Barrakru Kaat (Branding)

A blunt translation of 'wandering clan', the Barrakru Kaat have a reputation for being hardy, resourceful and unceremonious.

=Homeworld: Dantinar=

Geography
Dantinar is the world from which the Barrakru Kaat originated. The planet is small, has low atmospheric pressure and has one moon, Imarora. Characterised by its ubiquitous wasteland, the surface of Dantinar is dominated by enormous deserts divided up only by mountain ranges. While much of the surface is sandy, the majority consists of exposed rock.

The climate is arid and exhibits rapid changes in extreme temperatures, alternating between extreme heat and extreme cold not only seasonally but also within the space of one day. There are no oceans and the only moisture that exists below inhospitably extreme elevation comes from the intermittent snowstorms. The twin tropospheric polar vortexes spawn gigantic cyclones that rage across the planet's surface. Prevailing winds over Dantinar's many mountain ranges result in frequent blizzards which carry snow down from the mountains and into the valleys where most of the planet's fauna resides. To survive on Dantinar, the native wildlife evolved to seek out these wandering snowdrifts, even when doing so required travelling extreme distances. Sandstorms and thunderstorms are regular occurrences.

The land around the equator is characterised by the almost complete absence of any plant growth or snowdrift. This is attributed to the exceptionally dry weather patterns resulting from high pressure cells where the currents of the planet's two polar vortexes collide. The inhospitability of this area has resulted in a kind of de facto no man's land spanning the circumference of the planet which historically formed a near-insurmountable barrier to clan expansion.

Politics
Bereft of any real governing body, Dantinar remained in a ceaseless state of worldwide militant feudalism until the Barrakru Kaat's forays into space – by which point there were entire systems of planets worth staking a claim over instead. Unlike most other spacefaring cultures, the Barrakru Kaat have little regard for their original homeworld and dominion over it has scant influence over the intricacies of inter-clan politics.

The Dantinar that exists today is a mostly forgotten world that has stagnated industrially and economically. A handful of clans still fight over terrestrial territory but this is likely more for symbolic ownership of the homeworld than for any practical value. This cycle of conflict has persisted for so long that the name of the planet itself has been changed by decree dozens of times since the beginning of the Barrakru Kaat's extraplanetary expansion more than a hundred years ago. In a token of total indifference, standard star charts still refer to the planet by the name it had last century.

The most bitter irony of the Barrakru Kaat's expansion lies with the nature of their planet's moon, Imarora. On account of its unstable orbit, Imarora is anticipated to impact Dantinar in fewer than fifty years, inevitably resulting in a planet-wide extinction-level event. The timing of the Barrakru Kaat's expansion beyond their homeworld was fortuitous but aptly consistent with the most important lesson of their history; you cannot stay anywhere for long.

The Dantinar venture is on borrowed time and everyone knows it. Conservative estimates put the total number of inhabitants at under two million (and dropping). The population counts of the few settlements remaining on the planet continue to trickle down and eventually they will all be abandoned for good. Investment in the planet is invariably short-term and the economy almost entirely consists of selling off anything not nailed down before it's gone forever.