TEXT: 1
  
  2
  For six hundred years the power of the Qotah has been chained. 
  These proud, brutal aliens were broken by the might of the Man-
  date Fleet and forced to swear peace with humanity. Their elders 
  were compelled to draw in their ships and halt their incursions, 
  else their tall-spired cities would have been smashed from orbit and 
  their orbital aeries hurled down the wells of their worlds. The Qotah 
  were bitter at their defeat, but for more than half an eon they have 
  been too proud to break their people’s vow.
  That pride now grows brittle. Some among the aliens say that 
  enough time has passed, that the humans are weak and scattered 
  and that now is the time to get vengeance for their ancient defeat. 
  Others stubbornly insist that honor demands peace, even with 
  such an inviting carcass to pick. The battles have started within the 
  remaining enclaves of Qotahn space, but it will not be long before 
  they spill over to the fragile worlds of man.
  Born of the Storms
  The ancestors of the Qotah were a species not unlike Terran 
  avians, creatures that navigated the thick, hot atmosphere of their 
  homeworld on crystalline wings. They were hunters and fiercely 
  territorial, the jewel-bright alpha males fighting constantly over the 
  attentions of females feathered in the colors of the Qotahn sky.
  A near-lethal meteor strike on their world produced a cycle of 
  enormous atmospheric disturbances. Flight became impossible 
  for millions of years as the planet struggled to regain some kind 
  of equilibrium, and much of the lush world’s life was extinguished 
  in continent-spanning catastrophes. Only the most adaptable and 
  resilient life forms were able to survive the uncounted eons in which 
  Qotah was scarcely habitable.
  Eventually, an uneasy peace was reached on the scarred planet, with 
  stretches of more habitable land between perpetual, roiling “world 
  storms” that slashed the earth with hurricane-force winds. By then, 
  the Qotah’s wings had long since evolved into grasping append-
  ages and their social organization had been harshly shaped by the 
  changed world’s demands. Dawning sapience found the ancient 
  Qotah connected by bonds of fury and mutual faith.
  The limited amount of land that was almost always free of world 
  storms formed the sites of the first cities of the Qotah, but the sur-
  rounding land was not sufficient to support a perpetually-expanding 
  population. Each city-flock was thrown into violent competition 
  with their neighbors for control of more marginal land, those 
  stretches of earth and sea that were only occasionally scoured by 
  the great storms. Survival went to the strongest, and only the most 
  warlike and aggressive Qotah survived those early eons.
  Yet at the same time, disunion within a city-flock could be fatal 
  to the entire populace. If a city could not respond as a strong and 
  united whole to the incursions of its rivals, it faced a grim future. 
  Males and the old would be slaughtered by rival flocks, and females 
  and hatchlings parceled out among the victors. While it was theo-
  retically possible for a Qotah to join a city-flock other than the one 
  Mandate archive: the Qotah
  a PeoPle Fallen FroM the Sky
  Qotah Physiology
  Physically, Qotah are human-like in appearance, averaging 2 
  meters in height for males and 1.70 meters for females. Their 
  builds are very slender, with crystalline, mineral-based feathers 
  forming head crests and lightly feathering their limbs. These 
  feathers are naturally a misty opalescent gray on females, while 
  males tend to sport brilliant, jewel-toned colors. Qotah have 
  short talons on each of their five fingered-hands and four-toed, 
  avian-like feet. Their legs are digitigrade and often possess light 
  feathering around the “ankles”.
  Skin coloring on females tends to be the same opal gray as their 
  feathers, while males often are hued in symmetric colors that 
  complement their plumage. Female eyes are several different 
  shades of gray, while male eyes are more brightly colored. Qotah 
  senses are roughly equivalent to humankind, albeit they tend to 
  have slightly superior distance vision and a somewhat less devel-
  oped sense of smell.
  Qotah are native to an atmosphere similar to that preferred by 
  humans, albeit they are accustomed to a somewhat denser, thicker 
  atmosphere than humans like. They favor temperatures slightly 
  higher than the usual human preference, and especially love hot, 
  heavy-atmosphere worlds that are still human-breathable. Their 
  native gravity is slightly less, equivalent to 0.8 Terran gees.
