Races Among the Star 14: Neskinti
And it’s time for another set of Starfinder species, and our first two subjects this week are going to be more natives of the Azlanti Star Empire! Today’s subject: the Neskinti!
Hailing from the jungle world of Gjor III, the Neskinti are a species of arboreal primates living in harmony with nature. Indeed, carefully guiding the life of their world both to accommodate themselves and maintain the ecosystem has been their cultural sacred charge for a long as they’ve had a culture.
Indeed, according to their oral traditions, the Neskinti were created or perhaps uplifted by a powerful nature spirit they call Nesk, who entrusted them be shepherds of their world’s biosphere, a task they took to with great skill, focusing most of their technological and innovative leaps on horticulture and magic to that end.
That lack of advanced technology meant that the Neskinti were ignored by the Azlanti that came to the planet in a bloodless conquest, the visitors dismissing them as primitives not worth the effort to subjugate while the native neskinti were perfectly happy to leave them alone as long as they did no overt damage to their world.
This dynamic changed when the Azlanti realized how deep the horiticultural knowledge of the Neskinti ran, and they began actively and aggressively recruiting the tree-apes as ecologists, helping the empire find ways to preserve the beauty and health of the worlds they conquered. And there is something delightfully funny about lesser Azlanti nobles being shut down in their plans by the recommendations of one of the empire’s vassal species.
For their part, many neskinti view the new opportunities as an expansion of the mission that Nesk left for them, extending their care to other worlds that have no dedicated caretakers. Others, however, chafe and seethe under Azlanti rule, having seen firsthand the callous domineering of the fascist empire and the casual cruelty towards other sentients and ecologies that such a superpower can inflict.
Additionally, neskinti also struggle with the sheer difference in tech level from their own subsistence ways and that of the wider galaxy, with many debates being held on what technologies should be adopted or rejected.
Neskinti have a simian, almost gorilla-like primate body plan, able to lope around on their knuckles or waddle upright, though they are much more at home off the ground in areas with plenty of handholds. Despite being on average 6 feet tall, they are surprisingly light, their thick fur, which ranges from dark browns to blonde, giving them the illusion of more bulk than they have. Additionally, their fur conceals wide skin flaps that can be used for gliding or at least slowing their fall as well. Unlike apes that were are familiar with, however, these alien primates have short fluffy tails which remind me a bit of the tails of a flying squirrel, possibly for helping them glide? Additionally, their ears rest higher on their heads and are able to rotate as well. Together, they seem like a fusion of gorilla and sugar glider, all things considered.
Neskinti tend to be devoted worshippers of spirits and tend to be close-knit and patient people. Their love of horticulture likely endears them to other species that make use of plant-based biotech, such as raxilites.
Neskinti are agile and empathetic, but their light bodies are not suited for heavy application of force.
Being native to a world with a thick jungle canopy has given them eyes adapted for dim light.
While they are slow on the ground, these apes are surprisingly fast while brachiating, giving them a great advantage in any area with sufficient handholds.
True to their culture, neskinti are raised learning how to care for the natural world around them, survive in it, and understand it’s many nuances and quirks.
While they cannot truly fly, these apes can spread their gliding flaps to glide long distances or at least save themselves from a precipitous fall. They can even gain height if there is an updraft they can use.
Agile and wise as they are, neskinti can pair well with plenty of classes. The most obvious of which is mystic, most likely with the xenodruid connection, but other mystics and indeed other casters, particularly precogs, are also good choices. Their dexterity and skill at vertical locomotion also makes ranged builds with operative or soldier a good idea as well. While they are written as being unfamiliar with advanced tech, they don’t have any disadvantages to being a mechanic, and an intuition biohacker is a very thematic choice if they wish to focus on healing and taking care of nature. Another interesting possibility is an evolutionist that seeks to become something more, either becoming a wild natural thing, or perhaps transcending mortality to become something akin to a nature spirit in their own right. Their strength penalty does make melee builds with various classes a dubious choice, but not undoable. Honestly the biggest thing to watch out for is mobile opponents on open terrain that can easily outmaneuver them when they have nowhere to climb or glide to. Even still, there are ways to get around those weaknesses.
That does it for today, but tomorrow we’ll be doing another Star Empire species as well!