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Home world: Tahcana
Physical Description and Notes:
Jophee are slender beings with elegant features. They are naturally beautiful to look at. They have long pointy ears. Their eyes are a bit bigger than a normal humans and their pupils seem to be similar to cats pupils. Physically, most Jophee look very similar, one CAN tell the sexes apart though. What sets them apart are natural body markings that can be either patches or stripes on the face and body. They can have any color in the rainbow for these markings. However, they only have one color. The actual skin tone of a Jophee can range from tan to bronze to a light gold and anywhere in-between. Jophee usually have short hair, no matter which sex. Hair color is usually brown, blond, black, red, or white. Another interesting note is that temperatilly stop physically aging at 25 years of age. They begin to start physically aging again at 350 years of age. During their last 50 years of life their bodies quickly decay. When they finally pass away they will have aged 100 years in that 50 year span. Their bodies are physically unable to do anything and they are mentally unstable. It is not known why this happens, but many Jophee comit a ritual "Depature" between the ages of 345-350 years of age. Many would rather depart as fully capable beings than skeletons of their former selves.
Jophee are quite athletic and love to show it off. Jophee are extremely quick. To a human a Jophee is "supernaturally" fast. Also both male's and female's have extraordinary physical endurance and mental endurance. Jophee are NOT extraordinarily strong, Females are about as strong as average human females and males about as strong as average human males. Both males and females can live up to 400 years.
Female: The Females are the quicker of the two sexes of Jophee. Females have firm, well defined bodies. Jophee Females can only have two children. One will be male and the other a female. Jophee females can ONLY be impregnated by Jophee males.
Male: Males are the stronger of the two sexes, However, they do not have a lot of bulk, but what muscle features they do have are pronounced. Jophee males can only produce children twice. This is not to say they only do "it" twice... just that they can do "it" and procreate twice. Jophee males can ONLY impregnate Jophee females.
Society:
The Jophee society is based around competition. The lives of Jophee are spent gearing up for physical and mental competition with each other. To this end Jophee spend their time flinging comments at each other in the name of mental competition. To a human the Jophee would seem to be upstarts who are over-confident and bratty.
Government: The Jophee government is, now, a centralized board of elders. This board watches over all aspects of Jophee life. They implement the standards for education to the barter rates. Competitions for positions on the board are held every 6 years. Jophee who want to challenge a board member for their seat must first compete against others who want to challenge the board member. The winning challenger will be the only one to fight the incumbent board member. There is a total of 4 board seats, so every six years 4 board challenges take place. There are also town governments that are under the Board of Elders. These too have the competition type elections. It is important to not that the competition elections not only have physical but also mental competition, as well as knowledge base competition.
Schooling: For Jophee schooling starts at the age of 7. Before this children are raised by their mother and father. At the age of seven Jophee move to their "base school";. A base school is like a public school. The purpose of base school is to educate Jophee children in the base knowledge of the 4 topics. The four topics are: knowledge, art, physical, spiritual. Jophee attend base school until the age of 18. At the age of 18 a Jophee child chooses one of the four topics he/she will immerse him/her self in. After choosing the child is sent to the school which focuses on their choice topic. This is liken to college. Like college there are general studies that are added to the focus study to round out the individual.
Knowledge: a study of either the sciences, math's, history, manufacturing, or other such things. Jophee who choose the knowledge focus leave the physical games behind and build their mental superiority. These people are very wise and have helped move the Jophee civilization beyond feudal fighting of the past. They are also very prudish and quite the upstarts.
Art: a study of either painting, drawing, literature, music, architecture, or other such things. Jophee who study art tend to be very eccentric. They are outlandish in their dress, in their social demeanor, and in every other aspect of social life! It must be noted that these Jophee are the most competition driven people of the race!
Physical: a study of either combat, sport, or other such things. These are the bold, brazen, Jophee that take the aspect of physical competition to the utmost level. One unique aspect of training is the development of the internal tafpee..(chi to those who practice tai chi). In later years of training a Jophee physical student can actually throw his/her energy as an attack or as a distraction. These Jophee are always boastful of their abilities and will take anything on.
Spiritual: a study of the inner-workings. This is quite the unique focus. These Jophee become hermit like and quest for the knowledge of "self". This can be liken to Buddhism, Christianity, or other world religions in the fact that these people try to learn about themselves and higher power(s) that be. These Jophee develop their psionic abilities as well. These Jophee are the only group that have seemed to have left the idea of competition behind. They have been the "neutral" force that have kept the Jophee civilization intact.
Journey of Education: At the age of 70 the child finishes his/her college study. They are then sent out on a Journey of Education. The children use their ability to summon portals...(1 of the 3 gifts of superiority) to travel to different dimensions and planets to learn about "others" and their ways. The children will seek out to continue their learning about their focus and how then "others" train. The Journey of Education lasts 130 years, in this time the Jophee student will learn all he/she can about their focus on the new planet. For example... if the student is in a physical focus he will search out every fighting style on the planet and learn their ways if possible. Many Jophee die during the Journey of Education, but it is a risk that Jophee love to take.
