Race Meet the Kavac

Name: The Kavac (derived from the Hindi word for "Armor")

Lore: The Kavac are a race of sentient humanoid-like insectoids. They have an extremely rigid caste system that is focused around their polytheistic religion similar to Hinduism. The religion they follow has four deities that individually and independently reign over what the Kavac believe is the pillars of all existence. Known to them as The Four Wings, these essential philosophic/scientific ideas drive each caste in their everyday endeavors.

1. The Wing of War: This wing is dedicated to the deity Tha, and the idea of battle. The caste dedicated to this wing are the soldiers and invasion force of their race.

2. The Wing of Life: This wing is dedicated to the deity Jiv, and the desire of nurturing new life. The caste dedicated to this wing are the healers and are motivated to protect and advance life on other planets.

3. The Wing of Knowing: This wing is dedicated to the deity Sam, and the pursuit in scientific advancement. The caste dedicated to this wing are the scholars, inventors, and scientists focused religiously on discovering all mysterious of the universe.

4. The Wing of Work: This wing is dedicated to the deity Kam, and the intent focus on completing tasks. The caste dedicated to this wing are the workers of the race. They work the menial, everyday jobs that the other castes can't focus on.

All these castes are governed by the final caste that acts as the government over the entire species. This caste would be known as The Horns and would believe themselves blessed and righteous in all their actions. The leading caste is made of nobles who separate themselves into different "lines" based on their genes. The Horns look down on the other castes as they see themselves, as in their religious mythology, the head of the deity Sab who died creating the universe and giving birth to the lesser deities. The other castes as well though looked down upon each other often. Stating they are inferior to each other for whatever reasons. A good portion though of devout believers in their religion would point out in their religious documents, it states all the wings and the horns make a whole, and that every one fulfills a purpose forming one body. These believers are dwarfed though by a population begrudged by age old rules and rivalries. The castes are not allowed to intermarry, live in the same house, or party together. Such breaking of rules would results in execution. A negative aspect but effective way of keeping everyone in line is the fact that most rule breaking is punishable by death or banishment.

Appearance: Most of their race would have a variance of armor plating like that found in the insect kingdom. The overall of their design is similar to beetles more than anything else. Males have large horns like that of a stag or rhinoceros beetle, while females physiology focuses on elegant feelers and small to no horns. Both genders have fine stiff hairs that grow from from the neck, wrist, and ankles. Both genders as well would have significant armor plates on their shoulders, chest, side of face, and extremities. They have compound eyes like most insects but they are sunk further into the eye sockets resembling in shape a large human eye. They have mandibles instead of normal mouths but have developed a form of lips on the inside of the their throat so they can make detailed speech. They normally neatly fold their mandibles into their face so their face appears smooth. (This is more a social decision as the inside of their mouths wouldn't look to appealing.} The only variance between the castes biologically is the size of their armor plates, color patterns, and horn size. They are Omnivores but manly focus on vegetation as a food source. They as well have small thin quad sets of wings under the plates on their back. These wings though have become very small and light, thus not allowing flight but viewed as an attractive quality. The Kavac style of clothing and armor mostly focus on intricate weavings of gold and jewels in semi-circular patterns, similar to curving horns. For example, Kavac warriors have incredibly advanced battle suits, that, depending on rank, are adorned with large gold horns protruding from their shoulders and elbows. As well these suits commonly have long ornate robes hanging from the waist. (see pictures below for reference)

Attitude: Most Kavac expressions and outlook on life are formed by the caste they inhabit. All, due to their insect origin, share a similar basic hive instinct, but being life forms of greater sentience, they do develop separate personalities. For example, the caste of workers are more quiet and are family oriented. They focus on themselves so as to not interfere with their everyday work. The caste of warriors though are more aggressive and outspoken. They view aggression as a worthy trait and often revel at the idea of combat. The caste of healers are more kind and docile, far more often than the others they accept outsiders. The caste of scientists are more quirky and individualist than other castes. Often they go around the universe alone to discover new things while taking pride in not being noticed. The caste of nobles are more pompous and image focused. They see reputation and leadership as the most valuable aspect of life. All of the castes have differences to each other, but in truth most the differences are rarely discerned by outsiders due to the Kavac's main form of communication, which is through subtle movements of the body and smells.

Foreign Policy: Mostly keeping to themselves, they do not often communicate their motives or history with any outside race. The caste of healers and the caste of scientists are the most likely to have interaction with outside races, but the healers are the ones who have actual interest in conversing with other species. That being said, the healer caste still follows their races main demeanor and often speak short, but kind, words to their desired patients.

Human Relations: They often view Humans as primitive beings due to their various cultures, beliefs, and methods. The caste of scientists view Humans as an interesting study based on these "primitive" aspects.

Apex Relations: They mostly see the Apex as more evolved humans because of their united culture and ideals. They do not though see a deep differences physically between the races, leading to commonly mistaking them as the same people. Their is an internal debate between the noble caste whether the Apex is a threat.

Glitch Relations: The Glitch are not viewed kindly at all. Even the caste of healers see them as a mockery of life and think of them as "Tools without masters." Often the nobles and scientist castes debate whether to enslave or destroy them.

Floran Relations: The Floran are viewed by most as evil but not a threat. (this due in part to the noble class instilling in the culture that the Floran are demons and they can't beat the Kavac.) The warrior caste sees the Floran as the ultimate challenge and many warriors go to prove their valor by fighting a Floran in unarmed combat. The elders and sickly of the warrior caste will often go to fight and die in battle against Floran. This is a recent tradition but considered one of the highest of honors.

