Species

For most people, the only one who sees into their soul is God. And most of us wish even God was a little nearsighted.
- Joan D. Vinge, "Psion"

A'Lin are powerful psychics who are unable to kill (and survive the experience). They all look mostly alike and have no sexual organs at all, looking disturbingly like dolls to humans. They reproduce rarely and only on their home world so no one is sure how to tell males from females, or if they even have sexes as others understand the term. They tend to enjoy temperate climates and dislike extreme cold (though some of them can make themselves warm telekinetically). Their psychic powers are incredibly powerful but tend to be focused on subtlety rather than blatant displays of power.

Description

All adult a'Lin are approximately 5' tall and weigh around 70-85 pounds, being rather thin. They have green toned skin and a humanoid appearance (2 legs, torso, 2 arms, head) but are completely bald. A'Lin have large, black eyes, 2 thin slits for nostrils where a nose would be, no mouth and no ears. They have three fingers and a thumb on each hand and no toes as well. As they lack any reproductive organs and create no bodily waste they only wear clothing around outsiders because it makes the outsiders feel better. All a'Lin are referred to as male for the sake of convenience.

Physiology

A'Lin only have children on their home world and no outsider is allowed in that location of the planet for any reason at any time. From what has been gathered by scientists of other species, the a'Lin have no family structure and mating is a result of empathic joining between two a'Lin. Some joinings are for life but most of them only last until the child is born. The child is carried by one or both partners (or more, for large joinings) until he is ready and the a'Lin give birth to the child by somehow creating it psychically under very controlled conditions. From what a'Lin have said, the elders of their species oversee the development of a child's powers until the a'Lin is five years old and all the psychic abilities they have are matured. Social conditioning for children occurs before and during this time and by the time they leave to join the rest of society they are basically inquisitive young adults.

The life pan of a'Lin seems to be at least 200 years due to their ability to use psychic powers at a subtle level and control the aging process. How long an a'Lin without this control would live is unknown as is the upper limits of life expectancy for a particularly powerful telepath-telekinetic. Most a'Lin spend their time fashioned weapons and tools from the crystal trees of the world or helping build and remove new homes. Few seem to have any urge to travel and they have made no attempts to colonize other planets in their system, despite the fact that a group mind teleportation to said worlds is probably possible for them.

A'Lin survive by photosynthesis of energy from the sun and any waste product is converted into psychic energy. They all communicate telepathically and the lack of mouths or vocal cords at all seems to have been a result of evolution. Likewise their lack of ears since they can hear the thoughts and sense the emotions of approaching animals, making the need to hear irrelevant to them. Many a'Lin can sense sound waves telekinetically, enabling them to make out announcements on space craft with concentration as well as basic communicating with other species by telepathically broadcasting thoughts and picking up what they refer to as "projected thoughts" and amounts to what the other species says. As a side note, most a'Lin keep fit physically by not teleporting short distances and seem to like to walk around and view scenery.

A'Lin are cremated by themselves or another a'Lin at death in a very old ritual whose origins have been lost to time. The ritual is performed by the a'Lin if they are in control of themselves or by another if they are not. It seems to involve a focusing of pure psychic energy into the other a'Lin and results in the a'Lin spontaneously combusting into dust.

Society

The a'Lin society stressed harmony over everything else. To them, everyone contributes to society and no one is more powerful or better than anyone else. While very noble sentiments, these beliefs combined with the a'Lin stress on subtle uses of psychic powers rather than blatant ones like juggling boulders with their minds seems to hearken back to some time of war long ago. The a'Lin inability to kill may stem from this period as well if it ever existed at all.

Perhaps surprisingly, the a'Lin are not a hive mind and share a species empathic link rather than a telepathic one with each other. This, combined with their teleporting talent means that their society spans their entire world and they understand each others emotions well enough that insanity is curtailed and people generally get along, which eliminates any need for a direct government. The elders who raise the children are the closest example of a ruling body and often too busy raising children to deal with the problems of adults. Telepathic communication is rarely refused and since lying mind to mind isn't possible the a'Lin seldom lie to others of their species and their empathic talents ensure they often sense when they're being lied to.