  Qotah reproduce much as mammals do and share many second-
  ary sexual characteristics common to mammals. Females lactate 
  for their young, who are hatched from eggs laid after a six-month 
  gestation and two-month brooding. Females generally lay only 
  one egg at a time, though twins are not unknown. It’s common 
  for a Qotah female to lay as many as a dozen eggs during the 
  course of her life. Sometimes as many as a quarter of them never 
  hatch, to the mother’s great grief.
  Qotah grow quickly. By sixteen standard years, a Qotah is fully-
  grown and expected to be functioning as an adult. Even with 
  modern medicine, however, few Qotah live past fifty, their feath-
  ers growing dull and patchy and their joints becoming painful. 
  Death comes quickly when old age finally overcomes them; a 
  Qotah can be fully active beside other adults in the evening only 
  to die in his sleep that very night. Before the Scream, there were 
  suggestions that certain human medical treatments could be used 
  to greatly prolong a Qotah’s life, though details of this research 
  have long since been lost in the general downfall.
  Copyright 2011, Sine Nomine Publishing.
  Written by Kevin Crawford.
  
  3
  they had been hatched into, only the most promising and useful 
  members could hope to be received by foreign flocks. Others could 
  expect only a quick death.
  In response to this, Qotah society came to prize honor as the chief 
  and best virtue of a citizen. A Qotah was expected to keep its 
  word and do as it promised, dealing honestly and fairly with its 
  flockmates and fulfilling its duties diligently. These cultural mores 
  were enshrined as the “Kri”- the “making calm”. However furiously 
  the winds of Qotah might rage, the Kri would ensure an eye of 
  untouchable calm within the individual.
  The Kri allowed for early, tenuous links to form between the ancient 
  flock-cities, with pacts and vows honored between them. They were 
  rarely overarching peace agreements, and skirmishing and regulated 
  struggles between cities remained common, but enough ties and 
  agreements were made to allow for a true planetary culture of 
  Qotah to form. Over thousands of years, the Qotah developed an 
  advanced technological society, and even reached the stars.
  Qotah was a harsh world, and the prospect of calmer skies drove 
  the Qotah on. Ancient patterns of war and struggle reasserted 
  themselves regularly, with each new colony maintaining pact-ties 
  with their mother flock but struggling still with their neighbors 
  over resources. Even when it might have been more advantageous 
  to simply push further out into the galaxy, the Qotah instincts were 
  for war and conquest.
  Several sapient races were discovered by the Qotah over their cen-
  turies of expansion, most of them too young to present a serious 
  technological challenge to the avian conquerors. The Qotah did 
  not intentionally exterminate them, but they showed no concern 
  whatsoever for their interests, and brutally slaughtered any natives 
  that interfered with the expansion of the race. Some client species 
  offered tribute and service in exchange for peace, and in the few 
  cases where the Qotah found this wiser, they accepted these pledges. 
  The terms were hard, but the Qotah kept their pacts.
  It wasn’t until 2559 that the Qotah finally ran into humanity. The 
  humans had the misfortune of having colonized several planets of 
  interest to the Qotah, and the flock that first encountered them 
  was in need of new land. The Qotah attack was brutal and without 
  warning, the entire human population systematically slaughtered to 
  clean the colony for its new masters. That far out on the frontier, it 
  was more than five years before the Mandate Fleet could find the 
  chance to launch a reprisal.
  In the meanwhile, the Qotah gouged away dozens of young human 
  worlds. Most were eradicated, but a few sued for peace, and ac-
  cepted Qotah mastery in exchange for their service. Many of these 
  humans were taken away as servants and slaves, dispatched far into 
  the depths of the Qotah confederacy of world-flocks and never seen 
  again.
  When the Mandate Fleet finally arrived, the turnabout was quick 
  and total. Hundreds of pretech warships manned by elite Terran 
  crews delivered a shocking reverse to the Qotah, driving back their 
  less sophisticated fleets and hamstringing their advance. Qotah 
  technology was quite advanced in certain regards, and their war-
  riors were both brave and disciplined, but they could not match 
  the sheer industrial might of the Terran Mandate and the advantage 
  that Terran precognitives gave to the human fleets.
