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Description

Originally from the once tropical world of Yashvara, located near the beginning of the great Sagittarius Arm, the Shavar are now a nomadic, tribal spacefaring species that live in massive flotillas of part star ships part mobile habitats. They are, however, no less of a galactic superpower, holding on to a large swat of territory and one of the largest armed fleets in known space.
Once inhabiting the plains of Yashvara's largest continents, the shavar are tall, heavy built humanoids evolved as specialized predators. They stan on average at two meters, with thick, muscular limbs, each ending in three digits- their torso has wide shoulders and a wide, muscular neck on which their armored head sits. Two long, floppy flaps of skin hang from the back of their heads much like ears- however, their purpose, beyond display, is to catch the wind and cool down their brains, as the hard, bony armor that envelopes their skull threatens to overheat it. Their upper body is also covered in various hardened patches of armor, mostly their chests, backs and upper arms; running from their forehead down each side of their neck and continuing in their torso are a series of brightly colored patches, either red of brown, that can change hues and brightens to communicate mood and, to a lesser degree, act as a display for matting.
As hunters, the shavar are extremely agile and quick thinking, though despite their large body mass they are somewhat more fragile and less powerful than creatures of equal size from world of similar gravity and environment- for the most part, the shavar hunt in large numbers, using speed, endurance and intelligence to tire prey to near death before going for the kill. This has led to a very patient and calculating mindset among them, with a variety of cultures that put great emphasis on long term planning while maintaining a reverence for personal glory- shavar epic tales usually revolve around tales of elaborate, heroic deeds and individual prowess in fighting villains. Despite their relative weakness, shavar take great pride in strength, and revere to near god like stature those who manage to balance both it and intelligence more than others, the inability to do so (or, at least try to) being considered highly undesirable.
In general, the social are very open with their emotions and opinions, considering it very rude and insulting to hold back one's true thoughts- while mostly streaming from their mood reflecting 'spots', the mutual survival of individuals working together also played a major part in this. The many nomadic tribes that roamed Yashvara in ancient times (the oldest surviving written records date back some 30.000 BCE) were, and still are, highly egalitarian, with major decisions such as declarations of war against rival tribes or moving to other lands made by unanimous decisions; in times of strife, such as war, single, promising individuals were appointed to lead the fighting efforts, but this was as far as positions of authority went.
Being nomadic, the shavar had few permanent settlements, but they did had numerous structures, usually religious in nature, and considered them very sacred- sacred enough that many tribes refused to settle down in cities during later modern periods on the basis that permanence was for the divine only, with mortals only allowed to settle after achieving greatness equal to it. Even so, around 25,000 BCE a dozen or so large cities arose near the equator, founded by several related tribes that would become the progenitors of a scientific and technological revolution- while scholarship and other intellectual pursuits were well respected, not many tribes were interested in it besides what could be immediately useful. The settled tribes, however, would go on to bring the species from a medieval like state to the exploration of the star system in just 400 years, an era marked by a rapid industrialization and a population boom that put them in a far superior state to the nomads, something which became a point of contention that escalated over the centuries to open hostility, especially when it came to the Legion, as the cities became known, appropriation of 'sacred lands' for needed resources.
Eventually, the nomads led a failed campaign of conquest against the Legion, leading to nearly every nomadic tribe being heavily restricted into reservations and the Legion as the sole powers on Yashvara. Unfortunately, even the patient and calculating shavar were overtaken by their negative traits- specifically, their thirst for glory and power- and in short order the cities of the Legion descended into prolonged wars for dominance that lasted for many centuries and expanded into the larger solar system and the colonies. Withe both the planet and their colonies descended into endless wars, the shavar failed to notice (or rather, were unable to properly react) to their homeworld's changing climate, the result of centuries of pollution. By 23,500 BCE the effects were irreversible, and even as the shavar continued to fight each other their world shifted rapidly from a tropical, forest and plains covered world into a barren, hot desert. The end of the war followed suit, by the simple fact that survival toke precedent, but it was generally to late for most even with the massive efforts of the Legion; out of approximately two billion people, less than 100 million managed to be evacuated, the space based industry simply incapable of supporting more in a reasonable time frame. The rest were abandoned to a slow death on an increasingly inhospitable world, where some scattered tribes still manage to scrap a living thousands of years later, all but forgotten.
