Yssaril Tribes

It’s unusual for a prey species to become the dominant form of sentient life on a planet, but the Yssaril of the planet Retillion have managed it. The farther out of two inhabitable worlds in the Myock system, Retillion receives a meager portion of starlight; life on this wet, cold world has thus evolved to be hardscrabble and clever.

The planet’s early life-forms, unable to derive much nutrition from the hard, fibrous swamp plants, developed translucent skin in order to photosynthesize energy directly from the sun. This required them to lounge for long times in the open, leading to predators that took advantage of the slow beasts.

The evolutionary arms race between the Yssaril’s ancestors and their predators eventually led the Yssaril to adopt the means to turn nearly fully invisible by adapting their skin to match the color of its background. When the Yssaril emerged as a species, they had none of the major traits of their prey ancestors. Gone was the photosynthesis; their forward-facing eyes, bipedal gait, and highly developed brain allowed them to take up tools and forage for a near-unlimited food source: the delicious, underground-growing menn root, which was both the Yssaril’s staple diet and, eventually, the cause of their unwilling uplift into interstellar society.

The Yssaril had barely developed metalworking when the first ships arrived with explorers from the Lazax Empire. The expedition stayed only shortly, cataloging the vegetation of the dank, malodorous planet; if the explorers had not inadvertently happened upon some menn root, the Yssaril’s path in history might not have been forever altered.

Not long after the first expedition, the borderlands surrounding the Fianni swamps were swarmed by biofarms and off-worlder colonists. The Yssaril’s response was to dismantle their villages near the intrusion, retreat into the heart of the swamp continent of Fianni, and observe.

This uneasy peace went on until Lazax Emperor Munhan Las Idu declared that the planet’s farming efforts be widely expanded. Within a generation, the Yssaril were surrounded on all sides by new colonists who were encroaching on their lands and their sacred sites. The leaders of the various tribes were beset by angry Yssaril who continuously had to uproot their livelihoods, deal with displaced predators, and watch as their homes were turned into vast factory farms. Soon, the tribal elders decided that something must indeed be done, and that they would have to work together to make it happen.

The now united Yssaril Tribes sent their stealthiest hunters to observe the farms up close. The hunters soon learned how to sabotage farmers’ machines, break down their dwellings, and spoil their supplies so that it would look like rampaging im’laq. The council authorized dozens of such raids, laboring in the belief that, like the Yssaril, the off-worlders would retreat from a threat. When instead they retaliated by setting traps and sending hunting parties into the swamp, the Yssaril attempted to avoid direct conflict. But eventually, a Lazax expedition drove deep into the swamp and found an ancestral cremation site, their first evidence that intelligent life existed on the planet. The invisible Yssaril finally attacked to kill those who had desecrated their sacred burial location and to drive the survivors from the swamp.

The victory was short-lived, as the Lazax 21st Expeditionary Division was soon deployed on Retillion to suppress the uprising and ensure the continual supply of menn root to the Imperial table. During these appalling years, thousands of Yssaril were captured for study or sold throughout the galaxy to be hunted for sport or exhibited in zoos and museums as “primitive” biological curiosities.

On Retillion, the Yssaril rebellion only grew bloodier, adapting to the Lazax style of warfare, outmaneuvering and humiliating the vastly superior forces. It wasn’t long before the Yssaril learned to use stolen Lazax weapons, turning Fianni into a killing field of Lazax conscripts until finally the Lazax retreated from the swamps out of sheer embarrassment.

The imprints of the failed genocide cast a long shadow. The Yssaril had achieved multiple generations’ worth of technological development nearly overnight. For a hundred years, they taught themselves to integrate their stealth with outsider technologies, reverse-engineered weapons and ships, and molded themselves into a force to be reckoned with. They soon colonized the neighboring planet of Shalloq, in whose cold wetlands and rainforests the Yssaril felt right at home.

The Yssaril Tribes Today

No one knows who first began hiring the Yssaril as spies and assassins, but the first confirmed cases came during the Age of Dusk, during the slow decline of the Lazax Empire. The Yssaril’s formation of the Guild of Spies swelled the Yssaril’s purse, allowing them to oust the Lazax from their world (while still supplying them with menn root at reasonable prices—the Yssaril are nothing if not practical). During the Twilight Wars, Yssaril spies became more and more common, until their species was synonymous with covert operations.

The Guild’s leadership eventually supplanted the Tribal Council as the governing body of the united Yssaril Tribes, with its leader, the Cqaark, elected from its league of master assassins. Dedicated to never allowing their planet to come under harm again, the Cqaark leads the Yssaril to a better position in the galaxy, one where they need not fear outsiders from the skies.

In the thousands of years since the Lazax, no off-worlders have been allowed on Retillion. Official business, such as the receiving of foreign dignitaries, merchants, and visitors, is conducted from the city of Mojeb on Shalloq, which also serves as the nerve center for covert operations, or on the giant orbital station of Haarsuh, constructed during the Dark Years following the Twilight Wars. Mojeb is a cold, squat city, spanning hundreds of kilometers in every direction with no construction above ten meters tall. Visitors are treated fairly, if a little coldly, but eateries serving menn root can be found on every corner. Galactic connoisseurs maintain, from little evidence, that the finest menn root is saved for the Yssaril homeworlds and that the exported version pales in comparison.

Goals of the Yssaril Tribes

Although the Guild of Spies has long focused on espionage, with the arrival of the Mahact and return of the Galactic Council, it has also recognized the need for greater political and military resources. The Yssaril military has come a long way from those first days of rebellion, fielding everything from well-equipped commando units to full battlefleets. However, its soldiers still rely on stealth, trickery, and misdirection to even the odds in a potential war with the likes of the Barony of Letnev or the Sardakk N’orr. Laying the groundwork for that misdirection is a constant goal of the Guild.

The Guild is also working to expand its influence among neighboring star systems, particularly those without any overt ties to one of the other Great Civilizations. Unlike those of their rivals, these ties tend to be subtle: secret treaties and hidden warships lurking in the shadows of asteroids and comets, rather than cruiser squadrons at high orbital anchor or grand embassies. Thus, it can be hard to tell where the Yssaril’s sphere of influence begins and ends, which is exactly how the Yssaril prefer it.

Finally, the Guild of Spies constantly works to maintain its watchful eye on the galaxy. Its members have long believed that the best way to guarantee power is to have as much knowledge as possible. They were shaken by the shattering of the Acheron Gate and the subsequent emergence of the Mahact and the Vuil’raith, two events of massive import that, with all their reach and information, they failed to foresee. Now the Guild must redouble its efforts to learn how the other Great Civilizations will react, and whether the Yssaril should work to hinder or help them.