Saurians

[Jeff T]

FOREWORD:the following is not official canon. It is an extensive creative work based on very scarce canon information. Such canon info has been written in bold so as to be easily recognized by the purist. All the rest is a pure work of imagination and parallel research for the sole benefit of Role Playing this intriguing race, often indirectly mentionned but seen only once (in some brief shots in Star Trek the Motion Picture) and now part of the basic official playable Federation races in STO.
(by Kheren)
 

SAURIA
 
 
GEOPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
 
 
PLANETARY SYSTEM:
 
 
Psi Serpentis is a binary star system, located in the constellation Serpens, approximately 47.9 light years (roughly 16 parsecs) coreward from Sol.
 
The primary component, Psi Serpentis A, is a yellow G-type main sequence dwarf similar to Sol, with a magnitude of +5.86. It has a close 12th magnitude companion, Psi Serpentis B, at least 60 Astronomical Units (8 light hours) distant from it,s main compagnon.
 
Psi Serpentis A-III is well known throughout the Federation as Sauria, home of the Saurians.
 
 
PLANET:
 
Sauria (called Hraah in native language)
 
Class M planet 86,500km of circumference, orbiting the main star at 0.85 AU in the ecliptic plane.
 
The ecosystem is tropical and subtropical, mostly covered with water surrounding a vast fragmented continent covered with lush jungles, swamps and rainforests from low valleys to old eroded mountains, and two very small ice caps where the temperature is temperate to sub arctic. There is only one, slowly growing desert at the heart of the continent along the equator. Winter temperature averages 22C and only the rare and short cold waves will bring temperature anywhere closer to freezing in the northern hemisphere. About all Earth minerals and elements are found there but carbon and carbon derivatives (carbon dioxyde, diamonds, petroleum etc) have especially rich, and numerous deposits.
 
Seismic instabilities and hot weather make the vast highly salted liquid water seas on Sauria so treacherous that even Saurians never fully explored their depths. Their mysteries and wonders are to them as great as outer space is to Humans. They are teaming with life (Saurians recognize that all life originated from them and consider them their lost ''garden of Eden'') and therefore a rich source of food, industrial energy and scientific study. Thallassan energy (using the tides as a source of renewable clean power) is the second energy technology that made advanced Saurian civilization possible.
 
Geothermal activity later provided also added energy ressources for the development of the Saurian civilization. However, this is but a relatively new developpement; heavy background radiation and elevated solar energy provided the prime source of energy for the sentient lifeform that arose there... so much that it took a million years longer for Saurians to learn to use fire than Humans.
 
With higher gravity, elevated radiation and ultraviolet levels, tectonic instability, high temperature and humidity, life flourished on this world. The overabundance of plant life brought elevetaed levels of carbon dioxyde and oxygen, creating a dense atmosphere that both protected and insulated it. For all intent and purposes, Sauria is most like Earth was over 70 millions years ago, during the early Jurrassic period.
 
Life developped also on a strikingly similar path of evolution (giving support to the Seeder theory within the Federation) but here, the dinosaurs never became instinct; the evolved into a sentient species millions of years before the advent of Humans on distant Earth.
 

PLACES OF NOTE:

Th'notho'ia: Sauria's capital city. The underground city of the modern capital is said to be the oldest one known in the Federation, it's most ancient structures dating back almost 50 million years!
 
Sseeko'ah: the Tree of Life, a living monument of life and growth to the Saurians; it is an immense baobab-like tree said to be one of the most ancient living things recorded by the Federation science council. It's exact true age is unknown as the tree rejuvenate itself through plowing branches becoming new sprouts rejoining the old trunk; but Saurians claim it far predates their own race and consider it a sentient being after worshipping it as a God of life of sorts (see religion) for all their early History.
 
Haanssaethraeh: The Ancestral Path or ''the place where the world begins and ends''; the most sacred place for all Saurians. It is an immense catacomb where billions of Saurian skulls make up floor, walls and ceilings for miles at the heart of the great desert. It is there that the remains of every Saurian are brought, cremated and rejoined with their ancestors... and where eggs are left for the young to be born and begin their ''path of life.'' very few offworlders are allowed there and they could legally be killed on sight if being found in this place without autorization.
 
Ssaamahaerhii: the great suspended gardens dedicated to preserving all the flora of the planet. Numerous extinct species are still kept alive there, providing a rare opportunity for Federation scientists to study the genetics of evolution.
 
Ssorssaeth :The First nest: the center of the great desert, a vast salt bowl where all Life on Sauria allegedly began. Local radiation nullifies scanners and only first hand research is possible... but only to Saurians. Vulcans (because of their high ethics) and Andorians (who are very ecologically conscious) escorted by Saurians can in some rare instances obtain permission to conduct studies (although Andorians are not fond of a world where they loose 10% of their bodymass every day due to the heat!).
 
Sseeaarheah: the Great Silence: an immense equatorial desert, the remannt of a long dead inland sea where the Saurians go to hatch their youngs and lay their dead. At night, it becomes one of the coldest places on the planet, with temperature falling below freezing. During the day, the scorching heat renders all electronics inoperative and can dessicate a Human in merely days. Legends of sand dragons and giant worms add to this vast uninhabitated domain's mysterious and ominious reputation, even if every Saurian since prehistory had to cross it as a child or a parent.
 
 
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
 
APPEARANCE:
 
Saurians are very tall, very slim humanoids, averaging between 2 and 3 meters, covered with scales of various sizes, patterns and colors. They often look dark red to pale tan to Human eyes and somewhat disturbingly identical; but in fact, there never was born two Saurians that were identical, even among the exceedingly rare twins. The size, number, type, location, color and shape of the bigger scales combined with the specific skin tone and texture define the entire genetic background of each individual, and thus clearly identify him to any other Saurian as clearly as fingerprints or retinae patterns for Humans. But the race is so ancient, and those details so numerous, minute and complex, only Saurians can interpret them. They do so at a glance however, while offworlders experts are lucky to identify regional groupings!
 
It is still unclear if there are sub-races as found with Humans or Andorians for example. Because of this specificity of each individual, their peculiar tradition of birthing and their very nature, Saurians have evolved into a strange civilization of deep individualism that makes any attempt at grouping a theoretical exercise that bears nothing to the actual reality of Saurian life.
 
SAURIAN PHYSIOLOGY:
 
Saurians are a subspecies of homeothermal reptiles like Earth's late dinosaurs were beleived to be: They have a constant 30C body temperature and consequently a very low metabolism, so they have a slower reaction time than Humans in normal circumstances (however see secondary brain below). Their internal organs are extremely efficient and resilient as they have four seperate hearts to nurture them.
 
