Ankoran

"Usse... Hell incarnate. To understand the ankoran, you must understand their roots - and evolving on this hellhole is no easy feat. The ankoran were forged from a crucible of horror - beware these jungles, and beware the wrath of those who were borne of it. You’d be surprised what they’re capable of."

- Octandra Caveras, commenting on the ankoran and their homeworld.

The Ankoran (Ankura Sapiens) are a homosaurian species of large, blue-scaled humanoids native to the deathworld Usse. Proud, cunning, and fervently zealous, the ankoran were not always destined for sapience, having been instead on the road to extinction. A product of intervention upon the part of a race of precursors whose identity has long been lost to history - in truth the still-active Andromedan drakniar race, then their mysterious precursors, whom the ankoran now worship, came to their world they gifted the ankoran with what they deem a divine blessing - true sapience, with which they have forged a vast and mighty empire, the vaunted and extensive Ankoran Covenant.

Perhaps the most important part of the lengthy history and culture of the ankoran is their status as an uplifted species. The ankoran worship their forgotten uplifters with zealous devotion, completely unaware of the fact that their supposed gods are still alive, and still walk amongst them as stellar neighbours of the Andromedan Covenant Territories.

There exists a degree of animosity between the ankoran and teyan races, fueled by the political rivalry of the Covenant and Teyan Dominion, and particularly the Covenant-Dominion War, in which both sides commit serious transgressions against one another. This bitterness is slowly beginning to heal (as shown by the cooperation of the two races in many fields of scientific and economic partnership) although many ankoran still resent the teyan for their part in the traumatic conflict, and vice versa.

First Steps into Space
As the early Covenant began to explore the Carina Nebula beyond the limits of the Kuvura system, it began to establish its first interstellar foundations on new worlds, building observation posts and beginning to search for habitable planets beyond the limits of early Covenant’s domain. It would be in 5711BC that the first habitable exoplanet would be discovered by Covenant scientists, much to the shock of the ruling religious council, who did not expect to find life at all before exploration beyond the Carina Nebula was established.

The first ankoran expeditions to this planet, later named Aluos would begin in 5699BC cataloguing the alien biosphere for study, and determining the suitability for the planet to host the first Covenant colony beyond the Kuvura system. Although the atmosphere was non-toxic, the oxygen levels in the atmosphere were too low for the ankoran to survive for long periods of time, and thus oxygen canisters were required for early explorers. The planet’s soil was found to be highly toxic to imported fauna from Usse, though the native animal life was deemed fit for ankoran consumption, and the initial survey outpost was repurposed to the beginning of ankoran civilisation on the planet as the colonisation of the world was greenlit.

By 5662BC, two other habitable planets had been identified by Covenant scientists and settled by the Covenant - Carinae and Sultae, the future economic and scientific hearts of the nebula.

First Contact
In 5322BC, the Covenant would make first contact with another sapient species in the galaxy, shattering preconceptions of ankoran divinity and that their long-lost gods had seeded the galaxy for them alone, as previously theorised by ankoran theologists.

This species, the yphrel, were of similar technological progress as the ankoran themselves, although many aspects of each race’s technology were entirely incompatible with one another; similar concepts but entirely different executions. The unexpected presence led to immediate debate by theologists on how to handle this discovery, while sociologists began to scour theorised yphrell space for any information on their language, culture, society and any concepts that might be shared between the species, as to enable communications.

By 5287BC, Covenant sociologists had made little progress, though were shocked to find the yphrel had cracked the Covenant’s lingua franca, Ankorta, enabling the establishment of diplomatic ties.

Golden Age of the Covenant
The Golden Age of the Covenant is generally agreed to be the period between the Covenant’s expansions into the Omega Nebula and Eagle Nebula and the Covenant-Dominion War. Although historians agree more concretely on the end point of this golden age, there is considerable disagreement on exactly when the Golden Age began. The overall consensus is that it began in 5212BC, once the colonies on Kaasto and Taeduos were completely self-sufficient, though earlier suggestions place the beginning of the period in 5610BC and 5581BC when their initial colonisation efforts were greenlit, prior to first contact.

This period of time, regardless of the exact date it began, saw a vast success in the Covenant’s expansion efforts, securing the Omega and Eagle Nebulae alongside vast swathes of habitable space as it rose from a backwater and unknown entity to a quickly dominant galactic power, as they gained a steep technological advantage over the other galactic powers of the time. This necessitated the reverse-engineering of much of their holy relics, must to the dismay and protest of religious conservatives, though the words of then- High Ecclesiarch Amosai Kamdaeini (and the fact that the Covenant had already reverse-engineered the hyperdrives of the holy vessels) were able to placate these groups long enough for the Covenant’s rise to the forefront of galactic politics.

