I vote for A too.
I posted some time ago. Am I in? Am I on the waiting list? I only found out like right now what I want to play.
~
The Varyn are a nomad Fremen-ish people on a post-apocalyptic planet. They worship the dead remains of a eldritch-y beast which caused the apocalypse a couple of thousand years ago - just before the Varyn reached the space age. The carcass is part machine, unfathomably huge and was probably built as a
superweapon by some Varyn nation back when there was stuff like grass and oceans on the planet.
I'm thinking it could look like this, except bigger. Say this size.
Currently the remains cause weird crystals to grow from the sand around it, because of a freak atomic radiation effect. These crystals purify water from the world's high radiation while having an assortment of elements inside the water coagulate into nutrients, making it possible for the Varyn to be alive at all. These crystals do this while taking on radiation themselves, basically fueling small nuclear depots of energy. After having absorbed enough radiation, the crystals can be used as fuel or as weapons.
Varyn acolytes.
Today's Varyn are united as a paranational tribe, governed by a circle of mutated elders. Children born with sickly mutations or boils are sent to be raised by the elders - most die, but some make it out alive. Since the catastrophe, Varyn have evolved a sixth sense that can feel radiation and discern between different sources of radiation. This is something the elders are particularly good at. The desert planet is covered by a web of radio towers that extend this sixth sense of the elders, having most of the planet's inhabitants monitored and controlled by the circle. "Wars" don't exist on the planet. The weaponry and technology available is only used to kill off heretics and rebels that are unworthy of the Great Beast.
"Yuck, you feel like uranium today. Go wash."
The Great Beast is a weird thing. It lies on the planet's surface in the sea of sand and towers above the wavy dunes. It has several "limbs" or "parts" or what have you, and most are detachable but leave radio signals that trace the severed parts back to where they are taken from. Strange technology indeed. Of course only the circle of elders are allowed to take parts to look at or crystals to distribute between clans. The technology that shaped this creature is of course lost, and the elders actively seek to recreate the Beast.
In the only Varyn city, the underworld metropolis of Tykorra, the detached pieces are joined to form a giant, immobile mass of divine flesh. What experiments the elders perform upon this thing is a mystery, but they're surely seeking to reclaim the lost technology.
The elders seek to reinvigorate the creature, beginning the Era of Beauty, a prophecized time where the Beast is said to once again walk the earth in all its glory... And then it is supposed to rise from the planet and plummet into the sun, ending the universe and drawing all living things into Heaven, ascending everything to become pure energy and gamma radiation.
Eternity lies ahead of us, and behind. Have you drunk your fill?
This particular belief of the Varyn cult will probably evaporate as they interact more and more with the universe, and will probably slowly change the religion into a more reasonable belief system that still somehow elevates the carcass to something supernatural. Who knows?
So why are they going into space? Simple: Their world is a radioactive desert. While the crystals grant enough food to sustain a surprisingly large population, resource acquisition is still high on Varyn priorities. It is of course seen as a holy envoy, space colonists seen as crusaders to claim interstellar territory in the name of the Beast. Also, the metals used to create the Beast are quite strange. While they are most probably present on the homeworld, it is a varietal chaos of minerals in the sand. Some proper resource surplus would perhaps make the homeland rich enough to finish the Beast research. Varyn FTL warp stuff is basically based on the radioactive crystals at this point, as well as a sizable oil/coal/gas reserve deep within the planet. The industrial capacity of this buried organic tissue is perhaps the only plentiful resource the desert planet holds.
Faction name: The Beast's Crusade
Race name: Varyn
Primary traits: Survivalists, Zealots
Flavour traits: Scavengers, Collectivists
Primary colour: Yellow/Sand
Secondary colour: Black
Homeworld name: Dry Sea
Homeworld type: Tech
Home star type: Similar to the Sun.
Natural Environment: Used to be an earthlike planet, but is now a radioactive wasteland.
Physical form: Human-ish with straight out yellow skin and is hairless except for the head. Everyone is born as one gender that are chosen during puberty, but can be reversed over a couple of years. A caste exists that has severe mutations.
Starting units: Warship, Troops
Start location: QUIET