THE KREN

The Kren are the most populous; one of the oldest of the modern races; and can be found all throughout Arcadia - though most concentrated within the borders of the massive Kren Empire that spans the states of Taurus, Dent, Terra, Troy, Lear, Manx and formerly Pariah. They are a race of humanoids, and even some non-humanoids, comprised of many tribes whose characteristics can vary significantly tribe to tribe and even from generation to generation. Some of the most common traits among most Kren tribes are an absence of body hair, nostrils that are flat to their faces, an absence of lips, powerful bodies, brightly colored spots/markings on their skin and brutish or even monstrous faces. Great pride is taken in their tribal uniqueness and they despise all other races. They go so far as to consider an outcast any of their own who too closely resembles another Arcadian race. Some of these outcasts are used by Emperor Mordak’s security services to infiltrate other governments while many others end up as slaves or economic refugees with little in the way of prospects within the empire. While relations are extremely poor with almost all neighboring states, The Kren consider the Priogen their natural born enemies and have warred with Prio, on and off, for centuries.
Some aspects of Kren culture:

• They eat their own dead as a matter of ritual and habit. Their mourning process involves a funeral feast where the deceased is cooked and served to all guests. To them, not eating a loved one, friend or associate is a show of great disrespect. As a Kren, if you die a slave or no one claims you, your body will be sold to a processing plant unless your owner wants to keep your body and perform a funeral feast in your honor (which is a rare, but not unheard of event). An unfortunate amount of the Kren food supply came from the slave labor forces working in the mining state of Pariah. They do not engage in inter-species cannibalism because of their dim view of other races.

• The Kren mate for life and their nuptials are called a Promise Day. Adultery and spousal abandonment is severely dealt with and often punishable by death. A physiological occurrence that is at the root of this tradition is that the male Kren's genitals detach into their mate during intercourse and don't grow back. It is a joke among other Arcadians that the Kren are such a belligerent and hostile race because of this.

• The Kren often put together hunting parties for other humanoids. Some Kren elites take vacations where they hunt other Arcadians and, particularly, their children for sport.

• To offset how very different they can look The Kren frequently engage in tribal tattooing as they seek out commonalities.

• Not only will The Kren enslave their own who they consider outcasts because of their resemblance to other Arcadians, they very actively engage in impressment and slavery of other Arcadians and are probably the largest force driving the slave trade in all of Arcadia.