Corrected spelling and grammar, and made it to a scroll so that it is easier to expand. Go to Comment

Kiranti Garments On their homeworld, clothing serves a decorative more than a protective function - still, Kiranti are quite vain, and most often go clothed as to emphasize their appearance, or hide flaws. For example, if one of them dos not like the pattern of her spots, she will wear clothes that cover the disliked part. Those with fewer spots might paint patterns on their bodies using iridescent metal pigments. Preferred fabrics are of natural materials - historically, wool and plant fiber, nowadays genetically engineered living tissue. Work clothing and environmental protection suits are made of heavy duty bioplastic that has some reparative capacity, using body waste to sustain itself - it can be fed using nutrient inlays or baths. Bioplastic clothing is able to warm the user by uncoupling the citric acid cycle from oxidative phosphorylation, much like brown fat of human infants can. Casual clothing is very loose and soft, and usually supplemented by jewelry. As their planet is rich in metals, the Kiranti do not attribute too much value to gold, silver or plating, yet they are well aware of their decorative capabilities. Jewelry is a very common gift. Living plants are included in the clothes, fed from small nutrient flasks, or storing energy within the living cloth. Work suits and even military uniforms are still highly decorative. Instead of medals and signs of rank, uniforms feature resilient flowers, much to the amusement of several macho militaries throughout the galaxy. Color, number and type of flowers denote rank and achievements. As much attention is paid to maintaining the flowers as the human military paid to polishing boots. Uniforms feature contractile filaments that allow them to shift from a loose, casual mode to a more tightly fitting form without wildly flapping decorative elements that might interfere with, say, a space suit.

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Kiranti Spacecraft:

Luckily for them, the Kiranti homeworld is rich in ores, as is their moon and asteroid belts, easing the effort of constructing ships greatly.

Knowing that space is inhabited by unpleasant species who delight in shooting up unwary strangers, Kiranthi vessels, whether trade, civilian or military, feature high output fusion drives capable of an economic mode and a battle mode with far greater output (but also fuel consumption) and additional maneuvering drives both as backup and to execute tricky combat maneuvers.
Most ships also hold an escape charge, basically a fission bomb that accelerates the ship greatly, at the cost of extreme discomfort of the crew.

Military capital vessels hold most of their personnel in the center of the ship, which is a smaller spacecraft in itself, capable of escaping a doomed ship and carrying the crew to safety.

Lots of funding and effort are being put into cloaking devices - a Kiranti vessel with powered-down shields and drive is almost impossible to spot, unless one knows what he is looking for; at longer ranges, even a powered-up one can and most often does escape detection.
Scout vessels feature optical camouflage as well, masquerading as asteroids in space, and rocks on planets.
To further elude confrontation when possible, Kiranti build larger ship-to-ship missiles than most alien navies, fitting them with extended electronic counter-measures and masking devices, as well as extra fuel for longer range - striking from concealment and vanishing again.
Small unmanned ships or missiles usually approach enemies, unleashing fake targets and fooling furthermore with sensors using deliberately dirty drives and shields set to generate interferences and static. Also, a favorite tactic is to detonate nuclear warheads near foes to bathe their sensors in hard radiation.

Fighter craft are quite popular in the Kiranti navy as well, as the small ships can evade detection easily, require minimum crew and can attack without exposing capital ships. Usually, they carry high-yield energy weapons, around which the attack craft is constructed; multi-purpose fighters are equipped with lighter weaponry instead, four wings allowing for atmospheric maneuvers, and extensive electronic warfare equipment meant to shield heavier ships advancing behind them, fool missiles and make targeting the small craft more difficult.

For close confrontation, Kiranti rely on heavy duty shields, precise energy weapons, ion cannons and particle projectors.
The shields dissipate and shed energy rapidly, flaring in patterns unique for every ship due to small construction differences - some engineers actually deliberately construct ships for a certain battle flare pattern. A side effect is that the shields can sear small vessels at short range when they discharge; a risky maneuver is to overload the shields deliberately to scorch enemy fighter craft.
Energy weapons are primarily aimed at an enemy's weaponry, drives, and exposed command posts; ion cannons and particle projectors fry systems en masse.
Generally, Kiranti vessels do not fare too well at close range, as they often sacrifice brute firepower for range and precision. Likewise, the armor of their ships is not as heavy as it could be, but something had to be sacrificed for speed.

An important factor in battles is their empathic link - while it eases coordination of the crew greatly, once their morale starts to falter, especially rookie crews tend to panic, fear spreading like wildfire. Green crews frequently break formation under heavy fire, and few Kiranti can stand the fear of being boarded.

