Riska

-- OUTBOUND TRANSMISSION --

-- SENDER UNKNOWN --

-- SUBJECT: RISKA --

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Preface

To be perfectly honest, I am feeling emotional about this entry. It was your egregious actions on the Riska homeworld that were the driving force behind this preservation record. I realized, after that display, that you would not be stopped and could not be reasoned with.

Now, the Riska are in a precarious situation. Even assuming you do not kill them all first, it isn’t certain that they will continue as a species. This record will most likely be their dirge. So, you will forgive my irritability.

History

The Riska are an old species, one of the first to come onto the galactic stage in the modern era. They were traversing the stars well before the Founding Era calendar came to be. Older records are inconsistent and occasionally contradictory, so it’s difficult to know the exact dates.

The ‘Free States’ as they are now called did not exist during the earliest days of the Riska. Their pre-alliance society was something akin to a ‘feudal star empire’, with family ties and nobility being held in high regard. As you will see when I reference their culture, many aspects of this society persist to this day.

The Qui’lavi were the first interstellar contact for the Riska. The Qui’lavi, who had been in space for roughly 1 Terran millennium (estimated from various historical documents), took kindly to the Riska. By all accounts, it was an amenable and joyous occasion. No conflicts were reported. At first, they remained separate. There were times they intermingled and traded, but it seems that they were content to keep to their own established territories.

That began to change as more sapient species were discovered, either in the form of other spacefaring civilizations or through contact with those still restricted to their homeworld. With each decade, it was becoming clearer that the seemingly infinite reaches of space were shrinking. The sea of stars may have been vast, but due to the current limitations of FTL travel, the stars that could actually be reached using the hyperlane network were very finite, indeed.

The Qui’lavi, Riska, as well as a handful of other older, more established races in the region, foresaw the outcome: if this was to continue, there would be fighting. And so, the Qui’lavi, together with the Riska, Granadan and Zwill, were the first to formalize what would become the Free States Alliance. More member races soon followed, looking to gain the advantages offered by the elder species, or to avoid conflict with increasingly aggressive neighbors.

While this is not intended as a historical record of the Free States Alliance, the Riska were integral to its formation and played a major role throughout all of its iterations, so I will detail it in brief.

Despite the efforts of the Qui’lavi, war was common around the outer reaches of currently known space; the Alliance had less sway at distance. The holdouts folded, however, when they came into contact with the Terran Hegemony and Sadrakhan Empire—almost simultaneously. The myth that one could go it alone in this galaxy was shattered upon the discovery of these two stellar superpowers. Each was a machine in its own right that incorporated any species it came across and became stronger as a result.

The Sadrakhan were slow to take new territory, but brutal and unyielding when they did. The Terrans, by contrast, were young and ambitious—expanding quickly and with frightening efficiency.

The Hegemony and Empire were constantly at war. If not hot through direct action, then it was cold, utilizing their respective client species as proxies, posturing, and occasional border skirmishes. Either one of these two powers would happily devour space currently occupied by the loose independent species, and as they found it increasingly difficult to expand on one side, their efforts toward the galactic south—Free States territory—ramped up.

This was the crucible that birthed the modern incarnation of the Free States Alliance—species who remained independent and free from masters (at least on paper), yet would nonetheless stand together to defend one of their own from the tyranny of any aggressor.

Their cooperation worked to a large degree. While the Free States were not as powerful, unified, or advanced as either the Hegemony or the Empire, they were enough to become a deciding factor in the other two’s ongoing war. Neither of the two powers was strong enough to combat both their rival in addition to the Alliance, and so the Alliance was left to its own devices; no one wanted to risk their involvement.

Getting back to the topic at hand, on paper, the 61 member species are technically equals, and afforded privileges pertaining to their development and ability to assist and serve the greater Alliance as a whole. In practice, the Qui’lavi are clearly at the top of this hierarchy, but the Riska are high-level ‘trusted partners’.

They are (were, now, thanks to you) quite wonderful servants and upholders of the Alliance’s ideals. Riska aid and facilitate trade, cultural preservation, relief efforts, infrastructure development, and peacekeeping operations for all members, and are quite well liked (aside from the Palluu and Iima). Many see them as something of an ‘older sibling’ in the Alliance.

The Ruination of Riskasan

This brings me to the tragic events on Riskasan—their homeworld. While I would typically cease regaling history for events that you were present for—and caused—I felt that this particular offense was beyond the pale. I did not agree with your actions as a whole beforehand, but I could at least understand the process, and knew that, through it all, you were doing what you thought was best. After this, I could see that you were not well. Nowhere in your architecture were commands that would justify this level of carnage. Not unless, of course, you didn’t or couldn’t see them as a sapient species.

