Dravidian

Dravidian
Biological type:	Insectoid
Place of origin:	Dravidia, Ganymede Antares
Notable individuals:	Mantis (Hive Captain)
Appearances:	TDL: The Planet of Oblivion

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

Biology

The Dravidians looked like enormous 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 was by way of a series of chittering noises. Like true insects, their yellow blood did not carry oxygen through their bodies; instead, they relied on absorbing oxygen through their spiracles. Because of their size, they needed oxygen-rich environments to survive; otherwise they would become sluggish. (TDL: The Planet of Oblivion)

Hives

Dravidian colonies were transported in Hive Ships, large spacecraft with an organic interior, 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. (TDL: The Planet of Oblivion)

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 Labour's 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)