Sehras (race)



The Sehras are a race of reptilian beings that originate from the inner territories of Khadash commonly known as the Midlands. Aggressive of nature and with an inherent disposition for violence, the Sehras used to be a savage people striving to murder each other during the early stages of their history, known as the Era of Savagery. Faith, however, drove the Sehras away from the path of exctinction and gave these once brutish reptiles a purpose and a way to channel their pulsions. As of today (398 ATF), the Sehras are a deeply pious people and have outgrown their primitive ways to build the strongest civilisation of its time. The Sehras nations - otherwise known as the Twin Empires of Khadash - have been the largest and most powerful states of Zael for over a millenium.

Taller, tougher and stronger than humans, the Sehras are natural-born killers covered with thick scales and chitinous spikes. Their hands are clawed and their large maws are ganished with razor sharp teeth, corresponding to their predatory lifestyle. Since the dawn of times, the Sehras have been formidable warriors with a keen sense of duty towards their peers and thus a propension to sacrifice themselves for the good of the group. Long berfore the founding of the empires, the Sehras lived in clans and assimilated themselves to the group and its leader, waging an endless war on outsiders in order to prevail. Centuries after the clanic wars, the clans of old live on inside the empires and continue to be a central element of Sehras identity.

Having harnessed their inner violence through spirituality, the Sehras remain a martial people in spite of their manifest sophistication since the old days. Both in the Northern and Southern Empires, the art of war has become an organized and politically oriented activity which serves the interests of the state. Civilized by faith and united by a common belief, the Sehras have conquered and explored a large portion of the world and established themselves as a power to be reckoned with...

Birth and Era of Savagery
Some scholarly works have backed up the thesis according which the Sehras descend from an antique and now presumably extinct race of amphibious reptiles called Slaad. Skeletons of such creature having been found on the southernmost shores of Khadash, this theory relies on fairly strong evidences. However, the Sehras have never aknowledged such claims as fact, since it contradicts the cosmogonic beliefs of their religions. In the old Sehra'shi tongue, the word Sehras meant "Sun-Born", and even though modern religions have never sanctionned it, the oldest Sehra'shi myth is the belief that they, Sehras, were moulded by the Sun and Stars to rule on the Earth. Until the advent of Ataisme and Zaharism, this myth was a popular belief and a part of Sehra'shi folklore.

No matter what they descend from and how holy are their origins, the first chapters of the Sehras's history took place in the Midlands of Khadash, some 4000 years before the Fall. In spite of their very aggressive dispositions, the Sehras were a social people from the start and lived in packs both for survival and the need for esprit-de-corps. In the early stages of their history, a pack would consist of two or three broodmothers, their hatchlings and a dozen of fully grown "guardians". A pack would systematically build around a broodmother, since they were the only organism of the specie habilitated for reproduction and breeding. Only a very few of the eggs she delivered would spawn a future broodmother; thus, the ratio broodmother to guardian was extremely weak (1 to 30), and underlined how important is was to protect the only breeding member of the community. Guardians would therefore have for sole function to protect the young and their mother.

The packs evolved very quickly into clans as they became more socially complex and grew in size. When Sehras from different clans would meet inadvertantly, they would slaughter each other mercilessly, both as a defense mecanism and a natural urge to kill. Very few clans at the time managed to cooperate, let alone cohabitate. Those who did, however, eventually grew even larger in size. Common historiography baptized the very long period of time before the advent of Ataism "Era of Savagery" because of its barbarous nature. The clans would wage a never ending war against each other in order to expand and survive. The defeated guardians would be killed in combat, and the broodmothers captured, or, in some rare cases given their exceptional nature, slaughtered. Thus, countless Sehras lost their lives in this fratricidal conflict - some clans were wiped out with the death of their members, and others arose a the superior force. With time, the conflict became more stable as these greater clans grew in number and importance.

At the turn of the Era of Savagery, there were five greater clans, each named after one of its distinguished leaders: These major clans went on spawning smaller and less remarkable ones with time. As of 3000 (BTF) however, they were the main actors of Sehras's history. It's usually at this temporal mark that begins the 2nd and last phase of the Era of Savagery: the Clanic Wars.
 * Clan Sothek
 * Clan Japaz
 * Clan Serek
 * Clan Saurok
 * Clan Sarkath

The Clanic Wars
It is commonly considered that the year 3000 BTF was the year of the 1st Clanic War which opposed clan Sarkath and clan Saurok and started a short yet extremely violent conflict between the major clans. At the time, warlord Sarkath had absorbed the many clans he had vanquished into his own, thus leading the largest warband of his time and therefore threatning its rivals. Clan Sarkath consisted of 20 000 guardians and over fifty broodmothers. Warlord Saurok, whose clan came second in terms of size, had contracted an agreement of non-aggression with Sarkath in order to preserve both their clans from excessive weakening over a war of rivalry. Out of fear that an alliance between the Saurok and the Sarkath might wipe out their common ennemies, the remaining clans joined together and waged war on the Sarkath, hoping to damage it beyond recovery. Sarkath and his warband clashed with clan Sothek, Japaz and Serek and managed to hold on, until the Saurok backstabbed them with a massive raid, leading to a crushing defeat for the great clan. Saurok himself slew Sarkath in battle, leaving his clan diminished and broken beyond recovery.



