Origins
Hydia is a small, but lush and vivid world in the western edge of the galaxy. It is known for its entrancing beauty. Only a handful of known exo-planets even remotely capture some of the astounding vistas, and panoramic views visible upon Hydia. There is flora and fauna of this world so bright, colorful, mysterious and fey-like that many describe it like an excerpt from a fairytale.
But the planet was not also so beautiful, and the Hydians themselves began their life as reptilian, bog-dwelling beasts who surfed dark mires and fetid swamps. And perhaps they would have always remained as these hideous, and grotesque mud-lurkers save for one very unusual element of that otherwise unremarkable pre-history. Much of the plant-life upon Hydia is psychoactive, and after generations and generations of proto-Hydians ingesting these natural psychedelics their minds began to expand. They began to think, and then they began to change. They walked out of the mud of the swamps onto land and over many millions of years, they left that dark, ugly past behind and flowered into a sentient species who would eventually become known as the fairest, and most beautiful of all the stars.
But some part of that ancient nature lay dormant inside them. Lurking just underneath the surface, crystallized within like a secret frozen in ancient amber, waiting to be revealed.
Unlike many sentient races, the Hydians that evolved from this pre-history became obsessed with terraformation of their world. They began to change it. To manipulate its ecosystem even before they had reached an industrialized age where their efforts would have been much easier. They strove to remove the dark, humiliating past. They grew great forests, they learned at an uncommonly young age how to graft plants and vegetation and hybridize it to create… new life… New beauty. And over untold generations they carefully transformed their dark, hideous world into a blushing ever-garden of delights for the eyes and the senses. A Xanadu. A pleasure palace.
Their society became one focused on obtaining and creating impossible beauty and pageantry. And for a long time they were left alone to indulge in all things decadent.
But the Icerian Empire, one of the first to tread the stars, found their world in some of its first excursions into the west galaxy, and the Hydians who were woefully unprepared to resist them found their world captured from them. The Empire brought great marvels, and technology that the Hydians themselves would not have developed on their own for many more hundreds of years. They had lost their sovereignty, but not their spirit, and became more or less willing subjects of Ng Yelo.
But that secret in the amber began to reveal itself. Began to crack under the pressures of this Empire, its tyranny, and the decadence that had prevented the Hydians from defending the world they had so meticulously cultured.
A disease began to spread through the Hydian people. A disease that seemed to particularly target the poor, the downtrodden, the weak, the infirm. A disease that afflicted those who were angry. Those were outsiders. The ones who wanted desperately to fight.
It gained the name "Lycanrot" for those afflicted were transformed by it. They became… grotesque… and ugly… hideous…
And while none knew what caused the Lycanrot, those who possessed it were shunned and if not driven out from society by force, were given nowhere to turn to exist within it for their people could not bear the sight of the disease. Could not stand to look at those afflicted. Even they did not understand why it bothered them so deeply. The subject of Lycanrot remains a taboo to this day. If it is acknowledged, it is only in a passing way, and certainly not a topic to bring up in polite company.
Modern Era
Hydia serves as the "crown jewel" in the Icerian Empire. Its picturesque landscape, and beautiful denizens often used in its propaganda to emphasize what life within the Empire represents. But the Hydian people have long wrestled with their relationship with the lords and Emperors of Ng Yelo, and while the faux monarchy and dukes of Hydia cannot show outright or open support for the rebellious plots brimming underneath the surface of their courts, many do secretly fund opposition to the Empire.
And in recent years as the outbreak of Lycanrot continues to grow more and more rampant there are now communities beginning to emerge on the outskirts of "civilized" society. Communities of afflicted Hydians returning to the swamps, and the bogs to live among the wilds and the trees where they practice an occultist way of life called the "Mudlore" and embrace the monsters they have become free from persecution.
Cultural Keystones
Hydian society values beauty over all other pursuits. Theirs is a society of artistry, whether it be theater, music, dance, sculpting, painting or any other noble pursuit to craft and create things of exquisite quality. Even the martial arts styles which the Hydians have created are meant to be as beautiful as they are dangerous.
But underneath the surface of this pageantry, there are deeply rooted injustices and intolerances. Any Hydian who can not live up to these impossible standards is likely to never reach their full potential.
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