Andromeda Initiative
It was in 1288CE, however, that the Covenant’s greatest achievement was made, and with it the ankoran’s ascension to an intergalactic race, as the efforts of the Andromeda Initiative arrived in the Andromeda Galaxy. The project, intended to send scientists, explorers, and colonists on a one-way trip to settle the frontiers of the Andromeda Galaxy, and create a reliable and easy route between the two galaxies.

The attempted establishment of a hyperspace tunnel to connect the Andromeda Galaxy to the Milky Way soon followed, as an effort began in Andromeda to create their side of a gate that would allow ships to pass through a channel of compressed hyperspace to travel from one galaxy to another in a shorter time than the 300 years spent in cryosleep. Though the project was never able to be completed - as it was discovered the theoretical physics behind the project were simply incorrect - advancements in hyperdrive technologies negated the need for the tunnel as new engines could manage the journey in only a single year; still a considerably long time, but far less than the ankoran lifetime that it had taken to even reach Andromeda.

It was the world of Gaiyama first settled by the ankoran in Andromeda, founding the Andromedan Covenant Territories. With the election of High Ecclesiarch Orau Evake in 1288CE, Gaiyama would go on to become the de facto capital of the Andromedan Covenant Territories, until 1821, when it was anointed the de jure status of capital-planet. With this achievement, the planet became the home to more ankoran than lived, at the time, on the ankoran homeworld, though Usse would retake the mantle of most populous planet in the Covenant some time later.

Contact with the Dominion
When the ankoran and teyan races first made contact, it was through a mediary; the Sulsuan Protectorate was responsible for introducing, and translating for, the two future political rivals.

Diplomatic relations between the races and their stellar empires initially seemed promising, but the ambitions of both powers and disputes over colonisation rights of mutually-desired planets soon boiled over into resentment and conflict between the two star nations in the Andromeda Galaxy, as the Covenant and Teyan Dominion both sought rare, oxygen-rich worlds with similar climates and biochemistries. The conflict between the Andromedan Covenant Territories and Dominion of Andromeda would soon begin to muddy the diplomatic waters between the Covenant and Dominion as a whole, forming the foundation for a rivalry between the theocratic oligarchy and militant monarchy that would last from that day onward.

A scandal soon arose shortly after first contact with the Dominion of several theocrats being found sleeping with the newly found species. Protests followed, forcing several political and religious figures to step-down from their positions.

Covenant-Dominion War
After several naval stand-offs between Covenant and Dominion border patrols, rising tensions between the two powers soon began to crack open into utter hostility between the two intergalactic hyperpowers; it was shortly after this in 2837 that Covenant intelligence agencies discovered that Warmaster Bellicor Tulkan of the Teyan Dominion had arrived in the Dominion of Andromeda on the 23rd of August. It was then uncovered that Bellicor had ordered a naval strike on the Covenant colony of Daemoclef as a preemptive strike, aiming to cripple the Covenant Navy and prevent it from attacking the Dominion.

In response to these uncovered plans, the Covenant laid a trap in the Kaso System, waiting for the Dominion Navy to arrive for its attack. Springing the ambush in orbit of Daemoclef, the Fleet of Pious Inquisition and Fleet of Crusading Divinity destroyed the Dominion’s assault fleets in the First Battle for Daemoclef, marking the official beginning of the Covenant-Dominion War.

The conflict would go on for four years, spreading quickly across other worlds within the colonial territories of the two major factions, and then to the Milky Way and Triangulum galaxies, causing billions of lives to be lost on both sides as the Covenant and Dominion fought each other over their now-burning animosity and desire for galactic dominance.

Physiology
Taking the form of bipedal reptile-analogues, the archetypal ankoran stands, on average, between 1.9 and 2.1 meters in height with a slightly hunched posture. The ankoran species has a distinctive and easily-recognisable head-shape, two long, protruding horns attached to the rear of the skull, with an additional, smaller horn sitting upon the tip of the snout.

Ankoran hands are tetradactyl, having four digits: three fingers, and an opposable thumb with which to grasp and manipulate the world around them. Their legs are digitigrade, with relatively long tarsals compared to humans, using the distal and intermediate phalanges to support their weight when walking. The ankoran race are odd-toed ungulates, standing upon three-toed hooves, with a single vestigial dewclaw on their tarsals. The design of the ankoran leg and hoof renders ladders difficult for an ankoran to climb.

