Deoxyian

Priding themselves on their stoic logic and their eternal pursuit of knowledge and existential perfection, the deoxyians are a spacefaring race for whom genetic augmentation and engineering is an everyday part of life. Once called the urame, the deoxyians have shed themselves of the fetters of natural biology, and every member of their race is now a deoxyomorphic being—a creature whose fundamental biology has been improved for the better. So sayeth the deoxyians, anyway.

Physical Description

When they were still known as urame, the deoxyians were violet-skinned hairless humanoids with long, spindly digits, tentacle-like protrusions from their jaws, pure black eyes, digitigrade legs with three-toed feet with sharp talons, and thick, long tails. Today, however, the deoxyians are an infinitely mutable race. After discovering the secrets of genetic manipulation it quickly became fashionable for the deoxyians to genetically modify themselves with what they considered to be “perfect” genes from various humanoid creatures. Thus, a deoxyian might alter her body with a kitsune’s fur and tail, a kathasa’s four arms, or a human’s versatility and ingenuity. These trades are usually altered to create a beautiful unified whole. As a result, deoxyians rarely look precisely like the creatures whose genes they covet, instead seeking to use those genes to create perfect versions of themselves.

Home World

Deoxyians once heralded from one of the eight moons of a great planet. As soon as the race became capable of space travel, however, they quickly lost all emotional attachment to their home world and harvested all of their moon’s resources so that they could take to the stars. Ultimately, the deoxyians hollowed out the moon its entirety and left the now-barren moon in their first planet-class star ship, Evolution.

Today, Evolution remains the largest of the deoxyians’ planet-class spaceships. Since appearing on the stellar stage within the galaxy, however, the deoxyians have harvested tens of thousands of lifeless asteroids for raw materials. Developing terraforming technologies has allowed them to build over a dozen planet-class star ships that orbit the Evolution along strategic trade routes.

They’ve also built deoxyian space stations around nearly every inhabited planet and moon in the system. They are aggressive traders and procurers of the raw materials they needed to grow and expand their fleets of planet-class star ship, and offer dozens of cutting-edge technological and biomedical services to the citizens throughout the galaxy.

Society And Alignment

Even before ascending into their current genetically-engineered forms, the deoxyians embraced an enlightened philosophy known as the Societal Code, a dossier that compares the perfect society to a living organism.

According to the Societal Code, the cells that comprise a living being display absolute efficiency because they do not waste time with sovereignty. Cells comprise tissues which comprise organs and organ systems, and even the smallest disruptions to those cells could cause catastrophic failure, even death, to the organism at large. For this reason, no cell or tissue rules the others in an organism—the cells simply do what must be done when it must be done to ensure survival. As such, the perfectly efficient society does not need rulers—it simply needs citizens who do what must be done to ensure their mutual survival.

Generations of strictly adhering to the Societal Code and adapting their governing bodies thusly have resulted in what is largely considered to be the most decentralized government in the galaxy. The majority of citizens do their jobs and are paid just as those on any other world in the local system, but the driving force for most workers is a sense of communal survival.

Although deoxyians tend to punish harshly those whose actions directly oppose the needs of the community, they have little care or worry for things that do not put their communal livelihood at risk. To a deoxyian, a slave is no different from a free man so long as both play their expected roles, and what one chooses to do to their own body is of no concern to them so long as their actions do not negatively impact society at large.

Relations

Deoxyians are largely viewed as cold and aloof by others, and their pragmatism also causes friction when abstract ideas such as loyalty or tradition are called into question. Deoxyians view adherence to tradition as being unhealthy, as it is the nature of all organisms to grow and change, and adherence to traditions or even people that have proven detrimental is unthinkable to them. Furthermore, many are baffled by the deoxyian expectation for unabashed loyalty to corporations, for deoxyians see corporations as the tissue that makes up the vital organs of society, and government officials especially are constantly at odds with deoxyians who simply don’t acknowledge any sort of authority that they do not believe to be healthy for society’s overall growth and success. Deoxyians clash especially with dwarves in this regard, and their rivalry with catfolk over what they deem to be senseless restrictions to resource access is well-known.

Adventurers

Deoxyians are rarely adventurers – they prefer time spent among their own, improving and furthering society. As a result, most deoxyians who adventure do so on behest of corporations or other outstanding entities for whom adventuring is a job rather than a romp. When adventuring, deoxyians are pragmatic, wanting to complete their objectives with as much efficiency as possible before moving on to the next one. Deoxyians revel in scientific knowledge and understanding, and love using the best weaponry available to them. They are often mechanics and technomancers, using their advanced understanding of science and general knowledge to create impressive works.

Those properly engineered for brawn often become soldiers, employing the latest in technological weaponry. Although deoxyian adventures of other classes aren’t as common, their fondness for genetic engineering assures that deoxyians can be perfectly suited to whatever job their corporate leaders require of them.

Names

Deoxyian names are short—seldom more than a syllable or two in length, they provide enough to differentiate individuals from one another and little more. Names can be passed down through families or invented on the spot, and families often use identifiers such as numbers, dates, gene brands, or corporate identifiers to further improve their name’s ability to distinguish them from others. Some examples of deoxyian names are Anor, Anve, Asoth, Fafo, Dis, Dollos, Juk, Kett, Lil, Lonas, Mi, Milvek, Noneth, Oma, Okoth, Senn, Spek, Sy, Tpek, Vaado, and Vulvir.

Racial Traits

Ability Adjustments See Holistic Perfection, below

Hit Points: 6

Size and Type

Deoxyians are humanoids with the deoxyian and deoxyomorphic subtypes and are Medium. They have a base speed of 30 feet.

Special Abilities

Deoxyomorphic Being: Deoxyians supplement their genetic makeup with desired traits from other races, as well as perfected gene versions from their own, at birth. Deoxyians choose one player race at 1st level. In addition, they can choose the Expanded Deoxyomorphism feat as a replacement class feature at 2nd, 4th, 6th, 12th, or 18th level, as if the new feat were granted by an archetype. For each race they choose, deoxyians count as both the chosen race and as deoxyians for effects targeting creatures by race. They also gain one racial trait from each race they choose, developing physical features and limbs to reflect the new racial trait. Instead of choosing a racial trait, they can choose a new movement speed that the chosen race possesses, such as a climb or a swim speed.

Holistic Perfection: All deoxyians gain +2 Int at character creation. Deoxyians use genetic engineering to supplement their bodies, and gain +2 to one other ability score of their choice, and -2 to one ability score of their choice that does not already have a bonus from race.

Pragmatic Paragon: Deoxyians value sensibility and logic, and strive to act logically in all of their pursuits. Once per day Deoxyians can take 10 on any one d20 roll or check (except those that automatically fail on a natural 1, such as attack rolls and saving throws), and gain a +1 racial bonus on any roll or check that they take 10 on.