Dis is Sadim, she a Firrerreo from the Star Wars universe. They have gold skin (that scars or emotionally shifts to silver), two tone hair, and third eyelids (like animals have). They can sometimes act bestial and stick to their clans so I’m not sure why I put her in a uniform but she looks good in it I think.
approximately how firrerreo see the world, except they also see uv stuff which is not necessarily the simplest to approximate... blue and violet look pretty normal. but basically, greens and reds are pretty uninteresting to them, what we see as magentas, pure yellows and bluish greens are ok, while cyans, blues and violets are more fun. the uvcolor is fun, but we can't see that! so their vision in our range is kind of between deuteranopia and deuteranomaly, just bc the presence of the uvcolor means they're trichromats rather than dichromats like those with deuteranopia.
Given their high protein needs, it’s likely that they never adopted large-scale farming; they’re hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. What little farming they’ve practiced has been forest gardening, slash-and-burn and most recently aquaponics, which was largely pioneered for use on their sublight spacecraft.
Given their rapid healing, Firrerreo may behave in a way that other species consider foolhardy. While severe interpersonal conflict is rather solved by posturing than fisticuffs, the Firrerreo lifestyle on Firrerre is risky enough that over 75% of Firrerreo receive and heal from major physical trauma over the course of their lifetime.
The Firrerreo ocular adaptations are a result of the harsh sun of Firrerre. Their sensitivity to UV light aids them in hunting and crepuscular activity, while the nictitating membranes protect their eyes from the harsh daylight.
Firrerreo are trichromats, but compared to baseline humans, their range extends into near-UV, while shade differentiation in the 491-700 nm range (cyan-red for baseline humans) is diminished. They consider red and yellow shades of the same color and report the existence of a color that baseline humans can't perceive, which the Firrerreo describe as "similar to violet, but brighter" or "…less blue".
Occasionally females whose parents are of different Firrerreo populations or one is of non-Firrerreo ancestry may have medium-long wavelength colour differentiation on par with baseline humans. They're believed to have tetrachromatic vision. Hybrid males of non-Firrerreo gestational parents may share this trait, as well, due to near-human males typically inheriting the medium/long-wavelength aspect of their color vision from the gestational parent.
The emergence of tetrachromatic vision in mixed-population females gives credibility to the theory that Firrerreo were ancestrally capable of tetrachromatic vision, but different populations have lost a long-wavelength cone independently of each other over the course of the species' development.
Firrerreo are largely crepuscular in the equatorial regions of Firrerre, while being more opportunistic/cathemeral in the polar regions due to the extreme seasonal differences in daylight. Even on other planets, there’s a tendency for Firrerreo to prefer low-light conditions over the brightest daylight—noon naps are common.
Firrerreo skin tone is regulated by vascular activity, melanin and structural factors.
During normal vasodilation, their skin appears golden due to smaller amounts of light brown eumelanin and larger amounts of yellow pheomelanin. Their bodies may supplement the yellow colouration with xanthophyll carotenoids from their diet. (see Honduran white bat.)
Firrerreo have varying amounts of melanin to their skin; typically, their lightest skin tones are electrum-like, while the darkest ones are akin to antique bronze. Golden hues are most common.
Negative emotional responses cause large-scale vasoconstriction, which combined with the structural pale blue hue of the dermis (compare Mandrills) makes the skin appear green-grey. This tone change is used for various purposes from communicating emotional state to temperature regulation and camouflage.
Physical damage that leads to scarring typically disrupts skin pigmentation locally, resulting in pale silver scarring.
The metallic quality of their skin and hair is due to thin-film interference from the ~stratified squalous epithelial cells~ of their epidermis and cuticular scales, respectively, which differ from those of baseline humans at the nano scale. (Compare golden moles.)
While Firrerreo are species-centric, their clan-centrism overrides this. A half-Firrerreo, a quarter-Firrerreo, a 1/8-Firrerreo, that’s all irrelevant so long as the individual can inherit clan status via Firrerreo ancestry; that person is Firrerreo, even in the eyes of Firrerreo of other clans.