The reddish skin tones most common to Saurians point to the heavy iron base of their blood and tissue. This make them most compatible, on a cellular level, with many Humanoid life forms like Humans and Bajorans, and it's very rich oxygen content can litterally boost a Human's metabolism. So much in fact that tansfusion requires filtering to avoid risks of vascular or brain damage to the non-Saurian. This means also that it is very hard to make their blood compatible with copper based ones like that of a Vulcan's or an Orion's, for instance, and totally incompatible with cobalt based ones like those of Bolians or Andorians.
 
Because of their low metabolic rate, the race has a genetic disposition towards unemotionalism. Unlike most sentient life forms, imminent danger do not cause any biochemical reaction resulting in a increase in physical and emotional responses or in sensory input levels. Instead, physiology stays almost unchanged, giving full access to analytical and reasoning skills even in a life or death situation. Saurians do not succumb to pressure and actually have no change of behavior in a crisis... and in the same manner, excitement has no meaning for them.
 
However, Saurians have what has been labelled a second brain located at the base of the spinal column in the pelvis region. A remnant of the dinosaur era, this neural nexus was originally a supplement to the nervous system to allow giant-sized dinosaurs to control their aft limbs and tail; but as they evolved towards sentience, this neural nexus evolved too and reached the same level as the primal ''reptilian'' brain of the Human cerebellum.
 
Although capable only of some very basic cognitive abilities, it is essentially the seat of primal urges and emotions and processes all reflexes and autonomous body functions (the laters being backed up by the main upper brain). This explains why Saurians are so detached from their instincts, emotionless and especially so tough to stun and even then can sometimes continue to act when their main brain is knocked off; some reports claim to have seen Saurians beheaded in battle still continue to fight!
 
This extraordinary physiological developpement is unique to Saurians, even among other reptilian-type species like Gorns and Voths. It also explains how normally ponderous and slow reacting Saurians can suddenly react even faster than Andorians in a life and death crisis, and keep their wits about them even when facing dire situations or otherwise fully engaged mentally. Betazoids have discovered that even mentally controlled or scanned, a Saurian can act without apparent tought... because then, the secondary, animalistic brain takes control.
 
Despite their misleadingly fragile appearance, Saurians are very strong, much stronger than Vulcans, able to lift at least three times their own body weight because of their denser bone and muscle tissue, their powerful circulatory system, and thicker, longer tendons multiplying leverage considerably in their limbs. They are also of extraordinary suppleness, effectively double-jointed and able to bend their body out of shape to escape restraints; evidently some by-product of early survival in dense, entangled vegetation and boggy swamps.
 
Their hands and feet still bear short, sharp claws, vestigal remains of their animalistic past, that they can use to better climb and run in natural environement than any Human can; but without shoes and gloves, they are proportionately less apt in artificial settings. Some cadets in Starfleet likes to make fun of them by staging barefoot races on polished floors (where they skid and fall easily) or challenging them to pick up a pip on a desk. They are also excellent natural swimmers, perfectly at ease in watery environements, and their oxygen-rich blood allows them to stay submerged under water for up to half an hour, much like Earth's iguanas.
 
They are known to be as tough as Jem'Hadars, thanks also to their scaled skin. A phaser stun at lever 3 will only knock them out for 5 minutes, while lower settings will have no effect unless applied multiple times and very quickly. Blunt weapons are rarely effective because of their toughness and flexibility while blades and piercing weapons must hit them cleanly to go through their thick hard skin. However, when cut, they bleed profusely because of their numerous hearts and can go quickly into shock from blood loss. Their most vulnerable spot however is below the kidneys: A very forceful hit there (like from a Lirpa or Ambojitsu staff weilded by a strong Human or a Klingon) will affect the second brain and enduce complete body paralysis just like a phaser blast would. A knock out blow to the head, if strong enough to neutralize the main cortex, will not stop a Saurian; if anyhting, it will make him even more deadly, as now only the animalistic counsciousness is dominant.
 
All of these make them more resistant to pain, injury, and soreness, therefore very difficult to defeat in combat. Saurians can stay totally immobile for hours on end effortlessly, not even batting an eyelid, never getting sore or stiff from over-exertion and never suffering numbness from a cramped posture because of their highly powerful circulatory system; they do not experience discomfort from high humidity nor suffer frostbite or hypothermia in cold weather or run any risk of sunburn and heatstrokes. They in fact resist with ease extremes of coldness and heat that could kill other humanoids outright.
 
They require sleep for 6-18 hours over the 36 hours of the Saurian day, depending of their level of activity and nourishment; an exhausted or fully fed Saurian will sleep easily half a day, while a hungry and fresh one can even avoid sleep entirely for days without ill effect... but then they fall in a 9 hours coma for every day skipped... a condition they not always survive. They are very sluggish once engaged in a rest cycle. If abruptly wakened, they react with uncontrolable violence and savagery, their primal secondary brain only active as their cortex and neocortex still sleep. Astonishing tales of Saurians running and fighting even while asleep certainly contribute to explain how their youngs can survive the vast desert they must escape after birth; but it also unfortunately enables the primal brain to take control of the entire body and lash out if sleep is disturbed. Mates killed during sleep are the only cases where law does not label it murder on Sauria.
 
Curiously born all left-handed, they are not good marksmen because of their widely spaced slitted eyes, but these however provide immunity to glare, efficient night vision and a much wider field of vision. Their eyes react more to movement than to shapes, to the point that it is sometimes possible to escape one's notice by staying very still... but the very slightest movement will alert them, even from behind. A retractable eyelid allow them to perceive variations of heat, providing infravision. This, and the sheer size of their bulging eyes, point out to their nocturnal nature. Starfleet Saurian officers are therefore not often seen because they always prefer night shifts.
 
Their sense of smell relies as much on their slitted tongue as on their nostrils, and is thus very powerful and of considerable range. As for their auditory sensibility, it links to their otherwise stunted sense of touch (because of their thick skin), allowing them to hear as well as a Human as long as they sense vibrations as much as sounds themselves. Otherwise,they are curiously deaf and therefore have noticeable difficulty in hearing some races langages like Andorian speech or the nuances of Human langages. They will hear someone tiptoeing behind them more from the impact of their weight on the ground as from the shuffling sound itself. Universal translators for Saurians are equipped with a vibrating circuit to make them ''feel'' as much as ''hear'' what it conveys. As expected, Saurian music is heavily based on percussion instruments and traditionally ignores almost all wind and brass instruments (except for the Tuba).
 
Their four-hearted cardio-vascular system is the basis of their well known resistance to gases and toxins, making them able to breathe various types of atmospheres that would be harmful to other species. Thus they are very sought after for engineering and away team duties in potentially hazardous environements.
 
