¶ The Penguins
Loremaster:
krowski_nall
¶ Overview
Penguins are greedy, conniving, mercurial, tech savvy individuals with unabashed egotism in their work. With this however, penguins can be quite fun to be around and loyal friends if you gain their trust, who will vehemently defend you, as they don't like it when people mess with their people. Sometimes referred to as the personification of the Napoleon Complex. Their small stature doesn't stop them from thinking they are better than every other race in the universe, sometimes even thinking they are better than each other.
Starting as fierce pirates, they grew into a strong military with the help of the Greys who advanced their technology. One of the few species that benefitted from the Galactic War, they are durable whiskey drinkers that do a lot of shady business but enjoy piracy and mercenary work on the side.
¶ Physical Description (Biology)
A penguin on average is about 2-3 feet in height (0.3-0.6 meters), and will live about 30-40 Human years. Penguins age in the following cycle; after 5 years of age they become young adults, 10 years for adults, 15 being middle-aged, 20 they are getting older, 25 old, and around 30 they become senile. After becoming young adults at the age of 5, they will breed every 5 years during a mating season and produce one egg with their partner in a typical manner of sexual reproduction that is common among most sapient species. Usually coming in shades of blacks, blues, and grays, penguins have also been seen to have mutations that give them very distinct colors such as green, orange, purple, brown, or even pink.
On the inside, Penguins are more robust than their namesake species from Earth. They have denser bones and are more blubbery which helps sustain trauma, one could even survive a punt across the room. Additionally, Penguins have a much larger brain mass, similar to other sapient species, as well as a liver which is proportionally larger in comparison to their body mass than most species, evolved since their initial discoveries of the processes by which one creates alcohol, a substance the species consumes in great quantity. One of the more interesting aspects of penguins is that they have an small opposable fin thumb, these thumbs help them use tools to there advantage, which is how they became so widespread on their home planet and how they were able to carve out a niche in the galaxy.
Penguins are in no way the strongest species in the universe nor the smartest, but they make up for that in their natural instinct, full of fury and with their skills to use their surroundings to their advantage. Improvisation with the tools that surround one's self is a useful skill to have, and the Penguins have truly mastered it.
¶ Culture & Society
Penguins used to be grand pirates but nowadays they delve into more economical job choices. Penguin society is filled with a large amount of shady job activity and shady life choices. It would not be surprising for a penguin to be the leader of a gang or the developer of some mafia or even the owner of a strip club. Where other people may seem to find shame or fear of such jobs, penguins are more attracted to the financial gain that these businesses provide because penguins do enjoy the economic benefits of the universe. But this should not be a limitation of the penguins, many penguins actually have jobs that correlate with business, janitorial services, mechanics, engineering, the military, aerospace and marine industries, and etc. Some still live in the sense of piracy, scavenging the galaxy, but normally they work in business for profit and the military.
Good help in many situations, penguins are great improvisers and tech wise they usually tend to jury-rig what they can rather than settling for some expensive flashy new version. Who needs big flashy and chrome ship engines when some duct tape, bungee cables, and a 12x12 Rhodium Motor will do the same job? Penguins are even famous for their ability to produce working mechs at cheap resource prices. They are also avid drinkers and can usually be found in bars, but other locations where they can be found/where they live are ports, cold/icy areas, big cities, and some just generally roam the galaxy. Where they live is reflected by what job they have, usually.
