Seersa

The linguists of the Alliance.

A first generation Pelted race of the Alliance.

Vital Statistics (At a Glance)

Pronounced 'SHEER-sah'.^[1] Singular is Seersa(?). Possessive is Seersan. Plural is Seersa.

Species Type: Pelted First Generation
Origin: Engineered
Frame Type: Bipedal
Average Height: Between 4 and 5 feet
Average Lifespan:
Gravity Preference: Average
Homeworld: Seersana
Native Language: Seersan

Appearance and Physiology

A coloring page featuring some basic information about the Seersa

Appearance

The Seersa are a small people, very foxlike in appearance with sturdy digitigrade legs. They shed fur and grow long coats with the seasons of their world, and have long, partially prehensile tails. They have only four fingers and four toes, but they do have retractable claws, both on hands and feet. They may be colored in any way a fox is...and in any way a cat is, with many, often exotic combinations of the two.

Physiology

If I talk about these two races in the same breath, it’s because they’re fairly similar—can even interbreed, though couples who do end up together tend to genefix children into one race or the other to maintain the genelines. They share a great deal of their genetic template because of their relatively clean history leading back to the engineer who made the first “models” of the Pelted on Earth, and so have avoided most of the reproductive problems that plague other Pelted. They do have some “errors”, most notably a problem with their sweat and oil glands and body temperature control. Plus, they grow hair with seasonal changes and they shed (much to their irritation), though this has given rise to a healthy industry in fur- and hair-styling salons. Their uniformly digitigrade stance (standing bipedal on their “toes” rather than the entire foot) also gives them some joint issues in old age. But for the most part, they are handsome, healthy, well-adjusted people, who have what they consider to be a proud history, and a secure role in the Alliance.^[2]

History

The Seersa and the Karaka’A are in some ways the “oldest” of the species of the Alliance, because they closely resemble the original creatures gengineered on Earth in the very beginning for Project Homefront. Those early Terran experiments were short, digitigrade, and had more animal-like faces, and that template carried on into the Pelted who segregated into the races of the Seersa (fox-like) and Karaka’A (catlike). Unlike their taller, more humanoid Pelted kin, these early individuals chose to embrace their original heritage, and some of them claim to trace their DNA back to Holly or Joy, the very first individuals ever made on Earth. ^[2]

Language

Some Seersan Glyphs

The language created by the Seersa.

Has a glyph system, as well as an alphabetic writing system.

Uses every known phone as a phoneme!

Society

The Seersa and the Karaka’A have many similarities in cultural personality, because the individuals who would become these races were responsible for the Exodus and the political and cultural decisions that resulted in the Alliance. Thanks to this early history, the Karaka’A and Seersa are the de facto leaders in galactic politics. They’re light-handed, but these two had the management of the early Alliance and they still think of themselves (and mostly remain) the stewards of the body politic. This was no doubt abetted by their being the first to settle new planets: they’ve had longer to turn their views outward. That the two planets they chose were in a rare double-world system only made their ability to work together that much easier. It’s a good thing that for the most part their biology promotes phlegmatic, agreeable, and hard-working personalities, because otherwise they’d probably be insufferable.

In terms of splitting the responsibilities of governance, the Karaka’A preferred to deal with the internal politics of the Alliance, with the Seersa being more active in foreign policy, language and diplomacy, and the military. You find a lot of the Karaka’A and Seersa in those fields still, hundreds of years after the Alliance’s founding: the Seersa produces almost all the premier linguists of the Alliance and have many individuals in the upper echelons of the military, and the Karaka’A field more career politicians that most of the other races—combined!^[2]

Stereotypes

Common Family Structures

Religions

Speaker-Singer
Four Sisters

Naming Conventions

"The Seersa ... have what I think of as hobbit names with vaguely English surnames. ... Seersa names tend to be more convoluted or more likely to contain unusual linguistic features..."^[3]