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====== The World of the Weren ======


 The bloody history of the weren has been
molded by the harsh conditions of Kurg, their home-
world. The unrelenting climate and the dangerous
ecosystem threatened the weren for millennia, but in
time they made the race both
powerful and resistant to hard-
ship. The weren had no choice
but to grow strong.
Though Kurg’s hostile
climate still shapes weren cul-
ture today, a new force now
affects the way the weren live.
For the last three hundred
years, they have been deeply
influenced by human contact
and tutelage. During these
centuries, the weren have
made remarkable strides in all
areas of endeavor. As a result,
weren society has split. Most
weren live offworld, among
starfaring nations such as the
Orlamu Theocracy or the
Orion League; but the clan eld-
ers, the ancient seats of power
and status, even the root of
weren identity, remain locked
in the artificially maintained
isolation of their frozen home-
world.

===== Progress Level 0: The Hunters =====
The earliest weren
were small groups of nomadic
hunters and gatherers, per-
petually wandering Kurg’s temperate equator. They
followed migrating herds of wild animals, relying on
their powerful claws and excellent camouflage to
hunt both large and small game. To hunt and grow
fat was the ideal weren life. Unfortunately for the
weren hunters, times weren’t always good. A crip-
pling illness, a poor hunting season, or a lingering
injury might keep the hunters from providing enough
meat to feed the family. In lean times, the weren for-
aged for roots, nuts, and the fatty Kurgish vegetables
called
hgoumas
and
palna
. Their claws served them
well in cracking open the enormous seed pods so
common among Kurgish plants. Somehow, the
weren scraped by, though ancient legends tell many
tales of hunger and want. Even today, success is de-
scribed as
gru-vat
or “meat-bringing,” and poverty is
sometimes called
hgoumas mat nate
or “a diet of
hgoumas.”
In these times, the nomadic
weren lived in tight family
groups, banding together to
ensure success in the hunt
and to defend themselves
against other weren. They
fought primarily over status,
mates, or access to hunting
grounds. The weren were far
more successful than other
predatory species, and the
world was their garden.
Weren historians refer to this
period as the Hunter’s Age.
Few records remain from that
time, but in general it was a
time of stone tools and simple
laws. Though it lies thousands
of years in the past, it remains
a source of nostalgia for mod-
ern weren who must deal with
the frustrations and dilemmas
of interstellar life, commerce,
and technology. Many mod-
ern weren art forms hearken
back to this simpler time,
which the weren treasure as
the fountainhead of all that is
good and right in their culture.

===== Progress Level 1: The Great Clans =====
After millennia of wandering, many weren
settled in the rich coastal valleys of Kurg’s single
temperate continent, farming palna root and seed-
pods and herding the marrizhe, a powerful migratory
herbivore that has some small resemblance to a
yak – if a yak had a triple-layered pelt and enormous shovel-like horns capable of breaking up the perma-
frost. (See the sidebar, above.) Suddenly groups of
weren no longer had to follow their food around. The
simple family groups of the Hunter’s Age gradually
grew into more extended families and became clans.
To this day, the clan remains the fundamental unit of
weren society, much as the clutch is the unit of t’sa
society or the nuclear family is among humans.
Each clan laid claim to a territory and settled
into the task of becoming civilized. The numbers of
weren pursuing agriculture grew rapidly. Contact
between the clan settlements remained sporadic,
though explorers often crossed the mountains and
rivers separating the most fertile regions. Over time,
the nomadic weren were pushed farther and farther
away from the rich river lands and out onto the su-
barctic tundra. Food was plentiful there, and the con-
flict between nomadic and settled weren declined for
several hundred years, until population pressures
once again brought the two major branches of the
weren family tree into conflict.
The renewal of major raiding was sparked
by a relatively minor incident. A prized marrizhe stud
from the city of Urdevec by the name of Inaillo
(literally, “dusty coat”) was captured by a group of
rustling nomads called the Anbem. The steed’s
owner was Ioshaj Urdev, the captain of Urdevec’s
warband, and the insult was the latest in a series of
setbacks for the city of Urdevec. The city weren re-
sponded by raiding the culprits, visiting the Anbem
camp when the hunters were all tracking down
game. Urdev’s soldiers killed a number of young and
elderly weren and burned the nomad’s tents. The re-
sulting spiral of violence eventually dragged in more
than a dozen coastal cities and nearly a hundred no-
madic bands. Though individually the nomadic
weren were more than a match for the sedentary
weren of the coastal cities, the settled weren could
marshal much greater numbers at once, and eventu-
ally they also had better weapons and training for
war. Though the settled weren always returned to
their homes for planting and harvests, in between,
their warbands took a toll on the nomadic raiders.
The raids increased in frequency and intensity over
the following generations, and the code of raiding
only for food and status fell into disuse. Bloodshed
became commonplace during even the simplest
raids.

