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VitaVitaARThe Zuukid Empire
Brief Description:
The Zuukind Empire is, or was, a theocratic empire that engaged in a series of crusades towards the galactic core, all originating from its place of birth in the outer fringes of the galaxy. In the process the zealots conquered, converted and destroyed many nations, their greatest victim being the Orionic Empire itself, that was cleaved in twain and simultaneously overrun by those fleeing the might of the Zuukind. Their state religion, Anchorism, attributes the gravitational force created by what other ascribe as dark matter to a galaxy sized divine being, one that grants divine authority and wisdom to certain chosen individuals such as the line emperors. This line ended, along with the empire itself, as a result of a coup that saw the last emperor killed in battle and the empire’s territories plunged into a civil war between various factions attempting to fill the power vacuum. The Zuukind Empire counted many races among its ranks, but only the core faithful, those that were absorbed by the founding race of Rodorphins in their early years of conversion based expansion, are grouped under the moniker of Zuukind. Those races forever associated with the fallen empire and the destruction it wrought upon the galaxy.
Government:
At the top of the governmental apparatus is, or was, the emperor. Descendants of the prophet Avostin Zuuk they rule with the divine mandate and are unrestricted by any legal law or apparatus. Below the emperor is their court, a collection of favors individuals who might be anything from bureaucrats, head priests, generals, scientists or wealthy industrialists to individual soldiers, courtesans, childhood companions or celebrities. All of them are vested with a chose amount of authority by the emperor and act as both his/her ad visors and as unrestricted arbiters of their divine will. Below these individuals is the state proper, a mix of bureaucratic agency and religious institution generally referred to as the theocracy, it is charged with maintaining and nurturing the financial, military and spiritual health of the empire. As a result they are the underappreciated lifeblood of the empire, ensuring, among other things, that the faith is strong, that the emperor's armies are equipped for war, that the empires infrastructure remains intact, that waste is disposed of correctly and that that heretics and criminals are routed out and punished. These positions are filled by individuals specially trained at religious schools for the job, the tuition costs of which makes them these positions the purview of upper middle class students. The emperor traditionally does not meddle with appointments of bureaucrats, though their favor or ire can affect an individual's social standing among their peers and thus can indirectly affect their position in the hierarchy.
The government itself has partial control over the economy, with the state and emperor mostly free from the influences of the various large corporate entities that run the civilian economy. Corruption is meticulously routed out by state inquisitors, their rigorous faith making them more resistant to bribery and manipulation than the average government employee. Religious mandate allows the state to set prices for purchasing services but generally private businesses are allowed to run themselves as they see fit so long as they do not actively clash with the needs of the state. Governance outside of the core worlds works similarly, with the representatives of the central state mainly enforcing taxation, forced requisition and religious law while letting local affairs be dictated by either a ruling corporation if the world is ripe for a specific type of exploitation, the former local leadership if they were comparative during the absorption period or a governor appointed either by the theocracy or the emperor, who is free to run the territory as they see fit so long as they comply with the state’s needs.
The masses influence on political affairs is mainly done via the local priesthood, who are expected to listen to the concerns of their flock, which is generally done via one to one confessional like meetings. Most often complaints will be met with guidance or advice, but sometimes the priest will bring important matters to the attention of the theocracy, allowing them to keep a finger on a pulse of the people and giving them a sense that they are being listened too. To encourage the public to rely on the priesthood as their first go to for enacting change anything said by a person to a priest during a confessional cannot be used against them in a court of law, nor can it be the basis for an investigation, creating a safe and controlled environment for addressing of sacrilegious views.
