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I asked Kai if I could work on updating the Altresians as the original author, Solomon Marquis, has abandoned them and the RP. Kai said I could post here for public discussion and review. Feedback is appreciated.
Warning this is 4,192 words long and takes up Eight pages in word, and over half of the entries are currently skeletons.
I have posted the original first followed by my work.
When new material is added to existing sections or a new section or passage is added it will be offset by a large: New, the head will be removed after one week.



Original:
The Altresian are from the grand planet Altres. Altresians are athletic-bodied humanoids, with light tan skin, golden blonde hair, and cyan eyes. The planet is governed by the Holy Altresian Empire, which glorifies two ideals: war and religion. Altresian battle tactics are second to none and their faith knows no bounds. However, the Altresians can be over zealous, resulting in countless crusades over its history. The current "abomination" of their god, Altrei, is the Drathonians. The Altresians believe that it is their divine duty to liberate the Terrans, and any other race, from the Drathonian plague.
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My Modifications/Expansions:
World sad Currently a Skeleton Section, yeah I'm still going to add stuff)
The world of Altres is dominated by one large continent, Jurgium, located in the Southeast that at one point extends all the way from the North to the South Pole and takes up fifty-three percent (53%) of Altres. The two sister continents of Aliquantulus and Magnus are found to the West of Jurgium. Magnus is only slightly smaller, taking up fourteen percent (14%) of the planet, than the size of Aliquantulus, which takes up eighteen percent (18%), and is located farther north than its larger sister. The remaining fifteen percent (15%) is bodies of water, the main one being the large ocean that separates the main continent from the two sisters and surrounds all three of them. The planet has a higher gravity than that of Earth. Most of recorded history is found in Jurgium, since Aliquantulus and Magnus remained uninhabited until modern times.
Jurgium is still the main area of population for the Altresian race. In fact, the main continent has strict regulations on whether or not an alien can live there, and so far permanent residence has never been granted to a non-Altresian. Because of this roughly 90% of the population is Altresian citizen with the other 10 or so percentage being foreigners concentrated mostly in the capitol city. The larger of the twin continents, Aliquantulus, on the other hand is a completely integrated area. A large portion of trade makes this continent its nexus due to this, along with many of the training facilities for the Light Infantry. Magnus has been handed over to the humans and is totally free of any Imperial jurisdiction.
The climate of Altres, while being colder year round than that of Earth, also has less variety in seasons. These seasons in order are Dry, Wet and Snow. Dry is the shortest and only last for the equivalent of three Terran Months. The longest is Wet, lasting five months, and Snow lasts for four.
Dry is when almost all agricultural business is done. Using reservoirs of melted snow from the previous years Snow Season massive plains of crops are irrigated and fertilized. The main crop is a native grain that can be cold preserved for three to eight years before being processed and made into breads.
Wet is a hard time for the Altresian people, as it can come on extremely fast every few years prematurely ending the Dry Season. Because, of this the natives are always on the watch for the torrential downpours that mark the first few weeks of this season. This long period of heavy rains has directly effected the Altresian architecture leading to buildings being raised on large solid bases and then expanded upward. These structures tend to be more spire than tower-like as the more pointed shape allows the snow of the following seasons to slide off. In older time the lowlands would have to be abandoned during this season. But, as time has progressed large agricultural domes have been raised on platforms and ringed by heavy levees; allowing for farms to produce all throughout the year.
Snow, compared to Wet, is much colder; however, it is also the beginning of the less severe weather. During this season it is expected to snow almost constantly, with a few periods of at most two to four days without any, but harsher storms such as blizzards are extremely uncommon.

