Regime of Tothk
Synopsis
"It is easier to move mountains than to move Tothk." is an ancient Ukaros proverb that accurately reflects the staunch and stubborn nature of the Tothk. A race of pragmatic and emotionally reserved soldiers, fierce statesmen, and humble merchants the Tothk prefer to be left alone to their own affairs. Unfortunately, history has not been kind to the Tothk and as a result they are both willing and able to wage interstellar war in defense of their interests.
Origins
The Tothk homeworld of Throne is a dry, craggy, and mountainous world with only the poles supporting temperate forests, the planet is also home to some of the most deadly fauna (often sold to the highest bidders today) in the galaxy... in a word, Throne is "tough". This word accurately describes the Tothk themselves, for having evolved in such an environment, they too had to be "tough" to survive.
Tothk are tall and broad humanoids with blue, tan, or grey skin. They possess incredible strength, redundant organs, and bony plates covering their chest, back, and foreheads. Their four eyes give them excellent vision in virtually any environment and they have a very keen sense of smell. The Tothk are perhaps the most impressive species in physical terms, on par with the toughest breeds of Zrenrakka and the renowned Ukaros warriors.
An interesting adaptation to hardship and loss, the Tothk are very emotionally stable. This isn't merely a cultural affectation such as a "stiff upper lip" this is literal, when a Terran feels a certain amount of fear, one can safely assume that a Tothk feels the same feeling but at only one fourth the potency. The one exception to this rule appears to be ambition and the pursuit of power.
Backstory
Life on the homeworld of Throne has always been "spartan" for the Tothk, living as they do on a harsh and rocky world inhabited by all manner of dangerous predators. Despite this though, the Tothk succeeded in taming their world and created a diverse array of small and large nation states.
During this time, conflict was common, as Tothk leadership is typically autocratic and self serving, and often territory traded hands after bloody struggles. Technology advanced slowly compared to other races, but eventually the Tothk discovered atomic science and created nuclear weapons. It was during this time that the Tothk began to curb their leader's ambitions and autocratic and their societies adopted a strong set of legal systems to control conflict in order to avoid nuclear war.
It is generally believed that if the Tothk had been left to their own devices, they would have likely remained a fractured people of nations, and would not have advanced considerably into space. This was not to be however, as the Ukaros discovered the Tothk homeworld and interfered with their development irrevocably.
When the Ukaros discovered the Tothk they had already conquered several other primitive civilizations, and while this was the most advanced society yet discovered, the Ukaros expeditionary force, in its unfathomable arrogance, believed they could invade the Tothk homeworld and bring the brutish inhabitants to heel. They were deadly mistaken. While the initial landings went well for the Ukaros, sowing chaos and destruction, they quickly noticed that the Tothk were not surrendering. Nor were the Tothk succumbing to a strategy of "divide and conquer" instead of continuing their traditional fractious nation states, the Tothk surprised the Ukaros by rapidly uniting their forces in a global retaliatory strike.
The invasion of Throne lasted seventeen cycles (Tothk now call this the "Awakening") and resulted in the deaths of millions of Tothk as they fought against a vastly technologically superior foe. As the last Ukaros warriors were defeated and their landing craft secured, the Ukaros fleet in orbit, being harried by missiles and satellites began to retreat. As the Ukaros fleet left however, they decided to leave one final mark on Throne... they guided a series of asteroids into a collision course.
The resulting orbital bombardment of Throne is the first known occurrence in the Second Epoch and severely damaged Throne's environment and biosphere. Regardless, standing proud from the ashes of this conflict was the reborn Tothk people... a Regime that could now claim victory over their enemies.
This "Regime of Tothk" was a unified society, with all cultural diversity extinguished, all luxury forgotten, and anything other than total obedience to the dictatorial leadership considered treason. This new government would be led by a single Tothk citizen (as is only sensible to the Tothk) who would be celebrated with the title as "The Lord Tyrant". Elected to serve for life from the highest ranks of the military this figure wields absolute authority over the whole Tothk people. It should be noted, that the most common form of resignation from this role, is assassination.
