Dagonite

From Traveller Wiki - Science-Fiction Adventure in the Far future

Dagonite
Status	Minor race
Classification	Omnivore/Eater
Size	2.2m
Weight
Homeworld	Eisya'akh (The Beyond 1034)
Multi-world	no
Canon	no
Reference	Peter Gray

Psuedoamphibian sentient species native to Eisya'akh (The Beyond 1034). The Dagonite were first contacted by the Nakrisian humans early in the Imperial period, and trade between them became the basis for the founding of the Nakris Confederacy.

The Dagonite are descended from semi-aquatic Omnivore/Eater ancestors. They are colonial creatures that live in colonies burrowed out of moist soil, composed of tunnels that twist and turn for kilometers. Their social interactions are complicated, a reflection of their constant attempts to assert their group standing. As such they do not form firm family associations, preferring to deal with the group as a whole.

Dagonites are huge (2.2m) hexapeds. They possess serpentine, flexible bodies covered in overlapping armor plates. They have powerful claws for digging and killing prey alike. They are air breathers, and are extremely sensitive to industrial pollution, which has limited their advancement. They also prefer darkness, and many Nurturers are agoraphobic. Their night-vision is excellent, as is their sense of smell. Dagonites are not known to possess any kind of psionic abilities, though they have no difficulty with other creatures having such abilities.

The Dagonite are divided into three sexes: male, reproducing female, and nurturing female. The young are born live, large litters of 20-30. Like the Hivers, the Dagonite young are not considered to be sentient, and are expelled into Dagon’s wilderness to fend for themselves. The surviving young are brought back into the community, and are raised and mentored by the nurturers. Dagonite society is caste-based, primarily between professions and secondarily between sex, and it is the nurturers task to determine the potential of the young, and put them into their proper place.

Nurturers are considered casteless, forming a leadership class that is entirely self-contained. They are recruited from the ranks of the Reproducers, whose own members study intensively in hopes of becoming Nurturers someday. Nurturers limit their numbers through pheromone secretions that suppress the expression of genetic traits within other normal females: the death of a nurturer signals other reproducers to begin developing. Usually there is more than one new nurturer, and the candidates must compete before their new peers, in tests of strength, judgment and knowledge; the loser is put to death. Nurturer politics are complicated to the point of opacity.

When they were contacted by the Nakris humans, the Dagonites were stuck at TL 3. The Nakris provided non-polluting technologies that jumpstarted their development, and they reached TL 12 by 1100. They had, and still have, close ties with the Nakris, and their curiosity made them somewhat xenophilic, though they rarely traveled beyond either their homeworld or the Nakris Confederation. The current Ihatei occupation of their homeworld is a lamentable turn of events, though they made an alliance with the Tralyaeaewi clan, and they are caught in an ascending spiral of warfare with the Aokhalte clan and its allies.

This article was copied or excerpted from the following copyrighted sources and used under license from Far Future Enterprises and by permission of the author.

– Peter Gray - Beyond Library