Kian'thar

The Kian'thar are a large, well-muscled humanoid race native to the planet Shaum Hii. The head of a Kian'thar is studded with a pair of large breather tubes and several small, tentacular appendages above its eyes and below its mouth. They are aquatic reptiles, evolved from land-based creatures to live in the oceans. Their skin is formed from a number of tough, scale-like plates that protect it like armor. They are a highly perceptive race, able to detect the emotions of others around them. The Kian'thar travels the oceans of Shaum Hii on bentails, herding the native derlacs as a source of food. Their technology level is therefore below the galactic norm, but this has not bothered the Kian'thar. The location of Shaum Hii has kept the Kian'thar separated from much of the galaxy until about 300 years before the Galactic Civil War, when a Shistavanen exploration group discovered them while charting the sector. The Kian'thar have been divided over how strongly to embrace galactic culture, but the feud has been minor as the Kian'thar were - as a race - content with their lots in life. The Kian'thar have a complex series of familial and leige relationships that are nearly impossible for offworlders to decipher. Among the more unusual aspects is the social requirement which forces fertilized eggs to be passed down through three generations of unrelated, affiliated clans before birth.