#ashiik

Kingdom – Animalia

Phylum - Chordata

Superclass – Arconflatae

Class – Dentapellia

Order – Ostiunctia

Family – Branchialae

Genus – Iunctii

Species - Ashiik

Appearance

The quickest way to describe an ashiik is to bring to mind an upright standing raptor. They typically stand between five to seven feet tall, and are proportionally thin. Their skin is coated in a thin layer of placoid scales the colour of which varies greatly with various shades of yellow, red and green being the most common, though blues and violets are not unheard of. Their hands have only two digits and a thumb, and again only two on their feet. Each also has plumes of feather-like appendages on the tips of their long tails, forearms and crowning their heads. The tails are long and flexible, but not prehensile. Males have long snouts while females have wider and blunter snouts. Their teeth are pointed, adept at eating meat but they can digest the varieties of fruit in their environment with ease. The jaws themselves function similarly to those of fish from Earth, which can extend forward with explosive speed to catch prey. A red slit runs down their necks, which can be opened willfully or reflexively in response to surprise or fear into a hood. The skin underneath appears blood red, and is also exposed along the length of the belly, the inner thigh, and underarm. A crest juts out of the centre of the chest, and is significantly larger on females.

Biology

           The closest analogue to Earth based life would be for the ashiik would be lobe-finned fish with some mammalian properties. Ashiik are cold blooded, meaning that they will generally stay away from cooler environments, and ashiik homes are usually stifling for other species. Their skeletons possess well over a hundred more bones in their bodies – that are also on average smaller and lighter – than that of a human, with significantly more cartilaginous material interconnecting them as well. The reduced size and weight of the bones makes them outwardly appear to be more easily broken, but higher quantities of carbon in them mean that, pound for pound, they are approximately as durable as a human’s bones. Interestingly the sternum and kneecaps are very pronounced, protruding outward from the body and forming bony crests.

           Ashiik are haplo-diploid egg layers; meaning unfertilized eggs will become males while fertilized ones become females. About every eight years, a female lays a clutch of about a dozen eggs. Eggs have a tough, leathery exterior instead of a shell, allowing for easier fertilization but not overexposing it to the elements. The cultural attitude of their society prevents all but a small number of eggs from being fertilized, resulting in about 80% of living ashiik to be female.

           Ashiik have two sets of eyes, the second set being very small and located just behind the larger pair, near the tear ducts. The larger sees in the spectrum most sapients see in, while the secondary can see in thermal, used for hunting at night when the desert and rainforest would get significantly colder. Both pairs have thin membranes in place of eyelids.

Ashiik mouths are formed in a series of loosely connected bones, creating a linkage mechanism to allow for effective protrusion feeding. Like that of a fish, an ashiik jaw can extend several centimetres out. This is an evolutionary holdover from their ancestral predecessors that would usually dwell in the trees low to the ground around the mangroves on Memkar, using their powerful, extending jaws to snatch up prey from the water.

           Ashiik are coated in placoid scales, while prominent scute clusters grow in areas exposed to frequent friction, such as the knees, elbows, feet and hands. Interestingly these scale and scute assemblages are not incredibly well developed, and while they function well as pretection from the elements, they fail to serve as efficient heat-exchangers. As a result modern ashiik have evolved large patches of slick, unscaled flesh exposed on various parts of the body like the neck, inner thigh, and chest. The red flesh looks ribbed to the eye, like it consists of layered strips lined on top of one another, and that assessment is not entirely inaccurate – these areas are used as a method of quick heat regulation, taking the place of sweat glands, allowing for heat to quickly exit the body if the ashiik becomes too warm.

           Despite being cold blooded, ashiik do not experience noticeable metabolic lethargy when at rest, and can maintain swiftness of motion even when in a cold environment; primarily thanks to their respiratory system. Ashiik have a single, almost rigid lung deeply entrenched in the ribcage, accompanied by eight air sacs that allow a unidirectional flow of air through the lung, which keeps the volume of air in the lung at a near constant level, and greatly increasing respiratory and by proxy pulmonary efficiency, permitting high metabolic rates not characteristic of the ashiik body type. In addition, ashiik are natural circular breathers, with separate nasal cavities designed to individually allow the simultaneous input and output of air.

