Greaseheart Creation Guide

Descended from space's first human pioneers and serving as the base for the groups of humans which would arise, Greasehearts grew into their own niche of humanity within the changing and expanding world around them, continuing to seek the frontier and find new boundaries.

• A physically tough and hardy flavour of humanity, with boisterous charisma to match. Keen on exploring new places and worlds.
• Adept with the hardware of most technological innovations, and highly hands-on practical. Computers, cars, firearms, spacecraft, and gadgetry to name a few. This shared knowledge and insight gets passed through Greaseheart families for generations, and through the creations of colleges and other institutions.
• Frequently take up occupations as traders, soldiers, engineers, mechanics, miners, and tradespeople.
• Magic and psionics aren't uncommon amongst Greaseheart populations, but the clever crafts rarely take precedence over the hard-on for being practical.

For a more in-depth guide to Greasehearts, consult the culture page.

Names in Greaseheart census data . In addition, many Greaseheart names are capable of being shortened or contracted to a colloquial form. These generally end with an -a, -o, -y, or -ie sound. Many surnames are taken from family trades and verbs, or objects integral to the family's craft.

• Albionite - Your character was born and raised within the Kingdom of Albion's borders and territory. On the whole, life is good in the wake of wrestling the system away from the Greater Cluster in PA 0, and humanity has comfortably rebuilt themselves into ten city states.
  • York Factory Worker - York's bustling refinery and resources industry has been staffed by generations of blue-collared workers. The boreal city's magical slant has also taught your character a thing or two about the supernatural and weird.
  • Space Trader - Your character and their family run a travelling trade business out the back of a One-Stop Fantail or similar light spacecraft. Your character's runs started with the City States of Albion via Orbital Object Null, then into space and through the planets and structures of Aleph Null System.
• Colonist - Your character's family went looking for the horizon to escape the bustle of day-to-day life in a cramped megacity or patchwork space station. The trip to the planet took a year or two, and landing on a mostly-unknown planet with little time to spare on erecting lodgings. Settling in and becoming self-sufficient, the town flourished under a clear-eyed and strong backed colonisation urge. Your character has spent a lot of time travelling and waiting, making the most of what they have whatever their occupation, and being protective of their lot.
  • Failed Colony Survivor - Your character's colony went completely arse-over-teapot and kissed itself goodbye through no fault of your character's own¹⁾ - the world around the colony proved to be too hostile to continue living comfortably, or a crisis from within the town ended up bringing it down. Whatever the cause, your character got the hell out of there - shooting, stabbing, and bludgeoning their way back to safety. The experience would have ended up changing them profoundly.

Like humans, Greasehearts appear very similar. Skin colours can range pale white to dark chocolate, with many Greasehearts having olive skin or a tan. Hair colours can also range from white blonde, to brunette, to black, and redhead. Some Greasehearts with mutations or body modifications may have exotic skin or hair colours.

The way to be fashionable is to look cool. Hard-wearing materials such as denim, canvas, flannel, and leather are common materials, worn as jeans or jackets. In addition, their clothing incorporates alongside metal or shiny fabrics for accents and decoration. Piloting and racing suits are also considered proper good looking attire, covered with embroidered patterns and patches from spaceports all over the galaxy. Above all else in Greaseheart looks, colours must be bold. Pastels, tertiaries, and gentle shades are rare, but neon gradients are frequent, especially if they contrast.

For accessories, Greasehearts always have a nice pair of shades on them, and often wear them indoors. Earrings and fingerless gloves are also common, as are tattoos depicting the things they love. Simple jewellery is also worn, but removed if they need to do some hard yakka. Two reasons: One, for practicality and safety; Two, so it doesn't get dirty.

Men often wear hair in slick quiffs, mullets, perms, and straight and long while facial hair can range from clean shaven, trimmed into shape, or a bushy beard. Women usually let their hair grow long, frizzy, curly, or so heavy you'd think it needs a neck brace to stay upright. Men do not wear makeup, while women can be subtle about how it is applied, or go all out to get a rise out of their friends or the neighbours.

