Uur Dral

The Uur Dral are a minor species of short, stocky sentient rodents originating from a primitive world of the same name in the Farfringe.

Physical characteristics
Uur Dral are notably smaller than most other known galactic species, standing no more than 50-80cm tall when fully-grown, depending on the individual. However, their bones are not much thinner than most other species', and their build is stout and comparatively broad, so they are surprisingly strong and resilient. Even the average Uur Dral, without any specific fitness training or hard work experience, is easily as tough as anyone else, and about one and a half times as strong.

They reach maturity at six to eight years of age, and live to around forty to forty-five.

Sociology
Uur Dral are a primitive species of hunter-gatherers, who have only developed up to Stone Age technology, and they have no magical aptitude whatsoever. As such, their homeworld population is split into countless small, tight-knit family groups that lead a nomadic lifestyle. These groups have a communal lifestyle, with raising children the responsibility of the entire family, though parents and their children still form cohesive sub-groups that tend to stick together when possible. When the children reach maturity, males will leave their birth family when another family group is encountered, to ensure genetic variation. As such, they are a matriarchal society, with family succession going through the female line, though their communal nature shows through here as well, as elder females do not wield absolute power over their clan as in a traditional matriarchal clan society.

Their language is simple, with orders of magnitude fewer words than most others; being rodents, it has a chittering sound that many other species find very hard to replicate. This means Uur Dral interpreters who have learned to speak other galactic languages, especially Calysian, are practically mandatory for any interaction with homeworlders, rather than others learning the local language. This also means that their own name isn't even from their own language; they simply call themselves "Us", and their planet "The World". The name "Uur Dral" was actually given to them by the Drin Ath Midari, and it has simply stuck.

Mental abilities

Though they are without a doubt sentient, Uur Dral are not particularly intelligent, peaking at the level of the average eight- to twelve-year-old. As such, they have been unable to progress past the Stone Age for approximately twenty million years. They also have absolutely no magical aptitude, and their magical background is almost nonexistent. This makes them quite resistant to some forms of magic, especially sophisticated mental manipulation and domination, and their hardiness improves their resilience towards physical effects. One unfortunate downside of this, however, is that healing magic is also less effective against them, and they are more reliant on natural and pharmaceutical medicines, which means wounds and other grave injuries can put an Uur Dral out of commission for weeks or months, and might have lasting, life-long effects. Conversely, their negligible magical background, as well as their stocky build and stout strength, makes them ideally suited for siphonite mining operations, as they can work with and around the raw mineral for far longer than any other species before it starts to harden and become unworkable, and siphonite miners generally pay a premium for any Uur Dral they can hire.

Galactic status
Ever since Partum Uri threw off their Drin Ath Midari yoke, small numbers of Uur Dral have been trickling off their homeworld and joining galactic society, particularly young adults who cannot find another family group to join. Their small numbers make them a fairly rare sight, though their existence is well-known enough that few people will take particular note of them, especially in the Farfringe, though they are still something of a curiosity in the Core Sectors. Because of their low numbers and wide diaspora, there are no known instances of Uur Dral being born offworld yet, and all Uur Dral out in the galaxy have willingly left their home planet.

Partum Uri maintains a space station in orbit around Uur Dral, with a constant coming and going of shuttles to the planet to meet and trade with all the different family groups and pick up new adventure seekers. The Uur Dral do not have a unified government of their own, but since the Uur Dral Research Group effectively administers the system, Partum Uri are considered the caretakers and representatives of Uur Dral interests in the CSC, including those Uur Dral that have left the homeworld.

History
Uur Dral themselves have no written historical record, and while each family has their own body of stories, legends and sagas, there is no telling how accurate any of these are, and cataloguing them is an exercise more in anthropology than in history.

EY 960s
The Drin Ath Midari having expanded their territory to mere light-years from the Uur Dral homeworld during the Seventh Phase of the Third Great Extension, it was only a matter of time before their patrols happened upon the species. The exact year is unknown, as the Drin Ath Midari are obviously not particularly keen on sharing their sensitive information with CSC historiographers for the sake of posterity, but based on Uur Dral oral history it most likely happened in the 960s.

Recognising their physical potential, the Drin Ath Midari waste no time setting up shop in the system, and taking entire family groups to serve as slave labour, even instituting a breeding programme to create stronger, longer-lived workers.

EY 981
The capture of a Drin Ath Midari slaver ship turns up the corpse of a large humanoid rodent in the engine room, dressed in worker's overalls and still holding a toolbox and a multitool. This is the first known encounter of an Uur Dral by the CSC. In the following decades, similar corpses are found on other captured or destroyed Drin Ath Midari ships.

EY 1002
The first CSC encounter with live Uur Dral; a family group being carried on board a slave transport. The first shot fired destroyed the bridge, preventing the bridge crew from flooding the ship with poison gas to prevent their cargo from falling into enemy hands. The Partum Uri research group dedicated to studying the new species immediately swoops in to establish proper contact, teaching the Uur Dral Calysian in order to learn more about them.

EY 1008
A flotilla of Partum Uri scout ships is dispatched to the Farfringe with the specific goal of locating the Uur Dral homeworld. Despite being constantly harrassed by Drin Ath Midari patrols, the planet's coordinates are transmitted by one of the scouts in EY 1019, just before being destroyed.

EY 1023
A Partum Uri combat fleet is dispatched to Uur Dral, shrouded in secrecy. Any details of the battle, including the names of the ships involved, is kept a closely-guarded secret to this day. Regardless of what happened, the Drin Ath Midari presence in the system is completely annihilated, patrols are recalled, and the Drin Ath Midari actually withdraw from several of the surrounding systems. To this day, Partum Uri controls the sector Uur Dral is located in, right on the border of Drin Ath Midari space, without a single Drin Ath Midari ship being spotted within eight lightyears; this has led to rampant speculation and conspiracy theorising as to what Partum Uri managed to do to spook them that badly.