Lothornity

Lothornity
Lothornity, as they call thier species, are a an ancient race of technologically advanced, tribalistic humanoids that predate many of the known civilizations, including humanity. As of present times, not all that much information is available on them to the other races.

Overview
The lothorns are very similar to humans in appearance and biology. They originated on the planet Kepler-62f of the Kepler-62 system, themseleves referring to their homeworld as "Narc." Thier star burnt out a long time ago during their civilization, which was the primary cause of their expansion through the cosmos. Lothorns place a high value on honor, hunting, and a more pre-industrial themed lifestyle. They operate under a series of sovergn tribes that are united and lead by a "Council of Chieftans." Thier government had a mind for security over most other priorities, their written language itself is intentionally designed to be difficult for non native speakers to decipher. The Lothorns, while seeming to be primative in most methods are actually highly advanced in society and technology and any sign of primative means is meerly for aesthetic purposes.

Biology
Lothorns are almost indistinguishable in appearance to humans, possessing three ridges on the bridge of their noses and ear lobes that come to a more distinct point. Under a microscope, their genes, are identical to that of humans, with only a few differences. Lothorns posses a high muscle density in comparison, allowing substantially more natural strength in their muscle fibers without as much mass. Despite their more hardiness due to the climate of their homeworld before and after the death of their star, lothorns possess a critical, irreversible flaw in their genetic structure that makes certain cancerous developments common. Usually in the present times, cancer is something that can typically be cured for lothorns.

History
The lothorns were capable of starship travel for a long time before they actually implemented that ability. The first space-faring vessel their kind ever made was capable of FTL travel. Their leaders had no interest in space until their star, Kepler-62, fizzled out into a ball of iron, leaving the surface of their world inhospitably cold. Even then, lothornity toughed out the unending, bitter winter for several years before their leaders decided to look for other habitable worlds among the stars.

Once they were in space, lothornity colonized many worlds and other celestial bodies, even ones that weren't habitable had some kind of a base established. At some point during this time, an event they call "The Plague" occurred.

"The Plague" is described in deciphered texts as some kind of a genetically linked immune disease that caused the victim's immune system to recognize all cells, except for cells regarding the nervous system, as foreign, thus their body began destroying itself, leaving the brain and spinal cord behind. This condition rapidly began spreading through almost every newborn lothorn until every currently living member of the species was inflicted by this condition. They supposedly saved themselves by putting their brains in life support tanks. There are no records as of now that they ever found a cure for this "Plague."

All records seem to end in chronology during "The Plague's" reign over the race. One of the final documents suggested that they were searching high and low in space for possible answers that they could not find on their own. This would present two possibilities, either it ended in the race's extinction despite the sound means of preserving them after the condition inflicted itself, or that the lothorns abandoned almost all of their known sites of civilizations in search for hope of curing this infliction.

Culture
Lothorns in general are, at a glance, preservationists and conservatives. The species places a high value on honor and dignity. Those who betray their honor are shamed and often exiled from their tribe, where they will likely remain for the rest of their life. Lothorns are supportive of a pre-industrial lifestyle where they intentionally live in large village-like cities and live off the land and give back to the land. Many of their designs have been noted to be similar in detail to that of the ancient Native American tribes of planet Earth. They stress the idea of balancing progressive and conservative ideals and practices, where they design their technology and buildings to not be disruptive of the natural environment. Nature is treated with an almost religious respect. An interesting thing that makes lothorn culture so unique is the fact that there is no clear evidence that they had ever had any established/well known religion or deity that they followed aside from their high regards to Mother Nature. There are no churches or places of worship within their civilization and deciphered texts make no suggestions to any widely accepted religions. What is speculated to be the case is that in lothorn society, people were always free to believe whatever they wanted as long as they respected the established authority and leadership.

Lothorns are warriors and hunters at heart. The call of combat and the hunt was something that was thrilling to them. One way they would introduce themselves to another race was to propose an arranged 1-on-1 brawl between one of their strongest and one of the other races' strongest fighters.

Government
Society was governed by oligarchy. On top of a hierarchical system of leaders, there was a "Council of Chieftains" from each participating tribe that made all the decisions and lead the lothorns. While many tribes did not involve themselves in this council, almost all of the powerful tribes decided to unite under this system. The laws are described as being a "Code of Honor" that citizens are expected to live by. While there are actually very few cases of "the Dishonored" being executed and most cases resulting in them simply being exiled, exile may as well have been a death sentence; The flora and fauna of their homeworld was reportedly quite vicious and later, the outside was a bitter, deadly winter following the death of their star, Kepler-62.

Technology
Lothorn technology, while advanced, was intentionally designed to appear and to appear to function in a more primitive fashion than in reality for both the purposes of pleasing the mostly conservative viewpoint of most lothorns and to be more fitting for their attempts to preserve nature.