THE DROYNE

Rules are made to be broken. Scientists and academicians produced the term major race to describe any intelligent race that independently discovered and implemented the principles of the jump drive. Politicians and bureaucrats (specifically those of races which had developed jump drive) made the term widespread, using it as de facto evidence that major races were superior to minor races. Since jump drive technology gave the major races an obvious and powerful advantage, the minor races found it difficult to dispute the lassification. Thus it came as a shock when researchers found (and proved) that the Droyne were a major race. The Droyne seem to have none of the drive that characterizes a major race; they seam content to live placid lives on pastoral planets; by all appearances, they are a minor race. But the fact remains that they have jump drive, and they have had jump drives longer than any other race, including the Vilani. When the Droyne were discovered and identified, a basic scientific and political definition was destroyed.

The Droyne are an intelligent major race inhabiting scattered worlds thoughout explored space. They are winged, intelligent omnivore/gatherers originally evolved on a world whose location is unknown. Physiological details of the Droyne suggest that their homeworld was a low gravity world with a dense atmosphere (both necessary to make their wings functional). Droyne are differentiated into six castes which are determined at adolescence (approximately 14 standard years of age). The ceremony appears to be a social one, but it sets into motion a true genetic maturation which locks the individual into a specific caste and produces physical and mental characteristics typical of the caste. The six Droyne castes are: worker, warrior, drone, technician, sport, and leader.

Although the Droyne homeworld is no longer known, scientists, historians arid other scholars have established a few facts and a large number of theories concerning the nature of that world. The location of the world is, of course, unknown, but it is believed to have been in the Spinward Marches, Deneb Sector or the Trojan Reaches, these being the regions in which the largest number of Droyne worlds and Ancients sites have been discovered. Casual observers call the Droyne homeworld Droynia; more properly, it is Eskayloyt (meaning Lost Home); this name appears independently in myths and legends on Andor, Zeen and Auitawry, three scattered Droyne worlds, and is accepted by the majority of scientists researching Droyne origins.

The evolution of the Droyne from their proto-Droyne ancestors took millions of years. The evolution of their present caste structure, to include such a specialized caste as technician, means that they have had intelligence for hundreds of thousands of years. Yet, over those hundreds of thousands of years, the Droyne (except for the brief Ancient period) were apparently content to remain on their homeworld. There is no evidence that they left it using sublight drives; there is no evidence that they pursued anything other than a simple life on their homeworld raising enough food to feed themselves; mining metals to meet their basic needs; content to remain as they were.

The Droyne use psionics as a natural part of their lives. Sufficiently talented youths receive training as a part of their elementary schooling; individuals who show talent during their later lives receive training then. Nothing comparable to the human Psionics Institute exists among the Droyne; they are open about their talents and automatically train all those who have a reason to be trained. A certain amount of concealment of psionic powers from Imperial society has been necessary, due to the nature of anti-psionic prejudice in the Imperium.