Codex：卡塞利人

“欢愉是放纵，完美则意味着死亡。我们的道路是渴求成就。只需环顾四周，感谢祖先的决心为我们带来的援助。看看吧，当我们屈从于贫乏的妄想，与堕落的生物无聊地嬉闹时，最终会变成什么样。看看他们，看看那显而易见的过时！”——卡塞利大使帕·雷吉斯在一段录音广播中如此表达他对斯莱弗伦的蔑视。

Name: Caesseli (singular: Caesselian; plural: Caesselians)

Sex: Males and Females.

Height: 5’ to 7’ tall; ‘Overking’ and ‘Overqueen’ specimens recorded up to 9’.

Weight: 180-450 lbs.

Eyes: Vertically slit pupils; wide iris colorations, with red, brown, black, and green being most common.

Skin: Hard scales atop tough hide, which both dissolve into soft, supple flesh around genitalia, buttocks, and snouts.

Ears: Imperceptible holes deep in their small, cobra-like hoods

Face: Attractive ophidian muzzles blended with humanoid traits

四肢：胯部以下是粗长的蛇尾，用于移动；拥有类人手臂。

尾巴：巨大的可缠握附肢，负责调节卡塞利人的大部分身体机能，例如平衡与体温。极高的肌肉密度使任何卡塞利人都能抓住并制服所有已知物种，施加的压力甚至足以弯曲强化塑钢。

外貌

蛇形的卡塞利人与遍布银河系的普通蛇类有着自然的相似之处：巨大的粗壮尾巴是在横向与垂直环境中进化出的惊人力量与敏捷性，短小的爬行动物吻部适应了坚硬猎物，优雅的蝰蛇状颈罩通常饰有各种彩色标记和图案，用来表示母族以及个人在更大层级中的地位。颈罩与脖颈连接处有数十个听觉开口，能在 270 度范围内提供出色的听力，但身后会有一片被闷声遮蔽的盲区。

雄性卡塞利人拥有类似吻部的面孔，雌性则有丰满的口鼻；两者都有裂瞳、退化的鼻孔，以及宽阔多肉的分叉舌头，用来嗅探周围环境。每个卡塞利人的湿滑口腔内都有一对半可收缩的獠牙，大小足以媲美 UGC 休闲狩猎论坛上列为“致命猎物”的任何捕食者。被激怒时，这些醒目的牙齿会露出来，并因持续渗出的麻痹毒液而始终闪闪发亮

。不同于柔软脆弱的皮肤，粗糙的皮革状表皮从额头一直保护到卡塞利人的尾尖。表层的龙鳞让他们本就强悍的体魄获得近乎坚不可摧的防护。虽然人形特征相较其主要特征大多处于次要地位，但这些原始属性会在生殖裂隙与毒囊周围柔化成更加柔韧的“皮肉”。

成年卡塞利人会长出两只“乳房”；不过这些器官并没有乳头，而是负责储存并快速再生高效麻痹剂的小囊，这种毒素至今没有已知的药物解毒手段。这些毒囊的形状差异极大，雌性卡塞利人的轮廓通常呈银河边缘地区熟悉的女性形态。雄性则常常拥有略微隆起的胸肌，类似健美运动员的体格。

Origins & History

Despite a notoriously arduous uplifting process, caesselians have remained pinch-lipped on their origins and development. Piecing together trenchant remarks by caesseli ambassadors and what honors they saw enshrined in lavish museums during their visits to the snake-people’s homeworld, diplomats and historians have constructed a brief overview.

On the massive, arid world of Drethfoll, over a million years of evolution saw the caesseli race transform from primitive beasts challenging a hostile wilderness for supremacy, to selfish substance gatherers who refused to gather together in concert, and ultimately to a rigid clan structure that promoted a prosperous civilization of unfaltering cooperation that is still poorly understood by the galaxy at large.

The ponderous cogitation of their culture and calculated growth of their continent-spanning metropoli happened under all the right conditions. Perhaps the most prominent event in caesselian history was the thousand-year renaissance period known in their native language as ‘Magtheode’, a crucible era of unbridled philosophical, industrial, and scientific advancement, begun at a formative summit where the clans were first established.

