Lanaktallan

The Lanaktallan are the ruling race and founders of the United Council of Systems, and are one of the oldest species in the galaxy.

Appearance
Lanaktallans look like "someone made a centaur out of a horse, a cow, and a catfish mouth." They possess four arms and four legs, connected to an upper body and lower body respectively. Their mouths are surrounded by feeding tendrils that hide broad flat teeth. They have six eyes: two in front, two on the sides, and two on the back, giving them 360° vision. Their legs end in hooves, and they have grasping hands at the end of each arm. They have crests running along their head and upper bodies that can be inflated at will. Lanaktallan allotted lifespan is 300-325 years, though many High Most have been witnessed living beyond 500 years. Their normal lifespan is 400-500 years.

Physiology
It is unknown how much of Lanaktallan biology is a result of natural evolution and how much is due to genetic engineering. Their bodies have high energy requirements and are extremely complex with multiple redundancies. Lanaktallans primarily consume nutri-cud, a food paste that most Lanaktallans constantly chew. Before the founding of the United Council of Systems, there existed a variation of Lanaktallan much larger than modern incarnations that lead and fought the Precursor Wars.

The Stallions and Matrons were larger variants of Lanaktallans that had great psychic potential, capable of commanding planets of Lanaktallan. Herd Matrons were female, and dealt with domestic affairs, while Herd Stallions led the Lanaktallan, and War Stallions presumably acted as military commanders.

Due to the lack of Herd Leaders and their own genetic tampering, Lanaktallans are less mentally developed than many other species. They especially lack a sense of pattern recognition, and so will repeat the same mistakes over and over despite multiple failures. Lanaktallans that do develop pattern recognition are unable to understand what it is, ascribing the new skill to a sort of "prescience." They also tend to be distracted by the new associations their brains make between unrelated objects.

Lanaktallans are extremely susceptible to psychic assault. Most are driven insane by the Precursor Machine war cry, becoming psychotic and aggressive toward everything. Physical feedback from psychic assault also seems to be higher, with multiple instances of eyes exploding out of sockets and various hemorrhaging. They are also physically weak, and accelerations of 1.75G can cause severe injuries.

The Lanaktallan genome is apparently "locked", preventing random mutations in the population. Further genetic alterations include controlling level of intelligence, size, aggression, and compliance. Lanaktallan females have no way of feeding their young, instead using mechanized methods to nurse.

Prehistory and The Mantid-Lanaktallan War
The Lanaktallan evolved on a plains world with a single supercontinent as a herd species. They had an abundance of resources on their homeworld, which lead to their unique physiology. Their eyes were likely evolved to watch for a pack predator of some kind.

Over a hundred million years before the events of First Contact, the Lanaktallan and Mantid races fought for control of the galaxy in the Precursor Wars under the belief that there are only enough resources in the universe for one species to survive. They presumably built war machines much like the Mantid to fight for them at some point in the conflict. They also employed extensive biological warfare against their enemies, possibly modifying the Dwellerspawn to fight for them. During this conflict, the Lanaktallan somehow "burnt" the hyperatomic plane that the Mantid used for transportation, creating Hellspace. After the First Precursor War, the Lanaktallan fled into former Mantid territory and colonized the abandoned planets.

The remaining Lanaktallan blamed their stallion caste for leading them into a war that cost them everything, and altered their genome to prevent another stallion from being born. They also standardized every aspect of themselves, allowing for no variation to ensure everyone in The Great Herd was equal, and decided to fill their military with other races as protection. This is likely the first instance of Lanaktallan gentling.

Establishing the United Council of Systems and Expansion
Around a hundred million years before first contact with the Terran Confederacy, the Lanaktallan reunited its myriad colonies and established the United Council of Systems. Little is known about the earlier period of the UCS.[citation needed] From Lanaktallan records, it took two hundred thousand years to move from the wheel to the cart then another five hundred thousand years to move to the steam engine, and then another million years at least to launch a satellite into orbit.