===== Progress Level 2: Rise of the Warlords and Purifiers =====
The clan-based culture of the coastal settle-
ments gave the weren more free time to pursue goals
beyond the production of food and offspring. Several
classes of specialists arose: warlords like Acomsi
Talmi, priests like the conniving Black Prophet, and
professional soldiers like the Captains of Urdev or
the young exiles called the Wandering Daughters
were chief among them. Although priests and warri-
ors had long existed in roving bands of weren, these
figures now led large groups. The warlords estab-
lished semi-dynastic lines, though inheritance was
never easy or certain. At the same time, the traditions
of the Lawreaders and the blood prices they set (See
“Culture & Society,” below) prevented the settled
clans from tearing themselves apart from the inside
as they grew into groups of hundreds of thousands.
The priests–once little more than advisors
and witch doctors–found strength in numbers as
well, and several weren city states of the period were
functionally theocratic states. The most successful of
these, the Church of the Purifier, has survived to the modern era. Religious warfare never really found a
foothold on Kurg, though; the practical weren simply
adopted the religion of whatever warlord ruled at any
given time. The use of the trappings of several weren
religions to lend authority to these warlords was com-
mon; the proof of the inherent value of any religion
was its ability to attract followers and popular sup-
port, or to raise them up from within. Concepts of
martyrdom are notably absent from the period;
weren just didn’t fight for their religious beliefs as
fiercely as they did for their clan and lineage.
The greatest rival to the Purifier faith during
the Age of Warlords was the movement called the
Spiritual Reckoning. The Reckoning and its followers
(“Reckoners,” for short) leaned heavily on the impor-
tance of lineage, making one’s bloodline of para-
mount importance and creating a priestly class with
great authority over its followers’ lives. The faith’s
central tenet is that all living weren are judged by the
spirits of their forbearers at their death. Only those
found worthy are allowed into the Sacred Host of
weren patron ancestors, giving them the authority to
judge those who die after them. Furthermore, each
Reckoner bloodline is strengthened by the blood of
defeated enemies; a weren who kills many foes is
imparting spiritual strength to his sons and daugh-
ters. The faith blossomed for about 250 years, but af-
ter a series of setbacks during the Black Wars (see
below), the numbers of the Reckoners declined, and
today fewer than 3% of all weren on Kurg follow this
once-mighty faith. Their reputation for pride and a
well-known willingness to die give other weren pause
before challenging a member of any Reckoner clan.
By this point the year-round warbands of the
early settled era had become standing armies. They
and the other members of the upper classes were
supported by the farming and herding of the lower
working class. The armies of the coastal cities turned
against their neighbors; a few warlords managed to
hold onto more than a single city, though the turnover
in the political fortunes of the weren city-states was
often quite swift. In addition, the well-trained armies
allowed the clans to increase their own food supply
by stealing food from their neighbors, or taking it
from neighbors as tribute. By the end of the Age of
Warlords, the warriors formed the core of weren soci-
ety, and all else revolved around them.

===== Progress Level 3: The Black Wars =====
Life on Kurg continued in this pattern of
feuds, small raids, and short, bloody wars for millen-
nia. In 2117, the weren of the Kell clan made a tech-
nological leap that almost destroyed the species.
Krazhe the Wise – an elder, priest, and inventor
among the Kell – discovered the explosive properties
of sulfur, carbon, and saltpeter: gunpowder.
The Kell clan warriors quickly put this new
discovery to use and created basic firearms and
enormous grenades. With these new weapons, they
slaughtered two neighboring clans and occupied
their cities, suffering only minimal losses themselves.
They then consolidated their hold on this new terri-
tory and launched attacks at their new neighbors. By
that time, however, the word had spread, and
enough guns had been captured in battles that these
clans had copied them. Unfortunately, they just did
not have time to make many of them before they, too,
were conquered by the Kell clan. They were more
successful at slowing the attack down, so clans far-
ther from the center of the expansion had even more
time to research these new weapons. When the Kell
next attacked, they met two allied clans who were
also armed with gunpowder. The battles of that sum-
mer’s campaign were a fierce series of slaughters
for both sides, now remembered simply as the Black
(or Bloody) Summer. Despite the horrendous losses,
gunpowder technology spread like wildfire over all
the coasts and even into the interior – as soon as the
nomads of the North and South learned the value of
the new weapons, they raided, seized, or traded for
them.
As gunpowder spread, weren warfare itself
changed. The bloodier campaigns decimated the
warrior classes. Each battle claimed more weren
lives, and battles became more common. Every clan believed that gunpowder gave them an advantage
over their enemies. The weren population actually
declined; indeed, the weren were in danger of reduc-
ing their numbers so severely that their clan holdings
would fall apart, and the town weren might have
lapsed into a barbaric state. Traditionally, coastal
soldiers could not enlist until they were twenty years
of age. At its worst, in the Kell Campaigns of 2234 to
2236, flintlocks were pressed into the hands of tusk-
less ”warriors” as young as twelve years old (see
”Physiology” below).
As the species stood on the brink of racial
suicide, however, the weren were rescued. In De-
cember 2246, the OSS
Brightfall
– an Orlamu Theoc-
racy survey vessel – was on a routine follow-up mis-
sion when they discovered the weren civilization. The
soldiers and scouts on board, all from the Orlamu
Theocracy, studied the weren for several months,
watching, waiting, and examining every detail of the
weren culture. They did not reveal their presence,
instead sending the information back to the Theoc-
racy. The Theocracy conducted a strenuous debate
at the highest levels, considering how best to ap-
proach this new species. The weren systems of reli-
gious philosophy and their often complex political
structures implied that weren held great promise, but
their vendettas and blood feuds were in serious dan-
ger of destroying them. At last, the Orlamu Theoc-
racy agreed that not doing anything was surely
worse than interfering in the werens’ affairs, so on
the 12th of May, 2247, the External Affairs Ambassa-
dor signed an internal document called the Contact
Decree. Within hours, a first contact specialist
named Jamal Kidwai (later called Jamal Abuweren)
was dispatched to the planet’s surface, and a new
age of cooperation, learning, and occasionally vio-
lent misunderstanding began.
The conflict between the clans didn’t exactly
end with the arrival of humans, but at least it gave
the clans something different to think about. Weren
priests and philosophers speculated endlessly about
the weren place in the universe; some of these de-
bates turned bloody. The Orlamus kept the violence
down to an occasional murderous rush, rather than
the constant and total warfare they had found on
their arrival. The weren entered into an age of
rapid – but carefully managed – technological
growth that they are still undergoing. The Induced
Renaissance began, and within a decade the Orla-
mus were accepting petitions from worthy weren to
leave Kurg and travel the stars.

