The yul—also known as yukanians—are a sentient species of fierce yet petite bipedal humanoids that have a strong facial resemblance to that of an Earth-native cave bat and a city-dwelling rat. They hail from Yuku-Yaren, a world slightly more massive than Earth that is known for its desert surface and its high levels of radiation.



Yul do not live very long compared to other races. Low life expectancy is owed to the yul's robust metabolism, which is what gives their bodies the power to move about so quickly, though it also causes them to perceive time at a much faster rate than the other species of the galaxy. To the average yukanian (especially those that lack a formal education), most intelligent species are slow, dull and dimwitted, as their movements are processed as sluggish and restrained for seemingly no good reason.at all. Their warped perception of time and excited metabolic rate is perhaps the main reasons behind why yukanians are so difficult to apprehend or hit during a prolonged chase or a melee.

Yul can sense vibration within the ground using the paws of their feet, which made them exceptionally difficult to sneak up on during their race's early days on Yuku-Yaren. This physical feature is still present to this day, though the movement of millions of yukanian bodies and the clunking of vast subterranean networks of machinery within a dissident citadel makes the usability of this trait questionable at best and downright impossible at worse.

Using their whiskers, yul lay claim to an elevated sense of environmental direction, as the flow and direction of breezes and wind currents tells them where objects--like buildings, rocks or chairs--are stationed at. When moving about at high or low speeds, this talent unconsciously comes into play to great effect, enabling a yukanian to expertly navigate their surroundings.

Yuku-Yaren is a radioactive wasteland that experiences a continuous flow of unusually high (and exceptionally deadly) radiation levels that make life on its surface unreasonably cruel and harsh. Its sickly state is principally owed to the rather weedy condition of its electromagnetic field and the immediacy of Yuku-Yaren to its adolescent parent star, Kul-Eh.

Regardless, the yul have long since adapted to their homeworld’s inhospitable conditions, with their species possessing the capacity to endure roughly 1,000 Greys worth of radiation before the yukanian form begins to yield to the devastating effects of radiation sickness. Much of this radioresistance is indebted to the sheer sophisticated workings of the yul immune system, which has evolved to undergo a biomechanically-induced form of immunotherapy that allows it to dynamically study, adapt to and finally destroy invading bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells with alarming efficiency and speed.

When sufficiently high levels of environmental radioactivity are detected, hormones are hurriedly dispatched throughout the confines of the body, resulting in the halting of cellular mitosis and cell production, while multi-domain matrix glycoproteins are prevented from binding to their specific cell surface receptors. This forestalls the conception of neoplasms and other anomalous growths, and makes yukanian cells virtually immune to the deliberating effects of radiation.

During the early periods of their race, the yul found themselves quickly forced into a ‘prey species’ role, which saw them regularly attacked by larger, stronger and faster animals that viewed them as an easy meal. Initially, the yul defied aggressors by using their own innate cunning and their unique aptitude for regeneration (which enabled them to sacrifice an arm or a leg in order to preserve the greater ‘mass' in the event that a beast managed to get a firm grasp on its yukanian victim).

However, when it proved that mere smarts and the use of stem cells were not a substitute for a hardened physiology, the yul slowly underwent changes to their cardiovascular, skeletal and muscular systems that gifted them with fantastic speed, hypermobility and unparalleled nimbleness. The average yukanian can sprint at a speed of just over forty-five miles per hour—a clear result of the dense bundle of potent and tightly-woven muscle fibers and the generous length of the Achilles tendon in the yukanian leg—which allowed them to outpace and outmaneuver the larger beasts of Yuku-Yaren with astounding results.

Although sizable numbers of the the yul species still felt death's unrelenting embrace by the hands of their larger adversaries, their species saw substantial improvement in its overall population count, with the advent of underground farms, advancements in early subterranean digging technology and increased unification among the multitude of yukanian tribes further bolstering their total numbers.

Over time, the greater majority of the yul species migrated to Yuku-Yaren’s mountains regions, which provided hiding places (such as small crevices and caves) that could be used to deter the malicious intentions of the Wasteland World's voracious carnivores and the savage flesh-searing punishment that the daylight brought periodic basis.

The ledges and peeks of the area--which were easily navigated using powerful jumps, leaps and hops--gave the yul useful defensible positions from which they could employ ranged weaponry to drive away, kill or hunt prowling predatory creatures from. In some cases, early obsidian weapons were used to horrifying effect by swarms of yul warriors, who fell upon the backs of a titanic monster to slash and cut their way deep into its flesh.

Yul eyesight is rated for performing well at night, as the extreme heat of Yuku-Yaren eventually forced many of its creatures to flee the tyranny of the day when foraging or hunting needed to be done. The eyes of a yukanian are large and situated near the sides of the head, giving them an increased field of vision, while the yul neck allows the head to rotate 180 degrees (which was a trait developed so as to allow the yukanians to spot predators).