Altresian Race: (Might add more, but I'm pretty happy right now)
Altresians tend to be anywhere from 4 feet in height to an excess of over 7. Despite these outliers the average male stands somewhere in between 5” 1’ and 5” 6’ while female height spans from 5” 0’ to 5” 4’.
Due to the extreme stress put on the body by the climate, a lack of any rejuvenating technologies, and the more stocky build of body itself the Altresians live for a much shorter span than the present day Terrans. The latest statistics for average life expectancy puts the Altresian males at 71 Terran years and the females at 86. To keep up with their partner race the Alties have enacted an accelerated education and training program. This program dictates that an Altresian youth is capable of working any of the low level jobs in the Empire, including the military, two years before they have reached full maturity at the age of sixteen. Though, secondary schools do exist they are very demanding and expensive, pushing each applicant to their limits if they wish to avoid the more common path of a payed-apprenticeship or on the job training. The military removes citizens from any front-line position by 50 and requests (but do not require) a complete retirement by 65. The private sector performs yearly evaluations of their employees to determine if they are still fit for work instead of maintaining a set retirement age.
Altresians physically build generally broader and stockier than a Terran; therefore, one of the same height will weigh significantly more. The average male weighs 175 pounds while females are closer to 160.
The facial structure of the Altresians is dominated by a heavily boned skull including a much thicker forehead than that of Terrans which protrudes in front of the rest of the face and continues downward to create the nose. Unlike humans the nose is formed of bone and does not angle outwards, instead staying in line with the forehead. These bones form a kind of natural helmet, but if broken can cause much more problems than the Terran's fleshy counterpart. The nostrils themselves are very small and tilted inwards, usually making them hidden from view and significantly dulling their sense of smell. Alties have a very heavy brow, most likely due again to their heavy bone structure, which has somewhat sunken eyes. The eyes also have a second, transparent lid capable of standing up to the high winds of the plains and the even more dangerous ones encountered during the Wet Season. They have eyebrows and extremely thick ones at that, but as these droopy bushes only served the purpose of reducing the impact of both the cold and the wind they have been passed over for modern technology. As a result, the Altresian “civilized class” views them as barbaric and sees it to be impolite not to keep them cleanly shaved. Facial hair grows along the jaw line and edge of cheeks, but not around the mouth, neck, or chin. This makes beards nonexistent among the Altresian race, except for the rumour of an extremely rare mutation the leads to beards. If this rumour is to be believed only around three percent of the population fits into this category and all have been collected by the Church to serve as combat Priests.
Both the race's skin and hair colour are dominated by the single phenotype of a light tan skin colour, either a flaxen or golden hair, and cyan eyes. The only know other known pigmentation combination occurs in roughly one out of every two-hundred births and shares the same skin colour as the majority of the race but has dark brown or black hair with green eyes. These two traits seem to travel together and someone with only the eye or hair pigmentation trait is extremely rare, but not unheard of.
Altresian facial features are surprisingly different from Terrans when compared to the many similarities. Their noses do not protrude and are characterized by tiny slits for nostrils that are difficult to see if looking straight at ones face, they also tend to have much broader noses that are reinforced by a flat plate of bone. Their eyes are sunken and almost eclipsed by a heavy brow; they have eyebrows but many have them shaved off for they see them as unhygienic. Facial hair is not located around the mouth, nose, or neck/chin area, but it does grow along the jaw line and a small part of the cheeks, where if long enough it will hang free from the face. The whole Altresian race shares the common trait of having a light tan skin colour. And the majority of them have golden blond hair and cyan eyes, but every couple hundred births has a genetic throwback in which the results are either dark brown to black hair or green eyes, in rare cases both are found.

Genetic Throwbacks:
Other traits besides darker hair and green eye colour result from the genetic throwbacks in the Altresian population. The citizens with these genetic traits often suffer from chronic cases of migraines and they seem to wound easier. Other traits that may have developed to combat or negate these handicaps are: their body’s natural healing processes are slightly faster than the norm and, while it could be due to the relatively small number of people possessing these traits, the people who do have them seem to have more stable minds as there has never been a case of insanity in a throwback.

