Seersa

The Seersa are a first generation Pelted race, originally engineered by humans on Earth.

Physical Description
The Seersa are a short vulpine race, with digitigrade legs, four fingers/toes per limb, and claws rather than nails.

Their sweat has been described in A Distant Sun as being a sweat/oil mixture.

Homeworld
Seersana, sister-world to the Karaka'A's world Karaka'Ana: they're both in the same solar system, and Seersana is the one in the closer orbit.

Calendar
Has a 340-day year, which the Seersa have split up into four seasons of four months each. Each month is 21 days, giving each season 85. There's a "leap week" of four days in midsummer.

Seersan weeks are ten days long. They kept their creators' 2-day weekend, but that still gives them an extra two days per week of work. There are 34 weeks in a year.

Language
The Seersa are the Alliance's premier linguists, with a natural aptitude for languages they facilitate with a strong cultural focus, both on their own language and the languages of the remainder of the Alliance; natural, since they helped design most of the core Pelted's languages during the Exodus.


 * Main Article: Seersan Glyphs

The Seersa language is constantly growing, increasing by an average of five to fifteen words a day. The first thing on the news on Seersana is the new words created the day before, and there is a world-wide network accessible any time of the day for Seersa to suggest new words, debate over their meanings, and finally offer them in their most final form to become part of the language. They can also use this network to discover what new words have been added, and to read new compositions, poems, hear new songs, and hear recitations. This is very much a part of Seersan life; many of them are poets, diplomats, singers, and writers of all kinds. One of the reasons that the Seersa make premier linguists is that they have incorporated all the possible phones into their language (and if they discover a new one, it's not long before it enters their native tongue). Because of this, most Seersa have a fascinating lack of accent when speaking foreign tongues.

Religion
The Seersa's religion and entire culture hinges on language. To them, words are holy and powerful; when you make a promise you keep it, or you will be cursed all your life; when you say something, it is often said it will be as you say. This all comes from the idea that God, who is called the Speaker-Singer, made the universe by creating the words that defined it. Thusly, to the Seersa, to speak of something is to make it. If there were no words to define the trees outside, it is a fervent Seersa belief that they would not exist.

Other Figures
The Seersa spawn many myths out of their love of speech and writing. One of the most enduring of those sets is the Four Sisters, Ocean; Rispa, or Ice, sometimes Mist (aspirated 'p'); Fire; and Spera, Earth (aspirated 'p'). The Ocean sister is colored in deep teals, murky greens and blues and is vast, deep in her knowledge but difficult to talk to. Rispa is colored in watery blues, grays, greens and whites, and she is cold and unapproachable, ephemeral as mist. Fire is passionate and dancing, impatient and quick to heat, and she is colored in bright reds and oranges and streaks of fiery blue and white, and Spera is deep browns and spring time greens shading to the deep greens of the forest...she is timeless and dark, immobile and slow, filled with deep harsh passions that crack to the surface once in a Seersa's lifetime.

Notable Characters

 * Pelipenele Argentson
 * Khaska/Laniis
 * Kellen Grove
 * Solysyrril