The Next Cycle: Races: The Dreashtain

The Dreashtain

The Dreashtain (AKA Spear Tongues, Ridge Backs, Stalkers, & ugly fuckers) are a hunter gatherer race native to the flesh forests of Krawll, deep within the Terkovian Dominion. As such the Tribunal's knowledge of the world or its native culture is limited to what a few probes have found and what can be learned from the Terkovian recruits. Dreashtain are well built for nocturnal hunting and closing gaps with dark grey mottled skin, a bipedal stance, long tails for balance, long triple joined arms for grasping prey, six eyes for both binocular and peripheral vision, and a club or hammer shaped skull for ramming and stunning prey. Being liquivores their mouth is just a jagged beak to help grip prey and their infamous “Spear Tongues” are actually a proboscis that they use to inject live prey with digestive enzymes and drink it from within, typically making use of their meal’s skin and bone in tools and clothing. Some Tribes have mastered gunpowder and metallurgy, and seem to favor long ranged rifles and fire bombs.

Krawll is a dangerous world with many predators including the venomous Looch Flyers, and Spiny Vraques. Krawll has few major plant species, most of the niches being filled by large vertebrate worm, anemone and polyp like animals. The forests of these creatures are constantly permeated with the droning whistles of their breath and murmuring of their heart beats, creating a perfect background noise to help conceal a hunter’s approach.

The Culture of the Dreashtain seems to be as brutal as their world; the dead have no sanctity to them, even family is just another meal to them when they die. Fighting between tribes is common, but they seem to always unite whenever they detect something from off world. The tribe that use firearms consider bullet craft to be a fine art, custom sculpting the large caliber bullets with aerodynamic and artistic engravings, Hunters will try to recover them after use whenever possible. These bullets are considered valuable on the black market. The Dreashtain dislike the use of heavy armor as it inhibits their flexibility.

With the exception of the Terkovians the Dreashtain seem to attack anything from off world on sight; it is believed that they hold the Terkovians in reverence of some sort, enough that they regularly send their young to be raised by them into perfect killing machines. These are the face of the Dreashtain the galaxy knows best, barely intelligent, well trained, merciless animals capable of wielding firearms and other weapons like ballistic spines, and electro nets, Many others find themselves as components in Terkovian flesh engines. Dreashtain Shock Troopers are often armed with powerful custom built rifles that parallel their native designs. These rifles are too large for use by most other races with the exception of the Yahg, Gashunk and larger Kyvex Platforms.