Skathelon


Homeworld:

Skathos

Other planets inhabited:

Masdusa, Nahashar, Keslos, Orobos, Shildor, Kashin, Shidorah, Eshabien, Shalos.

Appearance:

The Skathelon are a reptilian race, with a long and powerful tail as the main section of their body. Skathelon have a relatively humanlike upper body, set atop that tail, with four arms, and a flat, broad head set on a long and flexible neck. The skin of Skathelon is covered with overlapping scales, naturally moist, and usually green tinged yellow in color, with brown and black patterns on their backs, and broader, pinkish yellow scales on their bellies. Skathelon do not stop growing as they age, and the oldest Skathelon are physically huge. The largest Skathelon can reach over fifteen meters in length, and a meter and half in width. Most Skathelon are somewhat more modest in build, but still reach around eight meters in length, and three quarters of a meter in diameter.

Skathelon move in a distinctly snakelike fashion, with the length of their tail moving along the ground, and their upper body held erect. The arms of the Skathelon are occasionally used in conjunction with their tail when they are climbing, but despite the strength of their arms, they are incapable of carrying the great weight of their tail. Skathelon have very large slit pupil eyes, heat sensor pits behind those eyes, and a forked, highly sensitive tongue.

Leaders:

Skathelon are ruled by a council of elders, which has ultimate power over the rest of the race. Entrance to the council depends on age, recommendation of a sitting member, and approval by the council as a whole. The council of elders never goes over fifty members, and has never had less than twenty five members, and the usual average is somewhere between those numbers.

World View:

Skathelon are tremendously strong, and they know it, feeling themselves to be superior to physically weaker races. They are a territorial race, and their instinctive territorial acquisitiveness is one of the reasons for their conflict with the other races of the sector. Skathelon see nothing wrong with murder, as it is an expression of territorial aggression, and they constantly guard against plots by their employees, friends, and family members.

Temperament:

Skathelon are usually laid back, and relaxed appearing, but that hides a core of deep vindictiveness, and the possibility for sudden violence.

History and Culture:

On their homeworld of Skathos, the Skathelons went through thousands of years of conflict between warring petty kings and princes. Contacted by galactic traders of some sort (the records are unclear), the Skathelon acquired the secrets of hyperspace travel, and began expanding out to the stars, still bearing the disunity of their homeworld. The feuding Skathelon colonies proved easy prey to the Yrotha, and they soon found themselves enslaved.

During the years of Yrotha domination, the Skathelon became organized under the council of elders, and when the Yrotha grew weak, the Skathelon rebelled against their Yrotha masters, and soon found themselves both independent and in possession of some of the Yrotha's most powerful warships. Working from these models, the Skathelon soon developed a relatively high level of technology and began their war of conquest. While their fleet was not as advanced as that of many of their foes, it was somewhat larger, and the Skathelon are fearsome ground fighters, large enough to use high scale weaponry without adjustment.

As the Skathelon expanded, they incorporated other races into their empire, using them as sources of labor and technical know how. The Skathelon seemed destined to rule the sector, until they met the same stumbling block that the Yrotha had, the Ien Yaeger humans and their allies. The Skathelon war ended in a tactical draw, as the Yaeger were not able to penetrate into the Skathelon's core, and the Skathelon were not able to capture the Yaeger planets. However, the Yaeger succeeded in the end, because once the Skathelon stopped expanding, their empire began to falter, and soon collapsed under it's own weight.

The Skathelon eventually wound up with a few more worlds than they had started with, and an undying enmity toward the Yaeger. When the Asber began their expansion, the Skathelon quickly formed an alliance with them. Genetic investigation soon determined that the physical similarities between the two races were a good deal more than skin deep. The Skathelon and the Asber are genetic siblings, both descending from a far more primitive race, the Gritai. The Asber-Skathelon alliance became the Pan-Gritai, and later the Pangritai.
When the Empire came, the Pangritai were one of their most enthusiastic recruits, seeing the Empire as an opportunity to challenge the then superior military might of the Ien Yaeger. They soon found out that they had signed up for more than an attack at an old foe, but by that time Doran had large enough forces on their homeworlds that the could not change their minds. The Skathelon now provide much of the Yaeger Imperium's brute labor, as well as crewing their own ships, now under the Imperial flag. Skathelon do have some skill at Command and co-ordination, and wind up being the foremen and low level bosses in the imperial industrial machine.

Tech Level:

Medium space. The Skathelon are not an inventive race on their own, but they are very good at getting their hands on the technology of other races.

Skathelon in the Sector:

Many of the races of the Yaeger sector have long memory, and the Skathelon war, and the Pangritai expansion gives them reasons to hate and fear the Skathelon.

A Quote:

"Sssssssso, you ssswould attack me ssshere..."

Spaceships:

Skathelon ships are somewhat less sophisticated than galactic standards, but they are large, powerful, and numerous, a combination that Moff Rulduk likes. The state of the Skathelon art is the Thantos Heavy cruiser.

Stats:

Attribute Dice: 12D
Attribute Min/Max
Dexterity: 1D+1/3D+2
Knowledge: 1D+1/3D+2
Mechanical: 1D/3D+1
Perception: 2D/4D+1
Strength: 3D/6D+1
Technical: 1D/2D+2
Move: 10/13

Special Abilities:

Heat Sense:
Skathelon can see heat differentials for a very limited range (3 meters). In this range they can detect even the most subtle heat differentials, such as those between ink and paper.

Constriction Attack:
Skathelon descend from a species of constrictor, and they still retain sophisticated constriction abilities. Their tail can wrap around opponents, and squeeze those opponents hard enough to pulverize every bone in their bodies. In game terms, the tail can only be used on targets 4 meters or less in height. Against these targets, it inflicts STR in damage, but once it scores a successful hit at more than 10 over the dodge or parry roll, the tail wraps around the opponent. Once this hit is scored, the Skathelon need not roll for attack anymore, just for damage, and the captured individual must roll an opposed STR check to free any of his limbs, and cannot free his body unless the Skathelon is killed or chooses to release him.

Story Factors:

Size:
Skathelon are huge, and must face many problems do to their size, such as insufficient quarters, insufficient space in vehicles, vast amounts of food and water required, and inability to fit in rooms.

Cold Blooded:
As the temperature drops, Skathelon become more and more sluggish, eventually becoming comatose if they spend to long in temperatures below freezing, not waking until they are warmed.
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