Alshain

The Alshain are a canid/lupanoid species from the planet Alshain Proper. The Alshain Exarchate is one of the oldest spacefaring civilizations in the Beta Quadrant.

Physiology
Alshain males are lupine in appearance, similar to werewolves of Terran legend. Alshain females are smaller and more vulpine in appearance. The Alshain are covered in fine pelages of fur that range in color from black, gray, brown, red, and white.

The Alshain have razor-sharp claws, along with a heightened sense of smell and hearing. They are natural born predators. Alshain general prefer to walk on two legs, though they can walk/run on all fours.

Society
The Alshain Exarchate is a rigid class-based system, governed by a small group of clans called Septs. The Septs are similar to the Houses of the Klingon Empire. The ruling Exarch is chosen from among the Septs, shedding his or her surname when they ascend to the throne. The shedding of the surname in theory is supposed to symbolize that the Exarch represents all Alshain, but which reality has historically contradicted. The relatives, or Bloodlings, of the reigning Exarch use their familial ties to extract all manner of government contracts, bribes, and tributes.

Traditions and Culture
The Alshain as a whole are a very ritualistic people; however the nobility has taken on more refined, cultured, and imported airs, in part to combat the quadrant-wide perceptions that the Alshain are as savage as their appearance, and as a large part of their ancient history would suggest.

The nobles work hard to dispel the old stereotypes, often overdoing it in the process and come off as snobbish, arrogant, pedantic, and rude to many offworlders who visit the Exarchate. Though the nobles have disavowed much of the Alshain ancient beliefs, many still believe in Iblika, "The Desolate Plain", their version of Hell. Many Alshain also believe they will find ample hunting grounds in "The Great Terrace" if they live a notable life. The ancient practice of writing official decrees in blood still endures.

Much of the Alshain sense of innate superiority comes from their belief and reverence in Greater Alshain, an ancient empire said to encompass much of the Beta Quadrant. However, the Alshain Starforce had dwindled significantly over the centuries and the Alshain found themselves hemmed in by the Klingons, Gorn, Tholians, and Son'a.

Religious Practice
The Alshain are an intensely spiritual people, though they never share their religious fervor with outsiders. Public religious ceremonies are very sedate and filled with elaborate rituals, in keeping with the refined image the Alshain wish to portray to offworlders. The private ceremonies are much more feral affairs, with occassional bloodletting. The most worshipped god in the Alshain pantheon is Garrm, god of war.

The Alshain practice a strict form of separation of church and state. The Alshain faithful are led by a Synod of religious authorities, called Syndics. The Alshain church, or religious community, is collectively known as the Cenobium.

Ancient History
Alshain culture was formed under an almost constant state of warfare with the humanoid Kachada species that occupied a neighboring continent on their home planet. For long stretches of Alshain history, the Kachada had enslaved the Alshain.

The Alshain eventually defeated the Kachada once they put aside their sept rivalries and united behind the Warring Lord Farda (the Unconquered).

Farda, and his heirs set up the First Dynasty of the Alshain Hegemony, which derived much of its uniting power from the belief that Farda and his descendants were the offspring of Garrm.

Alshain rulers, or Dynasts, were also religious leaders. They ruled by divine right, and the early Alshain Hegemony was a theocracy.

Greater Alshain
Under a succession of Dynasties, the Alshain subdued their planet and spread out into the stars. Their long struggle against the Kachada had taught them to strike first and without mercy. Part of their desire to extend their dominion was to prevent any alien power from subduing them as the Kachada had done. Ironically, the Alshain would often use their Kachada subjects to colonize worlds to take the brunt of any hostile actions from the aliens they encountered.

The female Dynast Frula popularized the concept of "Greater Alshain", which was similar to the old Earth term "Manifest Destiny". Frula prophesized that the Alshain were destined to rule the entire Beta Quadrant.

