Coathal

The reptilian Coathal are slow acting, deliberate, stoic and staunchly democratic. A young face on the galactic scene, they are staunchly individualistic, insular and are known to have a labyrinthine understanding of bureaucracy and procedure.

Physical Description

Forged by a brutal climate and intense scarcity of resources, the Coathal are among the hardiest species in the galaxy, able to withstand the searing sands and eternal drought of their desert homeworld Charum, where they have evolved for millions of years. They possess hard scales, muscled bodies, have a number of biological adaptations such as subdermal chromatophores, sharp talons, and teeth to complement their robust physiology. Coathal are generally oviparous, and value the home as a place to first nurture an egg, and then raise a hatchling in. There are rarely physical differences between Coathal males and females. Coathal can influence the birthed gender of their young through adjusting egg temperatures - hermaphroditism is a common result as well. Culturally, this makes gender a far weaker social concept - secondary sex characteristics and gender expression are often no good indicator of the reproductive organs a Coathal possesses.

Heritages

Coathal are unified by sturdy scales and solid and powerful bodies, but vary in exact descriptions.

• Yothatl The majority are distinctly reptilian, primarily subterranean, they are the majority of coathal society and have explicitly no real sense of claustrophobia owing to their subterranean environment. They appear most like lizards.
• Kathatl The Aqueous serpentine variety of coathal, they have powerful musculature and in some cases are limbless or legless. They are abnormally ruthless for coathal and appear like snakes.
• Muthlatl The winged breed of coathal that originate in the mountaintops and sparse forests of charum. They are generally not comfortable in cramped environments. They appear moderately similar to pterosaurs and dragons.

History

The Coathal are one of the slowest-developing peoples in known space, having reached their bronze age some 80,000 years ago. Their history was marked by warring nations, tribes, conflict and destruction that was only resolved during a slow evolution into anarchistic communes with each region and society having little in common with the others. Space was seen as an expression of individuality and a grand new place to form new social expressions, until they encountered alien life. Seeing the dangers posed by humanity and the gwix, a united government and council of communes was established, leading to the Vesreen Holdings and their modern, slightly more united era.

Society

Coathal society is slow moving to a degree nearly unheard of elsewhere. Nearly all things are assumed to require debate, where some consensus is written and actions take into account others opinions and needs. Due to this Coathal often find decision making difficult without some amount of consideration, but rarely notice or consider differences in appearance or individual eccentricities abnormal.

Beliefs

The Coathal regard democracy and civil discourse as their highest ideals. They believe so strongly in these notions of individual merit that they regard almost any form of government that is not a form of direct democracy or anarchy to be some kind of borderline despotism.