The Karrank% are a sad story. They were given the world of Kithrup 400,000,000 years ago to die on. They didn't die or follow the Path of Redemption, but altered themselves further and seemed to have finished their Uplift themselves.

Originally, the Karrank% (the % is pronounced as a double glottal stop, and is impossible to pronounce with Anglic-oriented speach organs) were a mole-like race living on a metal-rich world. They delved deep into the crust of their planet searching for metals and minerals for food. Their Patrons sought a way to alter them beyond the Codes of Uplift for a specific purpose. The entire metabolism of the Karrank% was changed from a normal carbon-oxygen cycle to be able to extract radioactives from rocks they are in; they were bred as the perfect miners: place a small colony on a planetoid, and five hundred years later they would return to find more Karrank% and plentiful amounts of purified ores. Needless to say, such a dramatic physiological change was intensely painfull, not to mention illegal to the extent not seen in eons. When this gross violation was discovered, the Karrank%'s indenture was released, and for a while they lived as starfarers. After a very short time, they found they could not live as a civilized people with the pain. They were given a choice: either finish with the halfway done Uplift, or retire to a world apart from everywhere else to die in peace, for the metabolic changes were too great to undo. They chose to live out their destiny on Kithrup, a seldom-visited water world rich in metals just like their own.

They were discovered by the fugitive Streaker during their stopover on Kithrup. They discovered that the Karrank% were alive and well, altered dramatically again from their brief states as starfarers. They "drill-trees" found around volcanicaly active zones were actually the larval stage of the Karrank%. The tree would extract minerals from the pseudo-coral island it was perched upon and grow a shaft deep into the crust of the planet. They lived only along the tectonic zones because of the rich convection currents and minerals only found there. After an unknown amount of time, the drill-tree would collapse and the root would fall into the crust. There it would metamorphosize into the adult Karrank%. This life-cycle is extremely different from both of their previous ones, and it is unknown what the adult Karrank% looks like.

Another ability the Karrank% have mastered is psi. They can broadcast huge amounts of psi-language, which they use with each other deep under the surface. One mental call for privacy was enough to stop armadas in mid battle and incapacitate entire fleets for minutes. They are now perhaps the most powerfull broadcasting psychics in the Five Galaxies.

Kithrup has legally been given to them untill they become extinct, so it is unsure what will happen to ownership of the planet now, with the discovery of the pre-sentient Kiqui cohabiting the planet with them.