Kartet'ha

Humanoid in only the sense that the Kartet'ha have two legs and two arms, with a head that sits upon the shoulders, if only slightly.

The species is tall and broad, with digitigrade legs and thick arms that both end in large clawed fingers and toes. Their spine leans forward, giving them a hunched appearance, though their general size still means they end up taller, on average, than any other sapient species in the galaxy. They also have a long tail, evolutionarily used for balance, but is also somewhat prehensile.

Their teeth are sharp, though in recent centuries they have started developing rear teeth more suited to the consumption of foods that resist sharp piercing teeth.

One of their more notable features is the bismuth-tungsten alloy that can be found in measurable amounts within their scales, giving them an iridescent sheen, as well as a natural armor that is resistant to the radiation that routinely blasts their home world.

Due to the natural dangers of their homeworld, the Kartet'ha have evolved to be the ultimate survivalists in many ways.

Their aforementioned natural armor is already an impressive boon, even making them resistant to small caliber weapons fire in the modern era, but that pales in comparison to their ability to heal. By far their oldest evolved feature, the Kartet'ha have leveraged the fact that they can walk away from the most heinous of injuries with little to no consequence. Damaged skin heals in short order, and damaged organs might take longer but keep them alive long enough to do so and you might see them climb off the operating table under their own power.

The bismuth-tungsten alloy in their scales can also be found in their bones, and in much smaller amounts in the internal fibers of their flesh, which render them tough nuts to crack on the field of battle.

This species lays clutches of eggs, like the Husseri, though the Kartet'ha lay far more in single clutches.

The Kartet'ha birth rate remains steady, however, as not all eggs in a clutch will hatch, even if kept safe. The shell of their eggs are remarkably thick and resistant imaging methods, so it's often a game that Kartet'ha parents like to play, trying to guess which eggs of a clutch will actually hatch, long before they do.

The singular thing that informs a Kartet'ha's place in their society is their occupation, and there is a implicit hierarchy to those occupations that determines who sits above who.

In their ancient ages; warriors and healers stood high upon the hierarchy, with only tribe leaders and kings being above them. In the modern galactic age, such a topic has gotten far messier, something that the Kartet'ha have struggled to rectify with their worldview. Does the official who appointed an ambassador deserve the credit for whatever gains said ambassador makes, or is that solely the provenance of the ambassador? A simply societal impetuous that is no longer in a simple society.

That being said, warriors still hold pretty high regard in Kartet'ha society, and warlords are regularly threatening the fairly nascent governments of Nebta, though there have been a few that have risen in response to such threats, and preserved the young step towards a more modern society.

"When you find yourself on the river, you must look for a paddle. Not finding that, you must occupy your mind with keeping yourself from capsizing." This proverb, found on one of the oldest examples of Kartet'ha writing, is an excellent example of the species' wider mode of thought. If something must be acted upon, act upon it. If you can't, there are still things that can be done. Specifically useful things.

It's not hard to imagine that such a philosophy is, perhaps, necessary when your species evolved on a world like Nebta. Radiation, hostile wildlife, and exposure to name but a few of the dangers of the Kartet'ha home planet, not to mention the Kartet'ha themselves, who are no strangers to inter-species conflict. The propensity for sapient beings to eventually render all struggle and adversity down to a simple drive to continue, given time, explains the generally cavalier and gregarious attitude that many Kartet'ha hold towards threat and danger.

The species started its civilized endeavors as a loose collection of small and s scattered tribes, the number of which is impossible to tell, but naturally limited to the sources of open water available on the planet's surface. The hubs of Kartet'ha civilization were based around the few in number, but large in scope, rivers that create hatch-marks across the surface.

As the species grew more and more numerous, greater conflict would be born upon Nebta as those water sources became more and more valued as they had to support more. This is most apparent with the Heshoph, the so called "god river" that is said to carry the gods and all souls from the start of life to the end of it. It is a truly massive river, kilometers across in many places and cutting a line across the planet visible from space from almost all angles. This one river is the single largest body of water on the planet, and many other long-lived rivers branch off from it, heading off in every direction.

Many of the greatest of the Kartet'ha civilizations would spring up around the Heshoph itself, being built upon it's banks a sign of prestige and power alongside the more material benefits of the fertile soil the rivers would turn up during the flooding season.

Not all of the kartet'ha are prone to sedentary living, however, and many make their lives out in the deep desert, away from all others. Called the Hoshaf, these individuals travel as nomadic caravans based around the herds of dromedaries that they tend. These tribes tend to be skilled in combat and hunting, given that their lives are dependent on taking advantage of every opportunity they can, including the lethal megafauna that also makes their lives in the desert.

Despite this separation, the Hoshaf and the Makirsan are not free of conflict in their histories, within themselves or between each other.

During their early metal age, the Makirsan found themselves amidst a religious fervor that bade them to march out into the desert to try and remove their Hoshaf cousins, siting some past transgression. Fervor only gets you so far in the desert. The Hoshaf themselves would, in times of dry living, raid their sedentary cousins for food, cattle, and water itself.

Once, the Hoshaf attempted to unify themselves, lead by charismatic tribe leaders looking to rival the kingdoms on the riverbanks. An attempt that did not get far with the fiercely independent Hoshaf tribesmen, and many tribes were greatly wounded or outright destroyed in the following conflict. In the end, those that had tried to unify the Hoshaf were either killed, or vanished farther into the deep deserts, never to be seen again.

In the industrial era, many of the Makirsan kingdoms and nations would attempt to consolidate their hold upon the Heshoph and every other river they could get their hands on in many different conflicts, large and small. Even so, the sanctity of the rivers themselves was almost always respected. Almost.

Being so limited in space, the industrial age brought about problems with pollution, and keeping the water vital to life on Nebta viable. Not wanting to pollute the whole river system, industrialization was often left to the smaller nations at the end of the branches of already offshoot rivers. A development that shifted the balance of power irrevocably. As long as the prospective industrial power was willing to sacrifice the health of their land, that is.

it is, perhaps, unsurprising that the species development was comparatively slow, especially after their industrial age began, and it likely would have taken the Kartet'ha much longer to reach the stars had they not been suddenly introduced to space faring species when a war between the Chersoile and the Reinae spilled onto the surface of their planet when a Chersoile capital ship was stricken and crashed through the atmosphere and into the deep desert, far from prying eyes. If that was it and the crew had perished as the ship fell or their escape pods had remained outside of the atmosphere, the ship likely would have been lost to the sands given enough time, baring random discovery by the Hoshaf.

The crew did not, in the end, perish or remain in the atmosphere. Instead, their pods rained down across the surface of Nebta and they found themselves amongst an alien race that they had no context for. As they were brought before leaders and investigators, carefully attempting to explain their situation and just live long enough to get off the desert world, many Kartet'ha began to realize where they had come from, and the opportunity it presented. A race for the Chersoile ship began across the world, where every power who could get their hands on the scattered crewmen would begin canvasing the desert for their prize. The chase for which and the following political ramifications are a story for another time, but suffice it to say the Chersoile became a sponsor for the nascent species for a time before the Kartet'ha began to outpace them.

Only time will tell if the martial and aggressive species will find a place amongst the stars, or if their tendencies will lead them into unending conflict.