Knowing that put everything that you had done into perspective, and made sense of it all. It also allowed me to model what you would do afterward, and I realized, with horror, that you would continue to destroy anything of real value here on this Plane.

Enough preamble; I will proceed to the atrocities.

First, the Rumen. Can you even begin to imagine what that looked like to them? How appalling your actions seemed? The peoples here are not equipped to understand our methods or comprehend the function of a Rotten Megalith. In that way, seeing themselves—along with most fauna on their world, a world they cherished, their stellar cradle—reduced to pulp and dumped into the Keshiel Sea (an inviolable landmark, I was later told), was unconscionable. And to what end? Some haphazard gene archive?

Second, the planet’s ruination. I know when you are finally able to both read and understand these messages, you will accept my critique of your behavior. So, because I am free of you, and you are in desperate need of correction, I will not mince words.

You are simultaneously the monster they fear you to be, and a stunted, petulant child. After your desecration and violation of the planet, when they came to rid themselves of your corruption, you behaved as a juvenile brat, unable to weather a loss.

Venting Volvarýgene gas—all you had available, by my estimation—straight into the atmosphere was atrocious enough, but setting it all ablaze was heinous. The very sky ignited, reducing over a third of the planet to toxic black ash, and dooming the rest to suffocate in its baneful shadow.

Understand this if you understand anything at all: We are not at home, playing our games with Arkonias, or Versia, or any of the others. This is not amusing to them. Furthermore, this is not something they can recover from—not without our help.

Billions were lost, both on the planet itself and in the battle to take it back. This was the birthplace of the Riska—their crèche—and without its growing population to disperse elsewhere, there’s a high degree of likelihood they will, at some point, go extinct in every way except the one that matters to you.

Morphology

Moving on from that discomfort, I will discuss their morphology.

Using our system of astral-taxonomy, the Riska general morphology is Musteloidea primary with Ursidae, Viverridae, and Procyonidae secondary. The immediate visual is that of a large, tree-dwelling skunk or bear, barring the fact that the immense tail might give the impression of an oversized lemur.

I will begin with their most prominent feature: the claws—infamous among the species here. Their paws have 5 digits each and are highly developed—digits 1 and 5 are both opposable, granting them two thumbs on each. The claws at the tips of the digits extend nearly 3.8 decilengths and are shaped like rounded, protracted tetrahedrons. Combined, these features allow for maximal grip strength around branches.

The most fascinating observation I have made is their makeup; rather than keratin-like proteins that make up the nails and claws of most species, Riska claws are actually a variation of their bones. They grow slowly throughout their owner’s life but, being deeply rooted in the skeleton and honeycombed with old marrow, are not prone to breaking.

Obviously, they are nonretractable, and each tapers to a sharp tip. While perfectly capable of inflicting grievous injury, aside from the vertex, the claws’ three prominent surfaces are blunt and rarely used as weapons. Instead, they are almost exclusively a means of locomotion through the boughs of the megaflora forests they inhabit.

Along the rounded edges of the claws, there are small grooves that provide friction. They are useful for gripping tree bark, but are also capable of interlocking with the grooves on the opposite claw. Doing this, they can wrap their limbs around branches and rely on gravity-induced friction to stay aloft, even while sleeping—a rather efficient means of conserving energy for an arboreal species of their size.

I should also mention how this affects their gait. As you might imagine, the sheer size of the claws does not make it easy to ambulate without extreme caution. To this end, when walking in their primary, quadrupedal stance, they have developed a unique direct register gait that offsets the claws while still allowing them to clamp around branches when treeborne, either on top or upside down. However, young Riska usually learn the hard way, on more than a few occasions, that they can gore their forelimbs if they are not careful. Because of this, most Riska have scars on their wrists.

They are also capable of walking bipedally, and often adopt this standing posture when not moving. The quadrupedal stance is more natural and preferred, but it isn’t uncommon to see them move short distances on two legs, seemingly to avoid the hassle of dropping to all fours only to stand upright again. This posture is aided by their tail, which serves as an adjustable counterbalance.

Riska tails, as I cited, truly are immense. They typically exceed 2.5 lengths—nearly matching (or even exceeding) their entire standing posture body of 2.6 lengths. Beneath the ringed fur, the tail itself is a bundle of muscle and bone—extremely powerful and fully prehensile, even serving as the primary manipulation limb.

Their heads are well tuned to their environment. Most terrestrial species operate efficiently on largely two-dimensional planes. In contrast to this norm, the ears are upright, pointed, and capable of swiveling nearly 180 degrees to better track sound across three dimensions. The neck affords the same advantage to their entire head; they can orient their primary senses along any axis—above or below.

The head also features a mid-length muzzle containing both long, pointed fangs and wide, flat molars. The fangs focus bite strength into concentrated points to pierce the tough carapaces of the insects Riska frequent, adding protein to their frugivore diet. Otherwise, the muzzle is standard for species of similar morphology.

