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Kith'turi
Alien
Homeworld:
Kith'tas, Sector 689  
Ecology:
Nitrogen-Oxygen-Water (H:F:2:7)  
Biology:
DNA II  
Languages:
Grand Federation A and native dialects  
Human Contact:
3236CE  
FTL Status:
16,177BC - Grand Federation assisted  
Current Status:
Grand Federation Tertiary Race 16,177BC, Grand Federation Secondary Race 11,265BC, Imperial Major Race 3854CE, KSUW 4989CE  
   
Environment
Ideal
Tolerance
 
Atmosphere:
.20B O2, .01 CO2 .12-.30B O2; CO2 < .05B  
Temperature:
305K 285-330K  
Gravity:
0.91G .10-1.25G  
Other:
Humidity 10% Humidity 01-70%  

Overview

The Kith'turi are a clannish oxygen-breathing race, partners with the jovian Salvaatiki in the KSUW, a large, technologically advanced coreward interstellar state.  A former Grand Federation Secondary Race conquered by the Empire of Humanity, The Kith'turi maintain trading enclaves among many Coreward words, both in Humans Space and within the borders of the Grand Federation of Races.

Physical Description

Kith'turi are thin bipedal quadrapods with a semi-rigid carapace of tan and brown camouflage coloring.  Adults range from 1.6-2.0 meters in height and 45-60 kilograms mass.  The Kith'turi head is triangular with two wide-set black eyes and a broad mouth with three rows of small flat teeth.  Long spike-like cilia-covered auditory spikes cover the rounded back of the Kith'turi skull.  The Kith'turi body resembles two overlapping parallel cylinders scored by numerous nearly vertical breathing slits.  Two double-jointed arms each end in a flat triangular hand that has two sets of two long mutually opposable fingers.  Two thin legs end in wide hoofed feet.  Kith'turi breeding-age females are identifiable by black dotted patterns on their body carapace and heads.  Kith'turi do not normally wear clothing, as their breathing slits occupy much of their torso.  Utility belts and bracelets around the upper portions of their limbs are common adornments.  Most Kith'turi have their clan names etched into their otherwise featureless foreheads, females after giving birth, males after marriage into a clan.

Physiological and Social Development

Kith'turi are clannish, living in extended matriarchal family groupings of 24-128 individuals, usually engaged in a single occupation or enterprise.  Kith'turi have two sexes and the females bare live young, usually singly, after a six-month gestation.  The Kith'turi mother can consciously control the gender of her offspring, and sex ratios differ depending on the needs of the clan.  The clan rears children communally, and they reach adult size after seventeen standard years.  Females remain with their mother's clans. Males marry into other clans - to clans, not to individuals - usually before the age of twenty, and adopt their new clan's occupation.  Kith'turi society is based on the authority of post-breeding matriarchs, who lead clans and form the basis of larger representative bodies, which are centered on economic or societal roles rather than geography.  Large clans "reproduce" by producing "enclaves" of 8-24 individuals who follow a single matriarch to establish a new clan of similar occupation in a new location.

Kith'turi society is not individualistic.  Clan members submit to the will and goals of the group and are identified by clan and function rather than an individual name.  Kith'turi social practices are essentially undifferentiated across space and historical time, based on the guiding principles of a philosophy called T'klaw, which preaches individual acceptance to the vagaries of life while affirming the central part that the Kith'turi race plays in maintaining the balance of the Universe.  Kith'turi regard death as a normal function of life.  While nanomed implant enhance natural Kith'turi health and prevent disease, the Kith'turi do not adopt treatments that extend their life spans beyond their natural range of 150-200 standard years.

History

Kith'turi evolved from bands of scavenging omnivores living on the arid central plateau of their homeworld's supercontinent.  Volcanic activity associated with the beginnings of the breakup of Kith'tas' main land mass led to the ecological degradation and increased competition for resources.  By the beginnings of Kit'turi history around 20,000BC, the Kith'turi had established cooperative groups of specialized clans living in oases and rift valleys across their ancestral plateau.  The Kith'turi have not warred against each other in historical times, but males were often specialized hunters, scouts and messengers who braved the desert wastes while females tended to clan societal matters.

