Yesk

Adult Yesk are typically 6' 6" to 7' 6" tall, bipedal humanoids with one arm, typically their left. Yesk are typically slim built with lanky limbs and digits proportionally longer than typical human proportions.   Yesk are smooth skinned but can grow hair on their heads although they typically cannot grow a full head of hair, rather familial genetic traits will dictate a particular pattern of hair growth. Females tend to grow fuller heads of hair than males. Some Yesk will grow out their hair patterns and elaborately style them.   Facial features are typically sharp and angular (e.g. chins, high cheekbones), with relatively narrow eyes, thin eyebrows, slightly pointed ears, and thin noses. Teeth are quite square, no canines or other pointed teeth.   Skin tones are typically purplish hues although there is some diversity in terms of saturation and shading or paleness of skin tone. When flushed from embarrassment or anger, the skin takes on a deeper, more saturated colour often with redder tones.  

Species Skill Modifiers

• 1 +WILD die to WILL rolls
• 1 +WILD die to SYNERGY rolls
• 1 +WILD die to SCIENCE or LORE rolls (choose one)
• 1 -WILD die to DECEIVE and STEALTH rolls (when trying to hide Symbiote use)
• 4 -WILD dice to RAPPORT and DECEIVE rolls (with strangers when identified as a Yesk)

 

Using human-relevant analogues, Yesk would be considered infants from age 0-2 years, toddlers from age 3-6, children from age 7-20, adolescents from age 21-55, young adults from 56 to around 200 years, and mature adults anytime after that. No one has ever seen a Yesk succumb to the typical symptoms of old age and legend has it that they are immortal.

Facial features are typically sharp and angular (e.g. chins, high cheekbones), with relatively narrow eyes, thin eyebrows, slightly pointed ears, and thin noses. Teeth are quite square, no canines or other pointed teeth.

Relatively few of the species now live outside of the Dominion of the Yesk located in the northern arm of the galaxy. However, all of known space was at one time explored and occasionally settled by the Yesk and some are still rumoured to live amongst the other species of the galaxy, although it is difficult to substantiate these claims.

High: Most Yesk were known to spend much of their lives exploring and investigating different aspects of the cosmos feeling that it was their sacred duty to do so.

Many names seem to have the "esk" syllable worked in somewhere.

Dominion of the Yesk, The Order of Kine

Most Yesk identify with their sex as either male or female although some consider themselves to be agender especially if they are not looking to create a family unit.

Assumed to be well beyond the current galactic standard.

The Yesk are probably the most widely known and yet possibly the least understood race in the galaxy. Their homeworld is rumoured to be located across a vast stretch of empty space in one of the galaxy's most distant northern arms. However, over the past 10 000 years, every sapient race has seemed to encounter some of the Yesk in at least one part of their history. Some just in the form of folk tales or conspiracy theories of "others", often only witnessed by a few (often ridiculed) people and not definitively proven or corroborated until the species joined the broader galactic society and compared notes. Some races, the Vinuul and the Ave being notable examples, were effectively elevated to become spacefaring civilizations due to their significant contact with the Yesk. The other races can only boast a middling amount of interaction, for good or ill.   For many millennia, the Yesk had been seen as a benevolent, if somewhat aloof and mysterious, presence in the galaxy and as the different members of the galactic community started encountering one another the Yesk were often the first point of commonality between the races, sometimes even acting as ambassadors between civilizations.   There are only a few hundred of officially recorded Yesk ambassadors recorded throughout the collective galactic records although the highest estimates of Yesk population within known space, prior to the Ogdaross Catastrophe, were upwards of forty to fifty thousand. Yesk are extremely long-lived and the ambassadors that were known publically often maintained their term of ambassadorship over multiple generations of their counterparts on any given planet. No Yesk has ever been witnessed to die of natural causes although there are documented cases of Yesk perishing due to accidents or in combat.   This seemingly ageless aspect of their existence has resulted in most Yesk adopting an extremely patient and thoughtful demeanour. They highly value making the best decision and will take much care not to make a hasty one. This, combined with a noticably common reluctance to reveal personal and/or collective Yesk secrets, contributes to the general air of mystery that surrounds the Yesk and often the cause of frustration in the political realms of the shorter lived species. In taking care to make the best decisions, Yesk culture is a very collaborative one, at least internally (not taking into account the other races). Cooperation towards a common goal is a hallmark of Yesk civilization, possibly borne out of their physical limitation of having only a single arm (although some Yesk were seen to have an synthetic or Symbiote-based second arm either for increased personal functionality or to more closely resemble the many two-armed species of the galaxy).   It is unknown how long Yesk civilization has existed but as a species they appear to be far more advanced in many aspects compared to any of the galaxy's other denizens. While not a technology-obsessive race (such as Humans, Trians, and several others), Yesk are masters at manipulating their seemingly innate Symbiotic connection and their Symbiotic powers are fundamental to the types of nature-infused technology they have exhibited publically. The technology that Yesk ambassadors have shared with other civilizations has started much of the galaxy on a tech tree that relies on Symbiotic connections as well. Additionally, Tears [the wormholes used to jump between systems], have never been discovered in a system before a Yesk presence is witnessed in that same system, so it is theorized that the existence of Tears is also somehow linked to an as yet unknown Yesk technology.   Following the rise of the Order of Kine, a Yesk splinter group, and the Ogdaross Catastrophe, public perception of the Yesk started to rapidly decline. Conspiracy theories began cropping up, mostly related to the actions of the Order of Kine on Ogdaross, that painted the entire Yesk race as master manipulators with a design of complete and total galactic submission to their (yet unknown) schemes. The patient, deliberated response of the Yesk's ambassadors was too slow to effectively counter the tide of public opinion. A mere fifty years after the Ogdaross Catastrophe, things had become so toxic that the Yesk came to the astonishingly rapid conclusion (by their standards) that it was their time to leave. With hardly a warning, the Yesk vanished from galactic society and disappeared through the Tears either back to their homeworld or to push further into the unknown regions of space. Nearly all of their towns and infrastructure had been sealed, demolished, or strangely missing entirely ensuring the species' secrets would remain just so.   In the three hundred years since the Disappearance, the Yesk have gained an almost mythical status amongst the galactic populace. Many viewed the Disappearance as a tacit admission of guilt and, to this day, Yesk are generally treated as galactic boogeymen who might hope to return to a society that has forgotten their treachery and reassert their control once again. The Order of Kine is still on a watchlist for nearly every governmental power in the galaxy and Yesk sightings, which still get reported semi-regularly, are typically quickly and quietly investigated. No public confirmations of Yesk activity have been made since the Disappearance although some governments will occasionally make claims that others are collaborating with the Order for their own ends.   Seen as a potential root for the Yesk's corruption, personal Symbiotic use has been labelled a hazard of the highest level (analagous to working with unstable nuclear material on Earth) and any attempts to use Symbiotes for personal power are immediately shut down by almost every government. Technological growth is still heavily reliant on Symbiote powers, however the refinement of Symbiotic biomass into a variety of synthetic materials has allowed progress to proceed without the need for organic hosts to directly commune with the Symbiotes. The field is ever-evolving as different species/governments race to find more biomass to mine, better synthesizing methods, and novel, more powerful technologies to manufacture including the current holy grail of technology: the ability to induce or otherwise create new Tears in space to more rapidly expand into and explore the vast unknown regions of the galaxy.