Psychic Powers

The a'Lin seem to possess four broad psychic powers: empathy, teleportation, telepathy and telekinesis. The first two abilities occur species-wide and the latter two in varying degrees of power and control. Other known abilities include pre- and post-cognition. Remote viewing seems to be possible only by working with a group and biokinetic powers like shape changing aren't known among them, but once were from some fragmentary legends and may have been bred out of them deliberately. Many of them can heal themselves quickly and slow the aging process by using telepathy and/or telekinesis on themselves.

A'Lin hold that abilities are more powerful if they are used subtly. Being able to rip someone's mind apart with a thought is crude compared to be psychic surgery or healing of insanity and other ills. Likewise, telekinetically being able to heal faster and alter their own bodies and small scale uses of power are considered preferably to being able to blow apart rocks and the like with a thought.

A major limitation on their powers seems to be that they develop all their abilities by the age of five and seldom ever learn new ones. The other one is that they cannot kill. For whatever reason, their empathic power causes them to experience the death of whomever they kill and they die as well. While it may be possible for them to kill a non-empath and survive their own power will turn against them and effectively they destroy their own minds even if they survive. Killing someone from long distance with energy weapons and surviving may be possible but no a'Lin has ever tried it because they abhor killing. (Researcher's Note: No reason has been given for this and they seem to have no religion that could explain it.)

Technology

The a'Lin have no technology because they've never had a need to develop it. Only in the rigorous raising and teaching of children does their society have a truly analytical bent. Most of them refer to using their powers as "talents" and the fact that continued use doesn't tire them for a long time (provided they have sufficient light to eat after a good day or so) they've never had to develop any kind of pseudo mystical of scientific understanding of their abilities.

Home World

The a'Lin home world is a temperate place of trees and bright sunlight, feeding them and providing shelter from storms as well. The primary tree is an odd crystalline tree that they harvest as simple tools and for weapons since it's sharper than normal glass. They make homes out of the world itself and don't build any structures but tend to mould them from the world itself and get rid of them at need. This, along with cremation of the dead and an oral story telling tradition, has left archeologists with almost nothing in the way of a history for them.

Post-Principality Contact

The a'Lin only joined the Principality 300 years ago over vigorous objections by the elders of their species. The reasons for the objections were never made clear but the elders were relieved to find out that the Principality had no record of meeting any other species like the a'Lin. Few of them travel off their world since they see no reason to, but various species have found out that their prejudices against psychic mind readers can easily be expressed when the fellow you're killing can't kill you – well, not all of you. Best to bring a fiend or two so some of you survive ... just in case. As a result of this the a'Lin have stopped working for other species as truth readers for dealing with criminals and have begun to worry about a possible invasion force bombing their planet to kill them all off. The elders, rather than saying "we told you so" seem to have begun planning for that eventuality but the nature of their plan is unclear.

Their Diplomat

The a'Lin diplomat is named Gil and is protect by a bodyguard named Klin and has two human interpreters for any awkward inter species communication. One of the most powerful empaths of the a'Lin, Gil is a cultural xenopathic empath and able to understand the needs and fit in with almost any species based on body language and empathic clues about the species. He's their most revered diplomat but issues with the Convoy safely have led to him arriving with Klin. No one is sure what an a'Lin bodyguard can do since they all die killing others but the idea tends to amuse them and seeing one of the a'Lin working out and actually developing muscle mass is highly entertaining. Gil refuses to discuss the guard with others and is said to be working out some sort of non-aggression treaty for his species.

Game Stats

Body: 20-50
Speed: 20-65
Mind: 40-80
Soul: 35-75

Powers:
Varied and impressive psychic abilities. (Empathy and teleportation almost always musts. TK, telepathy etc. optional but common enough. All Diplomats are powerful cultural empaths (know what to do in any setting) and precognitives.)

Limits:
They only communicate via telepathy and empathy and can’t speak.
They have no ears (they hear/sense basic projected thoughts (what amounts to language) from others around them. Creatures who can’t be sensed frighten them a lot. If something doesn’t project some kind of thoughts they can’t sense it unless they see it. (Telekinetics might sense noises as air movements, and PA systems and the like might register to telepathie/telekinetics at GM discretion.)
They won’t/can’t kill. Well, not without dying themselves. Evolution is a bugger, eh?
They also don't really have technology of their own so find using it strange. Most simply don't bother.