Worlanisi are charming and intrepid nomads, and love to travel for years at a time, valuing the journey more than the destination. They're outdoorsy, competitive, and welcoming to strangers. Due to their small stature and blue skin, worlanisi appear deceptively delicate. They are slight but strong humanoids with four arms and horn-cones on either side of their head. These horn-cones once let them use their psychic powers to stalk prey across Worlan, but this use has since atrophied. Modern horn-cones allow worlanisi to communicate telepathically and wield luck like no other species in the galaxy. Unfortunately, the horn-cones also amplify incoming and outgoing psychic energy with a painful reverberation.
Physical Description
The planetary pressures of Worlan molded the worlanisi to be strong, lucky, and telepathic. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, worlanisi evolved into lithe and able climbers, using their four arms to climb through trees while wielding weapons. The average worlanisi has a small but wiry frame. The tallest of them stand about three and half feet in height, but their average weight ranges from only 22 to 27 pounds. Their slight frames are deceptively strong, allowing worlanisi to carry burdens much heavier than themselves.
One of the most important evolutionary pressures that worlanisi faced was an environment filled with traces of residual psychic energy. In response, worlanisi developed their distinctive horn-cones: a pair of structures on the sides of their head that amplify incoming and outgoing psychic signals. Ancient worlansisi used their large, imposing horn-cornes to track the psychic traces their prey left behind, placing them a cut above the other Worlan predators. Throughout the millennia of the pre-Gap era, the worlanisi shifted to incorporate more luck and cunning into their survival, and with the advent of advanced technology their reliance on psychic tracking lessened. As a result, their horn- cones have shrunk over the generations and become practically vestigial, but remain a sometimes painful source of amplification for incoming psychic signals. Mental attacks reverberate within them, leaving untrained worlanisi more vulnerable than other species with telepathic abilities. Despite this disadvantage, the horn-cones are a source of pride to worlanisi, who adorn and paint them in a wide variety of ways.
Worlanisi are known for the rare ability to consistently gift their luck to allies as well as themselves. Some scholars theorize this luck originates from their horn-cones, along with their limited telepathic gifts. Indeed, a worlanisi's ability to wield and control luck grows in adolescence as their horns develop more concentric rings, adding credence to this theory.
Home World
The worlanisi evolved on Worlan, an ocean world covered in island chains. The gravity level is slightly higher than average, making it a popular location for top athletes from other planets to train. Due to the constant movement of its tectonic plates, Worlan is geographically active and known for its earthquakes, volcanoes, steaming geysers, and soaring mountain ranges. One prominent feature of Worlan's terrain is its environmental memory, a unique combination of minerals and innate psychic energy that retains faint traces and memories of the people and creatures who travel it. Ghost sightings are common on Worlan, where the environment might replay a poignant memory of high emotion or a tragic death. This environmental memory has caused many of Worlan's predators to adapt variations of the worlanisi horn-cone, allowing them to track prey by residual psychic energy.
Worlan's primary spaceport is located on the largest and oldest of its many islands, Nasceri. Nasceri has always been Worlan's main technological hub, with its port and factories built during the Gap and powered by geothermal energy. The city's architecture is well-integrated with its parks, and many of its buildings are built around gigantic trees and rivers. Even its night clubs are integrated with the jungle environs, with retractable roofs that allow patrons to dance under the sky. Some of Nasceri's many attractions include a wildlife preserve, yachting, and various schools and meditation centers. The most famous of these is the Spiral, a soaring conical temple that resembles a horn-cone. The Spiral attracts students throughout Near Space who wish to better control their psychic abilities.
The oldest part of Nasceri includes a significant archaeological site, discovered in 33 AG: a fully buried and preserved city, complete with calcified remains of four-limbed giants who died in a volcanic eruption. These giants possessed less prominent horn-cones than modern worlanisi, who refer to them as “the luckless.” There are many legends about these lost giants, who were likely more physically capable than modern worlanisi, but less able to harness psychic abilities. Scholars have debated the question of the luckless: was their species a separate evolutionary branch from modern worlanisi or were they a genetic mutation that simply died out? Either way, the luckless appear to have died out before the Gap, though some worlanisi tales talk of their flight to create a new life under the mountains. Though Nasceri's volcanic mountains have been long dormant, pre-Gap legends tell of the day when worlanisi luck will falter and the volcanoes will once again bury Nasceri in lava and ash.
