Thor Fan, artwork by JAG-Comics

Jongwu are uplifted animal species raised as pets and companions by the Taianese for comfort and utility, they are considered non-intelligent by the Tai Pan government. They retain many of their animal features, with the addition of opposable digits and the ability to speak (sometimes roughly) human language.

• Capital: Liang (Tai Pan)
• Major Populations: Empire of Tai Pan
• Minor Populations: The Interstellar Alliance

Jongwu are often grown per client order and specifically tailored to be a companion, a few are created as mascots and tool fetchers for work gangs and ships, and others may be experiments in order to further the species by their scientist creators.

• Household Companion: A simple, cozy existence living in someone's house, probably you played video games all day waiting for them to return or entertained in the local korto with Taianese children and apprentices.
• Mascot: Made for a ship or a team of workers, you probably spent much of your days running around picking things up and generally making yourself useful while occasionally appearing in photos.
• Test Case: There’s something a little different about you, perhaps a little larger, a little smarter. You were made to progress the Jongwu species, someone had something in mind for you. Perhaps to places even your creators don’t know.

Jongwu come in a myriad of varieties and types, but retain mean features from their animal ancestors, fur, coloration, tails, paws, and claws. They are most often based on animals from old Earth, being a place of Taianese yore, but some owners may find the appeal of native fauna to be a more suitable addition to their household. Some Jongwu may even be semi-biped, able to walk on two or four legs with equal dexterity, to even more closely resemble a traditional pet. By design, Jongwu always have the opposable thumbs, the ability to eat human food, and specifically for human medicine to work roughly similarly on their bodies.

They’re intelligent enough to speak, even if their mouths sometimes make that difficult, and they often still possess excellent sight, smell, or other features of their animal progenitor.

Many popular types of Jongwu include:

• Dogs (including fictional breeds)
• Cats (But not the big kinds)
• Foxes (various)
• Badgers (various)

All Jongwu are made quite small in stature, between 3’ and 5’ tall, and many live as long as 80 years or more easily. They are born fully grown and have full neural stimulation and education while being grown in their artificial wombs.

The eyes of a Jongwu retain their animalistic qualities, from different colours of iris to shapes of pupils. Dogs and cats eyes are common, goat and other unique eyes are also available for the owner who might fancy such on their jongwu of choice.

Despite their initial animal shape, Jongwu have been crafted to be able to stand bipedal freely and make full use of most human-sized utensils and appliances with opposable digits. Many changes in morphology have had to take place to allow this level of arthropodization. Part of this has required Jongwu muscles to be supremely flexible in what roles, and their tendons to far more stretchy than regular humanoids.

Jongwu are of course designed to survive in most human compatible environments, but due to their fur tend to prefer the air conditioning to be on. Despite their animal roots, Jongwu do have the ability to sweat like a human for improved thermal regulation as an emergency. Having paws also makes finding suitable footwear challenging, so broken terrain and other things that might make stepping uncomfortable are generally to be avoided.

Jongwu are created fully grown and remain in an adult state for roughly sixty years before declining. Jongwu die similarly to Taianese, they feel a sense of impending doom months before passing away peacefully in their sleep.

Jongwu culture is a underground sub-culture of Tai Pan, spread through online communications and clandestine means. It features dark humor and illegal slang to make words easier for animalistic mouths to vocalize. The Tai Pan state itself does not view the Jongwu to be sapient or citizens and so overlooks many of these transgressions in language.

Because of the Jongwu's unique physiology clothing often has to be custom made for them, making them very expensive to buy clothes for regularly. Jongwu tend to prefer clothes that look very covering to fit better into public, but are made from light and airy materials to stop them overheating.

Jongwu were designed to be able to speak all human languages, including basic Trade, Kantongo, and others, however they do retain some vocalizations from their animal past and are able to make barks, purrs, and other noises impossible to humans.

Being regarded as pets in the Tai Pan Empire, many Jongwu have simple, singular names if not adopted directly by the household that commissions them. Although some will take on a new name if they live in other empires.

Jongwu commonly face issues using some routine items, but they're clever enough to find creative solutions and create complicated devices to assist them.

The first Jongwu was genetically an ordinary rabbit augmented to share its sensory and neurological data to a basic intelligence, her name was Espela and she managed to live for nine months communicating her needs and wants to the scientists in the lab. She was euthanized when the animal-machine interface began to break down. However she laid the ground work for continuing work, first for worker rats and other small animals the colony ship had onboard to be used as scouts and basic maintenance monitors throughout the aging vessel to exploding into civilian adoption after the arrival at Liang.

Lifespans continue to grow longer and Jongwu are fully communicative and expressive. However, for strictly political reasons the Tai Pan Empire refuses to offer citizen options to Jongwu, requiring them to have a register household owner and guardian. Some Jongwu are employed in household businesses, but due to the Taianese considering them as pets, their employment and safety are under strict conditions.

In an interesting note, the killing of a jongwu can have higher legal penalties than the death of a Taianese citizen in some circumstances.

Jimmy's Notes: This version fixes up the species page, but scales them back to basically Fido being able to tell you he feels sick and informing you what he ate before spewing on your carpet. While probably playable with a bit more work, the basics are there for the interested party.

1. Thor Fan, artwork by JAG-Comics, commissioned by Mike.