Okay. I have not been paying attention to Starfinder 2e, but apparently it is actually up and running, and several books are now out. Including one called the Starfinder Galaxy Guide, which brings my beloved sarcesians back as a playable ancestry.
And. Look. I love them. With all my heart and soul. I love my spindly grey space giants so much. So I had a quick look on Archives of Nethys to see what we’re working with in 2e.
From a standing start, this paragraph from their opening description owns my heart:
Sarcesians can survive in space by suspending their respiration and shielding their bodies from the dangers of the void. They manifest a pair of butterfly-like wings made of pure energy that function as solar sails. The sight of a sarcesian in flight is magnificent, and the first dwarven and ysoki miners who met them described encounters with “void angels”.
That last sentence there is the romance of the Diaspora in a single sentence. This shattered realm of asteroids and creche worlds and magic rivers, born from the destruction of two worlds, where the native void angels greeting exploring dwarven miners and ratfolk salvagers. Bonus space pirates and robot underground railroads to be added later. Heh. I love it, my favourite part of the Pact Worlds by a wide margin.
And then we get sarcesian heritages, and we’ve already got the Asteroid Hopper sarcesian, which is immediately my first character, because if I’m playing a sarcesian I’m playing a spacer sarcesian. What’s the point of being able to breathe and fly in the vast vacuum of space if you’re not going to? I’m out here to hang around in space with my glowing void wings and wave in space station windows at people.
And. Speaking of the glowing wings. They get some feats involving the glowing wings. Including the ability to use them in atmosphere. And make them glow really brightly. And also just ignore fall damage, though that’s not directly connected to the wings themselves, and more a sarcesian’s general ability to ride solar and other energy.
Asteroid hopper sarcesians also get a later ability to just live out in vacuum permanently if needed.
I love them. I’m gonna make an asteroid hermit sarcesian. Or a long haul spacer. Just a general theme of hardy space-living asshole who tries to avoid going planetside as much as reasonably possible. It’s noisy down there. How do you all live like that? Come out here where it’s quiet!
Speaking of which. Sarcesians, unlike pretty much every other ancestry that I can see, get a native sign language for free (signed sarcesian), which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Yes, they have the creche worlds, but they also spend a significant amount of time in vacuum. Where there is no sound. While suspending their respiration. So naturally they need a non-sound-based language for use out there. That’s a tiny little detail that somebody put some thought into, and I love it. Sarcesians explicitly get a sign language as a native tongue.
Also. Sidenote. This is just because Diaspora, I love it here. Looking at the 2e ysoki entry. They get this little sentence:
Ysoki often work as junkers, long-haul starship crew members, or mechanics squeezing through cramped station corridors, so sure of their own worth that living and working in subpar conditions is often a source of pride rather than shame.
I love it out here. Asteroid belt, long-haul spacers, tough assholes who don’t take any shit. My absolute favourite Pact World.
I might need to look at some of these books for my New Year’s Christmas present to myself …
