The Nasrai

Location
Galaxy: Spiral. Star Cluster: ITK System: Spriggal. Planet: Nasrak

System: ITK-4681

Biology
The Nasrai are a bipedal humanoid species native to Nasrak adapted to tropical and temperate climates. They have no sex and gender and range from 6 feet to the tallest at 9, however the most common is 7 and a half feet. The Nasrai’s flesh is actually wooden, mirroring their native trees. However it is remarkably strong and hardy, flame retardant, and is a natural armour, which some have suggested acts as an exoskeleton. It also stands up to, and in some cases outperforms modern Nasrai materials such as those used for infrastructure.

They are easily recognised by the branches that most commonly grow from their collar, elbow, hip, eye, knee, shoulder ridges and skull. These branches act as the mechanism for photosynthesis and for courtship displays. It is believed that more beautiful branches are more likely to get a mate in the Nasrai’s history. Today however that is not the case. These branches act like the branches on the trees in Nasrak, they grow leaves and flowers, which change colours that reflect a Nasrai’s emotion.

Below the thick layer of wood, exists a fragile and delicate system of plant fibres which acts as the nervous system for the Nasrai. The Nasrai do not have teeth and the inside of their mouth is fairly smooth, save for a kind of tongue which allows for advanced speech. Nasrai have serrated points that grow down and up from the outside of their mouth which resemble teeth but the purpose is for intimidation rather than eating.

The way Nasrai communicate between each other is more dependent on body language and pheromones for the finer points of communication, but a Nasrai can understand each other on a more basic level just through speech. A Nasrai’s arms eventually taper out into four long fingers of varying lengths. There is segments in these ‘fingers’ that allow for the use of tools. The finger closest to bottom of the arm and the branch growing out of the elbow form a natural weapon. The side is naturally sharp and is used as a natural slicing weapon before the Nasrai developed weapons, indicating that their early history was a violent one. This is somewhat the same for the Nasrai’s feet, with three pointing out frontwards and one sitting behind the foot, however these are smaller than the fingers.

Nasrai are gifted climbers, being able to scale even the largest of Nasrak’s trees in a very short time and can camouflage with the flora of Nasrak. The Nasrai’s outer layer can range from a variety of colours that reflect the colour of the trees where a Nasrai’s heritage was from, much like human skin colour. It ranges from an olive, to a dark green, brown and in some cases black and white. The Nasrai have a high physical ability and even today Nasrai society is very physical, and Nasrai spend the high majority of their time outside. They are also extremely effective warriors and experts a guerrilla warfare. The Nasrai wear very little clothing, often only a simple garment covering their pelvic area. However when out of their homeworld they do wear uniform. The uniform contains support for the Nasrai such as an artificial photosynthesis device.

Prehistory
It is believed that the first anatomically modern people has been dated to around 1.5 million years ago. The earliest remains have been found in the centre of the southern dark green region and it is believed this is where the Nasrai emerged from. Predecessors to the Nasrai are also believed to have existed. They were much smaller at around 4 feet, stood on all four feet and their flesh was a much softer wood. Not much is known about the Nasrai’s ancestors apart from this as there have been little archaeological evidence since their flesh decays. It is believed over a long period of time they grew in size and eventually started to walk on two feet eventually evolving into the Nasrai. Due to limited resources and a small population it was only until the evolution of the Nasrai when they started to expand out of their area, eventually populating the entire world. The Nasrai were not the only intelligent race to inhabit Nasrak during this time. Another species are believed to have existed alongside the Nasrai during prehistory. Many shrines, religious buildings and ruins have been found in the grassland areas which point to the existence of another species. These buildings have only been found in the grassland areas, pointing towards the belief that they only inhabited the grassland areas due to many factors such as the dominance of the Nasrai, the dangerous environment of the forest and the huge predators in the forests. A recent discovery of a mass grave of this species has indicated that they ultimately were wiped out by the Nasrai. Archaeological finds have shown that they were bipedal creatures standing at around 5-6 feet and had decaying flesh.