Avian Relations: The Avians are a curious case to the main populace. Being creatures that use to have wings and focus on wing like structures, similar to themselves and their religion, it cannot be decided whether they are a race of demi-gods or a religious enemy. A good portion of Kavac that abandon their beliefs see the outcaste Avians as allies and wish to live among them. Some Avians have been reported to convert to the Four Wings belief due to the religion stating any species can believe as long as the Kavac are in charge.

Hylotl Relations: The Hylotl are seen as symbols of beauty and are often offered, more than any other race, assistance and trade. Hylotl are seen by all of the Kavac as demi-gods and the direct descendants of their deity of life, Jiv. (due to the fact their idol of Jiv is depicted with three eyes and in their mythology Jiv is said to have made the first race in her image.) When the Hylotl have been attacked or even threatened, the Kavac see it as a heresy in their religion.

Novakid Relations: The Novakid are seen as anomalies in the universe. Often pursued more than anything else by the scientist caste due their unique energy based forms. It is considered by most a taboo and a bad omen for a scientist to capture a Novakid, due to the superstition that trying to control their spontaneous lifestyle is like trying to capture the universe itself. Literally believing that, most see them as the universe in all its unique and crazy nature, manifested in a knowable form. That doesn't say some scientists don't try in secret. It is a rising belief that they are actually the Phari, "angels" that manifested from the legs of Sab when he created the universe.

If you liked any of this I would love to here a comment or get a like! Spread the word so maybe them big Fellas at Chucklefish might find it interesting! I love the idea of Starbound and would love even further to help push it forward!

Much thanks and happy travels space cowboys!
Sincerely - Jarrett and Justin.

Here are some awesome sprites of both genders by our friend Telmish. Thanks again man!

These below are some inspirational images for the Kavac's style of clothing and armor.

Here are some images that inspire their appearances.

And these are inspirations for house tapestries and lanterns!

 

Also an artist or sprite artist would be greatly appreciated! Thanks regardless!

 

Very good work! Sadly, I've never made sprites before.

 

Thanks man! Means a lot! I just wish I had someone who could make sprites and art! If you know anybody send them my way

 

You need an artist? Hmmm... I'm not good at sprites and I might not be able to help much, if at all, but I think I might be able to contribute something.

You can check out my Deviant Art profile http://shadoweclipex.deviantart.com/ and if you like what you see get back to me and we'll discus more about it.

 

Hey man I respect any help I can get! I just want to bring these guys to life! I think people would really like them if we could do it right! So lets go for it! thanks no matter what man!

 

I'm no artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I made a quick Kavac sprite with the picture you posted as a reference. (The picture is amazing by the way)
I just think this might give you a bit of an idea of how they'll look like in-game.

And I'm pretty freaking proud of it.

 

Go ahead and note me so we can talk more about it.

 

The sprite is pretty cool. I n fact, maybe it should be the final Kavac. It looks like the picture in in-game sprite form!

 

This is awesome and you should be proud! There are some slight differences to this but besides that, man, way to go

Only differences is they don't have ears. They have straight white hairs that comes from their neck (like where the neck is exposed next to the exoskeleton shoulder guards you put are.) Also hair on the wrists and ankles! I love this! You rock bro! Try more color variations to! Like yellow skin and blue exoskeleton parts! I'm really impressed with this

 

Sorry for the delayed response, but I've made a quick sprite according to the paint drawing you made.
See if you like this better, I still used the body of the other Kavac sprite though.

 

SICK NASTY! love that man! You sprite slinging dog you! seriously though really good work man! You should make more! you got the talent!

 

New sprites coming soon! Great thanks from us to Telmish!

 

I just hopped onto this thread (and truly, I didn't read much), and I already have a huge problem.
Please use spoilers for those reference images. They take up a large amount of the page (in length) and the pictures themselves are quite large.
In case you don't know how to do the spoiler code:

This
[spoiler=Reference Pictures] <Insert Pictures Here> [/spoiler]
would produce this.

<Insert Pictures Here>

I might hop in every once in a while later on. The sprites look cool.
I think I have seen another "Beetle" race, but it might have been this one. Haha

 

Explain to me why this is not a copy of the Zaahir...

http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/the-zaahir.19101/

 

Hey, I really like this! You've really put a lot of thought into it, and I find myself interested in learning more about the Kavac. I think it would be really cool to run around as one of these guys, assuming the generic helmets could be adapted to a character with a giant horn on his head. I'm curious, though, most of the other racial descriptions I've seen hint at the player character's background; what would cause a Kavac to abandon their people and live amongst the stars?

 

Well, BurningDogFace! The main reason I would assume a Kavac would leave its people is the Execution Factor. By which I mean the breaking of most laws in Kavac culture, whether the said individual is really innocent or not, is Death or to lose ones appendages. They practice kindness and often in abundance, but punishment is as extreme as their mercy can be. NOT PRETTY!

 

Thanks man! Honeatly I had no Idea how to do it. I know the huge picks are chunky but I didn't know what else to do! Ill mess with it soon. appreciate it!

 

I tried to contact Lucid_Dakou when I saw this. Wanted to work together and maybe see how to make them more applicable but I never got a reply! Probably a month after I posted the Kavac I had the thought to google if there were other insect posts before me. I don't like copycats...unless they give credit to originals and make their copy distinct in their own way. That being said I, Jarrett Neece, solemnly swear I had no intent of stealing another's idea. I wish Lucid would contact me! Two heads better than one!

 

Good idea, but a good idea I have seen before.

Ah someone posted a link to the Zaahir above.

Good to hear you tried to make it something more than two ideas