United, the Tothk quickly began to leverage their energies into expanding into space and reverse engineered the technology of the Ukaros invaders. Meanwhile the Ukaros retreated to their space to report on the disastrous outcome of their expedition. In the decades that followed the Ukaros were surprised to start encountering small fleets of Tothk warships exploring space. Soon-after, open interstellar war began between the two empires, another first for the Second Epoch.
During the next centuries the Tothk would continue to build up defenses around their homeworld and begin their first colonies. The interminable war with the Ukaros would continue, but at a very slow rate due to the technology available at the time. Battles would be fought, and invasions launched at great expense, but ultimately the Ukaros hammer would always be met by the Tothk anvil, and neither side would ever gain an advantage.
Arguably, the determination and stubbornness of the Tothk to pursue this conflict and avenge themselves upon the Ukaros spared many civilizations the tragedy of meeting an Ukaros invasion fleet. In a way, the Tothk acted as an unwitting shield, allowing many other civilizations to continue to develop un-accosted. This is a fact that the Tothk today are quite proud of.
This unhappy arrangement would eventually come to an end with the emergence of the Aquilaran Hierarchy, who for a time, the Tothk assumed to be an Ukaros ally and in their paranoia made no attempt at peaceful relations. When the Aquilarans, territorially cornered by both the Tothk and Ukaros, invented truly practical faster than light travel and refused to share or sell it to the Tothk, they took this as a hostile act.
In the following decades the Tothk would find themselves launching raids against the Aquilarans while maintaining the bulk of their forces for the continuing war with the Ukaros. Thus began the so-called "Triadic Wars". These conflicts would not end until Tothk and Ukaros fleets would acquire the Aquilaran drive technology from the Fulgar (who stole it). This would escalate the conflict significantly, and bring the Aquilarans to the brink of defeat. In one final desperate gamble, the Aquilaran forces tricked all three parties into a battle of attrition within the Fulgar home system!
This "Great Gamble" as the Aquilarans call it, or "The Treasoned Battle" as the Tothk named it, resulted in total destruction for both the Aquilaran and Ukaros fleets, with the Tothk fleet suffering ninety percent losses, but being able to claim a pyrrhic victory. With such losses the Fulgar were able to bring all parties into a negotiated peace. For the Tothk, this peace has been maintained and they have had only limited conflicts with anyone since.
Soon after these wars, the Tothk witnessed the rise of the Terran Republic. At first very wary of the encroaching Terrans, the Tothk quickly learned that the Republic had no intentions on the Regime's territories and relations grew warmed. Indeed, the Tothk military saw the Republic as a potential ally and bulwark against future Ukaros antagonism. When the Monroe Wars began between the two parties, many believed it was only a matter of time before the Tothk joined the fray and helped the Terrans cripple the historic foe.
This did not happen, and the Tothk remained neutral, only threatening to join the war to get the Ukaros to come to terms with the defeated Terrans. To many, this remains a mysterious and out of character turn of events for the militarized Tothk, but for those familiar with Tothk society it is understandable.
The Tothk are by nature accustomed to hardship and they can be ambitious, but this does not mean that they are naturally aggressive or xenophobic. Enjoying peace for the first time in centuries, the Tothk stayed out of the Monroe Wars so that their culture and biosphere can begin to find something other than war and constant enmity to focus on. Today this fledgling cultural renaissance continues, but there are those who deeply regret not joining the Monroe Wars and are resentful of those who are pursuing new ideas not aligned to the traditional martial values of the past millennia.
Whilst it is unclear how the Tothk will react to a new round of galactic conflict, it is clear that they will defend their territory to the bitterest of ends. The Regime is a densely populated and heavily fortified empire... hardly expansive, but it is nearly unassailable and the Regime's venerable fleet is as ready as ever.
