Searchers - TheGiraffe3/Endless-Sky-Creators-Handbook GitHub Wiki
Original text, by mOctave
I have previously compared the Searchers to sloths, camels, and dinosaur-ish reptiles. Naturally, because they are not terrestrial in origin, they aren’t really either. Nevertheless, Searchers are DNA-based vertebrates that are warm-blooded and use the same amino acids as humans. The average adult Searcher is a little over half a metre tall, although there is a fair amount of variance. In general, you are unlikely to encounter a Searcher shorter than 40 centimetres or taller than 75. However, because the top two vertebrae of most Searcher’s spines are fused at an angle, they tend to hunch over and appear shorter than they really are.
As to their appearance, Searchers are four limbed, with three “fingers” per hand. The central finger on each hand is more of a flexible claw, while the other two are nothing short of opposable thumbs. While they typically walk on two “legs” and use two of their limbs as arms, Searchers retain more mobility in their feet than humans do in the modern age.
Most of a Searcher’s body is covered in short, coarse fur, although they tend to have very little facial fur and almost none on their hands. Searchers’ faces are typically angular and are dominated by two long ridges of bone that develop during childhood. The original purpose of these are unknown. Some Searcher biologists suggest that they were used in mating contests by the males of their ancestors, although female Searchers also bear them.
While most species that the player encounters in the galaxy are K-strategist, the Searchers are more R-strategist. That is to say, they produce far more offspring than they can reasonably care for, and have a high childhood mortality rate. Searchers reproduce in much the same way as humans, although with a gestation period of only four months. The females give birth to litters of live young, usually four to eight per litter.
During the first year or so of their life, Searchers receive little to no attention. The strong survive and flourish, but the weak often die. After their facial ridges grow in, however, Searchers begin to receive much more attention, and the mortality rate drops from 30% in infanthood down to 4% between infanthood and maturity.
Historically, this method has kept the Searcher population relatively stable, however in the last millennium or so the species has undergone a rapid population boom brought on by medical and scientific breakthroughs.
Over time, the Searchers have built up a cohesive, stable, and capable empire, driven by a complex caste system. On their capital and home world, Domum, the very highest-rank Searchers oversee the governance of their swath of space and remain well-defended from threats by the fact that their only connection to the rest of the galaxy is via one of four seemingly artificial wormholes.
Domum is the only market for starships of any sort outside of rebel forces, and it is the ultimate goal of any ambitious high-caste Searcher to own a village on its surface.
In the outer ring of systems, each planet is ruled by an oligarchy that reports in turn to Domum. The oligarchs’ words are law, and they care very little for the opinions or necessities of the common people. Commodities are traded for profit at carefully controlled prices, and the good of the people comes into it not at all.
Despite this, however, the Searchers’ governance is not all bad—in general the government is decisive when it needs to be, and usually stays out of the lives of the citizenry. There is less corruption than is typical in authoritarian governments, and taxes tend to be reasonable when they are collected at all.
The Searchers divide their populace into 14 castes, which are typically further divided into subcastes. These castes are generally divided into subcastes, which vary from planet to planet (although the subcastes of the Opex caste are consistent everywhere). These two factors determine the professions a Searcher can have, how they can marry, and the castes that their children are born into. Only an Erun-caste Searcher can own or fly a starship, for example.
Despite this, there is a long-standing tradition of adoption. When a young Searcher receives their facial ridges, there is a public ceremony. In this ceremony, a higher-caste family can choose to adopt a particularly promising child, raising their caste to that of the family. In this way, many skilled Searchers of low birth have managed to achieve great things—although far more have never had their gifts recognized.
While there are some rebels amongst the Searchers, they do not become a significant group until the arrival of the player in their space, at which point they begin to organize the Revolution. Any who are found out are dealt with mercilessly.
The Searchers first discovered space flight when they were at a Renaissance-level society. In many places on their home planet, they had just turned to look at the stars with an eye to conquer them when they observed a Quarg ship in orbit around their planet. Unable to make out details, they still noticed that it was plainly artificial in origin and were spurred into action.
Since then, the Searchers have always maintained a focus for space exploration and have grown to a vast empire, ever prepared for any sort of alien first contact. They have never seen the Quarg since, although the Quarg keep a careful eye on them.
Overall, the Searchers have a technology level somewhere between that of the Hai and the Korath, fuelled by an unusual drive to understand everything in the universe around them unmatched even by humans. However, some aspects of Searcher technology—such as their scanning devices and language-processing equipment—are at a much higher level, likely because of their desire to understand aliens when they eventually came calling.
As part of their quest to prepare for first contact with any alien species, the Searchers have developed very capable translators over the last thousand years or so. Additionally, they are very careful to maintain their balance of power by translating everything into English (or the ES equivalent), for the player’s purpose. They tend to be very formal and use the term “thou” instead of “you” when addressing the player as a means of respect—and quite possibly they make intentional mistakes as a way of making the player feel at ease. Planet names are translated into Latin, systems are given the human names of elementary particles, and everything is carefully engineered to make the monkey feel at home.
Similarly, the Searchers are very careful to remain pacifistic, claiming that they “have no capability for hate” and only have weapons for the purpose of defense. However, all of their ships are heavily armed, and they do not hesitate to use nuclear weapons on the player within their planets’ atmospheres if First Last does not go along with their plans.
On the other hand, the rebels among the Searchers are much less formal, preferring to avoid the traditional honorifics they deem unnecessary and draw as much attention to their military capabilities as possible.
Searcher space is divided into three sections: the inner home system, the main ring on which most Searchers live, and a few scattered outer systems that they have yet to colonize and are inaccessible without a jump drive. While Domum is the centre of the Searchers’ civilization, it is relatively inhospitable, and the population on the farming, manufacturing, and research worlds of the outer ring is far higher. The connecting wormholes provide both a means for the government to control the citizenry and a way to reach the home system, as it is inaccessible even with a jump drive.
Searcher ships are generally boxy and large, carrying a large number of drones. They require a large number of crew to service their equally large but less boxy outfits. In general, Searcher ships are much larger than they are capable, but still efficient if you’re willing to pay a premium for them. The smallest hypership, the Temple, is similar in size to the Argosy, while the largest is slightly smaller than the Emerald Sword.
There is one larger ship, the Ragnarok, that serves to guard Domum from any potential threat. It is almost more of a space station than a ship, however, and is not obtainable by the player.
Colour has an important aspect to the Searchers, being a significant part of their language. In general, the colour something is painted helps establish context for any text written on it, and provides any Searcher with a quick way to help identify one of otherwise similar mechanical parts, books, boxes, or even foodstuffs.