Selachi

The Selachi are often noted for their uniquely grotesque physical appearance. Coming in at an average of 6.5 feet tall, these humanoid creatures have smooth and thick skin that possess a bluish hue toward their back. They have no hair, the fronts of their bodies are bright white, and their faces appear to be continually scrunched into what looks like an angry expression, leading to great confusion as to their real feelings. They are the proud owners of very sharp, large gray teeth and black eyes.

Selachi are typically very aggressive and territorial, though they are actually scavengers. Their homeworld, Tethys, is made up of 90% water, where they initially evolved. Their flat faces have two slits along each cheek bone--the last semblance of gills. They are natural swimmers and still have limited capability to breathe underwater. When cornered, Selachi may launch themselves at enemies, using their teeth as a weapon if possible. Their profound jaw strength has been known to bend steel, though it does take great effort.

Early History (Evolution - 916 BCE)
After emerging with intelligence deep in the Bakunin Expanse on the shores of Tethys, the Selachi were ready to do incredible things. Great stone monuments and cities in shallow lakes and river deltas, a rich culture that thrived on the worship of the deep sea, and the gods who created them deep in the darkest trenches, letting them rise into the oxygen-rich air above.

For thousands of years, their united civilization persisted and did not advance at any substantial rate. That is, until 250 BCE when they were discovered by the Vhoni Dynasty. Seeing the perfect opportunity to utilize Selachi size and durability, the Vhoni subjugated and enslaved the beings of Tethys, shipping hundreds of thousands to labor centers across the galactic region, keeping their numbers in check and "encouraging" reproduction on Tethys. While they were strong workers, it was not until the Imperium began to gain an upper hand against the Vhoni Dynasty that they were drafted into military roles. Unfortunately for the Selachi, this made them little more than scum to the Imperium faction.

After the collapse of the Vhoni Dynasty, the Selachi were largely ignored and left behind by the Imperium Protectorate, which quickly began uplifting and aiding other long-enslaved and suppressed species who had not been drafted by the brutal Vhoni regime.

Perseus-Orion Expeditions and Migration (916 BCE - 1159 BCE)
Separated from their homeworld by hundreds and even thousands of light years, their fractured civilization began growing at rapidly different rates. With no centralized industry, power, economy, or even an understanding of spaceflight, the Selachi people suffered immensely. It was during this time that they developed their tribal, territorial nature. Largely shunned by the galactic community, desperate tribes turned to prostitution, piracy, and mercenary jobs.

Fearing a strike to their prime slave pool on Tethys, the Vhoni had erased all navigational records of the Selachi homeworld before they collapsed. This meant that for nearly two centuries, many scattered tribes had no idea where they were from. This prompted some groups to learn ship handling skills so that they could search the stars for a place their ancestors had called home.

Meanwhile on Tethys, the local Selachites began developing centralized systems in order to compete on the galactic stage. Because the gap in their scientific achievement was so great, the most profitable thing they could do was to lease enormous chunks of ocean to private organizations, companies, and governments, whether it be for resources or other avenues.

Using these funds, Selachi leaders hired other advanced species to uplift them. This was difficult at first due to lack of Imperium support, but was made almost impossible when greedy companies realized that advancing Selachi meant the end of their excursions on Tethys. Certain elements of the galactic community pursued solutions to this "problem," pushing and prodding at the Tethysian Selachites until their government imploded, sending the local population into a frenzied anarchy that resulted in thousands of deaths on both sides, though casualties were far more significant on the side of the Selachi.

Post-Collapse (1159 BCE - 1341 BCE)
After centuries of violent subjugation by two separate galactic superpowers, the most advanced Selachites sought each other out, forming alliances amongst themselves and promising to share aid, knowledge, and money, yet choosing to remain largely separated and nomadic. Several centuries of tragic suffering also conditioned Selachites to fear, mistrust, and aggressively resist any outside group. As they continued to advance, they continued to raise each successive generation with fear and anger at past transgressors. Though some did choose to settle on remote asteroids and other ocean worlds, they planned a much larger operation over the course of several decades.

In 1338 CE, the Selachi demanded that all third-parties remove themselves from Tethys, a demand that was largely laughed off. When corporations, kingpins, and other inhabitants of Tethys looked into the sky on a warm summer day, they were mortified. The Selachi had spent decades purchasing thrusters, subspace drives, and shield generators, placing them on a large asteroid, which they pulled through subspace and thrust into their own world. The subsequent, rapid, and massive impact left almost no time for escape, killing 95% of the third-party squatters. The remaining 5% were slaughtered by the formidable raider groups that brought the asteroid.

