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KZINTI
The Kzinti drive for conquest made them implacable foes. They built an empire over thousands of years which was so vast that it covered three times the area of Known Space. Many sentient species who desired peaceful contact and trade became Kzinti slaves and meat animals. The Kzinti occupation on its conquered worlds was an exercise in extremes. On the one hand, Kzinti cared little about their subject races, and so tended to leave them to their own devices, provided they obeyed their laws; on the other hand, an expanding Kzinti population requires a vast amount of space, and the ongoing war effort demanded natural resources, so subject races tended to be pushed together as Kzinti lands grew. If a crime committed by a member of a subject race was considered a capital or treasonous offence, the usual method of execution was usually a hunt, as Kzinti enjoy the challenge of hunting (and eating non-poisonous) sentients, and make no attempt to hide it. To be fair, they have always demanded the same of their own criminals, with the difference that cannibalism is taboo. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: From a distance, Kzinti resemble huge orange housecats, however no human has ever survived making this comparison. Male Kzinti easily reach eight feet tall and can weigh in excess of 200 kilograms. Their bodies are covered in a rich coat of typically orange-red fur with yellow or white stripes. Black markings around the eyes are common. Their tails are long, hairless, and rat-like. Kzinti have remarkably human eyes with round, instead of the slitted pupils of terrestrial cats. Their ears are hairless with multiple points. They hold their ears flat against their heads while they are calm or fanned out like parasols when angry or listening intently for the sound of prey. They have paws like black leather gloves and sheathed long, retractile claws which are sharpened and polished. Kzinti mouths are full of needle-like teeth for tearing raw flesh. Kzinti are famous for their grin. A Kzin grins when angry or challenging someone (or something), readying their teeth by exposing them in a deadly smile. The members of the nobility often have their own unique coloration indicating their particular class. Kzin Genetics During heroic reproduction the male egg combined with the female egg to form a doubled nucleus. The kzin-code groups, not unlike human chromosomes, were then distributed, leaving the super-egg to divide into two fertile male and female eggs which then migrated to the kzinrett's pouch in pairs, a litter always containing an even number of kits, half kzintosh, half kzinrett. Reproduction wasn't all that dissimilar among monkeys but there were unfortunate differences. The nuclei of kzincells were more complicated than those of mancells, containing three distinct kinds of protein coding, sexual, major-group, and lumpy-constellation. The kzincode strands that determined kzinsex were enormous, four times as large as any strands in the major kzincode-group, and several octals larger than any member of the lumpy kzincode-constellation. In the male cells the kzintosh-strand appeared twice, while in female cells a dominant kzintosh-strand was lord over the single kzinrett-strand, the latter acting to edit physical size and repress language in the female who carried it." The following extract describes Eater-of-grass/Trainer-of slaves' difficulty to use the same mechanism, to make Lt. Nora Argamentine more like a kzinrett. "It would be difficult to genetically engineer male sex dominance in the man-beasts because with these animals it was the female who carried the twinned sex chromosome! A perverse reversal of the normal situation. Given their genetic makeup one might wonder how male monkeys, balding and hemophiliac, came to be intelligent! Worse, the male and female sex-chromosomes of the man-beast were normal-sized, the male chromosome runtish, even, and unlike the kzintosh-strand or the kzinrett-strand, was not a major center of developmental switching." Psychology Kzinti are bad-tempered, take offence at almost any slight, and have a society and a code of honor that compels them to react violently if an apology is not immediately forthcoming. The same code of honor also permits no apology if the Kzin in question believes himself to be in the right. As such, Kzinti society has developed a great number of ways of reducing such conflict, not always successfully. Kzinti honor is considered so personal, that a dishonored individual would rather die than loose face. This system of honor is so important that a Kzin will not lie to anyone under practically all circumstances. An attacking Kzin appears to be berserk to a human, as they seem to attack without caution and ignore all but the most catastrophic damage. In fact they are usually quite calm during battle, but headstrong and willful to an inhuman degree. Kzinti see themselves, at least in their heyday, as the unquestioned lords of creation, and believe military expansion and subjugation of other races to be their birthright. Kzinti honor forbids the unnecessary torture of prisoners, although verbal abuse and a bullying outlook are common, if frowned upon. Prisoners are seen as practically devoid of rights, and can be