Shanta'wakh

Pre-industrial humanoid species. Homeworld is Shanta'la in the Caturia system.

Physiology
The green-skinned humanoid Shanta'wakh can be between 1,60 to 2,3 metres tall, mostly have dark hair and many similarities to humans and tarsins though they own hearts with 3 chambers, purple to bronze colored blood and some microbiological differences. Though the air of Shanta'la is filled with many toxic gases for humans, the Shanta'wakh are able to breath earth-like air. Shanta'wakh are known to be more strength and muscular than earth humans.

History
4000 B.C. probably the first Shanta’wahk culture developed in the mountain valleys of Skro’thur.

About 800 n.C. the 4 warlords Zad, Zid, Zed and Zod conquered about 70 % of the planets landscape founding the first big nations, in each of them culture and science developed.

The tribes were forced together between 900-1000 after a religious caste dominated the warlords of Shanta’la. The age of the ‚Choosen of Sah-Kae-Rhea‘ began.

1190 the cult was on its highlight controlling 80% of Shanta’la but while discriminating other minorities and religions, an opposition developed.

1267 the temples of Skol’athaan were burned and the choosen of Sah-Kae-Rhea lost all of their powers. A civil war broke out and the old tribes started to fight each other again. For many centuries, the followers of Sah-Kae-Rhea lived secretly and hunted by many military leaders.

2340 Shanta’la was divided by 4 great nations: Shanta’zod, Shanta’zed, Shanta’zid and Shanta’zad. They lived in a cold war to each other but in a long period of peace, the planet developed to an industrial level while old cultures got a renaissance.

In 2452, a two-side war destroyed the warcouncils of Shanta’zed and Shanta’zid. The 2 rest nations divided the planet under themselves but the capitalistic lead governments lost their support in the deep religious society.

As far as human historians were able to reconstruct, about 2540 a great hunger in the jungles of Tho’la’wag marked the begin of social and political collapse. The planetary unity was split again into various tribe councils and after Tho’la’wag regional tribes declared independence one by one.

In 2542 the Shanta’wahk made their first alien encounter with an accidential crashed caturian transport. The still primitive natives were surprised by the foreign technology, space travel was seen as privelege of the gods, so the aliens were suspicious to be evil demons. Since then, war driving tribes tried to make buisness with the caturian naugbours to get high-tech weapons and medical goods. A new era of civil war was started lasting until today.

2934 the Shanta’wahk made contact with Octan industries, who quickly illegal annexed their holy plains for own industry interests. Some native tribes were corrupted with bad contracts, first resistance of the more powerful warlords were solved by military interventions by Maox mercenaries hired by Octan. The short-lived peace had broken and some Shanta’wahk joined the new brothers from Caturia VI by immigration, as mercenaries or as workers for the human industries. Females often ended in prostitution beeing exotic but human looking humanoids. Others became extremists planning to revenge the violation of their holy land. The old cult ‚The Choosen of Sah-Kae-Rhea‘ suddently was reborn joining the ranks of terroristic organisations.

2982, after Caturia VI became independent again and joined the I.S.C. the Shanta’wahkian minority demanded fair civil rights for their race on Shanta’la as well as for the Caturian VI’s migrants. The civil protests joined the media all over the E.A. space creating sympathizers and many war orphans from Shanta’la were adopted by rich and educated human including earth itself.

Culture
The Shanta’wahk was a nomadic race of hunters for many centuries with only a few strong agriculture nations. Most people belong to one of thousands tribes lead by tribe councils, elders or brutal war lords.

In the past they were peaceful but suspicious and still have done many wars against each other. The times of war, especially with MAOX mercenaries in the last century tortured the culture. In conclusion, alien racism and religious fanatism had developed. Bound to primitive technology, space exploration doesn't exist, but still terroristic activities over E.A. space and its former colonies became a magnificient problem of recent time. These terrorists demand ful independence of Shanta'la and departure of alien companies robbing the recources of their planet.

A more liberal part of society are the countless and increasing migrants to other worlds. Bigger minorities of Shanta'wakh live on Caturia VI, the sol system, in the U.F.O.lien star empire and other post-stellar industrial colonies. They mostly exist as cheap workers using their body strength, but also as mercenaries, pirates, prostitutes, strippers etc. at the bottom of society.

The few educated Shanta'wakh live in E.A. space, especially on earth. Most of them were adopted war orphans and became well integrated into society. The most famous example is earth's vice president Ska'wah'ta

Religion
All together, most Shanta’wahk are very religious until today believing in old gods living beyond the stars. Early found statues show geometric structures presenting different gods, some theories try to identify these as Mysterion visited the system for many centuries. In their religion 2 holy places outside the planet exists: A traveling star called Sah-Atha'aana and the paradise and world of the gods Sah-Kae-Rhea.

"The choosen of Sah-Kae-Rhea" once was a powerful and peaceful temple cult, today the term is used by a terroristic organisation fighting the "Shuntu (Non-believers)". Since the temple cult got destroyed centuries ago, there's no united church. Tribe elders and other popular individuals teach their own interpretations of the old scripts, which originals are lost long ago.

Language
Shanta'wahkian languages variate from tribe to tribe, only a few own a script with 30-45 signs/letters, so many words can have different spellings. Most nouns are combinations from other simpler ones and the " ' " is often used in human translation to mark the word's origins for easier understanding.

E.g. Shanta'wahk means "The sacred ones (Shanta) from the jungles (Wahk'jaha)";

Wahk'jaha = "jungle trees (Wahk); many (jaha)"

Shanta'la = "Holy planet/groundHoly planet/ground"