Drenkend

The Drenkend are a race of ursine aliens who are the official Battle Fodder of the Scryve Empire. Genetically enhanced and comprised solely of clones, the Drenkend are fanatically loyal to the Scryve, though this is hardly their own choice.

Biology

Each Drenkend is a clone of the other, with every member of the species being the same individual. They are ursine aliens with three fingers and a fairly simple mind, something programmed into them by the Scryve.

The Drenkend are sentient beings and are capable of expressing their own opinions on things, but their orders take precedence above all other feelings, filling them with an odd sense of contentment when they follow them. Although the Drenkend feel shame for their extermination of other species, they are obligated to follow their orders regardless. The same goes for their fear of death, feeling sorrow for all the Drenkend lost in their wave tactics.

The Drenkend are a simple race, largely incapable of understanding complex technology, forcing their cloning technology to be used with a single button. One button press equals one clone. This allows the Drenkend to replenish their numbers rapidly, a useful tool given their orders of wave assaults that often end with their deaths.

Drenkend are born fully aware and mature, with whatever knowledge is needed to do their job already imbedded in their minds. In addition, most Drenkend not born during a planetary invasion have their legs amputated by the Scryve and replaced with a sort of miniature tank. This augmentation allows the Drenkend to close the gap on those they are fighting and indeed run them over.

Culture

Much like the Measured’s obsessions with bureaucracy, the Drenkend are obsessed with their orders, unable to follow their own train of thoughts most of the time without them. Orders come exclusively from Drenkend Command and can only be issued by a Scryve. Once an order is issued, the Drenkend will follow that order to the letter, regardless of how ridiculous it may appear.

Drenkend do have their own limited culture, with all members of their species sharing the same interests. These included orders, following orders, etc. Drenkend culture also relies heavily on their swarm tactics, with their friendly fights, sports and even dating involving swarms of Drenkend and a lot of death as a result.

Drenkend lack a degree of imagination that other species possess, unable to comprehend what a lack of orders is like and indeed unable to adapt to changes in circumstances, as their orders should cover all avenues and if they don’t, then the Drenkend won’t act. Drenkend history doesn’t extend much further back than a Drenkend may need to know, be they alive for two days or two weeks, they will only be informed on the history they require to do their jobs.

Drenkend tactics rely on throwing their own kind at the problem whereupon they explode on impact. During invasions, cloning pods are fired onto the surface of planets, where Drenkend emerge endlessly and literally drown the enemy in bodies. Apparently this brutal tactic is reflected in their sports and even dating scenarios. Despite their orders, the Drenkend fear death and don’t want to follow their orders, but ultimately are slaves to their programming, like so many other Scryve wards. The most critical order the Drenkend have and follow is “Don’t Kill the Scryve”.

At the end of Star Control Origins, the Drenkend see a change in their culture, having acquired a Scryve helm of their own and using it to improve themselves, giving themselves orders. These include to stop panicking about the lack of orders and to begin a campaign to wipe out the Scryve

History

The Drenkend were uplifted to their current role as official Battle Fodder of the Scryve shortly after their introduction into the Empire. The Drenkend provided the numbers the Scryve needed to suppress other species, as their immortality had decimated their ability to produce new soldiers, having rendered them sterile.

The Drenkend largely resented this pointless loss of life, on both sides, but having been genetically augmented, they were forced to comply. The Scryve began a period of isolating a single strain of DNA amongst the Drenkend and using it to begin their cloning process, replacing the original means of reproduction for the Drenkend.

As the wars with the Phamysht and Pinthi dragged on, the Scryve had less forces to dedicate to keeping the Drenkend in check and the Menkmack were able to use this to their advantage. Upon finding an enormous collection of fake ears, the Menkmack acquired a Scryve Legate’s helm, where upon they ordered the Drenkend to purchase as many ears as possible from the Menkmack. Somewhere along the line, the Drenkend got confused and instead of just buying new ears, interpreted the order to kill all races with less or more than three ears.

This led to quite a number of races being annihilated, much to the Drenkend’s dismay. This included assaulting a colony of the Mu’kay, a client race of the Empire and indeed the Drenkend’s allies. Eventually, the Captain of the Vindicator was able to intervene and stop the Drenkend from continuing their waves of genocide against those with more than three ears or less.

With the collapse of the Scryve Empire and the retreat of the Scryve to their homeworld, the Drenkend were left without orders. Having procured a helm of a Legate, the Drenkend Command was left with a sense of orderlessness and the Drenkend were confused for a number of days. Upon realising they could give themselves orders to get better, they began a series of cloning button-presses to build their numbers for a war with the Scryve as revenge for years of servitude.