Pe Choi

Pe Choi are in insectoid race in M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel science fantasy world. See Pe Choi. Non-humans in Tekumel really are non-human and strange - other fanstasy games just have variant humans.

Languages

The Pe Choi have three different languages. Chakan Pe Choi is spoken by Pe Choi from all over Tsolyanu and in the more settled parts of the Do Chaka countryside (with a 'rustic' accent), Western Pe Choi is spoken in Mu'ugalavya and Old Pe Choi is limited to those isolationist tribes living in the depths of the Do Chakan forest. These langauges have been diverging for at least two and half thousand years and are no more mutally intelligible than Romanian and Spanish.

Pe Choi Expressions

Since the Pe Choi face is entirely covered in chitin it is often difficult to tell what a Pe Choi is thinking or feeling. Urban Pe Choi have different facial expressions to others of their species as they make some attempt to communicate to humans. Thus a Pe Choi equivalent of a smile is a particular waggle of the ear flaps, though urban Pe Choi will open their mouths to some extent as well to let humans know they are happy, and make some clicking noises. The same mouth opening also applies to boredom, surprise and disgust and some humans therefore think Pe Choi are inscrutable, taking the mickey or have a very odd sense of humour.

Pe Choi and Pachi Lei

These two species mostly get on OK; both have quasi-telepathic powers which help communication and the Pe Choi can do a reasonable job of speaking the Pachi Lei language. However both also prefer forested areas and though the forests of Do Chaka and Pan Chaka are different (each species has encouraged the growth of plants from their own original homeworld in their own part of the jungle) they are competing for territory, and there may have been war between them at some point in the past.

Pe Choi Anatomy

The Pe Choi are NOT insects as we know them on Earth, they are aliens who happen to have a chitin-like outer covering. It is not even an exoskeleton as such, the Pe Choi have internal bones and joints and the plates of the exoskeleton do not articulate like a suit of armour as Earth insects do. This also means they do not have to moult; the plates of chitin grow at the ends in a similar way to bones and have active cells embedded that enable the plate to be partially reabsorbed and laid down again to resculpt the shape and to compenstae for wear and tear, again in a similar way to growing bone. The Pe Choi jaw has especially substantial bone reinforcement and their teeth are socketed enamel structures very similar to an Earth mammal's. (Author's note: I know all this is biology nerd stuff, but I feel it makes it easier to suspend disbelief if you make the science at least a little bit plausible.)