The following sets of skills are synonymous with Greaseheart men and women across the galaxy. For more detail on each skill, consult the Skills Guide.

• Mechanic/Tradesman
  • Construction/Craft - The bread and butter of a tradesman or skilled labourer, whether they're building skyscrapers, landscaping gardens and pouring concrete, or 3D printing armour parts, cutting gemstones and gunsmithing.
  • Engineer/Technician - For the more intricate or complicated parts of their job, Engineer and Technician can represent higher learning and skills in their field.
  • Mathematics - Being able to balance the chequebook and the math necessary for the job helps immensely.
  • Repair - For diagnosing and repairing existing faults, wherever they appear.
• Soldier
  • Artillery/Gunner - Whether your soldier is comfortable calling the big shots up close, or from a long way away.
  • Explosives - For knowing to throw the grenade, and not the pin. Characters with high proficiency in the Explosives skill may be demolitions specialists and experts, while those with Basic training know the essentials.
  • Firearms - Well, duh. Firing a weapon is straightforward. Being able to take care of it over the long term, and understanding the subtle points of firearm handling and safety can prove much more complicated.
  • Fitness - The need for good physical health, stamina, and a balanced training regimen hasn't diminished as war has changed.
  • Hand to Hand/Archaic Weapons - Push can come to shove, and a soldier is expected to be able to push back harder than their enemy with whatever can come to hand - big or small.
  • Powered Armour/Pilot/Vehicles - Your soldier can be a powered armour/mecha pilot, an aerospacecraft pilot, or a driver of war vehicles, such as jeeps, tanks, and artillery platforms.
  • Survival - Being in a military often leads to strange, unfamiliar, and alien places. Knowing how to get by can mean the difference between life and death.
• Space Trader
  • Communications - Operating the various communications devices and codecs installed on your spacecraft requires some finesse, as well as making proper contact with stations and landing pads.
  • Gunner - For operating the guns on a spacecraft, whether they're lasers, autocannon, or torpedoes.
  • Mathematics - For balancing budgets, checking the stock markets, and using economics data to your best advantage. Also helps with doing computer-assisted space navigation.
  • Pilot/Starship Operation - How else are you going to get around space without one or the other?
  • Repair - The shipyard might be able to provide everything a ship needs, but sometimes, out in space, a pilot just has to make do with whatever they've got on hand.
  • Vehicles - Some spacecraft, like the Fantail have a land travel function, turning the ship's landing gears into a roadworthy vehicle.
• Scientist
  • Animals
  • Biology/Medicine
  • Concentration
  • Engineer/Technician/Thaumatology
  • Research

Innate Greaseheart abilities generally concern movement, traversal, survival, and the specialised use of equipment and tools.

• Hardened Vestibular - The inner-ear vestibular system of the average Greaseheart has evolved to efficiently cope with rapid changes in gravitational forces, sudden and disorienting movement, zero-G, and using vision to stay balanced. This suppresses nausea and dizziness caused by freefall and zero gravity, and blacking out from sudden changes in G-forces up to twenty Gs. This quirk of evolution gave rise to the Greaseheart reputation as fierce pilots and drivers.
• Start, You Bastard! - Oil-burning combustion cars and second-hand spacecraft can fail to start for a number of reasons - the battery's dead, fuel injection's crumbed, wires are frayed, life support's not sealed properly, a fuse is blown; The list goes on. When a Greaseheart has familiarised themselves sufficiently with a vehicle and it fails to start for whatever reason, their intuition guides them towards the points of failure - a sound in the engine or a smell in the air can provide the first clue.
• Highly Antioxidant Liver - The frequent proximity to dangerous active processes, hazardous chemicals, and ionising radioactivity has lead their bodies to develop a limited form of protection against these. Greaseheart livers has evolved to better deal with, process, and pass free radicals, oxidants, and carcinogens, protecting the body from sickness²⁾.

Proto-Greaseheart humans were the first of their kind to move away from their home planet and start exploring the universe in full. The men and women of today's stock wear this fact with pride.