Neishor

Basic Information

Anatomy

The neishor consist of two species of the genus equus from Earth - the horse and the zebra. They are fully genetically compatible with each other, though they are curiously incapable of hybrids of fur. Thus, a neishor with brown fur and black stripes is impossible. However, their manes, tails, and limb tufts can be mixed.
The neishor do not consider themselves to have any subspecies. Their usage of ‘kaishor’ and ‘senshor’ originates from language. Kaishor simply means ‘striped one’ and senshor translates loosely to ‘flat one.’ Neishor itself translates to ‘all one.’ Regardless, there are some differences between senshor and kaishor.
The senshor are likened to the more plain furred horses, with all the fur pattern variations that could come with a horse - brown, gray, black, white, tawny, and red as well as pinto patterns. An aspect of the senshor is their flowing manes and tufts. Where a kaishor’s mane is straight, a senshor’s is long and can hang down their neck. Their tails, while short like a kaishor’s, usually have very long fur capable of being whipped about. While not every senshor has them, some may have thick tufts of fur on their wrists and ankles, normally colored white or black.
The kaishor have a very distinct and unvaried appearance, composed of white and black stripes like the zebras found on earth. This is the only possible fur pattern for them, though a rare mutation can lead to black stripes becoming only slightly darker than the white stripes, making the kaishor appear ‘stripeless’ from a distance. Their manes are not as long and flowing as their senshor kin. Instead, they are short but straight, giving them a mohawk look that goes down to the bases of their necks. The limb tufts do not occur on pure kaishor.
While the signs of a hybrid - a senshor with a mohawk mane or a kaishor with limb tufts - may be evident, the neishor do not distinguish them. If one has stripes, then they are a kaishor. If they do not have stripes, then they are a senshor.
A trait that is shared with all neishor is their eye colors. Dark brown irises is the most common, with blue being far behind, but not uncommon. The rarer eye colors are green, amber, and hazel. Neishor have rectangular pupils.
Physically, they are around the same size as the Arkatians, but lack the redundant organs and resistances. Tall and bulky, with the arkatians the neishor are considered a species of giants. The neishor are on the rarer side in that they do not have any claws and their feet are unique. While their legs are digitigrade, their feet are large, solid hooves, and their fingers tipped with the same material. Their snouts are particularly long compared to other species. Their mouths have huge, flat front teeth at the front, and long rows of teeth in the back. Compared to other furred species, the neishor have very thin coats, making them less pleased with cold climates. Their tails are also particularly short, not unlike the viliti. However, senshor tails have long, straight fur that give the appearance of length. Their manes are a unique trait only comparable to human hair, a male ra’monaar ralai’s mane. The neishor are also the only species with four digits on each hand, rather than five.

Genetics and Reproduction

Male and female are the only two genders that occur naturally. Approximately eight percent of neishor are hermaphrodites through in-utero therapy. The gestation period of the species is nearly a year long and only one foal is born. Two foals is extremely rare and guaranteed to kill the mother even before birth without constant medical supervision, or the removal of the second long before birthing time.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The species has an average sense of hearing, though still above human ranges. Their eyesight is also average, but capable of seeing much of the color spectrum.The placement of the eyes their heads, however, allows a much wider field of view. Their olfactory senses are excellent and often used to identify individuals similarly to predators, though they still struggle with arrays of scents like other prey species.

Civilization and Culture

History

There is an ingrained desire in the neishor to keep their bodies in excellent physical condition. The extent of this varies from simply staying slim and well toned, to desiring maximum physical strength. Overweight and unfit neishor are anomalies and actively scorned. There is a long history of these anomalous neishor being incarcerated for mental illness that continues to this day. It is not clear why some neishor lose the will to keep their bodies in shape, though connections have been drawn to a multitude of reasons from depression, to life fulfillment. When it happens, these neishor typically move to other worlds in the UTO to escape the ire of their kin.
Most neishor do not feel scorn for other species for not caring for their bodies, but those that do can humiliate non-neishor that do not expect it, and even those that do expect it can often feel ashamed of themselves. At the same time, these neishor are often employed at physical fitness establishments on worlds with low neishor populations, as they happily train and motivate others for trying to improve their bodies.
Despite their fervor for physical perfection, the species as a whole is considered one of the most docile in the Union. They do not back down from fights, but their history has considerably fewer examples of civil unrest. This means they are incredibly slow to social change, to the point of being considered socially backwards in many respects.
Ironically, their homeworld follows an opposite of the trend where each homeworld is heavily entrenched in a species' culture and values, such as Trinnin being home to the majority of falashai still holding onto the values that ravaged their world.
This phenomena is due to the planet being host to a massive UTO staging point during the first war with the rynar. Since then, even after shifting UTO borders lessened its military importance, the planet has been a melting pot. A large amount of aliens reside on its surface and a very strong tourism industry has formed.
What this showed was that the neishor simply adapt to their climate, following what many others do. This has been likened to a sort of herd mentality, where few wish to disrupt that herd’s stability. It is rare to find a neishor that doesn’t quickly adapt to being with a group of aliens.
The neishor were the first species the new alliance encountered after the formation of the United Treaty Organization with the katians and the falashai. After the neishor exploration vessel Lassah exited hyperspace in the mining system Arashek, first contact went smoothly, and the UTO immediately opened negotiations to enlist a new member. This process took approximately 87 years, due to the first negotiations being received coldly by the neishor.
The species warmed to the idea over time, as the negotiations lead to economic sharing and military cooperation even before they were a full member. Many argue that the katians and the falashai fooled the neishor into joining by providing them the benefits of the organization piecemeal over decades, slowly but surely letting them adapt to it until the idea of becoming a full member stopped seeming like a major change.
For centuries afterward, they resisted much of the change in the alliance. They would approach the idea of new members cautiously, were opposed to artificial intelligences being classified as persons shortly after the first one was created, and were weary of the alliance’s gravitation to becoming a more integrated UTO after the first war with the rynar. It wasn’t until the ralai were discovered millennia later when they, to the surprise of the rest of the Union, showed little opposition to the felinoids joining.
Since then, after this apparent cultural shift towards coming to accept the changing nature of the Union, the species has become far less of a problem for the UTO. It is believed this is due to the fact that the Union grew so large that changes within it are not so visible, and as a result do not worry the Neishor population.

Home System: Sinishel
Homeworld: Halashor

Origin/Ancestry

Equine

Lifespan

132 years (earth)

Average Height

2.16 valen (26.69 meters) (87.57 feet) 150.154 kilofaarir (281.45 metric tons) (310.25 tons)