Sissach

Basic Information

Anatomy

The sissach are comparable to lizards, though do not directly resemble any found on Terra. Scales cover much of their bodies, thick and strong on their heads and backs, though they become thinner and more flexible on their limbs. Where much movement is needed, like their throats, they instead have a leathery skin. Their scales can be black, brown, green, tan, and in some rare cases blue. The leathery hide can be either tan or black. Their tails are long and thick, though not as powerful as an arkatian’s. Their eyes can be amber, gold, red, or green, with vertically slitted pupils with two eyelids, like some lizards on Earth.
Sissach are the only cold blooded species in known space. They react poorly to cold climates, and typically avoid frozen planets and polar ends of worlds for this very reason. They are the only species with no mammalian traits. Both genders look extremely similar, and the females lack breasts as an identifier. Males and females can be distinguished by looking for any pointed ridges along their eyebrows. The males have them, and the females do not. The spike like structures sprouting from the sides of their jaws and the backward facing spikes down the center of their heads to the base of their necks are features in both genders. Another method is tail length. The average male has a tail 75 percent the length of his body, while a female’s measures only 50 percent of the body’s length. Finally, females tend to have wider hips, stemming from the egg laying nature of the species. Though this trait can be seen in some males and is remains unreliable as an identifier.

Genetics and Reproduction

The sissach have male and female genders. They undergo genetic therapy in the egg, but naturally they do not have any problems with their genders. As a result, there is never a case for the therapy to help develop intersexed hatchlings. Therefore, there are no hermaphroditic sissach.
Twice a year, the females enter a heat, and can be impregnated with a clutch of up to five eggs. These eggs take only two months to hatch, then the hatchlings reach maturity in a mere nine to ten years. Sissach reproduction is self-destructively rapid, likely attributed to a historically massive mortality rate.
This mortality rate has all but been eliminated, however their incredible reproduction rate still exists. A large part of rynar and sissach cooperation with themselves is controlling this modern problem. Government incentives in both the UTO and the Rynar Collective encourage males and females to have themselves sterilized, typically in the form of tax breaks for those with no family and financial aid for those that do.
Among the rynar, it is common to destroy all but one of the eggs in a clutch to further prevent rapid population growth.The UTO tried to prevent this with the sissach at first, but soon mimicked the rynar.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The species has subpar hearing, comparable to a human’s. Their eyesight is variable - they start to see into the infrared spectrum the darker it gets, making them excel in absolute darkness. Their olfactory senses are strong and augmented by their tongues, which are capable of tasting the air much like that of a snake.

Civilization and Culture

History

The sissach are the same species as the rynar, and they both have very similar psychologies. Like the rynar, the sissach have a powerful, even violent loyalty to their chosen ‘groups’. These groups range from family and circles of friends, all the way up to species-wide and national level. They key difference, however, is that the sissach are willing to see past their species and offer their loyalty to a fully different, alien faction - so long as they have others from their own species willing to do the same.
By nature, the sissach have no problem cooperating with the other members of the UTO. There is an ingrained desire to simply make things work, so compromising with a sissach friend is a very easy task. For some, this becomes humbling when a sissach is confronted with racism all through their life, yet still gladly aids those that scorned them. Sissach loyalty extends to friends and family as well, not just to the UTO as a whole. While a sissach is happy to compromise, if someone else isn’t and ends up threatening those they care about, then the violent nature they share with the rynar often comes out.
Fights with a sissach are usually full of gnashing teeth and raking claws, as they take on a vicious hatred towards the threat. This makes them fearsome soldiers, as the heavily aggressive behavior carries onto the battlefield.
While all sissach have an instinctive loyalty to their chosen culture and people, their pack mentality only truly shows itself when clear lines of authority have actually been established. In a casual setting among friends, a sissach could pass for any other species in their behavior. However, their alien obedience becomes clear when interacting with their acknowledged superiors. A child always listens to their parents, an employee always does what their employer says without question, and a soldier always follows their superiors to the letter.
Sissach are easy to lead by example. A good employer will find their sissach employees performing well while a lazy employer will find them performing worse than the non-sissach employees. In the military, this means a careful leader will rub off on the sissach and make them just as wary. While an aggressive, offensive leader will cause their sissach troops to become riled up and eager to take the fight to the enemy. This also means that a leader who doesn’t enforce discipline could rapidly see order among the sissach breaking down. While every sissach has their own personal judgement to guide them, that personal judgement becomes less and less effective the more their pack, as a whole, goes against it. This often reaches the point of being able to override it completely for those of lesser will. Even then, those that may resist engaging in the packs’ negative behaviours would most likely not report their mates, as they believe the pack does what the pack does, and it is not their place to oppose them all.
In the military, Sissach troops are typically withheld from fighting with the rynar. The hatred towards each other went down to a personal level, with the rynar thinking the sissach are traitors and the the sissach thinking the rynar are a species of stupid, violent animals that deserve to be put down. This is not an ideal mentality for keeping prisoners or civilians intact. By extension, it is not advisable for sissach to reside on colonies that may be subject to skirmishes with rynar privateers. Even a strong leader can have trouble controlling this disdain.
Outside of instincts, there is a cultural phenomena among the sissach directly related to the practice of destroying all but one egg in a clutch. It varies wildly from sissach to sissach, and some do not even care for it, but many sissach wish to do their perished siblings proud. This can range from simply not wasting their existence to doing something fantastic. A sissach may simply want to be a productive member of society, or to raise a family, succeed in school, become a doctor and pay back their siblings’ deaths with life, join the military and defend the culture their siblings died for. Anything that logic allows.
A sissach who feels they are failing their perished siblings could potentially enter a horrible depression, and believe they were the wrong egg to save.
Approximately 46 years after first contact with the rynar, the sissach became the third species to join the UTO. Before the first war with the rynar, their colony of Kinskaid was near to several Neishor colonies, and even Halashor itself. The first trade agreements with the rynar saw Kinskaid benefit greatly, with exotic goods being readily exchanged, trade for the materials needed to rapidly expand Kinskaid, and even a blossoming tourism industry.
After diplomatic breakdowns and the declaration of war, Kinskaid was the first target for UTO forces. The ensuing battle in orbit was long and hard, but it routed the rynar defense fleet and the occupation began.
The ground fighting ended up being less vicious than anticipated. Civilian resistance was heavy, less so than previously estimated. Compared to the occupation of another colony, Sennar, Kinskaid was almost quiet.
As the war turned to a standoff, with the UTO wanting to force a ceasefire, the occupation became several years long and resistance steadily waned. By the official end to the war, UTO troops were having drinks in rynar pubs without being shot at.
During peace talks, Kinskaid was to be returned to the rynar. However, much to the surprise of even the rynar, a majority of the civilian population of the planet requested refugee status with the UTO. Taking a chance, the UTO tried to acquire the planet in the treaty, hoping their military clout would be enough.
The rynar adamantly refused until Kinskaid’s provisional government started to draft an official secession from the Rynar Empire with approval from the local population. The rynar then quickly accepted the treaty’s territorial terms. The UTO, hoping to foster goodwill, did not change the terms of the treaty to lessen the favor towards the rynar after this development.
After officially being accepted into the alliance, the Kinskaid rynar began to call themselves the sissach. They have been loyal to the UTO and its allies ever since.

Home System: Pelenaanev
Homeworld: Kinskaid

Origin/Ancestry

Lizards (No True Earth Equivalent)

Lifespan

98 years (earth)

Average Height

1.64 valen (20.26m) (66.47 ft)

Average Weight

65.658 kilofaarir (123.07 metric tons) (135.66 tons)