Aktarian

Description:
3m tall bipeds from Aktar 4. With bird like heads, anomalacrid like eyes and long, thin limbs they may look like a mashup of Earth animals, but their inner biology is much more different. Hands face upwards with 4 fingers and 2 thumbs each. Feet have 2 long toes on each foot. The body resembles that of Subnautica's Sea Striders, featuring a very short tail. Average lifespan is 180 years but stem cell technology will extend that for individuals with more important jobs (mainly long duration space expeditions) Aktarians communicate with clicks, hisses, whistles and barks.

Species history:
A young race (only 3000 years old), the Aktarians are very grateful for the planet they live on. Bursting with resources, Aktar 4 rapidly boosted the species to the stars allowing the Aktarians to gain a foothold in its region of space before bigger empires reached them first.

For the first 500 years or so, the population was confined to the desert/savanna/grassland continent of South Cylo, living in nomadic tribes and primitive civilisations.

For the next 1500 years, the continent was full of royal desert empires, warring factions in the grasslands and religious groups in the valleys and mountains. The species had also moved into North Cylo, where culture seemed like a real life version of For Honor with its feudal realms and different cultures; also into the continent of Asio, industrial civilisations based on exploration were beginning to expand.

A few hundred years on and civilisation made a huge leap as the early Asioans finally were able to extract the huge amount of oil from the top of the towering rock spires they lived around. In the far mountains of North Cylo, empires were mining a natural form of gunpowder. In South Cylo new, modern civilisations based on democracy or oligarchy were thriving. During this time, two world wars were fought with the nations in South Cylo and Asio fighting the newly formed North Cylonian Federation. They both ended in close northern defeats. Since then, the two remaining superpowers agreed to not enter any more conflict. Soon after, they made their way to the stars.

Aktarians are intelligent and logical yet somewhat skittish. Due to the diverse planet they originate from, racism isn't so much of an issue, but xenophobic paranoia is. Aktarians are generally slow to trust other societies or cultures and are highly cautious in their actions, despite having a great amount of intelligence. At the moment, the Aktarians are in an alliance with the Ionax empire.

Governments/society:
Two empires reign from Aktar 4; The UCE (United Cylo Empire), a government in which 9 party representatives across the political spectrum are elected by the public to lead every 30 years. This empire is certainly the more vocal of the two, usually being the one to communicate and trade with aliens or fight wars. Citizens live varied lifestyles depending on where they are born, sometimes colonists may have more work opportunities but Aktar 4 residents will have a cleaner environment. A pseudo-currency system is in place; citizens are given a certain amount of tokens (almost like digital ration cards) depending on their job which can be spent on food and other goods. Businesses operate throughout the empire, but they are monitored by the government. UCE citizens are open to change, as lifestyle varies depending on the party in charge. The UCE owns 2 other systems.

The communist Asioan Empire sticks to itself most of the time, with its core values focusing on technological improvement, ecology and exploration. Citizens born on Aktar 4 have choice on what Asioan-owned planet they wish to work on, with free transport provided by the state, citizens born on colonial planets equally have the choice to move once they reach adulthood. There is no currency, resources are shared throughout the empire, Asioans and Asio-colonists have their living conditions slightly upgraded depending on how hard they work (this is decided by local union leaders, who are changed each 2 months) which means families will move house a lot. The Asioan Empire own 1 other system.

The UCE are unlikely to start a war themselves, as Aktar 4's history has taught the species that war causes too much collateral damage, however they are happy to trade and make allies with other alien races. The Asioan Empire will only really communicate with the UCE and the Ionax, which usually consists of reminding each other about the technology development-for-protection agreement they have.

 3-4% of Aktarians worship the sun, nebulae and other "creator" space entities.

There are a total of 17 billion Aktarians spread across 4 planets.

Technology:

 * Fungoid bio weapons that can take over a city overnight
 * High power projectile based weaponry using magnetic propulsion
 * Genetically engineered animals. Some can photosynthesise and live on farms as walking solar panels, others are horrific creatures that act as war machines. Some scientists are looking into creating silicon based life.
 * Efficient hydro electricity power and hyper refineries capable of making fossil fuels 3x more effective.

Their method of FTL (faster than light) travel pushes the ship through spacetime to quickly reach a destination (like doing breaststroke underwater when you pull water around you to propel yourself) about 2x faster than warp travel. Smaller ships will use warp travel.