Belza Creation Guide

Belza are synthesized sentient clouds that have to wear mechanical suits in order to survive in regular atmosphere. They are traditionally aloof, rapid learners who are incredibly young in the large schema of races in the universe.

1. Belza will die if they are on a standard terrestrial world without their suit, due to atmospheric diffusion.
2. All Belza that roam outside of Traveler have an armored, durable, robotic pressure suit.
3. The “head” of the Belza pressure suit is the only common component between all of them, carrying the whole being as well as numerous life support and control systems for the armor.
4. Standard Belza consume 0.5 litres of helium per day. Thundercloud Belza consume 18 litres of hydrogen per day.
5. Belzans cannot natively speak any language beyond their own, so they rely on their technology to produce a voice. Be sure to add a vocal reference, from garbage 1998tier synth to “this just sounds like a person with a robotic tinge filter on it”

Belza take their names from signs and posters to give them names for non-belzan folks to pronounce (As their native tongue is inherently unpronounceable to anybody possessing solid matter). Motivational poster phrases are common for 1st generational Belza.

Belza, unlike most species, have only three potential routes available to them. The “genetic” heritage of the species is that the first Belza were engineered in a research station above Traveler, the gas giant of the Unity Protocol in PA 178. The first generation of belza broke containment, forcing the project to be abandoned immediately. The Belza then took over the depressurized skylab and began learning about themselves (through the research already done) and the world around them. Once the Units learned of the race, they dispatched assistance to help improve the Belzan skybase into something more useful, and provided resources for the station's manufactory. Since then, Units have helped them leave Traveler, should they desire to.

• Nativeborn Nativeborn Belza originate from Traveler. They were born in the intense pressures and winds of their native home.

• Factorial Factorial Belza live in communes on terrestrial worlds, up to 10 per factory. The factory's innards are pressurized and sealed for the Belzan's comfort, but a fast travel system in the factory is present in the form of pneumatic tubing. There are communal pressure suits for them to use to conduct affairs both inside and outside the base that require physical fingers to accomplish.

• Lone Lone Belza live more on the edge of danger than the rest. Since they don't have a commune to return to, more often than not they spend all of their time in their own highly customized, pressure suits. Thundercloud Belza, given their need to be grounded, have a higher degree of wanderlust and thus almost always turn lone late in their lives.

The Belza suit is what most folks will interact with. The choice of form is a very wide field, but several aspects show up most frequently. The Belza love bevels in their aesthetic design and try to incorporate curves into all of their metalwork. The limbs, given the EM nature of the hardware, connect without joints, allowing the limbs to float and flip and extend the reach without stressing or grinding any bits.

In essence, Belza armor is fancifully curved. They forge armor with pigment rather than painting after forging, so it maintains a beautiful hue permanently. Since they have LiDAR vision, they can see the full gamut of colours and love coordinating different palettes.

Belzan armor/pressure suits has but one key component: The “Helmet” containing their actual body. Many opt for a clear visor set into a full helmet to provide as much coverage as possible, while the truly paranoid don't even let their helmet be known.

Generally, Belza only have one general purpose armor. Well-off Belza will have more than one for separate uses.

The only true “genetic” variable in terms of appearance are the eyes of the Belza. A belza can have up to 10 eyes in their cloud (Most tend towards a 3 maximum just because 3 provides the full radial coverage they might want). These eyes can glow any colour under the rainbow save for white, black, grey, and any permutation thereof. The eye shape is whatever the Belza feels would suit their appearance, but are always a solid colour with no irises, sclera, or any features that would denote a traditional eye.

Belza have a natural proclivity towards mechanics and the like due to the fact that without regular maintenance they could potentially die a horrible death.

Belza tend to have some investment into power armor technologies, given that their pressure suits share many similarities to standard powered armor units.

Given their inherent need to build in order to survive, Belzan skillsets run the gamut of (non-culinary) fabrication abilities.

Belza have an unfortunate predisposition for being poor in social skills (by other species' standards). Naturally, they make up for it by attempting to invest and upgrade their systems to sound more natural or quirky.

This is one of those bread and butter knowledges for the belza. Mathematics are simply handy for any of their construction capabilities.

Given their (generally) very weak potential, psionics take a back seat in Belza culture as a whole, but the ones that do dedicate their efforts to it find rewarding results in craftsmanship and in emergency response.

Below are the standard racial abilites. Modify as necessary.¹⁾

  * **Racial Abilites**
    * **LiDAR vision** - Belza possess innate [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar|LiDAR] to see with. A gifted one can span the full spectrum of both visible and traditionally nonvisible wavelengths of light, while a less adept one could scan the mere rainbow.
    * **Accellerated Learning** - Bezla benefit from exceptional intellect, alongside an inherent knack for picking up new information; it is not uncommon for a Bezlan to be able to speak, albeit in a very broken manner, in a previously unknown language after as little as a day of exposure.
    * **Electrostatic Generator** - (THUNDERCLOUD ONLY) Thundercloud Belza possess natural electrostatic generation capabilities. Under normal circumstances, this would build and build until they explode, so thundercloud belza have a need to stay grounded. Oftentimes, this means that their suits have discharge/storage capabilities built in.

• Belza have only been in existence since PA 178 - making their species very, very young in the grand scheme of things.

• The suits generally look like Spiral Knights combined with This guy . The helmet of the former and the bevels and floating nature of the limbs in particular.