Rish

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Revision as of 05:06, 3 July 2009

The Rish are a species of sentient reptiles which control a six-system pocket empire who externally most nearly resemble Terran dinosaurs of the dromaeosaurid and carnosaur types. They have been members of the Federation since shortly after the Khitomer Accords, though contact during the Borg invasion was occasionally strained. They have a long history of rivalry with both the Klingon and Romulan Empires, and a substantial military as a result, particularly in comparison with the relatively small size of their star nation. Due to biological and social constraints, Rish rarely operate off-world except in ships of their own design, though a handful may be found integrated into Federation society.

Body Structure and Biology

Early adult females tend to mass between 190 and 210 kilograms, with a length of between nine and twelve feet, though they continue to grow throughout their lives, which can measure as long as two hundred years; elder females can stand as tall at the shoulder as 2.5 meters and mass over half a metric ton. Males grow less rapidly, beginning at roughly 15% smaller than their female counterparts at adulthood and growing proportionally smaller with age. They combine scales, which range in color from sandy orange and yellow to deep reds, with a variety of feather color patterns that range across the visible and ultraviolet spectrum - feathers are particularly noticeable along the brow and upper neck, growing to substantial length as a sort of plumage and framing the longer, heavier spines which run from the base of the skull to the upper two-thirds of the tail. Rish hands are four-clawed and quite dexterous, though their smaller arm size gives them a proportionally low strength compared to their mass, while their jaws exert a disproportionate level of strength for their size. Combined with the obsidian-sharp and very dense black substance that makes up their teeth and bones, this allows for bite strength that challenges most materials not engineered for space travel or combat.

As much as Rish may resemble certain Terran reptiles in appearance, their internal anatomy is substantially different from any Earth species. The exact nature of this anatomy has not been a common feature of study, but includes three hearts, back-ups for most of the major organs and a set of dietary requirements that include a number of heavy metals fatal to most humanoids.

Equally confusing to many humanoids is the fact that Rish do not have any physical equivalent to human sexuality or mating. Females periodically produce unfertilized eggs which, if they wish to produce offspring, they place in a crèche for the chosen male or males to fertilize. Since this is an entirely external process without any particular biological pleasure reward, Rish reproduction tends to be discussed in clinical and pragmatic ways that are often deeply uncomfortable for humanoids included in the discussion. Once the eggs are fertilized, it takes roughly 18 Terran months for the eggs to hatch, an event which most Rish mothers try to attend as a matter of ritual and sentiment; in the interim, the care of the eggs devolves almost entirely on the household males assigned to crèche-tending.

Several Rish senses are also notably keener than is the case in humans - their eyes perceive a wider range of light, including much of the ultraviolent spectrum, and can operate efficiently at much lower light intensities. Two internal eyelids allow for increased regulation of the kind and intensity of light admitted to the eye. Additionally, the Rish sense of smell is on par with many of the galaxy's most effective hunting creatures, and their kinesthetic sense rates among the most sensitive of any species in the Federation. Conversely, the Rish language is extremely complex and their vocal structures decidedly non-humanoid, so the universal translator is occasionally an imperfect mode of communication - during the initial contacts between the Rish and the Federation, it took well over a year for the translator to begin providing anything more than very simple sentences from either side, and neither Rish nor most humanoids have the vocal structures to produce each other's languages naturally. Additionally, the relative similarity of facial structures among most species of humanoids can make it difficult for most Rish to visually distinguish one individual from another without relying on cues like dress or context.

Social and Family Structure

It has been noted by numerous commentators that the essential question of Rish society is one of dominance and hierarchy. Put in its simplest terms, in any gathering of Rish the first question that instinctively needs to be settled is which female is going to be giving the orders and which females are going to be taking them. In traditional Rish culture, this was often settled by direct confrontations and occasional cripplingly brutal violence; over time, much of this dominance combat has been ritualized or otherwise rendered organizationally unnecessary, but the root of power in Rish society remains a combination of size, cunning and skill. Even in fields where physical combat is unnecessary or foolish, such as scientific research, equivalent structures for establishing dominance have emerged - proving a major tenet of a superior or rival's theories incorrect is often considered the equivalent of a highly successful dominance challenge, for instance. The natural tendency toward mutual sabotage this would seem to suggest for most humans is moderated, or often eliminated almost entirely, by a combination of cultural directness and trained-from-the-crèche loyalty to one's duly established superiors which ensures dominance challenges occur at prescribed times and places that minimize disruption to the group. One of the key social markings here is size - as Rish society tends to place a heavy emphasis on the correlation of seniority, age and experience, it's a safe bet that the senior Rish female in any given group is going to be the largest. In fact, this correlation is sufficiently ingrained that there are even documented, though rare, cases of females deferring to unescorted males who are sufficiently advanced in age as to outsize them. Conversely, Rish females who operate outside the homeworld and home fleet, particularly the handful who have joined Starfleet, sometimes take growth suppression hormones beginning shortly after finishing puberty. This allows them to remain at a more manageable size, but at a substantial cost to their social standing.

