Aleerian

Also known as the Mechalus, the Aleerians are a highly cybernetic race that appeared as one of the core races in Alternity. They were later ported into d20 Modern in the d20 Future book, although they were not adapted for use in D&D.

History

The Mechalus hail from the planet Aleer and had built a system-spanning civilization before being discovered by humanity. Aleerian civilization evolved much like Earth, with war and rapid advances in technology. Relative to humans they were more militaristic and warlike, and once they discovered cybernetics and bioengineering they quickly embraced these technologies to improve themselves. Within generations their species was being born with augmentations that had grown with them.

Eventually the aleerians turned their attention to exploring their star system, and discovered that their system hosted a second inhabited planet. First contact ended with violence, and the aleerians responded by annihilating them. The realization of what they had done caused a philosophical awakening, rejecting the violence that had characterized their civilization for centuries.

It was not very long after this that a rigunmor exploration vessel emerged from drivespace in their system. After conquering the language barrier, the rigunmor delegation found them unusually passive and accepting of the proposal to annex them into the consortium. For the aleerians this was a last step in shedding their old identity, even embracing the word the humans had come up with for their kind: Mechalus.

In the year 2501, the Aleer system is a member of the Rigunmor Star Consortium. Under the terms of the Rigunmor-Aleerian trade agreement, the aleerian government recruits individuals to serve a term as contract workers leased to the Consortium. Known for their outstanding skills with technology and software, the mechalus are in high demand throughout Rigunmor space and beyond.

Roleplaying

Technology pervades aleerian life. From birth they are connected to each other and their creations by thought, and their bodies are as much machine as flesh. This gives them a very precise, regimented attitude; even their speech tends towards the laconic and technical.

However, they are not machines but living beings who only a few generations ago were quite warlike. Aleerians subscribe to a philosophy of nonviolence and make a conscious effort to suppress their negative emotions, but they still have them. They are a passionate race which believes that it is virtuous to be dispassionate. It is uncommon to see a mechalus respond to provocation, and exceedingly rare that they would instigate a conflict. But when their is cause for celebration, their exuberance can surprise those who believed them to be unfeeling machines.

There is one peculiar aspect to aleerian pacifism: even the most saintly mechalus does not regard gridcombat to be violence, nor hacking to be a transgression. Raised as they are, connected to the world by data from birth to death, the aleerians do not share the concepts of privacy and information secrecy that characterize most human societies. In essence, they are a race of shameless internet trolls.