History:
The Altresians lived as hunter-gatherers for a very long period of time and progressed to a sort of caravan villages system before they made their true cities. The first cities resulting from the need for trade and because the populations of wild, hunt-able beasts began to dwindled and in turn made the caravan life progressively harder.
Altresian society flourished mainly in a large expanse of land on the northwestern side of the largest continent, this land is much like the steppes of, to some degree, Eastern Europe, but more familiar to those found in Asia. The large open fields of this climate lead to the Altresians preferring weapons like bows or spears and other pole arms which have a longer reach. The Altresian people progressed much like the Terrans, with minor differences in the types of resources made and the different approaches used by the Altresian inventors. But, they had one main difference and that was; their wars.
History Sub-Category: Wars
Even in the beginning of this people’s history hunting parties would have large skirmishes that would leave most of one caravan’s healthy males dead. Most interesting is the fact that even then these caravan groups all claimed to serve Altrei and all of them seem to revolve around some of the same base tenets, yet the caravans were definitely of followers of different “Cults of Altrei”. One caravan decided that the constant fighting would never allow them to progress and in their cult they started to develop ideas of defense and stability. They began to hunt in large groups and even developed the earliest sets of leather-like armour and some basic camouflage tactics. This cult proclaimed itself to be the “Vanguard of Altrei” and started the first organized religion in the form of there theocratic rule.
The Vanguard were lead by a council known as the Council of the High Heralds, they promoted the word of Altrei, according to the Vanguard’s creed, but more importantly they supported technological expansion. The council itself has 24 members, who are called Heralds of their Chairs, the council is organized numerically with the most senior member as the Herald of the First Chair and the most junior as the Herald of the Twenty-Fourth Chair. The Vanguard were the ones who first developed the first cities, they began to build walls and farm and cultivate the land within them. They began to tame and breed the stronger four toed form of ungulate that roamed the plains. As they began to set up their civilization another cult joined them, its name lost in the annuals of time, they brought with them knowledge of local metals and how to forge them.
Around this time one of the more violent caravan groups began to think that the Vanguard’s way of life was humiliating to the rest of the race, especially the Vanguard’s “binding” of Altrei as the ruler of their people. Their leader especially believed this. His cult was Altrei’s Might and he was known as Vercintorix. Vercintorix began to gather what he called the “Free People of the Plains”, his objective was to completely wipe out any who follow the soft and heretical ways of the Vanguard. He and his thousands began to burn the outskirts of towns all throughout the Vanguard territories. A deceive offensive was never carried out against the walled cities of the Vanguard until the Siege of Altreimoire.
History Sub-Category: The Siege of Altreimoire
Altremoire was one of the hubs of trade and technology in the Vanguard territories. The city was located on the southern border, also known as the Broken Border due to the constant raids in the area. Altremoire had the most formidable defenses of any Altresian settlement of the time and was well known due to the large population of the Unknown Cult living within its walls. All this made it a prime target for attack by Vercintorix’s hordes.
Vercintorix’s campaign was expertly devised and the siege against Altreimoire happened within weeks of the first skirmishes. His forces surrounded the city while General Fabius, overall commander of the cities armed forces, was gone due to a diversion made by a large mounted force to the east; the young Knight-Marshal Marcus Antonius was in charge of the defending garrison. The heavy cavalry of the Vanguard would prove to be ineffective at this almost newly conceived siege warfare. This disadvantage was offset by the presence of the Unknown Cult, who were infamous pikemen and could often be found in the thick of battle along the walls.
Three weeks into the siege Vercintorix had a messenger nail the head of General Fabius to the gates, the messenger was shot down by a multitude of arrows before he could finish his grizzly work. Unbeknownst to the defenders General Fabius had been killed by a group of assassins and the force he had taken with him to the East was still intact and now under the command of the Heralds. Marcus was enraged by Vercintorix’s act and had the cavalry reserves sally forth. In the resulting battle the cavalry was beaten back and the outer wall was lost to the hordes, after regrouping behind the inner fortifications it was calculated that slightly over thirty percent of the cavalry had been lost and a hundred pikemen butchered in the ensuing retreat. Vercintorix now had a firm position; the task of dislodging him had now become much more difficult.
The siege continued for another month of stalemate, the haggard defenders only surviving because of the Vanguard’s practice of farming and holding livestock within the inner walls. Vercintorix had developed giant ballista, which he used to sweep the walls and skewer anyone who stuck their heads above the battlement, and work on larger siege engines could be heard as his warriors raised huge structures.
It was a chill morning and the hordes of Altrei’s Might had barely stirred under the shadow of the huge and almost complete siege engines; on this morning Knight-Marshal Antonius received a message, delivered by one of the many subterranean mammals trained by the Vanguard just for this task. A rough translation of this note reads as:
“Young Antonius, we are greatly grieved to hear of the death of General Fabius and have lamented the fact that the siege of this city, one of the Vanguard’s finest, has had to endure so long. We are sure your grief over Fabius’s death will be lessened by the fact that his army did survive and his death only came about by the vile actions of a squad of assassins. Vercintorix’s hordes have had little success in the other Territories and a decisive battle was fought to the Northwest of you on the Plains of Sarbosinl; our forces are mustering as I write and will come to break this infernal siege.
- Gaius, Herald of the Second Chair
P.S.
Keep watch to the Northeast of you, my boy, there are reports of movement among the Justicar-Warriors of the Serenity Cult.

