Yans are interesting creatures. They come in many different sizes, but in three major ones: small medium, and large. They travel in groups, and therefore when you encounter a yan (the correct term however is "some yans"), you always ask "how many?"

Because the yans are such a group oriented people, they have their own set of interesting customs. Their togetherness promotes both building up and tearing down that any culture has. They like to build up bases, and fortresses so they can settle their differences with each other, in a more organized manner.

When they are not building things or at war, they have many sports activities that they participate in.

Yans are very interesting creatures, and it has been said many times that yans are Good friends, and bad enemies.

Small yans are perhaps the most common kind found. They range from 1 inch to 4 inches tall, and travel in large groups of 1000 or more.

You will very rarely see small groups of small yans, the smallest group ever reported to be seen, was a group of 6 2-inch yans fleeing for their lives in a forest.

Medium yans are somewhat common when one encounters a group of yans. They range from 4 to 10 inches tall, and travel in medium-sized groups of 100 or more.

Medium yans are the most industrious of the three sizes of yans. They are known throughout the yan community for their large sprawling bases, and other structures that they build.

You will seldom see small groups of medium sized yans. The smallest group of medium sized yans ever reported was a group of 5 3-inch yans fleeing for their life into a small animals hole.

Large yans are not found very often, and when one does find a group of them, it will usually be a small one. Large yans are the most powerful off the three categories of yans. Large yans seldom build buildings like the medium yans build. They are more of a traveling kind. When they do settle down, they will live in caves, and other peoples houses (when they can run them out).

Large yans have one of the worst tempers as compared to the other yans. And when they get mad, they can do lots of damage to the offending thing or being. The large yans most powerful weapon is his good old fashioned right hook.

The largest large yan reported was measured at 3 feet tall and weighed 257 pounds. He had a following of 150,000 large yans ranging from 1 to 3 feet tall.

This brings up the subject of the structure of the yans.

Yans are shaped like a ordinary hand with five fingers and a thumb. Their "forefinger" is where their eyes, nose, brain, and all other things are located that would be in any other person's head. This is called the 'face'.

Their "thumb" is called their 'strong foot', and is the source of their "right hook" An average right hook from a large yan will pack about 500 to 600 pounds of force into an area about 1 inch across. Thus anyone on the receiving end of one of these will wind up with broken limbs or broken armor, if they happen to be wearing any.

The customs of the yans is a very involved subject.

Of all the things that yans do, the thing they do best, and seldom like to do is war. When a group of yans has for mobilizing for war, it is a very fast and furious operation. The leader of the group will confer with his top officials, and spies to decide on what kind of tactics to use on the enemy, if there is any time. If there is no time to confer on tactics, the leader will choose something at random and have his men go at the enemy.

Suprisingly, of all the best laid battle plans, this sometimes works the best. Of all the weapons that yans have, probably the most effective one, is the swarm.

Yans do many, many things in what little spare time they have.

They like hiking, mountain climbing, or just a simple walk in the woods to recover frome one of their many contests, or the walk could be to organize ones thoughts wile during one of their many experiments.

Yans are great travelers. They like to take expeditions. Particulary when they are done building things, so they can either get away from a failed attempt, or to show off a success.

Yans will seldom run from anything, and most of the time they stay and gape when they should be running. However, when they do run, they run. The average estimated speed for a fleeing yan is about 60 miles an hour. Some will go faster, and some will go slower. The fastest fleeing speed is held by a 6 3/4 inch yan who has been clocked at speeds up to 150 miles an hour.

Based on this, the reports of seeing small groups of yans fleeing for their lives looses some of its credibility.

Yans are a very group oriented people, they travel in groups ranging in size from 2 to the largest group reported being estimated at 16 quadrillion 1-inch yans.

Each group has a leader. The leaders have complete control over the group, and are dressed in red to distinguish them from the other yans.

Because the yans do not keep track of the exact numbers of their larger groups, the large figures given, are only estimates.

The estimates, are fairly accurate, because the numbers are expressed in layers, and each leader has an unchanging standard only that leader uses.

Layers can be anywhere from 100 to several million depending on the size of the group. For traveling purposes, the yans will stack themselves in layers when they move, because it makes maneuvering through tight places easier.

The leader of the group is the personality of the group. Whatever the leader says, the group will do, and no leader has ever been known to be a dictator.

Leaders usually are distinguished by a red uniform, armband, or other red coloring.

Anything, or anyone unwise enough to attack, or attempt to harm the leader of a group of yans will find himself with an extremely upset, mad, angry, and peeved set of yans looking to put his head on a stake.

A leader of a group weather it be 15 billion strong or simply two large yans, is truly the personality of the group. The leaders communicate with their groups to tell them what to do. Since no one can talk loud enough to be heard by billions of beings (especially during a war), theory has it that the leader of the group is telepathic. This is an interesting theory but it has some problems. What about when two groups of yans are together, and each leader wants to give a different set of instructions? If the leaders were telepathic, their thoughts would get mixed up when there is more than one group present.

Theory has it that the leader of a group is "tuned" to the rest of the members in his group, and can communicate with them, and them only. This theory works except for the annoying fact that leaders can communicate with each other when they want to.

Another interesting fact is that they can also sneak up on other groups undetected by the opposing leader.

There is still a lot of research to be done on this subject, but progress is being made.

Any person who has control over a leader, has control over the whole group. The group will allow anyone to talk to their leader, but any hostile action (ie. Assignation) will mean trouble that is proportion to the size of the group. The ultimate friend, is the leader of a large group.

Being in the shape of a hand, yans are already setup to get around quite well, and because of this, they tend to like to go climbing on sheer clifs, or sometimes just some extreemly rough terrain.

Mountian Climbining can be just one of the many expeditions

from a walk in the woods to a month long expedition across the Himilyias

A group of yans going Mountian Climbinb on a long expedition, can be a site to see, when they are all loaded down with their ropes, packs, camping gear, food, and other things yans like to pack with them. Sometimes the pack will end up being bigger than the yan thats carrying it. This has the annoying tendency to make the yan top heavy, and prone to turning turtle wile going up a steep hill, or after stumbling on a loose rock. After a few of these experiances, the yan will reorganize his pack so he is not so top heavy. New yans out on a Mountian Climbing expedition, can be quite entertaining when they are stoping to right each other, as the one doing the righting more often than not ends up tipping over himself. This process can continue, until they are all turned turtle, or until one yan has figured out how not to tip over, and he rights everyone else.

Not done yet.

make an expedition out of it.

Not done yet. (they haven't even started).

You name it, and you can probably find a yan to build it.

Every yan is a mad scientist at heart.