Appearance

It is very hard to describe an Arc’kha’to as most of its appearance is determined by the host it currently uses. However, a host infested with an Arc’kha’to can be identified by the various protuberances and nodes that have pierced the host’s body.

Behaviour

The Arc’kha’to lay eggs in the corpses of other living beings, and the larvae which hatch then attach themselves to living hosts, hijacking their nervous system and taking complete control over their bodies. This very behaviour lead to the term “controllers”, which is commonly used by other species when referring to the Arc’kha’to.

Controllers are not picky about who they use as hosts and will be quite content to use any possible host, with a preference for relatively bulky hosts which provide them with higher chances of killing others, and therefore of laying the eggs of the next generation of controllers.

History

The oldest known ancestors of the Arc’kha’to were brainless parasites which survived merely by attaching themselves to their hosts. Over ages they started linking to the central nervous system of their hosts to better control their actions and thus obtain hosts which behaviour suited their needs. However the range of species controllers manage to parasite is vast; their high adaptability to newly discovered potential hosts make them even more deadly, as it will not take them too long to start controlling members of a species they didn’t know of.

While it is sufficient for rudimentary communication and very efficient when it comes to motor control, the neural link between an Arc’kha’to and its host is not deep enough to allow for advanced reasoning. In addition, their predatory habits tend to have them keep to themselves far from other members of their own species, as they constantly compete for preys. As such no real Arc’kha’to culture really emerged and no known internal history of the species has been passed along except through records in other species’ logs, such as spectacular breeding cycles resulting in heavy casualties. The Arc’kha’to themselves have long forgotten the name and location of their home world.

Individual names

Just like the name of their own species, Arc’kha’to individual names consist in short, guttural sequences of syllables. This is a consequence of their relatively weak connection to the host’s nervous system.

In-game effects

Due to their predatory and competitive habits, the Arc’kha’to tend to use up quite a bit of space – they don’t tolerate living too close to each other. Their natural growth rate is low and is very dependent on the availability of preys to eat and lay eggs in. Obviously, members of other species are not too fond of them, both because of their distasteful appearance and because of their tendency to kill you on the spot without warning.

Since they are not too bright because of the weak neural link to their host’s nervous system, they make poor researchers. This relative stupidity has an advantage, tho, as it makes them almost impossible to corrupt; propaganda is something way too clever to affect them.

Arc’kha’to are very efficient factory workers and absolutely brutal soldiers. Being quite undisciplined, they do not tolerate being overworked; furthermore, they don’t tolerate slavery at all – you don’t enslave Controllers, Controllers enslave you. High security doesn’t please them, as they feel threatened when feeding and/or breeding.

However the universe is huge and not encountering anyone else than other humans feels a bit… poor. Therefore we decided to include other species in Beta 6. So who are they?

First of all we decided to include species living in very specific environments, such as nebulae, hyperspace, etc. Having fleets going through these places would lead to encounters with these aliens.

Then we also chose to add species living on planets. These species would already live there or evolve from normal human beings. Each player would then have to manage a mixed population, where each species would have its own needs and tolerance to game related factors such as employment, happiness level, corruption level, etc.

So far the exact list of species to be included in Beta 6 is still open but we plan on having around 20. Therefore the list is open to suggestions (with original names and short descriptions).

Do you think having several species in the universe, be it in special environments or on planets can bring new dimensions to the game?

Don’t you think it might get too difficult to have to make several population groups happy on each planet of your empire?

Do you think we intend to have enough / too many / too few different species?