Races - Phirrus

Summary

Tall and tapered the Phirrus are a distinct race recently re-attached to the rest of humanity. Most notably their legs look uncomfortable to others, with backward jointed knees that give them a longer gliding gate. These prominent legs are powerfully muscled and usually thick - with the hips and upper body tapering gradually to a more narrow point.

Average Phirrus have narrow-set shoulders and slender arms that are out-of-place against their muscled lower-bodies. This is a disparity some work excessively hard to remedy through over-exercise.

Their faces are full-featured, with hawkish features often given to powerful noses and jutting chins, angles abound. Some find them striking, while others cannot understand the appeal of the young race.

Splintered Society

The Phirrus are a people torn between the corrupt and on many levels evil Ucual Corporation's years of rule and the encroaching openness of the remainder of humanity. This split is a not characterized by physical differences, but by an ideological split resulting from a mix of curiosity, hurt, and fear. Years of Ucual lies have poisoned the Phirruden, while the minority group, the Phirrukup see the changes in their system as a solid step in the right direction.

Phirruden - The Phirruden are the majority party in the split of Phirrus culture. They are the ones who hold power and seek to keep it that way by being decided closed-off from the outside universe and the rush of trade from outside groups and corporations. They lead the Den-Si military, the largest military force outside of the Sol system, and position it as both a military block to entry from outside groups and as a unflinching police force to be put into service at any time.

Most outsiders view the Phirruden as xenophobic militaristic bullies with little sense of reason. In a narrow view they are correct, the Phirruden do not tolerate any breech of what they consider to be proper discourse or action - working to eliminate all negative outside influence in a heavy handed manner. Yet to look at them more broadly they are a people simply looking out for themselves as best their limited experience allows. For years they were lied to by a virtually all-powerful corporation, and with the removal of the corporate oppressors have been thrust headlong into the wealth that is the rest of humanity. Weary of being trodden upon by more groups, from which the Ucual Corporation stemmed, the Phirruden have seized power and risen on political platforms lead by men and women promising to keep them safe and ensure that they will never again be violated as in the past.

Phirrukup - The splinter group of Phirrus who are open to meeting and growing together with their outside human brothers and sisters. The Phirrukup are what many would call 'rationale' or 'normal' Phirrus, being those who have openly embraced the arrival of the remainder of humanity.

Their differences with the Phirruden are based on ideology that manage to cause no small problems for both groups - each which hurts to see brothers and sisters pitted against one another as fear and prejudice tear whole families apart.

Notable History

A Corporate Birth

The Phirrus exist as the end result of illegal genetic modifications by the Ucual Corporation. The company used its hidden system to go outside the scope of ethical practices set forth by the Neo-Geneva Conventions. The Phirrus experiments allowed Ucual to develop several new genetic splices, now pulled from the market after the company's dissolution, despite copy-cat splices moving in to replicate the effects.

Beaming these illegal results back through subspace kept a steady stream of profits running from the Ucual System back to the rest of colonized space. These transmissions were one key factor in nailing the coffin on corporate executives when the cover-up fell onto the public stage.

Lawyers for the prosecution successfully used these transmission lines to prove direct knowledge by managers outside the Ucual System, setting a powerful precedent for other cases against illegal activities that span system borders and had long-since been left un-resolved.

Rushed Development

The Phirrus are the stable genetic trials propelled by age progression. They were also used early on by ucual Corp to build the foundations of the system, toiling alongside Syntek workers.

Within the oldest groups there are numerous genetic differences, small-to-large changes that are less prevalent in younger generations born of primarily natural means, opposed to the artificial inception of the race as a whole. Interestingly the Phirrus are the only genetically born race where the first generation of colonists still exists in considerable number.

A Scandal Discovered

Forty-two years ago after considerable digging the Ucual Corporation was found to have falsified the successful colonization of a self-named system. They had used this private system for years as a testing ground for cutting-edge and highly unethical experimentation.

The company's success during this period of exploitation is one of the signals that alerted outsiders to the potential problem. At first there were questions about funding, about how research was being conducted with seemingly no physical presence. It was a narrow trail that once discovered widened to a shockingly dangerous truth that would destroy the company.

Upper managers fled or turned themselves in trying to avoid or minimize the risk of imprisonment and personal suffering. Many are still at large to this day, with bounties held on their heads as industrial and ethical criminals against humanity.

The current conflict with the Phirrukup and Phirruden is an indirect result of their actions.

Game Mechanics

Lock-Step Knees

The Phirrus possess knees which resemble those of a kangaroo, bending opposite to the usual humans. These reverse-joints allow for exceptionally strong leg-muscles to create a fast and high-jumping race. The Phirrus are known to be able to easily high-jump as well as most human Olympians, some eight feet (2.4 meters). In the aberrant ranges of the population it is not unheard of for Phirrus to reach 15 feet in vertical launch.

Natural Grace

Most Phirrus posses surprisingly deft reflexes. Studies suggest that the Ucual Corp engineered this trait to test out different design solutions which they later sold as genetic therapies. These heightened reflexes manifest differently across the population. For some the trait brings increased hand-eye coordination while others see a greater physical dexterity. Many Phirrus groups have become well-known for their dancing thanks to this trait. Once observers get past the obvious discomfort over the reversed knee-joint the displays are often marvelous in their scope and complexity.