Kintarans

Kintarans have two costs. In many of the characters here, the earlier cost (81 points) is used, because even I have trouble making 100-point characters on the 94-point base. Ah, well.

Kintarans are, physically, cat-centaurs. They have the lower bodies of lion-like felines, with a humanoid torso where most cats keep their necks. Their faces are fairly human, but have larger, slit-pupiled eyes, a jaw that protrudes a little more than a human's, nose-leather on the bottom side of their noses, and a slightly "cleft" upper lip. Their tongues are a little raspy (kitten-rough, not sandpaper), and they groom themselves by licking (as well as using combs, brushes, and hairdryers). Their hands are human-like - four fingers and opposible thumb, and equipped with short, retractible claws. (Their forefeet have three toes and a thumb-claw, and their hindfeet have three toes, period.)

Kintarans have thick (DR 1) fur on their lower bodies, and a tail-tuft. Their upper bodies are more sparsely-furred. Fur colors are generally similar to that of Terrestrial cats, with about the same ratios (tabby is common, blue-eyed whites are rare, etc.). However, access to genetic engineering has produced many odd combinations . . .

They are mammals, and females often wear some kind of support for their two mammeries (on the upper torso). They have from 1 to 3 babies at a time (with 1 being the most common), which go through a week-long blind-and-deaf stage. (The Kintaran word for baby is "Thaso," which is a contraction of "Thasolis," or "blind person.")

Kintarans weigh in at about 400 pounds, adult, and evolved (or were gengineered, some humans think) on a 1.2 G world which is mostly plains. Other physical oddities include their two hearts (one in approximately human location in the upper torso, the other in their lower body), lung-filled upper body (stomach is in the lower), and the "secondary brain," which controls reflexes and balance, located within an "enlarged vertabra" at the meeting of torso and lower shoulders (same bone DR as the skull). Kintarans cannot use human neural-interface helmets, because their reflexes are stored elsewhere (Kint neural interface jacks are usually installed somewhere around their lower brain, in fact).

Kintarans are matrilineal, and often matriarchal geriocracies. (Is that the right spelling? I mean that the older females generally wind up running the show, at least from behind the scenes, and often openly.) They are one of the more "casual" races, mingling their genetics freely. Children are raised in clan "crechés;" their mothers take care of them some, but mostly they're supervised by those individuals (male or female) who've specialized in taking care of kids. Kintarans rarely know their sires (the word for "sire" is a special varient of the word for "uncle / father-figure"), though medscanners make gene-sires easier to discover than in the old days.

Kintarans usually have one personal name, and a "member of [group]" last name in the form "M'<group>". The "group name" is almost always the name of the clanship they're on (e.g., Klarin-yal M'Choosaraf). Sometimes it's the name of the company they're working for (Embereyes M'Artemis), and there are some Kintarans who either pick a name for their own reasons ("E-lan Blastoff") or don't have a last name at all.

Shamans are a fact of life to most Kintarans - even the ones who haven't ever met one. "Common" psionic Powers are Telepathy, ESP, Healing, and Electrokinesis. Teleport is unknown, and most of the Psychokinetic abilities are single-skill only, and very rare at that. (No Pyros, no Levitation powerful enough to "fly" with, no telekinesis in the legends, etc.) One particular varient of Healing (present in more Kintarans than know about it) is the ability to perform genetic engineering subconsciously upon oneself and, if the psi is female, one's unborn children. This generally results in kids with uncommon fur colors or strong psionic potential, but can give a gengineer fits if a psi-gengineer is supposed to be the "control" for an experiment (like an immunization to something), and happens to give him/herself Immunity to Disease merely because s/he believes that s/he was immunized.

Shamans generally take more insulting to provoke their bad temper, but it's not a good idea to get them that annoyed... Shamans are also prone to having physical or neurological problems (epilepsy, for instance, or lameness due to twisted/weak bones). Their psionic Powers often have interesting Limitations. Still, they are respected members of their clans, and will advise the Wahn (clan-leader/Captain). Non-Kintaran psis are also respected and deferred to. (For that matter, people who act like shamans will often be deferred to, out of habit!)