Agenda
Today the Regime of Tothk has three important goals. Firstly, to avoid being dragged into a large scale conflict that would threaten their nascent cultural and ecological revival. Secondly, to expand their colonies and population to new worlds in order to keep apace with the other great powers. Thirdly, and finally, to defend every meter of Tothk soil to the bitter end!
Military and Technology
The Tothk are not known for their technological prowess, but, all of their constructs are extremely reliable and have redundancies. Furthermore, Tothk engineers are known for their ability to keep their machines operating optimally even under the most hazardous conditions.
The Tothk are also known for their defensive nature and their paranoia... and they take the threat of invasion very seriously due to their long and unfortunate history. As a result the Tothk military reflects these traits and has focused much of their resources on building mighty orbital defenses, ground defenses, and a very strong fleet of starships.
Tothk ships are known for their rugged construction, heavy armor, capably weaponry, and stalwart crews. Tothk ships are rarely fast, either strategically or tactically, but this is rarely a hindrance as the Tothk prefer to simply have more ships in more places than their opponents!
Therein lies the true strength of the Regime's fleet. While the Ukaros may send a fleet of fifty warships of the finest craftsmanship, the Tothk will meet them with a hundred ships of their own. When the dust settles, the Tothk may have taken great losses, but they rest easy knowing that they can replace their losses rapidly compared to their foes. This is possible because the Regime of Tothk has literally commanded the entire species' economy towards that goal. On Throne, there are few niceties and consumer goods, instead, there is hard labor, hard choices, and hard laws. The Tothk consider this ideal, as they believe this austerity creates the best conditions for raising their children into proper soldiers.
Details
Lifespan
125 Cycles
Maturation
20 Cycles
Height
2.1 Meters
(7 Feet)Weight
180 Kilograms
(400 Pounds)Strength
9/10
Intellect
4/10
Social Structure
It easy to equate governance and social structure with species... it is easy to forget, that many civilizations are ruled by a system that isn't particularly suited to the psychology of it's citizens. The Terrans are infamously unhappy and unruly under virtually every system of community they have ever tried... the Ukaros, stubborn as they may be, admit that many in their society are deeply unhappy with their rigid social structure and order is maintained primarily through the threat of vicious reprisals. The Tothk represent a interesting case, where their society truly satisfies and relies upon their unique psychology... Tothk society has some of the highest ratings of satisfaction and lowest instances of disorder of any living civilization... only the Zrenrakka rival them in these regards.
This is not say that all Tothk are "happy" and free of want, but rather, that the Tothk as a whole are deeply committed to society, see no reason or value in complaining, and see no need for any fundamental change. The vast majority of Tothk firmly believe that their society is functioning "as it should" and that they as individuals are appreciated.
This remarkable state of affairs is confusing to most other species, because the Tothk live in a large totalitarian state ruled over by a vast military autocracy. Even more surprising to other species is the fact that this totalitarian state is virtually corruption free and functions quite efficiently. How is this possible?
To understand this sociologists have studied the Tothk's evolution on their homeworld of Throne. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the planet of Throne is harsh and dangerous by any standard... and is home to some of the galaxy's most dangerous fauna. It is believed that this harsh environment forced the Tothk to evolve an extremely high threshold for suffering, both physical and psychological... to the point where it is scientifically valid to claim that the Tothk "feel things at about half the intensity of anyone else". Should a Tothk family lose a parent, their children will no doubt feel sadness, but this will hardly impede their daily activities and no long term negative affects would be observed. Where young Terrans can be expected to suffer severe even lifelong consequences as a result of early abuse or negligence, the Tothk can be expected to "shrug it off" within a few months.
This resiliency explains why the Tothk society as a whole readily accepts the sacrifices required of them by their autocratic rulers. However, this resiliency does not explain why the Tothk so readily accept autocracy in and of itself. This it seems, comes from the Tothk's innate desire for conformity... a survival trait that was put to the test in early Tothk history.
