@alonicus released a prompt into the world-building community, asking us about pollution in our setting. In the stories I write, I have multiple planets spread out throughout the galaxy, and each one of them has its own races, history, and unique look/ stories. So, these prompts have really helped me develop them further.
Here's A Link To The Post If You'd Like To Get Involved.
Rotchnok
The Rotchi are an insectoid race in my world, and they're kind of the punching bag in most of my stories. But, they have an interesting story, and an interesting history, which has led to hatred from most of the other races in the galaxy. I love thinking about these guys, and coming up with ideas for them and their world.
Pollution
The Rotchi became heavily industrialised before being discovered by the Free Space Alliance (FSA) and their comprehension of weaponry was the thing that secured their place as the dominant species of their world.
Rotchi populations can boom significantly, especially when under threat. As a prey animal, they evolved the ability for their queens to overproduce eggs when under pressure from outside threats. This ability allowed them to produce swarms of drones which could overwhelm any threat by sheer numbers, but the only issue with this was that they were incredibly weak.
They became the dominant species quickly using kinetic weaponry, although, only the best soldiers would get a weapon, considering there were just too many people to arm and their factories couldn't supply the demand.
When they had no threats left, there was a divide in their civilization, and queens became rulers over large areas of land where they could live happily and work. A war broke out between two major factions, and this led to weaponry being in major demand for the first time in hundreds of years.
The weakest of all Rotchi were sent to mine all the materials they required, which caused the first major class system of their culture. Workers, and soldiers. Weak, and strong.
Kinetic weapons soon became irrelevant after the discovery of Plasma, the reasoning for this being that one bullet could kill or injure one Rotchi, but a ball of plasma could potentially wipe out a swath of them.
The resource race started strong, and over the next few generations (Rotchi only live for about 5 standard years) they depleted their supplies, and the annexation or consolidation of other tribes became the next step. Mass manufacturing of these weapons was the next hurdle and their biggest issue, and caused devastating irreversible damage to their world, so much so that the sun is almost constantly blocked out by smog.
The War
This war waged for many years and caused even more damage to their world, but in the end, only one faction held the position of power above all else.
There were still queens - the old heads of smaller factions - but they were subservient to the ruling class, and produced the brunt of the workforce.
Over the following generations though, the Rotchi became even weaker, due to the pollution of their world.
Entry Into The FSA
When discovered, the Rotchi were offered the chance to join an intergalactic alliance, and with this, they were given aid to rebuild their damaged world.
However, the Rotchi seemed less concerned with the world itself and mismanaged funds in the pursuit of technological advancement in the form of starships, and at that, heavily armed ones.
Before the Rotchi, Beskins were known for their shipbuilding abilities, but the Rotchi soon took that from them and became known for producing the brunt of the warships the FSA produced. They did this from their homeworld, Rotchnok, which over the years became worse and worse due to the damage.
Now, it's known as a muck-ball, where no one would choose to live.
