This is my take on the raloi. Hope you like it.
Name: Raloi
Official Name: The Raloi Federation of Republics
Homeworld: Turvess, Maishava System, Shiva Nebula, Outer Citadel Space
Appearance: The raloi are an avian species that has a thin humanoid body covered in feathers. They measure about 6 feet, or 180cm, average, and females are shorter than males. Some raloi’s feathers are brightly coloured, whereas some are as dull as dirt. Colours range from emerald green to light yellow to a greyish white. Their legs are devoid of feathers, and they are beaked. The beak resembled an eagle’s, but it is slightly modified through evolution to be able to eat fruits and vegetables. There are also talons present on their feet and hands, though at modern times, these are filed down to prevent hurting others, and only soldiers and ceremonial warriors have sharpened talons. Their heads also have a sort of crest at the top, with the most beautiful ones denoting their positions in raloian culture. The raloi also has a long feathery tail at their back. One of their most prominent features are their four arms, a pair growing out of their back and another growing out of their shoulders. The pair at the back doubles as wings, similar to Earth’s prehistoric birds. These extra limbs, coupled with the talons, allowed the raloi to easily traverse mountains and cliffs, both of which are abundant in Turvess, whose slightly weaker gravitational field strength and strong tectonic activity led to the formation of hundreds and thousands of tall mountains, cliffs and volcanoes. The raloi’s clothing are generally light and flowy, and are often decorated with colourful patterns. In combat, they wore a skintight suit with streamlined pieces of armor attached, so as to not impede running and flying speed.
History: The raloi evolved from birds in the mountainous planet of Turvess. In the early history, these proto-raloi lived in the cliffs to avoid the land-based predators in the valleys. They usually lived near the seas and have a predominantly seafood diet. They evolved limbs to allow easy navigation from one mountain to another, which more often than not lack the necessary space for the large birds to land. Eventually, they discovered fire and learned to use tools. However, agriculture came at a much later date, mainly because the cliffs offered little space for farming. They followed a hunter gatherer lifestyle until a raloi man, who took the risk to settle on the valleys believing that there would be more food, found out about how plants grow, that agriculture began to take place. The early raloi would build wooden extensions, or carve a space out of the cliff, to put soil in and plant seeds. It took more than a millennia for the raloi to refine their agricultural practices. This is when raloi population boomed. Mountain ranges essentially became the first raloi cities, who carved entire buildings inside. The most magnificent is Altikri. Built inside an extinct volcano on a huge island, it was so heavily modified that it resembled more like a modern skyscraper than a mountain. The island proved to be rich agricultural land due to the volcanic soil, providing food for thousands who settled there. It would be the largest city on Turvess for 600 years, until a massive earthquake, thought to be a 9.8 on the Richter scale, caused half the mountain to collapse and the entire island to be devastated. Since the Agricultural Revolution, raloi history closely resembled the humans’, but where the humans had catastrophes such as the fall of Rome or the Dark Ages, the raloi, miraculously, had none at such devastating scale at the time. Of course, there are wars, some particularly bloody, but the raloi civilisation never had a setback for a long time. This led to the creation of an extremely proud race, and racist and xenophobic sentiments began to rise after the discovery of the southern continent, where the green-feathered natives were discriminated by the more advanced red-feathered raloi. Eventually a massive ethnic war broke out on a scale never before seen. Atrocities after atrocities. Massacres after massacres. Approximately 200 million died in the war, which is almost a quarter of the total raloi population. This war became known as the Colours War, an almost joyful name for a devastating catastrophe. Since then, the raloi adopted an almost pacifist stance. Several tribes abolished their military, one went as far as to ban all objects that can kill. Murder and death became such a strong taboo in raloi history that the entire race went on the course of an almost fanatical pursuit of invincibility and longevity. Raloi explorers toured all over the planet in search of a cure to death. Several powerful tribes and dynasties spent an incredulous amount of money for such expeditions, often bankrupting themselves. This period of idiotic fanaticism eventually caused the deaths of about 12 million raloi, most of them due to famines and disease as their leaders stole their possessions to fund the search for a non-existent cure. This period was a huge shame to the race, for obvious reasons. Raloi historians did such a good job at hiding that much of this period was left out of the history books, and eventually forgotten by the raloi, leaving a huge blank in the timeline of the race’s history. This led to massive confusion by contemporary historians, until an asari archaeologist discovered records about huge numbers of voyages after the raloi were discovered by the galactic community. After the Age of Bigots and the Age of Fanatics, came the Age of Intellectuals. Due to the raloi vowing never to repeat such events again, the raloi engaged in a period much like the Renaissance. Philosophers, scientists, artists, and the likes became commonplace. Education became mandatory and universities were founded. This combined with the ever-present value of pacifism led to a Raloi Golden Age, and this continued until the day the raloi were discovered by the asari. Though their technology lagged behind most of the Council races, their intellectual and pacifist stance promised a great future for the race as a whole, that is, until the Reaper War.
Society: Viewed as an ideal race in much of the galaxy, the raloi held a high regard on equality and peace. Most raloi tended to be polite and calm, and only use violence as a last resort. As murder is still a strong taboo, Turvessian cities tend to be void of crime. Though relations are still cold between several races, hate crimes are extremely rare to almost non-existent. The raloi are split between 23 nations, all of them united under the common banner of the RFR, or the Raloi Federation of Republics. Biotics in the raloi population are non-existent due to the lack of eezo on their planet and their lack of space exploration, which was still in its infant stage.
Population: 5 billion est. on Turvess.
Affiliation: Citadel-aligned race.
Military: The RSDF, or the Raloi Self Defence Force, are the main military body of the species. They consist of 500,000 active members and 500,000 reserves. These troops are essentially responsible for only self-defence of the species, and is only deployed when diplomacy failed. Though they have a relatively small number, these troops are well-trained, well-led and well-fed. They also have a Special Forces team called the Rialli Guards, who were rumoured to have been as powerful as the turian Blackwatch or the asari commandos.
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