Zusheer

The Zusheer are a race of bipedal bird-like creatures that have achieved galaxy-spanning influence. Their culture focuses heavily around military service, where each individual is able to be called upon in times of need to serve. They are the de facto leaders of the armed forces of the Galactic Council, but generally are clumsy diplomats.

## Description

An adult Zusheer averages a height of approximately 1.8-2 m (6-6.5 ft). Their skin is covered in silver scales and a light coat of white feathers along their torsos and heads, but have little to no plumage on their arms. They have stout beaks, and excellent vision, though they do not possess heightened night vision.

## History

The Zusheer originated from the planet Zusha, a planet similar to Earth with mild temperate climate across the majority of its landmasses. As they reached tachyon-powered FTL-capable interstellar travel, their range of influence flourished. They soon made first contact with a few other civilizations, the Carteca, Areev, and the Derionai.

As their influence progressed, the Zusheer began to foresee future conflicts with these other races. Soon after, the Galactic Council was founded to ease relations between the galactic civilizations, and to prevent the Zusheer from being economically outmatched.

Because of their military culture, the Zusheer became the main military presence in the Council. Their fleets used to quell armed conflicts within the galaxy. Because of political changes within the early Council, the Zusheer advocated for the idea of Quarantine Enforcement (QE). A method of containing lesser races that could potentially upset the balance of power between the galactic civilizations if left unchecked. This would ensure that the Zusheer influence on the Council would remain intact, while keeping the rest of the galaxy at peace. With the QE program in place, the Zusheer began to be viewed as the galactic police force, and acted as such when any conflicts arose.

As the QE program began to grow, the Zusheer experimented with a variety of tachyon-based technologies. This included tachyon generation, tracking and dampening fields, as well as quantum gravity perturbers. Many of these technologies were deployed to QE systems to suppress the development of the quarantined civilizations.

When Humans inexplicably broke their QE safeguards, the Zusheer had no choice but to cautiously welcome them to the galactic community. As Humanity's suspicions of the QE program grew, the Zusheer began to view them as an ever growing threat, and led the Council to preemptively drive Humans to extinction in what is now called the Extinction War. Shortly after this war, the Galactic Council and the QE program were nearly incapacitated with the bombing of Council Station.

The attack on Council Station left the galaxy in disarray. Because of their military influence, the Zusheer filled the void left by the defunct Council, and temporarily became the head of Council space, and its many fleets. They led the war against Humanity and its allies in spite of the growing fragmentation of the galaxy.

This came to an abrupt end when a Human fleet invaded Zusha, and destroyed the Zusheer garrison fleet in orbit. The subsequent Constellation Strike destroyed any chance of future habitability of the planet.