Instead of answering to a single form of government, each clan, big or small, occupies its own swathe of territory in the sprawling urban centers or traditional outermost settlements, each one self-governing and functioning like a state or prefecture. Conflicts between clans are inevitable, but through an impenetrable network of connections and arrangements, clans, affiliated or not, effectively police one another.

Caesselian clans are headed by an Overking or Overqueen, individuals of immense authority and responsibility that oversee the core functions of their entire race. In contrast to most hierarchies, it is the duty of those at the top to labor for those at the bottom. These natural-born leaders and their personally selected retinue are avowed by oath to preserve and advance caesselian society, personally undertaking major ventures or glorious quests to expand their reach, discern the unknown, and disseminate the gained rewards and knowledge among their kind, effectively achieving immortality for themselves and their charge. The most gifted and skilled are said to assimilate smaller or even take over larger clans through sheer accomplishment.

It is thought that the caesseli never intended to venture far beyond their atmosphere. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that although there exist powerful clans akin to megacorporations, no one ‘family’ oversees any particular field of science or area of innovation. Most of these clans remain unknown to off-worlders, save for the largest ones in control of massive population centers, such as ‘Orenjule’ and ‘Phanjel’.

Adherence to tradition makes the caesselians strong, yet it is a source of fascination that, following their uplifting, a vast number of caesselians departed their world in search of a different future, becoming known as the Slyvereen, whose beginnings are fraught with peril and distress. This unprecedented event is reported to be a sore spot for all caesselians, who have become far more regimented than previously indicated.

Relations between caesseli and slyveren are thus said to be dour.

Reproduction

Caesselians are an egg-laying species whose reproductive speeds are competitive with the more consummate breeders of the galaxy, although this will never be tested, as the snake-people are united by a disdain for wanton hedonism.

Males and females share a typical sexual configuration with the rest of the galaxy, possessing long, lizard-like phalluses and curiously mammalian vaginas and clitorises respectively. Genital slits protect these organs, which only emerge during arousal. The men have four internal testes and are diphallic, either penis elongating up to ten inches when erect, whereas women are abnormally elastic and possess a uniquely slippery wetness that allows for very pleasurable, exhilarating sex.

Every two months, a female will begin ovulating, incubating up to six eggs in her uterus. In one month, she will lay the clutch, special lubricating glands ensuring painless birthing. If during this period the female is inseminated by a compatible male, the egg will be fertilized, and a young caesseli will quickly hatch upon its ejection, its level of growth determined by the quality of sperm and the time of impregnation. It is believed that the tallest and strongest caesseli are conceived at first sign of ovulation, while the smaller and less-developed are born late in the egg’s gestation period. Regardless, caesselian young are born capable of providing for themselves, and often begin hunting for the first meal long before they speak their first words.

Cross-pollination between caesseli and other races has been confirmed through breedings with terrans, ausar, kaithrit, and suula, with the children often possessing more of their ophidian heritage than the alien mate’s.

One marvelous quirk to caesselian reproduction is the genetic subset of ‘overkings’ and ‘overqueens’. Not chosen, but born, these scions of their race are once-in-a-million births to normal caesseli, yet far more frequent to extant specimens. Rarely, a fertilized egg will grow even larger, committing the mother to an uncomfortable maternity leave. Unlike regular eggs, an ‘overqueen’ or ‘overking’ will cause pain throughout the process, and take up to three or four more months to fully develop.

It is unknown to all but the caesseli what the determining factors are to such a spawning, but the event is always recorded as a momentous occasion. Scions born to an over-parent will inherit the clan, while those born from nothing will set out to establish their own.

Current Intergalactic Relations

Relations between the Caesseli and the UGC are lukewarm at best, but the naga-people cannot deny the promises of the Planet Rush. Fledgling Overkings and Overqueens have responded to the call, leaving their homeworld for the first time to seek fame and fortune in the beyond, bringing together likeminded individuals not under a maiden clan, but in mercenary groups, salvager teams, logisticians, and supply runners.

Ordinary caesselians are a rare enough sight in the Core. Scant few dare to tread the established rimworld colonies, preferring to remain at home unless requested by their patriarch or matriarch.