Ceyridean

Ceyridean Appearance and Characteristic Behavior

The Ceyrideans were once known to all the races of the Dragons' Quadrant as the Cyborg. The Ceyrideans behaved as though they were an offshoot of the Humans, living and working among them on the Human colony planet. This mind-boggling huge deception was carried out with the cooperation of the Humans in order to protect the Ceyrideans from their enemies. In retrospect it wasn't all that difficult of a subterfuge to promote due to the fact that Ceyrideans look like somewhat larger, more muscular Humans.

Ceyrideans have a fairly homogonous appearance. They average between 2 and 2 1/3 meters in height. Their skin color ranges between a olive and a light brown. The differences between a Ceyridean and a Human are subtle, but significant. Ceyrideans have no hair anywhere on their body. Ceyridean eyes are much larger than Human eyes and though they have a white sclera, the iris does not vary in color as it does in humans. Ceyrideans eye color is always brown, though females tend to have a slightly lighter shade of brown than the males.

Another subtle difference is that Ceyrideans have longer fingers and toes due to an extra joint that gives them the ability to grip more firmly than Humans can. Ceyridean arms also have an extra joint that they can keep perfectly rigid or can be bent to make holding large, awkward objects easier. When held rigid, the forearm looks disproportionately long to the upper arm if one looks closely.

Ceyrideans, because of their heritage, are primarily warriors. Though there are plenty who have trained for other roles within their society, every single Ceyridean is trained to fight from a young age. This broad training is primarily defensive in nature. They have more interest in survival than in conquest. They are the least populous of all the space-faring races. Though they once outnumbered their Human partners in the Dragon Quadrant, their total population is 1/10th that of the Humans who eventually migrated from Earth.

Events that shaped Ceyridean culture

As mentioned previously, the Ceyrideans were once known as the Cyborg, an offshoot of Humans. This revelation occurred during the Second Wave, the name commonly given to the second encounter between the United Dragon Alliance and the Aernooern. The story unfolds some 5 1/2 centuries ago, on Lalunae, after the Spaetor Colony ships set out in search of a new home.

Until now, it was held by the Spaetor that all 3 1/2 billion inhabitants perished during the Aernooern attack on their homeworld. It is a sore point among many Spaetor that they never went back to see if there were any survivors, but the Spaetor government felt that any such expidition has a risk of bringing the Aernooern down on them once again. Though the point is moot now, it will be argued for some time if that was the correct decision.

In fact there were survivors of the attack, but not for reasons that most might expect. It wasn't that there was some last ditch effort that was able to repel the Aernooern. It wasn't that large numbers of Spaetor managed to stay in hiding until the Aernooern left. It was the simple fact that the Aernooern were not just after mineral resources, they were also in need of food resources and they apparently found the Spaetor to be especially tasty.

Those Spaetor who did not die during the subjigation of Lalunae were herded together into camps and maintained as a form of livestock and slave labor. However, this was not their only source of food and labor. The Aernooern also had another stock of beings from previously conquered planets. Rather than maintain distinct species, the Aernooern performed many genetic experiments in an attempt to produce a new species with all the best characteristics of the races they had conquered.

These experiments eventually led to the birth of the first Ceyrideans, though they would not name themselves thus until many years later. The Ceyrideans were considered a success despite the fact that the chances of birth defects was about 1 in 3. Those that were born without defects were fed and trained and eventually released in what amounted to hunting preserves. The Aernooern exhibited a preference for the predator/prey feeding style and generally avoided feeding on anything lame or already dead. Those that were born with defects were given cybernetic replacements and put to work as a labor force. This cybernetic technology was not developed by the Aernooern, it was stolen from one of the races the Aernooern conquered before coming to Lalunae.

For one hundred years, the Aernooern systematically plundered the wealth of Lalunae and bred their slaves and food supply. When the last bit of useful resources had been extracted, the Aernooern abandoned Lalunae. Taking only those were were considered viable as food, the slaves were left to die on a poisoned and desolate planet.

What the Aernooern did not know is that despite the hardships inflicted upon them, many slaves had been planning for this day to come. Hidden deep beneath one of Lalunae's ruined cities a sixth colony had been under construction when the Aernooern attacked. Though still unfinished, the secret of this ship was hidden from the Aernooern during their occupation.

