Ratatoscar

The Ratatoscar usually appear as 1,90m-2,10m tall humanoid Squirrels with an unnervingly muscular build, even among females. Their fur usually varies from several shades of  brown and red, depending on gender and age.   As for their clothing and hairstyles, they prefer braided hair and facial hair while the rest of their bodies is usually covered ina  thick layer of combat armor either forged or scrapped together from remnants left behind after the cataclysm.

The Ratatoscar have always preferred a colder climate, however old settlements have been found in more temperate to almost tropical areas such as the ruins of New Amsterdam. Currently, the Ratatoscar inhabit the Valkyrie Archipelage north of the Atlantian continent in Agartha, consisting of an unknown pre-cataclysm landmass and chunks of central and northern europe.

Despite being omnivores, the Ratatoscar prefer flesh, even their own with records of families breeding two groups of offspring: One intended to be raised and one intended to be used as an alternative food source.    However, it is to note that many of the bigger tribes abandoned this practic with only smaller tribes still relying on cannibalism due to limited possibilities in terms of agriculture.

Cruel, cold and uncaring are many of the adjectives used to describe a Ratatoscar. Since they grow up within a warrior culture similar to that of the ancient spartans, most Ratatoscar express a strict and grumpy attitude, with little to no sense of humor. As this species adapted the religion of human vikings, all Ratatoscar believe in Walhalla, their version of the afterlive only being accessed by dying in combat. Speaking of which, combat is the central element of their culture, as dying of old age is considered an insult to ones ancestors. Once a member of the tribe reaches a certain age, they will battle the tribes current chief with the intention of being killed in the ensuing duel to secure their way to Walhalla. The younger generations usually participate in war campaigns against other tribes or even other species. As a warriors death should be every Ratatoscars greatest wish, a Ratatoscar warrior will fight to death in every situation, with only few recorded cases of POWs among their people.

When the American Federation found a working Agartha-Portal, many Agarthian species were either enslaved or recruited to support the american troops that were currently conquering other planets either within Covenant space or the Uncharted Territories.

Not much is known about the Agarthian species before the cataclysm, however the Ratatoscar are an exception for one simple reason: They never change. Even before the cataclysm, the Ratatoscar were plundering and conquering everything that couldn´t fight back. Their history could be summarized by a cycle of many small tribes warring among eachother until the victors united their people and rebuild their tribes only for everything to be reset to zero once these alliances shattered due to their violent nature.   Once, Sephiroth saw great potential in them, with even going so far as to send Lilith to directly approach them which luckily for the entire galaxy didn´t go as planned when the Ratatoscar tried to kill Lilith, refusing her offer of being uplifted into a greater civilization. Sephiroth later concluded that the Ratatoscar were a poor candidate to become an HPE, as they might be effective warriors, but could never be more than that thanks to their overly aggressive behavior.   200 years ago however, the Ratatoscar were one giant tribe covering the entirety of the Valkyrie Archipelago. As their homeland was antirely theirs, the Ratatoscar set their eyes on the rest of the Atlantian continent and started a bloody war that would later be known as the Ratatoscar-Insurgency. The Magistrate tried to negotiate a peace treaty with the expected result of the Ratatoscar simply not caring about politics. Fearing the Ratatoscar might become a problem that the other Agarthian species couldn´t handle, former Nazi-Scientist Bernhardt Leichmann, only known as Father Blake to Agarthians, developed a mycel-based bioweapon which he dubbed Hel. Releasing Hel on the Valkyrie Archipelago, many Ratatoscar infected by the mushroom would go insane to the point of being more of a threat to themselves as to anyone else. Their population rapidly declines as cases of cannibalism rose and finally, the Ratatoscar were driven off by a united offensive conisting of both the Sun-Wukong and the Ganesh.    To this day, the Ratatoscar still suffer the effects of Hel, with the infected being called Draugr, a word used to describe an undead warrior.