Hi.
I just created a species profile for the Cairn. What do you think?
I hope I got the grammar more or less right.
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Personality
Due to their inexperience with spoken language, many Cairn seem shy to other species at first glance. This is not true, though. Cairn exhibit a broad spectrum of personalities and most of them actually enjoy company.
Homeworld
The Cairn homeworld is the fifth planet to circle its yellow sun. The axis of the planet stands almost vertical resulting in constant tropical climate around the equator and arctic climate in the north and south. The Cairn never settled all of their homeworld and mostly inhabit the equatorial areas. Especially the northern arctic continent is almost complete wilderness.
History and Culture:
The Cairn are very skilled telepaths and are, as most telepathic species, very social. Due to their efficient telepathy the Cairn created complex societies early in their development, although it took them some more time to develop a universal writing outside of mathematical and technological context, because written text was considered too limited to convey other information. Therefore the art of storytelling was and is still highly appreciated among the Cairn. The centre of storytelling were Halls of History a temple devoted story and poetry ad the shores of Northern Sea.
Cairn tends to organize on a local level and is mostly ruled through telepathic consensus. Small towns are still the most common form of settlement found on Cairn. Cairn society was never completely peaceful, but conflicts remained mainly local until the Cairn entered their industrial age. Several coalitions formed and fought for coal and steel. Wars became more frequent and some factions started to use telepathy as a weapon. When the Halls of History were burnt world wide war emerged.
It took the society almost 100 years to recover from the ruins and a planetary council was founded to prevent such developments. Cairn society blossomed once more and after only 120 the first permanent colony was founded on Cairn’s only moon and colonized Talloc, the systems third planet, and several moons.
The Cairn made first contact with an alien species, when an Andorian vessel crashed on Talloc. The pilots were dead, but the Cairn were able to copy the ship’s warp drive.
They made first contact with the Federation in 2369 and applied for membership right after the Dominion war.
Language and Names:
The Cairn do not have a verbal language. Their special form of telepathy is their primary form of communication.
Cairn use a mental images as names. When a Cairn starts learning spoken language, he normally picks a word that describes his personal image. Because of the strong diplomatic connection with Betazed many Cairn choose words from Courtly Betazoid.
Sample names:
Favored Profession:
By now far most Cairn met outside their system are Diplomats and Scientists. Especially Cairn Psiologists are highly sought after. Still the first Cairn have already subscribed to Starfleet Academy. If this becomes a trend among young Cairn remains to be seen.
Cairn do not enjoy fighting, thus Cairn soldiers are rare. Still they do fight, when they are forced, and a group of Nausican raiders were highly surprised, when they came for a Cairn colony in 2373, as the peaceful appearing colonists gave an example of a perfectly coordinated defence.
Their general openness normally prevents Cairn from becoming rogue.
Species Adjustments:
Perception +1.
Species Abilities:
Bonus Edge: Psionic: All Cairns are born with the Psionic Edge and unlike Betazoids have access to it from birth.
Natural Telepaths: Cairn do not have a native tongue and Cairn raised on their homeworld cannot learn Language as a species skill. Instead Cairn have access to their unique form of telepathy as a species skill (presented below).
Bad Talkers: On the downside Cairn have almost no experience with spoken language and deception. Their Savvy reaction is two levels lower and the difficulty of all skill rolls related to the use of spoken language is at +5.
Mind Meld: The Cairn have developed a technique similar to the Vulcan mind meld and can learn the Mind Meld ability as professional skill.
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Cairn Telepathy (Psi)
Psionic; Trained
Unlike other telepathic species the Cairn do not use their psionic ability to transmit words but send images and emotions with a high frequency.
Test: Cairn Telepathy can be used to read the minds of others just. Use the same rules for reading surface thoughts and transmitting information as for standard Telepathy. Still transmitting images via Cairn Telepathy to a character without a level in this skill normally results in a severe head ache, as the target’s mind is unable to process the information.
The advantage of the Cairn’s form of communication is the great efficiency. If a group is able to communicate via Cairn Telepathy during a coordinated test the leader gains +3 from every member instead of +1.
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