Overview

Rinn are usually credited with the development of the mystic arts. This is usually to the dismay of scholars, for most evidence would seem to indicate that they did not develop the arts themselves, merely honed those that they discovered in other places. It is widely known and documented that the Rinn were the race that brought the mystic arts into the widespread use seen in modern times. It has long been hypothesized that the discipline of Harmonics originated with the Terrans even before the first appearance of the wanderers into their history, and evidence would seem to indicate that Rinn could possibly have been the founders of the Psionic discipline. Neither of these hypotheses has been verified, but it is a widely believed school of thought.

The origin of Projection, however, is much more easily definable. Although classified as a “lost species” by the Rinn until very recently, the race known as the Onarl has an affinity for Projection unrivaled by any other race. This partially stems from their close ties to nature itself, since the discipline of Projection is based on bending natural forces to the will of the mystic. Onarl have a connection to their environment unheard of in other species, and their affinity for Projection is enhanced by their dependency on the world around them. The Onarl society is so dependent on Projection magic that virtually every member of the society can manipulate their surroundings to some degree with it, even if only forming simple barriers and removing mystic effects from themselves.

Onarl are also one of the few races that are completely comfortable around magic. Even the warriors of the Onarl are so deeply ingrained in magic doctrine that they frequently have difficulty understanding why a race wouldn’t accept the existence of magic. For an Onarl, magic is a common part of everyday life - a tool to be used whenever the need arises.

Like many other races, the Onarl were visited on their homeworld by the Wanderers several millennia ago. The superstitious Onarl were wary of their guests, although they felt a kinship with the dimensional travelers and their strange magic. Whispered legend says that the Wanderers stayed for a while on the Onarl homeworld, and the two races shared knowledge of each others’ experiences and mystic skills. If this were true, it would have been one of the very few occasions where the Wanderers made any actual contact with a race other than simple observations.

The Onarl eventually started exploring the universe through the Pathways, and chose to set up colonies on some of the empty planets. While their contact with both the Rinn and the Wanderers had been a positive experience, several of the species they had met were barbaric, warlike and violent. Most of them were far less educated, and the reclusive Onarl had little in common and littler interest in expanding their worldview. In addition, these barbaric races preferred to ‘conquer’ their surroundings rather than live in harmony with them, something the nature loving Onarl found offensive. To ward off potential invaders, the Onarl used their environment to their advantage.

Virtually every world has legends of “haunted” woods, areas of water that ships go into and never come back from, long lost underground cities in the middle of the desert, and wealthy jungle communities that explorers can’t seem to find. Frequently, these legends actually describe Onarl colonies, as their control of Projection is such that they can create images, illusions, and alter the perceptions and realities of those who tread too close to their homes. A complex web of enchantments that are designed to preserve the peaceful existence of the colony and sanctity of the environment protects all Onarl colonies. It is not uncommon for a planet to have been settled by another race long after the Onarl set up a colony, and for the other race to not even be aware of the Onarl’s existence. These colonies are the stuff of local legend for the new arrivals, and are frequently regarded as places to avoid at all costs. The oasis of Kabrai II has long been believed to be an ancient holding place of great wealth by the local Ork inhabitants, and part of their ritual of leadership is to go into the oasis and bring back a trophy of some kind. These rituals are rarely successful, and generally even a “successful” Ork didn’t enter the forest at all - he found a trinket elsewhere and said it was from the legendary oasis. Several times a fledging warlord has decided to raid the oasis and bring back it’s bounty for the tribe, only to have his entire army driven back in fear before even reaching the outer perimeter. Such is the power of the Onarl magic. The magic surrounding the colony also helps regulate things like air quality and water purification, so a colony on even the worst polluted world would still have clean air, water and soil inside the confines of the colony.

At the height of their exploration, the Onarl had several dozen colonies scattered across as many planets, all in different environments. Since the Onarl didn’t have the technological advancements of the other races, they relied on their magics to help them communicate between worlds. Even their records were kept by historians orally, for the Onarl believe in passing their knowledge down through verse and prose rather than written volumes. The keepers of the Onarl history were all located on the homeworld, where they communicated to the other tribes through magic communications and were able to tell their stories to even the furthest off colonies. It is speculated that they used artifacts similar to the Pathways for this, but the exact knowledge has been long lost to time.