  Standard Fleet policy was to drive back troublesome alien polities 
  until no further resistance was offered. Yet each Qotah world fought 
  back with primal ferocity, concerned only with its victory and 
  heedless of the greater good of the confederacy; the humans simply 
  never encountered Qotah that were not ready to fight. Eventually, 
  Qotah itself was threatened by the relentless human advance, the 
  motherworld of the race facing the terrible orbital bombardments 
  and brutal celestial fire of the human ships.
  This threat to the homeworld was the only thing that could bring 
  together all the Qotah worlds. All had their ultimate allegiance to 
  the ancient city-flocks of home, and a threat to the whole of the 
  world was enough to demand their united cooperation. In anguish, 
  the leaders of the Qotah confederacy swore a great vow to the 
  human admiral, promising her that their world-flocks and daughter 
  colonies would never again make war upon a human world.
  This “Vow of Red Feathers” as it was known was very precise. The 
  Qotah swore that they would never fire first upon a human, nor 
  colonize a world upon which a human had been born, nor forbid 
  humans to go anywhere they chose within space. By that time the 
  fierce sense of honor possessed by the Qotah was plain enough that 
  the Fleet did not find it necessary to leave much more than a few 
  monitoring ships, as much to keep the bitter humans from taking 
  advantage of the peace as to stand watch on the beaten aliens.
  The Qotah turned inward after their great defeat. While human 
  expansion had taken up almost all of the viable worlds around 
  the confederacy, they retained the right to their old worlds. Some 
  Qotah world-flocks turned to brooding introspection and isolation, 
  but most set upon each other in a murderous zero-sum game of 
  conquest, each trying to take as much of each others’ territory as 
  was possible. Within a few generations, the Qotah were broken as a 
  great power. Only burnt-out worlds and fortress planets remained, 
  and the scattered flocks that fled burning cities.
  The Scream extinguished human power in the region, but the 
  Qotah were in no position to take immediate advantage of it. Few 
  Qotah worlds retained the infrastructure necessary for building 
  spike drives, and most world-flocks had been reduced to labori-
  ous subsistence. It was centuries before the few remaining worlds 
  with functional industrial bases were able to form the cores of a 
  dozen different Qotah polities that controlled the carcass of the old 
  confederacy.
  At present, Qotah ships and merchants have spread far through the 
  surrounding sectors. Some are scouts, looking for “clean” worlds 
  which the Qotah may claim for their own. Others seek to take 
  advantage of the wealth and power of those human worlds that have 
  yet retained their shipyards. The Qotah travel far for their world-
  flocks and families.
  Yet there is a division deep within the heart of Qotah society, and 
  one that threatens to grow by the day. Some among the Qotah insist 
  that the Vow of Red Feathers no longer holds. Their reasoning varies 
  
  4
  widely, each world-flock choosing the rationale that suits them best. 
  Some insist that the vow was to the Mandate, and the Mandate is 
  gone. Others say that the humans have broken the peace and are 
  honorless hool who need no longer be respected. And a tiny few, the 
  most radical, say that Kri itself is no longer necessary in the wealth 
  of a wide-open universe.
  These Qotah are despised as oathbreaking hool by their brethren, 
  but such is their power that few faithful Qotah worlds dare confront 
  them directly. The Oathbreakers are already launching attacks on 
  poorly-defended human worlds and claiming rule of planets that 
  have lost the ability to fend off interstellar attacks. The Faithful 
  fight back, launching raids and sometimes open war against their 
  brethren, but they lack the easy resources gained by their plunder-
  ing kindred.
  The human polities around Qotahn space are weak and divided, 
  and many prefer to let the Qotah deal with their own troublemakers 
  rather than face the prospect of having to arm for impending war. 
  Most choose to simply deal with Qotah raiders and fend off the in-
  creasingly vigorous incursions until matters calm down once more. 
  They may not have the luxury of such idleness for much longer.
  Qotah Psychology
  The Qotah are violent, aggressive humanoids with passions tem-
  pered only by an unbending insistence upon personal honor. Qotah 
  simply have no natural aversion to violence. They don’t experience 
  intense stress in the face of impending combat, and they are not 
  subject to the same emotional and mental scarring that can afflict a 
  human who has been overexposed to warfare. Qotah can feel fear as 
  readily as any other species, but the simple prospect of combat just 
  doesn’t ignite the human neural cocktail of adrenaline and fight-or-
  flight chemicals that usually goes with impending bloodshed.
