Xhal

The Xhal (//, singular also "Xhal") were an insectoid species which originated on Gamus and later colonized co-orbital Gamitor. Two distinct but reproductively compatible races made up the species: the so-called Greater and Lesser Xhal.

Biology and appearance
Both Xhal subspecies shared some features. The Xhal were insectoid, with exoskeletons and antennae on their heads. Their bodies had three : head, thorax, and abdomen. The first of their two stomachs was located in the thorax, and used acid to dissolve any consumed food into liquid. The primary stomach, in the abdomen, digested the liquid and saw to its absorption into the body. Xhal used their antennae as olfactory sensors, and could also use them to perceive some major vibrations, such as explosions or loud noises.

All Xhal limbs were spindly; their legs were strong enough to bear their weight, but their arms did not have the strength arms did.

The species shared some phenotypical differences, as well as a major biological one. Greater Xhal had bright carapaces, usually in shades of blue and gold. These sometimes dulled to darker blue and bronze with age. They also had two arms. The Lesser Xhal, however, had exoskeletons in darker shades, combinations of black, gray, and brown. They also had four arms, though, like the Greater Xhal, their arms were still all connected to their thoraces.

The crucial difference between the species was that Greater Xhal excreted a pheremone which acted as a mind control agent on Lesser Xhal. While exposed to the pheremone, Lesser Xhal would obey the commands of the Greater Xhal excreting it, whether they were conveyed verbally or pheremonally. Repeated exposure could keep Lesser Xhal obedient for longer stretches of time, even in the absence of the pheremone itself. However, a single Greater Xhal could only exert control over so many Lesser Xhal at once.

Xhal laid eggs in clutches; Lesser Xhal females usually laid anywhere between six and a dozen, while Greater Xhal females more often bore two or three at most. The two subspecies were reproductively compatible, and either subspecies could bear children of the other, even when mating with other Xhal of their own subspecies. It was for this reason that they were considered a single species, not two closely related species. The means by which Greater Xhal would give birth to Lesser or vice versa were a subject of ongoing debate among biologists.

Society and culture
The two Xhal subspecies shared some cultural attitudes and were markedly different in others. Both cultures believed in industrious work for the betterment of society; while Greater Xhal had historically used Lesser Xhal as slave labor in menial work, they were no less diligent in their own tasks. No individual Xhal of either variety required much personal space, and familial possessions were regarded as communal, not personal.

The Xhal usually built their cities underground or into the walls of canyons or mountains; at most, they would build cities of tightly packed buildings with little in the way of outdoor transit. s were something of an anomaly on both Gamus and Gamitor, since they required vast tracts of flat space.

The Greater Xhal reared their children within families, while Lesser Xhal were raised communally. In ancient times, Greater Xhal born to Lesser Xhal were quietly killed; before the arrival of the Golden Empire, this process had evolved to arranging for discreet adoptions. Lesser Xhal born to Greater Xhal were usually unceremoniously shipped to Lesser Xhal camps and not discussed, considered a point of familial shame. These attitudes slowly began to change after the Empire forced the two species to coexist peacefully, and the first Consuls of Gamus and Gamitor issued a joint edict making it illegal to seize children from their parents for reasons of racial difference.

History
The history of the Xhal was one of conflict between the two subspecies. They evolved side-by-side, preyed upon on their native Gamus by a variety of wild predators. The Greater Xhal were less equipped to handle the situation, with their brightly colored shells attracting attention and their two arms less useful for defense. However, they were able to use their mind control pheremones to employ the Lesser Xhal as guards and attendants, and the combined skills of both races ensured the survival of the species.

As time went on, the Lesser Xhal were enslaved by the Greater. Greater Xhal believed the Lesser Xhal to be inherently less intelligent and less capable of useful thought, while in reality it was constant exposure to the mind control pheremones that had clouded the ability of the Lesser Xhal to think clearly. Though the species was not reproduced in a hive manner, all from a single source, most Xhal city-states and nations still ended up being dictatorships or oligarchies. In all cases the Greater Xhal controlled the Lesser, and Lesser Xhal were often used as the front-line soldiers in war with Greater Xhal as their officers.