Worlan has thousands of islands, and traveling from one to another by boat or light flyer is a time-honored tradition for worlanisi youth. The volcanic soil is fertile, supporting lush forests and diverse wildlife. Although some worlanisi engage in agricultural activities, the island's ecosystems make it easy for even modern worlanisi to adapt a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Some do this throughout their lives, while others only do it for a few years as part of their transition to adulthood or a retirement plan. Although hunting and fishing are revered activities, both can be perilous. Many of Worlan's fauna are dangerous and cunning monsters that attack not just their prey's bodies but their minds. The most infamous of these is the reekseel, a long-horned aquatic mammal that muddles the minds of fisherfolk before goring them to death and pulling them into the water to feast.
Society and Alignment
As perpetual children of good fortune, worlanisi enjoy an easy-going and trusting society. Luck is so central to worlanisi society that most of them credit it for every major event of their lives. Good outcomes, no matter how hard they were worked for or how much one prepared for them, are evidence of one's luck. Indeed, most worlanisi view luck as a seed that needs hard work and the right conditions to grow properly. Even times of disaster and tragedy can be viewed later as blessings in disguise for the growth and changes they brought. Because luck needs help, worlanisi also value achievement and skill. They take great pleasure in artisan crafting, clever solutions, and improving their communities.
Despite their psychic hypersensitivity, worlanisi prefer telepathic communication to spoken language. To them, telepathic conversation is both intimate and practical. Telepathy can allow a boat crew to communicate in a storm, two hunters to stealthily sneak up on prey, or friends to chat while dancing in a loud night club. Spoken word is for formal occasions or for songs and other entertainments.
Worlanisi get along well with most other cultures, adapting to local customs while traveling and bringing back their favorite practices to Worlan. Still, they have little patience for any customs they find self-destructive; destroying an ecosystem for short-term gain largely baffles them. Worlanisi also tend to completely dismiss other species' attempts to artificially boost luck with talismans and other superstitions. From the worlanisi viewpoint, true luck is inherent. Chasing luck with toys isn't just foolish, but dangerous, since it leads people believe themselves protected. Worlanisi take pride in being living good luck charms and know no trinket can replace their skills.
Fortunauts
In the chaos after the Gap, most worlanisi lived fully nomadic lives, aided by high-tech sporting gear manufactured in Nasceri. They traveled with no fixed destination, trying to find meaning and a sense of their own identity. Over time, these travelers became known as fortunauts, and their journeys were called jaunts. Trusting Desna to guide them, they learned and grew along the way. After the Signal, jaunts began to extend to the stars themselves. As ship crews across the galaxy learned of the worlanisi's extraordinary luck, eagerness to learn, and boundless optimism, fortunauts were welcomed everywhere as lucky charms and insurance for the riskiest of ventures.
Most modern day fortunauts are young, and their jaunts herald the transition between childhood and adult responsibility. They sign onto ships, taking travel as it comes. When they return, they tell the stories of their travels and about what their journeys taught them. Hospitality is sacred on Worlan. If a worlanisi comes home to find a stranger sleeping in their bed, they clean the stranger's gear, restock their supplies, and make them breakfast before waking them to ask about their journey. The jaunt is so important to worlanisi culture that it's almost impossible to start a family, enter politics or hold any position of authority without one. Fortunauts bring back not just experience, but important offworld contacts and learning that enriches the rest of worlanisi society. Even once they return home, worlanisi crave adventure throughout their lives, taking time off to climb mountains, hunt, surf, or simply see someplace new.
Family Life
Worlanisi families tend to be polyamorous and sprawling, with each person recognizing multiple partners that they love in a committed fashion. In a culture that embraces change, travel and individualism, casual love affairs are widely accepted. However, they're considered temporary until everyone in a family agrees to welcome the newcomer. Marriage vows on Worlan are less about connecting to a single person romantically and more about agreeing to join the work, child-rearing duties, and finances of an extended family. Family time, especially with children and elders, is sacred and valued, perhaps more so because worlanisi family structure is set up to give everyone breaks and support. Through trades and covering for one another, everyone in the family gets some time away to pursue new experiences.
