Castithan

The Castithan are one of the member races of the Votan. They originate from the planet Daribo but had a significant presence on the planet Casti.

Biology & Appearance
The Castithan appear very similar to humans. Their coloration is very pale, however, verging on albinism, with pale white skin, white hair, and pale yellow eyes.

Culture
The Castithan society is aristocratic and hierarchical, and the other Votan races view them as arrogant. The Castithans used to have a patriarchal, rigidly segregated society on their home planet based on castes (known as liros), though this has broken down somewhat among the survivors on Earth due to the harsh conditions of the war and its aftermath.

Datak Tarr, co-founder of Defiance (in the former location of St. Louis) is a Castithan, from one of the lower castes. His wife, Stahma Tarr, is from one of the Castithan higher castes. As a member of the lower castes, Datak possesses more egalitarian values, striving to work with other races through sharing of power to achieve mutual defense.

Religion
Castithan society is deeply religious. The Castithans religion, Shirivanawo, is monotheistic, has a strict dogma and is lead by the Skabolo. Violation of these practices are harshly persecuted. While dogmatic in many other social areas, the Castithan religion has few restrictions on sexuality, and Castithans are actually quite liberal in their attitudes towards sex.

History
When the Votan star system was being evacuated, each race was left to decide how they would select the small fraction of their populations which would be saved. The scientific and rational Indogenes stoically selected their best and brightest, while the Irathients decided who would earn a place in the evacuation fleet during a round of inter-tribal wars to determine who was the strongest (and therefore fittest in their culture). However, the Castithan leadership officially decided to evacuate only members of their higher castes, and leave the lower castes to die in their home star system. Thus, more than any other Votan race, the Castithans on Earth are not a microcosm of their entire race's social structure, but a disproportionate slice of their ruling elites. This causes several problems for the Castithans on Earth, as they don't really have a working-class base to rely on. Indeed, higher-caste Castithans living on Earth tended to assume that they could treat the other Votan races as essentially their new lower-castes, feeling they should lead the Votanis Collective while the other races serve them. This has led to considerable tension with the other races. Even so, a large number of Castithans from the lower-castes were still able to make their way onto the evacuation fleet and arrive at Earth, through one means or another (bribing their way onto the ships, or simply stowing away).