            The feather like appendages that form brilliantly colourful plumage on the forearms, tails and dorsal region of ashiik are specialized dermal denticles in which the pulpy core’s cartilaginous proteins have extended through the hard enamel and stiffened into a strand or quill, branching into soft, thin barbs and barbules. These structures - while greatly resembling protofeathers - are unsuitable for flight but come in an incredible variety of colours, and likely originally formed as display to increase reproductive success. .

  Homeworld

The ashiik homeworld Memkar is a planet located deep inside the Xerxes nebula with two moons of it’s own. Memkar is dominated by vast, wind blasted dunes and desert along the equatorial region, but has several small, shallow seas each surrounded by thick, lush rainforest peppering the polar and sub-polar regions. The dunes in some regions of the great banded desert house their own vegetation as well, being huge enough to provide protection from the intense sun. The relationship is harsh though, as the wind pummels the dune forward, it swallows up the shrubbery that grows in it’s shadow, forcing growth away from the dune, as such Memkar is peppered with fast growing, perpetually moving oasis’ of life. The oases only move at about the same rate as a continent does. It is in these jungles that most of the life survives, and it is where the ashiik also found their beginnings.

Culture and Government

           The ashiik governmental structure, known as the ashiik matriarchies, is relatively broad; the ashiik came late to the notion of world government. For centuries, their homeworld was dotted with loose confederacies of great cities. The closest Earth equivalent would be the ancient Mediterranean city-states. Since the ashiik culture values consensus and accommodation, there was little impetus to form larger principalities. Rather than hoard resources, the ashiik bartered freely. Rather than attack one another over differing philosophies, they sought to understand one another. Only in the information age did the city-states grow close.

The ashiik equivalents to nations and clans are “Elohim”. Elohim are effectively large groups of families tied together based on shared ideals and bloodlines. These Elohim can range in size from a nuclear family to hundreds of thousands of members, and can vary from loose family association to strong connections with leaders in the Sharakiid.

An Elohim-Ra is the ruling family of an Elohim, the term also applies to the head of that family, always a matriarchal female. An Elohim-Ra holds the power of an Elohim, and in ancient times made all the decisions regarding the clan as a whole and it’s relations with other Elohim. The Elohim-Ra also serves as a spokesperson for the clan and represents their Elohim in the Sharakiid, the council of Elohim-Ra of other clans that govern the matriarchies. When the Elohim-Ra dies, her eldest daughter takes the place. Historically ashiik only lived within the rainforests, but in the modern age they have many cities and towns coating the world, most of them near a body of water.

Elohim are not static, and changing ties or relations is not considered a matter of grave consequence. Male ashiik will rarely remain with or even associate themselves with their birth Elohim, instead usually living as vagabonds or making their own social ties.

The matriarchies themselves are traditionally represented by the Sharakiid, the central governing power of all the ashiik. The Sharakiid is a council of the leading Elohim-Ra of the different ashiik clans, and make choices for the entire race as a whole. The Sharakiid has changed very little over the vast amount of time that the ashiik have been active in the galactic community, but it has been destroyed and reformed three times in their recorded (and once in their unrecorded) history.

The ashiik owe their cultural dominance in the galaxy to the fact that they revolutionized the design of ftl drives several thousand years ago, allowing for much faster and efficient travel. When they made contact with the shridites two hundred years later, they agreed to form the Confederation. This also marked the beginning of the Confederation standard calendar (FS), the year 0 FS. They rapidly expanded borders outward from Acropolis, and incorporated several new races into the fold, including the cuauhtori, makuriun, xafarish, yautaung, bandore and most recently, humans.

