Dassen
Dassens are a race of dragon-like people from the Das Islands. They are not considered draconic, as they are genetically too far removed from actual dragons, but are believed to be descended from the zokex who marvelled ancient nurlak and shape-shifted to become like them.
They live in small generational settlements that are often cut off from other parts of the world, and are known for being a peaceful race who are kind and welcoming to travellers passing them by.
They are an energetic people with lots of stamina and are considered fantastic flyers.
Physical Traits
Av. Height (Male): 6’2”
Av. Height (Female): 5’7”
Dassens are one of the taller humanoid races. Some of their most notable features are their wings, horns, and pointed ears. They are also one of the few land-dwelling Sentients to not have body hair or feathers; instead they have smooth skin patterned with birthmarks and patches of scales.
The birthmarks found across a dassen’s body will be different depending on their family genetics, and will combine in unique ways when different bloodlines mix.
Alongside their birthmarks dassens also have patches of scales, with the placement and size of the patches being determined by their family lineage. Some of the most common places for scales are around the groin, shoulders, face, and between the wings. Scales are naturally a matte texture, though many dassens will polish them to a shine. This is especially so with the scales on their wings.
A dassen’s wings attach under the shoulder blades and have a membrane along their lower back, usually stopping at their hips. Dassens have a lot of blood vessels and veins in these wings, and use them to regulate their body temperature; flapping their wings to cool them down on hot days and bringing them close to their bodies when it’s cold.
Because of the blood vessels an injury to a wing of a dassen can be crippling, if not fatal. Small tears in the membrane can cause permanent issues with flying if not treated immediately, and larger injuries can cause a dassen to lose a fatal amount of blood very quickly. Luckily, because of the protective scales and thick membrane, tearing a dassen wing is very difficult.
Another notable trait of the dassen are their horns. A dassen’s horns can grow in a variety of ways, with the most common being symmetrical, mid-length horns with a slight curve that grow directly below the hairline near the forehead. This is not the only way they can grow, however, and some dassens have asymmetrical horns, or horns over their face and jawlines. The size of a dassen’s horns are considered important; larger horns are thought to be an indicator of strength, and so are considered more attractive.
There are no limit to a dassen’s natural colourations; their eyes, scales, hair, and skin can be any number of colours or shades. However, they tend to have one main colour that is noticeably more prominent than any other, regardless of how many other colours they have in their patterning.
Their colours can be inherited in two different ways; children can either inherit their parent’s colouration as it is, or the colours of their parents can mix and blend. This means that a yellow and a blue dassen may produce either a yellow, blue, or green child.
While all of a dassen’s teeth are sharp, they have two prominent fangs in their top set of teeth. The fangs of a dassen are hollow and, on inspection, underdeveloped venom glands similar to those in the zokex can be found. There have been no recorded cases of a venomous dassen, though it is believed that they exist and simply have not been documented due to the dassen lifestyle.
The tongue of a dassen is long and forked and sensitive to toxins. They use it as an alternative way to smell, and it is how they determine if food is edible or if water is contaminated. They can also smell sicknesses before physical symptoms start to manifest and are highly valued as healers because of this.
Sex and Gender
Dassens often do not care about the pronouns or gender identity of those in their settlements; because their culture revolves around finding and creating family from all different parts of Das they are very open to differences in culture and personal identity. This openness is especially amplified due to their close relationships with the seces and kurloke people, and many dassen people will experiment with their gender identity multiple times throughout their lives.
Because of this the social differences between men and women are minimal and the biggest differences in their presentation is determined by their biological sexual dimorphism.
Women also tend to be thicker and shorter, holding more weight and developing breasts. Meanwhile male dassens are taller and hold less weight, often being quite bony and muscular.
Dassen men have arrow-shaped penises that curl between their legs rather than shrinking into a sheath. Because of this they have strong, protective scales on the top and leading up to their stomach to help protect the sensitive organ. They do not have visible testicles on the outside, and instead their internal layout is very similar to a woman’s ovaries. Because of this their semen is very resilient and can survive up to an hour outside the body before dying.
