Brennai


Homeworld:

Brennah

Other planets inhabited:

Seventeen systems in the Thorain Nebula

Appearance:

Brennai are very tall, and angular, around 3.5 meters in height, with a basically humanoid body, with some notable exceptions. Their two legs have three joints, as do their arms, and their three toed feet and three fingered hands are arranged along triliniar lines. Their long and flexible necks descend from their broad shoulders to the rather unique appearing heads. Long, with a massive braincase, the Brennai have a nearly blank face, with no eyes, ears, nose, or forward facing mouth. A growth of coral like antennae fringes their cheekbones, and act as their only sensory organs. A pair of meter long, ropy tentacles hang down from the bottom of their face. The bioluminescent tips of these tentacles act as their communicative organs, and the tentacles are used to guide food into their small, toothless mouths. Brennai have a uniform, smooth, very pale blue white hide, with no visible external genitalia, mammaries, or any other irregularity. Brennai do not wear clothing except for ceremonial purposes.

Leaders:

The Brennai are ruled by a Council of Elders. The Council chooses new members from the general population, and once they are chosen, their identities are concealed in Council by the use of Darkensilk cloaks, and there are no rules of seniority among the Council members. This Council officially controls all aspects of Brennai life, though it's actual power has waxed and waned over the years. Now it is relatively strong, and has at least a say in the major decisions of the scientific, religious, and military communities.

World View:

The Brennai are a very xenophobic race. For them, the boundaries of the Thorain nebula mark the edge of the universe, and the galaxy beyond makes them uncomfortable to the extreme, and they would like very much to keep it away from them forever.

Temperament:

The Brennai are a very intelligent race that enjoys plots of incredible complexity, and are seldom truly happy unless taking a course of action that is unforseen by their foes and bound to bring them success, of at least a limited nature. They are also quite comfortable with violence, especially when directed against non- Brennai, who they see as being soulless, and irreconcilably hostile toward the Brennai.

History and Culture:

An extremely ancient race, restricted to the Thorain nebula of the Yaeger Sector, the Brennai were unimaginably old before the Republic was founded. Brennai weaponry is based on the building up of wave charges in the gasses found in the nebula, and their FTL drives depend on the riding of waves of this type. For this reason, even though the Brennai are a naturally violent race with nothing but contempt for those of other races, they have never founded any great empires, and indeed have never left the nebula that they call home.

Brennai civilization has stood for over a million years without the sort of collapse that seems inevitable in that long a span of years. The fact that they are restricted to their home nebula may be at least partially responsible for that fact, as without the ability to expand they never experienced those cycles of rapid expansion and collapse that marked other civilizations. A civil war had erupted among the Brennai over forty thousand years ago which seemed to hold the promise of tearing their civilization apart, but that war was soon ended. The Brennai supporting the Council of Elders constructed a massive warship, the Hered Na Brennah, which destroyed the planet that the rebels were centered on, and which aided in the pursuit and destruction of the rebel fleet. Since that time, the Hered Na Brennah has acted as a dominating force of stability, and there have been no major attempts at social upheaval.

Art and culture are as advanced as science and military technology among the Brennai, and their artistic circles are as defined by plots, counter plots, and circles of influence as the other aspects of Brennai society. Brennai weapons are thousands of years ahead of galactic standards when used in the unusual surroundings of the Thorain Nebula, but are utterly useless outside of the nebula. A sensor array, with manned stations along the nebula's border renders the Brennai instantly aware of any intrusion into the nebula, and the border patrol fleet quickly disposes of any outsiders.

Tech Level:

Very high space. Most Brennai technology is based on the use and manipulation of the gasses of the Thorain nebula, but those objects that are not would be of inestimable value to the galaxy at large.

Brennai in the Sector:

Little is known about the Brennai by the other races of the Yaeger Sector. A shadowy and secretive race, they are known only by their destruction of any ship that crosses their border, and there are those that do not believe in the Brennai, preferring to think that some other concealed hazard is what destroys all interlopers.

A Quote:

"You should not have come here. I am afraid that was your last mistake."

Spaceships:

The Hered Na Brennah is still the flagship of the Brennai, and remains the incontestable superior of other Brennai craft. The Khemibard cruiser is an powerful craft that makes up the bulk of the Brennai fleet, and it is supported by the Abideth light cruiser and the Ulim Na Khree heavy cruiser. The Um-Chayam fighter is easily capable of destroying any Imperial capital craft, and tens of thousands of these ships can be launched from border space stations and the patrolling cruisers.

Stats:

Attribute Dice: 13D
Attribute Min/Max
Dexterity: 1D/3D
Knowledge: 3D/6D+2
Mechanical: 1D+1/3D+2
Perception: 2D/5D+1
Strength: 1D/3D+1
Technical: 2D/4D+2
Move: 8/13

Special Abilities:

Electromagnetic Perception :
Brennai are blind and deaf. All their information about their surroundings comes from their cheekbone antennae, which give them a keen perception of the electromagnetic fields and pulses of their surroundings. The long tentacles that descend from the bottom of their faces emit electromagnetic pulses, which is their only form of communication. This method of perception enables them to sense trouble spots in electronic systems, giving them bonuses to diagnostic rolls.

Story Factors:

Xenophobia :
Brennai hate and fear all non-Brennai, and must make a Heroic willpower roll to work with them, regardless of all other factors.
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