As for Andorians, Saurians require intramuscular injections (hyposprays do not penetrate their scales) but injected medicines will also work quickly because of their powerful four hearts. Although poisons normally fail to affect their natural immunity, any wich would affect a Saurian would therefore act very quickly!
 
Bleeding Saurians are more prone to shock than humans, as much less as they are in other critical circumstances. Blood loss is very dangerous to them, and comrades, because they loose it so fast and still can move (and thus loose even more blood) when in shock or uncounscious. Restraining a shocked, bleeding Saurian is a most daunting task for any medical personnel because of their stength, speed and savagery; the Saurian sagas are full of tragic stories of wounded warriors killing all around them and then dying...
 
However, the combination of slow metabolism and hyperdevelopped cardio-vascular system makes them very resilient and enduring, so they tend to face situations in a unhurried, ponderous fashion... and then, in a sudden, expeditive and decisive way once they commit themselves and ''let loose''.
 
From their slow metabolism, Saurians get exceedingly long lifespans, as they are almost never sick and can survive terrible hardships. Some Saurians that joined Starfleet in the early 23rd Century were still serving aboard starships at the end of the 24th century, showing no apparent sign of aging. They are allegedly able to live several centuries, like terrestrial giant turtles, but their actual lifespan is still a mystery, as the Saurians themselves are unconcerned about the whole matter.'' Life never ends'' is often said on Sauria.
 
Believed to have followed an evolutionary path that had been cut short for the dinosaur species of Earth, Saurians are a highly intelligent species. Their formidable circulatory system brings richly oxygenated blood to the brain and cleanse it quickly and thoroughly, favoring heightened brain cell development and activity. Their acute ocular and olfactory senses make them keenly aware and curious of their surroundings, and their natural dexterity and strength facilitates and stimulates the use of tools. All of this revealed itself to be highly conductive to the eclosion of intelligence and the advent of civilization.
 
One extraordinary by-product of this is that Saurians have access to their genetic past; they can ''relive'' the lives of their direct ancestors in their mind as if they were their own memories. The actual biomechanics of this is still not understood, and theorized to be mainly due to their secondary ''primal'' brain, but it's reality is undeniable as Saurians ''know'' many things they know without ever learning them, especially the vast number of archaic skills they all seem to grasp instinctively, like hunting, survival and combat skills.
 

PSYCHOLOGY
 
At first glance, they appear primitive, almost bestial with their expressionless reptilian faces and large empty eyes. But Saurians are highly intelligent, even intellectual humanoids, deadpan and emotionless, very calm, rational and logical like the Vulcans. However, unlike Vulcans who do have emotions but surpress them, Saurians have almost no emotions at all, except some vestigal traits of the most basic ones... and even then, rarely surfacing, as they are all located in the secondary brain suppressed by the higher cortical organ... most of the time.
 
Saurian history is one of survival and change. There is no martial spirit as such in a Saurian: only the strong urge to do what must be done in the most effective way to ensure survival, success or prosperity. Consequently they are extremely professional and disciplined, possessing a strong sense of duty and pragmatism, and so they equally make excellent military officers and buzinessmen.
 
From birth until death, they learn to rely on themselves first and foremost. When Saurians band together, it is always because individual needs and necessity bring them in the same place and taking the same direction to achieve the same goal, not at all out of any sense of community. Even their children are left to fend for themselves before actual birth, and mating is a temporary converging of mutual desires and needs, normally ending after consumation.
 
Consequently, they have no notion of family, clan, sect or other long lasting ties in the usual sense. However, each Saurian is keenly aware of one's own direct ancestry and cares deeply about his link with his genetic line, through his forebears and to the future through his children. Both however are seen as a continuation of one single life, so that a Saurian parent will not care for any specific child of his, as long as there is at least one somewhere to keep the lifeline ongoing.
 
Stoic and unsentimental, they are extremely individualistic to the point of being essentially hollistic: reality is only define from one's self. This is at the heart of what it means to be Saurian. Some Starfleet officiers labelled it ''the anthithesis of Borg Collective ''. This is rather well substantiated by the fact that Borg drones never assimilate Saurians: either the individual dies outright from shock when connected to the Collective... or in some rare cases, the Collective itself is in peril of being integrated into the ancestral thinking of the individual!
 
When they sleep, Saurians dream profusely, and always of those ancestral past existences. They will use these as references to make decisions and take action in the most efficient way possible... but paradoxically, each Saurian will do his upmost to find unique, original, personal ways and answers to imprint one's own individuality into the ancestral memory and thus achieve self-fulfillment and a form of immortality. Being a solid link of that ''life chain'' is at the core of every Saurian's psyche. This explains why, despite their strong link to their past, Saurians are not traditionalists but rather quite innovative in all areas of their lives.
 
This individualism however is surprisingly not egocentric; Saurians consider each individual equally as unique and important as every drop of water forming the sea and celebrate the differences between all as the wondrous nature of the universe itself. What is unique to each and everyone is what gives life to the universe. Each individual is seen as part of it's own ''life chain'' and all those existing life chains are what holds reality together.
 
Being reptilian with no external reproductive organs (males and females are almost indistinguishable from one another except for size, skin tone, scales and facial traits), and unaffected by most climates, Saurians have absolutely no nudity taboos. Non-Saurian visitors will quickly learn that Saurians wear clothing out of simple practicality (to have pockets to carry things for example) or not at all... Although since joining the Federation, they now accomodate other more concerned species readily enough, since they themselves do not mind.
 
In the same regard, they care only for technology as long as it is practical and use it with the same cold pragmatism:for example, they made and used weapons for protection or conquest, but not weapons that would destroy whatever they were fighting for in the first place: no wide scale weaponry (like explosives) were known on Sauria before contact with other races, but pinpoint types (like lasers) were well developped long before Humans invented firearms. As is proper for their nature, individual weaponry was also very advanced and widely known and used since their early antiquity. This explains much the strange contradiction of what looks like a totally disspassionate warrior race and a well armed pacifist people all at the same time.
 
They are hard-working and serious, correctly viewed as humorless and unfazeable, even dull by some. Saurians have absolutely no concept of humor; they have no clue about what funny is, nor even fun for that matter. The very long, harsh realities of Saurian life, even today, left a strong inability to even conceive of frivolity or wasted effort and so they do not comprehend purely recreational activities. To a Saurian, the nearest thing to a ''vacation'' is to just do nothing; expending energy and ressources outside of necessity simply make no sense to them. Their cold refusals when invited to those recreational activities often make them seem prudish or unsociable, while in fact they simply have no idea what it means and get no benefit or satisfaction from partaking in them.
 
