The Karaka'A are one of the foundational races of the Alliance and are closest in resemblance to the original engineered experiments on Earth that would later produce the Pelted.
Pronunciation[]
Say 'car ah kah AH.' Singular is "Karaka'An."
Description[]
In general, short individuals with a higher percentage of animal-like faces. Feline in seeming, with housecat points on their ears and heavy digitigrade legs. Four fingers and four toes, with retractable claws. Can have many kinds of patterning, including housecat (Siamese points, for example) and fox-like (masks). Big cat patterning is also possible, but not as common.
Homeworld[]
Karaka'Ana, which is part of the doubled world that houses its sister race, the Seersa, on its pair.
Dump From Guidebook[]
THE KARAKA'A
SINGULAR: A Karaka'An PLURAL: Several Karaka'A POSSESSIVE: Karaka'An items
SOCIETAL THINGS:
general attitude
RELIGION
The Karaka'A and the Seersa both took their mainstream religions from their databanks on human culture. The Karaka'A chose as their primary religion that of Christianity. Though they did not take with them the idea of Jesus Christ, the idea of one God did follow them. There are many scattered religions on Karaka'An, but almost all of them worship only one God. The primary religion names that God 'An'...the secondary religion ascribes both genders to God and calls Him/Her 'Bast', after the Egyptian goddess of cats. These two religions are almost neck-to-neck in popularity, and share good will and a sort of bemused sisterhood. The religious leader of the religion of An is a male who is married to the religious leader of the religion of Bast, and there is a great deal of public affection for both of the figures.
PAIRING/RELATIONSHIPS
The Karaka'A are monogamous, and especially protective. Their marriage rites are very sacred; this is postulated because the Seersa and Karaka'A saw so much what happened to people or children torn apart or disillusioned by divorce or affairs. Before marriage, Karaka'A are not promiscuous; virginity is highly valued simply because as the playthings of scientists it was often taken from them without their will. Rape is an unspeakable thing because of this, and those who committ it are usually imprisoned for their lives. The ability to choose when one will have intercourse is, to the Karaka'An culture, a symbol of the freedom they fought so hard for at human hands.
FAMILY
Women on childbed are cared for, usually personally by their husbands, and once the children are born, the companies or offices they work for usually put both mother and father on the equivalent of a part-time schedule, so that they can share the raising of the litter. Though the Karaka'A do not live with their parents, they do invite cousins and sisters/brothers to live with them and help them care for the children, as having three cubs at once to care for is usually too much for two people. Once the cubs reach adolescents, or old childhood, the relatives usually take their leave; it is considered a great honor to be chosen by one's family member to help care for their children, and the chosen relative in question will usually happily postpone their plans to have children to gain the experience of taking care of them. However, if the relative already has plans to have children at the time they are asked, they usually politely turn down the request.
Law system
GOVERNMENT
The Karaka'A have a strange balance of democracy and republic, possibly because there are almost no un-schooled people on their planet. The 'masses' are well-educated, thus being ruled by the elite, as was the idea in the original republic, is being mostly ruled by the masses. The Karaka'A, having two major land-masses, have two presidents, who together are the executive branch of the planet; the presidents are checked by the planetary Congress, whose representatives are elected by the people from their continental Congresses. There is only one judicial branch for the entire planet, to check the duplex nature of the executive and legislative branches. Karaka'An love their politicians, as their history began with the endless politics and planning of a covert rebellion that required them to win over each race and practically each individual...but to them, politics is more of an exercise than a deadly game, and most citizens enjoy the friendly debate that rises among those with differing opinions. Many cities even have a hall used specifically for the purpose of citizens to debate publicly and have the audience throw them arguments or questions...in fact, many of the politicians attend these debates, and are viewed with great affection by the citizens, who appreciate the fact that he/she is there to get a 'feel' for public opinion, or to see an idea get worked out by different minds and a different perspective.