Communication between two yul is performed using a series of complex subsonic noises and spoken words that are combined with a dash of simplistic body language which comprises hand, head, shoulder, leg, and tail motions. Unlike most other races, yul are capable of exchanging a frightening amount of information in a short amount of time using varied pitches, tones and sound wavelengths.

Yul are omnivorous creatures, but prefer vegetables and fruit as opposed to meat. While not related to their diet exactly, the yul do try to retain as much water as possible on account of Yuku-Yaren's desert-like landscape, which results in their feces having a rather dry composition.

Average weight: 45lb (if present on Earth)
Average height: 3’9
Average age of death: 25
Fur colors: Brown, grey, white and tan.
Eye colors:Blue, red and black.

Yaren Great Houses are extended family lines that all communally live within a single massive adobe. These families, per Yaren Axis law, cannot exceed 1,000 individuals due to population management programs and political balance, with only members of Great Houses belonging to the age of consent and adulthood allowed to participate in voting. Criminals and mentally insane persons are barred from taking part in voting operations.

Each Yaren Great House is unofficially led by a House Master, who acts as a representative of his family's interests and legislative opinions in the System States. Typically, House Masters are chosen from the oldest, wisest and most respected of the Great House's current bloodline, though these individuals are also selected for their stations via inter-House voting, through some form of challenge (sometimes a duel between aspiring delegates) or through recommendation from the greater members of yukanian society.

Every seven years, Great House representatives commune to discuss the on-goings within the Yaren Axis, deciding on courses of action involving possible hostile xeno factions encroaching on yul-controlled space, the ongoing deterioration of yul society, the increasingly-common occurrence of riots, and the ongoing expansion of the System States themselves. House Masters are only allowed to serve exactly one (1) seven year term, preventing any one House Master from finding comfort in his or her seat of power.

Type of Economy: Resource-Driven (explained below)

Description of Economy: The Yaren Axis had an established currency once, but the lack of employment across its majority population and the advent of government-controlled automated industry and mining operations has created a stagnant market that is not competitive in the slightest. In order to adjust to the new economic circumstance that the Yaren Axis has found itself in, 'resource card implants' are issued to every yukanian citizen. These installments, which come in the form of a tiny chip implemented within the left or right palm, is linked directly to the main virtual intelligence that manages a dissident citadel's entire infrastructure and mechanical functions.

Across the System States, these constructs keep track of all incoming and outgoing drone freighters, civilian transactions and industrial centers (as well as the goods that they produce on a daily basis). Each product, whether it is a shirt, bracelet or scrap of processed food, comes with a set value that falls in line with the demand for the item and the available numerical quantity of the item in question. As dissident citadels periodically aid one another in sustaining a specific degree of economic integrity by exchanging building and civilian-based material, prices tend to rise and decrease on a daily basis.

View on xenos

The yul—after having witnessed the questionable actions of several factions seeded throughout the greater galactic mass in the past—have collectively (and unanimously) determined that the universe is absolutely teeming with all manner of bloodthirsty xeno and enthusiastic tyrant. To them, the void must be held at arm’s length, with its insane, uncivilized and queer occupants forever treated with suspicion and a ‘discerning eye’ watching them (and their imperialistic governments) for any hint of aggression or sinister intent.

It’s clear that the yul are unbelievably unreasonable, paranoid and skittish, and take their race’s wellbeing and security to an unparalleled echelon that a select few may find somewhat ‘unneeded’. This negative demeanor and pessimistic perception of other species and civilizations has only managed to retard the yul’s outward territorial development, as their sour disposition towards foreign powers and the lingering consequences of a war waged with these unknown factions makes it necessary for yul colonization groups, mining rigs and security forces to begrudgingly pay careful homage to established ‘boundaries’ generated by extraterrestrial administrative bodies, xeno governments and alien military forces. While many of these entities possesses inferior technology and military prowess to that of the Yaren Axis and the System States, the inheritors of Yuku-Yaren predominantly fear the direct results of a far-reaching military campaign on a intergalactic scale—not the instigators (nor the participants) of such a conflict.

The yul’s fear of the outside world (as well as the conflicts the yul have found themselves in when foreign powers sought their destruction for a myriad of completely illogical reasons) was the chief motive behind the creation of the Yaren Axis, a loose (if rather competent) conjoining of colonial legislative bodies and their respected patrons: the Yaren Great Houses. The Yaren Axis has dedicated most of its time and assets to the fortification of all current and growing Yaren-controlled systems, ordering the designing (and creation) of new and improved SPI systems, security rings, surveillance drone grids, war spheres, and battle platforms. Elsewhere, military-funded projects designed to turn natural satellites or suitable celestial bodies (like asteroids or moons) into gargantuan space bastions, production plants and particle gun installations have all been underway for several decades now.

