Race Meet the Rattana! (Rat People)

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by Reelru, Aug 30, 2015.

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What do you think?

  1. I love it! I would definitely play as this!

    19 vote(s)
    55.9%
  2. I think it's good, but I like another race better.

    8 vote(s)
    23.5%
  3. Meh. I don't really care either way.

    2 vote(s)
    5.9%
  4. Naw this is stupid and clashes with the lore.

    1 vote(s)
    2.9%
  5. No. Just- no.

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  6. The lore needs to be changed! It doesn't match

    1 vote(s)
    2.9%
  7. Their appearance sucks, redo the pixel art.

    2 vote(s)
    5.9%
  8. It's good, but needs some detail work.

    6 vote(s)
    17.6%
  9. Good, but seems too connected to the "real world"

    5 vote(s)
    14.7%
  10. The ship ideas are rubbish

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    I realize there's about a .001% chance this race will actually get into the game. I don't think this because I'm not confident, but I know the developers don't really need any more races. This is really for if someone wants to make a mod for this. (However if this would get added to the game I would be so happy) My younger sister and I both love our pet rats and since I figured out you could suggest races I decided with a little bit of lore and detailing I could actually try to contribute to something. I would love for this to be in the canon game but I realize there's a very slim chance it will ever be. So please refrain from reminding me of this in the comments, and just ignore that little fact when you're thinking about this. :)

    Name:
    Rattana (Ruh - taun - uh)
    Plural: Rattans
    Short description: A species of rat that evolved in the mirror of the human race. Regular rats are already known for their intelligence, and as the brain of the Rattana grew larger, so did their ability to comprehend larger ideas. Inspired by the human's hunger for knowledge, they left their home planet and began exploring the universe.

    History

    Milky Way Galaxy - Sun - Earth - Houston, Texas -1957
    It's been a couple months since the first Earthly animal went to space. The future and commercial space travel don't seem that far off to Humans. A small lab group in Houston is working on sending a small amount of capsules full of animals into space. The project is going well, but is being kept fairly secretive. The project is getting rushed, and the capsules are being sent into space a month ahead of schedule. The scientists settle on a small amount of lab rats discarded from a popular culture experiment for their test subjects. The capsules are sent off into space and seem to disappear. Unfortunately the Humans didn't have the technology to see the wormhole open into the capsules' paths. They were all exported out into random places near the edge of the universe. 9 out of the 10 capsules landed on hostile planets, either too cold or too hot for any life. Only one capsule landed on a newly formed and hospitable planet. Because the rats were so far ahead of the other life on the planet, they quickly became the dominant species. These rats evolved in the shadow of the human form, standing on two legs and losing their tails. They kept their ears and fur, and their brains increased rapidly.
    Years past and the Rats began to make their own language. They evolved much faster than Humans. When they began to yearn for civilized society, their subconscious roots in 1950's pop culture began to take form in the physical world. Wanting to build a utopia, the Rats began building what the people of the 50's thought their future held. They extended their natural lives to around 250 years. Flying cars and self automated cleaning devices galore, the Rats decided to reach for the stars. Now calling themselves the Rattana, they built space ships reminiscent of their laboratory cages. The whole planet moved to an asteroid belt nearby, hoping to create the floating island ideal reality. They built glass buildings reaching as far as they could go. They built gravitational simulators to match the gravity on their planet. With space travel readily available, they looked to colonize the near galaxy and soon, the whole universe. Their race spread far and wide, settling on asteroids all over the galaxy. Around the time space travel was implemented, a fierce hunger for knowledge of their roots developed. With no evidence of evolution since 4 legged times, they concluded they must be from an extraterrestrial source. Searching through various planets filled with strange life, they found a race very similar to their old forms: The Rattus, or Earth Rat. What started as a search for their roots became an obsession with human culture. Although the Rattana were stuck in the 1950's, Humans were still very interesting indeed. They watched the Humans wage massive wars over seemingly silly things, and were baffled. When all of the Rattana learned of war, they all vowed against it. All physical violence was severely restricted, punishable by life in prison. Then came the MICRO. MICRO, meaning MInd ContROl, were a group established to erase the minds of criminals, implant new memories, and reintroduce the criminals to society. With this kind of power came a kind of greed. The MICRO used their power to take out their anger on criminals and citizens alike, and then simply made them forget. They ended up controlling the government and bent all the citizens to their will. For now, they are using their power for trivial reasons, but there is a chance they could realize the potential of memory reassignment and use it for evil. Luckily, a violent group of Rattana had previously formed, rejected violence laws, and discovered the MICRO. Their whole agenda altered into a mission to take down MICRO. All of this has taken form into a silent civil war, which is kept secret from most citizens by MICRO. Distracted by leisurely activities and new clothing items, most citizens are happy. The playable character has discovered the silent war and doesn't wish to get too involved. They left to satisfy their hunger for knowledge.

