Species Descriptions

[TheShadow]

Several of you have mentioned listing off the details of various species throughout the Galaxy, and I will admit, I am interested to see what you come up with, so I've decided to give you a space to do so. Enjoy.

[unseenshadow2]

Tylo (If something is not mentioned here, please look at the species description in Solactu's cs. If you have any questions not mentioned in said cs, please send me a pm and I will answer to the best of my ability.)

The Devourer Phase:
For three millennia, directly after leaving their home system, the tylo were destroyers and monsters feared by all who knew of them. They would attack entire solar systems, taking every recourse they can, including other races' technology, and upgrading their fleets. The attacks that the tylo occastrated at this time were similar to a solar system sized blitzkrieg warfare.

The Devourer Phase ended a single millennia ago, when several tylo philosophers came up with the concept that every species, due to unique evolutionary paths, has the ability to create technologies in ways that no other species can. This philosophy also contained an equation that predicted the potential usable technologies based off of the number of species allied with the tylo and the number of years they remain allies. When most tylo saw the formula, and calculated some of the values, they shifted their focus to gathering allies rather than destroying and pillaging. This change pacified the entire race within the course of a single year.

The Neutrality Phase:
This is the current phase that the tylo are in. While they have made amends for their predecessors' sins, they do not hide the facts. The time that the tylo took just to escape the hate and fear of the Devourer Phase was long and strenuous. However, the tylo are still not in the perfect diplomatic position.

Technically, the tylo are allies with every race, and have not fired off a single shot into another species. The tylo's connection to any specific race or faction varies from world to world. The other races, however, still have a certain level of distrust for the tylo. Not because they fear an attack, as that would make absolutely no sense, but because the tylo are known to trade technologies among other races rather openly. This willingness to trade technology has led several races to keep the tylo at civilian level technologies to prevent the race from trading off the newest military tech.

The vast majority of the tylo's fleet is trading vessels, moving cargo from one place to another, and factories that produce any number of high tech goods. In the background, the tylo have been keeping the fleet from the Devourer Phase up to date, as well as constantly adding more ships to said fleet, most commonly by purchasing decommissioned military vessels or scavenging battles. The tylo have not hidden the fact that this fleet exists, having activated it when several times to scare away aggression from factions who mistook the tylo for a completely passive race.

In the world of business, tylo are known for not backing down once they have a price they want, but rarely is that price not reasonable. Many businessmen try to avoid doing business with the tylo because of the fact that they will only ever accept a reasonable price, but this has also made them very popular with civilians and manufacturers. The tylo also never create a "cheap" product, always making sure that they create products of a quality that they feel is reliable, adding on to why many civilians buy from tylo shops when they can.

Military:
When they believe that they are being threatened, the tylo will activate the Devourer Fleet. This massive fleet of ships that date all they way back to the Devourer Phase is constantly kept up to day, and added on to at a rather constant rate. The main tactic of said fleet is to storm system, taking planets by the day through surprise and size. In space combat, tylo ships offer nearly every strategy and role known to the other races, often focusing on speed and reaction timing compared to their counterparts.

When planetary combat is a necessity, the tylo will deploy massive armies of mechanized troops with automated drones to further increase their size and firepower. They then drop from ships and attack with a Scorched Earth mentality, destroying anything that is not tylo. However, the tylo rarely deploy all of their ground forces at once, preferring to send in scout drones to determine the most effective load-outs for the rest of the army.

While the tactics listed above have not been used for a millennia, they are still kept from the days when the tylo conquered all they could find, ready to be deployed at a moment's notice.

[Duct Tape]

THE SAN’I RACE

Planet: Sanus (Sah-Nuh-Es)
Race: San’i (Sah-Nee)


The Creation

The creators of the San’i are known by the same name, they were one of the most scientifically advanced species in the known galaxy but it wasn't until a threat to their livelihood resulted in the mass production of clones. A devouring virus had struck their planet and had slowly begun killing them off at an extraordinary rate. Where half of their scientific manpower went into destroying the virus, the other half went on to preserving the population if no cure was discovered.
The first thing that was done was the collecting of DNA of highly respected and high ranking officials, some of which still have their DNA in the cycling gene pool. Where at first it started off with the simple act of collecting and preserving the DNA, it turned into replicating and altering.
The beginning of the cloning process was mostly miserable attempts at success. The scientists working on it had been cloning them into fully grown adults, a horrible calculation as they only ever lasted no longer than an hour before they began to breakdown. Something in the cloning process was not allowing the clone to fully develop, which resulted in its death. After several failed attempts they finally started making the clones using pods originally used for plants and other organic matter. This new process resulted in the slow, yet successful, growth from an embryo into a full grown and healthy adult. Although these clones took longer to become mature, they were much more durable even though they still had their problems. Most significantly their immune system.
The virus was introduced to the clones at a molecular level in the growing process which resulted in the cure. It took eight months before the cure was made and by this time only a third of the population remained. The virus spread like wildfire.

