Races - Desh

Summary

The Desh are the heartiest of all the races, or so their movie-stars would have you believe. Strong, and often covered in ultra-dense hair follicles the Desh are the backbone of the modern worlds, only hedged out by the Syntek in terms of utility in the developing systems. Their history is a rich ones filled with sweat, blood, and likely a few tears - one that some choose to ignore, while others embrace it fully.

The Desh are strong-willed leaders of industry.

Description

The Desh are the work-horses of the universe, coming in right behind Syntek as No. 2 in blue-collar jobs. Their powerful, muscular frame, softened by a layer of insulating fat, fits this working-man image and allows them to shrug off the physical challenges that would depress a less hearty race.

Their stout bodies are densely packed with muscle, surrounded by fat and tiny micro-fibrous colored hair that covers the large majority of their body, with the major exposure areas on a male being patches of skin on the face, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Female Desh more closely resemble their human cousins, with the front of their bodies exposed, from the forehead to the navel. This hair acts as a water-tight fur-coat, insulating the Desh from freezing cold - a godsend on their homeworld. Their bodies also produce musky, but pleasant smelling, oil that aids in waterproofing their fur.

With all of this they are not utterly immune, still falling prey to the driving cold of their world and others their fur and dense muscles can only provide moderate protection for short durations from any extreme. Still, they can manage infinitely better than a non-Desh.

The hair grows long and sharply colored around their heads - coarse and dense it either splays out like some strange mane or is cropped close. Some Desh living on warmer worlds are known to braid and work the longer hair about their heads (as well as perform weekly, if not daily, hair trims as their bodies can overheat easily in non-frigid conditions), and if male, chests, and backs into gravity-defying styles that come and go seemingly by the day.

The hands and footpads of the Desh is exposed, as fur would interfere with the manipulations of machinery and tools, and fur on the soles of the feet would decrease traction.

There are major distinctions even between the Desh themselves (ignoring the obvious, major differences between the Desh and the Maridesh), between those born on Jherro and those from Habakkuk. The Habakkuk Desh are stouter, shorter than a man but often heavier by a solid margin, with shorter limbs and large torsos to produce and contain body heat in the desolate, frigid environment of Habakkuk. Their hair grows longer and heavier, and it is never shed. The mainstay Desh of Jherro are significantly different, in that they are on average a foot taller, and with longer limbs. The Jherro Desh also go through a color-changing/shedding period during the summer months that leaves them resembling, larger, hairier humans. It is interesting to note that many Jherro Desh who leave the planet enter a semi-permanent shed state, where their bodies will not grow back the insulating hair in order to keep them from overheating, which will often happen due to heat generated from their muscles and their own heat-retaining forms. The Desh have good eyesight, aided by the fact they have natural “sunglasses” in their eye membranes which protect them from extreme cold and wind, as well as filter out glare and harmful UV, and provide protection underwater where the Desh have good vision as well, conditions permitting. Though the membrane can protect them from the basic rigors of life on their planets, it will offer no protection against an attacker’s nails or knife, nor will it provide much protection against exceptionally bright flashes of light or corrosive substances.

The Desh themselves have a splinter race within the race, the Maridesh whom call a broad, expansive chain of islands along the equator of Jherro home. The Maridesh have the luxury of living in an almost tropical island environment thanks to the active but stable volcanic going-ons that occur beneath the surface of the ocean. The Maridesh are on average as tall as a human, but covered in a lightweight fur that, like the Desh, is coated with a secreted oil that allows them to stay waterproofed and prevent losing the buoyancy benefits of their coat. They are incredible swimmers, and most Maridesh are farmers, tending massive seafields of saltwater produce, or maintaining hydro and aeroponics facilities on their island homes. The Maridesh are responsible for producing massive amounts of vegetables and fruits for their mainland and Habakkuk cousins, and due to their comfortable environment and lifestyle, are often very fun, laid-back and content people.

Notable History

Original Fight

The Desh are the original race which started it all. Not the first by any means, the Caspiez hold that record, but the most important some would claim. Desh were born outside of Sol first, set to struggle on an unkind world where they breathed life into a new system, laboring heavy throughout. Their bodies were the most alien the worlds had yet seen - covered in hair, short and stocky (this was long before Jherro’s terraforming had been completed, thus only the Habakkuk Desh existed).

Many people resented them for true aliens in those days. Their numbers so few that it took almost a full century before some colonies in Sol ever saw a Desh in person.

When they began to expand in numbers it became apparent that these foundational problems were never addressed, and by this time other races like the water-born Arix had begun to appear in the Chantilas system. Deeply rooted biases moved into public light as calls from the extreme wings of the universal body of humanity strove to declare the Desh 'alien', an act that would have ruined the lives of all Desh, and all offshoots to come.

The crusade against this extremist activity was hard-fought, with the problems rising up in different arenas across colonized space. In every case the Desh were forced to approach from a different angle and deal with different people set out to hate them. Over time the discussions stalled in many parts of the galaxy and many of the patient and pragmatic Desh grew tired of the continued problems.

These groups became activist 'Unions', many of which are still in existence today. The Unions were in those early days a mix between terrorist groups and militias that struck out, an extremist group reacting to another. Eventually the light bloodshed spilled far enough onto the public stage that the Desh had their case heard by all and the groundwork was laid so that the Desh, and all future races born of the genome, would not face being viewed as aliens by the numerically superior Humans. Sadly the work of the Unions also managed scar the public view of the Desh for some time, even today many Desh cannot live down old stereotypes associated with the terror-mongering freedom-fighters in the Unions, even though the Unions represented only a tiny fraction of the Desh population.

Game Mechanics

Microfibers - ultra-thick micro-fiber hair encases whole body, much in the way an otter, penguin, or duck is encased and made waterproof through the oils and other layering effects. A Desh is protected by several-fold the amount a normal human would be in cold, wet environments. Still the cold of space and of their worlds is too great even for a Desh to face unprotected.

Muscle density - muscles are non-linear in structure like human muscles. Instead they are layered in a hexagonal lattice to interlock and become more tightly packed. Almost seem to display some traits of workload sharing - where nearby cells not in use share the workload of cells actively working. Akin to cellular telepathic communication.