¶ History
"We thrust with distrust to get off this crust, HEAVE HO HEAVE HO THE FIN IN YOUR SOUL,
We set sail with nice ale through this prisilite hail, OH WOE OH WOE BUT DEATH TOOK ITS TOLL,
As we sniff and we smell searching this hell, HEAVE HO HEAVE HO THE GOLD IN FAR SIGHT,
Avast ye and see how the treasure is for we, OH WOE OH WOE FEAR YE PENGUIN MIGHT,"
- The O'wed Treasure, penguin shanty during the reign of Dreadwing the 4th
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¶ 3000-3114 - The Dreadwing Campaign
In the early ages of penguins, they lacked leadership. They lacked goals. They lacked a sense of what to do in life. Penguins were just simple intelligent creatures who had some basic space travel technology, spread out between a couple dozen of planets. This all changed when someone decided to take action into their own hands, some penguin who managed to persuade a group to apprehend a large ship with him. This ship was then used to bust out of his home planet as he began pirating the small region. This penguins original name was no longer known or remembered, all he is known as now is Captain Dreadwing. He first started pillaging small settlements and other ships, then he started to amass a larger crew with even more ships that he stole, even after that he began to loot from whole planets with his power. The penguins finally found someone to lead them. Nearly every penguin settlement was under his rule for decades. Under the leadership of a seemingly immortal pirate lord, Dreadwing kept his legacy alive through the clever passage of his title and fortunes to his eldest heir. Most species and other settlements near the penguin home region knew who was the boss and with such great power, the penguins grew stronger. They were a force to be feared with how fierce they were making themselves out to be. This all ended when the last known offspring of the Dreadwing line perished. Countless copycats have arisen and claimed to be of Dreadwing blood but none have been truthful nor gained as many followers as the original, so far.
![[IMG]](https://i.gyazo.com/0c4ab9e9d1acca2829ac550653b8896b.png)
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¶ 3110 - Grey Immigration
As the species continued its way of developing power, running their small region of the universe, and scrounging for any loot they could. Another species known as the Greys were broken and against each other, needing help from someone out there in the universe. Penguins being the "nice" species that they were, offered assistance. The penguins took the Greys under their wing, and in return for giving them a place to live within their culture, the Greys gave them access to their technology. Penguins soon became more and more advanced, with Grey ship technology allowing for them to quickly expand their reach in the pre-Fringe galaxy. Meanwhile the Greys were tasked with the more "boring" jobs that the penguins ordered, examples being lab work, research, paper copying, boring paperwork related jobs, etc., making the dual society benefit as a whole as their symbiotic relationship flourished.
![[IMG]](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8J0T4zyNP90NK5ToJEV70qvdqntBVXJNDDgVitEsv94ZbYUG0Af27MF9PFy3trupIYG6-0BvsEJruFJPbJgxScxCLksLlpQwWxx17vOMaereY5AwgI7jx1ox_1M2Rurc15utfdWK)
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¶ 3140 - The Militaristic Renaissance
With the increase of technological advances, penguins started to move past the old pirate homage and go to a more defensive and strong military force. Many were going out of there way to join up and train under the penguin flag because of someone taking up the mantle as leader of the penguins. Arild Järgensen was the man behind this path, moving large amounts of governmental funding towards defense and armaments to claim land and defend it from other species in the universe. Many penguins now took weaponry as common in their lives, nearly every household had one fire arm and almost every family had someone in the military. Some even looking for work as mercenaries and selling themselves off to foreign factions and wars to express their knowledge of combat.
¶ 3250-3260 - The First Galactic War
The dawn of war. As the northern parts of the galaxy fought with their southern counterparts, the penguins saw fiscal opportunity in the bloodshed. With their militaristic strength at its peak, penguins gained a lot of revenue from sending their military off to go to war for these sides and bringing back their spoils of war for all penguins. Highly skilled mercenaries were drafted out for high pay for their furious killing power. This made penguins known as some of the best mercenaries in the galaxy at the time. For the more peaceful people and those at the end of the war that were extremely weakened, the penguins offered guidance and spatial geography maps to help guide these people to prosper on new land for payment. Communities started to spring up and grow in this sector and formed the earliest state of the colonized Fringe.
Penguins now are known for their combat skills and monetary greed as they loom around, some still sticking to their old pirate ancestry, others selling their mercenarial services, various doing some more shady or mafia-like activity, and most moving on to stable jobs in business and more.
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Thanks to Jin the Blue, PrivateNomad, Mush Putato, -Miley-, Father Dagon and others for their help in researching, tips, art, and other help that they may have contributed to this lore.