Cloudan race

Cloudans (in their native language, Erksme) are a native civilized race of the galaxy. Evolved during the Shaper ascension, a catastropic incident (which was for long thought to be a meteor impact) changed them forever, becoming a heavily hostile civilization, with the unconditional aim to rule the galaxy and its species.

According to multiple scientific sources, the biggest threat to humanity in the TNU is the Cloudan.

  • Heavily work-in-progress article.


The word cloudan is an English nickname left over from the first times of human-alien contacts.

It originates from the earliest days, way before the foundation of the Republic and they earned it due to their frequent approaches from the sky during their military operations - a habid that ironically disappeared during the TechWar Age due to becoming obsolete. It also refers to the avian origins of their species.

Their own word *erksme* is abbreviated form of a archaic reference on their avian ancestors. *-erk* likely referred to creatures with wings while *sme* means "green".


General; body structure

Cloudans are bipedal creatures. They are capable of standing and walking like humans do, and similarly, have one head and two arms with four fingers each.


They have rough, thick dark gray skin (which has a texture not unlike stone or concrete), strong jaw, sharp teeth and jade green eyes, as well as an extra joint on their limbs.

Living, diet


Reproduction and life cycle

Cloudans have one gender; two individuals are necessary to fertilize one, but both possesses both types of the necessary organs.

This race uses eggs to reproduce, in a two-step process: first, an individual lays an egg, which is relatively small at this point; and then, another one fertilizes it. The egg keeps fragile, but needs no external heat source for the developing offspring to grow.

Reaching the size of leaving the egg rarely takes more than 6-7 weeks, but from that point, they need a lot of food intake as their growth accelerates until they become self-sustaining.

Up until that point, the life cycle is very similar to avian life forms, but for Cloudans, it's frequent to lay and fertilize multiple eggs at a time when "families" are formed - the difference is that this race does it because their offsprings are extremely prone to cannibalize each other, which make sustaining healthy nourishment levels easier, as well as provides an opportunity for the strongest, most viable offspring to emerge.


Cloudan lifespan moves arount 150 years, with some exceptions of living up to 300 years.



Like many of the civilized races, Cloudan culture makes the race divided to several, often conflicting factions.

The Cloudan Confederacy

The biggest empire within the Cloudan race; a loose set of various tribes, led by the Overtribe. Each tribe fulfills different tasks and jobs and the Overtribe organize their work.

While the tribe culture is an ancient heritage of the Cloudan history, the exact structure is constantly changing, adapting to new historical circumstances.

The capital of the Confederacy is planet Sme.

The Rhov

Means "Mercenary" in Cloudan language, but the human race simply call them "the space pirates". They are renegade Cloudans who escaped the direct influence of the Overtribe, wandering through space, stealing and robbing everything they need and they want.

They are officially at war with the Overtribe, but in reality, the latter control the former to perform small-scale strategically significant assaults to weaken human resistance. They formed their own culture and rules and usually share the hatred of humanity with the Cloudan mainlanders.

Minor groups

The Houken Fleet

A rebellious Rhov fleet that allies with the Cybergod.


Cloudan presence in the main storyline


Related articles