What is known is that somehow, the Onarl homeworld became lost. This was a catastrophic blow to the entire race; since it’s collective history was held by the individuals of that world. The colonies were left without a way to communicate with each other, and without their link to the homeworld their society was shattered. The already reclusive Onarl closed their borders even tighter, and tried to figure out what to do.

The Onarl sent people back to the homeworld to figure out what had happened to no avail; no trace of their society could be found. Whether they were totally wiped out or hidden magically from even their own people remains a mystery even to this day. Centuries later, the Onarl colonies had lost most of their history since their own historians didn’t have nearly the knowledge that their homeworld counterparts had had, and generations of mistellings, errors, and gaps had created a flimsy history. Generations after that, the Onarl culture was left almost unrecognizable from what it had been, local superstitions and beliefs overwriting the gaps in their knowledge left from the loss of their homeworld. Today, most Onarl colonies are as reclusive as ever, those that even exist at all. Their culture is usually a by-product of their adopted environment and few if any of the colonies even remember their true history.

History

After their disconnection from the homeworld, each colony developed differently and independently of each other. The few colonies that remember their true history actively seek to discover what happened to their ancestors, but the majority are blissfully unaware of the distant past.

The Onarl of Undaw VI have an extensive and beautiful city made entirely underwater sculpted from the living coral on that world. They believe the coral is part of themselves, and that the become part of the coral when they die. Thus, the city is made literally from their ancestors, who continue to guide and aid the Onarl even after death. The lack of other native species has made them less concerned with defensive magic than many of the other colonies, although they have limited circles of protection surrounding important parts of the city.

The Onarl of Kabrai II have a beautiful colony in the middle of a lush oasis, the environment providing for their every need. They are a rare exception for Onarl in that they are entirely agnostic, neither believing in nor caring about the existence of gods or the spirits of their ancestors. They don’t have any physical structures, instead living directly off the land and sleeping under the stars. All of their nutritional needs are provided by the land, and the Kabrai Onarl are entirely vegetarian. They have a higher concentration of combat related classes than many of the other colonies, due to frequent incursions from the local Orks. These Orks are always driven off, and fewer than three Onarl have died during the long history of the oasis during an attack.

The Onarl of Huczal IX are nomads, packing lightweight tents and minimal belongings across the plains of their world. They worship the spirits of the animals around them, believing that the spirits of their environment guide them in their lives and protect them.

Society and Culture

Onarl are highly respectful of the world around them. Many Onarl are vegetarians and even meat eating Onarl rarely kill unless necessary. They tend towards being pacifists, although exceptions occur, frequently among those that have significant exposure to other more violent cultures.

Onarl also follow a strict caste structure, where every individual has a place in the greater good of the society. “Schools” exist for each major activity that the colony takes part in, although not every colony has the same schools. The more commonly found ones are Healers (usually Musicians, but not always), Projectionists, Psionics, Rangers, and Craftsmen. Some of the colonies also have Warrior schools, and other schools more specific to the colony may exist. In almost all cases, the elder practitioners of that school lead the school, and the most experienced member of the school represents it on the council.

While a caste system does exist, aptitude rather than lines of descent designates membership in a particular caste. If an individual shows potential in Harmonics, they will be placed in the harmonics school, even if the rest of their family were all rangers. Regardless of caste, all members of Onarl society are considered equals because each member assists the colony with their skills. The only major exception to this are the young, defined as anyone whom the Elders think is too young. Young Onarl aren’t allowed outside the colony under any circumstances, and are usually kept under the watchful eye of an adult as much as possible. This is probably a good thing, as a young Onarl’s curiosity is a powerful thing, and accidents frequently happen to inexperienced Onarl who poke around where they shouldn’t be.

