DremachirDraft

Overview

The Dremachir Homeworld, Drema.

Dremachir (Dreh-mah-kheer) is the blanket-name given to the vast collective of genetic divergent subspecies originating from Auril, mostly located within their chaotic planet-world, Drema, within the Daedal system. Their homeworld is a resource-rich, dark, dusty planet with large uninhabitable wastes and dotted with sulphur-rich lakes that have an eerie, orange glow. Despite nearly three centuries of consistent efforts by the colonisers, the planet remains a hostile environment. Most of the habitable hotspots, where vast aquifiers of water along with other natural resource pockets were discovered, were occupied and turned into expansive, country-sized megalopoli with little to no planetary oversight or governance. Nowadays, the Dremachir world serves as a local sector center of commerce and services, where one can buy, find or hire almost anything they might desire.

The Dremachir themselves are a varied, inconsistent mixture of various nations, groups, gangs and subspecies, the only concretely unifying trait among them being having little desire to be fully integrated into the core Auril society.

Planet

Drema, translated from the Auril tongue into 'Shadow', is a large rocky body with an outward hostile appearance. It has had several centuries of consistent volcanic activity which has resulted in the planet being mostly covered in volcanic ash, and the air within filled with a variety of less-than-pleasant minerals and compounds. Nevertheless, the air is safe to breathe if filtered, and the entire planet has been undergoing intentional, and unintentional, climate change over the centuries of inhabitance by the colonists. This has resulted in the current-day Drema of developing a variety of sparse pockets of exotic vegetation, oasi of water and other more distinct biomes, to the point some parts of the planet even get regular sunlight, particularly around the Auril Enclave. Each City has its own biosphere which ensures filtered air coming in and an ability to safely be outside, apart from a couple of notable exceptions, they essentially have their own giant biomes and climate, optimised for whatever it is the saturated society had a need, or desire for, or as a consequence of such.

The world has several satellites in orbit, many of them home to various luxury hotels, negotiation venues and resorts.

Biology

Dremachir as a name is a blanket term for a large variety of mutations, subspecies and mixed breeds that have emerged over the centuries the planet had been isolated. Exposure to a variety of interested alien cultures, particularly human, also led to some Chir specifically tailing their bodies for appeal, or even lack of. In turn, most Xenoanthropologists have given up trying to document all the various subspecies that are not sterile, simply blanketing them as "Dremeri". Though, this mostly came after a couple of curious groups went missing after attempting to leave one of the safer megalopoli.

Subspecies

In spite of the almost granular deviation from even potentially each individual, there have been general similar traits observed among the Dremeri. In particular, many of them have developed a filtration mechanism inside of them that creates protrusions as mineral deposits. Depending on the origin of the individual, from wealth to parenthood, they may portrude from their head, and be smooth, or be numerous and coming out of their joints, chest, back or any other location. Some of the subspecies may create hardy or particularly sharp horns, while others may have them be sensitive to touch or other stimuli, though they opt to live in more open spaces to avoid doorframes.

• Lilin -- "Flower" the core inhabitants of Lust and are the most consistent in appearance, often labelled as "Succubi" or "Incubi" depending on gender. They're often winged, with elegant horn, smooth skin and a variety of sexual enhancements and modifications to appeal to humans and other clientele. Due to the nature of Lust's primary service, they have a variety of approaches to fertility. Some may require specific hormones, others have muscles blocking off the relevant organs, or other means. Being unconditionally infertile, while not unheard of, is rare.
• Khor -- "Punch" Wrath's primary denizens. Noted by their large sizes, ram-like horns and fierce tempers. They're tribal in nature, and most of their modifications came from needing to wrangle and wrestle the hardy fauna located around their city. While almost queer in the eyes of the modern space society, and even other Dremeri, they are best-adapted to the traversal and survival in the Wastes, as their mule caravans, mounted by local domesticated animals 'Urna', can be more reliable, and at times faster, than anything mounted on wheels.
• Belph -- "Lazy", part of the ever-reclusive Sloth population. They are known to be anything either quite thin and frail, or rotund and stout. In spite of their Eehin bodies, they have made a very notable exonet presence for themselves, often posing as Holo-tubers, and even beating out prominent Lilins. They're noted by an overreliance on limb extensions, mechatronics and conveyor belts.
• Ashmedai -- "Sand Eaters", is the general term for the blending pot of bandits and raiders that live in the various caves, mountains and underground locations across the greater wastes of Drema. They often have the most rudimentary of modifications, their mineral filtering resulting in spikes more than horns, with most of their efforts put into survivability, hardiness and avoiding Wrath's khalazars. The gangs often comprised of multiple other subspecies.
• Ashin -- "Of Sand", the most populous subterranean group. They're noted for being short, with stubby limbs and excellent darksight. They're the key maintainers of the vast, planet-spanning underground network of tunnels, tracks and undercities, though not the exclusive ones.

