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Description

The Rapatchi are an avian people native to the planet Arat-arat. Standing, they are short and stocky in appearance, with voluminous amounts of brightly colored feathers, but they are incredibly lightweight. Their great wingspan and low weight offers them the natural ability to fly.

Their legs are ill-suited for walking for long periods of time, with their feet adapted more for grabbing than standing, featuring one toe forward and the other two backwards. Additionally, they have pseudo hands on their wings, with a thumb and single finger, allowing them some manipulation of objects and devices when grounded. The rest of their wing extending from the hand is feathers extending off what would otherwise be a large second finger for most sentient.

The most notable feature of the Rapatchi are their eyes. Rapatchi have three, bio-luminescent yellow eyes. The bio-luminescence is not caused by bacteria or their own structure, rather that the jelly-like fluid within them absorbs light and releases it slowly in darkness, much like glow-in-the-dark paint. While the two left and right eyes aid in depth perception, the third's existence allows the Rapatchi to gauge its own altitude and vertical orientation relative to the ground instinctively.

As one could tell from their beaks, their primary diet consists of large nuts, fruits, and some insects: predominantly those found in their native equatorial jungle lands from which they evolved. Their staple food is a fruit very similar to coconuts, which they easily crack with their beaks, but it is toxic to most other sentients. Likewise, that toxic chemical in the fruit which is the very thing which gives Rapatchi their bright colored feathers.

The physiological differences between male and female Rapatchi can be difficult to discern at first, but a sure sign is their plumage. Male Rapatchi will have vibrant "frills" at the pase of their tail and behind their thighs. These large feathers serve no real purpose other than to be attractive. Males also have more noticeable head plumes, which raise and lower to express a variety of emotions. Females, by contrast, tend to have larger feet for the sake of transporting eggs and nest building, and somewhat narrower beaks.

Culturally, the Rapatchi are a somewhat primitive people, who were introduced into the rest of the universe by accident. Their bountiful planet gave them little need to develop technology or civilization beyond tribal treetop villages, with their intelligence being a result of their fatty diet and competition with predators on the forest floor. The Rapatchi's first glimpse of highly technological life came via HNT pioneers finding their world, and marking it a potential place of great natural resources, not noticing the Rapatchi because the Rapatchi, traditionally, do not wear clothes, and are naturally very cautious. To the pioneers, they were deemed nothing more than animals, but it was when a few curious young Rapatchi snuck inside the ship and accidentally hit an autopilot sending it back to HNT space, the truth was revealed.

The young Rapatchi were found terrified and confused in the HNT ship drifting in orbit after it refused to respond to hails of any sort. After calming them down, it was soon realized that these were not animals, but sentient creatures. They squawked and clicked their beaks in a manner which translation matrices discerned to be language, wanting to return home. The HNT granted their wish, but also accompanied them back to Arat-arat. Upon return, they found the pioneers taken captive by the Rapatchi, believed to have taken the young ones. With the young ones' return, the pioneers were released and - surprisingly for a primitive people - forgiven.

Normally, the HNT leaves primitive peoples alone if finding signs of pre-space faring civilization on a world, but the Rapatchi blended in so well, that did not happen. The Rapatchi had seen too much, now knowing beyond a doubt that there was other life and unimaginable technology out there, so the HNT decided there was nothing else they could do but treat it as they would in first-contact with a space-faring civilization. Specimens of the planet's rich natural life and soil composition were bartered with in exchange for technology - small things at first, such as medicines and clothing(to which most Rapatchi didn't use, but liked to decorate their nests with.) Shed Rapatchi feathers also became highly sought after as trinkets in the HNT for their immense size and vibrant color, and the Rapatchi sensing business opportunity decided they wanted more in exchange for them: ways to explore the stars just like these visitors.

The Rapatchi eventually managed to negotiate a few inexpensive, simple starships into their ownership, as well as training to use them, and began flying higher than any Rapatchi had before, exploring the space of their new HNT allies, and learning even more. Within a matter of a century and a half, the Rapatchi were already making bizarre factories to refine metals and make parts for starships, whilst still living in huts and nests of branches, offering all a glimpse at what happens when the modern day and ancient past collide, creating fusion of both ancient tribalism and modern industrialization.

The Rapatchi still remain culturally and, for the most part, technologically the same, with the exception of knowing how to build and maintain starships. Many, however, left their bountiful homeworld in search of even more knowledge, joining the HNT as full citizens and becoming interwoven with their society. Now, some Rapatchi are born on worlds that are not their own, into societies which their grandparents could've never dreamed of, but as is in Rapatchi folk tales; some winds are more familiar than others, and their wings were built as friends to those that blow over Arat-arat. Most, if not all, Rapatchi return to their homeworld at least once in their lives to be reminded of who they really are, to feel the winds their wings were meant to catch, and in the HNT's strive for all sentients to love what they are and not envy others, it is encouraged of them. Some end up staying for reasons they cannot explain in tangible terms, feeling a sort of kinship to a world even if they weren't born on it, and even those who leave it cannot deny the call of its winds to them.

