The Dekari are a race of humanoid Spore hosts hailing from the homeworld of Dekar. Their world was claimed as a protectorate of the Empire of a Thousand Suns over two centuries ago, but despite being a stone-age civilization at the time, the Dekori evolved quickly after an initial incident of cultural contamination. Seizing Tyrolian technology for their own, they challenged their overlords for sovereignty. Though they could not overpower the Tyrolian fleet, they have achieved a victory of sorts, in that they are permitted to leave their home system and settle the rest of the galaxy.

Lacking an Empire of their own--or even any sort of organized government, the Dekori might otherwise be a minor species. However, their tenacity, fecundity, and unbridled ambition have seen them become a very relevant member of the galactic community. They can be found anywhere and everywhere, as their genome is widely adaptable thanks to the Spore symbiont. They excel in battle, or really any sort of adversarial pursuit--there are celebrated Dekori masters of sports and games who treat them as seriously as any die-hard warrior. If there was a single world to describe the Dekori, it would be: "intense".

While their values do not align neatly with many of the galaxy's dominant species, that is not to say they do not have values. Dekori prize honor, integrity, and hard work. They believe that deeds and achievements transcend death--as long as they are remembered, they are quite willing to die to achieve something worthwhile. This obviously translates well into battlefield morale, but it can take many forms--there are stories of Dekori doctors who infected themselves with fatal diseases simply to understand them from a first-person perspective, the better to contribute to scientific understanding and an eventual cure.

Physical Traits

Appearance:

• humanoid
• larger and stronger than humans
• green skin (from chlorophyll)
• triangular ears, can rotate them

Abilities:

• strong sense of smell, comparable to dogs
• infravision
• pheromones
• radiation resistant

Weaknesses:

• high caloric needs
• high cancer rate
• high rate of autoimmune disorder

Numbers:

• height/weight
  • male: 190 cm, 95 kg
  • female: 182 cm, 80 kg
• aging
  • age at birth: 38 weeks
  • sexual onset: 12-13 years
  • physical growth complete at 95th percentile: 16a (female), 19a (male)
  • adult mental maturity: 23-25a
  • median life expectancy without modern medicine, for those reaching maturity alive: 55 (male), 59 (female)
  • upper quintile: 82 (male), 84 (female)
  • litter size: 1 (95%), 2 (4%), 3+ (<1%)
  • fecundity: year-round

Culture

Quick facts:

• Modern Dekori tend to follow something like a traditional clan structure
• In said structure, there are roles and expectations based on sex, age, and other factors
• Elder women make most decisions about domestic concerns: farming, animal husbandry, property rights, disputes between neighbors, marriage and divorce (where applicable), child-rearing, coming-of-age timing, etc
• Elder men are expected to lead hunting parties and armies, decide when to raid, serve as generals in more formal wars, direct labor and construction efforts, etc
• All elders are expected to teach, and younger members are expected to learn respectfully
• Pregnant women are expected to focus on their own health and that of their child, to seek spiritual, physical, and mental fitness for the upcoming birth. Others will fill in for their usual responsibilities
• All mature adults, especially younger ones, are expected to help raise children. Younger adults tend to focus on physical needs while older ones focus on learning, morals, etc
• Adult men and non-pregnant women are expected to remain fit for hunting, battle, and labor, which comprises most of their work in this phase of life

Names:

• At birth, Dekori have no name. They often acquire a nickname in their early years, which is remembered and occasionally invoked later in life, but is generally not considered their "true" name after the Naming.
• Around 2-3 years old, elders conduct a spiritual ritual to receive visions of the future life of the child. From this, they will choose a name for the child. This becomes their "child name", for all intents and purposes their true name until adulthood.
• At the coming of age, when the ritual is allowed, attempted, and completed, a Dekoran, having undergone the physical and spiritual tests therein, should have received a vision, and chooses their own adult name. From this point, that name is their formal name, and others are expected to use it. Close friends and loved ones often use their child name as a show of endearment and intimacy; hearing one's adult name from someone like that is striking and often underscores negative emotion.
• There are no "family names" or surnames in Dekori society. Everyone is "'name' of clan 'clan name'".

Beliefs

The Circle

The overwhelming majority of Dekori follow a religion that believes that all life in the Universe is connected, that said life generates a form of energy, which flows throughout the biosphere of worlds and indeed the cosmos.

Core tenets:

• Life is good and right. It should exist, and is the intented evolution of the Universe's starting conditions.
• Life should protect life. Life, by definition, can reproduce. It should do this. Life can consume life, but never should take more than it gives.
• Life should be consumed or transformed, never destroyed or isolated. Dekori death rites demand that the body be returned to nature.

Values

Honor

What does it mean? One way to put it is that the Dekori consider the worthiness of any deed based on its hypothetical value if successful, regardless of the attempt's success (as long as a good faith effort is made). A simple example: a great battle won is of course honorable, but the same battle attempted, fought to the last, and lost is just as honorable, if not more so.

It is not uncommon for the winner of a battle to call a cease in hostilities, not only to ceremonially offer honors to their defeated foes, but to invite the survivors to join their clan. Depending on personal preference, the defeated can refuse, and are offered a ceremonial death which is considered quite honorable, but there is also no dishonor in acceding the request. It is not a form of imprisonment--they have proven their honor, and the winning clan would rather gain an honorable warrior than slay a foe who has no chance to survive.

In some cultures, honor transcends generations. One being may earn honors, and their descendants will be recognized for them, possibly with titles, lands, privileges, etc. The Dekori generally despise this practice; honor is an individual thing, accrued and/or expended by the individual. The sons and daughters of the most honorable or dishonorable Dekori are a blank slate, to be judged by their own merits. Of course, they are not a monoculture, and outside of traditional tribal clans, these values are often tested against the humanoid tendency to ascribe virtues and vices of the parent to the child, but in general, Dekori value systems try to fight against this. It is generally quite insulting to point out a dishonor in a Dekoran's parent or ancestor as if it were their own, or even to feign respect for a worthy deed not done by the Dekoran themself.

Nature

Dekori tend to believe that nature--a difficult enough term to define, of course, but put simply, the opposite of sterile starships, abstract science, virtual reality, etc--is precious and worthwhile. They believe that all creatures are part of the same moral spectrum as themselves--for instance, they believe that animals have honor just the same as intelligent species. They often balk at the mere distinguishing of their own (and comparable) species as "intelligent" but an animal as "not intelligent", preferring to respect the natural strengths and weaknesses of both.

They believe that what is natural is right. That doesn't make the artificial "wrong", more sort of "neutral". This manifests in many ways, but the most obvious to other sentients tend to be:

• They are immodest in their dress, their language, and mannerisms. They are often "ill-mannered" by the high standards of elvenkind, but they retort that they are acting according to their nature. Special forms of speech, special behaviors to respect others of higher social standing, the very concept of social standing itself--these are silly and unnecessary at best, and offensive at worst.
• They prefer natural environments. They do not find the odors, air quality, temperature, ambient sound, etc, found in natural environments to be noisome or offensive, and see the sterile environment usually found in starships and space stations to be unnecessary and somewhat depressing. Depending on the inclinations of the individual, they may prefer bathing and grooming habits that other sentients find offensive, and the environments they control may seem unkempt or outright filthy by others' standards.
• Lightning round:
  • They often let animals roam their ships
  • They strongly prefer real food to artificial foodstuffs, regardless of quality
  • They fill silence with sound, finding silence to be unnatural
  • They speak bluntly about others--if they find you beautiful, or ugly, or honorable, or cowardly, they will just say so