Berdikons

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## Appearance

The Berdikons are a Milky Way species who superficially resemble humans in many ways, their green skin makes them quite obviously alien.

Berdikon are about human size, while their skin tones range from a bright green to a drab olive. Hair is naturally dark. Eyes can be anything in the human spectrum though green, brown and hazel are most common.

## Biology

The Berdikon home planet of Greskia is an unusually fertile planet with dense forests of fruit bearing trees that stretch from the equator to the artic tundra. The Berdikons are descended from an arboreal monotreme type creature (while mostly mamalian, Berdikons are oviparous) that once graced the canopies of the planet.

It is believed that the progenitor species practiced a rather unusual mating system that was a cross between 'polyandry' and 'resource defense polygyny' with males defending a resource area to attract females, but with only the dominant females in the group breeding. Younger and less dominant females formed 'creches' to look after the group offspring's. Around 90% of berdikon eggs hatch as females, though it is not understood whether this evolved as a consequence of their peculiar mating structure or if it was the other way around.

Due to the low number of males, polygyny is still practiced, though berdikon society tends to be dominated by older matriarchs.

Berdikon males will be physically and sexually mature at a similar age to humans, though the females, while physically fully grown at the same age as humans, do not begin to ovulate until about age 40 (in earth years), with ageing being significantly slowed for both sexes until this point. Berdikons live for an average of about 105 years.

Young berdikons have a retractable, backward facing, venemous spur that can be extended from beneath the carpal bones. While extremely painful, this venom is rarely ever lethal. At around age 40 this spur will break off and while the poison gland in the upper arm remains active, berdikons lose the ability to deliver the venom (though it is possible to replace the spur with a synthetic one).

As a planet, Greskia is also unusually rich in cobalt and nearly all of the native species, the berdikons included, use 'coboglobin' to transport oxygen in the blood. This means that berdikon venous blood is amber, while arterial blood is clear. For the same reason berdikon muscle tissue is very pale, looking similar to that of a earth reptile when cut open. Berdikon 'milk', or indeed that of any other of the monotreme-type species of Greskia is a pale violet colour.

Berdikons living amongst other species will inevitably need to take heavy cobalt supplements, while other species will generally need to avoid food grown on Greskia due to the danger of cobalt toxicity.

## History

The United Republic of Greskia first began exploring the Milky Way 5 millenia ago. While not an especially agressive species, Greskia had seen a number of wars in the years leading up to unification, and the berdikons were not as unprepared as their soon-to-be allies in the Gorialax Collective, when they first encountered hostile species.

While not a herd species, the berdikons tend to be cooperative by nature, forming large collectivist tribes stratified by age and sex. Historically wars tended to only be fought when resources were unable to meet the demands of all tribes. In the post-scarcity world of the United Republic, there was little to compete for and Greskian society gradually developed a unified tribal identity. When they encountered the gorialax, the two highly cooperative species almost immediately began working together.

Together the berdikons and gorialax combined, about 4,000 years ago, to form the 'Federation of Civilised Worlds', the faction which would come to dominate the Milky Way.  While there were initially competitors, the Federation proved to be, in it's early years, an unstopable military-political juggernaut, emerging as, and remaining the undisputed Hegemony in the milky way 3,000 years ago.

Federation society, led by the gorialax and berdikons has always been remarkably socially equitable, although amongst the berdikons, the matriachs and males are generally better off than the younger females.  The peculiarity of the two races has meant that the Federation isn't appealing to more individualistic species and the berdikons and gorialax together make up 82% of the Federation's total population of 1.8 trillion, though there are a huge number of 'Federation Aligned' worlds which are not included in this number.

The Federation's military has waned over the last three millenia.  Without any serious threats, it has suffered from progressive funding cuts, it's leadership is inexperienced and the crews and soldiers are generally green.

## Religion and Philosophy

Berdikons are used to working together, as a tribe, towards a common goal. Their society is dominated by older matriarchs often forming alliances based off a shared husband (due to the scarcity of males, berdikon society practices polygyny).

Berdikons appear to have no sense of sexual identity with other species having described them as 'universally pansexual'. While mariage is an institution amongst the berdikons, they are not a monogamous species by nature and it exists purely as a reproductive contract; liaisons outside of mariage are only frowned upon if they could result in procreation.

Berdikon society is rather unusually stratified with 'dangerous' or 'adventurous' roles inevitably being filled by younger femal. Males were, traditionally barred from military service and while this is no longer the case, it is still extremely rare to find a male berdikon in a military position. Males tend to be found in desk jobs, particularly business and politics, along with females of reproductive age or older. Positions of senior leadership tend to be filled my older 'matriarchs', with the berdikon population seemingly hard wired to see these individuals as wiser and more qualified to lead.

The berdikons practice a wide variety of religions, or none at all. Somewhat unusually, the dominant religion is in fact an alien one: 'Gorialism'. While nearly identical to the gorialax version of the faith, the berdikon version differs in one detail (viewed as trivial by the religion itself); Marduk's paradise is presented as a fertile forest rather than as a great plain.

## Alpha Timeline

Following the Ragon invasion of Earth, the Federation has suffered a number of serious military setbacks against the invading Ragon fleets. Unfortunately for the berdikons, the Ragons appear to be immune to the cobalt toxicity that would aflict most species that attempted to feed on them.