During this period of expansion, Alshain navigators even sought to conquer the vast, unstable expanse of space known as Klach D'Kel Brakt, or the Briar Patch by the 24th century. Many of the few survivors of such endeavors likened the spatial maelstrom to Iblikka. Eventually, a fleet of ships would travel around the expanse. The last communique the Hegemony received was their report describing their encounter with a prescient race known as the Yattho. The doomed venture would become known as "The Lost Fleet".

Menthar Wars
The Menthar Ascendancy was the first major challenge for the Alshain Hegemony. The Alshain encountered the Menthar roughly around the Earth-date of 764 A.D. Both the Menthar and the Alshain competed for the resource-rich worlds of the Ebrel sector. The Alshain and the Menthar would fight three wars over a span of 400 years, with the end result being three largely bloody stalemates. The first war was fought with sublight vehicles. The second and third were fought with warp capable vessels. The last war took such a terrible toll on both powers that the Alshain went into a period of isolation and internal renewal. The Menthar gave up their ambition to conquer Alshain territory and turned to new targets. The Menthar would eventually destroy themselves in a war with the Promellians over Orelious IX during Earth's 14th century. Despite the bloody toll, the desire to defeat the Menthar had pushed Alshain scientists to develop warp technology as a military application. Both the Alshain and the Menthar stole technology and strategy from one another. The Alshain appropriated the famous Menthar Passive Lure and Kavis Teke strategems, as well as the use of acetone assimilators.

Plevlian League
In order to stand against the Menthar, the Alshain had reversed their long standing imperialist policy and actually formed an alliance with the Plevlian League, a federation of several other Beta Quadrant powers, offshoots of the Iconian civilization. The League worlds were protected from assault by the Menthar or other hostile powers by elaborate global shields. However, the dominance of the Menthar space armada prevented the worlds from engaging in crucial trade. The Plevlians entered into an alliance with the Alshain because they needed their muscle. The Alshain hoped to acquire the technological trove they thought the Plevlian worlds possessed.

The last Menthar War left the Alshain Hegemony in shambles. The rebuilding effort forced the Hegemony to rely more on the Plevlian League. The exchange of commerce and ideas among the League worlds slowly began to turn the Alshain into a cosmopolitan people. The Alshain leadership even began sending their children to the Plevlian homeworld for education.

The Dynast Xochol (the Unwise), had spent his formative years more among the Plevlians than his on people. When he returned to Alshain Proper with a Plevlian bride, many Alshain were outraged, but afraid to challenge the god-king. The birth of the hybrid Prince Nican, through genetic engineering, caused even more trepidation.

Regency
The infant Nican assumed the throne shortly after the mysterious death of Xochol. His Plevlian bride Calluna assumed the throne as Regent. The Alshain, led by the Syndics rebelled.

The Divine Synod
The Alshain Syndics formed the a theocratic junta known as the Divine Synod. They executed Calluna and the 'abomination' Nican. The Divine Synod also forced the Plevlian among them to give up the access codes to their defensive shield. The Plevlians were slaughtered, and the Divine Synod declared war on the other independent powers in the League. On worlds directly under Alshain control, the Divine Synod imposed harsh, reactionary religious rule, replacing Alshain Satraps (governors) with religious Proctors. The Satraps allied with the other League worlds to overthrow the Divine Synod.

Exarchate
The Satrap Vurdal took over after disposing of the Divine Synod. Vurdal, not being of royal blood, took the title of Exarch and the Hegemony was renamed the Exarchate. Religion and government were given strict zones, with the Exarchate codified as a secular institution. Syndics would only address spiritual concerns.

The Plevlian League was disbanded. Some of the worlds were allowed to remain independent, though many fell under the Exarchate's sphere of influence and became vassal/subject worlds.

Hur'q Invasion
During this new phase of rebuilding, the Exarchate encountered the Hur'q. The nomadic marauders had already laid waste to the nascent Klingon Empire by the time they invaded Alshain space. In fact the Alshain had heard of them and was prepared to meet them. The Alshain were responsible for driving the Hur'q from the Beta Quadrant.