Kintara Station is the closest thing the various clanships have to a government. It's run by a Kintaran-programmed Artificial Intelligence (yes, the sentient kind), who's just as touchy and vain as any biological Kintaran. (Pity the pilot who's got to follow the flight-path it sets when it's annoyed at a ship.) It keeps records on which clanships have signed what treaties, and will make them available to the other governments. It also bugs clanship Wahns about proposed government business until it get answers, and spreads news that pertains to Kintarans. Kintara Station is bribable - it's not greedy, but laws on that station generally vary with how much you've donated to the station upkeep funds. (If you're costing it money, it'll kick you off. If you're making it a profit, it will try to soothe ruffled feathers.)

Those who practice Law are advised to stay away from Kintara, where trial-by-combat is still practiced. They are also advised that "copyright violation" ("k'eetha hisst," lit. "theft/thief of another person's uniqueness") is regarded much the same way humans view pedophilia, and Kintarans have very . . . direct . . . ways of dealing with k'eetha hisst. (Usually involving removing the offender from the gene pool.) Kintarans who have had a patent/copyright/trademark infringed upon will try their best to have the trial under Kintaran law . . .

Lynx@netcom.com has drawn some Kintarans, and done so quite well. Write and ask him for a copy of PawPrints #1. ($5 for the issue, $3 for shipping and handling; I have a story in it that includes Moonfur (the B timeline varient), Embereyes, and Selene (B)) O:>

Anyway, here's the racial stuff, with the Fantasy Folk, 2nd Edition costs. Since they have two DX modifiers, you have to split their physical skills - use the first (upper body) value to figure things like Beam Weapons, or the punching side of Brawling. Use the second value (lower body) for stuff like Dodge, Speed, Jumping, Free Fall, and the kicking/clawing/ripping side of Brawling. Total cost is 94 points. (Fantasy Folk, 1st ed cost was 81 points.)

Attributes:

ST: 10/20 [33 points]
DX: 11/12 [12 points]
HT: 13 [30 points]

Advantages:

Four Legs [5 points]
Claws, +2 damage [15 points]
DR +1, lower body only (thick fur) [2 points]
Catfall [10 points]
Enhanced Move +1, Sprinting only (lose 1 lower-body fatigue every 2 seconds, automatically) [7.5 points]
Increased Speed +1 [25 points]
Night Vision [10 points]
Acute Hearing +3 [6 points]
Acute Sense of Smell and Taste +3 [6 points]
Universal Digestion (Takes 3-10 days & successful HT roll, during which the new food must be eaten exculsively, and starving damage taken until the transition) [12 points]

Racial Skills and Skill Bonuses:

Stealth: DX+1 [4 points]
+1 to Outdoors Skills [6 points]
+1 to Athletic skills [6 points]

Disadvantages:

Inconvienent Size [-10 points]
Increased Life Support x 2 (food, water, air) [-10 points]
Short Lifespan (adult: 13.5, aging 38; TL modifiers still help them, though) [-10 points]
Bad Tember [-10 points]
Compulsive Curiosity 2 (-2 to the IQ roll to resist) [-10 points]
Compulsive Creation of "Uniqueness" [-5 points]
Impulsive or Overconfident (usually Impulsive children, Overconfident adults) [-10 points]
Odious Racial Habit: Groom themselves in public (and sometimes groom others . . .) [-5 points]
Reputation as rowdy, uncivilized barbarians (-3) [-15 points]
Enemy / Intolerance: Kaa (this is a racial reaction to the sight and scent of Kaa; Kaa naturally reciprocate) [-2.5 points]
Primitive (-1 TL) [-5 points]

Quirks:

Sleepy (always taking cat-naps) [-1 point]
Vain of Species or Vain of Self [-1 point]
Respect Psionics ("Shamans") [-1 point]

Some of these deserve explanation: "Unique," for example . . . Standing out is very important to a Kintaran. They habitually "invent" (or complicate) stuff, and their ships are often highly baroque. (And sometimes "broke," too . . .) Their personal possessions will bear a "signature mark" of some kind. Should two Kintarans meet each other, and be "too similar," they will fight tooth-and-claw until one yields and changes his or her creation to be different from the winner's. The idea of a braintape-clone existing at the same time as the original is anathama. A common swear-word is "Identical Twins!" (Another is "Twinning Hairballs".)

Along with unique creations, unique fur-colors (a blue-eyed white, for instance), can give an otherwise Average-looking Kintaran an edge in the genetic pool. (Given two potential "friends for the evening", the more exotic is picked if Appearances are equal. An Average blue-eyed white vs. an Attractive common brown tabby will probably lose unless there are other modifiers involved.)

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