  As such, violence is a tool for Qotah, and one they use as quickly as 
  any other. Against members of other world-flocks, they’ll trade or 
  kill with equal alacrity, and they expect others to do the same. The 
  world is presents a constant struggle to the Qotah and they intend 
  to be the last ones standing.
  Against this ready violence is the Qotah sense of honor, their “Kri”. 
  Qotah have enough intelligence to understand the inevitable de-
  struction that would come from a universal war of all against all, 
  and the Kri is their bulwark against this chaos. Qotah will keep their 
  word in the spirit in which it was given, even if it is given under 
  duress. Keeping such forced vows honorably and well is considered 
  exceptionally glorious and a sign of deep dedication to one’s own 
  honor. Qotah will even prefer self-destruction to oathbreaking. To 
  die in the service of an oath is to “die in making a calm”, and the 
  service and example such a Qotah offers is universally honored. 
  Breaking such a vow renders the criminal hool, or honorless, and 
  no existing Kri to such a creature need be honored. The only way 
  to redeem such a sin is to win the forgiveness of the wronged party, 
  which may or may not be cheaply forthcoming.
  Exercise of the Kri does require some clarity, however, and so a 
  Qotah will not consider himself bound by casual statements of in-
  tention or provisional promises. “Making a Kri” requires an explicit 
  and publicly-recognized vow, though these vows are common to 
  trade and warfare alike. Failure in a Kri is forgiven if it is due to 
  physical inability or the vow turns out to be impossible, though 
  even then the Qotah will suffer shame.
  Qotah of the Faithful world-flocks remember their promise to 
  humanity, and despite their naturally violent natures, they will 
  never be the first to offer violence to a human. They will defend 
  themselves, but they will be highly reluctant to take the first shot 
  even in the face of obvious impending violence. Faithful Qotah do 
  consider violence offered to their companions to be justification for 
  retaliatory attack, however, and so firing at a comrade will bring 
  them to battle.
  Oathbreaker Qotah, on the other hand, have justified the renuncia-
  tion of the Vow of Red Feathers, and are perhaps even more aggres-
  sive toward humans than they are toward other species.
  Qotah Social Structure
  Qotah all belong to the world-flock of their homeworld, or the 
  homeworld of their mother if born in space or while sojourning 
  on a foreign world. While it is theoretically possible for a Qotah 
  to change allegiance, very few world-flocks will accept outsiders 
  for membership. Even those few accomplished enough to merit 
  inclusion are kept apart until they have sired a hatchling on that 
  world. Once the ties are so confirmed, both hatchling and parents 
  are permitted to join the flock.
  A given world-flock is divided into cities or other settlements, each 
  of which is overseen by an elected male leader. Only female Qotah 
  belonging to that settlement have the right to vote. Males win social 
  status by appealing to the females with their accomplishments in 
  war, trade, and Kri-keeping, and are elected accordingly. The rulers 
  of a world are invariably a council of the most accomplished and 
  popular males, elected for terms of several years.
  The Faithful and the Oathbreakers
  To the Qotah, maintaining their Kri is the purpose of their 
  existence. Even those world-flocks that have decided to abandon 
  the Vow of Red Feathers are convinced that they do so with 
  honorable reasons. While those that stand by the Vow refer to 
  their hostile brethren as “Oathbreakers”, such renegades take 
  murderous exception to the term.
  Among themselves, they consider themselves “conquerors”, and 
  their peace-accepting brethren as the contemptible “craven”. The 
  Great Eyes of the Oathbreakers have laid out unimpeachable rea-
  sons why it was permissible to consider the Vow of Red Feathers 
  as void, so the only possible reason for the restraint of the Faithful 
  must be their personal cowardice.
  Unsurprisingly, meetings between Faithful and Oathbreaker 
  often degenerate into brutal violence. Both consider each other to 
  example the worst of possible sins; the Oathbreakers as honorless 
  hool and the Faithful as gutless cowards.
