Geroo

The geroo were originally developed by Rick Griffin for the short story Ten Thousand Miles Up.

Geroo name generator

Geroo Heroforge Model: Free to use

Geroo In Environment Suit Heroforge Model: Free to use

Writing for Geroo

When writing for geroo, refer to the pinned species sheet. For everything else, please keep the following facts in mind.

Rarity

• Despite being the cornerstone species for the setting, there are not a lot of geroo in the galaxy. A huge portion of geroo are employed by Planetary Acquisitions, many are traded in krakun slave markets, there are some colonies on lio-friendly worlds, etc. but the actual number of geroo following the destruction of Gerootec to the present era is only in the millions, while most species are in the billions.
• Thus, many places in the galaxy have never run across a geroo in person before and may be unfamiliar with them. In some places if a geroo is present, they may be the only one.

Strands

• Strands are communicators/computer terminals/wallets worn in a holster on the left bicep (typically).
• Geroo picked up the habit of having/using strands after first contact with the krakun. While it is not an absolute necessity, even outside of their employment to Planetary Acquisitions, geroo feel safer when they have a strand due to the connectivity to others it provides.
• The geroo call their communicators strands because the connectedness they feel "weaves the people into a tapestry."
  • While the geroo think this is their own original concept, the fact that geordians, who discovered the geroo, also call their communicators "strands" lends some credence to alternative theories.
• When sitting down with friends, geroo consider it polite to remove their strands and set them face down on the table to indicate "you have my full attention."
• Currency (used aboard Planetary Acquisitions ships only) - Credits (written ₢5 to indicate five credits) are stored electronically on their strands. Geroo transfer money from one strand to another by tapping them together.

Religion and Culture

• Geroo religion is non-organized. There are no priests, there are no temples, and there are no sacred texts. Geroo rarely even write about their own religion or metaphysics--almost all religious matters are a matter of custom, and even atheists will follow the customs anyway.
• Religion is centered around ancestor worship. Time was, during the Gerootec days, this was mixed with a worship of gods, but the gods fell by the wayside after Exodus.
• The most religious artifacts geroo collect are necklaces and shrines. Without exception, all geroo wear necklaces. Shrines are where geroo place the necklaces of their departed family members (or copies thereof) to represent them.
• The amount of beads a geroo has on their necklace is technically not fixed. There are still some rules surrounding it, though.
  • The exact rules and practices surrounding bead type and count will vary from local culture to local culture.
  • There are an absolute minimum of two beads on a geroo necklace, but most geroo will have a minimum of three.
  • Male geroo wear fewer beads than female geroo. What "fewer" means can vary depending on local culture, but this roughly translates to five or fewer for males and seven or more for females. This is fully relative, however; a geroo culture might have a custom of lots of beads, and so males could have 15 or less and females 20 or more, or some other designation. Another culture may overlap and males would have seven or less and females five or more. Still others may have no fixed numbers and operate solely on vibes (though it'll usually still settle on a "normal" range)
    • However, this is also only a general rule; there is no law stating that males or females must have any designated number; it only feels more masculine or feminine to have fewer or more beads.
    • Androgynous or gender ambiguous geroo will often take an amount of beads between both customary male and female numbers.
• Geroo believe in direct soul-to-soul reincarnation. The precise mechanics of this are left ambiguous--geroo may hold many different beliefs, even multiple and contradictory beliefs about what really happens to the soul after death. These may range from other species not having souls (geroo are special), to other species souls being valid (someone particularly wicked may have a krakun's soul), to souls being judged for their deeds (and sent to hells or heavens while also, somehow, being reincarnated), to souls being fixed in number (a common belief among PA employees), etc.
• Geroo exchange beads with their pairbonded mate. It is typically custom to only ever exchange one bead at a time, though geroo are not strangers to having additional partners even if they don't publicly acknowledge it.