Overview

The animal race known collectively as the “Furries” are without a doubt the most varied and diverse race among the “sentient races”. There are more varieties of Furry than all the other races put together, and even the best Rinn biologists are mystified by their unique physiology.

On the surface, all Furries appear to be a Terran and animal hybrid, although this takes the form of more than just mammalian species. Many Furries are birds or reptiles as well, and some fish species have even been reported, although they are very uncommon. Although not all Furries are actually furry, the name has been given to any of the animal hybrid races. For the most part, a furry of any type can breed with any other type. Usually unions of two different types results in the offspring being of one of the parents’ type, although this isn’t always the case.

The Furries, although only recently united into one race socially, have already started building their own empire in the galaxy. The “Fur Federation” is generally regarded as a weak empire, barely larger than the Terran holdings, although has rapidly gained respect usually associated with the larger races. While other races have reputations for being powerful, the Furries have a reputation for cunning and outmaneuvering far above that of other races. Furries traditionally favor ancient styled weapons, and it is a rarity to find them using the more modern rifles and pistols commonly employed by races like the Burgunn and Terrans. Bows, blowguns and slings are all common, and when wielded by experienced Furries are every bit an equal to their more technological counterparts.

Most Furries avoid face-to-face engagements wherever possible. This is not due to cowardice on the part of the Furries so much as a different style of combat. Furries place more value and esteem on a well-orchestrated raid or ambush than sheer combat prowess, and their tactics generally reflect this. It is also not considered unfair or dishonorable to attack with sheer weight of numbers in an ambush or raid, instead the foe is usually viewed as foolish for not providing better backup to protect themselves.

Furries generally live in family groupings or tribes similar to other species, although there is more fighting between nearby groups than in any other race besides Orks. Unlike other rivalries, however, serious injuries amongst participants is relatively rare. Furries usually focus on their objectives, which are usually material based rather than based in a body count. Therefore, if they don’t need to kill in order to get a certain resource they usually don’t. Larger or stronger tribes frequently don’t even have to hunt, they just raid smaller tribes of hunters to get the food and resources they need. Since they depend so much on their “victims”, they are usually hesitant to seriously hurt them, otherwise they lose a very valuable source of resources. In a similar vein, a tribe that frequently raids a tribe also protects it from other invaders, since those invaders would take resources that the protecting tribe would otherwise want. Although death and serious injury are uncommon, wounding is frequent and is usually not treated unless serious. Older, gnarled Furries who have been on many raids end up with an impressive number of scars over the years, and each is worn with pride and probably has a story attached to it. Most Furries prefer not to be healed unless it is absolutely necessary, allowing their wounds to heal naturally and show their marks of battle.

Surprisingly, this societal convention has worked fairly well, building the Furries into a skillful, if unconventional, fighting unit. Most Furries don’t see anything wrong with the system, even those who are frequently raided. Eventually, most of the raided groupings build themselves up over time until they’re powerful enough to raid the group that used to raid them, this starts a cycle that can repeat itself for centuries. Very seldom does this cause animosity between rival groupings, it’s just seen as a natural part of the greater scheme of things. Most furries are fairly fatalistic, understanding that things happen for a reason and that everyone has their place, regardless of where it is. Stronger clans seldom look down upon the weaker ones, since it’s those very weaker ones that provide them with the bulk of their resources.

Most of the worlds that the Furries inhabit are relatively backwards socially, and are usually not very well developed industrially. As a general rule, even the expansionist Burgunn don’t mess with Furry territory since they seldom have resources worth taking. Also, the very few planets that other races have managed to take from the Furries have come at a huge cost - and were rarely worth the price paid. The Furries, more than any other race, have developed guerrilla tactics to an unheard of level. The Orks have so far been the only race to take a significant number of worlds from the Fur Federation, and most of those were finally retaken by their original owners. Furries have a natural disdain for Orks, since their naturally fast reproduction rates and overall brute strength can usually beat even the most well crafted ambush, although the Orks always lose far more than they manage to kill.

Terrans and Furries make good companions; they have similarly sized empires and compatible social outlooks. Along with this, they have a history of working together ever since the early days of the Great Council. Although historically they always took a backseat to the Terrans, the Fur Federation has finally elevated itself to the third most influential galactic power, although even most Furries see this as a temporary situation. The Terrans have always proven resilient and adaptable, and any power standings are fleeting things anyways in the greater scheme of things.

