I've been reading the WorldWar series by Harry Turtledove. It's an interesting read and I got the idea to make an RP on it. For those that don't know, the premise is that an alien race invades the Earth in May 1942 in the midst of world war two. These aliens call themselves The Race. They are reptilian humanoids who have eye turrets like chameleons and have short tail-stumps. They have a slow ponderous history with innovation getting drawn out over centuries or even thousands of years. They do not like change. Also, they conquered two like minded race. When their probe came to Earth in 1142 they expected it to be relatively unchanged. Of course Earth or Tosev 3 to them did change dramatically. Humanity shocked the race for good reason. Still, they invaded the Earth as planned, which was a mistake.
The Race lacks FTL technology, but the ships do travel at half the speed of light. They take 20 years to get here from their homeworld "Home". The Conquest fleet was sent in first. The colony fleet was set to arrive 20 years after. The Race thought this would be more than enough time to conquer Earth. They use projectile weapons much like what modern militaries have today. The Race isn't really a warlike species, or atleast they don't think themselves to be. They call war a "Soldier's Time". They use simple words for their military vehicles, "Landcruisers," "Killercraft," "Troopcarriers," "Transporters," etc.
The Race is physically shorter than humans. They're often described as being a little more than 4 feet tall. Their skin is scaly and brown or green. They also have nictating membranes with turreted eyes and vestigial tail stumps as I said above. They have no tear ducts. Though they have a characteristic reptilian dislike of low temperatures, they are warm blooded as shown by their breath fogging in Earth's winter. Their wrist bones pivot off one bone rather than two, they have two bones in their upper arms and one in their lower arms (the opposite of humans), and their ribcages are described as resembling latticework. Though primarily carnivorous, as shown by their specialized teeth, the Race can process vegetation. They can also drink and process alcoholic beverages. They have a revulsion to eating eggs, due to the similarities to their own life cycle. Ginger has effects on the Race similar to those of cocaine on humans and also sends females into oestrus.
Members of The Race are seasonal breeders, and reproduce once a year at a specific time when females enter oestrus. There is no monogamy, and males play no part in the raising of young. Hatchlings are born with an egg tooth, and are essentially miniature versions of the adults. They do not vocalise as frequently as human children unless urged to do so, a defence mechanism against predators. Unlike human babies who crave physical contact, Race hatchlings instinctively avoid anything larger than themselves. At the age of 3 months, Race hatchlings become predatory in nature and have to be taught not to attack their own kind. Due to their considerably greater physiological development and self-reliance at birth, cases of surviving feral children are much more common in the history of The Race than in that of humans.
The Race is governed by a 50,000 year old imperial dynasty headed by the Ssumaz family. Emperors have exclusive access to a controlled harem of females in order to keep track of the bloodline. Emperors are democratically elected, but the choices are limited to the clutch of the previous ruler. The Empire's policies are fiercely expansionist, due to connotations of manifest destiny. Conquered races have The Race's language imposed upon them and are traditionally not permitted to join The Empire's armed forces. Some private property and freedom of worship is permitted, as long as they do not conflict with The Empire's policies. In Race society, steadiness and stability count so much more than speed that invention is not encouraged. New concepts are introduced to Race society gradually over a period of centuries so as to prevent societal instability.
The Race is extremely ethnocentric, believing that it benefits conquered species to be united into their empire. Seeing it as a "White Man's Burden" of sorts, they honestly believe that their conquests "civilize" other planets, ending internal conflict, while their advanced technologies provide medicinal and economic advancement. That being said, there isn't much discrimination against conquered races (once they have been fully integrated), other than that they are not allowed to serve in the military. This extreme ethnocentrism is evident in their very name in their own language: "the Race". Humans tend to nickname them "Lizards", which they find somewhat offensive, insisting that they be referred to in-translation as "the Race" in human languages.
The Emperor is elevated to a god-like status in Race society. Members of The Race are taught at birth to lower their eyes in reverence at any evocation of the Emperor in conversation. The Emperor's birthday (known to The Race as "Hatching Day") is celebrated once every 6 months (a year for The Race). The Race afterlife consists of eternal servitude to past Emperors. Emperor worship is so deeply ingrained into Race culture that the concept of "impericide" is virtually unthinkable.
As well as their own homeworld, The Race has two subject planets; Epsilon Eridani II and Epsilon Indi I (known as Rabotev 2 and Halless 1 to The Race). Both planets' indigenous dominant lifeforms, the Rabotevs and the Hallessi, are similar to The Race in biology as well as evolutionary pace. Little is revealed of their history before their subjugation to The Empire, other than that the Hallessi had an identical form of government, while the Rabotevs were divided among competing mini-empires. At least one of these races practiced slavery, though it is unspecified which.
While generally held to be fully integrated and equal citizens of the Empire, the Race does not allow them to serve in its military, possibly out of fear that if they did they might in future generations get ideas about self-rule. As a result, no Rabotevs or Hallessi came with the Conquest Fleet or Colonization Fleet when they were sent to Earth. The Race's military on Earth didn't try to keep this a secret, but readily spoke to humans of their subject races when asked, and even showed them pictures. The Conquest Fleet mostly spoke of them to point out how they had evolved along similar biological and cultural lines as the Race, and their differences weren't very remarkable when compared to humans.
