Parvon Zin's Universe: Poltox

Poltox. The very mention of the name conjures up fear in most species. This warrior society has a deserved reputation. The Belatan Banking Guild use Andrend Poltox exclusively in their Debt Recovery Branch. The Anunnaki use them as security guards. Poltox mercenary units are used by the Boldonian Trading Guilds during and after hostile takeover conflicts. The galaxy as a whole sees them as mindless savage thugs. The Poltox don't correct that assumption. They are happy to let anyone think what they like. In reality the Poltox have a wide and varied culture. Not all can be warriors. The non-warrior castes keep the society running, providing weapons, engineering, agriculture, scientific research, and medical expertise. Every Poltox believes totally in the afterlife, a place called Loplen. A great feasting hall where worthy warriors are taken up by the fabled winged Jenpen. Beautiful female warriors to dine at Crangg's table. Feasting and fighting throughout eternity. The non-warrior Poltox clans have their own feasting halls where they live out eternity conducting whatever wondrous things they did before. Disaster struck the Poltox in the form of a planet-wide famine. An ultra-fast-growing small carnivore called Limies was found on a nearby planet. They are harvested by the hundreds of thousands. These little creatures at first seemed like a blessing. Then they started attacking the Poltox in such numbers that no matter how good the warrior was, they were overwhelmed and eaten. Eighty percent of the Poltox population were killed. Only two clans remained. The Nool and the Andrend. The two clans were so close they had thought of forming one powerful unit. The Andrend had volunteered to be enhanced, strength- and reflexes-wise, to help deal with the tiny terrors. The drugs affect the Andrend's minds. Making them aggressive and arrogantly dismissive of their now, in their mind, 'lesser cousins'. Brutalised after their blood-filled grim two-year battle with the Limies, they cannot relate to the Nool. Fights start. The enhanced Andrend kills without remorse. They start to treat the weaker Nool like slaves. Hatred builds and becomes entrenched. War breaks out between the two clans. The only way it will end is with the total eradication of the loser. Their mindset can see no other way. It will take an outsider's view to find a solution.