Draconian

Draconian Empire, The

The Draconian Empire (referred to by the entirety of the race here phonetically as the "Cekahrr") had survived for unknown eons and was known to be an incredibly old race in terms of the current existing community. Their arrival here predates Man’s by well over hundreds of millions of years. The earliest mention of their civilization reveals the species was introduced into this domain and apparently “deposited” here by another unknown and vastly superior society even by the best of local galactic standards. They had been brought to this region of the universe from an unknown realm and simply left here. It is also unknown exactly when or why this happened except that at one point they were not here and suddenly (in relative terms) they were. There are no traces, remnants or even mention of whom this mysterious group of benefactors was or where they were from and they likewise vacated as rapidly as they arrived.

It is believed that this action was definitively and particularly forced upon the Cekahrr. And as you shall soon see, it was also particularly forced upon the rest of the inhabitants located here as well.

The specific debarkation point is to date obscure though it is believed that either Thuban or Alwaid were the suspected points of arrival origins. Regardless, both of these systems are considered Empire space and as such remain so to this day. Cekahrr live an unendurable amount of time, upwards of several hundreds to multiple thousands of years depending on caste, and likewise reproduce at a rather slow rate comparatively. This has made for an empire developed over the millennia and sustained by their longevity. Though they are deliberate in purpose, they are rarely in any hurry and are motivated by the concept that they have the advantage of time on their side – defining the empire as inexorable.

Though their vocalizations were difficult to understand or make any sense of and consisted of rolling atonal guttural growls and clicking noises, they were loud and harsh, and could take a significant amount of time to utter advanced concepts. It is believed that this is part of the reason why their clairvoyant abilities were so well refined. The warrior caste that unflinchingly followed the elites’ orders rarely spoke yet somehow could communicate with each other non-vocally.

When the soldiers did speak, it was quite short and poignant.

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The Cekahrr: two Sumerian statue representations of the Warrior caste “Shutu”

Overall, they are incredibly adept and considerably intelligent as a species. Their clairvoyant abilities are quite well known and it is believed all Draconians have a telepathic ability. It is also suspected some of the elites have a surprising skill to see across and likewise move to other planes. It had been reported that contingents of Draconis elites had appeared in other planes as these appearances were relayed by those who had achieved multi-planar travel many thousands of generations earlier. It has become widely understood that the Draconian ability to move this way had preceded their subsequent removal from some other as yet unknown place to this system.

Draconian society follows a more insect-like caste-based organization than true reptile social structure, though they appear definitively reptilian as well as bird-like in all outward aspects. They all exhibit a body armor of scales or plated hide, and/or feathering. These were apparently an evolutionary adaptation whose origins could only be guessed. They varied in colors, size, and build dependent on their caste which could range from very large, dark black and brown with yellow or red striping for the elites, to somewhat shorter and stocky, dark red or orange and black striping for the soldiers. The non-elite and non-warrior castes were all smaller in stature and armor, and considerably weaker though still quite formidable in their own right. The lower castes consisted of scientists, engineers and the rest of their minor industrial society and these caste populations were similarly very small as well. Despite such differences, all empiric fleet movements contained predominantly individuals from the warrior castes and very small contingents of the lower castes dependent on mission requirements.

Though it is still currently unknown what the Cekahrr require to sustain them, it has been reported they physically thrive on intense fear they induce in their subjects to the point of requiring the youngest conquered subjects as foodstuff. There have been some reports that they prefer to feed on the young of Man as a delicacy. There are considerable documented reports of this somewhat macabre activity.

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The Elite

The Cekahrr elite caste are the power holders and rarely venture from off homeworld (if ever) in order to occupy their literal political stranglehold and conduct empiric business from the central world called Draconis. This form of rule has held the empire together without question or internal contradiction, and throughout the compounded epochs no evolution from this form has been either attempted or even so much as hinted at.

Due to the rarity of offworld sightings of the elites, it has been said that only descriptions or images of them have actually been seen as by and large only the warriors and other lower caste Draconians have been observed out in the general community. What descriptions have been advanced commonly refer to large leathery wings or exaggerated portions of vestigial wings. The ruling caste individuals have the appearance of notable age and wear, and their temperament is said to be utterly devoid of empathy or patience. They are obviously and considerably larger than the rest of the castes and their physical and mental power is suggested as quite substantial. If anyone were for some odd reason to actually come to unprepared contact with any Draconis elite, it has been suggested this would be a very bad thing.

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Warriors

As a species, all Cekahrr are extremely tough and adaptable to practically any environment and even the most difficult of conditions, regardless of atmosphere, surface extremes, or even light – they do prefer the subsurface environment for both their own low light sources and consistent temperatures.

In most all cases, Draconian colonies and outposts are setup within such a subsurface construct and they only access the surface when required. It is this reason that the difficulty of eradicating them from their foothold restricts such action. It has been suggested that some of their military stations are actually built within large asteroids or small dead planetoids both throughout the empire and remotely.

Their fundamental method of colonizing a world with an existing race was to build the initial base of operations underground and expand it over time, crisscrossing the planet with subsurface tunnels and connecting their key tactical installations. Their tunneling technology is reported to be considerably advanced and can complete very long distances regardless of strata conditions in quite a short time. During the early periods of this work, a centralized political power is arranged with certain groups of individuals on the surface within a similar multi-layered caste hierarchy structure utilized by the Draconians, and these surface inhabitants were given absolute power though in fact this was an illusion as the Cekahrr ultimately ruled. In most all cases this would prove to be an unsettling peace without a single shot being fired simply by the excessive technology wielded. If any arbitrary case of global opposition appeared, the work underground would simply increase and the tease of advanced technology would be withheld. This would leave the surface inhabitants to remain at their former status quo and on the empire would grow.