  
  5
  The “Great Eyes” of a world-flock are its appointed Kri-mediators, 
  charged with using their wisdom to discern the proper meaning of 
  a disputed Kri. Such Great Eyes form the closest thing the Qotah 
  have to religious leaders. Each is a very old Qotah of unimpeachable 
  honor and judgment, and they are recognized by societal acclaim 
  rather than any formal process.
  Most Qotah daily life is structured by the traditions and necessities 
  of their particular city or settlement. The peace is maintained by 
  appointed city guardsmen, and serious crimes or Kri-disputes are 
  judged by the local Great Eyes. Punishment usually consists of fines, 
  beatings, or feather-pluckings. Exceptionally grave crimes such as 
  the killing of mates or unfeathered hatchlings or treachery towards 
  one to whom they owe a Kri are punished with public execution. 
  Occasionally a great criminal is permitted to expiate his sin in some 
  suicidal mission for the sake of his flock.
  Qotah marry and maintain family households. Divorce is almost 
  unknown, as even when it is mutually desired it implies a failure 
  of vows that is highly socially embarrassing. Female Qotah who 
  lay eggs outside of a marriage bond are deplored as failing their 
  responsibility to their hatchlings and suffer substantial social shame, 
  as does the male involved. Casual sexual relations are not condoned 
  by Qotah culture, though modern technology and isolation from 
  the flock increasingly allow for liaisons that have no offspring or 
  flockmates to show them up.
  As a point of custom, the Qotah participate in a tradition known 
  as the “high song”. Each world-flock has at least one messenger 
  charged with sharing tales of great honor and valor among the other 
  flocks. These “singers” journey from their homes through a circuit 
  of other worlds, gathering tales of distant glory to bring home and 
  sharing the mighty deeds of their own people. Such singers are 
  sacred in their persons; to insult or kill them is to insult the Kri 
  of an entire world-flock. Singers cannot always travel as far as they 
  would like, so sometimes they are obliged to rely on other Qotah, 
  or even aliens, to bring back stories and particulars of some Qotah’s 
  heroic nobility.
  Occasionally, a Qotah male prefers to avoid the vigorous warfare 
  and mercantile pursuits of his brethren, or a female wishes 
  to attain direct political power or participate in the military. 
  In such cases, the Qotah ritually adopts the plumage and 
  skin coloration of the opposite gender through dyes and pig-
  ments and is treated as such by other Qotah. While unusual, 
  such adoption of different gender roles is an accepted outlet 
  for the dissatisfied and brings no shame.
  Qotah Adventurers
  Qotah PCs are rolled as normal, but all Qotah gain a +1 
  modifier bonus to their Dexterity due to their nimble avian 
  ancestry and instinctive spatial grasp and a -1 modifier pen-
  alty to their Strength due to their low-gee origins and light 
  frames. These modifiers are applied directly to the attribute’s 
  base modifier- so a Qotah that rolled 14 for Strength would 
  have a final modifier of (+1 -1) = 0. This modifier cannot 
  increase a bonus above +2 or below -2.
  Qotah can belong to either the Warrior or Expert classes. There are 
  no known Qotah psychics.
  Most Qotah adventurers are freebooters in search of glory and 
  wealth, the better to gain status in their home flock. Females might 
  chafe at the strict gender roles of their homeworld and put on the 
  male role to find adventure in the stars. Other Qotah might have 
  been forced out of their flocks for crimes they may or may not have 
  committed, or a Qotah might find themselves isolated from a flock 
  turned Oathbreaker when they refused to abandon their Faithful 
  beliefs.
  Qotah are close enough in biology to humans to take advantage of 
  human-made lazarus patches and other medical treatment. A medic 
  with no experience in dealing with Qotah and no chance to study 
  the differences suffers a -1 penalty on any medical skill rolls applied 
  to them. Qotah can wear and use most equipment designed for 
  humans, but hard-shell armors and vacc suits must be specifically 
  designed to fit them. Most such items cost anywhere from five to 
  ten times as much as normal if they must be custom-ordered.
  Both male and female Qotah are violent by nature, but players 
  should also remember the Vow of Red Feathers. Faithful Qotah 
  will refuse to take the first shot at a human, and will fight only 
  in self-defense. For those sticky situations when the rest of the 
  group decides to apply a little violence, most Faithful Qotah can 
  rationalize participating once the fighting has actually started. For 
  male Qotah, it seems honestly logical not to blame the Qotah for 
  being part of the decision, as males do not normally participate in 
  a group’s decision-making unless they are elected by the females.