summarily hunted down and eaten if they are not of immediate use. This having been said, Kzinti are not cowards, and truly respect those with strength, or to a lesser degree, intelligence, and may even bestow great honors upon members of other races if they prove worthy. Scientists and scholars are generally looked down upon in Kzinti society as weak, however the greatest of such Kzinti are respected in the same way as our own men of learning and geniuses. The Kzin have a sub-class in their society, those that have the Telepathic gift. In addition to the Telepaths, there are also individual Kzinti who have a "Zirrgah" sense which enables them to sense emotions and gives them limited sixth sense insight. This talent is usually kept hidden by the individual Kzin who does not want to be distinguished from his fellow Kzin. HOMEWORLD: The Kzinti homeworld orbits a G8Ve star at a distance somewhat greater than that at which Earth orbits the sun. It is a larger world, with gravity 1.55 times that of Earth's. Its year is roughly one and a half times longer than Earth's, and its day is 27 hrs and 36 minutes long. The climate of this world is cooler and drier than Earth's, and since it has a definite axial tilt it also has seasons. It receives less light from its star, which is redder than Sol; and is consequently dimmer. The Kzinti refer to this world only as "Homeworld": it has no other name. It is the fourth planet of the system. It is a relatively dry world with only 50% of it covered by water. Most of the land surface is rolling grassy plains and colorful jungle. The mountainous out back region is highly unpopulated as is most coastal industrial centers as Kzin have a deep dislike of water. The average temperature is 7 degrees Celsius, much cooler than earth norm but with a slightly higher gravity. 3 Moons circle the planet giving the night sky an interesting panorama. CULTURE: Each Kzinti family consists of a father and his male decedents. The females are treated as property or favorite pets. Favored females are protected because of the strong sons they bear and not out of personal devotion. Each noble keeps a harem large enough to fit his status and ability to protect. Most of the females are kept pregnant to maximize the number of heirs. The Kzin social structure is similar to feudal Europe on Earth. The ruler of the empire is called the Patriarch, and he is the final arbitrator on all matters concerning the Patriarchy. Other hereditary names act like heraldry, identifying levels of nobility equivalent to dukes, barons, and similar grades. The current ruling family bears the Riit suffix at the end of their name. The Patriarchy calls the last war with Earth the "Fourth Truce with Man". The Patriarchy does not understand why they have not been destroyed or enslaved by their former enemies, and is unwilling to accept that the Kzinti are, in many ways, respected for their bravery and courage. Female Kzinti are non-sentient. They cannot manage their lives without male supervision, and do very little except, eat, sleep, and breed. Ancient Kzinti females were just as intelligent as the males, but they proved too bothersome to the patriarchal and stronger males. The females were slowly bred to lose their aggression and intelligence, a devolution taking millennia. Some remote Kzin colonies still have ‘throw-backs’ – Kzinretti that retain their intelligence Humans who have regular contact with Kzinti diplomats (the most "liberal" of Kzinti) find their envy of intelligent females amusing. Kzinti telepaths are forced addicts of a drug extracted from the sthondat lymph. Only one out of every thousand Kzinti telepaths retains their sanity, but become shivering neurotics. The effects of the drug are a major ordeal to even the most accomplished Kzinti telepaths; none will take a telepathy-inducing dose unless ordered. One dose of the drug lasts for eight hours, and the telepath must sleep for at least twenty hours afterward or suffer severe health problems. Under the drug, the telepath lapses into a relaxed hypnotic state and can probe the minds of targets up to 2500 kilometers away. The ordeal is disgusting, painful, and exhausting for both the telepath and the target. Any person caught in the mental grip of a Kzinti telepath stiffens convulsively and experiences rolling waves of pain in the forehead and neck. The target may lose consciousness. Kzin telepaths can read the minds of any intelligent species except Ferengi. Kzinti telepaths are easily identified by their unkempt appearance, matted fur, and bouts of shivering. They sleep for most of their leisure hours. Their bedraggled, distraught appearance is shameful for a Kzinti. During the Federation-Kzin Wars, a strange religious faction appeared within the Kzinti ranks, worshipping the ideal of Kdapt. Kdaptism preached that the Creator made humans and not Kzinti, in his own image. Though this religion was most often the venue of low-born families, there were a few Kzinti in the greater nobility who also subscribed to Kdaptism. When Kdaptist disciples prayed, they wore masks of human skin in the hopes of confusing the Creator long enough for the Kzinti to win the war. Human psychologists suggest that hundreds of years of steady losses of their greatest warriors tore at the social and psychological