Another important caste in the Onarl people is that of the Crystal Grower. This takes many different forms, but in all cases an individual or small group of individuals is responsible for harvesting the crystals that serve as focal points for the protective magics the colonies employ. These Crystals have only ever been found near an Onarl colony, but whether the initial settlers created the Crystals or whether the initial settlers settled there because of the Crystals is uncertain. These Crystals have a surprising number of magical properties although they themselves do not register as magic. Most Onarl Crystal Growers will not allow the Crystals to be removed from the colonies except under the rarest of circumstances, and even then very few will be allowed to be taken. Studies taken of the Crystals would seem to indicate that they are a nonrenewable resource, although no colony has ever seemed to run low on them - there are just always more when they are needed. The Crystal Growers themselves seem to hold few answers, although they show a certain amount of reverence to the Crystals themselves, looking after them like fond pets or children. It is said that so long as the Growers maintain their proper reverence and don’t trivialize the Crystals by over mining or taking too many, that the Crystals will continue to sustain them forever. Note that while most references to the Crystals would put them in light of minerals to be mined, such as gold or iron, environments that would not sustain those types of minerals, such as coral reefs or other underwater environments, still seem to be able to grow them.

Either because of or in spite of their magical nature, Onarl are highly superstitious. While they have a deep intuitive understanding of their world, their scientific skills are barely developed at all. Most Onarl colonies have extensive cultural mythos built around their environment and elements within it. The elders of the schools are accomplished fortunetellers as well as experienced in their “normal” fields of study, reading the stars, bones, cards or other signs and portents in order to divine the future or answer philosophical questions. This has led the Onarl to be duped by more sophisticated races on several occasions, and relatively simple tricks by more experienced races has had serious impact on local culture. Almost every Onarl has a series of rituals they consider to be “personal magic”, which takes different forms depending on the individual - regardless of the “magic” used by those around them. Strangely enough, despite no concrete evidence by “true” magic scholars detailing why, many of the rituals and “magic” used by Onarl seem to work a decent amount of the time - although with nowhere near the certainty of true magic. The usual explanation for this by the Rinn is simple - all superstition is based in some kind of fact, even if the practitioners of the superstition don’t know the facts involved.

The Onarl of Hij III believed that lining the streets with raspberry bushes grown from the seeds of the same plant owned by their first elder was an effective way to keep out a local aggressive species, and it worked for many centuries. In the earliest days of the colony Junal Brownscale defeated the first of the Grinucks after working in his garden - when the Grinucks attacked he threw the plant he was working with at them. Their leader died within seconds of being hit and the rest fled in apparent terror. Centuries later, raspberry bushes had been planted all over the territory and the Grinucks wouldn’t come near the colony; the Onarl believed that the bushes had been enchanted somehow during that first attack. The first Rinn to investigate the phenomenon quickly discovered that not only were the bushes not magical (which they had suspected all along) but that it wasn’t ONLY the bushes descended from the original bush. In fact, the raspberries had nothing to do it at all. A species of insect known as the Kibuzz makes their nest in the bushes, and their bite is toxic to the entire Grinuck species. The Rinn scholars believed that during the initial throw, some of the insects were actually on the plant, aggravated by being flung through the air, and bit the unfortunate Grinuck leader.

Most Onarl have some way of divining the future, although frequently their results are either inaccurate or so vague as to be unusable. However, it is often found right, and those Onarl who have demonstrated a talent for telling the future are frequently asked by other, less gifted Onarl to look into the future for them. By all scientific accounts the Onarl are no better equipped magically or otherwise to tell the future than a Terran; yet their results seem to be better than just “chance guesses” - no one seems to be able to identify exactly why. The most common theory is that the Onarl subconsciously see more of the world around them because they’re more in tune with their surroundings, but this theory is far from being proven at this time.

One concept that the Onarl find difficult to adapt to is the concept of money and personal possessions. The Onarl communities are highly communal, with each member simply using what they need and leaving what they don’t. Most Onarl have a handful of basic things such as clothes, frequently used equipment or a favorite weapon that is considered theirs, but even those items are owned by the colony as a whole. Money is a completely alien concept, so they have no currency to call their own. Colonies on worlds with heavy alien exposure adapt to trade with the aliens, but this is done more on the barter system than by use of currency. Most colonies value practical things such as farming equipment or a high quality bow over frivolous things such as jewelry or art pieces - the colony itself is usually considered the highest point of Onarl art. Onarl have an appreciation for beauty, they just see it in the curves of tree branches or the mingling of different colored leaves in autumn rather than painting or sculpture.

