From the stone age to the space age, they are savage hunters from a night-bound world, enslaved by a powerful stellar nation and thrust into the light of the 26th century. Fighting to sustain an ancient culture amid the scientific wonders of galactic civilization, the sesheyans are held by many as an example of humans’ unfair treatment of alien species. Primitive aboriginals living on the largest moon of Gamma Leonis III, sesheyans were discovered by VoidCorp explorers. The corporation took advantage of the seshey- ans’ primitive nature and ar- ranged a contract placing them in service of VoidCorp in perpetuity. In effect, a stellar nation turned an entire alien race into its slaves. The sesheyans have learned a great deal about the galaxy since signing that fateful com- pact more than two hundred years ago, and many have be- gun to work in secret to free their people.

Sesheyans are perhaps the most “alien” species encountered thus far by humans. They aver- age 1.7 meters tall with sleek, whipcord muscles. The sesheyan skeleton is composed of light, strong cartilage, so sesheyans weight only an average of 40 kilograms and have extraordinarily flexible joints and posture, allowing them to crouch and bend for ex- tended periods of time without discomfort. Sesheyans are hexipedal, having six limbs. The upper arms end in four fingers (including an op- posable thumb), and the lower legs end in three splayed toes. Both of these sets of limbs have short claws, allowing sesheyans to climb trees and perch on branches in their native jungle. The two middle limbs are slim and end in six long slender “fingers” with flaps of leather skin stretched between them, forming a pair of wings with a span of six meters. The wings allow sesheyans to fly on their homeworld and other worlds with Earth-normal or lighter gravity and sufficient atmospheric pressure. The sesheyan head is wide and round, with four small eyes on each side and topped with a pair of elongated ears. Their eyes are highly sensitive to light, having adapted to the twilight environment of the jungles of Sheya. The blunt snout covers a wide mouth filled with sharp, bony ridges rather than teeth. Sesheyans have a voice box capable of producing a wide range of sounds, and they have no trouble learning and speaking human or other alien languages. Sesheyans have long, finned tails used for balance and flight control. The tail ends in a series of spines connected by leathery skin. The spines can flex to widen or narrow the “fan” at the end of the tail, providing steering while in flight. Sesheyans also open or close their tail fans to dis- play emotions: those in an excited mood open their tail fans, while those in a quiet, contemplative mood close their tail fans.

According to sesheyan fable, their race origi- nated in what is known as enoshai, or the “Twilight Dream,” a timeless state of being connected with the vastness of space and the night sky. The first seshey- ans were created by Vec’t’lir, the Brood Mother, whom the sesheyans associate with the second- largest moon of Gamma Leonis III. Her twin sons are Tal, the Hunter, and Neshii’en, the Trickster, associ- ated with the gas giant’s two smaller moons, which chase each other endlessly across the sky. Sesheyans were created to be the greates15 15 15 15 SESHEYANS hunters of Sheya, “the hunting land.” (The name sesheyan means “hunters of the land.”) In the days of the Twilight Dream, great heroes like Tal and Ne- shii’en lived among the sesheyans, teaching them. Over time, they became a part of the history and cul- ture of the sesheyans, their names invoked by hunt- ers and shamans. For millennia, life on Sheya was largely the same. The tribes hunted (and warred occasionally), shamans kept the wisdom of the past, families mated and grew, and the cycle of life went on. The seshey- ans existed in the timeless realm of the Twilight Dream – until the arrival of VoidCorp.

On July 13, 2274, a VoidCorp exploratory ves- sel landed on the largest moon of Gamma Leonis III. There, project leader JT795 42IWQ (Erim Ollander) made contact with the sesheyans. To the primitive sesheyans, the arrival of the explorer ship was noth- ing less than the appearance of ghosts from the night sky, as in their ancient fables. The visitors dis- played magical powers: Their weapons spat fire, blinding light spilled from their instruments, and their bodies were tall and strange. Sesheyan shamans called the arrival of these strangers aikeita, “the Day of Ghosts.” The VoidCorp crew had little difficulty mak- ing peaceful contact with the sesheyans, who consid- ered them visitors from the Twilight Realm. Under- standing the value of their discovery, JT795 42IWQ decided to remain on Sheya and conceal her discov- ery, even to the point of not sending transmissions to VoidCorp management, lest they be overheard by agents of another stellar nation. Immediately after translating their language enough to converse with the sesheyans, JT795 42IWQ negotiated the Sesheyan Compact with the leaders of the most powerful tribes. The Compact granted the sesheyans right of passage off their homeworld and access to advanced technology. In exchange, the sesheyans agreed to serve VoidCorp in perpetu- ity. In essence, every sesheyan became a VoidCorp employee, subject to VoidCorp rules and authority. VoidCorp now owned the sesheyan race.

