Krakun

Krakun Name Generator

The krakun are an ancient race of huge, long-lived, quadrupedal, reptiles. The krakun rule the Krakun Empire, which is a number of home worlds, colony worlds, and subjugated worlds.

Physical

Krakun walk quadrupedally and stand 12m at the shoulder. When seated on their haunches, they use their large dexterous hands (called claws) to manipulate objects. They refer to their individual fingers as talons. They can live up to 12,000 years. The krakun can survive for extended periods in many inhospitable atmospheric mixes, and can even tolerate hard vacuum for short periods of time, but their preferred air mixture is heavy with sulfuric compounds.

The lower set of "horns" on their head are not really horns at all, but tympanums used for hearing. These do not process sound waves; they simply transmit them to the inner parts of the krakun's ear, which is protected from the entry of water and other foreign objects.

Writing for Krakun

When writing for krakun, please keep the following facts in mind.

Disposition and Intelligence

• Krakun are a species that are very internally conflicted. While the society at large values certain kinds of awful, antisocial behavior, many krakun individually resist against this. Part of the issue is that krakun are so long-lived that the momentum of society vastly overwhelms any chance of societal reform anytime soon.
• As such, krakun are not antisocial by instinct.
• Krakun over the age of 2000 have significant trouble with creativity, which is part of the reason that, despite them being the most intelligent species in the known galaxy, they haven't made as many strides in science as one might think. Many artistic krakun use slave species to prop up their own flagging talents.
• Krakun, being absolutely massive creatures, are slow-moving. However, most of their brain power is dedicated to predictive awareness. A krakun can calculate what's about to happen up to several minutes before it actually happens, even if they're not aware of it, and move ahead of time accordingly.
• Krakun can get so used to even very complex tasks, they can operate on "autopilot" for many things, sometimes even going a full day without really thinking about where they are or what they're doing. Krakun who get stuck in a rut can endure this feeling for years.

Aging

• The first thing to keep in mind is that by the time a krakun hits 200 years old, they are fully aware of themselves and completely mature in comparison to other species, even if they're considered immature by krakun standards. A 200 year old krakun has no issue conversing and relating to other species like an adult of that species would.
• Most effects of stretched-out krakun longevity is a result of genetic engineering from ages past. A modern krakun under 100 years old is barely sapient, but it is unlikely that an ancient krakun had such a long period of whelphood.
• As a result, there is a (subtly heretical) view that krakun were never meant to live longer than 2000 years. This may have been the maximum lifespan of ancient krakun, or even shorter.
• Modern krakun hit puberty around 700 years old. In contrast to most species, this is well past their age of maturity and they're perfectly aware of sex as a concept by the time hormones strike. (Most are still not ready for how powerful this drive is).
• Krakun consider other krakun "mature" by the age of 1000... or more often 2000. In fact, most krakun tend to think of any krakun younger than them as immature no matter what, at least until they start to grow cynical. Nevertheless, krakun are expected to have some idea of their career going forward by the time they hit 2000 years of age.

Education

• Most krakun schooling is intermittent. Because the aging process is so slow, school is largely to teach discipline (including teaching krakun to take advantage of the limits of their bodies and brains), which is often done in short bursts.
• Between 150 and 300, Krakun attend Foundational School. Because they have already been fully aware for ~50 years by this time, this is not like early childhood learning. They're taught the basics of everything, which includes everything they'd expect to experience while growing up (health), math, sciences, etc. Even though they're only 300 by this point, they basically know everything a fully grown and experienced individual of another species would know.
• Starting at 500 is Military School. This is the most intensive portion of a krakun's schooling as they will be expected to spend months and sometimes years at a time in boarding houses. Krakun are not required to join the military after this.
• Starting at 700 is Placement School. This prepares a krakun for university, or the military, or what have you. This is the shortest period of schooling and is the most intensive and the most critical to a krakun's record.
• Krakun usually decide between 800 and 1200 whether to attend university.

AI and Slavery

• Although capable of creating robots and artificial intelligences, the krakun prefer to delegate undesirable jobs to slaves. They have great faith in their ability to control slave races through intimidation (often by placing their slaves in a situation where they can all be culled by shutting off power to an air processor or Trinity gate) whereas they worry that synthetic intelligence can always be hacked and turned against them.
• There is an as-yet unspecified incident from around 20,000 years in the past in which the krakun suffered massively in an AI rebellion, which is one of the primary reasons they do not use AI.