Alternate Lines

In the near future, humanity reaches out to colonized other worlds. Several voyages set out, each with journies spanning centuries. Faster than light travel cannot be achieved, but that doesn't stop them. We know what we must do, and nothing will hold us to Earth. The settlers have their hardships however. Though every contigency was planned for, only so many supplies can be transported over such vast distances. When your redundacies are limited, you may lose them all. All of the voyages successfully made it to their destinations, but knowledge and capabilities were often lost. Settlers had to evolve quickly to their new surroundings, and had been given gene therapy to increase the rate of mutation while preventing known genetic disorders. What new types of human may have sprung up throughout the cosmos during their thousands of year on these other worlds?

This is Tyler (Ty) Ward on the left, and Torvald Oberoque on the right. Torvald often enjoys pissing Ty off by calling him Tike. The world they are on now is Torvald's home, a place almost entirely covered by jagged mountains. It's not uncommon to have to travel a couple mountain ranges to find the next meal, which is probably something just as likely to make a meal out of you.

Ty is from Earth, and is genetically a normal human. He grew up in a city, but in his teenage years he took decided he wanted to explore. He slipped out of his apartment with his telling his parents, rode the subway to the edge of the city, and hid under an automated supply truck from there until it came to a stop to recharge around a nature preserve. In the three days he was out he nearly starved and was almost eaten by wild animals twice, but it kindled a passion in him that led him to join the colony recon corps.

Torvald, as you can see, is part of a race that adapted to somewhat unforgiving conditions. He grew up in a tight nomadic family unit of hunter gathers and has personally seen two of his kin die in hunts. The fur around his neck is a symbol of his strength, as all of his kind wear. Though they may appear primative at first sight, they retain quite a bit of knowledge from Earth, their metallurgical methods being particularly refined. Their weapons are mostly for looking strong around other families. In a world of tough people, he always plays the tough guy, never admitting how nice the smell of flowers in the flatlands are, or how much he loves hotsprings. Uptight goof.

Side note: There are a few large flat areas where a smaller native race of human resides. They grow only to about 4 feet, an adaptation to survive on the resources of the small flatlands. They often engage in trade, a common exchange being fine plant-based textiles for meat and leather.