Peacekeepers of the Vast/Faliwryd

Faliwryd are species in the Vast Galaxy and members in some capacity of the Peacekeepers of the Vast/Interstellar League

Physiology

Faliwryds are a monopedal species that measure nearly two meters in length. Along with their singular leg, Faliwryds have a pair of flowing, rounded wings starting an eighth of the way down their bodies and ending a quarter of the way up. Faliwryds are coated in thin silica flakes or scales which allow them to breathe the fluorine of their atmosphere through a chemical reaction. Due to a period of significant eugenics during the Faliwryd's development, they have only minimal genetic differentiation. Their home planet, Fali, has both low density and gravity, so the chief mode of movement for the Faliwryd involves springing off of their leg and gliding for great lengths of time, conserving energy.

In addition, Faliwryds have sets of two, three, or sometimes four prehensile tentacles reaching a meter in length at the uppermost union of the wing to the torso, which they use to manipulate items and gesture various signals. A small orifice just above the upper juncture point is where hydrogen-based food can be ingested, but the biology of Faliwryds is such that they produce minimal waste, and the carbon and silicone their metabolic process creates is used in reaction with the silicates on their skin to permit them to breathe. Excess silicates are bonded in specialized cells with excess hydrogen to be shed as silane gas. Additionally, Faliwryds don't need to eat, as their metabolism functions on consuming hydrogen, which they can simply breathe in near any of the flora of their homeworld. In a pinch, they can consume hydrocarbon fuel as food, though this tends to be harmful in the long term.

Faliwryds have a set of ocular organs on the dorsal and ventral sides of their bodies, and their eyesight is quick and trained for movement but works very poorly in anything but heavily yellow light. As such, Faliwryds were dependant on the development of sophisticated augmentations before they could become a spacefaring species, resulting in a period of extreme eugenics towards the end of the Faliwyrd industrial uplifting, an act of such extreme barbarism that Faliwryd society has a number of taboos around the subject.

Faliwryd physiology is fundamentally incompatible with human physiology, as well as the physiology of many of the ISL species, as oxygen-breathing species emit literal acid to them in perspiration and respiration, and the metabolic temperature bounds of each species are fatal to the other. These factors limit significantly the number of Faliwryd that serve on other species' vessels, marking them as somewhat rare in interspecies spaces though some humans choose to serve on Faliwryd ships in specialized winged vac suits. Most other ISL species think that humans are batshit crazy for doing so.

Culture

Faliwryd culture stems from the slow chemical reactions which dominated their evolutionary path. They are hyper-conscious of the amount of energy they expend, as recovery from over-expenditure or exhaustion takes significantly longer than many other species, leaving them vulnerable. From an evolutionary standpoint, they prioritized, therefore, the careful expenditure of energy. As such, many other cultures see Faliwryds as slow-moving, slow-thinking, or, pejoratively, lazy.

Faliwryd culture is also shaped by an event that nearly destroyed their species in its infancy, that of a massive mandatory eugenics program, which practiced genetic manipulation, infanticide, and the eventual genocide of a Faliwryd subspecies. For generations after, apologists in Faliwryd culture argued for the necessity of this event until a countermovement rose up and wiped the apologists and their texts from Faliwryd history. The result is a species with complex rules and ideas about history and its permanence, as well as strong opposition to genetic alteration. Travelers to Fali are suggested to spend significant time learning cultural taboos.

Additionally, Faliwryd can only make a set of rudimentary audible noises, so Faliwryd language relies on manipulating the light of their scales to create a brilliant semaphore language, which is complex and heavily contextual. As Faliwryds are hesitant to expend energy, and their language requires full-body movement, simple, short movements can carry a variety of meanings and ideas over long distances, but Falihelo is nearly impossible for non-Faliwryd to learn. A lack of early telecommunication significantly slowed their early industrial revolutions, allowing them to perfect other fields of research, specifically agriculture, genetics, and holography. This delay forced them to limit the exploration of their home system until much later. Faliwryd art is very visual, with a heavy reliance on light and shadow, and themes of desperate exploration are common among Faliwryd paintings, plays, and movies. Faliwryd clothing is centered around the utilitarian need to transmit light, so reflective materials that can be scaled and controlled are as essential as thread. They absolutely love sequins.

Political Orgniziation

Given their minimal genetic differentiation, Faliwryd society is governed by a 64 member council, theGuiding Stars, a unitary demarchy. Members are selected from a random lottery of all Fali citizens who have passed a civics course and opted into selection consideration. With minimal outside interference, a highly unified and uniform people, and a significant reliance on randomization to disrupt entrenchment and cliques, the Council is regarded by other members of the ISL as being highly efficient at creating and altering laws. However, their highly stable, uniform, and energy-conserving society means that it is rare for new laws to be passed or political controversy to occur. Within the league, however, the Faliwryd are insulated from other groups by their divergent physiology and single-minded focus on efficiency and are generally a minor voice in galactic affairs. Their anti-genetic research, pro-exploration, and pro-visual arts mindset places them generally in the zeitgeist of the ISL, so their insulation from the rest of the league is mostly a result of their biological differences, rather than cultural ones.

Notable Technologies

Like the Peacekeepers of the Vast/Trilinthians, the Faliwryd had to focus on communication technology to command mastery of the stars. And while Trilinthian comstech has been widely adopted by the ISL, the AR-reactive holographic tables used on Faliwryd ships have only limited adoption by ISL member species - Solarins, most notably.

The primary weapon of Faliwryd vessels is a closely-guarded species secret, a terrifying weapon of immense destructive power - a high-magnitude, low wavelength, superliminal Gaussian beam laser, assumed to rely on argon and fluoride. The weapon nearly instantly disassociates molecular bonds within the range of the effect and is able to punch holes in even the heaviest of armors in a matter of moments. In vacuums and hyperspace, the Gaussian pulse can exceed relative c, allowing an operational targeting geist to immediately cause hull breaches with extraordinary accuracy. Thankfully, the technology to generate these weapons is expensive and difficult, and only the largest of Faliwryd vessels can carry them. These weapons are coveted by other species, but the Faliwyrd have refused to share the schematics and will go to great lengths to preserve their secrets.

Other Notes

Faliwryd are stereotyped either as cloud-drifting, free-floating, lazy poison-breathers who take relative ages to get anything done, or a cautious species who act with deliberate purpose and intense conviction (it costs more energy to be wishy-washy) after careful consideration.