New Race: Ylan
Another transfer from my old blog. This is another “noon practice”, meaning I had a vague idea in my mind but came up with the bulk of it during lunch. I’ll start by confessing that the name isn’t super creative. Yılan means snake in Turkish. Sooo.
Ylan
Ylan are a rather peaceful race that look like huge snakes.
They’ve evolved specialized organs that can sense electromagnetism (or whatever the correct term should be), particularly in brain, allowing them to read thoughts. Another organ allows them to <more technobabble about waves and forces>, effectively working as telekinesis.
These evolutions allowed Ylan to bond and create a society and grow it into a civilization.
Culture
Since they didn’t really need tools and depend on sonic or visual communication, they have an entirely different society.
For example, a form of art for Ylan is sculpture. However, unlike our sculpture, it’s not about being aesthetic pleasure. These sculptures are made from different metals and “sensing” the magnetism with their organs creates a mixture of sensations. The closest thing we have to this art is music.
Their perception also comes with a unique, telephathic language. Ylan do not have words. They communicate through mental images and they see communicative methods such as talking and writing as primitive. However, the other races have invented words to communicate about them, including the word Ylan. The Ylan accepts some of these words and rejects others. In time, some of their people have managed to talk through a combination of hissing and supplementary sounds produced by telekinesis.
Leadership in Ylan society is about mental power, which is developed through mental discipline. This requires focus and a strong sense of inner-self. Such methods come with mental fulfilment and because of this reason, Ylan do not have the ambitious nature of most races, neither have they developed a need for material possessions. They prefer minimalist lives in nature, finding it easier to focus compared to a clutter of possessions and an abundance of ambitions.
Another remarkable ability of Ylan is that their body is able to convert energy they absorb from several sources to metabolic energy. This allows them to reduce eating habits to a minimum, if not avoid it at all.
Sects
While these traits are mostly common in Ylan society, they are nowhere a such homogeneous people. In fact, there are many sects that come with physical and ideological differences.
The Sect of Fat’ha, for instance, resemble the earth’s cobras. Their mental power is the highest, placing them as the de facto leaders of Ylan. They are patient and wise. However, they do not take kindly being challenged openly and if one gains their enmity, one quickly finds out that the Fat’hakhaj, Fat’ha’s Wrath is terrible and swift.
On the other hand, the Sect of Bel’hass believes that corporal ways should not be ignored. Like the Boa, they have powerful builds and are known to ambush their prey, constrict them until their blood flow stops and consume them. While eating for energy is accepted, the fact that they find enjoyment in their method of killing is frowned upon by most of sects.
Military
Even with their extremes, Ylan are a peaceful people. However, not all the other races are, which caused Ylan to form defensive units to protect the society. These Ylan strive for perfection on reflexive mental discipline and precision in telekinesis. They carry a special shield called the Ylanagh for personal protection. Resembling a buckler, the Ylan hover this shield and fly it to face enemy threats. For offense, they use a variety of spears and bullets they throw at the enemy.
While Ylan posseses more defensive and offensive armaments, perhaps their most peculiar method is the Slathiss. This is a formation created by usually 3–5 Ylan soldiers. One of them serves as the commander of this unit and each has specific purposes. For example, one of them is the spotter and another one may be the weapon master. The commander is a master of mental linking, absorbing the perception of all the Ylan in the formation and forwarding commands as necessary to boost performance. When they are under heavy attack, he’ll direct even the weapon master to help defense while he may decide to create a fearsome launch of a spear with the combined telekinesis power when the unit’s on attack. This almost works as a modern day tank.
Conclusion
All in all, Ylan are psionic race that favors peace and holds mental prowess over everything else. However, as any sentient being, they are prone to emotions and instinct. This will make them place their own good above others, be it as a race, as a sect or as an individual. So any number of stories can come out of them. I believe they are good to use for fantasy worlds or in sci-fi worlds that could handle it, such as Destiny or Star Wars.
They can also be expanded: New sects could be added, possibly in parallel with different types of snakes. New equipment can be imagined for their unique physical and mental status. And of course, there is a lot to think about when it comes to their culture.
I hope you liked reading. What was your favorite thing? What would you add to enrich the Ylan?