Generally, women have scales over the top of their vaginas. Unlike men, the scales tend to go down the thighs in a thick layer that rubs together and becomes shiny. Dassen women also have an organ that stores and keeps sperm alive inside of them for up to a week. This, combined with dassen sperm’s hardy nature, makes accidental conception extremely common within dassen communities, and birth control is taken very seriously.
Sometimes, though not often, scales will form over the nipples. This often indicates infertility. Dassen women who have no nipples and have children do not lactate and have to find substitutes for feeding their children. This is usually resolved by another dassen sharing their own milk with the child.
Racial Variations
Mainlanders
Dassens from the mainland are small, fragile, and quick. They don’t gain fat or muscle as quickly as other dassens but are known for being much more dexterous.
Their wings are much smaller than other dassens; mostly being used to escape quickly up trees and scale steep surfaces. Though mainland dassens are able to fly they will tire quickly and prefer to only do so in bursts.
Mainland dassens earned their name due to their preference for living on the largest continents of Das. Because they tire quickly, it is rare for a mainlander to fly the long trip across the ocean to another island; any long-distance travel across the ocean will be done by boat.
Islanders
Island dassens are muscular and heavy. They have large powerful wings shaped for long-distance gliding and are often much slower and less dexterous than dassens from the mainlands.
They are very comfortable flying from island-to-island and do not tire easily; often able to stay in the hair for several hours at a time.
However, many island dassens struggle to get off the ground due to the size of their wings overbalancing them and need to leap from raised platforms, trees, or cliffs in order to properly begin their flights. Taking off directly from the ground is considered an impressive skill by islander dassens.
Long-Wingers
The long-wingers are a race of dassens coming from the Rendi kingdom Kel’di. They are the only race of dassens not native to the Das Islands, though they are believe to be descended from the same ancestors as islander dassens.
Their wings are extremely large and powerful, with the membranes often going down their legs all the way to their knees.
They have amazing flight capabilities and can survive at extremely high altitudes. This leaves them perfectly adapted for their homes in Kel’di’s magical floating landscape where, unlike in Das, they are unable to stop and rest while travelling between islands.
Common Disabilities and Health Issues
Smallwings / Baby-Wings
Smallwings, sometimes known as “baby-wings,” is the name given to stunted growth of the wings. This condition doesn’t always stop flight (especially in islanders) but it is known to make flight much more difficult.
It is not known what causes this condition, though it appears to be genetic and not caused by a dassen’s upbringing.
This issue is also prominent in the zokex and is believed to be inherited from their ancestors.
No Horns
Rarely, a dassen’s horns will not grow in during puberty. This doesn’t affect them in many negative ways, physically, but it can lead to other issues such as lack of self-esteem and social isolation.
Because dassens wait until their horns grow before they leave their families, many dassens with this condition will stay with their parents for too long and have difficulty joining established settlements with members their own age. This has lead to many dassens no horns becoming isolated and being forced to leave Das due to difficulty defending themselves against the jungle’s dangers.
Split (Chimera)
Found in less than 0.5% of the dassen population, split dassens are most often born when an islander and a mainlander have children. They are split down the middle with their parents’ colours and birthmark patterns. Often their wings will be different sizes and they will be unable to fly.
Spined
Some dassens have spines down their backs. These spines are made from the same bone as their horns and come with puberty. The spines are a recessive mainlander gene that has spread to some islanders families, and there is no way to predict if a child will have spines until they start growing.
Children with these spines usually have back troubles later in life, though they are considered extremely attractive.
Relationships and Life Stages
Partnership
Dassens tend to have one lifelong relationship with a single partner. These relationships tend to form during their introduction to a settlement, and most dassens will pair off as the settlement becomes established.