The Cloning Process

In a closed off and restricted area on Sanus lies countless, windowless buildings. All civilians are strictly prohibited from entering the building without proper authorization and failure to do so may result in life threatening situations. Within each building lies hundreds of thousands of life pods. Within each pod is strictly sorted, and crafted embryos made for a specific reason. Over the years this process has been tweaked to form twins. Much like being related with the original San'i there is a psychological link that is, unlike the originals, an incredibly strong and vital part of the San'i life. Though depending on the section they are being crafted in it may or may not be less likely to take much affect.
The original San'i can live to be five hundred, a San'i clone may also be able to live that long but it is highly unlikely. The act of the aging process wares heavily on them as the years go by and results in an average lifespan of two hundred. The supplements that the clones must take also have an expiration date. The older they become the less effective the supplements are.

Phase One - Sorting
The sorting process takes random genes while nullifying unnecessary ones and at the same time amplifying the ones deemed important. These vary regarding the container as expected.

Phase Two - Learning
The clones are now in their learning phases. They are know fully aware of what they are and are starting to develop skills and information that is being filtered into each pod, this makes it so they learn all of the simple information to function in the galaxy. Such as Languages, Maths, Sciences, History and any other thing found important.

Phase Three - Specialization
By now the clones are nearly fully grown and can start learning their designated jobs along. For example if one was a soldier, they would start learning about combat tactics, build their weapon handling skills, hand to hand combat, etc.

Phase Four - Hands on
They are now fully grown and out of the pods and on their way to the testing grounds. This is where they will be given several different objectives and they are to solve it showing what they have learned.

Any San'i that looses their pair may suffer from frequent headaches, seizures, full body shut downs, black outs and uncontrollable outbursts. They are a detriment to society and are a risk that should not be taken lightly. Any San'i without a pair should be brought to judgement by the Higher Council of Sanus.

[Raidose]

The Torronax

Physical description: The Torronax are omni-pedal insectoids renowned for their massive size, strength, and durability. They can stand straight up at around 10-11 feet tall and can weigh in at just about a ton and a half. They have both an exo and endo skeleton, which explains their excessive weight and fortitude. The most defining feature of the Torronax, their bodies are armored head to toe in thick chitin plates, which range in color from dark browns and reds to greys and black. Their elongated heads are generally quite smooth-topped, some even being reflective, with ridges running along both sides. Their faces are rather intimidating for many reasons, appearing eyeless and bestial, with large, glassy teeth (made up entirely of incisors and canines, and completely devoid of molars) being a clear sign of carnivorous diet. Two large, round mandibles with flattened, hammer-like tips are used to crush bone and soft rock to fulfill their secondary need for calcium, which is extremely vital for them. Twin, slime-covered tendrils often extend from their fleshy sheaths in each corner of their bottom jaw for the purpose of tasting and cleaning their more delicate areas, serving as a tongue.

They breath through a series of armored gills on their back, which act like filters for the many toxic fumes and vapors that often permeate in their tunnels. These gills allow the Torronax to thrive in nearly any toxic environment, even making them highly resistant to most types of gas-based weaponry. However, some mercenaries have noted that a grenade wedged into these gills can dispatch of one of these great monsters in no time flat. Their native language is heard often masked and made incomprehensible over a series of hisses, chitters, trills, growls, and clacking of these mandibles, which sounds like hitting two rocks together. Through the use of translators, this language is made more audible to outsiders, and had made the Torronax capable of speaking other languages, but doing so often comes through in hisses and breathy rasps.

While at first glance the Torronax appear to be eyeless, they in fact have a row off narrow compact eyes on each side of their head, which are protected by a retractable piece of chitin which acts as one big eye lid, a protective visor, and a light dampener for bright environments. Their eyes are naturally geared to be very adjustable to light and darkness, but the sudden threat of solar flares or magma bursts would potentially blind them if it were not for this protective "lid-cap". Most of them keep it closed over their eyes in normal lighting, letting their eyes adjust slowly. Darkness, however, requires that they reveal this vulnerability. Thanks to a few mercenary bands, there is a little known fact that their skin underneath this lid-cap is soft, and a well placed solid-slug proectile would travel all the way to their frontal lobe, killing them instantly. To this effect, opening ones "face chitin" to another is considered a great sign of trust.

