Akun

The Akun are a race dating back to Cambrian times when life on the planet was far simpler.

Biology
The Akun come from a shrimp-like creature known as anomalocaris from which many intelligent shrimp creatures were derived from in ancient times. All have since gone extinct, however. Akun themselves are capable of surviving both on land and in the water due to their crustacean anatomy. However, left without water to occasionally immerse themselves in, they will die.

History
Through their own records, the Akun organized both underwater and coastal tribal societices. They were not prone to using tools due to the functionality of their own bodies; their hands and mouths were strong enough to crush exoskeleton a break rocks, and they had no need to organize into a complex society. However, their sapience led to the creation of several launguages, two of which were written. The only example of these ancient languages survives with the Akun that left the underwater vaults.

At some point in their long history, a mass extinction took place, wiping out most complex life on the planet. The various sentient and semi-intelligent shrimp creatures that had come about along with the Akun died out during this time, with only the Akun surviving due to a last ditch cooperative effort between their remaining tribes. Working with what little engineering knowledge they possesed, the Akun created huge underwater vaults that managed to house over 300,000 of their own species. These were sealed off and their residents allowed to go into a kind of hibernation.

Volcanic activity near the vaults encased them in lava, leading to the Akun population sleeping far long than they had intended. Over billions of years, the continental shifting had brought the vaults into the Falling Sea located around the continent Eureos. Earthquakes broke the vaults open and allowed fresh seawater to flood in, awakening the population once more.

The Akun were ready to take to the shores again, but much had charged. Now, Humans and other races that saw the Akun as alien and terrifying populated the regions they could feasibly settle in. With their hard shells and dependency on seawater, the Akun were illsuited for combat. Esoteric texts claim that the Akun made a deal with a supposed fish deity, which released it's minions on a coastal area to clear off the hostile enemies. Regardless of how the fish-like minions came about, what is confirmed is that they swept through the area like a plauge, slaughtering anything that would get in their way and spreading a thick, lush weed. Outsiders shunned the land for the inexplicable slaughter, and most considered the weed a sign that their land had been cursed, and fled from the area, leaving it free for the taking by the Akun.

With their new territory, the Akun organized themselves into a more tight-knit society, based off the lesson that cooperation was the key to survival, which had been so dilligently instilled in them by their own history. They called their new land Dagonis, and formed what could be loosely called a nation, based off a social communal system.

Slarr and Nearth expeditions into the Akun lands managed to establish that not all of their neighbors were hostile, and in the case of the Nearth, were very curious. Translators eventually emerged, and it wasn't long before the Nearth and Akun were sharing esoteric and prized secrets with each other.

Currently, Dagonis is a formal protectorate of the Nearth's Rulasta Empire, which has acted on many occasions to deter agressors with lethal force.