Aeredectyl

The Specie
The Aeredectyl are a sentient race hailing from Septimia IV. Easily recognized by their Hydrosuits and their barbed tentacles located at the back of their head.

Race chart

 * Specie: Aredectyl

Biological Data: - Average height: 1.75m - Average weight: 65kg - Four limbs Two upper limbs, divided into arm, vambraces and four-fingered hands (Left/Right) Two lower limbs, divided into thigh, leg, hoof (Left/Right) - Facial traits organized on a symmetric axis Two Compound eyes Two nostrils One mouth Barbs and quills located beneath the mouth, and four short tentacles over it. - Phenotype traits Carapace color (from Dark hues to white and pink-violet) Eye color (Dark) Hair color (From dark hues to white and pink-violet) Flesh color (From dark hues to white and pink-violet, usually corresponding to that of the carapace)
 * Homeworld: Asshyr'ji (Septimia IV)
 * Type: Invertrhebae Mulloscoids
 * Diet: Omnivore (with carnivorous origins)
 * Reproduction: sexual, oviparous

Psychological Analysis
The Aredectyl have always been divided but united: no xenophobia ever dwelled in them, but a very strong sense of patriotism and service. A group of Aredectyl will be seen laughing and eating together one day, and the next they'll fight and immediately later they will return to laughing with even more gusto. Individually, an Aredectyl cares a lot about itself: while they are a specie that love bonding, physical contact between strangers is frowned at and considered bordering-taboo. All Aredectyls are also stubborn traditionalists, that do embrace technological progress but prefer the status quo in society. This may make most individuals happy with their lives, but the intergalactic community might not understand and discriminate the Aredectyls.

Evolution course
Starting as cephalopods, the Aredectyl were a sea specie that consumed small fishes and predators - but were in turn a favorite snack by bigger fishes.

The evolutional strand that survived were the Spallokk, smart predators that used their small size and alluring tentacles to capture their prey. Later stages saw the Spallokk octopus imitate the motion of bigger predators, to intimidate and pass unhindered.

By the time of the First Cataclysm, the number of Spalloks reduced drastically as they were not prepared for a glacial era. Those who survived had developed a primitive albeit efficient circulation as well as barbs to survive through the now cold waters. From solitary predators, the Spalloks gathered in herds, and used the friction and their movement to heat up. Together, they began understanding the current in order to gain more food.

The Second Life started, and the Spallokks that survived had grown bigger and developed a rudimental hierarchy - where the old would be fed by the young should they be disabled somehow. Due to the increase of their pack behaviors, the Science community agreed that they were talking of a different specie - the Amaruk, named after the scientist that noted all these differences.

The Amaruks still relied on their small size for hunting - but with bigger and bigger creatures lurking the oceans, the Amaruk packs began being swallowed by bigger predators. For this reason, some packs decided to get closer and closer to reefs and shallow waters.

The Second Cataclysm happened, and Amaruks of the deep water were boiled alive as the Age of Fire made the water incredibly warmer. This event started the evolution of life on the coasts, while coast-faring Amaruks became the most relevant strain.

At the end of the Age of Fire - or Second Cataclysm, the Amaruks had developed an even more complex circulatory system and began developing primitive lungs. Their barbs flattened and turned into a primitive carapace, that served as protection against their world's hot sun. These terrestrial Amaruk have been dubbed by the Scientific community Amaraki.

Thousands years later, the Amaraki carapace evolved to the point of allowing the molluscoids to live without water for days, and the rainy weather of the tropical jungle contributed to their terrestrial lifestyle: the Amaraki included in their diet small and medium-sized reptilian and amphibian animals alongside fishes. The Amaraki would use their tentacles to cling on trees and drop on unaware prey, stinging them with a neurotic poison before strangling them to death. The only opponent the Amaraki could not beat were in the depths of their world (and those who had great mimetic abilities, as their eyes weren't keen on lit environments). For this reason, the Amaraki spent more and more on the surface and thus adapted for a sedentary life on the coastlines.

Further in time, with the second Age of Ice, the Amaraki had developed minor intelligence, and gathered in tribes that wandered through the coastline and snowy forests, slowly losing their quadrupedal stance and favored a bipedal stance, while their upper limb began developing claws and talons. The first settlements are built over rivers, but this won't happen before a dozen of thousand years later, at the end of the Age of Ice where communities of gatherers turned into agricultural villages.

Modern day Aeredectyl retain humanoid form, with a clean, shaven visage and tentacles sprouting from the back of their head, as a form of hair. The length of these appendages vary, and they have no more uses nowadays - and remained as evolutionary heritage. They also lost their carapace, and usually have colored spots.

Few notes regarding Civilization
The first sedentary village emerged on the continent of Larripax, between the Southern ocean and the Orrix river. At the same time, several other settlements grew into cities - but Aman'iraj was the greatest: the city had a long tradition of warriors as they claimed the whole territory alongside the Orrix river. The main characteristic of these settlements is that they developed partly on the surface, and part of them on the water: platforms, mud huts beneath the water, the Aredectyl never abandoned their amphibian nature.

First signs of spiritualism appeared in the Avorrhir Empire, with celebrations of the changing of seasons and animalistic deities - the Savorixis, the sun Stag-god, and the Maonkhirii, the moon Shark-god.

Throughout the ancient ages, several Empires rose and fell and by the Feudal Ages, eight kingdoms determined the balance of the world. The remaining five Kingdoms became of relevance either, after the Rediscovery and the Great invasions.

By the time of the Modern Age, all the thirteen Kingdoms were engaged in an endless feud, that followed the rules dictated by the Monohorimo, a code of Honor as old as the first Empires. The Monohorimo is the very testament of the Aredectyl traditionalism.