Leqir

"To see a Leqir above ground means it has had a very unnatural life."

- Antenocte

The Leqir is a subterranean-dwelling insect native to Planet Cooler 021 (formerly Planet Leqii). Because almost all of the Leqiri reside underground for the duration of their lives, they rarely come into contact with other species. The main exception to this is for soldiers in Cooler's armies. Still, they are rather standoffish around other species and do not tend to socialize unless they are put in squads or communities with other Leqiri.

While Leqiri are bloodthirsty, brutal warriors, they are not carnivores. Despite this, they relish in killing and ripping apart their enemies. Their high strength makes them good soldiers, although they cannot use ki. This is a physiological anomaly not seen in any other known species of the universe.

Origins
Primitive Leqiri were catalogued as early as 300,000 Before Age. Originally, they formed monarchies spanning their planet. The species lived exclusively underground. As such, when early settlers, such as the Faereth, visited the planet, they were taken by surprise to find an underground-dwelling sentient species. While at first the Leqiri fought off the Faereth, they eventually made peace when the latter species offered them space travel. With the meeting of the Faereth, the Leqiri banded together under a single female monarch, who ruled absolutely. They became obligatory allies to the wealthier alien race.

As such, many small colonies of Leqiri began populating Faereth worlds, usually in the various undercities or sewers. Many were barely lawful and extremely brutal. This garnered a quick, unsavory reputation for the entire race, and they were often times racially discriminated against. When Cooler took the Faereth species under his command, he also took the Leqiri as his own.

Intergalactic Usage
Leqiri were not a rich or friendly race. Whereas Faereth paid Cooler to prevent him conquering them, the Leqiri were simply conquered like any other race. The only difference was that Cooler knew who they were long before finding their home planet (due to meeting them on Faereth outposts). Cooler's first sighting of these creatures did not go too well. His procession was ambushed by a gang of young Leqiri and massacred. After losing half of his men, Cooler vaporized them easily. But their strength startled him, prompting the tyrant to actively seek their race's homeworld in order to add it to his empire.

The battle for Leqii was much longer and tougher than Cooler had anticipated. Despite the Leqiri not possessing ki-wielding abilities, they proved to be very hardy and very dangerous in hand-to-hand combat. Coupled with them living underground, it was a nightmare for Cooler's soldiers to fight in such dark, cramped spaces. After losing over 100,000 soldiers, Cooler resorted to high-atmosphere bombardment and destroyed much of the planet's surface. With the ground ripped up, he sent in elite squads to crush the remaining resistance. Within hours after the bombardment, and with the death of their queen, the Leqiri gave up and became part of the imperial. They were not allowed to appoint a new ruler, and it was only a few years after Cooler's death that they regressed to monarchy.

Appearance
Leqir appearance varies between the castes.
 * Queens - Queens have purple skin. Behind their back, they have a fleshy, parachute like bit of skin that they keep inflated to make them appear bigger. Over their head, they have long quills going down to the back of their head. They stand roughly 12 feet tall, and have much tougher skin than the rest of their race, except for the exposed area around their stomach. Their genitalia is located at the base of their fleshy parachute, on their back, though it is never used for mating. Contrary to most similar civilizations, the queen does not actually breed or lay eggs. Instead, she coats all of the eggs spawned from Protectors in her saliva, which fertilizes them.
 * Drones - Drones are the worker force and are all males. They have mostly red skin, flat horizontal faces, and yellow armor-like skin all over their bodies, which covers their torso and upper arms. Their ears are downward facing, and they have three of them on the back of their heads. Drones have toxic blood with moderate lethality. They possess four hearts, which beat at slightly different rates. Most drones have one heart that beats faster, two that beat around the same, and one that is much slower than the rest. They possess vestigial wings on their back, which are extremely small, and almost unnoticeable. Like the queens, drones can inflate these by taking in a lot of air. They have seven fingers on each hand. All drones are left handed. Because of their toxic blood, Leqiri are unable to harness ki, though some have learned how to fly. Payar is an example of a drone.
 * Protectors - Unique to the Leqir species, Protectors don't exist unless there is a queen. They are blue, and possess the same yellow skin armor than drones do, but it is colored red. Protectors are all females. They are created by the Queen emitted a special pheromone to select drones, which changes their gender. Protectors guard the queen and act with a hivemind. They have tails and pincers for mouths. They lack eyes and retain the toxic blood of the drones. They have four hearts, too. Where their wings are on their backs, at the base, is where their reproductive organs are. Upon mating with Branchers, Protectors lay around 15 eggs.
 * Branchers are male drones who have sexually matured at the age of 80 years old. Drones lose much of their muscle mass and become very weak as their body deteriorates. Functions in up to three of their hearts cease functioning, and their blood loses its toxic properties. Many will grow up to five horns across their head, and will begin shedding their skin until it fully changes color. Colors vary, and can be striped or spotted, depending on the Brancher. They will be often exotic colors; oranges, greens, blacks, whites compared to the normally dull crimson. After mating, Branchers die within a week.

Mental Traits
Every Leqir is completely loyal to the Queen. There are rare instances where a Leqir may rebel, but they are quickly killed by their comrades. If a large-scale rebellion is successful in killing the queen, the new queen will emit a pheromone to make all the denizens loyal once again. Leqiri are only blindly loyal when around their queen, but they have evolved to have a tendency toward loyalty. Most if not all of Cooler's Leqiri soldiers are completely loyal to him, and treat him as their queen, even though he didn't use a pheromone on them. In Payar's case, he is unquestionably loyal to his governor. However, in the case of Leqiri who do not have a queen, and even those who merely serve another species, they have an affinity toward outside thinking and brutality which may appear unnaturally strong to other races. Leqiri are raised to fight and kill one another for a chance to merely mate, and that bloodthirstiness often manifests itself in other, more applicable ways for soldiers. They are also sentient enough to learn galactic basic.

Lifespan
Drones live for around 80 years, before becoming Branchers. Branchers can live to about 100 years (20 more years), but many mate almost immediately (thus killing them). Protectors lives for around 275 years. Queens have been reported to live upwards of 700 years, though it is rare for one to die of old age and not be killed. Females' lifespans are shortened (about 10 years) each time they breed and lay eggs.

Technology
Leqir technology is limited. They possess rudimentary underground digging/transport vehicles, weapons similar to crossbows, and even have mastered the use of fire for use of incubating eggs. They lack of higher technology kept them planet-bound until the Faereth arrived, and ultimately proved to be costly in their war against Cooler.