  Oathbreakers might deny the Vow of Red Feathers, but even they 
  are fiercely protective of their Kri. PC Qotah who reject the entire 
  concept can expect to be loathed and shunned by their brethren, 
  and viewed with extreme mistrust by humans familiar with the 
  importance of Kri to the Qotah. Those humans unaware of the PCs’ 
  unreliability can end up paying for it when the “honorable Qotah” 
  suddenly turns out to be more morally flexible than was imagined.
  Qotah Warrior
  Armor Class 6 (Light armor)
  No. Appearing 2-8
  Hit Dice 1
  Saving Throw 15+
  Attack Bonus +2
  Movement 30’
  Damage 1d8/Slugthrower
  Morale
  9
  Skill Bonus +1
  Most male Qotah have the training and attitude necessary to make 
  excellent warriors, and even an untrained female is usually more than a 
  match for an ordinary human. Qotah warriors favor a light, unrestrictive 
  armor of scale-like overlapping plates and fight with two-handed chemical 
  slugthrowers that have a normal range of 100 meters and a long range of 
  300 meters. Each slugthrower can fire six times before it requires reloading. 
  When such weaponry is inappropriate, Qotah carry slender monoblade 
  knives, sometimes hiding small ones in their luxuriant head plumage. Very 
  few Qotah willingly go unarmed.
  
  6
  Qotah GM reSourceS
  1d12 Male 
  naMeS
  FeMale 
  naMeS
  Flock 
  naMeS
  Place 
  naMeS
  1
  Chikkat
  Brii
  Eeloo
  Chihu
  2
  Feen
  Chiri
  Huatu
  Heela
  3
  Hau
  Huli
  Hwee
  Hulila
  4
  Hoon
  Kiti
  Kurrik
  Kinneree
  5
  Hulit
  Lae
  Owree
  Loolit
  6
  Kuan
  Lii
  Reelu
  Olittu
  7
  Kwirr
  Loor
  Shuhao
  Pollow
  8
  Oolt
  Oola
  Tooyi
  Rettu
  9
  Tikkit
  Ree
  Trill
  Sichitik
  10
  Tuwhi
  Tuha
  Waoun
  Tikkati
  11
  Vreet
  Voree
  Weerit
  Twihulow
  12
  Waru
  Yii
  Yisoo
  Vreetwi
  1d6
  Plot Seed
  1
  Oathbreakers have discovered the location of a long-
  mothballed Qotahn warship. They plan to use the PCs 
  to get the access tablet for it, which is kept as a seem-
  ingly useless trinket in a Qotahn museum, hopefully 
  inciting a bloodbath between the humans and the 
  Faithful that keep the museum.
  2
  A Qotah flees to the PCs for help against a mob of en-
  raged humans who are convinced he or she is a pirate. 
  The Qotah offers to pledge a Kri of service if the PCs 
  help- but a real Oathbreaker would consider humans 
  hool to whom no honor is owed.
  3
  A Qotah wants the PCs help in investigating a local 
  crime boss. He leaves unmentioned his intention to get 
  the PCs and the boss in a killing situation in order to 
  avenge the death of a Kri-pledged friend.
  4
  A Great Eye desires the PCs’ help to sort out a Kri-
  dispute between a human and an arrogant Qotah elder. 
  Unbeknownst to the Great Eye, the dispute touches on 
  an old, hidden crime in his past that would destroy him 
  were it made public. The Qotah elder intends to use it 
  that way, while the human totally fails to understand 
  the Qotah.
  5
  A murderous Oathbreaker warlord launches a raid 
  against the settlement in which the PCs are staying, 
  seemingly at random. In truth, his mate has fled his 
  growing madness and is hiding in the settlement. He 
  will pay well for her safe return.
  6
  A grizzled Qotah warrior leads the defense of a remote 
  human outpost against raiders when his son or daugh-
  ter is kidnapped. Honor demands he continue to fight, 
  but he knows a hideous fate awaits his child if he does 
  so. The PCs might be able to infiltrate the raiders and 
  rescue the young Qotah, but time is running out.