The Rabotevs were the first species conquered by the Race, some 14,000 human years ago. The Hallessi (singular "Halless") were the second species conquered by the Race, some 5,000 human years ago.
The Race lacks FTL technology, but the ships do travel at half the speed of light. They take 20 years to get here from their homeworld "Home". The Conquest fleet was sent in first. The colony fleet was set to arrive 20 years after. The Race thought this would be more than enough time to conquer Earth. They use projectile weapons much like what modern militaries have today. The Race isn't really a warlike species, or atleast they don't think themselves to be. They call war a "Soldier's Time". They use simple words for their military vehicles, "Landcruisers," "Killercraft," "Troopcarriers," "Transporters," etc.
The Race is physically shorter than humans. They're often described as being a little more than 4 feet tall. Their skin is scaly and brown or green. They also have nictating membranes with turreted eyes and vestigial tail stumps as I said above. They have no tear ducts. Though they have a characteristic reptilian dislike of low temperatures, they are warm blooded as shown by their breath fogging in Earth's winter. Their wrist bones pivot off one bone rather than two, they have two bones in their upper arms and one in their lower arms (the opposite of humans), and their ribcages are described as resembling latticework. Though primarily carnivorous, as shown by their specialized teeth, the Race can process vegetation. They can also drink and process alcoholic beverages. They have a revulsion to eating eggs, due to the similarities to their own life cycle. Ginger has effects on the Race similar to those of cocaine on humans and also sends females into oestrus.
Members of The Race are seasonal breeders, and reproduce once a year at a specific time when females enter oestrus. There is no monogamy, and males play no part in the raising of young. Hatchlings are born with an egg tooth, and are essentially miniature versions of the adults. They do not vocalise as frequently as human children unless urged to do so, a defence mechanism against predators. Unlike human babies who crave physical contact, Race hatchlings instinctively avoid anything larger than themselves. At the age of 3 months, Race hatchlings become predatory in nature and have to be taught not to attack their own kind. Due to their considerably greater physiological development and self-reliance at birth, cases of surviving feral children are much more common in the history of The Race than in that of humans.
The Race is governed by a 50,000 year old imperial dynasty headed by the Ssumaz family. Emperors have exclusive access to a controlled harem of females in order to keep track of the bloodline. Emperors are democratically elected, but the choices are limited to the clutch of the previous ruler. The Empire's policies are fiercely expansionist, due to connotations of manifest destiny. Conquered races have The Race's language imposed upon them and are traditionally not permitted to join The Empire's armed forces. Some private property and freedom of worship is permitted, as long as they do not conflict with The Empire's policies. In Race society, steadiness and stability count so much more than speed that invention is not encouraged. New concepts are introduced to Race society gradually over a period of centuries so as to prevent societal instability.
The Race is extremely ethnocentric, believing that it benefits conquered species to be united into their empire. Seeing it as a "White Man's Burden" of sorts, they honestly believe that their conquests "civilize" other planets, ending internal conflict, while their advanced technologies provide medicinal and economic advancement. That being said, there isn't much discrimination against conquered races (once they have been fully integrated), other than that they are not allowed to serve in the military. This extreme ethnocentrism is evident in their very name in their own language: "the Race". Humans tend to nickname them "Lizards", which they find somewhat offensive, insisting that they be referred to in-translation as "the Race" in human languages.
The Emperor is elevated to a god-like status in Race society. Members of The Race are taught at birth to lower their eyes in reverence at any evocation of the Emperor in conversation. The Emperor's birthday (known to The Race as "Hatching Day") is celebrated once every 6 months (a year for The Race). The Race afterlife consists of eternal servitude to past Emperors. Emperor worship is so deeply ingrained into Race culture that the concept of "impericide" is virtually unthinkable.
As well as their own homeworld, The Race has two subject planets; Epsilon Eridani II and Epsilon Indi I (known as Rabotev 2 and Halless 1 to The Race). Both planets' indigenous dominant lifeforms, the Rabotevs and the Hallessi, are similar to The Race in biology as well as evolutionary pace. Little is revealed of their history before their subjugation to The Empire, other than that the Hallessi had an identical form of government, while the Rabotevs were divided among competing mini-empires. At least one of these races practiced slavery, though it is unspecified which.
While generally held to be fully integrated and equal citizens of the Empire, the Race does not allow them to serve in its military, possibly out of fear that if they did they might in future generations get ideas about self-rule. As a result, no Rabotevs or Hallessi came with the Conquest Fleet or Colonization Fleet when they were sent to Earth. The Race's military on Earth didn't try to keep this a secret, but readily spoke to humans of their subject races when asked, and even showed them pictures. The Conquest Fleet mostly spoke of them to point out how they had evolved along similar biological and cultural lines as the Race, and their differences weren't very remarkable when compared to humans.
The Rabotevs were the first species conquered by the Race, some 14,000 human years ago. The Hallessi (singular "Halless") were the second species conquered by the Race, some 5,000 human years ago.