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Sporting fully functional wings, the Alkari are one of the few known sentient races capable of flight without technological support. The average Alkari weighs fifty pounds and is two meters high in a bi-pedal nature with four primary limbs. They have an opposable "thumb" like most intelligent races and three "fingers," on both hands and feet though the limbs are more like claws and are razor sharp, making them deadly in close combat. Also, they can carry weapons in their hands and feet, allowing them to hold four weapons. Their wings grow out of a joint below their shoulder, can stretch out to three meters on either side, and sport three more claws without an opposable "thumb" on the end that can be used for combat. The Alkari are known for enfolding their wings around an enemy and ripping them apart with all six sets of claws. Their body is covered with feathers and they have a multitude of colors. Their heads are long and narrow, a long sharp beak on the end, with large eyes on either side of the head. An aggressive predatory race, they love the hunt and battle. It is no surprise that they influenced the history of an entire sector when they arrived on the scene. And their role in history has not yet ended.
History
The Alkari Empire was originally formed over a thousand years ago when the wars of the very militaristic Alkari on the northern continent of Farton finally ended with the F'Laren Clan in complete control of the continent. The F'Laren Dynasty then slowly expanded outward, one island at a time towards the other continents.
First sailing across the skies in airships, the aerial warriors of the Empire swooped down on the mountain eyries of non-aligned clans and forced them into the Empire. As technology improved, the airships were armed with air burst rounds designed to shattered enemy warriors and airships in mid-flight and the Alkari added light armor to their warriors. As time passed, their armor grew better, but so did the weapons and the aerial warriors continued to die in far too many numbers for even the Empire to maintain.
They finally designed heavier then air fighters to be carried by the airships that could mount heavy weapons and armor. The new Imperial fighter fleets spread across the second continent of Altair, defeating anyone who stood against them. No Alkari could stand up against the might of the armored and armed fighters.
It was the third continent, the size of Eurasia on Terra, that gave the Empire its biggest problem. Already sporting a strong empire of its own, the A'Taran Dynasty fought the invaders with its own massive fleet of airships. Mounting long-range cannons that could destroy the fighters at long range, the F'Laren Empire lost the first stages of the invasion. They researched their own longer-range cannons and returned for another round.
At first, the war became very much like a battle of battleships, with airships mounting long range weapons firing at each other, but as time passed and the A'Taran Dynasty repulsed invasion after invasion, the F'Laren's designed larger heavier then air fighters that could mount long range cannons of their own. These swift but large craft quickly proved to be more then a match for anything the A'Taran could send to fight and the Empire slowly began to capture territory on the megacontinent.
Decades passed and the A'Tarans fought on, finally responding with their own heavier then air attack craft. More agile then the larger F'Laren ships, the new fighters performed admirably but they came too late to save them. In the end, the last refuge of the A'Taran Empire fell to the F'Laren five hundred years ago.
The next two hundred years saw the F'Laren Dynasty expand into the other areas of Altair, bringing the entire planet under their dominion. Then they began looking outward towards space. At first, the Alkari tried to fly into it, but unable to breath, the few who tried it fell to their deaths. Then they attempted to fly up with oxygen tanks strapped to their backs but found they couldn't control themselves in the rarified upper regions of the atmosphere.
Then they tried flying fighters up, but ran into the same problem, the props couldn't catch enough air either. Finally, after two hundred years, they figured out the secrets of rocket engines and entered space with a rocket fighter launched from a high flying airship.
This was three hundred years ago and the Alkari never looked back as they slowly began to expand outward. After two centuries of careful expansion, they met four races that were much smaller then they. More advanced then any of them, the Alkari were sure they could win a war. Strongly protective of their territory, they quickly jumped when Cronyl Family encroached on a system they claimed.
The resulting war is talked about in detail in other documents and everybody knows of course that they lost. Rumors abound that some Alkari escaped the final days of the war though, and many Alkari await the day when The Last Fleet returns to teach the upstart aliens who defeated them a lesson.
In the Confederation, the Alkari Union has become powerful again, under the rule of the ancient F'Laren Dynasty. They have learned that war is not always the best option, but still love the glory of battle. They have become fast friends with their former enemies in the Cronyl Family and are now working to free their fellows under Bastet control.
The Alkari under Bastet control have been reduced to a pre-industrial technology and are now used as the targets of Bastet hunters. A seat on an Alkari Hunting Expedition is sought after by any Bastet and returning with an Alkari head to mount on their wall is a great honor. Not surprisingly, these actions have gained the Bastet the condemnation of many other races.
Racial Advantages
Flight (free) - they have wings...they can fly
Rarified air (1) - they are used to living on the tops of mountains and can live in air too thin for other races to survive.
Keen eyesight (2) - used to hunting for their food from high up in the air, they have developed the ability to see much better and farther then most races.
Racial Disadvantage
Thick Air (1) - The Alkari can not breath air that is too thick, therefore they are incapable of living underground on a normal planet.
Light Bone Structure (2) - The ability to fly comes at the expense of hollow light-weight bones, making them easily injured in hand to hand combat.
Military advantages
Superior maneuver (free) - Being capable of flight, the Alkari have a supreme sense of direction and ability to handle maneuvers, making them the best fighter pilots in the galaxy. Period.
Superior small craft doctrine and design (1) - They love fighters above all else and have developed superior doctrine and engineering capabilities for them.
Military Disadvantage
Inferior capital ship design and doctrine (1) - They do not like large ships and just don't use them much. Doctrine and design is sub par.
Social Values
Pacifistic/Militant: 8
Democratic/Totalitarian: 9
Capitalist/Communist: 1
Galaxist/Nationalist: 9
Freedom/Near slavery: 3
Tolerant/Xenophobic: 8
Cooperative/Insular: 7