Scaleys

Scaleys are a variety of mutant sub-breed, originating from Braha in the Yggdrasil subsector, Vigo Sector.

Physical Characteristics
From the waist up, they appear like any normal human; from the waist down they are covered in scales, and their legs are fused together into a long, sinuous tale; they glide along like snakes, and are expert burrowers; though whether that last is because of their biology or because they were forced to live underground on Braha, is a matter of speculation.

History
Scaleys are believed to have originated in the late Age of Strife; a few Scaleys briefly served in the Imperial Army during the Emperor's Grand Crusade.

Regarded as 'sneaky' and 'untrustworthy' they played no further part in galactic affairs until the Vigo Sector war; several regiments of Scaleys were raised, and served throughout Navarre's early campaigns.

In the Harker Trench War, the Scaleys were found to be more capable of movement in the mud than troops with feet, and a depleted regiment of Scaleys was one of the founding units of The Mudkips.

As reward for their service, Navarre granted the Scaleys Flamma Plagiarus, the first world in the Viger system; heated to impossible temperatures by the hot star, the planet was uninhabited, except for a promethium refinery, which had to shut down entirely every day.

The entire Scaley race moved to Flamma Plagiarus, where they are unable to move about during the day, hibernating in burrows, deep below the shifting sands; since moving to Flamma Plagiarus, they have been attempting to terraform the world, to make life on the surface possible during the day; it would take a miracle, given their supremely limited resources, but they have faith.

During the Toranite Insurgency, a force of Toranites occupied Flamma Plagiarus, intent on making use of the promethium refinery; they tried to convince the Scaleys to join them, but the supreme Matriarch, Hava Ladana, refused, and was subsequently tortured to death; the Scaleys mustered a large force, and attacked the Toranites in the dead of night, killing them all.

Hava Ladana is considered an Imperial saint by the Scaleys(a act which has shocked the local Ecclesiarchy).

Culture
The Scaleys have been devoted to the Imperial cult, under the impression that if they make themselves sufficiently like the normal humans, they would be allowed to live aboveground; Scaleys, it has been noted, utterly hate being below ground.

The Scaleys live in family dens, attached to others to form a communal burrow; matriarchs govern the burrows, while patriarchs oversee foraging and hunting, and communal defense.

By
"I don't see what the problem is."

- A Scaley Mudkip, glancing back at his human companions floundering in the mud

"My body may be strange, but my soul is pure"

- Hava Ladana

About
"Stupid, corpse-worshipping snakes"

- Toranite leader Kofist Pro Pavouka, after torturing Hava Ladana to death