           Ashiik put extremely high value into appearance and social caste. Violating one’s place is severely frowned upon, and insulting the worth of a social better is a serious insult. Body language is also of heavy import; for example, tilting the head to the left is a sign of respect and admiration, while when an ashiik tilts her head to the right it is a sign that they are (or consider themselves to be) superior to the one they are focusing on. Therefore, this can be considered an insult.

           An Ashiik will traditionally have three names, the first is their given name, the second their family name, and the third their clan name. Males are not given clan names however, as much of the time adults do not reside with the rest of the clan. Instead, males would either roam the deserts alone, or guard the isolated hatcheries in which the ashiik ceremonially kept their eggs.

During the mating season, the females of a clan who were about to give birth would travel to their clan’s hatchery, usually a cave or den hidden amongst the chaparral or desert to lay their eggs. Male Ashiik would historically only reside at the hatchery in their own camps, and when the females came, there would be great festivities and contests to see who would be allowed to fertilize the few eggs that were decided to be male. When it is all over and the females return to their cities, the males remained to guard the clutches, and when they were born, they would deliver the young to the safety of the female cities then return to the wastes. It is scientifically believed that this gender segregation among the ashiik originally occurred because the males would always be the ones guarding the eggs – far away from the rest of the clan, and eventually stopped bothering to return to the clan afterward.

These hatchery camps still exist to some extent today, though their population has diversified. While most hatcheries are only kept as ceremonial, many males on Memkar still chose to reside there, and the camps have become home to many others, mostly the homeless and unemployed who cannot find a place in the cities.

War Doctrine

The ashiik military is not as organized as one would think considering their highly civilised culture, resembling more a collection of bands from different Elohim with no national structure. Each unit is organized as the clan sees fit, and will vary in size and power depending on the population and wealth of the Elohim that created it. While somewhat ragtag, it is anything but an irregular militia.

The primary difference between the ashiik military and the majority of others is not their equipment or doctrine, but their intelligence services and rules of engagement. They believe that a war should be won before it begins. The unquestionable superiority of their intelligence services allows them to use their relatively moderately sized military to its maximum effectiveness. Well before fighting even breaks out, the ashiik will possess complete knowledge on enemy positions, intentions, and timetable.

In every war they have ever fought, the ashiik have struck first and without warning. For the ashiik, to know an enemy plans to attack and let it happen is folly; to announce their own plans to attack is insanity. They find the human moral concepts of 'do not fire until fired upon' and 'declare a war before prosecuting it' incredibly naive. In defensive wars, they execute devastating pre-emptive strikes hours before the enemy's own attacks. On the offense, they have never issued an official declaration of war before attacking.

Soldiers will generally fight alone or in pairs. One-on-one, an ashiik commando is practically unbeatable, possessing a hunter’s eye and a dancer’s grace and alacrity. While fluid and mobile, ashiik can't stand up in a firestorm the way a cuauhtori, bandore, or human could. Since their units are small and typically lack heavy armor and support weapons, they are almost incapable of fighting a conventional war, particularly one of a defensive nature. So ashiik units typically undertake special operations missions. Like an army of ninja, they are adept at ambush, infiltration, and assassination, demoralizing and defeating their enemies through intense, focused guerrilla strikes.

While capable of defending themselves from many threats, they know that their military is not sizeable enough and is too overspecialized to effectively fight a conventional war. As a point, they have cultivated strong relationships with more militaristic powers, particularly the cuauhtori when they invited them to join their Confederation. Although their alliance was rocky at first due to the strict nature of cuauhtori culture, ashiik diplomacy is an effective thing, and they have developed their relationship to be strong enough that anyone who threatens them now risks cuauhtori intervention.

Ashiik are one of the very few extant species that primarily use directed energy weapons to arm both solders and starships. The main armament of most vessels includes tachyon laser batteries, focused to ultraviolet frequencies, and particle blasters, which fire bolts of magnetically contained subatomic particles. Their defenses were designed to reflect attacks similar to the ones they use, as such, the crystalline carbonide armoured hulls of ashiik ships are often very reflective. When located within or nearby a colourful nebula or gas cloud the vessel will likely mirror the colours rather well, and thus many consider ashiik ships to be some of the most beautiful craft in space. They also use magnetometric sensors, ion thrusters, pulse shield emitters, and antimatter reactor cores to power their immense fuel needs.

