Wanes

Also derogatorily called "Rats", these creatures are an artificial species created by the Authority as part of the Ymir Project. They are the result of many generations of experiments starting as early as 40CE with the intention of creating a slave race for manual labour. As the project progressed, the administration's objectives shifted until the Project was working to create a "superior" race to replace humans.

Project Development
The development of Wanes was not a focused path but rather a series of discrete improvements to Homo sapiens initially focussed on removing the causes of chronic medical problems. With the successful implementation of changes, new directives were issued requiring progressively more radical modifications. These included extreme changes to morphology for adaptation in weightlessness, improved olfactory and visual organs, thick white fur, and changes to accommodate a more varied diet including carrion, cellulose digestion and coprophagy. Changes were also implemented 'from the ground up' to allow firmware updates to the microbiological systems through viral injection of genetic material.

Appearance
Four to five feet high (1.2m - 1.5m), Wanes are somewhat humanoid fur-covered creatures with heads resembling that of a Hare, although the eyes are more forward facing and the jaw muscles are larger, giving rise to more pronounced cheekbones. The legs are digitigrade, with feet being thinly webbed. Standing erect, the arms reach the knees with larger hands having fingers 6-8 inches in length (15cm-20cm). The comfortable posture for movement is on all fours similar to an ape; while ungraceful, erect movement is possible and often necessary for carrying large objects. A muscular tail counterbalances erect posture. Thick pure-white fur covers the whole body, which unchecked grows naturally into an untidy mohican over the top and back of the skull and spine, with acuminate longer pubic fur. Reproductive anatomy is similar to that of Caniformia.

Behaviour and Dialect
While behaviourally extremely similar to Humans, there are some differences. Wanes are disinclined to physical violence and exertion and instead solve tasks through intelligence and cunning. Because of this, rivalries are fought socially or economically. They have strong drives to perform behaviours that benefit family, friends and community, and have patient and objective attitudes. As such, Wanes often fill societal niches of investment, banking, information services and other white-collar work.

The oral and respiratory morphology of Wanes limits their capacity for perfect human speech. They are unable to produce vowels in the front of their palette and cannot produce separate "B" and "P" consonants. These combine with the subtleties of their speech to produce a peculiarly Broad-South-African accent.

"He seemed an average four and a half feet tall, and like all Rats he resembled a vaguely humanoid old-world Hare with snow-white fur. His head bore the most lapine resemblance, with the long ears adding to his stature while his warm brown eyes watched me inquisitively. The rest of his body was more rat-like in shape, being thickset and muscular, while the shoulders and pelvis were more androform to accommodate bipedalism. The predisposition to movement on all fours, common among the species, lent Rats a slightly stooped appearance. To complete the picture, a muscular tapering prehensile tail no longer than their legs would counterweight them when standing upright. Presently Gottschalk wore a starched white collared shirt with the arms cut off and a mild blue tie over which sat a grey pinstripe waistcoat. Below this he wore a smart businesslike kilt in matching grey."