Uranus: ​Derivapods

[The Charon]

The Deriviapods are the most isolated species of Charon, grudgingly accepting the shelter that the shipcity provides and staying as out of contact as they possibly can with all other species. For the most part, Deriviapods seen outside their compound are young rebels, exiles, businesspeople, or otherwise have a very good reason to be away from the safe and normal confines of their zone. Orphans or otherwise parentless children may be raised by Hadans, but typically only hybrids or otherwise stigmatized youths are raised outside the compound.
A Deriviapod is rarely without a Nayame friend to help them navigate the strange people and technology of the shipcity.
They are fairly long-lived and highly magical, but very shy. They have a lot of potential... if only they would share.

(Naming Conventions: They favor airy words with vowels on the ends of their sentences. K's and K sounds are prevalent.
Examples: Karu, Menkata, Omi)  

[The Charon]

Biology

Deriviapods have no gender dimorphism, and respond to any pronoun that isn’t insulting. They reproduce entirely via magic and ritual: to breed, they ritualistically partake in a fruit that grows from special trees that they keep very highly protected, especially since there are only three known trees still in existance (all in the Temple). The rite of sharing the fruit causes the seed within the fruit to ‘quicken’ and split into two developing deriviapod embryos with the traits of their parents, encased in seed like shells that eventually split to reveal the child. Because they breed by magical ritual and not biology, deriviapods are capable of producing hybrid children with most of the species of charon- and some children that are not hybrids so much as full deriviapods with some of their other parent’s traits.
They fly by flapping their arms periodically and gliding. They are surprisingly light (and fragile), with efficient muscles that allow them to achieve true flight. It is likely that they use some magic to fly as well. They are especially adept at climbing and gliding.
Deriviapods are methane breathers, and, although technically omnivores, are very picky eaters, each individual having their own particular tastes.
Magic is even more natural to them than it is to the Dioti, but they tend to be more set in their ways.

Color Specs:
Base color is typically a light, leathery brown or a mid-saturated blue, usually dark, and very occasionally grey or a lightened black. They typically have very thin and subtle stripes or spots of a more subtle color. Often, they will also have spots of iridescent whites, reds, greens, or blues (dark or light). They may have different wing, chest, belly, and back colors than their base, but they also might not. they are frequently countershaded (Light belly/underbelly/torso, darker back) Their eyes are black and smooth. They have no visible pupils or structure to them.

Clothing wise, they prefer light, nonrestricting bright colors, especially headgear of various sorts.

 

[The Charon]

History

Society/Beliefs:
Deriviapod society is highly magical and secretive, focused around their precious birth-trees. Other than their good friends the Nayame (who initiated first contact millenna ago and have become a common fixture in Deriviapod society) they try not to have very much contact with the other species. They do not trust technology, not even magic-based technology, and as such can seem very primitive to others on Charon. Some Deriviapods don't even realize they are on a spaceship at all. The nayame have insisted on some small technological concessions (like enviro-suits and airlocks and radios and such) but these devices have become shrouded in mysticism and superstition by the Deriviapods. Very few actually know how they work.

Although there is technically a deriviapod representative on the Charon council, there is also a Nayame that acts as a co-representative for them. Of course, the Nayame intermediary for the Deriviapods must act according to deriviapod interests only, and their job is not made easy by the deriviapod representative’s tradition of not showing up to meetings.
In general, the Deriviapod society feels like an isolated society within the larger charon society, grudgingly there but not wholly a part of anything on the shipcity.

This is, however, starting to change- some of the younger generation of Deriviapods is starting to explore the options the shipcity has to provide to them. The explorations are cautious, but you are more likely now to see a deriviapod around the city than you would have been a mere charon standard decade ago.

 

[The Charon]

On Charon

On Charon:
Though the Deriviapods keep to themselves, many of Charon's great artists have been deriviapods or partial deriviapods. Those few that have integrated into the greater society find that their flight abilities are handy, as are their large natural reserves of magic. Although not as inquisitive or adept at casting spells as the Dioti, if they learn how to use it, they become powerful magic users. Some of the really rebellious sorts might even take up jobs in engineering or business.
Typically, though, they prefer to work for or with Nayame if possible.


Attitudes:
Deriviapods are aloof and wary of the other species of Charon, even the Dioti and the heraculeans, with whom they have much in common. The other species are strange to them, and they are just not comfortable with their ways of life.

They are only really friendly and trusting of the Nayame, who act as mediators (fitting with their diplomatic abilities), and with whom they have a long history with.

They especially do not trust the humans and lurians, as purely mechanical technology unnerves them