At first, the sesheyans were delighted by the Compact, since it seemed to them a religious experi- ence of unprecedented proportions – a chance to share in the power and wisdom of the ghosts and to serve them faithfully. As time passed, the sesheyans began to discover that their visitors were not all they appeared to be.

When news of the Sesheyan Compact ar- rived, VoidCorp management was supremely pleased. They immediately ordered the exploitation of this valuable new resource. VoidCorp ships ar- rived on Sheya and established bases to handle ad- ministration of the population for the maximum utility of the company. Sesheyans were displaced from their long-held territories without consideration. They company assumed supreme authority on Sheya, and any disagreements on the part of the sesheyans were handled swiftly and forcefully. Thousands of stone-age sesheyans were thrust into training programs designed to test their capabilities and make them useful employees. Void- Corp discovered that the sesheyans were remarka- bly intelligent and adaptable. They were able, even eager, to learn new languages and technologies, which the sesheyans considered magical. VoidCorp decided that the sesheyans would serve the com- pany in several ways, especially in handling menial or difficult tasks. In a matter of years, sesheyans were being shipped off their homeworld by the thou- sands to serve their new employer. To those who remained on Sheya, the sesheyans taken by VoidCorp became aikaya, “Ghost Walkers.” From their point of view, Ghost Walkers had left the living world behind and entered the Twilight Realm. For all intents and purposes, they had died and moved on to a new life elsewhere. Sesheyans held funeral rites for family-members chosen to leave Sheya and travel with the ghosts; their lives as hunters of the land were over.

When the other Stellar Nations discovered the Sesheyan Compact, there was an outcry against VoidCorp. Many denounced VoidCorp’s exploitation of the species. For their part, VoidCorp officials pointed at the primitive conditions on Sheya and all the humanitarian aid, education, and technology that VoidCorp had devoted to assisting the sesheyans in becoming galactic citizens. They also pointed out that the sesheyans were considered full VoidCorp employees, with the same rights and responsibilities as employees of any species. VoidCorp defended their actions and ignored protests from other Stellar Nations who called for them to renegotiate or sus- pend the Compact. As the years passed, sesheyans in the em- ploy of VoidCorp learned to function in a technologi- cal society. Their children were born as employees of VoidCorp, often away from Sheya itself. Sesheyan breeding was originally limited by the delicate bal- ance of their ecosystem and the relatively harsh liv- ing conditions on Sheya. Now, the sesheyans were limited only by the requirements of VoidCorp corpo- rate breeding programs, which encouraged employ- ees to produce even more employees. The sesheyan population exploded across numerous VoidCorp worlds as the sesheyan lifespan was greatly ex- tended through modern medical technology. Billions of sesheyans have grown up never having touched the soil of their homeworld, hearing only legends of the hunting land where their people originated. Some of the new generations of seshey- ans threw themselves into the corporate culture, serving to the best of their ability and seeking ad- vancement where they could find it. Others, edu- cated and raised by VoidCorp, began to see flaws in the Sesheyan Compact.

