Kni'lina

The Kni'lina are a sapient race of humanoids.

Biology
The Kni'lina are similar in appearance to Humans, with the exception of a complete lack of body or head hair. They do have eyebrows and eyelashes, but no facial hair otherwise. They often derogatorily refer to Humans as "Hairies" because of that.

While the Kni'lina are sexually-compatible with Humans, they are different enough to prevent any offspring between the two races.

While most food and drink of one race is palatable by the other, there are two major exceptions. The Kni'lina are strict vegetarians. It is unknown if that is a cultural or biological restrictions, but they consider meat-eating to be repulsive and call any carnivores "corpse-eaters". The other exception is alcohol, which is poisonous to the Kni'lina. Instead of alcohol they consume various juice mixes that can have a slight narcotic effect on both Kni'lina and Humans.

Culture and society
Kni'lina society is divided into clans. However, unlike most similar groupings in Human history, Kni’lina clans are more like subspecies. This is a direct result of a plague that ravaged their homeworld of Yezdan many centuries ago. The disease was highly lethal, and the vast majority of population on the planet's only continent was wiped out. Most of the survivors were on islands that quarantined themselves and worked on a cure. Eventually, they came up with gene therapies that gave them an immunity to the virus, but since each island worked on the cure independently, this resulted in each island's population having slightly different genetic makeup from the others. The two largest islands, Ni and Poharas, gave birth to the two largest and most influential clans in Kni'lina society, which took their names from their islands. Because of these genetic differences, the various clans are unable to intermix and produce viable offspring with each other. They also developed different cultures and even governments. The Poharas are more emotional and artistic. They are also governed by an emperor and are highly religious. The Ni are pragmatic and reject any religion. They are governed by a council of top-ranking technocrats. The other clans are significantly smaller and have a lot less effect on Kni'lina politics, even though every clan is represented in the Horada, the overall Kni'lina governing body.

One interesting custom to develop during the plague times is the concept of "kono". It is, essentially, the idea of personal space taken to a higher level. Alternatively, post-COVID Humans might call it social distancing. Kono is an area about 2 meters in diameter around a person that no other person may violate. While it was a necessity during the plague times, it has since entered Kni'lina society as an everyday part of life. Structures are built with kono in mind and generally feature spacious rooms to allow for Kni'lina to avoid violating someone else's kono. Exceptions are made to one's romantic partner and servants, who are not expected to abide by kono.

Religion
The dominant religion among the Kni'lina is Yezdan'tabi and involves following the tenets of the prophet Yezdan (it is not clear if they named their homeworld after the prophet or if the prophet named himself after the planet), as written down in the Book of the Beginning and the End. The religion is less about the spiritual nature of the world and more about daily behavior.

Unlike the religious Poharas, the technocratic Ni do not follow Yezdan'tabi and do not believe Yezdan to have been a prophet. They do, however, revere him as a wise man and largely follow the same tenets.

Language
The Kni'lina language is entirely possible for a Human to learn and speak, especially with the use of hypnotic learning.

Technology
The Kni'lina are about on par with the Earth Federation in terms of technology. It is unknown if they possess antimatter weapons, but it can be reasonably assumed that they do. Unlike the Dromi or the Haptors, they do not owe their technological rise to the Lo'ona Aeo.

History
Long ago, the Kni'lina were a rising civilization. But then two calamities occurred within a short time of one another. First, their homeworld of Yezdan captured a second moon, causing devastating earthquakes and tsunamis to ravage the planet. Not long after, a highly virulent and deadly plague swept across the planet’s only continent. Only those who isolated themselves on remote islands and destroyed any approaching ship survived. They managed to develop gene therapies that made them immune to the plague, but in the process created subspecies that could no longer interbreed with one another due to the genetic differences. This became the foundation of the clan system, with the two largest clans, Ni and Poharas, dominating Kni'lina politics. When it came time to resettle the continent, it was discovered that a group of unmodified Kni'lina managed to survive in a remote settlement. These Zinto, as they came to be known, were allowed to live and integrate into the clan system but were forbidden from interbreeding with the clans. Because they are the original stock, they are capable of producing offspring with any clan, which would destroy the clan system. Thus, anyone violating the law would be executed. The Zinto became second-class citizens but, over the centuries, have managed to grow their numbers to the point where they comprise a not insignificant part of the population.

The Kni'lina are notable for being one of only two races to maintain an embassy on Earth's Moon, the other being the Lo'ona Aeo. But the Kni'lina tend to view Humans in a negative light, believing them to be upstarts on the galactic stage.

There have been a number of clashes between the Kni'lina and the Earth Federation, one of which was a full-blown war. However, it is notable that only the Ni clan and its affiliates were at war with the Humans. The Poharas and their affiliates remained officially neutral, although they did not prevent their members from participating in the fighting. The Ni were soundly beaten.