Description

The Rapatchi are an avian people native to the planet Arat-arat. Standing, they are short and stocky in appearance, with voluminous amounts of brightly colored feathers, but they are incredibly lightweight. Their great wingspan and low weight offers them the natural ability to fly.

Their legs are ill-suited for walking for long periods of time, with their feet adapted more for grabbing than standing, featuring one toe forward and the other two backwards. Additionally, they have pseudo hands on their wings, with a thumb and single finger, allowing them some manipulation of objects and devices when grounded. The rest of their wing extending from the hand is feathers extending off what would otherwise be a large second finger for most sentient.

The most notable feature of the Rapatchi are their eyes. Rapatchi have three, bio-luminescent yellow eyes. The bio-luminescence is not caused by bacteria or their own structure, rather that the jelly-like fluid within them absorbs light and releases it slowly in darkness, much like glow-in-the-dark paint. While the two left and right eyes aid in depth perception, the third's existence allows the Rapatchi to gauge its own altitude and vertical orientation relative to the ground instinctively.

As one could tell from their beaks, their primary diet consists of large nuts, fruits, and some insects: predominantly those found in their native equatorial jungle lands from which they evolved. Their staple food is a fruit very similar to coconuts, which they easily crack with their beaks, but it is toxic to most other sentients. Likewise, that toxic chemical in the fruit which is the very thing which gives Rapatchi their bright colored feathers.

The physiological differences between male and female Rapatchi can be difficult to discern at first, but a sure sign is their plumage. Male Rapatchi will have vibrant "frills" at the pase of their tail and behind their thighs. These large feathers serve no real purpose other than to be attractive. Males also have more noticeable head plumes, which raise and lower to express a variety of emotions. Females, by contrast, tend to have larger feet for the sake of transporting eggs and nest building, and somewhat narrower beaks.

Culturally, the Rapatchi are a somewhat primitive people, who were introduced into the rest of the universe by accident. Their bountiful planet gave them little need to develop technology or civilization beyond tribal treetop villages, with their intelligence being a result of their fatty diet and competition with predators on the forest floor. The Rapatchi's first glimpse of highly technological life came via HNT pioneers finding their world, and marking it a potential place of great natural resources, not noticing the Rapatchi because the Rapatchi, traditionally, do not wear clothes, and are naturally very cautious. To the pioneers, they were deemed nothing more than animals, but it was when a few curious young Rapatchi snuck inside the ship and accidentally hit an autopilot sending it back to HNT space, the truth was revealed.

The young Rapatchi were found terrified and confused in the HNT ship drifting in orbit after it refused to respond to hails of any sort. After calming them down, it was soon realized that these were not animals, but sentient creatures. They squawked and clicked their beaks in a manner which translation matrices discerned to be language, wanting to return home. The HNT granted their wish, but also accompanied them back to Arat-arat. Upon return, they found the pioneers taken captive by the Rapatchi, believed to have taken the young ones. With the young ones' return, the pioneers were released and - surprisingly for a primitive people - forgiven.

Normally, the HNT leaves primitive peoples alone if finding signs of pre-space faring civilization on a world, but the Rapatchi blended in so well, that did not happen. The Rapatchi had seen too much, now knowing beyond a doubt that there was other life and unimaginable technology out there, so the HNT decided there was nothing else they could do but treat it as they would in first-contact with a space-faring civilization. Specimens of the planet's rich natural life and soil composition were bartered with in exchange for technology - small things at first, such as medicines and clothing(to which most Rapatchi didn't use, but liked to decorate their nests with.) Shed Rapatchi feathers also became highly sought after as trinkets in the HNT for their immense size and vibrant color, and the Rapatchi sensing business opportunity decided they wanted more in exchange for them: ways to explore the stars just like these visitors.

The Rapatchi eventually managed to negotiate a few inexpensive, simple starships into their ownership, as well as training to use them, and began flying higher than any Rapatchi had before, exploring the space of their new HNT allies, and learning even more. Within a matter of a century and a half, the Rapatchi were already making bizarre factories to refine metals and make parts for starships, whilst still living in huts and nests of branches, offering all a glimpse at what happens when the modern day and ancient past collide, creating fusion of both ancient tribalism and modern industrialization.

The Rapatchi still remain culturally and, for the most part, technologically the same, with the exception of knowing how to build and maintain starships. Many, however, left their bountiful homeworld in search of even more knowledge, joining the HNT as full citizens and becoming interwoven with their society. Now, some Rapatchi are born on worlds that are not their own, into societies which their grandparents could've never dreamed of, but as is in Rapatchi folk tales; some winds are more familiar than others, and their wings were built as friends to those that blow over Arat-arat. Most, if not all, Rapatchi return to their homeworld at least once in their lives to be reminded of who they really are, to feel the winds their wings were meant to catch, and in the HNT's strive for all sentients to love what they are and not envy others, it is encouraged of them. Some end up staying for reasons they cannot explain in tangible terms, feeling a sort of kinship to a world even if they weren't born on it, and even those who leave it cannot deny the call of its winds to them.