Because of their genetic recall ability, Saurians also have no concept of ''boredom'' and ''solitude''. A Saurian is never alone in his mind, being but the receptacle of all those before him and the source of all those that will follow. Whenever a Saurian would feel ''bored'' (nothing to do) or ''alone'', he would simply go to sleep... and rejoin with his ancestors in the landscape of his mind. Each Saurian is literally a community unto itself.
 
Saurians do not enter strong personal relationships outside of the mating period, and even then only on a temporary basis, another left over trait of their highly individualistic nature. This lack of a social skill reinforces the sense of isolation and distance that others perceive between them and other races. Even Andorians find them aloof and unscrutable.
 
Nevertheless, they are perfectly capable of functioning in groups and within any kind of social or political structure, even if all of these are often alien notions to them. As long as a Saurian perceives that what he wants to do and what the community wants to do converge, he will act as the quintessential team player.
 
Those that are familiar with Saurian psychology are aware that the best way to convince one to do anything is to make it a personal issue for him. When he beleives that he is concerned with what the community is concerned with, he will simply do his best to act in the most efficient manner to ensure completion or success of any task laid out before him. As the saying goes:'' don't tell a Saurian what to do; ask him.''
 

 
MATING:
  
Saurians are able to reproduce right after puberty and until about halfway through their lives; males and females become fertile for 9 hours about once every 9 months and, if they meet then, the male will stimulate the female into producing an egg he then carries in a kind of marsupial pouch to the ''place where the worlds begins and ends'' in the desert of Sauria. The egg is fertilized during the transfer and is almost ready to hatch when it is buried and left there to finish incubation. A few days later the infant emerges, must dig his way out and then cross the desert to begin it's life. The female produces only one egg each time and one child will be born of it, although not all of them will dig themselves out, and even less will successfully survive their first years of desert ordeal. Twins are almost unheard of, and is the stuff of legend to them because of the mythical ''one that is two'' vision it entails for them,
 
Females are generally taller than males and can initiate mating as well as the male. Being oviparous (laying eggs), Saurians are understandably not compatible at all with most other humanoid life forms... unless artificial means are used to ensure ovulation and/or fertilization, and genetic manipulation employed to monitor and direct the clashing physiology fusion that would possibly ensue. As of now, no one ever tried... and unemotional, individualistic sentient reptiles do not create much appeal to non-Saurians while they themselves do not see any practicality in infusing outside genes into their ancestral chain.
 
There is no such thing as a Saurian marriage; mating is a normal and simple process to ensure the continuation of existence. There is no social or emotional significance of the event for Saurians and therefore, they do not recognize such institutionalization as anything relevant to them. A Saurian will help and protect a mate for as long as it is convenient to do so for reproductive purposes, nothing more. Thus, females usually escort males to the birthing place in the desert until the egg is released. Then, both part their ways. They do however curioulsly care for children; if they come across one in need, they will help a child until once more able to fend for itself, to preserve the individuality it represents. But they will do this to any child, not especially their own over others.
 
This pragmatic altruism is also extended to any other Saurian in need, giving birth to very peculiar behaviors; like helping an opponent to recover from a wound before, once healed, resuming the fight and trying to kill him again! This has given birth to the myth of ''Saurian Honor'' as they do not strike a surrendering or incapacitated opponent while at the same time aiming at killing quickly and cleanly as possible. but in truth, this egotistical and social concept is utterly alien to them.
 
Because of their reverence to individuality, they will do their best to make as many children as possible; they see it as creating individualities out of their own, the ultimate act of self-manifestation onto the world and strengthening the ''life chain''.
 
Although Saurians are well aware of multiple ways of easing their lives and that of their children, especially since they encountered other races and joined the Federation, they still keep their own traditional mating practices well alive. To them, it is the best way. However, they do not frown upon those who would do differently, as it is their right as individuals to do so. But none had done it yet.

 
DIET:
 
Saurians are carnivorous, the high level of nutrients required by their complex metabolism being most present in animal flesh. Because of this, their peculiar mode of life and of their highly toxin-resistant metabolism, they will eat any kind of meat available from living preys to carrion. Eggs are especially relished, and Human cheese has found a wide popularity since they were introduced to it; the stronger the better.
 
Saurians have very acute senses of smell and taste. Nevertheless, they are famous throughout both the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for their very strong Saurian Brandy, a highly intoxicating beverage that alone can bring what approximate emotional reactions into a Saurian... if he consumes enough of it. Because of their resistance to toxins, Saurians find it barely more intoxicating than table wine is for Humans. But Humans get drunk on it very quickly, Vulcans get rapidly sick and Andorians will pass out before reaching the bottom of their first glass. Tellarites however seems little affected by it... but then again, their naturally argumentative nature makes it somewhat difficult to evaluate.
 
Intoxicated Saurians experience a very strange state of ''fusionning of minds'' when their higher brain is dulled but still in control and their primal brain unaffected at the same time... making them curioulsy act in a very Human-like fashion! Starfleet cadets and officers alike do their upmost to get Saurians friends drunk at least once to ''better know them''.
 
 
SAURIAN LANGUAGE
 
Saurian language evolved from the written word, which is a rarity among known cultures. Until early in their antiquity, Saurians only used complex body language and signs to communicate, those being more than enough for any occasional joint effort between them to hunt or to find and protect a mate. With access to their ancestral memories, the need to teach and learn simply was not there in earlier times. Their hampered hearing was not conductive to verbal exchanges either.
 
But as knowledge and technology increased with growing populations coming more and more in contact more frequently, the need for a more elaborate form of communication came about.
 
Signs and postures were recorded through hyeroglyphs, then stylized through ideograms as these individual symbols started to relate with greater complexity. Eventually, what they expressed could no longer be translated by the body alone and speech came to be.
 
The Saurian language is based more on rhythm and pitch than articulation of throat-tongue-jaw like most others do, because of the relatively rigid, palate-less mouth and the split tongue of Saurians. It is very low, loud, made of croaking and hissing with tongue clicks and jaw snaps, rather disturbing to some. Aside from it's complexity, it is relatively easy to reproduce by most other sentient species while Saurians themselves find it difficult to reciprocate. But they manage, even if it is through a hissing, slow kind of way.
 
Another peculiarity is that music, heavily based on percussions of an incredible variety, is highly developed... but singing is virtually unknown; when exposed to it, especially from the Human voice, Saurians are utterly fascinated by it.

 
NAMING:
 
Saurian names are incredibly long, as they relate all the ancestry of the individual ending with his own proper identifying sounds. But when dealing with off-worlders however, they only use their individualistic syllables, about one two at the end.
 
