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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8146914" data-attributes="member: 30538">Seshai<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-MQMKbpx/0/6594eb7f/M/VRiMN-M.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />To look at the Seshai, one might think that they were just a blue-skinned branch of the human race, such as the people of Aychran, whose entire population have a condition similar to the methemoglobinemia possessed by some Terran humans, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Fugates" target="_blank">the Fugates of Kentucky</a>. This is a false conclusion, and the Seshai are very prompt to correct the misapprehension when they encounter it. They are not even hominid, being descended from creatures similar to Terrestrial marsupials, and notably require major surgery in order to survive giving birth to live young. It is very likely that this condition is what led to them developing the advanced medical techniques that are their hallmark.Many of these medical practices involve the enhancement or replacement of damaged organs and tissues with electronic systems -- cybernetics, to use the Terran term, which has no cognate in Seshai. While not all Seshai have such implants, they regard the need for them as no different from the use of clothing for protection from the elements. The notion that 'cybernetics' damage some essential aspect of an individual, rendering them less than a person or unable to empathize with those without them, is utterly foreign to their experience, and would be regarded as a profoundly disturbed perspective.The Seshai were one of the founding members of the Imperium, having established a small interstellar polity surrounding their home world and fought several wars with the Manguai and their clients, the Augrah. They have maintained a long-standing rivalry with these old foes, but until the rise of the Crimson King, it had become an almost ceremonial relationship. The general opinion of the Seshai of the Crimson Imperium is an unfavorable one, but the majority of the populace has chosen to simply ignore it as best they can and wait for better times to come. A sizeable minority have taken action by joining the Insurgency, contributing valuable technological and medical assistance as well as acting as frontline soldiers.Unfortunately, an equally large minority of the Seshai has responded to these developments in a much less positive and much more dangerous manner. While the Seshai have always been willing to share the benefits of their medical research with other peoples, they have never tried to force them on others, any more than they have tried to force their communal and uncommercial way of life on the rest of the universe. In the last half-century, however, a movement has developed in the Seshai community which asserts that their species possesses a uniquely enlightened perspective, and that the only way to bring other life forms to the same level of enlightenment is to provide them with medical enhancements -- regardless of the patient's wishes, which they view as a false consciousness.Referring to themselves as Uplifters, these renegade Seshai have become space pirates of a particularly bizarre style, seeking neither profit nor excitement, but rather using the victims of their raids as the subjects of implanted medical enhancements -- 'cyborging', to use another term for which there is no Seshai cognate. They point to the fact that such subjects often join their crusade as evidence of their philosophy, but others, including mainstream Seshai physicians, have claimed that their victims have been cognitively rewritten by neurological implants rather than making free choices. The Uplifters are considered a criminal organization within the Imperium, with the Guard having shoot-on-sight orders concerning them. Despite this, they have continued to flourish.Only a few Seshai families joined the Armada -- despite their technological orientation, their culture did not ever engage in much technomancy -- and the species is extremely uncommon in the Technate. The Uplift movement has not, as yet, found any purchase in this branch of their culture. But some have compared its diffusion to that of a computer virus, and it might only take a single infected Seshai to begin spreading it further.Seshai Uplifter -- PL 8/MR 8Abilities:STR 5 | STA 4 | AGL 4 | DEX 4 | FGT 6 | INT 2 | AWE 1 | PRE 0Powers:Arm Blade: Strength-based Damage 3, Improved Critical 1 - 4 pointsEyemods: Senses 1 (low-light vision) - 1 pointCommunications Implant: Enhanced Skills 1 (Technology 3), Limited to Security; Radio Communication 3, Subtle; Senses 1 (radio) - 14 pointsSubcutaneous Armor: Protection 4 - 4 pointsAdvantages:Diehard, Equipment 4, Evasion, Fearless 2, Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Precise Shot (ranged, cover), Ranged Attack 4, Teamwork.Equipment:Blaster Rifle (Ranged Damage 8) and 4 points of equipment as needed.Skills:Athletics 4 (+9), Intimidation 6 (+6), Investigation 4 (+6), Perception 5 (+6), Stealth 6 (+10), Technology 8/5 (+10/+7), Vehicles 4 (+8).Offense:Initiative +8Unarmed +6 (Close Damage 5)Arm Blade +6 (Close Damage 8, Crit 19-20)Blaster Rifle +8 (Ranged Damage 8)Defense:Dodge 8, Parry 8, Fortitude 7, Toughness 8, Will 4.Totals:Abilities 52 + Powers 23 + Advantages 16 + Skills 17 + Defenses 12 = 120 pointsComplications:Obsession--Motivation. Electrical (becomes Hindered, Immobilized and Paralyzed if subjected to Nullify Electrical.) Others as Needed.</blockquote>

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