ECONOMY
Karaka'An is an industrialized planet. They export manufactured goods and import food from other, agrarian worlds, mostly from the Malarai. A great deal of upheaval occured when the Tam-illee produced the Genie technology, but this was smoothed over by the fact that a Genie had to have a pattern to replicate, or it could not make a specific object. Thus many companies who dealt in food or amenities such as soap or toothbrushes started selling patterns instead of the physical product, keyed to work only with a specific serial number, that of the customer's replicator. The fashion industry benefited a great deal from only selling patterns, though they also twisted around to make hand-made garments a luxury. All other manufacturers are given permits to use replicators and these companies stamp their products, so that the consumer will be informed that they are legally producing their products. Black market goods are unusual because patterns for objects need to be obtained, and also need to be perfect, or the product will not work properly.
HISTORY
The Karaka'A have the honor of being the instigators of the movement to ship the engineered races to space, abetted by a few bold Seersa. In general, the Karaka'A were not as intelligent as those who designed them, a trait put in them on purpose so that they would be obedient and willing to be tested on. However, one or two of the brighter ones began to realize they were being used and, in collusion with a couple of the fiercely intelligent and daring Seersa, and (rumor has it) one or two of the human scientists, they redesigned their matrices to include intelligence on par with that of their human counterparts. As they became smarter, they banded together in secret, until finally, united as a whole, they told the scientists who had created them from raw DNA and replicated embryos that they would no longer be used in this fashion; they demanded that they and their sister races would be given the respect and rights of any other being, or they would go public. This rebellion took much time, and by the time it happened, humans had engineered 10 races, which the Karaka'A coordinated and held together through sheer will, uniting them despite the obsequious or dependant natures forced on them unwilling through genetics or psychology. The Karaka'A, along with the Seersa, were the only races who kept in whole the story of how they came to be, and were fiercely proud of their role in it. However, as time went by, this knowledge became much less common, until finally it was not alluded to at all and forgotten.
Special customs/rites
TRADITIONAL DRESS
The traditional dress of the Karaka'A looks remarkably the opposite of what they were forced to wear as the assistants and animals of scientists...which was either nothing at all, or a lab uniform. The Karaka'An traditional dress is a split skirt dress with no sleeves for women, and the same dress over short breeches for men, with sandles especially designed for their digitigrade feet.
LANGUAGE
The Common Tongue of the Alliance, 'Universal', was the contrivance of the Karaka'A and the Seersa, who saved in all parts the english language and its dialect of 20th century earth. Every Alliance member's schools teach Universal, and it is a Fleet requirement to learn it, as well as requirements for diplomatic training. The Karaka'An, aside from one or two highly inflected words saved from the time of the rebellion on Earth (there used as passwords to keep secret their intentions), use Universal as their language.
ARTS
The Karaka'A took with them examples of all the arts of Terra, and developed masters in almost all those disciples. However, one of its greatest achievements was the adaptation and the development of extraordinary excellence in ballet. The Karaka'An Ballet is truly monumental, and they hold performances often and are visited regularly by all the leaders of the doubled worlds. In fact, it is not unusual to see the ambassadors of Karaka'An bringing the leaders of other worlds, including those petitioning to enter the Alliance to see the ballet. Some of the greatest works of human ballet have been kept, and there are several great Karaka'An composers for the ballet as well. Included in these works saved by the Karaka'A is the Nutcracker, though it is a mystery to them until they meet the humans again what 'Christmas' is. The Karaka'An ballet differs from that of humans in that it involves stillness as its primary component of beauty: the ability to strike a pose and retain it for long periods of time is the crux of the art.