These are not exclusive ones, as there are many intermixed and minor branches spread throughout the planet.

History

Preface

Documentation that can be considered in any way official and of Dremachir origin is sparse at best. Each city, village, factory and potentially even household can have a different recounting of any number of events, especially ones predating the Auril attempt at reclaiming Drema. However, this does not mean that Auril and Dremachir scholars alike didn't try. In spite of the planet's weather tending towards massive dust-storms that used to bury entire villages, hostile fauna and even more hostile locals, a somewhat consistent thread in the tumultuous history of the planet and its people was found. The events as described aren't to be taken as gospel.

The Collapse

Despite being the oldest event relative to the Dremachir history, it is not the vaguest. The original self-replicating genetic modification colony facilities that were built before the Vox invasion on the Auril homeworld are still standing. The same facility was also replicated in every major megalopolis on the planet. The logs extracted from the machinery paint a somewhat clearer picture. Facing complete cut off from the core system, the local Drema Aurils seemingly spread out towards the most habitable or otherwise exploitable locations on the planet's surface, and subsurface, and using genetic caches from the original facility, began adapting themselves for the varied environments they faced. Despite the rather obvious conclusion, the mechanics of it remain a mystery, as few means of planetary logistics were available at the time, and fewer for additional construction.

Nevertheless, this marked the seeds of the dwellings, and the distinctly varied genetic nature of the now-forming Dremachir, as every locale required different treatments for optimal survival -- which was likely seen as preferable at the time.

The Aid & Rejection

Decades later an investigative Human fleet was retracing the path of the same Vox flotilla that ravaged the Auril world and discovered the Daedal system. While the primary planet they scouted was Aura, all they received was a declination of any aid whatsoever, despite the planet's visibly ravaged state. Drema, however, sent back several pings of request for aid, each from different locations on the planet. The fleet soon sent out additional beacons and began to coordinate supplying and building up the existing external infrastructure. It is believed they were the main contributors to the technological maintainability and the establishment of some form of rudimentary logistical network between the clusters of life on the surface. At this point, the Dremachir were taking shape in distinguished subspecies, and the underground expanses were being discovered and starting to be exploited.

The logs of the charitable fleet in question gave us a rough estimate of several years of continuous aid, it noting that every major establishment was provided with adequate self-sustaining provisions based on the varying needs per 'city', while also laying the backbone of commerce, as docks and guiding satellites were setup to facilitate the operations. However, with the rising self-sufficiency of each dense pocket came rivalries between them over yet-unclaimed destinations, or simply due to the growing cultural differences. This resulted in several individual groups actively robbing and looting the aiding fleet to the point several ships were abducted to aid in a local war and they decided to pull out. This marked the beginning of the locally nicknamed 'Great Screw Up' -- a tumultuous time of constant warring between the growing distinct factions and cities.

The Humanphage

With the human fleet departed, the entire planet was left to fend for itself once more, resulting in the isolated, growing cities diversifying further, influenced by their hostile neighbors and differing ideals. However, this didn't last longer than a few decades at most, as the news of a "Hell planet" had spread, and aspiring explorers, prospectors and other interested parties from various Orion reaches began to visit. Given the state of almost every faction had decayed, the humans were welcomed back, and trade pacts were beginning to form. The first such Sol traders, either as a happenstance joke, or due to the environment on the planet, decided to name the cities after the Christian deadly sins. The very first city nicknamed like this was also the main trading hub, and was appropriately named 'Greed'. Ever-growing demand of the planet's resources began to speed up the overall development, with service and industry beginning to solidify, all under the purview of Greed's now-made magnates, which helped fund the slow formation of Lust and Sloth, as humans provided the means to industrialize, and a growing appetite for service.