The design of ships features smooth curves of gleaming metal, spiral motifs and long sleek winged shapes. Their drives flare a distinct sharp blue.
Inside, the corridors are likewise slightly curved, as are most walls. Kiranti are no great fans of corners and edges. Living plants decorate even warships, thriving in the artificial lighting well enough.

All ships are home to various pets; warships house several warhounds, dangerous and cunning critters enhanced with cyberware that are released into the corridors when boarding has started and the crew is withdrawing. After being excessively petted and snuggled by the crew, the risk that they would attack any of their own is low indeed. On peaceful voyages, they most often serve as playmates, or large cushions for the crew visitors are often horrified by the apparent carelessness with which the crew handle some of the worst predators of their planet.

Due to their social nature, crew quarters feature common beds, and generally, mated groups are recruited for crew if possible. Sometimes, even the captains post will be held by not one, but two Kiranti whose bond is so close that they can discuss matters and come to a conclusion almost as fast as a single person could, but with less potential for error.

Generally, Kiranti vessels are pleasant to reside in, equipped even for long operations in the field not only with energy and foodstuffs, but recreational facilities to keep crew morale and sanity high (this is of course impossible in smaller vessels).
The only problem for visitors may be that the ship is meant for four to five feet tall beings.

Note: to the ugly surprise of enemies, Kiranti vessels sometimes display weaponry and tactics vastly different from the norm - this is due to the fact that their industrial capacity allows the Kranti to export ships, most often selling them to close allies at acceptable prices; these are custom-built according to the ally's specifications, yet outwardly bear all marks of Kiranti design. An attacker has approximately a one-in-twenty chance that a discovered Kiranti ship bears something else than fragile fae on board. Go to Comment

Crap. I was not logged on when I posted., Now I cannot edit it. Go to Comment

Would a human who landed on their planet get metal poisoning? Go to Comment

These folks are neat, though the left-alignment of the text looks weird to me (though not deducting points for that..) Go to Comment

Pretty cool descriptions actually. The seven sins are a good concept to wrap unique creatures around, see The Tower of Ash for example. But I'm glad to see that you have gone different ways than us. :)

The formatting is a little off in places, but it does not detract from the reading. Oh, and special bonus for the written up ways of laying them to rest - that is always good to have with undead monstrosities around. Good work! Go to Comment

I like! I have a fondess for personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins, and due to a particular quirk of my own, *undead* personifications of said Sins make me even happier. Well written, nice imagery, and definitely not yout average revenants.

Although I do have to wonder what would happen if some any of the different types of Sinners ended up in the same geographical area. Go to Comment

Finally, Echo presents to you: the wages of Sin, and undeath following in their wake. Go to Comment

5/5 and I will give it an HOH when I get the chance. Go to Comment

s'been a while since I've seen this. I had wondered why it seemed so familiar. Go echo! Go to Comment

These are quite good incarantions of undead - much better then the run of the mill undead.
Nicely done indeed! Go to Comment

I'm loving the concept! Can't wait to see where it goes from here. Go to Comment

My favorite part of the post is the little stories which follow some of the undead, which give great ideas. Each is so well described I am impressed. 

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Okay, her background and development sound pretty good, and make sense. The short trip to absolute power came to a deserved horrible end. The question is, what is she now... is she a mere monster of uncontrolled power, or is there a chance of saving her? And even if she is saved, by now she has a reputation of a mass murderer, and it is deserved.

How could she be saved... how could she be stopped, for that matter, without a huge loss of life? (Also, is it only human souls she can use? Could not animals be a valid target, or something else? Okay... hard to look for victims at this powerlevel.)


Not a bad idea, though it may be hard to apply in a game. Go to Comment

I like her, definitely an interesting variation of a villian. I think my favorite part is that as bad as her plight is, it's her own fault. Hubris on a grand scale. Of course, fighting her would end up being one of those "Unstoppable force" things. Go to Comment

She's meant to be a villain - one who is not evil for evil's sake, but rather out of need. Not that any of the victims care!
If she managed to shed energy recently, she's your average moderately sinful moderatly flawed person who can use a little flattery for one's ego, and a little compassion too. After all, in elven terms, Rilei is just a teen.

And yes, she can let her energies drain away only through humans.
As for saving? Perhaps some artifact that can take away a mage's talent and all magical aptitude could be what might cure her, and can be used as a way to tempt her to do one's bidding. Go to Comment

Well, it -does- mean that humans are better at hurling spells, but elves have finer control over magic, and can use multiple spells at once... Go to Comment

Only voted Go to Comment

I like her as well, but the by placing limits on Elves, it makes it a little hard to fit into established worlds without a bit of work. Go to Comment