    Technological Advancement:
    The Rattana are very advanced, and have been for a while. They are currently at the Futuristic Age. Their technology is very similar to what humans thought the future would be like in the 1950's. Their only real difference between the races is their love for 1950's clothing and style.

    The people of the 1950's thought the future would basically consist of a lot of glass, and spheres. Essentially, this is what the Rattana picked up on. Their future includes very tall, thin buildings with almost entirely glass walls, and stark white furniture. When glass doesn't encompass the entire wall, circular windows are all the rage. Most people in the 1950's thought everything would be floating in the air. The Rattana mirrored this in their spaceships and floating islands along asteroid belts. Their capabilities include everything from automated farms and cleaning devices to gravity simulators and floating islands.
    House of the future from the 1950's
    More house of the future


    The Rattana are generally a peaceful bunch. Here are their relations with other races:
    Avian: Mutual respect. The Rattana believe kluex is a figment of most of their imaginations.
    Floran: Dislike. The florals are warring species, and the Rattana don't like that. They try to teach the florans their peaceful ways, but nothing has worked yet.
    Glitch: Pity. The poor glitches would be brilliant if not for their.. glitches. The Rattana scientists are trying to fix them, but most have given up.
    Novakid: Curiousity. The novakids are a strange bunch, the scientists had a chance to study a few, but their origins are unknown, Rattan scientists suspect they originated from a super nova.
    Hylotl: Empathy. Those freaking Florans! The Rattana will do everything in their power to help.
    Apex: Confusion. Linked by home planet origins and intullectual abilities, the Rattana want to like the Apex, but something seems off. Conspiracy theorists suggest the Apex are doing unethical tests on other Apexs. Stupid, right?
    Humans: Frustruation. The humans are annoying. They won't take the Rattana seriously, and that's annoying. All the Rattana want to do is help! The Humans still somehow think they're superior. Also: Shameful Respect. The humans are bright and intelligent somehow, and their similar hunger for knowledge makes the Rattana grugingly respect them.


    Hostility:
    When the Rattana were a young species they noticed the warring acts of the humans, and how it led them no where. They saw the Florans take over the Hylotl, and saw the sadness and pain it brought to everyone involved. Due to this the Rattana swore to never provoke violence, and even later, swore never to fight (physically) at all. Their lives revolve around complete peace. Murder is an eternity in prison, and with extremely high life expectancy (250-ish years), that sucks. They do have ways of incapacitating people who attack for a limited time. These weapons could be known to Humans as stun guns. The Rattana have made them painless and nice experience. However, inside the government (which is a complete democracy), a group of people (the MICRO (mind control group)) work to erase the minds of those prisoners and completely change their personalities. They would greet the player as an honored guest, but guards would be very suspicious and questioning. If the player came across MICRO agents, they would try to kill the player.

    The MICRO are all very suspicious of their own race, mainly because of the few people who know them and the people who rebel. They are immune to any laws, and can kill without a sentence, so their sick and twisted minds believe it's ok to kill without seeing if the person/monster is peaceful or not. Subconsciously, they know they are doing something wrong, and so they are very nervous and have a twitchy trigger finger.


    Important Historical Moments:
    1955 - A study is formed to find the effects of popular culture on rats.
    1957 - The space capsule project is starting.
    1957 - The Pop. Culture project is cancelled due to lack of funding.
    1957 - The founding rats are accidentally sent to their new home planet
    3187 - The Rattana walk on two legs
    4345 - The Rattana wear crude clothing
    4397 - The Rattana develop language
    4879 - The Rattana wear more civilized clothing
    4951 - The Rattana are building large skyscrapers
    5018 - The Rattana develop space travel
    5021 - Violence laws are created
    5022 - Rebels form
    5022 - MICRO is formed
    5023 - First MICRO violence scandal
    5024 - MICRO takes over the government
    5025 - Rebels change their agenda
    5025 - The Silent War begins

    Pictures;Visuals:
    What does the Race Look like?

    Sorry, I'm not a very good pixel artist, but I've tried my best to show the variants of their looks. I have a couple sketches of what a small colony looks like too, but until I can get a cord for my camera I can't post them. I haven't done any of the different personalities yet, but I can if this gains enough momentum.