As mentioned earlier, it is their chitin armor that the Torronax are most infamous for. This exoskeleton serves to protect the Torronax from nearly any harsh environment, acting as an insulator against extreme temperatures. This shell forms during their adolescence, and the more harsh their environment during that time, the more durable it becomes. As such, it is a ritual among the Torronax to send their young into the harsh acid rains and volcanic storms of their home world's surface to better harden their shells later in life. While this ritual has an extremely high fatality rate, it is also why nearly every Torronax is an incredibly formidable adversary. This carapace slowly carbonizes with age, reaching strengths that can easily stop high caliber armor-piercing ammunition and is even reported to allow light contact with liquid magma. Many Torronax' shells even have a layer of rock formations on their shells due to lava-spray. This is why natives of their home world, Tarr'n, are referred to as "Stone Skins", while those who break tradition are mocked as "Soft Shells".

Their arms are predominately large and well armored, with two fingers and a thumb-based digit on each side of the hand. These digits end in hardened chitin that acts like digging claws. With their large hands serving as shovels, they are incredible burrowers capable of going through Earth and rock at a surprising rate. Within the rocky caverns of their ant-like homes, they are even exceptional climbers, given that their footing can support their weight. Keen observers may notice two small claws which poke out from their wrists. These are actually their retracted "feelers". These "feelers" are actually two extra extendable appendages on each hand, which range at about 9-13 inches long, can retract into their underarm for protection (the tips usually just visible), and are both very flexible and dexterous. The Torronax use these extra appendages to work on small detail and for courtship ceremonies, with their tips covered in spiny hairs that both grant them great sensitivity and allow them to adhere to tiny objects like spider legs. These are the only reason Torronax have weapons and technology at all, otherwise their large, clumsy claws would render them as a tribalistic hunter-gatherer race forever. Touching another on the facial area with one of these feelers is often a sign of caring or concern (similar to a mother using her wrist to check her child's temperature), or a sign of affection akin to a kiss on the cheek.

Their digitigrade legs are large and equally strong, capable of allowing them full-bipedal movement and giving them great leaping abilities. Their long, powerful strides grant them exceptional speed for short periods of time, often surprising most that such are large and heavy creature can move so quickly. This is tiresome for them, however. They often find it much more stable and comfortable to run with the added assistance of one of their long arms, much like an ape. Their two-toed feet are able to hold their weight even when hanging from the roof of one of their cave systems, once again provided that the roof itself can hold them.

They have a long, serpentine tail that ends in two rows of barbed spikes, which are extremely difficult to remove from flesh. These spikes can be shot by a combination of internal muscle contractions and a powerful whip of their tail, sending them as lethal weapons over quite a sizable distance, and is as powerful as it is inaccurate. Really, this attack is more of a defensive tactic to discourage predators that anything. These spikes range from 7 to 13 inches long, and take over a week S.E.T. (Standard-Earth-Time) to regrow once used. The tail itself is still powerful enough to brutally beat an enemy to death on it's own, which often means that Torronax don't hold back on the expenditure of their quills.

They have exceptionally long life spans. So great, in fact, that there is a persistent rumor of elders amongst their race who's shells have fossilized from age. While that validity of this claim is unfounded, it is known that they can live in excess of a thousand years or more.

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Culture: (Planning to add more) Currently split between the "Stone Skin" tribals, who live off the land, and those who are trying to organize their race into some greater Galactic Presence. This effort suffers from multiple major drawbacks. They are naturally xenophobic towards other sentient races, thanks to an invasion attempt by some unknown race in their distant past. Their bestial appearance hampers this as well, as it led to them being mistaken for animals when first encountered by the explorers from the federation. Severe economical issues from their race being mostly independent and other species being unable to use their wares cripple their attempts at industry. The continually raises issues with the Stone Skins, who claim they break customs in doing this and fear a return of the "Sky Devils" their ancestors warned them of. The economy has been the major back-breaker, though, as most Torronax are Stone Skins, and have little need for dependency from any form of market. As a race, they are extremely few in numbers, which leads them to build tight bonds with family and clan, and only furthers their distrust of outsiders.

