Thresher Empire

The history of the Thresher culture is shrouded in mystery, as most attempts to reason with the polity have been in vain. What is known is that the Thresher race originated on Xe'cury II as a hybrid of local species and colonizing Roaches, adapted to comfortably live on the planet. Threshers formed a number of polities on their homeworld, colonizing and partitioning the rest of the system as well as a number of nearby systems in a way similar to the cultures of Old Terra. However, they remained united in their sense of racial superiority to most non-Threshers, with the exceptions of marrites and roaches. The Threshers subjugated many of the Divideans, utilizing their ways of life to further traverse the Divide and beyond. 

Upon discovering Gergitorians, the Threshers saw them as a weak strain of humans, and sought to subjugate them as well. By 4200 however, Gergitorians namely among Neopolis, Kyrnomacek, and the Blossoms put up sufficient resistance to Thresher expansion, prompting the unification of all Thresher polities into a self-proclaimed empire, with a capital based in a city unoriginally referred to as "Capital". Today, the Threshers remain a constant threat, with heavy fighting between them and the Neopolian-Kyrnomacek alliance continuing along the southern regions of the Gergosphere, with occasional incursions as far as Seimoria in favorable Divide weather. 

Thresher society is largely centered around their inherent perceived superiority over the "tetrapodal menace," and their reverence for the "strong hand" there to guide the nation to prosperity. As soon as young Threshers emerge from their ootheca, they are taught the virtues of their enhanced mobility and the natural way of life to favor what has many legs. The number six is a common motif in Thresher culture, as it is the number of limbs Threshers have. When a Thresher wants to enter a building, they knock on the door six times in rapid succession. When a Thresher is impressed, they may clap six times. Threshers dwell in bunk-like "nests" of up to six individuals, seeking mutual companionship and solidarity in what they have many of. It should not be a surprise that Threshers hold other six-limbed sophonts in almost equal respect, such as roaches and marrites. Other sophonts are socially ostracized in Thresher society and often face extreme prejudice as they squalor in miserable conditions.

Due to their high fecundity, Thresher cities are often extremely crowded and suffer from major overpopulation issues. A male and a female Thresher can produce on average up to 80 offspring over the course of six oothecas. Though a large portion of young typically die from disease or neglect, the sheer volume is enough to cause the Thresher population to increase beyond exponentially with every mating cycle, traditionally referred to as the "boom". This requires an enormous agricultural output for Thresher society to avoid starvation, with entire planets set aside purely to cultivate food for booming urban zones. Despite their best efforts, famine is unfortunately unavoidable in Thresher society, often resulting in civil unrest in many crowded slums.