Cathron

The cathron are a race native to the Andromeda galaxy, the same galaxy as the zinroth, and the iskandites. They are a race of destroyers, invading, and wiping worlds completely clean of life, before colonizing the world, and replacing the life with their own. They are one of the great galactic powers in the Andromeda, though they are often considered barbarians.

Biology
The cathron are an utterly bizarre race biologically. They do not possess brains, instead having bacteria-like cells in their bodies that act in unison to control the body. Their slimy skin is bright red, or orange, with black lines. They possess multiple tentacles, each edged with a blade like protusion. Cathron possess massive jaws, and long tongues.

Cathron do not possess hard skeletons, instead being almost completely muscle. Since cathron cells replicate at a very fast rate, they are capable of regneration. Even if a cathron is compeltely dismembered, they pieces will join back together to form the organism. The only way to assuredly kill a cathron, is to complete incinterate it, and then scatter the remains preventing its remaining cells from rejoining before they die. This means that so long as the cathron has a source of energy, they could potentially be immortal.

Sustenance
Cathron can synthesize their own nutrients, but in order to do that, they require a constant supply of energy. There eixsts an organism in their ecosystem produce natural electric impulses (which they call Fountains), which the cathron absorb, and use to form their nutrients. However, the source of energy is not unlimited, and cathron must allow it to recharge so often, or seek out a completely new source. This leads to an energy shortage, and since cathron cannot sustain themselves on any other form of energy, they must seek out new locations to plant the Fountains. Unfortunately, Fountains also have very strict requirements to meet if they are to survive, which means cathron must extermininate other forms of life

Senses
They do not possess a sense of smell or hearing, but they make up for it with incredibly advance eyesight, which can see spectrums beyond human comprehension. This allows them to in a sense "see" sound or smells, which the cells in their bodies interpert into different forms. As a result, a blind cathron, is also incapable of hearing, or smelling as well.

Cathron also possess an advanced sense of touch, and they are able to deduce the composition of something just making phsyical contact with it. They also able to feel the tiniest vibration in the ground. Unfortunately for cathron enemies, this makes hiding from a cathron almost impossible, as the most mintue vibration or scent can be detected, and traced easily. All these advanced senses, come from a competitive enviorment, where survival was difficult, and required complete attention. Failure to notice a coming threat meant certain death.

Mental Collective
The most defining feature about the cathron is that they are intertwined biologically with other lifeforms in their enviorments, as well as each other. The cells in their body that control serve as their minds constantly emmit signals to allow complete control, and these singnals can connect with signals of other cathron. Unfortunately, these signals cannot properly mix, and instead are competing to over take the other. However, they do not possess a collective mind. All cathron minds are constantly, either consciously, or unconsciously battling for dominance, where the strongest holds control.



Free will exists, but if a cathron mind is not strong enough, it is subjugated, and turned into a slave. If this happens, then the cathron's skin turns black, and their tentacles lose their edge. They also become more massive, and more powerful physically, but are mindless, and require constant guidance in order to function. Without, they become comatose. Cathron who are subjgated, are called "Broken Ones".

Due to the mental unison of the cathron, they cannot be hosts for zinroth. However, Broken Ones can be subjugated to a certain extent, but not to a level of complete control, generally limited to minor influence. The zinroth will use Broken One hosts as scouts, or moles to gain information.

On rare occasion, there will be cathron young who will not properly develop. As a result, their cells do not possess such powerful signals. This means that the cathron's mind is capable of simply joining with another's instead of competing with it. Cathron like this do not need to be in constant competition, and are able to exist peacefully with one another.

Reproduction
Cathron reproduce very quickly, even faster than krogan. They are asexual, though the process occurs whenever two cathron make any form of contact with each other, which causes an exchange of genetic material. Both cathron then excrete biological mass, with develops into at least three new cathron. Cathron mature very quickly, reaching adulthood within a few months. This means that two entirely new generations of cathron can be born within a single year.

History
Much of the cathron's early history is unknown. What is known, is they were united very early in their development, possibly even before they achieved sentience. They also achieved spaceflight fairly earlier than other races.

Recent cathron history is nothing but bloodshed. They spread throughout the galaxy like a plague, invading, and wiping out other worlds, and planting Fountains on them, in order to sustain themselves. This, naturally, brought the cathron into conflict with the other races, including the zinroth, who proved to be much harder for the cathron to battle than their previous exploits.

Government
The cathron are governed very loosely, but are dominated by a Grand Leader, who rules all other cathron's mentally. Due to the constantly physiological competition between cathron, the one who manages to overcome all others, earns the position as Leader. Beneath the Grand Leader, are the cathron who can overpower the others, and the order descends in mental power until it reaches the Broken Ones, who are at the very bottom. Cathron rule their collective sphere of influence absolutely, but other cathron are still in competition for the position.

Diplomacy is an alien concept to the cathron, because in their devleopment, if they needed something, they had to take it by force. Cathron are also incredibly uncompromising, as bending one's wishes, even for something minor, means mental weakness, which could allow others to take over. Due to this, negotiating with the cathron is next to impossible.

Separatists
There exists a splinter group of cathron, mostly mutants who's cells do not have such powerful signals, who have been separated from the main collective. These cathron are not in competition with each other, and instead live symbiotically. Decisions are made when the cathron of this group come to a consensus on something, or vote on it. The position of Grand Leader still exists, but is mostly the result of respect from other cathron. The name for these cathron people is the "Cathron Intelligence".

Military
The cathron military is immense, and very powerful. Their ships are organic in nature, and are manned by cathron mentally. Ship captains are the ones who can dominate the cathron pilots or weapon operations. Likewise, fleets are ruled by the ones who can dominate the ship captains.

The cathron fleet generally aimlessly wanders the galaxy, invading and consuming worlds that can possibly sustain Fountains, and consuming them. Worlds that require ground invasion, will have warriors dropped from orbit in special pods, who do most of the fighting. Cathron strategies are simplistic, simply overwhelm the enemy with sheer power and numbers.

Culture
Cathron society is dominated by a mental hierarchy, where the leader of a ship or a city is the one who can find a way to keep the others from over taken them. Due to the fact that their minds are constantly competing for dominance, even if the cathron are unaware, they are exceedingly violent, and always in some sort of combat. They are mentally incapable of concieving peace, as their minds can never fully rest. Concepts of philosophy, or science are considered to be minor, and secondary to the constant search for power.

This makes people incorrectly assume the cathron find pleasure in destruction, when actuality, the cathron are only ever concerned with survival. Everything about their lives are directed towards maintaing their free will, and keeping themselves alive. There exists no inherent "right" or "wrong", in the cathron mind set, and anything required for survival is considered fair game. This makes cathron incredibly amoral, and somewhat aloof.

Language
While cathron generally communicate telepathically, they do possess a formal language of their own, which is how they'll often interact when not in concious mental combat. The cathron language, referred to as "cathese" is difficult to translate, as cathrons do not possess written documents. Instead, all memories are stored into the cathron's unconcious minds, where they will be accessed involuntairly depending on the situation.

The spoken language consists of series of hissess, screeches, and clicks, coupled with a variety of tones that can determine much of the conversation. Minor changes, such as a single click or hiss can change the meaning of hte phrase completely, making learning it very difficult. A minor change in tone, or sometimes pitch, can also cause a conversation to lose all meaning.

Religion
Cathron religious belief is centered a being they just call the "Great One", who is said to represent the cathron's collective unconcious. While cathron do not worship it, they do honor it, believing that it is the "Great One", who guides their will without even knowing it. When a cathron dies, they are believed to join with the "Great One", and become part of the unconcious, until they are reborn.