Codex: Sionach/zh-hans

名称（单数与复数）： 西奥纳奇人

Sexes: Male and female

Height: 4’7” to 5’10”

Hair: Sionach hair runs the gamut from orange, black, white, gray, browns and silvers of varying shades. In addition to scalp and pubic hair, many sionach of both genders develop what are colloquially referred to as whiskers on the cheek: three bar-like patterns of short, downy hair. In addition, all have slender, shaped patterns of fur across their otherwise hairless bodies which vary from individual to individual. Some have small strips up their legs, others have tufts on knees and elbows, and some have negligee-like patterns around the chest and buttocks. These outcroppings are always very short, barely removed from the skin, and serve more as coloration than protection.

Eyes: Two large eyes in the normal humanoid position. Common eye colors include amber, golden, brown, crimson and yellow-green, with rare eye colors including blues, purples and blacks. Pupils are either round or vertical slits, with an equal distribution among the population.

Physical Features

Sionach are humanoids, slightly smaller and more lithe than a terran. They stand on digitigrade legs with five-toed feet, each toe capped with a talon-like claw rather than a nail. However, most sionach keep said claws filed down to prevent injury and damage. They have a single pair of arms, ending in five-fingered hands that bear short, tough talons firmly fixed to the flesh. These are kept filed down much like the talons on their feet, for the same purpose.

Sionach eyes are larger than a human's, and glow with faint luminescence. They have fang-like teeth, larger and sharper than the human norm, clearly evolved for predation. Ears reminiscent of those of a fox, if writ much larger, sit on either side of their head; their mobility makes them important parts of sionach body-language. Atop a sionach's head sits a pair of horns, made of bone growths. The precise size varies widely from individual to individual; some have only small nubs, easily hidden by their hair, whilst others have much larger and more impressive horns that either grow forward, to the sides, or curl like those of rams. It's not unheard of for Sionach to file down their horns simply to make them less obvious, but this is less common than it is for the claws.

Sionach possess one or more tails sprouting from their rear ends; these look like fox tails, but are considerably longer, with extreme cases growing out nearly as long as their owner is tall. The precise number varies from 1 to 9 in total, and tail number is traditionally a social caste mechanism - the more tails an individual has, the higher in the social hierarchy they are. This has fallen out of favor in recent years, but particularly tail-blessed individuals still enjoy many social privileges. Sionach tails are prehensile, and exceptionally sensitive to the touch, owing to the masses of nerve endings found in them that allow them to be prehensile. These tails are so sensitive in fact, that touching or handling the tails of a sionach who hasn’t expressly given permission is considered a low form of sexual assault -- though, at the same time, tails often find a usage in sex amongst particularly connected lovers. Additionally, though the light they cast is far too meager to call much attention in even normal ambiance, all sionach tails have luminescent glands in the tips, causing them to glow gently in the dark.

Similarly to humans, female sionach possess permanent breasts mounted on their chests. Breast size averages are smaller than current terran or ausar norms, with the norm being between a large B or C-cup; more buxom sionach are quite rare, but command an exotic beauty among their species. Breast growth modifications are quite common since their joining the U.G.C.

雄性拥有外置阴茎，通常隐藏在包皮中；包皮悬挂在两枚外置睾丸上方。和他们所类似的狐类一样，西奥纳奇人的阴茎也会打结，但没有真正狐类阴茎那种独特的锥形；相反，西奥纳奇人的阴茎具有明显的爬行动物形态，底部膨大，沿着弯曲的轴部逐渐收窄，顶端是金字塔形的龟头。与他们的身体高度相比，雄性阴茎异常巨大，平均长度在 10 到 18 英寸之间。

西奥纳奇人的躯干内部有复杂器官，能够产生一种奇特的化学混合物；这种混合物暴露在氧气中几秒后会发光，形成幽灵般的火焰。这种“火焰气”完全无害，是一种生物磷光——本质上只是发光的雾气，无味、无臭，热量也极低。人们相信它是为了驱赶捕食者而进化出来的，类似莱森人的生物发光甲板。

某种化学上的特性让西奥纳奇人的火焰总是与其眼睛的颜色和色调相同；人们相信，西奥纳奇人的眼睛之所以会发光，是因为体内含有相关化学物质。相比之下，西奥纳奇人尾巴的发光已被确认是因为它连接着产生火焰气的器官。