History:
Despite vast advances in the field of physics, the Rodorphin never found what contemporary human scientists refer to as dark matter, the group of so far undetected entities that are responsible for a significant proportion of the gravitational field holding the galaxy together. This mystery, having eluded their brightest minds for centuries, gradually took on a mystical quality for the Rodorphin, one that eventually ascended into a full blown religion canonized by Avostin Zuuk. It centers around the worship of the unseen force that holds the galaxy together, a force that Avostin Zuuk anthropomorphised into a god called the Anchor, said to rest at the heart of the galaxy with its limbs sprawling out from that central body to form the arms of the galaxy. Avostin Zuuk’s influence grew and spread due to the prophet’s dazzling charisma, becoming more and more abrasive to the Rodorphin’s current government as the faithful push for expansion/emigration towards the galactic core, culminating in a core-bound colonization/crusade flotilla headed by Avostin Zuuk being formed and subsequently clashing with border patrol forces belonging to one of the Rodorphin’s neighbours. For the sake of maintaining control and preventing a war the central government attempted to crack down on Anchorism, but was taken by surprise by Avostin Zuuk’s fleet turning around and sailing straight for the home-world, their arrival culminating in a lighting coup that handed the reigns of power over to the prophet. Avostin Zuuk was subsequently crowned the first emperor of a new royal dynasty, his power derived from the divine anchor, and on that day the Zuukid Empire empire was born.
Faith and empire alike are first consolidated within the Rodorphin’s own territory before beginning a slow and steady push towards the core, gradually absorbing and integrating each empire they encounter over a few decades. This process was relatively effective when dealing with the sparsely populated sprawling realms of the outer reaches of the galaxy, but by the time they hit the territory held by the Orionic Empire propper the rate of progress had been deemed unacceptable by the latest, and subsequently last, emperor. In response she launched a full scale crusade, blasting through system after system, shattering the Orionic Empire in the process, while leaving her subordinates to pick up the pieces of the peoples and places she conquers. This caused a great deal of economic, political and religious tension back home with some warning that they might well collapse like the Orionic Empire if they did not consolidate their new holdings. With the central figurehead of the empire off conquering distant worlds with the most faithful at her side and repeated calls for her to return to address the growing instability her recklessness was causing, those who do not like the way the empire was being run began to meet and conspire against the current emperor. What ended up spurring them into action was not the completion of their scheming however, but an opportunity created when a notable section of formerly absorbed territory suddenly broke away from the empire. The conspirators managed to grab the reins of the general panic and anger that resulted from this and directed it at the emperor and her new method of expansion, turning the demands that the emperor return home from mutterings to violent uproar. The unlikely alliance of religious leaders, capitalists, nationalists and populist leaders then used their followers and resources to rapidly seize control of the empire’s core worlds, cutting off the emperor's supply lines. The tip of the crusade’s spear was forced to turn back in response, just as planned, but the return trip was a bloody one as they were harried by the rising warlords of the realms they have shattered and are plagued by the inability to acquire supplies without fighting costly battles to seize them. Even the outlying provinces of the empire’s old acquisitions turned hostile as they attempted to forge their own futures free from the rapidly disintegrating empire.
When they finally return to the imperial heartland the emperor found their enemies well prepared and, though the rebels troops were green as can be they far outnumber the weary and worn down loyalist forces due to their ranks bein swelled by each and every group marginalized by the empire’s rule. What was meant, by some, to be an intervention rapidly devolved into a shooting war after the emperor refused to meet any of the demands of the rebels and warmongers on both side’s agitation for decisive action eventually caused by the first shot of the battle being fired, perhaps accidentally, by an unknown rebel gunner. With battle commenced the empire’s finest manage to extract a hefty toll on the rebel forces but were eventually overwhelmed by the sheer number of ships and a planetary defense emplacements located around the Rodorphin home-world. The emperor's flagship broke in two after stubbornly taking hours of sustained fire while she and her honor guard drop podded to the surface in an attempt to seize the palace on foot. Finally, less than a hundred meters from where Avostin Zuuk was first crowned emperor, his royal dynasty was ended by a singly stray bullet.
Having overcome their enemy, the only person it seemed who had been holding them together in the first place, the rebels rapidly succumbed to the entropy of victory and where driven apart by their vast ideological differences. Attempts to seize power were made by multiple parties simultaneously, resulting in battles breaking out between previously aligned rebel forces all across the core worlds while various populist, nationalist and religious focused uprisings cleaved swathes of territory from the empire’s control, many of whom set eyes upon their ideological difference neighbors and saw them not as fellow citizens free at last of the yoke of tyranny, but as targets of opportunity, scorn or cries of heresy. The emperor's death was as a result the beginning, rather than the end, of the Zuukid civil war.