Saurian names are hissing, croaking successions of sounds coming from the throat, the tongue and the lips, sometimes with a clacking of the jaws or a gnashing of teeth. Some sound identical to others except the most keen-eared races, but there is no Saurian who ever had the same name as another in their entire history.
 
Samples of Saurian names : (end part only)
 Male names: Ssiilliiss, Shashelash, Rhhiiuuss, Razka, Bazel
 Female names:Sheellah, sheessshii, Hiirrhuu, zhahya, shiizhaell
 
 
SAURIAN SOCIETY
 
Sauria itself supports nowadays a population of 9 billions. Outside of their homeworld they now merely number 18 millions in all of known space.
 
Originally a nomadic, isolated people, Saurians have only known a surprisingly peaceful if strict, stable society for almost all of their long History. It is labelled a most unique mix of aristocratic and democratic culture, evolved from a racial psychology where individuality and self-reliance as well as a deep ancestral counsciousness are at the core of their being. Although not unknown, dictatorship is the closest thing they have of a joke among them; no Saurian can force or convince another Saurian to do something it doesn't want or need to do, and to solely rely on others to acheive a goal is seen as the ultimate sign of weakness and failure.
 
Males and females shares equal rights, and no individual is deemed better or worse than another: the good ones live; the bad ones die. Each Saurian is responsible for his own life and represents his own life chain, as worthy and valuable as any other, be it large or small. This produced a strange kind of aristocracy, as each is the bearer of a continued legacy going back down to the emergence of sentience among them and are as recognized for it... yet only as much as for their own personal achievements. Consequently, they instituted in their society a unique form of democratic juvenocracy (see Government).
 
Indeed, as might be assumed on a planet where weather conditions are severe and predators abound even among the flora, Saurians, despite their natural self-sufficiency, evolved a social structure pulling individual ressources to achieve more efficient results for the benefit of each participant. Although seemingly anarchy to outside obsrservers, their structure is the ultimate democratic one as each individual contributes or not and for one's own reason.
 
The simplest example is moving a boulder: one Saurian might want to move it because it blocks his path; another might come to help him because it also blocks his path, or because he wants that boulder to fall in the river to make a dam; another might help to free sooner one of them it wants to mate with; yet another might join because he wants them all gone to enjoy a quiet moment of this part of the hill... and so, albeit for completely different reasons, they all work together to move the boulder away.
 
There are no known rituals among Saurians except maybe the birthing and funeral pilgrimage to and from the desert. What is good for one is good for the one and cannot serve another. However, some part of this one ritual are named and deemed significant by all Saurians:
 
Ssaeth (Birth) When the child breaks it's egg and dig it's way out of the sand where it's parents buried it in the heart of the great desert. It is it's first act of life and consequently recognized as one's true birth. This is the moment the child stops being a thing and is considered truly a living being,,, but not a sentient one yet. The first danger a child faces is another child who might happen to find it's yet unatched egg or being stronger... and hungry. Cannibalism is not rare among children born at the same time and is an accepted practice at this stage of life.
 
Ssaunjh (Awakening) is when the child has it's first dream, get to touch the spirit of all those who came before it and waken to choose itself it's own personal name to add to the life chain. This is the moment when the child stops being an animal and becomes a person. At this point, the child has access to the knowledge and experience of his ancestors and can easily fend off the yet immature others... while understanding the value of each individual life and thus respecting the other now ''awaken'' ones.
 
Hadlessensh is the Saurian “turning age” moment, when the child now physically mature comes out of the great desert. Some come out of the ordeal together, and so share their names before parting their own ways... or may still stay together if both have their own reason to do so. It is often there first real ''social'' experience and first chance to mate. In the latter case, they go back from wence they came to bury their unborn child... and so, more than a few never actually leaves the border of the great desert for the fertile first half of their adult life. Consequently, the highest concentration of population on Sauria is all around the immense equatorial desert.
 
Haaveeglliiss: the time of seeing: On the 9th month, when the two stars align themselves in the sky like two burning eyes looking down at the world, a great heat wave sweeps the entire surface of the planet and large solar storms buffet it's thick atmosphere with intense EM pulses that renders all modern technologies inoperative. During this time, Saurians retreat into shadowy underground and underwater refuges for a long period of meditation and inner questing that culminate after the month is over with great celebrations to ''see and be seen''.This is the only Saurian activity that could be labelled a ''festival'' and the only one where they actively seek one another for something else than mating, and try for 81 days to meet as much people as possible, be they Saurian or not, to again share their name as they did when coming of age. Some come greatly changed by the event, among them all of those that left the homeworld and joined Starfleet. Those born during this month have all being drawn inexplicably to the stars and became either astronomers or spacefarers.
 
Saurians think highly of knowledge, work and nature. They do not understand recreation and sports. The educational level on Sauria is surprisingly very high despite an almost total lack of any education system; wandering old ones, unable to bear children anymore, are the only ones to share knowledge gathered from all the ones they met in their long lives to young ones they seek out. In this manner they still perpetuate their individuality, as one's master becomes part of one's ancestral life chain of memories. They are most revered as, through this free-flowing and freely accessible mentoring, the Saurian culture truly came into being.
 
Art is another important factor in Saurian life. They cultivate their art as the ultimate expression of self, and leave it behind them as yet another mark of their individuality upon the world, literally shaping the world into their own image. Sculpture, carving, pottery and painting are most popular and the variety of styles is astonishing. Music and literature are rather rare but all the more prized nonetheless.
 
Saurian lack of sense of community and team-effort show in their few activities that could be labelled sports and games by other races. Saurians prefer solo play to team play; sports would include Rrhiisshk'urss (rope racing), a kind of obstacle course through suspended ropes and bars like through vines and branches of a forest, and martial arts like underwater wrestling in a royal rumble kind of event. Saurians however see those as training, not as recreation.
 
Although not a warrior race, Saurians have been forged by survival and retain all the skills of their more savage past. The fighting arts are very much alive in their culture, including the use of archaic weapons. The most common Saurian weapon are the kraagathyll, a pair of flat blades serrated on the edges inside one flat side and used in a slashing circular motion to cause multiple bleeding wounds, evolved from survival tool used for digging, climbing and curing; the sshaelleethae, a serrated, spiked shield used both offensively and defensively, requiring enormous strength to be effective;and the khaaphraa, a long rope, vine or chain wiehgted at the ends similar to the Vulcan Anh Woon or Human Kusari, also used as a whip; it is the preferred traditional weapon of many Saurians as it is highly effective even against strong, tough fighters like Saurians themselves.
 
