Tajara
| Tajara | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Basics | |
| Playable: | Yes |
| Antag Only: | No |
| Physical Characteristics | |
| Height: | 4'10" to 5'11" |
| Weight: | 90lbs to 190lbs |
| Homeworld | |
| System: | Adhomai |
| Planet: | Adhomai Ba I |
The Tajara are a race of bipedal mammalians from the planet Adhomai. They have various feline traits such as diverse fur patterns, retractable claws, and slender muscular bodies. They are omnivores and have developed teeth for eating both meat and fruits. Tajara have short whiskers, which are largely remnants of their feline ancestry, and no longer serve a biological purpose. They are sensitive, and many Taj opt to have them removed.
Biology
Tajara are bipedal and digitigrade, with a similar internal anatomy to humans. They range from about 4’10” to about 5’11”, with some individuals breaking 6’. The average tajara is shorter than the average human. Tajara are covered head to toe in one or more layers of fur and are known among humans for their resemblance to cats; most tajara have long tails, although some have stubby ones and still others have them docked. Tajara are omnivores more adapted to meat than vegetation.
Dietary Needs & Allergies
Tajara can digest most meat, even raw, fairly readily, although they generally prefer to cook it for various reasons. They have a lot of trouble with things like nuts, grains, starchy or fibrous vegetables, and so on, and those will need to be cooked quite a lot before they're edible. Fruits are edible raw or cooked, and baked treats made from fruits are common.
Society
The Old Society
The Old Society, or “Taj-jurr-zhuq” as they call it, was one where great armed camps known as 'nations' existed, which would often make war on each other for any of several different reasons. At the time of unification, three super-national alliances existed: the Pan-Coastal Axis, the Free Nations League, and the Duo-Polar Alliance, which destroyed one another in an event commonly known as 'the war'. In the aftermath of the war, most of Tajaran civilization was ruined; industries trashed, homes reduced to rubble, farms rendered unusable due to the mass deployment of poison gas or radiological weapons.
The Army of Reality
Informed by the plan laid out by the Provost-Commissioner Alten Hadii, the few remaining citizens of some of the Tajaras' greatest cities, along with large numbers of mutinied soldiers, created the Army of Reality, a pacifist organization of technicians and scientists devoted to ensuring world peace and prosperity for Tajara.
The Army of Reality used a combination of advanced technology (for the time) and industrial capacity, as well as their command over radio and satellite networks, to first make contact with and then uplift nearly every city on the planet, deposing more than one petty dictator along the way. This is what is known as the New Society, one based on the ideals of enlightened pacifism, progress and prosperity. In the New Society, Tajara civilization is governed by the Great Provosts, elected from among the top minds of the many industries, while the ruling Council of Provosts is informed and checked by the Congress of Progress. The foremost concern of the government is the advancement of living standards for the Tajara, with peaceful trade and scientific exchange with other civilizations at a close second.
The New Society
Tajara have only recently been united under the New Society, and, with the assistance of the Unathi in particular, have begun developing colonies on planets outside their home system. Having recently been the galactic new kids on the block, they see and position themselves as a sort of mentor civilization to younger ones. This is seen as presumptuous in diplomatic circles, and Tajara officials tend to have an air of smug superiority which doesn't help one bit with establishing friendly relations. They have a particular morbid curiosity toward Humanity's use of nuclear weapons on itself.
Small pockets of the Old Society still remain in the form of rebel nations, some of which have even spread to nearby planets within the Adhomai system, and some further which have made overtures to the ISEO. The New Society warns against the “atavism and cruelty” of the Old, but is unwilling to engage in mass hostilities against them for humanitarian reasons, instead assuring themselves that such nations will collapse on their own.