Ksa'at

The **Ksa'at** also known as the **Gaunts** are one of the two most prevalent thinking races of the Gravelands-the other being the brutal Ge-ge-laa-oom. They are known for their powerful minds, yet are shrouded in mystery. Sometimes exiles from their lands appear in Dalmatt and Madaya, claiming to have no recollection of the Ksa'at homeland. It is later revealed that such exiles are mind-wiped purposefully to hide the Ksa'at's immense technological advancement compared to the other thinking peoples of the world.

## Anatomy and Physiology

Ksa'at stand an average of 3 meters tall, and their bodies are covered with short, soft fur which can vary between yellow, brown and black in color, some individuals being striped or spotted, albinism occuring as well. It is unknown if differing fur colors distinguish different ethnic groups within Ksa'at society or if it is simple variation within the same ethnos. Their build is lanky and their limbs are long and slender. Ksa'at are also characterized by their tall skulls-taller than they are wide, and long and narrow as well as their three-fingered forelimbs with their opposing thumb and strangely long claws, which double as an unpleasant weapon, should their bearer find themselves in a scuffle. Their arms are only slightly shorter than their legs, giving them a strange, overbearing appearance. Their faces are flat with unpronounced, narrow nostrils and large, sensitive eyes which allow them to see in the dark. There is little difference between the males and the females as can be also noted. The Ksa'at's most distinctive feature however is their ancestral memory, which allows a parent to pass on certain skills or certain knowledge to their child, but is limited somewhat in the volume of information which can be encoded and passed on, being either a set of technical information or alternatively memories of certain aspects of a past life. Both naturally and due to their constant war with the ge-ge-laa-oom they are incredibly civilized, patient and cooperative-despite being almost obligate carnivores.

## Culture

Precious little is known about Ksa'at culture, but recently it has come to be known that they live in various large, fortified city-states in the depths of the Gravelands, which seem to be ruled by both an internal council and a common council of all city-states. Ksa'at seem to be respectful of life and dislike shedding blood needlessly, with Ksa'at exiles being gentle, careful creatures, yet the Ksa'at of the Gravelands can be hostile towards those who seek to rob them of their technology or inconvenience their war effort, even to the point of treating the Doubters in Zhinamir as pests. Ksa'at are regardless very open to diplomacy and negotiation and seem to value patience, rationality and open-mindedness as key virtues in their culture.

## Technology

Ksa'at are arguably the most technologically advanced species in the known world with their complex knowledge of physics, chemistry and mathematics allowing them to manipulate gravity, create substances which put the Earth-Domain's elfstone and the Empire's finest steels to shame in their lightness, sturdiness and resilience and craft weapons that can rival even the Lord-Machines of old. They often use self-propelled vehicles such as the flying pepelats, as well as the wheeled mankana and the bipedal, humanoid mosiarutz among others. Their military is equipped with deadly hand-carried railguns and the translocator-originally a mining tool which by means of some unknown method can replace two volumes of matter with one-another, allowing a wielder to score deep cuts or entirely replace parts of the target's flesh with nearby rock or dirt. They also posses advanced thinking machines, which sometimes take the shape of construct servants, different variations of which have been seen as scouting aids, floating translators or fighting machines. Their thinking machines also serve the purpose of leading explosive missiles to their target or guiding the Ksa'at's atomic weapons to strike true. Their medical technology allows them to regenerate tissue, as well as limbs as well. Even poorly-maintained examples of relatively primitive or simple Ksa'at technology, such as the pepelats - a slow-flying personnel carrier aircraft gave the Doubters a powerful edge over the entire militaries of the mightiest countries in the known world, due to the simple gap in sophistication. In turn the significantly faster combat aircraft which was the artsiv demonstrated the simplicity and limited application of the pepelats.