Katharian

The Katharians are an amphibious member species of the dominion. In kimbeau their name is "Haguagaten" which of course translates "Water People" or "Water Beings".

Basic Information

Anatomy

Katharians are largely humanoid. They have four fingers and three toes. These digits are large and tapered toward the tips.
Between the digits and toes of a katharian grows a webbing. This webbing will grow in when the Katharian is regularly exposed to underwater conditions, and can grow in in the span of just a few hours. If conditions are dry, the webbing will become flaky and degrade, partially or completely disappearing to give better use of the hands. This too, can happen in the span of only about a day.
Katharians have a number of tendril-like growths on their heads. Typically between five and eight. These are pressure regulation organs that allow them to quickly adapt to deep pressures without sickness.
Katharian skin is said to be sleek and oily. Katharian coloration is controlled by a large number of recessive genes which have been corrupted by the Katharians tampering with their own genetic lineage. This can lead to abnormal coloration patterns arising. There are a vast variety of possible patterns, colors, sub-patterns and hybrid patterns typically with cool or neutral colors, though some can adopt a "koi fish" appearance with white and orange or red. Some patterns may contain bioluminescent markings.

Growth Rate & Stages

Infant Stage (0-1 SGY)

Infant Katharians are like infants of most other species. They eat, cry and poop and not a whole lot else.

Adolescence (1-8 SGY)

Katharians have genetically modified themselves to go through childhood as fast as possible. Hence by their first birthday they are "toddlers" able to walk and talk. Growth becomes a whirlwind of eating, sleeping and learning about the world with no time for having an actual childhood. The precise milestones from here become rather muddled as it is akin to a singular puberty. Katharian culture was simplified, and the need for complex social structures was removed, and therefore the need to learn complex social behaviors and engage in play. The journey of self discovery and wonderment of childhood was seen as a massive drain on society and against the principles of Takabar. In truth this change was made by the oligarchs to replace workers as fast as possible

Adulthood (8+ SGY)

By 8 standard galactic years (around 10.4 earth years). Katharians are deemed adults.

Additional Information

Facial characteristics

Katharian eye color can vary. Their eyes can be silver, gold, bronze, steely blue, pearlescent or black. Their ears are pointed and most of their teeth tend to be more pointed than that of a human.

Average Intelligence

Katharians on average have slightly lower intelligence than a human.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Katharians have better eyesight than most species, particularly in low light levels. Most of their other senses are equal to that of a human.

Civilization and Culture

Average Technological Level

Katharian technological progress and general level of advancement relative to other species during the space conflict era was relatively average. They had a moderate technological advantage over the Mendians, Cauldarions and Farrians, but were behind the Go'shii, Mediocines and Hoytachians. They pursued many ambitious technological goals and were frequently known to have technological accidents.
The Katharians were one of three species to independently discover subspace drive technology, though their drives were amongst the lowest quality having slow travel speeds.
Katharians heavily utilized fusion reactors, having mastered the technology before they even left their home planet.
Katharian computers were known to be cheap, frequently prone to crashing and degrading in functionality just a few years after being produced. Any AI system they produced was bound to eventually fail at tasks it was designed for, lag, glitch, turn aggressive or outright collapse into madness. Though this was, in part, problem of their capitalistic society being focused around disposable technology and planned obsolescence than a genuine shortcoming in their capacity to manufacture systems.
Late in the space conflict era, the Katharians were able to construct incredibly large starships, on par in size and mass with Relegator-Class Dreadnoughts. Though this was more a feat of engineering and economics rather than technological finesse.
Katharians were known to have an understanding of genetic engineering, enough that they were able to artificially control the evolution of their speices. They were able to successfully remove inheritable diseases and manipulate the evolution of their species. They also created and successfully deployed several bio-weapons against the Cauldarions. Though attempts at creating supersoliders through genetic and cybernetic augmentation frequently killed, crippled, or disfigured the candidates, and attempts at terraforming planets with artificial biospheres frequently collapsed.
Katharians developed tachyon and muon based energy weapons. They also had an excellent mastery of room temperature superconductors and could construct relativistic railguns.

