Elcor

The elcor were a massive, four-legged Citadel species native to the high-gravity world of Dekuuna. They moved slowly, an evolved response to an environment where a fall could be lethal, and this had shaped a deliberate, conservative psychology that colored their society, economy, and government. Although slow, they were incredibly strong and durable, and their distinctive flat, monotone speech to other species masked a subtle communication of scent, infrasound, and minute body movement among themselves.

Biology#

The elcor had evolved on a high-gravity world, which made them slow but incredibly strong. Their large, heavy bodies could not move quickly, but they possessed an imposing stature, immense strength, and thick, tough skin, and they used all four limbs to support and balance themselves. Their method of communication left them with highly attuned olfactory senses, and they possessed at least three stomachs. In place of a conventional mouth they had multiple vertical slats, which despite their peculiar arrangement could hold protruding objects such as cigars with no effort.

To most species elcor speech sounded like a flat, ponderous monotone. Among themselves, scent, extremely slight body movements, and subvocalized infrasound conveyed shades of meaning that made a human smile seem unsubtle by comparison. Because this subtlety could cause misunderstandings with other races, the elcor prefixed all dialog with non-elcor with an emotive statement to clarify their tone. They could live for centuries, though not to the extent of asari or krogan; a hundred or so years was considered young, while around four hundred years was old and grandfatherly. The young of an elcor was called a calf.

History#

Prehistoric elcor traveled across Dekuuna in large tribal groups, likely led by the oldest and most experienced individuals, a pattern that may have developed into the later culture of Elders. According to their ambassador, the elcor were just making their first forays into space travel when the asari made contact with them. With asari help the elcor discovered the closest mass relay and, within a single lifetime, established a regular trade route to the Citadel. They quickly became one of the more prominent Citadel species, though they still had to share an embassy with the volus.

During the Reaper invasion of 2186, the elcor prepared a defense on Dekuuna, but their navy was decimated when the Reapers assaulted their system, leaving many warriors and civilians trapped on the homeworld. The Reapers took longer than usual to pacify Dekuuna because the elcor lived in numerous scattered settlements rather than crowded population centers, but this was not enough. An elcor diplomat aboard the Citadel, lamenting that no rescue was coming, was forced to beg Commander Shepard for assistance. If Shepard chose to help, some elcor survivors escaped the planet, and remnants of the elcor military continued to fight alongside the rest of the galaxy through the final battle on Earth.

Culture#

The elcor usually preferred to remain on their colonies rather than travel in space, perhaps because their size or their evolution in the open air made the confines of space travel uncomfortable. Their high-gravity origin, where a fall could be lethal, made their psychology deeply cautious and conservative. Their culture was built on small, tight-knit groups, and their conservative nature made their government extremely stable, yet they remained welcoming to outsiders. Traditionally migratory, they maintained twin capitals on Dekuuna, one for the wet season and one for the dry, observing the custom even after modern technology rendered it obsolete.

Like other sapient races the elcor pursued entertainment and the arts. Some artists were reputed to produce works that could drive a viewer mad if stared at too long, and elcor actors mounted an acclaimed all-elcor production of an ancient human play, using their species' traits to convey its nuances. Cultural artifacts such as the Code of the Ancients, which contained the collected wisdom of the elcor people and their ancestors, were revered for the guidance they provided. Despite their general benignity, outliers existed: psychopathic individuals occasionally appeared, and some elcor lived on Omega as club bouncers or merchants.

Government and economy#

The elcor government was known as the Courts of Dekuuna. The elcor followed the recommendations of their Elders, who spent years poring over ancient records of jurisprudence to determine the proper precedent for any situation, recording closely argued instructions for any theoretical crisis and filing them in vast libraries of data discs. This made elcor policy highly predictable to anyone willing to do the research. Their economy was small, only slightly larger than the Systems Alliance's, but extremely well developed; they saw no point in rushing and were fond of century-long development plans. Self-sufficient in resources, they traded only in finished goods, and any attempt to embargo their space would have been fruitless.

Military#

Because of their slow, conservative psyches, the elcor were unsuited to the spur-of-the-moment decisions combat demanded, so they relied instead on sophisticated VI combat systems able to choose among thousands of gambits refined over centuries by elcor strategists. Their slow speed and immense size made them easy targets, but their durable hide allowed them to shrug off most incoming fire. Elcor warriors carried no small arms; their broad shoulders served as a stable platform for weapons of the size normally mounted on Alliance fighting vehicles, earning them the enemy nickname of living tanks. The elcor maintained no large fleet, owing to their conservative nature and self-sufficient economy, though they possessed several cruisers and carriers chiefly valued for troop transport.