Creature:Cerici

Tribal
"One can crawl through dirt for eternity, or they can be chosen by the Gods for a greater destiny." ~Grand Templar Kai'Ruandi

After the long, little recorded struggle through a period of evolution through trial and error, the Cerici climbed from the mud of their primitive, raptor-like pack lifestyle to take on intelligence. In the beginning, this was simple intelligence, starting with the construction of simple shelters from the elements. This quickly evolved over the next few hundred years to lead the Cerici into a true tribal stage.

As creatures, a biological sense of honor, almost a genetic need for it, was ingrained within the Cerici as a race. As primitive creatures, they were careful to treat their prey with respect, and never drive them to extinction. As tribal individuals, they formed a more stable code of honor to support their formed instinct. It was this sense of honor, and early code, that kept the Cerici from destroying the surrounding tribes that formed.

Instead, the tribal members, whom were quite keen to ceremonial headdresses, would preform for these other tribes to earn their trust. With most documented records, Cerici were noted to only wipe out one or two individual tribes after first being attacked on, a wide-spread behavior adopted by the entire early race.

It was during the end of the this tribal stage that the Cerici took to organizing themselves into Curoa, or Clans. A new naming system thus developed for the early race, in which the first three letters of their clan's name (e.g. Kairua becomes Kai) are placed at the beginning of the personal name of the individual, which is only earned after adulthood (e.g. Kai'Ruandi).

These clans peacefully absorbed other clans to retain genetic diversity until only twelve clans remained on the planet, and brought the race to the brink of civilization.

Civilization
"There are struggles that decide a race's fate. One of the greatest forms of these struggles is a race's proof that it has the right to not just survive, but to evolve. It is a step that many races will fail to make before collapsing to rubble." ~Grand Templar Mar'Zkikr

In it's early steps toward civilization, the main goal of the twelve clans was to claim territory. With the race becoming less dependent on its Tropical ecosystem, it could safely move to more extreme areas to spread its civilization. Unfortunately this brought about an age of competition that hadn't yet formed into bloodshed, but was quickly escalated.

The twelve clans, Marzka, Kairua, Urali, Namon, Retrbr, Zkinna, Thazre, Qinak, Yallo, Berian, Xaown, and Ioura, quickly fell to war as struggle over territory became precedent. Each clan controlled a major city, and a nation surrounding it. It was the Ioura Clan, lead by Iou'Vier, that held a special difference from the other eleven clans. At the heart of its territory, near its capital city, was an ancient Temple Mountain.

The Temple Mountain had become a position of worship to the Ioura, setting them apart from their generally atheistic brethren. The Ioura believed the Mountain had been placed by some hyper-sentient race to uplift lesser races to inherit the galaxy. The Ioura viewed the wars sprouting up as a threat to the survival of their race as a civilization.

As the wars escalated, the Ioura began to spread their word of peace through honor. While a few of the clans accepted the idea openly, the majority rejected it. With the support of three other clans behind them, the Ioura led a holy war to convert their brethren.

The war lasted over four hundred years and many of the clans were officially destroyed, to later be resurrected by their honorable benefactors. It was during this holy war that the Templarate of Coperces was initially formed. The Templarate worked hard to fight its enemies in open warfare and undermine them in times of peace.

The Great War
"We have seen the ravaging of war only once. And may the Gods forbid we see it again in such a way." -Grand Cleric Ret'Kiansi

For five hundred years the world of Coperces was torn between two factions. The Defensive Clans and the Templarate of Coperces became dire enemies as one side fought to bring peace through religious conquest, and the other fought to deny such ideas into mind. The first major battle that started the war was a strike on the Marzka Clan's territory. The Templarate demanded the Marzka submit to the will of their gods or face divine retribution.

The Marzka chose to fight. Without support from any other clans, the Marzka quickly fell to the Templarate. The other clans outside of the Templarate scrambled to set aside their differences to form an alliance against the suddenly aggressive enemy. The two sides became pitted against one another in a war that ravaged the planet. To this day it is known as a time of great weakness.

The final battle of the war took place at the monolith of the conflict: the Temple Mountain. On their home turf, the Templarate made a decisive victory that left their enemies in ruin. Despite their victory, the enemy succeeded a different form of success. The Temple was destroyed. Charred stone and ruined earth was all that remained of the once glorious structure. However, the destruction of the mountain revealed an artifact that had been dormant below. An artifact that would not just claim the minds of the Templarate's enemies, but would catapult the newly unified world into space.

Space Age
''"It is ironic that the near self destruction of our precious race was what brought us to the stars. For the Gods we stand. Long live the Templarate!" -Grand Templar Zki'Rankin (For more information see: Templarate of Coperces)

Almost five hundred years ago the race reached the stars. While, by standards, this makes it a young space-faring race, the influence of the Artifact sealed its fate. Within a matter of years the Templarate of Coperces claimed a mere fourteen systems, each with ruins of the same race that left the Temple Mountain on their own planet. With a population reaching no higher then 138,682,127,091 the Templarate stopped its expansion there, preferring to make the planets it had into thriving, well defended homes.

In its beginning the Templarate of Coperces was still torn by the war. With seven of the twelve tribes no longer existent, the former members of those tribes were in crisis. While the High Council discussed what was to be done with its enemies, the Grand Cleric of the time, Iou'Dinai decided that the Clans should be allowed to be rebuilt for the honor of the race. The terms, however, were strict. A document known as the Code of Clans was written to serve as a document of law for all twelve clans of the Templarate.

The Code of Clans dictated that under no circumstances could any single clan or group of clans could wage war on another. It stated an in-depth code of honor, specifying the treatment of prisoners of war by level of danger, contingencies for interaction with other space faring races, and above all, it stated that five members from each clan were to be assigned by the Clan Leader to the High Council, the Senate of the Templarate.

Once the Code was agreed to, the seven fallen clans were allowed to be rebuilt. One controlled system fell to the jurisdiction of each individual clan, making twelve Clan systems and two Templarate systems with Ganikom (Home System) and more importantly the home planet of Coperces declared belonging to the entire race, as well as the emergency fortress system of Kilket. From this point, the Templarate began a long and tedious project to terraform its controlled territory in order to make it inhabitable, and unnecessary for them to needlessly expand in search of already appropriate planets.

Over the next three hundred years the Templarate formed its military force and built up its planets with little attention turned to the outside universe. Their entire interest became the development of their own government. With the majority of its worlds turned into thriving jungle planets, the Templarate came into a golden age of technological expansion.

It remained in this anti-social, hard pressed advancement until only recently. The Templarate of Coperces and the Cerici race made its first outward motion in almost five hundred years by sending a small fleet of ships inward toward the Andromeda Galaxy's Core and the nations thus residing.