It is around this time that the underground network was established, handled by a modified, imp-like subspecies of the original Drema colonists. Travel over the surface was hardly safe for any shipping platforms, be it from turbulent weather or the ever-present bandits.

The Auril Return

Unfortunately, Drema was not the sole society growing from an increased exposure to the galactic trade networks. The Aurils, who had been quietly rebuilding their system decided to reclaim their colony. Their prior attempts at contacting them through satellites and other remote means met with little consistent response, to the point they instead contacted a human ship and was met with seemingly alien responses. Driven by a newer set of ideals and the obtuse, Auril AI named Arbitrator seeing it beneficial to exploit Drema, their previous kin sent a fleet to get in contact. This marked the first time Drema assembled a 'planetary council' of sorts, which they named "The Seven", quite literally because seven people showed up from the growing population centers. Auril representatives seeing warped members of their own kind was expected -- after all, the genetic modification facilities were deployed there with an intention to have the population adapt to the environment on a more granular level. However, this did not extend to such vast mutations in their eyes, and especially did not extend to having aliens on the same council, as the representative from 'Greed' was from a corporation that had already begun expanding its reach on the planet's surface. The negotiations were unsuccessful, as Aurils were already developing their stringent stubborness and neither humans or the Chir were willing to become, essentially, vassalized.

The Dremachir War

The following years were riddled with ever-increasing tensions as the Auril fleet begun to slowly encroach upon Drema's space. Having a rebuilt network of colonies and a functional, rebuilt planet with a far more cohesive government allowed Aurils to outpace any Drema's attempts at arming themselves, barring direct supply from any corporate allies. The state on the surface of Drema also led to a boiling of various tensions, as alliances formed and faded, and negotiations became completely unreliable, as most corporate interests were not lending themselves to war, 'The Seven' having become a dozen, or five, or any other number at any point as the apparent sense of impending war riled the factions, while the now thoroughly distinct cultures from each city had different demands and preferences, all the while Aurils did not yield or change a single word of their official, initial demand. The only two consistent negotiators were Greed and Wrath, both of which seemed to be willing to stand their ground. One driven by a developed culture of conflict, the other having corporate-allied mercenaries ready to join any conflict.

The inciting incident was one of Greed's water treatment plants being destroyed by an explosion. The accounts of who did it differ. Some people believe it was a false flag operation, while some say Aurils were the first to fire. Wrath Khanlords in particular claim that "They did it to get on with it." Regardless, the following conflict started with a wholesale invasion of Greed as the primary target by the Auril forces. The exact reasoning for this is not known, but of all the city-states Greed had the "most" reasons -- led primarily by aliens and their interests, had the most organised forces and had the largest supply of liquid water inside of the surrounding mountains and aquifiers. The city itself fell within a human-month, however the rest of the planet proved far more difficult -- the hired mercenaries prevented any real mobilization for another city landing, and the state of ground warfare was extremely dire. The Aurils could not utilize their natural aerial advantage due to the harsh weather, and the vast underground network of tunnels proved to be excellent terrain for guerilla warfare. The imp-like Chir sinking entire formations and bases in ambushes, and harassing the occupied 'Greed' from underground.

The result was an exhausting, attrition-based conflict that stretched out to decades, as Aurils slowly took over the airspace of Drema and organised retaliatory bombardments of any attacks, and had flooded all of their single occupied city's tunnels, barricading the rest of the underground entries. For the haphazard Chir alliances, particularly the other cities, the war was just as costly, as any above-ground functions were exposed and vulnerable. All the while the new occupied Enclave had slowly begun assimilating into Auril rule and, quite notably, proved to be quite stable and secure in the latter part of the war. The population was not subject the full brunt of all Auril expectations, and the species intermingled there, as volunteers and exiles were sent to Drema. Seeing this, many of the corporations begun to pull back from supporting Dremachir, seeing Auril rule as being literally better for business on their end. The municipal governments in the cities thought similarly, and soon enough 'The Seven' had gathered again to sign the Treaty of Light. It mandated that Drema was now under the rule of Aura, but maintained its independence to self-govern, barring 'Grave offenses to the Established Rule', and supported Aura in resources in any projects they deemed necessary.