The 2nd Clanic War occurred some fifty years later, during the uprising of clan Sothek, which had become the greater force of the midlands in spite of the efforts of clan Saurok to conserve their superirority. Sothek was a young and pragmatic leader with a keen edge for strategy and the way of the sword, who believed in the construction of one supreme clan. These aspirations led him to war with warlord Saurok who intended to maintain his grip on the midlands and bow to no one. In their struggle for superiority, Sothek and Saurok engaged in war that would continue long after both their deaths. The conflict ended after sixty years of scorched earth tactic and savage raids, and gave clan Sothek a decisive advantage for the subsequent wars. Although it wasn't doomed by the war, clan Saurok would never retrieve its past superiority over other Sehras clans.

The 3rd Clanic War began after the rise of warlord Tekhal and his warband - Tekhal and his brothers were former members of clan Sothek that had been enslaved by clan Athek after a major defeat some years before. Slavery had been a rare occurrence in Sehras culture, mostly due to their love of killing, but clan Athek was known during the Era of Savagery as a slaver clan due to its need for labour force. The time came however, when the slaves seized an opportunity to free themselves and revolt against their captors, led by the iron-willed Tekhal. A formidable warrior reputated as unbreakable (Tekhal is Sehra'shi for "iron-fury"), Tekhal started a war when he attacked clan Athek at its heart and clan Saurok came to the rescue of its ally. Clan Sothek and Battalek took part in the war, hoping Tekhal and his hardened guerilla warband might become precious allies in coming years. Tekhal managed to break out of captivity after having consistently humiliated clan Athek, and forged his own clan. The war in itself ended on a statu-quo and bears the second heaviest death-toll of the Clanic Wars.

In 2500 BTF, the Sehras clans started to explore west of the Midlands and were confronted with the Dixyde, an insectoid people which had built its empire in the vast forest of Yshan. What is now called the War of Hornets, is the first chapter of the downfall of the Kaxyte. Having discovered new lands to conquer and a worthy enemy to annihilate, the Sehras stopped their fratricidal conflict and began to battle the Dixyde Empire. The War of Hornets lasted for almost four hundred years until the Sehras expedition tired out and went back in the Midlands, leaving a crumbling Kaxyte behind their footsteps. The 4th Clanic War begins soon after (2050 BTF) a conflict between clan Battalek and the remains of clan Sarkath. The latter splits itself in half, unable to reconcile the majority of its clansmen - clans Alkan (led by Alkan the Bone-Breaker) and Makal (led by Makal) are thus created. The other clans seize the opportunity to conquer the former territory of the Sarkath, thus beginning a long period of tribulation. Both Alkan and Makal were able to establish their clan, in spite of losing an important part of the land they once owned. The brutal clan Talothep also distinguished itself during this war for its sheer savagery.

From 1560 BTF to 1086 BTF, the fifth - and final - Clanic War occurs. It is by far the most murderous conflict of the Era of Savagery and led to a brutal realization that the Sehras needed to handle their pulsions and abandon their fratricidal conflicts lest their race went extinct. In common historiography, this war is named "War of Stones", which refers to the stones under which the clans buried their deads. The war began with clan Athek's leader, Sarothek, rapidly conquering the Northern midlands in a particularily brutal manner. While the Clanic War had always been murderous, they rarely led to the extinction of a group or clan because they were territorial conflicts. Sarothek took it upon himself to crush the mongrels who dared trespass on his land, and so he hunted down the neighboring clans and eradicated them entirely.

[to be completed]

Morphology
The Sehras are reptiles - while their posture resembles that of humans, they are much closer in appearance to the great lizards. Their body is covered with thick scales and chitinous spikes can be found on their arms, legs, back, tail and head. They have a very good perception of colors, and their wide reptilian eyes allow them to see fairly well in the dark. They have sophisticated senses of smell and hearing in spite of the absence of external ears. Their long wide snouts resembles that of the great lizards and drakes, and their maw is filled with razor-sharp teeth. They have broad shoulders, two strong arms and legs that allows them to run very efficiently both on two and four legs. Their long tail allows them to keep balance while standing still. They are natural swimmers and climbers.

They have sharp long claws at the tip of their ten thingers and toes. Standing, the Sehras have an average height of 190cm, and an average weight of 180kg. The average Sehras is much stronger and tougher than the average man - any Sehras can easily crush a man's arm by the sole strength of his grip. The only known sentient being to outclass him in this regard, is the Dravesh. Their morphology is adapted to war and intense physical labour.

Most Sehras have blue, grey or black scales, but it is well-known that some redish-scaled Sehras, although an uncommon sight, exist. Their eye-color varies greatly. Unlike humans and many other species, the Sehras have no hair whatsoever, nor any fur. Unlike most reptiles, they are warm-blooded, but still need some warmth to be in ideal shape. As a consequence, they struggle by cold climate.

The uncommon "female" declination of the Sehras specie is identical to the "male" version of the Sehras, only much bigger on average (230cm), and less apt to move due to their excessive mass.

Reproduction
Sehras are both oviparous and parthenogenetic, which means that the rare females lay eggs spontaneoulsy from the age of 20 up to their death (and on a seasonal basis) without any sexual relation. Females lay on average a couple hundred eggs a year, although this number has shown to be changing depending on numerous factors. Only 10% of hatchlings are of the female declination of the specie, hence the necessity to protect them at all time and keep them away from foreign eyes. This influences greatly social distribution, since "male" Sehras have the duty to protect the "female" Sehras of their clan at all cost, for they are the only one who can guarantee the race's future.