Unveiling a New Starfinder Race: The Vesk!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

For months now, we've been teasing the fact that Starfinder has seven core races, of which only five have been announced—humans, androids, lashunta, kasatha, and ysoki. What's more, we've hinted that the remaining two would be brand new races you've never seen before. So now, for the first time ever, we present... the vesk!

Resembling 7-foot-tall humanoid lizards with beards of spiky bone, vesk come from the nearest inhabited solar system to the Golarion system. Fiercely militant and highly organized, vesk have strict honor codes and social mores based on conquest and prowess in battle—a cultural focus that quickly led them to conquer all the other races in their solar system, establishing a massive empire called the Veskarium. For generations, their conquest ended there, stifled by the vast distances between stars. With the introduction of Drift travel, however, they quickly turned first contact with the races of the Golarion system into an all-out war of invasion (and inadvertently created the Pact Worlds as the governments of that system banded together in mutual defense). The brutal conflict lasted for centuries, until the sudden arrival of the Swarm threatened to annihilate all life in both systems. Forced to put aside their differences, the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds were able to join forces and drive off the Swarm, and the tenuous truce forged in that fight continues to this day—if only barely.

Illustrations by Remko Troost

While merchants and others with peaceful professions can advance economically in vesk society, political power is the exclusive domain of those who've proven themselves in armed conflict. Surprisingly, this proof doesn't need to come through military service, or even benefit the Veskarium. Many vesk attain similar elevation in social status through performing mercenary work, engaging in dueling, or providing security on exploration missions. Though obsessed with conquest, dominance, and social rank, vesk find an equally strong sense of honor and pride in fulfilling their agreements and treating subordinates of all races fairly. They are stoic and taciturn with strangers but capable of great bursts of emotion in private or in the heat of battle. Vesk society tends to be efficient, respectful, and law-abiding—especially since nearly any insult or violation of custom could trigger a brutally violent blood debt.

Vesk adventuring with races from other systems fall into two categories. The first are mercenaries or glory-seekers looking for a chance to engage in honorable combat and build up their prestige. The second are nonwarrior vesk who have rejected their home society for its obsession with combat and have chosen instead to seek opportunities among more open-minded races. Warrior vesk most often fit the soldier class, though a growing number have become intrigued by the path of the solarian. Noncombatant vesk often lean toward becoming mystics, though some overcome the traditional vesk culture's dismissal of education to become mechanics or even technomancers.

Stay tuned for more Starfinder blog posts in the coming weeks as we ramp up to the game's release at Gen Con 50!

James L. Sutter
Creative Director

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Remko Troost Starfinder
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thecursor wrote:
Ashanderai wrote:
Matthew Shelton wrote:

I wonder why aren't the male Vesk the gender that has the natural colorings, similar to how the males of some species like peafowl, mallards, guppies, and mandrills are more brightly colored to stand out and 'impress' the females. So that a male Vesk may 'strut his stuff' or even exaggerate his colorings as a show of intimidation against other male Vesk or to show off in front of the ladies, even if these behaviors don't impress non-Vesk or even make sense.

Having this flipped around makes the race feel more anthropocentric, and less alien.

I would argue the contrary; having them be more like animals on earth makes them seem less alien to me. Being alien means that they do not have to conform to what you might expect.

Okay, so let's tell a biological story:

Once upon a time, on the Vesk homeworld, there were these terribly clever lizards, the species that becomes the Vesk. They're fast and smart and strong but their eyes are terrible, they see movement and color and that's about it. Now normally this isn't much of a problem but the lizards live separately with males in one social group and females in another social group with their kids. The males are really territorial and they protect what's theirs from rival troops of males. But wait, how do you determine who is the mother of your child/potential mate and who is an interloper drinking from the streams around your land. All of those bright stripes instantly told these rival lizards that the person currently foraging for food was a female who might help you pass on some genes if you're nice to them. Bright colors got a fast pass to come and go as they pleased. Now millions of years later, the eyes have improved and the social structure has changed but lady reptiles with bright, sexy skin is still very much something that Vesk males really, really like. Some "less bright" females now use skin creams to shine up their scales.

This is an example but just one of many possible ways evolution could work this out.

Although if your species isn't the top predator, making the gender that's most important for reproduction easier to see has some significant disadvantages. So in this case, females aren't heavily involved in reproduction, instead they wander through any territory that suits them laying unfertilised eggs in suitable locations. Brightly coloured females are more noticeable when doing that, and the males know where to go to fertilise them. Plainer females don't reproduce as often, hence selection encourages brighter colours in females. Territorial and sedentary males bring up the young in their territory, females largely ignore them.


Or maybe their entire species evolved a bit reversed from ours, and the males guard the nest and raise the young, while the females needed bright colors and displays to compete for a mate.

Who knows man *insert ALIENS! meme picture here*


Man, I thought it said, "Vrusk" and was thinking of these guys...

Silver Crusade

Haladir wrote:

Man, I thought it said, "Vrusk" and was thinking of these guys...

No, those are the shirren in Starfinder, but with fewer legs. I've already said that my first Starfinder Society PC will be a shirren named Vrusk.


Bluenose wrote:
Although if your species isn't the top predator, making the gender that's most important for reproduction easier to see has some significant disadvantages. So in this case, females aren't heavily involved in reproduction, instead they wander through any territory that suits them laying unfertilised eggs in suitable locations. Brightly coloured females are more noticeable when doing that, and the males know where to go to fertilise them. Plainer females don't reproduce as often, hence selection encourages brighter colours in females. Territorial and sedentary males bring up the young in their territory, females largely ignore them.

Hmmmm....this makes a lot more sense actually.


Haladir wrote:

Man, I thought it said, "Vrusk" and was thinking of these guys...

You have mispronounced my name and offended me I now owe you one blood debt...

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