Religion

           The ashiik today are relatively open minded to religion, and thus many different forms were practiced even before their rise to space. After which, interest in religion waned somewhat, but did not disappear entirely. In it’s glory days, ashiik religion was as diverse as their political opinion, but the strongest survivor from those days is the monotheistic worship of the goddess Inut, who represents the universal consciousness that all living things encompass.

           Religion however was the source of the first and only major conflict in Memkar’s history before the attempted subjugation of the ashiik by the Huuk. The 400 year long conflict, known as the dogma wars, were primarily instigated by two of the three major spiritual clans, the Daiam and Hrabal Elohim, and engulfed the entire planet and almost brought ashiik civilization to ruin before it truly began.

           In light of this, it is easy to see why that for some time afterward, spiritual beliefs were accepted but regarded somewhat suspiciously. It took a thousand years for the fallout of the dogma wars to ebb away before faith was reborn to the ancient ashiik, with hundreds of new belief systems being born in a new cultural renaissance.

           It is during this period that the worship of Inut is believed to have begun. First appearing along the eastern coast of the southern sea, the pantheistic faith practices that every life is part of a greater whole, and death is one’s spiritual energy returning to the universal consciousness, a feminine form revered as Inut, translated literally as “All”. Temples used for the worship of Inut exist in many ashiik settlements where devotees go to express their faith. One of the most iconic symbols of Inut is a rock salt orb, usually about the size of a man’s head called a Suurak Haa. Present in every temple and many believer’s homes, a Suurak Haa allows worshipers to express thanks to the consciousness by licking a finger and setting it on the orb. As more followers practice this, the orb shrinks – a symbolic representation of life energy returning to the universal mind. In a place of residence, a Suurak Haa is usually placed by a doorway, so that visitors may also show their respect if they wish, or thank their hosts.

In a similar manner, inanimate objects form a secondary conscience called Barsutth, Inut’s masculine counterpart. Barsutth is not expressly worshiped, but is instead granted a silent respect. Older than Inut, Barsutth’s conscious is spread through all the non-living objects in the universe, and because said objects will never die, their spiritual energy will not return to him. This has earned him the title of the lonely god, with all his energy spent across the universe in quiet dignity.

The third entity – Patku – embodies absence, the lack of any spiritual energy at all. Patku has no inferred gender, and is rarely even mentioned in sacred ashiik texts, hinting that Patku may be a more recent addition to the pantheon. Patku has no place in the universe, and it cannot be clearly defined as living or dead, so it’s existence is often outright ignored by the mainstream religious body. A cult worshipping Patku has grown recently on Hemekek, but is not officially recognized, as most consider the worship of nonexistence to be hypocritical in and of itself.

This belief system took hold as one of the strongest religions of the ashiik throughout most of their history, though neither it nor other faiths held enough followers to be considered mainstream. Over time however - especially with the advent of spacetravel – the pantheistic belief in Inut was allowed to blossom, and is now the most practiced of the old ashiik beliefs.

 History

Ashiik culture first began to appear on Memkar at around 12 000 BCE. For much of their history, ashiik clans were limited in size and range to one of Memkar’s two seas, located on the northern hemisphere – now called the Saj Uurakhar – or Sea of Beginning. There it remained and developed for 1500 years, until the ashiik – threatened with overpopulation - spread to the second sea on the southern hemisphere as part of a mass pilgrimage to locate the promised waters, the second sea since then was referred to as the Saj Sstrofihar, the Sea of Growth. Some of the migrating Elohim however did not choose to continue their journey across the massive desert – disheartened. And instead came to live in the migratory oases that shift among the dunes.

