Time Corp Races: Filaani

Time Corp Races: Filaani

Next we come to the Filaani, pronounced "Fill-ah-nee". Native to Cesta, these tiny winged creatures are the heart of the Time Corp.

Filaani evolved as predatory omnivores on their homeworld, which has lighter gravity and higher amounts of free oxygen than Earth. They formed huge communes of like-minded individuals, which eventually became cities and nations.

Being incredibly curious, Filaani soon developed science and technology. Very breifly they enjoyed a single government that spanned the globe, seperated into six equal sections. Under this rule their knowledge flourished, leading to incredibly strides in both mechanical and biotechnology.

The Filaani began exploring outward from their home system, developing incredibly powerful yet compact hyperdrives to deal with the gravitational snarl of the triple suns of their home system. They ranged outwards, exploring several nearby systems, but finding no intelligent life save for the vicious M'krann.

After several nasty skirmishes with the M'krann, the Filaani turned inward gave up travel outside their system. Soon after, their society began to collapse. The rulers of one of the six territories on Cesta began vying for more power. They seduced two other territories to their side, and launched a quick strike at the other three. Luckily, the others had warning of the treachery, and banded together, fighting back, trying to stop the war as quickly as possible.

By the time the war was over, Cesta was a ravaged ruin. Immense areas of the surface were reduced to little more than radioactive craters, billions of lives had been lost, and the ecosystem was hanging by a thread. The new government, the Council, began the long task of putting Cesta back together. Using their incredibly advanced technology, they rebuilt Cesta, terraforming it into a paradise with a stable, almost pastoral ecosystem. They also turned inward, weeding out harmful recessive genes, and reinforcing their beneficial natural talents.

At the end of six hundred years, Cesta was a paradise, and the Filaani were reborn a gifted, wonderful race. But the old weapons and technology were still there, and now and again a young hothead would gather a band of rogues under his wing, and wars would be fought. The Council decreed that all technology above a medieval level would be banned, and enforced it ruthlessly. Two hundred years later, the last Battle of Technology was fought, and the matter was thought to be finished.

In the centuries since they had laid down their technology, the vast terraforming machines buried beneath the surface of Cesta had begun to break down, and earthquakes, volcanoes, and incredibly destructive storms began to sweep the once-beautiful planet as nature began resuming its' course.

Close to three thousand years later a renegade group of human soldiers crashed their ship on Cesta, and the Filaani race was once again shaken. This group was on the run from the High Command on Earth, and had effectively stranded themselves. The two races made contact, and after a few minor misunderstandings, began to cooperate. The Filaani exchanged asylum and friendship to the humans, and in return the humans began deciphering and rebuilding the Filaani's ailing machines. Over time the two races have become equal partners, and founded the Time Corp. Since then, Filaani have been almost inseperable from the humans of the Time Corp in spite of their differences in size and society.

Filaani are small humanoids with white wings that look like a cross between butterfly and angel wings. They possess four-fingered hands, and generally wide eyes that are slightly too big by human standards.These give them incredibly acute vision, as well as excellent peripheral vision. Most Filaani are about two feet tall. They possess two hearts on opposite sides of their chests, and three lungs. The third lung, directly in the center of their chest, acts like an oxygen supercharger, giving them long bursts of increased stamina and strength for flying. A non-flying Filaani who is breathing heavily using all three lungs tends to be surprisingly strong for their size, and often moves in rapid, short jerks. An angry Filaani makes an odd buzzing, high-pitched growl because of this organ.

Filaani skeletons, with the exception of their skulls, are made entirely of tough, lightweight cartilage. This makes them incredibly flexible, and allows them to fly. Their wings are little more than jointed cartilage frameworks covered by thousands of strong muscles. They can clench, unclench, or flex their wings to obtain maximum lift and maneuverability. Filaani can fly at average speeds of about 37 m.p.h., for distances of about twelve miles at a time. A Filaani with clenched wings on the ground is either upset or in pain.

The most unique feature the Filaani possess, however, is their ability to "pair", or make a permanent empathic bond with each other, as well as with humans. Once fully mature, both male and female Filaani have the ability to pair. During the pairing, the actual cellular structure of the Filaani involved shifts, linking them to their pair-mate permanently, and in the case of paranormal humans, giving them the same paranormal abilities as well. Filaani lose this ability once it is used, and never pair again. Among Filaani pairing with each other, it is often also their first sexual experience as well. The Filaani pair bond is so strong that if one half of the bond dies, the other half almost always suicides or simply expires at the same time. In rare cases, multiple Filaani will bond to each other, but rarely more than four at a time.

Partly due to their genetic tinkering, Filaani children are born with the educational level equivalent to a bright human high school graduate. They can speak within minutes of birth, and can fly within five hours of their wings drying. They can also recite their entire lineage from memory back to the Final War. Filaani children are usually born in litters of two to seven children, which all share the same name regardless of gender. Within two weeks, Filaani children leave their parents to begin their own lives, and are considered full adults. Filaani children are also never born alive without wings, and even wingless miscarriages are rare. Filaani are totally monogamous thanks to their pair-bonds, although ones paired with humans have discovered they can indulge in mulitple relationships at will. This has caused some concern among the stricter schools of thought within the Filaani race.

Although in general friendly, loyal, and trusting, Filaani can also be short-tempered and vicious when angered. Their curiousity is almost lethally strong; many Filaani tales deal with individuals who fall prey to their own foolish curiousity. Filaani also have no religions whatsoever, and tend to privately consider the beliefs of most other races to be exceedingly funny.

Filaani often become pilots due to their innate natural flying ability, medtechs, or scouts. Both their temperament and size keeps most of them from becoming heavy combat specialists.