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{| align="right" style="width:310px; margin: 0 0 0 5px;"
|-
|colspan="6"|[[File:Yinni.png|300px]]
|-
|style="background: navy; color: white;" colspan="6" | '''Characteristics'''
|-
|colspan="3"|Average Size
|colspan="3"| 25cm (wingspan 50cm)
|- style="background: #eeeeee;"
|colspan="3"|Average Mass
|colspan="3"| 2.2kg male,
|-
|colspan="3"|Average Lifespan
|colspan="3"| 25 years male
|- style="background: #eeeeee;"
|colspan="3"|Reproductive System
|colspan="3"| sexual,<br />larviparous
|-
|colspan="3"|Body Temperature
|colspan="3"| 21 degrees Celsius
|- style="background: navy; color: white;" align="center"
| '''Ability Scores'''||'''All'''||'''Domestic Caste'''
|'''Worker Caste'''||'''Soldier Caste'''||'''Royal Caste'''
|- align="center"
| align="left"|STR/STA || -20|| --|| --|| +10/+10|| --
|- style="background: #eeeeee;" align="center"
| align="left"|DEX/RS || +10|| --|| --|| --|| --
|- align="center"
| align="left"|INT/LOG || +5|| --|| -10/+10|| -10/-10|| --
|- style="background: #eeeeee;" align="center"
| align="left"|PER/LDR || +5|| +10/-10|| --|| --|| -10/+10
|-
|style="background: navy; color: white;" colspan="6" | '''Movement'''
|-
|colspan="2"|Walking
|colspan="4"| 5 meters per turn on foot<br />20 meters per turn flying
|- style="background: #eeeeee;"
|colspan="2"|Running
|colspan="4"| 20 meters per turn on foot<br />80 meters per turn flying
|-
|colspan="2"|Hourly
|colspan="4"| 1 kilometers per hour on foot<br />5 kilometers per hour flying
|-
|style="background: navy; color: white;" colspan="6" | '''Special Abilities'''
|-
|colspan="2"|'''Flight'''
|colspan="4"| Can fly without tiring. Can carry up to STR/5 at full speed. Half speed until carrying STR/3. Past STR/3, they cannot fly but can walk.
|- style="background: #eeeeee;"
|colspan="2"|'''Scent'''
|colspan="4"|Can identify people and things by scent alone. Can track by scent. This ability only works within 2 meters of the odor or thing.
|}

by [[Bill Logan]]

==Physical Structure==
These small sentient creatures are basically bipedal (they
can walk on two legs, and have two arms) but also have a
pair of batlike wings protruding from their shoulders.

The Yinni’s bodies are very small. From the top of their
heads to the bottom of their feet seldom measures
greater than 30cm (males only). Their wingspans are always
double their height (around 60cm). They have rigid
exo-skeletons that are covered with a thin dermal layer,
giving the false impression of softness while protecting
their inner organs well. Their forearms and lower bodies
are covered with a layer of fine fur.

The eyes of the Yinni are quite unusual. They protrude on
muscular nodes, normally facing forward to give a predator’s
uni-directional stare. However, these eyes can move
around on their nodes, looking to the side and almost directly
behind them. They are very difficult to sneak up on
because of this.

The hands and feet are webbed – but not for aquatic living.
They help the Yinni make fast direction changes
while in flight, grasping at the onrushing wind and shoving
it to the side to facilitate a rapid roll or pitch change.
They are very effective flyers.

The wings have a very non-dextrous pair of hand-like digits,
giving a limited ability to hold or grip things with the
wings themselves. When not in the air, the Yinni fold
their wings around themselves and clasp their digits like a
human might fold his own hands together. The end result
appears as if the Yinni is wearing a heavy leather cloak.

The skin color ranges from pale grey to rich brown, and
the hair is typically a few shades darker. The wings are
the same color as the flesh at the shoulder and even down
to their wing digits, but fade to near black at the ends of
the wing structure.

==Senses==
The vision of the Yinni is not far, but the field of peripheral
perception is amazing. They are able to see forward and
to the sides equally well, with independent focusing capability
with each eye. They can’t see directly behind them,
however, and have trouble differentiating between greens
and browns.

Yinni have two featherlike wispy antennae (similar to a
moth) protruding from their dermal-covered chitinous
heads. These are actually how the species smells its surroundings,
and it’s quite effective if short of range.

==Speech==
The vocal components to the Yinni are located more on
the sides of its head rather than in the throat. It breathes
air through a chamber on either side of its neck, which
makes a hollow sound like blowing over the holes of a
wooden pan flute. The vocal organs have muscles to help
control the opening (much like blowing into a different
hole in a pan flute). The mouth moves to give shape to
the sound effects.

The entire effect is very melodious but difficult to understand.
They can approximate most speeches, and can
accomplish PanGal, but all of this is with difficulty. Players
playing a Yinni should speak in simple words unless conversing
with other Yinni.

==Society and Customs==
The Yinni are a primitive people. Their society is built
around a Queen, which is catered to by a hive of workers
and soldiers. There are also domestic and royal castes.
Queens maintain various levels of peace, trade, and feud,
and the politics of their species are somewhat complex.

Only the queens can reproduce, and they require their
royal castelings to facilitate this biological function. They
are fertilized by a royal caste of servitors who spend their
entire lives living with the queen and being pampered.
When the queen is finally pregnant, she gives birth to a
few dozen eggs, each of which is cared for by one of these
royal castes.

The Yinni are comprised of a system of castes. There are
four basic castes: domestic, worker, soldier, and royal.
Caste is immediately recognizable at birth by looking at
markings and shapes of the head dermal plate. This
seems random, but there is a series of genetic patterns
that can be followed.

