Ritans

From Memory-Zeta

Category: Cultures

With input from USS Saturn players of Thea Colder, Derek Hosmer, Ki’ira Orador, Dr. Lynn, and James Madison - February 2005

Many millennia ago, the creatures that later evolved into the Ritans had a number of abilities which later faded as evolution proceeded. Among these abilities were an ability to camouflage themselves somewhat, in a manner similar to a chameleon. These abilities were enabled and/or controlled by a gland which is still present in present-day Ritans. However, this gland is removed, as a matter of tradition, from (almost) all babies before they are a year old. If not done in the first year, removal of this gland often results in death. In the past few hundred years, however, some small groups of people have ceased to have the gland removed, since retaining the gland has apparently posed no medical risk.

A small group of non-conformists, in the last hundred years, tried to destroy the planet by firing an unknown type of weapon into their own sun. This weapon is what precipitated the pending untimely death of their sun. Miniscule changes in the sun’s radiation have resulted in some rapid evolutionary effects in many life forms. One example of this is a particular virus, which used to cause flu-like symptoms in Ritans, and has now changed in such a way that the virus reactivates the gland’s original purpose in the Ritans. The virus hyper-stimulates the gland, resulting in the abilities originally shown by the Ritan’s evolutionary ancestors being even stronger in those who have retained the gland instead of having it removed. These abilities don’t usually manifest themselves until adulthood.

The Ritan culture has a strong sense of conformity. The society fears and avoids those who are too different from the norm, and celebrates those that most obviously embrace orthodoxy. Those who have discovered these abilities in themselves have begun to form a sub-society dedicated to learning how to use these abilities and to hiding their abilities from the rest of society. This sub-culture would like to be resettled in a different place than the rest of Ritan society, so they can continue to develop their abilities.

The ‘normal’ Ritans have begun to learn about this sub-culture, and are very suspicious of them. The government has now instituted laws that require all babies to have the gland removed. The subject of this gland, the abilities imparted by it, and the subculture thus created, are all extremely taboo subjects for both sides of Ritan culture. Those found to have an intact gland are often considered by default to criminals. They, and the parents who failed to have the gland removed from their children, are, if caught, arrested and sent to the prison in an effort to ‘protect the community’ from such subversives.

Meanwhile, another virus has also mutated, and this one is deadly. The disease has several stages, beginning with red bruises all over, ending in death within six weeks. Anyone found to have the disease, along with their immediate family, is shipped off to the prison planet, in hopes of preventing the disease’s spread. The remains of those killed by the disease are shot into the sun. Chillingly, the Ritan’s with an intact gland are proving more quickly susceptible to this disease than those who have had the gland removed, enforcing the conformist Ritan’s fears of the deviant subculture.

Though normally a very friendly, open people, Ritans are embarrassed by any taint of medical problems. Both the issue of the gland removal, and the two viruses, one deadly and one not, are considered taboo subjects, and the Ritans will clam up and refuse to speak of these things as a matter of conformity.