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Description
Thyrons have a natural lifespan of 80 Earth years (140 Bemuge years). Adults are two meters tall on average, and are heavily built, with thick, humanlike torsos plated in natural chitin armor. A Thyron’s head resembles that of a rhinoceros beetle’s, with a thick horn curving upwards out from the face. At the sides are large compound eyes, colored a glistening black.
Thyrons have six limbs. Two on each side, close together where one would expect a “shoulder,” serve as arms, while the remaining two serve as legs. Each limb is sparsely covered in fine hairs, which provide a sense of touch. Hands and feet each have three claw-like digits, with one being opposable.
While their exoskeletons tend to be dark, dull browns and grays, the elytra (wing cases) on their backs are a fiery orange. Their elytra serve to hold their wings, which unfurl into a 5-meter wingspan. Despite their build, Thyrons are capable of flight, although they lack the stamina to fly for longer than a minute; due to this, their wings are more suitable for extending their jumps.
Thyron children are very different from their parents. They emerge from their oblong eggs (which are about the size of ostrich eggs) as large, white grubs. Their heads, rather than being like beetle larva heads, look more like the whiskered faces of sea cucumbers. They have ravenous appetites, and will eat any food, plant or animal, that their parents provide. When upset, rather than cry, they vomit a strong-smelling liquid, which, long ago, served to deter predators. They do not have their parents’ mental capabilities; however, they can remember even the finest details (even words, which they do not understand at the time), allowing them to develop their views of the world from right after exiting their pupae. Pupation comes ten years after being born; by this time, young Thyrons are 1.5 meters long, and half a meter thick. A Thyron will remain in his or her pupa for another half of a year, after which they break out with the help of their horn.
History
Main Article: History
Culture
Thyrons, by nature, could be considered a race of warriors; they are inherently aggressive and competitive. However, this also leads to individuals among them becoming ambitious politicians, businessmen, and scholars, among other aspirations.
Klakasnul is the most prevalent religion among Thyrons. It centers around the single god Neosi, who appeared before chieftain Klakasi of the ancient Yrlia tribe. As dictated by Neosi, Klakasi carved the tenets of Klakasnul, the Laws of Society, onto a clay tablet. One of its most profound tenets is that it is not honorable for the strong and powerful to abuse the weak and helpless; this goes directly against the Thyron’s competitive nature. Even to the nonreligious, the Laws of Society are considered a breakthrough in the Thyron’s societal development, to the point some suspect that the Thyrons may never have developed non-totalitarian systems of rule without them.
Another aspect of Klakasnul is Rekeles, who saved the Klakasnul-worshipping Thyrons of Karlas from invaders from Arlus. For this, as well as his abnormal blue (rather than orange) elytra, he is considered a messianic figure, and a divine champion of Neosi.
Technology
The Thyrons have employed space travel for a few centuries. The first interplanetary vessels took one or more years to travel from Bemuge to elsewhere in the Barmedas system, and could take years to assemble in the first place. Ensuring that crews had enough fuel and provisions to last for the length of their missions (or longer, should an emergency crop up) put a strain on manned exploration. Rather than exit the atmosphere by themselves, vessels had to be attached to enormous multi-phase rockets.
Nowadays, the average Thyron vessel can travel between planets in little time, and smaller ships can land and take off without a rocket’s assistance. Communication is also fast, even between stars; physics-manipulating “lanes,” essentially wormholes, transmit signal waves at a speed far faster than they would travel normally. These very lanes are used for FTL travel. Lanes between Thyron-occupied worlds are simple to travel, almost like well-trodden roads, since they are very compatible with the FTL drives. Heading outside of Thyron Federation space is much more complicated; heavy-duty FTL drives can open lanes of their own to unfamiliar stars, but the calculations can take days to complete, especially for longer distances.
Technology is often designed to mimic Thyron characteristics. For example, ships have a sleek, almost insectoid appearance, and are painted a glossy black (not just for looks; the black, metal-based paint helps absorb energy discharges). Windows resemble compound eyes. Engines and other appendages often have orange “hoods” resembling Thyron elytra, while heat radiators are designed to resemble chitinous wings.
The largest Thyron ships seldom reach over a few hundred meters in length. In the absence of sophisticated shield technology, the hulls of ships have inner layers surging with electricity, creating a magnetic field that helps “soften” energy discharges.