They do not deal well being separated from their partners and can become lethargic, sickly, and even die when separated for too long. Upon the death of a partner, most dassens will not take another.
If a dassen falls in love with a someone from another settlement, the most common resolution to this is the settlements merging and sharing their land and resources. Another way, if the settlements are too far apart to merge, is for one of the dassens to move to live with their partner’s family. Sometimes, however, suggestion of this has started violent conflicts due to neither settlement being willing to give up their dassen.
Life Stages
Every 8 weeks, female dassens’ scales change colour slightly to indicate they’re in the most fertile stage of their reproductive cycle. Their scales “blush” iridescent, instead of their regular matte, for 3-5 days.
Blushing doesn’t change how the woman feels. However, other dassens (especially their partner) will be drawn to them during their cycle. This is not necessarily in a sexual way; most describe it as an urge to care for and pamper the blusher until they are finished their cycle.
If a dassen conceives during their cycle, their pregnancy will last about 8 months. If conceiving during any other time then 9 months is the average. Nobody is sure why there is a difference in gestation depending on the time of conception.
Most dassens will only have one child per pregnancy, though twins are not uncommon in mainlanders.
When dassens are born they have a thin, sticky membrane covering their entire body; this needs to be washed immediately after the birth or the child may suffocate in it. The membrane holds the wings close to the body to stop them coming loose during birth and injuring the mother.
Dassens are born physically needy, but their mental development is above average and they are able to begin using small sentences at about 10 months.
Their fast development is thanks to the nutritious nature of a dassen’s breast milk; substitutes for milk may stunt the growth of a dassen and slow their development.
Most mothers will breastfeed their children for anywhere between 2 and 4 eclipses, though some have been known to breastfeed sickly children for longer.
Young dassens start eating solid foods around 1 eclipse, alongside their breastfeeding. Most of these foods will be things high in fibre, such as fruit, with most of their protein coming from their mothers.
Puberty for dassens is a sign of big changes; their horns grow in, more scales start to cover their bodies, and they have major growth spurts that often leave them with stretch marks and gangly features.
The growth of the horns is a very painful and itchy process that has been likened to the appearance of a human’s wisdom teeth. At first, the skin along the forehead will stretch as the horns begin to form from the skull. Eventually, the skin thins enough for the stubs of bone to break through; this is usually a very bloody process that risks infection if the wounds are not cared for properly. In order to relieve the pressure from their new stubs, dassens will scratch their forming horns against trees and rocks. Without trees or rocks to scratch on a dassen risks their horns growing uneven or misshapen.
After a dassen’s horns have broken through the skin the dassen is considered an adult, and although they are far from fully grown they have the urge to leave their parents and form their own settlement of dassens their own age.
Dassen females will start having their cycle after their horns begin to grow in, though sometimes their cycles may start before their horns are large enough to show as indents on the head. For males, waiting until their horns are visible is the only way to tell when puberty has begun. Usually dassens will start puberty around 10-13 eclipses.
Most dassens have their first child around 16-18 eclipses, after settling into their new home with their partner, and will have a second child 2-3 years after the first. They may have anywhere between 4 and 20 children depending on the individual and how much support they receive from their settlement.
Lifespan Facts
• Dassen lifespans average 60 eclipses. However, this average is skewed dramatically by deaths caused by injury or illness. Dassens have been known to live healthy lives well into their 90s, and some in the Rendi have lived to be over 120.
• There is a 2% miscarriage rate in Das, a 6% miscarriage rate in Rendi, and a 12% miscarriage rate in other countries.
• There is an extremely low chance that a dassen may lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. This is more common with half-dassens and there are only 2 pure dassens recorded who this has happened to. This is believed to be left over from their zokex ancestry.
• Dassens believe it is good luck to be born at night and that being born underneath the stars will make the child live longer.
Culture
Dassens are one of the smallest creatures found on Das. Only lizards, rodents, and some species of insects are smaller; though not by much. Their islands are ruled by mega-fauna and because of this dassens have had to adapt to their dangerous surroundings.
