The Zermans are a Xenohuman 🖖 race of Sentient 🧠 humanoids possessing characteristics similar to other mammals, such as fur, claws and long canines. Primarily dwelling within the boreal forests and alpine valleys of the northern Great Dividing Range, these peoples eluded the gaze of human civilisation for millennia. Before their integration to colonial society following the arrival of the British Empire, the Zermans existed as a whispered legend, an elusive nation which survived as spies, black-market smugglers, and assassins. Their biology sparked one of the 19th century’s most heated academic debates: if human status is defined by reason rather than strictly by the Homo sapiens genome, then the Zerman, despite their distinct feline or canine anatomical markers, must be considered a Citizen. Today, the Oceanykan Constitution codifies this by granting them "Xenohuman 🖖" status, a legal equality shared with the Ferozen, though social integration remains subject to strong regional prejudices and lingering anti-Zerman sentiment.
These peoples possess an ancestral, generational trauma under the Dow. Long before the first Aboriginal tribes cultivated the plains, the Do-Kharak, an empire of subterranean master engineers, claimed the mountains. The Zermans, whose homelands lay at the intersection of Dow and Aboriginal territories, were systematically enslaved by these mountain-dwellers. For centuries, they were treated as industrial animals, bred and broken to fuel the Dow’s massive foundries and mega-projects. It was only during the chaos of the Ferozen Invasion and the Darktide from The Underdown that the Zermans seized their moment. In a bloody war of annihilation, they overthrew their masters, eventually driving the Dow into the lightless depths of the earth and migrating north to the relatively untouched valleys they call home today.
While the Federation’s census counts roughly 1,200,000 Zermans, they are far from a monolithic group. Their society is divided into distinct sub-races, each with specialized biological traits. The two major groups are the Kukkurah, commonly called dogmen, and the Marjaraah, commonly called catmen, due to their phenotypical traits which resemble those of certain domestic animals. Despite most of Oceanyka being extremely racist towards Zermans, they possess a slice of heaven under the Zermanic Republic, an idyllic and free state dedicated towards safeguarding these ancient peoples and their heritage, but which lacks any apartheid systems of its own.