Dimuroites

Physical Description

The Dimuroite’s most striking feature is their blue skin which ranges from a light silvery-blue to dark navy blue in rare cases. The most common shade is among their skin tones is cerulean. Their hair comes in red, brown, black, and the occasional blonde. Dimuroites often have violet, green, brown, and hazel eyes; golden eyes also occur naturally but blue eyes do not. Even though their skin is blue, their lips, fingernails, nipples and certain other parts are peachy in hue, sometimes even pink. They are often skinny do to fast metabolisms and a limited food supply. Average heights range between 5’7 and 6’0 for men and 5’2 and 5’10 for women. Body modification is not something they practice and would be extremely uncommon and considered unattractive / bizarre, the exception being former work camp and slave citizens with brands. Any sort of self-inflicted modification is unthinkable. Dying one’s hair is even unheard of.

Dimuroites naturally age slower than most other humans, a process which starts around puberty. Often at age 16 they look like most other humans would at age 12, at 24 they look about 16… they naturally continue to stay more youthful as they age. Someone in their mid 40’s might appear to be in their late 20’s early 30’s. On average a fully grown Dimuroite looks about 15-20 years younger than their actual age.

Cultural Description

The Dimuroite people are very xenophobic. They are distrustful of other humans / species / and cultures. Others believe them to be cursed / diseased and shunned them or have used them for their own gain and as a result the Dimuroite people stick to their own kind. Historically they used to be a very trusting society that would welcome anyone with open arms but ages of hardship taught them otherwise. They are also very religious (but it is more spirituality than a ‘religion’). Dimuroite religion is so woven into their culture that the religion itself doesn’t even have a proper name.

‘Zeitgeist’ or ‘Poltergeist’ (interchangeable terms) is a bastardization of the Dimuroite’s ancient language which had been stolen from them. The Dimuroite space colonists had brought ancient Dimuroite texts (thought to be lost) onto their space station and have managed to hold on to them to present times. Only few can read their old language, but Poltergeist is spoken by most of the Dimuroite people as a cross between their old language and the common tongue which is now their native tongue. Poltergeist is helpful when trying to speak in code since it is known only by Dimuroites. The name Zeitgeist for the language came from another ancient (although foreign) text and was the first name given to the hybrid language. Later, an elderly Dimuroite man claimed that the pronunciation that they were using for the ancient words (which no one is quite sure is correct or not) sounded like a ‘poltergeist’, hence the dual names. Shassshanm is a Poltergeist curse word that children may be scolded for using but is acceptable when used by adults in adult company.

Traditionally there is no mention of homosexuality in their culture. It is neither frowned upon, nor accepted. While intersex people are considered holy, homosexuals are not considered at all. Birth is a sacred event to these people, so sex that cannot result in birth is not considered an ‘enlightened’ act. Still it is tolerated and not condemned. In recent times it is even accepted openly in some instances since there is a need for balance in the birth rate and the colony cannot afford a major increase in population, homosexuality is almost (secretly and subtly) encouraged in certain instances.

Diet

They keep chickens and some vegetation on their mother ship but rely on most of their food supply comes from their debtors or from what their pirate ships can plunder. They eat what they can get.

Homeland

Originally Earth in what is now Aedolis, though they have lived in space for centuries now, currently the entire population lives on three ships; their mother ship which is simply called ‘Dimuro’, and two large pirate ships captained by two of the Dimuroite princes. ‘The Fire’s Mercy’ is captained by the eldest prince Jahsklo Jalmuur and ‘the Light Chaser’ is captained by the second prince, Hanguin Jalmuur.

Special Abilities

Dimuroites do not possess any magic or psychic abilities but they do possess superior human genetics. Since their genetic mutation there has not been a single case of a Dimuroite becoming ill (they can suffer from exhaustion and starvation, a few cases of allergies have also been noted). Their bodies age slower and metabolize faster than normal humans and they need about twice the food a normal human would to sustain themselves.

Lifespan

The average life span is about 150 years and they age slowly too. They reach ‘adulthood’ at about age thirty when they look about the age of a normal 18-20 year old.

Religion

Dimuroite ‘religion’ is more of a spirituality than a religion. Dimuroites believe in Light; a warm all-knowing peace that all souls come from and return to. Each living thing has a soul made of two halves, one female and one male. These two elements blend to create life. The Light is not a being, but is worshipped by them almost like one. Fire also has an important part in Dimuroite religion. It is as close as we can get to the light in a corporal state. Fire baptisms take place when Dimuroites are children. The child’s parents hold the baby’s hand in theirs and hold it over a sacred flame. The flame never touches the child’s skin, but its warmth and light is believed to fill the child. They believe everyone has masculine and feminine energy, and embracing both sides is considered to be a form of ‘light chasing’, or seeking self-enlightenment and moving toward reaching the tranquil state of light. Holy people are said to have a glowing-aura or radiance to them. ‘Light chasing’ is also the act of practicing this belief system. Light chasers are pure and neither entirely good nor evil. They are just and can sense the light. They are beacons for their people.