The Xhal developed laser weaponry prior to the development of functional space travel, although it took time for them to miniaturize technology enough to make weapons portable in their weak arms. However, they sent probes to Gamitor and discovered the planet was hospitable to them. When they had developed sufficiently advanced spacecraft, several Xhal nations united to send colonists to Gamitor, with thousands of Lesser Xhal as laborers and a fraction of that number of Greater Xhal to administer the colony.

Resource production on Gamitor allowed the population of Gamus to swell, and more colonists were dispatched. However, an abolitionist movement began in some cities on Gamus, with Greater Xhal arguing that they and the Lesser Xhal could coexist as equals. The movement was met with general disdain. Some Greater Xhal assisted Lesser Xhal to freedom, but the Lesser Xhal were still susceptible to the control of any Greater Xhal they happened across. In some cities which attempted integrated societies, ruling Greater Xhal relinquished their control over their slaves, only to have other Greater Xhal enslave them anew and use them in a coup against city leaders.

On Gamitor, the Greater Xhal used their slaves to harvest resources both to expand the colonies and to send back to Gamus. Some outlying colonies, however, stretched their resources too thin, with only a handful of Greater Xhal trying to control hundreds of Lesser Xhal workers. Without enough pheremones to control them all, many of these Lesser Xhal slowly came back to themselves and conceived a plan of rebellion. Over the course of six days, three different outposts saw massive riots, with all Greater Xhal killed and the Lesser Xhal banding together into a revolting army.

Panicked transmissions from Gamitor's Greater Xhal overseers reached Gamus, and debate erupted over how to respond, with many Greater Xhal insisting on a massive genocidal reprisal and others insisting that the Lesser Xhal had been justified in seeking their freedom and their overseers had brought their fates on themselves. Many Greater Xhal were in the middle, feeling the Lesser Xhal did not deserve freedom but that the overseers had deserved what they had gotten for being too greedy and not planning ahead. The Lesser Xhal army on Gamitor grew as it overtook colonies, the mass of Lesser Xhal too many for the Greater Xhal to control. Greater Xhal were massacred in droves, and a civil war broke out between Gamus and Gamitor.

The Lesser Xhal cut off food supplies to Gamus, whose population had grown so much that its own resources were no longer sufficient to sustain it. The Greater Xhal on Gamus retaliated by hoarding food for themselves and starving their slaves, but that decreased their own productivity. They attempted to recapture Gamitor by sending waves of Greater Xhal to re-enslave the Lesser Xhal. Meanwhile, abolitionist movements on Gamus were gaining momentum, with some states allowing free Lesser Xhal to establish their own cities within their borders. Other nations accused these states of pandering to the mob and feeding rebellion, and the tolerant states came under attack by others.

The civil war ended suddenly in 106 ABY when explorers from the Golden Empire arrived in the Gam system and contacted Gamitor. Rin Sakaros herself arrived shortly thereafter and, after arranging communications with the Lesser Xhal, accepted Gamitor into the Golden Empire. With their former colony world now a possession of the Empire and facing down the Armada's guns, the Xhal on Gamus had no viable option but to join the Empire too.

Rin declared that the use of mind control pheremones was a form of slavery, and therefore punishable by an automatic death sentence. With Royal officers stationed on Gamus and Gamitor to monitor the situation, the Xhal were forced to come to an uneasy peace. Labor disputes between Greater Xhal employers and their Lesser Xhal employees were common; one such dispute was mediated by Centurions Chindal, Tesshen Manytrek, and the Greater Xhal Kyzk.

Issues on the two Xhal systems rarely came to violence, and when they did the Royal Army quickly restored order. However, both sides frequently complained against one another, with the Lesser Xhal alleging unfair employment practices and the Greater Xhal suggesting that the Lesser were exploiting resolved historical abuses for continuing gain.

In the galaxy
The Centurion Kyzk was a Greater Xhal who was nonetheless greatly respected by the Lesser Xhal. Her death as one of the Shest Minor Seven was a rare point of unity between the two species as they mourned her together.