Military:
Ideology:
The core principles of the Zuukid empire and its descendants militaries is a glorious hardened core protected by a disposable center. Their own ship, troops and vehicles where made to the highest standards possible materials wise but where often elaborately decorated or stylized at the price of operating efficiency. For example, Zuukid built ships often have figureheads on them, depicting saints, prophets, and emperors who give the vessels their names. the extra work needed to stabilize the ship's thrust is considered worth it for the positive effect on moral they have for friendly units and the awe they impart upon enemies and/or possible converts. However the Zuukid fleets where padded with reclaimed, captured and requisitions vessels known as adjuncts that exist primarily to support and protect the core. It is these disposable escorts that allow the Zuukind to commit forces that most would consider to costly to risk, and to do so safely knowing that the disposable assets can be sacrificed to save the core.
Weapon Systems:
Lasers use focusing chambers to translate electrical energy into occasional bursts of focused light that relay energy to a small point on the target. These are primarily used on units expected to operate on their own for extended periods, deriving their firepower from the same systems that power their other systems. The inherent speed of photon based weapons also makes them excellent for point defense systems and accurate long range space based weapon systems but they are limited by the fact that they only do heat based damage, the fact that they can be reflected with the right materials and the fact that intervening materials such as air, smoke, water and gas all greatly their effects over distance.
Coil-guns meanwhile utilize Gauss technology to propel various ammunition types using a series of electromagnets. Coil-guns generally consist of one or more coils arranged along a barrel, so the path of the accelerating projectile lies along the central axis of the coils. The coils are switched on and off in a precisely timed sequence, causing the projectile to be accelerated quickly along the barrel via magnetic forces. These weapons can be used to fire a variety of munitions, from solid slugs to explosive shells, flak, acid canisters, incendiary devices, flechettes, guided missiles, drones, and even boarding craft. Unlike lasers these weapons are hampered by their need to carry this ammunition, which means they are limited by either short operation times, space consuming ammunition stores or the need to protect dedicated supply vehicles. The utility and raw damage of these weapons cannot be denied however, and so coil-guns are found all over the Zuukind military, where they fill rolls that lasers cannot.
The zuukid empire is notable for an unusually usage of of melee combat as something other than a last resort. There are three reasons for this. The first is that many of the Zuukind have a long and steady history with ritualistic forms of melee combat, often originating from mating rituals, that have subsequently had religious tapping interwoven with them, that have lead it to being seen as the most sacred form of battle and one that brings the victor praise and recognition from their peers and superiors. The second more pragmatic reason is that it is a lot more targeted and less destructive than, say, an artillery barrage, leading to it being used to capture enemy ships, vehicles and facilities that can then be used to continue the war effort. The final reason is simply that it is incredibly unexpected by most enemies the Zuukid empire encountered. Their target’s general lack of preparation for close range combat coupled with the Zuukind’s general size and physical prowess made melee encounters almost always come out in the empire's favor if they could safely close the distance. Safe distance closing generally occurs in dense city fighting and ship boarding actions where the enemy's fire is downgraded for fear of damaging their own facilities.
Notable units:
An iconic staple of the Zuukind’s core fleets, these versatile mecha are designed as vast suits of power armor mimicking the shape of their pilot. They are generally armed with a energy lance which is a combined melee/ranged directed energy weapon that can either fire lasers from its tip or energize its entire length into a long stabbing weapon, generally used for sabotaging enemy vessels if they can get close enough. They also carry an Aspis, which is a device that can be used to physically block weapons fire and contains a directional force field generator to increase the mecha’s survivability. A second, omnidirectional, generator is located behind the mecha’s head. The mechas are also capable of operating in atmosphere and on planetary terrain where they can divert power normally used for maneuvering into their various weapons and defense systems to let them operate as tanks instead of as fighters. They can also swap out their energy weapons for heavier Gauss weapons, though these limit their ability to operate independently, as the hoplite can only carry a very limited amount of the gauss propelled munitions without compromising its maneuverability.
