Shoggren

Name: Shoggren
Dice: 12D
Dexterity: 2D / 4D
Knowledge: 1D+2 / 3D+2
Mechanical: 2D / 4D
Perception: 1D+1 / 3D+1
Strength: 3D+1 / 5D+1
Technical: 1D+2 / 3D+2

Move: 10 / 12
Size: 2.5 - 3.5 meters

Special Abilities:

• Thick Fur: A Shoggren’s thick fur gives it Damage Resistance of +1 pip.
• Heat Sensitivity: Shoggren are more sensitive to extremes of heat; a Shoggren suffers a –2D penalty to any Checks to resist damage from heat exhaustion.
• Poor Vision: They receive a –1D racial penalty to Visual Search checks.
• Excellent Hearing: They receive a +1D bonus to Auditory Search checks.
• Quick Response: They receive a +21D bonus to Initiative rolls.
• Panicked Rage: Shoggren are vulnerable to panicked rages as a result of a thousand years of being hunted and feared. If a Shoggren suffers a critical hit or attribute damage, or is otherwise alarmed, it must make a Willpower check (Difficulty 15). If this check is failed, then the Shoggren must either flee immediately or enter a berserk rage, killing all non-Shoggren nearby.

Description: The Shoggren are largely extinct in this era, although a handful have survived. They were a barbaric warrior race, possessed of immense physical strength and savagery coupled with a surprisingly keen intelligence. The Shoggren conquered their entire homeworld and were experimenting with crude rocketry when discovered by the Shadows. The Shadows saw the Shoggren as suitable agents of chaos and equipped them with more advanced spacecraft and weaponry.

For a time, the Shoggren served as foot troops for the Shadows; while Shadow cruisers continued the race’s normal approach of blasting ships and causing chaos from orbit, the Shoggren would be dropped on a world and do much the same thing up close. They targeted more primitive races, filtering out pre-spaceflight species who did not have a chance of surviving the greater chaos brought on by the Shadows. The Shoggren conquered a hundred worlds, their existence became a succession of bloodbaths punctuated by grey eternities on board transport ships.

Eventually, the Shoggren grew decadent, and their effectiveness declined. The Shadows withdrew their support and changed to another method for sowing chaos – the Techno-Mages. Many of the Shoggren were destroyed when they attacked Centauri Prime in pursuit of the renegade mages; the survivors fl ed the Shadow sphere of influence or were converted into Shadow soldiers.

Personality: During their heyday, the Shoggren loved nothing more than slaughtering hundreds of sword-wielding aliens with laser cannon and fusion bombs, then retiring to their ships to feast. They lived large and killed large. As time went on, the Shoggren became lazy and relied too much on the technology and weapons given to them by the Shadows.

Modern Shoggren are still warriors, but the race has been forced to fend for itself for almost a thousand years. It is believed the Shoggren were one of the original Raider groups and a few Shoggren families may still be found among the Raiders.

Physical Description: Shoggren are large, hairy humanoids. They are incredibly strong, with large claws and sharp teeth. The Shoggrens’ eyesight is relatively poor, although they have an excellent ability to detect motion and incredibly precise hearing. Much of their culture and technology is aural instead of visual. The Shoggrens’ thick fur made warm planets unpleasant for them; they wore cooling suits when fighting on hot worlds. Relations: The Shoggrens’ relation with other races was rather… limited. Skulls were cleaved, cities were sacked, chaos was spread and the Shoggren feasted while their masters laughed. If the Shoggren had targeted spacefaring civilizations instead of primitive ones, they might still be remembered in the modern era as marauders. Instead, they are almost forgotten.

Systems: The Shoggren have no homeworld left to them; their planet was used as a Shadow base for 10,000 years but was rendered unusable by the Walkers in the last great war. The Shoggren maintain colonies on two other worlds in that system and have a few dozen other strongholds. Still, the race has less than 20,000 members, so most of its colonies are very small.

Beliefs: The overriding Shoggren belief is survival – the Shoggren have essentially been on the run from the Shadows and most other races for a thousand years. They have lost the support of their former masters, and the Centauri still remember the Shoggren attack on their world when the Republic was being formed. Shoggren are notoriously untrustworthy, willing to sacrifice anything in order to survive.

Language: The Shoggren language is brutish and uncouth, but is well suited for barking commands on a battlefield. As the Shoggren have excellent hearing, the language contains a surprising number of subtle variations and tonal shifts.

Names: The Shoggren have infamously lengthy names, as each name contained a list of the Shoggren’s accomplishments and battles. The Centauri record the Shoggren generals who commanded the attack on Centauri Prime being named Terrog n’Grash’ah’vark, Groth Yu’Grash’fe’Nar and Pura n’Min’ah’Nar. One can only assume that other Shoggren are equally well named.

Starfarers: Shoggren starfarers are normally Raiders, although there are tales of Shoggren enslaving primitive races who have yet to enter space.

Source:

• The Babylon 5 Project: Shoggren
• Babylon 5: Darkness and Light (pages 116-117)
• thedemonapostle