Seces
Seces are a water-dwelling race closely related to the maren, mer, and naga. They are known for being a friendly people who enjoy travelling and so often find themselves becoming merchants or shopkeepers in foreign countries. They tend to have good relationships with the Rendi races, especially the gural.
There are many different kinds of seces from all over the world, including freshwater and saltwater varieties. Saltwater varieties are the only seces able to handle salty water; which burns the skin of non-saltwater seces. All seces are able to handle fresh water, though are sensitive to contamination.
Physical Traits
Av. Height: 5’8”
Seces are a colourful, hairless people with a slimy, mucus-coated skin. They tend to have rather flat-looking faces, with small ear-holes that are mostly hidden by their large facial fins. They have a wide variety of physical builds, with all different body types, fin configurations, and sea-creature like traits.
They have webbed fingers and toes that help them catch water when they swim; these fingers and toes tend to be clawed, with long sharp nails that they use for grip.
Seces have gills alongside air-breathing lungs. Their gills are oddly flexible, similar to a betta fish’s beard, and a seces will flare them to express emotion.
When above water a secondary channel in their throat opens so they can breathe into their air-breathing lungs. They can inhale into their land-lungs through their mouths, noses, and gills; though it is very difficult to do at a young age and most seces are not allowed to practice lung breathing until they are at least 6 eclipses.
The colour of a seces’ skin is determined by their family history and what kind of seces they are. Most commonly seces will be shades of blues, greens, or browns; though some seces have pink or white-grey skin.
Seces skin is dotted with beautiful glowing freckles that, with the exception of some racial variations, cannot be consciously controlled or dimmed. Instead their brightness indicates health and energy; dulling when the seces is sick or sleeping and brightening when they are healthy and energetic.
These freckles are usually a different colour to their skin. Though it is possible to have freckles that are just a different shade of their base skin colour (such as blue freckles on blue skin) it is much more common for freckles to different more noticeable colours (like green freckles on blue skin).
Their skin is slimy and soft, coated in a sticky mucus that seeps through their pours to keep them moist when they’re above water. As they constantly produce mucus they are susceptible to dehydration and need to stay moist. Because of the risk of dehydration they are rarely found without a gourd or flask of clean water, which they rub onto their body when needed. The first place a seces will put water when they are dehydrated is their gills as this eases their breathing and provides the most comfort.
A seces’ mucus is said to have healing properties and is sometimes used in potions (such as Kazani’s Elixers, made by the foxen people) or in salves used to preserve dead animals. Seces are mostly-fine with this use as they are paid handsomely for clean mucus samples.
The eyes of a seces are usually bright and reflective, coming in a variety of colours such as yellow, green, and red.
A seces’ mouth is filled with small, sharp teeth that are evenly spaced and sized, similar to a shark’s. Despite this shark-like appearance a seces’ teeth are not serrated. Their lips are thin to non-existent, and the flesh inside their mouths often matches the colour of their skin.
Seces have long, thick-but-flexible tails to help them swim and change direction underwater. They also use their tails for balance above water. These tails can be tipped with sharp barbs or beautiful fins.
Sex and Gender
Seces are born sexless and without genitalia. Once they begin to mature they are able to choose their own physical sex by exposing themselves to certain elements that will increase different hormones.
Many seces are unable to choose or they decide to leave it up to chance. Often these seces become intersex. Over 80% of the known population of seces are non-binary and intersex. The 20% of seces who choose binary genders are considered unusual, and are often compared to transgender people of other Sentient races.
Seces are also able to naturally change sex later in life; although it takes longer to change after they reach adulthood, as changing sex works as a second puberty that changes the entire framework of their reproductive organs.
Intersex seces are not infertile and can reproduce by both carrying a child and producing sperm. There are debates over whether or not intersex seces are able to impregnate themselves. Some claim to have done so, bringing forward already-born children who they claim were conceived without a partner. However, all public attempts to reproduce with oneself have been unsuccessful.
Because a seces’ biological sex is fluid, there are no sexually dimorphic traits besides their genitalia. However, it is impossible to tell a seces’ genital configuration at a glance as all of their genitals are internal when not in use.
The only genitals that become externally exposed at any point is the penis, which are long and prehensile. A seces penis has a large bulb-like head that is covered in multiple holes that ejaculate sperm. None of the holes are used for urination and instead they have a urethra between their cloaca’s lips.
Many seces will have sex with multiple partners at the same time, and it is believed in many seces cultures that this increases the chance of multiple children more than having sex with partners one after the other would.
Due to how sensitive seces genitalia are, sex lasts an average of 3 minutes.
Racial Variations
Freshwater
Freshwater seces come from rivers and lakes all across Demrefor. They are usually light blue, green, or green-brown in colour, with a high chance of having subtle patterning over their skin.
Their tales are longer and more flexible than other seces, usually with fins on the end to act as a paddle. Any fins on their face, arms, or back are likely to match the colour of their tail-fin; though they tend to not have very decorated bodies.
Often they will have whiskers on their face or bioluminescent bulbs protruding from their forehead on the end of a short, flexible tentacle.