Clan inheritance depends on context; if your gestational parent is staying with a clan and the father could plausibly be a clan member, then that's your clan. Otherwise, it follows your gestational parent; a Firrerreo fathering children outside the clan passes on no clan membership.
Firrerreo practice limited interstellar and even inter-clan trade. Trade networks are weakly established, and traders are not well-regarded. Most trade happens through family networks; those who migrated to a new clan trade with their natal clan.
Firrerreo are broadly patrilocal and matrilineal; women are more likely to migrate between clans, and children inherit their mother’s status. High-status women are more likely to stay with their natal clan. A man wishing to migrate to a new clan will have better success if migrating with a woman.
Firrerreo have essentially no gendered division of labour.
Firrerreo have strong word-related taboos and often use circumlocutions for topics and beings deemed dangerous. Using the name of someone of higher status, even if you know it, is essentially an insult. Using a pseudonym for someone of lower status, even if you know their name, is a sign of goodwill and respect.
Firrerreo clan-centrism and distrust of outsiders is further compounded by the Imperial Firrerreo genocide.
Most of Firrerre’s surface is covered in ocean, and very few regions are without lakes and rivers. Firrerreo have tended to cluster around waterways. Most Firrerreo populations rely on aquatic resources and are skilled fishers. Stealing wild birds' eggs on cliffy shores is a common children’s pastime.
Firrerre is also highly mountainous, so high-altitude pastoralism is another common lifeway.
Young Firrerreo often partake in risky behaviour such as rock climbing without safety gear, cliff jumps and hunting animals that shouldn’t be hunted alone.
Waterfalls have spiritual significance. (Working on the specifics.)
Within a clan, all food that is brought in is split between clan members according to their needs, and only what is left over after that, if any, is stored for the long term.
While genuine physical fights are rare, playful roughhousing is very common among all genders.
While their protein needs are high, their fat needs are even higher to avoid protein toxicity.
On spacecraft, they grow seaweed, nuts and seeds in aquaponic systems with fatty fish and more, as well as insects and yeast.
They have a high proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which makes them significantly stronger per weight than baseline humans. (This is a real thing.)
Their canines are very prominent, with the lower canine slotting into a gap between the second upper incisor and the upper canine, and the upper canine slotting into a gap between the lower canine and the first lower premolar, which also has a prominent outer cusp. Their outer lower incisors are also slightly cusped. (Similar to Wookiee dentition!)
They have a yellow tapetum lucidum; this causes blurriness compared to baseline humans, but improves night vision.
They have significantly higher caloric needs than baseline humans.
Their lifetime is 330% of that of a baseline human, presumably due to their extreme regenerative capability. (See olms!) Their gestation length is on par with that of baseline humans. (Because this is more limited by hip and head size than scaled to life expectancy.) They do, however, breastfeed longer than baseline humans on average, ~4-6 years, typically weaning by the time the sharper adult teeth come in. (Good for spacing pregnancies apart a bit more, considering they have such long lifetimes!)
Then my actual pièce de résistance aka cuisine:
Milk booze, caramelized whey, cheeses, tree cambium, lichens, tree saps, foraged roots, eggs both foraged and from domesticated animals, seeds and nuts and wild leafy greens, both raw and cooked meat (domestic, game, aquatic), bile, marrow, animal fat, brains, herbivore stomach contents, stockfish, mushrooms incl. toxic mushrooms that take extensive processing to be edible, distilled animal horns and hooves->ammoniacal leavening product (basically hartshorn salt), fermented cakes made from pollen+sweet sap/whey+saliva (like solid chicha! and bee bread minus the bees.), salt popsicles (cuz salt yum), insects, larva puree, wild berries, allium and lily bulbs, wild flowers and herbs, sweet blood desserts, acorns, some fruit that is mostly used in plant ferments to aid digestibility but also in blood soup, blubber, curd candies, skin crisps…
I did want to make it able to freak out the weak. Cuz I think everyone is just too fucking boring with their Swars when irl humans eat really interesting stuff!
