[hider=Shevastol] Name: The Shevastol, or the Forebears Status to Humans: As far as humanity is concerned, the Shevastol are a long dead species. The ruins on Kel that are not entirely picked clean or squatted on by the Kel'ta clans don't reveal that there were any survivors after the end of their civilization. To the handful or so of Shevastol that exist in the present day humans are just one of many upstart species who became great while their ancient and noble people are doomed to extinction. Life expectancy: Assuming that there are no complications the modern Shevastol generally live to be about seventy. While their bodies process nutrients with extreme efficiency they are a fairly fragile species whose bloodline is by this point riddled with genetic defects from catastrophic inbreeding. Genders: The Shevastol tie gender to biological sex and thus have two: male and female. Full Description: Due to the low gravity of their homeworld the [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/640706084553752587/913362778901843978/140516_JM_BlindOnes.jpg]Shevastol [/url] are long-limbed and hollow boned, their species lighter than many others since there was not much gravitational force for them to withstand. The average modern Shevastol stands at about seven feet tall, stunted compared to the towering nine foot statures of their "pure" ancestors. Compared to humans their eyes are extremely small and sunken into their face, giving them poor vision which they compensated with by mechanical enhancement of the senses. [sup]Artist: [url=https://www.artstation.com/jsmarantz/profile]Jerad Marantz[/url][/sup] How it All Went Wrong: The Shevastol were established long before Earth supported intelligent life, already having established an interstellar empire by 37524 BCE. While relatively conservative in their expansion efforts (they only ever pushed into two solar systems outside their own) they were fairly vicious when it came to protecting what they considered to be their spheres of influence. They came into conflict with the Kaisoken a number of times along with countless other lesser species. Many of those would simply be scooped up and converted into manpower, serving as conscripts or simple manual labor in hazardous situations that would be too dangerous for the comparatively dangerous Shevastol. It was their inherent frailty that did them in. The empire came into conflict with a small but tenacious species of amphibians known as the Tittlikits. The Tittlikits were noted for their extenssive understanding of chemical and biological warfare and fell back on their knowledge when faced with a superior enemy. The Shevastol erased the Tittlikits from existence on all but a few backwater worlds but not before some of their forces were unknowingly infected. The virus had been engineered to lay dormant for years, allowing vectors to spread the disease before the first symptoms even showed. After roughly five years the carrier would experience coughing, nausea and chest pains. Death occurred in two to three days. The resulting pandemic sent the Shevastol's population numbers into a catastrophic freefall, losing about eighty percent of their total population. In the meantime, the species they had enslaved sensed weakness. The disease had been formulated for the fairly weak Shevastol constitution while the species the Shevastol used for slave labor tended to be hardy. Thus while their were casualties among those groups they were far from the losses suffered by the Shevastol. By this point the Shevastol had four main slave species: -the Rordors, an avian species noted for their sharp talons and ability to regurgitate a noxious bile as a weapon. -the Eventi, snake-like creatures who coil their enemies in their tails and crush them to death before swallowing them whole. -the Kel'ta, a hardy species of climbers and hunters from from an arid desert planet who could break and bend steel with their bare hands. -the Michus, a small rodent species notable for their incredible burrowing capabilities and the speed at which they reproduced. All four species had been essentially kidnapped during their Iron Ages and kept in line by the superior technology and numbers of the Shevastol. But with the Shevastol devastated by the plague and their systems of communication thrown into disarray the Treasonous Four seized the moment and lashed out. The resulting war pitted the frail Shevastol against four much tougher species who had spent millennia as laborers and foot soldiers who had both the advantage in numbers and nothing to lose. Unsurprisingly it went poorly for the Shevastol. One by one the planets they held were scorched and abandoned, the empire pushed back to the homeworld of the Kel'ta. It was at Kel where the final preparations to flee where made, a desperate raid launched to capture a number of Nominken whose lack of intelligence and raw magical energy made for a perfect power source. The few Shevastol that remained spent the last of their resources constructing what was essentially a biological logic bomb, their numbers dwindling as the Kel'ta pushed deeper and deeper into their lines. In the end the Shevastol managed to escape, the device wiping the memory of their existence from the minds of their former slaves. Now numbering only in the hundreds of thousands the Shevastol scattered, splitting up into small groups so that they couldn't be found. Time would see their numbers dwindle further and further, inbreeding ensuring that by the modern day there is little hope of them ever resurfacing. ------------------------------------------- Type of society: At the height of their power 30,000 years ago the Shevastol were an interstellar technocratic empire. While most of them lived on strategically placed space stations or traveled on large habitat vessels a core force of the species' best and brightest were stationed on the home world of Tes IV to serve as a governing body. The Shevastol of today have fallen far from that peak. With their numbers reduced dramatically by a weaponized epidemic followed by violent uprisings by subjected species that took bloody vengeance for years of captivity the few remaining Shevastol were forced to scatter and their numbers have only dwindled since. They have no overarching civilization, just a few scattered groups trying to prolong their existence. Unsurprisingly reproduction is extremely important to them but fraught with difficulty. In perfect conditions it takes five years for a clutch of eggs to hatch and even a few degrees too hot or cold can render them useless. And even in cases where the clutch is kept safe only in one ten eggs will actually hatch, producing offspring that will likely die in a few years due to genetic degradation. Cloning is not feasible for the Shevastol, the process requiring a better DNA template than they have access to (to say the nothing of the cost or unlikeliness that they'd be able to set up a clone production facility considering their refusal to work with the 'lesser' races.) Technological advancement: The Shevastol were once extremely technologically advanced, making use of FTL drives as opposed to the now more common wormhole systems and even having access to specially formulate materials that could nullify magic. The total destruction of the Shevastol empire came with the the loss of most of their technological prowess. With their brightest minds centered in the capital world of Tes IV, an obvious target for angry slave species< they lost nearly all of their greatest innovators and scientists. Those who did survive couldn't overcome the fact that they had nothing to work with. Being a brilliant biochemist matters little when you lack the equipment to make use of your field. Now the Shevastol make do with what they find, equipment that is often outdated and on the verge of breaking down entirely. It enrages them to know end that their old subordinates the Kel'ta have plenty of powerful "Forebear" technology to pick through while the creators languish in rusty puddle-jumpers and have to defend themselves with underpowered laser weaponry or whatever else they can scrounge up. -------------------------------------------- [/hider]