Voxadder

VOX
Vox	Genus: Vox Primalis Homeworld: Vox Shoal Arkships Central Authority: Vox Armalis, Vox Apex, Vox Auralis Allowed Command Roles: Head of Security, Research Director, Chief Engineer, Chief Medical Officer Guides: Don't breathe the dust.

The Vox are a species of space-faring and largely insular beings. They hail from large stations known as arkships, known collectively as the Shoal. "Vox" on its own usually refers to the common Vox Primalis, just one of many groups among the Vox. These strange bioengineered beings have a physiological caste system and follow the tenets of 'The Inviolate'. Breathing pure nitrogen, they require specialized masks and tanks for survival outside their arkships. Their insular nature limits their involvement in broader galactic affairs, maintaining a distinct, yet isolated presence away from other species.

Gameplay

Vox is an optional species that can be chosen for play in the character creation menu. Vox anatomy is uniquely shaped and they are most comfortable in form-fitting clothing, but can manage with standard clothing too. They possess bright blue blood, which is antigenically incompatible with standard ABO blood types. They breathe nitrogen (N₂) for respiration, instead of oxygen.
They speak their own language, known as Vox-pidgin (key is :v), which employs a number of harsh shrieks in its phonology.
They are not protected under a standard Asimov lawset, and so caution should be exercised when dealing with humans or the AI and its cyborgs if Asimov is in effect.

Customization

• Eye color
• Skin color
• Head and facial quill styles along with colors and gradients
• Body markings
• Tail markings
• Breath mask type
• N₂ tank type

Racial Benefits

• Immune to decay and will not skeletonize.
• Spawn with a nitrogen tank, which could be considered an "illegal-to-remove" weapon.
• Internal organs will not accumulate germs or decay even outside the body; external organs do not accumulate germs while attached to the body.
• Resistant to low temperatures due to their insulating hides.

Racial Weaknesses

• Oxygen is extremely toxic to them, preventing breathing of standard air.
• Blood is incompatible with standard ABO types, must use type V blood.
• Due to their special physiology, they cannot be cloned.

Diet

• Like meat and fried foods, but will generally eat anything.

Unique Mechanics

Vox is a more RP-focused race, the quirks of Vox are mostly in HOW they are played rather than in the mechanics per se (although, there are many mechanical differences).

The most visually obvious fact is that Vox bodies do not conform to standard humanoid dimensions, Vox try to fit clothes around themselves, resulting in a very unique look!

Language

Vox can understand Common fairly well but speak it poorly. They tend to creel or shriek as punctuation. KHAAAAK! SCRAAAAHK! Their laughter sounds like 'kikiki'. It is not impossible for Vox to speak Common fluently, however it is exceedingly rare. Vox often insult other species. Humans are 'meat'. Vuulek are 'rotten' due to their scales. Skrell are 'leaking' or 'slippery'. Tajarans are 'mouldy'.

Vox tend to jeer a lot about how their victims are treeless, that their lungs are full of dust, and such. People usually have no idea what they're on about. Which is fine because the Vox don't put much thought into it either.

Organs and Revival

Owing to their semi-synthetic nature, Vox organs do not suffer from decay. Most of their organs are analogous to ones found in humans, except for the cortical stack; which is so much more than just a brain, being considered almost sacred to the Vox.

Revival is standard as in other species, except for cloning. Vox bodies are unable to be cloned due to their unique physiology.

Lore

Behavior

Vox will never willingly surrender unless the only other alternative is death. However, they will happily fake surrender if it puts them in a better position to escape. They lie as easily as they breathe and appear fearless despite their propensity for running like the clappers at the first sign of trouble.

A Vox will never willingly stand and fight if running is a viable alternative, except if it's a challenge from another Vox in front of their crew. Vox are fond of darkness and hiding in lockers.

Arkship groves are very important to Vox culture. Vox who are away from the groves too long tend to get sick and die. It is not clear if this is due to withdrawal, or some other factor.

Raiding crews usually consist of one to three warriors and one or two engineers. Engineers also double as medics. The leader of a vessel of any size is called the Quill.

Civilian crews have no staff roster, just families. If a ship has no families that work a certain trade they will try to exchange families with another ship or ark.

Biology

The Vox species can be divided, generally, into four groups: Vox primalis, Vox armalis, Vox auralis and Vox apex.

Due to the mysterious nature of Vox reproduction, and the complete lack of specimens from the three latter categories, much of their genetic and physiological compatibility and similarity are unknown. All four groups are known to possess cybernetic enhancement, sometimes to an extreme degree, and all of them are known to share at least one common dialect, designated Vox-pidgin, irrespective of their vocal capacity, distance from each other, and cybernetic equipment.

