Salit
The Salit are a warlike species which evolved
from predators. The Salit are generally humanoid in form, but slightly
larger than humans and are just as comfortable on all fours as they are
standing erect. Salit have soft fur which can range in colour from gray
to light brown, and which covers them entirely, excluding only the face
(or, more appropriately, the muzzle), the hands and the feet. The skin
of a Salit is generally dark gray, but an extremely small portion of the
population is born with jet black skin. Those Salit with black skin are
generally considered to be natural born warriors, and are treated as such
from birth. These individuals do seem to be much more adept at combat than
others, but whether this is because of genetics, or the extra training
that they get from early childhood is unknown. Amongst the Salit colouring
your skin black is considered a capital crime.
One of the driving forces behind the Salit
psyche is the need to conquer. It has been speculated that this comes as
a result of the environment in which the species evolved. The Salit are
natives of Helvoon, a planet which at one point was home to an amazing
7 different sentient species. Geography and climate kept these species
largely isolated from each other. The Salit lived in tribes for millennia,
constantly competing with one another for hunting grounds. Eventually,
with the advent of
domestication of food animals, these tribes became city-states, and,
through constant warfare and conquest, the city-states became nations of
millions of Salit. Nearly 5,000 years after the first city-states the Salit
were united by a fearsome, black-skinned warrior king named Harrash-Killjart.
Soon after the Salit had been united Harrash-Killjart, who attained legendary
status within his own lifetime, began a centuries-long program to explore
Helvoon and spread across the entire planet rather than just be content
with the continent of Grummsha. After many hundreds of years the Salit
had become the undisputed masters of Helvoon, having wiped out 4 of the
other intelligent species on the planet, and enslaved the other 2. By this
time the Salit had attained the atomic age in terms of technology, partially
due to technology taken from the Crrsshyt, the most advanced species on
the planet at the time of their destruction at the hands of the Salit.
After a number of wars of independence fought
by the new colonies, and one rebellion by the Yeepa, one of the 2 enslaved
species, the Primate of the HarrKill nation (named after Harrash-Killjart),
having managed to hold onto all of his territory, began a space program
in order to conquer the stars and funnel the energies of the people away
from destructive civil wars. Most beings who attain spaceflight have doubts
as to whether there is any intelligent life elsewhere, at least until they
first encounter other sentients on other worlds, but the Salit never had
any doubts that the galaxy was full of sentients for them to conquer. After
a mere 200 years the Salit had used vessels approaching the speed of light
to colonize 4 systems around them. Only one of these systems had any habitable
planets, but the Salit saw this as a challenge, and terraformed all planets
where such a process was even remotely possible. Within their home system
and the 4 colony systems the Salit eventually had colonized 14 planets,
12 of these through terraforming. 450 years after the space program had
begun the Salit came into contact with a Herglic trading vessel that was
scouting out one of their systems. After the initial contact the Salit
attacked the light freighter, damaging it severely. The captured vessel
provided the Salit with many new technologies, including ray shielding,
blaster technology, and, most importantly, hyperdrive. The Salit quickly
incorporated these technologies into their starships and spread to another
7 systems within the next century. This time the Salit were able to pick
and choose which worlds to colonize, and only the most minimal of terraforming
projects were undertaken.
By the time the Salit encountered representatives
of the Old Republic they controlled 22 worlds and had a fairly sizable
military. The next few hundred years in Salit history are characterized
by fierce border wars with the Republic, interspersed with brief periods
of peace. From the point of view of the Salit these were wars of conquest
since the Republic was seen as stifling their growth. From the point of
view of the Republic, however, these were seen as unprovoked aggression.
Eight wars were fought in total, not including numerous border skirmishes.
The Salit managed to conquer and hold 5 worlds during these wars, although
they faced stiff resistance from the Republic, and were beaten back from
7 other planets that they briefly conquered. The last war was ended when
the Senate of the Republic decided that the Salit had to be dealt with
once and for all. The full force of the Republic Navy was brought to bear,
as opposed to the regional forces that the Salit had previously faced.
After 4 years of warfare one of the Salit-held worlds, the newly conquered
Ord Gandera, split from the Salit overnation and made an emergency application
for membership within the Republic. Several other Salit colony worlds followed
suit before the Salit monarchy, seeing no reason to continue to fight a
war with no chance of winning, sued for peace. After almost 2 decades of
negotiations each of the Salit worlds joined the Republic.
Most Salit tend to have jobs which many would
see as dangerous, such as scouts for mining companies, serving in the military,
and other occupations where they can fill their psychological need to conquer.
There are a number of Salit mercenary bands operating in known space. Most
of these are under license, but there are a small number of illegal Salit
mercenary groups which will take any job, regardless of who it is coming
from. All Salit military forces are technically considered mercenary groups
rather than militia, simply because the Salit military brass had little
wish to operate solely as a defense force when they joined the Old Republic.
By operating under a mercenary contract they were allowed to maintain their
independance from the Republic military, while still getting a chance to
see some offensive action. On many occasions the major Salit mercenary
groups were used by the Republic in major battles, both as support for
Republic military, and operating on their own. These mercenary groups were
held in high regard by Republic Admirals and Generals for their incredible
professionalism. This really isn't surprising considering the military
background that these organisations tend to have. Salit mercenaries can
generally only be hired for missions in which combat is expected, such
as assault missions. The Salit view defense-type missions as tedious, and
will generally only take missions serving as guards if the possibility
of combat is greater than 60%. This applies to escort missions, and missions
serving as planetary defense forces, etc. Note that the Salit are quite
happy to serve in planning defenses for cities, planets, etc. but expect
others to be hired for the boring patrol duty once the initial defenses
have been set up.
Attribute dice: 12D
Attribute min/max:
DEX 2D/4D+1
PER 2D/4D+2
KNOW 1D+1/3D+1
STR 2D/4D
MECH 1D+2/3D+2
TECH 2D/4D
Special Abilities:
adaptability: Salit generally take 10% less time than normal to adapt
to
new situations (10% less learning time when a skill is first learned,
but
no bonus later on improving that skill)
Story Factors:
desire to conquer: Salit have an instinctive need to conquer, and will
generally be found in occupations which allow them to fulfil this need
in
one way or another.
height: 1.8-2.1m
move: 10; 13 (on all fours)
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