Current Day

After the war, the blockade was lifted, and the planet was fully open to commerce once more, yet with more Auril supervision. This essentially led to its current day -- pockets of sprawling megalopoli surrounded by small villages, camps and tribes on the surface, with a bustling underground network of entire 'undercities'. The Enclave, more appropriately nicknamed to, 'Pride', along with every other city had expanded their borders, reach and influence, yet the planet itself remains difficult to tame, and few factions desire another open conflict with the Aurils -- there are often enough enemies around any one individual than to worry about a vague enemy they hardly see at all.

Culture

Most sociologists that chose, or were chosen to study the world, has concluded that Drema's culture as a defined, singular concept does not exist. Just like far-flung past of Sol, it's split into major countries, each one with their own values so starkly different that besides the language and a convenient tell of the horns, one could barely tell they're from the same planet, let alone the same 'species'.

Wrath

A megalopolis in the center of vast, rainbow-colored jungles, is the main domain of the Wrath tribes, seated atop a large aquifier layer of liquid water. The city itself stands in defiance of the general flora of the planet, as it's a lush, dense jungle covered in various trees, bushes and other plants, all serving as an enduring shield from the elements and one of the few oasi on the surface that provides "clean" air -- this being done entirely naturally. The actual structures themselves do not extend far past the treeline, most of its buildings being made flat and one or two stories at most, with the exception of the palaces of the tribelords. The city itself is split into various regions, governed by a distinct colored tribe, and their affiliated flora, with the city itself spanning more the size of an entire conventional country in sheer area, with its own distinct, smaller biomes pocking the surface. Various tribal convoys can be seen coming and going out of the perimeter, mounted with mechanised motorcycles or their 'mules', spreading their colors outward.

Tribes

The tribes are the main source of all the growths surrounding, and comprising, Wrath. The origin of their distinctions is disputed, as most of the history is kept oral, and the constant warring has left few if any elders that even remember there being a people before them, on Aura. Their specific genetic modification facility is no longer present, instead, it seems specific plants have been turned into makeshift producers of elixirs for them, aided by various attachments built overtime. Each major tribe had their own source, and is speculated to be the reason behind their visual and belief-based differences, as a theory is that the major plantlife that was used as the basis affected the genetic material, giving the user a sense of 'instincts' that come from how that plant functioned -- be it a weed, a tree, a fungi or a more standard-based plant.

Each tribe carries their own beliefs and, very importantly, their own colors. While each tribe has its own way of spreading, recruiting and functioning, they all end up spreading their seeds into the parched soil of the sandy planes one way or another. The process is often ritualistic and can be done off of muleback, or spread via giant funnels, not too dissimilar from agricultural equipment. The seeds, distinctly colored, eventually flourish and grow, and each group's plants are different. Some grow fast and wither away quickly, if not maintained, others take strong root and need to be burned or sprayed to be reseeded by another tribe.

Only within the multi-colored gates of Wrath is there a sense of balance among the groups, as repeated wars there have resulted in more than one fire that required combined effort of reseeding. No blood is told to be shed there, nor any arms are to be made.

The number of variations among the mixed breeds and colors makes extensive documentation nigh-impossible, except for the bravest of explorers, especially as smaller groups have mixed and matched the plant-based genetic materia. Regardless, the major ones are known:

- Redskins. An aggressive, motorised group that spreads itself far, wide and thin. The plants it breeds are lengthy and flatten against the ground, allowing them to be easily driven-over by the motorcycle convoys of the tribe. Their belief of life is that it is short, and must be experienced to its fullest. Likewise, it is one of the few tribes to have openly adapted to use vehicles. They're often known as bandits, and their tribe is non-exclusive, often welcoming any Chir or even aliens alike.