Saurians being as tough as they are, hand to hand striking martial arts were unknown to them until they met off-worlders using such things like Karate and Boxing. On the other hand, they mastered an astoundingly wide variety of wrestling forms, from a simple brutish kind of pure mass and strength combat similar to Sumo wrestling to sophisticated joint manipulating aikido types styles. With their strength, resiliency, toughness but most of all complete calmness, inborn experience and total limb coordination, thanks to their secondary brain, Saurians are unparalleled as wrestlers and can only be successfully matched by stronger Gorns, well trained Andorians or strong and well-trained Klingons.
 
Combat between Saurians are basically always duels. However, any other can interfere at anytime if one choose to do so; but any of the two others may turn against him, as accepting help would be a sign of failure, admitting thus being unable to fight alone. Mass warfare was virtually unknown on Sauria, and any wider conflict involving many Saurians was because of concording interests. Saurians rarely fight to the death; when one realises he can't prevail, he simply cease to struggle and accept defeat. Having won, the other will let him go, having nothing to gain by ending a life or causing pain. Revenge, spite, dominance, triumph, resentment, are totally alien concepts to this unemotional race. The only instance of death by combat is when one is only under the influence of his primal brain... and either kills the other or must be killed to end the animalistic urges that now possess him.
 
 
Because survival was the chief activity of every Saurian, and because of their lack of emotions, knowledge and beliefs were shaped by their relevance to it. Knowledge, particularly technological, was placed over philosophy and religion; but art, being the expression of each individual self, was not. Wandering elders transmitted information in the same order; the result was that technological change spreads quickly, artistic innovation followed the same trend and by contrast metaphysical and religious development hardly at all. Thus, Saurian culture presents the peculiar dichotomy of space-age technology, advanced artistic development, theoretical discourse of medieval times and religious forms of the Stone Age.
 
Saurian science began with advances in animal husbandry, ecology, veterinary medicine, defensive architecture, military engineering, and weapons technology. Such advances gave their discoverers advantages over others in the struggle for survival and thus spread rapidly, by survival of the fitest gene pools or taught by wandering neuters. This insured evolutionary direction toward greater intelligence, higher creativity and further technological progress.
 
The Saurian word for art derives from the ancient words for personal achievement and expression, but shaped by their highly divergent senses, so it is not surprising that Saurian arts are somewhat limited in scope but vastly advanced in their limited variety. The plastic arts are primarily decorative (including tapestried blankets and hangings, colorful pottery, intricate jewelry and embellished weapons and utensils), or functional (such as ancestral idols and icons, commemorative statues, portraits and most of all educational illustrations of personal histories).
 
Literature is limited to historical drama (popular mainly in urban areas), some rare literary poetry (written primarily by wandering elders and never read out loud, considered deep personal experiences) and dance (usually of the free style variety meant for sharing knowledge in the ancestral tongue or expressing individuality through body motions, notably during mating). Saurian drama bears a strong resemblance to ancient Scandinavian Sagas of Earth in its length, complexity, structure, subject matter, language, and epicness; they celebrate the triumph of individual will over the forces of nature, the struggle of mortals against gods or the achievement of ancestral demi-gods. Human Norse mythology and Greek myths are especially popular nowadays on Sauria. Literary poetry, although comparatively free and innovative in form, tends to confine its subject matter to aesthetics of ideas, almost mathematical in nature. Music is also more a quest for perfection than any expression of mood and as such is rather hermetical to more emotional races; Vulcans however, praise the rhythmic perfection of Saurian music. Although they have no singing, Saurians have enjoyed tremendously the art from Humans and other space-faring races that introduced them to it, even as they themselves are incapable of singing... and their limited hearing makes them loose more than a few notes at times.
 
 
GOVERNMENT:
 
What can be described as Saurian society can only be defined as an aristocratic and democratic juvenogarchy: a governement ruled by the young and most worthy as agreed by every citizen. This very peculiar form of government works for the Saurians only because of their innate unemotionalism, inbred self-sufficiency and genetic memory ability.
 
For millions of years, Saurians lived a kind of working anarchy were everyone was responsible but of himself. Many could live their entire life without meeting even another of it's kind, except for mating, as the entire world is teaming with resources. Then, as population grew and interactions became more frequent in particularly sought after locales and resources, some tended to gather others around them because of their better knowledge and ways to survive and prosper, freely recognized and followed by other individuals. When conflict arose about land, resources or mates, it was resolved with a cold-minded and practical approach almost frightening to other races: it could range from anything between simply yielding before an obviously more numerous force to systematic slaughter an unprepared one. But this late option was rare, not only because of the availability of world resources, but even more because of the deep awareness of every Saurian of each other's uniqueness and value within the grand tapestry of Life.
 
This state of pseudo-tribal semi-nomadic lifestyle lasted also for some millions of years and would have most probably endured until the present day, were it not for the attempted invasion from the Kzinti Hegemony five millenias back.
 
The Saurians were among the first the Felinoid warrior race encountered in their early flight of conquest that would eventually bring them to face Earth. Aboard their sublight vessels, they were drawn by the lush, rich world and for a time thought it was uninhabitated... until a few months into establishing their first outpost, they encountered one Saurian. Having never seen an intelligent reptile before, they thought him an animal and started a hunt; despite being wounded by the initial, unprovoked attack, ancestral memories recall the Saurian killing 9 of the hunters before finally being downed.
 
The Saurians had never seen a mammal before, let alone another, intelligent, technologically more advanced species. But they understood that a predator had come to hunt them, and survival instinct kicked in. All Saurians were soon aware of the danger, and swarmed the Kzintis; despite their primitive hand held weaponry, the natives proved so tough, resilient and fearless that even the space age technology of the off-worlders could not hold out before them. Because their warrior pride prevented them from calling for help, the Kzintis colonists were slaughtered to the last one, and their Homeworld never learned of their fate, writing them off as lost in space and forgetting them, never aware of the existence of this world.. While on Sauria, their technology was seized, studied and jump-started the Saurians into the space age.
 
But even more than that, it profoundly shocked the Saurians with one, irrefutable truth:
 
They were not alone.
 
They also realized for the first time that there was a universe beyond the thick clouds of their sky. And that universe contained other people; strange, different, dangerous people.
 
The last several millenias therefore brought the notion of a central planetary government from all the Saurians that had confronted the invaders from space: because of a common menace, they all showed their usual pragmatism in pulling together their individual resources into one very well known common goal: survival. It took no time for the rest of the population to understand the necessity of pooling resources to face this new reality.
 
The Saurian Conclave was born and went from a pre-industrial society to a space age one almost overnight, thanks to retro-engineering. The Conclave is headed by the Gathering, made of any Saurian who believes has something to contribute for the common good out of his own resources. Consequently, the young adults, having the longest racial memory available and still the drive and curiosity to face new challenges, form most if not all of those impromptu councils. Anyone can attend but most will simply defer to one who voices the same opinions as they do.
 