Exceptionally large ships that personify the zuukid’s usage of adjunct vessels, generally made up of asteroids or welded together space battle debris they are used to protect the rest of the fleet. With minimal crew capacity and almost 0 armaments the martyr is used to physically shield the more important core ships from fire as they move into optimum firing range. Some more sophisticated variants are equipped with heat/mirror shielding, point defense weapons, force-fields, decoys etc. However most simply absorb fire via sheer mass and some lack engines entirely, being simply reinforced slabs or convenient debris that are held/pushed ahead of the fleet via tractor beams. Smaller variants are used to shield fighter, bomber, boarding and Hoplite teams as they approach their targets.
Small autonomous robots or power armor individuals that are tasked with latching onto enemy spacecraft and disarming, disabling or breaking into them. The Nahash variant show is a Sethhanide design does this using special acid coated claws to cleave through very specific hull materials. It also has 4 small turrets mounted on its wings designed to coat larger areas with the acid. They are often fired from coil-guns at enemy vessels, and have just enough charge in their capacitors to course correct slightly and to cancel their own momentum before they collide with the vessel. If left to their own devices they can do considerably more damage than a similar sized missile, cutting away rivets that hold armor in place, blinding sensors, crippling entire rows of turrets, breaking into ship rooms via airlocks or vents to massacre crew etc.
A Sethhanide designed spacecraft that was 4000 m long while only being 200 m wide and 20 m tall it was one of the longest vessels the Zuukind empire ever produced. It was designed as a dedicated broadside vessel, with just under 1000 high grade laser cannons mounted on a single narrow side of its immense length. If it angled itself correctly it could bring all of these to bare while only presenting only a thin 20m line of its own bulk to the enemy. This made it an exceptional ship for engagements with only one major enemy ship but left it vulnerable to franking above and below. The front of the craft features a figurehead in the form of a fully functional mech representation of a prominent Sethhanide, most often of its inventor with whom the class of vessel shares its name. The entire vessel is capable of moving in a serpentine manner, slithering through space unpredictably as it orientates its cannons at foes. It is also able to enter a coiled up defense mode around its figurehead when attacked from multiple angles, the head producing a substantial shield around the compacted vessel while the cannons are able to target vessels all around it.
A ship specifically made to be launched via coil-gun, the Crescents main maneuvering wings fold up against its body while in the barrel and then extend upon exit to steer the craft. Generally they will perform strafing runs using their for mounted twin armaments on whatever they are engaging, then will decelerate and perform a rear assault on the enemy formations.
Throne Class Cruiser(Large), A predecessor of the medusa class, it too features many side mounted laser cannons, however as these are mounted on the rather rigid front section the majority of the aiming is done via lenses. Generally they are sued as the command ships for small battle fleets engaging in longform operations out of Zuukid home controlled space.
Stronghold Frigate(Medium): Mid sized carrier that features a large amount of forward facing firepower. A group of these can do significant damage to far larger ships if they can focus fire, while also fielding a sizable fighter/bomber screen to protect their long tails.
Guardian Corvette(Small): Each spine contains a small point defense turret that lets this ship screen other vessels against bombers and missiles. They almost never act alone, but instead escort larger craft when the enemy is expected to employ a large number of fighter/bomber craft.
Dominion Strike Craft(Fighter): A single man spacecraft built primarily for dueling with its equivalents and intercepting bombers/missiles. The rotatable wing mounted engines give it excellent maneuverability.
Virtue Torpedo Boat (bomber) equipped with a single Gauss cannon and carrying a number of high yield missiles or shells it is designed to deliver these payloads to weak points on enemy ships without them having to worry about armoring the munitions themselves against point defense.
Powers cargoship (civil): a small cargo vessel used by the Zuukind military to transfer moderate amounts of materials between vessels or across relatively safe routes.
Compact weapons platforms capable of being dropped from orbit, the Zuukind will “seed” a landing zone or priority target with these to soften them up for further assault. A pod can either unfold instantly form their compact forms to attack or can remain hidden buried or submerged at their impact site for days waiting for an opportune moment to strike their targets.
