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The Conglomerate of Hithe

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The Conglomerate of Hithe Empty The Conglomerate of Hithe

Post by Randomnator Wed Dec 31, 2014 4:30 am

Your Name: Randomnator


Empire Name: The "Conglomerate" of Hithe


Species Name: Hithe


Homeworld: Gorrleth. A desert world dotted with twisted rock pillars and shanty towns, Gorrleth was where the Hithe's creators dumped them. It contains a small population, as the discovery of ships below the surface has caused the majority of the species to leave.


Size: The Hithe are really small, essentially having started out as an army of approximately 1 million at the time of their creation. While this number has bloated into over 3 billion, the Hithe have no territory aside from Gorrleth and a few other systems, mostly being a space-faring nomadic race.


Biology: The average Hithe is approximately 10 feet tall, well muscled with a thick tan coloured hide. This skin is tough and folded in a way that makes it look synthetic, almost plastic-like. The skin acts like a space suit with multiple layers, keeping pressure constant, temperatures in the internal organs at safe levels and absorbing radiation. This skin can be shed to prevent radiation poisoning, a second thinner skin developing underneath. On the chest, knees and neck the Hithe sport small markings that could have once been plugs for tubing.
The Hithe head is vaguely shark-like with a pointed, shovel-like snout. The chin is well developed also and sticks out, giving the side profile an inverse axe shape. The Hithe have 4 eyes, each independent of each other and protected by an enlarged Cornea. The large broad teeth are unusual in that they are perfectly regular, each a picket fence shape that locks into its neighbours to create a pressure seal. The lips are jagged and lock in a similar way as well.

Hithe are carnivorous and voratious, unpicky eaters. It is common for cannibalism and devouring the corpses of enemies to occur amongst populations. Their strong stomach acid and high internal body temperature prevents them getting sick from eating rotted meat.

Hithe are digitigrade with 4 fingers and 4 toes. They have opposable thumbs as well as opposable big toes. The palms of these hands and feet have hundreds of tiny claw-like scales and bristles which allow them to climb up walls and ceilings.

A specialised organ in the back of the mouth secrets a sticky resin that has multiple uses. The resin hardens when not in the presence of Hithe saliva and can be used to create seals/gags/repairs.
The Hithe's second lung has been specialised as a large air bladder, allowing them to survive without breathing for up to 30 minutes.

The majority of organs are held behind the thick ribcage, with only the intestines lying in the abdomen. Hithe also lack a true brain, their nervous system instead being a lot thicker than usual. This Neural Web is still connected to a spinal cord as a main hub and effectively makes the Hithe head a decoy. This can be a double edged sword however, as losing an arm or leg can effectively lobotomise the individual.

Hithe are not very intelligent. Thanks to the specialised hardwiring of their Neural Web, unnecessary thought processes have been dampened and certain cognitive functions heightened. They therefore instinctively know how to fight and can quickly learn to operate machinery and weapons, and are as well incredibly obediant. This mental tampering has also connected the act of violence with endorphin release. Essentially, killing and looting makes a Hithe happy.

There is a hypothesis that newborn Hithe are incredibly impressionable, leading some scientists to believe that they could learn to coexist in the galaxy eventually, although overcoming the mental limitations put in by their masters will be difficult.

Hithe lack reproductive organs and therefore have no true genders. Most are referred to by male pronouns thanks to their masculine personalities, although more "feminine" Hithe can be referred to by female pronouns.

Hithe instead reproduce through discarded body parts (similar to starfish). Thanks to the Neural Web, any separated body part of a Hithe can be grown into a new individual if given enough nutrition. This is usually found in the large pods that take up the breeding chambers in Hithe ships. Unfortunately this form of reproduction backfires many times.

This is because the unstable genetic blueprint of a Hithe is in complete disarray. Without the supervision and maintenance of their original creators, newborn Hithe are consistently born with mutations, many not surviving the first few steps before collapsing. The dead are then fed back into the pods as nutrition.

The survivable mutations take many forms, the most consistant being body shape variations. Hithe can be short and stocky, tall and lanky, have mismatched arm lengths, missing limbs, stunted growth, etc. Hormones can also be imbalanced in the process, creating more feminine Hithe (compared to regular Hithe, they're still pretty butch). The Hithe don't care as long as the newbies can hold a gun and shoot things without puking up their intestines.