===== Progress Levels 4-7: Post-Contact =====

After the arrival of the Orlamus, the divisions
between the two societies on Kurg grew even
deeper. The settled weren accepted the Orlamu offer
of guidance, but the nomadic clans of the North and
South rejected the offworlders.
The townland weren have benefited greatly
from contact with the offworlders. In the last two hun-
dred years, their Induced Renaissance has been sus-
tained by the knowledge that the universe extends
far beyond Kurg – and many of the youngest, most
violent weren left to explore and settle the outside
world. With just the slightest push of Orlamu guid-
ance, the weren have made great advances in art,
communications, literature, and medicine.
The Orlamus rarely interfere directly in
weren affairs; at most, they advise and nudge the
weren to the point where the weren make the ad-
vances themselves. Most Orlamu influence has been
tangential, through the education and training of
weren warriors. A small fraction of these trained,
modern weren secretly return to Kurg to teach their
fellows what they have learned. Though officially for-
bidden by the Orlamu, in practice it is difficult to pre-
vent.
The Orlamus first attempted to put some con-
trols on weren warfare. They forced the leaders of
the townland clans to agree to stricter codes of con-
duct on the battlefield. For the first time, surrender
and ransom became options for a commander, and
no modern weren army dares to attack during a
truce. But despite these limited successes, two hun-
dred years of Orlamu effort have not really stopped
or even blunted the weren taste for war. The weren
spent far too many millennia doing battle, and com-
bat is too much a part of their culture for it to be for-
gotten so quickly. More importantly, the Orlamu
quickly recognized the value of having the galaxy’s
finest warriors available to them. Within a generation
after contact, elite weren combat teams, with their
superior camouflage and endurance, won the Theoc-
racy more than a few battles in the Second Galactic
War. The weren shock troops remain a potent re-
source for dealing with problems today.
The nomadic tribes of the far North and
South, where life was much colder and mow difficult,
followed a different road after contact. Those who
accepted Orlamu offer of guidance benefited in the
same ways that the townland clans did, while keep-
ing their traditional way of life mostly intact. Others,
however, refused to bargain with humans and sought
lands untainted by human footsteps. The Orlamus
even helped in this, setting aside certain regions as ”cultural preservation districts.” Humans are still for-
bidden to enter these districts today. Oddly, the clans
that fled into these districts most often were those
who were most hard-pressed by starvation and other
weren. In the vast empty regions, they sought to
avoid old enemies and rejected all contact with hu-
mans. They believed that the Orlamus had come to
help their enemies destroy them, and they would not
be convinced otherwise.
After being driven from their usual lands,
these weren fundamentalists lived much the way they
always had: following vast herds of marrizhe across
the frozen wastes and raiding their old neighbors in
the townlands for anything they could carry away.
The strategy worked, and from 2200 to about 2400,
the raiding cultures expanded, eventually generating
much alarm among the Orlamu, who saw themselves
losing the fight against barbarism. Though the raid-
ers were surprisingly successful for several genera-
tions, recently the raiding culture has been fading
away. In the long run, the raiding clans lacked the
town clans’ numbers and technology, and neither the
preservation districts nor their hit-and-run guerrilla
tactics prevented reprisals by their own kind. In the
end, the impulse to adopt new ways and abandon
clan warfare has won out over many old rivalries. At
least, those clans who accepted human help – how-
ever minor – have won out over those clans that
turned their back on the galaxy and tried to remain
frozen in time.

