Done up because someone was asking about it on ScifiFurry was asking about the "reptilian biomancers." Rated general despite them being a fairly disturbing bunch.
The Thorans and Queen of the Pirates universe belongs to (C) Stephen "Psion" Landis
All Rights reserved

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Thoran Empire
A Queen of the Pirates Gazetter
By Stephen “Psion” Landis

Author’s Influences: The initial inspiration for the lost Thoran Empire was ironically the furry fandom itself. In particular were the emotions with initial contact with a subgroup or as a normal person encountering fursuiters for the first time. Confusion, unsettling realizations, and a slight gnawing fear constantly wear away at explorers and archeologists exploring the society as any door within the ruined Thoran cities can lead to unimaginable treasure or a sanity-draining example of the race’s depravity; just like any link in the fandom can reveal works of artistic genius or things that would utterly destroy your mind…

Trans-Galactic Encyclopedia Entry 1936 “Thoran Empire”

Thoran Nation-State, vital stats:

Government Type: Unknown, records are not conclusive.
Dominant Species: Saurian reptiles, an exact image of what the average Thoran looked like is unavailable due to the extreme amounts of genetic variance discovered (see below.)
Economy Classification: Believed to be a slave-based economic system, strong evidence of a stratified class-based society.
Technology specializations of note: Biotechnology & Genetic Engineering. Royals scholars and Alliance field scientists are still categorizing the various achievements made by the lost Thoran empire; the greatest wonder being the botanical treasures brought back from the jungles surrounding the ziggurat-style cityscapes. Fruits literally christen Ambrosia, food of the gods; vegetable matter rich in every nutrient a living sapient needs to function; and rare medicinal herbs producing antidotes and cures previously unheard of.
On the other side of the spectrum, explorations of their cities reveal a darker side to their biological mastery. Gene-modifying gels, evidence of genetically engineered slaves, and remnants of advertisements suggesting a society suffering from widespread surgical addiction… This is not saying that their body-modification technology was without merit, many medical conditions were consigned to the history books thanks to these findings. But at the same time it was taken to an extreme and that may have ended up being the Thorans undoing…
Status: Extinct, reasons unknown
Theories for Extinction: The following are the presently debated theories in academic circles:
1. Civil War- One stubborn theory that maintains some merit despite constant examination and new evidence is the belief that as the Thoran’s addiction to biomodification worsened, they began to think of themselves less as members of a single species and more like members of a tribe devoted to a particularly warped ideal of aesthetics. While some scientists regard this theory as ludicrous, there are sociologists who cite the various Internet subcultures of the early 21st century as evidence that there is some weight to this line of thinking.
2. Plague- Largely discredited on grounds that there have not been any surviving pathogens detected that were a threat to any sapient plus the difficulties of interstellar travel; some maintain the belief that whether by accident or misguided design, the Thorans engineered a super-plague that spread to every corner of their empire.
3. Slave Revolt- The current accepted theory is that discontent among the worker classes spread to the point where the ruling members of Thoran society could not contain it. What is unknown is what happened during the populist uprising. Was it successful and the slaves found themselves somehow unable to live without their masters? Was it not and the overseers were unable to maintain enough worker stock to maintain their decadent lifestyles?
4. Act of the Creator- Self-explanatory and generally not taken seriously by the majority of the scientific community but as one individual pointed out, it’s as good anything else at the current stage of research.
5. Frankenstein Monster- Science run amok is unfortunately not unknown to the galaxy and it is entirely possible that the Thorans merely created something they could not control and brought about their doom. If that is the case, then the fate of the creature in question is also unknown.
6. Comedy of Errors- The Comedy of Errors theory maintains the belief that several disaster scenarios, each doing localized amounts of damage, taken together managed to bring down the empire…