Dravidian

Dravidian
Biological type:	Insectoid
Affiliated with:	Unknown
Place of origin:	Dravidia
Appearances:	TDL: The Planet of Oblivion

The Dravidians are an insect race from the Dravidian Star Cluster of Ganymede Antares, a race of scavengers and asset strippers who take wealth and technology wherever they find it. They are an ambitious race keen to establish their own empire.

Biology

Their physical description is one of enormous insects, like grasshoppers, with long bodies and thin spindly forelimbs, a wide head and huge segmented eyes. Two sharp mandibles emerge from their mouth and their communication is by way of a series of chittering noises.
Like all insects their yellow blood does not carry oxygen around their bodies. Instead they absorb oxygen through spiracles (small holes in the abdomen). Because of their size they are dependent on oxygen rich environments without which they become sluggish.

Hives

Dravidian colonies are transported in Hive Ships, large spacecraft which hold thousands of Younglings in conical honeycomb filled chambers each with a protected membrane. The application of heat awakens them and accelerates their growth when the time is ready to hatch.

Other References

• Mehendri Solon rescued Condo, his manservant, from a Dravidian starship that had crashed on Karn. (DW: The Brain of Morbius)

• The Carrionites knew of the Dravidian race, and in the Carrionite-inspired play Love's Labours Won there was a pair of lines which stated that:

"The light of Shadmoch's hollow moon doth shine

Onto a point in space betwixt Dravidian Shores"

(DW: The Shakespeare Code)

This may suggest that the Dravidians had an empire during the Dark Times or in the 1500s, which surrounded the Rexel System.