===== 2501: Current Prospects =====

Though the policy of nonintervention remains
in place, in practice weren culture on Kurg has con-
tinued to react to humanity’s presence. However, the
reaction is not always easily understood. For in-
stance, weren art continues to mystify Orlamu ob-
servers, as it seems to be relentlessly realistic, but
the weren emphasis on indirect symbolism and alle-
gory reveals many layers of meaning to an educated
weren, even in something as relatively straightfor-
ward as a bust or a landscape painting. At the same
time, many young weren emulate human styles; per-
spective painting and abstract art were both un-
known to the weren at first contact but have since
been adopted by some clans. Their value is still hotly
debated among weren traditionalists.
At the same time, a few weren and humans
have become great celebrities on Kurg, primarily
philosophers grappling with meaning, cosmology,
morality, and aesthetics. Many young weren read
Nietzsche and find his work compelling – the dead
German would be amused to find that 26th-century
aliens have built him a small shrine. Despite this
small inroad, most weren find the arguments of their
own kind more satisfying and more comfortable.
Modern weren philosophers such as Unlarg Jndoor
are held in high regard, and the weren see no con-
flict in the fact that Jndoor is at once a philosopher, a
bookkeeper, and a reservist in the Undevec artillery.
His volume
On Hunter’s Ethics
even enjoyed a brief
popularity among the Orlamus.
Life is different for weren who have left Kurg.
When a weren wishes to leave Kurg, he or she must
first petition the Orlamus for permission. 1f this is
granted, and it usually is, the weren must then ar-
range to pay their way off the planet. This is difficult
for most weren, as the cost can he rather high. Many
choose at this time to have their way paid for them by
the Orlamu military, or by any one of a number of
mining or heavy industry companies, all of whom
have recruiters stationed on Kurg for just such oppor-
tunities. In exchange for a ticket offplanet, these
weren agree to work for a certain period of time to
pay off their debt. All of this is carefully monitored by
the Theocracy, to insure that the weren are not mis-
treated or taken advantage of by these corporations.
Weren who have recently emigrated off-
planet often suffer serious loneliness and homesick-
ness. Many suddenly find themselves thrust into a
society where they are a very small minority, sur-
rounded by unfamiliar technology. Some remain at
the jobs they took to repay their ticket debt, even after
that debt has been repaid. They prefer the security
offered by guaranteed work and the respect they re-
ceive for their natural abilities, especially in the mili-
tary.
The Orlamu military has benefited more than
most from the discovery of the weren. Indeed, weren
shock battalions are the elite ground forces of the
Orlamu military. Their strength and stamina make a
troop of weren much more effective than the human
equivalent. How do you defeat a squad of 2.2-meter-
tall, battle-frenzied killing machines who shrug off
wounds that would certainly kill humans? Weren
units are always led by weren officers, and their bat-
talions are given considerably more latitude than
others. Members of other species have been allowed
to join weren units, but this is rare. In most cases, a
week of weren training kills soldiers of other species.
The ones who survive can be numbered among the
best soldiers of the Stellar Ring.
Some weren have searched out their fellow
off-world clan members and formed colonies, com-
panies, or mercenary groups. They’ve become
offworld splinters of their clan, and earn much wealth and honor, often sending money back to relatives still
on Kurg. Others have banded together into a
broader, pan-weren alliance and have founded com-
munities welcoming any weren who wishes to join.
Weren who put clan before species are excluded
from these communities, for fear that old hatreds
could tear the community apart. So far, all of these
experimental communities have succeeded, and the
Orlamu are justly proud of the progress their client
species has made.
However, not all weren are so idealistic or so
willing to give up their clan heritage. Many offworld
weren simply set off on their own and adopt a variety
of professions to make a name for themselves. These
weren learn to live among the other species of hu-
man space and to deal with PL 6 technology. Most
adapt slowly but eventually have no more problems
than anyone else.
Offworld weren do have a unique problem:
they are cut off from the social hierarchy. A weren’s
sense of self is so tied to his place, his family’s place,
and his clan’s place in society that removal can
erode a weren’s identity. For this reason, weren born
and raised on Kurg keep close tabs on news from
home, especially news related to clan status and ri-
valry. This hunger for the latest developments has
been exploited by the major news services, and get-
ting updates from Kurg into the hands of recent emi-
grants is a small but steady industry. Every news car-
rier in the Orlamu Theocracy (and many others) car-
ries current news from Kurg, and some weren buy
from several different carriers just to make sure they
don’t miss anything.
Weren have been leaving Kurg since the Or-
lamus arrived, and as a result, some weren have
been settled elsewhere for as long as five genera-
tions. These expatriate weren lead a dual life, bal-
ancing their simple heritage with the high tech world
around them. Weren parents make every effort to
teach their children the importance of honor and
clan, but these things fade over time. Those who can
afford it arrange for their children to live on Kurg for
a while, to better appreciate what it means to be
weren, but the weren culture outside Kurg is in sharp
decline. As is the fate of most discovered cultures,
weren society is being replaced by the more active,
discovering culture, which in this case is human.
Weren of the Orlamu Theocracy have
adapted to the modern world and have internalized
the values, history, and culture of Old Space. The
most straightforward example of weren culture being
absorbed by the more dynamic human culture is in
the Lighthouse, where weren serve as bodyguards,
security officers, and even priests of the Orlamist
faith – but weren no longer fight each other for the
honor of their clan. The weren have adopted the
ways of humankind, leaving the dust and snow of
Kurg far behind.

