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Description
Hailing from the planet Habia in the Norma Arm, some distance trailing of the Hanab Empire, the Bhal are a sapient species that have been spacefaring from quite some time, but due to their relative isolation have had few dealings with other galactic civilizations.

Their world of Habia is a fairy large world orbiting the smaller star in a wide binary system, and is dominated by temperate prairies and rugged mountain ranges, being rich in active volcanoes and thus a fertile, if somewhat arid landmasses. The bhal evolved in the extensive prairies, being somewhat short humanoids with four digit arms and legs, their arms being much longer and bulkier than their legs and a large torso with a small head with large eyes, a four mandible, insect like mouth and numerous fleshy tendrils hanging from their face and continuing up their skull. A fine layer of fur covers them head to toe, insulating them quite well from the long, cold nights. Their large eyes are adapted for night vision, but, due to the planets two moons, nights tend to be less dark and thus they are not as good in pitch darkness. Their internal biology is fairy simple for a sapient species, but in turn they are quite easily able to regenerate lost organs, except the brain. This makes the quite hardy creatures and, combined with their intelligence, the apex predator of Habia.

Though quite well adapted to their environment, the bhal have always had a mediocre birth rate, a trend which continued even far after advancing into space. The bhal central social structure are large, thousand strong clans led by patriarch, a dominant male that wields absolute power- one in only several hundreds males are born fertile, the being sterile, and among the strongest sterile males one ascends to the top, after which they take numerous wives, dozens at a time. Each of these females can birth over their long lifespans hundreds of spawns. With a female/male ratio of 1/20, females have always been quite vocal and powerful in bhal society, and they are usually the ones who chose mates. The clans are further divided into families, with each family consisting of one of the wives and their offspring, subservient to the patriarch and consist the upper class of nobility. Below them are the numerous serfs, males and females that come from outside the clan who have always been a second class, even in modern times- although most clans have been fairy liberal in allowing serfs which prove useful to ascend to prestigious positions such as generals.

Up until modern times, there have been just over 50 or so clans scattered across Habia's surface, their members huddled together in crowded, fortress like cities rising from the endless plains. Due to the great distances between them, they have had few reasons for war over the millennia, especially with their population growth being as it was, even with most of the male population being physically unfit for reproduction. Most of these city states have a fairy small ensemble of warriors, small, elite strike teams that specialize in hunting down targets of interest, infiltrating and sabotage and also kidnapping, especially the Patriarch's wives, something that most city states have seen as a perfectly acceptable, especially in times of war.

With a relatively peaceful existence marked only by short skirmishes, the bhal have had plenty of time to focus on developing their sciences and scholarly institutes are something of a national pride. Their first ventures into space was around 200 CE, with first contact with hanab explorers around 350 CE, resulting in them expanding into their interstellar neighborhood shortly after only to find they were surrounded only by a few primitive sapient species, with no other spacefaring civilizations for many thousands of light years. With the closest civilization being the ancient, reclusive and aggressive Lox Ungrak, the other spacefarers have also had few reasons to expand their influence in the region, leaving the bhal mostly to their own devices, which suited them just as well. In keeping with their instincts to stay close to their kin, few have left their space over the last two millennia, so few in the larger galaxy know much about them outside of their general existence.

The Bhal Confederacy, a loose alliance of the city states from some 30 or so colonized worlds, while isolationist, dose have diplomatic contact with much of the civilized galaxy, mostly through subspace communication, but makes a few notable exceptions to powers such as the Nharr and, surprisingly, the Lox Ungrak, who have one of their few ambassadors on Habia.

Description
Hailing from the planet Habia in the Norma Arm, some distance trailing of the Hanab Empire, the Bhal are a sapient species that have been spacefaring from quite some time, but due to their relative isolation have had few dealings with other galactic civilizations.

Their world of Habia is a fairy large world orbiting the smaller star in a wide binary system, and is dominated by temperate prairies and rugged mountain ranges, being rich in active volcanoes and thus a fertile, if somewhat arid landmasses. The bhal evolved in the extensive prairies, being somewhat short humanoids with four digit arms and legs, their arms being much longer and bulkier than their legs and a large torso with a small head with large eyes, a four mandible, insect like mouth and numerous fleshy tendrils hanging from their face and continuing up their skull. A fine layer of fur covers them head to toe, insulating them quite well from the long, cold nights. Their large eyes are adapted for night vision, but, due to the planets two moons, nights tend to be less dark and thus they are not as good in pitch darkness. Their internal biology is fairy simple for a sapient species, but in turn they are quite easily able to regenerate lost organs, except the brain. This makes the quite hardy creatures and, combined with their intelligence, the apex predator of Habia.

Though quite well adapted to their environment, the bhal have always had a mediocre birth rate, a trend which continued even far after advancing into space. The bhal central social structure are large, thousand strong clans led by patriarch, a dominant male that wields absolute power- one in only several hundreds males are born fertile, the being sterile, and among the strongest sterile males one ascends to the top, after which they take numerous wives, dozens at a time. Each of these females can birth over their long lifespans hundreds of spawns. With a female/male ratio of 1/20, females have always been quite vocal and powerful in bhal society, and they are usually the ones who chose mates. The clans are further divided into families, with each family consisting of one of the wives and their offspring, subservient to the patriarch and consist the upper class of nobility. Below them are the numerous serfs, males and females that come from outside the clan who have always been a second class, even in modern times- although most clans have been fairy liberal in allowing serfs which prove useful to ascend to prestigious positions such as generals.

Up until modern times, there have been just over 50 or so clans scattered across Habia's surface, their members huddled together in crowded, fortress like cities rising from the endless plains. Due to the great distances between them, they have had few reasons for war over the millennia, especially with their population growth being as it was, even with most of the male population being physically unfit for reproduction. Most of these city states have a fairy small ensemble of warriors, small, elite strike teams that specialize in hunting down targets of interest, infiltrating and sabotage and also kidnapping, especially the Patriarch's wives, something that most city states have seen as a perfectly acceptable, especially in times of war.

With a relatively peaceful existence marked only by short skirmishes, the bhal have had plenty of time to focus on developing their sciences and scholarly institutes are something of a national pride. Their first ventures into space was around 200 CE, with first contact with hanab explorers around 350 CE, resulting in them expanding into their interstellar neighborhood shortly after only to find they were surrounded only by a few primitive sapient species, with no other spacefaring civilizations for many thousands of light years. With the closest civilization being the ancient, reclusive and aggressive Lox Ungrak, the other spacefarers have also had few reasons to expand their influence in the region, leaving the bhal mostly to their own devices, which suited them just as well. In keeping with their instincts to stay close to their kin, few have left their space over the last two millennia, so few in the larger galaxy know much about them outside of their general existence.

The Bhal Confederacy, a loose alliance of the city states from some 30 or so colonized worlds, while isolationist, dose have diplomatic contact with much of the civilized galaxy, mostly through subspace communication, but makes a few notable exceptions to powers such as the Nharr and, surprisingly, the Lox Ungrak, who have one of their few ambassadors on Habia.