In the more than two hundred years since the signing of the Sesheyan Compact, some sesheyans have turned against VoidCorp. The chaos of the first and second Galactic Wars allowed a few million sesheyans to escape from VoidCorp space to other stellar nations or unknown frontiers like the Verge. VoidCorp maintains that all seshey- ans remain their employees, and it works to hunt down any “absentees” (as they are known). The dis- covery of the sesheyan colony on Grith in the Corri- vale system of the Verge has led VoidCorp to lay a claim on the colonists before the Galactic Concord. The Grith colonists maintain they have been on Grith since long before the Sesheyan Compact, trans- ported there by a precursor race that once inhabited the planet. Thus far, the Concord has upheld the sesheyan claim. There have been occasional upris- ings and rebellions of sesheyan employees on Void- Corp worlds. Rogue sesheyans who attempt to re- turn to their homeworld are detained by the Void- Corp authorities. Even if they manage to slip unno- ticed into the sesheyan population, their former friends and families consider them dead or – if born off-world – complete non-entities. The majority of na- tive sesheyans refuse to have any dealings with these Ghost Walkers and do not listen to what they have to say. Still, there is some discontent on Sheya about the Compact, and some native sesheyans have real- ized that VoidCorp does not have their best interests at heart. Perhaps the greatest opportunity for the sesheyans since the Day of Ghosts came when VoidCorp agreed to recruit half a billion sesheyan employees to join the Galactic Concord. Although they remain employees, these sesheyans have greater opportunities for interaction with people from other Stellar Nations and societies. Many sesheyans hope to plead their case to the Concord and gain as- sistance in overturning the Compact, but the Con- cord is far too new and still testing its authority in civi- lized space. It will be some time before the Concord can challenge VoidCorp’s claim.

Before VoidCorp’s arrival, sesheyans main- tained a simple, tribal culture based around the ex- tended family unit. Even two hundred years after the Sesheyan Compact and their introduction into galac- tic civilization, some sesheyans maintain their old customs.

Sesheyan families tend to be quite large, mainly due to the sesheyan definition of “family.” They do not limit family ties to biological connections; sesheyan families include extended clans with many relationships. Sesheyans do not mate for life but instead have many mates and many children over a lifetime. A group of sesheyans involved in mating – along with their children, close friends, and other relations – make up the whole of a family. The sesheyan language includes many terms for relations that do not translate into human lan- guages. A tribe is composed of a group of families. The structure of the sesheyan tribe is fluid, shifting according to the needs of its members. Tribes split when they’ve grown large enough, break- ing into two or more tribes that go their separate ways. Likewise, sesheyan tribes encountering each other might exchange families as a sign of friend- ship, strengthening the ties between them before moving on. In this way, stories and history are spread among widely dispersed tribes. This practice also serves to maintain a healthy gene pool. Tribal and family loyalties are sup- pressed by VoidCorp, which emphasizes loyalty to the company above all else. Some tribes on Sheya are allowed to maintain their traditional structure, but they can be broken up by VoidCorp officials at any time to serve the company’s needs. Ghost Walker sesheyans do not maintain tribal ties.

Sesheyans have as broad a range of emotions and expression as humans, if not more, but they do not change moods as quickly or as arbitrarily as humans do. To the sesheyans, every state of be- ing is embodied in a mythic archetype from their fa- bles, known as an aikai , meaning ghost or spirit. When a sesheyan needs or wants to experience a particular state of being, he or she calls up the ap- propriate aikai. A sesheyan on the hunt calls upon the ghost of the Hunter and, for him, nothing other than the pursuit and capture of the prey is important. On other occasions, a sesheyan might call upon the ghost of the Dreamer, the Dancer, the Traveler, or the Maker. Each basic archetype also has dozens, if not hundreds of variations associated with particular situations. So there is a Patient Hunter, a Feral Hunter, a Hunter Who Speak With Spirits, and so forth. Each of the hundreds of aikei is strongly rooted in sesheyan myth. Some are spirits or animal totems, while others are based on great heroes from legend. Instead of saying, “I am sad,” a sesheyan says, “the ghost of sadness is upon me” to express sorrow. The elaborate rituals and myths as- sociated with various aikei makes it seem – from the human point of view – as if a sesheyan has many dif- ferent personalities. A sesheyan embodying the Brood Mother can be tender and nurturing. The same sesheyan can call up the Feral Hunter and kill prey with savage abandon. VoidCorp officially bans the practice of aikei, but it is so strongly rooted in the sesheyan psyche that it is nearly impossible to eradicate. Mod- ern sesheyans continue to use aikei to express them- selves, but the mythic elements have faded almost completely.