Creature:Tilantos

The Tilantos are a species of jawless, bipedal salamanders. Their homeworld is the turbulent planet Jhonallo, where they completed their rise to sentience amidst an ecosystem filled with nightmarish carnivores. Their empire is average sized, controlling most of the Dreezon Nebula in the Sobraxis Galaxy. The Tilantos are currently at war with the Thyvalion Empire.

History:

Early Times

On the planet Jhonallo, the Tilantos were probably among the last to make the transition from ocean to land during the world’s first age of life. If not for a comet impacting the sea and changing the climate, the Tilantos may have even stayed in the ocean and evolved into aquatic creatures. When they did emerge from the shores though, they entered unwittingly into a violent, stormy world filled with all manner of carnivorous beasts, like the Stinganza Prowlers, or the horrible Didgirazons. These monsters dominated the ecosystem, and the Tilantos’ best bet on surviving was to remove themselves completely from that situation. Retaining some aquatic tendencies, the Tilantos dwelled in underground cave springs, feeding on small patches of lichen and cave rodents. They rarely ever set foot in the outside world, let alone in broad daylight; to do so meant almost certain death. Over time, the Tilantos began to hunt larger prey in the caves, to feed their growing populations. However, the Tilantos possessed no claws, spines, or poison glands of any sort, and were jawless, with a weak bite. This prompted them to find other ways of hunting, and before long, the first ever tool was created on Jhonallo, crafted by Tilantian hands. It was a primitive, albeit effective spear, fashioned with driftwood and chunks of sharp granite that were commonly found in caves. This innovation was contained in only one area though, and did not diffuse throughout other Tilantos clans, due to the isolation that came with living in caves. When the age of tribal hunting and gathering began, the Tilantos populations cautiously wandered out of the caves for the first time, and with their evolved brains, they could tackle and bring down some of the gigantic carnivores roaming the planet. Ultimately, five major Tilantos tribes evolved, but it was the tribe possessing spears that became dominant.

Fanatical Conflict

The development of small, urban clusters were formed over the next hundred galactic years, along with the invention of the engine, metallurgy, and Shrai’kor, an explosive dust similar to gunpowder. Along with these developments in technology also came cultural strides, most notably the innovation of an almost worldwide religion; the worship of the deity Spode. However, different viewpoints on the philosophy of Spode were in abundance on Jhonallo, leading to a series of religious wars known by the Tilantos as “The times of purging”. It was during these so-called times that the blood of over 3 million Tilantos was shed, resulting in planet-wide chaos. Nations annihilated each other with nuclear weaponry, vaporizing citizens and giving many more radiation poisoning. The landscape of Jhonallo was utterly devastated in some parts, and the atmosphere suffered irreparable damage. During all this, a nation called the Grand Confederation of Spode was working on a top-secret project on the world’s south pole. When it was finally unveiled, it rose from the rubble and destroyed all of the hostile nations over the next 3 solar cycles. It was the first working spacecraft, and although the planet itself was in dire straits, this marked the beginning of the Tilantian space stage.

Spreading Spode to the Stars

When the last enemy city on Jhonallo was finally demilitarized, the restoration could begin. Over a galactic decade’s worth of research and technology was built into the Tilantian ship, called The Pride of Tilantos. It possessed innovative terraforming technologies that although experimental, did a moderate job of cleansing the radiation and craters from Jhonallo’s once clean surface. The atmosphere trouble however, remains to this day and must be constantly monitored, a harsh reminder of the Tilantos’ destructive wars. When the ship was finally sent into outer space to create a new city on another world, the Tilantos found themselves to be in the middle of a large empire. This empire, calling themselves the Ashonas contacted the Tilantos and asked if they could study this “newly emergent sentient race”. Furious at their apparent ignorance at the fact that they were surrounded by a far greater species, and even more angry that these Ashonas did not worship their deity Spode, the Tilantos made the foolish move to attack them With only one capital ship and a planet’s worth of snub fighters, the Tilantos were quickly thrashed by the superior Ashonas and the fight was taken to Jhonallo. The beleaguered Tilantos had no choice but to completely surrender. The Ashonas however, pitied them and let them off with a lecture about the galaxy’s pecking order, and even set the fledgling empire up with a profitable trade route to one of the Ashonas’ prized breadbasket worlds, albeit with the Tilantos paying the majority of the tariffs. Before long, Tilantos researchers came up with a cost-effective colony deploying mechanism that could be attached to star cruisers. The Tilantos colonized the fiery planet Dihan and the habitable world of Remjala, and festooned them with altars bearing tribute to Spode. It was around this time that the Tilantos entered their second war, this time with the “ignorant” Leafel Empire, shooting down their fleets and converting their homeworld via brainwashing loudspeakers mounted on Tilantian cruisers. Although the Leafels escaped and set up shop in a distant region of the galaxy, the Tilantos possessed the large remainder of the Leafel Empire, which included Xedron, a planet rich in green spice. This new development propelled the Tilantian Empire into prosperity, but it was not long until they clashed with yet another powerful empire; The Thyvalion Trade Guild. This war pitted the Tilantos against an empire that is their equal in size and fleet capacity, and it looks like it may go on for some time.

Anatomy:

Physically, the Tilantos are quite curious, falling into a taxon of bipedal, jawless salamanders. They possess padded feet and hands, like most Salamanders, and are covered in a slimy purplish skin covered in green rings. This is most likely a throwback to the primitive days of the Tilantos, in order to ward off predators with the threat of being poisonous. Their mouth area itself consists of a proboscis-like tube into which hapless meals are pushed by specialized feeding tendrils. Tilantos also have quite poor sight, but make up for it with astounding hearing. This overdeveloped sense is far more heavily relied upon then vision, and other humanoid races may be discomforted by the fact that when wandering through a Tilantos colony, almost all signs, advertisements, and other types of media are not displayed visually, but in an audio fashion similar to a simple form of echolocation. A stub-tipped tail rounds out the back of a Tilantos, but this is in keeping with their status as sentient salamanders. It also aids a great deal in balance, as they are quite heavy, the average Tilantos being well over 450 pounds.

Culture:

As stated many times before, countless elements of Tilantian culture are dominated by the worship of Spode. In fact, the ultimate goal of the Tilantos government is to terraform every planet in the Tilantian Empire into a near duplicate of their homeworld, Jhonallo, where the whole population is made up of loyal Spode-worshipping citizens. With the exception of the vastly superior, yet peace-loving Ashonas Empire (who could easily obliterate the Tilantos if they ever felt a need to), all non-Spode worshipping species are considered unworthy of sentience and should be destroyed. This mindset makes for an awful lot of wars, but due to their planet’s violent history, this is an environment the Tilantos flourish in. Probably the most useful inventions that the Tilantos use are their multi-tool-like ships. Like their Tilantos crew, these cruisers have limited visual range, but can detect life signs or machinery from interstellar space parsecs away. This type of technology gives the Tilantos the edge over any “anti-Spode” empires they come across. A day in a typical Tilantos’ life consists of spending a few hours in a Spode temple, and then spending the rest of the day piloting a starfighter or mining vehicle, one f the few jobs available to a Tilantos. Life seems dull and obsessive to observers, but the Tilantos actually seem quite content, happy to do their part in making their empire bigger and better. The Tilantos government is ruled by a council of religious leaders, usually with a medium-sized warfare council playing a role too, and its official name is the Glorious Tilantian Theocracy of Spode. Its seal is as shown.