Denebim

The following information strictly refers to Strygon's First Contact War Universe and is therefore not canon to the FreeSpace Universe, nor is it related. Also, it may contain spoilers regarding First Contact War campaigns.

The Denebim are a race of aliens encountered by the Coreworld Solar Republic (CSR) back in 2265. They are carbon-based lifeforms originating from Siverya in the Deneb System and visually share a striking similarity to the Solarians, yet the core difference are the Denebim's longer ears sticking out from the top of their heads as opposed to the sides. This caused them to be very frequently compared to rabbits in appearance, with the slang term "Space Rabbits" shortly thereafter being invented to refer to a Denebim. Some see it as a term of endearment while others see it as an insult.

Physiology

Bunny ears aside, their outward appearance is almost identical to that of a Solarian, safe for a few small differences such as a higher average height, slightly slimmer builds and paler skin. Internally, the differences are a bit greater. Muscle mass is a good bit higher due to increased muscle density, lung volumes are slightly higher and the Denebim equivalent of kidneys have a much more powerful toxin filtration capacity, making them far more resilient to poisonous substances and hazardous chemicals. Additionally, their cerebral cortex has an additional seventh layer at the top of it. The purpose of this layer is as of yet still unknown, as not even the Denebim medical experts know what it does.

The average lifespan of a Denebim ranges from anywhere between 70 to 210. This massive range has confused Solarian scientists upon discovery. When asked, Denebim scientists merely responded with a shrug and said "Life happens."

History

Historical records of the far past have unfortunately gone missing due to unfortunate accidents within the databanks, but most of the history starting from 2110 could luckily still be pieced together.

Global Unification

Before the start of mass space travel, the Denebim still lived in separate kingdoms, usually isolated from each other and following their own path of progress. In Solarian history this would usually mean a world war, but the more harmonious and laid back nature of the Denebim caused a different result.

During one of his travels, a young explorer by the name of Indren Higrisse was struck with a fever for the exploration of the new frontiers, but with each kingdom insisting on their own technologies rather than grouping their efforts together. This would prove a pipe dream unless he somehow changed this.

Indren travelled all over the world to collect various parts for a machine he named the "Star Slingshot", a space catapult powered by a lot of explosives and other chemical propellants. His goal was to reach Low Siveran Orbit with a rocket he and another engineer designed, which would ride the slingshot and then use its own propulsion to reach its destination.

With a lot of fanfare, in 2117 he finished construction and shortly after, launched himself into space with his rocket. Despite initial worries about the stability of this construction, it worked flawlessly, and Indren was launched into orbit.

Equipped only with a camera and an oxygen tank, he could not believe his eyes. From space, the planet he always knew as his home looked unimaginably beautiful to him, and most importantly, the borders between the Kingdoms were not visible. It was as if everyone was one union.

With this in mind, along with many photos taken in orbit, he descended in the arctic wilderness of Siverya. Once recovered, Indren wasted no time contacting every single Queen and King for a very important meeting.

Once he managed to group all the world leaders together, Indren held a speech on the strength of unity and the beauty of Deneb, making sure to show off these photos he took in orbit. This meeting was impactful enough to ignite global cooperation between all the Kingdoms, which accelerated technological progress and merely several years later, enabled the launch of the first space exploration fleet.

Reaching out.

With the Kingdoms united under a common cause, development of space travel has sped up massively, and with the first space fleets out around and exploring the Deneb System, a huge amount of the population was energetically supporting this development. Soon thereafter, early space colonization began, and the Kingdoms were merged under one banner, officially declaring itself the Kingdom of Deneb.

In 2146, the Kingdom of Deneb officially established a science post on the distant moon of Vondrei, which would focus most of its time on speeding up intra-system travel and finding out methods for traveling to nearby system at FTL speeds. Ten years later, the post discovered Bluespace, and almost immediately afterwards, devised a way to theoretically exploit it, using space probes as testbeds for such attempts at Bluespace Drives.

In 2188, the first Colonial Fleet was established, which would then travel through a local Bluespace Node into the star system now known as Sanctum.

Peace and Prosperity

Due to the seeming lack of an immediate threat, along with a strong consensus in the scientific community that there is no such thing as alien life, focus on military technology was throttled back in favor of the advancement of culture and the arts. Many frontier space stations were expanded and rebuilt into entertainment hubs, transport cruisers were retrofitted into cruise ships. The few military vessels that did exist suffered from stagnated development and low budget allocation.

Though interestingly enough, in 2201, a new research project was established, with the main focus being about the discovery and exploitation of potential psychic abilities. Dubbed "Project Chrysalis", the project showed a lot of promise but ultimately came up with little result. The only finding was an ancient carrier wreck of unknown origin in the Sanctum Asteroid Belt.

First Contact: Solarians

In 2265, a Solarian scouting party followed a lone Denebim patrol vessel back to base. Not expecting to ever encounter alien lifeforms, Deneb Military Command was caught terribly off guard. Only after a lot of heavy discussion could a decision be felled, namely the one to bring the newfound aliens to the Queen for a formal introduction. However, what the leading group did not expect either was for these newcomers to not understand the Denebim language, which caused some initial communication troubles. As detailed in the Solarian document, however, these troubles were eventually overcome.

Culture

The Denebim place strong value on tradition and creative expression. They encourage collective efforts on great projects, but tend to be naive about possible risks and challenges, often blindly trusting one another or potential strangers, as opposed to the Solarian tendency towards suspicion and infighting. Still fresh to interspecies diplomacy, some Denebim tend to be unintentionally come off as arrogant to some, as the Denebim are still coming to terms with the fact that there are indeed other races who do the same things they do.

Technology

Denebim technology is built primarily for safety, comfort and aesthetic beauty. This, however, has the downside of weakening their military base a lot. Their ships tend to be geared towards chemical energy weaponry and explosive weapons, with ships being armored with ablative or reactive armors usually.

Their soldiers meanwhile pride themselves on their prowess with melee weaponry and handheld chemical weapons. We do not know yet what exactly they mean by that but time will tell how effective this really could be.