Hithe blood is a dark purple and vaguely smells of petroleum. It clots incredibly quick which may have something to do with its makeup or the Hithe's fast metabolism.

Hithe live for an indeterminate amount of time, mostly because they are killed off for various reasons before their natural time. Long living Hithe however can be said to live for over 100 years before succumbing to their violent lifestyle.

Like all species with non-sexual reproduction, disease is deadly to the Hithe. While their immune systems are strong, a possible outbreak that overcomes this will spell an end for a population.


Religion: The Hithe have no religion, instead having an incredibly blunt and practical look on their existence. They were created for war and pillage and so they shall do that.


History: The Hithe were created as a warrior servant race by an ancient species that specialised in genetics over 5000 years ago. Apparently the reason was that a neighbouring race that specialised in battlesuits had encroached on their territory and war had broken out.
The Hithe were effectively perfect in their design, routing the invaders and spilling into their territory, driving them out. The enemy was defeated and on the run, while the master race praised their scientists for the work they had done. The Hithe were deployed countless times over the centuries to root out conspirators, upstart races and full blown rebellions.

However once peace came unease set into the master race's minds. The idle Hithe army was growing restless in its pens and there were numerous cases of workplace accidents amongst the staff assigned  to it. It was clear that keeping such violent creatures without entertainment would eventually prove their undoing. After much debate an order to euthanise the Hithe was put out, with only a few individuals to be spared for research purposes.

The plan failed spectacularly. Once the warriors had caught wind of what was going on, they rebelled. However despite their ferocity their masters were the ones that created them, and so knew their weaknesses. Eventually their tactics ground the Hithe to a stop and the warriors were rounded up and dumped on Gorrleth, where they were left until a method in which they could be properly controlled was found.

More years passed before the abandoned Hithe began again to grow bored and infighting sprung up all over the surface of Gorrleth. Alliances, warlords and fortresses rose and fell as pod brother turned on pod brother over petty differences. Eventually surface materials weren't enough for the ramshackle buildings and swords that needed to be repaired nearly every day, driving territories closer together in the search for metal. Very soon, the Hithe started to dig.

Gorrleth was immediately discovered to be far more valuable to their new residents than ever before. Their masters had apparently used the world as their personal tip, the shifting sands covering vast outdated ships, repair drones and weaponry. Like most of the great races creations, the biological components of each machine were hibernating, just waiting to reawaken and serve their new masters.

Again, fighting broke out over who would command the ships. Eventually they were divided up between the remaining warlords and many Hithe took to the stars, intent on either finding their masters (for reasons good or bad) or at least to punch something along the way and get some sweet loot.

Eventually one fleet found the Xenoqqi homeworld of T'Saala. That didn't work out so well.

Culture: Hithe culture revolves around violence. Currency and value changes depending on how strong a Hithe is or how many he's killed compared to the seller. A fresh newbie Hithe has to cough up a small fortune for a mug of grog while a larger well known individual might even get it for free.

Coinage itself takes multiple forms. The most common is small, interesting objects such as:

Gold pieces and alien money

Oddly patterned rocks

Ammunition

Bones and teeth (typically low value)

Individuals wear little clothing, most of it simply being for show and vaguely as protection, as Hithe don't get cold easily and have nothing to hide out of modesty. As such, Hithe attire is typically a pair of rough spun pants (maybe also a vest or tunic) bound with leather strips with makeshift armour plates made from stone and metal.

Hithe culture does have some kind of hierarchy, as messy as it is:

Newbie - A newly born Hithe from the pods. They have low status and are generally pushed around a lot by those more powerful than they are. Bar fights usually involve a thrown newbie or two.

BattleBorn - A newbie who's original base part was not placed in a pod, instead being from a recent battlefield. They are typically less incomplete than regular newbies thanks to their natural growth, having fed off the strewn corpses while buried.

Midget - A dwarf Hithe. Lower in status than even a Newbie, Midgets are vicious blighters that have to fight for every scrap. Sometimes they get adopted by larger Hithe and therefore live in marginally better conditions.

Warrior - A regular Hithe. They have a kill count and their egos have grown with it, some thinking they're better than their peers (this leads to more fighting).

Warlord - The leaders of Hithe populations. Warlords are typically BattleBorns and seem to be slightly more cunning than an average Hithe, although some reach the top with just muscle.