The Kith'turi underwent an industrial revolution around 16,800BC and subsequent industrial pollution, combined with continuing volcanic activity, led to a near breakdown of civilization by 16,520BC.  The discovery of clean solar and eventually, fusion technologies saved Kith'tas from total collapse and inaugurated an era of exploratory space travel via beanstalks and nuclear-propelled plasma craft around 16,300BC.  Contact with a Salvaatiki research vessel in orbit around the Kith'tas system's outer gas giant led to Grand Federation contact in 16,180BC.  Three years later, the Kith'turi joined the Grand Federation as a Tertiary Race under Un’aa’gram Primary Race patronage, with the Salvaatiki serving as one of the Kith'turi's Secondary Race patrons.  The Kith'turi became an active race on the Grand Federation's rimward border, establishing several colonies and creating clans dedicated to protecting and developing the frontier region.  Kith'turi T'klaw philosophy adapted itself to see their race as defenders of the greater body of intelligent races.

In 11,265BC, the Un’aa’gram helped to orchestrate the advancement of the Kith'turi to Secondary Race stature, under Un’aa’gram, Eenikiti and Tze’t patronage.  The Kith'turi began to expand their settlement range and became important members of the rimward Grand Federation community, often in association with their Salvaatiki allies.  The Kith'turi accepted Fontan patronage after that race achieved Primary Race status in 6100BC, but remained close to their former Un’aa’gram patrons.  The Kith'turi remained ostensibly loyal to the Heshar during the Heshar's period of dominance and well into the War of Liberation, but joined the Eentiki in raids against Heshar outposts late in the war.

In the fourth millennium, the Kith'turi saw the rise of Humanity on the Grand Federation borders as a threat to thousands of years of stability.  They fought against the Empire of Humanity in the Heshar War and all the Federation Wars, their clan-based fleets often launching deep raids into Human territory.  The Kith'turi suffered the Hellking destruction of three settled worlds before the final armistice ended the Fourth Federation War.  After annexation in 3854CE and a failed revolt in 3874CE, the Kith'turi race remained a troublesome member of the Empire of Humanity for over a century.  As relations between the Empire and the Grand Federation improved, the Kith'turi adjusted themselves to Imperial membership, resuming trading expeditions and joining the Imperial forces in the Dragon War, eventually becoming a cooperative Major Imperial Race.

After the Fall of the Empire, the Kith'turi, Salvaatiki and other former Grand Federation races formed the Federation Races Protection League in 4761CE, but as the races formerly associated with two large interstellar states slowly asserted their newfound independence, that organization withered, and the Kith'turi and their long-time associates, the Salvaatiki, formed the Kith'turi-Salvaatiki Union of Worlds (KSUW) -often referred to as KithSalvakia by Humans - in 4989CE.  During the sixth and seventh millennia, the KSUW reestablished closer relations with the Grand Federation of Races and continually protected its borders against incursions by Human pirate activity.

Current Status

Over 180 billion Kith'turi occupy 168 worlds in the six coreward sectors dominated by the KSUW.  The Kith'turi and the Salvaatki maintain their political, military and economic union, run from Orath, the moon of the Salvaatiki settled world of Orgoorm in the jointly occupied Turhu-Orgoorm system in Sector 689.  The Kith'turi enjoy a continued close relationship with the Grand Federation of Races and have established a fully post-material early microjump era technology society.  Kith'turi traders have established trading communities on many Coreward systems and Drifts, maintaining somewhat cool relations with the Merchant Guild and the Ertan Directorate, but they have warmer relations with the Independent Traders Association and with the B'dr'rak Confederation. 

Notes

The relationship between the Kith'turi and the Salvaatiki is reminiscent of that between the Humans and the Alimeen, where two very different races retain a close relationship based on early contact, non-competing claims and nostalgia. 

The many Kith'turi trading enclaves scattered across Coreward Space are known as fair but aloof residents on their host worlds.

 

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