Made from similar materials and components as a lot of their spacecraft, these tanks skim across battlefields at high speeds, bringing their versatile selection of armaments to where they are most needed. Its primary weapon turret will generally be an anti tank weapon, while its many spine mounted turrets act as anti infantry/air weapons.
The size of small dogs or large birds these units will move ahead of the Zuukind armies, spotting targets for artillery, routing out ambushes and gathering intel. Small, stealth and disposable they can be found scouring the periphery of most battlefield, circling enemy formations like carrion eaters as they relay vital tactical information back to the Zuukid forces.
While conventional wheeled/tracked vehicles and more advanced hover vehicles are used by the Zuukid the Sethhanide bioengineers have created a number of biomechanical frame onto which conventional weapons systems can be mounted upon. While generally slower than traditional vehicles they are far more capable of handling difficult terrain and can run most of their systems off local biomatter rather than needing access to specialized fuel. The fact that they need far less metal to produce is also considered a great boon and so, as their production requirements intersect very little with traditional manufacturing, pure and biomechanical warmachines are often seen fighting side by side in the Zuukid military.
Religion/Culture:
Religion: Anchorism
The Zuukind believe that the galaxy rests upon or inside (which is matter of much theological debate) a great being known as the anchor. It is this being that provides the additional gravitational pull that holds the galaxy together and is, effectively, anthropomorphised Dark Matter. Because the heart of the great beast is located at the galactic core that places is considered the holy land by the faithful, which is somewhat problematic as the Zuukind empire was located at the fringes of the galaxy. It is the state religion of the Zuukind empire, and adherence to it is mandated resulting in religious intolerance and persecution of all belief systems that were incompatible with anachronism (which was most of them).
One of the focuses of religious worship, other than regular temples, are deep space monasteries. Here, in small space stations free of artificial gravity, the faithful can come to get closer to the anchor, free from the distraction of other gravitational pulls. Those who stay there are entirely reliant on external supplies, as the monasteries are often light-years from the closest star. A careful balance is maintained between the frequency of supply ships arriving to drop off fuel, food, etc, and the amount of space given over for storing said supplies. Both add mass that might distract the meditating inhabitants of the station, and so they are almost always walk a thin tightrope of survival for the sake of enlightenment. For some even these stations are not enough and the greatest seekers of the anchor will live alone in tiny ships or even space suits in deep space, deliberately becoming the most isolated people in the universe for days or months on end. Insanity in these individuals is common, enlightenment rare. Telling the difference is sometimes an art onto itself.
Regular worship involves meditating once per day in a zero gravity environment, either a simulated one available in planet-side temples or by deactivating the artificial gravity for those who are currently in space. Most space bound habitats and vessels coordinate this meditation ship wide, setting aside 30 minutes of zero g for all those on-board to meditate simultaneously. There are also drug assisted guided meditation sessions lead by the priesthood, each lasting two hours, that Zuukind are culturally expected to partake in at least once a week. Commoners will generally partake in group sessions in temples, ship wide broadcasts or, at worst, recordings available online while the dedicated wealthy might have private sessions or a personal priest. The most faithful may partake in this type of meditation more than once a week.
Demographics (Species):
Rodorphin:
Bulky 8 limbed creatures that are the founders of the empire and its faith. They somewhat resemble the mythical centaurs, with a humanoid torso mounted at the front of a hexapod body, but they have claw like feet and their skin is covered in soft scales that comes in various shades of dull reds, browns and oranges. They are carnivores that are about two and a half meters tall and can outpace horses on most terrain. They are used to a higher oxygen concentration than that expected by humans, and as such often need to supplement the air of other worlds with additional O2 using a filter/enricher mask lest they be left permanently breathless.
Founders of the Zuukid empire and the species of the Prophet Avostin Zuuk they fill much of the imperial theocracy on account of their home-world being the empire’s capital. They can also be found across the empire, though unlike humanity they did not end up ubiquitously dominate their empire’s holdings. This is partially because the empire put the faithful first, not the founders and also because the Rodorphin’s oxygen need restricted them from casual occupation of many worlds.
