A new Alien Race for Tomorrow's War

I posted this a long time ago on the late, lamented AAG Wiki page, but I felt these articles should ride again as it were.

So without further ado, here are the Shontari.

The Shontari

The two Alien Mercenary Packs from Ground Zero Games work very well for the Shontari! Image taken from GZG webpage.

  The Shontari are one of the older slave races of the Darghaur. Even the Shontari themselves do not know how long they have served the Darghaur. Their coming is worshipped on the homeworld, the name as yet, unknown to Human intelligence agencies. The Shontari are a race of contradictions. They will kill armed enemies with little mercy asked or given, but will unerringly spare women and children of any race, and consider the act of child murder as a sin against their religion and faith.

 They are a race that seeks battle, but yet, individual Shontari are known to strike out on their own from the war host and seek more “mundane” work that can range from longshoresmen, to florists. The Shontari have no word for “deserter” and this decision can come, even in the midst of a campaign. But no Shontari will make this decision in the heat of battle, as no Shontari worth his lineage will ever willingly abandon his war brothers and sisters under such circumstances.

  The Darghaur mainly use the Shontari in the roles of assault troops to back up Marshborn troops (for reasons unknown, the Mashborn and Shontari hate each other) or as garrison units (The Shontari behavior amongst subject races is well known).  But, their use tends to differ from horde to horde. One thing is known, the Darghur give the Shontari wide latitude in how they conduct themselves.

 

  Shontari, fully grown, are anywhere from two to three meters tall, they are bipedal with bilateral symmetry, with two arms and two legs.  Sexual dimorphism is present, and the Shontari reproduce sexually, with a Shontari mother typically giving birth to two or three live young.  There are no sex roles in Shontari society, and both males and females can be found in the war host.  Shontari grow up quickly with age 6 being considered the beginning of adulthood. The Shontari have extreme muscle mass by human standards, and most Shontari can perform everyday feats of strength that would give human body builders trouble.  There is a recorded case of a Shontari lifting and flipping over a DRPG APC during a skirmish on Glory, but such a story could also be an example of the Shontari Battle Rage, which will be better explained later on. Shontari skin pigmentation ranges from dark grey, to an almost cyan and is tougher than human dermal layers and it will slow down a blade or spent fragments.

    Shontari physiology is both complex and simpler than human norm. One good example of this is the Shontari heart analogue, which in some cases, can actually continue to pump in a reduced capacity even in the event of major damage to the organ and can in some of those cases, actually regenerate the organ if the Shontari manages to rest for a period of time. Most Shontari organs (the Brain being a singular exception) have many of these same capabilities. Furthermore, the Shontari circulatory system can “re-route” the Shontari blood analogue around damaged areas to help prevent exsanguination.  Some Shontari, masters of the aesthetic religion of the Shontari, known as Khelshelkesh (translates roughly to Master of the Battle Rage), can consciously shut off part or all of their pain receptors.  All of this makes Shontari very hard beings to kill, and Shontari weapons are designed with large calibers designed to literally tear their targets apart and ensure their target is dead.

 

   A word about the Shelkesh or as human militaries call it, Shontari Battle Rage (Some wonks in the ranks call it “Shontari SPAZZCON – 1”). Shelkesh is a voluntary state any adult Shontari can enter, but the younger a Shontari is, the less control he or she has over their actions in that state. Younger Shontari will seek close combat with their foes, their war cries hooting and seeking to quench their rage in the death of their enemy. Older Shontari use the Shelkesh to keep going and keep up with the younger members of the war host.  A Shontari’s first experience with Shelkesh is the onset of puberty at Age 5, and often, the Shontari will go out of their way to keep males and female 5 year olds apart until such time as the young Shontari learn a measure of control, as Shelkesh is also triggered by Shontari sexual arousal and Shontari mating rituals often resemble hand to hand combat, with accidental deaths common. Most sanctioned mating thus occurs under very controlled circumstances with “death gifts” given to the war families of the mating Shontari before hand in case of an accident.

 

   An exception to this is the aforementioned Khelshelkesh. They are the closest thing the Shontari have to Human Special Operations troops.  They are aesthetics, never take mates and spend most of their time meditating on what it is to be Shontari. They are one of two known religions among the Shontari, and neither religion believes in anything resembling an afterlife, believing that all Shontari should seek a life of battle and fulfilling death when their time arrives. The amount of control a Khelshelkesh can maintain over their bodies is legendary, with some surviving massive head and chest trauma that would kill other races and even other Shontari.  They can ignore pain, hunger, thirst and many other forms of discomfort with a whim that would make human practitioners of certain martial arts jealous. They can delay the onset of Shelkesh far easier than other Shontari, yet they never mate with any Shontari for reasons that befuddle even the Shontari themselves. They live aloof from the rest of their race, their dark cloaks being all that announce their presence. It is said their arrival presages great battle, and the Khelshelkesh have a knack for showing up just when a big fight is about to occur.