Some nations may mistake the yul’s immeasurable amount of military hardware as a preemptive preparation for an invasion of their own territories, though it should be clear that their own systems continue to be given stronger and stronger defenses while spacecraft movements seem to give off the impression of an isolationistic nation's agenda.

View on war

The destructive power of the sophisticated weapons of the current era has given rise to the apprehension of intergalactic, intersystem and interplanetary warfare within the yul race. Colonies, as their mining operations act as the beating heart of the Yaren Axis, are especially treasured, with their possible downfall projected to be a major setback for the continued (if relatively peaceful) growth of Yaren Axis-controlled space. Frontier colonies and space habitats that are separated from the greater lawmaking mass eventually fall into technological regression, anarchy and barbarism due to their economies and productivity being inadequate for sustained independent operation. Based on past experiences with war and the far-reaching penalties known to be associated with it, the yul acrimoniously understand that what may have taken more than a decade to construct can take mere seconds to burn away using the sheer kinetic energy generated by the planetary impact of a hefty asteroid or the searing power of a concentrated laser beam.

Dissident citadel: Dissident citadels are subterranean 'bunkers' that house vast yukanian cities. They were constructed in response to the yul's own excessive drive to master the art of orbital bombardment over conventional warfare. Dissident citadels are buried ten miles underground, with the surfaces directly above them covered in a wide array of potent (yet incredibly short-ranged) ground-to-space weaponry (usually in the form of mass drivers that fire high-yield nuclear fusion missiles into space), with these defenses equipped with active defense systems that can target incoming missiles, shells or asteroids. Dissident citadels, like bunkers, come with their own ventilation systems and afford complete protection from radiological, biological, chemical, nano, and nuclear weaponry, while the outer casing of the dissident citadel is shielded from further harm by the presence of powerful electromagnetic and plasma-based fields.

Each dissident citadel is organized into districts, with each district separated from the one below and above it by way of several airlocks, pressure chambers and sealed movement ways which prevents neighboring areas from succumbing to biological or radiological harm should its boundaries become compromised by an attacking force. These districts can be easily quartined on account of this, which makes invading yukanian cities virtually impossible, while individual buildings within dissident citadels being capable of sealing themselves off as well.

Yul system fortifications

Yul systems are saturated with thousands of surveillance drones, static defenses and several jump gates that help maximize logistical support, shorten response time in the wake of an enemy invasion, and effectively allows each yul system to function autonomy should the main body of the nation come under assault.

The Army

-Yul-made Avatar Mk III Assault Gun

"The army? We haven't a land war in literally one-hundred and fifty damn years. Look around; the age of grunts and their gung-ho generals are pretty much over and done with.Tanks? Still using the old Avatar Mark III; haven't had one of those roll off the assembly line in nearly seven decades. Recruitment? Fully volunteer, though the only bastards we get are drug addicts and gun nuts looking to get doped up on rumble drugs and firing exercises. Back in my ancestors' glory days, when the Resource Wars were under way, being in the Army was great. Now it's like everything else in the Yaren Axis: a shit hole of legendary scale. Boy was I scammed."
-Yukanian sergeant

Understaffed.

Outdated.

Lifeless.

Poorly-trained.

These are just some the words attributed to the Yaren Axis Army, a small collection of tankers, infantrymen, commissioned officers, and gunship pilots that function as a relic signaling a bygone era in the chapter of organized warfare. Numbering roughly 105,000 strong across all yul-held systems, the Army is known for its use of standard combat armor, ETC weapons and heavy tanks, though it has largely fallen under the budget line of the Yaren Axis legislative branch, with many records and databases failing to even detect its very presence in the extensive resource-spending. To the Yaren Axis', the Army has faded from public and fiscal view, with some even questioning whether or not it even exists anymore.

The Axis Void Force (or AVF)

The AVF is the main space force used to maintain the preservation of the yukanian people. Unique to the AFV is that the military ships that bear its mark do not fall into the usual categories and classes associated with typical military spacecraft used by the other civilizations of the galaxy, but rather fall into their own distinctive classes and specializations.

For one, the yul do not field exceptionally large vessels (sometimes called 'capital ships' by nearby intergalactic powers) nor do they use fighters. Fighters, in yukanian military history, were an early step in void-based warfare, but were quickly phased out when beam-based point defense measures, the superiority of the smart missile and the advent of long-ranged spinal-mounted particle and laser weaponry made the more expensive, less maneuverable, and less efficient void superiority fighter obsolete. These ancient engines of war now sit gathering dust and years in multiple forgotten military outposts stationed on the strip-mined and barren surface of Yuku-Yaren, homeworld of the yukanian people.

