The Shaltari are an enigmatic, ancient alien race. The first humanity came into contact with as it reached out into the stars. Their technological superiority is unmatched by any other race yet encountered. They live for millenia, transferring their conciousness into new bodies when their bodies become too old to function. They are a race of proud and skilled warriors, who fight despite a an obsessive fear of death. A race that values knowledge and experience very highly but a race whose schemes can never be fully understood. Being a tribal race different tribes have different agendas, making their actions more and more difficult to understand. The Scourge contacted humanity just once and that was to say the Shaltari are to blame for the Scourge taking the Cradle Worlds. If so, once the Scourge are dealt with, the UCM will no doubt want to destroy the Shaltari.