- The Roots. The core tribe of Wrath and one responsible for most of its lush and long-lasting forests and core defenses of the inner city -- the thickly, dark trunks surrounding the perimeter were grown and fostered by the tribe and had endured most of the dire environment of Drema over the ages. Its members are often stoic and capable of seeing past short-term gains. Their mainly seen in green colors, be it skin or leafy or branchy appendages. Their 'recruitment' is a prolonged process, involving multiple 'bathings' in a rootpool, allowing various thorny branches to wrap around the subject and inject them, allowing for the genetic alterations to occur.

- Thornborn. A separated 'tribe', living in individual packs. Their identifying mark are giant, thorned branches that cover odd perimeters of their settlements. Their core beliefs are stemmed in strong family values, with true recruitment only being possible by mixed birth, with the child being a full, admitted member of their isolated societies. They're often noticed as purple, with various spikes and horns growing out of their bodies, including back and limbs.

Beyond these, the forests, swamps and plains of Wrath's expansive country is home to various vagabonds and loose, chaotic tribes with their own customs and ideals.

In spite of having access to a supply of water that is suspected to be the largest across the entire surface of the planet, the city-state still faces resource challenges, as the arid land requires fertilization, which can only be provided by other cities, along with power.

Sloth

A large perimeter of Auril-made turrets surround the interconnected network of railways that sprawl outward from the walled core of a technopolis known as Sloth, placed adjacent to a large, glistening mountain shelf that houses multiple compressed veins of precious ore. Established early on by a group of miners and engineers, it has since grown into the center of Drema's industrial production and a self-sufficient, automated pocket, kept isolated from the harsh realities of the planet.

The city's crux, borne from the practicality of miners and aspirations of engineers, is convenience and efficiency. Most of the city is densely packed, with most distances being manageable entirely on foot or via automated transport, with personal vehicles being rare and unnecessary in the eyes of the populus. Sloth served as the core provider of munitions and arms during the war, and suffered numerous bombardments due to this, resulting in most of the relevant production being moved underground, and allowing the city to be redesigned and rebuilt multiple times over. The ever-evolving efficiency was not ignored by the Aurils after the war, and the city remains one of the few to be actively preserved and guarded by Auril technology, with their own engineers providing direct aid to the instruments and processes.

In spite of this, and the near-universal need for Sloth's production, it has remained staunchly stable in how much it outputs and ships, with it taking human-decades for upgrades to occur. Naturally, this is still a cause of ire for the Auril establishment, as their needs and demand shifts and changes on a granular level, however, the sheer stability of Sloth is one they begrudgingly respect.

Due to the nature of Sloth, the denizens, nicknamed 'Belph' by most human media, have progressively evolved towards two distinctly different builds -- those of bulkier, stocky ones as their duties are often involved in resource extraction, process, manufacture, or towards lither, light builds as they serve as the designers and engineers. Fanatics of automation and robotics, the denizens have various exosuits accessible to them, ranging from ones meant to aid in direct labor to ones capable of repairs, lathing and transportation. Acquiring a license for one is near-crucial, and almost every citizen has an almost natural-borne tendency towards them. Their skin has universally turned paler, as the air in the city is filtered and it is not uncommon to see Slothborn be absent of any horns at all.

The city is led by a council of its original creators, left to slumber for long periods in cryostasis. Each of them had developed an AI personality to fill in for any minor administrative decisions. During the first decades, the AI was seen as rudimentary, and completely misaligned with the personalities of the actual council, requiring multiple persistent revivals. Overtime, it seems to have gained more refined accuracy, though some critics have observed that the priorities of the council had shifted as well, prompting some skeptics to speculate whether the AI adapted to the council, or if the council was adapted to the AI, as it had constant neural links to the members. The Auril government did not make any comment.

Sloth, however, has faced numerous issues over its growth and development. Key part being power, as the entire city is reliant on an excess that rivals the entire rest of the planet, and therefore unsurprisingly requires multiple large power plants and the fuel for such can only be provided by other cities, including Wrath and Pride, the former of which is frustratingly unstable in the amount it can, or would provide.

Lust

The bustling center of commerce and services, Lust is the most conventional city in appearance, with most of its structures and design following the principles of core Cosmopoli of Sol. Bustling streets, high-rises and an urban sprawl stretching out in every direction. There's a far higher density of humans and other species, either as workers or tourists. The skies around the city, while normally a wild, chaotic stream of stormclouds, is stabilised using their own engineered atmospheric anchors, shaped like dark obelisks stretching into the sky, allowing for traffic to come and go smoothly.