Dimuroites believe in peace and equality. They feel that good things should be done because it is right, and on a whole the society does not have ulterior motives. It is a concept that is not part of their culture, but one they have been forced to learn recently.

Dimuroite prayers are traditionally done in a group or even just among a family. They are sung in a chant-like style with one person leading the prayer's tempo and all participants sitting in a circle as they sing their prayers for themselves and for each other. It ends up sounding very unified and amplified when there are a lot of people praying together. Any Dimuroite regardless of age or gender can lead a prayer.

Common Sayings

‘Travel safely’ – common goodbye (whether or not the person is actually traveling). Historically the ‘travel’ part refers to life’s journey and one’s path toward the Light. Recently it is especially potent to those Dimuroites going on pirating expeditions, especially the crew of The Light Chaser.

‘There is so much energy in you.’ – ‘Energy’ refers to the male and female parts of the soul cohabiting to create a form of the Light, a little spark of energy.

Shassshanm- A ‘Zeitgeist’ aka ‘Poltergeist’ curse word.

Yadol- The word for male energy which provides strength, courage and honor.

Kasim- The word for female energy which provides caring, wisdom, and gentleness.

History

In ancient times the Dimuroites were wanderers but eventually settled in what is now Aedolis. They lived there for peacefully for many years but then other cultures tried to take their land and force them to assimilate. The stuck to their beliefs and did not want to leave but unfortunately they were peaceful and unable to defend themselves against others. After a while they were given an opportunity to test out one of the first earthen space colonies and were promised they could govern themselves and practice their beliefs if they did, so they decided to go.

It was named Dimuro in honor of their tribe. They were in space before the earth was considered 'inhabitable'. Dimuro was a peaceful colony of middle and low class people who signed up to live on the space colony to test what life would be like for humans in space. For the first few decades everything was great and life on Dimuro was predictable, but tranquil.

Then the technological problems with the colony began. It wasn't long before the food supply was compromised and the people started to get sick. A new space virus infected almost all of the Dimuroites and the colony was quarantined, receiving no aid for years out of fear of the highly contagious virus spreading. By the time Dimuro received 'help' most of their population had died, and they lost many of their engineers, workers, pilots, scientists, and doctors. Dimuro had been reduced to a colony of orphans, widows, and the sick. The people who were supposed to be helping them were instead performing experimental treatments on the sick, survivors, carriers, and even non-afflicted. Many of the remaining Dimuroites were killed by these treatments and they were all treated as sub-human. Eventually one of these treatments proved to eradicate the virus, but it turned their skin varying shades of blue due to the high levels of silver in it. The serums actually ended up causing genetic mutations in the Dimuroites and the blue skin became a dominant hereditary trait among the people, as well as a now superior immune system and metabolism.

At the time the Dimuroites were being cured, others left the now vastly inhabitable earth, and when the scientists left Dimuro (though some assimilated) it was still in terrible shape. Others were unwilling to help Dimuro because they were concerned with their own survival and the quarantine on Dimuro was never officially lifted (a fact that remains to this day). The Dimuro colony was impoverished and in dire need of food and supplies for its remaining citizens. When they received these things, it came at a high price; their freedom.

The Dimuroites were enslaved for decades. Their colony was seized and scraped and they many were worked to death, until their real use was discovered. Since the scientific advancements that were used on the Dimuroites to cure the virus were mostly lost in the scramble to leave earth, scientists decided to experiment on Dimuroite descendants to try and rediscover these advancements. However the blood of the Dimuroite people proved to make a better serum than the ones used on them in the first place. After all, their blood is essentially human.

One of the Dimuroite slaves, Dalvaun Jalmuur led a revolt against their captors and most of the remaining Dimuroites (only a few hundred at that point) were liberated. Despite not having a real home and only a small fleet of ships, the 'cursed orphans of the stars' formed their own small kingdom, with Dalvaun Jalmuur as their king. Unfortunately, their 'freedom' didn't last long. The survivors still lacked supplies, food, and money. The kingdom was loaned money in exchange for Dimuroite blood, a bargain that pained King Dalvaun to make, but at least his people were giving blood safely now and they were able to survive on their own terms; until their debtors wanted more. The Dimuroites were forced to pay 'protection fees' in addition to the loan, and it became increasingly obvious that their people could not sustain a free and peaceful life.

To make matters worse the lore concerning their people made the Dimuroites out to be disease carrying, cursed people and terrible omens despite their beauty, long healthy life spans and peaceful nature. No one would aid them, and their debtors started taking Dimuroites and selling them as lab rats and slaves. Faced with this reality, King Dalvaun's eldest sons turned toward piracy to protect their people. They were both skilled in defensive combat, but relied heavily on the rumors about the Dimuroites to aid in their piracy. After all, most beings would hand over anything to make the cursed disease carriers leave.

Unlike most royal families the Jalmuurs do not live in luxury and are as impoverished as their people, despite being revered and heralded as heroes. They carry the burden of protecting their people and are the only ones who know the full truth of their circumstances.