After the Journey of Education: When the student Jophee returns from the Journey of Education he/she is given a test by the School Elder board. This test requires that the student show what was learned while on the journey. Failing the test shows that the student was lazy and did not take the time to expand his/her knowledge of his/her focus. Student's who fail can never gain the status of masters of their said focus. After the test every student, whether they passed or failed, goes out into society and try's to find his or her place. Some will opt to go adventuring on Tahcana. Still others will seek help from the Bendal, a neighboring race who uses magic and can open dimensional portals, in hopes that they will be able to find the place where they went and continue their journey.
Social Notes:
Most Jophee are not evil, there are evil Jophee however. These Jophee are looked down upon, but are not chased out of society. Evil Jophee cheat, lie, and do other such things. They do not kill, rape, or commit other such crimes only because they would be put to death. They will commit these heinous crimes when on the Journey of Education.
Laws: Jophee law is relatively simple. Any heinous crime will be punished by death. Small offenses like lying, cheating will cause you to be looked down upon.
The 3 Gifts of Superiority: These are gifts that can be thought as being magical or blessings or whatever. The Jophee themselves do not know why or how they got them, but they are quite glad they have them. An point of interest is that each gift seems to help the student Jophee during his/her Journey of Education.
One prevailing idea of the knowledge minded Jophee is that the 3 gifts were given to the first Jophee that partook in the Journey of education some 10,340 years ago. It is thought that the student meet an ancient being that is rumored to be living on Tahcana and asked the being for its help in expanding his knowledge of the universe and himself. The being, impressed that this Jophee would even seek it out, instilled the three gifts on him and allowed them to be passed onto the rest of the Jophee. This is only an idea and has not been proven.
Gift 1: Ability to summon portals for dimensional and planetary travel. This gift is used only twice and can only be used twice! Once to leave for the Journey of Education and once to get back home. It is interesting to note that the first use will create a portal that will take the Jophee summoner to an unknown location, but the second use will always take her back to Tahcana.
Gift 2: Ability to understand language. The Jophee have an uncanny ability to pick up on language. This really helps during their Journey of Education. They do NOT pick up on a language right when they hear it. They must first be exposed to it for a period of a week before they begin to pick up on a new language.
Gift 3: Ability to adapt. This ability allows the Jophee to become "accustom" to a new environment. This gives the student the ability to eat foods of the planet she is on and drink the liquids suitable for drinking. Also, the student can "tolerate" the weather of the new planet. It must be noted that anything that can kill the natural inhabitant of the planet will more than likely kill the Jophee! Also, one must keep the key words in mind... "accustom" and "tolerate".... these words signify that the student can, to an extent, live comfortably on the new planet. However, extreme situations... i.e. Extreme cold, heat, and what not, will harm the Jophee. Also some foods and drinks will cause illness and what not in the Jophee student just because they can not adapt fully enough to handle them.
Activities: Jophee love to gather socially. They usually do this in acts of competition. Almost every Jophee loves to watch and participate in competitions. Those who have studied or are studying in spirituality will stay away from competitions as much as they can.
It is also interesting to note that Jophee are very sexually active. They do NOT have sex with just anyone and are quite morally sound about their sexual practices.... meaning they keep their mental and physical health in mind as well as others well being in mind. This has kept sexual diseases down to a minimal as well as rape and other sexual abuses.
The sexes: Jophee do not discriminate on the basis of sex. Both males and females share in the same freedomes. They do, however, keep privacy in mind and do have many facilities that seperate males and females. But it is of importance to note that all competition is open to both male and female. There are only a handful of competitions that allow only male or female participants.
Family: Jophee do not have a concept of marriage, but rather they keep a partnership. A Jophee female will choose another Jophee as a partner. The partner can either be male or female. The Jophee male will do the same. In the partnership the two Jophee grow a strong bond to each other. This bond is not based on sex, nor is sex the basis of the partnership!, the bond is based on sharing life experiences and training with each other. Sex may happen but as stated it is not the center piece of the partnership.
Children: children are usually had at the age of 250, this is done because most Jophee feel that at this age they are far away enough from "departure" to raise children but yet close enough to "departure" to warrant them setteling down and raising children before they comit "departure". The children are raised by the mother and the father jointly.... whether or not the two are partners. Jophee will choose only one mate to have children with, as stated in the beginning ONLY two children can be produced by males and females. The two children are raised in a loving environment. And as stated at the age of 7 they are sent to base school.
MISC:
Demeanor: Jophee are inquisitive people. Curious to the highest degree. Both males and females are quite open about their feelings. The Jophee feel that there is no competitive edge in hiding one's emotions. In fact they feel that it wears the body down and allows it to become vulnerable to disease and injury. They will often show their emotions in public and do not hide their true feelings about things.
Jophee sometimes will take a break from being competitive. During these breaks they will journey to the beautiful areas of Tahcana and "vacation". These breaks can last a few days to several months. Very rarely do they last over a year.
Magic: Jophee know about magic but do NOT use it. Period!
Technology: The Jopee have the equivalent of about 17 century europe.
Money: The Jophee know about currency through their Journies, but they usually barter. Crafts men will ask for labor, while artist will trade their works for food. When on their Journey of Education Jophee will carry a small amount of gold, being that they have found that many other culters value this metal. On a side note..to the Jophee gold is a nice metal that is used for art. It can be found in great quantity on Tahcana.