Quote:
“Our attempts to open trade negotiations with the Tharrn have failed. Regretfully I appear to be slated to be the main course for an upcoming feast in my honor.” -Suljanto, First Trader Selach Mining Consortium
Description:
The Tharrn are a species from a large mineral rich world: Procyon. They are analogous to theropods on Earth. Compared to other species they are slow to adapt and emphasize conflict and warfare. They are a carnivorous and have a high rate of reproduction. These two traits probably best describe why the Tharrn have ritualized combat and eat war captives and elders. Because of this peaceful coexistence with other species is all but impossible. The Tharrn's appetite for their captured prey is notorious throughout the galaxy.
Their religion is based on ancestor worship and an eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth. This in conjunction with their high population rate carnivorous eating habits leads them into periods of rapid expansion when the Tharrn have run out of food for their massive population. The integration of ritualized combat into their cultural makes them highly aggressive and skilled warriors. They are skilled in space combat and ground combat and are extremely worthy adversaries. They often see combat as a type of blood sport. The consumption of war captives and elders, dead or alive, is considered a high honor.
While the they may excel in combat the Tharrn are not good at industry, farming, and research. Their starships are based on pieced together technology that emphasizes brute size and force rather than technology.
Tharrn females are more aggressive than males, and tend to have dull coloration. Additionally Tharrn females are larger than males and typically fulfill roles as powerful warrior-priests and leadership roles: the Supreme (Leader of the Tharrn). Despite their feared reputation throughout the galaxy, violence against other Tharrn outside of a ritual context is unthinkable.
Designer Notes:
The Tharrn are our take on the reptilian type species we see in scifi. The Tharrn are heavily influenced by Star Trek's Gorn and Babylon 5's Narn. One thing we decided to do was flip some archetypes on their heads. The larger more aggressive Tharrn are the egg-laying females while the smaller Tharrn are the males. With a society with such a high potential reproduction rate, the Tharrn enacted numerous rituals to control the population including sacrifice and anthropophagy, the fancier term for cannibalism. From that the idea of them consuming captive population emerged as a central game mechanic for the Tharrn. Tharrn technology is intended to look haphazard and brutish, more so than the other warrior-centric species. At the same time, they are a deeply spiritual species that truly believes that their actions are honoring what we'd consider to be their victims.