And grow it has.

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The Empire and War

Draconians are empiric in nature, sinister in motivation, and aggressive by character. It was thought they potentially threatened the stability of the entire galaxy because of these very tendencies. Though the empire only grew in very short spurts, they continued to drive on gradually, consistently and without interruption. It is not truly known if they were ever really confronted during the tens of thousands of millennia up to this point due to the nature of their willingness to wield vast technologically advanced military resources in overwhelming fashion at even the slightest irritation. It has thus become generally accepted that rather than test the water, it was best to stay out of it.

They were generally avoided as long as they didn’t overtly intrude on previously controlled or managed space. Their movements and activities appear to be quite broad as they consistently moved into nearby inhabited systems, especially those of lesser evolved races and immediate control would ensue. Once this occurred the Draconian Empire would not and apparently could not be forced to release its hold.

The empire is vast and stretches from the Cygnus Arm to the Perseus Arm and up to the origins of the Orion Arm. Though their population is considerably smaller in size than one would expect for such an old society, nonetheless their foothold and realm of influence is solid and particularly avoided. All colonized systems and outposts within this range are very closely managed and intrusion into empire space (accidental or not) is ill-advised. Long term stagnation of the Empire also motivated them to spread throughout both further new systems as well as what can only be referred to as unknowns.

Otherwise, no intervention or intercession by the other races is known to have been attempted, yet a guarded eye was always maintained. It wasn’t until the Draconian empire reached the borders of neutral space that the scale of outside attention increased. Empire borders and neutral zones had been well defined for literally eons. Even the similarly advanced D’ouw race had relinquished territory to the empire solely for peacekeeping purposes and other as yet unknown agreements.

This is known already.

It is not known if there was ever any confrontation between the Empire and the D’ouw, even though this culture was relatively technologically as advanced as the Empire so alleviation of any hostilities was agreed upon between both cultures. The Cekahrr also revealed a prolonged and vicious willingness to thrive, such that the D’ouw abdicated for intellectual reasons of survival and their participation will reach fruition somewhat later. The relative abstinence of both committing to all out warfare seems to have been relinquished due to nothing politically motivated but related to cultural adaptation. The D’ouw perception of superiority over the Draconian Empire and yet reticence to utilize it proved an unwillingness to confront militarily which defined the long-term and disconcerting relationship between both cultures.

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circa 280 million years ago

The Draconian Empire invaded the initial Lyran systems for what can only be assumed as either their fear of the Tal’Man ongoing expansions might one day threaten the empire, or for simple resources – yet to this day it is not really known if these were even the reasons. Whatever the actual case behind it initially, the time frame was very quick and the first interstellar confrontation between two technologically adept races had begun – very simply referred to as an outright shooting war and it began directly from Draconis.

Massive Cekahrr fleets attacked the Lyran system colonies with advanced and competent ferocity. At the time, the Tal’Man tribal colonies were not as well equipped for warfare on this scale and it is not known whether or not a call for aid to the general community was made, or if any ever occurred. As more and more empiric fleets entered these systems, it became readily apparent that these colonies were in danger of annihilation. The tribes did manage to stave off immediate genocide by sacrificing what battle capable ships they did have in order to allow several of the besieged colonies time to escape with what few survivors they could manage, though these combatant craft were ultimately lost.

The damage to the Lyran worlds was massive and the losses to life equally so. It has been suggested that entire planets were utterly lost. Outgunned by the vastly superior Draconian armadas, the targeted colonials were forced to ultimately flee to the safer outlaying settlement homeworlds in the further reaches of Lyra away from the conflict. Some ultimately continued on to other colonies in the far flung systems outside of Lyra. Some even returned to Sirian Aschere. (Note: It is also believed a tribe who left for Murzim from Lyra were accompanied by a fleet from Draconis as either an escort or effectively as prisoners since there appears to be somewhat of an operative connection between a surviving Sirian Murzim Tal’Man tribe and a Draconian population also located in this system. Questions regarding the nature of this relationship are obvious.)

Once the hostilities had eventually subsided, it is not known whether any portions of the tribes remained on these devastated worlds or if Draconian outposts were established. In essence, the war was over nearly as quickly as it started.

It is believed due to the relative brevity of the confrontation that there must have been severe damage to the Cekahrr fleets or Man’s further colonial destruction would have been guaranteed. Draconis may have technically won the war to this point but the physical losses of attrition to the empire proved to be more than they had expected as now they had to reconsider maintaining the empire with diminished numbers. In an attempt to quickly recoup the fleet, a very small portion of the armada positioned itself in the border between Lyra and the empire, and the remainder returned to Draconian shipyards to refit and rebuild.

Also at this time there was the clear waning of the Cekahrr from their reproductive gap. This led to fears that many of them would eventually perish from simple longevity. Though the numbers of the warrior caste was still relatively vast, their total generational life cycle appears to be extremely close to some minor form of entropy as well.

Since the apparent losses incurred during the war with Man, Draconis immediately set out on a mission to rebuild their reduced numbers. It was decided that attempts should be made to increase their population by scientific hybridization in order to both defend as well as wage any further challenges to the empire.

To this end all expeditionary groups added contingents of scientists and the necessary laboratory equipment.

Excerpt from "The Book of Man"

Reprinted by Permission

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