Physiology:

The Onarl have a unique lung structure when compared to that of other races. Several chambers filter the Onarl’s breathing and regulate the oxygen flow, and air comes into the lungs from multiple points in the body. All Onarl have modified gills at the bridge of their nose, suggesting that the race was originally aquatic in nature. Generations of not using these gills, if that’s even what they are, have left them almost useless organs, giving the Onarl mere seconds of extra oxygen underwater versus their counterparts in other races. The extra air intake of an Onarl also makes them increasingly susceptible to airborne diseases and contaminants, so the few Onarl who have visited cities tend to get back to the cleaner wilderness air as quickly as possible, preferably back to the perfect air of the colony itself.

Onarl also have tails, ranging anywhere from a stub just below the lower back to a prehensile tail as long as their arm. Different regions and colonies seem to have common forms, so this distinction is presumed to be at least partially an environmental factor. The tails vary in color as well, with natural colors such as blacks, browns and greens being the most common, reds, yellows and purples being fairly uncommon. Onarl in aquatic regions frequently have shades of blue, but this is rare in non-aquatic colonies.

Lastly, Onarl have pointed ears similar to the Rinn up to and including the extra bones that characterize the Rinn. For this reason, the Onarl are rumored to be cousins of the Rinn, although no evidence has been shown to give weight to the rumor. Genetically speaking, there are few similarities in biology between the two races, and the genes that make up the ear are located in different pairs of the Rinn chromosomes than Onarl. Some of the more religious Rinn believe that the Gods who created the Rinn created the Onarl as well, a theory which cannot be verified one way or another due to the difficulties in getting the Gods themselves to comment on the issue. Like the Rinn, the Onarl find their ears to be extremely sensitive, so avoid any physical contact with them.

The Onarl are also somewhat less hardy, having come from heavily regulated ideal environments. Impurities in air and water quickly take their toll on an Onarl, especially when they haven’t been out of the colony before. After a time, most Onarl can adapt to what the other races would term “normal” conditions, although heavy urban worlds and similar environments still make the Onarl slightly nauseous regardless of how much outside contact they have had. However, clean living has made the Onarl very fit and healthy - few Onarl die from diseases, most die from old age or accidents (or increasingly due to violence brought in from aliens).

Roleplaying, Costuming and Makeup:

Onarl are often seen as stupid by the races they encounter because of their lack of sophistication. However, most species immediately realize the mistake, particularly after the Onarl have become worldlier and learned a few things. Money is also an alien concept, even the Onarl who understand it find it to be a stupid way to keep track of things. Onarl who use money tend to spend it quickly on personal items or things for their colony, it is rare for an Onarl to amass much more than a few Burgunn Gold in monetary wealth. Most Onarl are naturally curious of the world around them, which causes problems when the object of their curiosity happens to be a hostile creature.

As stated earlier, most Onarl are highly superstitious and this should be roleplayed accordingly. Personal rituals and superstitions for all kinds of things are encouraged, the more the better (“No, you can’t have dinner after dusk unless the drinks are poured in each glass around the table counterclockwise or else BAD things will happen.”).

Onarl tend to dress in rustic, primitive garb. Most wear furs of hunted animals or simple clothing. Those who have had outside exposure are a little more likely to dress in more modern style garb, but even then the average Onarl will prefer practical wools and leathers to things like silks and designer clothes. Coming from a hunter-gatherer society, most Onarl will prefer lightweight armor types if any armor is worn, full plate style armor is a rarity.

Tails can be easily constructed from a variety of materials, but probably the easiest way to get one is to look for an animal type costume around Halloween and steal the tail from that. All Onarl also have pointed ears and nose ridges. The easiest way to do this is with stage ears, Woochie produces an excellent line of “space ears” and “space noses” that work well for playing an Onarl. This is somewhat expensive, although usually a single pair of ears can be acquired for less than $10 and they can be used for years before wearing out if taken care of. Both the ears and the nose ridges can also be made with liquid latex or other substances to save money, but usually this is more difficult than the money you save by doing it (and if you mess up more than a couple times it costs as much as if you’d just bought the woochie stuff in the first place) but if done well they can look better than any other type because they’re custom molded for you. Liquid latex also tends to wear out faster.