Xendian

The Xendians are a reptillian-humanoid race hailing from the Xendia System in the Verion Cluster.

History
Much of early Xendian history before the establishment of a settlement on Xendia IV was lost in the fall of Xendia V. What remains is mostly in the form of tales passed down orally from generation to generation, and evidence gathered from archaeological dig sites on the old homeworld.

Origins
Evidence from Xendia V suggests that around 1,000 years ago, the Xendians lived as nomadic tribes in the plains and mountains of their homeworld. At this point they hunted and fished for food, moving as their food did and eventually hunting certain animals into extinction. Eventually, they began to settle down and form permanent communities, where they learned to build metal tools. Civilization flourished, and then something happened that would threaten it.

Black Years
At this point, everything goes dark save for a few books and oral histories. From what remains of these, it can be gathered that a rather large civilization discovered the formula for gunpowder, and used it to improve their weapons technology and conquer a large portion of the world. This empire apparently lasted for a great many years, years of warfare and oppression, but at the same time the largest scale civilization the Xendians had ever seen organized.

World War
History books begin to pick back up (albeit slowly) during the peak of resistance against the old empire. At this point civilizations began developing bigger and bigger guns, finally resulting in what was at the time believed to be the ultimate weapon, the hydrogen bomb. A cold-war standoff began, lasting well into the space age. One side of the war developed ships known as "Colonizer" rockets, theoretically capable of reaching other planets in the Xendia system. At this point, however, the war was reaching its apex, with countless nuclear weapons platforms floating in orbit of the planet ready to drop enough bombs to kill an ecosystem at a moment's notice. A small group of Unificationists had at this point been fighting in the political arena for years on the path of peace, and seeing no other choice they finally forced their way to the launch facilities storing the Colonizers, and abandoned the planet. At this point, history splits: Unificationist logs say that approximately 2 hours after leaving orbit of Xendia V they witnessed a series of large flashes as a nuclear exchange began, where surviving logs from excavated fallout shelters indicate that the Unificationists blasted their way into a control booth and armed the weapons platforms and ICBMs manually before escaping with the stolen craft. Either way, the event came to be known as the Fall of Xendia V, and was the last time anyone ever heard from the old empires.

Arrival on Xendia IV
An uncertain amount of time later, certainly several months at least, the Xendians fleeing the Fall were awakened from cryosleep upon crash-landing on a new planet. The rockets were disassembled into components that were used to establish a basic colony, which slowly grew and prospered into what eventually came to be the Xendian Federation (then known as the Xendian Republic). Under the flag of the Dragon's Eye, which comes from an old myth about the Sun being the eye of a galaxy-spanning Dragon, the Xendians turned to a great thirst for scientific knowledge, and began a string of scientific discovery, including the development of a method to travel faster than the speed of light. At first, Xendian Hyperdrives were clunky and inefficient, meaning that to travel beyond the outer Xendia System was impossible if you expected to be anywhere else in a reasonable amount of time.

A Place in the Heavens
By 2166, the Xendians had solved several speed and energy-efficiency problems in their hyperdrive systems, and began to expand beyond their original borders. First contact at this point was made with the Malsuth, and (unofficially) the Corrundians. Contact with the Malsuth went well, but the Corrundians were met on the field of battle by the crew of an early Xendian warship. Unfortunately, the unshielded ship was destroyed by plasma weaponry before it could report anything back to headquarters. This loss was followed by a few years of silence from the Republic, during which time its government was reorganized and renamed the Xendian Federation. At this point the government made a reappearance and established itself firmly as a power in the Verion Cluster in 2173. Official first contact was made with the Corrundians, the Trayn, the Edessians, and the Tal'Ryth. The collapse of the Trayn Collective later that year provided a great boost to Xendian colonization efforts and eventually led to them encountering the Dwerin, Asathai, and Krath; collectively known as the Union of Races. Unfortunately, though they boasted a large industrial capacity and larger fleet, the Xendians were hit hard by the Verion Campaign, leaving them with only a couple Patrol Boats and one functioning shipyards, with several of their colony worlds bombed or glassed out of existence, if not both. Plans have been put in place to rebuild, but it's going to be a long, slow process.

Physiology and Appearance
Xendians are a reptillian race with a humanoid body form; they have pale green scales with slightly darker green scales on their shoulders. Thin bony ridges run from mid-forehead to about midway down the spine. Male Xendians tend to be built in a slightly stockier fashion than females, who tend to be taller and slimmer. On average, an adult male Xendian can be expected to reach 1.7-2.3 meters (approx. 5-7 feet) in height, where females can be anywhere up to 2-2.6 meters (approx. 6-8 feet) tall.

Culture
Xendian culture is rather driven, centered around the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Unfortunately, due to this extreme scientific focus, many Xendians fail to fully learn basic tactics, leading to sometimes horrendous military flaws. An example of this would be in the Battle of M-158, when several Strike wings were launched at some heavily-defended targets, resulting in the senseless loss of several ace pilots. A pro, however, to this scientific drive is that Xendian space features (or featured) several high-quality universities and colleges.

Architecture
Xendian Architecture is generally quite sleek in appearance, although it's unknown who began the practice. This is reflected in Starship designs, which tend to be designed in an Arrowhead shape. Another good example would be the old capitol city of Kator on Xendia IV, which featured massive spires over a central glass dome that served as a marketplace and forum before the Terrans bombed the world and destroyed the city.

Government
The current ruling body of the Xendians is the Xendian Federation, the military of which is headquartered out of an underground complex on Xendia IV known as Central Command. The actual capitol building was destroyed in the bombardment of Xendia IV, and the capitol is currently housed on a small colony world in the Mekar system while Xendia IV is cleaned of debris and rebuilt.