This peculiar Parliament is formed by all individuals wishing to contribute, and the number of representatives, usually rather large,vary constantly with each subject debated. There is much circulation day and night in government buildings. This would be pure anarchy for any species but the unemotional and pragmatic Saurians: when one speaks, those agreeing but having nothing further to add file up behind him. if another disagrees but has nothing else to contribute, he simply leaves and take no part in whatever is decided. If disagreement occurs and brings forth another option, the others will assemble behind the proposal. Discussion starts again until either one group agrees... or leave. It is thus quite frequent that many options will be implemented at the same time to resolve one case from different like-minded Saurians.
 
But despite the now current focalization of ideas between groups of individuals, there is no identifiable or long lasting political movement or grouping like the political parties and ideologies usually found on other worlds. At any moment, any individual can leave, join or switch sides depending on his own individual conscience.
 
But when any Saurian speaks, all those that came before speaks; and the more fundamental the problem is, the farther each goes back into their ancestral memory; and the farther back they go, the more closer they get at their common ancestors of long ago. Therefore, the more important the problem, the more easily and quickly they get into a consensus. This unique aspect of Saurian psyche explains how their bewildering government can work at all.
 
 
RELIGION:
 
Saurians do not recognize authority to any group above that of the individual; they have no feelings and emotionalism to invest into people or events; they are too pragmatic and inherently self-sufficient to think in relying on some other-wordly intervention; and their genetic memory debunk any supernatural idea any unexplained experience would inspire in other species deprived of this direct contact beyond death. Consequently, Saurians never had anything that could be labelled as a religion.
 
Their beliefs were initially similar to Human Shinto; millions of years ago, when their sentience made them each ponder about life, the universe and everything, they saw life in everything around them, even dirt and stone, and harmonized their life with that life they imagined was diffused in every other thing. Today some few planetbound Saurians still cling to this simplistic belief to guide them in their daily lives because it is practical to live in respect, love and harmony with one's environment.
 
Millions of years of this core belief (which never got a name other than Rrharss: belief) through very individualized existence eventually got systematized and rationalized into a more larger philosophy they call SsauRrhass, that bears an incredible similarity to Human Taoism. The fact that a great number of Saurians look at the world through a common concept like this without any master, sacred text or institution to word it and spread it was the first evidence to out-worlder of the truth about their genetic memory ability.
 
Saurians do not practice ancestor worship as could have been expected from the vital importance of their link to their progenitors. They believe they are as much each of their direct ancestors as each one is them: a chain of individual minds linked by the perpetuation of a single life. Saurians do not find practical or even sensible to ''worship themselves''. But they do respect their progenitors as much as their children, as witnessed by the great catacomb they have erected over millions of years as their final resting place... and where their own children will be born like they were all themselves hatched.
 
Birth and death are not highlighted by any ritual. The egg is fertilized and brought to the birthing place by the parent and the remains of the dead brought back by any one who can, even one not among the deceased's relatives. But it is a duty no Saurian ignores. Saurians treat death, life, marriage and everything else as part of the eternal continuation of life with the same cold pragmatism they practice stoically throughout their lives.
 
During their incredibly long History, Saurians had had a few individuals claiming that they could recall even beyond their first ancestor, back into the animal life that predated their race, and even beyond... These Saurian mystics are particularly respected and their opinion sought after as they understand things beyond the limits of the flesh. Some have even claimed they could recall the minds of their descendants, thus to glimpse the future. These prophets, like the other mystics, are the closest thing a Saurian can recognize as something like a leader, albeit but a spiritual one... as their claimed ability is not transmitted to their children but seem to appear spontaneously and randomly in certain individuals.
 
 

 

 
 

[Jeff T]

RELATIONS TO THE FEDERATION:
 
Saurians joined the United Federation of Planets during the 23rd century, finding it practical to unite with off-worlders that had also been attacked by the Kzinti Hegemony like them.
 
Despite having reached outer space before most sentient races, they did not venture far from their own solar system, letting instead others come to them as they were all eager to trade for their natural resources. The richness of their world prompted trade and commerce on a large scale, and thus Sauria became a thriving commercial nexus from which they gained further technological progress.
 
However, they kept themselves confined to their own sector of space. They were well known to Federation members, and yet rarely seen. They had a seat on the Federation council but it took quite a long time before some finally realized that the council member from Sauria was never the same individual from meeting to meeting!
 
Within the Federation the Saurians became well known for their efficiency in commerce, their steadiness and reliability earning them the best of reputations as negotiators, and some even became efficient and well respected ambassadors. Their environmental expertise made them eagerly sought after for engineering and improving life support systems of starships, earning them sizeable contracts from Starfleet.
 
Although a part of the Federation, Sauria did not see any of its native in Starfleet until after the second Federation-Klingon war averted by the Organians; suddenly aware that many sentient races could again become a danger to their very planet, a few Saurians then, as always, made the best practical choice to ensure their survival: they applied for Starfleet Academy and joined Starfleet. By the time of the V'Ger incident, the first Saurian crewmen actually seen in Starfleet service were found aboard the Federation flagship, the USS Enterprise.
 
It is only since then and through the following conflicts like the Cardassian War and the Dominion war that Saurians proven themselves as favored technicians and away team members in hazardous environments, formidable scouts in natural ground missions and formidable warriors easily holding their own against Klingons, Gorns and Jem'Hadars.
 
 
SAURIAN HISTORY
 
EARLY HISTORY:
 
It is believed that Saurian sentience originated on the main continent along the equatorial line. During the pre-glaciation periods, glaciers and ice fields covered only a small portion of the continent and a vast inland sea dotted with numerous atolls divided it in two large landmasses.
 
As the planet ended its last glaciations with the greenhouse effect becoming prevalent through the overabundance of plant life and volcanic activity, the inland sea slowly receded and evaporated, leaving only salt flats and dry sediment that fused both land masses into one immense continent, with some archipelagos doting the rest of the vast oceans.
 
During the Prehistoric Period, Saurians were nomadic, The First Migration saw many individuals migrate northwards, searching for land and food. But as they reached the planet’s north, the colder temperatures of the time increased their placid tendencies. In the middle of this period, Saurians began to encounter one another more frequently as more and more migrated back to the great desert to bear their young and bury their dead. In the South, in the hotter central regions, the individuals became semi-nomadic, making their migration around the growing desert in a similar fashion that terrestrial reindeers do. These individuals had a faster technological development, being faced often with the same problems and trying to find better ways to solve them, meeting more of their brethren which favored more frequent exchanges of ideas and tools. During this period, some however continued their migration northwards, and reached the Northern part of the planet where temperatures were lower. Those became much more inclined to sedentarism and arrived with some agricultural concepts sooner than the southern ones. The vast distances prompted domestication of animals to travel faster back to their birthing/funeral site in the vast dried sea.
 