The city was founded in one of the few calm valleys on the planet's surface, where the weather was stable enough to allow for reliable air-transportation. This allowed Lust to be easily accessible compared to every other city at the time, including Greed. This led to it becoming an excellent transit hub for trade, and the ease of access led to a growing service industry, as various trader and hauling crews used the city as a port of rest. Once the Auril re-occupation began, however, Lust became a valuable target to attack and defend, resulting in constant orbital battles in and around its airspace. The growing stalemate of conventional warfare made Aurils consider other options, which resulted in Lust being the first target of concerted geoatmospheric military effort, originating from the newly founded Pride, along with a massive cave in of an entire mountain range. The results were successful, burying Lust in newly formed storms, that heavily the city's functions. The coalition of Drema, however, had already been developing weather stabilization technology, and Lust was the first location it was used on, the situation returning to a similar stalemate several years later.

After the war, Lust was slowly restored and built back up to a commerce and service center, though it being essentially entombed within a perimeter of atmospheric stabilization pylons resulted in the city being forced to be built in density, resulting in multiple layers, splitting the population up into a naturally-formed 'class' system, with the lower levels having far greater levels of poverty and crime than anything above. The consequential rise of the Daedal system as an attractive hub to Sol-bornes and alike resulted in ever-growing overpopulation, which in turn resulted in existing corporations being able to operate on extremely cutthroat policies, as any jobs and housing was in particular high-demand.

In spite of the natural formations of gangs, bootleg products and general unseemliness of the underbelly of the lower layers of Lust, the upper layers, mostly populated by tourists, retained a certain level of security and safety, mostly upheld by the largest density of Prefectures — the inter-city peacekeeping forces across the entire planet.

The city overtime had developed a very targeted class of genemodded population, named 'Lilin'. Crafted with specific intention of appealing to the most common customer — humans. From skin colors, facial structures to hair and limb shapes, whatever semblance of the original Auril was morphed among Lilin to an alien-within-an-alien appearance, which has garnered both attraction and repulsion from various supporters and critics alike. As a whole, Lilin often carry the least attachment to any individual or group, due to the natural entropy of identity that has happened overtime.

Lust is also one of the key exporters of media services from the entire Daedal system, as their affinity towards technology allowed them to establish various networks of media, particularly among human exanet circles. Streams, news, 'holotubers', stores and advertisement have all contributed to providing Drema, and Daedal, as a whole, an image of tourist and business attraction among humans and other aliens.

New Greed

The single largest orbital body in the entire Daedal system, the astropolis of New Greed is seated in one of the closest lagrange points of Drema, it is the newest addition to the list of population centers, and has come from a natural expansion of commerce and in defiance of certain Auril laws. The original takeover of Greed during the War, had resulted in gambling being outlawed on the 'grounds of Drema'. The loophole in the wording was never altered, in spite of Aurils being aware of it, and the station was permitted to function with limited autonomy. Naturally, it became the sole hub of gambling, and the most neutral ground for planetary and corporate negotiations alike.

It is not inhabited by any particular group, and it serves as another source of revenue and attraction, though most Aurils find the act of gambling confusing, as the quick gratification clashes with their long-term oriented mindsets, however some obsessive Aurils, particularly Incani, find the act a 'fun' mathematical challenge, and have been observed to spend thousands of games knowing that in the average they may come out on top. This has resulted in Aurils being limited, or outright banned in some venues.

Pride

A defiant set of high-rise towers, donned in distinct Auril colors pierce through the washed out palette of the planet, making the Metropolis of Drema a distinct sight even at the longest of distances. Founded by conquest, the remnants of the original, bustling center of corporate strength are left as enclosed memorial pieces, with the rest of the city having been rebuilt over the course of the war and the following peacetime. The law of the general Auril population is upheld, with all its expectations and support to the populus.

Pride holds the most diverse population relative to the rest of Auril-controlled territories, and prejudice based on unconventional traits is seen as impractical among Prideborn, with every official citizen being given equal treatment, and merit being rewarded with little bias.