The AVF is comprised of battle platforms, cylinder-shaped orbital gun installations retrofitted with vector-correcting thrusters and rear-mounted fusion engines so as to allow free three dimensional movement in space. Battle platforms are not sophisticated military vessels, though they do come with several key features:

>Energy shields are not used. Battle platforms protect themselves by using active defense systems to guard against enemy fire, their ability to engage at obscenely long ranges and their light mass (which allows them to adjust their trajectories faster than most other ships of their size and larger). These defenses encompass the dust caster (which emits a cloud of dense particles around the battle platform so as to weaken incoming laser and particle weapon fire) and particle-based defense turrets (which protects a battle platform from incoming railgun rounds, missiles and other debris).

>Armor is rather straightforward. Battle platforms are made from a generic setup of reinforced cross-bracings and a robust skeletal frame made from hexagon-shaped structures. In some cases, 'dumb and inert' munitions (like mundane shells) may pass through battle platforms without afflicting much damage to the machine's internal form, as a completely solid hull is not used. The presence of carbonfiber tubes and boron deposits within the lightweight composite materials and hardened alloys of a battle platform's outer skin further bolsters its durability, while a layer of spaced armor (somewhat akin in design and function to an Earth-made Whipple shield) reduces the impact of railgun shells and kinetic-kill missiles. Laced between each armor space is a thick layer of vacuum-suspended particles, which act as heat-absorbing material in the event that a near-hit from a nuclear warhead needs to be endured, while the outer layer of the ship is comprised of superconductive materials usually wrought from refractory metals with extremely high melting points.

When engaged, battle platforms retract their engines into the larger mass.

>Battle platforms are crewless, instead being driven by a copy of a yul enhanced intelligence construct.

>Weapons are standard. Battle platforms are built around enormous particle or laser weapons that comprise roughly 60 percent of the ship's entire mass. They are incredibly powerful weapons, but they periodically face issues with cooling, limiting them to around one shot every twenty seconds. As such, battle platforms tend to work in groups so as to maximize their collective firing rate and destructive capability. Additional weaponry comes in the form of nuclear missiles and interceptor missiles.

>Built to work as a team above all else, battle platforms can share power with one another to keep wounded machines in the fight. Military craft that have lost their ability to supply power to their main weapon may receive energy from a counterpart that cannot fire their own main weapon, but have access to their power supply. In some cases, firing times can be extended by 'juicing' one battle platform's ultracapacitors, though this carries with it the danger of causing a catastrophic overload of the battle platform's underwhelming liquid nitrogen and radiator-based cooling systems.

The Imperial Army is the name given to the sprawling mass of troops that the Tel'charians use to fight their land wars. The Army is divided into oversimplified divisions, as simplification is required to fight wars on such a scale. On the face of things, each division is equally as able to fight as the next division, however with the disparity between armoured, artillery, infantry and super-heavy divisions, this is rarely the case, with one armoured platoon given the same weighting as a whole infantry company. Therefore, it is often the case that divisions will go into combat slightly under or overstaffed, with supply levels varying from not-quite-adequate to oversupplied with weapons and equipment. However, the Army is still a potent fighting force that can dispatch almost any enemy of the Tel'charian Empire. The main arm of the Army is, of course, the infantry. The standard infantryman carries a broad responsibility on his back; the defence of the Empire from those that threaten it. The infantry of the Tel'charian Empire can be found on all battlefields the Imperial Army fights upon, from the most isolated defence outpost to quelling riots on a core world. The infantryman's standard equipment is basic, but sufficient: a laser rifle capable of delivering powerful shots that can blow holes through concrete and penetrate most basic body armour, body armour that can deflect fire from many standard small arms in the galaxy, and three or four grenades that can give the infantryman a degree of counter-vehicle ability. The weapons utilised by the infantry are varied, but most devastating. The secondary arm of the Army is the Armoured Divisions. Armoured warfare is integral to the Empire's system of warfare, despite its 'secondary' role to the infantry. It is the tanks of the armoured divisions that often give the infantry the backbone to punch through and achieve their objectives.

The largest and most prestigious force in the Empire, the Imperial Navy is the Emperor's will made manifest. A complex array of many different types of ships and different classes, the Imperial Navy is the equivalent to the Army on land - a true sledgehammer of force that can batter their way through almost any defence matrix that this galaxy can hope to put up. Regardless of casualties, the Navy will press on towards their objective, whatever that may be.

List of ship classes:

DC-85 Darrington-class Corvette: The DC-85 corvette is equipped with light weaponry designed to destroy incoming fighters, torpedoes and other incoming projectiles, such as railgun rounds or mass driver projectiles. However, because of its role as a screening ship, the DC-85 is not built to take hits from anything above fighter-level weaponry, with comparatively weak shielding, especially when compared to the mighty capital-designated ships of the Empire. The DC-85 performs its role as screening and escort corvette adequately enough, though it is unsuitable for heavy-duty combat.