Ankoran blood is blue, utilising large quantities of hemocyanin as an oxidising agent in the place of haemoglobin. Unlike where hemocyanin is found in life on most planets, ankoran hemocyanin is bound to blood cells, typically with up to five hemocyanin proteins in a cell - though certain rare genetic disorders in the ankoran population can reduce the number of proteins found within individual cells - an illness considered terminally fatal, as the body cannot cope with its oxygen demand.

Ankoran scales come in a range of blue shades, though the most common are egyptian blue, polynesian blue, navy blue, midnight blue and sapphire blue. Ankoran rarely can be born with spanish blue scales through a recessive gene, though this is viewed as a bad omen and that the individual will have a troubled life.

Ankoran vision is similar to human eyesight, however, the ankoran visual range is shifted lower along the spectrum. As a result, ankoran can see into the high-frequency infrared spectrum, though cannot perceive violet light and other high-frequency blue wavelengths, instead referring to the colour violet as ultrablue.

Diet
The ankoran diet is hypercarnivorous, consisting exclusively of various meats and fish-analogous species found on the worlds ankoran inhabit. The majority of the average ankoran meat intake comes from fresh sources, including the slaughter of livestock and fishing. Despite this, the ankoran digestive system is fully capable of safely processing carrion flesh that has been rotting for as long as up to a full month. Ankoran consume carrion meat as a delicacy in the present day, leaving meats to decay in water to produce carrion dishes, described as tasting similar to ‘sweet vinegar’. Specialized gut bacterial flora allows ankoran to additionally consume some contaminated meat that would otherwise be a disease vector.

Ankoran metabolisms are unable to synthesize essential nutrients such as retinol, arginine, taurine, and arachidonic acid; thus necessitating their purely meat-based diet as ankoran must consume flesh to supply these nutrients. Most unprocessed plant-matter acts as an emetic to ankoran, inducing vomiting when ingested, although certain fruit juices can be safely consumed by ankoran.

The average ankoran consumes and digests three kilograms of meat within a twenty-hour period, typically across four meals.

Reproduction
Ankoran are a sexually reproducing species of egg-layers in which the gender of young is determined by ZW-chromosomes. In contrast to the XY sex-determination system and the X0 sex-determination system, where the sperm determines the sex, in the ZW system, the ovum determines the sex of the offspring. Males are the homogametic sex (ZZ), while females are the heterogametic sex (ZW). The Z chromosome is larger and has more genes, like the X chromosome in the XY system.

Unlike most reptile-analogous species, ankoran do not possess a cloaca.

Ankoran females will not lay eggs until they have been fertilised and do not possess a menstrual cycle. Instead, single-cell eggs are continuously produced and stored in the ovaries until mating, at which point a single egg will be released, then replaced. Should fertilisation fail, the egg will not attach within the womb and will instead be flushed from the body post-courtship. Should an egg be fertilised, it will begin cell-separation, and develop both a shell and embryo inside of it.

From the time an egg is laid, it will take an average of one year for the offspring to fully develop. Upon hatching, the young ankoran will already be capable of consuming a meat-based diet and do not require a liquid substitute.

Ankoran egg yolk is extremely dense, energy-rich and somewhat flammable.

Psychology
The psychological space of the ankoran species is similar in many ways to that of their uplifters, although tempered by the lengthy evolution over the aeons in which the ankoran were abandoned by their deities. Highly cunning and analytical social predators, the ankoran developed a preference for the company of large social groups as a method of hunting and defending themselves from, the megafauna of their homeworld

Ankoran are extremely cautious when they discover new life or objects; the rash and impulsive, though they do exist, are rare and generally looked down upon. Ankoran are, however, quick to react to new presences, and will typically retreat at the first sign of danger if lacking a large social group to shelter with, favouring flight over fight unless holding a significant numerical advantage. Curiosity is encouraged by ankoran parents, though ankoran hatchlings are prone to cowardly behaviour, and remain close to their parents whenever possible.

A slack jaw and left-tilted head are considered a sign of emotional distress amongst ankoran. Ankoran will whine and growl when experiencing physical distress. Dragging one’s tail from the left to the right repeatedly is considered a sign of infatuation.

Being so long-lived, it is seen as normal for an age gap between ankoran mates, of up to 60 years, with little issue seen in an age gap between two individuals in a romantic of sexual relationship. Ankoran are polyandrous, with women holding multiple mates at a time, and act as the authority figure in ankoran social groups.