[@Willy Vereb] [u]Species Name[/u] Zchardrazi [u]Species Appearance[/u] They are reptilian bird-like with rough, dull greenish grey skin, standing at around 6'7" tall and weighing 150 pounds on average when fully grown for both men and women. They have green blood. Their body shape is lithe, with long, thin, powerful limbs. Their hands and feet look like that of an eagle's, only with five digits, and coated in a darker brown scaled armor that makes it's way off of them up to their elbows and knees. On males, the scales on their forearms fused mostly together but have room to rise up on the elbow side and rattle back and forth slightly in a characteristic noise. Both genders have this on their lower back, acting like a flat tail reaching only to the upper thigh for males or back of the knee for females. They have sharp elbows. Neither gender have breasts. They have thinner necks and heads than humans, their heads being slightly elongated forward. They have four thin eyes with slit pupils, the second pair where the temples of the forehead are. They can be various colors. Their nose and mouth goes into a stubby curved beak the color of their flesh. They have a long thin white tongue reaching four inches out of their mouth. Softer scales that looks more like feathers adorns the back of their head and can grow to shoulder length on average. [u]Species Description[/u] The Zchardrazi are generally aggressive and proud, not taking well to insults or threats against them. They do what they feel is necessary to improve their standing in the galaxy from a strong military standpoint. They tend not to slaughter innocents any more than normal races, but if someone tries to take advantage of this then they don't take kindly to it. It's not like they automatically fight anyone and everyone who crosses their path, willing to creating peace treaties even, but they do get antsy if they haven't had a good war in a long time, as it's in their blood. Females are not treated as inferior in any regard. The Zchardrazi mainly care about personal achievements rather than gender, wealth, race, etc. Personal achievement doesn't have to involve fighting, but it certainly can as that's the fast track to many high government positions. They can respect things such as the arts or other occupations just as much, however, as they're not as one dimensional as many outsiders stereotype them as. They mainly only tend to look down on others if they're squandering their talents and are being lazy or cowardly. This goes for their opponents as well as their own citizens. ***************************** [u]Nation Name[/u] Zchardraziian Collective [u]Government Description[/u] Their government is comprised most importantly of three types of leaders. Lowest of them is the Worzchai, who are like mayors. The Worzchanden are like a president, commonly over an entire planet or system, but some are only in charge of continents on certain worlds. They have most of the power during normal circumstances. The Worzchanriern is like an emperor who can command the entire collective when the need for it is called upon. Although normally only one, there's no rule stating that there can't be more of them, and it has happened on occasion. Any disagreements can be solved in a ritual combat. These three types of people hold great power and can elect government positions bellow them to help carry out their governance. These positions can be claimed by anyone able to defeat the current one in a ritual combat, but highly respected war heroes often gain the positions by default. Challenging one shows that you don't respect their leadership and believe that you can do a better job. Members of these positions very often engage in battle themselves when their city or planet becomes directly involved in a conflict. Their expertise is war, after all, and the people that they elect can carry out the other matters at hand while this is going on. [u]Technology Description[/u] They have sci-fi technology at their disposal that's a little outdated for the advanced races, but still clearly of a high level. They have developed faster than light travel the traditional way of their galaxy by bending [url=http://andreemea.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmodrive]cosmowaves[/url], of which they have average capabilities. They have [url=http://andreemea.wikia.com/wiki/Shield_Generator]shields generators[/url], but also not of noteworthy power. At the weakest they can repel cosmic radiation and small space debris but they do have some powerful ones that can repel large scale attacks for some time, such as the ones found on their carriers. They have [url=http://andreemea.wikia.com/wiki/Elzion_Weapon]energy weapons[/url] but their preferred and most common weapons are physical. What they'd really like is if everyone were to use swords back in the old days. However, they realize that they need the firepower found from technological advancement as well. [u]Military Description[/u] Navy Their fleet specializes in fast and strong attacks with their most powerful guns fixed in only a single direction: Straight ahead. They tend to do very good initially and in short lived battles. It's when their fleet gets bogged down and surrounded that they start to fail, made worse by their relatively poor shielding and back/side armor that won't hold up to prolonged slugging matches. A lot of them do have some medium strength broadside weaponry at their disposal, but very few have means of attacks from behind. Their strong carriers are the best of their fleet, designed for crushing through the defensive line of a planet and safely delivering the ground invasion force. They have many medium and light carriers as well, but need more of an escort while the strong ones can be one man armies at times. In any case, they have much better defensive qualities than their average ships and usually better firepower as well. Army Their army is focused on foot soldiers and fast moving support vehicles with an offensive goal in mind. This is similar to their naval strategy as well, although their land vehicles are slightly more balanced to allow for soaking up extra hits from all sides. A lot of them have a low profile with sharp angles to help deflect certain types of attacks, but generally not very useful in stopping energy based attacks. A common weapon class they use is a coilgun rifle called a kortan. It's standard form is a little bulky in the center with a long barrel and fires only around one shot a second, but it's very accurate and powerful at all ranges, not to mention it's very cheep and massed produced for a coilgun. It can be considered a sniper, which was it's intended purpose, but it has evolved to be used in many circumstances due to how useful it is. The more compact Kortan, called the Kortan-v90, achieves this purpose, sacrificing range and a little bit of power for a faster fire rate and ease of carry. The only other noteworthy weapon they have is a motaran, a curved two handed sword with a blade length of around two feet eight inches, and a motari, a smaller single handed version with a blade only one and a half feet long, which almost all foot soldiers have as a sidearm. The material they are made out of is stronger than most steel, although some motari are massed produced by machines and use cheaper methods and materials. ] The Zchardrazi have other weapons, of course, but are mostly standard fare and not worth direct mention. [u]Inhabited Planets[/u] Their home world is Vorta. It's 1.2 times the size of earth and has a greenish tint in the atmosphere. The Zchardrazi evolved from four legged birds that would claw onto large trees near the top, bite their way through a section of bark, and use their tongues to suck out nutrients. They eventually traveled down onto the dangerous land more often as they figured out how to beat the various foul beasts inhabiting the planet below, thus getting at more nutritious food and having it for themselves. They got more and more daring, as well as more powerful and bulky, loosing the ability to fly. By that point it didn't matter as much. They ruled the planet now. They have mined the roots of these trees to the point of extinction and many were destroyed in wars between themselves. Now Vorta is mostly industrial with some forest remaining under protection. They have hundreds of other planets under their control now.