Sourai

Average Height: 2.3 meters
Average Lifespan: Unkown
This is a Unique Dark Horizons Species! 
 
==FIRST CONTACT==
:In a distant part of the Galaxy, far from the core worlds and beyond the reaches of all but the insane, is a system that astrologers have named Red Omega Six, a name given to it mistakenly when early scientists thought it to be a red sun. However, advances in technology brought the discovery that the star itself is a healthy yellow star, and that the red color comes from the reflection of the 26 planets that circle it... all but a few consisting of a vibrant red color due to the unusually large amount of iron ore and other mineral deposits on them... making the system a treasure trove to those brave, or insane, enough to venture so far from the known systems to harvest it.
:Thousands have tried to reach it, and it is believed some had, but no word was ever returned to the inner systems until recently. A single ship, set on auto pilot, returned to the system... the corpses of its crew telling sad and lonely tale of starvation and death... some doctors believing that most of the crew had been mortally wounded before attempting the trip home. It was a short time before they found out why.
:The ships log, what was left of it, revealed a horror story. The planets were indeed rich with ore, so rich in fact, that one of the larger planets could provide enough raw material to rebuild every structure on Coruscant a hundred times over and still be abundant. The story went on to tell how the mining crew discovered the remnants of many other fortune seekers who had met some unknown demise. There was mutiny, many of the men fearing the same death and believing the system cursed. However, the truth could not have been more frightening.
:Within a week of the operation being underway, an alert went out of an enormous ship leaving one of the two habitable planets in the system. The ship itself, of unkown make and design, was larger than three star destroyers combined. Fear brought the mining operation to a stand still, though it was obvious to the Miners that whoever the ship belonged to was race of lower sentience, the vessel took a month to reach the planet, and no communication could be established with them. When the ship finally arrived, it shook the planet, destroying geographical features in its landing with a seeming insane, wreckless disregard for the safety of the ship or those inside.
:A group of miners, including the CEO of operations, was sent to speak with whoever would descend from the ship... They though perhaps they would have found a new species to trade with, they feared that they had found a new enemy. What they recieved was a nightmare.
:As the giant ramp descended from the hull, there came a hushed silence of the planet, as if it knew what was to come. Then there was a roar, as of thunder in the distance, and a single humanoid painted in red, and already bleeding from many wounds, appeared. He spoke an alien tongue that seemed to share many qualities of the Corellians', but it was clear by his tone that there was no peace here. He raised a crude weapon, and then there was a sea of bodies storming the planet. Within hours, the mining operation had been destoryed, all but a few were killed. Somehow, thanks to a jetpack and pure luck, the CEO had survived to meet his men and escaped in a single ship. All else was destroyed by those he called Demons.
==Sourai: Characteristics==
:A warlike race, whos culture was spawned from the evolution of long standing grudges that developed over hundreds of thousands of years into a sort of Tribal governance, the Sourai are descendants of ancient space faring human colonials. Peculiarly, their language shares many idoms of the Corellian language, and it is thought that they are descended from the same species of humans that populated Corellia.
:As their race evolved to cope with the nature of their homeworld, so too did their culture and technologies. To outsiders, they appear to be brutish and uncivilized, but they are actually as brilliant and technologically advanced as their distant Human cousins, while also supporting a greater physical prowess.
:The Sourai themselves appear to be human, averaging around 2.3 meters tall, the tallest reaching well over eight feet. Their hair ranges in colour from greys to whites, or have none at all, while their eyes can come in any colour, from entirely black or silver, to bright red or neon green. Their skin is always a strange chalky white colour, that tans a peculiar ashy grey. Aside from a common ancestor, the red color of their blood, and their general body structure, they have become an entirely different species from Humans; believed to have been caused by the radiation storms that flood their system. They traditionally wear no clothing, but each Sourai, regardless of gender, also owns a suit of armour which they learn to craft themselves at an early age.
==Sourai Culture==
:The Sourai, or 'People of Blood', are a sentient, human-like race, believed to have actually evolved from early human colonists. They come from twin planets they call Sou, or 'Blood', their space faring race not differentiating between the two as they travel between them on a daily basis, in a system the rest of the Galaxy knows as Red Omega Six.