The Hithe do not have names but are instead referred by number depending on the order they were born from the pods. Numbers are purely subjective between fleets and even ships and so multiple Hithe can sport the same number. This system is so messed up and complex that sometimes they just lose count and start over again.

Hithe cities and towns are held within the central chambers of their ships, typically covering the floor, walls and ceiling. The buildings themselves are crude, typically small shacks made of stone and metal stuck together with resin and rope. Stalls and bars are common, trading weaponry, oddities and alcohol for the appropriate cost (which as said before, fluctuates with each buyer). The centrepiece of each area is typically an arena, where more official disputes take place as well as gladiator matches between prisoners and captured beasts.

Hithe generally fit under four employment options:

Be part of a large raiding fleet

Be part of a smaller pirate fleet.

Stay on a planet and get bored after you kill everything worth fighting or get killed yourself.

Hire yourself out for mercenary/bounty hunter work.


Military:

Creatures - - Gorrleth's deserts crawled with outcast genetic experiments left to fend for themselves. After many failed attempts the Hithe have managed to domesticate some of them.

Crawler - a large many legged creature used as a siege engine. Its heavy stone-like shell overlaps its body as a skirt, allowing Hithe to hide underneath and be protected from incoming fire. Hithe sometimes hang off the side and fire their guns in the air to make it move faster.

Shooter - A spindly quadrupedal creature armed with a biological cannon that shoots acid. Sometimes a Hithe will attach spikes to its ankles and ride it into battle.

Firearms - - Hithe weaponry either comes from their old masters, as the spoils of war or payment for mercenary work. Either way these guns have extra metal plating tacked on to make them more robust and also serve as bludgeoning weapons.

Creator weapons are grown and harvested from pods. Denoted by their stony exterior and organic tubing, these weapons fire acid-coated shards of stone typically with low accuracy and high rate of fire. Comes in pistol, rifle, shotgun, sniper/railgun and mortar forms. They are unreloadable, but make a great snack afterwards.

With this access to so many forms of firearm, an individual can typically be seen with literally anything he has got his hands on (and fought everyone else off of).

Ships - - Like most of their master's work, the great vessels that the Hithe travel in are semi organic and encased in a stony exoskeleton. These great biomechanical beasts crawl with repair critters to keep them running, something the Hithe have no idea what to do. What the Hithe have done however is rivet large metal beaten panels onto the exterior, creating ghastly parodies of their own faces on the prows.

Typically Hithe spacecraft are naturally agile and quick thanks to their biomechanical nature. In addition they carry biomechanical versions of more conventional components: Engines run off biofuel that is created in the massive gut tract after nutrients are extracted, while a large energy discharge from specialised machinery plates acts as rudimentary shielding. These vessels also contain odd inbuilt weaponry that performs similarly to what other starships have.

Unfortunately these ships are not perfect for space travel. Each must eventually make planetfall to extract liquids and gases in place of refueling. The nutrients required are met by the steady supply of corpses a Hithe population accumulates.

Fleets are typically comprised of multiple cruisers backed up by smaller escorsts and the occasional destroyer.

Inside, the ships harbour many clutches of living fighter craft. Similar in design but far smaller, these fighters are very agile and fast but must return often to the mothership to recuperate. Hithe pilots control these with twin joystick like appendages inside the clamlike cockpit.


Government: Hithe firmly believe that might is right. Warlords are made when they overturn the old one through force or gain enough followers to split off from their original population. A Warlord typically has a retinue of "cunning" and loyal followers that he trusts, usually numbering between 3 and 5. Underneath them is typically a string of underlings, each one less strong and loud as the one prior.


Strategies/Tactics: While dumb enough to fall for the "behind you!" trick, the Hithe do have some natural cunning. It is common for individual Hithe to play dead after being shot, kamikaze their fighters or even set elaborate ambushes. However in the heat of battle the Hithe are more likely to charge screaming into the enemy lines with little thought.


This took too long to write up. Hopefully these guys aren't completely OP and so can be accepted.
Randomnator
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The Conglomerate of Hithe Empty Re: The Conglomerate of Hithe

Post by Zaroas Sat Jan 31, 2015 4:41 pm

Your sheet's accepted, Random Smile
Zaroas
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