In the proceeding millennia, the shavar spread out across the stars in massive generation ships, determined to not repeat the mistakes of the past and not settle and destroy other worlds. The fledgling, fragmented interstellar species remained isolated for millennia, settling many star systems with their sublight ships while unaware of the great titans that roamed the rest of the galaxy- many of these were dominate by the surviving nomads from the reservations, who became staunch opponents of colonization. Eventually, after many millennia, the shavar became aware of the greater galaxy when refugees from the once great aonosian empire crossed paths with them- despite their inferior travel speeds, the shavar were more than enough advance in other areas to destroy what they thought were hostile aliens, something which many see as an even greater folly and sin than their devastation of their homeworld.
The looted wrecks allowed the shavar access to hyperspace travel, and the first tribe to achieve it set out to spread it to all their brethren and unify their scattered empire once more. While it succeeded, bringing together a fairly large number of hundreds of systems, each with hundreds of millions living in space based colonies, the shavar still do not colonize any world. Making contact with the larger galaxy, especially the emerging Groth/League schism and subsequent wars, was far to distant to the Legion, the revitalized ancient state, to involve itself in. Even so, as the state grew into a veritable galactic superpower, and many of its larger city-ships used the newfound faster-than-light travel to embark on endless journeys across the galaxy as an emulation of practices dating back to before the first cities of the Legion, the shavar eventually came to offer token support to the Groth, mostly in the form of access to their ports.
Except for a few mercenary bands working for the Groth, the Legion as a whole refuses to lift another finger in aggression; something that most in the Rendanor League are very thankful for, as the Legion is in possession of a massive fleet of battleships and dreadnoughts equivalents and with a population in which military small arms handling and naval combat training is mandatory, giving the Legion access to one of the deadliest force in the galaxy if provoked.
Millions, perhaps even billions, of shavar have also left their ancestral homes to spread out across known space, making them quite the ubiquitous sight from the Groth and Garian core worlds to the Itarkis Empire and even Human territory.

Description

Originally from the once tropical world of Yashvara, located near the beginning of the great Sagittarius Arm, the Shavar are now a nomadic, tribal spacefaring species that live in massive flotillas of part star ships part mobile habitats. They are, however, no less of a galactic superpower, holding on to a large swat of territory and one of the largest armed fleets in known space.
Once inhabiting the plains of Yashvara's largest continents, the shavar are tall, heavy built humanoids evolved as specialized predators. They stan on average at two meters, with thick, muscular limbs, each ending in three digits- their torso has wide shoulders and a wide, muscular neck on which their armored head sits. Two long, floppy flaps of skin hang from the back of their heads much like ears- however, their purpose, beyond display, is to catch the wind and cool down their brains, as the hard, bony armor that envelopes their skull threatens to overheat it. Their upper body is also covered in various hardened patches of armor, mostly their chests, backs and upper arms; running from their forehead down each side of their neck and continuing in their torso are a series of brightly colored patches, either red of brown, that can change hues and brightens to communicate mood and, to a lesser degree, act as a display for matting.
As hunters, the shavar are extremely agile and quick thinking, though despite their large body mass they are somewhat more fragile and less powerful than creatures of equal size from world of similar gravity and environment- for the most part, the shavar hunt in large numbers, using speed, endurance and intelligence to tire prey to near death before going for the kill. This has led to a very patient and calculating mindset among them, with a variety of cultures that put great emphasis on long term planning while maintaining a reverence for personal glory- shavar epic tales usually revolve around tales of elaborate, heroic deeds and individual prowess in fighting villains. Despite their relative weakness, shavar take great pride in strength, and revere to near god like stature those who manage to balance both it and intelligence more than others, the inability to do so (or, at least try to) being considered highly undesirable.
In general, the social are very open with their emotions and opinions, considering it very rude and insulting to hold back one's true thoughts- while mostly streaming from their mood reflecting 'spots', the mutual survival of individuals working together also played a major part in this. The many nomadic tribes that roamed Yashvara in ancient times (the oldest surviving written records date back some 30.000 BCE) were, and still are, highly egalitarian, with major decisions such as declarations of war against rival tribes or moving to other lands made by unanimous decisions; in times of strife, such as war, single, promising individuals were appointed to lead the fighting efforts, but this was as far as positions of authority went.