           With two large and stable epicenters for growth, the ashiik population could grow with greater ease. Over the next century, Elohim split into new clans and multiplied, bringing new viewpoints and conflict into the lives of the ashiik for the first time, though most disagreements between the various Elohim boiled down to being more minor affairs such as territorial considerations, the subjugation of smaller Elohim and religious heresy.

For four hundred more years the ashiik developed into what could finally be considered a dominant planetary society with medieval levels of technology. Unfortunately the largest military conflict in their planetside history – the dogma wars – began shortly after.

Among the Elohim of the northern sea was one of the largest, wealthiest, and most ancient of the clans: Elohim Daiam. Daiam was one of the most notable examples of spiritual power among the elohim, and their traditional beliefs were that the ashiik were made to suffer in the eyes of their makers. Any deviation from this fate or the rituals that were involved with it was considered borderline heretical arrogance. This belief system was the polar antithesis to the common faith among one of the largest migratory clans, Elohim Hrabal. Hrabal, while respectably powerful, had a reputation for being isolationists, whose own theology professed that only they were of divine origin, and all other Elohim had come crawling out of the seas, and were therefore inferior to themselves.

This divide continued to grow parallel to the size and strength of each of these clans, and in 9 800 BCE they broke into all out war. Historical record degradation means that it is unclear which side struck first, but a great many atrocities were committed by both Elohim during the next 400 years of internecine warfare. While detailed records of these war crimes are few, some are still known of. One of the most infamous is likely the Mathaam butchering, in which an army of Hrabal marched north and slaughtered the Elohim Mathaam celebrants at Sham Hithiik – also referred to as the banded seas – only 100 kilometers from the coast of the Saj Uurakhar.

The dogma wars caused a great deal of suffering for all ashiik on Memkar, regardless of their involvement in the conflict due to the sheer scale of it. This was only magnified because so little of the total surface space of Memkar was actually inhabited by them, so most Elohim lived in relatively close quarters when compared to analogous civilizations growing on other worlds. Many smaller Elohim were subdued or destroyed by the conflicts between the two warring clans, and others still faced different difficulties, such as Elohim Ferim – a longtime religious clan – that had it’s economy devastated as no more pilgrims came to walk the paths to their monasteries along the Mosahak Mountain range that they called home. Most of the clans that lived in the sparse oasis rainforests on the southern hemisphere were impoverished when the Shokran Road – the primary trade route between the northern and southern seas was erased by Daiam saboteurs, and the black rock valley was completely buried in sand during the almost constant fighting for control of the coal mines there.

Memkar’s fragile ecosystem was almost annihilated by 400 years of conflict, however in an interesting turn of fortunes Elohim Haarsuk – a heavily scientific clan – managed to almost singlehandedly bring about the ashiik equivalent of the industrial revolution using resources plundered from abandoned battlefields. Explosives, rapid-firing weapons and even simple steam-powered vehicles brought the Haarsuk to the peak of combative efficiency.

With the Haarsuk now able to subdue the primary instigators of the conflict – the wars were essentially over. In the end the dogma wars destroyed many Elohim and ruined Daiam and Hrabal’s place in the world. Elohim Hrabal collapsed and melted into other Elohim, while Daiam was reduced to only 30 vassal families by 9 310 BCE, an extremely small number for any clan.

The end of the dogma wars saw the end of religious domination on Memkar, and the beginning of more scientific progress, though first the infrastructure that was devastated by four centuries of warfare had to be rebuilt. The Sharakiid was reformed after the formal end of offences. For some time afterwards openly expressing religious beliefs was often met with superstition, as many ashiik blamed it for the tragedies that had befallen their kind.

Over the next two thousand years, infrastructure was rebuilt and improved upon using newer scientific technologies, and the stigma towards public religious expressions faded. The ashiik had developed and a progressive and free-thinking mindset, generally unaggressive and tolerant towards each other. Near the end of this period the ashiik had begun to master magnetic locomotion, rudimentary spacetravel and the exploration of Memkar’s closest moon. Their interest in exploration increased, and they even managed to locate and harvest minimal amounts of antimatter, allowing for the construction of their first antimatter reactor. This reactor would allow them to begin dabbling in directed energy equipment and weaponry.