Knowing that Vercintorix would have also heard of his forces defeat on the Plains of Sarbosinl, Antonius ordered the walls to be manned at full strength and the smithies to work at full production. The hordes outside of Altreimoire could hear the ringing of hammers and see the glow of the forge fires all night long. Likewise the defenders could see the bonfires made by Vercintorix’s forces and they gripped their spears and pikes ever harder as the night was filled with the sound of kettle drums.
To the surprise of all, only an hour before dawn, the horde’s siege engines caught fire and the ringing of steel blades clashing with more brutal iron ones could be heard. During the previous night one of the forges had been developing short, curved single edged sword, the like of which had never been seen before. Armed with these swords a group of fifty Unknowns led by a Vanguard Captain, by the name of Tidus, had slipped beyond the walls of Altreimoire and snuck into the enemy camp. Marshal Antonius was torn between helping these valiant commandos and the memory of his original sally forth; finally the now near veteran decided to take the fight to the enemy save the heroic soldiers.
The fight outside the walls of Altremoire was long and brutal. Tidus and his Commandos were whittled down to only the Captain himself and three of the Unknowns before the heavy cavalry broke through and saved them. The Captain himself rejoined the battle, even though he had required a splint and sling for a broken arm, along with one of the Unknowns, the other two were critically wounded.
Vercintorix’s army seemed to be getting the upper hand as the sun rose high and the day got closer to noon. It was two hours before noon and the battle had been going on for five hours when Vercintorix’s Eastern flank buckled. Above the fleeing soldiers could be seen the banner of the Serenity Cult and every so often one of their glaives would flash above the mass of bodies as one of the heavily armoured Justicars beheaded an opponent, ending their life swiftly. Justicar-Lord Justinian and Marshal Antonius both personally took charge of routing Vercintorix’s Elite Bodyguard. Vercintorix held his ground and refused to flee, eventually the wounded Captain Tidus beheaded the warlord with his sword; this gained the singled-edged curved blade the name of aequitas.
The death of Vercintorix marked the end of the Siege of Altreimoire and the end of the War.
History Sub-Category: Aftermath of the War
After the war the outskirts of many of the cities of the Vanguard had to be recontructed and parts of Altreimoire had to be rebuilt. All but two of the twenty-four Heralds of the Chairs, Heralds of the Ninth and Twenty-First Chair were absent due to them dealing with other post-war efforts, came to Altreimoire to speak with Justicar-Lord Justinian, leader of the Cult of Serenity and now considered to be one of the Heroes of the Siege along with Marshal Antonius and Captain Tidus and his Fifty.
Justinian offered to the Council to conjoin the two cults' lands into a commonwealth, on the basis that engineers would go to the Serenity areas to help cultivate their harsher lands to the north and that his people be allowed to rise to the rank of Herald of a Chair is they were so fit. The council agreed and the Serenity Justicars were absorbed into the military, their ideals of mercy, discipline and acting as if death had already come for ones-self can still be found in the modern military of the Altresians today, especially among infantry.
With the addition of a large portion and the addition of heavy infantry regiments, still called Justicar Regiments to this day, and other changes to the military due to the absorption of the Justicars cause this period to be relatively taxing upon the newly found Commonwealth.
History Sub-Category: The Second Incursion (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
As the commonwealth was still organizing itself, another invasion came from over the border, this time from the west. The head of this army was the named Comius, while not such a brilliant strategist as Vercintorix, Comius armies were better equipped and trained. This was the first proving of the strength of the commonwealth and while lasting a surprising four years compared to the one year campaign of Vercintorix, Comius was ultimately driven beyond the borders.
History Sub-Category: The First Crusade (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
A year after Comius’s incursion the armies of the Commonwealth responding by running a Crusade into the west, this was a long and bloody war. The Crusade itself lasted for fourteen years and ended with the Commonwealth holding the entire West. During this time Justicar-Lord Justinian was killed in battle leading his regiment into the capitol city of Comius’s cult.
Also, during this time the council decided to raise one member above all others and he became The Holy Protector. Gaius, Herald of the Second Chair, who had been one of the decisive members in turning back the hordes of Vercintorix. The Commonwealth had now been transformed into an Empire, they took up the bold name of The Altresian Empire.
History Sub-Category: The Second Crusade, also known as the Battle of the Scarlet Field (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
During the last years of the First Crusade the territories to the South began to become nervous about the expansionist behavior of the Commonwealth, and when the West was conquered and they took up the name of The Altresian Empire they knew what was coming and marshaled their armies in the memory of Vercintorix and his “Free People of the Plains”.
When, two years after the conquest of the West, the Empire’s armies crossed the southern border they were met by the full might of the Southern Cults, including a significantly smaller Cult of Altrei’s Might. Both sides show the first large scale use of canon and firearms in Altresian history during this battle. The Battle itself lasted for six days and had a total loss of around 700,000 men. The seventh day neither side fought and much of the day was spent dragging corpses off to be buried. At noon of the eight day The Holy Protector Gaius himself met with the leader of the southern lands and negotiated the peaceful absorption of the south into the Empire.
The Empire began to stabilize and did not see strife again until much later.
History Sub-Category: Post-Unification (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The Altresian race had been unified into one empire and now they had to solidify that Empire. Roads were built connecting cities and the Empire began to be divided into different provinces. Each province was different than the original Cult or Caravan Territories as to reduce secessionist behavior. The Holy Protector Gaius the Wise finally passed on during this time and a member of the Serenity Cult, Adriatus, was raised to the position by his fellow councilors.
Adriatus’s era was one of peace and the building of infrastructure. Many technologies were made and improved during his time of rule. And also he began the interest of building boots to explore the great waters of Altres’s Oceans. But, his dream was not yet to be, rebellion stirred in the West.
History Sub-Category: The Comius Rebellion (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The people of the West had been brutally put down during the First Crusade and near the end of Adriatus’s rule they took up the name of Comius and tried to rebel. Adriatus’s first reaction was to send envoys to try and end the conflict peacefully so his dreams of exploration could be realized. His envoy was captured by the rebels and he and his entourage were publicly executed.
Adriatus called up the armies and began a campaign against the violent rebels, even the now archaic, Justicar Heavy Infantry Regiments were called to fight. The war ended after three years, but the damage to the West put the whole Empire back by ten.
History Sub-Catergory: Working Up to the Modern Era (This doesn’t even deserve the name Skeleton)
Adriatus tasked the Empire with rebuilding the West, but hard feelings from the rebellion made progress slow. Adriatus always tried to get his exploration fleet our, but died a year after the rebellion and the position of Holy Protector was occupied by less ambitious men for the next three generations.
Four generations after Adriatus, Augustus was given leadership of the Empire. He revived Adriatus’s dream of exploration and during his time he built up the mainland Empire and colonized both Magnus and Aliguantulus.
By the end of Augustus’s rule the Empire was stable both on the main continent and on the Sister Continents. The Empire would not see conflict again until the first Altresian fleet left the planets orbit.
History Sub-Category: Origins of the Genetic Throwbacks (Could receive more Development)
The first black or brown haired, and also greened eyed, Altresians appear when the Unknown Cult joins the Vanguard. It is believed that that Cult could of be the origin of these traits and as the Empire spread and the Cult was absorbed more and more into obscurity by the fairer eyed and haired Altresians some physical traits could have been lost and others such as the darker eyes and hair could only show up even once every few generations. There are also records of such children being born in some of the more fair complexioned Caravans during the earliest times. Until the organization of the church Altresians showing these traits were treated as Messiahs or Prophets of Altrei. When the Church formed they disbanded this custom as to let the throwbacks lead normal lives.

