Name: Cgorevinian qkaulom [KGOR-ehv-INN-ee-an kaw-lome]
Homeworld: Cgorev
Height/Length/Weight: The qkaulom are a sizeable race, with the males being considerably larger than the females. Males are 7-8' tall; females are 6-7' tall. Males weigh from 550-700 lbs; females weigh from 400-500 lbs. Qkaulom are as long (from nose to haunches) as they are tall, with an extra 5-8' of tail.
Physical Description: The qkaulom are warm-blooded, reptilian tauroids. Males tend to be brawny, bulky, and overally thickly muscular, whereas females are lean, compact, and more streamlined. Their faces have short, lizard-like muzzles concealing rows of sharp, triangular teeth; they have large, dark eyes with pale rings around the eyelids. They have no hair, fur, or feathers; their hide is thick, leathery, and becomes toughened into a scale-like pattern over their back and all along their lower body, but for their lower stomach. Cgorevinian qkaulom have forked tongues, flared nostrils, and mere slits for ears. On males, a small ridge of spike-like protrusions that runs from their muzzle, over their head, and along their spine to the tips of their tails; from upper shoulders to lower haunches, the protrusions can be up to two and three inches long. Qkaulom have humanoid arms with strong, clawed hands; their upper torsos are also extremely male-type humanoid, and females do not possess mammary glands. Male qkaulom, upon coming of age, amputate their right arms and replace it with a mechanical one, made of a lustrous black metal only found on Erdor and Cgorev. This robotic arm is typically coupled with a small gun, as well as three blade-like claws on its hand in lieu of fingers, and is powered by blackgems (black crystals that store magic); unlike Erdora qkaulom arms, which use Erdora crystals, Cgorevini arms do not have a magic dampening field nor an intimidation effect, since the former is unnecessary (Cgorev is magic-dry) and the latter is not possible with such an energy-barren world. Cgorevinian qkaulom have powerful lower bodies with deep chests, flexible waists, and muscular limbs that, unlike Erdora qkaulom, are aligned with their bodies (saurian, rather than crocodilian). They have a long tail; males' are capped in a mace-like ball of chitinous spikes, while females' tails are softer, blunt-tipped, and flexible.
Senses/Capabilities: Cgorevinian qkaulom have excellent long-range sight; they see in greyscale and do best when not in stark sunlight nor total darkness, having evolved away from the nocturnal sight of the Erdora qkaulom. In places of extreme darkness, they do have some infrared vision, but it is indistinct and close-range. Though their senses of smell and taste are still very poor, heritage from their roots in noisy, smoke-filled caverns, Cgorevinian qkaulom have good hearing and fine reflexes. Their physical capabilities have adapted to living above-ground; they are still extremely powerful (even the females, though they are still far weaker than the males), and they are strong runners, able to reach and hold a gait up to 35 mph (males) or 40 mph (females). They are excellent swimmers, though poor climbers, and the females tend to be quite agile and flexible. However, the price for speed and dexterity is endurance; they move quickly, run frequently, and consequentially have fairly poor endurance at any given time. Warrior qkaulom conserve their strength in much the way their Erdora cousins do - by moving slowly and never extending oneself, except in battle or training for war.
Coloration/Clothing: Cgorevinian qkaulom are quite dark-skinned; their hides tend to be medium-to-dark in a mottled pattern, with their undersides (chests, bellies, throats) paler and more solid in coloration. They can be black, grey, brown, green, or any combination thereof. Their eyes are dark, sharply contrasted by a pale ivory-white ring around their eyelids; their claws are uniformly black. Qkaulom don't wear clothing, though they can and do fashion and wear armor for battle; females wear a metal collar with the insignia of her mate's house and his name, if she is owned.
Races/Breeds: Once, Cgorevinian qkaulom and Erdora qkaulom were one and the same people. When the qkaulom discovered how to travel between the two planets orbiting their sun, they took fleets of people to Cgorev, conquered the cgorevini natives, and settled there. Over time, there has been such strict bloodline-management that the settlers on Cgorev became an entirely different race, one adapted to living in a well-lit world above the ground, while the Erdora qkaulom became ever further evolved to thrive in their massive underground cities. However, the two sister-races remain tightly allied, and the Cgorevinian qkaulom are the shock troops of any and all qkaulom activity outside their own sunsystem; they were the ones who hunted the tache back to their homeworld and slaughtered them all.
Language: All Cgorevinian qkaulom know Old Qkaulish, the original language spoken on Erdor; most qkaulom also know vinian, the native tongue of the cgorevini that they conquered and enslaved. (Interestingly, more females than males know vinian, despite most males having two or three other languages that they can read and write - for blueprints and trading.) Old Qkaulish itself is a guttural, snarling language, difficult for many races with more delicate vocal chords to speak. Its vocabulary tends to be centered around nouns, technological terminology, and terms of combat/war. Most terms used towards females and/or other races are very derogatory, whereas the language females use towards males is very respectful and flattering.
Technology: Cgorevinian qkaulom are extremely technologically advanced, though their Erdora brothers have surpassed them. Their cities are massive constructions of towering, sturdy buildings of iron and steel; giant black solar panels line every roof to collect enough solar energy to power the technology contained within. Unlike Erdora qkaulom, whose technology is powered by magic-imbued crystals, Cgorevinian qkaulom resorted to sunlight as the only available fuel for their inventions - Cgorev itself is practically dry of magic. Most Cgorevinian technology is practical; machines for construction, for excavation, for defense and warfare. A network of large freight trains link the major qkaulom cities, and there are several shipyards where new intersun ships are designed, built, and often sold to non-qkaulom for a great deal of resources and knowledge.