Despite their small size dassens are still considered one of the top predators of Das. This is due to their group cooperation and patience; a group of dassens can take down almost anything if they put their mind to it.
Settlements
When a young dassens’ horns start to grow in, they are expected to leave their family to join a new settlement filled with others their own age. Some dassens may wait a few years after their horns begin growing before leaving so that they can travel with their friends or siblings from their birth-settlement.
When youngsters are forming settlements it is not uncommon for them to find elders from old, diminishing settlements that are unable to care for themselves properly. It is considered an honour to take elders into a new settlement as the elders have experience they can pass down to the young, and in return for their knowledge they receive the care they need to survive.
It is not difficult to tell when an area is inhabited by dassens; adolescents and elders alike enjoy scratching their horns against trees and rocks and use this as a way to mark their borders.
New borders are easy to separate from the scratches of older settlements. Older borders have deeper marks, the grooves being etched in again and again, while newer settlements have less uniform scratches as the young dassens try and figure out how to mark their borders properly. This makes it easier for dassens seeking new settlements to find homes amongst their peers.
Because of the tradition of leaving home at a young age, there are hundreds of abandoned dassen villages found across Das and structures are built to only last a generation or two. Sometimes dassens will move into an old settlement and fix up any remaining buildings; though it is more common to simply pull down anything old and rebuild from scratch, ensuring the strength of the new structures.
Traditionally, dassens have small hut-like houses they use to store their property and sleep in during rains. These houses can either be built on the ground or in the trees; depending entirely on the dassen who builds it. The houses will usually have two doors; one in the roof that opens into the canopy, and one in the front that will open onto solid ground, a balcony, or a ladder.
Although they have houses most dassens prefer to sleep in hammocks suspended above their homes in the very tops of the trees; where they can view the skies through the foliage overhead.
Occasionally dassens will live on a beach instead of the inner-island. These dassens will gravitate towards cliffside caves for homes; sleeping in nest-like beds on the rocks that jut out or suspending their hammocks between stalactites. Though not as comfortable as treetop houses, these caves are generally safer from predators and more sheltered from bad weather.
A normal dassen settlement can have anywhere between 40 and 100 dassens, though some older settlements have been known to merge into colonies with upwards of 300 members. Groups of dassens smaller than 40 usually find it difficult to survive and won’t stop travelling in order to seek out other groups to merge with.
Despite the large size of some settlements, it is rare for a dassen to not know everyone in their community by name. Their settlements are like family; the bonds between members of a settlement that has formed over time are usually stronger than those of a dassen’s birth-settlement. Secrets are rare among members of the same settlement, and crime is even rarer.
Different dassen settlements don’t often talk amongst each other, even if they get along, and will generally only meet along their borders in order to trade. Trades are often a collaborative effort for services and items, such as giving the meat and bones of a deer and in return having its skin pressed into leather to use for clothing.
Tree Jumping
Tree jumping is a sport that comes from traditional dassen lifestyles where dassens would spend months, sometimes even years, living in the trees and not landing on the jungle floor. They would travel by jumping from tree to tree, sometimes over gaps three or four times their wingspan.
The sport is a more extreme version of this travel system. Dassens will challenge each other to extremes such as speed over a set distance, size of the gap jumped, and even how long they can spend falling without opening their wings. Though it is not common, some dassens have died during the sport.
It’s mostly practised by many mainland dassens, whose smaller wingspans help them navigate the trees, but islanders enjoy it too when their environment permits.
Language
The dassen accent is very gentle and sounds almost like a whisper. Their preference to speak quietly is believed to have come from their wild environment, as speaking loudly would attract predators. They can, however, be very loud, and their warning shrieks can be heard from over 5 kilometres away.
Dassen words tend to be 3 syllables or more. The length of these words is because one word usually expresses half a sentence.