Though outrage stemmed from all organizations involved in the attack, this event was one of the only times that the Imperium Protectorate warmed up their "cold-shoulder" approach to the Selachi, deeming the attack as a legal and acceptable action. The case for this ruling was one that represented the attack as the defense and reclamation of a homeworld--one which inherently belonged to the Selachi and was wrenched from them. There was no official military response, though the victimized organizations did hire many mercenaries to attack the Selachi and recover anything they could from the recovering world. When attacks got out of hand, the Selachi appealed to the Imperium, who stepped in, condemned the attacks, and threatened legal, economic, and even a response of force if peace was not reached.

From impact to ceasefire, this conflict lasted three years. In that time, however, the Selachi were being noticed by another rising empire.

Entente Member Status (1341 CE - 1690 CE)
Impressed by their convictions and the honor of reclaiming Tethys after such long periods of strife and struggle, Species 1 of the Entente approached the Selachi, engaging in negotiations. A time-table was laid out, starting with an economic alliance, a knowledge-trading system, and special services between the three members species of the growing Entente.

As Entente power grew and Selachi power with it, the member species began turning their attention to what they believed were truly evil targets: the reigning Imperium Protectorate. The Selachi, still enraged at their treatment for the past millenia, clamored for revenge. While Species 1 and 3 had their reasons, an overall truth laid itself out--war was inevitable.

The Entente sought out great alliances through Selachi contacts at Waystations and with other species who had been left out to dry while the most prosperous species sat atop their golden thrones. To many, the Protectorate held the blame for a widening gap between rich and poor, advanced and primitive. In reality, the Imperium were uplifting worthy species one at a time, careful not to spread their resources too thin.

Misguided or not, guerrilla tactics that killed millions with each strike resulted in a chain reaction which led to full-scale war by 1560 CE. By the end of the 17th-century, the Imperium Protectorate had collapsed, giving way to the Entente Era.

First Entente Era (1690 CE - 2003 CE)
Now in control of a large swath of the Milky Way Galaxy, the Entente quickly came down with an iron fist. While Species 1 and 3 led sweeping economic reform and general military oversight of their new territories, the Selachi focused on one particular crusade. At the end of the Vhoni Dynasty, the Imperium had placed a high priority on arresting, killing, or containing members of the Dynasty wherever they were, though such sentiment faded only a century later.

In retaliation for their millenia of suffering under both empires, the Selachi launched a brutal genocide that saw them directly hunting down the last of the Vhoni Dynasty (last seen in 1947 CE), as well as the Imperium, who they also set massive bounties for the capture or killings of. This continued until no more Vhoni could be found, and no more Imperium could be turned over to the authorities. The policy officially ended in 1961 CE, when it was believed that both races had either gone extinct or into hiding.

Another immediate mandate of the Selachi was to require the erasure of Tethys from all NAV systems. Though this was essentially impossible to guarantee, most citizens accepted the order, while others who dared to travel to Tethys were brutally tortured, murdered, and put on display in Waystations everywhere to demonstrate the seriousness of the mandate.

Also during this time--one of the only cases in recorded history--the Bakunin Expanse was technically under the jurisdiction of the Selachi. By this point, however, they no longer had the ability within themselves to settle. Instead, the fueled the fire of piracy, raiding, mercenary work, and other illegal activities in order to keep the smokescreen of chaos up and keep their homeworld safe.

As time passed, the goals of each of the member species increased in distance, and their differences continued to mount. Species 1 found the Selachi increasingly dishonorable, and other conflicts blossomed into a short but massively destructive civil war which lasted from 1982 CE - 2003 CE.

Renewed Entente Era (2003 CE - 2364 CE)
Eventually realizing that their goals did not have to perfectly align as an empire, the Entente recognized a ceasefire and reformed itself as a primarily economic alliance. This allowed for reorganizing their strategies to allow almost complete independence for those under the Entente's territorial umbrella. Only collaborating occasionally for military support and drills, they largely stayed out of each other's ways. The three species continued to drift apart over time until 2364 CE, when the Selachi stumbled across Humanity. Due to their very similar features to Imperium humans, they were identified as Imperium and engaged. Humanity, confused and caught off guard by a first contact attack, attempted to surrender and negotiate to no avail. The standing Selachi policy for Imperium humans was extermination on sight.

This jump-started the CSA-Entente War, which saw the Selachi providing 70% of the total Entente force in the war. While they pushed for the full support of Species 1 and 3, the other two Entente members believed that the Selachi were fighting a mostly outdated crusade against a long-beaten foe. Still, they committed enough resources to the war to appease their aggressive third member.

While Selachi were excellent at guerrilla tactics and pure outnumbering tactics, they lacked central command strategies, scouting randomly and striking out at targets as they came across them. When Selachi were in command, the statistics gave CSA forces a resounding advantage, who possessed tight cohesion and threatening weapon systems, beating the Selachi 65% of the time, versus an average 31% of the time against Species 1 and 37% against Species 3.