Darvot

Darvot Appearance and Characteristic Behavior

Darvots are one of the shorter races, standing between 1 and 1 1/2 meters high. Their vulpine heritage has given them large, pointed ears and an easily excitable nature. One of the most misunderstood behaviors of the Darvots is what appears to be a short attention span. It is not that the Darvots cannot focus on one thing for more than a few minutes, it is that Darvots tend to loose interest if they are not being challenged in some manner. Once a Darvot has unravelled a particular mystery of taste, engineering, or physical challenge, they quickly seek the next mystery. Darvots also enjoy the challenge of creating mysteries for others to solve. This behavior has led to an economy where most products must be changed at least twice a year or risk sales fading out completely. This is not to say that the products are improved, just that they are somehow different enough to engage consumer interest.

The Darvot home world, Darvan, is the most unique of homeworlds in that it exists within a nebula. In fact, the entire solar system exists within the nebula. Darvan's sun is not the dark, collapsed star at the nebula's center known as Ara Atra, but rather it has its own independent star that formed within the nebula which Darvots call Dare (pronounced Dah-RAY). Darvan's solar system is considered abnormally small with only 3 planets: Clarus, Darvan, and Ombrion). Clarius is far too close to Dare for inhabitable life, and Ombrion is too far away. Because of its position, Ombrion suffers the effects of the nebula's gasses and is basically uninhabitable. However, Clarus and Darvan are protected by the solar winds eminating from Dare, which sweep away the nebula's gasses and form a small, protective bubble of clearer space around the closer planets. They also have large, molten-iron cores that give them a sturdy magnetosphere that helps to ward off the worst of the nebula's affects.

Darvan is surrounded by three moons, one of which is associated in Darvan culture with mystical energy, and odd crystal formations have been observed on its surface which some scientists believe focus mana around Darvan. The largest moon revolves in a relatively stable orbit, and the last has a rather unstable orbit, and is responsible for the treacherous counter-tides in Darvan's oceans that make them so inhospitible. Aside from creating very unstable weather patterns, the dominating side-affect of these factors is their affect on the behavior of magic across the entire planet. Instead of simply augmenting the mana resources available on the planet, the mana from the moons and the nebula react with the planet's mana causing resonance events that make spellcrafting unpredictable and wild. In some cases this wild effect has only harmless side affects, in other cases the effects have been known to be quite deadly.

Early experiments in arcane studies demonstrated very unpredictable behavior in the magical results. Rather than be discouraged by their inability to achieve consistant results, the Darvots became endlessly intrigued with the idea of harnessing this wild effect and shaping it into a useful tool. Most wild spells perform better than their non-wild counterparts, but there is still a large element of chance for the user who can sometimes get much better or much worse results than desired.

In mastering the wild magic, Darvots have developed into a race that focuses very much on the present. They have little regard for the past and worry little about the future. This is not to say that they forget what has happened in the past or that they fail to grasp the idea that events that take place now have an impact on events that could take place in the future. Rather, they focus their energy on what is happening in the present and embrace the uncertainty of the future as being part of the fundamental nature of their universe.

Events that shaped Darvot culture

Darvots are neither matriarchal or patriarchal. In the early days of Darvot evolution, the severe and unpredictable weather caused by the collision of the two moons forced the division of labor not between male and female, but between younger and older individuals. In order to survive, all of the young adult and adult population were required to provide the food from hunting and gathering. When an individual was no longer able to handle the physical demands of hunting and gathering, their responsibility became raising the children who were not yet strong enough to assist in providing food.

Darvot procreation is dependant on pheremone interactions between the two genders. If the pheremones aren't right, fertilization will not occur. Additionally, intercourse between two individuals who are not pheremonally compatable is not gratifying to either of those involved. There appear to be 20 key pherotypes and the compatibility matrix takes the three-demensional shape of a duodecahedron. Each pherotype with sides fully adjacent are the most compatible, followed by the adjacent points being compatable, but to a lesser degree, and so on. The chances of fertilization decrease rapidly, the further away the pherotypes are, with the pherotype directly opposite having 0% chance. This distribution of compatibility has evolved a social structure where casual relationships are common, even those that result in offspring. Pheremone compatibility tests have been generally available only for the last two generations, yet most Darvots still enjoy the process of figuring it out from themselves.

While it is still the young adult and adult population that has children, neither of the biological parents has the nurturing instinct to raise the children. Instead, during the pregnancy, the parents search for an appropriate parent group to raise their children. Typically, this is the elders of either parent's family, but it is also very common to choose an outside parent group in order to expose children to new ideas. Once the child is born and placed with the parent group, the biological parents typically have little contact with their children. When the children become young adults, it is the parent group that they go to for support and guidance.

The parent groups are comprised of individuals who have retired from the workforce due to age and a shift in their biological instincts. While younger Darvots are driven to learn and provide, older Darvots are driven to teach and nurture. The parent groups teach the children how to read, write, and do arithmetic as well as providing them vocational training in whatever background the parent group has to offer.

When the young Darvot is ready to pursue their higher education they apply to a finishing school. The finishing school serves two functions. The first is to do apptitude and proficiency testing and the second is to help place students in a college. Darvot higher education provides degrees in single year increments. A student pursues a particular field of study as long as they are interested in doing so and are free to change around if another field interests them. The typical student spends five years in higher education and exits with with a Degree-3 in one subject and a Degree-2 in a second subject. Students cannot pursue a particular subject beyond Degree-5 until they've had at least 2 years of job experience at their current degree level. Teachers of Degree-1 to 5 typically have a Degree-5 in the subject, a Degree-2 in teaching, and 4 years of job experience. For every Degree above 5, the teacher must have that level of degree and an additional 4 years of experience. A Degree-7 teacher has a Degree-7 in the subject, a Degree-2 in teaching, and 12 years of job experience.

The politics of the Darvot people

Politics on Darvan are extremely fluid. There are only four elected offices that a Darvot ever has to vote for at one time. A local administrator, a regional administrator, a national administrator, and the global administrator. Scattered throughout every settled area on Darvan are voting booths. During a general election, citizens of voting age use a special biometric id card to access the booth and cast their votes.

The winner is determined by a simple majority as long as it exceeds one third of the total votes cast. In the event that there is no candidate with the requisite majority, the lowest scoring candidate is eliminated from the ballot and the polls are opened again. This process repeats until a candidate achieves the simple majority required. To an outsider, this may seem like a lot of voting, but Darvots are used to voting on a regular basis.

This is because, after an administrator takes office, the polls are from general election mode to approval mode. Everyone who voted for the administrator is set to 'Approve' and everyone who didn't is set to 'Disapprove'. Citizens are then allowed to change their feelings about the administrator as often as they wish. Those who voted against the administrator may decide to support him or her, once they show they are effective. Just the opposite may also happen. As long as the administrator maintains an approval rating of 25% or higher, they remain in power. If the administrator's approval rating drops below 25% for longer than one day, a general election is triggered.

Administrators do not have the power of appointment. They are required to work with the existing personell and the existing personell are required to work with the administrator. The personell can still be fired, but there has to be cause and all the appropriate procedures must be followed. This maintains the expertise necessary for running the government, while allowing it to adapt to the needs and desires of the citizens.