Zorton

The Zorton, AKA Zortons, Zortonians, Followers of Zogron, Vossusians, Those Bloody Frog People

In the world of Red Shift the Zorton are a very powerful alien race who originated on the planet Vossus and have since taken over many nearby planets and systems.

Appearance
The Zorton are humanoid in shape and similar height to humans. They have blue slightly scaly skin due to the fact they're amphibious. Their eyes are on stalks which protrude from their head and can retract. Their clothing is usually long robes, especially among the nobles and clergy, but military Zorton would wear more practical light armour. They are amphibious creatures and their fingers and toes are webbed slightly, because of this they are incredible swimmers and can breath underwater.

Abilities
Most of the Zorton have weak telekinetic abilities and can move objects with their minds, very few have slight telepathy and the ability to manipulate the weak-minded. They are an incredibly intelligent race but not particularly strong or agile on land, underwater though they are brilliant swimmers and can easily outswim other races, also they can breath underwater. For this reason they mostly prefer being near water.

History
The Zorton originated on the old swamps of Vossus, a very watery planet where even most of the land is swampland, marshes or plains, dotted with many great lakes. Even in the early days of their race they were quite peaceful with each other, telepathy helps with that, but they do not trust other races. When they began to become more and more technologically advanced they unified as one power, no longer separate nations, and the whole of Vossus became one massive city. Since there was barely any land left they rushed to become spacefaring and quickly colonized nearby planets in the system, such as Zogronia, which they claimed as the new religious capital. They then travelled to the system of Zygul and took over most of the planets there too. Since then they have become one of the most powerful powers in the galaxy due to their intelligence, military power and racial unity.

Culture
The Zorton are very religious and worship Zogron, the god who is believed to have sneezed out Vossus and the Zorton, considering the state of the wet swamplands of Vossus you can see why they'd think this. Because of their highly religious attitude the High Priest is a very respected figure and plays a massive part in the running of the Zorton, perhaps even more than the leader themself. Zogronism follow the teachings of the Book of Zogron, a massive manuscript that's practically cubic if you use the full unabridged version.

Zortonian cuisine is mostly seafood, and sometimes ambiguous swamp creatures. It is rarely cooked and usually eaten with a lot of water, to recreate that underwater feeling. Soup is never eaten by the Zorton, have you ever tried to eat soup underwater?

Zortons have many different languages just like humans but most speak the official language, Zortonian. This sounds weird and is made up of mostly guttural sounds. When it comes through on a translator is sounds vaguely like an Eastern European accent.

Zortons love gambling. Nobody knows why, they just do.

Leaders
The High Priest is the most powerful person in Zorton culture, and a significant figure in the Galactic Union. Currently the High Priest is Vazavyr, a wise and just leader who just so happens to hate laser weapons in any form and passed laws banning them for Zortons. Some suggest he did this just to screw with people and abuse his power, although it could be because laser weapons don't work underwater. The High Priest is accompanied by four Defenders of the Faith whenever he is in public, incredibly elite guards.

The official leader of the Zorton is known as a "Greater", currently Axxon the Greater. Greaters have a similar political position to a king, they are the complete rulers of the Zorton but they can't do anything important without the permission of the Zorton Senate and the High Priest. The Greater mostly rules the military, economical and basically more boring parts of the Zorton race while the High Priest makes laws and decides on what the people will do in situations. Both are very respected and have a lot of authority on the Galactic Union Senate.

Military
The Zorton military is one of the most feared forces in the galaxy, due to even weak telepathy the soldiers have a very close connection with one another and can fight as a single unit, their racial unity and massive population means their forces are very expansive. Even though the Zorton are not as strong as other races on land they make up for that with brilliant technology and where possible they try to fight on water. Invaders to Vossus never succeed as the Zorton are just so good at fighting in their climate and environment. When invading other planets they often use telepathy to manipulate some of the natives to join them, making them fearsome invaders. Since most Zegi are weak-minded they managed to completely overtake Zygul 7 in a few days.

Spaceships
The Spaceships of the Zorton are pretty typical, the only real difference is that most contain massive pools of water. Their battle ships are very advanced but don't usually use laser weapons and are often able to submerge underwater

Significant Zortons
Axxon the Greater

High Priest Vazavyr

Mr. Kwalli

Chekhov the Librarian