Szassar

The Szassar are a race of sapient technology using reptilians with a similar morphology to terran reptiles, with the exception of larger and more complex brains, some sexual biological variations and the key feature of being a six-limbed race with the ability to switch from moving with four legs to two legs, depending on the situational demands for speed and dexterity. They have a knot of cartilage between their torso and abdomen which allows them to take on a centaur like posture when they need to move quickly. They can also walk and stand on their hind limbs alone, with some support from their short and strong tails. Fully upright on rear-legs and tail, a typical adult szass stands between 170 and 200cm tall. When on four limbs, the tops of their heads are about 130-150cm from the ground. Their limbs will grow back if amputated, but this process takes years and the new limb will always be somewhat stunted. Szass forelimbs (upper limbs) are much like human limbs - capable of similar dexterity. The major difference between the morphology of a human hand and the hand of a szass is the presence of two opposable thumbs - one on each side of the hand. This was an evolutionary adaption which provided great grip on tree limbs during their early evolutionary path. The other major divergence from terran reptiles is the development of a complex tail structure which is more like the tail-feathers of a bird than a whip-like appendage. Szassar tails developed around an evolutionary need to grip tree limbs, while also providing support for when they stood upright on the ground. As such, the bones in their tails resemble a 7-digit hand overlaid with thick sinews attached to muscles at the base of their abdomen. The ends of each tail-bone are tipped with a hard horn-like material which is vaguely talon-like, allowing the tail to latch into the bark of trees and provide an anchor as the upper body is used for activities other than gripping the tree. On the ground, these "talons" bend towards the ground and act less like hooks and more like a cam that can flex and move to help balance the weight of the szass on uneven ground. The szassar have broad frills around their heads much like an Australian frill-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii), and like their terrestrial counterparts, these frills have the ability to flare when needed and display a mix of colours. Unlike the frill-necked lizard, a szass can signal its emotional state to other members of its via the colour of its frill. A few particularly disciplined szassar can even consciously control the hue of their frill. This is somewhat like the ability of humans to convey emotions via their facial expressions, and a limited well-trained few can manipulate their micro-expressions to fool even the best face readers. Szassar have 3 pairs of eyes vertically stacked on their broad skulls. The smallest and bottom-most pair is tuned for vision into the infra-red spectrum. The middle pair of eyes is the largest and ranges from the upper infra-red spectrum into the lower ultra-violet. The top pair of eyes is attuned largely to ultra-violet frequencies. This was an adaption created early in the evolution of the szassar homeword when the sun in the solar-system went through a period of heavy sun-spot activity. The ability to detect increases in ultra-violet light and take shelter was a natural selection common to most species who survived that period of the planet's history. Szassar have an unusual means of sexual propagation. They are an androgynous race with few distinguishing features in terms of sexual organs. They exchange DNA with each other via spit-glands on the side of their faces, which interface with aligned sacs which store genetic material from other szass. When a broad enough sample of DNA is collected and an egg is ready to receive that material, the sac discharges into an egg and fertilizes it. Szassar eggs were originally carried internally to regulate heat, and the young carried in marsupial-like pouches. However, modern szassar have the eggs extracted and transferred to incubation units which are grouped in creches. The young are handed over to foster-parents to raise and educate once hatched and are moved between different foster families regularly after their fifth year. Young szassar are thus exposed to many different attitudes and fields of knowledge as they grow. The szassar homeworld is largely a tropical rainforest with a canopy over a hundred metres high. The szassar were originally an arborial hunter-gatherer race. Their ascent to sapience was relatively rapid, and led by a long-lived szass named Kri-Kik Split-tail. Their story is a long one and will be covered in [url:this article]. Whilst the szassar were not always as large as they are in the Wayfarers Milieu, they were always omnivores. As they became more capable hunters, their brains grew in size, needing more body mass to feed them, and their stature grew until their food intake requirements met an equilibrium point between mental energy output and effort required to hunt.