Despite their animalistic appearance and seemingly primitive social structures, Furries are every bit as intelligent as the other races. As with all races, there is a smattering of every walk of life, including mystics and engineers. Most raiding parties will have a harmonic mystic and many have a projection mystic in addition. It is rare for Furries to attain the masteries of their powers necessary for Magic, but it isn’t unheard of. Furry engineers tend towards traps and chemistry more than weapon and armor design, this isn’t because they are incapable of creating the technology but because the others prefer not to use it. Furry trapmakers are rightly feared all over the galaxy, and it is a rare raiding party that doesn’t have one at least on retainer to supply them. Many of these trapmakers are also excellent strategists and Furry culture is one of the few where a skilled engineer can gain a high social standing - in many cases even higher than warriors. As with the raids themselves, Furry traps are usually designed to incapacitate and stun rather than maim or kill. Furry mystics usually lean towards projection users, since there are more utility-based powers that can be used to augment their tactics. As with any race, Harmonics mystics are highly valued as well although only used when necessary.

History

The history of the Furries is under frequent debate by historians. Early Rinn records shows that the Furries existed on several planets during the earlier phases of their exploration, although since the physiology of Furries is so similar it would seem to indicate a single point of origin. There have been a number of theories about their evolution, but because the early Rinn explorers failed to recognize the furries as an intelligent race there was only minimal studies performed on them and almost no historical recordings. The Furries themselves maintain almost no historical records outside of storytellers. Even these storytellers seldom know much in the way of history, generally they are more educated in fables, certain historic events, and stories of famous or impressive Furries. Terrans had the earliest well documented encounters with the Furries, most of these were raids on the Terrans by the Furries through the Pathways. The Terrans fought back with everything they had before realizing that to the Furries the raids were actually a gesture of respect rather than an attempt at conquest. Treaties were finally organized between the Furries and Terrans, led by Silric and Galvin. During this period, the Furries organized the Fur Federation, so that the widespread and diverse Furries could get better standings by unifying and negotiating as a whole. Twenty years later, the Adept War would break out amongst the Terrans and the Furries would close their borders to the outside races.

Eventually, the Furries again ventured out and made contact with other races, this time the Rinn and Burgunn Empires that had largely ignored the coming of the Furries. For years they were considered little better than a second class backwater race, but eventually they gained the respect of the two larger races and started becoming recognized as a galactic power in their own right.

Recently, more Furries have embraced the ways of their counterparts in other races, and their society is growing and incorporating more of the ideals and structures of the other races’ empires although the process is slow and many Furries simply prefer things the way they’ve always been. The more “civilized” structures of the other races are just fine by them, but there’s nothing wrong with their system and they don’t want to change it.

Society And Culture:

Furries are organized into tightly knit clan structures. These take many names: tribes, clans, prides, flights, flocks, groups, etc. These terms are interchangeable for all intents and purposes. Young furries are raised by the entire clan, which takes responsibility for the cub’s actions. The birth mother is usually placed a step above any other family members, but since Furries rarely mate for life and the father isn’t always known he takes a second string to the mother if he’s even known at all. This quirk is usually explained as the reason breeding between Furries doesn’t always yield an offspring of one of the parents’ types, because it can’t always be said with one hundred percent certainty that the offspring isn’t one of the parents’ types. Also, since this makes an obvious hole in lines of ancestry, it is very difficult on a genetics standpoint to determine whether the child is the same type as a long distant ancestor. This scenario isn’t always the case however, as many breeds of furries do actually mate for life and are monogamous with their mate. Biologists have noted that inside these clans the offspring of the union are almost always members of one of the parent races, although it is also noted that in these cases usually the entire tribe or clan is composed of the same or similar breeds so the statistics could be misleading.

As noted before, Furry clans value stealth and cunning more than any other attributes, so children grow up hearing many fables and stories of ancient heroes and ancestors who exhibited exceptional bravado. Fables of particularly gifted warriors are also told, although this is much less frequent. Since the entire family group raises the child, the young furry is exposed to a wide range of personalities, stories and skills making the furry knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, although usually not as skillful in any of them as some of their counterparts in other races. Having so many close relatives also forces the young furry to learn to associate well with others, so this along with the pack hunting tactics makes the Furries exceptionally well suited for teamwork.

Materialistically, all but a few possessions belong to the social group as a whole. Most Furries have personal possessions such as their weapons, clothes, money and personal effects, but most larger structures such as houses, property and vehicles generally belong to the group as a whole. Cooking is also done communally, with frequent feasts after particularly successful hunts. Mealtimes are usually large affairs even when not full-fledged feasts, with every able member of the tribe or group participating in some way whether that be cooking, cleaning up, or for the young ones setting the table.

