1c: Introduction to The Anujai
2c: Anujai Social Structure
((Like the history of the A.U.S. the following is totally optional and additional information. Thorough knowledge of it is totally optional, it's simply here for a reference))
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Introduction to The Anujai
Throughout the galaxy, the sight of fleets of great ships is more or less commonplace. However, most of these ships have a place where they make port, the nomadic fleets of the canine/humanoid race known as the Anujai have no such luxury. For time unknowable the Anujai have been nomads. Never settling in one place for very long, never building cities. All their resources go to maintaining their ancient fleet. This fleet is home to more than 3 billion Anujai, and with the exception of the few thousand that have left their home fleet to integrate with the rest of galactic society, this represents every single member of the Anujai race in the universe. Without this fleet, they would quickly go extinct.
What happened to the homeworld of the Anujai ((A place they refer to as Anu)) is unknown. Many theories exist. There's the one that say's that the Anujai, who reached their atomic age nearly 7000 standard Earth years ago, destroyed their own world, forcing the survivors to flee the nuclear fallout and radiation. Another which says that at one point in their distant past Anu's sun went super nova and consumed the planet. Then finally, there's the one that claims that the Anujai homeworld was destroyed or made uninhabitable by a super advanced alien race hoping to pacify and enslave them ((This comes from the Anujai and Thernagli myth of the so called 'Old Gods' or Gods of Hatred)). Whatever the cause, the Anujai have no known homeworld and asking about it is considered a great insult to them.
An average Anujai male stands at about 7 feet tall, towering over Humans, equaled by the Thernagli and dwarfed by the massive Viscer of Siroun. The Anujai's legs are double-kneed like the rear legs of most mammals who use those legs for running quickly. On the back of the lower knee is what could most easily be called a toe, it's a rough pad of black skin with a short nail sticking out the bottom of it. The foot of the Anujai is most easily compared with the paw of a dog, with four toes each with a pad of rough black skin on the underside and a small curved nail. The torso of the Anujai is thin and bony, though muscular, an appearance which comes from a lifetime of physical toning and training. The Anujai have two long arms, coming out from their shoulders and reaching all the way down to the first knee. Their hands have two fingers and a thumb, which are tipped with a naturally sharp little claw. Their heads are entirely canine in nature, with the black, upside-down heart-shaped nose located at the end of the snout. Unlike Earth canines, this snout juts out from the skull, near the throat and slopes downward. Due to how their jaw lines are shaped, two of their teeth reach out over the lower lip, as exposed fangs. They also have thin, braided ceremonial beards at the end of their snouts. Their eyes are strikingly human in appearance and come in a variety of different colors, the most common being brown. These eyes are located on either side of the base of their snout and are pointed towards the front of their skulls. Their ears, which are located on the upper-half of their skulls, are pointed, but unlike many dogs with pointed ears, these jut out to the side rather than upwards. Finally, the Anujai's pale white skin is covered by a smooth thin layer of gray fur, this fur is not present on their chests, though directly under the neck on the 6 foot tall females there is a small tuft if white fur.
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Anujai Social Structure
The whole of Anujai society can be broken up into the following groups;
Worker Caste/Tomaiyuum; They are the foundation of the entire society, usually physically smaller than the Warrior Caste, but stronger in build than the Religious Caste, these Anujai are responsible for everything from keeping the ships of the fleet on the move and working, to petty work like servants to higher ranking families. They clean the ships top to bottom, maintain the engines and primary systems, work as interpreters for those who only speak Goushi or Dak’Matal ((The two major dialects of the Anujai language, based on the two original tribes)) to other species and can even be conscripted into military service when the Warrior Caste are hard to find.
Warrior Caste/Sitoyuum; The largest, fiercest and most imposing of all Anujai castes, sadly also the most often seen by 2751. The Warrior Caste is exactly what they sound like, from birth they are chosen by a member of the Religious Caste to be warriors. From that point on, they are raised, not by their parents but by older warriors and religious Anujai, they are taught the ways of war, and what the Void Masters thought of war and their tactics. The best of them become the Valor Guard, the personal bodyguards of the Sueshyuum himself and the highest of the High Shyuum ((Priests in the Goushi dialect and Prophets in Dak’Matal)).
Religious Caste/Shyuum; The Religious Caste are usually thinner and less imposing than their brothers and sisters in the Worker and Warrior Castes, but that doesn’t mean they wield any less power. From birth, like all the Castes, the Shyuum are taken to the Temple Ships to learn the ways of the Void Masters, memorize all of their 75 million year history and interpret their teachings and the things they left behind. The Shyuum are the ones with the most political power in Anujai society second only to the Sueshyuum himself. They are the ones who decide if wars are holy enough to carry out, they are the Ship Masters, and the ones who inspire and control the people. The Sueshyuum’s second in command is a member of the Religious Caste, the High Shyuum.
Sueshyuum; In Goushi the word means ‘Warrior-Prophet’ and in Dak’Matal it means ‘Guardian-Priest’, the closest type of person in Human society is that of a theological emperor or king. When the last Sueshyuum passes on, all of the male Anujai pups born within a day of his death are brought together and tested, the tests performed are, to this day, unknown. In any case, using these tests, the Shyuum pick one of the pups to be the next Sueshyuum and he is taken to be taught the way of the Religious Caste and the Warrior Caste to become an ‘enlightened leader’, he is taught the teachings of all the Sueshyuum who came before and made to memorize all of them. Until the day that the Ko’Sueshyuum ((Young Warrior-Prophet/Guardian-Priest)) comes of age at 12 Cycles ((About 10 years in standard Earth time)) the High Shyuum controls the society. If the Ko’Sueshyuum were to die, by default, the High Shyuum would assume all power and become the Poch’Sueshyuum ((Stand in Warrior-Prophet/Guardian-Priest)). The Sueshyuum is the final authority on interpretations of the Void Masters legacy, and all major decisions must be run by him first.
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