Roth Thokken (IMTU)

[The Pakkrat]

Roth Thokken

A Report from Angfutsag Sector

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Before I take you to meet one, Emissary, there are a few things you need to know about the Roth Thokken. Let’s dispel some of the misconceptions about this very rare ethnicity of the Vargr from the distant Vargr Enclaves. They live out that far for a reason. Ancients, I’m Suedzuk and though we live next door, we still don’t know everything about the Roth Thokken.

First thing you’re going to notice upon meeting a Roth Thokken is that they look unkempt or poorly groomed. Being born blind means you grow up not caring how you appear visually to others. But don’t mistake them for being unclean. A Vargr’s favorite sense is his olfactory and the Roth Thokken bathe religiously. They value the esthetic scents of aromatic oils, candles, cooking aromas and the like, but do not wear them as part of their presentation. Their natural scent is part of their identification. Each scent of a Roth Thokken is like your claw prints, individual and supremely hard to imitate. They will scent you, so be ready for them to point their muzzles at you just after shaking claws.

Never lay claws on a Roth Thokken, Emissary. Being born blind, a surprise touch to them is almost always an attack. They can become defensive if you do so. If one holds out their claw to clasp, then you can grasp it as he is expecting contact there and only there. If you offer to guide one through your ship, town or city, do not hold their arm or claw. Let them hold you always. Most can lay a claw on your shoulder or hold your arm if they are of the opposite sex. All the Roth Thokken are born blind and vision to them is a sense that didn’t make the cut.

Next, Emissary, you will note a decided lack of colors to their apparel. Without sight, the Roth Thokken do not dress to impress you visually. White, cream, gray, dark gray and black values are typical. What is interesting to their apparel is the variety of fabrics they enjoy. Touch is fundamental and holds true especially for the Roth Thokken. Various soft textures to rough canvasses, the sense of touch is their means of judging whether a clothing ensemble is beautiful or not. Cuts and patterns of wear come second to how it feels in their claw pads. Most wear is utilitarian with materials being practical yet retaining their touch sensory variation.

Step into their hovels, Emissary, and you won’t see pictures on the walls or projected holos. Those modalities of artwork are known but considered dead to the Roth Thokken. It is insulting to consult one on how something ‘looks’. The textures of their furniture, the smells of incense or the aromas of their kitchens are the esthetics of the home. Music is an auditory banquet to the Roth Thokken. However, they generally prefer soothing and melodic music, mediation soundtracks and relaxing, long compositions so as to still hear others in their homes or offices. Discordant or dissonant music is distasteful to them. Some young cubs are trying to be avant garde by importing music from other Vargr sub-species, but do so away from their elders. Sculptures are valued for the shapes that they can lay claws upon and appreciate for their feel. Architecture will be drab and without decoration or special shapes since they can’t reach up and feel the entire building. Walls however will feature tactile patterns or stuccoes to touch. Often a room inside a structure will have wall carpet or touch patterns in the drywall to identify the room. The written word, read by touch is done by running their claw pads over a specially raised script of dots and slashes that look to us like punctuated claw nail prints. They have four scripts ranging from basic cub letters to something akin to shorthand. A Roth Thokken can speed-read their script just as fast as we can speed-read the written word.

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To a Roth Thokken, it is we who are blind. Emissary, they think we have traded sight for their inherent psionics. We are the crippled ones to them. Now, we Suedzuk with our Awareness come close, but nothing like the psi-senses of these Vargr. Never express your pity or condescension to a Roth Thokken. You will insult him and belittle yourself in turn for not having their range of senses. They scent better than we do. They can target you by hearing or feeling your movements through the floor where you stand. The only sense that we share equally is the sense of taste, Emissary. The dinner table is your best chance of being seen equally. Consider taking a Roth Thokken out to eat or hosting one at your domicile.

Don’t think that because a Roth Thokken doesn’t look at you he’s being rude. A Roth Thokken is always sensing for you, just without his useless eyes. If a Roth Thokken does acquire you with his eyes, you’ve likely angered him or her. It’s best to become still and apologize in a soft voice. Paralanguage of the Vargr is both useless and beneath them. No gestures or facial expressions at all. Your tail wagging is only going to move air, not the Roth Thokken before you. If you flatten your ears and he won’t know unless he’s taking your spatial measure with his psi-senses. Bare your teeth at a Roth Thokken, and it will be missed except that he can smell your breath from your heavy breathing. And those are merely a Roth Thokken’s physical senses.

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[The Pakkrat]

From birth, all Roth Thokken are born blind yes; however they are all Stage 4 Psions from cub years onward. Their Stage 5 comes as they are guided by sire, dam, siblings, family, Pack and instructors of any profession. Though each will have different proficiency or mastery of the mental sciences, you won’t find a Roth Thokken who isn’t psionic. They develop from cub-hood psi-senses and use them so frequently that rarely does one tire from merely engaging what we term ‘powers’. The more advanced modalities such as telekinesis, teleportation, clairvoyance, clairsentience, telepathy, touch, and self are learned alongside what you and I call an education. This effectively doubles up on the curriculum of a Roth Thokken, Emissary. This is why they appear weaker in form. Physical education for them includes their psionics, much as it included with Zhodani Nobles and Intendents. Should, on the very rare happenstance that a Roth Thokken is born with vision and without psionics, that cub is considered handicapped and pitied. The cub undergoes education but is likely to emigrate, most often to us Suedzuk, Emissary. A few try to reintegrate with the Roth, if they can find a Psionic Institute to teach them what they missed at birth. Rarely is this successful since such establishments are so few in the Vargr Enclaves and even fewer after the so-called Empress Wave.

