Avali
Space Raptors with Ammonia Blood
Named after their homeworld, Avalon, Avali hail from a subzero moon with significant amounts of liquid ammonia on its surface. This environment led to an ecosystem of life using liquid ammonia instead of water as the primary solvent.
They are a pack-focused, collectivist race, with tight bonds amongst their 3-5 packmates. They can range from serious to silly like any group of individuals, and exceptions exist to just about every rule.
Playing an Avali (Out of Character Information)
You’ll more often than not see Avali with the naming convention of “Urist, Raptor Pack”- fairly self-explanatory: they are part of a pack known as “Raptor” and go by Urist. When naming your own Avali, remember that your pack doesn’t need to be fellow players, and your character was probably raised in a pack from birth. The wider story of the Illuminate and their history on Avalon is here for players to have shared history, but there are myriad Independent tribes and colonies scattered throughout the stars with their own yet-unwritten histories and cultures for you to define for yourself.
Tradition Vs Progress - A War for Unity
As Avali society progressed and spread across their homeworld, each territory and ecosystem developed their own cultures, practices, and language. Avalon's ever-shifting glaciers and terrain meant that these cities and colonies would occasionally collide- when resources ran particularly scarce, this collision could lead to smaller-scale wars. None, of course, reached the intensity of the war between the Traditionalists and the Illuminate. Not only fighting for resources, the Illuminate and Traditionalists both sought to control every facet of life when it came to Avali. The Traditionalists sought tight, unified control under a central group of leaders tasked with the maintenance of their collective ideologies- all others would be removed if they deviated from this establishment. The Illuminate, on the other hand, wanted to leverage the collective power of the cities in a unified whole, pushing technological progression and freedom of information. To the Illuminate, outliers would be left to their ways, rather than excised as a threat. This grand civil war's devastation took the Avali to the brink of extinction, with the Illuminate eventually claiming victory and spending the next decades rebuilding.
Illuminate Central Government
After the war, Avalon's society was reformed, and largely remains, under the Illuminate Central Government, recognized easily by their Tri-Feather emblem. Under the meticulous, algorithmic planning of The Oracle (a powerful AI developed by the Illuminate), Avali in Illuminate-controlled colonies and cities experience a comfortable life; as resource distribution is heavily managed to ensure a relatively high standard of living. Despite appearing as a tech-utopia on the surface, the cost of progress is high. When lean times and shortfalls are projected, The Oracle takes measures to reduce future demand via strict population controls some would consider barbaric. This painful memory has largely faded in the populace, but a wary respect for the past is kept.
Independent Colonies
Not all Avali colonies are under the direct control of the Illuminate, preferring their independence while maintaining economic relations and following the shared laws. These colonies have their own distinct cultures and customs. Many of the Avali working under Central Command are from these independent colonies- hailing from roaming flotillas of Avali vessels, smaller “habitable” worlds, or even mixed-species stations and worlds. As such, you can expect there to be major commonalities (like their pack structure), but their culture is not nearly as monolithic as the Illuminate Central Government would lead outsiders to believe.
Mentality
Where most cultures have a focus on the “self” - the individual, their ambitions, needs, and wellbeing - Avali psychology places the Pack above the individual in almost all cases. Packs will specialize in a particular type of role as a collective, while individuals will have distinguishing skills, hobbies, interests, and aesthetic preferences. More complicated tasks often rely on subdivision of labor amongst members, with a leader taking up the project manager role.
In general society, Avali packs are rarely separated from each other save the occasional errand; Avali under Central Command and NanoTrasen have been trained (or conditioned) to function with enough independence to remain productive without a full pack’s support- often by forming ad-hoc pack bonds with their department or other crewmates. The presence of the Nexus is a major factor in their ability to serve as productive employees, as being able to connect with other Avali on-station helps keep a pack-like connection active.
Kit packs
Rather than being raised in family units, most Avali are raised communally in “kit packs”, groups of youngsters hatched at similar times that are raised and socialized together. This can be equivalent in relation to schoolmates, cousins, or even siblings in more human-like family units. Kitpacks have designated packs of mentors, caretakers, and educators throughout their adolescence to prepare them for adult life and integrate them into their future careers. Generally speaking, Kitpacks remain together throughout their lives, as pack bonding beyond the kit stage tends to be a complex affair.
Pack Bonding and Pack loss
When an Avali is permanently separated from their pack, or loses a member of their pack, it is very similar to losing a close family member or a part of oneself in other cultures. This often leads to a degenerative psychological condition known as “Pack Loss”. This condition presents with insomnia, depression, anxiety disorders, and auditory hallucinations in more advanced stages. Treatment tends to be focused on low-stress duties, self-care, and therapeutics. Psicodine has proven at least moderately effective at treating symptoms. In rare, extreme cases, Packloss can progress to “Pack broken”- a point at which they achieve self-isolation Further detail on the varieties of this condition can be found in other resources
Avali psychology and pack-based mentality led to complications with their integration into NT-CC employee rolls, as contracts are for individual employees in most cases, where pack-sized contracts that ensure a group remains together are harder to manage logistically. Thankfully, after some intensive research and minor augmentation, NT-CC employees are able to more readily pack-bond within their shift without running the risk of suffering from Pack Loss should someone change departments or at shift end.
Modifications and Augmentation
Augmentation is fully normalized and integrated into Avali culture at large, with cybernetics, prosthetics, genetic modification (to prevent congenital disease or defect), and cosmetic modifications as some of the most common. Fully ubiquitous is the use of eye augmentation, bringing their vision at minimum up to the “standard” vision of other species, and thermal regulatory cybernetics embedded in their bodies allow them to function comfortably in the temperature range often experienced in most stations.
Nanomachines and Nanites
While not as visible in most situations, one of the most startling things to witness Avali utilizing is their Nanite Shell- an emergency medical activation of otherwise dormant nanites in their bloodstream. This shell does not prevent new injuries from forming, but provides a rapid recovery from most “brute” category damage as well as burn injuries.
If an Avali has entered this form of stasis, they are unable to move under their own power, and dragging them is prohibitively difficult. Bodily lifting them, however, is recommended for removing an Avali from danger.