    The Rattana all have 5 fingered hands, all equipped with very long fingernails. They all have short fur, and no hairstyles. Instead, they express themselves with clothing and their fur colors. The genders differ very, very similarly to humans; however, most of the women wear dresses and not pants, and the men usually just wear suits. Their heads end at 29 pixels, and their ears at 32.

    Their ships will either look like:
    Lab cages, with some colorful tubes connecting the rooms, which are scattered around the space ship. The ship is guarded by cage like wire around it. The ships are mainly red/blue.
    Or
    What the 1950's people thought cars would look like
    The pictures here are a good example



    This is what I've envisioned their colonies to look like, although this is a very small one. The ball in the upper right is supposed to be floating, and I didn't really know how to show that in starbound. The building to the left is a residential building, and in the middle a sort of office building, and to the right a cafe. I tried to use furniture to reflect what I had in mind, a mix of 50's culture (the lights) and what they thought was going to be in the future. I apologize for my character everywhere, I had to take multiple screenshots and merge them all together in photoshop.
    RattanaColony.jpg

    Updated 2x sprites.png

    Eye color (Red, Dark blue, Dark brown, and black)
    Fur color (White, grey, black, brown, tan, cream, and blue-grey)
    Different Colored Ears (None, Left ear, Right ear, and both ears)
    Eye Spot (None, Right, Left, Both)
    Ear/Spot Color (White, grey, black, brown, tan, cream, and blue-grey)
    Nose color (Tan, Brown, Pink, Red)
    Clothing (Suit, Dress, Suit w/ suspenders, skirt w/ blouse)
    Clothing Color (Red, Blue, Green, Brown, Cream, Pink)


    Please feel free to give advice, I'm fairly new at this! If I have any info wrong including any lore clashes with the humans or other races please please please let me know, or anything about the 1950's! Any criticism is welcome! Thanks for reading!
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Sep 3, 2015
    Alkanthe and Jonesy like this.
  2. Ruby22

    Ruby22 Poptop Tamer

    I really like this idea and I would definitely play as it. I normally play as floran because ME LIKE PLANT AND NATURE STUFF!!!! But I think it is really cool. Plus me have pets ratties.[DOUBLEPOST=1440909587][/DOUBLEPOST]Is it pronounced like katana (like the sword) but with an r at the start?
     
    Last edited: Aug 30, 2015
  3. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    Yes exactly! Glad you like the idea~ :)
     
  4. carriontrooper

    carriontrooper Existential Complex

    Heh, I can see these guys as shrewd businessmen, sorta like the Mad Men from TV. You know what they say, running the rat race and all that.
     
  5. Jonesy

    Jonesy Sarif's Attack Kangaroo Forum Moderator

    This is a pretty good suggestion, actually. Unique premise, and plenty of detail. I like it.
     
  6. Ruby22

    Ruby22 Poptop Tamer

    You people who commented should vote on how much you like it at the top of the page.
     
  7. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    You mean MICRO? Most of the regular citizens are supposed to be friendly and super peaceful. But MICRO, I can definitely see that :)
    Thanks so much for your feedback!
     
  8. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    Update Notification: I've added a screenshot of a build I did that is supposed to represent their way of building. Find it at the bottom of the page under "Colony Appearance"
     
  9. CondescendedWow

    CondescendedWow Supernova

    I wanna play as Mickey Mouse.
    Thank you.
     
  10. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    :rofl: I guess that would work :) I'm glad you like it!
     
  11. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    Update Notification: Find out how the Rattana feel about other species under "Race Relations".
     
  12. Reelru

    Reelru Void-Bound Voyager

    Update Notification: Updated sprites with x2 bigger ones, and added a cream colored Rattana. Enjoy!
     
  13. Mango art

    Mango art Starship Captain

    I like it, but I have one issue with this: If they're aliens, why are their names derived from an english word? I suggest a different name. But then again,a lot of other starbound races did the same thing...Apex, Novakid, Floran...
     
  14. Alkanthe

    Alkanthe Supernova

    Well, they DID start on Earth, did they not?
     
  15. Mango art

    Mango art Starship Captain

    Fair point. I also like the 50's space age stuff. I've always liked that kind of thing.
     
    Alkanthe likes this.
  16. kurisu7885

    kurisu7885 Big Damn Hero

    The sprites are adorable.
     
  17. ThatGuyBehindYou

    ThatGuyBehindYou Space Hobo

    I know I'm saying this like two years too late, but I love this idea. Shame the idea is probably abandoned by now.
     

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