Leaders, religious/governmental
NAMING CUSTOMS
Karaka'An naming customs are like that of humans, consisting of a first name the hallmark of the individual and a last name that denotes the lineage of the individual. Many of the popular Karaka'An names are either unusual English names that the Karaka'An of Earth were named, or strange twistings of those names, either to be different, or to provide a pun on their furred condition ('cat'lin, or 'tail'itha). Last names resemble those of humans, with many of them taking the last names of scientists or human friends they wanted to remember.
food
schooling
crime
TECHNOLOGY LEVEL
The Karaka'A retained all knowledge of humans in the 20th century, and all knowledge of processes as well as end products; thus, upon landing on Karaka'An and colonizing it, they went from the current level of humans and worked feverishly from there. There are many scientists and engineers on Karaka'An, possibly because of the material they themselves engineered into their matrices to provide them with greater intelligence.
cities
transportation
holidays
PEOPLE OF THIS RACE MENTIONED IN STORIES:
Alysha Forrest, Taylitha Basil, Alastar Virgil, Isolde Garreaux, Morgan Goldsmith
PHYSICAL THINGS:
AVERAGE HEIGHT male: 5'3" - 5'10" female: 4'6" - 5'6"
AVERAGE AGE male: 115 years female: 119 years
HOW THEY EVOLVED
The Karaka'A were the second race engineered by humans; they were made for scientists who wanted lab helpers to do drudge-work, and to be experimented and tested on instead of rabbits or other lab animals. This being the case, they were engineered for both obedience and endurance; a few were engineered with appearance also in mind, for those scientists who liked five to fifteen minute diversions from their work. Though mostly engineered from house cats and humans, there is a great deal of canine DNA in their matrices.
APPEARANCE
The Karaka'A are digitigrade cats, sisters practically to the Seersa, as they were engineered within a few months of one another. They grow hair and shed with the seasons, some have slitted pupils, and all have four fingers and toes. All have retractable claws on their feet and hands, a genetic 'flub' possibly baked into them for their own protection. Like the Seersa, the Karaka'An have no gag reflex (possibly engineered so that they would not reject foreign substances that may be poisonous, a helpful trait for lab animals).
Special Attributes
REPRODUCTION
The Karaka'A have fewer problems with reproduction than the later races because the genetic engineers who made them didn't tinker much with it. They allowed the Karaka'A to keep the reproductive type of cats. Thus, most females go into a mild heat in winter and usually give birth in summer. Once pregnant, the women usually stay abed, as they give birth to small litters, usually of two to three babies. Karaka'An males are viable at all times of the year. What few problems the Karaka'A had in sexual conjunction and birth they solved by tinkering with their own material; because they had worked so closely with scientists, they already knew how to engineer much better than any of their brethren. Strangely enough, the Karaka'A can have children with humans, as can the Seersa...this was probably the work of some of the scientists, who either wanted to see if it was possible, or play a joke on those who bought the Seersa for pleasure. However, upon noting the problems Tam-illee have in reproduction, this theory came into question...how could humans, who so obviously could not make reproductive systems work if they tampered with them, do something as complicated as make human and Karaka'An/Seersa DNA mix successfully? Further research seems to indicate that it was the work of one brilliant scientist, who possibly wanted to integrate the engineered races into the human culture, and upon seeing how the engineered races were being used, became disillusioned and quit the project.
GESTATION six months
Longevity, age timeline
COLORING
Karaka'A sport mostly the colors and patterns of housecats; even siamese Karaka'A are not uncommon. They can be color that a housecat can be, and any pattern common to housecats. They are almost never spotted however, and NEVER have ocelot, jaguar, leopard, or margay type rosettes or spots. If Karaka'A DO have spots, they are limited to those like to cheetahs. Tabby Karaka'A are also uncommon. Karaka'A can have eyes any color a human's may be, and any color a housecat's may be. Their claws are usually whiteish to brownish, but never black and never pure white. Some rare Karaka'An sometimes have dog patterned coats.
PLANETARY THINGS:
NAME OF PLANET Karaka'An
CLIMATE temperate to cold
PERCENT WATER 60%
Land masses
Special ores, stones?
Special plants, fauna?
Exports specific to?
NUMBER OF MOONS Karaka'An has no moons, however, they have a double planet, Seersana. Of the two, Karaka'An is smaller by a miniscule percentage.
Type of sun?
LOCATION Sector Alpha, center of the Seat of the Alliance.