Semrians

The Semrians are the fourth race to join the Collective, and are one of its oldest and most well-respected members.

Appearance
The Semrians are a lithe, thin race of serpent-like aliens. Their fur-covered bodies are long and flexible, and their four arms are more bony and rigid, extending from the sides of their bodies. They forgo legs, and instead slither like snakes with their muscled torso upright, but with the exception of having two tail-ends rather than one. The two tails can be similarly flexed, giving the Semrians extra height if need be. Their mouths are beaked, sitting below two beady eyes, and two large, backswept catlike ears behind their head.

Biology
As alien species go, perhaps the Semrians have had it the hardest. Their homeworld of Tarlata is a cold, frozen wasteland, with just a thin band of barely-livable area along the equator. The planet has no axial tilt, but has an eccentric enough orbit so that the seasons range from cold to colder. As such, the Semrians evolved long bodies of muscle and internal fat, plus a hairy coat in order to keep them from freezing and starving in the cold of their world.

Their arms were developed early in their evolutionary history, as the ability to grasp prey was prized. The arms served a second purpose, however. As the Semrians learned to take shelter beneath the ice in order to keep warm, grasping limbs were needed to construct better, more efficient shelter.

Their beaks are strong enough to break open the shells of the mollusks that they regularly ate. As omnivores, vegetation was prized to the Semrians who could grow or find it, for use in cooking. Later, the Semrians would use hydroponics to mass produce plants and keep their population healthy.

Their ears are attuned to both higher and lower frequencies, and are able to hear threats or prey over the howling wind of the surface.

Their twin tail-ends are mostly vestigial, but served as a unique marker for healthy mates who could flex their tail-ends for a little extra height, which was valued in Semrian culture.

History
Before the Semrians were fully evolved, as they are today, their homeworld of Tarlata used to be warmer. Eccentrically-orbiting gas giants perturbed the orbit of Tarlata over time and steadily made its orbit more ovular, causing short summers and long winters.

Due to this, the Semrians adapted and evolved to ever-decreasing temperatures. The rise of intelligence of the Semrians was slow; the ancient Semrians were mainly hunter-gatherers in their frozen wasteland for a long period of time, surviving on whatever food they could find and grow in the summer months, hibernating during the long winters. The Semrians limped on, with many dying across many early ages. With survival a priority, Semrian culture also developed slowly. As their limbs became more fully developed, the Semrians began using tools to their advantage. Buildings sculpted from ice kept them warm, and served as breeding grounds and stockpile centers. Semrian survival rates went up, and hibernation began to cease.

Many Semrians migrated further towards the planetary equator over time, where it was warmest. The short summers were used to grow, harvest, and stockpile as much food and as many resources they could gather. The long winters became the optimal time to study themselves, the planet they lived on and the stars above.

They continued to develop their societies and cultures, with many built on religion. Some became monks who blessed their growing fields for plentiful harvest for that year, and their farmland became sacred. Many became scholars, not too different from the monks in some regards, as the stars became a holy fascination to the Semrians, and a destination associated with enlightenment.

As Semrian technology improved at increasing rates of advancement, religion became more irrelevant as hydroponics allowed the Semrians to grow as much food as they needed. However, the holiness of the stars and the wish to be among them still thrived.

Giant cities sculpted from ice and stone began spreading across the surface of Tarlata, and the Semrians made their first voyages among the planet's moons. Their culture demanded they keep trying for farther and farther destinations, and so the majority of Semrian work went into improving and building spacecraft.

Over the next few hundred years, the Semrians succeeded in colonizing the majority of the Taiga system, before intercepting a probe that had entered their system. Dismantling and studying it, they discovered technology beyond their own, and began implementing its technology into their own spacecraft.

When the Collective summarily showed up decades later, they discovered the Semrians had used their probe's technology to colonize the star systems around Taiga. The Collective made contact with the Semrians, now an interstellar species, and invited them to join the Collective. It took many years of debate, but eventually the Semrians agreed and found their place amongst the stars.

Culture
Semrian life has been defined by struggle. They value life, especially that of children, and will fearlessly protect their offspring from any threat. Fruit is also highly prized by the Semrians, and pre-Collective it was considered a delicacy only the lucky could obtain.

The Semrians never had a traditional government, and lived in in an anarchic commune governed by survival - work together to live, or die alone. As they became more advanced, and scarcity became less of an issue, some structure was formed where resources were distributed equally, and societies were led by the scholars and by the religious leaders.

Religion played a very significant role in the lives of pre-Collective Semrians. Their drive to study, to feed and to breed was dictated mostly by their faith. As such, the Semrians were of a single devotion, a single goal that the religious leaders bade them achieve.

Over time, their religious nature declined, but left behind their desire to reach the stars. The Semrians, enticed by the post-scarcity societal living offered by the Collective, joined as they also saw it as a way of achieving enlightenment. Some Semrians are still monks, practicing their religion in the modern day.