'''Domestic''' castelings take care of the domicile. They feed
the young, raise them and train them in the duties of their
caste. They are simple folks, and have modifiers of -10 to
Leadership and +10 to Personality (on top of the other
modifiers inherent to their species). Domestics are considered
the lowest members of the hierarchy.

'''Worker''' castelings take care of creating, building, repairing,
and engineering. They are surprisingly versatile. The
domiciles of the Yinni can range from simple hexagonal
structures to complex networks of double helix shapes.
Workers who create well are treated well. Worker castelings
have modifiers of +10 to Logic and -10 to
Intuition, as they are thinkers and not feelers. This is in
addition to other modifiers inherent to the species.

'''Soldier''' castelings are the most durable of the lot, possessing
a doubled-over layer of sub-dermal chitin. They
are very well protected against both the elements and
their enemies. Soldiers are treated harshly and are '''expected'''
to become tough, capable, and serious. Few of
them ever develop a sense of humor, and they’re normally
very intense and severe of both purpose and action.
They are beings of action, not beings of thought. Soldiers
have modifiers of +10 to Strength and Stamina but a -10
to Intuition and Logic. These are in addition to all other
modifiers inherent to this species.

'''Royal''' castelings have violet markings on their skin and
around their eye nodes. They are given the luxury of fertilizing
the queen whenever she’s ready. They give their
lives in service to the queen, and are treated well because
of it. They are often used as diplomats who must keep
the others in line, each having a domain over which they
govern. They are thinkers and planners, able to coordinate
everyday life and negotiate trade and commerce.
The Royal castelings receive modifiers of +10 to Leadership
and a -10 to Personality. This is in addition to other
modifiers inherent to the species.

'''Queen''' is a special case. She grows to twice the size of
the others, and lacks wings. She’s the only female and
won’t give birth to another female until it is her last egg to
fertilize. She’ll know when she’s given her last, and when
a new queen is coming. When she gives birth to the new
queen, it’s a day of celebration and mourning as she will
not last the rest of the day before she breathes her last
and therefore abdicates to the infant queen.

If a queen is killed prior to birthing her last egg, the caste
is ended and dishonored, its members wandering out into
the wilderness to accept their own fates, alone or in smallgroups, dishonored and without hope.

Despite the fact that they come from a primitive culture,
the Yinni are quite intelligent. In fact, their workers are
probably brighter than the minds of some civilized modern
races in the Frontier. Given exposure to technology, a
Yinni character need not adhere to the primitive roots
from which he came.

A Yinni character who has lost his caste because of a slain
queen is a very likely candidate for a player character. He
has no reason to remain behind in the world from which
he was born. He can embrace technology and learn to
understand it. Given enough time and effort (and money)
he may even be able to invent or pay for the construction
of technology suited for his size: miniature beam weapons
and stun weapons, electro-helibode blades, tiny suits of
ballistic material designed to protect like a skeinsuit, etc.
Such pieces of technology would cost up to ten times what
a normal piece of equipment would cost because it would
be custom.

<div style="border: thin solid black; background:#eeeeee; width: 80%; padding: 0 5px; margin:0 0 0 5px;">
[[File:Helibode.png|300px|right]]
The favored weapon of the Yinni soldier caste is the
helibode blade – an oddly shaped sword. Its blade is
given a shape and edge that makes it ideal for hurling.
As it flies through the air it is quite deadly. When the
hurl reaches its apex, it hovers for a moment then begins
to fall like helicopter-like seedlings from some
trees. Once in its descent, the blade is twirling differently
and may be caught by a swooping soldier in flight.
Even when not thrown, it is quite deadly when used in
their hands.

In a pitched battle between rivaling domiciles, these
blades can be seen spiraling down in great numbers, so
metal ringlets are placed in the handles of the blades so
that they make different noises specific to a single
domicile. This way a soldier can differentiate between
blades while they fall by their sound alone. A soldier
would never catch and use an enemy’s helibode, not
even to save their own lives.

In game terms, the weapon is treated as a knife (1d10
damage, thrown range 5/10/15/20/25) that can be
caught in the turn directly following the throw but not
thereafter.
</div><br />

==Attitudes==
The Yinni haven’t encountered the other sentient races
yet. They are out there, waiting to be discovered by an
intrepid group of explorers.

==Special Abilities==
'''Flight.''' A Yinni can fly at very fast speeds (80 meters per
turn when going full speed). They are excellent flyers –
able to glide as effectively as fly, and able to make nearly
any directional change desired while in full speed. They
fly at half speed if carrying more mass than their STR
scores divided by 5, and cannot fly if carrying more mass
than their STR scores divided by 3. Thus, a character with
a 30 STR can fly full speed unless carrying more than 6kg,
and cannot fly at all if hauling more than 10kg.

'''Discriminatory Scent.''' The wispy antennae can smell
things quite well – just not at a great range. They provide
a discriminatory sense to the species (just like sight is
discriminatory for humans). Even in total dark they can
rely on their scent to identify specific individuals, follow
the trail left behind by someone’s specific scent, or identify
trace elements that would go unnoticed by others.
These things are only possible within 2 meters, however.

<div style="border: thin solid black; background:#eeeeee; width: 50%; padding: 0 5px; margin:0 0 0 5px;">
Note: although these weights and speeds of the Yinni’s
movement rates and carrying capacities are not possible
by physics, these beings are not of this world and
their physics are both alien and unique grand exceptions
to currently-understood laws of physics.
</div>

Yinni - Revision history

Terl obar: Created page with ' Top:Star Frontiersman main page | Up: Star Frontiersman Issue 4 main index | Up: [[Character Rac…'

Terl obar: Created page with '
Top:Star Frontiersman main page | Up: Star Frontiersman Issue 4 main index | Up: [[Character Rac…'