Skullhead Gigas mallei ("Giant Hammer") NOTE: This race is unplayable! A massive brute of primitive descent. They are known colloquially as Skullheads for their trademark bone protrusions jutting out of their bodies. The original name, Boneheads, proposed by Hiraki Corale was immediately rejected as the giants grew even more pissed when they realized the traumatized victims were referring to them. Talk about no sense of humor. Roughly double the size of your average human being (literal mountains of flesh), Skullheads easily intimidate most on the sheer virtue of their size alone. Their bodies are covered in a thick hide that is resilient to most elements, almost hippo-like in texture. The bony plating predominantly covering their upper regions is tough as nails, requiring more than just mere steel weaponry to break through. The skull-like armor covering its head is equivalent to a helmet, protecting the giant's tiny brain from serious damage. Underneath this is a mouth loaded with rows upon rows of serrated teeth, much akin to a shark's. And like these aquatic predators, should the Skullhead's teeth fall out, a new set comes in to take their place. Skullheads are a hypercarnivorous race, subsisting exclusively on meat. They are merciless on the hunt, showing no mercy even for the cutest of bunny rabbits. While they don't use hi-tech weaponry like most races, they make up for that by crushing the hell out of anything with their massive weight and or wooden clubs. Their steps cause tremors with each step, alarming most animals with a sense of mortality to run the f*ck away. Thankfully, these behemoths are slow even on the chase, restricting most of their diet to equally slow prey. Upon capture, their meals are taken back to their camps located in open fields for dismemberment. These camps are recognizable from a distance from their upscaled furniture look (e.g. Giant stone tables, giant bonfire, etc.) Heads and bones are put up on display on stone walls as trophies, while the meat is left either out to dry or be cooked over the fire. A brave adventurer could attempt to steal said spoils from Skullhead camps, as these guys aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the galactic kitchen. But there's no guarantee you'd get out alive. It is not known how the Skullhead's managed to become widespread across the high tiered sectors in the galaxy, mainly due to their very primitive nature. One theory suggests an experiment was conducted by an unknown race to introduce them to different planets to see how well they adapted. Obviously this hypothetical plan backfired on certain planets, as Skullheads require massive amounts of meat to satisfy their hunger levels. As a result, some systems have drastically less wildlife than before their introduction. Skullheads are generally hostile to all races as they see them as potential finger food. Florans are a bit of an exception to this rule. Some Florans have established very basic symbiosis with these giants and exchange meat with them frequently. The keyword here however is 'some', as Florans are still just as vulnerable to getting mauled as the other races are. They may not eat the salad, but that doesn't mean they won't toss it (Apologies to offended Florans who read this snarky remark). Skullheads also lack developed vocal chords, leaving them restricted to communication via grunts and roars. Quick lesson here from the science folks. If it growls, it means "You smell delicious!". If it roars, it means "I'M GONNA GUT YOU LIKE A FISH." For more Skullhead to English translations, see the 'Giant Flesh-eaters and You' pamphlet included with your survivalist package. Haven't done one of these in awhile lol. The idea was a giant race that would be added simply for ambiance and further immersion in the game. Many people have proposed ideas of playable races. Why not throw in a race that's like the penguin race you see occasionally? You can't play as them, but they still have an impact on your space adventures if you encounter them. Will add more to this thread later.
On first blush, the race is interesting. We do have two unplayable races thus far - the Agarans and the Penguins, but a third wouldn't hurt. However, at further examination, I'm a little hesitant to put my support behind this. Firstly, how do these creatures survive on high-threat worlds, given their lumbering speed and lack of technology? When I'm requiring a nanosuit tech to not suffocate, fry, freeze solid, or become an irradiated lump of cancer on a planet's surface, and requiring weapons and armor made out of titanium alloys or fictitious supermaterial substances just to keep the local wildlife from snacking on me, how are these brutes making do with leather loincloths and wood or stone cudgels? Further, I would prefer more races with better-explained reasoning as to why they're interstellar. No offense, but "nobody seems to know how they've spread across the galaxy" strikes me as rather a cop-out. The Agarans are already playing that card to the hilt already, and they have more plausible explanations, due to their association with the Florans. I'm not certain how you can justify an obligate, largely-indiscrimate carnivore race with stone age technology at best, coupled with extreme hostility to pretty much everything, being widespread on a galactic scale.