:The Sourai government is prmarily dependent upon a strong Clan system, each clan consisting of several families governed by a Lord. The Lord is chosen hereditarily, passing from first born son to first born son, or very rarely to the first born daughter if no son is born, or the boy dies before taking the crown and there are no other sons.
:The Clans themselves live in highly advanced cities, built on discs that hover several meters over the surface of Sou. They live like nomads, following the migrations of their 'domesticated' herds of Sloop; though the Sourai's opinion of domesticated is that their pets are as likely to eat them as to be eaten.
:The Clans are almost always at war with each other. Their advanced technology has eliminated the worries of death from disease or sickness. They posess cloning technology which allows them to regrow the flora and fauna of their worlds should they run low... which leaves them only to worry about overpopulation. However, they do not govern the rovings of their herds, and often cross into the territory of other clans while following their food. This leads to almost immediate battle between the two clans.
:The Sourai, who posess the technology, despise the idea of using ranged weapons and blasters. They believe it displeases their gods, who live off the blood of those that die well in battle, and so they use melee weapons in order to gain honor through skill and spread the blood of warriors to Sou. 
:However, the Sourai call truce for one day of the year for a festival, where they meet in a giant floating city called Raisou or 'Blood of the People', which consists of the deserted cities of the tribes that have fallen. It is the only city that remains stationary and sits on the surface of the planet. The festival is held to trade women and goods between clans, and also convene the meeting of Lords, where the heads of clans or their first born sons go to discuss the need of harvesting materials from the outlying planets in the system. Occaisionally, the Council of Lords is called when there is an outside threat to the system, which happens every few generations when mining companies or colonists attempt to enter the system.
==Sourai Religion==
:Sourai lore says that they were born amongst the stars, and that their Gods called them across the depths of the 'Great Darkness' to live upon their flesh for a great test of the people. What this test is, or its purpose, the Sourai do not know. However, the planets Sou are the two great Gods, the outlying planets of their system are lesser Gods, and many lesser spirits also survive upon the surface of Sou. All of the Gods drink of the blood of their children, the Sourai, and take greatest pleasure in the blood of warriors who die well.
:The warriors who die well are said to be taken and given knowledge of the great Test in the afterlife, and those who came closest to achieving the answer in life are granted godhood. Those who displease Sou are cast in to the Great Darkness.
==Red Omega Six==
:Red Omega Six was mistakenly named for its unusal size and brilliant red colour. The star at the center of the system, however, is a yellow star. What gave it the red colour that originally fooled Astronomers was the unusual number of red planets around, off of which the yellow stars light reflected. Of twenty six planets in the system, twenty three consist have a surface colour of red, one planet is black, and the other two are the planets Sou, which are the only two habitable to human life.
:The planets consist of a unique amount of precious gems and metals, each of the twenty three planets consisting of eighty percent metal ore or precious gems, making the system highly covetable. The twenty fourth planet consists of a very unique metal, and gem ore, which is as of yet unidentified, though the Sourai build their armour from this metal.
:For untold generations, mining companies have forged across the great emptiness into unkown space in an attempt to mine the distant planets, it is believed that the Sourai were the first of these travellars who, and that the reason they never returned, and also developed their unique government, was because of the grudges that formed between the mining families. However, since the Sourai dominated the system, no mining company has left for the system and returned alive.
==The Planets Sou==
:The Sourai have developed due to the unusual climates that they have evolved in. Two of the twenty six planets in the Red Omega Six system are habitable, a pair of planets that follow the same orbital path around their star, and are near enough to affect each other with their gravity. This creates a very unique anomoly, making gravity unusually strong on the surface that faces away from the sister planet, and extremely low where they are close; low enough, in fact, that they exchange oxygen and the floating cities of the Sourai can travel between them. The seas even rises several inches above the shore when facing towards the sister planet.
:Besides the strange gravity, there is also a large level of radiaton that travels around the system, the planets with large ore deposits causing a system wide aurora borealis effect, and constantly irradiating the life forms residing on Sou. There are often cases where the Sourai and other lifeforms fry on the spot in electrical storms caused across the planets.
:The Flora and Fauna are typical of any planet, a wide range of animals that mostly reside in caves, and a flora system that has developed hard outer shells and deep roots in order to deal with the changing climes of the planet. It would like prove unhospitable to most races, but the ingenuity of the humans that settled here has lead them to become as much a part of the planets ecosystem as those creatures that are native.
Category:Species