infrastructure of the Kzinti race, who believed their destiny to be no less than domination of the universe. The disbelief created by the losses in turn created Kdaptism. LANGUAGES: Kzinti count in octal, which means decimal-ten is represented a o12, d100 as o144 and so on. Script is based on claw-carvings in wood and is often described as 'dots and commas' by humans. The language sounds clashing and terrible to human ears, but is in fact pitched and cased with several modes; mode being dependent upon who you are talking to. Although there is only one main language (the Heroes' Tongue), it has many modes including Mocking, Deferential, Technical and Royal, which is only spoken to and by royalty (the Patriarch and his kin). A human with plenty of spit and a good falsetto can learn the basic mode of the Heroic Tongue and be understood anywhere, but pronunciation will be difficult; similarly Kzinti can learn to speak Terran languages with some difficulty. COMMON NAMES: Kzinti are not named at birth like humans, they must ‘earn’ their name much the same way a Klingon earns an honorific or a human aristocrat earns a title. Unlike Earthly feudal aristocracy, any Kzinti can earn a name. The current Patriarch did not earn his title through great deeds (though his acts of courage are countless), but by challenging and defeating his father, the old Patriarch, in single combat. Courageous acts that advance the empire are grounds for a brave Kzinti to earn a new hereditary name to pass on to his descendents. A full name also means that the Kzinti is given a better education, land, a harem, and the right to breed. A Kzinti that has not earned a hereditary name is called by his profession such as Speaker-to-Animals or Slaver-Student; these Kzinti often have tattoos on their ears displaying proficiency. Kzinti with partial names like Chuft-Captain represent intermediate recognition of noble birth, substantial service, or conspicuous gallantry. Addressing a Kzinti by his previous job-bearing title is a grievous insult FAVORED PROFESSION: Warrior, theirs is a warrior culture. All males are taught from birth unarmed and armed combat. They are also very good tacticians. SPECIES ADJUSTMENTS: +4 Strength, -2 Presence SPECIES ABILITIES:BONUS EDGE: SKILL FOCUS (KEEN SMELL): Kzinti have an acute sense of smell. BONUS EDGE: MARTIAL ARTIST: Kzinti are taught to use both clawed hands in combat so are allowed to make one extra attack action at -2 instead of the standard penalty of -5. SPEED: Kzinti are extremely fast, allowing them to travel at twice their normal speed. NATURAL WEAPON (TEETH): Kzinti mouths are full of sharp teeth they use in combat. They do 1d6 + STR damage in combat and gain Unarmed Combat (Teeth) 1. NATURAL WEAPON (CLAWS): Kzinti hands have retractable claws. They do 1d6 +4 + STR damage in combat and gain Unarmed Combat (Claws) 1. Kzinti place a high value on their honor, and will seek to avenge any slight upon it, through a duel. Kzin with a high personal Honor (measured by Renown) can persuade other Kzinti more easily and have great respect among the clans. When making Influence, Negotiate, and Persuade tests involving other Kzinti, the character adds his Renown modifier automatically to the skill test. If a Kzinti has a stain upon their honor, they cannot add their Renown modifier automatically, and other Kzin will react poorly to the character, reducing all social interaction stance categories towards the character by one step worse (see “Social Tests”, page 101). BONUS FLAW: ARROGANT: Kzinti consider themselves destined to rule the galaxy and past events as "minor setbacks". You cannot spend courage on social tests. BONUS FLAW: BLOODLUST: Kzin are fierce fighters and once engaged in combat they find it very difficult to disengage out of it. In any combat situation, while both you and your opponent are standing, you must spend 1 courage point to voluntarily stop fighting, no matter how wounded you are. Influence skill tests to convince you to stop attacking are at –3. Negotiate and Persuade automatically fail. BONUS FLAW: DULLARD: Kzin are of average intelligence but are not known for any scientific breakthroughs. You cannot spend courage on academic tests. BONUS FLAW: INFAMY (HOSTILITY): Kzin are infamous for their hostility to all others encountered. Others stance to interact with you is one worse. (See “social tests”, page 101. Players Guide) BONUS FLAW: PROUD: Kzinti are a proud people who take slight at the smallest insult. You suffer –1 to all social tests. |
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PERSONALITY:
When first encountering Kzinti, the first thing noticeable is that they are
highly aggressive. Any perceived slight would be taken as an insult and a
challenge issued instantly right before the offender is attacked. The loser is
always consumed by the victor, as Kzinti are strict meat eaters. (Kzinti who
deal with other federation species suppress this urge as sentient consumption is
considered barbaric if not illegal on most federation planets) A Kzinti’s word
is his bond; to violate it is a loss of honor. A loss of honor usually results
in a loss of one or both ears. They will not give out idle commitments or hollow
promises. Like Klingons scars are worn proudly and give a Kzin certain “status”
in their society.