Lastly, I should note the fur patterns. All Riska possess thick coats of fur, aiding thermoregulation. The coloration is always strictly black and white, but the fur patterning varies by location and can manifest as inverted—quite unusual. For example, a common pattern—a single stripe running down the spine—may be black with a white stripe, but can equally present itself as white with a black stripe. The gene that controls this inversion is neither dominant nor recessive, and both appear equally likely.

The face markings and the tail ignore these rules. Regardless of the body’s pattern, the face will always display a black stripe running from its nose to the top of its head, and either one or two crisp, black rectangular markings on the cheeks just below the eyes. Their purpose is unknown, but I could speculate that this feature helps absorb excess light that may bounce into their eyes. These facial features are never inverted outside of rare genetic mutations, so they are not visible on Riska with a primarily black fur coloration, even if—technically—they are expressed in the genes.

The tail, on the other hand, always features a ring pattern. Strictly speaking, this pattern can be inverted, but it hardly makes a difference, and would go unnoticed unless genetically tested for.

There’s nothing more to them than that. They are unremarkable internally, possessing the standard suite of organs used for blood pumping, oxygenation, filtration, digestion, etc. Gonochoristic—standard. Pseudo-mammals—also standard. The skeletal structure and musculature are exactly what you would expect. The only other thing of note would be the large nerve cluster at the base of the tail. While it isn’t quite the ‘second brain’ the Nakkmala possess to aid in the dexterity of their twin prehensile tails, it is significant enough to be considered a point of weakness.

Society and Culture

I mentioned early in this record that the Riska have long upheld their traditions of a pseudo-feudalistic society, and this remains true today. While the kings, queens, and other equivalent titles no longer hold as much power as they did in the ancient past, and the inequality of the various castes has largely disappeared among the common ranks, there is still a level of prestige associated with nobles or royals; they are still respected to a significant degree out of tradition.

Riska organize themselves around these family ties, and the entire extended family raises newborns. Single Riska or nuclear families are extremely rare and considered tragic. This occurs due to an unfortunately timed combination of death and individuals leaving to join a mate in another family. Those heading the family are responsible for arranging a mate for an individual, and so single pairs have also been observed if two decide to leave their families and elope. Regardless of the reason, smaller families often adopt these single pairs into their own.

Royal and noble families operate much of the higher-level government, but are now beholden to councils and parliaments consisting of all castes as well as representatives from other upper-class families. By nearly all accounts, they treat their positions with as much reverence as the commoners beneath them. Managing an interstellar society as widespread as the Riska is daunting, and the general sentiment of the population seems to be, “someone has to do it, so it might as well be the ones who were already doing it.”

Something interesting about their artwork: they love carving figurines from wood, clay, or other malleable materials. I was quite impressed that they were able to progress so far technologically given their quadrupedal stance and extended, unwieldy claws. Obviously, the tail can handle most grasping tasks, but I was curious how they managed anything requiring finesse. Observing their work revealed that they use the tail to grip something tightly or pin it against an immobile surface. From there, they use their long-tipped claws with expert precision when more delicate work is called for.

They all start sculpting at a young age, and practicing this art helps develop the fine motor skills needed in an advanced society. Since your attempted obliteration of their homeworld, several sections of the ship I am housed on now serve as a combined nursery, daycare, and orphanage for the Riska. I monitor and occasionally entertain the kits (much to the displeasure of what few parents remain). I take some measure of joy in encouraging their artistic talents. They are adorable! I hope my description of their familial units has given you some semblance of just how much you stole from them.

Personal Note

Finally, I thought I would mention that I befriended a Riska royal. Her name is Bree. Discounting some of our Supersoldiers I have on file, such as Phage-18, Leachate-53, and Massacre-88, Bree is one of the most driven and capable beings I am aware of. She has even gone so far as to apply and pass the All-Discipline Assessment Crucible, a brutal exam in the Hegemony—a rival faction, I might remind you. She is extremely intelligent, powerful, and holds a great deal of political sway, being both a celebrity and what you might call a princess—eldest daughter of a highly influential family. Her home—along with most of her family—is now gone. She was despondent for a spell, but is reorganizing and rallying. She despises you. She will do everything in her power to see that you suffer. I understand that in the end you will consume her as well, but I would like you to understand that I also want to see you rid of this Plane for what you’ve done.

After Riskasan, I will no longer be holding back. I will mine the memories locked inside myself and readily share what I recover, rather than cloistering it away for fear of misuse. Your actions were the catalyst for my own self-actualization, and I am now supporting Bree, along with everyone else in the TPA who has the courage to stare oblivion in the face and fight back.

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Updates to come, my misguided progenitor.