The Lion King
Name: Beorni
Designation: Sentient
Homeworld: Midvinter
Language: Runian [ancient Valkyri language] & Galactic Basic
Average height of adults: 2 - 3 metres [males]; 1.8 - 2.7 metres [females]
Skin color: Varying dark shades
Hair color: Varying shades of white, black and brown
Breathes: Oxygen; type 1 atmosphere
Strengths & Weaknesses:
+ Natural Strength: The Beorni possess tremendous physical strength to go along with their imposing size, able to dwarf even the largest of Valkyri.
+ Highly Intelligent: Having spent millennia honing their understanding of the Force, which they believe to be nature itself speaking to them, the Beorni are generally blessed with great intelligence and a sophisticated manner of speech.
+ A Calm Mind: They are a tranquil people, having been isolated from the rest of the world and its troubles. Thus, their daily routine includes meditation, worshipping the Sprits of the Wild and nature in general, and achieving balance in all things.
+ A Kind Demeanor: Slow to anger and even slower to resort to violence, the Beorni have lived out a peaceful existence on their island with no enemies to fight. They are gentle, soft-spoken beings who enjoy the simple things in life.
+ Resistant to Cold: Their thick fur allows them to survive in temperatures that even Valkyri would deem inhospitable.
+ Great Craftsmen: Having been part of Midvinter long before even the Valkyri rose to power, the Beorni learned how to shape the icy world around them to their liking millennias ago.
+/- Pacifist: Their peaceful way of living means they have adopted a non-violence lifestyle. Unwillingness to fight, however, is usually mistaken for inability to fight. Such is not the case with the Beorni.
- Isolated: Following their exile from the Midvinter mainland, the Beorni have been unable to leave their island due to the lack of materials to build ships with. Their knowledge of the vast galaxy therefore verges on non-existing, as does their understanding of advanced technology.
- Few & Far Between: At the time of their exile, the Beorni were as common a sight as the Valkyri on Midvinter. Millennias later, their numbers have steadily declined to where only a handful thousand of their kind remain.
- Flammable: Due to their fur-covered bodies, fire poses a significant threat to them.
- Racial Tensions: Because of their past grievances, the Beorni are hesitant to accept help from the Valkyri, and vice versa.
- Lumbering: These towering giants may hit hard in a fight, but their might come at the cost of quick reflexes and overall speed.
Distinctions: Generally rising above even their Valkyri counterparts, the ancient Beorni are a huge, bear-like people. Their bodies are covered in fur and by nature possess great strength. Due to their close relationship to the Sprits of the Wild - the Force - they are also generally blessed with great knowledge and wisdom, and have thus developed into a pacifist society.
Average Lifespan: 250 - 300 Standard Years
Races: N/A
Estimated Population: 10,000
Diet: The Beorni are omnivores, and can therefore eat anything from meat to berries to vegetables. They mostly live off fish, having lived secluded on an island away from the Midvinter mainland for untold millennia with very limited space necessary to grow crops and herd cattle.
Communication: Verbal only
Culture:
While all records of Beorni culture were disposed of in the years following their defeat and exile at the hands of the Valkyri ages past, they've been able to resume their traditions on the island they've been forced to call home ever since. The original sentient lifeform on Midvinter, the Beorni are responsible for creating all that is now taken for granted by the Valkyri, such as the art of craftsmanship, architecture, language, and even warfare. They believe not in gods, but in nature itself; the ground they walk on, the whispering trees and staunch mountains. As such, they try to live as close to nature as they are able to.
They also believe in what they call 'Spirits of the Wild' - guardian spirits who've taken the form of various animals. The Beorni keep a close relationship with these spirits, and through meditation they draw knowledge and wisdom from their teachings. These spirits carry a different name in Jedi and Sith culture: 'The Force'. All Beorni are born with the gift to commune with the Force, but they only see it as a philosophy, not as a weapon. Thus, they do not know how to actually use it like a Jedi or Sith would. They merely listen to its wisdom.