Politics
Worlanisi government councils, whether island or planetary, are elected with staggered terms and strict term limits to encourage the politicians of Worlan to work without worrying about the next election. However, some elected officials still manage to be incompetent, corrupt, and self-serving. Some families try to monopolize a council position by holding it with successive candidates all from the same family group. These shenanigans are tolerated and even respected when the family sharing the job does good work despite protecting some of their private interests. Still, if any crisis arises during their tenure, elections can become violent. More than one corrupt political official has perished or had suspicious accidents while traveling on the job.
Recreation
Worlanisi love games and competitions of all sorts. Most of the games they favor tend to minimize or offset luck, such as the strategy card game Seven Suns. The only casino to feature games of chance on Worlan is the Short Straw, located in Nasceri's spaceport. Catering to offworlders, the draw of the Short Straw is the challenge of gambling against the luckiest people in the Galaxy. Most tourists come expecting to lose, with bragging rights accruing for how long they were able to hold their own against such overwhelming odds.
The most famous worlanisi sporting competition is Fortune's Regatta, a race across Worlan in the most inhospitable conditions, including sailing during hurricane season, mountaineering near an active volcano, and long treks through monster-infested jungles. The viewing of this annual competition, which draws thousands of offworld spectators and athletes, is more popular as an offworld broadcast than it is among local worlanisi, however. Fortune's Regatta, while a notable personal experience, can be an event that relies heavily on luck, and where is the excitement in that?
Vault of Vorlath
Thirty years ago, a group of intrepid worlanisi fortunauts traveling in Preluria (Near Space 100) were attacked by pirates and lost their ship. Following the attack, the worlanisi accepted sanctuary and employment from the Reivolan Institute. Their relief was short-lived when they soon discovered they had all been signed up as experimental test subjects, contractually obligated to an uncaring and immoral corporation. The Reivolan Institute enrolled these worlanisi in a military project that genetically boosted their self-confidence, aggression and cunning. Several worlanisi died in the brutal experiments that followed. Instead of trusting luck, the test subjects learned to rely on each other, defying fate to forge their own opportunities. They eventually rebelled, building their own military base on the smoldering remains of their former testing facility. They named this base the Vault of Vorlath, after a worlanisi word that means “the defiant.”
The Vault of Vorlath mercenaries have since thrived in Preluria's perpetual faction wars, becoming one of the most lucrative and effective military groups in Near Space, eventually employed even by their former captor, who initially sneered at their steep fees. In response, the Vault of Vorlath sided with one of the institute's rivals, trashing their facilities and freeing every experimental subject they could find. “Pay up or get out” became the mercenaries' official motto, emblazoned on uniforms, equipment, and on the walls of the conference room where they meet clients. The next time they had a job for the Vault of Vorlath, the institute meekly paid their fees in advance. The mercenaries became known for their teamwork, planning daring rescue missions and efficient coups. Ten years ago, the Vorlath mercenaries started recruiting soldiers from other species to fulfill the constant demand for their services, bringing in new talent while maintaining tightly knit fighting teams.
Most worlanisi from Worlan delight in tales of their most famous offshoot colony. They eagerly take an optimistic view of the mercenaries' history. Scholars note the unlikely survival and success of the mercenary group show a consistent history of defying the odds. Perhaps luck never truly abandoned them, and the pirate attacks, mistreatment, and entrapment by the Reivolan Institute were all good fortune in disguise, ensuring that the mercenary group got the resources and training that it needed to be a success.
The Vorlath mercenaries' response to this was to eject scholars from Worlan and find other historians to chronicle their group. Having lived through horror and survived, the Vorlath mercenaries refuse to see the time of their imprisonment as anything other than an atrocity. The Vorlath mercenaries themselves often scoff at luck and double-check every plan to make certain to rely on it as little as possible.
Names
Worlanisi usually have two names: an evocative nickname based on their experiences, personality or skills and a last name from their island (or squad for those from the Vault of Vorlath). Island names tend to be multisyllabic with melodious consonants. Although nicknames are preferred, those travelling offworld may go by an island name if they haven't found a proper nickname yet. Because of Nasceri's size, worlanisi from there often identify with specific neighborhoods rather than the entire city. Example worlanisi names include Aces, Azular, Catch-of-the-Day, Cazuma, Dapper, Duruli, Floater, Hardsell, Lightfingers, Kinemo, Rush-and-Flush, Ramuli, Sanzi, Trollbait, Wirecharm, and Wasama.
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