Garjo

The Garjo (//, singular also "Garjo") were a race of gigantic s from Renthiv in the. They were infamous in nearby space for their ferocity in battle and warrior culture.

Biology and appearance
The Garjo were more or less humanoid, though they were distinct from actual s in a variety of immediately recognizable ways. The most obvious was their height; on average, Garjo ranged from 3.35 to 3.96 meters tall; the tallest were well over four meters. Males tended to be taller than females, but both had stocky builds and shorter necks than would be considered proportional for Humans and other humanoids.

Garjo has spines on their faces which vaguely resembled sea urchins. For most males, these were confined to their chins and jaws, giving the appearance of spine "beards". Female Garjo usually had spines around their hairlines like crowns. Garjo also had clawed hands and feet; their two inner toes were longer than their two outer toes, but they had five-clawed hands including an opposable thumb.

The skin colors of the Garjo tended to be darker, and came in shades of green, blue, purple, and brown; their hair was similarly brown or black.

Female Garjo carried their young for a standard year before giving birth to live young, most often one at a time. Newborn Garjo were often larger than Human children, and were born with soft spines which became hard and inflexible over their first years of life. Garjo were physically mature by roughly seventeen standard years.

Society and culture
Warrior culture dominated Garjo society. All members were expected to have at least some proficiency at combat, even those who did not embark upon military careers. Though the Garjo were savage and ruthless in battle, they had their own concept of honor, and violations of this code were viewed with almost as much distaste as cowardice. The term zedvyoyen evolved as an expression to denote respect for a supremely skilled warrior.

Although females trained in combat as well as males, there was a taboo in most Garjo societies against females dedicated themselves to the profession of arms. It was much more common for female Garjo to instruct their children in combat while their husbands went to war; with this grounding in fighting, male Garjo would go on to receive enhanced training if they entered the military. A few female Garjo warriors did rise to prominence in the species's history.

The Garjo blended modern technology with traditional. They possessed blaster weaponry, and used both small arms and artillery in battle. However, their distinctive weapon was the halberd rifle, which combined the slashing of a halberd with the projectile nature and precision of a long-range rifle. Most Garjo soldiers would switch effortlessly from ranged to melee combat as their targets drew nearer. It was considered unethical to shoot an enemy whom one had engaged in melee combat.

Most Garjo soldiers would fight to the death, viewing surrender as inherently dishonorable. However, although it was sometimes considered noble to die fighting for a righteous cause, surrender could be excused when defeat—not merely for an individual, but for an entire army or society—was inevitable either way. The Garjo respected strength, and could be persuaded to yield to those clearly stronger than themselves. Conversely, however, they would sometimes attack others without provocation to assert their own strength.

History
Xenobiologists debated the evolution of the Garjo, though the majority theory held they had evolved from territorial herd animals. They were among the larger species on Renthiv; to balance the fact that the Garjo were omnivorous, other grazing animals tended to live in herds vastly larger than Garjo numbers. As they developed permanent settlements, the Garjo created farms whose fields stretched for kilometers.

War was a part of Garjo society from its earliest days, and many cultures were eradicated over the millennia as they were conquered and stamped out by superior armies. More than once, alien species arrived at Renthiv, some to conquer, others in efforts at diplomacy. The Garjo massacred all such interlopers without exception, and as time went on, Garjo scientists learned to adapt offworld technology to create blaster weapons and other highly technological arms.

In late 154 ABY, a diplomatic mission from the Golden Empire arrived at Renthiv, and the Garjo killed the ambassadors and all their support staff. Incensed, Queen Rin Sakaros sent Breek Zagrev to conquer the planet. In the ensuing Battle of Renthiv, thousands of beings on both sides died and the Centurion Vos'elk'eetash was proclaimed a zedvyoyen before the surviving Garjo finally capitulated.

Behind the scenes
The Garjo were influenced by a number of other creatures, including the giants of Greek and Norse mythology, the giants in the  series by, random images on Google Image, and, of course, sea urchins.