Dassens do not have their own written language in terms of letters and numbers, but they have symbols and marks they use as signs in their homeland. Usually they use these marks to describe the territories they are in for safety reasons. They are usually able to learn to read other Sentient languages, though many struggle to do so and it does not come naturally to them.
By scratching symbols into stones or on trees, dassens can communicate meanings such as “food this way”, “claimed territory”, “dangerous floods”, and more.
Dassens laugh almost silently. Their laughs are, more often than not, nothing more than quiet breaths (sometimes wheezes, if they are laughing hard) that make them sound like they’re panting or crying.
Other Communication
Dassen communication is very quiet and relies a lot on body language.
Their accents are so quiet they sound like they are whispering. This is believed to have come from their dangerous environment, as being too loud can put them in danger. They are, however, able to yell very loud. Their warning calls can be heard from over 5 kilometres away and have been known to cause physical discomfort to sensitive-eared predators.
Most dassens will hold their wings tightly behind their back when trying to be polite, and spread them wide when angry to make themselves seem bigger and more intimidating. The flapping of wings has also become a sign of discomfort during conversation; as many dassens fan themselves when overheating or unhappy, it has become an insult to flap one’s wings at someone.
A traditional dassen greeting is more physical than verbal. Except for name introductions, most dassens will greet each other with a gentle headbutt and a smile. Longer-horned islanders may greet their friends by gently clicking their horns together instead of bumping heads, but this is usually only done by those with extremely close bonds.
Eyes are only closed when greeting a lover or a sibling, otherwise, it is considered polite to make eye contact during the greeting.
Headbutts as a form of greeting are not always as friendly as they may seem. They are a fantastic way to gauge the other dassen’s strength and compare horn sizes, in the case of hostile rivals.
Naming Conventions
Traditional dassen names average between 2-5 syllables, though some newer names may be longer. It is not common for dassens to receive nicknames that are shortened versions of their names, though it is not unheard of. Instead, most common nicknames for dassens are 1-2 syllable words from the International language such as “Bug” or “Starlight.”
If there are two dassens in a settlement who share a name, the most common way to differentiate them is via their profession’s title (eg, Hunter Galisanti).
Because dassens leave their families every generation they have no use for family-based last names. Instead, they will use their settlement’s name as a last name (e.g, Sasila from the West Island Settlement). It is believed that this helps to create a deeper sense of community within a settlement.
Common Religions
Star Seer
Starku
Okara
Emaltoni
Clothing
The large membranes in a dassen’s wings mean the clothing they are able to wear is very restricted.
They cannot wear most clothing other Sentients wear without heavy modification, so many dassens don’t bother trying to wear anything other than their more traditional clothing. Because of the difficulty of wearing clothes and the close-knit nature of settlements, it is acceptable in many settlements to wear minimal (or no) clothing.
Traditional Clothing
The main item of clothing in a traditional dassen outfit is plain cloth overalls. These overalls give them space to move their wings freely with minimal restriction. Straps on the front and back of the pants can be easily modified to suit an individual’s wings and body shape, and many dassens will sew chest covers into the front of their overall straps.
Many dassens also wear ponchos or shawls and blanket-like wing coverings.
Armour
Mainland dassens often create wing-armour out of materials such as leather or scaled hide, which they strap onto the backs of their wings to protect them from prodding branches. This armour can restrict their flight while in use but the protection it provides the wings is considered a fair trade as mainlanders prefer to leap from tree to tree and don’t often fly unless completely necessary.
Islanders prefer not to wear such armour, as they enjoy flying long distances across the ocean and restricted movement and added weight can have sever consequences.
Other
Dassen Pin-Down
The dassen pin-down is a modified version of the alk hold. It was originally developed by the alk people, but it was adapted by the dassens to fit into their own fighting style.
The first step of the hold is getting the opponent onto their back. It doesn’t matter how this is done. Usually, the opponent is distracted and tripped; though brute force can be used as well.