On the epoch of a new golden age for the ashiik, disaster struck in the most unexpected form for them: first contact. In 6 951 BCE the Huuk Dominion invaded Memkar, intent on subjugating it’s population and harvesting it’s incredibly rare supply of antimatter. The Dominion – a highly controversial galactic power at the time – was suffering under the rule of a paranoid and unstable emperor, who had advocated endorsed the subjugation of primitive races not yet capable of spaceflight into the empire as tertiary citizens, effectively slaves. The ashiik were the second race to be targeted – almost a century after the first. Huuk forces arrived above Memkar shortly after the ashiik had just conducted their first hyperdrive test. Immediately assaulting any orbital stations they encountered. While the ashiik space-based defenses were not advanced enough to repel such an attack, Memkar’s GTO (Ground to Orbit) laser defense system reacted to the invasion almost immediately, managing to melt almost a dozen battleships before the cannons were annihilated from orbit. The ashiik were forced to surrender, but not before several prototype ships had managed to escape to the rim of the system, and flee through the stargate network that the invaders had arrived though.

Bent on revenge, the ashiik refugees were contacted shortly after their flight from Memkar by rebels, a faction violently protesting the overly aggressive actions of the dominion, that was also made up of many members of the first subjugated species. The refugees were given access to newer technologies to aid them against the Huuk – and by integrating these technologies into their own ships, the ashiik runners became an independent force fighting for their people’s independence.

The rebel ashiik engaged in constant guerilla warfare against the Huuk. They struck back at the fleets that had attacked Memkar and their allies, plundering additional ships and technology where they could, effectively constructing an army of their own as they continued, eventually destroying them completely. Before the dominion could strike back, they would disappear into the forbidden Sargasso graveyard, and then reemerge somewhere else to strike at vulnerable dominion assets.

On Memkar as well, the indentured ashiik did not make life easy for their captors. The fiercely independent people constantly fought back in any way they could, from rioting to sabotaging the antimatter refineries and burying quarries with “misaligned” mining lasers. The Memkaran ashiik however were constantly and brutally subjugated, and in 6 884 BCE, the Huuk massacred most of Elohim Haarsuk from orbit, turning the immediate desert to glass. This genocide only incited the rebel ashiik to more acts of vengeance.

           The more deranged the emperor became in his policies to rid the dominion of the ashiik insurgents, the more his own people turned against him. While the ashiik and huuk rebels savaged military assets, the paranoid emperor massacred his own people in his hunt for “traitors”. All across the Huuk dominion there was outrage, and two and a half centuries after the initial invasion of Memkar, the dominion fleet seemed to be the only force loyal to the emperor anymore. For the people of the dominion, it had stopped being a matter of simply replacing the emperor. Now, many were convinced that there was something deeply wrong with the dominion itself.

           Meanwhile, the ashiik runners had achieved astounding success in their offensives against the Huuk, and gained a charismatic image to the citizenry of the Huuk dominion. Eventually, the entire rebellion force rallied around them, and the new ashiik fleet massed to invade and reclaim Memkar.

           Almost before the fleet had even arrived in orbit over Memkar, the ashiik planetside had globally risen up in rebellion against their captors, learning of their impending rescue. Factories burned across the planet – and before the dominion could slaughter the ashiik, the rebel fleet arrived and destroyed the occupational forces around Memkar.

           Free at last, the ashiik turned to rebuilding their society, though collectively they knew that the dominion would come for them. Now however, they were in control of the dominion’s primary antimatter refinement plants and mines, bolstering their ability to fight back immensely. The sharakiid was reformed for the third time and the ashiik that had been bound to live aboard starships for over 250 years finally set their feet down on the warm dunes of Memkar once again, reuniting with their families there.

