technology, the Anahi have made one major concession in the form of an FTL station at the rear of their fleet, with a single system at a time linking them to the rest of the galaxy. With their superior, xenophobic tendencies it is rare for anything more than Coalition diplomats or the rare merchant to come through.

The inclusion of FTL technology has ushered in a new method for their search for a new home, with Anahi explorators a rare but real sight in systems along Mirna's path. This mere usage of inferior technology, to say nothing of sects talking of the abandonment of their search, has threatened a dangerous and explosive religious schism in the fleet. Some Anahi have even left the Fleet to immigrate into welcoming alien societies in an effort to re-integrate into galactic life.

June 13th, 2032 [Date translated to Julian calendar]

"The timeline was correct to the second. Our loss is absolute. Forgive my briefness. There are no words. There is nothing in this universe to describe our grief."

June 16th, 2032 [Date translated to Julian calendar]

"Something remains. The observors of the Unyielding Eye have confirmed Mirna, our beloved Mirna, has been set free. We shall follow her for a time, and bask in the warmth of her dying light and make our final goodbyes."

— Admiral Calire Naefria of the Fleet of Mirna's Wandering, excerpt from his diary, one of the few documents known to the galaxy at large.

Biology

Anahi are bipeds remarkably similar to humans, and have caused considerable debate among xenobiologists on the origin of both races. They are easily identified by their dark, smoky skin color that tends towards purples, greys or blacks. Eye colors are equally dark, with blues and violets the most common, with other colors such as green, brown or red more of a rarity. As a result of centuries of life in the low gravity of the Fleet, Anahi are typically tall and lithe, ranging anywhere between six to eight feet tall.

While usually described as amazingly graceful, newly-emigrated Anahi often struggle in regular gravity, and some never fully acclimate and require external support. Those that fully adapt to gravity or are witnessed in their adopted-home environment are generally seen as elegant and refined, and humans consider them supernaturally beautiful. While on the surface their beauty is apparent, Anahi use pheremones to help convey emotions or communicate amongst themselves. These pheremones can be detected by other races and sometimes can influence an individual's feelings or attraction to any one Anahi.

With the twilight of their homeworld's surface and its dim caverns, the Anahi have excellent night vision, and visitors to their ships have described them as unnervingly dark. The light that most races would call comfortable is blinding to an Anahi, and any seen out during the day or in a lit building with their eyes uncovered are guaranteed to be augmented.

Galactic Opinion

Upon first contact the Anahi were first seen as a proud and mournful race, and their plight and the mystique of their people caught the imagination of artists across the Coalition. In the two centuries hence, galactic opinion has shifted, and many treat the Anahi with as much distrust as the Anahi have for aliens. Some simply cannot understand why the Fleet, in its extreme position, would refuse honest offers of help from polities such as the Coalition or the Directorate. Others believe that the Anahi's search for a new home is likely to end in a war that they will lose. The Anahi are as proud as ever- too proud, for many, who believe that arrogance will be the end of the species.

As such, the Anahi do not maintain diplomatic relations with most entities outside of their few trading partners. Some governments, like the Federation or the Grand Tide see the Anahi as a self-centered race, who believe themselves superior to other species. These assumptions are not entirely unfounded, but with its FTL gate so heavily restricted, precious few are given the chance to actually communicate with the Roving Sun, and are forced to relay messages at the whims of its mercantile and explorator fleet. By the time a response is dispatched, the original request can sometimes be months if not years out of date.

Style Guide

Please see the Appearance Guide for non-race specific guidance and rules.

Anahi should have dark skin tones, either black, grey, dark blue, purple or dark brown. They should stand full bodied and slightly taller than an average human. They have pointed ears and can have unnatural eye colors. Use of human heads that have the correct skin tones such as the Catwa or Utilizator heads is acceptable.

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