Hey, man.
Found this on my other system, so I thought I'd copy and paste it
here. It gives a little extra info about the Skunkworks reality:
There are a lot of similarities between the world we inhabit, and
the one which my characters inhabit. Most of the cities share
identical landmarks, and many of the events in our past have also
occurred in theirs. But the similarities end there.
In their world, there was never a World War II. There was never a
bombing at Hiroshima. The people of their world are not like us.
For the most part, they have come to realize that they are part of a
system that is larger than anything they could create, whereas we
have yet to understand this concept. There is generally very little
discrimination on their world. Sure, there may be some species
discrimination, but it's not anywhere near as bad as it is here.
Most of the characters get along well enough, even if one is a
predator and the other a herbivore. However, not all species have
evolved into sentient beings.
There are a lot of species who share both forms on their world.
There are sentient (two-legged) cats, and there are non-sentient
(four-legged) cats. The same is true with horses, bats, some
reptiles, some dogs, and so on and so forth. Some of the species
which did NOT evolve into a higher form are cows, several species of
dogs, elephants, rhinos, hippos, most birds, most fish, insects,
etcetera. Just as we share this planet with our assumed predecessors
(apes), so too, do the characters of this other world. Many of the
sentient creatures have non-evolved versions of their own species as
pets (for example, Tamara Jolsen of Caterwaul Inc. has a pet cat
named Jinx).
Some of the various species are rare. Avarian species are pretty
rare. Most of that lineage contains birds of prey, such as eagles
and hawks. There are also a few species of parrots, as well as
cardinals and bluejays. However, there has been a mutation which has
become more prevalent over the last 50-60 years, and it seems focused
on avarian species only. The mutant gene, which has not yet been
identified, causes avarian offspring to be born without wings. The
wings of sentient birds, like those of sentient bats, are attached to
the arms and back. The mutant gene somehow turns off this cell
growth while the young are being formed in the womb (it should be
noted here that all sentient species on this particular version of
our world give birth to live young, reptiles and birds included). As
a result of this mutation, more and more avarian young are born
without the ability to fly. Some scientists have argued that this
may be a form of evolution, but those avarians denied the joy of
flight would argue otherwise.
There are currently only two known types of water-based sentient
life-forms. Dolphins are still mammals, whether they are sentient or
not, but there are several species of sentient sharks, who,
thankfully, do not share their predecessors' biology. Sentient
sharks, like all sentient forms on that planet, are air-breathers.
Unlike their distant forefathers, sentient sharks do not need to swim
around continuously in order to "breathe". They do, however, have to
come to the surface in order to extract the air that their bodies
need. And, unlike their un-evolved cousins, sentient sharks get
along just fine with sentient dolphins.
Bats are also somewhat rare, as are kangaroos, koalas, weasels,
badgers, wolverines, most deer species, reptiles (alligators,
crocodiles, chameleons and the like), jaguars, and bears. Please
note that there are no apes or monkeys on this world; they, like
their human cousins, fell victim to the vicious food chain. Armed
with very little, neither ape nor man was able to defend himself
against the (then-feral) sentient predators. Humankind died out
long ago, and the scientists of today still speculate on what these
strange creatures may have looked like.
It is important to remember that these anthropomorphic characters
are NOT people with fur. They are humanoid, true, but they are still
animalistic. Things which we do not use, or have, such as body
(ear,tail, etc.) language, heightened vision, hearing, and olfactory
senses, and the fabled "sixth sense" which many animals seem to
possess to warn them of natural or unnatural events or situations,
are quite commonplace in this other world. The people of this other
world could be great allies, or deadly enemies, if ever our world was
to encounter theirs.
Hope this helps out some!
--JMH, still working on those friggin' character bios.
Received on Sat Oct 20 2001 - 21:04:19 CDT