===== Culture and Society =====

Each weren’s place in society is governed by
many factors, but by far the most important are clan,
lineage, battle prowess, and wealth. When two weren
meet for the first time, the interplay of these factors
determines how they react to each other.
An important omission from the equation is
gender. Weren recognize few differences between
the sexes, and males and females are held in equal
regard. According to tradition, all titles and offices
are open to all weren, though in practice a clan gen-
erally is either matriarchal or patriarchal, rarely al-
lowing both sexes access to the clan’s positions of
leadership.
Clan is the single most important weren at-
tribute. Much of each weren’s sense of worth is
wrapped up in the history, strength, and accomplish-
ments of his or her clan. To some extent an individual
always serves his clan first and himself second.
Clan dictates how weren feel about each
other. The political alliances or enmity between two
clans can dictate how two weren react when they first
meet. In the most extreme cases, two weren who
have never set foot on Kurg may fight to the death on
sight, simply because their clans are currently at war.
The greatest punishment for a weren is the
removal of the offender’s claws, euphemistically
called
pito ta
or “claw-washing.” Because weren
claws – unlike human fingernails – are extensions of
their bone structure, their removal cripples the crimi-
nal’s hands for up to a year, and many never heal
properly. Even the most hardbitten weren veteran
can be intimidated by the thought of being left help-
less, unable to hunt, fight, or duel, and unable to han-
dle most implements without clumsy prostheses.
Lesser punishments include banishment, castration,
enforced servitude, and – among nomad clans – rit-
ual scarring to create patchy fur.
Family lineage is in some sense a subset of
clan but is far more specific. Weren take pride in
their family’s deeds in service to their clan. Each
line’s most famous members color the way their
clansmen relate to them, and the duties the family
has undertaken in the past often govern what duties
they are given in the present //(”Since you are of the line of Haargel the Slayer, you must lead the charge”)//.
Sometimes a family’s worthy forebears were
nobles, but weren nobility is not generally hereditary.
Most noble positions are held for life, barring extraor-
dinary circumstances. When a noble’s position –
such as clan parag, or leader – becomes available,
all clan members may choose to compete to take
their place. Each candidate must show the clan why
he or she deserves the position, usually by declaim-
ing both his family lineage and his personal accom-
plishments. In a few cases, the position falls to a no-
ble’s son or daughter, unless someone else can show
a clearly superior lineage. In these cases, a noble
title shifts from one family when circumstances dic-
tate change; for instance, a warrior may step forward
to take the leadership when a clan has just begun a
war. If the offspring or noble somehow alienates the
clan or shames his lineage, his position might evapo-
rate entirely.
Weren respect nothing more than combat
ability. The entire culture glorified warriors for centu-
ries. They learn to fight early, in earnest struggles
against their siblings for their share of food. They
fight for position within their family as they mature.
The best fighters are chosen early and trained to be-
come the armies of the weren, fighting for clan honor
and for their own place within the clan. Almost all no-
ble positions go to a clan’s warriors; a few fall to the
clan’s priests or philosophers.
Wealth is a relatively new factor in calculat-
ing status. Until about 2200 or so, the best warriors
were also the wealthiest weren. As weren civilization
grew and trade expanded, merchants became more
important. The richest weren traders now wield
enough power to dictate terms to the nobles they sup-
posedly serve, or to ignore them entirely. As more
weren leave the planet and enter cultures where
wealth is the single most important social marker,
more and more of them are adopting a consumer or
capitalist orientation.

===== Technology =====
Technology on Kurg is a curious amalgam of
late feudal and early industrial techniques operating
side-by-side with much more advanced ideas. The
impact of the Orlamus on weren technology is subtle
but pervasive; they decide what does and doesn’t
make it to the planet surface. Indeed, the Orlamu for-
bid anyone from introducing any new technology
onto Kurg without their approval. Their screening
procedures are thorough, and their punishments
very harsh. However, small shipments of various
technological items are smuggled onto the planet
and horded by the clan leaders, primarily for per-
sonal use or for a surprise defense during an attack.
While the Orlamus seek to guide the weren
further along the path to galactic civilization, they
rarely give them anything outright. All the weren’s
advances must be earned. At the same time, the Or-
lamus do push the weren into certain channels, re-
sulting in great advances in areas that the Orlamus
hold dear. For example, medical technology on the
planet stands far ahead of the rest of their technol-
ogy. They understand the germ theory of disease,
and they know how to prevent infection.
In most other areas, however, the weren re-
main artificially held to a lower progress level,
roughly equivalent to what was available during the
1600s in Europe. Single shot black powder pistols
and rifles are the weapons of the day, though the
weren versions of black powder weaponry are much
more powerful than human weapons of the same
era, due to the weren’s ability to handle a greater re-
coil.
Weren transportation on Kurg is woefully in-
adequate. Traveling weren must walk, travel by sled,
or ride marrizhe. The marrizhe serve the weren not
only as food animals but also as beasts of burden.
They are also the preferred mount of soldiers and
raiders, as they can carry heavy loads for great dis-
tances. Most communications rely on hand-carried
letters, although the Orlamus have relaxed their ban
on technology when it comes to communications
gear and allow the clan leaders to communicate
face-to-face over vid screens. The Orlamu feel that
this helps move the weren toward civilization, as
open communication defuses political tension more
often than it provokes it. This policy also keeps the
Orlamus much better informed, because they moni-
tor these conversations closely.
Offworld weren use the same technology
available to other species, but they suffer from some
problems unique to their worldview and culture. For
new immigrants, moving from a 17th-century technol-
ogy into the Fusion Age is a hit of a shock, and weren
don’t generally adjust well. They remain suspicious
of new technology and stubbornly cling to familiar
ways of doing things. They lack the innate curiosity of
the t’sa or the logical investigative rigor of the
mechalus.
When a weren interacts with items that look
familiar, they usually don’t work quite as he thinks
they should. For example, most werens have seen
and used black powder pistols. Hand a northern clan
warrior a 9mm zero-g pistol, and what is he going to
do? He does not understand the basics: breech loading, releasing a safety, cocking an automatic, or un-
jamming, the weapon, so he’ll be more likely to shoot
himself than an enemy. Combat specs of other spe-
cies learn these things from watching holos from an
early age. Not so the weren. When he fires the
weapon, he often misses because he leads the target
too much; the muskets he is familiar with all have a
much slower muzzle velocity. And this example just
covers firearms, a technology with which the weren
are familiar. Imagine how they might react to a com-
puter terminal.
Some weren never overcome their resistance
to new tools and ways of getting things done. These
poor, stubborn souls stick with what they know for
their whole life, unable to adjust fully to the modern
technology; if they are lucky, their offspring fare bet-
ter. However, most weren overcome their reluctance
and fear of change. In a few months or a year, they
are fully integrated in interstellar society. In fact, de-
spite their bad reputation, most offworld weren have
no problem with teleology, since they grew up with
fewer misconceptions. In many ways, the technopho-
bic weren is just a stereotype.
Other problems are harder to overcome. For
instance, weren don’t exactly match the standard hu-
man body size. Anything they wear or use must be
specially made to fit, and they pay twice as much for
clothing, armor, and even vehicles and housing.
Weren size does have certain inborn advantages,
however, such as allowing them to use larger and
heavier devices easily. For instance, weren construc-
tion workers can lift massive riveters that would re-
quire expensive robots in a human-only shipyard,
and weren miners use more powerful plasma
torches to move ore faster. Most important to action-
oriented heroes, weren can handle heavier weapons.
Several weapon manufacturers have created
large-caliber, special-purpose weren guns with
greater masses and heavier recoils. More powerful
than any human equivalent, the recoil of a weren gun
can shatter a human arm. To a weren, though, they
are more comfortable to use than normal guns, sized
to fit weren proportions and accommodate their
claws. The only drawback of these weapons is that
they rely on the simplest mechanical principles, to
more easily accommodate weren technophobia. A
typical example of these weapons is the 25 mm
weren shotgun, a double-barrel breech loading
weapon about 1.4 meters long and weighing about
16 kg. The weapon is easy to use, easy to maintain,
and absolutely devastating in combat.
In addition, weren are extremely skilled at
infighting, using weapons based on clawlike attacks.
The most famous example is the sword claw, a long
and heavy blade strapped to the weren’s forearm.
While it is too large and heavy to be effectively used
by a human, when combined with the tremendously
long reach of weren, the sword claw can he quite
deadly.