The Torronax only have a few things they can offer other races, mostly being weapons and armors. Both of which, while powerful and utilizing unique and replenishable munitions, are extremely costly and must be modified to other species. While they struggle with failing economic stability, the vast majority of Torronax are extremely fearful to let other species on their home world. Sadly in recent years, their first encounter with an outside race beyond the ancient "Sky Devils", were the Caesarian Bri, an infamously greedy and business-like species who dominate a vast Galactic empire, spanning several sectors. The Bri are currently blackballing all attempts for the Torronax to move their goods and mineral ores off-world, in a viciously effective power play for the mineral and mining rights of their home world. To this effect, the Coaltion has tried desperately to reach out to other races, thankfully reaching the Federation's ears in the last decade.

Currently, there are only two known outposts off-world owned by the Torronax. Having discovered that their evolution has enabled them to thrive in nearly any environment, even frigid arctic temperatures or poisonous atmospheres, these Torronax have begun to colonize other hazardous planets that simply no other species wants.

A bit of social information: While differentiating genders amongst the Torronax based on appearance is extremely difficult, it is actually quite simple to tell females from males by their names. All male Torronax have the prefix " 's " as their middle name, whereas females have " 'n ".
Example: Raas 's Gr'sk would be a male, and Nxa 'n S'ka would be female.

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Homeworld: Tarr'n, which is a volcanic and barely inhabitable hell hole. The entire planet consists of volcanic mountains, obsidian-covered plains, desert badlands, and caustic seas. The only source of usable drinking water lies underground, where the Earth has filtered out the acidity of the oceans. Colossal fauna with hides as dense as ship hulls roam the barren wastes freely, both carnivore and herbivore alike. The wildlife alone causes existence here to be in constant strife. The planet is victim to solar flares, acid rain, and ash storms on a weekly basis, and yet the Torronax thrive here. Okay, nothing really "thrives" on Tarr'n.

Tarr'n is mainly comprised of three major continents set in the Northern equator. The Southern half of the planet is simply made of constantly reforming archipelagos caused by hundreds of underwater volcanoes. Tarr'n is roughly three times the size of Earth, but only the largest land mass of Ta'as is inhabited. Ta'as extends from the equator all the way to the Northern Pole, and is home to all Torronax tribes, Clans, and the Coalition itself. Being as the race is so small in numbers, they've never felt the need to expand upon their own planet, and only recently has the CoU begun mining operations and patrols of these other two continents. Life there is much harsher with less access to fresh water and the largest varieties of local fauna being highly territorial.

Federation scientists have questioned why exactly Tarr'n seems so unstable, and the answer is actually that Tarr'n is only a quarter the age of Earth. Simply put, the planet is incomplete and still forming. This explains the rather prehistoric appearance of the Torronax, as they are literally dinosaurs in comparison. A million years from now, the race may evolve into a drastically different direction, dependent entirely on what the final state of their world turns out to be. That is to say if the species hasn't already gone the way of the dinosaurs...

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Current Events: A small civil war has started between the Stone Skin tribals of the outer wastes and the somewhat civilized contingent, the Coalition of Unification, led by the Prime Ordinator. The Stone Skins are deep set in their distress of anything beyond the acidic clouds of Tarr'n, recounting ancient tales of beings from the sky whom they once were nearly enslaved by as warnings against placing trust in the other species of the Galaxy. The Coalition of Unification has been combating their own ingrained xenophobic natures in an attempt to expand as a species, seeking to build diplomatic ties and prove their civility in an attempt to recover and thrive. One side claims that tribalism will be their damnation, while the other fights to uphold the traditions which made them strong.

Both sides point fingers and utter swears at each other's name on an hourly basis. The Coalition's most recent "blasphemy" was the defiling of the great underground sea of Ssaak'Hanuu, building a plumbing system which piped the fresh water directly into the Coalitions shielded community, and most importantly the newly-erected Embassies within. The Stone Skins are not sinless either, as a long standing truce between the Four Great Family Clans has ended and their savage war has thinned the Torronax' numbers greatly. One side is always demonizing the other and planning some sort of retaliation. Embassies and public areas have been defaced and demolished, while off-world officials have threatened and even openly attacked. On the other side of the coin, riot squads have been formed by the Coalition to forcibly control and/or disarm tribes of Stone Skins while suppressing the rising hostilities in the badlands.