   Shontari psychology is far more difficult to explain. The Shontari are best described as “happy fatalists”. They believe their lives are predestined from the moment of birth by the forces of the universe. This is not a religious belief, or even a philosophical belief, but more of a seeming instinctual thing. This instinct is seen at times, such as their battle rage, or the mating of Shontari, or even when a Shontari strikes out on his own for a while. Shontari are nothing if not enigmatic.

   One thing that will upset Shontari is the deaths of non-combatants, especially children. The Shontari do not speak on why they have this cultural taboo, considering the role of their own females, but the death of a Shontari child in a war family is enough to bring that war family, or even host to a halt while the Shontari are paralyzed with grief. As near as some xenopsychologists can speculate,  the Shontari religion(s) believe that all lives are predestined, and children still have much of their lives left to live, and come to understand their place in it. If a child is killed, it is because someone upset the balance of the universe, and as such, that person must die. This prohibition applies to all races, sometimes much to the chagrin of the Darghaur. The reproductive controls of the Darghaur have made this prohibition more pronounced, and the Darghaur are careful not to “cull” the offspring of other races in front of their Shontari troops. Many a Darghaur liaison officer found out his “oafish” Shontari troops moved well enough to show said Darghaur their own internal organs as they died by breaking this taboo. 

   Shontari parents are also very attentive, and go to great lengths to educate, and protect their children.  This prohibition has also led to some odd situations in combat with human troops, with the Shontari fighting to the death to protect Human children in schools and day care centers from Human troops. It was only after the humans promised to not hurt their own children that the Shontari would surrender (a foreign concept to the Shontari, as most other races the Shontari encountered have neither given nor asked for any quarter, thus the Shontari had to be taught how to surrender in some early engagements).

  Shontari society is one of several war families numbering from 18-21 making up a War Clan. Several (usually 4-6) make up a war host. There are at least 10 known war hosts. These hosts are the decision making body for the Shontari. They elect a Shontari Warrior King, or Btar. No human has actually met a Shontari Btar and it is thought they never leave the Shontari homeworld.  The Btar is advised by and rules with the consent of the heads of the War Host and their delegations, though, if the Btar feels that there is an issue with a particularly pesky host leader, he can call for a Kilmek (translates to “stand test”) where the rest of the delegation must stand as a whole with their host leader, or the Btar may take his life, on the spot, and appoint a new Host leader. This works both ways, as a coalition of Host leaders can also challenge the Btar, and force him to fight their champion to the death. That champion is not automatically named Btar if he wins as the Host leaders will often have other choices in mind, and thus a lot of debate and some combat will occur. If however, the Btar survives the challenge, he may again call a Kilmek against all the host lords who called for his head.

  As for the Shontari on campaign, rarely will an entire War Host depart on campaign anywhere, except to fight another host on the Shontar homeworld. If the Darghaur need Shontari troops, the request is made through the Btar. He then asks for bids from the hosts for how many clans is he willing to send away to fight.  The Host lord then returns to his clans, and announce the levy asked for by the Btar. The Clan elders will then consult and choose how many clans will answer the levy. If the levy cannot be filled, then the entire campaign is called off, as the Shontari believe it was probably predestined to fail anyhow.

  As for the War Family, which is the organization most Human soldiers will encounter, it is some 18-21 individuals analogous to a Human platoon. This is usually subdivided into three alkars (roughly translated to “fingers”) of 6-7 Shontari each. There are no defined roles in a Shontari unit, no specialties. All Shontari seem to know how do to any job at any time. Again, this isn’t something easily explained by the Shontari themselves.

  As for Shontari captured by Human forces, oddly enough, many have settled on a marginal world near Albion, and have begun to setup a mirror society of the one left behind. Some of the new Shontari war families forming there have begun to form mercenary units and have offered themselves out to smaller, beleaguered colonies in return for seemingly odd forms of payment (One Shontari War Family defended a small colonial town on Glory to the death when one of the residents promised to share with the head of said War Family her prize winning Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe). Some well-meaning species rights and development organizations, such as the Interstellar Bank, and Doctors Without Borders have attempted to help the Shontari discover such a thing as a modern economy and health care, but the Shontari politely listen, and then go back to their own ways once the well-meaning humans leave.

  In short, as one human soldier put it “Shontari fight like hell, but they’re weird.”

Attributes for Shontari in TW:

    Hard to Kill (D6 for most Shontari, D8 for Khelshelkesh)

    Animosity towards Mashborn (it’s mutual)

    Berserkers (involuntary for most Shontari, for Khelshelkesh its voluntary)

    Intimidating

    Poor Initiative (Shontari are very dependent on their leaders when not in the grips of Battle Rage)

    Natural Weapons

    Old School

    Pain Resistant (Khelshelkesh only)

    Unpredictable (versus Humans)