===== Weren Weapons =====


**15.2 mm SMG:** With a 10-round clip, this weapon
doesn’t fire long, but it doesn’t need to: reports from
the field indicate the 15.2 can take down a klick or
even two with a single burst, much less when on
autofire. Given its remarkable recoil, however, even
weren sometimes have trouble tracking a target.

**25 mm Shotgun:** With a roar that makes a weren
seem quiet, the 25 mm shotgun packs a lot of ammo
and is deadly at close range. Like all shotguns, it is
drastically less effective at anything beyond short
range. Weren enjoy firing it once before closing into
hand-to-hand combat, and many Orlamu marines
carry them for boarding actions.

**Dueling Claw:** Smaller than a sword claw and meant
for use in formal duels aboard a spaceship (where
sword claws are simply too unwieldy), the 10-cm-
long dueling claw has become a favorite concealed
weapon for many weren, both on Kurg and offworld.
On Kurg they are usually simple steel blades fitted to
an individual weren. Offworld, they are usually made
of much sharper and harder ceramics, undetectable
by metal detectors.

**Greatsword:** Made of high-grade alloy steel and
honed to a fine edge offworld, the greatsword is fully
2 meters long and weighs more than 10 kilos – it is
unusable by anyone of less than 14 Strength. Due to
its remarkable construction, the greatsword is said to
be able to carve through body tanks and small vehi-
cles.

**Herder’s Club:** Used primarily to keep truculent mar-
rizhe moving, this spiked club – often called a
ven-
net
– is sometimes used as a dueling weapon among
Kurg’s nomadic tribes. On Kurg, it is also sometimes
a symbol of authority, and many are beautifully
carved, inlaid, and gilded. These ceremonial vennets
are carried by local princes or the leaders of no-
madic tribes. Among off-world weren, they are con-
sidered curios or conversation pieces.

**Klickstopper 13 mm Pistol:** Firing what are essen-
tially .50 caliber bullets, this five-shot revolver is dura-
ble and powerful, capable of penetrating light vehicle  armor.

**Sword Claw:** Resembling a fistful of short swords, the
sword claw is a metal gauntlet made to conform ex-
actly to a particular weren’s fist and fit snugly over
his or her natural claws. The blades arc as much as
25 to 35 cm long, and some offworld varieties are
made of tungsten carbide steel.