Then the dominating dassen will use their wings to batter the opponent —often stabbing with their horns to cause more damage in severe fights— until they are able to stand completely over them and drop to their knees; pinning their opponents wings under their own legs so they cannot struggle without risk of tearing the membranes, and gripping their wrists to hold them down.
This position is favoured by those with longer horns, who can use their horns to threaten their opponent while pinning them down.
An important part of mastering the pin-down is knowing the feathered wings of Rendi races makes this move almost pointless to use; it is better to learn the alk hold as most Rendi races would prefer to lose a few primary feathers over the entire fight.
Linzor Kinburn
The most infamous dassen to have ever lived is Linzor Kinburn; his history is taught among dassen, Har’py, and wolven people alike.
Dassens tell the story of Linzor as a bedtime fable, referring to him as “a creature in a dassen’s skin” and telling children that if they act immorally, he’ll come for them in the night to kidnap them and force them to marry him. This bedtime story is often accompanied by drawings of the man as a disfigured beast and warnings about him eating the wings of disobedient children so they cannot escape him.
For Har’pies, he is known in a famous saying: “Kama bal’hiki Linzor basaka,” which translates literally into “thinking you’re handsome like Linzor.” It means to think you are better than you are, and is used as an insult especially in the Prophet bloodline.
Wolvens know him as “Self-Slayer,” mocking his attempted legacy as “Dragon Slayer”; referring to how he brought about his own downfall by mistreatment of those who followed him and his attempted murder of Immortal Queen Distro.
Queen Distro has a large portrait of him hanging in her lounge room. When asked by a foreign diplomat why she would hang a painting of her attempted murderer in her living quarters, she couldn’t think of an answer and pretended to fall asleep.
Misc
Though the dassen people originate from the Das islands, there are two dassen countries that are not a part of the Das continent. Kel’di, in Rendi. And La’ta, in Carra’jor. Most dassens from La’ta are islanders.
There are many abandoned ancient nurlak temples in dassen lands; it is considered a crime to deface them.
Dassens, especially dassens in their teen years, need a lot of calcium. They usually get this through eating bones, insect exoskeletons, and eggshells; grinding them into a powder to make stock with.
Some dassens believe that the reason the growing-in of their horns is so painful is because of their zokex ancestry. they believe that because their original ancestor, Adoration, committed a great crime against the gods dassen-kind are being punished. This is a matter of great controversy.
Dassens are able to spread their wings and use them to keep afloat in water when they need a rest while travelling. Though it is not very comfortable, and most avoid doing it for long periods of time, it is possible for dassens to sleep while afloat. The membranes of their wings are able to pick up on vibrations and minute electrical impulses in the water, which allows them to sense potential predators when resting on the ocean.
The Das islands are so dangerous that dassens have adopted and modified a human saying to suit their own: “If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you it’s yours— if it doesn’t it got eaten.”
Dassens often keep das millipedes as pets and mounts, and will use their carapace to make jewellery and other decorations. Das millipedes are considered an important part of the dassen lifestyle and if a child wants a millipede it is considered their cultural right to raise an egg to adult.
Because of the way they trade Das doesn’t have an official currency. Even so, they often accept the International currency when dealing with non-dassens; although their goods may seem severely overpriced to some.
Young dassens play fight by head-butting each other and wrestling. This is very different from real fighting; the body language is much looser, and there is a lot more vocalisation.
Dassens have the highest natural heat tolerance of any humanoid Sentient and, if raised in hot areas, are able to withstand extremely high temperatures. Not all dassens have this tolerance, however, as dassens who grow up in colder climates have a harder time adjusting to the heat.
There is a dassen word, angilnishka, which is spoken in International as “stop hanging from the trees.” The saying means to stop talking shit. Many other Sentients don’t understand how phrase could mean what it does, but after learning it’s an adapted shorthand for the more literal translation of “stop hanging upside down, your arse is starting to think it’s your mouth,” they usually understand the connection.