High-Water
High-water seces are ocean-dwelling seces that live on beaches and coral reefs. They have dark green or blue skin, sometimes appearing almost purple, often with subtle patterns on their faces or bodies. Their freckles are usually contrasting colours to their skin, but are smaller than other seces’ freckles; appearing as tiny dots on their skin.
Their tails are generally thicker and shorter than other seces, though they are still very flexible. They are the most common seces to have barbs or spines on their tails.
High-water seces can have a variety of frill shapes and sizes, especially on their face. They often have frills on their backs and tails, as well as on their arms and legs.
Deep-Dweller
Deep-dweller seces live in the deeper oceans. Their skin comes in dark shades of blue, brown, or grey-green. Their skin the toughest of all seces skin, often being compared to leather, and they often have glowing face-like patterns on their back.
Their freckles are large, almost like spots, and are the only seces to have control over the level of brightness the freckles display. They are able to flash their freckles brightly or dim them down. They cannot, however, completely stop their freckles from glowing and will always produce at least a dim light.
They can have elongated animal-like faces with large teeth and eyes, and are the only seces able to have glowing lures on the ends of their tails.
Despite their dark environment, a deep-dweller’s night vision isn’t very good. Instead they light up the water with their freckles or lures, and are hypersensitive to vibrations in the water. They are able use their sense of touch to navigate underwater, but above water they are prone to becoming overstimulated.
Undercave
Undercave seces are cave-dwelling seces that don’t often leave their underground homes. They are usually pale white with transparent skin, sometimes appearing pink, and their freckles are usually a bright glowing red. Their skin is the most sensitive and fragile of all seces.
They are very sensitive to light and heat and so only come out of their caves at night; often choosing to live completely nocturnal lives. Their night-vision is the best of all seces and they are able to survive comfortable in near-freezing conditions.
Mud
Mud seces have evolved to live in filthy water and mud-holes, and are most commonly found in swamps or wastelands. They have grey and brown coloured skin with dull freckles of similar colours.
Mud seces have a large, spotted frill down their back that they can raise and lower to express emotion similar to their gills.
Their mucus is thicker than that other seces and, though it means they dehydrate slower and it is harder to damage their skin, it carries a foul odour to it that turns off most other Sentients.
Mud seces flesh is toxic to consume; as are all their body fluids. Likewise, they have a natural immunity to toxins and can eat rotten food, consume and breathe poisons, and survive venomous animal bites.
Their toxic flesh means they have difficulty having children with other Sentients. It not recommended for women of other races to conceive with a mud seces as their children are likely to inherit the toxicity of their genitor and may kill their mother before they are born. The only women who have never been sick from baring half-mud children are avio women who have a natural immunity to the mud seces’ toxins.
A mud seces’ toxic flesh makes them the common targets of organ harvesters, with their toxic blood highly priced on the black market.
There are colonies of mud seces in the Heck’ne, though they are not part of the Har’py religion. The Heck’ne is considered one of the safest places for a mud seces to live, as the Har’py people respect them and work to protect them from being trafficked.
Common Disabilities and Health Issues
No-Glow / Death Mimic
Seces with no-glow have a birth defect that damages the bioluminescence in their freckles. A no-glow’s freckles only light up during intense expression of emotion and are nearly impossible to control. It takes a lot of effort for a no-glow to suppress their light-ups.
The alternative name for the defect, “death mimic,” comes from the lack of glow in their usually-bright freckles; something that usually only happens after a seces’ death, meaning they can appear dead when motionless or asleep.
This defect is especially bad for deep-dweller seces who need their glow to navigate the darkest parts of the ocean. However, there have been some instances of the no-glow defect working to a seces’ advantage. One notable example is Jaisa Bavie, a kidnapping victim in The Land of Night Magic’s necromancer cult war, who was able to hide from her kidnappers during her escape by pretending to be one of their collected corpses.
Relationships and Life Stages
Committed Polycules
Seces usually find themselves in committed polycules that contain between 2-10 people. Generally, the people within these polycules are all dating each other, and it is rare a seces to be involved in 2 separate polycules.
Because of this they have very long initial courtships, usually spanning a couple of months, where all of the partners currently in the relationship get to know their potential new partner to test for compatibility. If the new partner is already in a polycule, the two polycules will court each other as groups; and if the polycules are not compatible than the courtship will not become a relationship.
Though they have committed romantic relationships, seces will also sometimes get together with other groups of seces for fun sexually; especially when a married polycule are trying for children, as seces have a belief that having sex with multiple partners increases fertility.
Life Stages
Seces will have any number of children, simply depending on where they live and how enthusiastic they are about being parents; though they don’t usually have more than 20 children in a single polycule.
Gestation lasts roughly 7 months in a seces, with 1-3 babies born per pregnancy. When first born, a baby seces is small enough to be held in one hand; though above water this is not recommended as their head cannot be supported properly. This makes labour fairly easy for seces, only lasting 2-3 hours per child.
The development of a seces starts off at a relatively slow crawl until they are 6 eclipses, when they are old enough to practice lung breathing.
