Here is a five-minute rough by Jérome of a race called the durugh for GUMSHOE Space (or should I say Ashen Stars)?
The Durugh
Other species may instinctively recoil at your twisted features and hunched physiques, but you durugh certainly came in handy during the Mohilar War. Your ability to briefly phase between dimensional layers made your people ideal spies and infiltrators. A once-despised enemy of The Combine, your people initially threw in your lot with the Mohilar when war broke out. Your much-derided penchant for double-dealing proved indispensable when your martyred former king, Ukshqa, used his access to the Mohilar mothership to discover their genocidal plans for your race after the Combine was defeated. Thanks to the Bogey Condundrum, due credit for the defeat of the Mohilar has been taken away from you. Still, you are sure that the durugh were somehow instrumental to victory. Although a small faction of durugh want to go back to the old ways and fight the Combine, a new majority seeks peaceful union with it. Since then you have learned that the universal tolerance espoused by the Combine is more ideal than reality. The durugh were the primary foes of the Combine peoples for generations, and old perceptions die hard.
The war, and Ukshqa’s great sacrifice, worked great internal changes on durugh society. Its old hierarchical structure, based on a rigid class system and enforced by brutal punishment, has fallen by the wayside. Now all the classes can perform the dimension phase, making a police state impossible to maintain. Each durugh world has fallen into its own unique anarchy, some more benign than others. The future is wide open, assuming you don’t all backstab each other to death first.
Translation devices often render durugh speech as sibilant, high-pitched or whiny. They undermine even your most lofty expressions. Despite years of effort the technical breakthroughs needed to remedy this flaw remain elusive.
You range between 127 and 168 cm in height. Dense musculature and bone structure makes you heavier than a human of equal health and the same height. Your fingers are disproportionately long and thin, you thumbs thick and partially bifurcated. Durugh tend toward pale complexions and dark hair.
Durugh names sound, at least as rendered in English by translation devices, like a cross between Latin and Assyrian. Pick a name from the list in Appendix 1 (p. 286), or invent one that sounds similar to those.
Boosts: Decryption, Explosive Devices, History (Durugh), Downside, Negotiation; Filch, Preparedness, Surveillance, Infiltration
Suitable Drives: Altruism, Avenger, Chronicler, Comradeship, Entrepreneurial, Exploration, Faith, Footloose, Justice-Seeker, Nowhere Else To Go, Professionalism, Pursued, Programming, Role Model, Scientific Inquiry, Sexual Adventure, Something To Prove, Tech Hound
Unique Drives:Phase Rider
Species-Specific Abilities: Phase
Cybernetic Compatibilities: Breadbox, Handgun, Interface Tranducer
Cybernetic Clashes: Aidkitter, Berserker, Episealant
Viroware Affinities: Aggravator, Peacepipe, Chameleon, Dominator, Mr. Grey, Snakehisser, Stiumulust, Scrambleface, Scrambleface Ultra
Viroware Susceptibilities:Grobig, Proprioception Booster, Tiresias