History

Pre-Space Era

The Katharians originally engaged in a highly competitive, cuthroat capitalist society, and little is known about what they were like before their equivalent to the 'modern' era.
This society was driven by a cultural beleif known as Takabar, which emphasized that arts, literature and entertainment were all pointless frivolties and that one's worth extended only as far as their capacity to work. It believed that hard work would be rewarded while simultaneously supporting manipulation and subterfuge to achieve immense wealth and prestige. This aggressive disdain for cultural artifacts deemed frivolous led to the destruction of virtually all artifacts and history pertaining to Katharian culture. These artifacts were viewed as a threat. Takabar also emphasized destruction of individual desire. That one was to abandon their individualism for the betterment of producing more wealth for society and that deviants from this philosophy were to be ostracized.
In truth the creation of Takabar was the work of a conspiracy led by several of the planet's leading corporations. Who gradually through advertisement, branding and their own labor practices, manipulated the culture of the planet to create an oligarchical capitalist state wherein they controlled all information. Any attempt of active rebellion were silenced by the governments of the nation states, all of whom were firmly in the pockets of the various corporations.
Nation states bickered over trade deals and resources for centuries while a vast majority of the population toiled with no say in politics. Centuries before achieving status as a spacefairing species a trade war resulted in the burning of mass amounts of fossil fuels which badly disrupted the native ecosystem on the homeworld of Katharis. The release of greenhouse gasses melted the planet's polar ice caps flooding most of the planet, while the waters became polluted with industrial chemicals making them poisonous to the amphibious species. The refugees from the waters of Katharis became minimum-wage employees for the many land-dwelling corporations.
Ultimately the leading oligarchs of Katharis sought to expand. They began launching spacecraft to colonize the solar system, shifting many of the poorer castes of society off their homeworld wherein their labor could be thoroughly exploited as they could now, quite literally, charge them for the air they breathed. Meanwhile the oligarchy began repairing the environmental damage to the homeworld while keeping it for themselves.
There was at this time a revolutionary figure named Tai'kixa Daramathis, who was actually a former member of the oligarchy who betrayed them after falling in love with a lower-class male. She saw through the oligarchy's propaganda and forged a sizable rebellion threatening to collapse the economy and put in check the power of the oligarchy. This flashed into a hot war occurring mostly in space, with very primitive spacecraft in the Katharians home star system. The oligarchy maintaining superior military forces fought the Daramathain spacers who relied mostly on guerrilla tactics. The conflict ended when the Daramathis rebellion threatened to 'drop rocks' on the Katharian homeworld, which the rebellion had little sympathy for or attachment to.
After lengthy and harrowing negotiations, the Daramathian rebellion, later to be called Daramathians would be allowed to leave the solar system on sublight sleeper ships, while the Oligarchs would maintain ownership of the Katharians home star system.
The Oligarchs learned two things; They needed to protect their society against such a thing happening again and that they needed to hunt down the Daramathians who could return and potentially pose a threat. (Militarily, technologically, or ideologically)
The former issue was resolved by further rigidifying and intensify their cultural beliefs in Takabar. The oligarchs (who were primarily female) instituted a program of mandatory genetic engineering to make the males in their society a sort of "worker caste", with the objective to remove the temptation for an oligarch to be attracted to a male and to demean the entire male gender against rebellion. These new fast growing Katharians required that they simplify the process of education, language and literature as they had less time as adolescents to absorb information. The reproductive cycle of Katharians was altered to make them dumber, more docile, more cooperative and above all fast breeding.

Space Conflict Era

Some time after the Daramathain Exodious the Katharians would develop faster than light travel. Though their subspace drives were vastly inferior to dominion-era technology, they nevertheless mining and exploiting systems that could be more than a years travel away. Shortly after their discovery of faster than light travel, they encountered the Mendians and Cauldarions. They would enter into the two thousand years war with the latter, the Katharian-Cauldarion war being the main conflict which shaped the space conflict era.
During the unification war, Katharian society would be massively disrupted as the arrival of Kragleosha Gauss contradicted much of the katharian propaganda.
Twoards the end of the Space Conflict Era (Actually a few years into the dominion era), the Katharian homeworld would be bombarded by several cauldarion freighters traveling at light speed, disrupting the biosphere for a second time.

Dominion Era

The Katharians were extremely reluctant to join the dominion. As signing to join meant accepting economic regulations that would destroy the oligarchical leadership caste's way of life. Their descision to join was motivated by the threat of an overwhelming rebellion to completely collapse Katharian social order. This, as well as an unconfirmed conspiracy that the katharian oligarchs were drugged at a diplomatic dinner during the signing of the writ of kragleosha, meant their leadership signed.
There is a large degree of cultural friction between the remnants of the katharian oligarchy. This has led to the creation of two distinct cultural groups; Neo-Katharians and Traditionalists. The Neo-Katharians embrace the rediscovery of Katharian culture and identity, viewing the Traditionalists for what they were, as staunch, corrupt oligarchs. Traditionalists argue that Takabar is Katharian culture and that the dominion is infringing upon it.

Interspecies Relations and Assumptions

Traditionalists

The Oligarchy produced falsified records that they discovered subspace travel thousands of years earlier, and manipulated records of their early encounters of the Cauldarions. Such accounts are impossible to prove or disprove as the oligarchy controlled all information at the time. The remnants of their leader caste and their followers still stubbornly believing themselves rightful stewards of the galaxy and that all other races. They also despise their hated foes, the Cauldarions and believe it is their duty to wipe them out. Though on surface level these values are strongly discouraged in dominion culture, they are deeply engraned and many Katharians pass on the ways of Takabar and the belief in their innate superiority down the generations.

Neo-Katharians 

The Neo-Katharians believe in the gaussian way, that all species are equals and generally have much more amicable relations. They even call the hated Cauldarions equals.

Genetic Descendants

• Daramathian

Lifespan

~80 standard years (pre-modification) ~50 standard years (post modification)

Average Height

1.6m (Male) 2.2m (Female)

Average Physique

Katharians typically have a more lean body structure than their human counterparts. Though they are about equally as strong.

Related Technologies

• Superconducting Liquid Coilgun