Races - Vesuvian

The Vesuvian are a rugged folk built to live in a trying environment. Forged from the fires of Venus, the Vesuvian people are blue-collar workers originally caught in the net of corporate ambitions. Thankfully the Ves have managed to shed this heavy mantle and become stable workers throughout the universe.

Description

The Vesuvians, or Ves as they are often called, are a race of average size men and women hailing from, obviously, Venus. Most noticeably they are thick skinned with leathery layers of gnarled, pronouncedly textured dermis. Many who know them compare Vesuvian skin to Earth's alligators, existing as something of armor, protecting them from the environment.

Many Vesuvians maintain a robust body weight along with their thick skin, providing an extra layer of heat and protection in the upper-layers of the Venus atmosphere. The vast and varied diets the Ves now enjoy also contribute to their round figures.

Most Vesuvians who live within the boundaries of Sol are a glum people. Because of persecution they have been forced to endure they would rather live their lives in peace, unbothered by the rest of humanity. Those Ves lucky enough to have found solace outside of their home star have found a pleasant existence, and are decidedly jolly. They revel in life’s pleasures.

Notable History

The Beginning

The beginning of the Ves is perhaps one of the greatest controversies of the next millennium. There are two beginnings to the Vesuvian’s known. There is the tales told to the general public, and to the Vesuvian’s themselves. And then there are the facts.The Vesuvian’s believe, as does most of the rest of the galaxy, that they were created as a solution to the problem of how to take advantage of the resources of Venus. Their race was engineered and they were set to work.

Unfortunately, that is not so much the truth. The harsh environment of Venus provided the perfect breeding ground for a race devoted to practices of the Cosa Nostra (CN). The leaders of the organization knew that, putting into place a program that would have the planet colonized. Once their machination was finally succeeded, they began work on the next phase of their plan: bringing about the personality and culture requirements to mold the race towards their own ends.

First Fall

The single largest economic hit since men entered the stars coincided with the first years when Ves moved out from the upper-atmosphere of Venus where they ran a growing network of research and gas mining operations. Through no fault of their own the Ves received a lot of mis-placed blame as the markets collapsed after over inflating. This unfortunate timing ensured that the still-living fears of loss in men's hearts fermented into improperly placed prejudice towards the encroaching outsider group, the newly gene-born Vesuvians.

This caused no small amount of turmoil for the Ves and many sought refuge outside of the Sol System, where the parallel between the downturn and the Ves was a less widely accepted misconception. However for many Ves the option to leave the system never presented itself, so they remained. Disliked and largely downtrodden the nearly ten-year span of the depression forced many Ves to find other means, often illicit to survive.

Rise of the Vesuvian Syndicates

This caused no small amount of turmoil for the Ves and many sought refuge outside of the Sol System, where the parallel between the downturn and the Ves was a less widely accepted misconception. However for many Ves the option to leave the system never presented itself, so they remained. Disliked and largely downtrodden the nearly ten-year span of the depression forced many Ves to find other means, often illicit to survive.

Following the years after the First Fall the illegal means that the Ves found to survive became more and more dangerous as the Astrum Police moved in on the population. Both because of their actions and because of the own prejudice within the police ranks. This provided the CN with exactly what they needed.

Vesuvian crime lords suddenly started offering protection to all citizens from the Astrum police. Guaranteeing they wouldn’t be hounded by racist officers or outsiders at all. Many quickly accepted, and the Crime Lord promises were kept. Those that didn’t accept quickly found themselves arrested for things they hadn’t done, or killed out right in a case that the Astrum didn’t seem to have time to solve.

Within Sol’s boundaries, a large portion of Ves joined the organization known as the Cosa Nostra. This sizable influx gave the leaders of the CN the base of personnel they needed to get back into the business they had originally been a part of; intelligence. Growth outside of Sol has been a slower process, with Ves and other groups finding different opportunities in the less populated systems.

Game Mechanics

Second Membrane - Vesuvians enjoy a retractable second pair of eyelids. These transparent membranes offer up simple protection against environmental irritants, as well as limited protection against chemical and material hazards.

Thick Skin - To survive the sting of the highly acidic world that spawned them Ves have developed incredibly thick skin that provides them extra protection against things such as: acids and bases, electricity, hot and cold burns.

Tactile Loss - Their thick skin comes at the price of a loss of tactile sensation, nerve receptors having long-since retreated deep beneath the surface of the skin.