Similar to most worlds that evolved sentient life, the Tothk once coexisted with variant species of themselves, who eventually died out. Whether the Terrans (homo-sapiens) were directly responsible for wiping out all of their cousin species such as Neanderthal isn't entirely clear... but the Tothk example is somewhat different. The Tothk reached a "bronze" age level of technical progress whilst still cohabiting with a single other variant species... known typically as the Rothk. Physically the two species were nearly identical, and generally the Rothk seem to have been equally intelligent to their Tothk rivals. The main difference between their two species was instead psychological in nature.
Akin to the Terran chimpanzee (Rothk in this case) and Bonobos (Tothk in this case) the Rothk were extremely aggressive and the Tothk were far more cooperative. The Rothk were so aggressive that they were constantly warring amongst themselves, even within their smaller social structures. The Tothk were equally ambitious, but this was balanced by a deep need to conform to the group. When large groups of Rothk went to war with their Tothk neighbors, they did so carrying shields and swords at times, but lacking any serious organizational ability and were just as likely to attack neighboring Rothk communities at any time. The Tothk by contrast would often ally with other Tothk communities and would wield the same armaments, but arranged in a shield wall with well disciplined troops. Just as the Terran Romans quashed their less disciplined (some would say "barbarian") neighbors, the Tothk would eventually wipe out all living Rothk.
This need to conform under societal pressure was only reinforced when the Tothk were invaded by the Ukaros many centuries later. These conflicts forced all Tothk nations to unite into a singular authority and the Tothk's individualistic ambition combined with their psychological need to conform to their communities' expectations has led to the Regime we know today... autocratically ruled by a relatively few and massively powerful individuals... yet virtually devoid of personal corruption.
Today the Regime of Tothk is "A military first and a civilization second" as one Aquilaran diplomat put it. A command and control economy is directed by a vast military structure of rank and strict obedience, all under the direction of a "High Tyrant" for the sake of three founding "Directives".
The preservation of Tothk and their holdings by any means.
The creation of unity for all Tothk through mandatory service and fair compensation for service.
The pursuit of order through law, applicable to all ranks and all subjects of Tothk.
The vast military organization and it's "civilian" branches (that are by other standards, no different than the military in structure) under these directives has worked remarkably well for centuries... even though the average Tothk can expect a lifetime of hard work, unrelenting duty, and unquestioning obedience. One's rank within the Regime is determined by one's abilities and past achievements (as assessed by one's direct superior) and one's income and personal property is dictated by a strict series of guidelines under Tothk laws.
Only the unique psychological profile of the Tothk has allowed such a system to flourish for so long and against so many internal and external challenges. Even today, in a time where the Tothk are "loosening up their belts" and enjoying unprecedented freedoms of expression, the Tothk greeting remains...
"Well being to the State my friend."
Quirks and Customs
The Tothk "have a way" with animals and training/taming dangerous animals is considered a noble profession. The Tothk even have special racing and fighting competitions where trained animals compete (much to the general disapproval of Terrans who've witnessed such events). Due to the ecological damage their planet sustained from their initial encounters with the Ukaros, the Tothk biosphere is fairly fragile and despite their love of "using" animals for entertainment, they have some of the sternest conservation and ecological regulations in the galaxy.
The Tothk enjoy alcohol to a similar extent to humans, but due to the quirks of their highly efficient metabolism the alcohol affects them more readily than most species despite their significant above average bodyweight. Terrans have thusly noted what "cheap dates" the Tothk can be at dinner parties, conversely a popular Tothk brag is that they "outdrank a Terran!".
Whilst Tothk traditions have always included a variety of wrestling, a Fulgar entrepreneur famously adapted Terran boxing and utilizing Tothk participants. This has become a niche sport whose adherents are noted for being incredibly passionate. The sport is not particularly popular amongst the general Tothk population, but other species enjoy it greatly... it even has a following amongst the Ukaros (though it is considered taboo due to their general denigrating attitudes towards other species).
Tothk artistry at one point nearly became extinct, and only within the past century has the government supported a limited number of Tothk becoming professional artists. This is specific to visual artistry, and musical art has remained a constant and common skill for Tothk throughout their history, most likely due to it's ancient origins in military coordination.