Gollar

## Appearance

The gollar are a humanoid species, notable for their grey skin and the scaly ridges around their eyes, neck, ears and forehead. Gollar have a third 'eye' in the centre of their forehead, which is similarly armoured.

Gollar hair is universally black and starts further back than most other species, only growing from the midscalp back and being entirely absent from the rest of the body.

Male gollar are, on average, 5 foot and 11 inches tall, while females are, on average, 5 foot and 7 inches tall.

## Biology

The gollar are descended from a warm blooded arboreal dinosaurian type creature from the now-destroyed world of Goisha.

Gollar are somewhat unusual in that they have a third 'eye', though this organ is not capable of traditional sight, skin grows over it, though it does provide the gollar with a crude form of infrared vision.

Gollar skin is notoriously hard to penetrate, that, along with the scaly ridges surrounding vital points, makes gollar somewhat difficult to injure with traditional melee weapons. It provides no protection from blasters or plasma blades though and, as such, is of limited utility in contemporary warfare.

## History

The contemporary 'Gollar Confederacy' is, in fact, the second coming of the gollar to the international stage of the Andromeda Galaxy, though few races now are familiar with the 'Gollar Union' a millennium ago.

A regional power in it's day, the Union was notable for it's commitment to extreme *laissez-faire* economics and the unregulated exploitation of natural resources. While it was entirely preventable, the exploitation of the homeworld of Goisha led to ecological collapse and a Union-wide food shortage. While this problem might have been remedied in time, social unrest had been bubbling under the surface of gollar society for decades. Billions died of starvation and in the brutal civil wars that followed.

A handful of colony worlds survived, scattered in what is now known as the Neutral Zone, though without access to the Union's universities, libraries and infrastructure, much of gollar knowledge of the universe was lost.

This might have been the end of the gollar as a galactic player were it not for the discovery of 'the Forge' (a massive factory-station in the same system as Viromir, built by an unknown precursor civilisation) and the excavation of a 'Zero-Point Generator' that allowed the gollar to power it.

The Forge allowed the gollar on Viromir to build vast quantities of weapons, armour and ships in a remarkably short period of time. Viromir approached the other gollar worlds and, while no appetite existed for the creation of a new union, it was agreed that the states should work together for self defence. From the summit called by the leaders of Viromir, the new 'Gollar Confederacy' and its 'Joint Defence Force' were born.

Rapidly, the gollar began offering membership to other nearby worlds, provided they did not practice slavery or other customs the gollar deemed barbaric. Those who did, found themselves being 'liberated' by Confederate forces with many freed slaves finding employment in the military. As it stands, the Joint Defence Force is now only around 30% gollar.

While the Confederacy's expansion has taken on the character of an ideological crusade, it is a crusade tempered by pragmatism. The leaders of the Confederacy understand they are not in a position to challenge either of the major powers at this point, though they are not above the use of covert operations against the Kiellar, whose society is easier to infiltrate.

## Religion and Philosophy

The gollar are a relatively non-religious species, which is not to say that religion is not present on gollar worlds. A variety of native religions and introduced religions are practiced by the gollar and the other species in the Confederacy.

Of formative importance to the gollar way of life though, is the 'Code of Deill', a 5,000 year old philosophical document which forms the basis of the gollar sense of morality. The Code is notable for its emphasis on obedience to the law and the necessity of consequences for it's violation; the gollar have little concept of 'mercy'. The Code is also notable for its denunciation of slavery.

The one major modern addition to the code is the gollar denunciation of 'avarice' as a result of the destruction of Goisha.

## Alpha Timeline

During the Second Ragon-Kiellar war, the gollar intervened against the Kiellar, leveraging the internal divisions in Kiellar society to incite rebellion on a number of Kiellar worlds who promptly joined the Confederacy. This in turn led to the rapid collapse of Kiellar Command as fleets anbd armies were pulled away from the front to try to quell the growing chaos.

The gollar had hoped that the Ragon would be bloodied from the confrontation with the Kiellar and would leave them for some time, time the gollar needed to build up their fleet. The Ragon, however, were not so cautious and attacked the Confederacy, sweeping away the fledgeling state along with Kiellar Command.