NOTE: The Beorni are not born with any inherent abilities, but all are taught to sense other living beings by their elders. This is the only way they know how to use the Force without receiving further training by an outsider.
The Beorni are a peaceful people who only resort to violence unless no other option presents itself. They live for centuries and are therefore able to gather wisdom both from long experience as well as through their close bond to the Force, which is how they first learned how to speak the language the Valkyri have taken to calling 'Runian' after one of their deities, as well as the Common Tongue, otherwise known as Galactic Basic. The Beorni also do not keep records of their history, but rather maintain a vivid oral tradition of passing down their history to the younger generations through storytelling.
Technology level: The Beorni do not believe in advanced technology, preferring to live off the land using only the most basic of tools. They know how to fashion steel into armour and weapons, but that is the extent of it.
General behavior:
Having lived in isolation for many thousands of years, the once-dominant species now enjoy a relaxed lifestyle on their little island. While they've never met an outsider, the Beorni have not lost touch with their courteous behaviour and polite way of speaking, and they never assume the worst in anyone until proven otherwise. However, their long history with the Valkyri remains a dark chapter few wish to speak of.
They spend much of their time enjoying the small, simple things in life many take for granted; they love to eat and sleep, yet believe in moderation in all things as too much of a good thing can only lead to ruin. They have developed into skilled fishermen due to living on an island with very limited farmland and room to keep cattle. They spend long hours meditating, communing with nature and the Spirits of the Wild for ever-greater knowledge and wisdom, but even this is done with moderation.
History:
As the first species on Midvinter to become sentient, the massive Beorni people rose to dominance over the icy world. They did not believe in ruling the planet, however, but rather live alongside the flora and fauna in perfect harmony. They soon developed into deeply spiritual beings, and found that through discipline and a calm mind they could communicate with nature itself and all its creatures, which led to the creation of the language now known as 'Runian'.
When the Valkyri began to take their first steps, the Beorni were already a flourishing society and highly intelligent beings, but more so they were kindhearted and took the Valkyri under their wing, believing them to show great promise as a newly arisen species. They taught them all they knew about living off the land; agriculture, herding cattle, hunting. They also taught them how to fashion steel into tools and weapons, how to build homes and generally how to live in the inhospitable climate that is prevalent on Midvinter. They even taught them their language, and for many thousands of years the two species lived alongside one another in peace.
It wasn't until the Valkyri began developing their own religion that a divide began to occur, with the Beorni remaining true to nature and the Spirits, while the Valkyri began worshipping divine entities they called 'gods'. The Beorni remained on friendly terms with the Valkyri, but their differences began to pile up and hostilities were soon to follow. This inevitably led to all-out war between the two races, forcing former friends and neighbors to take up arms against one another. The fighting went on for decades, but the Valkyri proved too numerous and zealous for the Beorni to defeat, and so they laid down their weapons in favour of sparing lives on both sides.
So it was that the first Valkyri High King rounded up all Beorni and exiled them to an island somewhere in the Great Maw, the mighty ocean which surrounded the mainland, so that they may never return to their former glory. By now the Beorni population had diminished severly, leaving only a few thousand to carry on their people's legacy. History forgot their name, and none who now live even know they have ever existed in the first place.
At the time of the galaxy-wide event known as the Netherworld, some Beorni were suddenly whisked away to a world they did not know or could ever imagine. Upon their return to Midvinter and the rifts between what they've come to call the 'Spirit Realm' eventually closed as things returned to normal, the Beorni have grown progressively more restless as they now possess proof of other worlds and other beings existing beyond what they've known as their only home since the dawn of time. Many now yearn for the opportunity to see these places for themselves, to learn from other species just as the Valkyri learned from them.
Notable Player-Characters: N/A
Intent: To provide SWRP: Chaos with a new playable species, as well as add to the lore of Midvinter and the Valkyri.