After the establishment of the UCS, the Lanaktallan spread from their colony worlds to conquer hundreds of thousands of star systems and many alien civilizations.[citation needed]

As they spread, the Lanaktallan forced any civilizations they encountered and brought into their fold into debt based slavery for Lanaktallan corporations. Many species, such as the Leebawians, had their homeworlds claimed by corporate interests thousands of years before industrialization. The UCS continued to expand in this way uncontested for nearly a hundred million years.

Contact with the Terran Confederacy
Around eight thousand years post Terran Diaspora, the United Council of Systems Executor ship made first contact with a member the Terran Confederacy. The Council quickly became concerned at the level and sophistication of technology the Terrans wielded. After multiple instances of contacts, the Terran Confederacy withdrew from the Great Gulf, leaving the UCS wondering if they had encountered the Terrans at all or if "lingering energies left over from the Precursor War that had created mass hallucinations."

6th Precursor War
The first battle of the 6th Precursor War was the attack on the Tnvaru's first interstellar colony. After their presence was reported, Precursor Autonomous War Machines flooded dozens of United Council Systems and began laying waste to their populations.

Lanaktallan-Human War
With multiple instances of biological warfare against the Terran Confederacy as well as her allies, the Confederacy officially declared war against the United Council of Systems.

Culture
Lanaktallans view culture as unnecessary and a waste of resources. They have no art, no entertainment, and frown upon printed literature.

A Lanaktallan's greatest goal is to preserve the resources within the universe for their own use. This is usually expressed by an overemphasis on corporate profits, along with corporations almost unilaterally controlling the interests of the United Council of Systems. Lanaktallans, on average, focus on maintaining the status quo, and prioritize their own survival above all else. Due to genetic alterations, they are on average less intelligent than a Terran Descent Human, and lack pattern recognition abilities both in micro and macro scales.

Lanaktallans are overly sensitive to possible dangers in new technologies, testing them extensively before employing them on a wide scale, or discounting a new technology entirely after issues with development.

Due to their near constant dominance for millions of years over the United Council Species, Lanaktallans are extremely arrogant toward any newly contacted species that has not been "gentled," refusing help on multiple occasions from the Terran Confederacy, and believing that they are the most powerful beings in the galaxy. They also tend to lie about their own situations in order to look better and gain standing among their peers, such as when a System High Most lied about how many precursor machines were assaulting his system. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that they are outmatched, Lanaktallans refuse to accept it almost to the point of delusion.

Their obsession with resource preservation is reflected in their battle tactics as well, as they retreat after incurring 10% casualties, and expect their enemies to allow them to retreat instead of expending resources continuing a won battle.

Female Lanaktallans are viewed as breeding stock and little else, with young females educated in how to be a good wife to a male.

Ulmo´ok
A bad Lanaktallan. Thrillseeker, Bashmech pilot, scoundrel, unfeeling sociopath, Kistimet criminal, hero.

Mana'aktoo
A shrewd Lanaktallan. The best boss you could have, given the options.

Falmo'o
An Executor. Protagonist of a terrible story.

Lnosvumo'o
A conflicted Lanaktallan. Lawman.

Other Lanaktallans

 * La'amo'o: A typical Lanaktallan. Welder in a factory planet. Father of Alma'ana. Present in chapters 141 and 158.
 * Gu'ulmoo: A simple Lanaktallan. Welder. Makes a trip to Terrasol. Present in Chapter 112.
 * Mo'onmoo: A sneaky Lanaktallan. Spy. Used other's preconceptions of his condition to observe Terrans. Present in Chapter 204.
 * Ya'ahd. Ba'ahn Ya'ahrd. A fun Lanaktallan. Assigned to steal secrets from Terrasol. Present in chapters 205, 206, 207, 208 and 209.

Trivia

 * Lanaktallan names tend to contain puns about cows or somehow reference cows, such as the name Sa'altlikk or containing "moo" somewhere in the name.
 * Despite its effectiveness, evidence suggests that the Lanaktallan did not create the virus that wiped out canine and feline species.