Modern Activity: (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
Due to the violent history of the Empire the Altresians tend to take an offensive stance against oppression and destruction of sovereignty. They have often made protectorates of other species and offered their armies in support of species under siege by expansionist empires.
They see the humans as a closely related race to themselves and see our main three gods as a Brother Pantheon to the rule of Altrei.
They have currently started the “Third Crusade” into the massive expansion of the Drathonians and intend to beat the Drathonians back into their home system and if they have to into extinction.
Organizations: (Currently a Skeleton Section)
The main three organizations are: the Church, the Military and the Templars. The Holy Protector presides over all these branches.
Organizations Sub-Category: The Church (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The Church is also the government of the Altresian people and is dominated by the Council. The main two sects still practicing are the Vanguard and the Serenity. The Cult of Might, known to themselves as Altrei's Might is still active but receives much hostility from the Vanguard who still see them as an internal enemy and performs its duties almost as a separate Church altogether.
Church Sub-Category: The Vanguard
Church Sub-Category: The Serenity Sect (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The Serenity Sect was the most far removed from its brother sects and its people occupied the extreme north and east territories of Jurgium. They are a monk like warrior culture that tries to avoid needless deaths, but all members of it try to achieve the point where actions reflect that they already accept death. In the modern day they are most often found in heavy powersuit infantry regiments.
Church Sub-Category: Altrei's Might:
Organizations Sub-Category: The Military (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The Crusade Armies of the Altresian Empire are some of the best trained and supplied soldiers ever known. They have very strict discipline and use either tactics relying on heavy powered amour or stealth and camouflage tactics.
Their current ranks are as follows:
1. Armsman, a basic soldier, new meat.
2. Squire, a recognized soldier.
3. Arms-Squire, a skilled soldier and serves as a junior noncom.
4. Ensign, a senior noncommissioned officer.
5. Knight, a lieutenant.
6. Banner-Knight, a captain.
7. Champion, a Major.
8. Crusader, a Colonel.
9. Marshal, assistant to a General.
10. Holy General, a General receives the title “the Paladin” after their name.