Tholian War
The Exarchate met its first significant defeat against the Tholians and their insectoid Chakuun shock troops. The Tholians were effectively able to stop the Alshain tide of expansion, the first power to do so since the Menthar centuries earlier.

Pax Alshain
The Tholian defeat led to a long period of isolation and soul searching. Many Alshain Exarchs turned inward, seeking to maintain the imperial spirit they felt flagging in their people. While Alshain reformers argued that the constant wars were the real cause of malaise.

Valtese Alliance
The Klingon Empire, on the other side of the Briar Patch had recovered quickly from the Hur'q invasion, and was amassing military and political power. The Alshain were wary that the Klingons could one day pose a threat and sought to build up their resources to give the rapacious Klingons pause.

The Alshain allied with the Valtese to take over the Kriosian system as part of their strategy. The Alshain needed the resource-rich system to build its war machine to keep the Klingons at bay.

The Klingons, eager to fight the feared Alshain, used the pretext of liberating the Kriosians from Valtese oppression to invade the Kriosian sector. The Alshain retreated, leaving the Valtese to be slaughtered by the Klingons. The Alshain sought to study Klingon tactical expertise and prowess during the decimation of the Valtese. What they saw left them extremely concerned. The Klingons quickly set up control over the Kriosian sector, and now were within striking distance of Alshain space. The Alshain found themselves sandwiched between the Tholians and now the Klingons.

The Alshain-Klingon War
The Exarchate hatched a plan to send Alshain forces around the Briar Patch to attack Qo'noS, the Klingon homeworld in the early 21st century. The Alshain ships, now protected with modified Plevlian shielding, cut through the heart of the Briar Patch to strike at the Klingon homeworld. Alshain forces were routed in the preemptive attack. The First Battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt ignited a twenty-year between the Exarchate and the Klingon Empire. The Alshain were eventually defeated. Klingon forces even briefly occupied Alshain Proper before the Alshain were able to rally enough to drive the Klingons back from their home sector. The treaty given to the Alshain by the victorious Klingons erased their empire.

Modern History
The Alshain have had a long tortured history with the Son'a. After leaving Bak'u the Son'a sought to carve out an empire for themselves along the Alshain border. Knowing they couldn't match the Alshain military at the time of their expulsion, the Son'a hatched an insidious plan that played into the Alshain nobility's weaknesses and decadence.

The Son'a introduced the Alshain nobles to ketracel-white, and a long parasitic relationship was forged. The Exarchate weakened under a succession of drug-addled leaders until the ascension of Jedalla in the 2360s.

Jedalla wanted to rebuild Greater Alshain and knew he would have to free his people from the grip of the Son'a to do it. He saw the Dominion War as a great opportunity to do so after the Son'a joined the Dominion. Initially the Alshain were neutral, but Jedalla acceded to the entreaties of the Federation in mid-2375 in a deal brokered by Captain Monica Covey of the Starship Chevalier. In exchange for significant financial and military aid, the Alshain opened a new front in the war, helping stretch the overburdened Dominion forces even further.

After the war, the Federation Alliance awarded the Exarchate control over captured Son'a territory. During the war Jedalla had encouraged the Tarlac and Ellora, both servitor races of the Son'a, to rebel with the promise of supporting their independence movements. Jedalla reneged on that promise after the war. Instead the Alshain Starforce began a pogrom of ethnic cleansing in former Son'a territories as part of Jedalla's desire to remake Greater Alshain.

The Federation Council condemned Alshain atrocities but were largely powerless to stop the Alshain due to the Federation's weakened post-Dominion War position and the surging Cardassian insurgency against the Federation's occupation of Cardassian territory.

People

 * Exarch Jedalla
 * War Minister Orthlin C'Oemnm
 * Envoy Tinjan G'Tan
 * Sutahr Shir T'Shing
 * Lieutenant Seb N'Saba
 * Sutahr Vacquin R'Vor
 * Sutahr Vlask R'Voss