Physiology:

Furries have without a doubt the most bizarre physiology of any other race. Their DNA structure is much more finely developed - where a Terran has a single two-sided strand with four possible base pairs, Furry DNA has four strands of four sets and 16 base elements, which affords for literally thousands of variations on each individual layer. Also uniquely, the Furries seem to be able to be compatible reproductively with members of just about any known race. While the reproductive system of other races usually can’t handle Furry offspring, a female furry can actually give birth to a member of any race if mated with a male of it.

Also due to their unique physiology, the Furries are universal receivers for blood from other races if injured. However, by the same result as the genetic incompatibilities they can’t donate their own blood to any other races. Chemicals also seem to be less effective against them, since they are usually geared for the less resilient biology of the other races. Many Furries have become almost immune to the effects of chemicals and have high tolerance to chemical attacks.

These unique biological quirks, along with the Furries’ slightly shorter gestation periods, also make them desirable candidates for experimentation by unscrupulous biologists. It is not uncommon for Furries to be found as captives of other races, having been the subjects of cruel experiments. This happens often in the Burgunn empire where Houses are competitive and constantly trying to develop new technologies and weapons in secret where the ends are usually seen to justify the means.

Otherwise, Furries are roughly similar physically to most other races, with similar organs in roughly the same places. They also have reasonably similar brain structures to other races. They always exhibit the features of the animal breed of their type, although despite the excessive amounts of crossbreeding in the typical Furry ancestral tree there is little in the way of melding of features such as dogs with pig noses, feathers, or scales. This always presents an interesting biological mystery that continues to elude the top specialists after thousands of years.

Government

Most authority of the Furry species resides in the individual clans. Despite being one of the largest recognized governments in the universe, the Furries have surprisingly little in the way of government institutions. On the whole, the Furries prefer to let the clans maintain their autonomy, the government is basically there to make the Furries look large and imposing enough to make attacking them prohibitive. The Furries are ruled by the Great Council, which is comprised of Furries specifically invited to participate based on their reputations. The number of members in the Great Council is constantly in flux, although usually numbers around a thousand. Rather than setting laws and enforcing rules, the Council usually sets its business as discussing things that impact all Furries and working together to solve those problems. Most Furry tribes will come to the aid of others in trouble, so the Great Council is frequently a first line of defense for Furry tribes under attack. The Council rarely intervenes in matters between rival clans unless significant bloodshed occurs, since the constant rivalries make the race as a whole stronger and very few clans see anything wrong with the current social system. The “head” of the Great Council is usually simply the one who’s been there the longest, although it changes fairly frequently in situations where an individual’s expertise is exceptionally useful.

The Fur Federation is given only a passing nod in interstellar negotiations and diplomatic assignments since it is well known that very rarely are Furry leaders trained in any kind of diplomacy or politics. As noted earlier, however, the Furries are treated with respect by most other races for their teamwork and cunning. They usually want to be left alone, and the other races usually accommodate that. The main exception seems to be the Orks, who will frequently assault Furry planets when they start another war, and usually are driven off by the resilient Furries.

While they do not have much need for an actual currency, Furries have adopted a system of branding marks into certain kinds of leather. The branding is done to represent the old system of trading body parts of animals from raids and hunting trips. This was usually seen as barbaric by other races, so the Furries adopted the branding system to help them deal socially with other races.

Roleplaying, Costuming and Makeup

Furries always look like the animal that makes up their characteristics. In most cases, cake makeup is the best to use for it, although many other types work well.

The easiest way to decide on a good look for your character is to decide on an animal you wish to portray and find photos to use when deciding how to do your facial makeup. Some people also prefer to use masks or prosthetics, which usually look better but can be hugely expensive. Several manufacturers can be found online but average products run between $50-$100. For this reason, most people feel that makeup is probably a better system to use. A quality job can be done with a few simple techniques, but like anything else your best resource is other Furry players.

For characters who don’t wear a lot of clothes, usually a thin layer of clothing can be painted and worn under costuming to look like fur to prevent having to do full body makeup jobs.

Note that while the above examples refer to the traditional ‘furry’ Furry, similar techniques can be used for reptilian or birdlike furries as well.

Roleplay with Furries is easier than with some of the other races, since they are highly individualistic. Every furry is likely to be very different, even amongst members of the same breed or tribe. Furries almost always exhibit some traits of the animal that shares their breed, so bear furries are likely to be more protective of their young, foxes are more likely to enjoy hunting, and cat furries are more likely to be less social than other types. Most Furries, especially those raised in tribes, are quick to work in groups and usually get along well with others even of different races.