Takarrans
Biology
Takarrans are biologically most similar to amphibians. They have gills on the sides of their necks, and during early childhood live entirely underwater. Around the age of five Earth years, young Takarrans start breathing air, and gradually come to spend most of their time on land. The ability to breathe water is never lost, though, and in old age, many retire underwater.
Takarrans eat an omnivorous diet.
The Takarran reproductive system is very similar to that of humans. Mothers give birth to live young, and produce milk through mammary glands.
Takarrans have smooth skin, and come in two distinct ethnic groups, based on the color of their skin. All Takarrans have pale underbellies and faces, but their backs and limbs are either bright red or purple, except for rare takarrans of mixed heritage who’s coloration is a iridescent mix of red and purple.
Takarran ears project out of the tops of their heads, and, like those of a cat can be turned in different directions to listen or to express emotion.
A Takarran's eyes are nearly black in color, and are adjusted to a bluer spectrum than human eyes, as their home star is an F-class star.
“I’ll tell you what kind of work environment suits me best: the corner office.“ -Kurgun Dakk
The Lu'Tak are one of the two main subspecies of Takarrans, and their cultures tend to focus on ambition and power. Since the diaspora from their home-world, they are often found in the corporate states, plotting their ways up the corporate ladder.
Red-Takarran(Ki’Tak): Most Ki’Tak are trying to conserve their original cultures after their home-world was overrun by machine intelligences, as a result, the majority of Ki’Tak live in or near bodies of water.
History
Early in their history, Takarrans were separated by geographical barriers onto two separate continents. Those on the Eastern Continent became the Purple-Takarrans (known as the Lu’Tak in their native tongue), and those on the Western Continent became the Red-Takarrans (called the Ki’Tak). For tens of thousands of years these two groups lived in isolation from one another.
They advanced technologically at roughly the same pace, but with wildly different cultures. Red-Takarrans were relatively peaceful (when left to their own devices) with an emphasis on egalitarian principals and individuality. Meanwhile, the Purple-Takarrans developed a highly stratified society, where leadership was determined through physical combat.
When explorers from the Red-Takarrans first met the Purple-Takarrans, cultural misunderstandings rapidly escalated into war. Wars, genocides, raids, and other atrocities marred the relationship between the two groups for centuries, until one particularly bloody conflict ended especially badly for both sides. An uneasy truce settled over their home-world, and eventually developed into a cold war.
During the Takarran cold-war, an arms-race developed between the two sides. The focus of this arms race was on artificial intelligence and robotics, leading to the creation of the Cryptobots by the purple takarrans, and the Defendrons by the red takarrans. Combat robots from the two sides occasionally clashed in clandestine battles, hidden from public view. Over time, each side contrived to infiltrate its own combat robots into the other side's territory, disguised as innocuous pieces of civilian technology.
On the day the inevitable war broke out, civilians on both sides were completely unaware of the fatal threat hiding in plain sight. As cars, trains, toasters and even televisions revealed their true nature, whole populations were caught entirely off guard, and mercilessly slaughtered in a matter of minutes.
Very few Takarrans on either side survived the conflict. Most of the survivors were hunters and gatherers or subsistence farmers with little access to technology. Those who wandered too close to civilization died at the hands of the still-active robots, and so the survivors quickly learned to fear technology.
The robots of Takara Prime, never sure if reinforcements for the other side of the war would eventually arrive, continued to maintain the cities and farms where they were deployed. This left an eerie discovery for the first explorers from the Planetary League Astrophysical Survey (PLAS) , when they arrived in GSC 179. (See: Exodus) The Cryptobots discovered the possibilities of atmospheric flight and space travel from the arrival of the Planetary League, endangering the remaining red takarrans, and prompting a rescue mission from the Planetary League. Many of the Cryptobots also left the planet in the cargo holds of unsuspecting explorers, treasure hunters, and archaeologists. Then, after allying with General Zarlok, the Cryptobots turned on their creators, the purple takarrans, prompting a second rescue. The rise of the Cryptobots led to the beginning of the Second Robot War in GSC 184.
Eventually, the Planetary League was able to safely resettle much of the remaining population of Takarrans on other worlds. Gradually, the Takarran population started to thrive again in their new homes, but the lingering animosity between the red and purple races was slow to fade.