About the Caelha

The caelha are a species of lithe, animal-like humanoids augmented with biomechanical parts called “Genesis” - an advanced form of self-healing aethertech that grows with their bodies. They are native to the massive city-pearl of Concordia, where twenty-six ancient machines give them life and new generations as they battle with an increasing reality - that their future is failing.

 

The population of this species is harshly divided into two camps - those who remain on the homeworld as members of the totalitarian “Faction” and those who have chosen a free life in the worlds beyond. 

 

Life in Concordia

In Concordia, each caelha is born from the Creation Engines, ancient Kyne artifacts capable of infusing genetic material to create newborn caelha. Each engine is operated by a “Queen”, a special female caelha with a biological connection to the inner secrets of these machines. One Queen is born per generation, set to replace the previous Queen of an Engine when she dies. Almost every newborn of this species has some form of ‘missing information’ in their genome, which is replaced by Genesis parts created by the machines. Most of the time, this takes the form of limbs, parts of skin, and organs to replicate the original body part’s function, although rarely the Genesis may enhance or augment that body part, giving a caelha supernatural abilities. With each generation that passes, more and more of the caelha’s children are being replaced with Genesis, leading some to believe that their genome is deteriorating over time - or that the Engines may be failing.

 

The radical Faction took over Concordia to solve this problem by believing that the caelha must live in total isolation from the rest of the aether to preserve themselves. Within Faction life, each child has a given purpose that is the result of testing in early schooling. From there they are assigned a “clade”, or social role, that makes up part of their names. A caelha is expected to carry out their clade’s duties until they die. Their lifespan is a bit shorter than a manu’s, about 50-60 years on average due to increasing incidents of genetic health problems. With each passing year, a Caelha's long, whiplike tail - always made of Genesis plates - grows by one segment. When a caelha dies, a funeral procedure called “Reincorporation” sees them returned to the Engine as fuel for the next generation - a ritual seen as holy to their kind.

 

Caelha in Society

Within the Faction, the caelha are taught to distrust outsiders of any kind - even their own who have forsaken the Faction. They believe others are dangerous and misguided at best, and evil at worst. A mysterious figure called the Alpha oversees the Faction and dictates its laws, praised by many among the Faction as a savior, but also feared by just as many as a cruel dictator. These caelha have made enemies of many other civilizations, and the Faction’s crimes are the reason why Concordia was long ago exiled from the Iona cities and stripped of its status as the aether’s former capital.

 

Outside the Faction, the caelha live in close-knit communities, preferring underground residences like a rabbit’s warren where families and friends live in close proximity. They are sometimes ostracized by outsiders because of fears about the Faction and their spies, even when the caelha are completely innocent and just seeking to make a new life for themselves. They are a hardworking and productive people who value honor, family, and integrity above all else. Contrary to the Faction’s belief that the caelha must be born from the Creation Engines, caelha living outside of Concordia are able to reproduce with one another and bear children - even hybridizing with other races like the manu. However, without the connection to the Engines, their children possess no Genesis and may be born with missing body parts or suffer other ailments. Nevertheless, the caelha outside the faction believe that their species’ future is in the futures their children get to enjoy free of the Engines’ influence.

 

Caelha Naming Conventions

Within the Faction, the caelha have strange and complex names with rigid naming conventions. Their names are composed of two letters with a numeral in between them. The first letter represents the caelha’s clade - the occupation selected by the Faction. The second letter is the letter associated with one of the twenty-six runes on the Engines, which form the letters of the caelhan alphabet. The number in between is the number assigned to a caelha based on their rank within their clade. This number goes up to 888. For larger clades with thousands of Caelha, there may be additional numbers, representing ‘legions’ of 888 individuals within that role.

 

The pronunciation of the name is the number followed by the letters, which are strung together as a short name. If both letters are consonants, the vowel “Y” is put in between to make a name. Caelha may go by other nicknames based on this name, but within the Faction informal names are forbidden in public settings.

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There is no distinction between sexes or genders in naming, or in the rest of Faction society.

 

Examples:

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A-X-XVI-N (Ten Sixteen Ahn). - A member of the Worker Clade (A) in Legion 10, 16th rank, from Engine N.

 

R-LXXII-S (Seventy-Two Rys) - A member of the Enforcer Clade (R), rank seventy-two, from Engine S.

 

H-III-N (Three Hyn) - A member of the Synthesizer Clade (H), rank three, from Engine N.

 

Outside the Faction, Caelha take on names inspired by the manu - a culture they see as the embodiment of freedom and personal choice. Therefore they can have any name a human has, adopting both given and family names of their choices.