The ranks of members of the heavy infantry regiments are preceded by Justicar and hyphenated, for example a skilled soldier of a heavy infantry regiment is considered to be a Justicar-Knight.
The classes currently available to the Altresians are:
-Heavy Infantry/Justicar: A heavily defended warrior, they have the strongest personal armor. They excel in hand-to-hand combat and have moderate skills in ranged.
-Light Infantry: The light infantry of the Altresians armies are skilled in stealth and camouflage; they excel at ranged fighting and are moderately capable with the short curved bladed aequitas in melee combat.
-Priest: Basically serve as combat medics, they also tend to the religious need of the rank and file and use the Exorcism Holy Water heavy weapon. Their thought is that the more living soldiers there are the more people to carry out Altreis' will there are.
-Aviators: Altresian Pilots, have slower reaction times than human pilots, but have more organized squadrons (on average). Receive extensive training in small arms such as pistols and the aequitas.
Organizations Sub-Category: The Templar (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
The Templar are officers that are directly connected to the church and carry out its will, they also insure all of Altrei’s Creeds are followed by the military’s soldiers. Templars are also often sent as liaisons to foreign species’ militaries. A separate branch of the Templars also exist that solely deals with domestic problems and acting as the Imperial Police Force.
The current Templar ranks are:
1. Acolyte, student Templars sent to the field of battle in times of need or just for special testing or education, they are official considered to be of rank to an Arms-Squire but in practice are usually kept out of the chain of command due to inexperience.
2. Junior Questioner, often assists Senior Questioners, but can be attached to a military regiment on their own, equal to a Knight.
3. Questioner, the most common kind of Templar, they are attached to a regiment and help with operations and coordination, equal to an Arms-Knight.
4. Senior Questioner, a Templar entrusted with teaching new Templars, they are still found in a position of authority on front line regiments, equal to a Champion on the battlefield but holds the same powers as a Crusader in all others fields.
5. Inquisitor, oversees the activities of multiple Questioners or Senior Questioners, holds the same position as a Marshal.
6. Grand Master, equal to Holy Generals, there is only one Grand Master in the Templars at a time.
Templars receive the same training as the type of regiment they serve with so follow all the same classes as military agents except for the Priest.
Organization Sub-Category: Cabal of the Dark Deeds (Currently a Skeleton Passage)
A group composed of mostly throwbacks with a few normal Altresians. The Cabal believes that for the survival of the Empire the creeds of Altrei must be broken at times. They are prosecuted by the Empire and especially the Templars.
Culture: (Currently a Skeleton Section)
The Altresian culture is largely based around making yourself useful to the Empire and Altrei. Little art in the form of painting is found among the Altresian people, but music and the art of metal working has been extensively developed. The latest trend in their culture is incorporating Terran instruments into their music and the forging or casting of life-like Terran sculptures. Poetry is respected but less widespread, except surprisingly among some of the military regiments.