It was during this period that Saurians learned the rudiments of agriculture, animal domestication, bronze working, philosophy, masonry and the basics of commerce and writing. Eventually, language came about after millenias and, because it evolved from the writing word, itself from millions of years of body language, only one language evolved for the entire race. The limitations of the Saurian mouth and tongue even reduced dialects to a never before seen minimum despite the isolation and distance between individuals.
 
During this period, most Saurians were based in regions with natural water. Sauria has vaster oceans than Earth, so their lives were centered along the coast and rivers. The climate and food in the North and South were more difficult to deal with than in the Equatorial regions, but they developed quite effective agricultural techniques and hunting to offset this issue.
 
When the Great Ice Age finally ended for good on Sauria, still a few million years before the advent of modern man on Earth, a form of semi-tribalism happening out of necessity allowed more Saurians to survive and thrive. At the very beginnings of this Saurian Cooperative lifestyle was established the seeds of something approaching a planetary consciousness, as contact with others made each Saurian realize that their genetic memory was also shared by all others.
 
Eons of this stabilized and ensured more progress, albeit exceedingly slowly due to the lack of a real communal society... until finally evolving towards a modern civilization, completely ignoring the fall of empires and religious dogmatism of the Dark Ages that stopped Human progress for centuries. When the more advanced Kzinti brought space age technology to their world, Saurians were already deep into their equivalent of a near industrial age. The lack of a structured society would have stunted their entry into the industrial age were it not for the sudden universal goal that motivated every single individual: survive from the perils from the sky.
 
This caused the advent of a planetary consciousness and brought together all these individuals into a cohesive mass of independent individuals, spurring an unprecedented era of progress, aided by the ''blueprints'' that had fallen from the sky. The last centuries saw the birth of their peculiar form of society and planetary government and their reaching out to the rest of the galaxy.
 
 
 
MODERN DEVELOPMENT:
 
Although always involved in various ways, mostly in technical or colonization aspects, more Saurians are now joining Starfleet since the growing conflict in the quadrant motivates many to work for survival in the vastness of the universe. The recent Dominion Wars and the impending danger of war with the Klingon Empire and a possible renewed Borg invasion has also stirred their survival instincts. This generation is undoubtebly the most prominent one to be seen applying for Starfleet Academy.
 
 
SPACE EXPLORATION:
 
Still not so numerous as to risk depleting their lush, resourceful world, the Saurians were not quick to embrace space exploration. There vast oceans were closer, as mysterious and much more interesting to them than those little points of lights they almost saw through their thick atmosphere. Not even having moons, their sky was empty and dull and thus, Saurians did not lifted their eyes to ponder.
 
Saurian History has been one of survival and as much inner as world discovery. Saurians were forced by circumstances to quickly evolve from planetary anarchy into a homogeneous space faring race. Once in space they quickly found new races to share resources - or war over- with... until the ushering of a new age of commerce ended space exploration due to their lack of FTL drive and the eagerness of other races to come to their world for their natural resources. Eventually they overcame their passive attitude and got back out into space to meet the dangers before they fell again on their homeworld. But this time, they were doing so in a manner that best reflects a culture that firmly believes that the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many; to that end they are now known as much as one of the best races for colonization and exploration. Curiously, their individual military prowess is but a by-product of their biology and they think nothing of it, even downplay it so much that many aggressive races are genuinely shocked when they face a Saurian for the first time.
 
The Saurians managed to colonize all 9 planets in their home system, even some inhospitable ones that other lifeforms would not be able to inhabit without serious terraforming. The time factor of sub-lightspeed journeys was not a barrier to interstellar colonization from the patient, unhurried Saurians... but neither was there any interest for them in wasting so much time just to ''get somewhere else''. They did attempt interstellar journeys with sleeper ships and generation ships, but like Andorians found that sleeper ships fell easy prey to random accidents and that generation ships were impractical to them, as it meant that they many of them could never go back to the birthing place.
 
After the Kzinti invasion, Saurians encountered them again in space and fought them to a standstill with their disregard for fear and death.
 
They encountered the Romulans at the time of the Earth-Romulan wars and pushed them back out of their sector of space when the suicide attacks on both sides rapidly depleted both their ability to war... and the Romulans had plans of conquest, so they could not waste anymore time and resources against those ''insane snakeheads''.
 
Orions and Rigellians tried to plunder their world, but backed out when enough of their ships and crews disappeared without a trace.
 
Then the Vulcans came as Saurians had retro-engineered warp drive from captured Orion ships and, much as it happened on Earth around the same time, peaceful first contact was established. For the first time, Saurians had met another sentient race that not only was not aggressive and emotional, but was peaceful and deadpan as they were.
 
The event for the first time prompted the Saurians to explore and seek out new civilizations... and soon enough, they met the Tellarites, whose banter and arguing was ineffectual on them, preventing any relationship and conflict between them at the same time.
 
When they met Andorians, it was at the time of the Earth-Romulan war during which the Andorians had sided with the Humans; they circumstantially found themselves on the same side against the Romulans and the Andorians quickly found respect for the fighting prowess of Saurians, and easy kinship in their stoic pragmatism.
 
 
WARP DEVELOPMENT:
 
The highly individualistic, educationless way of life of Saurians and the semi cultural context toward purely practical rather than theoretical education in Saurian History constrained the direction of progress in a few areas. One example of this is, like for Andorians, the surprising absence of any native faster-than-light drive. Lacking the necessary backing of purely theoretical mathematics and physics, the Saurians never discovered the principles of faster than light travel - which is why they didn't colonize the galaxy long ago even when they have had achieved sentience and civilization millions of years before any other species in the Federation.
 
Although Saurians didn't have advanced physics to develop their own warp drive capability, they eventually managed to efficiently retro-engineer it from marauding Orion ships, and then slowly but steadily implement it so that first contact was made with Vulcans.
 
 
FIRST CONTACT:
 
The Romulan war was coming to a close when Saurians met Humanity. Relations with Humans were difficult at first, as Humans had an instinctive aversion to sentient reptiles; but after some ''cultural shock'', trust and respect was earned as the Saurians proved themselves trustworthy creatures of reason and courage both in times of war as in times of peace.
 
However, stronger relations did come when commerce was established between the two people after the war. It took nevertheless almost a century before the Saurians themselves finally found any practical motivation to join Humans and the rest of the sentient races within the United Federation of Planets by the 23rd century.