The Vox tail is a curious organ, acting as a prehensile limb, temperature regulator, and balance aid all in one. Long, flat scales on the underside of the tail are laced with capillaries, and when in atmosphere a Vox can bristle them to help dispersing excess heat. Sub-nodes in the Vox redundant nervous system are present in the limb, and it has demonstrated twitching movement up to three hours after the tail has been severed.

Vox colouration varies wildly between settlements, ships and crews, but the most common palette is a mix of olive, muddy brown and yellow.

Vox bones are light, porous and very flexible. Vox can turn their heads almost a hundred and twenty degrees to the side due to their long necks. They tend to sway when interested in something, or anxious, and shriek at glass-fracturing volume to drive off attackers.

The Inviolate

The Vox have a code of conduct and ethics, rigidly enforced, maintained and shared in an unknown manner. Ships with wildly varying cultures will still share the same core tenets despite being millions of lightyears apart. This is referred to as the Vox Inviolate.

• Kill as little as necessary.
• Waste as little as necessary.
• Preserve the arkships.
• Preserve materials.
• Adapt and expand to all circumstances.

Technology

Vox have space faring ships. They are mostly ramshackle and crude-looking but very quick and very hard to hit. Their weaponry is universally stolen from other species and is generally several years behind the curve. A lot of their technology is traded from the Syndicate or alien species.

The weapons technology of the Vox is either stolen, or reverse-engineered from stolen tech. The same goes for their sublight engines. Vox FTL drives are completely bewildering to human scientists, as they consume little to no power and have no moving components. They take the form of large globes about two feet across, set into the nose of the craft. No indication is given that any of the Vox aboard ships with FTL have any idea how it works, or how to use it; FTL jumps by Vox vessels seem to happen at random, without any consent or input from the crew.

Vox medical and engineering technology appear to be approximately on par with humanity, and chemicals and materials similar to those required by humanity are frequently taken in their raids.

The state of Vox science is entirely unknown. No propensity for advanced research has been shown by the Vox specimens captured by NanoTrasen.

Society

The Vox apex are the groves in the arkships. They are in fact colossal organic computers, every single one of them linked via an incredibly sophisticated, several million year old bluespace network. This network hosts the vast majority of Vox communications, technology, culture and science, well outside of prying eyes. The apex are entirely single-minded (in a figurative sense). They are devoted to preserving the sanctity, purity and continuity of the Vox line their arkship is hosting. They maintain the archives of dead Vox via the cortical stacks, and choose which Vox are to be revived when the time comes for a population hike. They also provide access points and tremendous data processing capacity to the auralis.

The Vox auralis are the true Vox. The primalis and the armalis are bio-engineered subspecies intended to serve as labour, resource accquisition and military. The auralis themselves are shut-in and insular to the extreme, and as a whole, refuse to believe that the Universe outside of the Vox arkships is real; efforts to convince them otherwise are akin to a dream pleading with the dreamer.

The auralis are devoted to transcendence. They desire to leave this Universe behind, or to break through the veil and move on to true reality. They've been working at this for about seven point five million years, and their understanding of theoretical and applied physics, intelligent systems and data processing/analysis is immense. Much of their mentality exists outside of realspace, and is coordinated by the Vox apex and their ceaseless maintenance of the bluespace network. They are also highly, dangerously telepathic, and the parallel processing power and independence from realspace provided by their network means that five hundred psionics can focus their power to pinpoint precision anywhere within a thousand light-years of a single auralis.

Reproduction

The apex are where the biomass of dead Vox is reintegrated, their cortical stacks are removed, and new Vox larvae are spawned. The larvae are bioengineered creatures built wholesale by the trees of the ark, carefully modified and monitored to fit the genetic profile of the arkship. Larval Vox are generic, genderless slugs until they are chosen to host a cortical stack. The type of stack dictates what the auralis do with the larva and the form that the larva will take.

Newborn Vox auralis are entirely overwritten by the cortical stack of their predecessor, and are for all intents and purposes considered to BE that auralis. Since the vast majority of an auralis' persona and memories exist in the bluespace network, the original persona is functionally removed entirely when the auralis matures enough to link to the apex.

Newborn Vox primalis and armalis are not overwritten by the cortical stack, but their ancestry and access to memory-lines is considered a significant portion of who they are and the rank they are assigned. A Vox is not considered dead while another Vox hosts their cortical stack, and their name is passed on to the new Vox.