The Sarakheen are an offshoot species of humanity.
Biology[]
The Sarakheen are human beings who turned themselves into cyborgs. Each of them has one mek arm, one mek leg, and one mek eye, and every one of them has their reproductive organs surgically removed immediately upon producing their second child. Thanks to their mel improvements they are far stronger that an ordinary human, able to club a human skull with their bare hands.
History[]
At one point in the distant future the Sarakheen broke off from humanity to develop their own culture.
Many decades ago the a future member of the Sarakheen discovered a Jaaprana artifact on Vox Romanus called the Rosetta Codex, that served as a cipher to translate the aliens writings to any known human language. Within it were details of the meeting of humans and Jaaprana and how to revive the ancient aliens. This woman found it, and read it, and lost it. Later she became one of the Sarakheen and brought with her the tale of the codex.
The Sarakheen felt threatened by the possible return of the ancient beings. They eventually learned that the Rosetta Codex was not just a single artifact but one of many scattered across the galaxy. To prevent this from coming to past, and contradicting their false philosophy of being the most superior life-forms in the galaxy, sought to remove any Jaaprana artifacts that could serve as a catalyst to the aliens revival.
The Sarakheen had amassed quite a number of Jaaprana manuscripts, causing many to speculate that the cyborgs were attempting for decades to decipher them as it was believed they wanted to the Jaaprana secrets for the integration of mind and machine—the ultimate goal of the Sarakheen. The cyborgs made no attempt to dissuade others from this lie as it suited their purpose to keeping the secret of the Jaaprana’s return.
On Conrad’s World the Sarakheen were known to harass the Resurrectionists, a group who sought to learn and understand the Jaaprana. They made indirect efforts over the years to shut down the Resurrectionists either by buying out the authorities to charge the members of some political crime or other, and then ship them over the Divide in exile. There without the protection of the law, they armed savage human criminals with highly advanced weapons to slaughter them in exchange for safe passage across the Divide. And in more recent years sabotaging excavation sites before stealing anything of value.
Eventually it was discovered that the last scion of the Alexandros Family, Cale Alexandros, was in possession of the Rosetta Codex. Cale as it turned out was a man who the Sarakheen had dealt with some decades ago when he was a member of the Resurrectionists on Conrad’s World, before the cyborgs flooded the excavation tunnels killing Cale’s lover and scattering the group. More interestingly Cale’s father had once attempted to find the codex, before his demise and his son’s disappearance. The Sarakheen’s human representative Blackburn was familiar with Cale as he met him while Cale was stranded on Conrad’s World as a slave in a lawless region. Blackburn had tailed Cale and his old nanny across the Divide leading him to a Jaaprana ruin, though nothing was ever found.
Now that Cale was restoring his family’s fortune and making efforts to launch a starship, the cyborgs suspected that the human had indeed found something in the ruins. They attempted to coerce Cale in selling them the codex, and failing that when he denied ever possessing it appealed to him in their vision of humanity, arguing human civilization was at a societal decline teetering towards barbarism and that they were the next step in human evolution. Their words did not move Cale who turned them down before threatening them to stay away.
Cale and his Allie’s then took a ship called the Night Traveler under a trip for trade but in actuality to locate the portal to the Graveyard of Saints where the Jaaprana were waiting to be revived. Thanks to the Night Traveler’s captain leaking the location to the portal to the Sarakheen using fear of the aliens and bribes to secure his betrayal of his employer. The Sarakheen’s and their human servant Blackburn arrived in the interior of a great space station that served as a vault for the re-Genesis of the Jaaprana. Due to lacking the codex, they crash landed on the station, but managed to make it to the shrine where the Emissary of the Jaaprana was about to be given the codex to complete the re-Genesis. The armed with weapons threatened Cale’s group to give them the codex claiming it was to protect humanity. None in Cale’s group bought their lies as it was apparent that the cyborgs have no regard for the human race and that the Jaaprana were not a threat to humanity, but a threat to the Sarakheen’s superiority, and their plans to dominate all non-Sarakheen humans.
In the commotion Blackburn was killed by his own masters, who had no use for him and to prevent him from damaging the codex. The cyborgs though were easily incapacitated by the Emissary rendering them harmless whilst Cale and the alien proceeded to awaken the Jaaprana so they could finally meet humanity for their first time.
Culture[]
The Sarakheen live in an artificial world called Sarakh, which they built for themselves. Due to the Sarakheen’s obsession with cybernetics, they made many biomechanical advances and are hence very wealthy.
Sarakheen are said to be not quite human; or if human then not quite normal. Due to this mang baseline humans regard them as freaks. Likewise they have disdain for humans due their inflated sense of superiority. True be told they have no regard for the lives of those who aren’t Sarakheen and regard other species as little more than animals.
Sarakheen think themselves as the next evolutionary step. Their goal as most think is towards the full and complete integration of man and machine where intellect comes without the contamination of hormones or chemical imbalances or genetic modification. They themselves desire to become machines. Machines guided by individuals, individual personalities, individual and undying minds which is close to immortality.
Most humans will never see a Sarakheen in their lifetimes. This is because the cyborgs are forbidden from entering any star system with their own ships and the Aligned Worlds have been diligent about enforcing that ban. Thus they are only allowed in human star systems individually, in ones and twos as paying passengers on human ships.
Source[]
- The Rosetta Codex by Richard Paul Russo