Unlike the Zhodani, the Roth Thokken are all born with psionics. There is no stratification or caste society based on how masterful one is in comparison to another. Do we judge each other based on whether we have 20/20 vision or acute hearing in the upper registers that Humaniti fails to hear? I’ve never met a Roth Thokken adult who isn’t a Stage 5 Psion. He knows his talents like the back of his claw and they are a natural part of him. Though we Suedzuk scratch the surface with our non-psionic Awareness, we are nowhere close to the mental powers. This is why we don’t become tired from being Aware. But if the thought of a Roth Thokken – I dunno – scanning you with his psi-senses bothers you, Emissary then you might announce yourself upon entering the vicinity of a new Roth Thokken with a calm, soft voice. State your name, rank if any, intention and don’t embellish. The Roth Thokken are down-to-earth and all business. When psionics use can tire you after a day’s use, a Roth Thokken can be irritable come sunset or just before meditations meant to restore their Psi-Index. It is also wise, Emissary, not to disturb a Roth Thokken during sleep or their meditation sessions. You don’t like being jarred awake, right? When the Roth Thokken rest, they go deep and mean to be fully restored upon waking.

Because we are the handicapped Vargr to the Roth Thokken, they can become impatient with us. Never ask one to explain his culture, his superstitious behaviors, bizarre rituals or logic more than once. If you must do so, go find a second Roth Thokken and ask them for an explanation and take notes at that time.

And yes, Emissary, the Roth Thokken are strange even to us Suedzuk. They perform some of the weirdest rituals. I’m sure we Suedzuk seem to behave oddly whenever you see us drenched in water or other fluids. Our Awareness is tangential to our sense of touch. But I’ve had it explained to me from one Roth Thokken, and I took notes, that these rituals are practical, aesthetic, continue to open and sharpen the mental body relationship with their physical forms and hone their abilities. When my friend learned that we have no such practices, he became sorrowful, like we had amputated limbs or something. If you see a Roth Thokken with trinkets, amulets, fetishes (idols and the like, I mean), talismans or decorations in their otherwise bland clothes, just accept it as part of their culture and never ask more than once about them. There is a method to the madness. We non-Roth Thokken fail to see what they are practicing. And this makes them pity us or condescending to us.

The Roth Thokken were exiled as freaks from Lair early in the Vargr Diaspora soon after jump drive was discovered. The ethnicity at first needed help to take their Coreward-Trailing tack and they were subsequently pushed by Ovaghoun, Suedzuk and Urzaeng ever outward to the edge of Charted Space. Later, they learned to use their psi-sense along with starship technology in ways we think are alien or high-tech. After -1600 Imperial Calendar, we Suedzuk, victims of the Gashikans’ hatred and pushed into the Enclaves, found the Roth Thokken on the edge of explored space in Rimward Angfutsag Sector. They were already pastoral and content to be left alone. Suedzuk curiosity via our Awareness of Mag and Lek fields allowed us some insight at first re-contact with the Roth Thokken. It smoothed over the blending of our interstellar borders. They’re almost a Minor Race save for that they are still Vargr, no matter what the other sub-species say.

Roth Thokken may be eccentric bordering superstitious and backwater, but so far as our Suedzuk psioncologists can measure, they are the undisputed masters of Vargr psionics. Note that I said “Vargr psionics”. Their powers may seem like Zhodani psionics, but do not compare the two out loud near a Roth Thokken. They are just as repulsed by Human psionics as we Vargr are repulsed by the Zhodani and their culture.

I know the next question on your mind, Emissary. Your UPP listed Sophontology as one of your foci. Do the Roth Thokken love? Yes, they do. But just as they think we are deficient without psionics, they include their psionics to express their love. Again, without psionics testing and training, they think it is we who are love-hindered. They love physically of course. The Roth Thokken have emotional love too, passions and the like. But in the causal realm they begin to divert from us non-Psions. Their psionics are senses as well as ‘powers’. They use those psionics in loving mentally and even unconsciously or instinctually. With such opened minds and natural mastery of psionics, the Roth Thokken I dare say express love in more ways than we can imagine. Do not think that they don’t. They will hear your thoughts and pity you for it.

The Roth Thokken don’t use Psimacopoeia, or psi-drugs except during their rituals and then only as assistive agents. They can take psi-drugs on task or in public, but many will return to their meditations and repent or make amends to their physical bodies as if they had acquired some taint or sin. I’ve never seen a Roth Thokken use such enhancers in an emergency, but I suppose they could if so motivated. Devices which direct or amplify their psionics are also shameful to the Roth Thokken. Naturalists, these masters view technological foci of what they see as inborn as repugnant. They have a similar reaction to them as some sophonts are repulsed by cybernetic implants such as Wafer Technology. Rare or outcast is the Roth Thokken who takes up such devices or has augmentations like a Wafer Jack. But anything’s possible, right?

But tread lightly, Emissary, be yourself, and choose your words with integrity and you’ll do fine.