  1d8
  Qotah nPc
  1
  Vilet Tuhu, a sardonic male merchant with brilliant 
  green and ochre patterns. He loudly proclaims the cer-
  tainty that every human breathing is going to try to cheat 
  him, but deals with unflinching honesty all the same. 
  Any attempt to peel him brings the wrath of his many, 
  many local mercantile friends.
  2
  Tulee “Sparrow” Weerit, a surgically-augmented female 
  with patterns of diamond and smoke-gray. She works as 
  a “dancer” at a busy starport bar, and considers herself 
  hopelessly hool for her disgraceful work. She made a fool-
  ish Kri to the bar’s owner that he arranged for her to 
  accidentally break, and the only way she has any hope of 
  earning his “forgiveness” is to work for him. Secretly the 
  daughter of a Great Eye; she lives in mortal terror of her 
  father discovering what she’s been doing.
  3
  Krakkak Lool, a wiry-muscled male with dull red and 
  orange plumage. Former mercenary combat medic; nev-
  er carried a weapon, but saved hundreds of lives under 
  fire. Lives quietly in town, but is deeply honored by the 
  local Qotah, and his word is enough to make or break a 
  proposal to them.
  4
  Lii Hulow, an elderly female with brightly-dyed crim-
  son and gold plumage. A veteran of countless intercine 
  Qotah wars, she knows more ways to kill a man than 
  a hatchling has pinfeathers. Not quite an Oathbreaker, 
  but remarkably perceptive about preemptively noticing 
  attacks.
  5
  Shuhu Oolha, a brash young male with bright yellow 
  and blue feathers, barely out of adolescence. Apprentice 
  to a merchant house and a surprisingly good haggler, 
  though he privately yearns to do great deeds of war and 
  adventure.
  6
  Yoola Trill, a grim-faced female with plumage of silver 
  and opal. She is the wife of an important local merchant, 
  and is convinced that the local human government is 
  hopelessly hool. Whether or not that’s actually the case, 
  she works behind the scenes to coordinate other malcon-
  tents in strikes against the authorities.
  7
  Kawat Shult, a sallow male with plumage of lustrous 
  azure and royal purple. A brilliant bioscientist with poor 
  impulse control; responsible for several weaponized 
  pathogens. Also rumored to have solved the DNA copy-
  lock on several high-yield strains of metawheat. Wanted 
  on several worlds for several different reasons.
  8
  Viree Toolow, a one-eyed young female with mist-gray 
  and white patterns. Superb tech and repairwoman with 
  an addiction to dangerous situations; lost her eye while 
  repairing a sentry gun in a badlands settlement under at-
  tack by raiders. Very likely to sign on to perilous expedi-
  tions. Rambunctious and with a liking for humans, but 
  reluctant to act on such deplorable urges.
  
  The Qotah are a humanoid avian species that once formed a power-
  ful interstellar polity in the waning years before the Scream. These 
  warlike, proudly honorable aliens attacked the human frontier 
  colonies almost as soon as contact was made, and made substantial 
  inroads into nearby sectors before the Mandate Fleet crushed them. 
  As a condition of the surrender, the Qotah swore the “Vow of Red 
  Feathers”. Forever after, they pledged that they would never fire first 
  upon a human, nor colonize a world upon which a human had been 
  born, nor forbid humans to go anywhere they chose within space.
  This pledge was a “Kri”- a public and formal vow the Qotah use 
  to affirm their absolute conviction. Kri are used for many conse-
  quential matters, from significant mercantile trades to pledges of 
  loyal service, and they are absolutely crucial to the Qotah. If a Kri 
  is broken, either intentionally or accidentally, the Qotah is hool, 
  honorless and undeserving of any respect or Kri. The only possible 
  redemption is in the forgiveness of the person they have wronged. 
  To be hool is a fate worse than death to a Qotah.
  Since the Vow of Red Feathers, the Qotah have largely turned 
  inward, and fighting among the various world-flocks to which 
  the aliens are born have left their numbers few and scattered. Still 
  six hundred years after their defeat, some are beginning to argue 
  that the Vow of Red Feathers has been superseded, and no longer 
  applies. The “Great Eyes” that adjudicate the questions of Kri on 
  each world have sometimes produced judgments that proclaim the 
  nullity of the Vow, and these “Oathbreaker” Qotah are beginning 
  to attack human worlds.