The Rodorphin exhibit sexual monomorphism, with all members appearing to be masculine in appearance to the casual human observer. Culturally, other than a basic use of pronouns they distinguish very little between the sexes, resulting in an absence of the gendering of titles, occupations and words found in other species’ languages. For example, the emperor is always the emperor, regardless of gender, with the word empress being seen as an annoying and pointless complication in other languages.
Sethhanide:
An alien race with a colony of serpents, known as hydras, growing on their skulls. These serpents are a form of parasite on the Sethhanides planets, which have developed a symbiotic relationship with several species there. The serpents help protect their host from the dangerous ambush and pack hunter predators that live on the planet by providing 360 vision, acting in shifts as a night watch and fending of foes with their venomous spit. In return the host warms the cold blooded serpents and shares food with them. While the Sethhanide have long since surpassed the need for their companions they retain a cultural and biological fondness for the creatures, and as such most of them retain them as pets.
The Sethhanide known well known for their work in cloning and genetic engineering, the most notable of their achievements having been the race of Vuans, human based super-soldiers that they provided to bolster the Zuukid crusade forces. Sethhanide vehicles, robots and space vessels are generally serpentine in nature, this leaves them rather fragile but highly maneuverable.
They were early willing members of the Zuukid empire and their addition of biomechanical engineering is the basis for a lot of the empire's success. They have managed to keep a firm hold of their art despite it spreading across the empire thanks to their old home systems now housing most of the universities that teach it while simultaneously having lax local ethics laws that allow the somewhat unseemly experiments needed to further the art of biomechanical engineering. Sethhanides had less problems than the Rodorphin in colonizing other worlds, though their size did still cause some similar problems that limited their spread, the main one being time, as colonization efforts of abandoned or underpopulated worlds where still in their infancy when the empire collapsed.
Vuans:
The Vuans where developed by the Sethhanide to serve as shock troops. There were two primary goals in their development. First, to have troops optimized for operating effectively in human friendly environments and second, to let them easily put captured/seized human technology to work. A third added benefit is that their production required only human cadavers, something that was in plentiful supply after most military engagements in Orionic Empire space. They possess increased strength, endurance and limited regenerative capabilities that have greatly extended their lifespans at the cost of increased risks of brain disease like Alzheimer's. Their usage has fallen off in most parts of the former Zuukid Empire due to a lack of raw materials, but they persist in use among the Faithful Hairs and with/as independent marauder groups all over the galaxy.
Vauns, after being assembled from raw materials, are subjected to intense indoctrination and brainwashing to remove any prior loyalties or personality, making them perfect zealots of the Zuukind cause. Despite this some memories will remain in fragments, and the older variants particular can be plagued by flashes of their past lives. When this occurs most submit themselves for re-indoctrination but rarely they deserted instead, something that became considerably more common during and after the empires collapse.
Rekshai:
Rekshai come from the Sethhanide home-world, where they were one of the predators that causes their symbiotic relationship with their distinctive serpentine hair. Unlike most of their competition the Rekshai where not driven to extinction by the rise of Sethhanide civilization, as instead the worryingly intelligent monsters managed to follow their most successful prey species as they expanded across the globe, avoiding all subsequent attempts at extermination through cunning, stealth and adaptation. By the time technology had advanced enough that true eradication would be possible conservation moments had arisen that preserved the predators existence, though limiting their domains to certain national parks, zoos, preserves etc. and initiating an ever advancing method of prevent attacks on Sethhanides using radar tagging, smart shock collars, etc. They subsequently fell into quiet irrelevance, a lingering reminder of what progress had overcome, until the someone in the biotech industry had the idea of using them as a basis for a new biomechanical construct.
Subesequent study revealed just how advanced the brains the beasts had actually been, exhibiting intelligence that, if given a slight boost, allowed them to achieve limited sentience. While some might argue against the wisdom of granting greater cognitive abilities to one of your own predators the effectiveness of the results were undeniable. Coated in biometalic armor, improved with synthetic muscles, injected with performance enhancing drugs and installed with limited cybernetics they became deadly weapons of war capable of understanding complex orders with little alteration to their cerebral cortex. The Zuukind subsequently use them as incredibly deadly attack dogs: unleashing them on enemy formations and ships via specialized attack craft, releasing them into cities and compounds to sow terror or having them accompany inquisitors hunting down heretics.