===== Government & Politics =====
Kurg’s government is divided along the an-
cient clan lines, with states representing the twenty
major clans. Of these, twelve are townland clans of
the equator, and eight are nomad clans of the North
and South. The number of clans changes frequently,
as weaker clans are decimated or destroyed in war
and minor clans gain enough strength to take their
place. Each clan is a large, extended group of fami-
lies with common ancestors who are sometimes
mythic figures. Each town clan governs a fertile
stretch of the main continent. In the nomad lands,
each clan follows a particular herd of marrizhe, living
almost entirely from the hunt.
Each clan is led lead by a single individual.
Though their titles vary, these leaders are always the
rulers, military leaders, and source of authority for
the clan. Their word is law, hut their power is bal-
anced by the will of the clan. The clan nobles forcibly
remove a townland leader who makes too many bad
decisions, replacing him with one of their own. In the
nomad clans, a bad leader is usually overthrown by
his strongest general.
A layer of noble families supports the clan
leaders. In the townlands, each family head governs
some portion of the clan’s Lands. The family must
provide wealth and warriors for the clan in exchange
for this privilege, and the exact details of each clan’s
contribution are often the subject of lengthy negotia-
tions when a new clan leader is appointed. However,
once settled, the terms never change until the death
of one party or the other.
In times of war, many weren, even those who
are spacefaring citizens of the Orlamu Theocracy –
use a system of weregeld among themselves to
quickly settle disputes. In this system, every crime
has a price that must be paid in coin. If a criminal
cannot pay the price for a crime, he becomes an
iel-
mar
and must redeem himself in combat by a heroic
decd. Indeed, under the tradition of the ielmarg, the
perpetrator must serve and defend the injured party,
and only that party can release the criminal from his
or her obligation. In a way, the ielmar offers a form of
institutionalized forgiveness, though the most repre-
hensible ielmar are never forgiven for their crimes.
On Kurg proper, the ielmarg tradition is sup-
plemented by a system of harsh physical punish-
ments. Law enforcement is the obligation of the local
lord. A lord’s personal guard might serve as a town
watch, or a hired set of warriors might do the job. In
either case, they are aided by a caste of wandering
warriors pledged to justice. These are the
mannevar
,
vigilantes who enforce the laws as hest they can.
Though most Orlamu understand the tradition of the
mannevar, such vigilante action is not allowed in the
Theocracy. In theory, this restricts the mannevar to
Kurg, though in practice many weren still feel the
need to mete out punishment when one of their own
goes bad.
Weren laws are fluid things, since the law at
any given time is whatever is agreed upon by the en-
tire clan. The clan leader may declare a law at any
time, as may the barons under him to an extent; but if
the law is unjust or flies in the face of tradition, the
clan ignores it. Likewise, if the majority of the clan
feels that a law is necessary, it is quickly passed.
This can result in some interesting rules and regula-
tions. For example, the Ketern clan still has laws re-
garding the proper means of splitting a catch of fish,
and anti-pirating laws, even though they are entirely
landlocked. The laws remain from a time when they
held territory on the eastern coast.
The secret of weren jurisprudence lies in
knowing what the clan wants. This can be so difficult
that even the weren have trouble figuring it out, 

which is why most clans appoint Lawreaders, special
servants of the clan leaders whose job it is to publicly
recite the relevant laws of the clan on formal occa-
sions (such as at a trial, coronation, or marriage),
and to represent defendants against their accusers.
Very few clans have an established way to poll their
members for their opinions. Clan leaders and nobles
must develop an intuitive feel for what the clan might
approve; judging the shifts in weren law is essential
to the political career of any noble. Many weren dip-
lomats in the service of the Orlamu are nothing less
than failed aspirants to the clan leadership. 

===== Weren Dueling =====
The weren emphasis on honorable battle has led to a
large, unwritten code of behavior regarding the
proper ways, times, and forms of violence. When and
how a weren fights often seems complicated to out-
siders, but at its heart are some very simple rules. A
weren does not fight an obviously inferior opponent.
Most weren consider nonweren to be inferior by defi-
nition, and unworthy of a formal challenge. Adult
weren rarely start a fight without cause, though what
counts as starting a fight is fairly loosely defined and
often depends on the weren’s mood. Honorable
weren kill only opponents who clearly intend to kill
them. Even then, a weren does not usually kill some-
one who did not have a realistic chance of killing
them. Weren often fight to determine rank, to settle
an argument, or to advance in social standing. When
two weren meet, they fight to decide who dominates
the relationship unless one of them immediately ac-
cepts a subordinate position. When challenging a
superior to take his place, the challenge must be
made on the superior’s home ground at a propitious
hour; seconds or intermediaries such as priests are
often used to choose a proper time for the challenge.
In a few cases, these challenges are purely formal;
no actual combat ensues, but the prearranged
“loser” still must appear, face off against his oppo-
nent, and then concede. Noble titles cannot be won
through a challenge, except when the position is va-
cant. Challenges made during times of crisis are al-
ways frowned upon Weren Orthodoxies
The Kurgish weren are great believers in two
faiths, one held by the townland weren, the other
maintained by the nomads of North and South. The
townland weren follow the Purifier faith, whose cen-
tral tenet declares that the soul grows more and
more adept at the many tasks put before it, until fi-
nally, in its last incarnation, it surpasses physical
boundaries and becomes a
gontal
, an avatar of
sorts. These avatars are often worshipped by the still-
living followers of the faith.
A small but growing number of weren have
adopted a belief system based on a misinterpreta-
tion of Orlamu doctrine. These “heretics” believe that
drivespace is a form of paradise, a place that carries
the soul to a better world. When a weren is done with
earthly life, it is time to accept the Orlamu offer of
emigration. Those who make their “Last Pilgrimage”
are often violently disappointed when they discover
that not all worlds of the Orlamu Theocracy are para-
dises.
Offworld weren often retain their native faith,
but many also adopt the Orlamist worship of drive-
space. Given the incredible technological leap from
riding marrizhe-back to making starfall between star
systems, perhaps this shouldn’t be too surprising.
Most weren reject Humanity Reformation, Christian-
ity, Buddhism, the Church of the Oracle, and Juda-
ism, but a small number of converts to Islam have
been recorded.

