The Saurian, lizard people.

A few facts about our neighbors.

This is the condense file of important info gathered by the diplomatic team that spent several years living on Sigma Draconis 3, the nearest Saurian colony world to Earth. The info has been verified to the best of our ability. 

 

Home and History.

The Saurian home world is “Sazzzrath” located 66 light years from Sol. It has a much higher level of carbon dioxide in the air, warmer temperatures, more humidity and sightly higher gravity, than Earth.

They have records of their civilization dating back 560,000 years. (Technologically they advanced much slower than we did.) They entered the industrial age about 16,000 years ago and fought the last of their world wars.

Fighting over territory and resources seems to be a common thing in their history.

They achieved space flight only after it became vital to deal with the problem of overpopulation. Then for some 4,000 years they developed their own solar system with out any research in FTL technology.

As they colonized, they adapted themselves to the rather different climates of their 2 neighbouring planets; one being hot and dry the other cold with a rich oxygen atmosphere. Although still the same species, the 3 worlds came to hold noticeably different races of the Saurian.

The 100 year war between the 3 worlds was more of a political thing than a resource issue.

About 8,000 years ago, they felt the need to expand to the stars and so launched the first set of generation ships to all nearby stars. During the next 200 years, scientists worked to develop faster than light tech. The eventual brake through gave them hyper space speeds of 1LY/month. This made star travel possible but not fast and easy. Fortunately they were already good at hibernation technology.

The home world quickly established connections with its first set of colonies, sending out lots of migrants. They next turned their attention to exploration and planning of the second wave of colonization. These steps took a lot of time, in comparison to Human expansion.

About 6000 years ago they had their first war against an alien race. They were noticeably outclassed in technology, especially the FTL speed of the ships. The enemy were using the C band of Hyper space, giving them an effective speed of around 1 LY / week. In strategic terms this meant that each Saurian system was isolated and had to deal with the war on its own. The result was a massive build up of system defences. Although several systems fell, those that survived were armed well.

The war naturally inspire them to develop better FTL ships, weapons and defence systems.

Note about us.

The Saurian at some point realized that most ships sent to Sol disappeared. They connected this with what an alien race had told them about ancient guardians being placed in some systems to keep them isolated. Thus a “Do not go to Sol” rule was established. A rule that was frequently broken once Earth started broadcasting radio signals. They find our entertainment industry to be wonderfully interesting, although language was not something they sorted out very well.

Social Science Says.

From what we can tell, the Saurian are not a very imaginative people, they make very slow progress technologically. Changes are small, big innovations very rare. They do not “fix something that is functioning” They do not have an economy based on product replacement, they build things to last. They think us rather crazy for producing a new model of cellphone every year.

Slow does not equate primitive or dumb. This must be kept in mind when dealing with them. For example they speak in a very unhurried way. This may cause one to think them dimwitted needing a lot of time to process simple ideas in conversation. This is inaccurate. They simply see no reason to rush anything. Humans who want things in a hurry should not be sent to deal with the Lizards.

The Saurian seem to hold a very fatalistic view of life. “You do what you can. Things happen that are often out of your control. Accept them and do not stress your health over them. In war you fight. Maybe you win, maybe not. Life will continue even if yours ends.” so said the great sage.

The Saurian elect a council of 4 elders (2 male 2 female) for the governing of any size community. Age and wisdom are linked in their view, only the old are fit to make important decisions. Any such decision requires the vote of 3 elders. If there is a 2-2 split, nothing is done and the matter may be addressed again next year.

In some ways their civilization is egalitarian, but there are also many roles which are divided by gender. Never the less females do not see themselves as oppressed or inferior. Frequently they laugh at Human TV shows portraying what they see as the wrong gender roles.

Extent of the Saurian territory?

The Home world claims authority over colonies with in 16 LY of it. Colonies between 16 to 32 LY are considered self governing systems, but are tied by an alliance agreement. Sigma Draconis lies just outside this zone, 18.8 LY from Earth, it is closer to us than it is to the Saurian Home world.

They count 26 habitable systems in their core area and 68 in the alliance ring, with an additional 244 smaller colonies being outside that zone. They claim ownership of some 480 star systems as resource pools, having some kind of active outpost on all of them.

“Any systems with in the 32 LY radius will be defended by the entire might of the Alliance. Any alien attempt at colonization will be dispatched. Beyond this zone, there is no official policy. Local councils of elders will decide what to do. What help, if any, they receive from Home depends entirely on the situation.” This is what the elders told us. 

 

Why this matters?

This outlook to territorial policy matters a great deal to the UN-EDF. Because Earth is 66 LY from the Saurian home world of Sazzzrath. The effective hard boarder between us is thus 33 LY, however some of their outer colonies are closer than that. A sizable bit of Human expansion will be taking place into the outer rim of Lizardman territory. We aim to do all we can to ensure things stay peaceful.