
The Efate Race
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   The guide is worth a twice-over (even if he's just a hologram). The
   typical lithe Efate stands at a little over average height, with a
   deep bronze skin, longish wavy hair in a variety of light colours
   (white, various shades of grey, and pale yellow), and high cheekbones.
   They look like a minor race - or a bodysculptured noble - but are not
   actually human at all.
   
   The Efate was contacted by the Imperium soon after arriving in Regina
   subsector. At the time, they were a highly sedentary race of
   omnivores; weighing in at about 300 kg, they looked something like
   large, occasionally biped, glorified squirrels, with faceted eyes, an
   ungainly gait, and a grating language of squeals and whines. Primitive
   they were not, though: when the I.S.S. Coilirela touched down here in
   182, they had already reached TL 4, with some research to TL 6.
   
   The Efate - or the KriiLeeiKariit, as they called themselves at the
   time - welcomed the Imperium gladly, becoming a client state in 211
   and obtaining formal membership in 243. A highly industrious people,
   they swiftly reached TL A by 400, and by the First Civil War was at TL
   D.
   
   It was at this time when wealthy KriiLeeiKariit started to shape
   themselves and their children as humans. The prestige of being human,
   and the natural KriiLeeiKariit love and fondness of humaniti, began to
   approach it's ultimate conclusion. By 880, the "New People" were over
   half the population: by 1000, the KriiLeeiKariit were extinct. But the
   "New People" - now taking the name of Efate as the name of their new
   race - were still not considered human, as they cannot interbreed, and
   have serious internal difference from humanity, especially at the DNA
   and molecular level.
   
   They still cannot eat most human food without pills and addatives: the
   very limited range of (highly processed) human food they can digest
   without aids gives them debilitating stomach cramps and occasional
   vomiting "on bad days". Because of their wholesale and self-inflicted
   genetic problems, they suffer appallingly short lifespans of about 40
   years, dying from a vast variety of heridatory diseases. And over 60%
   of all Efate are originally born from some artifical method: the
   rebuilding of the KriiLeiiKariit reproductive system to imitate human
   mammalian norms is a great triumph of science, but even today a Efate
   woman going through natural childbirth takes her life in her hands. Of
   course, Efate genetic science plows ahead to relieve these problems.