===== Physiology =====
Kurg’s low temperatures favor large, stocky
body types. Weren, with their large mass-to-surface-
area ratio, fit the type perfectly and retain heat well.
They suffer much more from hot temperatures than
from cold ones, though the smell of an overheated
weren means that most of their companions suffer
along with him.
Male and female weren show relatively few
external physical differences. Their size and strength
are roughly comparable. The easiest way to tell the
difference on sight is that males have much larger
tusks and manes.
A typical weren stands 2.2 meters tall and is
almost as wide across the shoulders. Weren weigh
about 150 kilograms, though many settled weren are
even heavier, since sedentary weren quickly accu-
mulate an insulating layer of body fat. Weren muscle
tissue is very dense, providing resistance to injury
and fatigue.
Weren fingers end in long, tough, partially
retractable claws. Weren take great pride in keeping
these razor sharp.
A weren’s body is covered with thick fur,
starting in a mane. This is not ordinary hair, however.
Most furry species generate each hair from long
chains of dead cells. The thicker, heavier weren hair
is multi-layered and able to change color like a cha-
meleon’s skin. Pigment cells of various colors – pri-
marily white, gray, green, and brown – line its length.
When these cells either expose or hide their color the entire strand of hair changes color.
Weren have limited control over this natural
camouflage; they can adopt the hue of a nearby
color, blending into the background, but they cannot
change individual hairs or even small groups of
hairs. The camouflaging action is almost entirely in-
voluntary, but it is an important part of weren heri-
tage. Ambushes are considered honorable tactics
among weren, and the use of deception to gain a
tactical advantage has a proud history on Kurg. Even
now, a warrior who approaches a foe for close com-
bat through the use of stealth is held to be more hon-
orable than one who betrays the presence of his
comrades through a rash charge.
Only the most desperate weren employ their
tusks in combat, since they don’t cause appreciably
more damage than human teeth. The tusks are cer-
tainly bigger than human teeth, but they are
poorly positioned for attacks.
The tusks of male weren continue to
grow throughout their lifetime; the tusks of fe-
male weren reach a certain length (about 4
cm) and stop. Male weren usually file their
tusks down to a reasonable length, much as
humans trim their beards or t’sa maintain
their crests. Among some weren warriors, ex-
ceedingly long tusks are a sign of status.
Other than the difference in tusks, the degree
of weren sexual dimorphism is fairly low, but
weren themselves can always tell a male from
a female.

===== Kurg =====
The weren homeworld is about the
size of Earth, with a similar atmosphere and
an orbit about as far from the sun as Mars is
from Sol. The climate at the equator is tem-
perate, though this quickly gives way to su-
barctic steppes and taigas toward the poles.
The planet’s ice caps are enormous and con-
sist primarily of water, but they include dry ice
(frozen carbon dioxide) at the poles.
Its distance from the sun and the low eccen-
tricity of its orbit give Kurg little variation in seasons.
It is a bit colder in winter, and the snow belt stretches
very close to the equator, but the best approximation
of Kurgish weather at any given time is simply “damn
cold.” Kurg’s star, Tinnale, is a Class G star that
shines about two and a half times as brightly as Sol.
It is slightly larger than Sol and burns a thousand de-
grees hotter. If Kurg were as close to Tinnale as
Earth is to Sol, it would be a charred rock.
Kurg’s land mass is unevenly distributed in
its shallow seas. Weren culture evolved and still re-
mains centered in one large continent about the size
of Europe, Africa, and Asia combined. Many much
smaller landmasses are scattered around the globe,
and small weren tribes have settled a couple of
these, but they are much less advanced than their
cousins. Contact with these lost cousins is extremely
difficult; Kurg’s seas are treacherous and filled with
icebergs even in the summer months.
Kurg’s ecosystem, like those of many primar-
ily arctic worlds, shows little variation; a small num-
ber of species completely dominate the environment.
Few species evolve on a planet with few differentia-
tions in global climate. Also, the low carrying capac-
ity of the arctic ecosystem requires Kurg’s animals to
forage a wider area to survive. At the same time, the
low temperatures favor creatures with low surface-area-to-mass ratios; big creatures retain heat better
than smaller ones. As a result, Kurg is dominated by
a smaller variety of large herbivores and predators
rather than a plethora of smaller but more diverse
species. The most famous of these species is the marrizhe. 

===== Weren Homeworld =====

==== Kurg ====
Primary Tinnale
Planetary Class Class 1
Gravity G2 (1.04g)
Radiation R1 (13 rem/yr)
Atmosphere A2 (N, O, CO2 ,Ar)
Pressure P3 (0.91)
Heat H2 (1.7° C)
Orbital Distance 1.48 AU
Diameter 7,910 km
Year (Earth days)
627.0 days
Day (standard hours) 22.9 hours
Axial Tilt 2.9°
Density 1.05
# Satellites: None

Weren Weapons Table
Weapon
Acc
Md
Range
Type
Damage (O/G/A)
Actions
Size
Cost
Hide
Cost
15.2mm SMG +1 B/A 15/30/80 HI/G d4+1w/d6+1w/d4m 4 -/10 50 +
2 4500
25mm Shotgun 0 F
9/15/40 HI/O d6w/d8w/d4+1m 2 10 25 +3 800
Dueling Claw 0 - Personal LI/O d4w/d4+2w/d4+3w 4 - -
-1 300
Great Sword 0 - Personal LI/G d4+3w/d6+2w/d4+1m 2 - -
+4 2500
Herder’s Club
0 - Personal LI/O d4+3w/d6+2w/d4+1m 2 - - +1
5
Klickstopper Pistol 0 F
5/10/40 HI/O d4+2w/d4+3w/d4+3m 2 5 25 +4 900
Sword Claw 0 - Personal LI/O d4+3w/d6+3w/d4+2m 2 - -
+1 40




[[garraut equipment|Garraut]] weren longcoat

[[rurrkra equipment|Rurrkra]]  leggings and footware

[[khe burund equipment|Khe! Burund]] chain-mail leather armor.
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