Stellaris Lore: Alkads
Species: Alkad
Homeworld: Yetroth
Planet Class: Tomb World, Retinal (Formerly)
Star: Troggu
Star Type: Class M Red Giant
Origin: Post-Apocalyptic
Empire: Confederacy of Yetroth
Authority: Democracy
Ethics: Xenophile, Egalitarian, Materialist
Civics: Meritocracy, Automated Indolence
Government: Direct Democracy
Traits: Mammalian, Survivor, Nomadic, Rapid Breeders, Intelligent, Unruly, Wasteful, Pioneers, Extremely Adaptive, Resilient, Low Metabolism, Keen Vision
Ruler: Chancellor Jenarro Malcorra
Name List: Space Basque
Ship Type: Molluscoid
Advisor Voice: The Diplomat
Appearance: Humanoid HP #1 (The Horned Humanoid portrait from the humanoid species pack)
Ascension Path: Cybernetic
Diet: Omnivore
The story of the Alkads was made more tragic, by the fact that the nuclear war that devastated their once pristine retinal world of Yetroth that it could've been prevented. Centuries ago, Yetroth was different from the tomb world that this current generation of Alkads was accustomed to. At the time the Alkads were moving away from the Atomic Age and into the Early Space stage. They have already sent out their first set of satellites into orbit and are planning to send out the first Alkad into space. Just like any other civilization, Alkad civilization also suffered some growing pains. Climate Change, overpopulation, and overconsumption of resources as well as a pandemic later on.
For climate change, the sea levels on Yetroth have risen by two feet flooding entire coastal communities and wiping out entire islands of the map. For overpopulation, it got so bad that there were more people than housing could be built for leading to a lot of homeless individuals living in the streets and not even rural areas were spared from the overpopulation and housing crisis. Some farmers had to chase squatters off of their property every single night. Some nation states had to introduce mandatory sterilization in an effort to stem the overpopulation crisis. Overpopulation can lead to overconsumption of resources. Mines went dry, the overuse of fossil fuels almost to the point of an energy crisis, in the southern part of Yetroth there was a case of deforestation so severe that if anyone were to look at Yetroth from space, on the southern part you would see a large brown patch of desert that sticks out like a sore thumb in the otherwise purple and blue of the planet. As if overpopulation, climate change, and overconsumption of resources weren't bad enough, the Living Death Pandemic has occurred.
The Living Death virus was a bioweapon put under storage. A worker had mishandled a sample while moving it to another facility to be put under storage, causing it to escape. Symptoms of the Living Death virus include: bloody foaming at the mouth, necrosis, increased aggression, rotting of the brain, feral behavior, greening of the eyes (Alkad blood is green), it is even able to revive the dead and the revived dead show the same symptoms as the living. Entire cities were quarantined and have even turned into war zones as the Living Death Pandemic advances.
In one nation state, a dictator named Oskax Betolaza has risen. Betolaza was the leader of a religious cult that believes Alkadkind was heading toward an apocalypse and he believes that Alkadkind has been misusing technology and that only a chosen few can select it. He turned the nation state into a theocratic dictatorship after overthrowing the previous government. He and his cult have confiscated electronic devices from the civilian population, and even executed or imprisoned civilians that try to leave. He also had those infected with the Living Death Virus as well as their families killed off.
Betolaza believes that all of Yetroth should abide by the rules of his cult and he started invading neighboring countries in an effort to spread his cult's ideology. In every country that was invaded, most of the population except for a select few handpicked by Betolaza had their technology confiscated forcing most of them to live without it. He also killed off the population of that country that had been infected with the Living Death Virus.
Eventually other nation states rose up against Betolaza and declared war on him. Even those inside of Betolaza's territory got fed up with his cult and started rebelling. Eventually it reached the point where his territory was reduced to his capital city. Betolaza decides that if he can't rule Yetroth, then no one can. He ordered a series of nuclear strikes that obliterated Alkad civilization and changed Yetroth from a Retinal World to a near lifeless Tomb World. Not long after that Betolaza was killed by a revenge seeking lynch mob of survivors. Not long after that, the remaining Alkads went underground. The Living Death Virus died with the bombs.
Three centuries later, the new generation of Alkads leave their bunkers and arrived into harsh new world. Mutations, monsters, and marauders are what they all had to live with on a day to day basis. Nuclear winter had covered the sky Just when it seemed like the Alkads had given up on achieving spaceflight, one day a group of Alkads caught a glimpse of the starry sky for the first time and vowed to return Alkad civilization back to it's past glory and reclaim its dream of becoming a spacefaring civilization.
The group found a safe area away from a radioactive monster infested part of the planet and started building what became Yetroth's capital city Yhuxdon. Yhuxdon was situated in a mountainous region of Yetroth, protecting it from most of the elements and it was in one of the few fertile areas needed for farming. The group found and reactivated long dormant technology which helped in Yhuxdon's operations. This technology is researching the possibility of restoring civilization after a nuclear war which includes water purification and restoring land for the purpose of making it viable for farming. The group also found schematics on how to run electricity and to build a power generator as well as some mining machinery. After some time Yhuxdon became a functional city and it did not take long for it to draw some people to it.
Over time Yhuxdon grew into a city-state, said city state then grew into a nation state which began absorbing other settlements. It took some time and struggle and Yhuxdon's nation state began to encompass the planet and formed the Confederacy of Yetroth. Civilization on Yetroth started to look like the way it did before the bombs albiet at a reduced capacity. One day, the dream of Alkads reaching into space finally became reality as Chancellor Jenarro Malcorra watched as the first construction ship leaves Yetroth to build Troggu's Starbase. Jenarro knew that there was still work to be done. Even after so many centuries the memories of the nuclear war are still fresh in the minds of the Alkads. They have developed such a very strong hatred of nuclear weapons, that even nuclear power plants were targeted in that. The nuclear power plants that were not destroyed have been abandoned and remaining nuclear warheads that had been discovered had been disposed of.
The Confederacy of Yetroth is now looking into the possibility of looking into a technology that would restore Yetroth back into a retinal world and to find primitive civilizations and prevent them from making the same horrible nuclear mistake.
Author's Note: A retinal world is like a continental world, but purple and blue instead of green and blue. This was due to plant life being retinaldehyde based instead of the usual green chlorophyll-based plant life which gives the purple color. The retinal world is featured in the Planetary Diversity mod.