  Qotah adventurers are often freebooters in search of wealth and 
  glory with which to earn the favor of a mate back in their native 
  world-flock. Others seek redemption for some terrible Kri-failure, 
  while some are simply curious about life beyond the martial disci-
  pline of their home flock.
  Qotah Adventurers
  Qotah PCs are rolled as normal, but all Qotah gain a +1 modifier 
  bonus to their Dexterity due to their nimble avian ancestry and 
  instinctive spatial grasp and a -1 modifier penalty to their Strength 
  due to their low-gee origins and light frames. These modifiers are 
  applied directly to the attribute’s base modifier- so a Qotah that 
  rolled 14 for Strength would have a final modifier of (+1 -1) = 0. 
  This modifier cannot increase a bonus above +2 or below -2. Qotah 
  can belong to either the Warrior or Expert classes. There are no 
  known Qotah psychics.
  Qotah can use human lazarus patches and medical tech, though at 
  a -1 skill check penalty if the attending physician is unfamiliar with 
  their species. Most human equipment and weaponry can be used 
  normally, though usable hard-shell armor and vacc suits can cost 
  from five to ten times as much if they have to be specially ordered.
  As a Qotah PC, you should remember the Vow of Red Feath-
  ers. “Faithful” Qotah will never be the first to offer violence to a 
  human, though lethal self-defense is permitted, and attacks on your 
  companions qualify as attacks on you personally. While not every 
  promise you make is a Kri, publicly-pronounced vows that you 
  acknowledge to be Kri should be kept even in the face of certain 
  death. Even Kri extorted by force are inviolate. If your PC breaks 
  a Kri, they will almost certainly suffer enormous demoralization at 
  their reprehensible new hool state, even if no one else ever discovers 
  their treachery. Some Qotah may handle the prospect better than 
  others.
  Qotah Player handout
  Qotah Physiology
  Physically, Qotah are human-like in appearance, averaging 2 
  meters in height for males and 1.70 meters for females. Their 
  builds are very slender, with crystalline, mineral-based feathers 
  forming head crests and lightly feathering their limbs. These 
  feathers are naturally a misty opalescent gray on females, while 
  males tend to sport brilliant, jewel-toned colors. Quotah have 
  short talons on each of their five fingered-hands and four-toed, 
  avian-like feet. Their legs are digitigrade and often possess light 
  feathering around the “ankles”.
  Skin coloring on females tends to be the same opal gray as their 
  feathers, while males often are hued in symmetric colors that 
  complement their plumage. Female eyes are several different 
  shades of gray, while male eyes are more brightly colored. Qotah 
  senses are roughly equivalent to humankind, albeit they tend to 
  have slightly superior distance vision and a somewhat less devel-
  oped sense of smell.
  Qotah are native to an atmosphere similar to that preferred by 
  humans, albeit they are accustomed to a somewhat denser, thicker 
  atmosphere than humans like. They favor temperatures slightly 
  higher than the usual human preference, and especially love hot, 
  heavy-atmosphere worlds that are still human-breathable. Their 
  native gravity is slightly less, equivalent to 0.8 Terran gees.
  Qotah reproduce much as mammals do and share many second-
  ary sexual characteristics common to mammals. Females lactate 
  for their young, who are hatched from eggs laid after a six-month 
  gestation and two-month brooding. Females generally lay only 
  one egg at a time, though twins are not unknown. It’s common 
  for a Qotah female to lay as many as a dozen eggs during the 
  course of her life. Sometimes as many as a quarter of them never 
  hatch, to the mother’s great grief.
  Qotah grow quickly. By sixteen standard years, a Qotah is fully-
  grown and expected to be functioning as an adult. Even with 
  modern medicine, however, few Qotah live past fifty, their feath-
  ers growing dull and patchy and their joints becoming painful. 
  Death comes quickly when old age finally overcomes them.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Stars Without Number/Stars Without Number Supplements/Mandate Archive/Mandate Archive The Qotah.pdf