Coathal

Coathal
Species Info
Homeworld		Charum
Empires		Vesreen Holdings
Life Expectancy (Max)		150 (250)
Average Size		5-8 Feet

Overview

The reptilian Coathal are among the galaxy’s most uniquely resourceful people. Forged in fire by their pitiless desert homeworld of Charum, the natural strength and endurance of the Coathal is matched only by their stoicism. And yet above all, the Coathal regard democracy and civil discourse as their highest ideals.

Though their physical technology developed slowly, with space travel being only a recent advent, the Coathal have had a functioning civilization for longer than any other of the galactic powers, with their early bronze age having come about nearly 80,000 years ago. The result is a government composed of all their colonies, which practices direct democracy at every opportunity. Named for its star, the Vesreen Holdings is a government that regards individual voting rights as sacrosanct, and holds referenda on subjects as vast as war and commerce, to as granular as traffic bylaws.

Owing to this, the Coathal have a reputation for the slow, deliberate route in all things, and regard debate as a sacred right. This is a conclusion the Coathal have reached after countless millennia of political development and experimentation, dabbling in virtually every other system of governance. In many ways, the Coathal are “post-political”, their racial political processes long since honed by the advent of their Commweb. Each individual Coathal has a personal data Commlink they cherish, carry, and remain connected to during downtime and sacred family time alike.

Biology

Forged by a brutal climate and intense scarcity of resources, the Coathal are among the hardiest species in the galaxy, able to withstand the searing sands and eternal drought of their desert homeworld Charum, where they have evolved for millions of years. They possess hard scales, muscled bodies, have a number of biological adaptations such as subdermal chromatophores, sharp talons, and teeth to complement their robust physiology. Coathal are generally oviparous, and value the home as a place to first nurture an egg, and then raise a hatchling in.

There is no staggering physiological difference between Coathal males and females. Coathal can influence the birthed gender of their young through adjusting egg temperatures - hermaphroditism is a common result as well. Culturally, this makes gender a far weaker social concept - secondary sex characteristics and gender expression are often no good indicator of the reproductive organs a Coathal possesses.

Galactic Opinion

The Coathal have a reputation for stoicism, stubbornness, and a languid and slow pace in all things. Their deliberate nature frustrates faster-living races such as humans and Rokhandans, and their scavenger ways and strange hygiene practices cause them to be poorly understood, even by the relatively few people that have encountered them since their FTL first contact.

The federation consider the Coathal an enemy, having crossed them to side with the Coalition in the Secession War. Federation sympathizers will be eager to portray the Coathal as brutish, unintelligent scavengers from a dead planet.

Furthermore, the Vesreen Holdings government is notoriously difficult for powerful corporate lobbies to infiltrate, owing to its democratic nature and extremely stringent, rules-oriented political system. As a result, the Coathal have resisted numerous attempts at Corporate expansion, making themselves a target of the corporate propaganda machine, and portrayed as depraved scavengers and cannibal savages. The Onk Conglomerate’s similarly autocratic business practices have also been frustrated by this Coathal penchant for anti-corruption.

Neither of these factors have entirely dissuaded outside interests, of course - there is far too much valuable ore and spice in Vesreen space to entirely dismiss the Coathal. What’s more, citizens of the great galactic powers are at last taking notice of the Coathal’s fierce democracy, which is earning the envy and admiration of all those suffering under autocracies.

Naming Convention

TBD

Style Guide

Please see the Appearance Guide for non-race specific guidance and rules.

Coathal should use reptilian heads such as the DSD Dragon or ONA Snokra, or alternatively a non-reptilian head modded to be race accurate. Coathal vary in size and can be represented as larger anthro dragons, thin tall Snokras or the size of a normal avatar. They should have some kind of scaled body texture; any scale color is fine - and indeed the Coathal are known for painting and oiling their scales.