The greatest upset has been with the Great Family Clan of the Nssk'Aani begrudgingly taking sides with the Prime Ordinator in an attempt to, as the Clan High Elder put it, "end the useless stupidity". While the great Elder did this to promote the idea of both looking to the future while keeping that which made them a proud people, the other three Great Family Clans have looked upon this decision as a sign of betrayal and weakness. Two of the three rival Clans have unified their efforts to war against the Nssk'Aani as a result. In one of the only successful interviews with the Torronax Stone Skins, the Nssk'Aani leader has replied to this with an amazing amount of surety. "The Nssk'Aani shall meet their attack as we have done before. It was my ancestors which first broke the backs of their warmongering leaders and began the long age of peace, and so we shall put them in their place once more."

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Military: Though it is kinda funny that a race which is feared so greatly physically is almost completely non-threatening as any sort of militaristic power,that's the case with the Torronax. Due in no small way to their lack of collectiveness and economics, they simply don't have the resources to make any more than a handful of frigate class starships. With this and the lack of space-savvy members, no one in the Galaxy fears a Torronax invasion. Defensively speaking, however, while the Torronax are in great fear of being invaded, they really shouldn't be. On their homeworld of Tarr'n, the surface is already ruined and most all the native life burrow below the surface to escape solar flares, meaning that orbital bombardment is useless. The Torronax and every other species would simply burrow so deep that only a planet cracking blast would affect them. This of course means that to defeat the Torronax, an invader would have to engage them on the ground, where every member of the species would fight to defend it's home to the death. Not too mention they have a slight advantage in infantry excursions......

Their current uniformed military is actually little more than a well-armed and trained militia force. Their ranks only consist of four positions: the "general" leading the TAF, his four "lieutenants" distributing his orders, the squad leaders those orders go to, and of course the squads themselves. They're no stranger to firefights against native and foreign forces, but they still only operating in strategic kill-teams rather than full scale assaults. They are not meant to handle all out warfare.

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Strengths: Massively strong, capable of ripping a human apart with ease and leaping over 30 feet in the air. Their muscular system runs in a manner similar to high-pressure hydraulics, with their three hearts moving their blood to bolster their muscles. This allows them a maximum lifting capacity of four to five times their own body weight. Natural weapons being the claws, the tail, the spikes, and even the teeth and mandibles. All but immune to small or even medium arms fire, with most assault-grade ammunition unable to even damage their thick shells. There are even stories of these creatures surviving shots from armored assault vehicles and later tearing them open. They are nearly entirely unaffected by extreme heat or cold, and highly resistant to radiation. Evolution in an insane environment has given them an amazing natural advantage over most species. Even their technology is powerful and durable, utilizing materials from their volcanic homeworld. Modified Torronax weapons and ships are some of the most durable (and most expensive) in the galaxy. Also, in the event of their shells cracking, their saliva, when combined with their blood, becomes a thick, gooey resin which bonds to their chitin, sealing the wound.

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Weaknesses: Aside from the aforementioned tricks with their lid-cap and gills, they are vulnerable to heavy anti-armor weapons. Some Torronax are even large enough for some light anti-vehicle weapons to lock onto them, effectively mistaking their size and extremely high core body temp for a vehicle. Also, size alone has it's own downsides. But mainly their weakness comes in the form of their failing economy. Since most Torronax are Stone Skins, they likely never grew up with any form of currency, and likely have no equipment such as weapons or armor. While they are fearsome unarmed and capable of taking on groups of basic infantry, lacking any sort of firearm leaves them as little more than brawlers, able to be put down much the same as any other big, nasty animal. They can't use the weapons, armor, or vehicles of any other species simply because their physiology will not allow it, and Torronax weapons are some of the most expensive and rare in the galaxy due to low demand and the high cost of production. Basically not only will most Torronax be unarmed, but they're likely to be stuck that way for a very long time. Their race as a whole is extremely few in numbers, with under half a billion in the entire galaxy meaning that it'll be rare if you ever see one.

Two additional weaknesses. The first being their feelers, which are connected to most of the nerves through their bodies. While the little hairs which "feel" for them do not register pain, if these appendages were damaged or severed, the pain would be crippling, leading to either unconsciousness, temporary paralysis, or even rendering them completely catatonic. The second weakness comes from their blood, which is thinner than human blood and under a great deal of pressure. Cracks in their exoskeleton usually result in an alarming spray of this translucent greenish fluid. The pressure may actually be enough to temporarily reseal the crack in the chitin, or they may try to patch it with their saliva, but in the event that the injury is too large, this can easily be fatal. Any cut acts like an artery, and if not treated will lead to massive loss of strength, fatigue, unconsciousness, and of course death.