Being nomadic, the shavar had few permanent settlements, but they did had numerous structures, usually religious in nature, and considered them very sacred- sacred enough that many tribes refused to settle down in cities during later modern periods on the basis that permanence was for the divine only, with mortals only allowed to settle after achieving greatness equal to it. Even so, around 25,000 BCE a dozen or so large cities arose near the equator, founded by several related tribes that would become the progenitors of a scientific and technological revolution- while scholarship and other intellectual pursuits were well respected, not many tribes were interested in it besides what could be immediately useful. The settled tribes, however, would go on to bring the species from a medieval like state to the exploration of the star system in just 400 years, an era marked by a rapid industrialization and a population boom that put them in a far superior state to the nomads, something which became a point of contention that escalated over the centuries to open hostility, especially when it came to the Legion, as the cities became known, appropriation of 'sacred lands' for needed resources.
Eventually, the nomads led a failed campaign of conquest against the Legion, leading to nearly every nomadic tribe being heavily restricted into reservations and the Legion as the sole powers on Yashvara. Unfortunately, even the patient and calculating shavar were overtaken by their negative traits- specifically, their thirst for glory and power- and in short order the cities of the Legion descended into prolonged wars for dominance that lasted for many centuries and expanded into the larger solar system and the colonies. Withe both the planet and their colonies descended into endless wars, the shavar failed to notice (or rather, were unable to properly react) to their homeworld's changing climate, the result of centuries of pollution. By 23,500 BCE the effects were irreversible, and even as the shavar continued to fight each other their world shifted rapidly from a tropical, forest and plains covered world into a barren, hot desert. The end of the war followed suit, by the simple fact that survival toke precedent, but it was generally to late for most even with the massive efforts of the Legion; out of approximately two billion people, less than 100 million managed to be evacuated, the space based industry simply incapable of supporting more in a reasonable time frame. The rest were abandoned to a slow death on an increasingly inhospitable world, where some scattered tribes still manage to scrap a living thousands of years later, all but forgotten.
In the proceeding millennia, the shavar spread out across the stars in massive generation ships, determined to not repeat the mistakes of the past and not settle and destroy other worlds. The fledgling, fragmented interstellar species remained isolated for millennia, settling many star systems with their sublight ships while unaware of the great titans that roamed the rest of the galaxy- many of these were dominate by the surviving nomads from the reservations, who became staunch opponents of colonization. Eventually, after many millennia, the shavar became aware of the greater galaxy when refugees from the once great aonosian empire crossed paths with them- despite their inferior travel speeds, the shavar were more than enough advance in other areas to destroy what they thought were hostile aliens, something which many see as an even greater folly and sin than their devastation of their homeworld.
The looted wrecks allowed the shavar access to hyperspace travel, and the first tribe to achieve it set out to spread it to all their brethren and unify their scattered empire once more. While it succeeded, bringing together a fairly large number of hundreds of systems, each with hundreds of millions living in space based colonies, the shavar still do not colonize any world. Making contact with the larger galaxy, especially the emerging Groth/League schism and subsequent wars, was far to distant to the Legion, the revitalized ancient state, to involve itself in. Even so, as the state grew into a veritable galactic superpower, and many of its larger city-ships used the newfound faster-than-light travel to embark on endless journeys across the galaxy as an emulation of practices dating back to before the first cities of the Legion, the shavar eventually came to offer token support to the Groth, mostly in the form of access to their ports.
Except for a few mercenary bands working for the Groth, the Legion as a whole refuses to lift another finger in aggression; something that most in the Rendanor League are very thankful for, as the Legion is in possession of a massive fleet of battleships and dreadnoughts equivalents and with a population in which military small arms handling and naval combat training is mandatory, giving the Legion access to one of the deadliest force in the galaxy if provoked.
Millions, perhaps even billions, of shavar have also left their ancestral homes to spread out across known space, making them quite the ubiquitous sight from the Groth and Garian core worlds to the Itarkis Empire and even Human territory.