The Caaita

An average female Caaita.

At first glance, the Caaita merely look like cute, bunny-eared humanoids with fluffy tails, but don't let yourself be fooled. The Caaita are a warlike species with a near-religious worship for war in its entirety, whose empire is located in the eastern reaches of the known galaxy. When they're not at war with another alien species, they fight each other for practice, sport or the Mathash.

Their wars are almost art in and of themselves as capital ships fire devastating railgun blasts that trail blue, missiles dancing through the ether leaving yellow flame and black smoke, and their Striker's engines blaring in warm red, creating a light show of stellar proportions that one is hard-pressed to forget if you survive.

They are made up from clans called Maires, the biggest being the Makthaig which currently rules their navy from their homeworld Arakiire, an immensely dense, arid world with scarce natural resources and a huge underground population.

## History

### Early history

The Caaita originally evolved from a small feline creature that sat in the middle of the food chain, far up the north where the scalding heat was more forgiving.

In order to survive, the Caaita's ancestors not only were adept and clever hunters but also were very adept climbers in order to avoid predatory life.

They were also, due to the food scarcity on their world, omnivores, usually consuming berries off trees when little prey could be found.

These creatures slowly began to keep to the trees as their bodies grew more adapted to climbing and sprinting between different collections of trees.

Even this early in their history, the Caaita's ancestors were a competitive species with highly territorial ideals. Due to the scarcity of resources, large packs of early Caaita gathered around these collections of berry trees, almost forming tribes before they even had a concept of tools.

## Physiology

Coming from a world with a much higher gravity than most planets of the same size, the Caaita are shorter and stubbier than their Gelian and Koonesh neighbours. Their bones are much denser than that of a Koonesh and very hard to fracture, also thanks to their higher gravity.

They have a much higher muscle density as well, meaning that despite being as small as they are, they are very strong, but not quite strong enough to overwhelm a trained person.

When outside of their home gravity, they can run at much higher speeds than the Koonesh, Gelians and even several animals. They aren't built for endurance however and can only run for short bursts.

They are also very flexible, having a spine and midsection constructed in a way to allow lots of twisting and bending. Most members of their species can bend backwards almost 90 degrees without any training.

## Culture and religion

With a past as filled with strife as the Caaita, most of their art dating back ages has revolved around warfare in all its horror, all its glory and everything in-between. Nowhere is this more prevalent, however, than in their religion and culture. Trust is a major, highly prominent feature in their society, to the point that cheating in a relationship is a criminal offence and not a light one at that.

While the Maires have highly different levels of religious belief, all of the Caaita colonies believe in the Rigvan, an ancient being that brought their world its land, sky, reservoirs and oases, not to mention life. The being supposedly told the Caaita to do one thing... Grow stronger. To honour their god, the major Maires have yearly tests of strength in the form of a religious battle called the Mathash.

### The Mathash

The Mathash is a ritualistic deathmatch performed once a year, the week before the Caaita new year. It is held in the Stellar Barrier Reef, an extremely dangerous asteroid cluster inside of a nebula, assumed to be one of the most unsafe areas the galaxy has to offer. Each Maire may bring five percent of their army into this dangerous section of Caaita space. Each Maire will bring ships only produced under their banner, meaning that a Vvithaer captain may not fly a Thithig fitted ship in the Mathash. This is done to show the individual strength of each Maire and their equipment. The Mathash will end when one Maire has destroyed or disabled all other Maires' ships, the one victorious house being named the Mairee'Arakii.

The Maire that falls to the winner's hand will become the winning faction's honour guard, the Mairee'Matshii. Their army will lead patrols and generally do most of the menial duties while the winning house decides the doctrine of the empire at large.

The winner of the last Mathash was Maire Makthaig, their honour guard being Maire Avuunshuk.

### The Angskathning

A tradition turned to law, it involves the usage of a sword referred known as the Angskathare, which roughly translates to "Widowmaker". It is named as such due to the faithful partner previously being legally allowed to murder both parts of the affair.