I would suggest that when you add something, you post it in a new color, and remove the color from the old additions when you make new ones, to make it easier for me to figure out what was there initially, and what is new.

Show casing updates here before placing them into the document for comparison purposes and ease of reading.

Thursday, May 13 2010:
World sad Currently a Skeleton Section, yeah I'm still going to add stuff)
The world of Altres is dominated by one large continent, Jurgium, located in the Southeast that at one point extends all the way from the North to the South Pole and takes up fifty-three percent (53%) of Altres. The two sister continents of Aliquantulus and Magnus are found to the West of Jurgium. Magnus is only slightly smaller, taking up fourteen percent (14%) of the planet, than the size of Aliquantulus, which takes up eighteen percent (18%), and is located farther north than its larger sister. The remaining fifteen percent (15%) is bodies of water, the main one being the large ocean that separates the main continent from the two sisters and surrounds all three of them. The planet has a higher gravity than that of Earth. Most of recorded history is found in Jurgium, since Aliquantulus and Magnus remained uninhabited until modern times.
Jurgium is still the main area of population for the Altresian race. In fact, the main continent has strict regulations on whether or not an alien can live there, and so far permanent residence has never been granted to a non-Altresian. Because of this roughly 90% of the population is Altresian citizen with the other 10 or so percentage being foreigners concentrated mostly in the capitol city. The larger of the twin continents, Aliquantulus, on the other hand is a completely integrated area. A large portion of trade makes this continent its nexus due to this, along with many of the training facilities for the Light Infantry. Magnus has been handed over to the humans and is totally free of any Imperial jurisdiction.
The climate of Altres, while being colder year round than that of Earth, also has less variety in seasons. These seasons in order are Dry, Wet and Snow. Dry is the shortest and only last for the equivalent of three Terran Months. The longest is Wet, lasting five months, and Snow lasts for four.
Dry is when almost all agricultural business is done. Using reservoirs of melted snow from the previous years Snow Season massive plains of crops are irrigated and fertilized. The main crop is a native grain that can be cold preserved for three to eight years before being processed and made into breads.
Wet is a hard time for the Altresian people, as it can come on extremely fast every few years prematurely ending the Dry Season. Because, of this the natives are always on the watch for the torrential downpours that mark the first few weeks of this season. This long period of heavy rains has directly effected the Altresian architecture leading to buildings being raised on large solid bases and then expanded upward. These structures tend to be more spire than tower-like as the more pointed shape allows the snow of the following seasons to slide off. In older time the lowlands would have to be abandoned during this season. But, as time has progressed large agricultural domes have been raised on platforms and ringed by heavy levees; allowing for farms to produce all throughout the year.
Snow, compared to Wet, is much colder; however, it is also the beginning of the less severe weather. During this season it is expected to snow almost constantly, with a few periods of at most two to four days without any, but harsher storms such as blizzards are extremely uncommon.

