Khettadine

Overview

The Khettadine are the founder species of the United Sovereignties of Khetta.

Biology and Appearance

Physiology

The Khettadine are mustelids, originating from the verdant jungles and forests of Khetta.   They have two legs, two arms (ending in hands of four fingers and an opposable thumb), and a furry tail (in which they almost universally take great pride) that they use for balance while running swiftly along tree branches.

Physical Variations

There are multiple races of Khetts spread across the world in many different environments, with slightly different characteristics from place to place.   The most visibly obvious difference is fur color, but fur density is another common distinguishing characteristic. For example, Khetts in the southern mountains have extremely dense fur and a very warm undercoat, while the Greater Shoreborne have an outer layer of long, coarse guard hairs which does a better job of keeping them dry when in the water, and the Northern Khettadine have very short, coarse fur, better suited to their warmer climate.   Fur colors range from white to black, with a variety of tans, browns, and even reds intermixed, and many patterns of various colors, often as a result of racial intermixing.   The Mountain Khettadine mostly have white or cream fur, with some dark brown specimens, while the Central Khettadine predominately feature various shades of brown and red. The Northern Khettadine are mostly a light tan color, and the Greater and Lesser Shoreborne are predominately dark brown or black.   Additionally, the Shoreborne have webbed rear paws.   There is a distinctive dimorphism between males and females, with males on average being longer and much bulkier, albeit only bulky by Khettadine standards. Females are much more uniformly slender, especially in their facial features, and often sleeker, although the latter quality is typically attributed to even more meticulous grooming, for which there is now a ludicrous array of products.

Society and Culture

Societal Structure

While the structure of their society varies between ethnicity, there are a few common threads, one being significant commitment to civic responsibility.   The smallest municipal authority is called a warren, a communal sort of housing with as many as seventy-five denizens, not all necessarily of the same family. Each designates a council of roughly one-tenth the adult population, with one member chosen to preside as warren manager. These authorities resolve disputes and ensure that the warren runs smoothly, as well as plan for the future and bring proposals to the population as a whole to vote on.   Due to the requirement that a warren manager be in the warren almost constantly and the job's nature as an unpaid volunteer position, it is usually filled by a mother—often one with grown children—or by an elder male who has retired.   Most warrens are composed of people of roughly the same station in life, and thus significant disparities exist between the more affluent members of society and the poor. However, because a large amount of personal space is not typically considered important, affluent warrens are usually not as dramatically more expensive than the mean as many affluent homes would be in other cultures. Therefore, affluent Khettadine often fund warren constructions for the less well-off, usually naming the buildings after themselves. Thus, the "show piece" is not their own warren, which many cooperated on, but the warren for which they were solely responsible.

Family Structure

Khetts mate monogamously and for life, raising their children together. Absent exigent circumstances, it is very rare for a wedded couple to move, although adult Khetts who have not yet married typically leave the warren they grew up in and find a new one. The exception is the eldest child, who is expected to stay and care for his or her aging parents, and if married by the time of their death, to take their place in the warren.   Heredity is widely considered very important, with most traditions placing the firstborn (of either sex) as the sole heir (unless passed over by the parents or supplanted by circumstance), which comes with significant responsibilities to siblings and parents. However, that was and is often only ever practiced among the upper classes. Many tales were written of a dedicated Khettadine caring for his aging parents at the cost of a chance at love or adventure, with older iterations showing it as a noble sacrifice while many of the more contemporary works show it in a much more negative light.   Those inclinations, however, do hold true in parental care, at least. With the exceptions of dysfunctional families and irresponsible youth, the eldest typically will remain to care for its parents.

Khettadine in the Cluster

Due to their intensely communal nature, they are often viewed with some trepidation by other species with greater desire for personal space, and few are willing to adopt their claustrophobia-inducing housing arrangements and the corresponding lack of privacy.   Thus, Khetts typically gather together wherever enough of them exist, meaning that many worlds may seem almost entirely devoid of Khettadine except for a few cities with large, concentrated populations.   That aside, their qualities are often welcomed, but unfortunately, one of those qualities is a valuable pelt that fetches high prices on the black market. More than a few have been murdered for their fur, with more isolated settlements sometimes being utterly wiped out, especially in more hostile nations.   This leads to some ethnic conflict on various worlds, with Khettadine militias taking up arms to defend their settlements and coming into conflict with surrounding population centers and governments who may or may not actually be complicit in the acts that prompted the militias to rise in the first place.