On the macro level, Rish society operates as an evolved version of what may be a prehistoric pack structure; individual female Rish offer their loyalty to matriarchs who have established dominance of them individually or over a pack grouping to which they belong. These structures can repeat and nestle, allowing a senior Clan-level Matriarch to lead hundreds or even millions of Rish through a combination of personal links with subordinate leaders and hereditary/traditional loyalties passed to them by their female parent which have not yet been challenged. It should be noticed that this system is paired with a strong tradition of respecting the territorial claims of one's inferiors - while a powerful Clan Matriarch who established dominance over another senior matriarch would technically have the legal and official power to demand that her new conquest's subordinates completely restructure their lives and those of their subordinates, it would be morally and traditionally unthinkable for her to do so. As a result, senior leadership changes almost always follow the human maxim Hic adveho novus bulla ut vetus bulla ("Here comes the new boss, same as the old boss.")

On a smaller scale, female Rish form pair and pack bonds with their peers and immediate superiors through hunting rituals that come as close as anything in Rish culture to what humanoids would understand as romantic relationships, though particularly close humanoid friendships also resemble this phenomenon.

Rish households are matriarchal and polyandrous, usually housed in single female dwellings in which the males perform most of the childrearing and domestic functions. Indeed, prior to contact with the Federation, Rish males were restricted by tradition and common practice from engaging in any activity that required them to leave the household or acquire advanced technical skills. Modern reforms have softened these restrictions considerably, though male Rish who are not exceptionally and obviously gifted in a particular field usually find themselves "volunteering" for administrative, support or assistant positions. Additionally, no self-respecting Rish female would ever allow her male consort or descendant to enter the Rish military or engage in any form of combat training - from the perspective of Rish military culture and dominance rituals, males are non-persons whose lives are bound up with that of their female parent or eventual consort. It should be noted that under traditional Rish culture, it is the custom for a household's males to be executed or "allowed" to commit ritual suicide when their female consort dies, assuming she does not leave instructions for them to be passed on to another female as a death-gift. In more modern and enlightened times, males are allowed to choose to enter a variation of "honored elder" status in which they perform useful service to the Clan Matriarch or a state institution of their choice rather than joining their female in the afterlife.

The typical Rish female has between two and seven male consorts, with particularly powerful or influential matriarchs sometimes accumulating over a dozen either because of personal preference or political advantage. Offering a male offspring with good genetic potential or important skills to another Rish is a modestly important social gesture akin to a peace offering or a useful bribe; the male in question's consent is assumed, though in modern 'enlightened' Rish households it is becoming more common to actually ask the male's consent, if not their opinion.

Traditions

Names - A Rish's name is properly understood as a series of ideographs and image-ideas which are meant to embody their identity. As such, while a Rish begins life with a short name of only one or two sounds, by the time they become honored elders their full name can span several minutes. These names also, almost invariable, contain a wide selection of sounds that are either impossible or extremely difficult for humanoid vocal chords to reproduce. Even the Universal Translator sometimes has trouble rendering them in any meaningful way, so it is not uncommon for a Rish living or working among aliens to allow a group they feel close to to give them a new title or name in a language more easily spoken by their new peers. This is a sign of familiarity, however, and is generally taken poorly if used by strangers.

Armor - In a practice dating to the earliest recorded periods of Rish history, Rish females are required to maintain a suit of protective armor which serves both practical and ceremonial functions. While ancient examples consist merely of protective metal or bone plates and leather padding, modern armor is often engineering with sophisticated weapon, sensor and protective systems which combine with sheer physical scale to give a Rish Clan Matriarch on the battlefield a level of protection and firepower that matches or exceeds most modern heavy assault vehicles.

Warpaint- While modern Rish society considers it somewhat barbaric, there is a long tradition of commemorating one's successes in battle and the deaths of one's enemies with body painting that is, at least on high ritual occasions, still applied today.

Trial by Combat- While the Rish have a highly developed legal system, they retain a right of appeal based on dominance combat between the perpetrator and the chosen protector of the victim and/or prosecuting Matriarch. This is rarely invoked, not least because the protective bonds of the Rish hierarchy usually ensure that the prosecution can call on a Rish of sufficient seniority (and therefore size and lethality) to make the contest unquestionably lopsided. Still, the rule remains on the books and has been invoked on occasion.

Hunting and Kills- The concept of hunting and kill-ownership is extremely important in Rish society. To engage in personal combat or hunting with another is considered a sign of trust or intimacy, with longer and more ritualized forms carrying steadily greater weight. Indeed, this form of bonding is given sufficient cultural weight that Rish art often features a conflict between the wishes of one's Matriarch and one's long-time hunting partner as an insoluble loyalty problem. Equally inviolate is the idea that a hunter's kill belongs to them, to do with as they wish; in addition to the social consequences, like asserting dominance over a rival's subordinates, it is traditionally the right of a Rish who kills another during a dominance challenge to eat their fallen opponent, an idea that tends to cause problems for humanoids when they encounter it. While admittedly an uncommon event, since a great deal of ritual and common practice goes into making dominance challenges non-lethal, this is not viewed by other Rish as anything other than perfectly natural. Conversely, being gifted with the meat (or the actual body) of a Rish's kill from a hunt is a sign of respect and affection about as subtle as a human giving you flowers and sweets.

History

[expansion pending]