It took many years to get the ship ready for flight, but after the Aernooern were gone, there was nothing left for the ex-slaves to do but focus on trying to escape. Though originally designed to hold 10 million people (mostly in stasis), there were barely enough materials left on the planet to make the ship able to support the 50,000 Ceyridians that lifted off Lalunae 12 years after the Aernooern departed. At first noone was in stasis and the ship was not ready to handle the strain of faster than light travel. The Ceyrideans had to mine many asteroids as they made their way out of the solar system until they finally had completed enough of the ship so that it could handle the slingshot drive.

Though reluctant to stop the population growth, the Ceyrideans felt they did not have the resources to support a generation ship. So while finishing the ship, they were also building statsis pods. By the time the Ceyrideans had built enough stasis pods, the population had tripled. Everyone was put into stasis and the automatic pilot was designed to do all the necessary flying between slingshot jumps. When it was time for a jump or if there was an emergency, the computer would wake the flight crew. It is speculated that some sort of cosmic radiation storm was responsible for the malfunction that knocked the automatic pilot offline. The result of this loss was that the Ceryrideans drifted in stasis, blissfully unaware of the passage of 300 years.

As luck would have it, a small group of Human spaceships discovered the colony ship drifting in orbit around an icy moon of a gas giant, only a few dozen light years from their new colony in the Dragon Quadrant. For the Humans, this was their first contact with another intelligent species. Once communication was established, the Ceyrideans explained their plight and eventually a treaty was struck that allowed the Ceyrideans to colonize one of the large continents the Humans had yet to fully explore in exchange for technology and a mutual defense pact.

The only technology that was never fully revealed was that technology that they used to correct birth defects in their children. It was felt that this had become a part of their identity and it wasn't something they were willing to share. This did not stop the Humans from using ideas to come up with their own versions.

Several years later, contact was made with the rest of the species in the Dragon Quadrant which quickly escalated into a conflict between the Humans and Rheleign. Because the Ceyrideans were also living on the planet, the other races assumed that they were just an offshoot of the humans. This seemed to be to the advantage of the Humans/Ceyrideans and so they promoted this misconception by using the human word Cyborg to describe themselves. After the conflict was resolved, the Human and Ceyridean governments were obliged to maintain the fiction of the Cyborgs in order to negotiate the peace treaty from a position of strength.

There was no reason for the other races to question this until many years later during the Second Wave when the Aernooern were able to neutralize the Ceyridean forces by using their cybernetic technology against them. The Aernooerns were the ones who stole it in the first place so they understood how it worked and how to disrupt it. After that, the Ceyrideans had no choice to but to reveal the truth.

In order to fight, the Ceyrideans gave up their proprietary cybernetic technology and used the Human derivatives until a gene therepy was developed that was able to eliminate the majority of the birth defects. This therepy might have been worked on earlier, but until their humiliation at the hands of the Aernooern, the Ceyrideans had been proud of their cybernetics.

The politics of the Ceyridean people

The Ceyrideans have a two-tier council. They have a Governing Council and a Ruling council. The Governing Council is comprised of 5 Councilors who's responsibility is the operation of the local population and infrastructure. The Ruling Council is comprised of 11 Advocates who's responsibility is the overall infrastructure and interplanetary relations.

Councilors and Advocates are elected for life. Though, any council member can be removed from their position with a unanimous vote of all the other council members. If a member of one of the councils retires, passes away, or is removed, a nomination election is held. In order to be nominated, the nominee must have at least a 2 college degrees and have retired from the workforce with at least 20 years of experience. The population governed by that council (the local city for the Governing Council, and all citizens for the Ruling Council) will then vote for all the qualified nominees.

The top 3 candidates will then be presented before the council for an extensive interview process. This interview process is designed to determine the best fit for a smoothly operating council. Once the interviews are complete, the council will vote on which candidate they feel will best fill the vacation seat. In order to be selected, the candidate must have a simple majority of the surviving members. Typically this means 3 of 4 votes for a Governing Council and 6 of 10 votes for the Ruling Council. If there is more than one vacant seat (a rare occurance), each seat is handled with its own nomination process.

Within each of the councils, a Senior is elected who is treated at the leader of each council. In order to be elected to the Senior position, the individual typically must have at least 10 years experience on the council. If there are less than 2 candidates available with that much experience, then the top 50% based on length of tenure are eligable. The Senior runs the council's day to day activities and is the spokesperson for any announcements. However, the Senior is not entitled to vote on any issue unless it comes to a tie.