           With the rebel huuk under their command, and much of the dominion fleet bruised or destroyed, the ashiik took aggressive action in pulling the oppressed colonies of the emperor under their control. While the Huuk dominion retreated and rearmed, the ashiik carved their own unnamed borders into the map.

           For the next four hundred, border skirmishes continued on both sides, and the mad emperor’s control began to crumble. Seeing an opportunity, the ashiik led their own force of newly constructed ships to the heart of the Huuk dominion – to end the threat of the Huuk once and for all.

           The emperor – in a baffling move – took direct control of the remaining dominion fleet over Normak. This was perhaps one of his worst decisions, as it was undoubtedly in part his lack of tactical aptitude that led to his disastrous defeat that was the first battle of Normak which resulted in his own death and the decimation of the last remaining Huuk Dominion ships.

           The ashiik returned to their homeworld triumphant. While some feared a power vacuum being born with the emperor’s death, too little remained of the old Huuk and the dominion ebbed away into a mesh of independent colonies – many of which were eventually abandoned.

           For the next four thousand years the ashiik rebuilt their people from the ground up. Most of the world they had occupied while defending from the Huuk dominion had to be abandoned, as their economy was not strong enough to support them, and most of the non-ashiik rebels had returned to their homes and families after the emperor’s death. Slowly but surely, the ashiik expanded and advanced themselves to build their own colonies, and even permanently took control of Normak, the world over which they ended the tyranny of the Huuk emperor – and turned it into a bustling center of commerce. They capitalized on struggling or abandoned Huuk worlds, pulling them under their control and putting them to use. The ashiik of the sharakiid – now known as the Ashiik matriarchies – effectively chiseled out their own sovereignty reputed as one of the wealthiest and stable in the cluster.

           As their territory expanded, the ashiik made contact with the Shridite Associated Kingdoms in 2167 BCE, and formed a mutually beneficial alliance with them by 2077 BCE. Through them, they made contact with other empires nearby such as the Xafarians, and themselves encountered the fledgling Yautaung, and aided them in establishing their own substantial nation.

In 160 BCE, with the discovery of the astounding Acropolis cluster, the collection of dozens of perfect garden worlds – The ashiik formed the Confederation of allied sovereignties with the Shridites and Yautaung, then after several years convinced the Xafarians to join as well. When the Cuauhtori were discovered in 559 CE, there was significant initial tension between the Matriarchies and the Triumvirate, who possessed radically different ideologies from each other, but after many years of beneficial trade – and the legendary battle of Tet’Usyr, at which ashiik and cuauhtori forces repelled a Velereg attack, the Matriarchies and Triumvirate’s relationship blossomed into one of their strongest, and the Cuauhtori joined the Confederation in 1198 CE.

Over the next thousand years – the Makuriun Aggregate and Bandore Collected Tribes were  discovered by the Cuauhtori, but their acceptance into the Confederation was primarily handled by the Shidites. Through the Bandore they learned of the Protectorate of Pyloth, old enemies of the Bandore, and helped defend them from the militaristic annexation attempts of the Protectorate. To this day the Protectorate engages in hostility against the Confederation, though usually through propaganda and smear campaigns. The Ashiik meanwhile turned their attentions towards expanding their economy and military might – even though they already overshadowed most foreign powers. The Ashiik made contact with the Talit’yar Concordat in 1717 CE, but the isolationist Talit’yar politely declined association with the ashiik and their Confederation, preferring to keep to themselves.

           Since then, The Ithaku Dominion was discovered by the Cuauhtori, who are engaged in a cold war of sorts with each other to this day. The Xafarians discovered the Humans, who forged a powerful alliance with them, and the Xafarians even surrendered some of their territory to them – at a fair price – to aid in the growth of their new nation – now also part of the Confederation.

           Over it all, the ashiik maintained their position as the largest and most respected sentient species in the galaxy, regarded for their elegance, diplomacy, and strength. While they do not lord over their allies and avoid policing the actions of others (likely due to their history with the Huuk) they are aware of their reputation, and make efforts to maintain their respectability.