Altresian Race: (Might add more, but I'm pretty happy right now)
Altresians tend to be anywhere from 4 feet in height to an excess of over 7. Despite these outliers the average male stands somewhere in between 5” 1’ and 5” 6’ while female height spans from 5” 0’ to 5” 4’.
Due to the extreme stress put on the body by the climate, a lack of any rejuvenating technologies, and the more stocky build of body itself the Altresians live for a much shorter span than the present day Terrans. The latest statistics for average life expectancy puts the Altresian males at 71 Terran years and the females at 86. To keep up with their partner race the Alties have enacted an accelerated education and training program. This program dictates that an Altresian youth is capable of working any of the low level jobs in the Empire, including the military, two years before they have reached full maturity at the age of sixteen. Though, secondary schools do exist they are very demanding and expensive, pushing each applicant to their limits if they wish to avoid the more common path of a payed-apprenticeship or on the job training. The military removes citizens from any front-line position by 50 and requests (but do not require) a complete retirement by 65. The private sector performs yearly evaluations of their employees to determine if they are still fit for work instead of maintaining a set retirement age.
Altresians physically build generally broader and stockier than a Terran; therefore, one of the same height will weigh significantly more. The average male weighs 175 pounds while females are closer to 160.
The facial structure of the Altresians is dominated by a heavily boned skull including a much thicker forehead than that of Terrans which protrudes in front of the rest of the face and continues downward to create the nose. Unlike humans the nose is formed of bone and does not angle outwards, instead staying in line with the forehead. These bones form a kind of natural helmet, but if broken can cause much more problems than the Terran's fleshy counterpart. The nostrils themselves are very small and tilted inwards, usually making them hidden from view and significantly dulling their sense of smell. Alties have a very heavy brow, most likely due again to their heavy bone structure, which has somewhat sunken eyes. The eyes also have a second, transparent lid capable of standing up to the high winds of the plains and the even more dangerous ones encountered during the Wet Season. They have eyebrows and extremely thick ones at that, but as these droopy bushes only served the purpose of reducing the impact of both the cold and the wind they have been passed over for modern technology. As a result, the Altresian “civilized class” views them as barbaric and sees it to be impolite not to keep them cleanly shaved. Facial hair grows along the jaw line and edge of cheeks, but not around the mouth, neck, or chin. This makes beards nonexistent among the Altresian race, except for the rumour of an extremely rare mutation the leads to beards. If this rumour is to be believed only around three percent of the population fits into this category and all have been collected by the Church to serve as combat Priests.
Both the race's skin and hair colour are dominated by the single phenotype of a light tan skin colour, either a flaxen or golden hair, and cyan eyes. The only know other known pigmentation combination occurs in roughly one out of every two-hundred births and shares the same skin colour as the majority of the race but has dark brown or black hair with green eyes. These two traits seem to travel together and someone with only the eye or hair pigmentation trait is extremely rare, but not unheard of.

Forgot this earlier, but I also expanded the ranks under the Military Section to this.

Their current ranks are as follows:
1. Armsman, a basic soldier, new meat.
2. Squire, a recognized soldier.
3. Arms-Squire, a skilled soldier and serves as a junior noncom.
4. Ensign, a senior noncommissioned officer.
5. Knight, a lieutenant.
6. Banner-Knight, a captain.
7. Champion, a Major.
8. Crusader, a Colonel.
9. Marshal, assistant to a General.
10. Holy General, a General receives the title “the Paladin” after their name.

Sects would be more accurate than cults; sects all follow the same religion, but have disputes on various minor metaphysical and philosophical articles (such as Baptists believing you MUST be baptized, or Calvinists believing everything is preordained). Their arguments are valid disputes over the language of their holy book and/or teacher, and are not necessarily mutually exclusive nor are any of the disputes yet resolved (as the authors and teachers are long since gone).

Cults on the other hand are essentially rip-offs. The most common form of a cult is to take a preexisting religion and change or twist its teachings and texts. A great example is Mormonism, a cult that has altered the teachings and added texts to the Christian religion.

Please fix where applicable.