Inevitably some subjects have escaped and evaded re-capture, the collapse contributing significantly to the number of such escapes. While these subjects have sometimes started infestations via breeding their offspring are non-augmented and thus lack their parents intelligence boosting implants. Unfortunately they display more intelligence than their wiled betherned ever did, presumably due to being trained/lead by their progenitors.
Lonoxi:
Insectile creatures that evolved a social structure similar to that of ants or bees, where a small number of fertile females have access to a small number of males for breeding purposes while the majority of the species are infertile drones made to serve the fertile females bidding. This social structure was retained even when the race achieved sentience, with fertile Queens and their male lords acting as regents and aristocracy while the drones where their willing servants. This persisted right up until the invention of chemical warfare, as the subsequent reactions introduction of gas masks unintentionally gave the drones a way to free themselves from the pheromones the queens secreted, pheromones that none of their kind had recognized as existing. Here the species split into two distinct, opposing, styles, the old monarchistic one which used this knowledge of pheromones to cement their rule and one where the drones overthrew their progenitors and formed collectivist councils of drones to govern, with the breeders being subservient to the will of their offspring. These two patterns never managed to overcome one another, the ability completely stop the creation of pheromone filters as difficult as preventing breaches in filter protocols.
In the end it was the Zuukind that forged the two together in an unhappy union, Sethhanide manufactured drugs making drones immune to the pheromones while the Zuukid theocracy relentlessly preferred the breeders as officials or governors due to their longer life spans and more individualistic intelligence. Still, while there where those who longed for both the old ways faith and inquisitors kept the Lonoxi firmly focused on serving the empire as a whole. With the empire gone however the old divisions have re-arisen, now joined by the third who still desire what the Zuukid brought them.
Drones are rather squat, bulky and well armored, featuring a pair of large blades pointing backwards from their forearms. Males are tall, thin and supermodel esque in appearance, traits grown to improve their odds of been chosen by a queen. Queens themselves are somewhat similar in appearance to the males but have a large abdomen extending out behind their hips that is used to grow and lay eggs.
Forensakai:
Unlike the Rodorphin, Forensakai exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism that make their two genders aprea to be almost different species: the females are tough four armed, four eyed bipeds with shriveled wings while the males are 4 legged creatures of an almost bestial appearance that are capable of flight. Despite their structural differences and the makes animistic appearance both genders exhibit near identical levels of intelligence. The reason for these differences can be found by studying their old mating habits. The females need a living host within which to parasitically insert their larvae(much like certain parasitic wasps of earth), a host that they actively defend from other predators while their young mature inside it. The males then need to both retrieve this host in the first place and need to keep the woman fed while she guards the host. To do so they travel great distances to find the perfect host as well as to forage food for their mate, but do not need to be able to tussle with hostile predators. Thus the females became tough flightless fighters and the males agile aerial hunters with excellent endurance. The Forensakai eventually adopted a herding method of protecting their hosts and upon this cooperation their civilization was build.
While their life cycle involves presenting a host they do not require once capable of sentiences like the Parasitians. Infact scentiens generally make for very poor hosts due to their diets, general lack of extensive fat reserves and ability to recognise they are infested. Instead they use livestock, preferably large caterpillar like creatures from homeworld, but creatures like cows will serve the task as well, though the infant will often need assistance from their parents or a doctor to deal with the creatures skeleton.
Other:
The empire absorbed/subjugated may races during its heyday and as such it contains a baud sampaling of the galaxies races further augmented by pilgrims from even further afield. However, only the above are referred to as Zuukind due to their pervasiveness as the faces, both civilian and military, of the empire.
Characters:
Relations:
Habitation:
Aesthetics: Zuukid architecture and fashion generally follows that of ancient greece mixed with local flavor. White marble and equivalent synthetic materials dominate their public buildings which are decorated with columns and statues. Togas made of modern materials are associated with Anchronism and are thus popular wear for the faithful when the climate permits them.
