This article or section is a Work in Progress.
Assigned to:Lore Team

Please discuss changes with assigned users. If no one is assigned, or if the user is inactive, feel free to edit.

Plasmamen are the remnants of a space faring species affected by Plasma-Restructurant Syndrome. They hail from plasma-laden world of Boron 2.

Mechanics

Plasmamen cost 100 karma to unlock as a playable race.

Plasmamen are equipped with a standard issue containment suit that varies depending on their on-station role.

Plasmamen will spontaneously combust in oxygenated environments when not wearing their containment suit.

Plasmamen breathe plasma and will suffocate without internals.

Plasmamen do not have blood.

Plasmamen and YOU

Greetings, esteemed crewmember!

In an effort to encourage inter-species cooperation and workplace efficiency, NanoTrasen has compiled a series of helpful guides on the various peoples that you may be working with!

This particular guide refers to the species commonly known as the Plasmamen (singular: Plasmaman).

Plasmaman Naming Schemes

Due to their lack of a native spoken language, Plasmamen typically adopt a moniker in Galactic Common for the purposes of identification. These adopted names are often references to atomic elements, places, or religiously significant figures and events.

Plasmaman Physiology


A typical Plasmaman

Plasmamen appear to be the remnants of an ancient space-faring species affected by a condition known as Plasma-Restructurant Syndrome. Though studies on Plasma-Restructurant Syndrome are relatively new, chronic generational exposure to plasma appears to have caused the species to lose much of its soft tissue. It is posited that, over successive generations, high-levels of plasma in the environment introduced mutations caused the loss of carbon compounds in the body and skeletal structure - leading to their subsequent replacement with hard, mineralized deposits of plasma. While it is unknown to what extent this has affected the life expectancy of any individual member of the species, as the average Plasmaman is believed to live in excess of 150 years, the high-concentrations of plasma in the skeletal structure have rendered Plasmamen to be extremely volatile in oxygenated environments.

The tissue of Plasmamen largely consists of hard dermal deposits around the bones, with flexile ligaments and tendons binding the skeleton together. This crude arrangement of exposed ligament, likely due to mutation, often makes precise movements exceedingly difficult for individual members of the species. Anatomic reports suggest that Plasmamen likely require the first ten or fifteen years of their lives to develop the refined motor skills capable of precisely manipulating instruments. A Plasmaman's organs are held in a sac suspended in the chest cavity; the organs themselves being supported by an internal lattice-like structure.

Interestingly, respiration appears to occur by the ambient leaching of plasma gas throughout the skeletal structure, the lungs themselves serving as pump-like vessels to distribute aforementioned gas across the breadth of the body. Whether caused by mutation, or an original biological feature of the species, this unique form of respiration has allowed to species to function without the need for a network of blood vessels.

As the name suggests, Plasmamen requires plasma to survive. While they can no longer metabolize traditional foods or breathe normally, Plasmamen are capable of combusting and metabolizing trace amounts of plasma in their organs. The slowly-burning plasma dissolves into a liquid form and diffuses throughout the pores of their solid tissue and creates a telltale orange glow as the vapor passes through their eyes. This reaction both provides them with metabolic energy and helps to stabilize the solidified plasma in the rest of their bodies. Without a steady supply of plasma gas, Plasmamen quickly lose energy and their bodies begin to disassociate and break down.

Unfortunately, this also means that the affected must remain within a protected suit at all times when in non-plasma environs. Concentrated plasma, such as that found throughout their skeletal structure, is prone to spontaneously combust in the presence of oxygen; even a brief exposure to an oxygenated atmosphere may cause them to disassociate and combust. Additionally, as plasma is highly toxic to most species, these suits prevent harmful exposure to other crew members. However, NanoTrasen insists that, provided you respect all workplace regulations, you will find working alongside your Plasmaman coworkers to be just as safe as with those who are not.

Note: Nanotrasen takes no responsibility for injury or disability that may occur due to faulty exhalation valves.

Language Loss

Likely due to the complications introduced by PRS in the species, Plasmamen appear to have lost their native language. Though earlier written records do exist demonstrating that Plasmamen once had a native language, there is no known translation for these written texts - the language seeming to have been dead for several centuries at least.

Despite lacking a formal language, undoubtedly due to skeletal complications, Plasmamen on Boron 2 have been seen making rich use of both iconography and symbolism, in the case of religion, and various gestures, for daily communication, to convey information to one another.

The Plasmaman Homeworld

Boron 2 is a plasma-rich world with an atmosphere consisting primarily of boron, with trace amounts of argon and neon. Boron 2 is perhaps notable for its lack of distinct features, being a rocky world with literal mineral value or biodiversity. Much of the planet's surface is unobservable from space, being obscured by a thick atmosphere - though exploratory efforts on the ground have revealed a world of sprawling plateaus and deep, cavernous valleys.

Boron 2's peculiar abundance of plasma appears to be due to a stellar phenomenon wherein its orbits closely intersects a nearby brown dwarf. This orbit occasionally throws up material from within the brown dwarf and forms a dusty corona. As Boron 2 passes through this corona, material condenses on its surface, trapping plasma within cold hydrocarbon deposits.

The planet appears to have been initially settled some millennia by a species that was undoubtedly the precursor to Plasmamen with various ancient structures dotting its surface, some of which date back approximately 0.3mya, possibly making Plasmamen one of the oldest surviving known species in the galaxy. Many of these structures have been maintained and are now sites of religious significance, and appear to have initially been containment facilities. This has lead many scholars to believe that Boron 2 was originally a penal colony, where criminals or slaves were sent into forced labour to mine the valuable plasma deposits on its surface.

A Brief History

File:Boron 2.png
Boron 2

Believed to be the remnants of a now extinct species that inhabited the world of Boron 3, Plasmamen history is largely based around archeological findings and speculation. Believed to have been originally discovered by an exploratory probe sent by The Technocracy in the 2300's, Plasmamen were the subject of passive study by Grey scientists. Though it is speculation, it is believed that the Grey kept the existence of the Plasmamen a well-guarded secret over fears of cultural contamination or needless exploitation.

The existence of Plasmamen remained unknown to other species until their subsequent rediscovery by Nanotrasen in 2558. Noted for its high plasma content by an NT mining probe seeking to stake out claims on various plasma-rich worlds or asteroid clusters, an exploratory vessel was quickly dispatched to the planet. In contrast to the passive observation of the Grey, Nanotrasen boldly sought to establish contact with the Plasmamen of Boron 2; seeking to establish both a monopoly on trade with the species as well as bringing them into the folds of the company.

Despite Nanotrasen's best efforts to incorporate much of Boron 2's population within the company, many Plasmamen are adamant about remaining on their homeworld.