Chyrrans

The Chyrrans are the oldest remnants of an incredibly ancient galactic civilization of uplifted animals. The Chyrrans are literally dinosaurs. They were artificially uplifted by the Consonance, a vastly ancient galactic civilization which gained political and economic expansion by acquiring new planets and uplifting the most suitable inhabitants to sapience. Most uplifted species placed great value on ecological stewardship. Multicellular life in the universe is extremely rare, and naturally occurring sapient life has only been known to evolve twice on its own in the history of the whole galaxy - producing humans, as well as the enigmatic “first sapients'' who vanished nearly a billion years ago. As uplifted beings were the only known sapients for hundreds of millions of years, being a member of an uplifted species is what commonly defines one as a person. Thus, non-uplifted beings are not commonly recognized by other sapients as people, and are instead regarded as lesser animals. This includes humans.

The Chyrrans were uplifted through a cerebral augment which serves as an artificial lobe. The K-T extinction was the first strike against the Chyrrans in an interstellar war which nearly destroyed the Consonance. The Chyrrans abandoned Earth and left it for dead in an effort to rebuild the Consonance elsewhere in the galaxy. Over the course of time the Chyrrans were split into two factions of uplifted dinosaurs - the elegant Ssarquoy and the more brutish Tyrannians. Due to being animals given sapience through cerebral augmentation, the dinosaurs lack creative and artistic thinking. Their civilization, while unimaginably advanced in terms of technology and scientific knowledge, has progressed very slowly over the course of hundreds of millions of years, while humans have developed at a terrifyingly rapid pace. A tribe of uplifted dinosaurs, known to the humans as “Tyrannians” but who call themselves the “T’Rahnoy,” eventually prevented humanity's own extinction... but at a cost… Now dinosaurs once again rule the Earth. However, some dinosaurs believe that humans, fellow Earthlings, and the first naturally sapient species to evolve since the first sapients, may have the potential to reshape the galaxy for the benefit of all.

Human myths of dragons and other fantastic creatures were inspired by encounters with uplifted dinosaurs during early Chyrran expeditions to Cenozoic Earth. Dinosaurs and dragons are synonymous. Humans during the new age of dinosaur rule, use a mixture of medieval and modern technology, while dinosaurs wield technology that is arcane and bordering on magic from a human’s perspective. The dinosaurs practice cybernetic augmentation to combat disease and increase longevity, to adapt to traveling in space or living within extraterrestrial environments, to better cope with present day Earth climate, to reduce stratification between themselves and other uplifted species they interact with, or to merely to enhance themselves to transcend beyond their animalistic condition. Tyrannians are capable of suppressing their cerebral augmentations to enter a more animalistic state. This sharpens their senses and intuition, and allows them to experience their surroundings through a different filter. Mysteriously, the Ssarquoy, the most powerful tribe of uplifted dinosaurs and true heirs to the Consonance, are slowly regressing to a permanent non-sapient, animalistic state.

The word “Chyrran,'' loosely meaning “Earth People,” refers to all dinosaurs that were uplifted by the Consonance, or any dinosaur that was subsequently uplifted, or descended from, the Chyrrans themselves. The name does not refer to a single species, but rather multiple species of obligate bipedal dinosaurs (primarily theropods), each having a non-sapient ancestor occurring in Earth’s fossil record. Thus the Chyrrans could be considered a polyphyletic group, as it is an assemblage of species of multiple ancestors, yet all sharing one common characteristic - the very source of their sapience - the Cherraah. Although once united by the ancient civilization known as the Consonance, after it had collapsed they broke into two factions - the Tyrannians and the Ssarquoy. The ratios of species between the two groups vastly defer, with many species being present in one group yet entirely absent from the other. The Tyrannians and Ssarquoy had split along species, ethnic and political allegiances, with the Ssarquoy enforcing conformity while the Tyrannians showed greater tolerance for diversity among their ranks. Chyrrans have a rich warrior history. At the height of the Consonance they often served as soldiers and peacekeepers, and were stationed to occupy and hold planets and space stations. They also served as escorts for representatives of patron species on undeveloped planets, and were commonly stationed as interstellar portal guardians.