Empire Name: The Krell
Starting Scenario: Advanced Race
Homeworld: Krell
A crumbling ringworld system the Krell inherited from a long-gone precursor civilization. Its vast structures provide a thriving home for untold numbers of Krell, who labor tirelessly to keep the megastructure in working condition, constantly repairing, jury-rigging and adding new parts to the structure, so that its intricate and ancient designs are barely recognizable, underneath a patchwork of more primitive Krell works of ingenuity.
Location Preference: The Graveyard
Krell civilization started on an ancient, abandoned ringworld, in the ruins of a long-dead civilization. Nearby planets house the crumbling ruins of an extinct precursor society, while the deep voids of space are dotted with ancient battlefields, drifting debris and long forgotten orbital stations.
Colour Preference: Orange/Brown
Physical description: Animal – Rodent
The Krell species resemble a variety of Earth-based rodents, with an average length of 2'6” for males and 3' for females, tales excluded. With an average lifespan of just 2 to 3 years and a very high reproductive rate, Krell society is in a continuous state of flux, as new generations supplant the old. Combined with their extremely high metabolic rate and fast mobility, Krell communities make for a chaotic, almost anarchic experience as masses of Krell scurry about their short, frantic lives.
With sexual promiscuity the norm and females producing large litters of young, family ties are considered along matrilineal lines. Krell are born relatively developed, requiring only a short period of parental care before leaving the nest. The male species rarely cares after their offspring, as his previous partner is quick to find another sexual partner after the young have left their nest. This leads to large “familial tribes” based around the matriarch, the eldest surviving female relative, with all her relatives working in unison to provide for her brood. Thus, Krell young are reared not only by their mother, but also their aunts, uncles and maternal grandmother (and great-grandmother, if alive) .
While most Krell function within their matrilineal tribes, inter-tribe cooperation is commonplace as well. Resources are shared within the tribe first, but surplus is always shared outside of the tribe. Holding on to resources you have no use for, is an alien concept to the Krell, and sharing one's bounty leads to intricate webs of friendship and loyalty. Most of the times, one tribe is equally fortunate and unfortunate, leading to a tribe helping their neighbors one time, only to receive help from their neighbors the next time. But situations do arise where one tribe is consistently better off than the next tribe, in which case deep levels of friendship and loyalty form over the generations. One tribe could, for example, come to settle down in a rare ship components factory, with its products in high demand throughout Krell space. Trade with the rest of Krell society could turn them into a very wealthy tribe, leading to its increased size and popularity among other tribes. But, as with all things Krellian in nature: nothing lasts forever.
Suggested traits:
Extremely Adaptive, Communal, Social Pheromones, Natural Engineers, Quick Learners, Rapid Breeders, Fleeting, Weak.
Omnivorous.
Alien contacts: No contact with sentient alien lifeforms as of yet. Although the Krell have found plenty of evidence of the existence of sentient life, in the form of ancient ruins, derelict ship graveyards and desolate orbital habitats and stations.
Brief History: The curious case of the Krell
The Krell have been sentient for only a relatively brief period of time. With an average lifespan equal to, or even less than the average length of the infantile stage of most space faring species, the evolutionary speed of the Krell has been uniquely accelerated. Combined with the fact that their civilization thrived amidst the ruins of an advanced, now extinct, space faring species, this has resulted in a truly astonishing speed of civilization. While one could view the speed at which the Krell went from sentience to space faring with envy, one could equally say that the Krell have few inventions of their own and merely owe their success to luck of the draw, by building on the shoulders of better, more evolved species.
Evolving on an artificial space habitat, the Krell have had to master its many functions in order to survive. From regulating the atmosphere, to repairing the bio-domes necessary for large-scale farming, to cannibalizing any redundant or destroyed parts of the ringworld, to be used as patchwork fixes to whatever challenges arose from the decaying infrastructure.
Owing to the vast size of their population and the high evolutionary process that stems from their short lifespans, the Krell were quick to uncover the mysteries of their home world, mostly through (often lethal) methods of trial and error. Untold were the experiment-related deaths for each new scientific breakthrough that lead to the Krell's eventual travel into space, in search for new sources of industrial resources necessary to keep their home up and running.
Driven by an ever expanding hunger for food, resources and housing space, the exploding population has propelled Krell expansion beyond their home system, where they have populated nearly every nook and cranny of even the most remotely habitable spaces. Quickly claiming empty spaces for themselves, the Krell have built on top of ancient ruins, slowly unraveling its mysteries and adding their own mark on the systems they colonized.
Government system: Krellocracy
The Krell have little use for laws and governance, tradition or social codes. What one generation holds dear, the next one rejects. Pragmatism and survival are some of the few values that have endured the test of generations. When society consists of quintrillions of individuals living in cramped quarters with limited resources, the concept of property and ownership inevitably becomes muddled. What most species would call “stealing”, Krell would call “sharing”. And everything is shared, until the moment of scarcity dictates otherwise.
The result has been an extremely fluid form of “government”, for lack of better term, where society is organized differently, almost from one day to the next, and from one location to the next.
As stated previously: Krell function primarily in matriarchal family units. So it can come to pass that an especially large tribe of kin dominates a certain aspect of life, resulting in them lording over the other, smaller Krell tribes. This can be carried out violently, or cooperatively. Some Krell societies may establish wholly democratic means of governance, while another may manage to install a virtual Krell dynasty in power, lasting several generations. All these varying forms of rule can co-exist in one form of another, all at the same time, and at different levels. Those skilled individuals, or organizations, that manage to extend their reach and influence to substantial parts of Krell life, will either eventually fall by the wayside, or be recognized as such a force to be reckoned with, that they become accepted into a form of “council” consisting of similarly powerful Krell and their entities.
To try and bring some clarity to the situation: a particular factory could be run by a specific Krell family, which pays tribute to the Krell crime syndicate that runs the local neighborhood, which casts its vote in the town municipality, which elects a Matriarch-for-Life to rule over a coalition of half a dozen townships, who is a subject to the Holy League of Shell-the-annointed-one, who sits at the Krellian council, along with a particularly charismatic orator, a wealthy entrepreneur, the chair of the Federation of Orbital Krellians and the Grand Poobah of the ringworld Docks. But the next month, the entire system of governance could've been turned upside down.
To put it another way: the Krell are ruled by whoever can. Be it through force of charisma, wealth, kinship ties, brute strength, lineage or any other means of seizing power. While this state of affair might be enough to bring most species to the brink of insanity, the Krell barely shrug at this constant state of flux and simply continue their daily lives.
Stance towards aliens: Friendly
To the Krell, there exists the tribe and everyone else. If a Krell has an abundance of food, they are as likely to share with a Krell outside of their kinship, as they are with a starving non-Krellian, both sentient and non-sentient.
If anyone does want general pointers, please feel free to message me.