Very fine points. I'll try to address them in the best way I can. 1. You could ask the same for all the other races that happen to be thriving on these insanely hostile environments with nothing but the bare clothes on their backs and thatched roof housing. I'm certain at least some degree of logic will factor into where they're rarndomly placed in the game's universe should they exist, but there isn't much else to say if everything else kinda ignores the dangerous living conditions as well. 2. I DID mention the most likely reason they're widespread is due to some species introduction project gone wrong. They're essentially an invasive species due to the carelessness/stupidty of another race's experiments. If anything, due to how they were introduced to other planets they'd be fairly rare at best.
So far, the only race that does that are the Florans and possibly Avians. Apex at least have the technology that would let them distribute nanosuits to their citizens (and their cities are both guarded and basically prefabricated and assembled on the spot, kinda like the idea behind IKEA furniture applied to architecture.) Humans live in underground, climate-controlled bunkers. The Glitch are machines - it's quite possible that, on high-threat worlds, native-built Glitch are subtly modified with the planetary climate in mind at the time of their building. Agarans only populate low-threat Forest worlds. Avians are a case where it's questionable. Most tombs and temples are mostly underground and despite their tribal appearance they have some form of advanced crystal-based tech - it's possible they have some analogue to nanosuits. You have to question how avian civilians on high threat worlds survive, though - given how rare nanosuit tech seems to be, I doubt you could just hand 'em out to civilians. Florans obviously have access to Drysap, but that only goes far enough to make them the equivalent of other races when it comes to environmental survivability. They still require nanosuits to survive more threatening environments, which gives them the same problem as avian civvies. As for their structures, that's actually explained ingame. Use the N-key to examine a Floran Bamboo door, as any race except a Floran. Several races will mention that Florans have techniques for cultivating plants into architecture that's stronger than steel. Those look like ordinary plants, but the Florans have nurtured them to specifically withstand the native environment. As for their leather and bone goods, most of those are made from native creatures, who would naturally be adapted to that enrionment. The problem here is that Skullheads are specifically stated to exist on high-threat worlds, yet lack Apex, Avian, or Human technology to create a nanosuit necessary for breathing and surviving the atmosphere comfortably, and while they can take advantage of native life to make clothing and tools that can survive the planet's climate, they lack the Floran ability to bend nature and don't show much initiative to create any sort of architecture to begin with. What I'd suggest is some kind of inborn adaptability (perhaps the ability to breathe numerous different kinds of atmospheric gases, as well as flesh and bone laced with heavier metals, resistant to things like radiation and excess heat), plus a penchant for living just underground. Maybe some skill in making leather and bone goods from their prey would be a good idea,with Skullheads on the surface being draped in heavy pelts rather than relying solely on their natural toughness to survive the climate. Cultural info on 'em seems a bit sparse, and this would be a good start to fleshing them out as more than just a bunch of big bony-faced ogres. I don't expect their culture to be anything less than savage, violent, and primitive, but even savage, violent, and primitive cultures have their intricacies. You did indeed mention that, but that brings up the question of just which race had the bright (read: suicidal) idea to say, "hey, here's a bunch of big, bony faced ogres that are obligate carnivores and hostile to a fault; let's see what happens if we herd some up, then scatter 'em across the nastiest star systems we know of!" On one hand, Apex are standing out as culprits in my mind; I don't see any other race being that dumb/possessing that much expendable resources. On the other, I'm a bit wary of making the Apex the literal butt-monkeys of the Starbound 'verse, responsible for all, or at least most, of its dumb ideas. I wouldn't recommend the Florans - even though they have slightly more peaceful relations with the Skullheads than most, they're already doing their thing with the Agarans. I'd recommend steering clear of 'ancient unknown races' as those seem to figure pretty heavily into lore ATM, what with ancient gates being present, plus the Glitch backstory and Tiy's most recent screenie. Don't wanna step on any devs' toes after all.
Oooh, what if these guys were initially encountered by the Apex during the set-up of a mining base on a dangerous planet. They need the metals, and they can't quite kill all of them, so they just lured all of them in crates and sent them somewhere else, hoping that they'd die in those other, more hostile biomes; turns out they thrived there instead. Sorta like the British sending their inmates to Australia, or something.