Once they hit 6 eclipses their development starts to speed up until they are around 12, when they hit puberty and their development more than doubles speed until they are 15; the legal age of adulthood in most seces countries. Once they are adults, their development slows again, evening its pace until they are about the equivalent of most other Sentients.
Lifespan Facts
• The average lifespan of a seces is 96 eclipses.
• The oldest known seces lived for 163 eclipses. Raised by valenor, they spoke of being upset by how short their life had to be.
• Different types of seces commonly mix, and in seces communities it is common to find families who show traits of seces outside their own racial variation.
• Miscarriages are rare in seces. Most will absorb sickly foetuses before they know they were pregnant, and after pregnancy is discovered there is only a 0.1% chance of losing the baby.
• The child mortality rate of mud seces is 5 times higher than any other seces, due to trafficking by organ harvesters.
Culture
Seces prefer to create their homes in small, isolated areas away from other families. They mark out territory borders for themselves so they can grow and hunt their own food, and prefer to avoid straying into others seces’ waters.
Despite the preference of having their homes isolated, seces create large and beautiful cities that they commute to on the daily. These cities are where a seces has most of their social needs fulfilled and where they will meet new friends and partners.
Travel
Most seces feel the urge to travel and, if they take their travelling above water, they tend to become traders. Most seces traders avoid the dry deserts and wastelands of the planet, meaning those few who risk it are very successful in their craft.
Seces traders will not be caught dead without at least one incarah —a large, aquatic canine— and many have tanks of incarah pups in their homes that they raise as pets and guards.
Art
Seces are art lovers, especially when it comes to performance arts and the carving of coral figurines. They have entire cave systems within their cities that are set up as dedicated spaces for art and actors; allowing anyone of any skill level to contribute to the expanding collections. These places are considered almost-sacred and are extremely communal.
Seces from all over the planet will travel just to find different museums and theatres to explore or contribute to.
Language
Above water, seces tend to speak their own languages through their gills. They have very unique clicking and popping sounds that they can make to express themselves. The flexibility of a seces’ gills allows them to make some unique screeches, as well, which they use to express emotion.
When they learn other languages, such as International, they make an effort to speak with their mouths. This is very difficult for them, however, and a lot of seces have trouble being understood.
While underwater, seces speak with sign language. They use their entire body to speak; swishes of their tails, motions of their hands, flaring of gills, and flicks of their fins all contribute to the language.
Seces have a written language that is 3D. They use carved shells or stone, or bundled seaweed, to create the shape of the words they want and will leave them in their territories as markers or signs. The language is limited to a single word per sculpture, and the words vary greatly depending on territory; meaning it is very difficult for seces from different areas to understand each other’s written languages. Because of this seces tend to dye their sculptures; coloured dye expresses emotion universally in the seces language, and by dying the words even those who don’t recognise the dialect can tell if they are a welcome or a warning.
Dye Dancing is a language made out of dance and coloured dyes; it mixes the seces sign language with the colour-emotions associations to create underwater theatre. All seces learn how to understand dye dance at a young age and use it to express abstract thought that they would otherwise have trouble expressing.
Seces laughter is through the gills. It’s a high, usually loud, squealing sound accompanied by chuckling. It is the only vocal seces communication that can be heard underwater.
Naming Conventions
When a seces is born, they receive what is considered three key components to their identities: a first name, a surname, and a colour.
Their surname is inherited, passed down over the years from parent-to-child. It is believed that surnames connect a seces to their ancestors. This, combined with their polyamorous relationships, means seces don’t change their surnames and taking on someone else’s name in place of your own is considered an act of extreme devotion.
Their first names are a gift from their parents, in order to help them create their own identity and place in the world. Though all seces names are gender neutral, seces going through large lifestyle changes may choose to change their name to represent their new self.
Alongside their names, seces are also assigned a colour at birth. There are many different family traditions that may be followed in choosing a colour, but it is understood amongst all seces that the colour will come to represent the deepest part of their child’s soul and will help to shape their future. This colour, unlike their names, is expected to be kept mostly-private and only given to trusted individuals.
Common Religions
Okara
Animon
Starku
Aurn
Clothing
Seces clothing is made out of fabric and materials found in their immediate area. Many seces make their clothing fibres from seaweed, or from leather from animals such as sharks or seals. They dye their clothing heavily to create very bright colours, but otherwise the designs of the clothes themselves are very simple.
When they leave the water they tend to wear clothes from whatever culture they are currently living with, though they prefer their clothes to be skin-tight and able to handle their natural moisture.
Other
Most seces, whether religious or not, have heard about Mo’ay’a’s Oasis.
Because seces rarely align with binary genders and sexes, they have a wide variety of pronouns and pronoun usages.
Seces flick and point with two fingers. The pointer and the middle finger are held tightly together as the seces points.
Inns for seces are often made from large, flooded cave systems. Charges are made on things such as salt water, fish in the room, coral, etc. Non-seces inns usually keep large wooden tubs aside for when a seces stays in their building. They replace the hired bed with this tub and fill it with clean water so the seces can sleep comfortably without ruining the inns’ bedding.