典型环境

阿奇苏斯是一颗温带海洋星球，陆地相对较少。现有陆地是分布在数串大型岛链上的起伏开阔平原。尽管可用陆地不多，西奥纳奇人很早就发展出了海上航行；到了现代，他们又发展出海上建筑：阿奇苏斯上有几座最大的城市都是漂浮城堡，深深延伸到海面之下。

西奥纳奇人并不是其星系中最先发展太空旅行的种族——这一发展归功于他们的月球邻居奎坦人——但他们很快就全心拥抱了太空飞行科学。这种生活方式让西奥纳奇人很好地适应了行星际旅行；得益于数千年的海军传统，他们也是备受尊敬的航海者。由于族群数量少、繁殖速度慢，他们没有向遥远星域殖民，但在整个银河系中，西奥纳奇人的飞船随处可见。

繁殖

西奥纳奇人可以随时选择进行性行为，但每年只能繁殖一次；繁殖期持续四周，期间雌性会进入“发情期”。发情期间，雌性西奥纳奇人的性欲会显著增强，髋部和臀部也会明显隆起，以此表明她们具备生育能力。

与西奥纳奇雄性交是一种相当特别的体验；他们形状奇异、末端膨大的阴茎拥有高度灵活的关节，能够在伴侣体内像触手一样蜿蜒摆动，活动范围几乎达到可缠握的程度。由于西奥纳奇人的阴茎尺寸和粗度惊人，插入会非常深入而强烈。

尽管西奥纳奇人的睾丸可能相当大，但产精能力并不特别强。事实上，西奥纳奇人的平均精液产量远低于人类平均值。这通常被用来解释西奥纳奇人口相对稀少的原因，也解释了整个种族为何非常不愿殖民其他世界——那会让本就稀少的族群变得过度分散。

Despite their otherwise mammalian physiques, sionach are egg-layers, producing one or more eggs after fertilisation. The precise size of a clutch is dependent on the virility of the father; most only have one, or rarely, two at a time.

Once fertilised, the eggs grow to their full size and are ready to be delivered within four weeks, and will hatch within another eight to nine days of being laid. Infant sionach are highly dependant on their mothers, and actually nurse for an average of four years, but sometimes as long as six years, as part of their development. In a natural population control method, hormones produced by breastfeeding prohibit entering heat; only after her last clutch has been weaned can a sionach bear more clutches.

History

The sionach exist as part of a small, independent collaboration of races centered on their solar system. The sionach themselves evolved on the planet Arcysus, while a race known as the kui-tan are quite literally their galactic neighbors; the kui-tan homeworld, Jitafore, is actually the largest moon of Arcysus. The third race in their coalition is a cultural offshoot of the kaithrit species, who settled in their system with the permission of the now-spacefaring sionach and kui-tan.

The sionach are a relatively recent contact for the U.G.C. made in the last planet rush, and are still making a place for themselves, counting themselves more as nominal allies than as actual, full-fledged members. It is possible that, with time, they may unite officially or even become a full part of the U.G.C., but for now they have not expressed interest in that, and they are too small an independent power for most authorities to worry about forcing them to ally or join. As a result, this race is not widely known throughout space just yet, though the continuing presence of sionach ships has grown over recent years.

All evidence suggests that the sionach cultural evolution was fairly standard for humanoids, with the most unusual aspect being their early contact with other sapient life from beyond their planet. As is widely documented in their own planet's histories, it was shortly after the sionach developed powerful radio receivers that they accidentally made contact with the kui-tan, who had reached a similar stage of development on their own world.

It is something of a friendly argument between the two species about who holds the more important role in their mutual histories; the sionach, for inventing the radio transmitters that allowed them to greet their lunar neighbors, or the kui-tan, for inventing the first reliable space-vessels that made physical contact between their species possible.

It's possible that it was because of this initially friendly contact with extraterrestrial life, and their own ignorance of greater culture, that the sionach were willing to extend a hand of friendship to a kaithrit colony-fleet that strayed into their system. Damaged and low on supplies due to raids and the disasters that had brought them off-course and to the sionach's system, these Kaithrit accepted that friendly offer and eventually found themselves welcomed as a third member of the now-coalition of alien species. Ceasing their nomadic wanderings, they have fully settled into the system and become an integrated part of the new culture there.