Salit
    The Salit are a warlike species which evolved from predators. The Salit are generally humanoid in form, but slightly larger than humans and are just as comfortable on all fours as they are standing erect. Salit have soft fur which can range in colour from gray to light brown, and which covers them entirely, excluding only the face (or, more appropriately, the muzzle), the hands and the feet. The skin of a Salit is generally dark gray, but an extremely small portion of the population is born with jet black skin. Those Salit with black skin are generally considered to be natural born warriors, and are treated as such from birth. These individuals do seem to be much more adept at combat than others, but whether this is because of genetics, or the extra training that they get from early childhood is unknown. Amongst the Salit colouring your skin black is considered a capital crime.
     One of the driving forces behind the Salit psyche is the need to conquer. It has been speculated that this comes as a result of the environment in which the species evolved. The Salit are natives of Helvoon, a planet which at one point was home to an amazing 7 different sentient species. Geography and climate kept these species largely isolated from each other. The Salit lived in tribes for millennia, constantly competing with one another for hunting grounds. Eventually, with the advent of
domestication of food animals, these tribes became city-states, and, through constant warfare and conquest, the city-states became nations of millions of Salit. Nearly 5,000 years after the first city-states the Salit were united by a fearsome, black-skinned warrior king named Harrash-Killjart. Soon after the Salit had been united Harrash-Killjart, who attained legendary status within his own lifetime, began a centuries-long program to explore Helvoon and spread across the entire planet rather than just be content with the continent of Grummsha. After many hundreds of years the Salit had become the undisputed masters of Helvoon, having wiped out 4 of the other intelligent species on the planet, and enslaved the other 2. By this time the Salit had attained the atomic age in terms of technology, partially due to technology taken from the Crrsshyt, the most advanced species on the planet at the time of their destruction at the hands of the Salit.
     After a number of wars of independence fought by the new colonies, and one rebellion by the Yeepa, one of the 2 enslaved species, the Primate of the HarrKill nation (named after Harrash-Killjart), having managed to hold onto all of his territory, began a space program in order to conquer the stars and funnel the energies of the people away from destructive civil wars. Most beings who attain spaceflight have doubts as to whether there is any intelligent life elsewhere, at least until they first encounter other sentients on other worlds, but the Salit never had any doubts that the galaxy was full of sentients for them to conquer. After a mere 200 years the Salit had used vessels approaching the speed of light to colonize 4 systems around them. Only one of these systems had any habitable planets, but the Salit saw this as a challenge, and terraformed all planets where such a process was even remotely possible. Within their home system and the 4 colony systems the Salit eventually had colonized 14 planets, 12 of these through terraforming. 450 years after the space program had begun the Salit came into contact with a Herglic trading vessel that was scouting out one of their systems. After the initial contact the Salit attacked the light freighter, damaging it severely. The captured vessel provided the Salit with many new technologies, including ray shielding, blaster technology, and, most importantly, hyperdrive. The Salit quickly incorporated these technologies into their starships and spread to another 7 systems within the next century. This time the Salit were able to pick and choose which worlds to colonize, and only the most minimal of terraforming projects were undertaken.
     By the time the Salit encountered representatives of the Old Republic they controlled 22 worlds and had a fairly sizable military. The next few hundred years in Salit history are characterized by fierce border wars with the Republic, interspersed with brief periods of peace. From the point of view of the Salit these were wars of conquest since the Republic was seen as stifling their growth. From the point of view of the Republic, however, these were seen as unprovoked aggression. Eight wars were fought in total, not including numerous border skirmishes. The Salit managed to conquer and hold 5 worlds during these wars, although they faced stiff resistance from the Republic, and were beaten back from 7 other planets that they briefly conquered. The last war was ended when the Senate of the Republic decided that the Salit had to be dealt with once and for all. The full force of the Republic Navy was brought to bear, as opposed to the regional forces that the Salit had previously faced. After 4 years of warfare one of the Salit-held worlds, the newly conquered Ord Gandera, split from the Salit overnation and made an emergency application for membership within the Republic. Several other Salit colony worlds followed suit before the Salit monarchy, seeing no reason to continue to fight a war with no chance of winning, sued for peace. After almost 2 decades of negotiations each of the Salit worlds joined the Republic.
     Most Salit tend to have jobs which many would see as dangerous, such as scouts for mining companies, serving in the military, and other occupations where they can fill their psychological need to conquer. There are a number of Salit mercenary bands operating in known space. Most of these are under license, but there are a small number of illegal Salit mercenary groups which will take any job, regardless of who it is coming from. All Salit military forces are technically considered mercenary groups rather than militia, simply because the Salit military brass had little wish to operate solely as a defense force when they joined the Old Republic. By operating under a mercenary contract they were allowed to maintain their independance from the Republic military, while still getting a chance to see some offensive action. On many occasions the major Salit mercenary groups were used by the Republic in major battles, both as support for Republic military, and operating on their own. These mercenary groups were held in high regard by Republic Admirals and Generals for their incredible professionalism. This really isn't surprising considering the military background that these organisations tend to have. Salit mercenaries can generally only be hired for missions in which combat is expected, such as assault missions. The Salit view defense-type missions as tedious, and will generally only take missions serving as guards if the possibility of combat is greater than 60%. This applies to escort missions, and missions serving as planetary defense forces, etc. Note that the Salit are quite happy to serve in planning defenses for cities, planets, etc. but expect others to be hired for the boring patrol duty once the initial defenses have been set up.
Attribute dice: 12D
Attribute min/max:
DEX 2D/4D+1
PER 2D/4D+2
KNOW 1D+1/3D+1
STR 2D/4D
MECH 1D+2/3D+2
TECH 2D/4D
Special Abilities:
adaptability: Salit generally take 10% less time than normal to adapt to
new situations (10% less learning time when a skill is first learned, but
no bonus later on improving that skill)
Story Factors:
desire to conquer: Salit have an instinctive need to conquer, and will
generally be found in occupations which allow them to fulfil this need in
one way or another.
height: 1.8-2.1m
move: 10; 13 (on all fours)