User:144PA/Kig-yar (144-Patient Appelant)

The Kig-yar are a saurian race of bipeds inhabiting Eayn, Chu'ot's moon. They are an especially vicious species which was a fact known since their time in the Covenant.

Post-Covenant History
The Kig-yar were a very efficient member of the Covenant empire. When the Human-Covenant war and the Covenant itself ended, the Kig-yar had little to worry about regarding survival. Far less of their species had died during the end of the war therefore, extinction wasn't an immediate threat. They did, however, begin to have a shortage on food and drinkable water.

Initially stealing from each other, any conflict was halted before it began. Instead, their leaders advised and authorized piracy from other species. At first, their main targets were small cargo fleets manned by Unggoy however, after regular raids on these ships, Unggoy vessels became far less frequent and the scarce times they were seen, they were escorted by atleast one Sangheili cruiser. The Kig-yar also noticed a lack in useful cargo on board Unggoy ships.

They began expanding their horizons to Humanity. The first vessel to fall in this new piracy campaign was the Pilgrimage, a Human cargo ship delivering supplies to outer colonies. The lightly armed vessel quickly fell victim to the Kig-yar which sparked continued raids. The UNSC fought back and viciously, A series of minor skirmishes eventually led to the invasion of Eayn in which hundreds of strongholds were destroyed, thousands of tons of supplies were burned, and thousands of lives were lost.

The UNSC left but the Kig-yar were forced to pick up the pieces and start again, nearly from scratch. Meanwhile, the shortage grew more ferocious. Famine began pushing the species to the brink of extinction, insanity, and desperation. After the Yanme'e contacted the Kig-yar speaking of the same form of invasion, the two races joined forces and began a series of attacks against both the UNSC and Sangheili.

These assaults ended after severe breakdown in Kig-yar society. The Kig-yar became undecided with what to do with the supplies stolen from their enemies. Without enough to go around, the Kig-yar began fighting each other in clan wars. These clan wars intensified into full planet-wide civil war.

The civil war was the bloodiest in Kig-yar history and caused a severe depletion in the racial population. Eventually, with far less Kig-yar to supply, the war ended and order began to take hold. Governments joined into one and supplies were rationed. Small uprisings were persistent though. They didn't stop until the Kig-yar were conquered by the Jiralhanae.

Post-Covenant Society
After the Human-Covenant War, the Kig-yar society was broken, divided, and on the edge of conflict. Alliances were formed to prevent this but eventually, everything broke apart after severe economic depression and desperation. Governments were broken into clans which fought with anything not from their own clan. Borders between clans were never official or constant. Whatever they saw, they felt they owned. The inefficiency of this way of life eventually brought about the restructuring of life on Eayn.

clans reformed governments and governments conglomerated into a single powerful force. What little resources were available were rationed as strictly as possible. Limits were placed on families dictating the number of children allowed to reduce consumption. If a family had more than two children, the youngest would be taken away and eaten. Once they were assimilated into the Jiralhanae Empire, these laws remained but were more lenient.

Post-Covenant Culture
The thieving ways of the Kig-yar returned once the Covenant was destroyed. The resource scarcity had them stealing whatever they could to survive. Eventually, the growing desperation and increased intensity of their pirate raids inevitably raised the importance of combative strength in their society. After the Scattered Uprisings, the Kig-yar had become a race of clan-based factions. War had become as important as survival to them as everyone in the world was their enemies.

To survive, they had to grow stronger, faster, and more cunning than their rivals. They began performing tribal rituals and wearing ornate garments made from the sacred and feathered Uturuki Beast. Parties of young Kig-yar warriors are usually accompanied by an experienced hunter or warrior to find and slay one. Once they do, they use it's feathers and hide to make masks and gauntlets.