Magic: Once, only female qkaulom were magic-users - usually warlocks, necromancers, or black mages. However, Cgorev is nearly empty of magical energy, rendering spells and rituals powerless on its surface. The native cgorevini, whom the qkaulom settlers conquered when they first landed, had learned to bind what few drops of magic existed into fragile black crystals called blackgems; now, female qkaulom have taken over that duty. They mine, shape, polish, and enchant the blackgems, which are then used to power the few Harbingers on Cgorev, as well as the male qkaulom's mechanical arms. As on Erdor, male qkaulom oversee all training and activity, despite it being a strictly female job.
Values: Cgorevinian qkaulom value sheer strength (of body and will), technical skill, quickness of reflex, and aggression. The male who is physically superior, mechanically educated, aggressively ambitious, and who possesses a large group of desirable women (and therefore a considerable amount of sway over a blackgem supply) is seen as ideal. All strive to best him by excelling past him (or killing him). There is also a very subtle, discreet, sly movement that suggests that a male who is deft at handling his women will therefore earn more mates and thus more access to blackgems, as well as more offspring and thus a widespread bloodline - however, this must be very low-key, as a male who treats females too well is seen as weak and will often be attacked.
Social Groups/Society: Society has undergone several changes in the transition from Erdor and the generations spent on Cgorev. There are still houses, which consist of a prime male, his mates, and their offspring, as well as any servants/slaves/craftsmen who have sworn allegiance to the house; each house has its own land and its own particular skills, often determined by which craftsmen/technicians have been taken into the house. (Craftsmen, technicians, etc are all males who are not strong enough to create and hold their own houses, yet still have valuable skills to offer their communities - which, in turn, means they are not killed for being worthless.) However, the prime males of each house only cooperate with the other primes in their own city or town, forming a Primarchy that governs each settlement. Primarchies are independent of one another and autonomous; they can ally with other Primarchies of neighboring settlements or completely ignore each other. Blood feuds between houses of different Primarchies often cause the two Primarchies to go to war, though houses can still act as a military unit without involving their Primarchy. A rebellious prime male within a Primarchy who causes too much trouble in his city or between his city and others is likely to have his house dismantled in the same thorough way as it's done on Erdor - prime male killed, women distributed amongst the strongest houses, technicians bought and sworn into new houses, and possessions either destroyed or taken by others. Many houses enact open violence against each other, but just as many are secretive in their enmity; it is as common to see a house's estate destroyed by an all-out battle as it is to see the estate suddenly occupied by a rival house with no warning that the original occupants had been killed off. As on Erdor, women have no political power or rights; they are, effectively, expensive and valuable possessions of the men. Women are used for mating and thus the expansion of one's bloodline; they are seen as a sign of physical prowess (the more women one male has, the stronger he is thought to be). Women are also typically the overseers of the cgorevini, who are too lowly for the males to waste time tending; therefore, the more women a male owns as mates, the greater his access to both blackgems to keep his mechanical arm powered and the food that the cgorevini provide. However, a woman has no say in who becomes her mate, nor when/how/how often they mate; a father will sell or trade his adolescent daughters to males of houses with whom he wishes to ally. If a daughter is not mated by the time she becomes fully adult, she is dismissed from her house and can be claimed by the first male who reaches her. (On Cgorev, women actually have more use and value than on Erdor, where they are usually only used for mating. If they realize their own worth, they aren't letting on about it; they seem to be just as submissive as Erdora women.)
Habitat/Settlements: Cgorevinian qkaulom, although they've become diurnal and adapted to some sunlight, still refuse to live anywhere there is no shelter from the sun. They will build solar power generators in the brightest of areas, then use that extra energy to fuel their nearby settlements and machines. Qkaulom prefer rocky areas, often mountains or rugged forests, but some have found a fondness for the cliffs near seas and oceans. Qkaulom cities are huge collections of buildings, which are many-floored and very wide with large doors/windows/halls, and they often pave the streets with cemented gravel or even a solid layer of textured metal. The cities are where most engineering and invention occurs; smaller towns (which usually have dirt streets and are seen as ugly/dirty) are normally responsible for providing food, armor, and smaller/simpler tools and weapons. Nearly all mechanical arms are made in small towns, as well. A qkaulom house has its own small estate - a patch of land and collection of buildings within a city/town.
Religion/Beliefs: Qkaulom have no time or care for religion. They have no particular beliefs about deities, spirits, ancestors, or an afterlife. Arcane magic is a normal, measurable thing and to be used as one pleases, not worshipped - despite its scarcity on Cgorev, this attitude is unchanged from that of the Erdora qkaulom.
Interaction w/ Other Species: Cgorevinian qkaulom have a prideful disdain of other species. They view the cgorevini as weak, barely more than beasts, and do not hesitate to kill those who have no worth; however, they continue to keep the species alive and enslaved because of how useful they have proved in managing food sources (animals and plants alike) for the qkaulom, as well as keeping their water pure. (Pure water was a delicacy on Erdor, and a hearty appreciation of it has not faded, even after generations of living on Cgorev.) Cgorevinian qkaulom have some slight sense of respect for traders who are both cunning and generous - who respect and fear the qkaulom's strength without being insecure in their own. Qkaulom have a higher respect for those who will stand up to their aggression unflinchingly; with the tache, this respect and stand-off turned into a chaotic war that saw the tache race nearly wiped out for daring to place themselves as equals to the qkaulom. (Ironically, the qkaulom wound up liking the tache quite a lot, and bear no hatred for them - nor would they hesitate to slaughter any taches on sight, even after they so definitively won the war.)