The name is pronounced “Zokee” as odd as the spelling is btw.

Now you (well at least people not on tumblr) probably notice the ? in the title of the image. That’s because Xoqe are pretty unique as they are the one of the only species in the universe in which its being questioned if they should be consider xeno people instead of animals.

Basically the story which these chaps is a bit tragic in a sense. You see this species is from the Forbidden zone, their planet hadn’t been studied yet before some shady characters found their way on it. They discovered the Xoqe which had primitive tools and access to textile and even knew how to work with metal to an extent so they took a few hundred off to be sold for slave labour.

The UIUP (ie: space UN) found them out and put a stop to anyone going to that planet anymore. Thing is because the small amount of individuals that got caught had been taught further skills and even how to speak (though somewhat broken) intergalactic language they were deem unable to be reintroduced to their home planet since it would fuck up the natural progress of their species.

Now they’re stuck in UIUP territory and there’s even arguments those individuals should be sterilized to “fix” the damage that was done.

Besides their backstory as noted its up to question if they’re people or not. Despite being able to do a few things above what most wild creatures can do they aren’t able to be taught a large number of skills usually associated with sapient lifeforms. So they’re basically somewhere between a dolphin and a human with intelligence. Also interesting fact: they have morphs but they aren’t related to sex. All Xoqe are hermaphrodites but about 30% of individuals have wattles and longer tusks (compare the big picture one to the smaller picture to the side) as well as slightly larger. It seems that the other 70% raise offspring and collect food whereas that 30% protect the clan and hunt. A last weird fact is despite being reptilian in pretty much every way they give life birth in a similar way to mammals(much like some types of skinks on earth).

Sorry these guys have a bit more complex of a backstory than the rest of the animal species :U basically the story with these guys is I notice I don’t actually have a reptilian race (every species that’s close is not actually a reptile.) so on my trip during late December I came up with these fellows. I figured nothing is life is black and white so there should be at least one if not more “pre people xenos” in the story which are basically in their “caveman” type stage where they’re almost what we could consider a person but still rather primitive. Also as far as design goes I tried something I read about where I kinda just drew down a fun zigzag shape and added features, it worked out because I like how the design looks :B

So enjoy!