Species DescriptionName: Ti Angu
Singular: A Ti Angu
Plural: Some Ti Angu
Adjective: A Ti Angu fleet
Naming: Ti Angu names are comprised of syllables containing exactly one consonant and one vowel. (e.g. the name "Neruak" is composed of the syllables Ne-Ru-Ak, "Ti Angu" is composed of the syllables Ti-An-Gu.) As such, Ti Angu names should have an equal amount of syllables and consonants in them. Upon reaching adulthood, a Ti Angu will also receive a sobriquet from their community consisting of two words, which are related to their personality or achievements in some way. (e.g. God-King Rakasa is also known as "Rakasa Fire-Eyes".)
Appearance: Ti Angu are large humanoids with smooth slate-grey skin, who stand about 10-12 feet tall. They have broad limbs and torsos, their feet are almost hoof-like circular pads with no discernable toes, and they have hands larger than dinner plates with a thumb and two fingers each. They have a small patch of bristly hair on their back. Ti Angu have somewhat rectangular heads, longer than they are tall, with nostrils above the eyes. They have two pairs of eyes, which face to the side rather than the front. They have flat, grinding teeth meant for chewing fruit, leaves, and grasses. Two foot-long tusks erupt from the sides of their upper jaw, pointing forwards and slightly downwards, and two 3-foot-long horns erupt from their skulls behind their nostrils and above their eyes, pointing forwards and slightly outwards.
Biology: Ti Angu are warm-blooded herbivores from the large and dense world of Atna Urentios. The Ti Angu evolved bipedalism in order to reach higher leaves on the trees they consumed, but in the process had to adapt incredibly sturdy bones and dense musculature in order to fight their homeworld's high gravity. This has resulted in two oddities regarding their biology - Firstly, Ti Angu who live in space are statistically much more healthy than those that lived on their homeworld, and secondly, the Ti Angu have unnatural strength beyond even what is suggested by their size. Due to their sideways-facing eyes, Ti Angu have unusually poor depth perception, but enhanced situational awareness. Ti Angu women give birth to one child at a time, and have sixteen-month pregnancies. With proper medical care, a Ti Angu can live to 160 years old.
Background:Homeworld: Atna Urentios
History: As mentioned above, the Ti Angu evolved as herbivores on the high-gravity world of Atna Urentios, taking their first steps towards sapience when they evolved bipedalism in order to reach higher leaves. From there their history progressed as one might expect, developing agriculture, centralized states, industry, and eventually pre-FTL spaceflight.
In the late information age, during a cold war between three of Atna Urentios's great powers, a charismatic religious preacher named Rakasa began spreading a schismatic version of one of the planet's many religions, claiming to be a living god and the son of the solar deity Tikuzaal. (Hence his sobriquet, "Fire-Eyes".) Due to the unrest and uncertainty of the time, this cult became extremely popular, spreading to much of the planet. It was hard to deny Rakasa's divinity - he never aged, and he seemed to be "killed" many times a decade by assassins opposed to his religion, only to inevitably resurface alive and well weeks later.
Eventually, the various powers involved in this cold war settled their differences, and created a council of nations to preserve peace that effectively became a world government. By this point, Rakasa's religion had become so influential that it was allowed to nominate a group of priests to act in an advisory role to the council. Over the next few centuries, the Ti Angu established colonies on Atna Urentios's moons and on the closest other planet in the system, while at the same time, the advisor-priests amassed power both informal and actual. Eventually, the council of nations was overthrown in a relatively bloodless coup, and Rakasa himself was installed as the immortal God-King of what he proclaimed to be his "Radiant Kingdom".
Peace and prosperity lasted for the next few centuries, under the mostly-benevolent rule of Rakasa and his priesthood. The rest of their home system's planets were colonized, and the Ti Angu were generally doing well for themselves. And then the Ragon arrived.
The outer colonies of the Radiant Kingdom was rapidly conquered by the invading Ragon, and its citizens were forced into their new roles as livestock. However, before the invaders could breach the inner solar system, a lone Ti Angu managed to reverse-engineer a Skrim drive and presented the design to Rakasa. Rakasa began mass-producing enormous habitat-ships equipped with Skrim drives, and began evacuating whatever people he could. He also broadcast the designs to the rest of the Ti Angu, so that those who could not make it onto the habitat-ships might be able to create ships of their own.
The Ti Angu who were unable to flee on Rakasa's refugee fleet but were able to find their own way to escape the Ragon hunters spread throughout the galaxy in a massive diaspora. Most settled on various worlds in the Neutral Zone, founding monastic orders dedicated to preserving and sometimes even spreading their religious traditions, while others found work as mercenaries, and the unfortunate ended up as serfs or slaves. In contrast, God-King Rakasa and his fleet of refugees disappear from recorded history. Some cynics believe that they were destroyed by the Ragon while escaping the system, or that they were killed by one of the many other horrors of the Andromeda galaxy. However, every few years some faithful Ti Angu will claim that a ship bearing Rakasa's mark appeared from nowhere to save them from certain doom. The most faithful among the Ti Angu believe that Rakasa found a paradise system and founded a new and even more glorious Radiant Kingdom, one which he must tragically keep secret to prevent it from being torn down by the Ragon or other evil beings. All in all, Rakasa's end is as unknown as his origin.