Nowadays, they are merely used to ritualistically mark cheaters by slicing a wound from genitals to bellybutton. This is referred to as a "Traitor Scar". This tradition is the same for people who betray their Maire or the Caaita in general, which in that case is commonly followed by prison or, depending on the severity of the betrayal, can be made a deep enough incision to be lethal. It's a tradition that is commonly performed by romantic partners, family or close friends. In the case of treason, or if no family or partner is available, it is performed by a military official.

## Fashion

### Female fashion norms

Caaita females are built very similarly to the males but are known for being faster runners. Due to this reason, Caaitå females wore very light and easy to move in clothing, which stuck around to the modern age. They are usually on the warm side of the colour spectrum, commonly pale yellow or orange. Also due to their origins as a very competitive species, even in mating rituals, females usually grow very long and thick tails, usually tied into a belt when walking through streets and left flowing when in nature. They also commonly carry light battle armour, mostly ceremonial and intended for looks rather than actual function, echoing their days of conflict with pride.

Due to the tradition known as The Angskathning, they always carry a ritualistic sword as part of their normal attire, commonly self-forged. The sharper the edge of the blade, the more attractive it is deemed. Most educated members of Caaita society have one, as metalworks are taught to everyone to at least a basic level.

Hair is kept short, a tradition born out of almost non-stop military conflict, meant to increase visibility and decrease distractions. A flower is also usually kept in the hair, representing the Maire of the specific Caaita. A white flower represents the Thithig, an orange flower represents the Makthaig, a pink flower represents the Avuunshuk, a yellow flower represents the Haandel and a red flower complements the ruling house.

### Male fashion norms

The male fashion norms are an almost complete opposite to the female ones, usually being cold blacks. Certain Maires like the Thithig changes up the colour, however, usually wearing cold whites instead. Most male Caaita to this day wears ceremonial battle armour under their robes too. Their tails are usually short and of varying shapes. The length of hair is kept short on their end as well.

They too carry a ritualistic sword, following the same rules as the female one in fashion.

Unlike the females, however, they wear a small hat that represents the capital building of each of the Maires instead of a flower. A rectangle shaped peak symbolizes the Thithig, an orb represents the Makthaig, A crescent represents the Vvithaer, a round disc represents the Haandel and a spiked tip is used by the ruling house, representing Arakis, their capital city.

## Military

### Navy

The Caaita, having one of the largest numbers of planets under their direct control, as well as being a heavily militarized government has granted them a vast, highly imposing navy of hundreds of ships. Their doctrine is focused around lightning fast warfare, with the first strike being the most important one in which most battles are decided. While their first strike is vicious, however, it isn't unbeatable. If you survive the first volley, the scales tip majorly in your favour.

#### Ships

* Corvettes
	+ Snavv-class Light Striker

## Relations

The Caaita, being inherently warlike have few friends, having had long, gruelling wars with both the Gelians and Koonesh.

The Gelians have a particular hatred for the Caaita in their entirety due to the atrocities committed during the Gelia-Caaitå Galactic War, mainly concerning the use of the banned Atmospheric Deprivation Bomb on the Gelian world of Gell, effectively killing billions of Gelians, either from the fire or the asphyxiation that follows. The Gelian refugee fleets have all collectively vowed that the Caaita will never be forgiven for this action and will most likely never see eye to eye in the centuries to come.

The Koonesh are wary of the Caaita, though are not in direct conflict with them. Skirmishes do happen between the two parties, however, mostly around the neutral zone, due to miscommunication. While both sides are not exactly friends, both are in the position where a war would seemingly only result in unnecessary bloodshed.

The Caaita are not in direct contact with the Tempus Venaticus, meaning their thoughts of one another is mostly unknown. The Tempus Venaticus is however almost always hostile towards all other known life in the galaxy, so one can only assume they think the same of the Caaita.